So, I realized that I posted the second chapter twice instead of the third chapter recently. That's a little embarrassing, hehe. Sorry about that guys. I recommend going back to chapter 3 and reading it if you didn't. Please leave a review of what you think of this fanfic, or if there is anything I can improve on. Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!
"*yawn* Ow…"
Engie got up from his bed and stretched his arms, making him groan. He had a very weird dream last night; he and his team were teleported to this weird mansion and there was this talking dog and…
Oh.
It wasn't a dream.
…damn.
"Ah, hell…" He plopped down on his bed, rubbed his face with his left hand, and sighed, still shaking off his morning haze. Sniper got up in his nearby bed, rubbed his eyes, and put on his Australian bush hat and sunglasses. He noticed Engie was awake and just sitting on his bed.
"G'morning." Sniper waved to him. Engie waved back. "Yesterday was, uh, very interesting, to say the least."
"You can say that again, heh," Engie chuckled. "Have you thought about why we, of all people, were chosen to join this place yet?"
Sniper scratched his chin. "Yeah, but ya got me there, mate. Most of our team is a bunch of deranged lunatics."
A poorly played bugle shrieked out from the room right next to them. Even with the wall muting most of the sound, the sound was so loud that Engie and Sniper had to cover their ears, and Scout immediately woke up from the terrible noise.
"AAAHHHHH! SOMEONE TURN THAT OFF!" Scout screeched. Heavy, Demo, and Pyro could be heard complaining from their own rooms. Sniper was unamused.
"PIPE DOWN, YOU ANKLE BITERS! THIS ISN'T EVEN THAT BAD!" he yelled over the noise.
"SHUT THE HELL UP, SNIPER!" Scout yelled back. The bugle stopped playing.
"Rise and shine, maggots! It's time to teach those girl scouts how to fight monsters and each other like true Americans!" Soldier's muffled voice sounded from the other room.
"Soldier," Spy sighed from the same room. "You do know that other people are sleeping here, and it isn't just us anymore, right?"
"Dummkopf…" Medic said groggily.
"Shut your trap, crouton! If the others wake up, then so be it! We're all getting up early whether anyone likes it or not!"
"Give it a rest, Soldier! I can't feel me legs!" Demo cried out from 2 rooms over. They continued to bicker for 20 whole minutes.
Masahiro Sakurai whistled as he walked over to the mercenaries' rooms. Loud arguments could be heard from all three rooms. He started to sweat as he listened in. The tournament's director gulped and knocked on all of their doors.
"Hey, someone's here!"
"I don't care! I'm not done screaming into your ears! *bonk* Ow…" *thump*
Spy opened his door and looked outside. "Bonjour…"
"Ah, good morning," Sakurai bowed. "Is your team doing alright? It sounds like you're all arguing…" Spy cringed a little.
"I can assure you that we are all doing fine. Arguments like these have, unfortunately, become a normality for us at this point." Sakurai nodded. "Would you like me to get the rest of my teammates out here?"
"Yes, please."
Spy nodded and got everyone out of their rooms. Scout was a little difficult with him; he was still very tired.
"Come on, guys… Just 5 more minutes…" Scout snored. Spy frowned and started to shake him violently.
"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! Man…" Scout grumpily donned his baseball cap and joined the others outside.
"Hello everyone!" Sakurai bowed again as the group said good morning back. "Come, follow me."
"Have you all been enjoying yourselves here?" All of them have enjoyed their time here. The people were polite, and the place was nice-looking and clean.
"It's good," Heavy said.
Sakurai smiled. "That's nice to hear. Did any of you have any more questions that you would like to ask?"
"Yeah, I do. Why were we chosen to be invited to this tournament?" Engie asked.
"Do you remember the documentary video game that's based on your time during the Gravel Wars?" Mann. Co had them consent in a documentary video game. It confused them at first because… why would Mann. Co, out of all things, make a video game for a documentary? Saxton Hale told them that more people would probably notice it if it was a video game since it would be very boring otherwise.
"You probably do, I mentioned it in your letters. Your game became very popular, so we reached out to Mann. Co if we could invite you all. They would after they were done with you since they needed you to defend the company from the robots."
"Does that mean you invite people based on if they're from a popular video game?"
"Yes, actually. This tournament is also a celebration of video games. Everyone here knows that there are video games made after them."
"Huh, alright."
"That reminds me, are you all okay with being in a video game about fighting?"
"Uh, wh- I mean, I think we are, right fellas?" They all nodded. "But why though?"
"Just because." Engie shrugged and backed off.
"Yo, are we gonna get our bags soon?" Scout asked.
"Later on. I promise I'll give you guys some time to retrieve your luggage." Sakurai said. "For now, why don't you get something to eat?" They were led into the dining hall, where about half of the total fighters were eating.
"I have to leave to take care of something right now," Sakurai said. "I hope you all enjoy your time here." They said their farewells and went to wash their hands so they could eat.
They got their food and sat down where 3 others were already sitting. One of them was Luigi, proudly wearing his new Burning Team Captain. Another one had black, poofy hair, a pair of glasses, and a black hoodie. He looked pretty young. The last one was a pink puffball, which seemed to be inhaling everything in front of it. They greeted them as they sat down and introduced themselves.
