Snippets of the loops in-between.

Interlude I: Across the Multiverse

1.1

Randy Awakened — and blinked.

Trading cards. Trading cards everywhere.

Dean, he thought, hysterically, I need to talk to Dean. He didn't even bother with a ping.

Lucky for him, Dean was very much Awake, and answered, cool as a cucumber. Sometimes, Randy really hated how chill his Anchor could be.

"I take it you saw the trading cards?"

"What the fuck, Dean!?"

"Did you check your loop memories?"

"No! And something tells me I don't want to!"

Randy heard a long-suffering sigh, but felt absolutely no guilt. He may have gotten a hang of this looping thing, but he had limits. And this — whatever this was — was way beyond them.

"In this world, we're not wrestlers." Dean explained. "We're professional duelists."

Duelists? "Like Yu-Gi-Oh?"

"Not like Yu-Gi-Oh; this is a fused loop with Yu-Gi-Oh. I just got off the phone with Yugi Moto himself right before you called."

"…Oh." Randy paused for a moment, before speaking again. "Vacation loop?"

"Vacation loop."

1.2

"Well, at least it's not 'Lunatic Fringe' again." Dean commented, looking at his bounty poster: "The Kingpin" Dean Ambrose, worth 500,000,000 beri.

"How in the hell did you get this nickname?" Randy demanded, holding up a poster to Becky's face: "The Man" Becky Lynch, worth 150,000,000 beri.

Becky gave him a thumbs up and a wink. "Sheer ingenuity. Same way Sami got his!" She gestured to Sami, who was rubbing his chin thoughtfully over his own poster: "Orphan-Lover" El Generico, worth 300,000,000 beri.

Vince looked over Sami's shoulder and laughed. "Ha! Sami got a higher bounty than you, Randy!"

"What." Randy hissed, following Vince's lead and ripping the poster away from Sami's hands, earning him a glare. He ignored his fellow looper and cursed when he saw that his long-time boss was right. To the World Government, "The Viper" Randy Orton was worth 200,000,000 beri, a hundred million less than El Generico. "Oh, hell no! I'm worth less than a man who has 'Orphan-Lover' for a nickname?"

"Yes." Sami said bluntly, snatching his poster back. "Get over yourself, Randy."

"What did you say, you little—!"

"You heard me, you stupid son-of-a—!"

As the two continued to bicker, Dean and Becky ignored them and turned their attentions to Vince, looking at him expectantly. The old man smirked, and displayed his own picture: "The Devil" Vince McMahon, worth 700,000,000 beri.

"You're worth two hundred million more than me." Dean noted, eyebrows shooting upward. "Do we want to know why?"

Vince just laughed.

1.3

Dean groaned when he heard his phone start to ring. Didn't he tell those bastards not to bother him this loop? That last one with Saitama had been a complete bitch — by the time he had gotten to the superhero and herded him elsewhere, dear Caped Baldy had accidentally wiped out half the roster with one of his punches. The 'hero' hadn't even bothered to be repentant about it, only lamenting how weak everyone was. After that travesty, Dean had quickly decided a vacation loop was in order. As soon as this loop started, he quickly hotshotted his popularity to the top so Vince could give him part-timer status as soon as possible. Once that was done, Dean absconded to home and told everyone not to contact him unless it was time to prepare for WrestleMania.

The phone continued to ring. Dean knew he couldn't put it off any longer and decided to bite the bullet, picking up the phone and accepting the call. "Hello?" He said groggily.

"Dean!" Vince. Fuck. "There's some brat with orange hair in Hunter's Cruiserweight Classic that we haven't seen before. We think it's a visiting looper. Both Sami and Randy find him familiar but they don't know from where."

"What's his name?" Hopefully it was someone with some margin of self-control. Visiting loopers tended to forget that their loop wasn't as adaptive as others — that's probably why they had been getting less of them lately, and began visiting other worlds in their stead.

There was a sound of shuffling papers. "Ah. Here. Ichigo Kurosaki."

Dean bolted right up. "I'll be on the next flight to Orlando. Book me a hotel room as close to the Performance Center as you can."

Ichigo sighed as he toweled himself off. That match had been brutal, and he had to pull out more moves than he thought he needed to, but he pulled through in the end. Granted, it had been a while since he had wrestled in general, so that might have played a factor. Who knew skiving off a loop to play professional wrestler would turn out to be so useful later down the line.

