Hello, all. This is a 'behind the scenes' chapter for my first tournament, A Winner Is You. Expect humor, plot development, character development, and some explanation for what happened 'in-story' to the characters whose authors dropped out.
I don't own the great majority of the following characters. I only own Death by Chocolate and El Centro Del Mundo.
A Winner Is You: Behind the Scenes
Chapter 1: Damage and Control
Night had fallen on El Centro Del Mundo. Across the mall, most of the contestants had gone to sleep in locations of their choosing. Roku slept with his back to his dragon on the roof. Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro, along with their crew (who had come as spectators), slept where they had fallen in one of the restaurants that had a stocked bar. Earlier that evening, they had completely emptied the restaurant's food and beer stocks, and half-trashed the place. Stitch and Angel slept together on a cushioned bench, and Massie Block slumbered comfortably in the most expensive bed in Bed, Bath and Beyond. Sylar had fallen asleep in a Sharper Image massage chair, his mind dancing with dark dreams.
Others had forgone sleep, or didn't need to sleep at all. Neji Hyuuga was meditating on his losses in the first two rounds, trying to discover how to avoid the humiliation of failure again. Vexen conducted dark studies in his lab as Marluxia tended to the poisonous blooms he had grown in a large atrium. Kabuto feverishly worked to study any possible opponents for Orochimaru's next round that he hadn't already collected data on, and Orochimaru himself pondered what the tournament's climax would be. Lancer, who didn't need sleep, had succumbed in his boredom to Deadpool's endless pestering, and now played backwards Scrabble with the insane mercenary.
Kyuubi no Kitsune watched. He didn't waste time watching the other contestants; they were largely beneath him, with only a few interesting exceptions. Nor did he watch the host; Death by Chocolate had fled behind an 'Employees Only' door, and the barrier was so laughably childish that Kyuubi had decided to honor it. No, he watched as lesser demons repaired the mall. Above Stitch and Angel, a pair of imps used simple time magic to reverse the shattering of a large piece of plate glass, and Kyuubi watched, fascinated, as the window imploded back into a single piece. Furniture reconstructed itself around him; a flooded sector of the mall dried up in moments and the wood dewarped, bullet holes closed up in plants and the insects hiding among them returned to life.
Kyuubi's slitted eyes narrowed; he wasn't doing this, so the host must have called in some help. It was truly a titanic effort for a minor patron demon to obtain so much assistance, so what was Death by Chocolate up to?
He turned to see more minor demons repairing a picnic table, but they weren't the generic, red-skinned, goat-horned things he saw earlier. These were inky-black little beasties, with shiny golden eyes and long antennae. They were called Heartless, and Kyuubi happened to know that DbC had no jurisdiction over them, so they shouldn't be helping. Behind them, a massive marble-and-gold fountain was repairing itself, apparently with no demonic presence of any kind to help it along. What could possibly be going on?
--
Looking out over the rollercoaster (where Leroy was snoring in the car's front seat) was a spacious conference room hidden behind a one-way mirror. The conference room was normally to be populated by some executives during their conferences, but they feared for their own safety too much to attend the tournament until the final round. Currently, a small group of people occupied the room, including the tournament's host and a very sleepy pointy-haired mid-level manager who was unlucky enough to be assigned to work with him. Death by Chocolate, looking out over the thrill ride with his chocolate hands behind his chocolate back, opened his mouth and spoke. "Dammit, dammit, damn it to Hell, thrice-damn it, damn it to a cold grey hell, damn it back to a fiery hell, Goddamn it, Gods damn it, darn it to heck, damn it to hell again, DAMN IT!" This last exclamation was punctuated by him turning and slamming his fist down on the table so hard his entire arm shattered. "Damn," he concluded, his entire arm growing back with a thought, created by a stream of chocolate from his shoulder.
"What's the problem?" The pointy-haired manager said. "Disaster's been averted, and the repairs are going smoothly."
"Disaster's been averted… yes, but only for now," the delectable daemon sighed. "Even with this much-valued assistance, these repairs are a chore. After this tournament I'll have no favors left to call in. How I let your bosses rope me into flash-repairs for the duration of the tournament, I'll never know."
"I guess they're just better with contracts than you are."
