LINK TO SECTION RESULTS BELOW

We now return to… Wally and Catherine. Both with big grins on their faces. Instead of Drake and Ashley.

"Welcome back!" Wally grinned. "We just came back from watching a great round!"

"For those who are just tuning it, you are probably confused why we are here instead of Drake and Ashley." Catherine explained. "Well, this isn't the first time this happened."

"And all those who did so should remember why that was the case." Wally said before grinning. "And ya should figure it out and connect the dots on yer own."

"Don't worry for those still-in-the-dark, you WILL find out after when the next section comes around." Catherine reassured. She then paused. "Hey… Without giving spoilers, can I ask you something?"

Wally raised an eyebrow. "What is it, Cat?"

"Well, let's face it: Whether you find it endearing or annoying, one of Drake's most prominent traits is being hyped for big things." The pink-haired woman mused.

"Uh-huh…" Wally nodded.

"But you also have to remember that he is a VAMPIRE and without saying anything else, this event should be where he draws the line." Catherine frowned.

Wally realized what Catherine was talking about and paused. "Ah mean… Nowadays people don't see THAT event as the original meaning anymore."

Catherine just rolled her eyes. "...Should have seen THAT coming from a mile away."

Wally chuckled nervously. "L-Let's just continue to the fighters before Drake finds a reason to give us an earful."

"Yeah, you're right…" Catherine said before brightening up. "Lucky for us, this section didn't disappoint!"

"Aye, let's start with the people who did well, but failed ta make the cut." Wally grinned.

IVYSAUR

NODE:

Catherine narrowed her eyes. "Umm… Excuse me!? Have you been not paying attention!?"

VENUSAUR

NODE: SUPER SMASH BROS/POKEMON

ENTERED IN: Section 14; Number 289

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

Catherine crossed her arms, grumpily. "Honestly… If I was in charge, these idiots would get a salary cut."

Wally chuckled nervously. "So those who are confused, Ivysaur… Or at least at the time has gotten a reward from the wheel. And he gets to evolve!"

"And I am SO happy for him!" Catherine beamed, clapping her hands together. "Even though I like Charizard, I cannot in good conscience defend him from being called overhyped, getting more focus over the other two starters!"

"Ah! And he put his new power ta good use!" Wally grinned. "He and someone who he was fighting at the time were facing off against Roger Smith. ...The Big O one!"

"But not just him, but also him in the titular giant robot." Catherine frowned. "So while the ally was distracting him, Venusaur used his Solarbeam move."

"Because of the long start-up, we have to cut away to another fight for a time, but in the end, Venusaur's ally was enough to distract Roger for the Pokemon to use a Solarbeam which was enough to knock him out of the ring." Wally smirked.

"Well, even though I like Charizard, I have to admit how refreshing it is that S… Blastoise and Venusaur did better than him!" Catherine beamed.

SLY COOPER

NODE: SLY COOPER

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 271

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 4

"And tying with his mate is Sly Cooper!" Wally grinned.

"He has proven that he could easily take on any member of the Rogue Gallery." Catherine noted. "And that is why he showed off his stuff against Mz. Ruby, toying with her the entire time!"

"However, it seems that Mz. Ruby has learned some new spells." Wally frowned. "Taking Sly off-guard with a dark fireball which she has gotten from Xehanort."

"But that did little to stop Sly and took advantage of Mz. Ruby being distracted by her temporary success!" Catherine grinned.

DOCTOR EGGMAN

NODE: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

ENTERED IN: Section 13; Number 277

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 4

"Well, knock me down and call me Pocathonas!" Wally mused. "Ah thought fer sure that Eggman would be severely disadvantaged after losing his Egg Walker!"

Catherine rolled her eyes. "But of course, he has to pull some cheap trick. No, seriously, I am trying to defend Xero, but how could he allow not one, but TWO people to have giant robots?"

"Ah mean… Ah GUESS he has a point that they technically didn't break any rules." Wally shrugged. "Just like Lien Neville rigging one of the arena lights from the second Battle of the Luminaries 2."

"Well, even though they are not "Officially" cheating, that doesn't mean I have to like it." Catherine scoffed. She then smirked. "But fortunately, even though he has managed to easily eliminate his nodal companions, Omega, he was unable to do the same too…"

CYBORG

NODE: DC COMICS/TEEN TITANS

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 303

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

"...THIS guy!" Catherine grinned.

"Aye, Eggman didn't make it easy fer him, but the half-man, half-robot, all-heart Teen Titans has managed to overtake the Death Egg Robot!" Wally nodded.

