Sorry for taking so long. Here's some more development for you guys. I'm working as best as I can, and something has happened since this whole thing happened, so expect another update soon! Here are my reviewer responses, for now.

Thunderstorm101: You know what? I was just about to make backup copies of all my stuff too, just because my laptop was unreliable. scowl

Amazoness Archer: Thanks for the subtle compliment. Well, I had to find a way to keep the readers updated on the progress of my bad luck recovery. TT Stupid misfortune...

john: ...Explain what?

And now, the 'story'!

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"Darkness Absolute"

By: Von Stupor

Chapter B

The day of the tournament had finally arrived. Being unofficial, the hosts never demanded any real proof of identity, so Packrat was able to enter without much delay. Due to the streaming sunlight coming through the windows, Dolimus had elected to stay behind after all.

"Hmmm..." he observed. "These people are pretty good."

"I'm telling you guy, they're not going to be a pushover," Dennis responded.

"I can't wait to face them!"

Von Stupor observed nearby players, apart from the group.

After roughly an hour, the tournament started. Packrat was placed in the third match.

"I certainly hope Packrat wins," mentioned Von Stupor to Dennis. "After Dolimus was unable to attend bingo for failure to show an ID, and I still have no odd jobs..."

"Don't feel bad, not many people trust someone who always wears a mask," Dennis replied with a smirk. "But I'm seriously pessimistic about this tournament."

Packrat stepped forward and prepared to face his opponent, a member of an elite group of 'Super Smash Bros. Melee' players. The match was to be set on Final Destination, with five lives and no items.

"Gah... Packrat's against the best of the best in the first match of the tournament..." groaned Dennis, covering his face.

The match started, and Packrat chose Sheik for his character. His opponent chose Falco.

Sheik waited for Falco to make the first move. Falco oddly enough began to hover across the arena, simply by crouching and standing up repeatedly.

"What the hell! What are you doing!" cried Packrat in shock. He had never seen anything like that before. His opponent remained quiet.

Sheik moved in for an attack and dodged behind Falco. Falco was ready and performed the Falco Split, knocking Sheik off balance. He was unable to recover before he hit the ground, and Falco hovered backward, scooping him back into the air with a Bird Sweep attack. He then hopped into the air and struck Sheilk with the reflector shield. Using his double jump, he hopped above the flailing Sheik and stomped him back down with a devastating Air Drill. As Sheik bounced from the impact of hitting the ground, Falco dropped back down quickly and knocked him back into the air with the Reflector. He continued this two move combo and by the time Sheik freed himself, he was nearly at 200 damage.

Panicking, Sheik retreated. Packrat was dumbfounded at what had just transpired.

Falco began to aggresively pursue Sheik. Within moments, a sneaky Roundhouse Kick slammed him out of the arena and KO'ed him.

Dennis watched forlornly as Baron Von Stupor was astonished.

This vicious cycle continued until Packrat's lives were completely depleted, costing him the match. He nearly dropped his controller in pure and utter shock.

He sullenly shook his opponent's hand and walked over to and past Dennis and Baron Von Stupor, an irritated expression on his face.

Dennis and Von Stupor looked at each other for a moment and walked out of the building in his pursuit.

OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO

"They crushed me!" ranted Packrat. "I might not mind it so much if they weren't so damn cheap!"

"I told you they were really good, Packrat..." Dennis reminded him.

"I didn't know they were that good!"

"So essentially, we're back where we started," commented Dolimus.

They all sat in the rec room, at the back table, stumped.

Shrugging, Dennis said, "Guys, I'm at a loss. My work wouldn't let Dolimus help, Von Stupor can't get any odd jobs, Packrat didn't win the tournament, and I'm still paying crap off and my last pay stub had some sucky hours on it. I honestly have no clue how to speed this up."

Everyone sat and thought to themselves.

"This isn't as easy as I thought it would be," Dolimus muttered unser his breath.

"Tell me about it..." Packrat agreed. "Dennis, your real world sucks."

Dennis simply sighed.

"I guess we must simply wait things out? See what develops?" suggested Von Stupor.

"Yeah, let's take a break from trying and see what happens, maybe something will fall into our lap," Dennis concurred. "It's the only thing we haven't done."