Section Two Results

(The Arena)

Bodvar jumped backwards as a laser beam struck the canvas near his feet. Grinning with anticipation, the half-bear Viking summoned his warhammer and charged at his current opponent, the polygonal Pokemon Necrozma, as more lasers were fired at him while he was running. Necrozma found that Bodvar was too quick to hit and help up an arm to block the Viking's hammer swing, and then swung a clawed hand to bat Bodvar out of the air.

Turning its attention back to Menat, or rather the light coming from her Soul Orbs, Necrozma gave a roar and swung a clawed hand at the psychic, only for Menat to backpedal away and fire an orb into its face, staggering it briefly. Menat took the opportunity to get in close and strike the large Pokemon in the legs a few times, making it roar in what sounded like pain. Necrozma swatted Menat away from it and approached in with the intent to absorb her power before Bodvar leapt at it from behind and smashed his warhammer over its hard back. This, however, did little other than annoy Necrozma as it turned around and fired two laser beams into Bodvar's face while the Viking was still in the air, knocking him backwards.

Landing on his back, Bodvar grinned as he pushed himself to his feet. "This monster has a lot of fight in him!" He laughed as Menat rushed to his side while keeping her eyes on Necrozma.

"I think that monster is attracted to my powers." Menat informed. "I can try to keep its attention on me but I'm going to need your help to overpower it while it's distracted."

Bodvar despawned his warhammer and switched to his sword. "Where's the fun in that, though? I'm having a grand time fighting it head-on!" He admitted.

Menat sighed. "I'd be all for using YOU as the distraction so you can fight it head-on but, like I said, it's attracted to ME." She replied.

"Just makes things a lot more-interesting!" Bodvar grinned as he charged at necrozma with a loud battle cry. Necrozma roared in response an lifted a huge, clawed hand into the air in an attempt to counter whatever Bodvar was going to throw at it.

Menat sighed and split her Soul Orb into six smaller orbs again as Bodvar's sword clashed with Necrozma's claws. Necrozma made for a large enough target but it'd be hard to get a shot in while Bodvar was so insistent on fighting it up close. Then again, perhaps the Viking could use a warning shot or two to get him to start fighting strategically.

Lord Hater landed on his backside and started scurrying backwards as Magyar towered over him menacingly, holding a huge, spiked mace (in the form of a warhammer) in their hand. Lord Hater looked around for a way out of the situation frantically and saw that Mimikyu was simply sitting aside, watching with curiosity, as if he wasn't sure where he stood on being Lord Hater's minion yet.

"Uh…M-Maybe we can work things out! I-I can offer paid sick days for…Maybe forty percent of you!" Lord Hater stammered. "We'd save the money on dental because the hundred of you don't have any teeth but I'm stretching my resources as it is!"

Magyar held the mace over their head. "And we thought we told you we're not interested in becoming your lackeys…" Several voices replied coldly. "Perhaps we need to remind you."

"H-Hold on, now!" Lord Hater said desperately as he covered his face with his arms and braced for impact. "Not the faaaace!"

Magyar stood in silence for a few seconds, still in a position with the mace above their head. Lord Hater waited a few seconds before peeking out from behind his arms.

"…Why aren't we swinging the mace?" One of Magyar's souls asked. "Who stopped?!"

"I did!" Another soul replied.

"WHY?! Are you seriously thinking of taking this guy up?!"

"No, but come on! Working with this guy in the arena could be interesting! You saw how he was fighting in the first section!"

"You can't be serious!"

"I know most of you are thinking the same thing!"

Magyar started shaking as they stood frozen in place, as if some of Magyar's souls were trying to wrestle control of their mace-wielding arm away from the ones currently holding the weapon back. After several long, agonizing seconds for Lord Hater, Magyar let out a yell of frustration (in what sounded like at least twenty voices) and dropped their mace arm. "FINE!" Magyar shouted.

Lord Hater looked up hopefully. "So…That means that you'll join me?" He asked.

"NO. We are simply forming an alliance in the arena." Several of Magyar's souls insisted as they helped Lord Hater to his feet. "And this is only because we think it'll make for some decent entertainment fighting alongside you."

"H-Hey, that's fine!" Lord Hater insisted, waving is hands in front of his face before taking a moment to calm himself down and smooth out his cloak. "Now, then. If we're forming an alliance, I say we look for some unsuspecting people to throw out!" He glanced down and watched as Mimikyu shuffled over to him and looked up and him curiously. "Oh, NOW you decide to come over? Well, how about you help us in some fights?"

Mimikyu paused in silence, still not sure how to process what was going on, but nevertheless followed Lord Hater and Magyar as they ran over to the fight Charlie Nash and Pyra were having to see if they could get in on the action.

(Announcer's Booth)

Both hosts were on a different phone and talking to someone on the other end, neither of them looking like they were paying much attention to the action in the arena. While SSBFreak was sweating and looking nervous as he was talking on his personal phone, Khall was casually talking on the phone attached to the desk.

"Well, after Merengue was announced, boss-man's phone started ringing and he said he needed to take the call." Khall admitted. "But when he saw your name come up on the caller ID thing he insisted that I be the one to talk to you. You should have seen his face! It looked like he thought it'd be the end of the world if I didn't!"

"Gee, I wonder why." A voice snarked from the other end of the phone. "He probably knew I'd chew his ear off if I knew he sent a helpless animal into the ring with monsters, possessed pianos and BB Hood."

Obviously, SSBFreak wanted to make sure that the next time Catherine, one of Tiny's OCs that had a love for animals, called looking to tear him a new one he wanted to pass the call on to Khall and let him handle it; He'd received an earful from her when BB Hood entered the arena and when he saw a second call coming in on his personal phone that he felt took priority he used that as an excuse to not deal with Catherine for now. He figured he'd hear from her again later, especially with Sheogorath's troll-like machinations involved, but for now he felt his attention was needed on this other call.

"Yeah! He even gave me this note to read to you when you called in!" Khall said, holding up a note.

"This aught to be good." Catherine sighed. "But…I thought you couldn't read."

"Eh. Comes and goes." Khall admitted. "So, turns out, this elephant girl that's working at the café with Merengue applied her to be a Mystery Fighter. Apparently not all his intended Mystery Fighters could make it and he didn't want to give Sheogorath any more Mystery Fighter picks than he already did."

"But Merengue isn't a fighter! The only fighters from Animal Crossing are Villager and Isabelle!"

"Oh! Boss-man gave me an answer to that as well! Maybe he knew you'd bring it up. I'm supposed to answer that with 'Penny Proud made the final two of the Tournament of Kikai'."

"…Y-Yeah, but…"

Meanwhile, SSBFreak was busy dealing with his own call, and one that he was looking desperately to avoid getting into bigger trouble with. "I-I think you're being a little bit hasty here, Mr. Nook!" He said.

"Hasty? I found out that one of my friends, whom is about as close to a fighter as Crazy Redd is to an honest businessman, has just entered a multidimensional fighting tournament that's playing host to demons, monsters, killers, hitmen and people that just really like to punch things." A voice said coldly from the other end of the line. "What I want you to do is give me a good reason why I SHOULDN'T outright buy you out and cancel that tournament of yours a SECOND time."

"W-Why are you making this big a deal about this, though? I mean, you've never bat an eye to Villager or Isabelle fighting in these things!" SSBFreak stammered.

"Villager is resourceful if nothing else and the only reason I let Isabelle join Smash was because I knew she was best friends with that scary muscled guy with the chainsaw, but Merengue has never had ANY experience fighting so I want to know why she's in the arena at ALL."

SSBFreak sighed. "Look, I had a couple of free Mystery Fighter slots and Chai put in an application for Merengue, saying that Merengue was too busy baking goods for the tournament to apply herself." He explained. "I swear I had no idea that Merengue didn't know about it until she was called to the Ready Room."

Tom Nook was heard giving a loud sigh on the other end. "I'll…Admit that does sound like Chai." He relented. "Okay. I'll overlook it this one time so long as you promise to make Merengue's health a priority when she gets eliminated."

"I-I'll see to it myself that she'll be fine!"

"Good, because I want you to remember this: I'm holding you PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for ANYTHING that happens to Merengue in the arena." Tom Nook replied coldly. "Carry on for now, but remember to keep a tab on your phone. You may just be expected to answer it."

The phone line went dead, Tom Nook having hung up on the tournament host and leaving him sitting in his seat holding his cell phone in his hand. He slowly started registering what Tom Nook had said as he slowly put his phone in his pocket.

By this point, Khall had wrapped up his talk with Catherine and had hung up the phone. He turned to the host. "So. Uh…What'd the raccoon guy want?" He asked.

SSBFreak's head hit the desk several times.

"That bad, huh?"

(Multiversal Matchup)

Chris Lightfellow and Athena Asamiya seemed to be in a footrace across a frozen island, making as fast a route as they could towards N. Gin's base attached to the nearby cliff. Athena was faster on her feet than Chris was but the silver-haired knight didn't seem to be affected by the cold as much as Athena was, giving her an edge in the stamina. The two jogged at an even pace, but looked around as they ran to see where they stood at in this race they had been thrust into.

They could see Volkov and Sackboy flying through the air and looking like they were fighting each other in an attempt to get to N. Gin first, and could faintly see Needle Man on another small island, trying to scale the cliff with his needle cannons to only moderate effect. So far there was no sight of Boom Boom, Soldier and Young Link but it could only be guessed that the three were causing mayhem and destruction somewhere out of sight.

Athena spotted a frozen part of the ocean and ran out onto the ice, fast enough that she could outrun the ice cracking under her feet, separating sheets of ice from the mainland. Chris came to a screeching halt just at the shore of the island and watched as Athena started floating away on a sheet of ice she herself separated.

Seeing Chris stopping herself, Athena turned around and smirked. "Looks like I've got a bit of an edge…" She mused as she fired a Psycho Ball behind her, using the momentum to push the ice sheet she was riding along the water as she sailed towards the central part of N. Gin's base.

Chris grunted in annoyance. "There's no way that ice'll hold me wearing my armour." She cursed herself as she turned towards a nearby entrance to the base that was heavily-guarded, though currently under attack as Chris saw Soldier blasting armed guards off the island with his rocket launcher. Realizing that she would have to take a longer route to try to catch up with Athena, Chris drew her sword and advanced.

Up in the sky, Volkov was trying to make a break for the top of N. Gin's base, where the insane scientist would likely be hiding out, and looked over his shoulder as he saw Sackboy riding his rocket, already in the process of opening his inventory again. Volkov instinctively lashed out and sent a wave of bats at Sackboy, hoping to throw him off his rocket while he was distracted with his inventory.

Sackboy managed to close his inventory just in time to swerve out of the way of the bats but the tail wing of the rocket he was riding got slightly hit by a couple of the bats, knocking the cloth doll off-course and giving Volkov a bit more time to fly on ahead. Regaining his balance, Sackboy gave a comical-looking frown as he opened up his inventory again and started throwing blocks and shapes ahead of him, aiming all around the airborne space.

Volkov yelled in surprise as Sackboy's thrown and dropped blocks turned into an airborne obstacle course as he was forced to weave around and through shapes as they were being placed around him. Summoning his scythe into his hands, Volkov flew straight at a block Sackboy had placed in his path and sliced cleanly through it diagonally, providing him a direct path to the top of N. Gin's base.

However, Volkov hadn't anticipated that Sackboy had placed a steel wall just behind the block and, not seeing it until he had just cut through the block ahead of it, the vampire lord flew straight into the wall with a loud thud. Volkov groaned in pain and annoyance as he latched onto the wall and looked over his shoulder in the direction Sackboy had been. "You DARE toy with the master of Castle Batavia?! You glorified voodoo doll!" Volkov shouted as he held his scythe in one hand as he turned while holding onto the wall with his other. "One swing is all it'll take to cut you in half, you little-"

Volkov's froze mid-yell as his eyes went wide, watching as Sackboy leapt off his rocket in midair and sent the now-riderless explosive projectile directly at him. Volkov opened his mouth to scream a curse towards the cloth doll just before the rocket made contact with his face. He was a fraction of a second too late to get anything out.

*KA-BOOM!*

Sackboy was in the process of free-falling towards a platform attached to N. Gin's base as he shuffled through his inventory. Spotting a large mattress, Sackboy pulled it out of his inventory and threw it downwards, bouncing off of it just as it struck the top of the platform. Sackboy landed directly onto the middle of the mattress, his fall officially broken.

As Sackboy got off the mattress, a screaming Volkov suddenly fell past the platform, engulfed in flames and surrounded by tiny shrapnel of rocket. Sackboy wandered over to a railing and peered over it, watching Volkov continue to fall until splashing headfirst into the ice-cold water below, effectively taking him out of the race entirely.

Sackboy gave a silent laugh as he turned around to continue on his way, only to stop when he saw himself staring up at a huge bear armed with a scimitar, another of N. Gin's guards. Sackboy took a few seconds to shift through a couple pages of his inventory awkwardly before turning around and running away with the bear guard hot on his heels, swinging his sword wildly.

(Hotel; Dr. Cortex's Room)

Cortex and Wily were sitting on a pair of chairs around a small coffee table, hunched over what looked like a set of blueprints. With the way the two were discussing things it looked like they were struggling to come to an agreement on how some of the components of what they were planning on building would work.

"I still say we need to add a few more regulators to the secondary chamber." Wily informed, pointing to a spot on the blueprints.

"That seems like needless padding and a use of materials we're already short on." Cortex replied with a sigh. "I think the device will operate fine without the extra regulators."

"Cortex, you KNOW what kind of power this machine is meant for. We do NOT want it backfiring on us." The older scientist said sharply. "We need to make SURE it's safe."

"It will be! The amount of regulators in this thing is already the same amount as the number I had on the Evolve-O-Ray!"

"Ninety percent of your henchmen are idiots and you created CRASH BANDICOOT with it." Wily reminded, resulting in an eye roll from Cortex.

"Fine, fine. I suppose we can add an extra regulator or two if you'll stop whining about it." Cortex said.

"It's already hard for the TWO of us to come to an agreement on things and you STILL think it's a good idea to involve EGGMAN?" Wily asked flatly. "I don't think we'll get ANYTHING done with the three of us arguing over each other."

Cortex gave a sigh. "We're capable of working together for a common goal if it benefits us all." He insisted. "Hopefully when Ivo gets here we can fill him in on what the plan is so that-"

Interrupted by a knocking on the door, Cortex and Wily turned to the door that led out of the room and watched as Nina Cortex, the mad scientist's niece, entered the room, looking a little sheepish. "Ah! Nina, there you are!" Cortex said. "Did you happen to find Robotnik?"

Nina glanced out into the hallway uneasily for a couple of seconds and then back at her uncle with an unsure expression. She lifted a robotic finger into the air. "Uh…We found…A Robotnik." She replied.

Cortex lifted an eyebrow. "Uh…What do you mean 'A' Robotnik?" He asked.

Nina gestured to someone outside the room and let a new figure enter. Cortex and Wily's eyes widened as their faces fell slightly as the newcomer entered the room. "…Oh…" Was all Cortex could say.

(The Arena)

Blanka rolled underneath a purple sludge projectile with teeth as his opponent continued to keep his distance and fire waves of toxic, purple darkness at him. Every time Blanka tried to get close to Wizzro, the cloaked shadowcaster had evaded him and gotten further away. Blanka grunted in annoyance as he leapt over a razor-sharp wave of darkness and lunged at Wizzro, hand outstretched and lit up in electricity.

Wizzro cackled. "Still too slow!" He taunted as he ducked into the canvas, making Blanka miss him again, and popped up another ten feet away. "I've heard you were one of the fastest in your node but you haven't impressed me so far!"

Blanka roared in frustration as he turned to face Wizzro again. "Hold still! You're spamming projectiles like an online Guile player!" He snapped before a flaming ball of shadows slammed into his face and sent him sprawling. Blanka groaned as he pushed himself up, trying to clear his mind and focus on different ways to get close to Wizzro.

In the meantime, Wizzro was opting to try and finish the fight as quickly as possible. He knew Ganondorf would be eager to see if he could get Necrozma on his side and Wizzro had already failed at making a good first impression. Now he was stuck fighting Blanka and he needed to get the fight over with so he could go back and try again with Necrozma. As Blanka pushed himself to his feet, Wizzro waved his hand and created a ring of more shadowy fireballs, sending them homing in on Blanka one at a time in an attempt to keep the green-skinned man-beast at bay.

Seeing the fireballs homing in on him, Blanka started running and dodging, rolling to the side when a fireball got close, allowing it to strike the canvas and fizzle out uselessly. Blanka saw Wizzro already on the move again while he was avoiding the fireballs and launched himself forward in another rolling ball, anticipating where Wizzro would be moving to as the shadowcaster vanished into another puddle of toxic darkness.

