LINK TO SECTION RESULTS BELOW

We now cut to Drake… Playing on his Nintendo Switch in his seat. Ashley actually wasn't sitting down, but was standing behind Drake as he watched his friend.

"Oh, damn it!" Drake growled, slapping his forehead with his free hand. "I lost Penny!"

"It's fine! It's fine!" Ashley reassured. "You still got Orbulon! He is your best character!"

"He is EVERYONE'S best character!" Drake reminded, before he continued playing. "Hey, I went full-circle and am now at the Intro Games!"

"But you are not only at Level 3, but you are almost at max speed!" Ashley warned.

"I know! I know!" Drake offered. "Come on, Wario! Watch the hypnotizing banana!"

"Careful! At this speed, you could easily run into the nose!" Ashley offered.

"I know! I know!" Drake said, gritting his teeth. "Keep going and…"

Ashley winced. "Oof… Right at the last minute…"

"Yeah, but look!" Drake offered. "Not only did I get silver, but I got gold!"

"Wait, really?" Ashley asked, surprised.

"Yes, really. In fact, I CRUSHED gold!" Drake said, showing the Switch to Ashley.

"Wow… Not only did you win, but you are also in the top FOUR percent!" The wizard said in awe.

"I know, right!?" Drake beamed. "It just goes to show that practice makes perfect!"

Ashley smiled as well. The two then looked at the camera. Before yelping, realizing that they were live.

"O-Oh, how long have we been live!?" Ashley exclaimed.

"For the last minute…" Cacey muttered from off-screen.

"W-Well, why didn't you tell us!?" Ashley roared with a beet red face.

With that, he ran over to his seat while Drake put away his Switch. The two then struggled to look professional.

"Umm… Play WarioWare: Get It Together!" Drake offered.

Ashley rolled his eyes. "No, really, if you wish to have an addicting game, this is it."

"I mean the WarioWare games always had replay values, but actually having the WarioWare crew as playable characters actually helps!" Drake offered.

"I-In any case, the section." Ashley said, stifling a cough.

"Oh, right! As usual, it was a blast! And spoiler alert: There are a LOT of records broken here!" Drake added. "So let's not waste any more time!"

"Especially since we already did so…" Ashley said with a blushing face.

RATCHET & CLANK

NODE: PLAYSTATION ALL-STARS BATTLE ROYALE/RATCHET & CLANK

ENTERED IN: Section 11; Number 222

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 4

"...Heh. This is a first." Ashley noted.

"Yeah, yeah, let's not get ahead of ourselves." Drake offered before turning to the camera with a grin. "But yeah, the first person we are covering or to be specific, first PEOPLE, are the first people to get the first elimination of the section: Ratchet & Clank."

"El Jefe from Sly Cooper has proven that just because he is the first boss, that DOESN'T mean he should be underestimated." Ashley agreed. "Unfortunately for him, he learned the hard way that Ratchet & Clank have faced bigger threats than him."

"Indeed. They used one of their many weapons, the Chronospecter which sent out time bombs that literally stopped El Jefe in his tracks, making it easy pickings for the duo to dispatch him!" Drake grinned.

"With their fourth elimination, they have officially tied with Jak & Daxter for the PSASBR MVP and let's be honest: Is anyone surprised to hear that?" Ashley challenged. He then sighed. "Unfortunately, almost immediately, they were eliminated by…"

PETE

NODE: KINGDOM HEARTS/CLASSIC DISNEY SHORTS

ENTERED IN: Section 12; Number 261

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 3

"...Pete." Ashley continued with a frown. "And it wasn't even a cheap shot just like with Zangief. I don't think Pete even realized he eliminated the duo."

"Then again, he WAS throwing bombs all around willy-nilly trying to hit his current opponent." Drake shrugged. "And let's be honest, Pete isn't exactly the most careful of fighters."

Ashley shook his head. "And knowing him, he would probably try to take credit for his elimination."

"Eh. After his embarrassing intro, he takes what he would get." Drake muttered. "But credit where credit is due: Three eliminations are nothing to sneeze at."