"Egghead may have all of the firepower in his robot, but Cyborg IS part-robot so he doesn't need size to have a lot of firepower!" Catherine nodded. "It took a bit of steam out of him, but he was able to overpower and overtake him!"

Wally blinked twice. "Isn't Cyborg a more futuristic man? He could actually lose steam."

Catherine chuckled nervously.

BLUE MARY RYAN

NODE: KING OF FIGHTERS XIV/FATAL FURY

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 324

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

Wally smirked before pointing his finger in a gun and "firing". "Bakyun!"

"Ooh, nice one!" Catherine grinned. "But yeah. Mary has shown that she is NOT just Terry Bogard's girlfriend!"

"Aye, she is a secret agent and she has demonstrated it against Daphne from Scooby Doo who has proven that she is not a slouch herself!" Wally grinned.

"Yeah, Daphne has shown why she has gotten two eliminations so far, but not even SHE could face off against a secret agent!" Catherine noted. "She was overwhelmed by a series of Sambo moves."

ROBERT GARCIA

NODE: KING OF FIGHTERS XIV/ART OF FIGHTING

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 318

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

YURI SAKAZAKI

NODE: KING OF FIGHTERS XIV/ART OF FIGHTING

ENTERED IN: Section 11; Number 237

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 7

Wally and Catherine both blinked twice.

"...Welp. That happened." Catherine said.

"L-Let's try to start things off positively." Wally said with a nervous smile. "First off, with her seventh elimination, Yuri Sakazaki is officially not only the King of Fighters XIV MVP by a longshot, but she is also the third ranking in terms of overall eliminations!"

"And her awesomeness has managed to rub off on her boyfriend, Robert and actually make him something more than a jobber." Catherine smirked.

Wally's grin vanished before glaring at Catherine. "Cat…"

"What? Say what you want about Yuri's recent UVR-spinoff record before the Tournament of Kikai, at least she actually DID well in the early days!" The Asian woman retorted. "Correct me if I am wrong, but Ryo admitted that despite being supposedly "canonically" stronger than Yuri, Ryo, Robert and Takuma failed to get a single elimination!"

"...Aye know that Ah am the last person ta say this, but ya really need ta filter your words." Wally sighed. "But aye, regardless, having the Battle Couple is something else."

"Too bad their only eliminations as said Battle Couple are arguably the most anticlimactic out of Yuri's ENTIRE elimination line-up!" Catherine muttered.

"Unfortunately, she is right…" Wally frowned. "They have gotten their eliminations by crashing into another fight, knocking them out of the ring. The fight between Sir Daniel from Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale and the Ice Climbers from… Super Smash Bros."

"Too bad because I was actually getting into that particular fight too. What with Sir Daniel finally getting his weapons back and Ice Climbers getting a reward from the wheel and having their mallets turn super-sized." Catherine frowned.

"Aye…" Wally frowned. "But still, that is quite impressive of Yuri and Robert."

Catherine paused. "...I have to ask. Do you think this King of Smashers round cemented Yuri's chances of not making the round or would she be gone either way?"

"Ah don't know, Sheila. But even if the former IS the case, at least we don't have ta worry about that fer the rest of the tournament." Wally reassured.

"Right. So let's go into the next batch of fighters!" Catherine grinned.

MISS DECIBEL

NODE: SLY COOPER

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 311

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

"Barely surviving the section is Miss Decibel!" Wally grinned.

"But even though she is off to a slow start, that doesn't mean the rage welling up inside of her is stagnant." Catherine warned. "She has the strength of a woman scorned on her side and she is able to use that against Needles Kane from PSASBR!"

"Also, semi-spoilers, but it turns out that she now has even more reason to survive the next round." Wally explained.

Catherine sternly nodded. "In a normal situation, she may be a flash-in-the-pan, but I have a feeling that she will have a better chance of surviving the next round."

BILLY KANE

NODE: KING OF FIGHTERS XIV/FATAL FURY

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 320

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

"You know Venusaur's ally that we were talking about earlier?" Wally asked with a smirk. "Well, it is THIS guy!"

"...Too bad his elimination is a poor one." Catherine scoffed.

Wally's smirk vanished. "Oi, come on! Sure, it is not something ta gloat about, but Billy genuinely asked Venusaur that it was a good idea to eliminate him and the Pokemon actually said yes."

Catherine lowered her head. "I… Guess."

"Besides, it is not as if Billy hasn't done anything besides that. Like Ah said, he was going against the Big O." Wally reminded. "Sure, only as a distraction, but that takes balls."