Blanka came to a screeching halt beside a puddle of darkness on the canvas, on that he was sure Wizzro would be heading towards, and slammed his electricity-coated hands into it, sending thousands of volts directly into the puddle. In an instant, a screaming Wizzro burst from the puddle, engulfed in lightning, leaving him wide open for Blanka to leap on and start attacking him with strikes once he had latched onto the dark shadowcaster. Wizzro received several blows to the head before summoning a huge, skeletal hand from the darkness around him, using it to grab Blanka and throw him away.

Wizzro sneered as he created a huge puddle of darkness on the canvas. "You annoying whelp! I'll wring the life from your neck and use your soul to give my ring more power!" He shouted as he slammed his hands into the canvas, causing another skeletal giant hand to emerge from the darkness and raise high into the air before swinging it downwards.

Blanka's eyes widened as he rolled out of the way just as Wizzro's huge hand slammed into the canvas, and then leapt over it when Wizzro tried to swing it at him from the side. Blanka found himself dodging a few more swings from Wizzro's huge hand before he was taken aback by a rouge fireball to the face, stunning him long enough for Wizzro to grab hold of him with his huge hand.

Seeing that he had caught Blanka, Wizzro gave a laugh as his mouth became visible in the blackness of his hood. "Haha! Got you, you annoying little gnat!" He taunted. "Don't think about trying to shock me through that, either! That hand isn't technically MINE, after all!"

Blanka struggled in the grasp of the huge hand but was unable to break free in time as Wizzro pulled him up and, with a swing downwards of his real arm, smashed Blanka headfirst into the canvas. Wizzro released Blanka and started gathering energy in front of him, hoping the end the fight while Blanka was stunned. As Blanka pushed himself up, the green-skinned man-beast suddenly saw Wizzro gathering energy into what looked like a ball of darkness in front of him. Having an idea of what this was going to be, Blanka started running.

Wizzro yelled in anger as he lashed out with all the energy he gathered, firing a powerful beam of darkness forward at where Blanka was standing. Seeing that Blanka was already on the move, Wizzro cursed himself and started steering the beam to chase him. The beam ended up grazing a few of the other fighters inadvertently (one of which being the Mad Piano, distracting it long enough for Mario and Bowser Jr. to slip away unnoticed), but Wizzro paid collateral damage no mind and was instead focused solely on tracking down Blanka. True to his status as being one of the fastest of the Street Fighters, Blanka dodged around the beam as it chased him down, allowing him to close the gap between him and Wizzro while the latter was still trying to hit him with the beam.

Before Wizzro could stop firing his energy beam, Blanka had rolled close to him and sprung to life, striking the shadowcaster in the face with his feet in a backflip-kick. This stunned Wizzro briefly and got him to stop firing his beam, which in turn gave Blanka a chance to continue his attack, igniting his hands in lightning for added power and effect.

Wizzro received blow after blow as he was knocked backwards with each attack, and when Blanka latched onto him again and sent another thousand volts through his body he barely had the strength left to scream in pain. When Blanka released him, Wizzro had crumpled to the canvas, nearly out like a light. This gave Blanka more-than-enough time to grab Wizzro by the cloak and chuck him over the top rope, sending him tumbling down into a portal as the first casualty of the section. His job done, Blanka gave a sigh of relief as he turned and rushed in to help Darunia with Slash.

Wizzro fell into Dark Souls, where he was quickly and mercilessly stabbed through the face by a hero mistaking him for a boss monster. Said hero would soon be disappointed with the lack of EXP that Wizzro would give out upon death.

Clark Still held up his arms and blocked a flying kick from Wang-Tang. The Ikari Warrior gave a silent smirk as he gripped the younger fighter's leg and spun around, pulling the surprised Wang-Tang over his shoulder and slamming him back-first into the canvas. While Wang-Tang was down, Clark rotated his arm a couple of times before grabbing the young martial artist by the legs and tossing him into the air again, catching him on his shoulders.

Before Wang-Tang could react, Clark had driven him into the canvas again using a piledriver, dazing him even further. Clark flipped Wang-Tang over and prepared to haul him to his feet again for another toss (much like he'd been doing ever since Wang-Tang had entered the arena) before Wang-Tang fired an energy blast from his palm, knocking Clark off of him and allowing the younger fighter to stand up.

"Ugh…Doing that outside of my powered-up form takes a bit more out of me…" Wang-Tang muttered to himself. "Can you do anything other than just toss people around like a pizza?!"

"Hey, it's what I'm good at…" Clark shrugged casually as he adjusted his shades, having gotten them knocked loose a bit from Wang-Tang's counter.

"Then maybe I need to even the odds a bit to keep you away!" Wang-Tang said as he started focusing his energy. I didn't think I'd need this so soon but I won't be able to get close to you otherwise!"

Wang-Tang suddenly was engulfed in a bright light which made Clark realize he was powering up into his Power Stone form. When the light cleared, Wang-Tang was in his powered-up form: A golden-haired, golden-skinned monk bursting with a powerful energy that looked like he'd be right at home in an episode of Dragonball Z. Wang-Tang gave Clark a cocky smirk as he lashed out his hands and sent a series of energy projectiles at the Ikari Warrior.

Clark was instantly on the defensive, backpedaling away as best as he could before one of Wang-Tang's energy beams struck him in the chest and stunned him. Seeing an attack find a target, Wang-Tang flew headfirst at Clark with lightning speed and delivered a series of rapid-fire strikes to the older fighter's chest, hoping to at least knock the wind out of him. Finishing up his combo with a powerful uppercut, Wang-Tang launched Clark into the air and leapt up after him, striking him in the side with a flying side kick that sent the Ikari Warrior crashing down into the canvas.

Pushing himself to his feet, Clark looked up and saw the powered-up Wang-Tang flying straight at him with his fist pulled back. Clark held up his hand and caught Wang-Tang's fist, grunting in annoyance as the force from Wang-Tang's punch ended up pushing Clark back on his feet a couple of steps. Managing to persevere through the power of Wang-Tang's attack, Clark strained against the force that was Wang-Tang attempting to push through his defense and lashed out with his free hand, aiming for the transformed martial artist's face.

Wang-Tang, however, saw the punch coming and held up his own free hand, catching Clark's fist. Now that both fighters had their hands locked, the two were at a stand-still as they pushed against each other in an attempt to overpower the other. Wang-Tang strained as he struggled to make any ground against Clark, shocked that, even in his powered-up form, Clark was still on even grounds with him.

"H-How…" Wang-Tang grunted. "You're…You're not even in a super form!"

Clark managed a smirk though it was clear he was visibly struggling against the transformed youth. "Like I said…It's what I'm good at…" He snarked.

All of a sudden, Wang-Tang fired more energy blasts from his hands that were still holding onto Clark's. The burst of energy cause Clark to shout in pain as he recoiled, holding his hands, thus giving Wang-Tang an opening for another rapid-fire flurry of punches and kicks. Wang-Tang prepared to launch another energy blast from his hands when Clark swatted at his arms, knocking them aside just as Wang-Tang fired an energy bolt off to the side (where it burned through a couple of Olimar's blue Pikmin; he grumbled as he set to work plucking a couple new ones out of the canvas).

As it turned out, that last energy blast was the last of the power Wang-Tang could unleash as his super form was drained of energy, reverting him back into his normal form with another flash of light. Wang-Tang blinked in silence for a couple of seconds as he turned his head to look at Clark, whose smirk had gotten bigger and was cracking his knuckles in preparation. All of a sudden it dawned on Wang-Tang that he had been fighting someone whose power could rival that of his own in his super form, and he wasn't IN said super form anymore.

"…Aw, crap…" Wang-Tang muttered as he slowly started backing away with Clark approaching him again.

"Outta the way! Get outta the way!"

Clark and Wang-Tang froze as they turned in place. A huge mallet came swinging in, clobbered Wang-Tang in the side and sent him unceremoniously flying over the top rope, leaving Clark to stare in silence for a second.

"H-Hey! What-" That was all Clark got out before the owner of the hammer, Bowser Jr., jumped onto him and got in his face. "You gotta help us! You've got big, muscly muscles! You can help!" The Koopa prince said in a panicked voice.

"Uh…With what?" Clark asked.

"THAT!" Bowser Jr. shouted, turning Clark's head to look at the Mad Piano, which seemed to be absorbing fireballs Mario was throwing at it.

"Projectiles aren't a-doing anything!" Mario shouted in a panic. "It's a-just absorbing them!"

"You hear that?! The only way to fight that thing is to get up close and personal!" Bowser Jr. insisted. "You can use your thick arms to pry open its jaw or something!"

Mario dove out of the way as the Mad Piano lunged at him. Setting its sights on Bowser Jr. instead, the Mad Piano leapt high into the air and opened its gaping, tooth-filled maw as it fell overtop of Clark and Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr. was quick yo release Clark with a scream and throw himself away from the ensuing chaos, thus leaving the Ikari Warrior alone underneath the falling Mad Piano.

Almost on instinct, Clark held up his hands in an instant and caught the Mad Piano as it fell towards him, one hand on either side of its tooth-filled lid, keeping its mouth open without it snapping shut on his head. Clark stained hard as he held the Mad Piano above his head, but in the end he could only hold the huge piano in the air for a few seconds as the Mad Piano fell overtop of him and snapped its mouth shut on him.

Mario and Bowser Jr. watched from aside as the Mad Piano sat in silence for a couple of seconds before making an odd noise that sounded like a mix of a spit and a cat jumping onto the piano keys. Clark was ejected from the Mad Piano's mouth like a cannon and was fired clear over the top rope.

"Now what?!" Bowser Jr. whispered to Mario.

"Keep a-your distance…" Mario whispered back. "Maybe…It'll get a-bored…"

The Mad Piano slowly turned in place to stare at Mario and Bowser Jr. again. The two stood in silence for a couple seconds before they screamed and took off with the possessed instrument giving chase again.

Fire Man launched a wave of flames from his arm cannon, sending it flying at Kaya. The young cryomancer ducked under the flaming projectile and pulled back on her bow's string, firing two ice-coated arrows into Fire Man's face as she slid under his fire wave. Fire Man recoiled in annoyance as Kaya leapt at him and struck him with her bow, swinging it like a club a few times.

As Kaya was attacking Fire Man, however, Captain Olimar was seen flying overhead being carried by a pink, winged Pikmin. Olimar gave a loud whistle as some blue Pikmin jumped on Kaya and started attacking her as she was pulled away from Fire Man. The Robot Master didn't have much time to recover before some red Pikmin leapt on him and attacked him in a similar vein to the blue ones with Kaya.

Kaya grunted as she felt a blue Pikin slap her face. "Ugh! Get your pets off me!" She looked up at Olimar. "They're cute but they hurt!"

"Hold still. Maybe I can get them off." Fire Man said flatly as he, while the red Pikmin were still attacking him, pointed his fire-shooting arm cannon at Kaya again. The red Pikmin seemed to take notice of this and, in a panic, tried to pull Fire Man's arm away to keep him from burning the very-flammable blue Pikmin attacking Kaya.

Olimar suddenly dropped down from above and, struck Fire Man over the head with a heavy purple Pikmin, knocking the Robot Master into the canvas. Kaya, in the meantime, managed to grab one of the blue Pikmin attacking her and throw it back at Olimar, making it bounce off his helmet. Olimar turned around in annoyance just as Kaya fired another ice-coated arrow, this time at him. Olimar received the projectile to the face and was sent flying backwards but the blue Pikmin near him seemed unaffected. Kaya used the chance while both her opponents were distracted to shake off the rest of Olimar's blue Pikmin and swap her bow out for her spear.

"Ugh…I'd forgotten how hard those Pikmin hit when they're turned against me…" Olimar groaned as he pushed himself to his feet just in time for a spectral mammoth, with Kaya riding it, to grab him with its trunk and toss him into the air. Kaya's mammoth dissipated as she landed on her feet and prepared to swing her spear at the airborne Olimar when Fire Man made his presence known again, clubbing Kaya over the head with Olimar's purple Pikmin.

"Huh. There's a lot to be said for physical weaponry." Fire Man mused as he seemed surprised at the power the purple Pikmin held. In the meantime, Olimar had landed flat on his face, bounced a bit off the canvas and landed on his side.

Olimar pushed himself to his feet and rubbed his helmet, inspecting for cracks, before narrowing his eyes. "I need to regroup…" He muttered before giving another loud whistle to summon all of the gathered Pikmin back to his side, including the purple one Fire Man was holding. Olimar was quick to dart forward, underneath an attempted shot from Fire Man, and threw the first Pikmin he could grab at Kaya as he ran past her.

Unfortunately, he had thrown a red Pikmin at the cryomancer and, while it indeed struck her in the face and made her stagger backwards, it was easily dispatched with a well-placed ice arrow. Kaya rushed forward as Olimar clashed with Fire Man and slid forward on her knees, generating a sheet of ice under her to keep her momentum going. The instant she got close to the other two, Kaya fired her arrows and struck both Fire Man and Olimar in the faces, knocking them both away.

Kaya smirked as she got to her feet. "I'm no stranger to fighting more than one person at once!" She called out as she loaded her bow again, coated the arrows with ice and aimed them forward. Seeing Olimar closer to her, Kaya aimed at him and fired.

Olimar was quicker on his feet as he dodged Kaya's arrows, signaling his gathered blue Pikmin to follow him as he rushed forward and charged the cryomancer. Kaya realized that Olimar was getting too close for her to use arrows on him and switched to her spear again, taking a swing at him as he got close. Olimar dodged Kaya's first swing but received a sharp blow to the side when Kaya swung again.

Knocking Olimar back, Kaya spun her spear around a few times, generating a cold wind and a shield of snow that protected her as Olimar's Pikmin bounced off her shield as they tried to attack her. Because all of the Pikmin attacking her were blue, none of them died in the ice attack but they were all knocked aside like Olimar was.

Looking around at the Pikmin laying around her, Kaya paused in thought. "Wait…Where'd Olimar go?" She asked.

"Right HERE!"

Kaya turned just in time to see a purple Pikmin flying at her face. The force of the large Pikmin hitting her knocked Kaya backwards, and Olimar approached her with the purple Pikmin in tow, grabbing it and striking her with it multiple times. Kaya tried to attack Olimar back with another swing of her spear but Olimar was faster, leaping over the attack and pulling the purple Pikmin up with him as he jumped.

Olimar was now overtop of Kaya and in the process of swinging the purple Pikmin down overhead like a club. Kaya's eyes widened as she tried to raise her guard but found that she was just a bit too slow. The weight of the purple Pikmin smashing over her head was enough to knock Kaya out completely, making her collapse onto the canvas.

Olimar landed on his feet, his arm aching from having to physically swing the heavy purple Pikmin like that. He looked down at Kaya's prone form for a moment before turning to his gathered Pikmin. "Could…You guys deal with this for me?" He asked.

The Pikmin were all-too happy to oblige, gathering around Kaya's unconscious body, lifting her up, carrying her over to the arena and, with one mighty heave, threw her over the top rope and out of the arena.

Kaya landed in Fortnite. When she woke up and found herself surrounded by twenty people dabbing, she summoned her mammoth and tore through them.

Olimar sighed in relief, seeing his Pikmin eliminating Kaya. He suddenly remembered Fire Man and turned to face him, only to see that Kaya's last attack on him had frozen his body in a block of ice, with only his head remaining unfrozen.

"Um…A little help?" Fire Man asked.

Olimar stood in silence for a few seconds before awkwardly pointing at the frozen Robot Master. "Uh…Take him away too, I guess?" He shrugged at his Pikmin.

Fire Man suddenly watched as he was surrounded by Pikmin, whom picked him up by his frozen body. "Hey! Hey, no! Stop that!" He shouted indignantly as the Pikmin carried him away. "Oh, when I get out of this, I'm flambéing each and every one of you!"

Bodvar dodged a claw swing from the much-larger Necrozma and grinned in anticipation as he leapt up and slashed at the large Pokemon's head. Necrozma received the blow to the face and staggered backwards a step before regaining its footing and roaring furiously at the smaller Viking, as if daring Bodvar to strike it again.

Suddenly, a bright orb slammed into Necrozma's face mid-roar, stunning it and allowing Bodvar, whom had switched to his warhammer, to slam the handle of his hammer into Necrozma's torso. Bodvar was quick to press the assault, continuing to strike Necrozma with hammer attacks while Menat summoned her soul orb back to her side.

"I sense a spike of energy, Viking! Get away from it!" Menat shouted as she swung a hand and created a psychic shield in front of her to block any potential blows from Necrozma.

