Battle Of The Luminaries 3

by Tinyhammer

Votefic. UVR Spinoff. Cross-Pasted On ArchiveOfOurOwn. After at least a decade when the second tournament was unfortunately been cancelled, the Battle of the Luminaries is finally back with its largest roster yet. Who will win? YOU DECIDE! Also, I WILL NOT TAKE MYSTERY FIGHTER REQUESTS!

46. Section Twenty-One Results

(The Arena)

Most of the fighters and the audience were worried. Drake, the main host, had been kidnapped and being held hostage by the Xuan Dou Zhi Wang cast and considering how angry the group was so not having Yan as a Mystery Fighter in the tournament, people could only wonder how horrible things they would do to him.

But at the same time, they also knew that Xuan Dou Zhi Wang also wanted to ruin the tournament so the fighters couldn't do anything but continue it. All they could hope was that the fighters and the security team OUTSIDE of the arena would do something before it was too late.

For better or for worse, Mario's stage choice should help with that by making it Golden Plains from Super Smash Bros with coins everywhere, which automatically vanishes into whoever was touching them and putting them in their "count". Once they reached 100 coins, then things would get… Interesting.

Loona winced as her canine ears twitched. "Ugh, I swear it is like every stage is destined to piss me off! I am losing my mind over those stupid coin collecting noises!"

"It IS quite distracting if you are not used to it." Hibiki Kohaku frowned.

"I don't know what you two are going on about." King Dice said, raising an eyebrow. "If anything, MY complaint is that I will fall asleep because of how much of a lullaby it is."

Loona and Hibiki looked at King Dice with exasperated looks before looking at each other.

"Let's get him." Loona muttered.

"As my master would say, 'duh'". Hibiki said.

King Dice's face fell as Loona and Hibiki lunged at him. Suddenly, the purple-clad man fell into a portal from underneath his feet, managing to dodge the two attacks. As the two looked stunned by this, another portal popped up behind Hibiki. King Dice then popped out of it before smirking and swinging his club at Hibiki.

However, the blue-clad man raised one of his twin blades to block the attack without looking. As King Dice's smirk vanished, Hibiki then slashed King Dice in the chest before kicking the Devil's right-hand man in the stomach, causing him to stagger back. Loona then got out her rifle and fired a shot at King Dice's head. It was so powerful that it literally took King Dice's head. Several people cried out in horror while Loona blinked twice.

"...Welp, I'm getting disqualified." Loona muttered. "Shit."

"Take a better look." Hibiki warned.

Loona looked to see King Dice's head on the ground, glaring up at the two. King Dice's body then crouched down to pick it up.

"Not afraid to fight dirty, huh?" King Dice growled. "Well, THIS die is LOADED!"

With that, he threw his own head like a baseball at the nearest person, which was Hibiki. The twin swordsman raised his weapons to block the attack.

BOOM!

However, King Dice's head EXPLODED which sent Hibiki flying away. Loona watched in shock before Hibiki crashed onto Coco Bandicoot and Labrys. She then looked back at the still-headless King Dice. The latter then had his head appear out of his suit.

Loona slumped her arms. "...Oh, right. I just realised how frustrating fighting a toon can be."

Alice Garnet Nakata yelped before running to the side to avoid a series of red shots from a wand. Ashley just had her trademark icy glare before she continued firing more shots, but Alice shrugged to avoid them. She then growled before growling at the guilty party.

"You're mine!" Alice shouted before zooming straight at Ashley. However, due to the witch being a small child, the attack went straight over her. While Alice was stumbling from her own attack, Ashley sent out her free hand and zapped Alice with a burst of purple electricity. As the blonde cried out in pain, Ashley raised her wand.

"Red, Wiggle Room." Ashley instructed.

Suddenly, her wand turned into a puff of smoke before turning into a hula-hoop. Ashley then started to sway her hips around, managing to hit Alice in the legs a few times before knocking her down. As Alice fell onto her rear, the hula-hoop got engulfed in another puff of smoke, this time transforming into Red. Ashley then stepped forward while engulfing both of her hands in purple electricity. Alice scooted back on her rear.

"Veil of Faith!"

Ashley suddenly winced before looking to the side while plugging her nose. Alice raised an eyebrow before turning to see Cheria Barnes casting a spell to cover her and the Inkling in a holy aura while fighting against Shadow Jago.

"Um, what is going on?" Alice asked, confused.

"Ashley doesn't like white magic." Red frowned.

"It stinks. Literally." The dark-haired girl grunted in disgust.

"Well, it can't be helped." Alice shrugged.

"Perhaps. UNLESS we take on the problem head-on." Ashley said. "Come on, Red. I need a ride."

"Um, okay." The imp said, blinking twice.

With that, he turned himself into a broom and allowed Ashley to sit on it. She then flew off into the sky before collecting as many of the floating, rotating coins as she could. Alice just blinked twice in confusion. After a few seconds of coin-collecting later, Ashley and by extension, Red was completely covered in a golden coating.

"Ooh, Ashley is the first one to get the super-powered Golden Form!" Tumble pointed out. "What is she going to do with it?"

The witch merely nodded her head. "Okay, listen to what I have to say."

With that, she whispered in the broom. If Red could talk in her form, he would exclaim "WHAT" in a loud voice, but he knew better than to go against Ashley. So he flew Ashley over to the fight between Cheria, the Inkling and Shadow Jago. The latter was about to slash at his opponent with his blade.

Then, Red turned back into his regular form (while Ashley got off), startling all three. He then flew towards Shadow Jago before descending down until he was between Shadow Jago's legs.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" Red apologised, profusely. "FATAPULT!"

With that, he turned into a catapult with Shadow Jago standing underneath one end. Ashley nodded before jumping up towards the other side of the catapult. By the time Shadow Jago realised what was going on, it was too late.

"No, wait!"

WHOOSH!

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Needless to say, on a regular basis, Ashley was much lighter than Shadow Jago. However, due to the extra weight from the Golden Form, Ashley was easily able to send Shadow Jago flying while screaming at the top of his lungs. The evil clone of Jago then crashed between the 2-on-2 with Greymon & Mechanica and Dr. Eggman and King K. Rool, startling them.

Cheria and the Inkling watched with wide eyes and slack jaws at this. Ashley nodded her head before walking over to the Inkling and grabbing her by her hand before dragging her away. The orange-tentacled girl was too busy being bewildered to pull her hand away (not that it would do any good with the heavy weight of the Golden form). Soon, they reached Alice who looked just as stunned.

"You. And you. You are now each other's opponents." Ashley said, shifting her eyes between Alice and the Inkling.

With that, she made her way back over to Cheria.

"Okay, here is the deal: I HATE being around white mages." Ashley said, matter-of-factly. "So the earlier I eliminate you, the better."

Cheria blinked twice before getting out a throwing knife from her sleeve. "...Someone needs a lesson in manners."

Alice and the Inkling both stared at the exchange. They then looked at each other before shrugging.

(Announcer's Booth)

The Millennium Star gave an exasperated stare. "...I know that interrupting fights has always been a thing at these things but I don't think there was anyone that was so… Brazen about it."

"Ashley is just being Ashley…" Tumble shrugged.

With that, the two looked down at THEIR Ashley in worry. The wizard was looking down at his Star Piece.

"It… It just happened so far." Ashley said. "One minute we were talking about how far we got in this tournament. And the next thing I know, we were both sinking into the floor as it turned into darkness. And in a bright light, I was lying on the floor as if it was solid."

"But… How?" Tumble asked. "Who had that much power to do that? Not even Psycho Mantis could do that."

"Indeed." The Millennium Star noted. "Say, Ashley, can I see that Star Piece?"

While still shaken up, the purple-haired man held out his hand with the Star Piece in it. The Millennium Star examined it and… His eyes widened.

"Wait, what!?" The Millennium Star exclaimed.

"W-What is it?" Ashley asked.

"That Star Piece… It is filled with MY stardust!" The Millennium Star gasped.

Tumble's eyes widened at this. "R-Really?"

"Yes!" The Millennium Star nodded.

"So wait… These are YOUR Star Pieces?" Ashley asked.

The Millennium Star shook his head. "N-No! I didn't even know that ANY of them were here!"

"But if that is the case, where did they come from and when are they more powerful than regular Star Pieces?" Tumble frowned.

"...Doesn't matter."

The Millennium Star and Tumble both looked down at Ashley who had a stern look on his face.

"...All we know is that they are needed to fight 'Psycho Mantis'." Ashley said. "Let's hope that they can find them."

"R-Right…" Tumble said.

"Until then, could you handle the fighter announcements and other things until at least the next section?" Ashley asked.

"Um, of course." The Millennium Star said.

"Take all of the time you would need." Tumble nodded.

"Thanks… I… Just need a breather." Ashley sighed.

The Millennium Star and Tumble looked forward before leaving the booth to watch over the tournament. Meanwhile, Ashley finished his text and sent it. It took ten seconds but he saw someone typing a reply.

"How are you holding out, Ashley?"

The wizard just frowned.

"Not good. I feel like I am about to have a panic attack."

"Oh crap. Well, if there is anything you need, just tell me."

"Actually, there IS one thing I need."

Ashley then took a deep breath.

"Could you… Invite Xuan Dou Zhi Wang to the next Tournament of Kikai?"

Unlike with the previous texts, Xero was quite slow to give their response. However, he could tell that he had a lot to think about.

"ARE YOU OUT OF MY MIND?"

"Xuan Dou Zhi Wang are acting like this because Yan weren't invited to this one, right? Maybe if we'll give them a spot in the roster, they would let Drake go."

"Sooo… You want to REWARD them for attempting to ruin an UVR tournament."

Ashley growled before furiously typing on his phone.

"What choice do I have!? Drake is alone with those bastards and after what they did to Terry and Snoopy, who knows what they would do to Drake!?"

"Ashley… How is this different from me accepting Junko as the third host at the first Tournament of Kikai?"

"What kind of question is THAT!? I am doing this to save Drake! YOU are doing this because of how "fun" it is!"

"To be fair, it WAS fun until the end…"

"EXCUSE ME!?"

There was a brief pause as Xero took some time to type his next response.

"Look. This isn't like Soul Calibur where they ALL excused themselves in fear that the soul swords would act up in the next tournament."

Xero wasn't done yet.

"These guys are actively trying to ruin things for everyone just because they didn't get their way."

Ashley paused for a moment before typing in his phone.

"But Drake is in danger…"

"And he would never want Xuan Dou Zhi Wang near this tournament after what he did to this tournament."

Ashley stopped as Xero continued his talk.

"Look, knowing this tournament, he will be fine. There is always one hero group fighting to stop the villain group."

"Besides, if I might invite Xuan Dou Zhi Wang to the Tournament of Kikai, I might as well ask Junko to engulf the multiverse in eternal despair."

"Sorry…"

"It's fine. Despite what I said, I am worried about Drake too. I'll see what I can do. For now, just keep strong for Drake's sake."

Ashley nodded his head before lying back in his chair with tears running down his face.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Drake is my friend too."

Ashley sighed before collapsing in his seat.

"...The hell's wrong with me when XERO is the rational one in this conversation." Ashley muttered.

(Inkwell Hell; Throne Room)

The Devil gave an interested look as he sat in his throne as he watched a demonic floating mirror that showed the tournament, including King Dice as he fought one-on-one against Loona.

"Not going to lie, for a non-killing tournament, it actually looks pretty fun." The Devil mused.

"Indeed, it does."

The Devil's eyes widened before turning his head to the direction of the voice to see a cloud of red smoke forming to the side. It then started to swirl up and form into a figure. A red-skinned devil dressed flamboyantly with pincers for hands.

"It is absolutely fascinating how chaotic UVR tournaments can be." The red-skinned devil said in a dramatic voice.

The Devil's pupils at this. "HIM!"

"That's my name! Don't use it in vain!" The red-skinned devil sneered, posing flamboyantly.

The Devil narrowed his eyes. "Fellow devil or not, you have a lot of gall entering MY hell without permission."

"Oh, come now, Devil, you know me." HIM scolded. "Knocking is simply not my thing. I prefer more… erratic entrances."

"Yeah, fair enough." The black-furred devil said, rolling his eyes. "Well, what are you doing here? I doubt that you came here to annoy me."

"Indeed, I didn't. I just thought I should tell you something very important." HIM sneered.

"Well, make it quick, I do not want to miss King Dice fighting!" The Devil scolded.

HIM raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Did you think that he will do well?"

"Considering that he keeps failing to take the cups' souls, not a chancel." The Devil said, shaking his head. "However, at the same time, he will somehow fail in style. With his glitz, his pizazz, his razzle-dazzle, he will still put on a grand show, regardless of how well you do."

HIM then frowned. "Um, I know that devils stand for the opposites of virtues. But there is nothing wrong with showing them every once in a while, like honesty."

The Devil turned towards HIM confused. "What do you mean…?"

"Oh, it is nothing." The red-skinned devil said, rolling his eyes. "I do not mind messing with other people's relationships, I made a vow not to do so with people I respect."

The Devil just blinked twice as HIM sighed.

"Sooo… I was looking over the roster for the second Tournament of Kikai and as it turns out, YOU'RE going to be one of them!" HIM said with his smirk returning.

"Wait, WHAT!?" The Devil gasped.

"Indeed. What are the odds that you and your right-hand man would show up in back-to-back UVR tournaments?" HIM noted.

The Devil continued to stay stunned. He then smirked before proudly placing his trident in the ground.

"Heh, well, Xero may be an idiot but he definitely has good taste." The Devil noted. He then paused. "Wait, if YOU'RE telling me this then I take it Cartoon Network: Punch-Time Explosion has gotten ALL of the characters from the XL release."

"Yes and no." HIM shrugged before placing a pincer on his cheek. "All of the characters from that game will be coming back but my sub-node is getting its own spot."

The Devil raised an eyebrow. "Not too surprising seeing that Bubbles has gotten the top slot in terms of eliminations in the last tournament."

"Well, in any case, even if I was part of the Punch-Time Explosion roster, things wouldn't have changed." HIM offered.

"Oh, I take it that you have a villain plot planned in that tournament?" The Devil asked.

"Yes. Which brings me to talk it over with you here." HIM nodded.

"Okay, fair enough." The Devil nodded before looking grumpy. "But again, I wish that you'll tell me when I am not watching King Dice."

Suddenly, HIM's smirk vanished.

"Yeahhhhh… About that. You are free to gag all you want, but for my villain plan to even start, let alone work, at the next tournament, we have to do something HEROIC at THIS tournament." HIM admitted.

The Devil just blinked twice at this.

(The Arena)

Shadow Jago gritted his teeth behind his mask before flipping backwards to avoid a series of missiles. However, a navy-blue missile flew at him, forcing Shadow Jago to send out a dark blue energy ball at the incoming attack. However, the Homie arm exploded in Jago's evil clone's face, knocking him down and sending him onto his back dazed.

He then saw the bodies of Greymon and King K. Rool jumping in with their large bodies blocking out the arena light. Shadow Jago's eyes bugged out before flashing in a dark blue light to avoid the double body slam. Shadow Jago then reappeared in front of Dr. Eggman and Mechanica before lunging at them.

However, Eggman narrowed his eyes before getting a pair of mechanical pincer arms out of his Egg Walker to block Shadow Jago's blade. Eggman then moved one of his arms to grab Shadow Jago but the dark blue man leapt up to kick Eggman in the face, stunning him. However, Shadow Jago turned his head to raise his blade to block a spinning crown. Said brown went back to K. Rool's hand before placing it on top of his head.

"Hey, why are you all attacking me?" Shadow Jago roared. "I wouldn't even have interrupted your fight if it wasn't for that witch brat!"

Greymon, K. Rool, Eggman and Mechanica paused before looking at each other. They then gave their response in unison.

"Because we don't think you deserve your own spot in this tournament."

Shadow Jago's eyes bugged out at this. "Excuse me!?"

"I mean I did my research on your node." Eggman frowned. "Not only as you the Evil Ryu of Killer Instinct but technically speaking, you are more Omen than your own character!"

"If you did your research all of the way, you would know that I manifested as a separate entity, albeit still looking under Gargos," Shadow Jago shot back.

"Bruh, I was with Gargos for a good portion of the tournament and I saw neither hide nor hair of you!" K. Rool said, shaking his head.

"Oh, because YOU don't have evil clones in YOUR node!" Shadow Jago growled from behind his mask.

"Don't you dare look at ME!" Eggman scolded. "Metal Sonic may obviously have been created to exceed the original one, but not only does have a few moves of his own, but he also has the power to copy OTHER people's fighting styles."

"Blackwargreymon had developed his own personal arc in Digimon Adventure 02 so he earned that spot as a separate character." Greymon added.

"Unless you count the Tiki Tak Tribe or the Snowmads, I don't think I had to deal with them." K. Rool shrugged. "Technically in Super Smash Bros, I had to deal with Dark Pit and Dark Samus but by that time, the game embraced the concept of Echo Fighters sooo…"

"Springtron may be an evil robot version of Springman but at least he managed to be a hard sub-boss, if you make it up to Max Brass without losing a single round on difficulty 4 or higher." Mechanica concluded.

"By that logic, YOU should respect and fear me most out of you four fools!" Shadow Jago scolded. "I was the original true final boss of the 2013 reboot! First, you have to get every ending of the character you are playing as before you want to fight me! Then, you have to beat the game on Hard AND finish at least two opponents with an Ultra AND make sure that at least one of said opponents is the sixth one. Only THEN you will fight me and if you win, you will get a teaser for ARIA. You know, the BIG BAD of UltraTech itself!"

"...You are still just a gloried edgy Palette Swap of Jago." Greymon muttered. "No, really, Tai played you when you first became playable and was severely disappointed."