"True… And it is not like there isn't a chance for a comeback because he has a Smash Ball from the wheel." Catherine admitted.

SULLEY

NODE: KINGDOM HEARTS/MONSTERS INC.

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 304

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

MIKE WAZOWSKI

NODE: KINGDOM HEARTS/MONSTERS INC.

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 305

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 1

"Eee!" Catherine squealed. "I KNEW that these two will make it together!"

"Aye! And against the aforementioned Battle Couple of Yuri and Robert from King of Fighters XIV as well!" Wally nodded. "Though they actually didn't fight together, but rather fought separately."

"But still, they were able to show off their stuff. Despite only fighting Heartless and not actual… Well, fighters, Sulley has demonstrated that his strength is more than enough to overpower Robert!" Catherine grinned.

"And while in a straight fight, Yuri could easily beat Mike, that doesn't make the latter any less impressive." Wally reassured. "Especially since Kingdom Hearts III wasn't his first game appearance and he was able to toss dodgeballs. Not even THE Yuri Sakazaki could take them."

"...I am still stunned that Drake was able to predict him using dodgeballs." Catherine mused.

"Aye, even we wouldn't be able to come up with that." Wally admitted. "And we are the RESEARCH team!"

MAC & BLOO

NODE: CARTOON NETWORK: PUNCH-TIME EXPLOSION/FOSTER'S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS

ENTERED IN: Section 14; Number 285

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

Wally and Catherine groaned while rolling their eyes.

"...I think everyone and their grandma asked their question at least once." Catherine said before taking a deep breath. "But how did a sweet kid like Mac think up such a troublemaker?"

"And that's the POLITE way of putting it!" Wally added. "...So you know how Cyborg from DC Comics, just finished his elimination of Eggman?"

"Well, Bloo didn't like that he didn't get a chance to hijack another giant robot and angrily eliminated Cyborg with the same hammer he used to get rid of Alex." Catherine muttered. "I swear, I know that Ashley is a killjoy, but he has a point. Why is it that DAGGETT needs to be handcuffed yet Bloo gets to run around while Mac is barely able to catch up to him."

"Well, fer better or fer worse, we shouldn't see that because they have gotten a punishment of the wheel and are now super-small." Wally noted.

Catherine just smirked. "As much as I feel bad for Mac, I would LOVE to see Bloo act like a big-shot NOW."

BATMAN

NODE: DC COMICS/BATMAN

ENTERED IN: Section 14; Number 300

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

Wally and Catherine paused before looking at each other.

"Aye… It is impossible to talk about… Batman without talking about someone else." Wally admitted. "So we can't disclose too much."

"Actually, we can. We can tell you that Batman and his opponent, Emmet from PSASBR, were forced to dance with each other, ballet-style." Catherine said. "The problem is we can't disclose the CONTEXT."

"But we WILL in due time." Wally reassured. "But fer now, the two serious fighters were forced to do a not-so-serious dance."

"When the dance was finally done, Batman took advantage of Emmet's understandable bewilderment and eliminated him." Catherine said.

CAPTAIN FALCON

NODE: SUPER SMASH BROS/F-ZERO

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 317

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

Catherine's eyes bugged out. "Oh no!"

Wally then smirked. "Aye, now is the best time ta tell ya that Drake has asked me ta do him a favour."

Catherine gulped nervously. "W-W-What is it?"

"He asked me to not say anything on Captain Falcon's segment." Wally said, not dropping his smirk.

Catherine rolled her eyes. "Ugh, of course he did!"

"Ya reap what ya sow, Cat." Wally scolded.

"Alright, alright." The young woman said before taking a deep breath. "Despite… Everything I said about Captain Falcon and by extension, his game, he has proven that he is NOT an artifact. He was facing off against the Genie from Kingdom Hearts…"

She then shook her head.

"And I would be lying if I said that I wasn't impressed. First off, he was the only opponent Genie has faced that actually gave him a bad time. No, really, it has gotten so bad that he was forced to use his Final Smash and it was obviously a big homage to "A Friend Like Me" his iconic song. But here is the thing: While it did a lot of damage and sent Captain Falcon flying, the F-Zero racer was able to stop himself from getting eliminated and ended up using his own Final Smash, eliminating him with his Blue Falcon."

She then sighed.

"Almost immediately after said elimination, he went after Blue Mary from King of Fighters XIV. Even though he never saw the fight, he could imagine how it was full of action just like his fight against Genie."

She then took another sigh of defeat.