Bodvar laughed. "I can take it! I've tanked much worse!" He taunted as he stood defiantly in front of the furious Necrozma. "Have at thee, you pointy monster!"

Necrozma pointed a claw at Bodvar and fired a laser from it. Bodvar rolled to the side, but this let the laser bolt fly at Menat, whom managed to absorb the laser with her shield. Menat lifted an eyebrow in surprise as she watched her shield absorb Necrozma's projectile before smirking and lowering her shield.

"This just got a little interesting." Menat mused as she summoned a few more soul orbs.

Necrozma had just managed to wrap a huge claw around Bodvar's neck and was in the process of yelling in his face while Bodvar seemed to be screaming back at it, refusing to show fear in the face of a monster. In the meantime, Menat created another soul orb that fired a laser-like projectile, the same one that her shield had absorbed from Necrozma, and shot it back into the polygonal Pokemon's face, stunning it and giving Menat an opening to rush in, leap at its head and deliver some quick kicks tom make it let go of Bodvar. Once he was let go, Bodvar lashed out with his sword and slashed at Necrozma's hand. Necrozma managed to recover and slammed a huge palm down onto Bodvar, crushing him into the canvas, before turning its attention to Menat.

Menat waved her hand a few times and struck Necrozma with her soul orb, backflipping out of the way as the huge Pokemon took a swing at her. Necrozma approached her with loud steps as it fired another couple of laser blasts at her, only to watch as Menat ducked and dodged around them. However, Necrozma was approaching her as it was firing lasers at her and before too long it was in range to hit Menat with the side of its arm like a club.

Menat received a couple heavy-hitting strikes before she was able to backpedal away. As she tried to regain her senses, Menat summoned a few more soul orbs and fired them at Necrozma, hoping to keep it at bay while she recovered.

Necrozma held up a hand and caught Menat's soul orb projectiles, absorbing them into its body. All of a sudden, Menat noticed bright, glowing purple shards cover Necrozma's sharp knuckles, as if signifying that the large Pokemon had used the power it had absorbed from her projectiles to give itself a bit more power. Menat's eyes widened when she realized that she had just given Necrozma an uneeded power boost, as she seemed to realize as Necrozma was barreling towards her and lashed out with its new armoured knuckles.

Menat tried to hold up her guard but Necrozma punched straight through her psychic shield, showcasing a newfound strength now that he had absorbed a small amount of Menat's power. Menat tried to swat away Necrozma's limbs, knowing that it was likely seeking to absorb more of her power, as the large Pokemon continued to strike her with its powered-up fists. Before Menat could try to fend off Necrozma's attacks, she felt it grab her by the throat and hold her in the air.

Feeling Necrozma draining the power from her (and giving itself more glowing armour on its arms), Menat summoned a soul orb and smashed in down against the back of Necrozma's head while it was holding her in the air. This did little other than annoy Necrozma, showing that it had already improved its defenses.

However, it wasn't prepared for the smash over the back from Bodvar's warhammer. Having just gotten up and seeing Necrozma attacking Menat, Bodvar had made his presence known with a mighty yell before striking the large Pokemon from behind. However, in doing so, Bodvar had caused Necrozma to turn its attention to him.

"Looks like you've got a bit more power on your side now. That makes things a lot more-interesting, eh?" Bodvar smirked.

Necrozma narrowed its eyes as, seemingly forgetting about Menat to focus on Bodvar, it tossed the fortune teller away, sending her across the arena with one over-the-shoulder toss.

Menat was tossed towards the fight between Angel and Greninja, too dazed to stop or upright herself in midair. Greninja saw Menat flying in his direction and pointed over Angel's shoulder. "Gren. Ja-Ja." He pointed out.

Angel looked over her shoulder and saw Menat coming her way. "Oh. We've got an incoming bogey." She said. "Give me a second, okay?"

"Ja."

Angel backflipped into the air and lashed out with her legs, grabbing hold of the oncoming Menat by the head. Once Menat was in her grasp, Angel flipped herself over in midair and flung Menat out of the arena before landing gracefully on her feet in front of Greninja again. "Thanks for that, pally." She winked. "Where were we?"

Menat's barely-conscious form landed in Psychonauts. Unfortunately, it was in someone's mind and she was quickly overrun by angry Censors that started attacking her with rubber stamps.

Bodvar's hammer smashed against Necrozma's face several times. The large Pokemon seemed more-able to take the blows due to the added defense brought on by the powers stolen from Menat, but it still staggered backwards with each blow from Bodvar. Bodvar received a hard blow to the face from a club-like arm to get the Viking to back away from Necrozma but Bodvar was able to remain standing as he stepped backwards.

"You fight fiercely, monster. Know that vanquishing you is no easy task…" Bodvar said as the ghostly image of a bear materialized behind him. Necrozma paid it no mind as it roared loudly and lunged at Bodvar.

Bodvar swung his hammer as the bear-ghost followed suit with a ghostly claw. As Bodvar drove his hammer into Necrozma's stomach, the bear-ghost did the same with a set of sharp claws. Necrozma's eyes snapped open as it roared in pain, leaving it open for Bodvar to attack again, swinging his hammer sideways and smashing it across the monster's polygonal head, knocking Necrozma aside.

Necrozma managed to stop itself from falling over by digging its claws into the canvas, and then swung blindly behind it, getting lucky and striking Bodvar in the torso. Bodvar was knocked flat on his back and that gave Necrozma the time to get overtop of him. The polygonal Pokemon pulled both huge armoured hands into the air and prepared to bring them down on Bodvar's face.

Bodvar suddenly sprung to life, kicking away Necrozma's hands while he was down and jumping to his feet, swapping to his sword and stabbing it upwards, aiming for the wounds his ghostly-bear had made. Bodvar's sword managed to find a home in Necrozma's torso as the large Pokemon screeched in pain. While Necrozma was distracted, Bodvar kicked it off his sword, making the large Pokemon stagger backwards.

Suddenly noticing that Necrozma was getting close to the ropes, Bodvar gave a smirk and rushed headfirst into battle again, swinging his sword wildly. Necrozma held up its armoured arms as sparks flew with each slash of a sword Bodvar struck it, but each strike made Necrozma step back inch by inch towards the ropes. Bodvar continued to press the assault and, after several quick and sharp blows, managed to break through Necrozma's defense, striking the large Pokemon in the face and causing its arms to break away from its face.

"And I think that should do it." Bodvar smirked as he rushed at Necrozma, leapt upwards and slashed at the polygonal Pokemon's face, making it lean backwards. Bodvar then planted both feet against Necrozma's torso and kicked off it with all his might, leaping backwards while sending the large Pokemon tumbling over the top rope while he did. Bodvar landed on his feet and raised his fists to the sky as Necrozma vanished into a portal.

"I hereby declare you VANQUISHED!" Bodvar cheered.

Necrozma materialized in a swirling, multicoloured void rather than in a particular node, which meant that it had been selected for the next section's Multiversal Matchup. Necrozma looked around the void and saw Wang-Tang and Clark floating nearby.

"Oh, great. Look who just dropped in…" Clark muttered. Necrozma gave a roar of defiance but, in doing so, caused itself to start tumbling about in the void. Clark, in the meantime, looked at Wang-Tang. "Remember not to fire any of those energy blasts at that thing. I think it's a power leech of some kind."

Wang-Tang pouted. "I can't, anyway. You made me use my Power Stone form." He reminded flatly.

Clark chuckled. "I guess I did." He agreed before leaning back and ducking an attempted kick from Wang-Tang, causing the young martial artist to spiral off in a random direction.

(Multiversal Matchup)

Chaos was erupting on a metal suspension bridge connecting two building of N. Gin's base. The bridge overlooked the icy waters below and served as the method of choice for the combatants in the Multiversal Matchup to dispose of N. Gin's guards and Lab Assistant henchmen. Soldier seemed to be doing the most of the damage on the bridge as he was swinging wildly and energetically with his rocket launcher, shovel and sometimes bare hands in an attempt to clobber the Lab Assistants that were within reach. Soldier was laughing during the chaos and seemed to be having so much fun that he had seemingly forgotten that he was technically in a race.

While Soldier was busy with the dozens of guards and Lab Assistants rushing him (and quickly getting thrown over the railings of the bridge into the cold water below), Young Link and Chris Lightfellow were bringing up the rear, fighting their way through waves of guards from behind. Young Link had faster speed to confuse the guards while Chris was using her swordsmanship skills to cut through the guards' weapons and gunfire.

"He's distracted…" Chris said to Young Link as they back up against each other. "If we can get around him now he may not notice us ahead of him."

Young Link nodded. "Yeah. That maniac's been ahead of us the entire time and this may be the best chance to get ahead of him…" He admitted.

Chris suddenly noticed a Lab Assistant standing a good distance away with a beaker of fluid that was likely going to be very-explosive as he chucked it at the pair. Chris knew by this point that cutting the beakers in midair was going to be a bad idea since the formula would explode anyways so all the silver-haired knight could do was backpedal away from the airborne projectile as the beaker struck the ground near her feet, resulting in a small chemical explosion. Chris managed to get far enough away from the explosion to avoid the brunt of the blast but shards of glass were sent flying in all directions. Chris shielding her face with her armoured arms and Young Link held up his shield, but several shards ended up embedding into Soldier's arm while he was busy breaking limbs. Soldier paused in silence for a few seconds before glancing at the shards of glass sticking out of his forearm.

"That's strange. I don't remember scheduling acupuncture today…Oh, right! I HATE acupuncture!" Soldier said as he turned to Chris and Young Link before pointing at his glass-pierced arm. "Which one of you commies did this?!"

"He did." Chris and Young Link quickly said as one, pointing at the Lab Assistant that had thrown the beaker. The assistant started backing away nervously, holding up his hands in defense.

Soldier, in the meantime, gave a crazed smirk. "Oh! I must've missed that one when I started breaking the others' legs! Thanks, you two!" He said as he charged headfirst down the bridge towards the offending Lab Assistant. In doing so, however, he ended up running straight through Chris and Young Link, barreling between them and launching them into the air simply for standing in his way in getting to the single Lab Assistant on the other side of the bridge. Young Link managed to grab hold of the railing and use his athletics to easily climb back onto the bridge after Soldier had passed, but Chris found herself getting weighed down by her armour as she grabbed the railing and dangled off the bridge.

Chris tried to climb back onto the bridge but strained against the extra weight of her armour pulling her down. Young Link seemed to notice her plight and, his hero's instinct overweighing his desire to win the race, came running over to help her. Young Link grabbed Chris by the arm and tried pulling her up, only to find that she was too heavy to haul up onto the bridge again.

Seeing that she was fighting a losing battle at this point, Chris sighed and looked at Young Link. "Stop. We both know my armour's weighing me down." She directed.

"So take off the chestpiece! That's probably the heaviest thing you're wearing!" Young Link urged.

"I can't unclip it as easily as you think, especially with one arm." Chris shook her head with a sigh. "Look, kid. I appreciate the gesture, but we both know how this ends."

"No, wait-"

Chris yanked her arm out of Young Link's grasp and allowed herself to drop from the high-hanging metal bridge, plunging into the frigid water below. Young Link gave a sigh as he stepped away, glanced at where Soldier was still wrangling the hapless Lab Assistant's neck before running off to continue the race.

Across the base, Needle Man had just managed to climb into a window of another part of the building, having just scaled the mountain the base was attached to using his claws. Needle Man glanced around and saw only a few guards. Hearing the commotion outside the building with Soldier, Needle Man realized that he could gain a bit more ground in the race if all of the guards were futilely trying to take down the insane mercenary with the rocket launcher.

"Heh. Looks like taking the backdoor was the safest bet." Needle Man mused to himself.

Noticing that he was by himself against the small number of guards, Needle Man quickly went on the offensive, firing needles from his cannons at anyone in his way. Guards dropped like flies as Needle Man made his way down a long corridor, and the ones that took notice of the spiked Robot Master in time were only able to fire off one or two shots before they too went down under an onslaught of spikes.

Needle Man made his way down the corridor, looking around. He was sure he was heading in the right direction due to how he entered the building from the outside but, due to everything looking so similar on the inside, he felt like he would get lost in the base if he wasn't careful and that'd give someone else a chance to win.

"Ugh…How are there so few windows in this place?" Needle Man muttered. "If I could see where I am in this base I'd have an easier time trying to get to that weirdo with the rocket sticking out of his head."

Suddenly hearing a noise coming up from behind him, Needle Man turned and readied his spike launcher, only to freeze when he saw a rampaging Boom Boom tearing through the corridor, uplifting any and all debris in his path, including downed henchmen, with his fists as he ran. He was in the process of chasing a few terrified-looking Lab Assistants that seemed to have long-since given up on trying to hurt the huge Koopa and were now more-focused on self-preservation.

Unfortunately for Needle Man, the Robot Master found himself standing directly in Boom Boom's path. His eyes wide, Needle Man dropped his arm cannon. "Oh, crap…" He muttered before turning around and starting to run away, fleeing the rampaging Boom Boom along with the Lab Assistants.

Needle Man found himself leaping over boxes and barrels as he struggled to outrun Boom Boom, whom seemed to be substituting for the "huge enemy you need to run away from" of the Crash Bandicoot level that was N. Gin's base, and Boom Boom seemed to pay it no mind that Needle Man was now desperately running away from him in addition to the three or four Lab Assistants he was looking to pummel into the floor.

Suddenly, Needle Man noticed that the Lab Assistants were starting to outrun him, starting by catching up to him and finally overtaking him. Needle Man suddenly realized that, since he wasn't the fastest Robot Master, his lack of speed was coming back to bite him as the terrified Lab Assistants continued to put more ground between them and him.

This also meant, as Needle Man seemed to clue in as he looked over his shoulder while running, that there was now no one in between him and the blinded-with-rage Boom Boom, whom quickly overtook him himself while still not really noticing him. Needle Man found himself trampled underfoot by Boom Boom as the huge Koopa continued his rampage obliviously, getting stepped on and crushed multiple times as Boom Boom stomped as hard as he could with every step.

The Lab Assistants continued to run away as Boom Boom gave an angry yell and continued to give chase, completely-ignoring the mangled wreck of Needle Man laying on the floor. Needle Man's limbs twitched a few times once the corridor has gone silent again.

(Dome; Security Office)

"Why were we late to breaking up that fight between Bryan Fury and Yamazaki?!" Estel demanded in frustration. "The job of a security guard in things like these is to get to a fight before they get out of hand and break them up!"

"Of course, buuut…Yeah, in these things we're always late." Psymon shrugged.

"There's probably some meta stuff at play there but I can't remember the last time we got to a fight before it finished." Max pointed out.

"Then what's the point in HAVING a security team if they can't do their job?!" Estel held her head.

Psymon and Max stood in silence, looked at each other, back at Estel and waved jazz hands. "…Comedyyyyy…." The two said as one.

Lucia glanced at the two security veterans. "Uncle Sheogorath mentioned to me that in the last tournament you guys had something that helped you out a bit?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah. The script." Psymon rubbed the back of his head. "Well…Yeah, as it turns out, having us be TOO meta and do nothing but fourth wall jokes kinda gets old after a few sections."

"Yeah, so we've been cut off of the script this time around." Max rolled his eyes. "It's annoying but we gotta deal with it."

"So what do we do, then?" Lucia asked. "Didn't we already get a call to break up a fight just outside the café?"

Max gave a shrug. "Yeah, but that fight's definitely going to be over by the time we get there." He mentioned. "I guarantee that there won't be any trace of those people there if we go investigate."

"So we can't even set anyone on fire? That sucks…" Scorch whined.

"Why is THAT your priority?!" Estel gripped her head.

"I wouldn't worry about it, people. Yeah, we may miss out on getting anywhere on time to stop a fight but chances are high that we'll see some action ourselves." Psymon grinned.

"Yeah! Sooner or later something'll come along that'll make things interesting!" Max nodded.

Psymon and Max stood in silence for a few seconds. The others paused, looked amongst each other and glanced back at the two veterans. "Uh…Hello?" Estel checked.

"Just a second…" Psymon held up a finger.

"Aaaaaany minute now…" Max nodded.

The office fell into awkward silence again as Estel, Scorch and Lucia looked amongst each other, not sure how to proceed or what to say. After another few seconds, Estel held her forehead. "This…This is getting us nowhere! Why are we just standing around waiting for-"

"Saxton HAAAALE!"

*CRASH!*

The wall behind Scorch suddenly exploded, shattering debris everywhere as the plastic pyromaniac stumbled forward. Standing in the middle of the newly-created hole, and right next to the door to the room he COULD have used, was a huge, muscled man with a thick mustache clad only in a pair of shorts, boots and a hat. The most-notable thing about him was the fact that his chest hair was somehow in the shape of the country of Australia.