"Better with contracts?" Death by Chocolate cackled. "Yeah, I guess they're right, considering they didn't even have to give up their souls. I get a fifth of each of their souls, plus the soul of every employee of theirs." The already pasty manager paled. "Surprised? One of the board's a Satanist, which is why I'm here in the first place. It's also why the fine print of your contract lets them do what they like with your soul, much like a bank does what it likes with your money with only a vague promise you'll get it back."
"Is there even a vague promise I'll get it back? I'd be fine with a vague promise."
"Why don't I make one for you?" Death by Chocolate smiled wickedly. "Go get me a large hot chocolate – make it dark, use only the finest sweetened cocoa powder and whole milk, make it hot but not too hot, and top it off with whipped cream, mini marshmallows, and chocolate syrup drizzled on top of the whipped cream. I'm not going to repeat myself. Do it right, and I may just give you your soul back right now."
"Yessir-"
"Get going!" The spike-tressed 'B'-level manager scuttled out, wondering when exactly he had become an intern again. "Good, he's gone." Death by Chocolate turned to the other three people in the room, who had been sitting at the table, quietly watching the exchange with varying degrees of amusement. "Now we can talk. Okay, speed meeting. I've lost control of the situation, partially with the overall damage to the mall, but mostly with Kyuubi. Kyuubi threatened to destroy the mall if he's disqualified, and he knows I'm not powerful enough to stop him. I can't guarantee even all four of us can. Ideas for dealing with him?"
"Interfere with his fight," a man with spiky red hair, black clothing and a cocky grin suggested. "If he's too good to lose, we'll make him lose." Unbeknownst to Vexen and Marluxia, who had entered the tournament to scope it out, Death by Chocolate had scoped themout not long after. He had negotiated with their leader, Xemnas, who had agreed to assist in the tournament.
Axel was this assistance – he entered after Vexen and Marluxia, and was purposely paired up with Vexen in the first round, and told to throw the match. Afterwards, he withdrew in 'shame' and was given free roam of the mall, whereupon he promptly met up with Death by Chocolate and began manipulating the tournament to increase his teammates' chances of success. However, this wasn't working out – first Marluxia had lost a riddling game in round one, then Vexen proved he couldn't handle the former Avatar in the next round. Axel really didn't care about Organization XIII's involvement in the tournament, anyway – so he stayed, deciding that he'd rather just play kingmaker.
"If he found out we meddled to keep him from winning, he'd pitch a fit. Have you ever seenKyuubi pitch a fit? It's like detonating a thermonuclear warhead." The demon shook his horned head. "Any other ideas?"
"We could make round 3 a team battle round, and pair up Kyuubi with somebody weak – or better yet, somebody he can't get along with."This suggestion came from a large, purple, remotely feline creature that was trying in vain to get comfortable in a chair designed for people with no tails. Mewtwo had first given Death by Chocolate the idea to gather a team of people to help him control the tournament from behind the curtains. How? After viewing the other contestants, Mewtwo had promptly walked up to the demon and said, "Nobody here is worthy of fighting my vast intellect. How about I help you control the fight, like I know you want to do?"Death by Chocolate had agreed, wondering how Mewtwo had read his mind without having his higher consciousness torn asunder.
"That's not… actually, that's a good idea." Death by Chocolate mulled it over for a minute, stroking his chin with his pointed fingers. "Axel?"
"Team battles?" Axel looked at the ceiling for a few seconds as he leaned back in his swivel chair. "Sounds cool. Two-on-two, right?"
"Indeed; that would be easiest to manage."
"I think we may have a winner. What about you, Maggie?"
"Don't call me that, demon." Magneto, the self-proclaimed Mutant Master of Magnetism, sat at the end of the table opposite Death by Chocolate. Magneto had taken a… proactive approach to the tournament, challenging a very powerful opponent before the first round even began. Avatar Roku proved a little too much for him to handle, and he retreated in disgrace down the sewer pipes… that is, until a certain demonic host had intercepted his course and pulled him out, offering him a chance to help guide one of the other mutant contestants to victory. Although Magneto had gotten a chance to shower since then, he still hadn't gotten all the grime and stink off his armor, which (along with no other mutants on this little team) kept him in a foul mood.
