"Many thanks for finding us." Goro bowed, "We are in your debt."

"Hey man, it was no problem." Tony waved off, "We were in the area, and picked up your signal. How was life there anyways? Big open fields, and all that. Must've been fun for you and the Pokémon."

Goro sighed, "It was not particularly 'fun.' The Pocket Monsters all seemed to be more content in playing games of tag with one another than in actually training."

"Well, not everyone hails from combat, or I guess kombat, in your case." Tony pointed out.

"The entire series is based around fighting." Goro shot back.

"It's not completely based around fighting though. There's more to it than that. Like math."

Goro glared.

"And, y'know… The power of friendship. Look: The point is, the world of Pokémon has a massively different culture than what your world has. They fight to bond and get to know each other. You guys fight to kill each other in the most gory way possible."

"I suppose that is correct." Goro conceded, "Do you suppose that there are ways for the Shokan to do such things without brutalizing each other?"

"Not without a massive culture shock." Tony said, "But the main point is that you can't just go through life fighting and killing. Stop and smell the roses every once in a while. Or whatever Outworld has instead of roses."

"I suppose you are right." Goro sighed, "But since we are on the subject, what do you usually do to unwind around here? Surely you can't just be working all the time."

Tony sighed, "We're just sorta trying to regain some semblance of normality from the old base. Y'know, just talking matchups. Trying to have some kind of fun. Cloud has some crazy idea for a card game, so that's a thing."

"I'll ask about the card game later. What matchups have you discussed so far?"

"Well, Glacius came up with Bloom vs. Jean a while back. And then Cloud decided to insult Jan by saying her vs. Waspinator." Tony shrugged.

"Sounds like a heated discussion." Goro noted.

Tony sighed, "It was. Do you want to toss some ideas around or what?"

"Not particularly. I believe practicing in much more relaxing activities would be more helpful, and doing that sounds notably not relaxing."

"Fair enough." Tony shrugged, "We don't really have a whole lot, but maybe the Pokémon can help us out with that?"

"I could never get them to cooperate with me." Goro lamented, "They seemed more content in leisure time with each other than in training in case of an attack."

"They're Pokémon, Goro. You just gotta know how to speak their language." Tony paused, "You know what I mean."

"In a way, I do." Goro said.

"Well, that's the thing about them. Massive culture clash between you and them."

"You said that already." Goro said.

"Yeah, well… At some point, Cloud usually walks in while I'm talking with whichever newcomer we rescued to join the conversation." Tony looked at the door for a good fifty seconds, "Huh, I guess he's not coming-"

"Who's not coming?" Cloud asked as he walked in.

"Never mind." Tony said, "Apparently Goro wants to figure out how to do what Pokémon do."

"Just say 'Goro' all the time. It's what you did in MKX on that twitter knockoff." Cloud shrugged.

"No. Not that. The whole 'fighting to bond' thing instead of the 'fight to the death and kill each other in the most gory way possible' thing that he typically does,"

"You'd think that they'd do that from time to time, or at least, do it in a way for establishing a hierarchy."

Tony raised an eyebrow, "Cloud. Come on. How else do you think they'd establish a hierarchy? A vote? But you have a point there. You'd think that training would be a thing."

"Ah, perhaps I have been away too long then." Goro said, "I guess I have been fighting for Shao Kahn for a long time."

"We've all been away from home for a long time." Cloud sighed, "Hey, are you sure we got all the guys on your planet?"

"Mewtwo and Lucario were not with me. Do you suppose that they could be located?"

"Well, knowing Mewtwo's luck, he probably ended up with an asshole like Ganondorf." Tony said, "Lucario's luck is a bit better. Maybe he ended up with Lion-O or something. I hope he's alright…"

Lucario stared at the campfire "Ken should have been back by now."

Ryu Hayabusa looked upwards, "Indeed. Do you think he got lost? It is a simple task. Gather firewood."

"I certainly hope nothing bad has gone wrong-"

"Hey guys! Check out, urgh, who I found taking a catnap!" Ken said as he was hauling an unconscious Lion-O back to their campsite.

"Lion-O!"

"What happened to him? He's defeated foes that are extremely powerful, how could this have happened?"

"If it means anything, when I found him, there was no signs of a fight." Ken said, "Maybe he got gassed or something?"

"High possibility. His breathing is irregular. We should find a way to wake him up. He could tell us something."

Pinkie: So…

Alexis: Tweet chirp chirp.

Pinkie: Okay. I won't say anything.