"Ah! THERE you all are!" Saxton Hale announced as he stepped into the room. "I've been looking everywhere for you security people!"

Estel looked between hole in the wall Hale had just made and the door that was right next to it. "You…You couldn't just use the DOOR like a NORMAL human being?!" She demanded.

"Lady, this is an emergency! I've got no time for doors when punching through the wall is quicker!" Hale insisted.

"See, that's what I always tell Sam but then he reminds me that our landlord is one more explosion away from evicting us." Max scratched his head.

Hale sighed. "Look, I can't waste time with small talk!" He insisted. "Something big has happened and I need you lot to do your job and help me!"

Estel took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Okay. So what is it you need us for? Is someone hurt or missing?" She asked. "Did someone attack you in a hallway?"

"Worse!" Hale said as he grabbed Estel by the shoulders and started shaking her. "This is a disaster that could spell the end for not only me but the future of Mann Co in general!"

"Hold your horses, Crocodile Dundee." Max said as he strolled over. "Kindly let go of the new girl and tell us what crawled up your pants this morning…Uh…I guess you aren't wearing pants so maybe 'shorts' is a better fit, though."

Hale's response was to drop Estel, grab Max by the fur of his chest and hold him up to his face. "Someone stole my Australium!" He exclaimed.

(The Arena)

Merengue screamed as she backpedaled away from a volley of flames that hit the canvas around her. The pink rhino weaved around a few more erupting fire pillars as flames rained down from above, barely managing to keep herself from getting hit but noticing at the last second that her apron had caught fire a bit. As Merengue slapped her apron in a panic in an attempt to put of the fire, she seemed oblivious to the fact that her opponent, Pete, had put the Lance of Lava he had used to rain fire down from the sky back into his backpack.

"Eh…There's only so much fun you can have with something meant to combat like this…" Pete lamented as he fished around in his backpack for something else.

After spending a few minutes caught up in the middle of Spike and Diddy's match, trying to keep herself from getting caught in the chaotic crossfire, Merengue ended up slipping away from the fight between the two and ended up crossing paths with Pete. Merengue had spent the majority of the time shielding herself from Pete's attacks as the wooden doll seemed more-willing to fight now that his playmate Sackboy had been eliminated.

"Come on! Why aren't you fighting back?" Pete asked as he pulled a magic staff from his backpack. "You knew what you were getting into when you signed up for this, didn't you?"

"I-I DIDN'T sign up for this!" Merengue stammered.

Pete didn't seem to hear Merengue as he stuck the end of the magic staff into the canvas and extended it, launching himself high into the air above Merengue. Retracting the magic staff back into its normal length, Pete spun around in midair and swung the staff downwards, extending it again and aiming for Merengue, whom seemed rooted to her spot on the canvas.

Merengue screamed and crossed her arms in front of her face, blocking the magic staff as it smashed down across them and managing to keep Pete at bay. The staff Pete was wielding seemed to wobble as it strained to break through Merenge's defenses, and Menernge finally broke away by grabbing the staff Pete was holding onto and swinging it down, surprising Pete by smashing him into the canvas while he was still holding onto the staff. Merenge let go of the staff, causing it to retract back into its normal size.

"Please! I-I swear I don't want any trouble!" Merengue said.

Pete groaned as he pushed himself up. "How'd you just shrug that off?" He asked. "Oh, man. Not even Gunrock is able to shrug attacks like that off!"

Menergue's eyes widened. "Um…What does that mean?" She asked hesitantly.

"That means I get to bring out the big guns!" Pete said happily as he dug around in his backpack again. "I was worried that I wouldn't be able to use some of these things on most people here because they're too dangerous or powerful to use but if you're tough then I don't have to worry about it!"

"I-I don't like the sound of that!" Merengue insisted.

Pete's response was to place a huge bomb in Merengue's hands. "Here, hold this. We'll test out your durability." He said as he rushed away and threw himself to the canvas.

Merengue looked at the lit bomb in her hands for a couple of seconds before screaming and throwing the explosive clear out of the arena, showing amazing arm strength by throwing the bomb straight into the forcefield around the ring, causing it to explode safely away from everyone. Merengue sighed in relief as she glanced at Pete, whom stood up to see how far Merengue had been able to throw the bomb, and stepped forward to try and talk some sense into him before she realized she couldn't move.

Curiously, Merengue looked down and saw a ball-and-chain clamped down on her ankle, weighing her down. Although she figured it was another tool Pete had pulled from his backpack, Merengue had no idea when he had the time to attach the leg weight to her while he was handing her the bomb.

"W-When did you-" Merengue said as she turned her head to look at Pete again, only to freeze when he saw the wooden doll pulling a morning star from his backpack. Pete smirked as he started spiking the spiked ball around above his head.

"I didn't really wanna use weapons like this but it's clear it's going to take a lot of effort to bring you down." Pete shook his head.

"N-No…Nononono…" Merengue whimpered as Pete approached. She looked down at the canvas. "Why…Whywhywhywhywhy…"

Pete swung the morning star, aiming for Merengue's side.

*CRASH!*

The morning star struck something solid, shattering the spiked metal ball into a thousand pieces as Pete froze, wondering what he had hit to cause the morning star to break like that. His eyes widened in shock when he saw Merengue holding her arm up. Blood was starting to drip down her arm towards her elbow, showing that Merengue had blocked (and broken) the morning star with nothing but her own forearm. Merengue's bleeding arm was shaking as it was held up.

…And Pete noticed a fist forming on it.

"Why…Why…" Merengue whimpered as she stared at Pete, showing tear-stained, furious eyes. "Why do you insist on FIGHTING?!"

*POW!*

Pete was sent flying halfway across the ring with one furious punch to the jaw, landing on his back and skidding to a halt after a few feet of sliding. Merengue, her fist still shaking violently, looked down at the leg weight still attached to her ankle. Reaching down, Merengue silently grabbed hold of the weighted ball and ripped it off the chain it was attached to with one hand.

Pete stood to his feet and shook his head to regain his senses. He looked ahead and froze in place when he saw Merengue holding the detached weighted ball from her leg weight in her hand and was looking right at him with a cold, teary expression. Merengue silently pulled her arm back and, with one mighty throw, hurled the weighted ball straight at Pete with enough force and speed that it looked like it burst into flames the instant it left her hand.

Even if Pete had the time to think about getting out of the way, he wouldn't have been able to anyways. The weighted ball slammed into his chest with enough force to lift Pete off his feet altogether and carry him into the air. The weight continued going, flying past several of the other fighters, and flew straight out of the arena with Pete, not stopping until it flew straight into the arena forcefield a good fifty feet outside of the arena, and even then it had enough force behind it to keep pushing Pete into the forcefield for a few seconds before it finally stopped. Dazed, disoriented and too far outside of the arena to even make an attempt to get back in, Pete peeled off the forcefield and fell down into a portal.

Merengue watched as Pete fell below the arena and sighed before holding her arm. "Owowowowow!" She whimpered. "Oh, that hurt! I wish I'd remembered to grab a first-aid kit before coming here…"

Pete landed in Undertale, where he got into a Dance Battle with Mettaton. The audience loved it.

Blanka yelped and leaped backwards as a burst of flames exploded in his face, igniting some of his hair on fire. Blanka had thought that stepping in to help Darunia with Slash would be an easy fight for the two but the advanced caveman was proving to be faster and smarter than he looked. The fact that the burst of flames had erupted from the end of Slash's club seemed to help play into the surprise factor as well, for that matter.

"Where the heck did that fire come from?!" Blanka shouted as he quickly tried to put out the flames in his hair. "That club's stone!"

Slash gave a toothy, fanged smirk. "That's something of a secret." He admitted as he pulled his club into the air and prepared to smash it down on Blanka's head. Suddenly, however, Darunia made his presence known by grabbing Slash by the back of the pelt he was wearing and threw him over his shoulder, causing Slash to bounce off the canvas a couple of times a few feet away.

"Stay behind me while we fight him, brother!" Darunia said to Blanka as he stod protectively in front of the green-skinned fighter. "Those flames of his, no matter how hot they are, are nothing to a Goron!"

Blanka managed to put out the flames on his hair and sighed. "I'm fine! I just wasn't expecting that!" He reminded.

Darunia gave a grin. "Don't worry! The next time he tries that I'll just get a warm breeze!" He assured.

Slash pushed himself to his feet and stared at Darunia, whom was standing in front of Blanka while the latter recovered from the burning he had just received. The caveman gave a smirk and raised his club as he rushed at the two, seemingly blindly, with a loud yell.

Darunia pulled back the Megaton Hammer and swung, aiming for the oncoming caveman's face, but Slash proved to be anticipating this as he leapt over the swing, grabbing hold of Darunia's hammer while he was in the air and leaping off of it, getting right into the Goron chief's face. Darunia, undeterred gave a smirk and readied himself for a burst of flames, only to receive a shocking blast of cold and ice instead.

Darunia howled in pain and shock as he staggered backwards, giving Slash the time his needed to give the Goron a few more hard strikes to the body and head with his club. Slash gave Darunia another strike to the head, managing to knock the stunned Goron down, but this gave Blanka the chance to jump him and start lashing out with claw-like fingers.

Pushing himself to his feet, Darunia clutched his chest, which had bared the brunt of the ice attack. "Okay…THAT was unexpected." He admitted. "That club can emit both fire AND ice? What magic is this?!"

Darunia rushed in to help Blanka with Slash and swung his hammer over his head with all his might. Slash saw the attack coming and jumped backwards but the vibrations in the canvas the hammer made when it struck shook the caveman for a few seconds, making him stumble backwards awkwardly. This gave Blanka the opportunity to jump on his back and start emitting electricity.

"Augh! Get off me!" Slash shouted as Blanka sent thousands of volts through his body, thrashing about in an attempt to shake Blanka off.

"Hold him still, brother!" Darunia shouted as he charged again, preparing another huge hammer swing.

Slash managed to grab hold of Blanka's arm and, with one mighty swing, threw the green-skinned fighter over his shoulder, sending him colliding with the oncoming Goron chief, knocking both down. With both opponents distracted, Slash took the time to step back and recover, trying to formulate a plan of action against two strong fighters that could very-easily outclass him in strength.

Blanka got up first and, with a mighty roar, leapt off Darunia's back and launched himself at Slash in a rolling cannonball. Slash held up his arms and club and allowed Blanka to fly into his arms, and the caveman managed to hold Blanka at bay as the green-skinned fighter continued to barrel into him in an attempt to break through his defenses.

Seeing an opening, Slash managed to catch Blanka with one hand and struck him with his club using the other. This knocked Blanka out of the air and sent him crashing into the canvas, dazed from the surprise blow to the head.

"Owww…" Blanka moaned as he held his head.

Unfortunately, Blanka didn't get much of a chance to react or dwell on his injury as Slash had hauled him to his feet again, striking him in the face a few times while he was still distracted. Slash suddenly saw Darunia charging him again while he was busy with Blanka and narrowed his eyes. "Ugh…I can't deal with both of you at once…" He muttered.

"W-Wait!" Blanka shouted.

Slash wouldn't listen and swung his club with all his might, striking Blanka with enough force to send the electrical fighter flying out of the ring, barely conscious, before he turned to face the oncoming Goron chief.

Blanka landed in Pokemon Sword, where an angry young female trainer tried catching him while shouting in a barely-understandable Scottish accent.

"You'll pay for that, friend!" Darunia shouted as he smashed the canvas with his hammer, causing a small eruption of fire and magma. While the addition of fire and debris caught Slash by surprise, the caveman managed to leap back and avoid the burning rocks as they crashed against the canvas and lunged forward when he saw an opening.

Before Darunia had time to act, Slash had hit him in the face with another blast of ice, making the Goron stagger back again. Slash smirked as he swung his club again, only for Darunia to swing a beefy arm half-blindly as he attempted to get the ice out of his eyes, striking Slash in the face and knocking the caveman backwards.

Landing awkwardly on his back, Slash grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. "Just need to focus on ice with this guy…" He muttered to himself as Darunia got into his stance again. "And stay away from those fists of his…"

Darunia rubbed the last bit of ice out of his eyes and turned just in time to see Slash swinging his club at his face. The Goron chief received a few more sharp blows to the face as he staggered backwards but otherwise remained on his feet as Slash continued to press the attack. Slash jumped back and leapt into the air, aiming for an overhead swing to hit Darunia from above, but the Goron chief managed to see the attack coming this time and held up an arm to block the blow.

Darunia, seeing that he had managed to block Slash's blow, gave a smirk. "You're fast and tough, I'll give you that, friend." He admitted. "But you have a long ways to go before you can match up to a GORON CHIEF."

Swinging his arm out, Darunia launched the surprised Slash into the air and pulled back with the Megaton Hammer. Once Slash fell within view, Darunia swung the hammer with all his might and, with one mighty clobber, sent Slash clear out of the ring with one strike. Slash tried to reach out for an arena rope as he passed by but was unable to grab anything as he fell headlong into a portal, officially eliminating him.

His fight done, Darunia sighed and pulled another rock into view, holding it up. "I'm sorry I couldn't eliminate him sooner, brother. I dedicate this rock to you!" He said as he tossed the rock into his mouth and started eating to regain his strength.

"Gren!" Greninja shouted as he slapped his hands together, creating a water geyser that shot him into the air. Angel's leg smashed through the water geyser in an attempted roundhouse, her attack missing the frog ninja due to Greninja shooting himself out of the way. Angel recovered from her failed attack and spun in place, holding up her arms instinctively as Greninja threw a water shuriken at her while in the air.

Angel saw the shuriken flying at her and used her arms to block the projectile, but when she tried to grab it herself to throw it back, the shuriken fell apart into a puddle of water at her feet. Angel narrowed her eyes in annoyance as Greninja landed on his feet a ways away from her and proceeded to start sniping her with water attacks.

"So you wanna play the long game, huh?" Angel asked as she smirked. "I'm fine with that."

Angel charged forward and ducked around the water shots Greninja was attempting to hit her with from afar. Greninja managed to get a hit in and strike Angel in the shoulder but his eyes widened when he saw that wasn't slowing her down. The next thing he knew, Greninja had received a hard kick to the head, staggering him for a few seconds. While Greninja was stunned, Angel reached out and grabbed him, and then proceeded to perform a huge suplex, smashing the frog Pokemon head-first into the canvas.

Angel wasn't done after this, however, and hauled Greninja to his feet again, swinging her foot into the side of his head to knock him tumbling over, only to snatch him out of midair by jumping at him and getting both of her legs wrapped around his neck before spinning in midair and slamming him down into the canvas again. Angel took the time to posture for the crowd for a few seconds as Greninja staggered to his feet in a daze, then rushed him and jumped at him, grabbing his head and slamming him onto the canvas again.

"Come on! I know you've got more in the tank!" Angel taunted. "The crowd's looking for more action!"

Angel stood over Greninja, spun her arm around a couple of times and performed an elbow drop onto the downed Greninja, but only hit canvas. Surprised at the turn of events, Angel saw that Greninja had vanished while he was down and reappeared above her, striking her with a hard kick to the face that sent her sprawling.

"Ja!" Greninja shouted as he summoned a water spout under him and launched himself into Angel, swinging a blade of water as he did. Angel received a sharp slash to the torso as she staggered backwards, giving Greninja the chance to pelt her with rapid-fire water darts. Greninja quickly got close to Angel grabbed her and leapt high into the air, spinning around in midair and slamming his opponent into the canvas.

Leaping off Angel's back once the two had crashed into the canvas, Greninja formed another water shuriken in his hand while in the air and hurled it down at his downed opponent, only to watch as she sprung to life and rolled to the side as the water projectile struck the canvas where Angel had been. Greninja landed on his feet and instantly backflipped away as Angel attempted to grab him again, knowing that getting in range of a grappler was a bad idea at this point. Landing on his feet again, Greninja threw another large water shuriken and this time managed to strike Angel in the stomach, stunning her for a second.

That second, however, was all Greninja needed to act as he lunged forward with another barrage of rapid-fire strikes to the torso, making Angel stagger backwards as she attempted to raise her guard and find an opening in Greninja's attack pattern. Greninja proved to be too fast for Angel to counter, however, and the next thing she knew the frog ninja had created a water spout under her feet, launching her into the air with a yelp.

Crouching low and creating a blade of water in his hand, Greninja launched himself upwards and slashed at Angel while she was in the air, delivering several more rapid-fire strikes with the water blade. Angel tried to get her bearings straight in midair in time to recover and attempt a block but Greninja seemed to be attacking from all sides and angles, not giving her a chance to respond. Greninja, seeing that Angel was diroriented, decided to finish the fight by planting his feet into her stomach and kicking off of her in midair.

