Interlude 2: Running into Old Friends

Dinner in the cafeteria was the most raucous it had been since the doors opened to The Smash Mansion for the tournament. As no one was technically ever required to eat in the cafeteria, for the exception of the opening night, the hustle ebbed and flowed with complete irregularity. As the cafeteria was 24/7 self-serve, it wasn't uncommon to see the cafeteria barren except for a few people. But, talk of the fifth newcomer had given way to excited chitter-chatter about sorts of topics.

Zooming through the chaos, chili-dog in hand was Sonic the Hedgehog. One of the things that made navigating a crowded room interesting with his powerset was that Sonic could stop, absorb conversation, and leave, sometimes all before the speakers had noticed he was even there. He stopped at a table occupied by Ken, Ryu, Terry, Little Mac, Doc Lewis, and Incineroar, as Ken was animatedly telling a story.

"And so I flicked Mac on the chin and said 'Ey! C'mon c'mon!'"

Terry smirked as the rest of the table erupted into laughter, "You jerk, that's copyrighted gold," he chided playfully.

"You call it plagiarism, I call it researching a great," Ken chided back, flashing a pearly white smile.

Incineroar uproariously laughed. But, this was fake, haughty, "Course, martial arts and wrestling are always gonna make boxers look like jabronis, every time, so really don't matter who's stealing what gimmick brother. "

Mac raised an eyebrow, " Come again?" he asked, as he shot a now aggravated looking Doc a stern look

"Oh c'mon! The footage is on the Pokemon League Network on Pokegear! You ain't ever seen Chuck vs Bruno when Chuck was in his prime? Chuck's Hitmonlee took down Bruno's Hitmonchan, but Bruno's Machoke took down Chuck's Hitmonlee. It's basically Rock Type, Paper, Scissors"

"Ey man, you ever take down Donkey Kong?" muttered Doc, "Because Mac did."

"That monkey with the tie? He's a big guy, but I probably could. Alolan Strong Style goes harder brother!"

"I don't know what Alolan Strong Style is. All I know, pal, is that you waited to make your big entrance until I was already embedded in the big screen." Mac chided.

"Don't work yourself into a shoot brother, big entrances sell merch. 'Sides, Ken and I were the attraction, two foreign fighters to your territory. I wouldn't mind sparring with you in the training room when they open up"

Mac smirked, "Bring it. I've fought far weirder than you."

Suddenly, something clicked in Sonic's head.

Donkey Kong. I wonder if… he thought, jetting off.

Sure enough, further down the length of the cafeteria, The Kongs, King K. Rool, Banjo, Kazooie, all three Links, and Zelda were sat at one of the long dining room tables As with the other table, Kazooie was in the thick of an animated discussion.

"So what you're saying is, you hit the chicken, and you got jumped by his friends?" Kazooie asked, holding in her laughter.

Link hung his head, which caused Zelda to giggle, "Look, I was in a fight with a Moblin and this chicken wouldn't move out of the way, so I accidentally hit it a couple of times. I take the Moblin out and next thing I know the sun is blotted out with chickens."

Young Link snorted with laughter, "The Goddess sent chickens!"

"Hey, at least the chickens don't drop coconuts. This guy's henchmen" Diddy interjected, pointing at King K. Rool, "Did a lot of that."

"I'll have you know they are fine troops with the finest weaponry, and the aerial advantage is of the utmost importance," growled the Kremling King.

Donkey Kong shrugged, "The many bumps on my noggin say he's right,"

"Still though" Kazooie interrupted, "I can't stop thinking about the sun being blotted out by chickens. Power to the fowls!" Kazooie said with a squawking laugh,

"Still as ridiculous as ever eh Kazooie?" Sonic quipped.

Every head at the table turned to look up towards Sonic, Banjo broke out into a huge grin, as did Kazooie.

"Sonic!" they both cried.

"Good to see ya both. I was wondering when I'd eventually see you guys.' Sonic explained

"Little bit difficult to find any one person in this place isn't it?" Banjo mused.

"Enough of the pleasantries," blurted The Kremling King, "I demand to know how you two know this, erm, blue rat."

Sonic rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed, "Well…um…back in the day I kind of…I kind of wiped an entire island from the timeline," he said.

Zelda, who was mid-bite of a salad, nearly choked, "S-sonic? How? Why?"

"Mario never told you?"

"No!" she shouted

Sonic frowned, "The princess of the island demanded I do it. It was the only way we could stop the monster that was plaguing her world and bringing on an apocalyptic future. I felt like a failure, went into hiding."