"Sometimes it is not how you start, it is how you finish." Ashley admitted with a sigh.

SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG

NODE: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

ENTERED IN: Section 11; Number 226

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 4

Ashley frowned. "...Well, this is awkward. Usually we have to skip to properly explain what happened."

"Agreed. But I think we could talk about Shadow's elimination without spoiling anything else." Drake reassured. "But yeah, Shadow is continuing to back up his claim as the Ultimate Life Form."

"At the time, he and Simba were performing a Limit Break on Eggman. However, they demonstrated that a Limit Break isn't always equal to instant win." Ashley frowned. "Without spoiling anything, their Limit Break inadvertently made Bentley from Sly Cooper miss one of his sleep darts and hit Simba, causing the Limit Break to be ineffective seeing that it is based on the lion's own from Kingdom Hearts 2."

"Shadow did NOT like that and while he didn't really show off his skill against Bentley, he still showed that the turtle that he is NOT one to trifle with." Drake said. He then brightened up. "But hey, what a spot to go out on! He has tied with Big as the MVP of Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Yes, the node seemed to be in some kind of lull for quite a while now." Ashley frowned. "Especially jarring when notable characters like Blaze and Amy didn't do as hot."

"But hey, that brings that there is a strong chance for them to make a comeback here!" Drake grinned. "Especially like people like Sonic and Tails haven't entered the arena yet!"

SPYRO THE DRAGON

NODE: SPYRO THE DRAGON

ENTERED IN: Section 11; Number 232

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 5

"And from one tying MVP to another!" Drake grinned. "Spyro has officially tied with Agent 9 for their node!"

"Indeed, it seems that just like at the second Battle of the Luminaries, other than one person, Spyro is the only one who has gotten an elimination." Ashley frowned.

"Well, it IS still early on so there may be another chance for other Spyro characters." Drake offered. "But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Anyway, Spyro's elimination was of Hero from Super Smash Bros. Or in this case… Ugh, Eleven."

"To be fair, Eleven IS somewhat disadvantaged, getting a penalty from the wheel and getting all of his magic, save for his healing spell disabled." Ashley noted. "But it should be noted that Eleven is just as great a swordsman as much as he is of a mage."

"Indeed. It did little to slow Eleven now and the two came to blows, but in the end, Spyro ended up on top." Drake grinned.

INCINEROAR

NODE: SUPER SMASH BROS/POKEMON

ENTERED IN: Section 13; 266

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

"And so close and yet so far is Incineroar…" Drake lamented.

"Indeed. He demonstrated his strength in the heavyweight between him E. Honda from Street Fighter V and one other person who we WILL cover soon." Ashley offered. "He used a mixture of wrestling moves and cheap shots. The latter that he is a little too proud of."

"Hey, that is a heel wrestler for ya." Drake shrugged. "In the end, Incineroar decided to spice things up by using his Final Smash where he activated his Z-Move, Max Malicious Moonsault onto an unsuspecting E. Honda, sending him soaring out of the ring."

"However, Incineroar's target WASN'T and the shock and realization from that has cost him, making it easy pickings for his eliminator." Ashley frowned.

"Too bad. I really thought he would win over the fans with his swanky appearance." Drake lamented.

"To be fair, I think he definitely did." Ashley said. "His vote ratio is 8:4."

Drake's eyes bugged out at this. "No lie?"

"No lie." Ashley sighed, shaking his head. "And get this: The vote ratio of the top slot is 9:3."

"Damn… I knew that this would be a tough battle, but still, to get a positive four and STILL get eliminated." Drake winced.

"That is the nature of these UVR-spinoffs I'm afraid." Ashley shrugged. "But anyway, let's cheer up! We need to introduce the new fighters!"

SIR DANIEL FORTESQUE

NODE: PLAYSTATION ALL-STARS BATTLE ROYALE/MEDIEVIL

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 268

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

"And barely making his way through, despite having an impressive score is the more-or-less good knight himself, Sir Daniel Fortesque!" Drake grinned.