There was sharp knock on the door. "Come in."

An unfamiliar young man with brunette hair rushed inside, quickly closing the door and locking it. Ichigo stopped drying his hair to stare at his visitor.

"I take it you're the local Anchor." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yes." The young man confirmed, taking in a deep breath. "Dean Ambrose, Anchor of the Professional Wrestling Loop. Are you really Ichigo Kurosaki?"

Ichigo smirked. "I take it you know of me?"

"You're one of the Original Seven, of course I know of you."

The shinigami crossed his arms. "How many have you met already?"

"Four. Or five, I guess. Ranma, Naruto and Kurama, Harry, and Usagi. You're the sixth. For the others, though, you'll be the first to third."

"Only six?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "You guys really are a new loop, huh. I pinged and got pings back but nobody bothered to check up on me. I take it your loopers haven't realized who I am?"

"No. They read your name a while ago, but, well…"

Ichigo cut Dean off. "It's alright. We'll meet soon enough. Now tell me — who the hell did I replace?"

"You don't know?"

"No. All I got from my loop memories is me growing up as a rich kid and a bunch of matches that blur together into one. The only memory distinguishable is me partnering up with some guy named Kenny Omega."

That stunned Dean. "Holy shit. You're Kota Ibushi."

Ichigo blinked. "I take it he's pretty famous in your loop?"

"Yes." Dean replied, still in disbelief. He continued to mutter to himself, almost in a trance.

Ichigo watched this go on for a minute, then sighed. Definitely a newbie.

1.4

"Burn baby burn, disco inferno…" Dean Snow, born Aegon Targaryen, hummed to himself as his dragon did exactly that to that ugly chair everyone insisted he sit on. There was no way he was going to play ruler again — he had enough politics after the Presidential DebacleTM.

Ser Randall "Randy" Lannister, former member of the Kingsguard, stared at the flames. "I can't believe we're melting down the Iron Throne. How is this my life?"

"The same reason why we're stuck reliving our lives over and over again." Sami zo Loraq answered, completely unperturbed. "Because the universe fucking hates us."

"I, for one, am annoyed with the fact that we can't roast marshmallows over that fire." Rebekka "Becky" of the Free Folk piped up. "That is something I've totally dreamed about before, and I'm sure I'm not the only one."

"Oh, certainly." Sami replied, tone dry.

Dean payed no attention to the commentary, instead gesturing for his dragon to stop and admiring the mass of melting hot metal that was now slithering and flattening out on his throne room's floor. God, what a beautiful sight.

Suddenly, the room's wide doors slammed open. There stood Lord Vincent Arryn, carrying what looked to be a sack of gold and other valuables with visible glee. Evidently, he had just finished interrogating the now-former Master of Coin Petyr Baelish, whose head was no doubt chopped off and mounted on a spike outside somewhere by now.

"We're rich!"

"We're already rich." Randy deadpanned.

"We're richer!" Vince amended without missing a beat. "Dean, are you done melting that hunk of metal? You are? Great! Quick, everyone, let's grab the fastest ship and head to Essos already! That hot dragon chick can't conquer Slaver's Bay by herself, you know!"

"Why is he in such a rush?" Sami muttered to Becky. He, after all, had just come from Essos.

"My guess? He doesn't want to be here when the ice zombies come." Becky whispered back.

1.5

"Hello there! Welcome to Camp Camp—"

"It's Camp WWE now, dammit!" Vince crowed, walking past. "Now hurry up with the talky-talky already, Larry!"

"Actually, it's Dav-"

"I don't care, dammit! Hurry up already!"

"So I take it that's how he usually is in your loop?" Max asked drily, watching the interaction with his usual cynicism.

"Worse." Dean, significantly shorter and younger, deadpanned. "And if this place actually were Camp WWE then you'd see how much worse."

"Wait, Camp WWE is actually a thing?"

"A cartoon. An original on our company's personal streaming service. I've looped in there." He twitched. "I hope to never do so again."

Max hummed, then handed him a bar of chocolate. Dean took it gratefully as they watched Vince get bitten in the ass by Muack.

"You know how vain a hope that is, right?"

"Yes." Dean admitted. "But a man can dream, can't he?"