"And then." Diddy Kong interjected, "Cause Master Hand was worried about Sonic hurting himself, Master Hand merged Sonic's universe with ours, which brought the Isle o' Hags into that dimension."

Kazooie held up two talons mid-sip of ginger beer, "Into two dimensions."

"Two?" asked Toon Link.

"Yeah! You know how the multi-verse got all jumbled when you beat Tabuu? Well, somehow, we drifted into the cosmos So then Master Hand challenges us an' Grunty to the car thing.," Banjo explained.

"And then," Kazooie continued, " We somehow got thrust into the second dimension of this wild ride, which is the universe Sonic lives in, which is why we ended up in that racing tournament."

"And so I guess the only way Master Hand could check up on you was to masquerade as LOG?" Diddy asked.

"Yeah!" chirped Kazooie, "I guess because Sonic's and Mario's dimension's are…nearby, that put us back on the radar, though I never understood why Master Hand couldn't have just put us back while we were floating out there."

"Because overuse of the Smash Core was weakening him," Zelda hurriedly said, "At least, that's what Shulk deduced after the Master Core incident."

"I thank the Jiggies above that Hand was lucid enough to check up on us," Banjo proclaimed, clasping his paws in prayer for effect.

"And lucid enough to give us a road map to fix the mess Tabuu made before he and Crazy kicked the bucket," Sonic interjected .

"That had to do with Ryu and Megaman's pocket dimension, or whatever it was called, right Zel?" asked Young Link.

Zelda nodded, "Yes. Apparently coming into contact with Ryu's universe, something so intricately weaved with so many others, it gave Master Hand the creative inspiration he needed to set your mess back the way it should be."

"Creative…inspiration? That's something you say when you knit a sweater, not when you fix the laws of time and space!" crowed Kazooie.

"That's exactly how Master Hand described it! He saw the multiverse as a complicated croche project!"

"Urgh, this makes my head hurt" Donkey admitted, pushing away a large banana plate, which Diddy gleefully began to munch on.

"You can ask Cranky about it when we get phone time tonight. He can explain it," said Diddy, his voice muffled from a mouthful of bananas

"Or Mewtwo," said Zelda, "I would love to see the equation that explains these dimensional shenanigans"

Young Link and Link groaned simultaneously.

"Ugh, Zelda and her math" groaned Young Link, while Link nodded in agreement, "Hey Toon, is your Zelda a big nerd too?" chided the young warrior

"Hey!" Zelda whined playfully, "I resent that!"

"I mean, she's good at reading star maps because she's a pirate."

Both of the other Links nodded as Banjo gasped excitedly, "Wait a Jiggy flippin' minute. Your girlfriend's a pirate?"

"I mean, she's not my girlfriend. But yeah, my…Zelda is a pirate."

Banjo smiled, "That's awesome. Part of me always wanted to be a pirate."

"Yeah," Kazooie agreed, rolling her eyes, "He talks about it all the time"

"Hey, don't start this again. I've told you a million times. We shoulda bought that ship from Blubber, sailed to Jolly Roger Lagoon, opened a restaurant…"

"Yeah like your lazy fuzzy butt would run a restaurant."

"That's what middle managers are for Kazooie!"

Sonic mockingly saluted the rest of the table as the bear and bird bickered, zooming away.

"Heh, those two arguing like a couple, I missed it," Sonic thought aloud, "But I do owe that crocodile a punch in his big fat gut once training rooms open up for that blue rat comment," he decided as he rounded the corner to the hallway containing the bedrooms

However, in his speed, Sonic didn't notice that he had nearly collided with Isabelle, who was walking with her roommate Snake. The wind tussled at the clothes she was wearing as he blew past.

"YEEOW!" Isabelle yelped in fright, "What was that Snake?"

Snake eyes narrowed, "You mean 'who?' That was Sonic the Hedgehog. World's fastest obnoxious asshole."

Isabelle growled, which briefly stunned Snake, "That's not very polite to say about someone Snake."

"B-but I roomed with him two tournaments ago. He listens to punk rock loudly at all hours!" protested an unusually stammered Snake

"Still! That's no excuse to use such language! You and I are going to bake cookies for the new fighter and Sonic, and you are gonna like it!" squeaked Isabelle.

"Cookies? What kind of guy do you think I am?"

Isabelle giggled, "Nothing too complicated. We'll do a simple chocolate chip recipe. Even Roy couldn't mess that up!"

The two friends chuckled as they rounded the corner out of the bedroom hall.