"...Do you think that would be sufficient?" Catherine asked.

"Very. Ah could see Drake watching this clip on repeat." Wally smirked.

Catherine just groaned before slumping in her seat.

PRINCESS PEACH

NODE: SUPER SMASH BROS/SUPER MARIO BROS

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 319

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

MARIO

NODE: SUPER SMASH BROS/SUPER MARIO BROS

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 325

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

"Now this… THIS is a Battle Couple!" Wally grinned.

"I… Guess. I mean we see more of them than Robert and Yuri, but still, their eliminations are a bit messy." Catherine said, sitting up.

Wally's grin vanished. "Not… Wrong. Not helping was that they started the section being overpowered by an even powerful pair, but we will get to them later."

"While trying to fight said pair, Mario ended up using his Cappy throw on Ushi from Fighters Destiny." Catherine explained. "Though this was by accident due to being crashed by Eggman summoning his Death Egg robot from under the ring."

"Oh, right, we kinda forget ta mention that little detail, didn't we?" Wally said, chuckling nervously. "But anyway, after getting his girlfriend to take off Cappy and freeing both of them, they got knocked down and when getting up, Mario ended up backflipping and somehow eliminating Ushi."

"Not helping is that Peach was literally knocked into Sly Cooper from… Sly Cooper by the aforementioned powerful pair." Ashley lamented.

"Next is… Well, let's just say that it was the case as Batman versus Emmett as Chun-Li from Street Fighter V and Shun'ei from King of Fighters XIV were tossed into Mario and Peach." Wally said, sheepishly. "Anddddd they ended up having "romantic comedy hijinks" with Shun'Ei accidentally kissing Peach on the lip and Chun-Li ending up with a compromising position on top of Mario."

"Both Mario characters were pissed and quickly went into full jealous mode against the ones who "defiled" their significant other." Catherine said before taking a deep breath. "Okay, so… Let's face it. Normally, I would be more critical of those two's clumsy performances."

Wally raised an eyebrow. "Butttt…?"

Catherine immediately brightened up. "Their interactions are SO cute that I don't even care!"

Wally chuckled at this. "True dat! True dat!"

DONALD DUCK

NODE: KINGDOM HEARTS/CLASSIC DISNEY

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 299

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 3

"Speaking of so cute, I am SOOO happy that Donald is making up for his forced slow start in the last Big Guy Blocker section!" Catherine grinned.

"Aye! Despite this being a King of Smashers round, he has gotten TWO eliminations!" Wally nodded. "The first one is against K. Rool from Super Smash Bros, not a foe that you should take lightly."

"His second one is against Sgt. Byrd from Spyro the Dragon and one may call foul because the latter got a curse from the wheel, blinding him." Catherine mused. "However, Sgt. Byrd has proven his military training isn't for sure, sensing Donald's movements and dodging and countering accordingly."

"So Donald has to think smartly fer him and think smartly he does, using his Float spell and using Sgt. Byrd's heat-seeking missiles against him!" Wally grinned. "We may have another Goofy situation on our hands!"

BUBBLES

NODE: CARTOON NETWORK: PUNCH-TIME EXPLOSION/THE POWERPUFF GIRLS

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 306

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

CREAM THE RABBIT

NODE: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 307

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

"THIS. This is the superior pair we were talking about!" Wally grinned.

"Drake was wise to peg these two as a duo of destruction because they were the complete opposite of Mario & Peach." Catherine noted. "Not going did they make their retreat, but they first made short work of Link from Super Smash Bros and Ruto from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!"

"They also showed their stuff against the boxers, Ed from Street Fighter V and Nelson from King of Fighters XIV!" Wally grinned. "And as if they weren't strong enough against, but they used a Limit Break, literally giving them a headache!"

"Also, Bubbles is the only Powerpuff Girl, hell, only Powerpuff Girl CHARACTER to get two eliminations in one section!" Catherine added.

"Maybe she did better than her sisters because of her power of the Violently Protective Girlfriend trope?" Wally mused. "Or it isn't just the reverse of Sex Sells, being Cute Sells?"

"I could see both. But yeah, Mac is VERY lucky to have a superhero girlfriend. Poor boy is going to need all of the help he could get with having a partner like Bloo." Catherine smirked.

GUTSMAN

NODE: MEGAMAN

ENTERED IN: Section 15; Number 310

OVERALL ELIMINATIONS: 2

Wally's eyes widened. "Wait… Hold the phone! Hold… The… Phone!"

Catherine held her smartphone. "I am holding it."