"His opponent, or in this case, opponents are the Angry Beavers!" Ashley said. "Now the pair may not be… Traditional fighters, but they are still unpredictable, trying to disorient him. With… Less-than-stellar results. Did they REALLY think that Sir Daniel would fall for their fake royalty plan?"

"To be fair, their plans usually work in their home node so they are so used to it working that they thought it would work every time." Drake shrugged.

Ashley rolled his eyes. "Anywayyyyyy, they tried a different tactic, but their chain turned out to be their biggest bane as it wrapped itself around Sir Daniel's sword, making it easy for the latter to toss out of the ring."

"Huh. We didn't even find a way to segway into saying that Sir Daniel has gotten a punishment and that he could only use his sword, but it is obvious that it is more than enough!" Drake grinned.

WRECK-IT RALPH

NODE: KINGDOM HEARTS/WRECK-IT RALPH

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 274

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

"Remember that heavyweight three-way we were talking about earlier?" Drake asked before jerking his thumb. "This guy is the final fighter."

"Indeed. Despite clearly being the least disciplined out of the three, sometimes you win a fight, you just need to know how to punch really well." Ashley nodded.

"And punch well he did!" Drake smirked. "Not only did he keep up with E. Honda and Incineroar from Super Smash Bros, but overcame both of them!"

DAPHNE BLAKE

NODE: SCOOBY DOO

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 278

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

Ashley looked in awe. "Wow, you weren't exaggerating, Drake. Daphne DID come a long way before being a damsel in distress!"

"Yeah, she trained herself and all of her hard work is paying off!" The vampire grinned. "Pete from Kingdom Hearts learned that the hard way."

"That being said, Pete definitely didn't make it easy for her." Ashley noted. "He used his various tricks from his cartoons and the Kingdom Hearts games."

"...I still can't believe he remembered his attack from Re:Coded. Especially since I heard it is the least relevant game in the series." Drake muttered.

Ashley paused. "...I know that this is far from the first or biggest instance, but you to Kingdom Hearts is like me to… Pretty much anything else."

Drake rolled his eyes.

YURI SAKAZAKI

NODE: KING OF FIGHTERS XIV/ART OF FIGHTING

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 237

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 5

Ashley jumped at her. "Unholy…!"

"I know, right? Not only is Yuri STILL in the arena, taking over Joe's status as King of Fighters XIV MVP, but she also managed to get FIVE eliminations!" Drake grinned.

"To be fair, the first one of Simba from Kingdom Hearts wasn't THAT impressive as she was the first one to take advantage of the lion while he was under the effects of Bentley's sleep dart." Ashley admitted.

"But she made up for it with her fight against Squigly from Skullgirls. Even though the zombie and her parasite friend, Levitation, have shown how deadly and unpredictable they are, Yuri stayed strong and managed to overtake them!" Drake grinned. He then realized something. "Wait… If the top slot has gotten 9:3, what did Yuri get?"

"10:4." Ashley said without missing a beat.

Drake jumped at this. "Woah! Where is all of this Yuri love coming from?"

"I don't know, but Yuri certainly isn't complaining so neither should we!" Ashley smirked.

DYNOMUTT

NODE: DYNOMUTT: DOG WONDER

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 281

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

STARFIRE

NODE: DC COMICS/TEEN TITANS

ENTERED IN: Section 12; Number 247

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 3

DEXTER

NODE: CARTOON NETWORK: PUNCH-TIME EXPLOSION/DEXTER'S LABORATORY

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 265

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

"And as expected, we have our "story fight" line-up." Drake said.

"The heroic trio were facing off the devious duo of Luxord from Kingdom Hearts and the Riddler from DC Comics." Ashley said. "Despite not being direct fighters, the two have demonstrated to be a dangerous pair together. And that is not even getting into the Riddler's mech suit from Batman: Arkham Knight!"

"However, the hero team stayed strong and never gave up! With Dexter deciding to fight fire with fire and use his Smash Ball to summon his own mech to fight and eliminate the Riddler!" Drake grinned. "This made it easy pickings for Starfire to get rid of Luxord."

