Intermission 2

DLC/Team Fire Emblem

"YA DID IT!" squeaked a voice as soon as the call for intermission was made.

Before Joker could process it, before the Smashers' Box could explode into chatter as it had the last intermission, Futaba's arms were around him, followed by a group hug by the rest of the Phantom Thieves.

"They let you out of that room?" Joker smirked.

"Do you think I pee in a bucket or something," she snarked back, "Even when I was a shut-in I had more decency than that. "

When the hug released amidst the ensuing laughter, Joker saw Banjo's concerned eyes while Kazooie cajoled with Daxter, the former standing atop Jak's shoulders, who was mid-conversation with Jin.

Joker's eyes met Banjo's, who jerked a claw to the right. Following the gesture, Joker saw Corrin sitting despondently, shielded by Terry's massive frame.

Just as Joker started to move past the rest of the Thieves, he felt a massive claw on his hand. The young man wheeled around to see Bowsers Senior and Junior, both smiling ear to ear.

"Good match kid!" bellowed Bowser.

"Yeah, great match," Bower Junior began, "Petey needs to train to be big and strong, if we keep training with him he'll be better before he got blown up by Kirby!"

"You'll train the plant and the kids, won't you?" Bowser continued

A snort of smoke made sure Joker's polite refusal died in his throat.

"Yeah...sure."

"Great!" Bowser bellowed, slapping a gloved hand on Joker's back, "We need to develop a training regimen for the plant."

As Joker listened, visibly uncomfortable in the face of the overeager Koopas, Terry loomed over Corrin. The Southtownian could only frown as she shook like a leaf, tears flowing down her face. She was already a wallflower, a loss like that only made it worse.

"Hey bud," Terry whispered.

He placed a hand on her shoulder, and her eyes snapped to his. "Are you okay?" bubbled to the surface, but he choked it down, remembering the angry glares he'd gotten trying to comfort Quinn.

"It's okay," he whispered, "Cloud is good. There's no shame losing to him."

"But there is," snapped Corrin, "I'm a disgrace and no help in this effort."

"We'll train, we'll make it better. We'll get better."

"You'd do that" With a loser like me?"

"Well, you aren't a loser, but hell yeah."

In a brief second, Corrin seemed to shake away the cobwebs, "You know what? You're right. I apologize. My siblings and I were raised to be the best, and being locked away in that tower deeply sowed some…insecurities."

"I understand. But you're perfect how you are, and can only get better."

Corrin stood up, hugging Terry, "Thank you, Mister Bogard," she muttered.

"Are we…um…interrupting something?"

Both Corrin and Terry looked in the direction of the timid, regal voice of Lucina, She and Robin stood before them, each of them supporting a shaken looking. Chrom by both shoulders.

"No, not at all, just encouraging Corrin here," Terry spoke, his voice smooth as butter in complete contrast to a blushing Corrin.

"Chrom is in much the same state," Robin explained, casting a saddened, loving glance at his friend, "Perhaps we can all train together?"

"You don't understand Robin," whined Chrom, his voice melancholy, "I've…I've never felt anything like that before, when I was in the ball/ I've never felt so helpless so helpless."

"I feel ya," nodded Terry, "But it's just a grapple like any other, and that can be defended against."

"You're sure?" Chrom asked, his posture straightening.

"Of course! In martial arts, any throw can be deflected, even a magical piece of bull crap like that! Like I was tellin' Dragon Lady over here, we can all improve and be better."

"Yes. I agree! If we were to combine our forces, we could learn quite a bit from one another! Thank you! You have an odd way of inspiring people Mister Bogard!"

"Odd," Corrin gasped, "Chrom, that's quite r-"

Terry laughed, "Nah sweetheart, I've been mentorin' the youth around my town for as long as I've been an adult, helpin' kids and adults through their troubles alike."

"I highly doubt you're in a position to call me sweetheart..."

"Well, you're the one who's been hugging me for the past minute," Terry muttered, the faintest hint of a blush on his cheeks.

With a yelp, Corrin pulled away to the stifled laughter of Chrom's family.

