CHAPTER LXIV

THE ODD COUPLES

Mickey sat on the cot in their small hotel room, talking to Sora on the micro-com. "Don't beat yourself up over it, Sora…besides, we got our sights set on the Boulder Bear, and that'll make up for the Frozen Eel…for now, anyway…"

Aerith burst through the door, completely red in the face. "Ya know, it's bad enough that we gotta spend the 500 munny to compete, but this hotel isn't cheap, either! It was one-hundred and fifty munny for the night!" she said, tossing a considerably lighter munny pouch to Mickey. He stuffed it away as Sora said, "okay, King Mickey – good luck tomorrow!" right before the micro-com shut off.

"This place is such a scam…" Aerith said to herself as the three of them went to sleep.

Mickey stretched out as he woke up the next morning, checking the clock – when he saw that they only had twenty minutes until 1, he shook Cloud and Aerith awake.

"C'mon – we gotta go pair up!"

When they got downstairs, very few people were still milling about in the lobby – most of them had already paired and gone out for a bite to eat before the preliminaries. Rose, Lily and Thorn, the two cute girls with their four-armed bodyguard, sat at a table in the center of the lobby. The three of them ran up and were relieved to see that they were still accepting the pair assignments.

"Okay…who's with who?" Rose said, her hair bouncing up and down as she pointed a pencil between the three of them.

"I…we never decided that…" Aerith said, looking at Cloud. Mickey looked up at the two of them.

"You two go ahead – I'll find a partner…"

"You sure, King Mickey?" Cloud said, ready to write down his name next to Aerith's. When Mickey nodded, he finished signing up and stepped to the side.

"Go find a partner and meet us at the Setzer Dome," Aerith encouraged him. "And try not to get stuck with a loser – the more chances we have to win this thing, the better!"

After ten minutes of walking around the sparsely populated lobby, Mickey resigned himself to a bench in the corner of the room. A bell rang, as Rose and Lily stood up.

"All singles, please assemble in the center of the lobby for manual pairings!" they shouted in unison. Thorn picked up a single sheet of paper and began to read names off of it indiscriminately.

"Barlog with Phineaus," he said, as a small twiggy looking man walked forward, followed by a fat, round muscle head, "Arch and Kale," he said, as two normal looking men walked up and shook hands, "Fran and Johnny Go-Go," Thorn called, sending the last two people, a sleek looking woman and a powerhouse of a man wearing a shirt with a 'JG' on it, to the table.

Mickey stood there, dumbfounded, realizing he was the only one left. To his surprise, however, Thorn didn't stop talking. "Mickey and Pete," he barked, looking around for Mickey's partner. From the opposite side of a tall couch, Mickey saw a fat, dog-like creature stand up, heading for the table. He wore a Legion Knight's uniform, decked out with minimal markings. The stomach bulged out, like it always did…

"You've gotta be kiddin' me…" Mickey and Pete said, staring at each other as Thorn put down the list.

"Well, whaddya know – an even number! That's perfect!" Lily said, smoothing out one of her pigtails.

"Yeah…perfect…" Mickey muttered.

The combatants cleared out of the lobby, as did Thorn, Rose and Lily. Pete and Mickey stood there for a few minutes, staring each other down.

"How did I get stuck with such a rotten little pipsqueak!" Pete demanded, cracking his knuckles furiously.

"Like I'm exactly ecstatic?" Mickey shot back, crossing his arms.

"Well, dere's no way I'm competin' with the likes of you on my side!"

Mickey thought for a minute and sighed.

"We've already entered – it'd be a waste of our munny," he said, appealing to Pete's greed.

"Well…dat's true…" he said, rubbing his chin.

"And we're obviously both after the same thing…" Mickey prodded.

"Yeah…but if we win, I'm takin' it!" Pete said, holding a finger in Mickey's face. Mickey calmly pushed it away as he continued speaking.

"Okay – it's a deal. If we win it all, you get to take it back to the Legion. I'd rather at least know where it is than have to go searching for it all over again…" Mickey said, judging Pete's reactions from the corner of his eye. Pete couldn't get any thicker – not taking any note of Mickey's ruse, he smiled widely, patting Mickey on the back. "Well, glad ya see it my way! See ya in da first match, runt…" he said, walking out of the hotel, a stupid grin beaming on his face. Mickey followed, heading straight for the Setzer Dome…it was getting late, now.

"You got paired with who!" Aerith said, knowing the answer as she asked Mickey the third time. "Of all the rotten luck…"

"Attention all Showdown Partners – the preliminaries will begin in five minutes – can the following pairs please meet in the center of the Dome: Johnny Go-Go and Fran; Arch and Kale; Zell and Rekka; Mickey and Pete," the cheesy voice boomed throughout the Setzer Dome. The room had been cleared – the table in the center had been removed to make way for a large, chain-link dome. The Boulder Bear still hung overhead, a constant reminder to stay vigilant. As Mickey got closer to the dome, he could see that it was covered in sharp barbs in certain sections – other sections looked perfectly safe. The gaps were large enough to fit a hand through, and that was about it. Thorn had opened a gate in the side of the dome to let the contestants in.

Arch and Kale, the two normal looking men, entered first.

"Weapons?" Thorn asked. Kale, the taller, red-headed one, pulled out a metal bow and arrow. He plucked the string with his nimble fingers, causing it to twang melodiously. Arch pulled out two black whips – each of them tipped with heavy stone bulbs. They cracked against the floor loudly when he demonstrated them.

"Weapons?" Thorn said to the next two people to step up – Johnny Go-Go and Fran were right behind Arch and Kale as they entered. Johnny Go-Go raised his arms, each now outfitted in expensive looking gauntlets. Thorn grabbed one of his arms, flipping it so he could see the underside – when he pressed a relatively hidden button, two sharp daggers shot out of it, connected to a cord that delivered an electric shock. As they dug into the ground, Thorn stripped them from Go-Go.

"Not permitted," he said, tossing them into a box.

"Aw! C'mon!" Go-Go protested, entering the ring weaponless. Fran pulled out a small, gray stick – as she flicked her wrist, it spread out into an impressive looking fan with a dragon etched into it. Thorn allowed her to pass.

"Weapons?" Thorn asked Mickey as he walked up. Trying not to make a spectacle of summoning, he showed his keyblade off as Thorn chuckled, allowing him to pass. Pete entered behind him, having nothing to show Thorn.

The last pair was odd – the young man, Zell, had military blonde hair, a strange black tattoo on the left side of his face that looked like looping, jagged lines. His partner, a massive bird-like creature, stood nearly twice his height – a large, blunt beak and sharp talons certainly made it look formidable. Ruffling its brown and yellow feathers as it entered the arena, the chocobo stepped gracefully through the gate. Zell showed Thorn that he had no weapons aside from his gloves, finally entering the dome.

Thorn slammed the gate shut, stepped back and raised a thumbs-up sign high in the air. A warning bell sounded as the pairs separated, drawing their weapons – ready to begin the Showdown.