Wally chuckled. "Good one, Cat. But real talk though, what an upset!"

"Yeah, not only is Gutsman the first person to get more than ONE elimination, but he has gotten the TOP slot!" Catherine pointed out. "Sure, it is mainly because he was tied with Bubbles and Cream for it and he has the later draw, but that is still impressive!"

"Aye, and while his eliminations aren't a showcase of his strength, they were definitely interesting!" Wally grinned. "The first elimination is of Roger Smith, the American Dad one, who tried to use Gutsman as a rideable robot because, well, the other Roger Smith had his own giant robot."

"Gutsman promptly showed that he has ENOUGH to be controlled by sociopaths." Catherine added. "As for the second one… Well, let's just say Gutsman decided to make the best out of a punishment."

"For context, Wreck-it Ralph from Kingdom Hearts was the victim and he ended up gaining the powers of whoever was eliminated." Wally explained. "This was Genie. On paper, that sounds like Ralph has the upper-hand, but two problems, the first one is that due to lack of knowledge of his new powers, he doesn't know how ta use them. He can't even punch a boulder which he could easily do in his regular form."

"The second one is with all of that phenomenal cosmic power, he also has a lamp which Gutsman wasted no time trying to exploit." Catherine added. "Before eliminating Ralph, he decided to use three wishes. The first wish was to make Ralph continuously punch himself in the face. Damn… It seems that he hasn't escaped Wily's evil programming."

"Yeah, seriously… His second wish was to cause an embarrassing situation between Mario & Peach and Chun-Li & Shun'Ei." Wally added. "Thus, the romantic comedy "hijinks"."

"Well, at least it has a REASON to be forced." Catherine muttered. "And last, but not least. He wished for Batman and Emmett to dance with each other."

"Welp, at least he made the final eliminations interesting." Wally mused. "Still, he pissed off at least three people. If Ah was him, Ah would go under-the-radar."

"It is hard to do so when you are a hulking robot, but I guess that doesn't mean they shouldn't try." Catherine said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Yyyyyep." Wally said before brightening up. "Well, that is everyone. We say goodbye ta Yuri, Sir Daniel, Genie, Sly, Ralph, Dr. Eggman, Daphne, Chun-Li, Needles Kane, Ivysaur, Ruto, Ushi, Cyborg, Robert and Mary."

"And welcome Sulley, Mike, Bubbles, Cream, Gutsman, Miss Decibel, Captain Falcon, Peach, Billy and Mario." Catherine said.

Wally gave a descending whistle. "Ah knew that King of Smashers rounds take out existing fighters like flies, but ta think that other than Batman, Donald and Mac & Bloo, EVERYONE that lasted more than one round would get wiped out."

"I mean it is to be expected, right?" Catherine asked. "This round DID feel like an all-star round."

"True…" Wally frowned. He then brightened up. "Now let's get into the stats!"

CURRENT MVPS

STREET FIGHTER V: Sakura Kasugano - 4 (Eliminated)

KING OF FIGHTERS XIV: Yuri Sakazaki - 7 (Eliminated)

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

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

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

SLY COOPER: Bentley - 4 (Eliminated)/Sly Cooper - 4 (Eliminated)

KINGDOM HEARTS: Goofy - 8 (Eliminated)

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

MEGAMAN: Gutsman - 2 (Eliminated)

DC COMICS: Starfire - 3 (Eliminated)

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)

"Not going to lie, I don't think anyone would match Yuri and Sly & Bentley's scores." Catherine mused.

"Same. It is a miracle that a King of Fighters fighter has managed to last so long and the iconic Cooper Gang trio has already entered the arena." Wally noted. "Ah WOULD like to add Gutsman to that list, but I think at least one person has a chance to do so. But Gutsman is still in the ring so it is too early ta say."

Catherine nodded her head before looking at the camera. "Normally, this is the part where we'll say: stay tuned, but Orange-Ratchet is busy this week so the next batch of fighters will show up next week."

"Though considering the time it is at this recap, ya could guess why." Wally said. "So come back next week for Gutsman's choice!"

"If he DOES get a choice…" Catherine muttered. "The build-up to the Halloween one wasn't hidden."

"Do you think Xero and Maurice have something else planned?" Wally mused.

"Well, if it does, it involves the Millennium Star." Catherine said before smirking. "And something tells me that he is going to regret accepting Xero and Maurice's offer."

Wally returned the smirk. "Same. There is NO way Ah am going ta miss THAT!"

LINK TO SECTION RESULTS: archiveofourown / works / 25531129 / chapters / 86196709