Chapter 2: First Impressions and Explanations
"Ow, what the hell was that crap?" Scout complained. He looked around. "Is this how they got us to their place? Why couldn't they just pick us up like normal people- WOAH!" The speedster took a double-take when he saw the mansion before his team.
"Guess this is the place," Sniper whistled. 'Now, that is not something you see every day."
The mercenaries were most impressed. Even Demo thought it was pretty cool, and he and his mom lived in a mansion too. After they shared their thoughts on the situation, they all walked up to the entrance to introduce themselves.
Spy knocked on the door, which almost immediately opened. He looked around to see that there wasn't anyone there.
*ring* *ring*
"Hmm?" Some bells were ringing near Spy's feet, so he looked down to see where it was coming from. He looked down to see a small, anthropomorphic dog wearing a green checkered vest with a blue skirt. Her fur seemed to be ruffled a little bit and her eyes looked a little tired, but she still had a genuine smile on her face.
"Hello!" She said, "I'm Isabelle, and you all must be the new fighters!" She held up her paw to shake Spy's hand.
Spy was taken aback at first, and so were the other mercenaries that could see what he was looking at. They have seen their fair share of some very weird stuff during the Gravel Wars (thank Merasmus), but they've never seen any animals like this before. Spy quickly regained his composure and shook her paw. Pyro rushed in front of Spy and shook Isabelle's paw vigorously with both of his hands after Spy was done doing the same thing. The other mercs also snapped out of their shock, and Medic started to analyze Isabelle, he was a mad scientist after all.
"Fascinating…" Medic whispered. Isabelle heard this but chose to ignore it.
"Do all of you have your invitations?" she questioned. They all had their invitations clenched in their hands, probably from the shock of being teleported so suddenly.
"Great! Sorry about not telling you about the teleportation, we, um, forgot to mention that in the letter…" Isabelle rubbed the back of her head while smiling guiltily. "We only realized after we sent it, heh heh…"
"Don't worry about that," Spy assured. "We teleported all the time these past five years. It wasn't that big of a deal."
The secretary smiled as she took the invitations from the group. "I know it might seem a little redundant that I'm asking you guys for your invitations since you probably got here through the tablets," she added. "But some people just teleport here by accident, somehow. We're just making sure that you actually got invited."
"We didn't seem to have a problem when Sephiroth joined though," the small dog muttered, sounding annoyed. "But! That's a conversation for another day, come on!" She beckoned for the invitees to follow her as she walked into the mansion.
The mansion's interior was just as nice as it was outside. Multiple paintings were hung around the walls. Most of them seemed a bit peculiar though, with some featuring bombs with wind-up keys on their backs and sunken ships.
"Oh, right! I almost forgot," Isabelle stopped in her tracks. She pulled nine tablets out of… somewhere. "These tablets will alert you to upcoming matches, both ones that you're going to participate in and matches with other fighters if you would like to spectate, and other various announcements, like new fighters joining and other things like that. Make sure you keep this secure! Since you joined just recently, we'll let you get accustomed to everything, so you won't have to be in any matches for a few days." Heavy seemed a little disappointed when he heard that. They pocketed the tablets and continued on.
They eventually came across a room labeled "Tech Department". A banner that read "Grand Reopening!" was hung above the label.
"Yeah… um, the tech department reopened 2 years ago, hehe. We should probably take the banner down." Isabelle chuckled nervously. "Anyway, I only have a few more things to give you." She entered the room and came out with eighteen strange devices. Nine of them were flat, circular discs with a blue button in the middle. She gave these to the group first.
"Here are your shields!" They examined the strange device, spinning and flipping it over in their hands. "Try pressing the button in the middle." Soldier pushed his button first. A red force field covered the veteran.
"Woah!" Scout hastily pushed the button on his device. A similar force field instantly covered him, however, his shield was blue. "Sweet." This caused a chain reaction and made everyone else press their own shields.
"Cool, huh?!" Isabelle cheered. They all dropped their shields, except Soldier, who was too distracted by his shield. "As the name implies, they'll shield you from enemy attacks. They'll shrink if they get hit or if you keep it active for too long, but they'll recover if they're inactive, so don't use it if it's close to breaking and don't keep it out for too long, or…" Soldier wasn't listening and kept the button held down. His shield kept shrinking and shrinking until…
*CRACK*
He flew a few feet into the air and slowly floated back down. He slowly got to his feet and groaned. He held his head as cartoonish-looking stars surrounded his head. It looked like he got hit in the head with Scout's Sandman ball.
