(The Arena)

The nine fighters in the arena watched and waited to see what the Hands would do to the arena. After the damage that had been done to the ice, they were glad that the alteration was coming when it was.

Master Hand clenched into a fist and soared underneath the arena.

Samus Aran quickly knew what was going to happen, and her eyes widened. "MOVE NOW!"

Everyone standing in the middle of the arena instantly ran, and it turned out to be just in time. Master Hand slammed straight through the middle of the arena, creating a huge hole, leading down into elimination.

"This, folks, is getting interesting!" Unknown1's voice came through the speakers. "Now that there's a hole on the arena, fighters can simply be pushed through it to be eliminated!"

Everyone suddenly heard some music. They knew that the next fighter was about to enter, so everyone, even the fighters, turned to the entryway to see who it was.

"CAPTAIN KIDD!" (WH)

"We are the pirates who don't do anything"

"We just stay home and lie around"

"And if you ask us to do anything"

"We'll just tell you"

"We don't do anything"

Reliant K blaring through the speakers, the latest World Hero came through the curtain. Surprisingly, the crowd cheered.

This wasn't really a surprise. Captain Kidd was known to be one of the most popular characters of the World Heroes bunch. The pirate cracked his knuckles, stretched a little bit and ran down to the arena, hoping to make up for Jack and Erik's poor performances.

When Kidd got into the arena, he saw Jubei and Athena taking on Bruce and Clark and decided to lend a hand.

Kidd leapt into the air and landed a Shark Kick to Clark's back. This knocked the Ikari Warrior forward a couple of steps. Bruce looked at Kidd, but got a hard punch for his troubles. Jubei and Athena quickly knocked their attacks away and looked at Captain Kidd.

Athena nodded. "Thanks, Kidd."

The pirate captain saluted. "No problem."

"EARTHQUAKE!" (SS)

Everyone watched as Earthquake lumbered out from behind the entrance door, although he had to squeeze through a little. Once he was out fully, Earthquake laughed heartily and strode down to the ring, spinning his weapon in his hand.

The main reason Earthquake was so cheerful was because Mizuki had offered he and Gen-An Shiranui a good amount of money each to work for her and her colleagues. Seeing the sum of money offered, Earthquake was quick to agree.

"Let's see…" Earthquake muttered with a smirk. "Mizuki said that I had to keep whoever may pose as a threat in the ring as long as I can. Shouldn't be too much of a problem."

Galford saw Earthquake enter, smirked and drew his sword. "At last! An evil person to vanquish!"

Earthquake was in the arena when he saw Galford rushing at him. He stared in silence for a couple of seconds.

"Awwwww, nuts." The giant said.

(Dome; Vending Machines)

Mel Masters whistled a cheerful tune as he placed another quarter into the machine. After he did, he pressed a button on it. A can of soda appeared at the bottom of the machine. Mel grabbed the can of pop, turned around and started his trek back to the stands to watch the tournament with his mother.

The young Masters boy had come to watch his dad, Ken, fight. Although Ken didn't end up with a very late draw, Mel was still confident his father could come out on top, especially with Sagat already eliminated.

Mel stopped walking and reached into his pocket, fishing out his autograph book. Mel stared at it and smirked. After the tournament finished, he could go to the signing and get autographs from fighters that he really liked in the tournament.

Suddenly hearing footsteps, Mel's ears perked up as he looked back. He saw a dark-skinned man with red hair lunging at him.

Mel didn't have time to react at all, and received a painful blow to the head. As the young boy quickly fell into unconsciousness, he dropped his small autograph book, which hit the ground with a dull 'thud'.

Standing over the unconscious boy, Gannondorf Dragmire smirked evilly.

(The Arena)

"CODY!" (SFA3)

Cody scratched his head as he stared down at the arena. It wasn't very often he was invited to a tournament like this, especially since he was an escaped convict. In fact, he was still wearing handcuffs and dressed in his prison outfit.

Suddenly, the veteran fighter saw Sakura still in the arena and decided to help out his nodal companion with her fight against Vivian.

Galford saw Cody jump into the arena and brightened. "Two evil villains in the arena at the same time? This is my lucky day!" He knocked Earthquake away and advanced.

Cody heard Galford and turned to look at him. "Look, pal. I may look like a criminal, but I'll have you know that I was wrongly accused."

"Oh. Well, that's different then!" Galford jumped back at Earthquake. "Carry on!"

Cody scratched his head. "That guy is insane." The former hero of Metro City concluded as he continued to go help Sakura.

"TAKUMA SAKAZAKI!" (KOF)

The middle-aged fighting master stepped out from behind the curtain to a lot of cheers. Takuma looked around and smiled. This would definitely give his dojo more attention than it was currently getting, especially if he or his students could do well in the arena.