"By the way Terry. You're invited to the Askr dinner if you want to be Corrin's plus one," explained Robin, "It's tonight after the tournament."

"Cool, I'll be there, I was gonna take Corrin on a car ride anyway, might as well drive it there."

"Excellent news Sir Bogard, I speak for all of us to say I look forward to feasting with you,"

As the Ylissian Three bid their goodbyes, Corrin cleared her throat awkwardly, "What's Banjo-Kazooie up to?"

Terry scanned the room, finding the duo easily, "Talking with Diddy. I guess they haven't had time to talk considering the big groups they've been running in, us and the Mario crew."

"True," Corrin giggled, "Is that Erdrick over there in the corner?"

"Yep! Probably talkin' to the other heroes. Looks heated. One of 'em bet money maybe?"

Corrin shrugged, covering her mouth to hide her expression from prying eyes.

"Edelgard is with the princesses it looks like," announced Terry, "Altair is coaching Quinn through some meditation."

"And thank the gods for Edelgard keeping the princesses busy," sighed Corrin, "Usually they're always bugging me to spend time with them."

With a dismissive wave of his hand, Terry laughed, "Aw hell. They're nice to you."

"It's not like that," insisted the dragon princess.

Again, Terry laughed, "Nah, I'm just joking. I know how ya feel when Ken and Ryu talk about their rich people get-togethers."

"I suppose that's similar. But keep in mind, you're my plus one for the big Askr dinner."

"Am I supposed to be afraid of your Fire Emblem pals? I can blend in."

"Meta-Knight and Jigglypuff will be there too."

"Now him, he terrifies me."

Just as Corrin giggled a new voice caught his attention

"Yo! Terry!" Ken shouted from halfway across the room

"What?" asked the red-capped fighter.

"Mario invited some pro basketball players to play a mini-season in Smash City, from all different eras and stuff."

"No way," exclaimed a shocked Terry.

"Yeah, check some of these rosters, and we can figure out which one we wanna go to."

"Alright," Terry cast the thumbs up, turning to Corrin, "If you'll have me for continued dates after this one, basketball games may be the majority of them."

"I don't mind. A sporting event sounds nice."

"Gotta go book my tickets. Excuse me," Terry finished, with a tip of his hat, he had melded into the crowd.

Cloud and Sephiroth

` Upon accepting the message, Cloud's communicator became a wash of noises. Cloud smirked, putting on headphones Sonic had let him borrow.

'One at a time," Cloud stated flatly.

A pause in the chatter, then some conferring away from the mic. Barrett spoke up first, "Damn boy, that was clean! Feels like you're even better at fightin' here than you are back home if that's even possible."

"He is an ex-champion of these things," Tifa scoffed.

"So that's why the betting odds were so solid! Damn, shoulda voted for Isabelle or something!" whined Yuffie.

"Heh, told ya," Cid laughed, "Told Shira I'd come back with some coin, and I have."

"If you don't spend it on cigarettes first," joked Reeve.

"How many of them fancy cigars do you have from the Shinra days, ya gat-dern suit?"

Cloud's eyebrows were raised in shock, "Cid? You bet on Isabelle? You?"

"Damn skippy," the visage of Cid laughed, "She reminded me of Shira in a way. Mousy but a tough broad who can pull through some crazy shit,"

"Speaking of," Jesse shouted so loudly that Cloud winced, "Are her and the blue hedgehog together?"

"Jesse!" shouted Biggs, "You can't just ask people if..."

"I kinda wanna know too honestly," admitted Biggs bashfully.

Cloud chuckled, glancing around the room. Sonic was cooly reclined in one of the auditorium chairs in the middle row, while Isabelle and The Villager animatedly discussed the fight. On the opposite end of the row, Snake sat, arms crossed. In posture, the hardened soldier put forth every signal that he was ignoring them, but Cloud watched his eyes as they occasionally darted in the happy trio's direction.

"I think they're just friends but they do gravitate towards one another, which is why I think everyone assumes…"

"Hmm, sounds like someone else I know," Vincent dryly quipped.

Cloud stuttered in shock, "H-hey,"

"Damn Vinnie," balked Yuffie, "Never woulda expected that from you."

