The eleven fighters currently in the ring were either resting up or scanning the competition. The only exception was Billy Kane (still in his female form from after Demitri’s Midnight Bliss), whom was still screaming death threats up into the audience, directing it at the fans making crude catcalls at him.
Suddenly, the fans started cheering. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at the entrance ramp to see whom had entered.
“CHIPP ZANUFF!” (GG)
Guilty Gear’s resident ninja scanned the ring with a smirk, wondering whom he should go for first.
Chipp ran down to the ring and leapt in, heading straight for Yugo. The brown-haired youth looked up and saw the white-haired ninja coming. “What is it?” He asked.
“I’m just looking for a fight, dog-breath.” Chipp said with a smirk.
Yugo narrowed his eyes. “I’d watch your tongue if I were you.” He warned as he engulfed himself in a white light. “You never know when your words will come back to bite you.”
Chipp smirked and readied the blades attached to his arms as Yugo transformed into a wolf. “Perfect. Let’s see how well the wolf fights.” He said.
“LUCIA!” (S3)
The chief of Karaya came out to a loud cheer, whip in hand. Lucia stepped down the ramp and got into the ring.
Ryo looked up from trying to comfort the sobbing Mel and saw Lucia come in. “Hey, lady! Can you help me over here?” He asked.
“What seems to be the problem?” Lucia asked.
“Well, that blue ninja from the World Heroes node attacked this girl’s puppet, and now she’s acting like she’s dead.” Ryo shrugged.
“Branky IS dead!!” Mel wailed. “She’s gone! Kaput!!”
“Branky died?” Lucia asked Ryo, with wide eyes.
“Uh…Yeah?” Ryo asked, not really liking where this was going.
“I’m afraid she’s past talking to, then.” Lucia sighed.
“Just freaking great.”
“GUILE!” (SFA3)
Guile came out to “Star Spangled Banner” and a loud cheer. However, as the American soldier walked down to the ring, the sound of a record scratching was heard before Greenday’s “American Idiot” started playing through the speakers.
Everyone laughed their heads off, save for the obvious exception of Guile, whom looked up at the Sound Booth. Aila was leaning on Shadow to keep herself from collapsing in laughter, and Shadow was doing the same to Aila. Astaroth, because he didn’t have anyone to lean on, collapsed to the floor of the Sound Booth in a fit of hysteric laughter. Guile sighed in hopelessness as he continued down to the ring.
Once he hit the ring, Guile went over to Kyo and pulled his arms back. “Sonic Boom!” He shouted as he lashed out his arms and sent his trademark whirlwind disc at Kyo.
The KOF posterboy stepped to the side. “Can I help you, old man?” Kyo asked.
“You eliminated Ken.” Guile replied. “Slacker or not, he’s still my brother-in-law.” He smirked as he put up his fists. “So put ‘em up.”
Kyo smirked back. “Okay.” He nodded. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
“ZELDA!” (SSB)
Coming out to the Zelda theme song, the Hylian princess ran down to the ring, more serious than last year. After all, unlike in the last tournament, she wasn’t injected with caffeine like Sarah Bryant was.
Once Zelda landed in the ring, she went over to Mewtwo. “Good to see that you’re still in the ring, Mewtwo.” She said in greeting.
“It’s also good to see that you’re not under the influence of several doses of Captain Falcon’s caffeine pills.” Mewtwo replied with a smirk.
“Please don’t remind me.” Zelda sighed. “I can’t believe I acted like a lovestruck fangirl over that one-eyed gunslinger from Kingdom Hearts.”
“And now, Mystery Fighter…Number…Nine!”
“BOB!” (Tekken 6)
The audience once again stared in awe.
Bob was clearly the most overweight Tekken fighter around, even larger than Ganryu the sumo wrestler. And yet, the curly-haired fat man ran down to the ring with enough speed to make him seem like he should have been two-hundred pounds lighter.
“Let’s see if I can’t find a good challenge.” Bob said to himself. “It shouldn’t be terribly hard.”
Bob landed in the ring and looked around. He set his sights on Roll and ran over. After all, she was last year’s runner up. She would definitely provide an excellent challenge.
Roll looked up and saw Bob coming. Although confused at the sight of a fat man running as fast as he was, Roll pressed a button on her arm cannon and prepared to fight.
“BOLTS!” (TFS)
Ryo looked up and saw the silver-haired young man coming down to the ring, scythe in hand. “Hey, Bolts! Over here!” He urged.
Bolts got into the ring and went over to his fellow TFS resident. “Need any help, Ryo?” He asked.