Unfortunately, Robert was already gone, so that just left Takuma and his two kids to defend the name of their fighting style.

Takuma suddenly saw Jubei look at him, smile and motion for him to come over with one of his swords. Although curious, Takuma went over to see what Jubei wanted, careful not to fall down the hole in the middle of the arena.

"What is it?" Takuma asked.

"Your student Robert said that you taught him everything he knows." Jubei explained. "I thought that he was one of the best unarmed fighters I have seen in my time here."

Takuma smiled and bowed. "Thank you."

"Now, I wish to challenge you." Jubei said. "Because I know that if the student is as skilled as Robert is, the master must be that much better."

Takuma nodded. "It will be my pleasure to accept your challenge."

(Dome; Hallway)

Junior Maximum ran down the hallway as fast as his little legs could carry him, Valgas and Sabretooth running after him. Junior sweated as he rounded a corner and continued running.

J. Maxx's only son couldn't believe this was actually happening to him. Junior had only left the stands to use the restroom, but after he came out, he saw these two freaks standing outside the door. They said that he was to come with them, but Junior was not stupid. He knew that they were there to kidnap him, and the small boy wasn't about to let that happen.

Junior looked back as he ran and saw that he was starting to lose the two villains. However, this meant that he wasn't looking ahead, and slammed into something solid. Junior collapsed on his behind. When Junior looked to see what he had run into, he saw a pair of huge, chunky legs. Looking up, he saw the bearded face of Chang Koehan looking down at him.

"Hey. You're Maximum's kid, aren't you?" Chang greeted. "What's the rush?"

Junior quickly jumped to his feet and ran behind Chang's leg. "Those two are out to get me!" He pointed down the hallway.

Chang looked down the hallway to see Valgas and Sabretooth coming to a halt no more than twenty feet away.

Sabretooth growled. "We're just here for the kid."

Chang narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth. He may have been a convicted criminal, but if there was one crime Chang could never stand, it was kidnapping, especially if it was children as the targets. "Forget it." The large man said. "He's not going anywhere."

"If you value your life, you'll let us take the kid." Valgas said.

Chang shook his head. "You creeps don't scare me! I've seen K9999 fight. Now THAT'S scary!"

Sabretooth shoed his extremely sharp claws and teeth. "Then it looks like we have no choice but to kill you."

Chang quickly looked down at Junior. "Find either your dad or someone he knows." He said. Junior nodded and ran off down the hallway.

Valgas looked at Sabretooth. "You go after the kid. I'll take care of this obstacle."

Sabretooth nodded and took off after Junior, despite Chang trying to prevent it.

Once Sabretooth as gone, Valgas smirked and strode over to Chang. "My, my, my. So you are Chang Koehan." He approached the large mountain of man. "What makes you think you stand a chance against someone like me, especially since I've got the power of the Power Stones with me?"

"I can still crush your pathetic little head." Chang said. "But how did you know who I was?"

"I've heard of you." Valgas started walking around Chang, his arms behind his back. "They say that you're the strongest man ever to enter all of the KOF tournaments. At first, I was looking forward to seeing you in person, but now that I see you, there's not really much to look at." He backed away from Chang and smirked. "People say that you're amazingly strong, but all I see standing in front on me right now is a fat, stupid, weakling."

Chang stood straight, determined. "I may be big and…" He suddenly looked a little hurt. "…N-Not as smart as Master Kim or Choi…" He shook his head and narrowed his eyes at Valgas. "But if there's one thing I'm not…" Chang lifted his iron wrecking ball above his head. "IT'S 'WEAK'!"

(The Arena)

"PERCIVAL FRAULEIN!" (S3)

Percival walked out from behind the curtain and almost instantly, every single teenage girl in the audience cheered loudly. This was just as big a cheer as it was for Marth in Section One.

Like Marth, Percival fought with a sword and could be counted as a 'prettyboy'. But unlike Marth, Percival was feeling confident that he could do well.

Percival entered the arena and saw Watari, someone from his node. "Hey, Watari." Percival said. "It's good to see that there's someone from our node still in the arena."

Watari shrugged. "I guess."

Percival scratched his head. "Uh, my I ask what you're doing just standing around instead of fighting?"

"I'm analyzing the competition." The silent ninja said simply.

Watari suddenly saw something out of the corner of his eye and, without moving, vanished into thin air, leaving a log.

Percival looked down at the log and ended up looking upwards. The knight's eyes snapped open when he saw Earthquake falling towards him, a victim of one of Galford's throws.

The brown-haired knight dove to the side just in time for Earthquake to crash onto the canvas.

Cody suddenly saw that all of the spotlights were now shining on the entranceway.