The force from Greninja's midair kick sent Angel flying past the ropes and out of the arena. By the time she had gotten her head on straight enough to become aware of her surroundings again, the only thing she saw before vanishing into an elimination portal was the bottom of the arena itself getting further and further away.

Lord Hater looked back and forth between targets as he started gathering electric magic in his hands, trying to decide on who to throw it at. He was standing in between two fights, Mimikyu fighting Pyra and Magyar fighting Charlie Nash, and wasn't sure which of the two looked like they needed help more; He needed to show his latest recruits that he was a caring-enough tyrant to look out for his minions, after all.

Seeing that Magyar was using their broadsword to block a Sonic Boom from Charlie, Lord Hater decided to aid Mimikyu and fired a ball of lightning into Pyra's face, catching her off guard and letting Mimikyu grab a hold of her with a huge, shadowy hand and slam her into the canvas.

Lord Hater laughed as he approached Mimikyu. "You're doing adequate so far, my loyal minion!" He said. "Here; I'll be gracious enough to give you a hand here to show how good of a boss I am."

Mimikyu stared up at Lord Hater in confusion. When did he agree to become this guy's minion?

Lord Hater continued on obliviously. "Now, here's the plan. You hold her down with those shadowy hands of yours and I'll keep hitting her with lightning." He said with a smirk. "She can't handle both-"

That was all Lord Hater got out before a spinning, flaming sword slammed into his face from the side, knocking him away. Mimikyu turned to see Pyra staring him down as the spinning sword returned to her hand. "You think that, just because there are two of you, you'll be able to get the better of me?" She challenged. "Need I remind you that you're both wearing VERY flammable cloth?"

Lord Hater, holding his face in pain, froze in thought as he glanced over his cape, including the ugly tear from where Chris Lightfellow had stuck her sword through in the previous section. "Well…I mean, I guess Peepers is already going to have to repair this cloak later…" He reasoned.

Charlie Nash crouched low as Magyar's huge broadsword swung over his head, leaving the possessed armour open for a Flash Kick from Charlie, striking Magyar with enough force to momentarily remove the helmet from the rest of the suit, though it was quickly pulled back down by several of Magyar's souls to connect with the rest of the armour again.

"Dude! Not cool!" One of Magyar's souls shouted.

"This guy's faster than most of the people back in Valhalla and he hits harder than them too!" Another voice added.

"Hold the defense!" A third voice directed. "We can hold him off!"

"We already know he can break through it!"

Charlie narrowed his eyes. "You know I can hear you arguing with yourselves, right?" He mentioned. "If I didn't know there were a hundred of you in there it'd be a little concerning."

Several of Magyar's voices shouted in frustration. "Fine! We'll try another way!" One shouted.

Magyar dropped to all fours and assumed the form of an armoured beast of sorts that charged at Charlie and swung the huge broadsword as if holding it by a tail. Charlie, taken aback by Magyar's change in form, backpedaled away from the sword swing but was unable to avoid Magyar's follow-up attacks as they continued to lash out with claw-like swings. Charlie received a few sharp blows to the torso and that left him open for a slash to the chest from the huge broadsword.

Charlie staggered backwards but managed to remain on his feet as he swung his arms downward and created a vertical Sonic Boom that slashed down at Magyar's torso, causing several shouts of pain as Magyar leapt back and out of their primal stance, reassembling the armour back into its regular mode.

Charlie, seeing his attack getting through the armour, gave a dark smirk. "Looks like I found a method of attack." He mentioned as he rushed Magyar and gathered up more energy in his arms. Magyar tried to block the blow but Charlie's fist smashed into the armour's torso, resulting in several shouts of pain as it seemed like Charlie's attack had bent the armour itself. Charlie followed up by firing another Sonic Boom into Magyar's torso, further damaging the plating.

Magyar swung their broadsword haphazardly, trying to get Charlie away from them as they attempted to keep their suit of armour together, but Charlie was too fast for them and had struck the armour's body multiple times with precision strikes that would have hurt a lot more if Magyar's souls had a more-physical body. Charlie finished the onslaught with a massive Sonic Hurricane, a stationary Sonic Boom that shredded at Magyar's armour. Charlie finished with another Flash Kick that knocked the possessed suit of armour onto its back.

Magyar slowly pushed themselves to their feet. "He's too fast!" One of the souls shouted. "At this rate he'll break the armour!"

"Guys! The mace! Switch to the mace!" A soul said from somewhere within Magyar.

The rest of the souls seemed to agree with the suggester and despawned the greatsword as they summoned the large mace into their hand, revealing a spiked ball on the end of a long staff. Magyar held the spiked ball out as Charlie swung again, causing the reanimated soldier to strike the weapon with his fist instead of the armour. As Charlie recoiled in pain and frustration, Magyar pressed the attack and swung the mace upwards, the strength of the souls inhabiting the armour lifting it off the ground a couple of feet as Magyar brought the mace straight down again, managing to catch Charlie off guard and smashing him into the canvas.

Charlie got to his feet again but Magyar was quicker, using the new weapon to their advantage to keep the soldier at bay better than they were doing with the greatsword. Every time Charlie lashed out with a hand or foot, Magyar managed to counter it with the mace, and even attempting a Sonic Boom proved to not do as much. Magyar was still attacked by the shredding properties of Charlie's projectiles but they were able to block the brunt of the force using the harder-hitting mace. As Charlie left himself open following a barrage of failed Sonic Boom attacks, Magyar swung again and knocked the soldier onto his back with the huge morning star.

Seeing Charlie down, Magyar decided to take action and grabbed him with one of their gauntlets, using brute force to lift the soldier off his feet by the neck. Charlie grunted in annoyance as he started chopping his hand at Magyar's arm in an attempt to get the possessed armour to let go of him but found that he wasn't getting anywhere.

Charlie, in a last-ditch effort to get Magyar to let him go, grabbed at the arm gauntlet choking him and trying to make an attempt to rip it off.

"Hey! No touchie!" One of Magyar's souls shouted as the possessed armour swung the mace and smashed it into Charlie's face while their other arm was still holding him up.

Charlie felt his hands losing their grip on Magyar's arm gauntlet as the mace connected with his head. He tried to focus himself and keep his bearings together but the force from the blow was too great and he found himself getting ripped from Magyar's grip, flying backwards from the impact as he tumbled out of the ring.

Charlie landed in Batman Arkham City, where he spent the next ten minutes taking his aggression out on a gang of hapless Penguin goons.

While Magyar was dealing with Charlie, Pyra used her sword to fend off Mimikyu's shadowy hands, deflecting each attempted swipe from them and causing Mimikyu to back away in pain each time his palms were burned by Pyra's sword. Lord Hater fired a bolt of lightning from his own hand and threw it into Pyra's chest while she was busy with Mimikyu, stunning her momentarily and allowing the Disguise Pokemon to grab her with a large, shadowy hand and slam her into the canvas.

"Keep her on the edge!" Lord Hater instructed Mimikyu. "If I know anything about dealing with annoying enemies it's that they'll take any chance you give them to pounce!"

Mimikyu turned to Lord Hater with a confused expression and tilted his head.

Lord Hater sighed. "Look, it's a long story, and it's one that I can't really tell without feeling a lingering pain in my neck, so how about we-" He started to say.

Pyra interrupted Lord Hater by slamming her sword into the top of his head from behind; Lord Hater screamed. Pyra ignited her sword in fire; Lord Hater screamed louder.

"If you're DONE?" Pyra asked, eyes narrowed, as she removed the sword from Lord Hater's head and kicked him away, leaving her to fight Mimikyu alone. Mimikyu watched as Lord Hater went sprawling before turning to Pyra with what looked to be an angry expression. "Oh, come on. You know he had it coming."

Mimikyu responded by reaching out with a pair of black, shadowy hands, each forming a fist as they shot at Pyra from different angles. Pyra swung her sword again, deflecting the attempted blows as best as she could, but Mimikyu was more-determined and managed to sneak a fist around Pyra's attacks, striking the redhead swordswoman in the face and staggering her.

Seeing Pyra distracted, Mimikyu lunged at her and lifted up the hem of his disguise, preparing to drag her underneath and start attacking her in the darkness of his cloak. Pyra managed to snap herself back to attention in time to see the Pokemon coming at her and ignited her sword in flames and spun it around in front of her face, causing Mimikyu to burn himself as he tried to attack her. Mimikyu recoiled in pain as he struggled to put out a fire that had started at the hem of his cloak, giving Pyra the chance she needed to press the attack and strike Mimikyu with a quick flurry of hard swings of her sword.

Mimikyu somehow got through the onslaught of attacks without having his disguise broken but the last attack from Pyra sent the Pokemon flying away, clear over the rolling-on-the-canvas-holding-his-flaming-head-in-pain Lord Hater. Pyra chased after Mimikyu and swung her sword upwards, juggling the Disguise Pokemon a few times in an attempt to keep him from touching the canvas again.

Managing to upright himself in midair after Pyra had missed one of her slashes, Mimikyu floated around Pyra's sword attacks and managed to latch onto her weapon using his shadowy hands. Pyra suddenly realized that Mimikyu was holding onto a weapon she could ignite and did so, causing a large burst of flames to puff out from her weapon.

This time, however, Mimikyu seemed to know what was coming and let go of the sword just as the flames burst in his face and lunged around the sword, smashing two shadowy hands into Pyra's face, giving him the opportunity to continue to attack her with several strikes of his talon-like claws. Pyra tried to get her guard up but Mimikyu was too fast and soon he had knocked her onto the canvas after a flurry of blows. This allowed Mimikyu to grab Pyra by the ankle while she was down and drag her underneath his cloak.

The sounds of Mimikyu striking and hitting Pyra from within his cloak were heard as the cloak bounced around like a cartoon fight was happening inside it. After several seconds , Pyra was suddenly ejected from underneath the cloak, landing flat on her face, as Mimikyu floated back down to the canvas again.

Pyra groaned and pushed herself up, turning around just in time to see another shadowy hand flying at her face. Pyra instinctively held up her sword and managed to block the blow and then deflected Mimikyu's fist away before striking him a few times with her blade. "You're a lot faster than you look!" She mentioned. "And those hands of yours hit like a truck…"

Pyra swung her sword again, spinning it a few times and engulfing it in flames as she did. Mimikyu leapt over the spinning sword but was struck from behind as it returned to her hand. Pyra tried to follow up and get a few more hits in but Mimikyu was able to weave around the blows like a bag in the wind.

"Oh, come on! Why are you so hard to hit?!" Pyra demanded. "You're not this evasive in the games!"

Mimikyu, obviously, didn't give a response and instead swerved backwards as Pyra continued to swing her sword at him. Knowing that Pyra's flames were capable of setting his precious disguise on fire, Mimikyu knew he at least wanted to keep himself as far away from her sword as he could when it wasn't flaming. Pyra pulled her sword back and ignited it again, preparing to throw it at Mimikyu in another spinning boomerang.

All of a sudden, a bolt of electricity flew into the back of her head, making Pyra stop charging her attack. The redhead swordswoman turned around and saw a severely-ticked-off Lord Hater pushing himself to his feet, pointing a finger at her. The seething look of burning fury he was giving off told Pyra that he was looking to get her back for smashing a flaming sword into his head.

"Get her, my loyal minion! Destroy her!" Lord Hater commanded as he fired several more lightning bolts at Pyra, whom held up her guard to block the attacks.

Pyra looked over her shoulder as she was blocking Lord Hater's attacks just in time to see Mimikyu lunging at her again, shadowy hand outstretched as it grabbed her by the face. The next thing Pya knew, Mimikyu had pulled her into the air and started slamming her into the canvas several times. Pyra struggled to gain sense of the situation she was in but was unable to get her head on straight and couldn't ignite her sword, not that it would have helped her since Mimikyu had taken to grabbing her by the head now.

After about four or five slams into the canvas, Mimikyu pulled his hand back and pitched Pyra out of the ring, finishing the fight as Lord Hater held his head in pain. Mimikyu instantly turned back to Lord Hater, as if to seek praise for his help.

"Okay. Not bad for now, but we need to keep this up, soldier!" Lord Hater said, still holding his head in pain. "I'm going to stick to helping the tin can of souls for a while but I'll need you to back us up, got it?"

Mimikyu gave a happy nod as he scurried off to cause mayhem elsewhere.

Pyra materialized in the void alongside the others currently waiting for the round to end. Clark and Wang-Tang were still trying their best to keep their distance from the raging Necrozma but the former had since gone to keeping his eyes focused on Angel, whom had just arrived herself. Slash seemed content to sit back and float in peace as he watched the chaos unfolding with Necrozma.

"Oh, you got chucked too? That sucks." Angel lamented as she swam over to Pyra. "I was hoping some girls would dominate the arena back there and you'd already gotten an elimination."

Pyra sighed. "Luck of the draw and the fact that I had an evil space tyrant with electrical magic powers helping out the cloaked Pokemon." She replied.

"Watch out!"

Pyra swerved her head to the side as a rouge laser flew past her head. The change in momentum caused Pyra to start spinning in the void but she saw that the laser had been a wild shot from Necrozma fired in frustration.

Wang-Tang sighed, having been the one to shout. "Just…Keep your eyes on that one at all times while we're here." He reminded. "It's…Dangerous."

Pyra sighed and folded her arms as she continued to spin around, knowing that she would likely never be able to stop herself now…

(Multiversal Matchup)

"Bring more rockets! Bring more TNT! We need to protect the core! And, for all that is good and explodey, will someone PLEASE find the post-it note I wrote my secret family recipe for toast on and get it far away from here?! That is the most-valuable thing in this entire base and I'll stick doom in ALL of you if ANYONE causes it to be destroyed!"

N. Gin, needless to say, was in a panic. He was running around on a suspended platform, around what looked to be a giant energy core that seemed to be powering the whole base and arming himself with explosives. His minions had been failing to stop the intruders from coming his way and now he knew that the only line of defense between them and the destruction of Cortex's mining operation was himself.

"More rockets! More rockets! I need things to shoot at the invading doom monkeys when they show up!" N. Gin ordered as the rest of his gathered minions were passing him more explosives. He briefly looked back. "Who was the genius that decided to keep the core that's powering the entirety of the base fully-exposed on a suspended platform, anyway?!"

"Um...I think that was you, sir." A Lab Assistant piped up.

Before N. Gin had a chance to protest any further, he heard a loud banging noise coming from a nearby section of the base connected to the suspended platform by another suspension bridge. N. Gin shivered in fear as he turned his attention to the doorway that whoever was approaching would be sure to exit through and readied himself for a fight. "W-What are you idiots waiting for?! Get ready for a fight!" He urged.

The large door at the end of the suspension bridge slowly opened up. N. Gin grabbed a nearby rocket launcher and aimed it at the door, holding his breath, as the Lab Assistants got into nervous-looking fighting stances. The doorway creaked open a little further...

...Sackboy emerged from the doorway. He looked around curiously, saw N. Gin and gave a cheery-looking wave.

N. Gin blinked in confusion. "Wait. It's...It's just the dolly? Where's the crazy psychic girl or the guy with the explodey rockets or the big turtle with hands the size of my face?" He asked.

Sackboy responded by opening up his inventory and pulling down a cannon, pointing it straight at N. Gin.

"NEVERMIND! THIS IS WORSE!" N. Gin screamed. "GET THE VOODOO DOLL, DOOM MONKEYS!"

The Lab Assistants started charging down the suspension bridge at Sackboy in an attempt to stop him from firing his cannon at the core N. Gin was standing near (with about a ton of explosives). However, as the henchmen was running towards the cloth doll, the door Sackboy had just exited through burst open and out from behind burst a very-angry, screaming Boom Boom, whom blindly ran forward.

The Lab Assistants screamed as they instantly turned around and ran away from the rampaging Koopa. Sackboy turned his head just in time for Boom Boom to stampede over him, kicking the cannon clear off the bridge as he made an angry beeline for N. Gin.

"BOOM BOOM SMASH!" Boom Boom screamed as he charged forward.

"Psycho Ball!"

A purple projectile slammed into Boom Boom's head from the side, catching everyone by surprise as they turned to another suspension bridge and saw Athena Asamiya standing near another door, having made her way up another way.

"Hey! I was about to beat these guys up and blow up the guy with the rocket in his head!" Boom Boom challenge.

Athena smirked. "Why do you think I stopped you? That's what we're ALL here for!" She replied as she started dashing down the bridge and raced towards the platform N. Gin was on.

Another crashing noise was suddenly heard as N. Gin turned around to look at a third bridge, seeing that Young Link had burst his way through another doorway, but was looking back as he pulled a bomb from his pocket and threw it back into the doorway.

