Lucas stepped into the store, Chaos Foods. Lucas clocked in and stretched his back before walking over to the cash registers. He was not a cashier. No no, he was something MUCH more. Something that not only required more skill but more resilience and bravery. He was…..a bagger. The bravest job in all of humanity.

He got to his position and looked at the cashier. "Hey there, Sora. Anything exciting happen?" Lucas asked.

"What do you think? Without baggers like you and Ness here, it's a boring mess." Ness soon came in and patted Lucas's shoulder. He leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Beat me this time, eh babe?" Ness asked.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Lucas chuckled with a small wink. Ness rolled his eyes and walked away.

"What was that about?" Sora asked.

"Our rule is that whoever makes it to work first, without being more than 5 minutes early, gets to top the other one."

"Oh, didn't take you for a Switch." Lucas giggled.

"I'm not. But I just love seeing Ness get so….needy if you will. Perhaps we can invite you some time." Sora just blinked a bit before clearing his throat. He looked around and found someone clearly heading toward them.

"Buck up. We've got someone coming." Lucas stood up straight and soon enough the man that was heading their way. Something Lucas loved about this job was the chance to see different people. He loved making up stories inside his head about these different people. This guy was…probably one of the most unique-looking people he ever saw. His skin was purple, it almost looked decomposed. His eyes were lifeless, hair was all but gone. His body was very clearly malnourished and he wasn't even buying real food. He was buying matches, sunscreen, and….butter? Lucas noted the exotic-looking butter he purchased. The man didn't have a shirt and very clearly had a huge hole in his stomach.

"Morning, sir," Lucas said pleasantly. The purple man smiled.

"Hi!" His voice was very…rocky. It wasn't shaky but it was far from being smooth. The man looked and sounded like he should be dead, but he wasn't.

"Sunscreen? Going on vacation?" Lucas asked as he placed the sunscreen in a bag.

"You can say that. I'm going to go find my father."

"Ahh." Lucas finished the bagging and handed him a few bags. The man smiled before bowing his head. He left the store. Lucas looked at Sora. "He was a strange man."

"What's your story about him?" Sora asked.

"I dunno. This is a long shot." Ness appeared at the cash register next to him.

"Well, don't keep us waiting," he said.

"He's a man who had his innards scooped out by an animatronic who's an amalgamation of a few other animatronics which are possessed by souls of dead children while his father is a murderer and he's going to go kill him….but that's just a theory."

"Man. Sounds like it could be a good story for a video game," Ness shrugged.

"I know right?" Sora chuckled. His chuckle subsided though as someone walked into the store. "Oh great." Lucas turned around and saw Porky and Wario step in.

"Hello there, fags. You guys realize that everyone who works in this store is gay, right? You guys could have one big orgy in here," Porky chuckled as he patted Wario's shoulder.

"You would like that, wouldn't you, weirdo?"

"As if." Lucas crossed his arms.

"What do you want, Porky?" Lucas asked.

"I've been hearing of the fabled Lucas of Chaos Foods. The greatest Bagger in all of Ultimatum," Porky said with a sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Well, I think it's a total lie. I have been Employee of the Month 3 months in a row." The proudness on Porky's face made Ness laugh. He walked to Lucas's side and wrapped an arm around him.

"He's been the Employee of the Month for 12 months." Wario leaned toward Porky.

"That's longer than you…" he simply said.

"I KNOW!" Porky stomped. He grumbled before walking over to Lucas. "Well, Lucas, if you really think you're better than me, then you wouldn't mind a bit of a….competition to see who's really the best."

"Heh, sounds lovely," Lucas challenged.

"Call it, the Bagger War of '21."

"Then what better punishment than to be teabagged eh?" Porky scoffed as he crossed his arms. He was…much shorter than Lucas. He had to stand on his tippy-toes to even be at nipple level.

"The loser needs to be teabagged 69 times."

"Nice," Ness said. Soon enough, everyone said their own "nice". Porky stopped standing on his tippy-toes and turned around.