"From there, they decided to exchange information and explain everything to Dynomutt for the rest of the section." Ashley added. "However, as you could expect, you can't have a simple fight or in this case, conversation without another fight interrupting them."

"And that is what happened with the ninja duel between Bandeiras from King of Fighters XIV and Greninja from Super Smash Bros." Drake said. "Their fight ended up annoying Dexter and tried to stop the two. However, the two ninjas did not like this and got into a fight with Dynomutt helping the boy genius out."

"It was a good fight, but Dexter and Dynomutt were too determined to stop the villains' plot to lose to the ninjas!" Drake grinned.

GENIE

NODE: KINGDOM HEARTS/ALADDIN

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 270

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

"And is anyone surprised that Genie is in the top three?" Drake grinned.

Ashley frowned. "...I don't know how we are supposed to cover him."

Drake turned to Ashley, confused. "What do you mean…?"

"I mean, let's face it: Ness from Super Smash Bros and Spyro the Dragon could barely do a dent to him!" Ashley pointed out. "He was able to shrug off most, if not all of their attacks and constantly toys with them!"

"...Well, what did you expect?" Drake asked.

"I know… I know… It is just that… I want to say more than "Look at this wacky thing this guy could do, you know." Ashley frowned.

"...It IS kinda hard to commentate for." Drake said before brightening up. "But hey, let's hope that he will take the Beetlejuice approach and give us more to talk about!"

"True." Ashley frowned.

SLY COOPER

NODE: SLY COOPER

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 271

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

"Ah, that's better…" Ashley said with a small smile. "In all honesty, it is not a surprise that the main character of, well, Sly Cooper has gotten two eliminations."

Drake rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Sly showed that even though he is not a direct fighter traditionally, he could be when forced to be."

"Indeed, he was facing off against Bass from Megaman first and while the latter had the advantage in firepower and flight, Sly has some tricks up his sleeves." The wizard said.

"Yeah.." Drake said before grinning. "By stealing his girlfriend's backpack."

Ashley rolled his eyes. "Some things never change."

"But yeah, to say that Bass was overwhelmed is an understatement." Drake grinned. "Next, he showed April O'Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 that he could keep up with a ninja! A PSYCHIC ninja, at that!"

"Maybe April would have given Sly a run for his money if she was the one from the 1987…" Ashley started.

Suddenly, they heard a phone ring. Drake held up a finger while getting out a phone with his other hand.

"Mine!" Drake said before answering the phone. "Yes, Xe…"

"YES, I AM WELL-AWARE THAT 1987 WOULD HAD BEEN A BETTER CHOICE!" Xero's voice roared.

Drake winced in pain.

"LOOK, I AM WILLING TO ADMIT IT! MY ABILITY TO BREAK TIME AND SPACE COULD ONLY GO SO FAR! IF I KNEW THAT THE APRIL O'NEIL OF THE 1987 CARTOON WOULD NOT ONLY SHOW UP IN NOT ONLY TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SHREDDER'S REVENGE BUT ALSO NICKELODEON ALL-STAR BRAWL, I WOULD HAD INVITED HER OVER THE 2012 ONE! ESPECIALLY SINCE THE 1987 APRIL DIDN'T EVEN DO THAT HOT! I SCREWED UP ALRIGHT! SO JUST ADD TO THE "REASONS XERO IS AN UNPROFESSIONAL HOST" AND BE ON YOUR WAY! SHEESH!"

With that, he hung up the phone. Drake and Ashley looked at the phone with wide eyes and slack jaws. They then looked at each other. Before snickering.

DOCTOR EGGMAN

NODE: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 277

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

"And proving why he is the E.G.G.M.A.N. is the egghead himself!" Drake grinned. "He may not have gotten one over Sonic, but he is the first Sonic fighter to get the top slot thus far!"

"To be fair, his first elimination is kinda clumsy. Remember that Limit Break of his nodal companion, Shadow the Hedgehog and Simba tried to perform on him?" Ashley asked. "Turned out that they ended up activating several buttons on Eggman's Egg Walker."