Shadow Jago blinked twice before slapping his forehead in frustration. "He clearly didn't played me when Rare set up a donation drive because if he did, he would know that when it got $100,000 was when I finally got the moveset from my boss fight!"

Eggman slumped his arms. "...People would fund that but not fund Eggmanland?"

"To be fair to Mr. Shago, despite being a villain, the new moveset isn't used to attempt to take over the world." Mechanica scolded, glaring at Eggman.

"I mean fair but still…" Eggman frowned.

By this time, Shadow Jago started to pant heavily with his dark face actually turning bright with a crimson red. He then let out a roar of pure fury before vanishing and reappearing between Eggman's Egg Walker and slashing it in the back. He then teleported before reappearing Greymon to slash HIM in the side.

Shadow Jago then proceeded to teleport around the four, slashing them multiple times. Greymon and K. Rool grunted in pain while Eggman and Mechanica ducked behind their respective mechas to avoid their actual bodies being slashed.

"Eggman, can't you lock onto him!" Greymon shouted.

"I can't! He is moving too fast to lock onto him!" Eggman yelled from the safety of his Egg Walker.

Mechanica frowned, realising that nobody had the speed to catch up to Shadow Jago. In fact, even KID COBRA would have a tough time keeping up with him. Then, she thought of something. Using her ARMS, she wrapped them around herself as if they were boas wrapping around their prey.

CLANG!

Mechanica then poked her head out to see the source of the sound. When Shadow Jago went to attack Mechanica next, he ended up getting his dominant hard struck inside of the mechanical arms. Shadow Jago winced from the pain as he tried to teleport out. However, Mechanica then had her arms grab Shadow Jago to prevent him from teleporting.

"Sorry, Shago. But after Kage showed up in Street Fighter V, I became cynical of evil clones of the main protagonist in fighting games." Mechanica frowned.

Shadow Jago's pupils shrank in rage. "I can't believe this! I was in the gaming world LONG before Street Fighter V was even ANNOUNCED, let alone before Kage was…"

However, Mechanica didn't let him finish before spiking him to the ground. With the evil clone stunned, Mechanica threw him out of the ring.

Shadow Jago landed in Skullgirls where he let on a huge rant for being overlooked like that. However, he was doing it in front of Fukua and the dark clone of Filia did not find Shadow Jago's ranting amusing in the slightest as she went in for the kill.

Greymon, Mechanica, Eggman and K. Rool weren't the only ones who had a hard time as Labrys and Coco Bandicoot frowned as they struggled to keep their eye on their new opponent which the latter was thrown onto them by King Dice. Despite this, Hibiki Kohaku was doing good against the two, splitting himself into two versions of himself to disorientate and attack.

"Ugh, he is too fast fawh us!" Labrys groaned.

"At least YOU can tank them!" Coco retorted. "I am all fur and blood!"

Hibiki then stopped running before glaring at the two. "It is your fault that you stopped me from rejoining the hellhound in taking down that gambler."

"Hey, I could fawhgive de fight interrupshun becawze whethuh we like it or not, dey will happen all ovuh regardless of de stage choice or de amount of Big Guys." Labrys said before frowning. "But…"

"Look, there is no easy way of saying this, you give me the heebie-jeebies." Coco winced. "And considering the amount of creeps in MY node, that is one statement."

Hibiki just frowned, realising what the two were referring to before dashing towards Coco, seeing her as the easier target. However, Coco saw him coming and acted quickly before spinning around very fast, doing the trademark Cyclone Spin. Hibiki was sent flying backwards before then self-righted himself and planted his twin blade into the ground to stop himself from flying back.

However, Coco then grabbed Labrys' hand before running off while taking the startled android with her. Hibiki then ran after the two women. Suddenly, a transparent pale blue brick wall appeared in front of Coco and Labrys. Despite this, the two went through it as if it was just a hologram. Hibiki's eyes widened before acting quickly and leapt up while kicking his feet out.

The feet then collided with the brick wall as if it was solid, despite Coco and Labrys running through it just fine. Hibiki then used the momentum to do a backflip, barely managing to avoid getting smashed into the wall. He then looked up to see Coco and Labrys collecting coins, most likely to get the golden form. Hibiki then narrowed his eyes before dashing forward.

Coco saw him coming and jumped up and did a Cyclone Spin, however doing so horizontal, propelling herself forward. Labrys on the other hand raised her axe to block the incoming Hibiki. However, instead of attacking him with his blades, the purple-haired man grabbed Labrys before performing an Izuna Drop. While it didn't hurt the android that much, it did stunned her.

Hibiki then ran after Coco, seeing her as the easier target. However, the she-bandicoot saw him coming and did her Spiral (horizontal Spin Attack) to get more space between her and Hibiki while collecting as many coins as possible. The blue-clad man then jumped up and threw down some throwing knives.

However, she yelped before summoning a Quantum Wall to stop the incoming , Hibiki ran to the side before leaping at Coco. The blonde smirked before doing a Spin Attack. But the moment her Spin Attack collided with the leaping Hibiki, the purple-haired man disappeared before reappearing on a spot on the grass before doing his own spinning attack, knocking Coco out of her attack onto her rear.

Coco blinked twice before narrowing her eyes. "Wait, you have a counter attack in your COMMAND JUMP? Well, THAT is not cheap."

"Well, I wouldn't make it as Kagura's personal servant if I played fair." Hibiki retorted before raising one of his blades.

Only for something to grab his shoulder from behind. Turning around, he saw Labrys' grapple-hook hand on him before the white-haired girl flew towards him. Hibiki's eyes widened before turning around to see Labrys dashing over. She then wrapped her arms around him tightly.

"Coco, NOW!" Labrys shouted.

The she-bandicoot nodded before running towards the two before doing a flip, kicking Hibiki in the chin and knocking the blue-clad man into the air. Coco then leapt up into the air before performing her Spiral into Hibiki, sending him flying over the ropes with no hope of returning.

Hibiki landed in Attack on Titan where Levi mistook him for a clone of him and went in for the kill.

Sailor Jupiter and Doris yelped before diving to the side to avoid a moving studio camera. April O'Neil smirked before rushing over while getting out a boom microphone and swinging in horizontal, knocking both women down. April then leapt up into the air and did a diving kick towards Sailor Jupiter. However, the Sailor Scout snapped out of her daze in time before grabbing April's foot before it could reach.

Sailor Jupiter then threw April onto the ground, allowing the former to get up. Only for a shuriken to zoom past her. Sailor Jupiter yelped before turning her head to see Doris getting up on her feet while getting out another shuriken.

"You and by extension, Fiona, could throw shuriken normally!?" Sailor Jupiter gasped.

"Of course! After spending so much time learning her human form's Super Slam, you didn't think that I wouldn't learn some regular shuriken throwing from trial-and-error?" Doris smirked.

By this time, April got up to her feet. "Um, what do you mean by trial-and-error?"

Doris' smirk vanished as she winced. "T-T-That is irrelevant! Let's keep going!"

Sailor Jupiter just blinked twice while April just… Frowned.

"I guess I have no right to complain considering the times I tried to use ninja equipment." April thought before nodding. "Yeah, you are right. Let's continue."

Sailor Jupiter just shrugged, realising that they have a point. Doris then threw her shuriken at April. However, the reporter got out a pair of claws before swinging them rapidly, managing to deflect the shuriken away.

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!" Sailor Jupiter shouted, summoning a disc of green electricity in her hand before throwing it at April who leapt over it. However, Sailor Jupiter then ran over to Doris.

"Jupiter Double Axel!" Sailor Jupiter shouted, raising her leg up and doing a skating double axel, striking Doris in the face multiple times. But as the purple-clad woman staggered back, April ran behind Sailor Jupiter, grabbed her and performed a German Suplex. However, after letting go of Sailor Jupiter and dropping her to the ground, it left her wide open from a flying kick to April's face, knocking her down.

Doris then got up two more shuriken and threw them at each opponent, but Sailor Jupiter and April snapped out of their respective dazes before rolling backwards to avoid the ninja stars. Doris then threw another shuriken at April, but the yellow-clad woman got out a studio camera out of nowhere to block it. She then pushed it towards Doris. The ugly stepsister's eyes widened before turning around and running off towards the corner post with April chasing after her.

Only for Doris to kick at the corner post before flipping off of it, backflipping over the startled April before doing a roundhouse kick in midair which struck April in the face and sent her flying away.

However, while she was flying away, her body was then surrounded in a golden coating, startling both Doris and Sailor Jupiter. After April groaned, the reporter sat up only to see her new golden form.

"H-How?" Sailor Jupiter gasped. "I didn't see her collect any coins!"

"That's because…" Doris frowned. "She picked them up by accident. She didn't HAD to go out of her way to collect them seeing that they were all over the place."

April looked over herself for a moment. She then smirked before getting up and rushing over to Doris. The purple woman yelped before throwing some shuriken forward but April merely raised her arms while still running, blocking the projectiles. April then gave Doris a series of punches, kicks and microphone smacks, not giving her a chance to block or counter before ending with an upwards kick combo that looked similar to what Chun-Li would do, knocking her out of the arena.

Doris landed in Disney's Cinderella where she personally showed Lady Tremaine exactly what she thought about her parenting methods not only Cinderella but also Anastasia and Drizella.

April then smirked before turning to Sailor Jupiter who shrank back. She then ran over before sending her fist out.

However, the electromancer stood her ground and caught April's fist, startling the reporter. With her stunned, Sailor Jupiter crouched down and grabbed April's legs. Despite the extra weight in April, Sailor Jupiter then proceeded swinging her around as if she was normal weight. After a few spins, Sailor Jupiter completed her Giant Swing by letting go of April and sent her flying over the ropes and out of the ring.

Sailor Jupiter smirked, cupping one hand to her mouth. "Heh! Just because you are super-heavy, that doesn't make it any easier for me to throw you!"

She then paused before lowering her arms.

"Okay… Maybe it IS a little harder." Sailor Jupiter groaned, feeling pain in her hands.

April landed in Dead Rising where she teamed up with Frank West to take down zombies with unorthodox methods.

Loona growled as she swerved her body around to avoid a series of playing cards. King Dice just chuckled before he continued to throw cards but Loona just got onto all fours and proceeded to run around the projectiles before jumping straight at King Dice. The purple-clad man's smirk vanished before diving into a portal just in time to avoid getting pounced at. Despite missing her attack, Loona easily landed on her feet before looking around while sniffing. With a smirk, she ran over to a spot.

Just in time for King Dice to reappear from another portal in the ground, causing Loona's second pounce to be a success before pinning King Dice to the ground. Loona then proceeded to slash King Dice across his face. However, instead of leaving unsightly slash marks, it sent King Dice's head spinning horizontal, alternating on each slash. Loona blinked twice before lowering her claws.

"...Fighting someone with toon physics sucks." Loona muttered.

By this time, while King Dice's head was still spinning, he kicked his leg out which knocked Loona off of him before stopping his head which resulted in his eyes spinning around while making dice noises. He then growled before getting up and spreading out his arms. This had sent three playing cards from his jacket in an upwards arc. However, Loona easily ran to the side.

"You know, no wonder you never play nice!" Loona smirked. "Your aim sucks!"

"The cards weren't my main attack!" King Dice taunted, smirking back.

Loona's smirk vanished before looking up to see the three cards floating up into the air. Then, the one floating underneath Loona got engulfed in a puff of smoke and then King Dice suddenly appeared in place of the card. Loona's eyes bugged out before diving in the side to avoid being belly-flopped. Then, King Dice's body vanished before his head started to bounce towards Loona.

Loona's eyes widened before jumping back, knowing his head could literally be explosive and got out a rifle before firing a shot at the dice, making it explode. Suddenly, one of the two remaining cards turned into King Dice before doing another belly-flop, this time hitting the unsuspecting Loona and pinning her to the ground. The hellhound groaned but the belly flop didn't hurt him that much.

But the exploding head did.

BOOM!

Loona was sent flying and sprawling painfully across the grassy ground. She then got up while holding her arm to see the final card turn into King Dice before he gracefully landed on the ground.

"Okay, what the hell!?" Loona growled. "I KNOW that what you just did is more than toon physics!"

"Well noticed, Miss Loona!" King Dice smirked. "It is actually what I picked up from a fan-made fight on YouTube.!"

"FAN-made fight!?" The goth said in disbelief. "Okay, I could buy the Sonic the Hedgehog node using moves from a fan-made fighting game because said fighting game apparently had its own competitive community for some reason but what is YOUR excuse!?"

King Dice paused before shrugging his shoulders. "It IS a very well-done fight. No, really, I don't really advertise things other than the stuff I run but you should check out Shaconda Cartoons' channel. It is really good!"

Loona blinked twice. "Um, weird place to put in a plug but alright."

"Alright, time in!" King Dice smirked, getting out his club and rushing forward.

Loona's eyes widened before trying to move out of the way but the point-blank explosion blast (and fatigue from the last two sections) made her go too slow, making it easy for King Dice to jab his club into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. King Dice then pulled his weapon back like a baseball bat.

"And it's a homeeeeeeeeerun!" King Dice yelled.

With that, he swung his club into Loona as hard as he could, sending Loona tumbling over the ropes and out of the arena.

Loona landed in Disney's Hercules. Cerberus saw her, had their red eyes turn into hearts and ran at her with a bouquet of narcissus in the middle one's mouth. Loona just blinked twice.

"Why not…?" Loona muttered, slumping her arms. "The internet already paired me up with nearly everyone else."

Toph Beifong simply walked to the side. Just in time to avoid a stone column falling onto the spot where she was previously standing. Mukai merely shrugged his shoulders before doing an axe kick on the ground to summon another column, this time from underneath Toph's feet. However, Toph seemed to sense this as she moved to the side. She then raised her arm to send a rock at Mukai.

However, Mukai merely raised a hand to easily block the incoming projectile. Toph then sent some more rocks forward but Mukai merely turned into a stone statue to block the incoming attack. But Toph sensed this smirk before waving her arm upward which sent the statue flying towards the ropes. That was until Mukai quickly broke out his statue form before summoning a column to pile-drive it to stop himself from falling out of the arena.

However, Mukai then got up while holding up another column. Toph sensed this and sent out a series of rocks forward through her earthbending but Mukai advanced forward while using the column as a shield before advancing forward. But Toph noticed this and did an axe kick before summoning a tiny platform underneath Mukai. But being a fellow geomancer, Mukai sensed it and used the platform to launch himself forward.

When Mukai got close enough, he grabbed Toph by her head, held her up and literally turned her into stone. When he was done, he stopped the petrified girl to the ground before he raised his arm to do a hard axe kick. Only Toph started to shake. As Mukai raised an eyebrow, suddenly Toph broke out of the stone prison, sending stones everywhere. She then held her head.

"Heh. So THAT is why it is like to literally be one with the earth itself." Toph said, sounding a little dazed.

Mukai raised an eyebrow. "I knew that you are the strongest geomancer in the multiverse, but to think that you would be able to break from my petrifying attacks."

Toph looked up at Mukai with a smirk. "Well, I am so you could wipe that stupid smirk off of your face."

Mukai frowned. "...I wasn't smirking."

Realising how much of a tool she made herself look, Toph decided to go back to fighting by running to the side while sending rocks at Mukai. The white-haired man just raised a petrified arm to block it before throwing his own rock. However, Toph then made her way underground and burrows her way under Mukai.

Mukai turned his head to see Toph reappearing where a bunch of floating rocks were. Toph then summoned an arch made of stone before making it collapse towards Mukai. However, the muscular man easily saw it coming before raising his fist at it, destroying it instantly. He then ran towards Toph but the dark-haired girl was faster as she ran to the side.

As Toph did so, she ran over some coins. This turned out to be the last one she needed to get one hundred coins which was needed to turn into a Golden Form. While Toph herself didn't actually see it, she could literally feel it. As she looked up at herself, Mukai merely stood with a frown.

"I know that it is possible to collect one hundred coins without noticing, but it still feels insulting for a BLIND girl to do so before me." Mukai muttered.

"Well, considering how slow you are, it is no…" Toph started.

Suddenly, she paused before looking around with wide eyes. She then had something that she didn't sense before.

Vision.

Not all of the way because her vision was still black. However, she was able to see something that she couldn't before. The coins. She was able to see all of the coins rotating in the air instead of reappearing out of thin air or vanishing into sparkles, most likely collected by other fighters. At first, Toph was confused. Suddenly, she then smirked.

Toph then got into a stance and spread her arms out. Suddenly, ALL of the coins had started to move towards her and Mukai. Needless to say, everyone stopped what they were doing to see what was going on. Soon, the coins then appeared behind Toph.

Mukai blinked twice before slumping his arms. "...Oh, right. I have forgotten that metalbending is a part of earthbending."

"Hey, look on the bright side!" Toph said before giving a dark smirk. "I will gladly give you a hundred coins and more."

With that, she sent every coin straightforward at Mukai. Immediately, the white-haired man raised his arms to block the incoming barrage. While he managed to do so, Toph gestured with her arms to have the coins encircle around Mukai and hit him multiple times. Despite being in pain, Mukai still gets his arms up to block the barrage.

However, he was so busy blocking Toph's new weapon, he had forgotten that she still had her Earthbending.

Toph did an axe kick to the ground, summoning a stalagmite underneath Mukai's feet and sending him flying into the air. Toph then instructed the coins to turn into a snake and have Mukai land on top of it. The earthbender then had the snake go fly out of the arena and towards the barrier (she still couldn't tell where the portal was after all). When the snake collided with said barrier, it broke apart which made the coins and Mukai drop into the portal. Once Mukai was eliminated, Toph smugly dusted her hands together while everyone looked in awe. The crowd then started to cheer.