1.6

"Why the hell are we cuttlefish!?"

1.7

"So, I'm Ron Stoppable." Sami enunciated slowly.

"Yes." Becky nodded vigourously.

"And you're Kim Possible."

"Yup."

"And I have a naked mole rat."

"Uh!" Rufus the Naked Mole Rat said, bursting out of his pocket.

Sami ignored him. "Then who in the hell is Anchoring the loop?"

Just then, a beeping could be heard. After searching themselves for an embarrassingly long time, Becky held up the Kimmunicator ("Shouldn't you rename it?") up for all three of them to see. Sami tried to bat Rufus away as Becky pressed the on button, blinking as the screen flared to life to reveal…

"Dean?"

Dean Ambrose, sitting in front of numerous computer monitors and sipping on some soda, held up a hand in greeting. "Yo."

"I will never get used to seeing Dean as a computer geek." Becky whispered to Sami, leaning back so her lips were level with his ear.

"I heard that." Becky and Sami flinched. "Whatever. Anyway, I've got a mission for you two."

"A mission…" Sami trailed off, as Becky slapped her forehead.

"That's right. Dress up, go to school, save the world. Teen heroes and all that."

Becky took a deep breath. "Alright then. What's the sitch?"

"Why is it that no matter where you loop, you're always a dick?" Sami asked blandly. He was tied up, hanging upside down above a vat bubbling green chemicals.

Randy Orton, or Snego, shrugged. "I'm an asshole. You knew that long before you met me, Sami."

Off to the side, Becky was dodging blasts from the maniacally laughing "Dr. McMakken" and his glowing staff.

"You may think you're all that, dammit—!"

Becky kicked the staff out of his hands and kicked him in the gut.

Dr. McMakken hit the wall with a splat. "—but…you're noooo…"

He was out like a light. Becky turned to Randy and glared. "Now, as for you…"

Randy didn't blink, quickly pulling down a lever that magically appeared next to him. The vat of chemicals was soon covered with metal doors and Sami was released from his bonds, landing with as much grace one could manage after hanging upside down for several minutes.

THUD!

"Ow…"

None at all.

"Congrats, Becky Possible, Sami Stoppable, you win." Randy said blandly. "Now, I'm going to flee with my boss into the night. You will not follow me."

"And what makes you say that, huh!?" Becky snarled. Sami said nothing, still trying to get his wits about him.

Randy didn't bother replying, instead opting to activate his until-then-hidden jetpack, flying away with Dr. McMakken in tow.

"See." Sami groaned. "Dick."

We're going to the next looper soon. I won't say who it is, only that they're already in the WWE Hall of Fame.

In other news, Roman's in remission! Take that, cancer! You may have taken my stepmom, but you won't take one of my favorite wrestlers!

Now, for loop commentary:

1.1: For the record, Dean is perfectly capable of playing Duel Monsters and winning with a decent record. However, he doesn't want to deal with all the bullshit that comes with being a plot-important duelist.

1.2: The story of how Vince got a higher bounty than his Anchor shall forever be lost to the annals of time.

1.3: Saitama may or may not show up in a later snip. The Original Seven, for those of you not willing to do the research, are Ranma Saotome (Ranma 1/2), Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon), Naruto Uzumaki and Kurama the Nine-Tailed Fox (Naruto), Harry Potter (Harry Potter), Shinji Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach), and Lina Inverse (Slayers). They're the first seven known anchors of the multiverse, and are the strongest beings that aren't Admins. The only loopers that hold up to them are the aforementioned Saitama (One-Punch Man), Son Goku (Dragon Ball Z), and Superman (DC).

1.4: Funny thing — Westeros isn't looping. If they are, I haven't read a snip about them on Spacebattles. As for who's replacing who:

Dean — Jon Snow / Aegon Targaryen (the loop was a merge between book and show canon)

Sami — Hizdahr zo Loraq

Randy — Ser Jaime Lannister

Vince — Lord Jon Arryn

Becky — Ygritte

1.5: The Camp Camp loops are also a relatively new looping universe. You can find their compilation in my bookmarks, for those of you reading on AO3. And let's face it — Vince is just less evil version of Cameron Campbell, and you all know it.

1.6: This is not the first time loopers have been cuttlefish.

1.7: Or — how the live-action Kim Possible movie should've been casted.