"Tonight. After the store closes. We're going to settle this…once and for all. You hear?"

"Course I do, little man." Porky and Wario proceeded to leave the store. He sighed before turning around toward Sora.

"God, he's so stupid," Lucas said.

"Is this…new?" Sora asked.

"Oh? You're new, I forgot. No, Porky comes in here pretty much weekly to challenge us to a war. We've had 80 already."

"80!" he yelled.

"Yup. Poor man doesn't take losing well. Always in denial."

"You sure he isn't delusional at this point?" Lucas shrugged.

"He's annoying but he provides some type of enjoyment if you can even call it that. Those bagging challenges are fun."

"How are they fun?"

"Come watch. You'll see. I know I'll have Ness as my backbone," Lucas said as he looked over at Ness, who winked back at him before starting to bag someone's groceries. Lucas looked forward and saw someone heading toward them. With a single nod to Sora, they went into business mode.

Later that night, Lucas entered the closed grocery store. His boss, Wolf, crossed his arms as he looked at the boy. "Thank you again, boss, for allowing this."

"It's good for business, the fabled Bagger Wars are very good traction for us," Wolf chuckled as he patted his back. Wolf made sure to set up some cameras around the store. Lucas looked around and saw them. They were facing the cash registers and even a judging booth that was set up. "Good luck Luas." Wolf walked out of the store.

Lucas walked over to Ness, who came to support him. "You ready for this? Porky seems to mean business this time around."

"You said the same thing the last 30 times." Ness rolled his eyes before Sora came over and smiled at the two boys.

"So, what's the deal with this whole thing?" Sora asked.

"You and Ness have to go sit near the judges table. Once Porky comes in here, we'll start and the judges will provide commentary," Lucas explained. Ness patted Sora's back before the two of them started walking over to the judges table. There were two judges, Cloud and Joker.

"Cloud? You don't seem like the judge I'd expect.." Sora started.

"We're Japanese, so we're qualified," Cloud simply said.

"Is that….racist?"

"Possibly," Joker shrugged before sitting back in his seat and smirking, "But I enjoy it. Feels like an anime sometimes." Ness and Sora took their seats and looked over at Lucas. He was leaning against the area he worked, looking at the front doors. Soon enough, Porky entered with his sidekick, Wario. Wario went over to Ness and sat down next to him. Porky stopped in front of Lucas.

"Lucas," Porky said.

"Porky," Lucas said back. Two more people walked over. They were just some Miis however. They had shopping carts full of items. They were known to never be biased, so they were tasked with getting the items they would need to start bagging. They activated the conveyor belt. Lucas and Porky prepared themselves at two different aisles, but they were still next to each other. The Miis looked over at the judges.

"BEGIN!" Joker yelled. The two Miis started putting the groceries onto the conveyor belt. They had groceries of different shapes and sizes and amounts. The two competitors had a cart with them to put the bags into. And the Miis actually had three full carts, and when one would be emptied, they would push it through the aisle to the competitors. "Ok, boys and girls. The competition is on, between Porky and the best bagger in all of Ultimatum. We are in Chaos Foods and the winner will have ultimate bragging rights for 2 minutes before everyone forgets this was even a thing that had ever happened. I think they already forgot about the initial punishment as well. But we're getting paid, so might as well."

"Lucas has won 80 of these "wars" as Porky calls them. Undefeated. We'll see how this one goes for the two of them." Lucas and Porky were bagging quickly, putting the stuff in their bags, taking the bags of the hooks, and putting them into the cart. While Lucas was putting some packaged tuna into a bag, a can of Raviolis hit his head. He turned over and saw Porky was the culprit.

"HEY! That's cheating!"

"Well, don't slow down now, hehe," Porky cackled as he continued bagging.

"Shit." Lucas resumed his bagging. Cloud sat back in his seat, crossed his arms, and shook his head.

"Dirty move by Porky. Throwing items to slow down Lucas?"

"That can't be legal!" Sora yelled up.

"Yeah! You guys are really allowing this!" Ness yelled as well. Joker shrugged.