Mukai landed in SMITE, particularly on top of Ares. He then got up and dusting himself up, a little upset that he was an early elimination.

"Who knew that being golden gives a metal-bender full access to coins?" Mukai lamented. "Now what!?"

"Hey!"

Mukai raised an eyebrow before turning to the direction of the voice to see Medusa slithering over angrily.

"You just came out of nowhere and knocked out my lane partner!" Medusa roared through her mask.

Mukai paused before looking down to see Ares on the ground unconscious.

"Um, sorry?" Mukai frowned.

"Sorry, it doesn't cut it! Now the enemy team is going to snowball because of you!" Medusa roared. "You make me so bad that I wanna…"

She then took out her mask to show her face with an angry snarl. Mukai immediately turned to stone. Medusa scoffed before putting her mask back on.

…Only for the petrified Mukai's body to shake before turning back to normal, startling Medusa.

"H-How?" Medusa exclaimed.

"First off, I could already turn myself into stone in my node." Mukai shrugged. He then smiled. "Though I could see why you are able to turn people into stone permanently. Your gaze is simply, pardon the pun, petrifying!"

Medusa stood absolutely stunned at this. She was never more glad for her mask which hid that her face turned completely red from blushing.

"I… I have to go." Medusa said, frantically before going to slithering off.

"Wait! Let me make up for knocking out your lane partner." Mukai offered. "May I take you out on a date?"

Medusa paused for a moment. She then turned around to look at Mukai.

"...I would like that very much." Medusa said, sounding sheepish.

Mukai just smiled before holding out his arm. Medusa looked like she was about to hesitate for a moment. She then slithered towards Mukai and put her arm around him.

She then noticed the ADC and Support of the opposite team, looking at them with wide eyes and slack jaws.

"Umm… Wow. I am happy for you, Medusa, I guess." Neith said in awe. "But still, this is wow."

Medusa growled before behind her mask. "Oh, because YOU have room to talk considering YOUR children!"

As Neith gasped at this, Medusa slithered off while taking Mukai with her. Neith then puffed out her cheeks in annoyance while her lane partner, a giant white scarab beetle blinked twice.

"Mother, what do you think she means by that?" Khepri asked.

"Don't listen to her, Khepri." Neith reassured without missing a beat.

(Dome; Recovery Room)

The Goketsuji twins looked up at the screen with mixed results.

"Aww… It is so nice that Mukai managed to score a date." Otane smiled.

"A freaking GOLEM and the most hated person in Greek Mythology has found love but not ME!?" Oume said in disbelief.

Otane looked at Oume with a frown. "...You DO realise that most, if not all the bad stuff that happened to Medusa was not her own fault."

"Maybe in a normal situation, but like you said, she is from GREEK Mythology, a world where might makes…" The older twin started.

"QUIT GETTING DISTRACTED!" Geese roared.

Oume jumped before glaring at Geese.

"Yo, what is your problem!?" Oume scolded. "I already gave the potion to the medics!"

Geese glared down at Oume. He then turned his head to see the medical team were applying a potion to the others.

"Well…?" Kasumi asked.

"It is too early for the symptoms to work but according to Junko's notes, it would at least stop the cycle." Oume offered.

Maki narrowed her eyes. "Okay, how do we know we can trust JUNKO'S notes?"

"I mean it worked for our plans so far." Oume shrugged.

"That's because they are built to CAUSE despair! Not get rid of it!?" Himiko scolded.

"Yeahhhhh… About that. You know Junko LOVES crushing ANY bit of hope, right?" Oume asked.

"Duh." Penny said.

"Well, she specifically wrote the antidote with specific notes." Oume explained.

Geese raised an eyebrow. "And that is…"

Oume then put her fist to her mouth to stifle a cough.

"This is the antidote. However, it will cure the victim of the poison and make them get a full recovery." Oume explained. "BUT here is the thing: Despite the fact that they would go back to normal physically, would they go back to normal MENTALLY? Would they be traumatised by the experience? Would they ever want to enter an UVR tournament ever again? And there is the what-if if they would miss the entire tournament? Does knowing that they lost their hope of getting the tournament fill their heart with despair? Or it doesn't BECAUSE they do not wish to enter the tournament? Oh, it is like a Pick and Mix bag, you don't know what you will get!"

Everyone paused with blank faces when they heard this.

"...Sooo yeah, I think there is a strong chance that these notes are legit." Oume said, matter-of-factly.

Shuichi groaned before holding his forehead. "Ugh, that DOES sound like her, alright?"

"So wait, Billy is going to miss out on the tournament?" Ripper gasped.

"Of course!" Nurse Joy scolded. "Do you really think he would enter the arena in a coma!?"

"But… That's not fair!" Hopper scolded. "Billy has been looking forward to this for a long time! Sure, he didn't do as well as he did in the early Megamix Tournament, but he still had fun!"

Nurse Joy frowned. "I am sorry but while this is not his fault, it can't be helped."

"So we have TWO King of Fighters reps missing out!?" Yuri said in disbelief.

Geese, Lilly, Ripper and Hopper paused before they looked down at Billy. He was unconscious. Though it was hard to tell if the life-and-death cycle was gone.

"Billy…" Lilly said, sadly.

Geese paused for a moment.

"Would Geese Howard please go to the Ready Room to enter the next section?" Ashley's voice rang through the intercom.

Everyone looked up at the announcement.

"Well, it is the moment of truth." Ripper frowned.

"What would you do, sir?" Hopper asked.

Geese paused before looking down at Billy. After all, it WAS technically his status as a winner that got him into this mess.

"Pika…"

Geese stopped before looking down at Pikachu. The Pokemon then started to talk. Scooby frowned before walking towards the two champions.

"Um, he is saying to go. After all, at the end of the day, Billy isn't your only fan. Even as a villain, you have plenty of fans." Scooby explained.

Pikachu then spoke again. Scooby, along with the others who could understand Pikachu, blinked twice.

"Um, he also says that BECAUSE you are a villain, you have more reason to enter the arena." Scooby explained. "Something about having rivals that you can't back down to."

Geese's eyes widened as Pikachu and by extension, Scooby continued.

"There are always people who want to test your strength against you, people who want to see you fail, people who want to use you to live up to your status as an UVR champion." Scooby added. "Those people are the ones that helped you keep going."

Samus frowned behind her helmet. "Pikachu…"

"Even being the undeserving Superstar so far with his horrendous first section, people still voted Pikachu to be the Superstar, not once but twice." Scooby added. "Even after all this time, they still remember me as a champion."

Geese paused. Pikachu then looked around.

"You may not have as many friends or allies as Pikachu, Geese, but you are still Geese Howard. You are the face of SNK bosses, you are the only one who has been picked to appear in Tekken 7." Scooby added. "You are the ONLY villain UVR champion. And considering how poorly villains do at these things, you must be doing SOMETHING right."

Geese blinked twice for a moment. He then let out a deep sigh.

"How low could I go to have a rodent tell me of stuff I knew all of my life and yet had to be reminded of." Geese groaned.

Pikachu puffed out his cheeks in annoyance.

"Um, yeah, Pikachu says that he is mostly saying this as an UVR champion and nothing more." Scooby said.

Geese merely smirked. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Meanwhile at Terry's bed, Rock Howard and Blue Mary Ryan watched the whole thing with exasperated faces.

"...Look, I get it. Geese is far from the worst person here." Rock muttered. "But that doesn't mean watching HIM get a pep-up is any less nauseating."

"Make like Elsa and let it go…" Mary groaned, shaking her head.

"Unfortunately, this changes nothing…"

Everyone's eyes widened before looking at the direction of the voice.

"Even so, there is a problem we have to deal with…" Haohmaru said.

Mickey frowned. "A-A-And that is…?"

Haohmaru then looked up with a solemn look.

"There is no way to make coffee here."

Everyone paused at this.

"...What?" Geese said, finally.

"There is no power. Which means there is no way to make coffee!" Haohmaru explained. "Sure, maybe there IS a way to make it but it would take a long time."

"So that means…" Penny started.

Haohmaru then looked at everyone.

"Xuan Dou Zhi Wang is still willing to go EVERYTHING against UVR. They killed a fan-favourite fighter, they kidnapped the host and worst of all, they are willing to go against US!" Haohmaru exclaimed.

He then looked at Penny.

"They even mind-hijacked Snoopy just to lure out Penny Proud and have her go through near-despair like the rest of us!" Haohmaru exclaimed. "Worse of all, they did it with despair clones of US!? If that is not a slap to the face, I don't know what is!"

"Haohmaru…" Penny said, softly.

"Objectively speaking, there is not the worst thing a villain has done at an UVR tournament. However, heroes, villains and those in neutral alike have been looking forward to the UVR tournament and even those who weren't invited still managed to have a good time!" The dark-haired man.

He then growled before gritting his teeth.

"But personally I think what they are doing is the most unforgivable because they refuse to see ANY benefit to the UVR, whether said benefits are so selfish reasons or not!" Haohmaru exclaimed. "Personally, I refuse to lose to someone like that!"

Everyone then looked at Haohmaru in awe.

"Haohmaru…" Tiny the boxer said.

"And now they have the main host hostage. Whose only crime is wanting to reboot the Battle of the Luminaries." Haohmaru exclaimed. "If the first UVR champion doesn't stand up to the plate, then who will!"

He then looked at Geese and Pikachu.

"I know you feel the same way, right?" Haohmaru asked.

Geese paused. "I mean feeling the same way is a bit TOO strong, but yeah, I confess that I do not appreciate using MY presence without my permission!"

Pikachu angrily nodded and spoke, clearly agreeing with Geese. Kasumi paused for a moment. She then looked down at the unconscious Ryuhaku.

"I have so many things that I wanted to tell my father… How much I missed him… How strong I have become…" Kasumi said.

She then narrowed her eyes before getting up.

"...But how could I face him when I am sulking away like this?" Kasumi asked.

"Right. What's the point of striving to become stronger if we are just going to give up against one loss?" Sakura asked, narrowing her eyes. "Especially since the people who are hurt would have us to keep fighting."

Ryu gave a smile. "Sakura…"

Penny smiled as well.

"You have NO idea how relieved I am to hear you say that… When Guy and Mika told me what happened, I… I didn't know what to do. I mean if you GUYS are down in the dumps, what good would I do?" Penny asked.

The champions winced before looking at each other.

"But… It is as Pikachu and Haohmaru said. Being an UVR champion is more than just winning a tournament. It is inspiring people to do the same. Villains, women, non-English speaking people…" Penny said before looking at Snoopy. "Slice-of-Life people."

The beagle paused as Dot put her hands on her shoulders as Penny looked back to the others.

"I cannot stand knowing the one fighter that got invited here because of my win had the most bull elimination in the entire tournament and I REFUSE to stay still and let them get away with it!" Penny agreed.

"Now that is MY grandbaby!" Suga Mama smirked.

Guy gave a small smile and nodded. He was about to say something.

Until he saw something shine. In fact, they all did. Everyone looked in the direction of the shine to see Guy pulling out his Star Piece out of his gi. Before they could say anything, it then let out a bright shine that illuminated the entire room. As they shielded their eyes from the light, it dimmed down as soon as it appeared.

"What… What was that?" Brio asked, now joining Otane's side.

Guy looked at Brio with wide eyes. "Wait, YOU don't know!? But you and Otane were the ones who were using Star Pieces for your plan."

The two just shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine. I knew that it would be powerful from all of the Stardust it collected but I don't know why it shined like that." Otane explained.

"I think I know why." Haohmaru said with a small smirk. "Come on. We have a tournament to save."

Penny frowned. "But what about your loved ones?"

"I am sure that Oshizu will understand." Haohmaru said.

"Billy would have wanted me to take those hasbeens now and stay with him." Geese agreed.

The rest of the champions agreed with the others smiling at this.

"Well, it is about damn time." Genjuro sneered, crossing his arms.

Snoopy paused for a moment. He then narrowed his eyes before getting out of bed, startling Dot.

"S-Snoopy?" Dot asked.

"Um, excuse me, Penny?" The beagle piped up.

The dark-skinned girl then looked down at Snoopy. "Yes, Snoopy?"

"Can I come too?" Snoopy asked.

Penny's eyes widened at this. "Wait, are you sure?"

"If you are worried about my physical state, I think I should be fine because whatever the symptoms of Psycho Mantis' mindjacking are, they clearly didn't affect me against that villainous-looking cat." Snoopy offered. "As for mentally, I am still floored by what happened but I can't just sit idly when I hear about injustice. Sure, it is selfish doing so… Another Snoopy's body but as long as I have my sword, I should be fine…"

"Snoopy…" Scooby said.

Penny paused for a moment. She then smirked.

"Now what kind of Slice-of-life champion would I be if I said no?" Penny asked.

"If Snoopy is getting directly involved in the plot, I am too!" Dot cheered.

The Pyro pumped their fists in the air, also cheering. Scooby paused before looking down at Garfield.

"Should we go too?" Scooby asked.

Garfield jumped at this. "Please, tell me you are joking. A lot of dumb things, Scooby, but not even you are THAT dumb!"

"Well, if what Penny and Snoopy says is true, then maybe whatever gave the latter his power from that fanfic, maybe WE will get it." Scooby offered.

Garfield slumped his arms. "You GOTTA kidding me… Why would YOU of all people want to go through that?"

Scooby paused. "I don't… But… Snoopy is my friend. And even though this one isn't MY Scooby, I can't just sit still."

Garfield paused. "And what do you want ME to do about it?"

"...I mean the restaurant will have limited food and knowing Xuan Dou Zhi Wang, they would do MORE things to disrupt the tournament, making it hard to sleep so it is not like doing the usual is on the table." Scooby frowned.

Garfield blinked twice before slapping his forehead. "...I complain about dumb dogs but even find smart dogs to be even more annoying."

Scooby does his trademark giggle. As he did so, Shuichi put his hand on his chin in thought.

"Um, guys?"

Everyone turned towards to see a concerned Wario.

"I get that everyone spent too-a much time in the arena." Wario explained. "But I think everyone is missing something-a important."

"And… What is that?" Himiko asked.

Wario then pointed to the screen.

"Had I survived one more section, I would have been in an arena literally FULL-A of coins!" Wario cried out. "THAT is the real tragedy!"

Everyone looked on in disbelief. Suga Mama then walked over and slammed her cane on top of Wario's head.

Sakura shook her head in disgust. "Well, come on. We have to go."

Everyone nodded as most of the people made their way outside of the Recovery Room with Suga Mama dragging Wario by the collar. As they did so, Nurse Joy sighed in relief.

"I know I shouldn't say this… But finally…" Joy groaned.

Lilly merely gave a weak smile as she watched the large group leave.

Suddenly, she felt a weak grip around her wrist.

With her eyes widening, she turned her head to see a weak face looking up at her.

"Billy!?"

"L-Lilly…"

(Dome; Security Team Room Hallway)

"Demon Fang!"

Claire Fox narrowed her eyes before running to the side to avoid a ground shockwave. She then ran forward before summoning a sheet of ice underneath her to do a sliding kick forward and doing a high kick and summoning a bunch of icy stalagmites going diagonally. However, Lloyd Irving narrowed his eyes before slashing one of his twin swords at it.

Despite this, Claire ran forward and kicked her foot out but Lloyd quickly used his other sword to block the attack. Lloyd then swung the first sword upwards but Claire did a backflip to avoid the attack. After the cryomancer gracefully landed on feet before blowing ice as if a kiss towards Lloyd's feet which froze the twin swordsmen's legs together.

Claire then ran over before doing an icy uppercut to Lloyd's chin and sending him flying through the air before crashing onto. Lloyd groaned before sitting up before glaring at Claire.

"Really? Diamond Breath AND Crow's Bite?" Lloyd asked in disbelief.

Claire's smirk vanished as she growled. "Oh, because ice breath and an ice uppercut have NEVER been downed before. Hell, in case you forgot, Crow's Bite isn't the original move of Kula! It is K'!"

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Even still, Crow's Bite is STILL the only thing Kula shared with K'."

Claire narrowed her eyes. "You want something that Kula doesn't have? Fine!"

With that, she ran forward. However, all of a sudden, she turned into a shadow which startled Lloyd. Claire then reappeared behind Lloyd and drove his elbow into his back. As the brown-haired young man staggered back, Claire sent a blast of ice into Lloyd's back, sending him forward and crashing on the ground. The blonde then smirked before sending a stream of ice at Lloyd, slowly freezing his body. The latter shuddered.

"Blazing Tempest!"

Claire's smirk vanished again as Lloyd was engulfed in fire, melting all of the ice. However, that was not the arte did as Lloyd did a rolling jump forward with his swords out. Claire yelped before running to the side to avoid the flaming attack. However, when the flames died, Lloyd swung around with his swords out, knocking Claire down.

A leg swung downstairs onto a folding chair. Kanji Tatsumi growled before shoving his unorthodox weapon forward, sending Prayuth flying backwards. But the Muay Thai fighter was sent flying backwards before gracefully landing on his feet. Prayuth then rushed forward with Kanji swinging his chair downwards but Prayuth easily swerved to the side to avoid it before slamming his elbow into his face.

With Kanji stunned for a moment, Prayuth then proceeded to do a series of elbow strikes and kicks to the teenager's face and stomach, not giving him a chance to evade or counter. However, Prayuth ended the assault by kicking his foot out and catching Kanji in the chest which sent him crashing into the wall. As Kanji stood against it groaning, he looked up to see Prayuth doing a kick forward.

Kanji growled before swinging his head forward. Despite this looking like a bad time, the headbutt managed to clash with Prayuth's kick perfectly. The blond man was not expecting this and ended up hopping backwards. This left him wide open for Kanji to hold his folding chair like a baseball bat into Prayuth's face. The latter was sent flying backwards until he crashed into a wall.