"This resulted in a chain reaction. Basically, this made Egg Walker shoot out missiles literally everywhere." Drake said before taking a deep breath. "One of said missiles ended up the mech of Tron Bonne from Megaman, sending her out of the ring. THAT is when Bentley aimed his sleep dart and missed, hitting Simba instead."

"But to be fair, his elimination of Shadow is actually more legit." Ashley admitted with a smile. "It just goes to show that for all of his flaws, one of his biggest strengths is his tenacity."

"And it paid off!" Drake grinned. "It is rare for a villain besides Bowser to get the top slot!"

"Well, that is everyone!" Ashley smiled. "We now say goodbye to Bentley, Ratchet & Clank, Shadow, Spyro, Simba, Greninja, Norbert & Daggett, Pete and Incineroar!"

"And welcome Dexter, Sir Daniel, Genie, Sly, Ralph, Dr. Eggman, Daphne and Dynomutt." Drake grinned. "Now here are the stats!"

CURRENT MVPS

STREET FIGHTER V: Sakura Kasugano - 4 (Eliminated)

KING OF FIGHTERS XIV: Yuri Sakazaki - 5 (Still in the ring)

SUPER SMASH BROS: Rosalina & Luma - 6 (Eliminated)

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: Big the Cat - 4 (Eliminated)/Shadow the Hedgehog - 4 (Eliminated)

SPYRO THE DRAGON: Agent 9 - 5 (Eliminated)/Spyro the Dragon - 5 (Eliminated)

SLY COOPER: Bentley - 4 (Eliminated)

KINGDOM HEARTS: Goofy - 8 (Eliminated)

PLAYSTATION ALL-STARS BATTLE ROYALE: Jak & Daxter - 4 (Eliminated)/Ratchet & Clank - 4 (Eliminated)

MEGAMAN: Napalm Man - 1 (Eliminated)/Megaman - 1 (Eliminated)/Protoman - 1 (Eliminated)

DC COMICS: Starfire - 3 (Still in the ring)

TOKYO MEW MEW: Kisshu Ikasatashi - 4 (Eliminated)

SKULLGIRLS: Parasoul - 3 (Eliminated)

BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN: Eiji Shinto - 1 (Eliminated)/Sofia - 1 (Eliminated)

CARTOON NETWORK: PUNCH-TIME EXPLOSION: Chowder - 3 (Eliminated)

MYSTERY FIGHTERS: Luna Loud - 9 (Eliminated)

Drake gave a descending whistle. "This is a REALLY good section for many sections."

"Yes, Yuri and Starfire are now the sole MVPs for their nodes and Shadow, Spyro and Ratchet & Clank have tied with Big, Agent 9 and Jak & Daxter respectively!" Ashley noted.

"Do you think we will show another blow-up like this?" Drake asked.

"I don't know." Ashley said, shaking his head. "We are more than halfway done, but there is still a lot of tournament to go through."

Drake smirked. "Well said. Now, Eggman has the choice of four envelopes. And judging by him being curious about Big Guys."

Ashley smiled and nodded before looking at his tablet. However, almost immediately, his smile vanished as his jaw dropped to the floor.

"Obviously this means that we will be getting a "You're the Boss" round next. Eh, typical video game boss trying to show off their "Final Boss" status." Drake said, rolling his eyes. "But eh. If they want to put a target on their back to show off their status, who are WE stop…"

That was when Ashley shoved his tablet in Drake's face. The latter was startled and was about to complain. But then, he saw what was on the tablet and his eyes bugged out. He then grabbed the tablet and examined it thoroughly. He then got out his phone and pushed it a couple of times, waiting impatiently as it rang.

Then, a familiar voice answered it. "Yeah, Drake?"

"EGGMAN PICKED THIS CARD WILLINGLY!?" The mayor roared at the top of his lungs.

Ashley let out a deep sigh. "...Stay tuned. No, really, I am dying to hear the logic for THIS one."

LINK TO SECTION RESULTS: archiveofourown / works / 25531129 / chapters / 82320412