Geez, why does it take so long to finish these chapters? They don't take that long, so why has it been over a month since I posted last? *Sigh*. Well, here is the long-awaited Eighth Chapter: The Courtyard. Hopefully this story is going in the right direction. Well, enjoy!

Chapter 8: The Courtyard

The crowd was dead silent.

Rock was also having trouble processing what had just happened, also. He looked around at the crowd, resisting the urge to yell "Are you not entertained!?" because he realized it would be kinda mean, but, admittedly, would have been an awesome Gladiator reference. (If you haven't seen Gladiator and you are old enough to see R-Rated movies, then go see it. Seriously. It's amazing.)

The announcer, who was also very surprised at the result, sputtered "A-And the winner is, um MegaMan!"

One person in the crowd started clapping. Then some more. And more. Until everyone, and I mean everyone, was clapping and cheering and chanting. At that moment, MegaMan didn't care about how he totally knew what was going to happen at every moment during the fight.

He was just happy to have won, and grinning from ear to ear.

"How did you do it?"

"Huh?"

"How did you own Pikachu like that, when you've never fought in Smash before?" asked Sonic.

"Um, I have some experience with fighting things that contain high levels of electricity. Maybe it was that." Rock answered.

He, Sonic, Pac-Man, and R.O.B were all hanging out in the courtyard of the Smash Mansion. It was about 5:00 PM, after the matches had ended for the day.

"Don't give me that crap, man. You would have had to know about Pikachu's abilities beforehand."

"Sonic, stop badgering him. He doesn't have to answer everything." R.O.B said.

"Well, I refuse to believe that either way…"

"Dude, chill. Anybody here would LOVE to be as fast as you. You have no reason to be jealous" Pac-Man said.

Rock started to drift away to the infinite abyss that is his electronic brain. How did he do it? That's a question he would like to answer himself. He not only predicted all of Pikachu's moves, he had perfectly countered them as well. He let his thoughts wander 'till he started thinking about business suits.

Wait. Business suits?

A man in a very nice looking business suit walked into the courtyard. He made eye contact with MegaMan, and walked over to him.

"Are you MegaMan?" the Suit Guy asked.

"Um, yeah?"

"My name is Jerry Winfield. I am a representative of Lamitaburuod Tech. Nice to meet you!"

Jerry put out his hand. Rock took it, but didn't say anything.

"Ahem. My boss has taken quite the interest in you after seeing your match today. We would like to offer a proposal to you. We would like to start a merchandise line in our company based off you. I'm talking T-Shirts, action figures, animated shows, even Video Games! We will be paying you more money than any, um, robot could ever imagine! All you need to do, is sign this contract." He pulled out a contract, with an official stamp and everything

"Hold on, and back up. Why me?"

"Our analysis has labeled you as the most likely to win the tournament."

"But it's only the first day! How could you know that?"

Jerry smiled. "I asked my boss the same thing. He said he was 'trusting his gut', and he also expects that you will get a lot of similar offers from different companies, so he wants to jump in on the action as soon as possible."

MegaMan genuinely thought about signing the paper. For about 0.000000000087 seconds. Then, he came back to reality.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Mr. Winfield. I appreciate the offer, but I don't think I need extra money in my life. I'm fine with the amount I have."

"Oh." Jerry's smile faded a touch. "I thought that a robot like you would be smarter than that. Anyway, I also came to distribute these."

He opened his briefcase and pulled out a gallon-sized baggie with a bunch of pins on them. They had the Lamitaburuod Tech emblem on them.

Jerry started handing them out to everyone in the courtyard.

"Because Lamitaburuod will be sponsoring the tournament, you will all be required to wear these pins during your fights." Crazy Hand said as he floated into the courtyard.

"Um, commercialism much?" Sonic whispered to Pac-Man as he looked at the pin.

"*Shhh*!"

"Why are we getting these now, instead of before the fights started?" asked R.O.B.

"The deal was closed today, and there wasn't time to distribute the pins before the first fight, so we're doing it now." Master Hand said.

After Jerry passed out pins to everyone in the courtyard, he went to pass them out to more smashers in the halls.

Quiet chatting continued, until Wario blurted out, "What the heck does 'Lamitaburuod' even mean?"

That was a good question. Everyone in the courtyard thought and talked about this.

"I'm pretty sure it's Zebesian." said Samus. Everyone stopped talking and turned to pay attention to her.

"In the education I had to take while I was in the Galactic Federation, I needed to learn a bit of Zebesian, and I remember learning that word, or something close to it. I think it means something along the lines of 'New' or 'Better'." she concluded.

Everyone seemed content with that. It was common for companies to name themselves after words in foreign languages, so "Better Tech" seemed to make sense.

"Something rubs me the wrong way about that guy." Rock said to his friends.

"He's just your average, manipulative salesman. I don't like him either, but he could probably do no harm to smashing as a whole." said Pac-Man. "Besides, it's just a pin. Some athletes need to dress head-to-toe in their sponsors."

Sonic eyed the pin more closely, moving it closer and farther from his eye.

"Yep, looks harmless." he said. "Just a pin."

Please remember to Review! It's the only way for me to know if you guys like this or not. The Smash section of this site barley has any reviews, so lets try to change that! See you in Chapter 9!