Prayuth groaned before looking up. Only to yelp before scampering to the side to avoid a projectile chair. Seeing that Kanji was off-guard, Prayuth got up and rushed forward with a barrage of punches. Kanji just raised his arms to block the assault, but while he was able to do so for the first few punches, a blow to the body made him drop his guard before Prayuth did a roundhouse kick, knocking him to the ground.

"You are strong, kid." Prayuth said as Kanji propped himself on his hands and knees. "However, you are still too young to hang out with the men. …Even though you somehow look OLDER than me."

Kanji glared at Prayuth. "You have NO right to call yourself a man after what you are doing and why!"

"Hey! We wouldn't be in this mess if that stupid vampire didn't snub our nodal companion!" The blond man snapped. "We are just avenging him as his friend!"

"If you are truly his friend, you would have talked to him and comforted him about being invited!" Kanji snapped. "You are not helping him! You are hurting!"

"The only ones we are hurting are those who think they could have had the tournament without US!" Prayuth roared.

With that, he flipped forward to swing his leg downwards onto Kanji. Despite this, the bleached-hair young man narrowed his eyes.

"YA WANT SOME!?"

This resulted in a literal speech bubble appearing around Kanji which somehow struck Prayuth and sent him flying backwards until he crashed into a wall. Kanji then got out another folding chair out of nowhere before running forward.

CoolB yelped before running to the side to avoid an arrow. Claude just shrugged before he continued running arrows but CoolB just continued to dodge them at an alarming speed. The red-clad boy then sent an orange lightning-shaped dart at Claude. The brown-skinned man thought quickly and raised his bow to block the projectile. However, CoolB zoomed over to Claude and punched him in the stomach.

Claude's eyes widened as the wind got knocked out of him before CoolB started to run around Claude and placed a bunch of orange balloon-like jelly around Claude's feet while he was stunned. Then, all of the jelly exploded around Claude which sent him flying him into the air before crashing onto his stomach. While in pain, Claude propped himself on his hands with a look of surprise on his way.

"...What?" Claude asked.

CoolB just smirked before summoning a bit of energy in his hand before placing it inside of his pocket. He then placed another jelly bomb before kicking it forward. Claude gritted his teeth before getting up on one knee before firing an arrow. However, it wasn't aimed at the incoming jelly bomb but the ground between him and said projectile bomb.

The arrow then sent out a burst of wind which sent the jelly bomb back to CoolB. The adolescent yelped before kicking his leg at the bomb which sent the bomb back at Claude. The archer's eyes widened at this but he then leapt up over the bomb before firing three arrows forward. They then crashed in front of CoolB which resulted in bursts of wind which sent CoolB crashing to the ground. The latter groaned before sitting up.

"Hey, what is with the wind magic!? You didn't have it in Three Houses!" CoolB roared.

"You're right, I didn't." Claude admitted before smirking. "But I DID in the Warriors spinoff Three Hopes where ALL of my arrows could be wind-elemental."

CoolB merely scoffed. "Look, I know that you think that we are the bad guys but we are actually the GOOD guys! We don't have an ounce of despair in this!"

Claude's smirk vanished. "Umm… By THAT logic, doesn't that make Nagito Komenda the hero?"

CoolB winced. "H-He doesn't count! He is in a league all of his own!"

"I mean, you are not wrong, but my point still stands." Claude frowned. "Even Edelgard and Dimitri would shake their heads at your leaps in logic."

Hibiki swung her katana to slash through a pink energy ball before rushing forward. Linn yelped before running to the side to avoid a sheath strike and while Hibiki was recovering from her own attack, Linn ran over and punched Hibiki in the face. After the red-clad woman staggered back, Linn ran over and did a series of punches and kicks forward to her face and stomach.

Hibiki then managed to raise his sheath to block a punch. As Linn winced, Hibiki jabbed the sheath into her stomach before kicking her in the face. The purple-clad girl then staggered back but recovered and did a series of spinning aerial kicks with purple energy around it. However, Hibiki saw it coming and used her sheath to block the first kick before ducking underneath the rest of the Hurricane Kick, allowing Linn to go through.

When Linn was recovered from her own attack, Hibiki got out her katana and slashed at Linn's legs. The Taiwanese girl cried out in pain but then did a jumping uppercut with purple energy around it. However, Hibiki saw this coming and swerved her head to the side. The Iaijutsu practitioner then swung her sheath like a blunt weapon, knocking Linn to the ground.

Linn sat up while looking at her opponent in disbelief. "What's going on!? Unofficial mascot of the Last Blade or not, how are you able to tell ALL of my attacks!?"

"It is simple. I fought Yuri Sakazaki in Capcom VS SNK 2." Hibiki said. "All I have to tell myself is that I am fighting her."

Linn puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. "Okay, so I am a carbon copy of her! So? Yuri's moveset is basically a mash-up of various fighting game characters! Is that a big deal?"

"Nothing at all. There is a reason why Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Sakura and Dan all have their fanbases despite being variations of the same fighting style." Hibiki explained before frowning. "The problem is that you claim that your node deserve to be here over other obscure nodes despite your arguments could also be said for them."

"Well, people are going to remember us more than Power Instinct or Killer Instinct now!" Linn boasted.

"But for the WORST possible reasons!" Hibiki scolded.

"Meh." Linn shrugged. With that, she ran forward towards Hibiki who got into a defensive stance. However, Linn flipped forward with purple energy surrounding her leg. Obviously Yuri doesn't have an attack while that and the attack connected with her head, knocking her down. Linn then leapt up and shot a couple of energy balls downwards but Hibiki got out her katana and slashed at the projectiles.

Horkeu Kamui narrowed his eyes before he raised his hands which created a shield of ice. Just in time to block one half of a pair of katanas. The despair clone of Sho Minazuki just continued the assault by wildly swinging his blades at Horkeu Kamui, but the wolf just held up his makeshift shield while showing deceptively agility.

Sho then did a flip before swinging his katanas downwards at Horkeu Kamui but again he blocked it before shoving Sho backwards. However, the twin swordsman flipped backwards before gracefully landing on his feet. Sho then got out a knife and threw it, but Horkeu Kamui easily swatted it while summoning cold mist around his hand. However, Sho vanished before teleporting behind Horkeu Kamui and slashed him in the back.

THIS hit Horkeu Kamui as he cried out in pain. Sho then proceeded with a series of slashes to Horkeu Kamui's body. But while the cryomancer cried out in pain, Horkeu Kamui summoned ice around his hand and raised it to block a blade. This was the momentum he needed before kicking his foot out and catching Sho in the stomach, making him fly away.

Sho then flipped backwards before landing on his feet. Horkeu Kamui then sent out his palms, sending multiple icy projectiles at Sho but the despair clone just swung his katanas at the incoming barrage, slashing through them. Sho then teleported again. However, Horkeu Kamui just narrowed his eyes before crouching down and getting into a defensive stance.

This created a dome of ice around him. Just in time to block Sho's attack when he reappeared. When Sho recovered from his own attack, Horkeu Kamui made the dome burst which struck Sho and sent him staggering back.

"You have skill. But that's about it." Horkeu Kamui said, shaking his head with a frown.

"Well, what do you expect from someone who always ended up as someone's whipping boy." Sho scoffed.

Horkeu Kamui paused as Sho continued.

"I was right the first time. I should let the entire world rot along with me." Sho lamented. "But for now, I am alright with letting the UVR rot to remind me of my pointlessness."

"Oh, come now. Everyone has the potential to be a hero. There have been several villains that have been heroes." Horkeu Kamui scolded. "Juri Han, Kano, Harley Quinn, Eliza, hell, technically all of Bison's group in the second Battle of the Luminaries."

"Nah, I lost my right to be a hero the moment I realised that I was being used by a jackass who entered a tournament DRUNK." Sho said, shaking his head.

Horkeu Kamui frowned. "...I am starting to think that Junko never felt ahead with her Despair Extractor because as much as she loves despair, even she knows how the clones will be poor fighters due to lacking drive."

"OH REALLY!? THEN, TELL HIM THAT!"

Horkeu Kamui and even Sho jumped before turning their heads to see Gabe Logan running away to get some distance from HIS opponent. However, the Shredder was faster than him. Gabe aimed a pistol at him but the armour-clad ninja raised his claws to deflect the bullets from him. He then jumped up and did a diving kick forward. Gabe yelped before diving to the side to avoid it.

Horkeukamui blinked twice. "Weren't you the one who chose to go after the Shredder?"

"I didn't expect him to be so fast!" Gabe shouted while aiming his gun again. "I thought he would be a Mighty Glacier at best!"

"...You don't watch too much Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, do you?" Horkeukamui frowned (while holding up one hand to create another shield of ice to block Sho's blade without looking.)

"Look at all of the armour he is wearing!" Gabe retorted. "Excuse me for assuming that he wouldn't be that fast!"

Gabe then looked back at the Shredder, just in time to roll out of the way to avoid an axe kick. However, the ninja then kicked Gabe in the side and sent him sprawling away. The Shredder then ran after him but Gabe recovered in time before getting out a knife and stabbing into the Shredder's stomach. However, while the despair clone winced, he merely kicked Gabe away.

However, that was when Gabe rolled into a kneeling position and got back out his pistol and fired several bullets into the Shredder's torso, seeing that he had no reason to hold back with a despair clone. Then, the Shredder started to block with his claws. Not wanting to have his opponent deflect the bullets and accidentally hit one of his allies so he put away his gun again…

And got out a flamethrower. Strapping it to his back, he sent out a stream of fire towards the Shredder. However, the armoured man just leapt towards a wall and kicked off of it to avoid it completely. The Shredder then ran to the side before making his way while Gabe was stunned before dealing a kick to the side.

Only for Gabe to move to the side to avoid the attack before dealing his own kick to the side. While the Shredder staggered to the side once, Gabe sent out a small burst of fire onto the ninja which sent him onto the ground before rolling around from left and right while trying to use the stop-drop-and-roll formation to kill the flames. The Shredder then got up and got out a pellet, throwing it on the ground, engulfing him in smoke.

…And when the smoke cleared, THREE Shredders appeared. Gabe's pupils shrank at this.

"...You gotta be shitting me." Gabe said in disbelief.

"I see that you are unaware of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. Even though MY name is literally in the title." One of the Shredders lamented.

"Is me being absent from the third Battle of the Luminaries really that made me easily forgettable?" The second Shredder said, shaking his head.

"Maybe if we stop the UVR, maybe that would stop it." The third Shredder admitted.

Gabe just slumped his arms. "I literally fought terrorists that had sounder logic than you… Three."

Lloyd winced before raising his twin swords to block a blur of ice. Said blur started to zoom at Lloyd who was trying to block but it was too fast. Claire then smirked before zooming again, but this time through a sliding kick which knocked Lloyd off of his feet and onto his feet. With ice skates on her feet, Claire then did an axe kick towards the downed Lloyd.

However, Lloyd raised his twin blades to block the attack. Despite this, Claire just scoffed before spinning around to do a low kick but Lloyd managed to block the attack with one sword and slashing Claire in the stomach with the other. Lloyd then got up to his feet while glaring at Claire.

"No matter how you look at it, this goes way beyond disproportionate retribution!" Lloyd scolded.

"Hey, we wouldn't be in this mess if Drake just invited Yan to this tournament just like he did with the rest of the Mystery Fighters!" Claire shot back.

"At least he was NAMED. Do you really think that the tournament will be complete after three sections!" Lloyd retorted. "Tiny would have to ask the audience for Mystery Fighter suggestions! Again!"

"Even still, it is not like we are in the wrong! I mean you overheard our conversation, didn't you?" Claire asked. "NONE of us have a single despair clone of our own."

Lloyd frowned. "Yeah… But…"

"But what? That just means we are not in despair because we are pure hope!" Claire smirked. "So what we are doing to Drake and by extension, the Battle of the Luminaries is pure justice."

Lloyd's pupils shrink when he hears this. He then narrowed his eyes while gritting his teeth.

"Don't even start spewing the word 'justice'!" Lloyd spat.

With that, he leapt up into the air. Claire just narrowed her eyes before raising a wall of ice to block.

"Rising Phoenix!"

Claire's pupils shrank. "Rising Whatnow!?"

Indeed, Lloyd was engulfed with fire diving downwards in the shape of a bird. Needless to say, this not only burned through Claire's wall but also sent her crashing into a wall. Claire groaned before looking up, only to yelp when she saw a sword pointed at her throat.

"Um, guys? Help!" Claire pleaded.

However, the blond quickly noticed that her plea wasn't going to be heard anything soon. Kanji swung his folding chair onto Prayuth's head, sending the Muay Thai fighter crashing on his face, dazed. CoolB screamed as he was flying upwards from a burst of wind from Claude's arrows before crashing his head against the ceiling. Hibiki stood victorious over an unconscious Lynn (though she was panting heavily). Horkeukamui calmly squatted on the ground while Sho laid impaled on a set of icy stalagmites (though Sho seemed to be more frustrated as he started to get free). Finally, even Gabe managed to stand victorious after pushing a button on a device, resulting in an explosion that he planted on one of the Shredder clones, knocking it into the real one and knocking him down.

Claire just looked in horror before looking up at Lloyd who was glaring into her eyes.

She then growled. "Yan deserves to be in the third Battle of the Luminaries!"

"Maybe he did… But after what you did to the hosts, nay, several victims of your horrible schemes, you may have not only ruined your chances for Yan but also the entire node!" Lloyd scolded.

"Yeah! There may be a chance that Drake would have picked you guys at the NEXT tournament!" Kanji added. "But after this, you would be considered yourself lucky if your node gets name-dropped in a neutral way, let alone positive!"

"Now tell us! How do we get to the electrician's office?" Gabe asked.

Claire scoffed. "Why would we tell you? After all, we are going to win regardless!"

The six's eyes widened before looking at each other, realising that Drake was all alone.

"Okay, who the hell did you recruit?" Claude asked. "Not even Psycho Mantis, Junko or the Soul Swords have that much power!"

Claire merely sneered. "Not telling."

Horkeukamui narrowed his eyes. "If you don't tell us…"

"...You will what?" Claire asked. "I don't care what you do to us! We have nothing here to lose! Which is more than I can say for Drake!"

Hibiki shook her head. "This is ridiculous! Some of us are HEROES!"

"So? The World Heroes in the third Ultimate Video Rumble and they literally have HERO in their name!" Claire shot back.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Gabe groaned after handcuffing Prayuth. "Let's get these losers into the cage and then interrogate them! Anything to help get to Drake before Xuan Dou Zhi Wang kills him!"

"Oh, don't worry. We are not going to kill him." Claire reassured.

This took everyone off-guard.

"Wait, really?" Lloyd asked.

Claire then gave a dark look.

"If anything, we want him to WISH we would kill him." Claire smirked.

Everyone looked at each other with worried looks.

(The Arena)

A blue blur and a red blur zoomed around the coin-littered arena, sometimes darting around each other and sometimes clashing WITH each other. The red blur then let out a loud shout while summoning a small floating fireball behind him. It then made its way towards the blue blur, but the latter zoomed to the side which let the red blur zoom past. The blue blur then moved behind the red blur and grabbed them from behind before slamming them on the ground.

The red blur then turned into Kazuki Kazama as he lay dazed on the ground. The blue blur then turned into Kage-Maru. The blue-clad ninja was about to continue the assault. However, despite Kazuki being dazed, the fireball that was following him then started to go towards Kage-Maru. The latter saw this and flipped backwards to avoid it.

However, by this time, Kazuki snapped out of his daze before flipping to his feet. His top half then exploded into flames, leaving a pair of pants collapsing on the ground. Then, another explosion appeared while Kage-Maru was recovering from dodging Kazuki's fireball, knocking him down to the ground.

Kazuki then appeared from the explosion to do an axe kick downwards. Only for his kick to clash with a familiar-feeling weapon. Looking down, he saw that Kage was wielding a ninjato of his own. Kazuki's eyes widened before flipping backwards and putting his hands on the flaming handle of his own ninjato.

"Wait, I thought Virtua Fighter doesn't HAVE weapons!" Kazuki accused. "That is why that Siba guy never appeared in any official Virtua Fighter games!"

"True. But we DO have accessories and while they are just that… Accessories, some of our accessories, especially mine are weapons." Kage-Maru reminded.

Kazuki merely scoffed. "Fair enough! But it is going to take a lot for a fighter from an unarmed fighting game to go up against someone from a weapon-based one in a duel of blades!"

"I mean if I see and hear my opponent from miles away…" Kage-Maru snarked.

Kazuki growled before dashing forward while shouting loudly. Kage-Maru rolled his eyes before raising his own ninjato which caused the two blades to clash. The ninjas then got into a power struggle. However, Kazuki made the flames of his ninjato burn brightly which made Kage-Maru close his eyes in pain. With the blue-clad man stunned, Kazuki kicked his foot out into Kage-Maru's stomach and knocked him onto his back.

While Kage-Maru was on the ground, Kazuki let out a loud shout summoning another fireball only a little bigger. Kage-Maru then flipped back onto his feet before getting out some kunai and throwing them forward but Kazuki raised his ninjato to block them before running forward while reading his blade while Kage-Maru got into a defensive stance.

"Spiral Arrow!"

Suddenly, Cammy White came in doing her drill kick into Kazuki, sending the two of them away from Kage-Maru. The blue-clad ninja blinked twice, wondering what just happened.

"Um, yo?"

Kage-Maru raised an eyebrow before turning to see Giovanna & Rei walking over.

