Defeat was never something that was simply accepted, a pill that wasn't exactly that easiest kind to swallow for some. While the fact that one had been beaten in battle couldn't be reversed once things were finished, each individual had their own way of handling their loss in the tournament. Their own way trying to put that aside and just get it all off their chest after the day's events.

There were a good number of people that weren't the best when it came to the acceptance of their defeat. Those Smashers would tend to be in a bitter mood about it throughout the evening that followed, pouty as a child in the middle of their fit to the others that spoke to them.

On there other hand, there was a majority that was the polar opposite when it came to this. Some were able to forget about it a bit without much difficulty, congratulating the victor of the battle and putting competition aside. Some of them might have resorted to an enjoyable hobby in those to take their mind off of it, while others pledged to themselves to try harder next time and started polishing their skills in advance.

For a certain lupine and leader of a mercenary group in space, his methods of handling unfortunate circumstances weren't exactly the most traditional.

Darkness had taken over the skies across the mansion, with nothing but a moon in its crescent phase to gleam against the tar-black atmosphere above him. The grass on the outside of the property, which was in desperate need of mowing, swayed in the breeze as he crunched through it. Crickets and locusts jabbering on with their piercing noise, much louder to his ears, carried on in the distance, the only other things creating commotion at this time of night.

For a few moments, Wolf just stood where he was, staring out into space, reassessing what had happened earlier. He was not, by any means, a sore loser; matter of fact, he never was and probably never would be. Most of the time, he took these kinds of things with a grain of salt, but tonight was different for him.

There had been a battle between him and Snake this afternoon, and both of them, from what those watching it saw, fought exceptionally well. Despite the taunting that came from the man that was his opponent, he made sure to give it his all. Neither of them managed to knock one another off the stage, and the round went into sudden death. It was then that Wolf was unlucky enough to not duck in time, and he was the one to immediately lose in the face of him doing so well leading up to that.

The villains that resided in the mansion tried giving him the usual speil about how he would get him next time, and all of that other preachy stuff that didn't truly help him at all.

"It's one thing to lose after having your ass handed to you the whole time," Wolf said to them, "but it's worse when you do at the last frickin' second. You know what I mean?"

"I know the feeling. You fought with everything you had, though," Ganondorf replied. "I think you should be proud at how well you dodged all of Snake's moves out there.

"I don't think any of us did as well against him this year as you did," Ridley chimed in, trying to cheer a fellow villain up.

"You're more than welcome to join us tonight and have a few drinks with us at the Villain's Club," the Gerudo warlock added.

With a heavy sigh, Wolf replied, "I appreciate the offer, but I think I'm gonna have to pass on that tonight."

He needed to release his despondency the only way he truly knew how. The way his species always did.

And that exactly was what he was doing right now…

The cacophonous chirring from the crickets started to fade away, as if their performance had come to its close and they were now hushed until tomorrow. The moment the trilling completely dissipated, the lupine leaned his head back and unleashed a long, doleful howl.

The disconsolate cry sliced through the sound-vacant night for a short time. Once he finished and went back to just looking out at the scenery again, the thoughts that had been wandering about in his mind had all went away. The disappointment he had been feeling inside seemed to vanish when he let the howl free from its confinement.

His modus operandi for unleashing stress or tension wasn't some foil-proof cure for every situation, nor did he ever make claims that it could be, but it surely worked for him a large percent of the time.

Jingling came from directly behind the tall wolf, and whatever was making that noise was somewhere to the right of him. Guess I'm not the only one who's out here. Could've sworn there was nobody around.

He turned his head to the side and saw that the sound was coming from a certain brown-furred dog that resided in the mansion. The tag that was on his collar had been the object that made that soft tinkling sound before. The dog, who was sitting in the grass a good distance away, lifted his own head up to the skies and started to let out a yip that turned into a not-so-loud howl. It was like he had heard Wolf from wherever he had been and instinctively had to join in.

He stood there silently as the canine broke out into one of his attempted howls, this one being held for longer than the one he had done before. It was after this that the dog trotted up towards Wolf, sitting back down in the grass a few inches away from him.

"It really takes a weight of your chest, doesn't it?" Wolf said to him.

He turned his attention back to what was out in front of him, the reflection of the crescent moon against the waters way out in the distance. He howled once again into the stillness of the night, this time with the canine to his right uttering one at the same time. While they were in the midst of doing this, however, they could hear somebody else's voice joining in, this time to their left.

Wolf paused and looked over to see Lucario, standing underneath the glow of one of the mansion's outside lights that lit the garden over there. He might have resembled a canine, but he didn't exactly think that a Pokemon like him would be the one to take part in this kind of thing.

He shrugged his shoulders at this and didn't think much of it. He was starting to realize then that the therapeutic benefits of letting out a good howl every now and then were useful to more than just him.

Author's Note: Yeah, I know that this another story centered around Wolf, but the idea to write about him again came to mind last night and I needed to do it. Also, Wolf has been a character I've played a lot as since I first unlocked him as a newcomer in Brawl.

I can assure you that there are definitely other stories I have planned to share with y'all that involve other characters. No promises that I won't have more about Wolf in the future, though. XD

Anywho, I hope you all enjoyed this little story of mine. This was among the stories I've written in a quicker amount of time, so hopefully I did a good job on it and that it was enjoyable. I originally had this planned to be a story that had no dialogue in it, but I decided to add a little bit to it as I was finishing it up.

As always, let me know what your thoughts are on this. Your feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated.

'Til next time! :)