"And now," SSBFreak's voice came through the speakers. "Mystery Fighter…Number…THREE!"

"SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!" (Sonic the Hedgehog)

The following cheer for the popular blue hedgehog was by far the loudest one of the night. Rather than running, Sonic walked out from behind the curtain to have time to wave to the crowd.

Sonic was feeling extremely good. Not only was he one of the most popular characters in gaming, but he was also the fastest thing in the arena. He figured that he could get at least one elimination.

However, once the cheering started dying down, everyone heard the intro music for Sonic's song. Every hardcore Sonic fan in the audience quickly started laughing, and after a few seconds, a few others joined in.

Sonic raised an eyebrow. What could possibly be so funny?

"The story begins, with who's gonna win"

"Know where the danger lies within"

Sonic looked up at the Sound Booth, which was visible from the ramp. This was DEFINITELY not the song he requested, 'Escape from the City'.

"Aboard the ARK, a genius at heart"

"Wanting to unlock the mysteries of life"

The blue hedgehog realized that this song had a great beat and started bobbing his head to the music as he started walking down to the arena again.

"I am the Eggman! That's what I am!"

As soon as Sonic heard the word 'Eggman', he recognized the song. He froze in his eyes widened so much that his pupils shrank.

"I am the Eggman! I got the master plan!"

Sonic slowly looked around at the audience. Everyone was laughing now. A few were even clutching their sides as they laughed.

"I am the Eggman! That's what I am!"

Sonic, infuriated, looked up to the sound booth and raised his fists. "WHO THE HECK CHANGED MY THEME SONG?" The small creature screamed.

"I am the Eggman! I got the master plan!"

Knowing that there was nothing he could do now, Sonic ran down to the arena and started taking out his anger on Captain Kidd by performing a homing attack to the back of his head.

Up in the sound booth, a familiar black hedgehog smirked and walked away from the sound system.

"Heh. Take that, faker." Shadow the Hedgehog said as he Chaos Controlled out of the sound booth.

"LING XIAOYU!" (T5)

The high-spirited schoolgirl received a loud cheer (well, from those who had recovered from their laughing) as she appeared on the ramp leading down to the arena. Xiaoyu ran down to the arena, waving to the crowd the whole time.

When Xiaoyu leapt into the arena, she quickly saw Bruce in trouble. Not only were Captain Kidd and Athena ganging up on him, but a psychotic blue hedgehog was repeatedly bouncing off of whoever was in the arena.

Xiaoyu ran over and smashed her palms into Kidd's back, knocking him into Athena. This gave Bruce the opening needed to grab Sonic and throw him into Percival, which in turn stopped the knight from interrupting the duel Jubei was having with Takuma Sakazaki.

"Thanks, Xiao." Bruce said.

"You're welcome, Bruce." Xiaoyu smiled. "Let's get those guys back!"

Bruce smirked. "Sounds good to me."

"ALVAN!" (GF)

"And here comes Alvan, the second fighter from the Galaxy Fight node!" SSBFreak said through the mic. "Perhaps he's hoping to do as well as Musafar managed to do?"

"That could very well be, SSBFreak." Unknown1 added.

Indeed, Alvan was hoping to get at least one elimination, because he didn't want a robot like Musafar to do better than him.

As soon as he got into the arena, Alvan was grabbed by Vivian and thrown away, towards the huge hole in the middle of the canvas. Luckily for the Galaxy Fighter, Alvan managed to grab hold of the edge, preventing himself from being eliminated a matter of seconds after his entry.

Alvan climbed back onto the canvas and started having second thoughts of the Galaxy Fight node entering.

(Announcer's Booth)

SSBFreak flipped off his mic. "I thought so."

Unknown1 turned off his mic as well. "What?"

"Alvan almost getting eliminated instantly." SSBFreak explained. "He doesn't stand a chance."

Suddenly, the phone on the desk started ringing. Unknown1 picked it up.

"Yeah? Oh, hello captain." Unknown1 said into the phone. "…What?…There have been fights going on around the hotel and dome?…Well, then where the heck are your leaders?"

(Dome; Snack Bar)

Psymon grinned as he shook a canister of whipped cream and then coated his slices of pizza with the foamy goodness.

All five leaders of the security force were currently having a break, coincidentally, at the same time. Currently, they were sitting at the same table, a small, round one, as everyone else in the snack bar was gone, watching the tournament.

Joanna Dark cringed in disgust as she watched Psymon drizzle caramel on his pizza, over the whipped cream. The deranged psycho looked at her and grinned. "Want some pizza, Joanna?"

Samurai Goroh, sitting next to Psymon at the table, rubbed his temples. "Can't you ever eat anything normal, Psymon?"