"I think we should fight each other seeing that our current opponents are preoccupied with each other." Giovanna said, scratching the side of her head.

Kage-Maru blinked twice. "Um, why?"

"Well, I'll try to keep it brief. Cammy and I were fighting each other." Giovanna explained. "We managed to get a good hit on her and… She landed face-first on a particular spot."

With that, she pointed to the side. Kage-Maru turned his head to see on the ground Kazuki's pants where he last teleported. It only took him a second to put two and two together.

"Oh." Kage-Maru said before looking exasperated. "Ohhh…"

"In hindsight, literally dropping a lot of men's pants around where women are close by isn't very cash money." Giovanna frowned, looking more neutral than anything.

Kage-Maru merely slapped his forehead. "Let's just fight so I can forget what I just saw."

Giovanna merely shrugged before she did her own drill kick with Rei spiralling around it. However, despite looking like he was overwhelmed by second-hand embarrassment (and he probably was), Kage-Maru saw the attack and leapt over it which allowed Giovanna & Rei to go past him. When it looked like the redhead-and-wolf duo were recovered from their own attack, Kage-Maru ran over.

However, Giovanna snapped to attention and swung around with her leg outstretched with Rei around it. Kage-Maru saw this coming and raised his arms to block. Needless to say though, it was hard to block a soul wolf-infused kick and he was still sent skidding back until he lost balance and crashed onto the ground. He groaned before looking up to see Giovanna running over.

Kage-Maru frowned behind his mask before getting up and running off with Giovanna giving chase. The brown-skinned woman then dashed forward as one with Rei, but Kage-Maru managed to sense this and did a flip which allowed the two to go past. Kage-Maru then grabbed Giovanna from behind and did a jumping suplex, knocking Giovanna to the ground.

But while Giovanna was on the ground stunned, Rei growled before biting at Kage-Maru, but the ninja got out his ninjato and raised it to block the incoming bite. He then spun around on one leg while stretching out his leg, striking the wolf in the face multiple times. By this time, Giovanna had recovered but Rei was dazed so the agent got up and did some kicks on her own.

However, Kage-Maru raised his arms again to block but this time had a better time not only blocking them and managing to catch it before sending Giovanna spinning in place. But this time, Rei snapped out of her daze before spiralling around Giovanna to self-right her owner and send her back onto her feet. Giovanna then kicked her foot out but Kage-Maru easily side-stepped it.

But Giovanna kicked forward WITHOUT Rei with the soul wolf then rushed forward and crashed into Kage-Maru's back, sending the blue-clad man flying towards Giovanna who turned around and kicked her leg up into Kage-Maru to send him flying up into the air. Giovanna and Rei then leapt up and before crossing each other while striking Kage-Maru one final time, sending the ninja out of the ring.

Giovanna gracefully landed on the ground with a smirk. "Well, I am! When I entered this tournament, I wasn't expecting to be my node's MVP but here we are!"

Rei happily nodded. Suddenly, the two heard a loud grunt of frustration. Turning their heads, they saw Cammy White wrapping her legs around Kazuki's head before flipping and throwing him out of the ring. Giovanna & Rei looked at each other before walking over.

"Feeling better?" Giovanna smirked.

Cammy growled. "You wouldn't be so joking if YOUR face landed on top of a pair of men's pants!"

"Actually, I wouldn't mind. In fact, I would dare say that I would ENJOY it if that red-haired ninja was a few years ago." Giovanna shrugged.

Cammy looked at Giovanna in disgust. "...You are almost as horny as JURI."

Kage-Maru and Kazuki both landed in Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise. There, Snake and Ken, two ninja-themed villagers saw them and started to fanboy over them. Kazuki completely loved the attention, but Kage-Maru… Not-so-much.

Labrys gritted her teeth before raising her axe. Just in time to block a golden tornado, resulting in a firework display of sparks. The golden tornado then turned back into Coco Bandicoot as she landed on the ground and proceeded to do a series of punches forward to the still-blocking Labrys. Normally, she wouldn't do much at all but due to being a Golden Form, it did force Labrys back.

"Ariadne!" Labrys shouted, summoning her Persona and summoned a blade of red yarn before swinging it forward. However, Coco saw it coming and did a flip, moving over it before landing on her feet. She then got out a bazooka (that was also golden due to her form) and aimed it at Labrys. The android's eyes widened before raising her axe to just in time block a projectile Wumpa Fruit.

Coco wasn't done as she continued to fire more Wumpa Fruit from the bazooka, forcing Labrys to skid back with each shot. Realising that she couldn't block forever, the white-haired girl then pulled her axe back like a baseball bat and swung it like at the next bazooka shot, sending it flying away to the side. Coco raised an eyebrow, not expecting this and shrugged before she continued firing.

Labrys just swung her axe at the incoming shots, going on for a while. Fortunately, most of the deflected shots mostly flew towards the window (though one did hit King Dice in his chest, getting juice all over juice to which he ranted in anger. He was ignored.) However, it didn't last forever as suddenly Coco's golden form had vanished, making the she-bandicoot's eyes widen in shock and Labrys smirk.

Labrys then ran forward while Coco yelped before firing more Wumpa Fruit forward but Labrys merely raised her axe to block the incoming shots, looking like she was able to guard against them much easier now that Coco didn't have the golden strength. Seeing this, Coco put away her bazooka and began to run off. Labrys' smirk vanished as she growled.

"What's de mattuh wit' yuh!? Come back here and fight like a woman! Okay?" Labrys scolded.

Coco looked back in disbelief. "And get yeeted into the barrier? Yeah, no!"

"Oh, quit overreactin'! Yuh probably been through wawhse!" Labrys retorted.

"That doesn't make it any less painful!" Coco shot back.

Labrys just grunted in annoyance before giving chase. She didn't mind fighting fast fighters, after all, she was no stranger to fighting Yosuke, but not only was Coco fast but she was also good at collecting the coins scattered around so she could easily collect all of the coins in comparison to the other fighters to become golden again.

Labrys, determined to stop the cycle, sends out her extendable free arm at the ropes to grab it before pulling herself towards it. In doing so, she made her way in front of the path Coco was running towards and swung her axe. Coco yelped before collapsing on her rear while summoning a Quantum Wall. While this had blocked Labrys' axe, the android just easily ran over.

Coco then spun around to protect herself but Labrys raised her axe to block the attack before using the blunt end of her weapon to knock Coco down. The blonde then kicked her leg up into Labrys' stomach, but due to the white-haired girl's literal steel body, it hardly did that much damage. Regardless, it allowed Coco to get up to her feet while getting out something.

"Selfie Time!" Coco shouted.

Labrys lowered her axe in confusion. "Say what?"

Coco suddenly ran forward with a smartphone before tackling Labrys in the torso and sending her staggering back. Coco then advanced forward and…

…Held out a smartphone with one hand and make a peace sign with the other one.

"Yay!" Coco beamed.

Labrys blinked twice, confused before copying Coco's gesture for the unexpected selfie.

…Then, Labrys realised that Coco took the selfie while Labrys was trying to regain her balance.

She ended up falling on her back ungracefully. Coco smirked before putting away her selfie before doing a Cyclone Spin, kicking the downed Labrys multiple times and sending her sprawling underneath the bottom rope.

"Just because I am more down-to-earth than my brother, that doesn't mean I don't have my wacky side!" Coco boasted.

Labrys landed in Team Fortress 2 where she had a Brooklyn accent talk with the Scout, much to everyone's annoyance.

Ganondorf gritted his teeth before swinging his broadsword downwards. However, a little girl raised her hands and was easily caught with both hands. Despite the ludicrously size difference, Ganondorf and Juniper Lee got into a power struggle. Then, Danny Phantom flew behind Ganondorf and sent a shot of ice into his back. The warlord cried out in pain, giving June the chance to do an uppercut to his chin, knocking him into the air.

Danny summoned ectoplasm around his hands before slamming his fists downwards onto Ganondorf, knocking him down towards June who knocked him back into the air with another punch. The two then put Ganondorf in an impromptu volleyball match, not unlike June and her former ally, Jake, with Master Mummy.

However, unlike Master Mummy, Ganondorf was able to stop it. Gritting his teeth in anger, he let out a shout while emitting a sphere of purple energy around him, knocking Danny flying away and June crashing on the ground. While still in midair, Ganondorf did a downward kick with dark energy around his foot. June yelped before rolling to the side to avoid it but was unable to avoid getting knocked away by a burst of dark energy.

Danny then fired a shot of ectoplasm into Ganondorf's back. The Gerudo staggered to the side before glaring at the guilty party. He then summoned dark energy around himself before floating upwards. June blinked twice before slumping her arms.

"Anddddddd we are back to facing flying opponents." June groaned.

She then looked around while frowning. Suddenly, she noticed the ropes and her eyes lit up.

Meanwhile, Ganondorf floated towards Danny and punched his fist out but the ghost easily floated to the side before punching Ganondorf in the body. However, Ganondorf was hardly fazed as he kicked his foot out but Danny again floated to the side before making his way behind Ganondorf and gathering ectoplasm in his hands before sending his hands out into his back, sending him flying away.

Danny smirked before sending out two orbs of ectoplasm that went into a zigzag fashion. However, Ganondorf had recovered and swung his sword horizontally, slashing through the two projectiles.

"You can't stop the girl!"

Ganondorf and Danny's eyes widened before looking down to see June using the top rope as a catapult with herself at the ammo. Giving a smirk, she launched herself at Ganondorf. The warlock was not expecting this as June latched onto him.

"H-Hey! Unhand me!" Ganondorf demanded.

"What? Can't handle a little girl?" June smirked before turning towards Danny. "Danny, fire your projectiles!"

Danny's eyes widened at this. "Wait, WHAT!?"

"Don't worry! I will be fine!" June offered while struggling to keep on fighting Ganondorf.

"If you say so." Danny frowned.

With that, he sent out an ectoplasm bolt at the two. June then made her way around Ganondorf's body so that her small frame wouldn't get hit by Danny's projectile and Ganondorf's larger frame got hit instead. Danny then sent another ectoplasm bolt forward and June made sure that it hit Ganondorf again.

"How DARE you defy me!?" Ganondorf roared.

He then proceeded to thrash around the air with June holding onto him for dear life. The cowboys and Southern people were cheering on June, seeing this as a rodeo. Upon hearing this, Danny smirked before joining in the cheering. Ganondorf's olive skin turned beet red at this. He then started to spin around like a tornado while June held onto him for dear life. Soon, not even June's Te Xuan Ze super-strength could hold onto and she fell onto the ground.

…And onto Dr. Eggman, inadvertently latching onto HIM next.

"ACK! I'M BLIND!" Eggman cried out while trying to get the disoriented and stunned June off of him.

In doing so, he ended up fiddling with the controls of his Egg Walker. This made the hatches which showed his weapons making the faces of King K. Rool, Greymon and Mechanica frown.

"Aw, nuts…" Greymon muttered.

Then, several missiles flew from the weapons in an erratic fashion. The three heavyweights struggled to try to move out of the way but they ended up getting bombarded by the missiles. One particular missile crashed into Greymon's face which sent him backwards into K. Rool which sent the Kremling staggering back before stumbling over the ropes and out of the ring. Greymon and Mechanica just collapsed to the ground.

By this time, Eggman had finally torn June off of him before angrily throwing her off of him. This ended up throwing her over the ropes as well.

"Ugh, I HATE these fight interruptions!" Eggman growled. "Sorry for the wait, K. Rool!"

Suddenly, he noticed that K. Rool was long gone.

"Um, K. Rool?" Eggman asked, not liking where this was going.

By this time, he saw Greymon and Mechanica getting up to their feet and glaring at Eggman. The mad scientist just blinked twice behind his sunglasses.

"Umm… Why are you looking so mad?" Eggman asked, looking worried.

Greymon and Mechanica just stomped over. Meanwhile, Ganondorf and Danny watched the whole thing with wide eyes and slack jaws. The latter then glared at his opponent. It took a few moments for Ganondorf to notice this.

"Why are YOU giving me the evil eye!?" Ganondorf said in disbelief.

"You're kidding me, right?" Danny snarked. "YOU were the one who threw her onto that mad scientist!"

"Oh, I am sorry! I guess I spent so many times trying to take over Hyrule, I never learned how to get brats off of my body!" Ganondorf snapped.

Danny scoffed. "Whatever… Let's take our fight somewhere else before those three figure out what happened and mistake ME as part of the problem."

"You sure didn't mind said problem when you were cheering your ally on…" Ganondorf muttered before the two flew off.

A volleyball bounced off of the ground before going forward. However, a swing from a yellow cape deflected the ball back towards its owner. Natsu Ayuhara merely swerved her head to the side which allowed the volleyball to go past. She then got another volleyball and spiked it forward, this time going at an angle. Mario Mario just easily flipped to the side and sent out a bouncing fireball forward.

Natsu easily sidestepped it before running forward and rushing forward to do a sliding attack, looking more like she was going to do a sliding volleyball receive. However, Mario easily jumped over it and landed on top of Natsu's back. The red-clad girl cried out in pain as Mario got off and did his own sliding attack, sending Natsu sprawling away.

Natsu then got up while looking around the arena. Nodding her head, she got out another volleyball and spiked it high into the air. At first, Mario was paying attention to the volleyball that had flown up in the sky, but then…

"Mario, look alive!" Cappy shouted.

The red-clad man's eyes widened to see Natsu rushing over. At first, he got ready to block the attack. However, he wasn't expecting her to roll forward before swinging her arms upwards, striking Mario and sending him flying into the air. Natsu then leapt up after himself and did a series of slaps and kicks. Then, the volleyball Natsu spiked into the air came crashing down onto Mario's stomach.

With the wind knocked out of him, Mario crashed onto the ground hard. Natsu then let herself drop to land onto Mario's stomach again. However, the plumber snapped out of his daze.

"F.L.U.D.D., ESCAPE!"

"I AM ON IT." The water pack reassured before activating his nozzle and using a burst of water to propel Mario out of Natsu's stomp attack. As this was going on, the Millennium Star and Tumble watched with the latter looking at his phone.

"That Natsu girl is a tricky one, but it is going to take much more than that to take off-guard." The Millennium Star noted.

"Yeah, and I think Natsu knows that, otherwise these numbers wouldn't make much sense." Tumble mused.

The Millennium Star turned to Tumble, confused. "Um, what numbers?"

"These." The die said, holding out his phone for his creator to see. "Out of all of them, MARIO'S going the slowest."

The Millennium Star's eyes widened at this. "You don't think that Natsu…"

"Well, I can't say for certain, but if she ISN'T doing this on purpose, then she is somehow being the luckiest person in the arena so far."

Natsu cried out in pain before staggering backwards. Looking up, her eyes widened when she saw Mario leap up into the air and swung his fist downwards. Natsu acted quickly before running to the side while getting out a volleyball and hitting it. However, Mario recovered from his own attack before doing his own receive, slapping at the volleyball and sending it at Natsu, forcing the volleyball player to duck.

"Come on, come on… I am almost there." Natsu said through gritted teeth.

Then, her eyes widened before getting out another volleyball. Mario merely got into a stance to receive it. However, instead of aiming the volleyball at Mario, she aimed the volleyball towards the side. Mario turned his head in confusion.

To see the volleyball colliding with a blue switch with a P on it. The moment the switch was pushed, a bunch of floating blue coins appeared out of nowhere while a familiar ticking noise played. Natsu then ran straight towards the blue coins, touching and collecting them. Mario's eyes widened at this.

"Um, guys, have I been collecting a lot of coins?" Mario asked, not liking where this was going.

"I WASN'T KEEPING COUNT. HOWEVER, BASED ON MY ESTIMATES, YOU, DESPITE THE IRONY OF BEING THE PREVIOUS SUPERSTAR, HAS ACTUALLY ACCUMULATED THE LEAST AMOUNT OF COINS." F.L.U.D.D. explained.

Mario's pupils shrank before he heard a familiar noise. Turning his head, he saw that Natsu was completely covered in golden armour. She smirked while spinning a volleyball on her finger.

"Honestly, with all due respect, Mario, I am kinda disappointed." Natsu noted. "You would think that someone who made a living out of collecting coins would notice that I was going out of my way to not only collect coins but also make sure YOU didn't collect any."

Mario winced. "In my-a defence, no one has actively tried to take MY coins. At least outside of Mario Party."

"Well, the ball is in MY court, literally AND figuratively." Natsu boosted.

With that, she jumped up and served a volleyball towards Mario. At first, the red-clad man was startled.

But then, he narrowed his eyes before closing them. Suddenly, an orange glow surrounded Natsu's volleyball, stopping it in midair, startling Natsu. Then, her pupils shrink when said volleyball moves upwards and floats in the air.

"Oh no! I have forgotten about the Mario Sports Mix specials!" Natsu gasped.

Mario then smirked before flipping in the air while igniting his hand in fire and doing some impressive midair spins. When he got close enough to the volleyball, he got ready to spike it.

Despite this, Natsu merely gritted her teeth and got into a receiving stance. Mario then spiked the volleyball, turning it into a flaming comet towards the volleyball player. However, Natsu put her fists together and swung it upwards, this resulted in a firework display of sparks as Natsu's hands collided with the flaming volleyball. Mario's smirk vanished as the clash continued with Natsu using every ounce of her temporary golden form and not letting up.

BOOM!

Natsu was then engulfed in a large explosion that sent Mario and a few other close-by fighters onto their backs. Mario groaned before sitting up while rubbing his back.

His pupils then shrank when he saw Natsu still in her Golden form on her back. However, she didn't seem to be moving. Mario blinked twice before walking over to her to confirm that she was indeed unconscious. Letting out a sigh, he crouched down.