"..that will happen." Isabelle finished. "It won't break the device, but if your shield breaks, you'll be stunned and vulnerable for a few seconds. If this happens, your opponent will have the chance to deliver their most damaging attack or combo on you. Of course, you can do the same to your opponent and break their shield." Soldier snapped out of his trance and angrily pocketed his disc.
"And here's the last thing I'm gonna give you." She handed the final devices to the group. The devices were discs similar to the shields, except they were shaped like clouds, with bigger buttons in the middle.
"These things will make you double-jump in mid-air, and since Scout can already double jump, he can now jump three times in the air! Lucky you." Isabelle said unenthusiastically.
Engie whistled as he tested it out. "Not bad, how'd yall make these things?"
"I'm… not completely sure… You could ask the people who worked on these things after this tour is done though. I'm sure they'll be happy to show you how it works."
"Why exactly do we need these double jump things in the first place?" Sniper asked. "It seems a little, uh, unnecessary."
The small dog shook her head. "You need these to get back onto the stage you'll be fighting on when you'll eventually get knocked off, or how other fighters put it, recover." They all looked at her in confusion. "Um… You'll understand when you'll watch a match. While we're at it, do any of you have any other questions?"
Medic stepped up. "Vill I be able to perform experiments here?" Isabelle winced. She knew this conversation was coming. "Ah, well, you can! It's just, you need permission from Mr. Sakurai and someone to monitor you while you do your experiment." Medic's face dropped. He knew all of the trials he had in mind would never be accepted in a million years. "I know, I know, you invented the Medi-gun through your rigorous exams, but we just can't have fighters be experimented on without proper safety protocols."
"I see, fery vell zen."
"Why were we teleported here? I think I bruised my face!" The other mercs frowned at Scout. "What?"
"It was the easiest way for us to transport you across dimensions to get here." The room went silent.
"We-we're in a different dimension?" Engie stuttered.
"Mmhm! We invite people from different universes to participate in our fighting tournament!" Isabelle clarified. The group pondered on that for a little while. The secretary cleared her throat.
"I think we have time for one more question."
"What's this about a bloody dark, evil monster?" Demoman questioned.
Isabelle's expression darkened. "Three years ago, a ball of light called Galeem came around. He wanted to create a new world, and in order to do that, he had to destroy everyone."
"MMPHT?!" Pyro squeaked.
"All the other fighters and I were the only ones that could immediately help and fight him. All of us were taken by the light. Everyone else was destroyed and turned into Spirits. Only one pink puffball named Kirby managed to escape in time."
"Oh, no," Heavy said sadly.
"He did manage to save half of us after a few months though. We managed to take Galeem down for a while, but right after that happened, Dharkon, the embodiment of chaos and evil took control of all puppet fighters Galeem had made when he captured us. We rescued the rest of the fighters and tried to take Dharkon down too. Galeem had come back, somehow, and started to challenge Dharkon. After a hard-fought battle, we managed to put them down for the time being.
We found a way to restore the Spirits to their bodies, thankfully. That's why the banner says 'Grand Reopening!', we saved the people that were destroyed who worked on our tech. Unfortunately, Galeem and Dharkon kept coming back with their puppet fighters, trying to destroy us before trying to shroud everything in light or darkness, but we held off, and with the help of the other fighters joining, we held our ground pretty well.
We had another chance to fight Galeem, but someone named Sephiroth had crept in. He managed to slice Galeem in two with one sword swing. He was also evil though, but Mr. Sakurai managed to somehow convince him to join our tournament and not destroy everyone outside battles. I still don't trust him though." Isabelle whispered while giggling. "We haven't seen Dharkon after that happened, but we still think he might strike again, so that's why we inserted that part into the letter."
No one said a word. Isabelle sweatdropped. "That might have been a bit too much for all of you to swallow." She nervously laughed. "Sorry about that."
"Will this monster come back?" Heavy asked.
"Hopefully not… If he does though, we'll probably take him down since you're here!" She encouraged. They all smiled at that.
"We have one more stop to make before I show you to your rooms. Follow me!" Isabelle seemed more excited compared to earlier.
They were met with a very large door. A few laughs and footsteps were heard from the other side. "Here we are! Everyone ready?" Isabelle asked the mercs. They all nodded their heads. She opened the door and the mercenaries were met with something that they would never forget.
"CONGRATULATIONS!" A gigantic floating white glove boomed out from above. Cheers erupted from the other people below. The mercenaries were startled at first, but then looked at each other with stupid grins on their faces. They were all looking forward to what lay in store for them.