"Hi," The black-haired teen greeted. The other two waved to them behind his back. "I don't think we've met all of you during the celebration, so I'll introduce all of us. I'm Ren Amamiya, but everyone calls me Joker. This guy," he pointed to Luigi. "Is Luigi, and this," he pointed to the pink thing. "Is Kirby."
"Hai!"
"Hello!" The mercs introduced themselves after.
"It's nice to meet y'all," Engie sunk his teeth into his bacon. His eyes wandered and settled on Luigi's new hat. He paused and swallowed.
"Where did you get that hat?" Everyone turned to look at Luigi's hat.
Luigi turned his head. "Oh, your friend Soldier traded me his hat for mine last night."
All of the mercenaries turned to look at Soldier with wide eyes. "SOLDIER! YOU HAD A BLOODY BURNING TEAM CAPTAIN?!" Demo screamed. "THAT'S ONE OF THE RAREST HATS YOU COULD'VE OWNED!"
"What, that thing? I've had that forever." Soldier said nonchalantly as he continued eating.
"WHAT DID YOU EVEN TRADE IT FOR?" Scout hollered. Soldier pulled out Luigi's cap. "This!" he said proudly. The mercs could hardly believe it. He traded his Team Captain for something barely worth two dollars. Fortunately for Soldier, everyone was still tired from waking and arguing that early in the morning, so they couldn't be bothered to get super mad at him.
"That is a pretty nice hat, though," Joker noted. Luigi smiled. "Thank you very much!"
They spent the rest of breakfast talking about what they did in their lives in their universes before they were invited, and what happens on a usual day here at the mansion, besides Kirby of course. The rest of the fighters came in and said their hellos to the new guys.
"You steal people's hearts?!" Medic asked curiously. "Do you have any?"
"What?! No! We steal their figurative hearts." The doctor's face dropped. He continued to explain what happened during his time in Tokyo, like how he met his friends, how they became Phantom Thieves, and how they changed society through the Metaverse wait wha-
"Mmmpherse?" Pyro questioned through his gas mask. Joker laughed. "Yeah, it's a little… strange. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I first entered the Metaverse, so I understand if you don't believe me, but you should see what this little guy has gone through." He pointed to Kirby, who was trying to inhale Heavy's sandvich while Heavy was hanging on to it like it was the last sandvich he would ever eat. "The monsters that he goes up against can be considered nightmare fuel."
Sniper cocked an eyebrow and got closer to Kirby. "This little guy? How could he fight anyone? He doesn't look threatening at all." he said as he got a closer look at the pink puffball. Kirby stopped trying to inhale Heavy's sandvich and got up from his seat. Heavy sighed as he tried to take a bite out of his breakfast, but with a determined look in his eye, Kirby stood up and inhaled harder. Sniper got a little too close and…
"Gah!"
…uh oh.
While Joker and Luigi weren't too concerned, the mercs were freaking out. They didn't have any reanimators on them, so they couldn't afford to have any of them die.
"YOU! CREAM PUFF! SPIT SNIPER OUT RIGHT NOW! THAT IS AN ORDER!"
Kirby had kept his mouth closed and just stared at Soldier. He crouched and Sniper popped up out of..? somewhere from Kirby, I guess, and flopped on his back. The mercs rushed over to the Australian.
"Are you alright?" Heavy asked while looking down at him.
"No," Sniper deadpanned. "No, I am not." They all sat there for a minute, staring.
"Argh, he'll live." Medic grabbed Sniper's arm with both of his hands and lifted him up to his feet. They looked down at Kirby afterward, and for some reason, he was wearing a hat and a pair of sunglasses similar to Sniper's.
"You try to eat me, and then you dress up like me? What the hell's wrong with-" Kirby pulled out a sniper rifle that looked exactly like the one that Sniper usually used. "Wha- where did you even get that?"
"Kirby can copy abilities from others when he, uhm, eats them." Luigi swallowed. "I'm not sure why though."
"Hmm, interesting." Medic said as he took out his notebook and jotted down some notes. Joker and Luigi looked at each other. They disliked this guy already.
Joker looked at the clock. "Well, looks like it's time to go now."
*ding* Joker pulled out his tablet. "Hey, there's a match in 30 minutes. Come on, we'll show you how matches work." They threw away their trash and followed Joker.
"Here we are." They walked into a small room with 8 cylindrical phone booth-like objects against the adjacent wall.
"Those are the teleporters," Luigi pointed at the objects. "That's how you'll get to the battlefield when you're scheduled to fight. Some battlefields are in the universes that fighters come from, which is why we need these."
"Can't we just fight here?" Heavy asked.
"Well, we can't destroy the mansion so, guess that's why we have these."
The mercs checked the teleporters out, and Engie nodded his head. "Fine piece of work ya got here." Then they were led into a very spacious room just after. There were a lot of chairs facing a large screen.