"I can't stop him!" Young Link shouted. "He's crazy!"

An explosion was heard past the door as Soldier flew out into the open, the blast from Young Link's bomb having launched him forward. Young Link noticed this all-too-late when Soldier pulled his shovel out in midair and smashed it across his face as he flew by.

Soldier landed on his feet as Young Link crumpled to the ground and saw N. Gin's platform, forming a smirk. "Ah! There's the guy with the rocket in his head!" He said as he aimed his rocket launcher. "Maybe if I blow him up that rocket will detonate and launch him higher!"

Soldier fired a rocket straight at N. Gin, whom screamed and backed away as he watched the explosive projectile flying at his face. However, seemingly in slow motion, Boom Boom leapt into the way and caught Soldier's rocket with his hand. "You stay out of this! I'M the one that's gonna blow him up!" He challenged.

"Ha! You think I'll stand back just because an overgrown turtle is saying so?! You're probably just a figment of my imagination that Medic keeps telling me about!" Soldier laughed. "You can pick up the remains of the rocket-headed midget after I'm done blowing it up!"

"H-Hey! The rocket-headed midget has a name!" N. Gin shouted indignantly before turning his head and screaming again as he saw Athena lunging at him out of nowhere with a blade of psychic energy around her hand.

"Hopefully this won't hurt TOO much!" Athena said as she pulled her psychic blade back.

Soldier responded by leaping in from the side and striking Athena with his rocket launcher, knocking the purple-haired pop star away from N. Gin's platform. "Oh no, you don't! I'm going to shove a rocket so far into the other side of that guy's head that it'll match the one already in it and make it look like he's wearing explosive Disney ears!" He said.

Athena narrowed her eyes and generated another blade of psychic energy as she got up again. "You know, it looks like I'll have to go through you! And I'm fine with that!" She said.

"Lemme get a piece of him first!" Boom Boom roared as he lunged at Soldier from behind, holding the rocket he had caught in his hand.

N. Gin blinked in confusion as he watched the last three intruders standing get into a close-quarter fight for the right to blow him up. "Uh..." He said, lifting a finger into the air with a questioning look. He looked at his remaining conscious Lab Assistants for help but all he got were confused shrugs in return.

*KA-BOOM!*

The rocket that Boom Boom had caught finally managed to explode after hitting Soldier with it one too-many times, engulfing the three Multiversal finalists in an explosion and cloud of smoke just far enough away from N. Gin's platform that none of the explosives he had stupidly piled near the core were set off. N. Gin glanced at the explosion cloud that had covered all trace of Athena, Boom Boom and Soldier and squinted a bit to see if he could make anything out.

"Uh...Did they kill themselves?" N. Gin asked aloud.

Suddenly, another explosion was heard as a lone figure was propelled out of the bomb cloud and into the air high above N. Gin's platform. As N. Gin looked up, he saw a familiar fighter flying above him and looking like they were coming straight down.

Rocket launcher still smoking from his rocket jump, Soldier grinned maniacally as he fell towards N. Gin, pulling his rocket launcher up again and readying another shot. In the meantime, the cloud of smoke had cleared on the ground, revealing Athena and Boom Boom getting to their feet in pain. Boom Boom noticed Soldier first and lunged forward in an attempt to stop the deranged mercenary, followed a couple of seconds afterwards by Athena.

"Eat napalm, rocket-head!" Soldier yelled.

"NOT THE FAAAAAAAAAACE!" N. Gin screamed as he covered his face.

*KA-BOOM!*

The main building of the base exploded as the entire mining operation went dark in an instant. A screaming N. Gin was sent flying hundreds of feet into the air, flying far away and over the far horizon propelled by the massive force of the core exploding. It was clear that the challenge was over since N. Gin was out of the picture in an explosive way and the entire base had shut down due to the core being destroyed.

Standing on the remnants of the platform N. Gin had been on seconds before, with Boom Boom and Athena laying unconscious several feet away, was Soldier, holding a smoking rocket launcher and laughing to the sky.

"Oh, that was invigorating! I'm beginning to see why Demoman is so into causing explosions!" Soldier laughed. "Come on! I can go another round or two!"

"And that's it! We have a winner!"

Soldier turned to see another hologram of SSBFreak materializing just off the platform. "It was chaotic, to say the absolute least, but we have a very-decisive winner due to both being the last one standing and being the one to finish the objective!" He announced. "The winner of this Section's Multiversal Matchup: Soldier!"

"I won?...Oh, right! I forgot the objective for a second! I won!" Soldier cheered. "So I get a shiny new trophy for this?"

"Indeed you do, Soldier, but at the END of the tournament, where we'll be handing out the awards to the other winners." SSBFreak responded. "In the meantime, all you need to do now is wait until you come back to the dome so that you can enjoy the rest of the tournament."

"Sooooo...Can I blow up the rest of that short guy's henchmen?" Soldier said, noticing a few retreating Lad Assistants trying to slip out a nearby door and get away.

SSBFreak gave a shrug. "Go nuts." He said.

"Yay! Come here, poindexters! I feel the need to set someone's eyebrows on fire!"

SSBFreak couldn't help but chuckle as Soldier ran off to cause more mayhem in the time he had left in this node. "Well, better here than in the dome, anyways." He admitted with a shrug before his hologram shut off accompanied by the sounds of the Lab Assistants screaming in terror.

(Hotel; Hallway)

Urien grunted in pain as he flew back-first into the hallway wall, being hit head-on by a huge, metal ball as big as his body. As Urien hit the floor, the ball uncurled itself to reveal Blizzard Man, having turned into his ball form to strike the tall man with full force. Blizzard Man waited patiently as Urien pushed himself up.

"I freakin' HATE robots..." Urien spat.

"That isn't very nice, eh." Blizzard Man noted as he waved a hand and generated several razor-sharp snowflakes in midair around him and, with one wave of a hand, sent them all flying at Urien at once.

Narrowing his eyes, Urien charged forward shoulder-first and dashed underneath the snowflakes as they flew at him, although one of them managed to cut his cheek and draw a bit of blood, as if to signify how sharp and cold they were. Urien charged forward and flew into Blizzard Man in a powerful shoulder barge, knocking the surprised robot backwards.

As he stumbled backwards, Blizzard Man stuck one of his ski poles into the ground to stop him from flying further back, managing to stop himself. However, the instant Blizzard Man managed to stop himself, he looked ahead just in time for Urien to give him a running punch to the face, knocking him even further backwards. Urien took the opportunity to give Bizzard Man a few more hard punches while the robot was stunned and then showed surprising strength by picking him up and throwing him into the wall.

"You're in WAY over your head. You shoulda thought harder about stepping in to fight someone who you have no business in fighting." Urien smirked as he cracked his knuckles.

Blizzard Man grunted as he pushed himself up. "You're up to something, eh! It can't be good, whatever it is!" He said.

"And YOU need to learn to keep your nose out of other people's business!" Urien narrowed his eyes.

Blizzard Man responded by curling into his ball form again and hurling himself at Urien. Urien held out his arms and managed to catch Blizzard Man as he attempted to roll into him, but the force Blizzard Man was using was starting to push him back on his feet a bit. Urien grunted in annoyance but was taken by surprise when Blizzard Man uncurled himself while Urien was holding onto him and struck the tall man in the face with one of his ski poles.

In the meantime, Bear Hugger held up his arms in defense as a flurry if needles made of dark magic flew into them. The Canadian boxer clenched his teeth as he tried to block out the pain, and then dropped his guard just in time to see Ghirahim lunging at him with his sword. Bear Hugger instinctively pulled a hand back and swung out wildly in a hook, clubbing Ghirahim in the side of the head and knocking the evil magic swordsman to the side. Ghirahim snarled and spun around to face the large man again, swinging his sword as he did.

Bear Hugger swatted away the sword as it came at his face and staggered Ghirahim long enough for the larger fighter to give another hard strike. Bear Hugger was slower than a lot of his nodal companion and his weight hindered his reach a bit so he needed to make do with what he had, though with Ghirahim getting into his face constantly it gave the Canadian no shortage of chances to give the white-haired demon a hard hook or two to the face.

Holding his face, Ghirahim staggered backwards as he glared at Bear Hugger with his one visible eye. "You're starting to annoy me, you fat oaf..." He mutted.

Bear Hugger couldn't help but laugh. "Funny. I coulda sword we were bothering you earlier." He mentioned. "That's why you've been trying to kill us, remember?"

"No, we're trying to kill you because you're trying to stick your ugly nose where it doesn't belong." Ghirahim spat as he waved a hand and summoned several sharp blades in the air, each of them pointed at Bear Hugger. "But since you've decided to bring this on yourself and just be as annoying as mortally possible, I've decided to do everyone a favour and end your life!"

"Sounds like you got some anger issues, friend." Bear Hugger shrugged. "Need a hug?"

Ghirahim rolled his eyes. "If you think affection is going to make me-"

That was all Ghirahim got out before Bear Hugger lunged forward and wrapped his arms around him in a crushing bear hug, slamming both hands into the sides of his head. However, Bear Hugger had forgotten about the blades Ghirahim had summon as they all pelted his arms and torso, causing him to back away from the demon swordsman in pain, giving Ghirahim a chance to close the gap between the two and attack the larger man with his sword a few more times.

Trying to get his guard up, Bear Hugger ended up backing into a wall before taking another blind swing, making Ghirahim teleport backwards to avoid getting hit again. The white-haired swordsman narrowed his eyes and got into his stance again. "Those meaty hands of yours won't hit me again." He promised.

"You wanna switch opponents, eh?" Bear Hugger heard Blizzard Man ask as the robot was still tussling with an angry Urien. "Those spikes of his may not pierce my armour."

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Bear Hugger assured. "I got better defense than I look!"

Blizzard Man gave a shrug as Bear Hugger clashed with Ghirahim again. "Okay. I guess I'll stick with the other angry guy, eh." He mentioned.

Urien pushed himself to his feet, having been knocked down by another of Blizzard Man's rolling charges. His suit also had a few notable tears in them, having been cut by several of Blizzard Man's snowflakes. Despite this, it didn't look like Urien was done as he stood up and wavered in place for a couple of seconds.

"We're not...Done yet..." Urien growled through his teeth.

"I dunno, eh. It kinda looks like you are and I'd feel bad fighting someone who can't fight back anymore." Blizzard Man said as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Look, how about you just...Y'know, PRETEND to fall unconscious so that I can go help fight the broody emo guy with the sword?"

"You know that's not gonna happen!"

Blizzard Man. "I kinda thought not, eh." He mentioned as he curled into a ball again and rolled at the barely-standing Urien, striking him head-on with enough force to send the tall man flying backwards into the wall again. Urien crumpled to the floor and this time didn't get up.

His job done, Blizzard Man turned in place to see Bear Hugger still fighting Ghirahim. He was still playing defensive and had his arms up as Ghirahim yelled in frustration as he swung his sword several times. Blizzard Man narrowed his eyes and waved a hand, creating and throwing more sharp snowflakes at the swordsman.

Ghirahim raised his sword as several snowflakes flew past him, cutting his arms and making him shout in pain as he despawned his sword to look at his arms to assess the damage instinctively. Seeing Ghirahim distracted, Bear Hugger dropped his guard and slammed a huge fist into Ghirahim's face, leaving him open to be grabbed by the large wrestler.

The next thing Ghirahim knew he was getting thrown into the wall. That didn't hurt much in retrospect, but the fact that Bear Hugger threw himself into him with his full body weight directly afterwards definitely hurt tons. Bear Hugger backed away from the wall and let Ghirahim's unconscious form slide down the wall until it came to a rest in a sitting position propped up against it.

Bear Hugger sighed in relief as he turned to face Blizzard Man. "Thanks for the help, pal. That guy was gettin' real annoying with those sword swings of his." He mentioned.

"No problem, eh. It looked like he was gettin' annoyed and I didn't want him to lose it." Blizzard Ma replied with a shrug.

"Well...Now what? I mean, we won but we never actually found out anything." Bear Hugger scratched his head.

"Maybe we should look into this a little more." Blizzard Man supplied. "There's obviously something going on and these two aren't gonna tell us anything anyways, eh."

"Yeah, they'll be sore when they wake up; that's for sure." Bear Hugger sighed. "I hope we aren't too far in over our heads in this, though."

Blizzard Man shrugged as the two wandered off. "Too late to back out now, eh." He reminded.

"Yeah, I guess so..."

(The Arena)

"Get down here and fight me on land, you ingrate!" Lord Hater shouted as he fired shot after shot of lightning into the sky in an attempt to strike the flying and constantly-moving Meta Knight.

"I'm more in my element up here." Meta Knight replied simply as he swerved around another electric projectile and flew down at Lord Hater, drilling into his stomach sword-first, kicking off the space villain and backflipping in the air before landing on a corner post.

Holding his stomach in pain and growling in anger, Lord Hater gathered up some electric magic in one hand. "I don't know why I decided you would be a good opponent here. I saw that fight you had with the golden jetpack guy in the last Section and everything!" He complained.

Meta Knight couldn't help but chuckle. "That, I'm afraid, is on you." He said as he spun at Lord Hater in a flying tornado, striking the villain and lifting him off the ground in a flurry of airborne strikes. Lord Hater tried to grab hold of Meta Knight while in the air in an attempt to bring him down with him but was unable to grab anything solid as he crashed back-first into the canvas.

Lord Hater cursed his luck as he pushed himself to his feet. He had thought when he and Magyar interrupted the fight between Meta Knight and Tir McDohl that it'd be easy to pick the two off due to them being ambushed but the two just turned their attention to them and continued to attack. The worst part was that Lord Hater knew that he was the best of between him and Magyar to fight Meta Knight because the haunted suit of armour lacked the projectiles needed to fight Meta Knight in the air like he had so he couldn't even complain about switching opponents.

Lord Hater fired an electric bolt at Meta Knight, whom leapt into the air and off the corner post the instant the bolt left the villain's hand. However, Lord Hater quickly fired a second bolt from his other hand, having gathering up magic in it in secret, and launched it into the air just ahead of the flying Meta Knight, causing the winged swordsman to fly straight into the path of the projectile. Meta Knight received the bolt to the side and let out a shout of pain as he wavered in the air a bit but still remained flying.

Seeing that he had a chance to take his opponent down now that he had hit him, Lord Hater fired several more electric shots into the air as Meta Knight circled him overhead. "Stop flying like that! It's like you're TRYING to pester me!"

Meanwhile, Tir McDohl jumped backwards as Magyar's huge broadsword slammed into the canvas. The haunted armour attempted to follow up with a second swing but Tir was quicker, using his staff to deflect the blow as he continued to keep his distance. Tir looked apprehensive about the fight and seemed to be playing mostly defensive as Magyar was struggling to break through his defense and land a hit on the smaller fighter.

"You're holding back…Why aren't you taking this seriously?!" A voice shouted from within Magyar.

"Yeah! You think we're not worthy of being fought at full strength?!" Another voice chimed in.

"I AM taking this seriously! My rune LITERALLY eats souls to get stronger and you're a collective of a hundred loose souls!" Tir snapped back. "If I let my rune eat enough of your souls it'll get to the point where not even I can control it!"

"I think he's trying to scare us!" Another of Magyar's souls chimed in.

"I dunno. We've heard about that rune. It could be dangerous to fight this guy…"

"We've fought worse and we share a node with a literal Grim Reaper!"

Tir groaned as he got into his stance, holding his staff with both hands. He could feel the Soul Eater Rune's power pulsing on his hand, as if signifying that it could sense a lot of souls nearby that it could feast on and, though Tir was able to keep the rune under control through sheer willpower, he knew it would only be a matter of time before it overpowered him if nothing remained changed. He knew he needed to get Magyar out of the arena to keep the Soul Eater from lashing out but he also knew that he couldn't get too close to the haunted armour out of fear that the rune could steal a few loose souls.

Lashing out with his staff, Tir managed to sneak through Magyar's defense and strike the armour in the helmet, making Magyar step backwards while holding it to keep it in place. Tir jumped forward, using some acrobatics to leap over Magyar and strike them in the back with his pole on the way down. Magyar, in response, spun around and swung their broadsword in a blind arc, surprising Tir with their reach by striking him in the side and knocking him down.

The souls inside Magyar raged as the flames engulfing the possessed armour seemed to burn brighter. "You're just TOYING with us!" Several souls shouted. "Stop toying with us!"

Tir could sense the souls getting angrier and that was just making the Soul Eater Rune hunger for them that much more. Mentally warding off his rune's influence, Tir pushed himself to his feet and readied himself for another attack. "Believe me, I'm NOT toying with you." He warned.