“Yeah. This catgirl’s been attacking me ever since that tribal chief entered the ring.” Ryo sighed.
“This ‘catgirl’ has a name, meanie!” Felicia said.
Bolts looked down and saw Mel still sobbing her eyes out. “Uh…Shouldn’t we-”
“Dude, I’ve tried.” Ryo sighed. “Unless there’s a way to revive that puppet of hers, that kid’s beyond help.”
(Announcer’s Booth)
“That’s weird.” Tinyrocket mused.
“What is it?” Unknown1 asked.
“Why is Billy still a girl? I thought that the Midnight Bliss only lasted a few seconds.”
“Demitri wasn’t given the chance to complete the move.” SSBFreak scratched his head. “That may have something to do with it.”
“Well, what’re we going to do, then?” Unknown1 asked.
“We can’t do anything. Hopefully, it’ll wear off.”
(Dome; Break Room)
Several fighters gathered around Tron Bonne as she tried to fix a still-malfunctioning Servbot. Currently, the dark-haired girl had opened up a pannel on the back of the Servbot’s head, but the little machine was still functioning, and waving a running chainsaw in the air.
“Wait till I get my hands on you!!” The Servbot shouted. “You all think you’re so much better than I am because you’re so much taller!! Well, we’ll see who’s laughing when you find yourselves without legs!”
“Any luck, Tron?” Chun-Li asked.
“No. I just don’t understand it!” Tron said as she continued working. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Servbot’s circuitry! It’s like nothing’s even hacked into his systems!”
“What frequency do you have the Servbot set on?” Sie Kensou asked.
“Uh…Channel 32 point 5.” Tron replied after inspecting.
“Hey! That’s the same frequency Bosco uses on his security stuff!”
Everyone in the Break Room turned to see Max enter with the rest of the security force.
“Bosco? Who’s this Bosco?” Peach asked, her eyebrow raised.
“Just some guy Sam and I know from the city we live in.” Max chuckled. “Man. He builds so much security tech that it’s not even funny.”
“Boy. I build my Servbots so that they can’t be affected by that frequency messing.” Tron said. “This Bosco must be an absolute GENIUS if he was able to cause my Servbot to act this way just by setting his things at the same frequency.”
(Bosco’s Inconvenience)
A balding man with dark skin and a goatee stood behind the counter of a convenience store, chuckling as he continued building a small robot, which was sitting on his counter.
“With this new robot, all of those ballistic missiles those soccer moms aim at my store won’t work!” Bosco laughed. “Those foo’s won’t know what hit them! Bosco, sometimes, you even scare yourself.”
(The Arena)
“RIMURURU!” (SS)
The ice girl (and finalist of last year) came out from behind the curtain and took a deep breath to ready herself. Clutching her dagger, Rimururu rushed down to the ring and jumped in.
Rimururu looked around, seeing Roll and Samus in the ring together, both of whom were in the final five with her last year (Kasumi was long gone and Brian had just been eliminated). She eventually decided on Samus, seeing as how she actually outlasted him in the previous tournament.
Samus turned and saw Rimururu coming. “Look who it is.” He said with a smirk. “It’s the ice samurai.”
“I say we have a little rematch.” Rimururu said. “I may not like all of this violence, but I know that there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
Samus shrugged and pulled out his sword. “Okay. Let’s go.” He said.
“CORTEZ!” (PM)
The audience next to the entrance ramp did a double-take at the sight of the undead pirate king making his way down to the ring. Cortez was nothing but a giant skull wearing a pirate hat, with a long backbone that was simply floating in midair. Cortez had four arms, each one holding a different weapon.
Cortez sighed as he floated into the ring. He was the lone Paper Mario character in the ring, as all three of his nodal companions had been tossed in the previous section. Looking around, Cortez decided to make the best of things and floated over to Mewtwo.
“Mi amigo!” Cortez cackled as he floated over to the psychic Pokemon. “I desire a challenge. You think you can help me with that?”
Mewtwo looked the large pirate skull up and down as a smirk floated across his face. “Sure. Let me show you how much of a ‘challenge’ I can provide.” He said.
“RIKOU!” (DS)
Rikou sighed as he walked down to the ring. He was hoping to fight that Trident fellow from the Eternal Champions node, but after seeing how far apart their draws were, he knew that Trident wouldn’t last that long.
When Rikou hit the ring, he saw Felicia without a fight (Ryo and Bolts had gone off to fight Bob). The merman rushed over to her.