Magneto originally intended for Wolverine's wayward son Daken to win the tournament. However, Daken and his sister, X23, had found out Death by Chocolate intended to fix the fights. DbC decided they knew too much, and trapped them in giant blocks of solid chocolate, which he displayed in the meeting room (Daken's face and open hands protruded slightly from the sheer sides of the block, completing the Star Wars homage). Wolverine was Magneto's next choice after he personally came looking for his kids as a last-minute entry, but Wolverine lost in the first round… to another mutant, a power thief who went by Sylar. After yelling at DbC for pitting two of the very few mutants in the tournament against each other, Magneto decided to instead try and help Sylar along. "Fine. Magneto. We're waiting."
"I think many of the most powerful contestants in the tournament would have horrible teamwork skills. It would be a massive equalizer." Magneto frowned. "And that's why it's a bad idea. We should give the prize to the most powerful contestant. If that's Kyuubi, who cares if he wins?"
"I'll tell you why I care who wins." Death by Chocolate began pacing. "The winner of this tournament, as you all remember, is granted a free wish. After all these repairs to the mall, I'm no longer sure if I'll have the power necessary to grant wishes. Somebody like Kyuubi… what can't he obtain himself that he would possibly wish for? I doubt I could grant it for him, and he'll probably attack me when I fail. And what's worse… if it's Kyuubi, my death is a very real possibility." He stopped pacing and locked eyes with the team he had assembled, one at a time; although his irises and pupils were barely visible through the yellow glow his eyes gave off, the effect was still strong. "Kyuubi no Kitsune must be stopped from winning this tournament, and he must think he lost under at least semi-fair circumstances. At all costs."
"Okay, here's an idea," Axel volunteered, absentmindedly munching on a shard of Death by Chocolate's arm that had skidded over to his part of the table earlier. "Send him to fight against Roku. They'll tear each other apart."
"That's just why I can't do that. Those two will probably destroy everything within miles when they fight. I have to put that off until the final round."
"Maybe if you have them team up, they'll drag each other down and lose the fight."
"Better, but if they lose, they could start fighting each other right there, which is the same problem. Better to keep them away from each other."
"Pair Kyuubi up with Orochimaru," Magneto said suddenly, drawing eyes to himself. He smiled and continued. "Kyuubi and Orochimaru have their own little side competition going on; they know and respect each other. Giving him a favorable partner will assuage any suspicions he might be developing, which could help later on. Pair Roku and Sylar up as well, they have enough raw power to possibly take Kyuubi and win fairly, and we need them to stay in the running. Besides, since Kyuubi and Orochimaru are competing on who can keep from killing their opponents longer, if they're right next to each other, they'll feel more restraint."
"Magneto's idea is sound. I agree,"Mewtwo added helpfully.
"Why doesn't anybody listen to my ideas?" Axel complained.
"Because you're not special. Actually, it's because Mewtwo's a genius, and Magneto and I each have decades of villainy and manipulation under our belts (centuries, in my case). Okay, let's decide who else to pair up. Axel, any ideas for your Organization friends?"
Axel grinned again. "Pair Vexen up with that little orange beastie, the one with the hidden second head. And pair Marluxia up with Cougar." Blank stares all around the table. "The metal claws guy who heals?"
"Oh, you mean Wolverine," Magneto sighed.
"Good ideas. They'll both hate that." Death by Chocolate nodded to himself. "This is just because you hate them, right?"
"Mostly, but it'll… er… test their worth as Organization XIII members."
"Fair enough. Okay, now, who else?" Death by Chocolate said, looking around the table. They spent the night drawing up sinister plans and laughing evilly. Soon, the manager came back with the cocoa. Death by Chocolate took a long draught, spat it out in his pointy-haired cohort's face, magically enlarged his own chocolate head to twice the size of his body, and screamed at the poor man, "YOU MADE IT WRONG!" The manager collapsed into the fetal position, eliciting a fresh wave of maniacal laughter around the table.
End of Chapter
Please excuse any shaky characterization, especially on Axel's part. All my information on him is secondhand. Magneto has several canon versions with all kinds of little personality differences, and Mewtwo and Kyuubi simply don't have well-defined characters.
There could easily be more 'behind the scenes' chapters. And yes, the mall is repaired now and repairs itself after every other round because I said so. It's canon now.