Magyar switched to the morning star again and rushed Tir, swinging their longer weapon several times. Tir held up his staff and blocked the blows that came at him, taking a few steps back as he did while mentally telling himself to keep up the defense and let Magyar tire themselves out, though he wasn't sure if a collective of a hundred souls would even HAVE a stamina limit...

Lord Hater landed flat on his back as Meta Knight dropped to the canvas, having just shredded the space villain with another airborne flurry of lightning-fast sword strikes. Meta Knight landed on his feet as Lord Hater groaned and pushed himself up. The space villain glared at Meta Knight in fury as his hands lit up in electricity. "Stop moving around so much! You're as much of a pest as Wander!" He shouted in rage.

Meta Knight gave an amused chuckle as he zipped into the air again as Lord Hater fired another volley of lightning at him, shouting in incomprehensible anger as he frantically and desperately fired more and more electricity at Meta Knight as he started chasing him around on foot while the winged swordsman continued to swerve around the projectiles.

"Get back here, you! I'm not done with you yet!" Lord Hater shouted. "No one makes a mockery of Lord Hater except maybe Wander and that's only because I can never get him back for it no matter how much I try, but you are NOT Wander! I will NOT be humiliated by YOU!"

"You're doing a fine job proving otherwise." Meta Knight muttered under his breath as he flew around in the air, waiting for Lord Hater to tire himself out so that he could swoop in for another quick attack. His anger was clouding his judgement enough already; it was only a matter of time before the space villain made a mistake that would trip him up enough to leave an opening.

All of a sudden, a black, shadowy hand reached up and caught Meta Knight out of midair. Meta Knight had been so focused on Lord Hater that he had failed to noticed that he had flown straight into an outstretched hand of Mimikyu. The disguise Pokemon slammed Meta Knight into the canvas before letting go and pulling his hand back under his cloak as Lord Hater came to a halt, panting and looking exhausted.

"Good...Good job, faithful minion..." Lord Hater exhaled heavily. Mimikyu gave another confused head tilt in response.

Meta Knight groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. "Ugh. Forgot about him..." He muttered before spreading his wings again. "No matter. I'm still too fast for-"

Lord Harter cut the swordsman off by firing a bolt of lightning through his right wing, making it catch fire. In a panic, Meta Knight shifted his wings back to his cloak. "You...Okay, I'll admit, that was smart thinking." He admitted.

"You want the bird to stop flying, you clip the wings. Especially if the bird's been REALLY annoying!" Lord Hater replied.

Meta Knight grunted in annoyance as he drew his sword. "Still, I'm just as fast on my feet as I am in the air." He responded. "All you've done is slowed me down a-"

*POW!*

Lord Hater interrupted Meta Knight again with an angry football kick to the face that sent the masked swordsman flying out of the arena, having focused a lot of his pent-up anger on the kick, as something shiny was knocked from Meta Knight upon impact. Meta Knight saw that he was flying out of the arena and tried shifting back to his wings in midair, only to realize that the hole Lord Hater had shot through one of them was still there, preventing him from flying as he fell headlong into a portal.

Meta Knight landed in NBA Street, where, without his ability to fly, he trounced in a game of basketball due to his rather poor jumping abilities. He spent most of the ten minutes pouting on a bench.

Lord Hater seethed in anger as he watched Meta Knight fall into a portal and gave a sigh of relief when he did. "I'm glad THAT'S over." He muttered with an eye roll before his eyes widened. "Wait! I saw something shiny fly away when I kicked him! Maybe it was one of those stone thingies!"

Excitedly, Lord Hater turned in the direction the shiny object had flown in hopes of scooping it up before someone else did, and noticed that he had turned towards the fight between Magyar and Tir McDohl. He also saw a purple Power Stone a couple of steps behind the oblivious Magyar.

"Hey, minion! Pass me that stone by your feet!" Lord Hater shouted as he started running over.

Magyar blocked a blow from Tir and looked over their shoulder. "For the last time, we're NOT-" Magyar cut themselves off when they noticed the Power Stone. "Wait. Is that one of those stones?!"

Magyar received another sharp blow to the helmet courtesy of Tir as they were thrown backwards. However, Magyar reached down and grabbed the stone as they passed over it, and when they had hit the canvas again they had already been engulfed in an explosion of light.

When the light cleared, Magyar was now twice as tall as they usually were and the hundred souls contained within the armour had grown in intensity to make a full muscled humanoid body of souls with talon-like soul claws and a face of pure white soul energy with no discernible features. The body was so big that the pieces of armour that usually covered Magyar were now smaller bits of clothing, with the gauntlets becoming wristguards, the bodypiece becoming a belt, the steels boots becoming shorts and the helmet becoming a demonic-looking choker.

"The power! Oh, man! Look at us now!" One of the souls shouted in glee. "I haven't felt like this in a century!"

Tir's eyes widened in horror as he felt the Soul Eater Rune shouting for him to eat Magyar's souls now that they were five times stronger. "You...You already had two stones?!" He asked, stepping back.

"You already had two stones?! And you didn't even TELL ME?!" Lord Hater demanded.

The transformed Magyar held up their broadsword, which now looked more like a regular one-handed sword in the much-bigger soul hands of the soul collective. "We don't have a lot of time. Let's see what we're REALLY capable of!" One of the souls suggested.

Tir held up his staff but the guard was easily broken through with one swing of the huge sword. The transformed Magyar's burning souls were putting more power into each swing and it was taking less of them to deal the same amount of damage as before. Tir tried to get some swings in with his faster speed but was struggling to keep the Soul Eater from acting out of control at the same time and thus the onlooker could tell that he couldn't put a hundred percent of his effort into the fight with the much-larger, much-stronger Magyar.

Magyar winced slightly as Tir's staff smashed across their face but it did little other than annoy them as they swung with a huge talon, taking the young fighter off his feet with one swing. They watched as Tir landed on his back, looking like he was already struggling to get to his feet. Tir tried to focus and get his rune to back off, knowing now more than ever that he did NOT want his rune getting power by taking some of Magyar's already-power-up souls.

Magyar seemed undeterred, however, and rushed headlong into battle again, taking another few swings at Tir as they got close. Tir held up his staff and managed to bear the brunt of Magyar's first attack but the next attacks almost instantly broke through, overwhelming Tir with the sheer power and force of a hundred souls working together. Magyar continued the assault but after a few seconds it was clear that the soul collective was only really fighting to test their new strength as Tir had stopped fighting back entirely and could barely stand once Magyar had given him a little breathing room.

Tir saw Magyar winding up for a finishing blow and tried to jump out of the way of the attack, but Magyar's reach was far too-great in their transformed state and Tir was caught in an attack arc that, with the powerful force of the broadsword slamming into his side, sent Tir flying out of the arena with no hope of return.

Tir landed in Donkey Kong Country 3. Unfortunately, it was in the Riverside Race level and he was promptly overrun by a swarm of angry bees.

"You seriously had TWO of those stones and you never told me?!" Lord Hater demanded to a still-empowered Magyar. "I thought we agreed that I would get the stones if any of us got them!"

"NONE of us agreed to that." Several voices inside Magyar replied sharply as they were engulfed in another white light, reverting to normal as three Power Stones scattered around the arena again.

Lord Hater pouted. "I wanna get a cool new form and smite a buncha people..." He whined to himself.

Fire Man launched a wave of fire into the Mad Piano's open mouth as it lunged at him, and then rolled to the side as the haunted instrument crashed onto the canvas. Fire Man charged up another fire beam and launched it at the Mad Piano, managing to knock it back a couple of feet and giving the Robot Master a bit of time to put some distance between him and it while he charged up a more-powerful shot.

After spending the past ten minutes or so still frozen in Kaya's ice block, Fire Man had managed to burn his way out after a bit of waiting and attempting, though he had a little help when the Mad Piano spent a few minutes eating away at the ice trying to get to Fire Man. When Fire Man had managed to get himself free he turned on the Mad Piano to keep himself from getting eaten, and this allowed the sentient instrument to forget about Mario and Bowser Jr. for the time being.

"You can't keep tanking my flames forever!" Fire Man shouted as he fired a fully-charged flaming shot at the Mad Piano, striking it head-on and sending it recoiling. Seeing that he was getting somewhere, Fire Man rushed the Mad Piano and jumped, vaulting himself off the closed lid of the piano before firing a volley of flames at onto it from above.

The Mad Piano turned and opened its lid at the airborne Fire Man, shooting a haunted book at him while he was still in the air. Unable to dodge the projectile, Fire Man was struck in the face and was launched backwards a couple of feet, landing on his back. The Mad Piano seemed to notice this despite not having any visible eyes and launched a few more books out of its mouth.

When Fire Man got to his feet he saw that the Mad Piano had spat several books at him. Narrowing his eyes, Fire Man aimed his arm cannon and fired several shots, sniping each of the books out of the sky with a well-aimed fireball, burning each to a crisp and leaving another clear path to the Mad Piano. However, the instant Fire Man was in line with it, the Mad Piano lunged forward and slammed into the Robot Master, knocking him back again.

As Fire Man landed on his back, the Mad Piano lunged into the air and opened its lid, preparing to chomp down on the Robot Master from above. Fire Man fired a volley of flames up into the Mad Piano's mouth as it was coming towards him and, when he saw it didn't seem to be doing anything, rolled out of the way as the piano came crashing down. Fire Man pushed himself to his feet and fired several flaming projectiles into the body of the piano as it was trying to recover from its failed attack.

"Am I even doing any damage?! It's not even flinching!" Fire Man asked aloud as the Mad Piano spun in place and threw itself back into a standing position before leaping at the Robot Master, teeth bared. Fire Man tried firing a few more shots into the piano's open mouth but couldn't deter the Mad Piano as it smashed into him face-first, closing its jaw around his torso.

Fire Man struggled to keep the Mad Piano from getting him inside its mouth fully and, as he thrashed about in a panic, fired a charged flame wave into the back of the Mad Piano's throat, or what he felt looked like the throat. The next thing Fire Man knew he was getting spat out and he landed flat on his back as the Mad Piano roared in pain, a fire erupting from the back of its mouth.

Knowing that he was doing a bit of damage now, Fire Man pushed himself up and leapt onto the flailing Mad Piano in an attempt to keep its lid closed. "Oh, no you don't!" He shouted.

The Mad Piano started bucking about like a horse, throwing Fire Man around as the Robot Master tried to keep himself holding on and keeping the piano's mouth shut. The piano thrashed about and, as much as Fire Man tried to hold onto its lid, it finally managed to throw the Robot Master off of it after several seconds of struggling.

Spinning in place and seeming to stare up at Fire Man as the Robot Master fell headlong towards the canvas, the Mad Piano lunged upwards and opened its mouth, snapping its lid shut on Fire Man and catching him out of midair. The Mad Piano could feel heat in its mouth again, as Fire Man was attempting to set the inside of its mouth on fire again, but after a couple seconds it spat Fire Man out before the Robot Master could do any damage.

Fire Man flew backwards and fell against the ropes around the arena, flying into them with enough force to stretch them back a bit and be slightshot off of them into the air again, flying back towards the Mad Piano. His eyes widened when he saw the Mad Piano appear to crouch low as he was flying overtop of it.

As Fire Man fell towards it, the Mad Piano lunged upwards, striking the Robot Master with the entire top of its lid. The force from the upward smash was enough to launch Fire Man into the air again, far enough back that he fell headlong past the ropes and tumbling out of the arena.

Fire Man landed in the sandy dunes of Tatooine in Star Wars, where he was quickly abducted by Jawas mistaking him for a scrap robot. He burned a hole through their Sandcrawler a few minutes later.

Diddy Kong backflipped away from a swing of Spike's stun club and fired a peanut from his popgun into the monkey-catcher's forehead while he was upside-down. As Spike staggered backwards a couple of steps, Diddy landed on his feet and threw himself headfirst into the youth's stomach in a flying tackle, knocking him down.

Spike made attempts to swat Diddy away as the chimp climbed on top of him while he was down and started striking him in the face. "Ugh! Get offa me!" He shouted as he managed to grab Diddy by the shirt and throw him off of him, allowing Spike to get up again. The red-haired youth was quick to strike the distracted Diddy with his stun club, making the monkey shriek as he tumbled away awkwardly.

"You're a lot wilier than most of the monkeys I deal with back home." Spike sighed. "I guess I should be thankful you aren't evil or else I'd have a REAL hard time taking Specter down."

Diddy responded by flashing a cheeky grin, drawing a popgun and firing a volley of peanuts at Spike. The red-haired youth shielded his face and covered his head in annoyance as Diddy fired peanuts at him and dashed to the side to outrun the projectiles, but Diddy seemed to be anticipating this and leapt onto Spike's face from the side, clawing and scratching at the back of his head. Spike again thrashed about as he tried to get Diddy off of him, and ended up attempting to knock the monkey off his face by striking him with his own stun club. Diddy saw the club coming and leapt off Spike just in time for the monkey hunter to strike his own face with the club, stunning him and making Spike stagger back again.

Seeing his opponent faltering, Diddy switched to his rocketbarrel jetpack and took off into the air watching as Spike looked up at him from the canvas. Diidy swooped down and collided with Spike, carrying the youth several feet while at the same time knocking the wind out of him, before throwing him back and onto the arena ropes. Spike bounced off the ropes and was sent flying back towards him, and Diddy drew his peanut popguns again, taking aim at the airborne Spike.

However, Spike was ready this time. While in the air, Spike pulled out his slingshot and took aim at Diddy's rocketbarrel jetpack, firing a shot at it while he was in the air and surprising Diddy with his reaction speed. The slingshot pellet flew over Diddy's shoulder and, with pinpoint accuracy, struck the back of his jetpack, which in turn caused a reaction in the explosive barrels. Diddy could only have time to stare ahead in horror, as if he knew what was going to happen, before the jetpack activated by itself and rocketed Diddy screaming into the air uncontrollably.

In the meantime, Spike landed on his feet and looked up as Diddy continued to spiral out of control on his malfunctioning jetpack. Drawing his slingshot again, Spike pointed it upwards and waited for Diddy to fly into his line of view.

"Let's see you dodge THIS!" He shouted as he fired his slingshot again just as a screaming Diddy flew into his sight. The pellet found a target again, striking an exposed part of Diddy's jetpack, which caused the already-malfunctioning jetpack to outright explode in a ball of fire in the air, sending a screaming, burning Diddy hurtling towards the canvas. Diddy hit the ground, bounced a couple of times and came to a halt just past Spike.

Diddy coughed a few times as he pushed himself up, shaking black soot off himself to clean himself off as he took his cap off and hit it a few times, knocking the last bit of soot loose, before putting it back on his head and adjusting it with a serious look on his face.

Spike sighed. "Look, I already took your jetpack out and that gave you most of the advantage." He reasoned.

Diddy reached behind his back and Spike readied himself for another volley of peanuts but faltered when he saw Diddy pull an orange into view. The red-haired youth blinked a few times. "Wait. An orange?" He asked.

Diddy gave another smirk and blew a raspberry at Spike before tossing the orange at him. Spike stepped back in confusion, expecting the orange to bounce off him like the peanuts did, and as such simply raised his arm to block the projectile as it came at his face.

*BOOM!*

As it turned out, the orange was an active explosive (...somehow...) and blew up in a powerful ball of orange fire the instant it connected with Spike's arm. Spike yelped in surprise as he was thrown backwards in the blast, landing on his back and sliding back a few feet from the force of the explosion. On his back, Spike lifted his head up and stared incredulously. "W-What the heck was THAT?!" He demanded.

Diddy responded by jumping on top of him from above and attacking him while he was down, though it looked like most of the attacks revolved around jumping on the red-haired youth's body as he made unsuccessful attempts to get Diddy off of him. The next thing Spike knew, Diddy had grabbed him by the ankles and slammed him down face-first onto the canvas, knocking the wind out of him even more.

Realizing that Spike would be unlikely to fight back much more, Diddy spun around while holding Spike's ankles and, in a Mario-like fashion, let go once he had built up enough speed to send Spike flying. He didn't go far due to Diddy's lacking strength but he went far enough to go past the arena ropes. Spike tried to grab them as he fell over the ropes but failed in the end as he fell down into a portal.

Seeing Spike gone, Diddy sighed as he turned towards the wreckage of his rocketbarrel jetpack. Sitting down beside it, Diddy started tinkering to see if he could get it working again. Funky would either be proud of his handiwork or give him an earful for such a shoddy job after this was over...

Bowser Jr. screamed as he ducked into his clown car to avoid an attempted knife swing from BB Hood, and they turned his clown car over in midair to make it block a volley of bullets from the increasingly-angry bounty hunter.