“How’re things going, Felicia?” Rikou asked.
“A little better now that Demitri got eliminated.” Felicia nodded.
“JOE HIGASHI!” (KOF)
Joe played to the crowd as the audience cheered him on. After a few seconds of ego-boosting, Joe rushed down to the ring and jumped in.
Scaning the arena, Joe suddenly saw Lilly standing aside. He made his way over to her. “Hey, Lilly! Fancy meeting you in the ring!” Joe said to his girlfriend. “Say, after this is over, how about we hit the restaurant in the city to have a little dinner?”
“Uh…Joe?”
Joe lifted an eyebrow and turned around, seeing Lilly looking at him with a concerned expression. Joe did a double-take at the two Lillys in the ring with him.
“What the heck?!” Joe asked.
“Demitri Maximov performed a Midnight Bliss before getting eliminated.” Lilly explained.
“Oh. Well, that means that-” Joe said before suddenly realizing something extremely important. Looking at the Lilly he had hit on, he saw her seething, glaring daggers into his eyes and slapping her staff into her hand. “Oh, snap.” He whispered, realizing that he had just hit on his girlfriend’s brother.
“I suggest you start running, Higashi.” Billy seethed, approaching the half-naked man.
Joe didn’t need to be told twice. He turned around and ran off screaming, with Billy chasing after him, swing his staff wildly.
“Billy, leave my boyfriend alone!” Lilly demanded as she gave chase. “It was an honest mistake!”
“And now, Mystery Fighter…Number…Ten!”
“AKUMA THE HEDGEHOG!” (The Middle Ground)
A red hedgehog with spiked quills stood outside the entrance curtain, eyes scanning the ring for a potential challenge. Folding his arms, Akuma stepped down to the ring, his eyes set.
Bolts looked at the entrance ramp as Akuma made his way down to the ring. “Sweet! It’s Akuma!” He said. “We can team up with him and do even better!”
Ryo, however, suddenly realized something. “Bolts, Akuma’s not representing the Fallout Shelter. He’s representing the Middle Ground.” He reminded.
“So?”
“He’s fighting against us.”
The colour drained from Bolts’ face, realizing what this meant. He looked in Akuma’s direction and saw that he was coming their way.
Ryo and Bolts screamed in fear as they scrambled off, leaving Bob looking around, confused.
“It’s just a hedgehog.” Bob noted. “What a couple of wusses.”
Akuma sprang to life, rocketing straight at Bob, fist outstretched and letting out a battle cry. Bob’s eyes snapped open.
“RASPUTIN!” (WH)
The peace-loving Rasputin came out to a decent cheer and made his way down to the ring. However, halfway down, Rasputin suddenly heard Boney M coming through the speakers.
(Rah! Rah! Rasputin!)
(Lover of the Russian queen!)
(He was a cat that really was gone!)
(Rah! Rah! Rasputin!)
(Russia’s greatest love machine!)
(It was a shame how he carried on!)
Rasputin cast a surprisingly cold glance up to the Sound Booth, where the unlikely trio of friends were laughing their behinds off again. Shaking his head in hopelessness, Rasputin continued down to the ring.
When he hit the ring, he saw Samus and Rimururu fighting and quickly scampered over.
“That’s enough!” Rasputin said, clocking Samus in the head. “How could you fight a poor, defenseless child like this?!”
“I’m perfectly capable of handling myself.” Rimururu said as she kicked Rasputin in the back, knocking him away.
“ROSA!” (KE)
The leading lady of Kizuna Encounter came out from behind the curtain and looked around the ring. Rosa saw a little chase going on in the ring and rushed down to end it.
Lilly was getting close to catching up with Billy when Rosa landed in front of her and swung her sword. Lilly let out a shout of surprise and held up her staff, blocking the attack.
“You’re pretty quick.” Rosa noted with a smirk. “This could be fun.”
Lilly sighed.
(Hotel; Pool)
A pleasant addition to the dome and hotel from last year was the indoor pool SSBFreak paid to have installed. Ever since arriving at the hotel a couple of days ago, most of the fighters had used the pool at least once. And because it was only open to the fighters, they could come to relax themselves after getting eliminated from the tournament.
Because of this, the pool was empty. All of the fighters were either getting ready to enter the arena or watching the fight from the Eliminated Seating. In fact, there was only one person in the room, and he didn’t look too pleased.
The Rabbid grumbled as he walked along the side of the pool, heading towards the diving board. He was really hoping that he could do better than he did, but in the end, made himself look like a fool because of that stupid malfunctioning Servbot. The Rabbid was hoping to drown out his bad mood with a refreshing swim.