"This is the theater. There are Lakitus," Luigi pulled out his tablet. "these things," he showed the mercs. "That float in their clouds, record the battle, and project it back here, so you can spectate battles. I'd recommend that you watch a few matches so you can see how matches play out, so you're not completely in the dark when the time comes."
"Alright, yeah, this is pretty sweet," Scout remarked. Some other fighters walked into the room and took their seats.
"Looks like it's almost time," Joker said while taking a seat himself. Luigi and the mercs followed while Kirby struggled to escape Pyro's grasp.
"Zere's… a lot less people here than I thought zere vould be." Medic said, rubbing his chin.
"Not everyone watches the battles in their free time. They usually train, exercise, take a nap… anything really." Joker shrugged. "Oh, looks like it's time."
3… 2… 1…
GO!
"What was that?"
"I have no idea."
The mercs walked out of the theater. Matches were very different than they thought they would be. For one, you have to damage your opponent to knock them into a blast zone, and the more damage they take, the farther they get launched. After you throw them into a blast zone, they lose a stock, or life, and come back from the top of the stage through a special platform, but they recover from their damage. To win, you take all of your opponent's stocks. It was also made apparent that the double jump device was vital for getting back on stage if you get knocked off.
"Gentlemen, it seems that we need to train and hone our skills."
"Da."
"Aye!"
"Mmph!"
"Alright, how are we gonna do that?" Sniper said. "We don't have most of our weapons, and we don't have anywhere to train."
"I think I can help you guys with that," The mercs turned around to see an anthropomorphic blue falcon standing before them. Spy remembered him from last night's celebration.
"We needed someone to help you guys, and I got randomly picked out of everyone to help." He crossed his wings. "Names Falco Lombardi, and I heard that you don't have your weapons. You should probably get those first before we start. Hold on, did Isabelle take your invites?" They all nodded. "That's what I thought. Lemme get her real quick, so you guys can teleport back and get your stuff."
He got his tablet out and tapped the screen, but he wasn't really getting anything to register that well. "Stupid wings…" he muttered. Falco put away the tablet and Isabelle dashed in moments later.
" *huff* H-hey! I got your- *puff* letters." Isabelle wheezed. The mercs took their letters and opened them to pull out the super-light tablets inside. "I set them so they'll send you back to your place you were at before you were teleported. *cough* " The tablets turned on and asked them to "Teleport?"
"And doc," Medic turned to look at Falco. "Don't bring any organs. Please." Medic narrowed his eyes and frowned. "Scheisse…" he sighed. They teleported back and quickly got their weapons, luggage, and the rest of their hats and cosmetics and teleported back.
"Alright, now, get the stuff you need, put the rest of your stuff in your rooms and let's get started."
Isabelle jumped in. "I'll help you too!"
The mercs were taught how to reliably double jump, how to recover, and how to make a cool entrance at the beginning of battles.
"Is this really necessary?" Spy asked.
"Wh- of course it is! Don't you want to look cool and…" Isabelle trailed off. "Well, I guess it isn't that important, but I think they're pretty neat. You don't need to spend a lot of time on your entrance if you don't want to."
"Alright, use your Force-A-Nature to propel yourself up!" Falco called out.
*BANG BANG*
"Ah, crap. AHHH-" Scout fell into the blast zone and exploded while sparks flew from the blast. Scout continued to scream while a platform brought him back and lowered him down from the top of the stage.
"AHHH- actually that wasn't that bad… Huh."
"Heh, you'll get used to it."
"I highly doubt that," Sniper whispered to Engie and Heavy; both of them chuckled. Falco and Isabelle proceeded to help them learn when to use their shield, how to roll, spot-dodge, and parry, and when to use the appropriate defensive option to get out of a situation. Compared to the other new fighters, they were actually learning these techniques very quickly. They've even incorporated air strafing and damage surfing into their movement to escape combos. Before they knew it, 6 days rolled by and it was almost time for them to be in scheduled fights.
"Whew, I'm beat. Y'all ready for tomorrow?" Engie said as he stretched.
"Hell yeah!" Scout exclaimed. "We're gonna waste some morons!"
Sniper laughed. "Alright, mate."
Meanwhile:
"Do you have a telepathy spell you could cast so I don't have to keep drawing in the ground?"
"Uh, maybe."
Dharkon and Merasmus were trying to make plans for taking down the fighters. They didn't want to charge straight on because that usually fails miserably. Dharkon couldn't take down the fighters even with Galeem "helping". Granted, they were mostly fighting each other, but some of their attacks were hitting the fighters. Merasmus couldn't even take down the mercs, even with help from Monoculus and The Headless Horseless Horseman. (which is a little sad, to be honest)
"You can travel through dimensions, right?" Dharkon wrote.
"Ah, well, yes but, I am not the best at traveling," Merasmus explained. "I'm not the most accurate with my travels."
"But you can travel though…"
"Yes, I can." Dharkon thought for a bit. "I think we might have a chance to beat the fighters with this ability of yours."
"Really? What do you suggest we do?"
"You'll see, but please try to find a telepathy spell first, I'm getting tired of drawing in the ground."
Merasmus sighed. "Alright."