"I swear for better or-a for worse, these tournaments always find ways to surprise me." Mario muttered before he managed to push Natsu underneath the bottom rope.

Natsu landed in Tekken. After she came, she put her volleyball skills to the test in Tekken Ball.

(Unknown Location)

K. Rool frowned as he gathered around an icy cavern while holding his shivering arms.

"Ugh, there is something about this place that ticks me off." K. Rool muttered. "I WANT to say that it is all the ice and I am a cold-blooded animal, but still."

"Well, well, well! Look who we have here!"

K. Rool's good eye widened before turning his head. There, he saw a bunch of animals all sneering at him. However, what caught his attention the most was the largest one. A heavyset walrus dressed like a Viking with a giant horn. Surrounding him were a bunch of penguins also wearing Viking helmets.

"If it isn't the has-been Big Bad of Donkey Kong Country!" The walrus taunted.

K. Rool narrowed his good eye. "Lord Fredrik…"

"I must say, I didn't expect to see you in one of the many places I conquered!" The walrus admitted. "But at the same time, it is only fitting! I must admit I DID always want to meet the person I replaced!"

"Replaced!?" K. Rool exclaimed in disbelief. "Who was the third Donkey Kong rep in Super Smash Bros Ultimate!?"

"True, true, I admit that you had your sixty minutes of fame. But with Sora's inclusion, the game has officially ended." Fredrik sneered.

"And yet people are still playing it." K. Rool retorted, coldly.

"Not wrong. Even still, for not one, but TWO, Donkey Kong Country games, you got replaced by not only me, but a bunch of freaking Tikis!" Fredrik taunted. "Heck, you didn't even show up in the Super Mario Bros Illumination movie! And that was the movie that brought CHUNKY KONG back to life!"

K. Rool growled. "Alright, you want to go, let's go!"

Fredrik let out a laugh. "Me! Who actually has a modern boss fight unlike you! This should be a piece of cake!"

Two minutes later, Fredrik was on the ground, beaten and bruised while the Snowmads all looked on in horror. K. Rool on the other hand stood over him with a stern look on his face.

"...Get up." K. Rool demanded.

Fredrik looked up weakly. "H-Huh?"

"Look, I don't have much time here so I will keep it brief. At the moment, I joined a villain group just like in the Tournament of Kikai. However, the villain group was supposed to support a bigger support group run by Bison." K. Rool explained with a frown. "We ended up kidnapping and brainwashing the loved ones of all of the UVR champions, minus Penny Proud because she was too recent-ish at the time. THEN, we had them consume a poison that made them go through a horrible and painful cycle of death and rebirth in front of said champions. Why? Because we used a despair extractor. Now does that sound like something Junko Enoshima would do? Well, yes. Because our villain group used the hideout that Junko used to stake and used some of her items. Even though the villain group that I was in the Tournament of Kikai got brainwashed by her. So we created despair clones of the champions so we could give them to Bison. Turns out, Bison couldn't care about us! Apparently, we 'stole' a lot of villains needed for his plan and pretty much just gave up. As if that isn't enough some obscure fighting game had the gall to get salty because the hosts didn't remember they existed even though NOBODY knew about them and stole the despair extractor and clones to try to ruin the current tournament just because one of them didn't get invited by a Mystery Fighter, despite them being a Kyo Kusanagi clone! Oh, and remember when I said that we targeted the UVR champions? In case you didn't connect the dots, one of them is my NODAL COMPANION! And the person we decided on for his loved one is the BABY Pokemon! So even if we manage to survive this night, Ridley and I are going to be raked across the coals by Sakurai, Master Hand and ALL of the Smashers!"

By this time, all of the Snowmads blinked twice in pure confusion. K. Rool's good pupil shrank at this.

"You… Have no idea what I am ranting about, do you?" K. Rool asked.

Everyone shook their heads, still having looks of confusion on their faces. K. Rool merely let out a deep sigh.

"Sorry… I guess what I am trying to say is…" K. Rool started.

Suddenly, he reached down and grabbed Fredrik by his neck and hoisted him up so the Viking could look into K. Rool's pissed look.

"I HAD A LONG NIGHT AND IT IS GOING TO BE A LONG ETERNITY WHEN I GO BACK TO THE SMASH MANSION AND I NEED SOMETHING TO TAKE OUT MY AGGRESSION ON!" K. Rool roared.

Fredrik winced with tears of fear in his eyes. Sure, he was still confused about what was going on but he knew enough that he chose the worst possible time to taunt K. Rool.

(Shadow Moses; Commander's Room)

Roronoa Zoro then narrowed his good eye as several pieces of heavy furniture encircled around him. Despite this, he merely held a katana with each hand while carrying a third one in his mouth.

"Dragon Twister!"

Zoro then spun around with his blades out, creating a wind vortex around him which slashed through the furniture easily. He then glared at his enemy who just scoffed and crossed his arms. Psycho Mantis just raised his arm to the side and lifted up another chair with his telekinesis before throwing it at Zoro. However, the green-haired man easily slashed through it.

However, that was what Psycho Mantis was hoping for as he felt himself being levitated off of the ground before being thrown into a nearby wall. Psycho Mantis then pointed his hand at a desk and sent it flying towards Zoro, making his new node-hopping companions gasp in horror. However, it took much more than that to daze Zoro for as long as he raised his katana to block the incoming desk.

"Oni Giri!" Zoro shouted before swinging his blades out in a cross-like motion, sending the desk right back at Psycho Mantis. However, with a simple raise of the hand, the gas-mask-clad man stopped the desk in midair. But Zoro didn't mind as he ran forward and did a dropkick towards the desk. Psycho Mantis was not expecting this and the desk crashed into him, knocking him into the wall. Zoro then got into a stance.

"Bird Dance!" Zoro shouted, swinging his blade upwards and sending a huge ground wave at the downed Psycho Mantis knocked him through the wall, creating an unsightly hole in the wall. Celica shrieked before glaring at Zoro.

"Zoro, what are you doing!?" Celica scolded, getting her latest ally's attention.

The swordsman blinked his good eye twice. "Um, fighting Psycho Mantis?"

"Yes! But you could do that WITHOUT causing a mess!" Celica shot back. "I am still upset that Leon and his Inteleon caused such a mess in that gecko's lair!"

As Leon scratched the back of his head in embarrassment from the memory, Zoro just stood in disbelief.

"...If you are this much of a neat freak, you wouldn't last one day in my node." Zoro snarked.

While still looking at Celica and the others, Zoro raised a katana up for some reason. Suddenly, a bullet from the wall Psycho Mantis crashed through and hit the katana, deflecting to the side. Zoro then looked towards the direction of the hole before spinning his katanas around which deflected a series of bullets.

Psycho Mantis floated back into the room. This time with a bunch of floating guns to his side. Everyone gasped in horror at this, except for Zoro who merely raised an interested eyebrow. Psycho Mantis then swung his arm and made the guns open fire on Zoro. However, the green-haired man just smirked before swinging his blades at the incoming shots.

At first, it looked like Zoro was either deflecting all of the bullets or Psycho Mantis was just missing them completely. However, Minerva noticed a bunch of bullet bits, looking like they were slashed in half. Psycho Mantis merely scoffed before he had the guns surrounding him. Zoro then smirked before getting into a defensive.

Suddenly, Zoro looked like he grew two more heads and four more arms, much to the shock of his node-hopping companions.

"Nine-Sword-Style!" Zoro shouted.

As if that was the trigger for Psycho Mantis to start fire, Zoro immediately started to slash wildly, striking any and all bullets away from him (while making sure they didn't hurt the others). Soon, all of the guns ran off of bullets. Then, Psycho Mantis raised the guns THEMSELVES in the air, getting ready to throw them. Seeing this, Zoro rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah… Like THAT is going to work." Zoro snarked.

"...I confess that I underestimated you, pirate." Psycho Mantis admitted.

"You are not the first freak I fought that and you definitely won't be last." Zoro shot back.

"Considering that after all of this time, you and your crew are somehow STILL looking for One Piece, that claim isn't false." Psycho Mantis snarked.

Zoro growled. "How about you give me a REAL challenge instead of running your covered mouth!?"

Leon jumped. "Zoro, don't aggravate him!"

"...If you insist." Psycho Mantis said with a shoulder shrug.

Suddenly, Zoro had felt an immense pain in his head. The swordsman gritted his teeth tightly (which was impressive because he was already carrying a sword in his mouth). Everyone else looked in horror.

"Oh no! I knew that this would happen!" Azusa gasped. "He is going to take over Zoro's brain!"

Zoro winced in pain, trying to deal with the pain in his head. Psycho Mantis just floated while looking at Zoro with everyone else looking worried.

"...What?" Psycho Mantis asked, finally.

Everyone looked at Psycho Mantis in confusion.

"H-Huh?" Linkle asked.

Suddenly, they all heard a weak chuckle. They all turned towards Zoro.

"Not going to lie… I thought Rosalina and Drake were overreacting and to an extent, I still think they do." Zoro said with a small smirk. "Still, I could see why they were mentally-exhausted by your mind-hijacking."

"H-H-How are you able to resist my psychic powers!?" Psycho Mantis exclaimed, genuinely looking scared. "The only one who could do so is Solid Snake! And even then, that is because he is controlled by the player who could put the controller in the other slot!"

"Didn't I warn you earlier? You are up against someone with Haki!" Zoro gloated. Then, an aura surrounded him. "So in truth, you can't do much against someone who could fight back, can you!?"

With that, he put his katanas back into his sheath before summoning more energy with his good eye closed. He then opened it before rushing forward.

"1080 Pound Phoenix!"

Zoro then sent out a ground wave with his katanas which was as big as the room itself which was sent flying into Psycho Mantis who didn't have a chance to float out of the way. He ended up crashing back through the hole he crashed into. Zoro smirked before rushing over through the wall.

"Come on!" Linkle urged.

The group then chased after Zoro in the other room. There, he saw Zoro with one foot on Psycho Mantis' chest while pointing a katana at him.

"Look, normally I LOVE to drag out a fight as soon as possible, but I know the longer this goes on, the more the Battle of the Luminaries will suffer." Zoro said, sternly. "So tell your little buddies to run off with their tails between their legs!"

Psycho Mantis gave a muffled growl through his gas mask. Suddenly, Zoro's eyebrow twitched.

"Still don't know when to quit, eh? Maybe I should give you another scar!" Zoro boasted.

"Zoro, please, he is down!" Celica pleaded.

The swordsman looked at Celica in disbelief. "Like THAT would keep him down."

"Even still, we need him to talk!" Leon reminded.

Zoro rolled his good eye. "Alright, alright… Well?"

Psycho Mantis writhed in Zoro's grasp.

"...How can I talk about something I never even do?"

Everyone blinked twice at this.

"Wait, what?" Azusa asked.

"It is as I said. I never had any desire to go siding with Xuan Dou Zhi Wang." Psycho Mantis said, looking bitter about his loss.

"That's…" Linkle started before narrowing her eyes. "That's an obvious lie! We SAW you hijack the screens and announce yourself as the tournament's Junko Enoshima!"

"...Really? Really? I know that most people are imbeciles compared to me but you can't possibly be THAT gullible." Psycho Mantis snarked.

"What do you mean?" Leon shot back, not looking convinced.

"Did you see me in the Tournament of Kikai or the recap for said tournament?" Psycho Mantis asked.

Azusa tilted her head to the side. "I did…"

"Don't you think that my mannerisms in those instances and the mannerisms of the Psycho Mantis in the third Battle of the Luminaries are… Different?" Psycho Mantis continued.

The five paused before looking at each other.

"Now that I think about it, Psycho Mantis' way of speaking is more… Gruffer." Celica admitted.

"Gruffer? That's it? Did you NOT see the fake Psycho Mantis hijack Snoopy's brain?" Psycho Mantis scolded.

Azusa's eyes widened in horror at this. "Wait, what!?"

"Ah, yes. You probably didn't notice it from the elimination node you were in at the time." Psycho Mantis admitted.

Suddenly, a mirror was on the wall floating up and towards Zoro. At first, the pirate was about to slash it in two, thinking it was an attack but then the reflection fizzled before showing something else.

"I am disrespecting your fight!"

The group's eyes wide when they saw Snoopy holding a tennis racket with a deranged look on his face while attacking Pikachu and Agumon.

"That's right, motherfucker! I am disrespecting your fight! What are you going to do about it!?"

Psycho Mantis looked up at Zoro and then at the others. "At what point did Rosalina or Drake speak like a dudebro!?"

"I… I think he is telling the truth." Celica realised.

"No, really?" Psycho Mantis snarked.

"But if Psycho Mantis is telling the truth, then who is helping Xuan Dou Zhi Wang?" Leon asked.

Zoro glared at Psycho Mantis. "You know, don't you?"

"Um, duh? I hijacked Drake WHILE I was in the arena, remember?" Psycho Mantis added.

"Well, who is your imposter?" Zoro demanded, still keeping his foot tightly on Psycho Mantis' chest.

Psycho Mantis paused before giving his response.

"...Freddy Kreuger."

The group's eyes widened at this.

"Wait, you mean the same one from A Nightmare on Elm Street?" Azusa gasped.

"The very one." Psycho Mantis nodded.

Linkle raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Um, I admit that it was hard to tell, but last thing I checked, everyone was awake."

"Hoo boy… I don't even know how to explain all of this before your ten minutes here are up." Psycho Mantis muttered.

"Okay, then let's not dilly-dally." Leon said, crossing his arms. "Why does Freddy want to ruin an UVR tournament?"

"You know, Junko Enoshima?" Psycho Mantis asked, earning a nod from everyone. "Well, Xuan Dou Zhi Wang has gotten their hands on items that were left over from her old hideout in the last Tournament of Kikai?"

Azusa gasped. "You mean Xero DIDN'T have that place dismantled?"

Zoro rolled his good eye. "Shocker."

Psycho Mantis then continued. "Basically, just like hopes and dreams, despair and nightmares are two sides of the same coin."

"That… Actually makes sense." Linkle said, blinking twice. "In hindsight, why DIDN'T Freddy tried to join her just like he did with Xuan Dou Zhi Wang here."

"Because of being the Ultimate Despair, Junko takes the lazy way out of brainwashing her victims in despair." Psycho Mantis muttered. "Make no mistake, there is nothing wrong with that by itself. But it makes all of her preaching about being able to make people fall into despair seem like a bunch of hot air."

"She sure doesn't seem a bunch of hot air from me from the way she masterminded everything." Azusa frowned.

"...You can NOT be serious. May I remind you that I was THERE? The amount of holes in Junko's mastermind plan gives me a headache almost as the ones I give my victims!" Psycho Mantis scolded. "If anything, they should be worried about her stealing Nagito's talent considering how lucky she was of how things LITERALLY fell into her lap!"

"...I DID never understand why the JUSTICE LEAGUE, let alone BATMAN, was so afraid of her." Zoro admitted.

"See, THIS guy gets it!" Psycho Mantis exclaimed.

Leon shook his head. "We are getting off-topic! That still doesn't explain how Freddy could use his powers when it only works in dreams!"

"Simple. The tool Xuan Dou Zhi Wang stole is a machine that extracts despair or even near-despair of people and creates clones of them." Psycho Mantis explained. "All Freddy has to do is literally TOUCH a clone to use his powers."

"Oh god… Freddy is already scary enough in nightmares." Celica gasped.

"Oh, it gets worse." Psycho Mantis said.

"What!? How!?" Azusa gasped.

"First things first, Xuan Dou Zhi Wang had managed to transport Drake to where they were." Psycho Mantis explained.

The group looked horrified at this.

"What!?" Leon exclaimed.

"And it is only a matter of time before Freddy and by extension, Xuan Dou Zhi Wang finds out WHY he is so traumatised by getting mind-hijacked by me." Psycho Mantis added.

Azusa blinked twice. "Um, what do you mean? Isn't it obvious?"

"Yeah, Drake is scared that no matter where he is, you would hijack his mind." Leon added. "It is not that complicated."

"Ah, yes… That IS part of it. But while my mind-hijacking DID amplified, there is a fear that was always there long before the Tournament of Kikai." Psycho Mantis explained.

"R-R-Really?" Celica asked. "What is it?"

"Well…" Psycho Mantis started. "Woah oh…"

"W-W-What is it?" Celica asked.

"Hold on. I think it is easier to show you." Psycho Mantis offered.

With that, he made the reflection of the mirror change again. This time, it showed Drake surrounded by the cast of Xuan Dou Zhi Wang.

(Dome; Electrician Office)

"Well? Any last words?" Ell Blue asked.

Drake merely crossed his arms with an annoyed look on his face. "Ooh, dramatic, are we? Fine. I have just one."

"And that is?" Ell Blue said, raising an eyebrow.

Drake narrowed his eyes.

"...Why?"

Ell Blue returned the glare. "You already know the answer to that."

"No, I don't. Yes, you were the only one out of the five Mystery Fighters not to be invited to this tournament but still, why?" Drake frowned. "Was it really enough to try to ruin this tournament? To kill Terry? To mind-hijack Snoopy?"

Ell Blue just continued glaring before closing his eyes. "Unfortunately, yes. No matter how you look at it, we deserved the spot more than Fiona, Jago, Wolfrun and Wade."

"You know what? Maybe you did." Drake said, narrowing his eyes. "But do you really think you would have a second chance at an UVR tournament after all of the crap you pulled!?"

"Do you really think we would get invited?" Ell Blue asked.

"Dude… Do you even know Black & Bruised existed before SSBFreak invited Ally Gator to the first Megamix Tournament?" Drake asked. "Now she is well-known throughout the UVR fanbase despite being from a very obscure node."

"Which is why you should have invited US!" Brazel roared.