"It's a consequence of spending too much time around you I'm afraid," the ex-Turk shot back.

"And yet you still come around," came the ninja's equally quick retort.

"And so inevitably comes the angry…" whined Zack.

Aerith shushed him.

"Hey!" Yuffie snapped.

"Hey yourself," snapped Zack, "We share a damn wall."

Just as Cloud went to silence his friends he felt a hand on his shoulder, His entire body felt cold. Slowly taking off his headphones, he turned to see Sephiroth smiling down at him,

"Good match Cloud," he growled.

Cloud couldn't bring himself to reply.

"Oh, am I interrupting your conversation?"

Cloud slowly put his headphones back in, "I uh… have to go,"

Shutting off the communicator, Cloud could only look into his enemy's piercing eyes.

"Was that Aerith? Tell her to watch what she eats. You wouldn't want anything to happen to her stomach lining," Sephiroth purred, grinning even deeper.

Just as Cloud tensed, a new voice entered the fray, "Hark! Bullshit approaches."

Yoshimitsu, flanked by the rest of the Playstation crew stood alongside Cloud.

"You call it bullshit, I call it all in good fun," sneered Sephiroth.

"No," growled Jin, "I've been dealing with sociopaths like you all my life, and I've taken them all down at one point or another with my fists. That's what I consider fun."

"Ah, the devil boy," Sephiroth mused, "Imagine if you were my next opponent. Angel versus the devil. Heaven versus hell. Surely, you'd push me further than the buffoons from earlier."

Moving through the crowd so quickly Cloud only saw him when he came to a stop, Saki was now by his side, "We got a problem pretty boy?" snarled the half-Remnant.

"No. I was just warning Mister Kazama not to disappoint me."

With that, he disappeared, an evil chuckle hanging in the air.

"Where did he go?" asked Ratchet, bewildered.

"Probably for a toilet cause our boy Jin scared him so bad," crowed Daxter.

Jin only shot him a sideways smirk.

"So as I was saying," Daxter began as the crowd began to disperse, "If we get that Master Chief bozo we spin his helmet around. If we get the chick...uh...I dunno, maybe we can bribe some pointers out of the other martial artists."

Cloud didn't even have to look Jak in the face to know he was rolling his eyes, muted chuckles emanating from the rest of the Battle Royale crew.

Saki was the last to turn away.

"Hey," Cloud said.

The blond stopped in his tracks.

"Good match, and thanks."

"No problem," waved Saki, "I've got your back any time."

Suddenly, the returning jingle erupted from the TV in the middle of the room.

"And we're back!" 9-Volt announced, "As we announced before the break, it'll be Travis Touchdown versus The River City Girls."

"A bodyslammin' smackdown to be sure," Cranky hooted, pumping his fist in the air.

"You heard the man," Sans announced, "To the front of the room boys and girls."

Travis stood first, opening his jacket to reveal an Undertale t-shirt.

"My man," Sans cheered as the two fist-bumped, "You're in Tunnel B, your motorbike is waiting for you."

"Sweet," Travis nodded.

"Hey, what're we, chopped liver?" shouted Misako as they headed to the front, "Besides, what kind of biased ass stuff is that?"

"Buy some merch then," shrugged Sans, "Anyway, you're in Tunnel A."

"See you out there," Travis muttered, turning and walking down the tunnel.

Frowns on their faces, The River City Girls walked down the tunnel on the opposite side of the room.

"What the heck was that?" muttered Dante.

"I've watched the tapes," Sans explained, "He gets real zoned in before a match. Otherwise, he's cool to party with."

"You're only saying that cause he's got the shirt on," quipped Dante.

"I mean, that does pad out the ridiculous Grillby's bill but that's beside the point."

Travis, meanwhile, mounted his brand new bike, breathing in and out sharply. Dimension Distortion Headache had already hit him a few days before. Briefly, he replayed the battle on stage with Kimmy Love in his head. The girls were just as adept with all manner of weapons as she was with a sword. Travis sighed. This would be another tough fight.

As he revved the red motor vehicle, Sylvia's voice played in his head.

Welcome, to the garden of madness.