Psymon looked at Goroh with an odd glare. The overweight samurai sighed. "You're right. I'm asking the wrong guy."

Knuckles piped up next. "Shouldn't at least one of us get back to our posts?" The echidna asked. "If the bosses find out about all of us taking a break at the same time, we'd get in real trouble."

The small, red echidna quickly got up, climbed up the wall and went into another room via a window.

Master Chief looked away from Psymon putting odd toppings on his pizza in time to see three figures walking past the door, an unconscious boy in the arms of the largest one.

The green-armoured man stood up. "Guys, look."

Joanna and Goroh stood up to look with Master Chief. Psymon was too busy sprinkling sugar on his pizza to notice.

"Isn't that boy Masters' kid?" Joanna asked.

"I think it is." Goroh grunted. "What's he doing being carried by the Blob?"

Goroh was right in identifying the large culprit. The huge, mountain of man was identified as the Blob, one of those that came in with the Rhino and the Scorpion. Following behind the Blob was Gannondorf Dragmire and Yuber, the dark knight in the black suit.

Joanna did the obvious. She raised her pistol and leveled the barrel at Yuber's head. "Freeze!"

All three villains looked through the huge doorway leading into the Snack Bar and saw the security force.

Gannondorf looked at the Blob. "You go on. Yuber and I will finish these pests."

The Blob nodded dumbly. "O-Kay." With that, the huge man walked off.

Gannondorf and Yuber walked into the snack bar to take the security force on. As Joanna walked forward and spun her pistol in her hand, Master Chief and Samurai Goroh followed, the latter pulling out his twin samurai swords.

Yuber smirked as two long blades of steel shot from inside his sleeves. "Chaos and destruction. It's almost too perfect."

Psymon, in the meantime, looked up from his pizza. "Hey. You guys have any sauerkraut?"

(The Arena)

"REED!" (S3)

"How was my day? How was my day?"

"Well you never, ever ask me 'how was my day'"

"Well, anyway. Guess what? I got an A"

"But you never know that cause words we don't say"

"Okay. All I need to do is go in there, get as many allies as I can and then try and get eliminated in a few sections." Reed said to himself as Peace of Mind's song 'Scream' came from the sound system. "That doesn't sound so bad."

"I put on my headphones and just drift away"

"It's the only way I know just for me to escape"

"I clench my teeth and hold in my hate"

"And hold all rage and I hold all my pain"

As Reed walked down the ramp, he was surprised when he heard a surprisingly loud cheer coming from the crowd. Reed stopped and looked around, amazed at how many people actually liked him.

"And I hold in all the things that I just want to say"

"And it seems like every single day's just the same"

"And it seems like my life is never gonna change"

"And all I wanna do is break free from these chains now"

The blonde swordsman decided to give his fans all he got and leapt into the arena to start fighting and gathering allies.

"And I want to scream! And I want to shout!"

"I just want to run! I want to break out!"

"And I want to scream! And I want to shout!"

"I just want to run! I want to break out!"

"I want to break out!"

When Reed hit the arena, he instantly decided to try and get the longest-running fighter as an ally. At the moment, that was Jubei, but the one-eyed samurai was still dueling with Takuma Sakazaki, so the blonde man decided not to bother them. Cody was next in line, and he currently didn't have an opponent.

"RAIDEN!" (FF)

The huge wrestler rotated his arm to stretch his muscles as he walked down to the ringside. Like Reed, Raiden was surprised to hear a loud cheer coming from the crowd. Raiden waved to the crowd as he stepped into the arena.

The first thing Raiden saw was Galford fighting Earthquake. Seeing the enormous thief as a challenge, the blue-clad wrestler stepped around the gaping hole in the middle of the arena and ran at the duel. From behind, Raiden grabbed Earthquake and slammed him into the canvas.

Galford looked at Raiden, confused. "Aren't you supposed to be a villain?"

Raiden shook his head. "I used to be, and let me say that I am NOT proud of doing what I did." He explained.

"Great! An ally, Poppy!" Galford said.

"Woof!"

"And now, the final fighter of this section…"

"MARIO MARIO!" (SSB)

The portly plumber's theme song was the traditional Mario Bros. Theme, but no one would have heard it over the massive cheering. Mario cheerfully walked down to the arena, doing his trademark wave.

Everyone in the stands was cheering. Loudly. In fact, SSBFreak and Unknown1 were making an announcement, but no one could hear either of them.

However, the massive cheering quickly slowed down as everyone suddenly realized something. Mario wondered what was going on, looked into the arena, and froze when he saw who was in the ring.

Mario looked at Sonic.

Sonic looked at Mario.

Both rivals ran at each other, dove and collided, quickly forming a comedic fight cloud.

"The game is on." Kidd muttered.