"Dude! Wait your turn! I could only give so many nodes a time in the limelight!" Drake scolded. "Killer Instinct was relevant in the competitive fighting game scene at the time, Shrek Super Slam is a cartoon platform fighter which I love, Wolfrun was the reason I was interested in the Precure series and Wade Hixton… Is just an underrated game all around. Hell, it WAS going to get a SEQUEL."

"So OUR game had a sequel too?" Ell Blue shot back.

Drake genuinely looked surprised at this.

"Well, technically it is a beat-em-up spinoff that takes place in an alternate universe just like Majora's Mask or Deltarune." Seal said with a smile. "Basically, six of us got new looks and powers along with new characters."

"Yeah, too bad nobody will care because all they will see you as the villains." Drake scoffed. "Seriously, do you really expect ANYONE to like what you did tonight!?"

"We wouldn't be in this mess if you just invited us!" Blast snapped back.

"Look, I am sorry that I didn't invite Yan but if you are going to do… All of this, maybe I was right to not invite you!" Drake scolded.

Ell Blue narrowed his eyes. "...You really mean that?"

"After what you did to Terry, Snoopy, Cole and Dracula-knows-how many, I do." Drake said, sternly.

"...Very well then." Ell Blue said. "Psycho Mantis, if you will."

"Yes, 'Psycho Mantis'." Drake said, rolling his eyes. "I am clearly the only one besides you Karens watching so might as well take off your mask and show me your ugly mug."

The gas-mask-clad man paused before shrugging. "If you insist…"

With that, "Psycho Mantis" took off his mask to reveal it was Freddy Kreuger. Drake jumped at this.

"Wait, Freddy Kreuger!?" Drake exclaimed.

"In the burned flesh!" The serial killer sneered.

"But… Why? You are one of the most famous horror villains of all time!" Drake pointed out. "Sure, you've never been to an UVR tournament before but you don't need to know how much of a threat you are!"

"First off, thank you for the flattery. It is almost a shame I am going to make your life a living hell." Freddy smirked. "Secondly, it isn't about who gets into the Battle of the Luminaries or not. It is for despair and nightmares! In any case…"

Freddy gave a dark smirk.

"Good night…"

With that, he held out his hand and blew on it, sending green mist into Drake's face. Before he could cry out in shock, he immediately felt drowsy and collapsed on his back. Everyone gave dark looks.

"Here is where the fun begins." Ell Blue said.

Freddy then nodded before walking over and crouching down before putting his hand on top of the unconscious Drake's head. After a few moments though, Freddy's eyes widened a bit.

"...Well, I am." Freddy noted.

"What is it?" Shirley asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is Drake's greatest fear really that interesting?"

"Actually, no…" Freddy answered.

Suddenly, he smirked.

"If anything, it's boring."

Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

(Shadow Moses; Commander's Room)

The five watched as Freddy explained to Xuan Dou Zhi Wang about Drake's greatest fear. Celica and Azusa gasped, putting their hands to their mouths. Leon and Linkle shook their heads in disgust. Zoro on the other hand gritted his teeth in pure anger. Psycho Mantis, naturally, was the most calm, managing to free himself while Zoro was distracted and floated with his hands behind his back.

"...That's horrible. And they are willing to exploit it!?" Celica said in disgust.

"Considering all of the other atrocities they committed so far, the answer is yes." Psycho Mantis said, calmly.

"Those monsters! How low can they go before they have to make their point across!?" Linkle roared.

"Ugh, there is never Cresselia when you need them!" Leon exclaimed.

"Does anyone besides us know that Freddy Kreuger is the fake Psycho Mantis?" Azusa asked.

Psycho Mantis shook his head. "Nope."

"Perfect…" Zoro spat.

Celica paused for a moment.

"...We HAVE to go back to the dome."

"Um, don't get me wrong, Celica. I agree with you." Azusa said before frowning. "But how are we going to do that?"

The white mage paused before looking to the side, not knowing how to answer that. Before anyone could say anything else, they all started to fade.

"It seems that your ten minutes in this node is up." Psycho Mantis mused.

"Great… All this and we are unable to tell everyone about Freddy." Zoro groaned.

"...Maybe not directly." Leon mused, rubbing his chin.

"Huh. What do you mean, Leon?" Linkle asked.

"I think I got an idea. But first, we need…" The purple-haired man said.

That was all he got out before he and his group vanished, leaving Psycho Mantis all alone. When they left, he let out a muffled sigh.

"I know that Zoro is a Shonen Jump protagonist but to think that he would resist my psychic powers…" Psycho Mantis groaned.

He then paused.

"Wait, is the…?" Psycho Mantis asked.

He then gave a dark chuckle.

"Well, if this tournament wasn't getting interesting before." Psycho Mantis noted.

"YOU!"

Psycho Mantis paused before turning his head to see Juniper Lee in the doorway, glaring at him.

"First, you hijack the tournament just like Junko did in the Tournament of Kikai, then you caused a blackout, forcing the Millennium Star to substitute with stars, then you mind-hijack poor Snoopy and now you kidnapped Drake!" June roared before getting into a stance. "I am going to…

"Too slow…" Psycho Mantis muttered.

June looked confused at this. "Too slow for what?"

With a sleight of his hand, Psycho Mantis used his telekinesis to fly backwards the way she came, screaming the whole way. Psycho Mantis merely shook his head.

"...Okay, I am the greatest psychic of all time and even I can't figure out the horrible luck of Celica's group and the eliminated fighter they are supposed to physically interact with…" Psycho Mantis muttered.

(The Arena)

Cammy White narrowed her eyes before flipping back to avoid a kick surrounded by green wispy energy. Giovanna just rushed forward before doing another kick with Rei surrounding her legs. However, Cammy easily flipped over it and gracefully landed on the ground before going around.

"Spiral Arrow!" Cammy shouted, doing her trademark drill kick into Giovanna's back. The redhead staggered forward before doing a spin kick. Cammy wasn't not expecting this and took the attack to the side and was knocked down to the ground. Giovanna then flipped forward before going to land on top of Cammy, but the British woman recovered before rolling backwards and doing a sweeping kick to Giovanna's legs, knocking her off of her feet.

However, Giovanna landed on her hands before flipping back onto her feet just in time to raise her arms and legs to block a series of punches and kicks from Cammy. Giovanna then found an opening before kicking her leg out but Cammy saw it coming and flipped out of the way. But then Rei launched herself forward.

Cammy yelped before jumping up and allowing Rei to go past before landing on top of Rei's back with both hands in a gymnast pose. However, she was forced to leapt off of the wolf early when Giovanna jumped up and did a spin kick. When landed on the ground, Giovanna and Rei rushed forward to do a pincer attack.

"Cannon Spike!" Cammy shouted, doing a flip kick to Rei's chin. Not only did the blonde manage to knock the wolf away but she ended up making Giovanna go past her. Cammy then managed on her feet and kicked Giovanna in the back, sending her flying into Rei and knocking the two of them. Cammy then got up and moved into her stance. Giovanna also got up.

However, her skin was completely bright green just like Rei. Cammy looked shocked at this but quickly narrowed her eyes, not going to let herself get off-guard like with Heidern did. Giovanna then ran forward before kicking her out but Cammy easily jumped to the side before leaping up.

"Cannon Strike!" Cammy shouted, doing a diving kick into Giovanna's forehead. However, other than making the now-green-skinned woman stagger back a couple of steps, she easily recovered. Cammy blinked twice before growling.

"You gotta be kidding me." Cammy muttered. "Not only are you as hard-hitting as She-Hulk but as durable as her too!"

"Sucks to be you." Giovanna smirked.

With that, she kicked Cammy hard in the stomach, sending her flying back and towards the ropes. Fortunately, she didn't fly over them but she did end up bounding off of them and crashing back into the grassy arena. Cammy groaned before looking up.

Only for her eyes to bug out when she saw Giovanna jumping up to do her own divekick. Cammy yelped before flipping backwards to avoid the attack (which left a large mark in it). Cammy then narrowed her eyes before doing a rolling jump forward. Giovanna just smirked before getting ready to block.

However, what she wasn't expecting was for Cammy to break out of the jump and wrap her legs around Giovanna's head tightly. As the men went wild at this, Cammy then spun around in turn also turning Giovanna around a couple of times before Cammy moved her body so she could perform a Hurricanrana throwing Giovanna over the very ropes the latter knocked her into. Rei whimpered before going after her master. Cammy then got up on one knee with a smirk.

"Well, it seems that her She-Hulk form doesn't affect throws." Cammy noted.

Giovanna & Rei landed in the Incredible Hulk where they teamed up with She-Hulk to take down a bunch of bank robbers.

"Horn Bash!"

Eggman yelped before raising the pincer arms of his Egg Walker to grab the horns of Greymon's helmet. Despite this, the Digimon continued charging forward. Eggman quickly pushed a button to activate a set of thrusters on the back of his mech to get into a power struggle with Greymon.

That was when a blue-and-green hammer shot forward before slamming down on top of Eggman's head, immediately dazing him. Greymon then used his horn to pick up the Egg Walker and throw it over him. Mechanica then smirked before firing her Homie ARM at the Egg Walker, resulting in a large explosion which sent the mech to the ground on its side.

Eggman groaned while rubbing his head. His eyes then widened before his sunglasses before looking from left to right to see Greymon and Mechanica looking down at him with dark looks on their faces. Eggman yelped before quickly pushing a few buttons on his control panel. This made a particular noise as red cursors appeared on Greymon and Mechanica making the two go wide-eyed.

Then, a bunch of missiles spawned from the Egg Walker and towards Greymon and Mechanica. However, the two raised their arms to successfully block the incoming barrage. This had given Eggman to make his Egg Walker get up. He then saw Greymon as the bigger threat and charged up energy in his pincer arm before sending it into Greymon's face, knocking him down. Eggman then turned his mech around to block another punch from Mechanica.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon shouted, breathing fire forward. Eggman yelped before forcing himself to block the incoming stream of fire. But this felt him open for Mechanica to extend her ARMS towards Eggman and grabbed his Egg Walker before pulling him over and spinning her own mech's torso, striking the Egg Walker multiple times and knocking him down.

Eggman groaned before glaring at the two. "Ugh, you're not going to get away with this!"

As the crowd cheered, Greymon narrowed his eyes. "Us!? You are the one who hit us with wild missiles!"

"That wasn't on purpose!" Eggman scolded. "And even then, I was clearly the victim! Sure, you two got hurt but I lost my ally!"

"You shouldn't have mindlessly pushed buttons on your control panel!" Mechanica scolded. "You think that you would learn after what happened with your Egg Walker in the Tournament of Kikai!"

Eggman gritted his teeth before activating a few buttons on his Egg Walker. He then sent out some energy shots at Greymon who merely used a Nova Blast to negate them. However, Eggman activated his jet thrusters and charged towards Mechanica. The mechanic yelped before raising her ARMS to get into a power struggle. However, ARMS are meant for long-range, not short so Eggman easily won the exchange.

However, Mechanica activated her own jet thruster, making the power struggle more balanced. As the two mech pilots glared into each other's eyes, Greymon ran forward from behind him and attempted to suplex the Egg Walker. However, Eggman saw it coming and pushed a button on his panel.

Suddenly, a missile launcher appeared on the Egg Walker's side and sent a bunch of missiles into the air before they flew down towards Greymon. The Digimon saw this coming and used his helmet to block the incoming missiles. However, Eggman suddenly made his Egg Walker spin around with its pincer arms around Mechanica' ARMS spinning her arms.

With Mechanica helping her, her mech were sent flying into Greymon which knocked the two of them down. As they groaned, Eggman smirked before raising one leg and stomping it on the ground.

"DOSUKOI!"

With that, Eggman sent his Egg Walker charging forward. However, instead of charging with the mech's body first, it was Eggman's HEAD that was in front with his pincer arms put to the side. Greymon snapped out of his daze before his pupils shrank.

"LOOK OUT!" Greymon yelled before shoving Mechanica's mech out of the way.

However, he wasn't unable to save himself as Eggman's ramming headbutt came straight into his stomach. With his eyes widened in pain, Greymon was sent stumbling towards the ropes before tripping over them and falling out of the ring. Mechanica looked on in horror at what had just happened before turning towards Eggman.

…To see him gingerly rubbing his head with both hands.

"...Why did Sonic Smackdown give E. Honda's Sumo Headbutt again?" Eggman groaned.

Greymon landed in a grassy playground of an elementary school, nearly landing on a certain girl making her yelp. Greymon groaned before sitting up.

"Ugh, ah well. Six eliminations is not bad in a tournament like this." Greymon sighed. "Especially since it is THRICE the elimination Gabumon and Guilmon got."

Suddenly, he heard a shriek. He looked down and once he did, his eyes widened.

"Oh no…"

"You… You nearly landed on top of moi, which is French for me…" Nanette Manoir said, shivering in place. "I-I thought that no other things would fall in my node just like the first Battle of the Luminaries and yet… And yet…"

With that, she started to scream bloody murder before running off. Greymon just watched with his eyes.

"If that's Nanette, then that means I landed in…" Greymon started.

"Well, isn't this a sight for sore eyes which is quite a sight!"

Greymon winced before looking down. Walking towards him was another girl the same age as Nanette, only with brown hair, freckles and an orange dress.

"Hey, Greymon!" The girl grinned.

The dinosaur let out a deep sigh. "...Hey, Angela Anaconda."

"This is a pleasant surprise that you showed up in my node on account of I didn't hear hide nor hair of anyone showing up in our node in the last tournament!" The orange-clad girl noted.

"Yeah… Just when I thought we could be free…" Greymon muttered.

"Well, you are here for ten minutes so let's make the best of it!" Angela Anaconda grinned. "It's been a long while since I cameoed in the first Digimon movie and made a big splash!

Greymon paused. "...This IS an elimination node so I wonder if I'll get away with it if I use my Nova Blast on these kids."

Back in the arena, Biyomon suddenly shuddered.

"...Why do I have a feeling that one of my nodal companions is going through something I do NOT envy?" Biyomon asked.

Suddenly, a stream of water struck her in the face, sending her flying back. Biyomon ended up flipping backwards ungracefully before recovering and glaring at the guilty party. Squirtle let out a cheeky smirk. Biyomon growled before flying over. However, Squirtle withdrew into his shell before spinning off with the pink-feathered Digimon chasing after him.

Then, Squirtle's shell jumped up before firing another stream of water at Biyomon. However, unlike this time, the bird flew to the side and swooped down talons first like a bird of prey. Squirtle yelped before moving his body so that Biyomon's talons would hit the back of his shell.

However, he was unharmed, he was still sent bouncing off of the ground. Biyomon went in for another swoop, this time hitting the front of Squirtle's shell which was more effective and causing Squirtle to cry out in pain.

"Ostri-Kick!" Biyomon shouted, flying upwards like kicking Squirtle up into the air before continuing the aerial assault with a beak attack. Biyomon then went to continue the assault with a wing smack before Squirtle quickly recovered and shot out water to propel himself out of Biyomon's attack so he could fall on the ground. Despite this, Biyomon narrowed her eyes.

"Okay, he has the elemental AND speed advantage." Biyomon mused. "But I have the literal high ground. Spiral Twister!"

With that, she sent out a spiralling green fire towards Squirtle, but the turtle then sent out a stream of water at the incoming projectile. However, that was what Biyomon was hoping for as she flew forward. Squirtle yelped before retreating in his shell but Biyomon grabbed him with her talons and flew up into the air. She then made her way outside of the ring to drop Squirtle into the portal.

However, Squirtle is from a platform fighter so the moment he realised he was falling into a portal, he poked his head out of his shell before summoning a stream of water underneath him to propel himself back inside of the ring. Biyomon just flew downwards to which Squirtle spat out bubbles at her.

"Talon Twist!" Biyomon shouted, doing a cartwheel, managing to negate the incoming bubbles. When Biyomon broke out of the cartwheel before spinning around with her talon out but Squirtle withdrew into his shell with water surrounding him before moving around Biyomon and popping back out before drop-kicking Biyomon in the back, sending her flying backwards. Squirtle then did a leaping headbutt forward but Biyomon managed to recover and fly upwards, letting Squirtle go past. Biyomon smirked before flying over and grabbing him once ahead with her talons.

…Only to find Squirtle was heavier than before. Looking down, she noticed that Squirtle's shell was now golden, making her pupils shrink.

"Oh, Numemon!" Biyomon "cursed".

Squirtle looked over his now golden shell before giving Biyomon a dark smirk. He then went back into his shell before spinning around while spitting out water from his limb holes soaking Biyomon and sending her on the ground in pain. Squirtle's shell then crashed onto the ground but instead of popping out of it, he spun forward towards the downed Biyomon and crashed into her, knocking her into the air.

However, Squirtle wasn't done as he made his shell go back and strike Biyomon as she was coming down before sending her flying back into the air. This happened a few times before Squirtle finally broke out of his shell and sent out a Water Gun from his mouth which sent Biyomon over the ropes. While Water Gun (at least in Smash) doesn't deal that much damage, at least at all, Biyomon was too dazed to fly back so she easily fell into a portal.

Biyomon landed in Angry Birds where the pigs mistook her from one of the titular protagonists and tried to dog… Um, pig-pile her. Very stupid mistake.

A white star projectile collided with a bunch of throwing knives. Or rather the star went past the knives and turned them into pumpkins before crashing on the ground. Despite this, Ashley merely let out a scoff before running over and kicking one of the new fruits and kicked it forward. Cheria Barnes narrowed her eyes before moving to the side and getting out another throwing knife from her sleeve before getting ready to throw it.

"Blessed Bladed!" Cheria shouted, throwing the knife underhanded which somehow made two blades go into an arc towards the pumpkin destroying it. However, Ashley ran behind more pumpkins.