"This is a bagging competition, for you to assume we have concrete rules is just plain stupid," Joker added on. He looked over at the competitors, seeing Porky throw another item at Lucas to slow him down. "As far as the rule-less rulebook states, that's legal."

"Now remember, the winner is decided by the quality of the bagging, the speed of the bagging, items that don't get bagged/too big for bags, and the state of the carts after the bags have been placed into it," Cloud mentioned. However, there was one other requirement to win that he didn't mention, and both Joker and him knew what it was.

Lucas was trying to speed up to catch up to Porky, but Pokry kept throwing more and more at him. Eventually, Porky finished and laughed hysterically as Lucas slowly finished after him. Lucas glared at Porky before walking to him. "YOU CHEATED!"

"I cheated? No, I was just playing my game," he cackled.

"Boys!" Cloud yelled. Lucas turned around and saw them. He sighed before positioning the carts to be able to push all of them at once. He glared back at Porky once more before just deciding to go forth. The two of them got there with their carts and the two judges started looking through the carts. Ness and Sora ran to his side.

"That was really fucked up," Ness said. Lucas nodded slightly. He looked over at Porky and Wario.

"I'm so going to lose." It didn't take very long before the two judges went back to their table and smiled.

"You two. We have made our decision," Cloud announced. He grabbed a messy pile of papers and tapped them against the table to straighten them out. The papers were just blank though. He cleared his throat. "So we took in every requirement and analyzed your bagging." Cloud looked over at Joker.

"The winner is….Lucas," Joker confidently said. It seemed neither of them were at all worried that Porky would have won.

"WHAT!" Porky yelled.

"Oh wow," Lucas chuckled to himself. Porky growled before grabbing the collar of Lucas's shirt.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO RIGG IT!" he yelled into Lucas's face. Lucas flinched as the spit from him was hitting his face.

"He didn't rigg anything, Porky," Cloud said. He let go of Lucas and turned toward the judges.

"Then how the hell did he win?!"

"There is a secret, or rather, unspoken requirement that you failed."

"What is it?"

"The most important thing with bagging is to get everything the customer wants, into the bag or somewhere in the cart. And if I can see properly. A good portion of your stuff is…well…on the ground," Joker explained. Lucas and Porky looked over at the scene left at the aisles and Porky could be heard growling.

"I HATE YOU!"

"Yeah yeah yeah, we'll see you again soon." Porky growled loudly before walking off.

"COME WARIO!" Wario shot up and followed after him. Ness and Sora patted Lucas's back.

"I knew you'd win. Just gotta be confident in yourself," Ness said. Sora rubbed the back of his head.

"So, you really do get nothing for winning? Just…bragging rights?"

"Nah. I get a few thousand from the mayor. We just don't tell Porky that because he might actually try to win," Lucas giggled. Cloud and Joker stood up and stretched their backs.

"Welp. Time to get back to the station. Apparently, someone was caught streaking during the baseball game last night," Joker said as the two of them passed the three boys and left.

"I'm about ready to go home too. I'm running low on fumes," Lucas sighed.

"You sure you're not ready for….something else?" Ness winked as he elbowed his shoulders. Sora held up his hands and started walking off.

"Leave me out of this."

"The offer still stands, Sora," Lucas giggled. Sora simply shook his head before leaving the store. But he did love working there. He never had a true job until then and it was the best option. Not only for the people, but for the events. He couldn't imagine working anywhere else. Sora continued walking over to his car, which yes he did learn how to drive. There was a note on his car though. It wasn't a ticket or bill. It was a written note. He grabbed the note.

"The light. The light is dangerous. The light will rip us to shreds. We can't sit still and do nothing. Sora. Come see me. You know where to meet." Sora looked around the area. The note didn't have a signature. But he knew who it was from. He pocketed the note and got into his car. He didn't move to Ultimatum because he liked it or was intrigued. He moved to Ultimatum for something bigger. The end of the light. Ultimatum…is in danger. A danger that he doubted anyone in the city truly knew about, or, at the very least…no one could remember.