"Hold still, you little rodent!" BB Hood shouted. "You were the one who wanted to fight so FIGHT!"

In an attempt to keep away from the Mad Piano, Mario and Bowser Jr. had ended up walking into the battle Ibuki was having with BB Hood, which the latter took as someone else stepping in to fight her to keep her from claiming her bounties. While the crazed bounty hunter lashed out at Bowser Jr. for being the apparent one to instigate things, although it was more-likely the Koopa prince was just the closest one to her, Ibuki ended up in a clash with Mario.

"Get offa my clown car, lady!" Bowser Jr. said as he swung a hammer at BB Hood and knocked her off him as the bounty hunter tried to clamber onto his vehicle. "Dad'll be real mad if I break this one so early in the tournament!"

BB Hood landed on her side but was quick to push herself up as she turned to face Bowser Jr., stopping when she saw a cannon protruding from the clown car's mouth. BB Hood rolled to the side as a cannonball flew past her and then threw herself at Bowser Jr.'s clown car, giving it a hard enough kick at the bottom to knock it on its side and leave the Koopa prince scrambling to regain control.

BB Hood stepped up to Bowser Jr. and smirked darkly as she drew an uzi, but forgot about the cannonball she dodged as it flew into the arena ropes, bounced off of them and flew straight into her back on the return. BB Hood yelped as she was sent tumbling over Bowser Jr., giving him the chance to get control of his clown car back.

"Okay, this girl's crazy!" Bowser Jr. said aloud as he started digging around for something in the clown car to help him. "There's gotta be something here I can throw at her!"

Pushing herself to her feet, BB Hood turned to face Bowser Jr. again and screamed in fury. "Just hold still and LET ME GUT YOU!" She yelled as she leapt at the Koopa prince's clown car and raised her machete.

Bowser Jr. scrambled about, backpedaling every chance he could get as BB Hood lashed out erratically with her machete. A pair of boxing gloves emerged from the sides of the prince's clown car and grabbed at BB Hood's machete as it swung at him, though she managed to force her way through Bowser Jr.'s defenses a couple of times before the prince managed to swat away the knife with one of the car's boxing gloves.

BB Hood narrowed her eyes and pulled a grenade from her basket. "Maybe I need to separate you from that car of yours!" She said as she jumped up and grabbed onto the side of the clown car, reaching up and throwing the grenade into the car before jumping off. Bowser Jr., seeing what BB Hood had done, screamed as he ducked to try and grab the grenade before it went off.

*BOOM!*

Bowser Jr's clown car exploded, throwing the Koopa prince into the air. Bowser Jr. bounced off the canvas a couple of times before landing flat on his face. He didn't have much time to lament over his injuries or lack of vehicle before BB Hood hauled him to his feet and threw him over her shoulder again.

Mario threw a fireball at Ibuki and ran forward, hoping to catch her by surprise once she dodged the flaming projectile. However, his eyes widened when he saw the young ninja use a kunai to cleave through the fireball, see Mario coming at her and give him a hard kick to the face while he was distracted. Mario took a tumble backwards as Ibuki pulled a few throwing knives into view, hurling them at Mario while he was down.

Acting quickly, Mario rolled backwards as the kunai hit the canvas around his feet. Mario backflipped into a standing position and charged at Ibuki again, adjusting his hat before doing so, and dashed around a volley of throwing knives that were hurled at him. Being ready for Ibuki's attacks this time, Mario leapt at her, jumped off her head and then slammed his fists into her back on the way over her, knocking Ibuki down.

"Ow! Okay, you're a lot faster than you look." Ibuki mentioned as she threw herself forward to put some distance between her and Mario, getting into a kneeling position and drawing another kunai. "Looks like I'll need to pull out all of my ninja training for this one!"

Mario watched as Ibuki vanished into thin air and quickly looked up to see her appear above him with a kunai raised. Mario backpedaled away from Ibuki as she slammed into the canvas, but received a sharp kick to the face the instant the young ninja had landed. As Mario staggered backwards, Ibuki pressed the attack, lashing out with quick strikes and slashes, though Mario managed to get his guard up and block most of the attempts. Ibuki managed to get a couple of quick hits in, however, and ended the combo by grabbing the plumber and throwing him over her shoulder.

Landing on his side and tumbling for a few feet, Mario pushed himself up just in time to see Ibuki's palm flying at his face. Mario yelped and leaned back to avoid the blow, and then rushed in with a flurry of punches of his own. Ibuki managed to block most of Mario's attacks but received a couple of hard punches to the stomach that knocked the wind out of her a bit. Mario used this to his advantage by backflipping into the air and kicking Ibuki in the face with his foot on the way up, knocking the young ninja backwards.

Mario exhaled in relief as he waited for Ibuki to get up again. "You're a-fast. If I a-didn't have experience fighting a ninja you probably would a-have beaten me by now." He complimented.

Ibuki narrowed her eyes and drew a kunai. "You have experience fighting a ninja? Who?!" She demanded.

Mario pointed over his shoulder with his thumb and Ibuki saw Greninja, whom seemed to be meditating in a circle of Captain Olimar's blue Pikmin. Ibuki sighed. "He doesn't count!" She said.

The two continued to clash, each throwing out a series of punches, kicks or, in Ibuki's case, slashes with a kunai. They each managed to land a hit here and there but overall it seemed like they were both skillfully avoiding the other's attacks. Ibuki jumped back as Mario lashed out with another volley of fire, dancing around the multiple fireballs thrown at her as she drew some more kunai and pulled her arms back.

"You can't dodge them ALL!" Ibuki shouted as the threw all the kunai she had in her hands, which amounted to at least five, at Mario as she hoped that he wouldn't be able to avoid all of the knives at this close of range.

Again, Mario yelped as he jumped around the knives as best as he could, and even managed to kick a knife out of the air at one point. Seeing a kunai coming at his face, everything went in slow-motion for Mario as he crouched low and allowed the kunai to fly just over his head, barely grazing the top of his hat.

As the kunai passed, Mario grinned and jumped to his feet. "You're a-going to have to a-do better than a-that!" He called out.

"YEOWCH!"

Mario and Ibuki paused and looked behind Mario, seeing BB Hood standing over a cowering Bowser Jr. with a kunai embedded in the back of her shoulder. BB Hood slowly looked over her shoulder to stare icily at the two as she silently reached up and ripped the kunai out of her shoulder before turning around to face the two.

"Is...Is it SERIOUSLY too much of an ask to let me do my frackin' JOB?!" BB Hood demanded. "Seriously, what is WRONG with you people?! If it's not flying ninja knives it's stupid-looking clown cars with-"

That was all BB Hood got before Bowser Jr. sprang to life, spawning an all-new clown car out of thin air and driving it straight into the bounty hunter's back with full force, knocking her down. The wind knocked out of her from the force of impact, BB Hood rolled onto her back and found herself staring up at a suddenly much-more-confident Bowser Jr. as he sat in a new clown car.

"W-What?! I...I blew up your stupid car! Why do you have another one?!" BB Hood demanded. "And...W-Where did you GET it from?!"

"Trade Koopa secrets that old man Kamek wouldn't want me spilling." Bowser Jr. shrugged.

Before BB Hood could get up or fire some more bullets into Bowser Jr.'s new clown car, she was grabbed by a pair of long arms with boxing gloves attached to them. Bowser Jr. pulled a few levers that caused the boxing gloves to hit BB Hood a few times before spiking her into the canvas. Giving time to get some distance between him and BB Hood, Bowser Jr. activated the wheels of his clown car and zipped away as the bounty hunter slowly stood up.

"You...You're just gonna run away now?!" BB Hood demanded as she turned around and drew a gun. "You think that, after all that, I'm just going to-"

Again, BB Hood was interrupted, this time by a cannonball flying straight into her stomach, Bowser Jr. having shot it at her from afar. The force from the cannonball striking her caused BB Hood to accidentally let go of her gun as she was sent flying clear out of the arena with no hope of getting back in, screaming all the way down into an elimination portal.

BB Hood fell into a cave of sabrecats in Skyrim. Seeing at least four fanger, feral tigers starting to circle her, BB Hood gave a dark smirk, drew a machete and prepared to let loose a lot of pent-up aggression...

Mario and Ibuki watched BB Hood get eliminated and looked at each other, realizing that Ibuki's misaimed kunai that Mario had ducked had indirectly led to the bounty hunter's elimination. "Um...I won't tell if you won't?" Ibuki shrugged.

"Works a-for me." Mario nodded.

With that, the two resumed their spar, with Ibuki having the faster draw with an attempted palm strike but Mario being quick enough to block it with his arm. Mario responded by delivering an uppercut to Ibuki's chin, knocking her into the air as several coins emerged from the air around the point of impact.

Ibuki landed on her back but was smart enough to instinctively roll to the side and let Mario hit the canvas where she had landed, attempted to jump on her from above. Ibuki drew yet another kunai and leapt at Mario, spinning around and attempting to attack him with the momentum of her whole body behind a single strike. Reaching Mario, Ibuki lashed out and swung her kunai with all her might as everything seemed to slow down.

Her attack missed as Mario jumped out of the way. As Ibuki landed on her feet and screeched to a halt, she turned around just in time to see a gloved fist coming at her face. As Mario's punch dizzied his opponent for a moment, Mario took the chance to grab Ibuki, toss her into the air and leap after her, giving her another few airborne punches, followed by another Coinbox Jump and finishing the combo by spiking Ibuki into the canvas with an overhead meteor smash.

Ibuki landed flat on her back in pain as Mario landed on his feet a short distance away. Seeing Ibuki down, Mario sighed and approached her, taking the time to adjust his hat again. "I a-think you're spent." He mentioned.

"N-No! I can still fight!" Ibuki insisted as she struggled to push herself to her feet, but it was clear that she was pretty much done and too tired to keep fighting.

"Don't a-keep pushing yourself. You're good but you've a-got to know when you can't a-continue." Mario replied, stepping back and easily dodging a half-hearted, tired swing of one more slash from Ibuki as she struggled to keep herself going.

Ibuki tried to clear her mind but she was already woozy and could see multiple Marios in front of her instead of just one. Focusing all of her attention, Ibuki took a deep breath and, refusing to admit defeat this easily, lunged forward with her kunai in hand in an attempt to give Mario one last strike that could hopefully take him off guard.

Unfortunately for Ibuki, she lunged at the wrong Mario and landed flat on her face, clearly out of it. The real Mario sighed as he picked her up and gently dropped the young ninja over the top rope, eliminating her and tipping his hat to her as she vanished into a portal.

As Mario finished with his elimination, he turned around to look at the rest of the remaining fighters: He saw Bowser Jr. nearby and the two silently nodded at each other, stepping further back from the middle of the ring, where the Mad Piano sat still, looking like a regular non, sentient piano that would surely be ready to strike as soon as someone got close enough. A meditating Greninja was still surrounded by a circle of similarly-meditating blue Pikmin while Olimar seemed to be taking notes on his Pikmin's behavior in a tiny journal. Lord Hater appeared to be still pouting at the fact that he had lost a chance to become all-powerful with the Power Stones while Mimikyu looked at him with a curious, semi-concerned look and Magyar stood aside, arms folded and looking uninterested in Lord Hater's whining. Darunia still seemed upset at the loss of his ring-brother Blanka but seemed to be getting cheered-up by a similarly-boisterous Bodvar, Merengue was still nursing her wounded arm from her fight with Pete and Diddy was sitting down, still tinkering with his broken rocketbarrel jetpack.

Hearing the sounds of the Power Stones being despawned, Mario did a quick headcount and realized that the section had ended. Taking his hat off and wiping his brow quickly, Mario place his hat back on his head and glanced up at the entrance curtain, knowing the next wave of fighters was about to enter.

(Multiversal Matchup Void)

Ibuki looked around at the void she had been teleported into. She barely had the time to lament being eliminated so quickly when she realized that she had ended up in the same vortex as seven other people, making the young ninja realize that she had been selected for the next section's Multiversal Matchup. The knowledge of this seemed to give her a second wind of energy, though she noticed that she felt her strength returning as soon as she appeared, likely to prepare her for the challenge to come.

Clark and Wang-Tang had been warning everyone that appeared to stay away from the angry-looking Necrozma, though when the polygonal Pokemon tried firing a laser at the former all it seemed to do was knock itself off-balance and send it tumbling about uselessly. Angel seemed to be having a bit of fun teasing the monstrous Pokemon while Slash was making an attempt to actually try and fight it, with predictably comedic fails as the caveman tumbled about in a similar fashion to Necrozma. Finally, Pyra was seen consoling a pouting Spike, likely to try and lift his spirits at his similarly earlier-than-expected elimination.

Pyra looked at Ibuki as she appeared and her face lit up. "Oh, great! You were picked! That makes eight!" She said aloud.

"So we're finally going to stop floating around in a void of nothingness?" Wang-Tang asked.

Angel shrugged. "I dunno. I was kinda getting used to it." She admitted.

"SECTION TWO...ENDED." The same robotic voice was heard throughout the void. "PREPARING PORTAL."

Spike sighed. "Well, we may have lost the tournament but I'm glad we're at least getting a shot at this." He mentioned as he looked ahead and saw a bright light starting to overwhelm the void, signifying that everyone was about to be warped.

"Alright! Bring it on!" Ibuki cheered. "Now that we know what's coming I'm looking forward to it!"

One by one the white light engulfed the eight eliminated fighters, the warp starting to take effect and preparing to start the next Multiversal Matchup...

RESULTS (17 Votes)

Main Event

MAD PIANO (SM64): 13:4 = 9 (Clark Still, Fire Man)

BOWSER JR. (SMB): 12:5 = 7 (Wang-Tang, BB Hood)

MAGYAR (BH): 12:5 = 7 (Charlie Nash, Tir McDohl)

LORD HATER (WOY): 12:6 = 6 (Meta Knight)

MIMIKYU (PKMN): 11:7 = 4 (Pyra)

GRENINJA (PKMN): 11:7 = 4 (Angel)

BODVAR (BH): 10:7 = 3 (Necrozma)

MERENGUE (AC): 10:7 = 3 (Pete)

CAPTAIN OLIMAR (SSB): 10:7 = 3 (Kaya)

DIDDY KONG (SSB): 10:7 = 3 (Spike)

MARIO MARIO (SMB): 10:8 = 2 (Ibuki)

DARUNIA (HW): 10:8 = 2 (Slash)

(ELIMINATED)

BLANKA (SF5): 10:8 = 2 (Wizzro)

ANGEL (KOF): 9:8 = 1 (Menat)

SLASH (EC): 9:8 = 1 (Blanka)

META KNIGHT (SSB): 9:9 = 0

IBUKI (SF5): 8:9 = -1

CLARK STILL (KOF): 8:9 = -1

PETE (PS): 8:10 = -2

BB HOOD (DS): 8:10 = -2

NECROZMA (PKMN): 7:10 = -3

PYRA (SSB): 7:11 = -4

MENAT (SF5): 7:11 = -4

FIRE MAN (MM): 6:11 = -5

WANG-TANG (PS): 6:11 = -5

SPIKE (PAS): 5:12 = -7

WIZZRO (HW): 5:12 = -7

CHARLIE NASH (SF5): 5:12 = -7

KAYA (BH): 5:13 = -8

TIR MCDOHL (ST): 2:15 = -13

Current Top 10 Eliminations: Blanka (3), Lord Hater (3), Mario Mario (2), Darunia (2), Greninja (2), Mimikyu (2), Mad Piano (2), Bowser Jr. (2), Magyar (2), Meta Knight (2)

Multiversal Matchup

SOLDIER (TF2): 97 Points

BOOM BOOM (SMB): 93 Points

ATHENA ASAMIYA (KOF): 87 Points

YOUNG LINK (HW): 86 Points

SACKBOY (PAS): 85 Points

NEEDLE MAN (MM): 60 Points

CHRIS LIGHTFELLOW (ST): 55 Points

VOLKOV (BH): 50 Points

Side Battles

"Villains Invade Canada"

BEAR HUGGER (Punch-Out!) and BLIZZARD MAN (Mega Man) freeze GHIRAHIM (Hyrule Warriors) and URIEN (Street Fighter 5)

15 to 2

Unexpected Results: I'll be completely honest; I definitely wasn't expecting the Mad Piano to dominate the votes the way it did, and even Bowser Jr. and Magyar rounding out the top three was a big shock to me. Just goes to show that even I can be taken by surprise at the results sometimes…

Last Minute Surge: The votes in the Multiversal Matchup were pretty close between Soldier, Athena and Young Link for a good chunk of the voting period. At the end, however, enough votes came in to not only secure Soldier the win but push Boom Boom up into a surprising second place.