"Pool Boy!" Ashley shouted. Her wand then turned into a pool cue before assuming the fitting pose for it. She then hit the pumpkins one by one, sending them rolling towards Cheria. The pinkette just got out some more knives.

"Soul Brigade!" Cheria shouted, throwing her knives. However, the knives then surrounded her with trails of lights protecting her from the pumpkins. Despite this, she still ended up getting pieces of fruit on her resulting in grunting in disgust. Ashley then turned her pool cue into her wand and fired out a series of red orbs at Cheria, hitting her multiple times.

"Dessert Defender!" Ashley shouted, sending some more projectiles forward, this time, a baseball, a badminton shuttlecock and a tin can. By this time, Cheria snapped to attention before throwing some more knives at the unorthodox projectiles, piercing out of the air. She then clasped her hands together before casting a spell. Ashley then got ready to dodge whatever projectile spell that was coming her way.

However, Cheria wasn't doing an offensive spell. "Fleetfoot!"

Then, an aura of green wind surrounded Cheria. She made her movement speed go faster as she ran to the side while getting out more knives and throwing them. Ashley gritted her teeth before pointing her wand.

"Undercover Agent!" Ashley shouted. Her wand then turned into an umbrella which opened up to block the knives. Said umbrella made weird noises as if cries of pain. However, Cheria then got out more knives and threw them above her.

"Freeze Rain!" Cheria shouted. Then, the knives then vanished before reappearing over Ashley and raining down small icicles on her. However, the dark-haired girl raised her umbrella over her head to block it. But this left Cheria running over before kicking Ashley in the face and sending her sprawling down while dropping the umbrella. Lying on her back, Ashley let out all of her pain in one big scream.

"Ow."

As Ashley sat up, the umbrella turned back into Red who was shivering his arms, most likely from Cheria's Freeze Rain.

"Why is she so hard to fight!?" Red exclaimed. "She is the main HEALER of Graces!"

Ashley shook her head. "Modern Tales games make it so even the white mages could be offensive powerhouses."

"Now what?" Red frowned.

Ashley paused for a moment. She then narrowed her eyes before getting up.

"You."

Cheria stopped herself in mid-throw. "Um, what is it?"

"Do you like your slim figure?" Ashley asked.

Red and Cheria both paused before blinking twice.

"Um, what?" Cheria asked.

"Do not make me repeat myself." Ashley scolded.

Cheria blinked twice. "...Um, yes?"

Suddenly, Ashley smirked. She then pulled out something that made Cheria and Red gasp.

"A Smash Ball…" Cheria said, softly.

"But Ashley, we haven't perfected it yet!" Red insisted.

"So?" The red-clad girl scoffed. "There have been weirder things that happen here."

Before Red (or Cheria) could protest, Ashley broke the Smash Ball which created the familiar aura around her.

"Red, NOW!" Ashley shouted.

Red frowned but still turned back into a wand for Ashley to grab. She then swung it which summoned a purple rune around Cheria, binding her arms to her sides as she was unable to move. Ashley's smirk returned as she swung her wand around.

"Eye of newt, I cast a hex on you!"

Cheria's eyes widened as more runes encircled her while she looked around in fear as Ashley looked off of the ground.

"Grandma's wig, this will make you big!"

Cheria's pupils shrank. "B-B-Big!?"

By this time, Ashley's hair turned snow white as she and Cheria were surrounded by black smoke with occasional red static.

"Kitten spit, soon your pants can't fit!"

Tears of fear then appeared in Cheria's eyes. Red had a huge, creepy grin on her face which was much different from her own sullen appearance.

"PANTALONES GIGANTICUS!"

With that, Cheria exploded in a large cloud of smoke with several fighters stopping what they were doing to look in the direction of the Final Smash to see what happened to poor Cheria.

…Only to see Cheria upside-down on her hands. Everyone blinked twice.

"Um, Cheria, why are you standing upside-down?" Cammy asked.

"I have no idea!" The pinkette insisted.

With that, she moved her body so she could fall on her back. …Only for her to roll forward and end up upside-down again. By this time, Ashley's hair turned back to normal while blinking twice before slapping her forehead with her free hand.

"...Oh no! Not again!"

As the crowd cheered, Ashley's wand turned back into a frowning Red.

"...I warned you that we shouldn't use a Final Smash when you don't officially have one." Red sighed.

Ashley merely cast Red a dark glare, making the imp shuddered in fear. Luckily for Red, loud noises distracted Ashley. Looking up, they saw a lot of men standing up and doing cat-calls and wolf-whistles. At first, the fighters were confused, but then Cheria realised something. People could look up… Um, down her skirt.

Shrieking, she crossed her legs with her face red with anger and embarrassments. "You perverts! How dare you look up a woman's skirt!?"

Ashley and Red paused before the latter looked at each other.

"...I know that you most likely didn't want to start with a clumsy elimination, but someone should take her out of her misery." Red frowned.

Ashley let out a deep sigh. "...Fine. Waste not, want not, anyway. Red, do your thing."

Red nodded her head before turning back into a wand. Ashley then grabbed it before walking over and charging up dark electricity into her wand with Cheria too busy not letting the audience see her panties. Ashley then sent out a powerful but short-range burst of electricity, sending her flipping out of the arena.

Cheria landed in Donkey Kong 64. However, the aftermath of Ashley's spell was still underway as she was still upside-down. Lanky Kong saw him, got heart-shaped eyes and walked over to her on his hands while offering her a banana bunch.

Ganondorf shook his head in hopelessness. "That Ashley girl has a lot of potential but she still has a lot to learn."

"To be fair, I am actually glad her spell failed." Danny said, floating behind Ganondorf. "Don't want the DeviantArt crowd to get any ideas."

"Tell me about it." Ganondorf said, rolling his eyes. He then turned around. "Well, that was a fun distraction. Now back to crushing y…"

It was then Danny punched him in the face which sent him flying away. Ganondorf managed to stop himself in midair (yes, he and Danny were still flying) before rubbing his jaw. Looking up, he saw Danny was completely covered in gold armour. Ganondorf blinked twice before slapping his forehead in frustration. Danny smirked before flying over before throwing another punch.

However, this time, Ganondorf was prepared and got out his sword to block it. He was sent flying back again, but not as much before recovering and flying backwards to swing his sword down at Danny. But the white-haired boy raised his hand to catch the sword. The two then got into a power struggle with each other.

Suddenly, Danny vanished in a green, swirling vortex before reappearing behind Ganondorf and punching him in the back, sending him flying forward. Danny then teleported again before reappearing and dealing a hard uppercut into the air, sending Ganondorf upwards. Danny then teleported around Ganondorf as if he was in an invisible pinball machine with the crowd going wild.

Danny then ended the combo with a double-handed punch which sent Ganondorf flying down to the ground and crashing on his back hard where he laid unmoving. Danny smirked before flying down to pick up Ganondorf and carry him over the ropes. However, the warlock's eyes fluttered open to see Danny flying over. He then summoned a ball of white energy before launching it at Danny. While it took him by surprise, he only got sent back a small bit.

"Fool!" Ganondorf taunted, getting up. "Do you really think that having golden armour puts you at an even advantage!? I am the wielder of the Triforce of POWER!"

"That means squat here!" Danny smirked. "In case you didn't know, bosses tend to do poorly at these things!"

"Most of them, yes, but I am one of the most well-known Nintendo villains of all time, if not all of gaming!" Ganondorf boasted.

"And yet you got eliminated by a tiny turtle in a wheelchair." Danny said with his smirk growing even larger.

Ganondorf growled before floating up off the ground and soaring towards Danny. However, the ghost teleported again. But this time, Ganondorf engulfed himself in dark energy in the form of a barrier, just in time to block Danny's punch. With the latter recovered from his own attack, Ganondorf swung his sword like a baseball bat into Danny which sent him flying upwards.

Danny managed to recover in time to block another sword slash with his arms. He then disappeared before reappearing behind Ganondorf to shoot an ectoplasm bolt into his back. Ganondorf soon recovered before growling.

"So you like teleporting behind people, huh?" Ganondorf asked.

With that, he charged up dark energy in his fist. Danny just rolled his eyes before teleporting behind Ganondorf again.

…Only for Ganondorf to turn around mid-charge, making Danny's face fall.

"AAAAHHHHH!"

POW!

Ganondorf then sent out a powerful punch of dark energy into Danny's face. Even with his super gold armour, he was sent flying towards the barrier and slammed against it, making everyone wince. Despite still being golden, Danny peeled off of the barrier before knocking like a stone into the portal as Ganondorf looked down with a smirk.

"The old reverse Warlock Punch never gets old!"

Danny landed in Luigi's Mansion. When he came to, he found himself dealing with the Portrait Ghosts.

"Rising Tackle!"

The Inkling narrowed her eyes before running to the side to avoid a diagonal drill kick from Alice Garnet Nakata. When the blonde was recovering from her own attack, the Inkling got out her Inkbrush and swung it at Alice's feet. She yelled before crashing onto her back hard. The Inkling then proceeded to do a series of swiper, not only hitting her multiple times but also getting ink all over her.

Alice cried out in pain before kicking the Inkling in the face, sending the orange-tentacled girl staggering back. However, instead of continuing the assault, Alice then got up and moved AWAY from her opponent while trying to get the ink off her, knowing that it made the Inkling's attacks stronger. However, the Inkling got up and got out his Splattershot. Alice yelped before running over to avoid the shots.

While the Inkling missed, she still left a bunch of orange ink on the ground. She quickly turned into her squid form and dove into the ink before swimming after the retreating Alice. The Inkling then shot herself into the air before getting out a Splat Bomb and throwing it , Alice saw the attack coming and yelped before diving to the side to avoid the ink explosion.

Only for the Inkling to swing her Inkbrush downwards into Alice's side. The blonde cried out in pain before the Inkling jumped up to do another strike. However, Alice used her elbow dash attack to zoom out of the way, but she ended up stumbling in place. The Inkling just scoffed before getting out her Splattershot and fired at her. But Alice yelped before running out of the way.

"I don't want to get too close to her with all of this ink on me!" Alice lamented. "But I don't have any projectiles so I can't out-zone her! What should I do?"

She then looked around. She then saw a floating red ring. With her eyes lit up before running towards it and jumping towards it. This resulted in the ring vanishing, but eight red floating coins appeared closeby. Acting quickly, she ran towards them to collect all eight before the timer ran out. The Inkling looked stunned.

The Inkling then noticed a P-Switch to the side. She blinked twice before looking at the nearest Lakitu and giving a sly smirk. Soon, Alice managed to jump up and get the last red coins. This was just what she did was she was covered in the golden armour. She looked over herself before smirking.

"Ha! Now I got the Golden form!" Alice taunted, pointing her finger out. "Now I am going to…"

Suddenly, her smirk vanished when she saw the Inkling waving at her with a big grin on her face. She was ALSO covered in golden armour. Alice slumped her arms.

"...Of course." Alice muttered. She then sighed. "Oh well. As well as we are here."

With that, she ran over to the Inkling. The squid's smirk vanished as she yelped before getting out her Inkbrush and swinging it forward. Just in time to clash with Alice's fist resulting in an explosion of golden sparks. The two then began to swing their attacks at each other, resulting in more golden sparks. However, the Inkling used the range of the Inkbrush to sweep Alice off of her rear and onto her rear. The Inkling then got her Splattershot and proceeded to send ink all over her.

"Nice try!"

Alice suddenly rose up with a rising knee attack to the Inkling's face, startling her before ending with a downwards kick. While this knocked the orange-tentacled girl to the ground, it didn't take her long to get up and get out her Splat Roller before swinging it downwards. Alice yelped before holding her arms to catch the unorthodox weapon, using the super armour to do so.

They then got into a power struggle with each other. However, while both had the gold armour, Alice was still bigger as she pulled the Splat Roller up with the Inkling holding onto her for dear life.

"Don't miss it!"

With that, Alice did another leaping knee attack to the Inkling's face before doing an upwards drill kick, looking similar to Terry Bogard's Rising Tackle, not only striking the Inkling multiple times while sending Pachinko tokens everywhere. When the attack ended, the Inkling, even with the extra weight from the gold armour flew backwards and over the ropes.

The Inkling landed in Foamstars where she spent the entire ten minutes hiding in fear in a match where the players were literally spraying cotton candy-coloured foam everywhere.

Alice then landed on her feet, though not gracefully as she ended up holding her head in dizziness. However, once she regained her bearings, she noticed that her opponent was long gone and excitedly jumped up.

"Yes! Alice is the winner!" Alice cheered.

She then looked to see who was left. Mario took off Cappy before wiping his brow while Sailor Jupiter sat down to conserve energy. Toph used her earthbending to juggle a few rocks while Squirtle was playing with bubbles he blew from his mouth. Eggman and Mechanica had temporarily stopped their duel though it looked like they were about to continue while Ashley read her spell book with Red flying behind her. Finally, Cammy cautiously eyed Ganondorf who was planting his sword in the ground proudly while Coco angrily yelled at a smirking King Dice after the latter kept photobombing the she-bandicoot's selfies.

Then, the Millennium Star's aura surrounded the fighters before surrounding the audience and making the fighters go on the star platforms. They then proceeded one by one: Ashley & Red, Ganondorf, Mechanica, Alice, Toph, Sailor Jupiter, Squirtle, King Dice and Mario leaving Eggman, Cammy and Coco.

Coco's eyes lit up at this. "Ooh, I can't believe it! This is the closest a Crash Bandicoot has been to being a Superstar since Tawna all of the way in Section ONE! We could finally have a Crash Bandicoot Superstar!"

"Or a Street Fighter Superstar!" Cammy smirked, putting her hands on her hips. "Even King of Fighters had two of them!"

"Or a Sonic the Hedgehog Superstar!" Eggman brightened up.

Cammy and Coco's faces immediately soured at this. Eggman looked confused at this.

"W-What?" Eggman asked. "What's wrong with having a Sonic the Hedgehog Superstar?"

"Nothing really. In fact, I am actually surprised we DIDN'T get one thus far." Coco admitted.

"And it is clearly not for lack of effort seeing that Sonic, Shadow AND Vector almost became Superstars." Cammy nodded. "But…"

"...We'd rather it not be you." Cammy and Coco said in unison.

Eggman gritted his teeth at this.

Then, Coco's platform fell off. Cammy, along with the other fighters looked worried as Eggman eagerly rubbed his hands together.

Then, the final one fell.

"Congratulations, Cammy White!" The Millennium Star said. "You are the Superstar!"

The Delta Red agent smirked as she gave an acknowledging nod while waving to the crowd. Eggman pouted as he crossed his arms.

"...I would have picked a grand Superstar stage." Eggman muttered.

"Why do you think we didn't want you to be the Superstar?" Red said, rolling his eyes.

RESULTS (19 Votes)

CAMMY WHITE (SFAS): 16:3 = 13 (Kazuki Kazama, Giovanna & Rei)

DR. EGGMAN (StH): 15:4 = 11 (Juniper Lee, Greymon)

COCO BANDICOOT (CB): 15:4 = 11 (Hibiki Kohaku, Labrys)

MARIO MARIO (SSB): 15:5 = 10 (Natsu Ayuhara)

KING DICE (CH): 13:6 = 7 (Loona)

SQUIRTLE (SSB): 13:6 = 7 (Biyomon)

SAILOR JUPITER (SM): 13:8 = 5 (April O'Neil)

TOPH BEIFONG (NASB): 12:8 = 4 (Mukai)

ALICE GARNET NAKATA (KoFAS): 11:8 = 3 (Inkling)

MECHANICA (A): 11:8 = 3 (Shadow Jago)

GANONDORF (SSB): 11:8 = 3 (Danny Phantom)

ASHLEY & RED (WW): 11:8 = 3 (Cheria Barnes)

(ELIMINATED)

APRIL O'NEIL (NASB): 11:8 = 3 (Doris)

GIOVANNA & REI (GG): 11:9 = 2 (Kage-Maru)

GREYMON (DRA): 12:10 = 2 (King K. Rool)

INKLING (SSB): 11:10 = 1

BIYOMON (DRA): 10:10 = 0

NATSU AYUHARA (RS): 9:10 = -1

CHERIA BARNES (ToAS): 9:10 = -1

DANNY PHANTOM (NASB): 10:12 = -2

KING K. ROOL (SSB): 8:12 = -4

KAGE-MARU (VF): 7:12 = -5

LABRYS (BB): 5:15 = -10

JUNIPER LEE (TL&ToJL): 6:16 = -10

HIBIKI KOHAKU (BB): 4:15 = -11

MUKAI (KoFAS): 4:15 = -11

LOONA (HB): 5:16 = -11

SHADOW JAGO (KI): 3:16 = -13

KAZUKI KAZAMA (SSS): 2:17 = -15

DORIS (SSS): 2:18 = -16

Side Battles:

"How Are You NOT Despair!?"

Gabriel "Gabe" Logan (SF), Horkeukamui (TAS), Lloyd Irving (ToAS), Kanji Tatsumi (P4A), Claude von Riegan (FE:TH) and Hibiki Takane (TLB2) arrests Claire Fox, Linn, Prayuth, CoolB (XDZW), Sho Minazuki (P4A) and the Shredder (TMNT 1987)

17 to 2

"Stumbling Out Of The Truth"

Roronoa Zoro (OP) learns the harsh truth from Psycho Mantis (MGS)

15 to 4

Last Minute Rule: Sooo… Due to being in the final quarter, I am trying to see if I could have three Big Guys per section, especially since we had a long string of two Big Guy rounds. However, I realised that I didn't have enough sooo… I am going to bend my own rules a bit. You will see how.