Suddenly, when the Rabbid was about halfway to the diving board, he heard someone talking from around a nearby corner of a doorway leading to the lockers. Curiosity getting the better of the vertically-challenged bunny, the Rabbid walked through the doorway to see what the noise was.
When the Rabbid saw what was going on, he saw Vega, the Spanish matador, attempting to stuff the bound, gagged and struggling form of Nastasia into one of the lockers.
“Sorry about this, lady.” Vega said with a smirk. “But Bison doesn’t want O’Chunks betraying on us in the middle of the plan, so we have to keep you somewhere he won’t think of looking.”
Nastasia thrashed about, but was unable to keep Vega from shoving her into the small locker and closing the door on her. Vega locked the locker and took the key from it.
“Finally.” Vega sighed in relief. “She sure knows how to put up a fight.”
Vega turned to leave when he saw the Rabbid standing there. He tensed up a bit, but relaxed when he got a glimpse of whom had caught him.
“That’s a relief. It’s just a moron that can’t talk.” Vega sighed.
The Rabbid growled. He may not have been very bright, but he still knew when he was getting made fun of. He started talking at Vega, but obviously, nothing was understandable and everything came out in the form of a string of ‘Daah’s.
Vega smirked. “Sorry. I don’t speak ‘idiot’.” He said.
The Rabbid’s eye twitched for a couple of seconds before pulling a spatula out from behind his back and letting out a psychotic scream of fury.
“Why do I have a feeling that I’ve just done something extremely stupid?” Vega asked himself.
(The Arena)
“GUTSMAN!” (MM)
Gutsman wasted no time in getting down to the ring. As soon as he was in, the large robot made a break for Roll, barreling over Lucia, Joe and Billy on the way over.
“Hey, Roll!” Gutsman called out.
Roll looked up and brightened at the sight of her (literally) big brother. “Gutsman! Good to see you here!” She said.
“I’m glad your still in the ring, sis.” Gutsman nodded. “Need any help?”
“No. I think I’m good.” Roll nodded as she fired another Roll Buster at Felicia and Rikou.
Gutsman shrugged. “I think I’d better stick around just in case.” He said.
“MOMOKO!” (KOF)
A beat-filled tune playing in her head, the latest addition to the Psycho Soldiers Team ran down to the ring and gleefully leapt in. Making her landing, Momoko raced over to Mel, whom was still sitting in the middle of the ring.
“What’s wrong?” Momoko asked.
Mel sniffed. “My best friend died.” She replied, holding Branky’s limp form.
Momoko scratched her head. “But…It’s just a puppet.” She replied.
Mel’s eyes narrowed as she jumped to her feet and started whacking Momoko with Branky. “Don’t you dare say that about Branky! She was the only true friend I’ve had in my life!” She roared.
Ryo looked at the display and raised an eyebrow. “Great. Now she’s beating someone with the corpse of a puppet.” He said to himself. “This is getting freakier and freakier.”
“JIN CHONSHU!” (FF)
The younger Jin twin exited the curtain and strode down to the ring, his mind set. Stepping into the ring, Chonshu went over to stop the chase Joe and Billy were having.
“That’s quite enough.” Chonshu explained. “Look, I know he’s your boyfriend, Lilly, but you don’t need to chase him like that.”
Billy’s eyes snapped open. “WHAT?!” He roared as he jumped at Chonshu and repeatedly beat on him with his staff. “Look at me, moron! Do you THINK I’m my sister?!”
“Billy?!” Chonshu asked.
Joe, seeing Billy distracted, took this time to sneak away.
“LEO GALLEN!” (S3)
(It’s not like I’m walking alone into the valley of the shadow of death)
(Stand beside one another ‘cause it ain’t over yet)
(And I’d be willing to bet that if we don’t back down)
(You and I will be the ones that are holding the crown in the end)
(When it’s over we can say ‘well done’)
(But not yet ‘cause it’s only begun)
(So wake up and follow me we’re the only ones)
(To fight this thing until we’ve won)
(Drive on and don’t look back)
(It doesn’t mean we can’t learn from our past)
(All the things that we might’ve done wrong)
(We could have been doing this all along!)
Leo came out to ‘Frontline’ by Pillar and a loud cheer. Readying his shiny axe, Leo charged down to the ring.
(Everybody with your fists raised high!)
(Lemme hear your battle cry tonight!)
(Stand beside or step aside!)
(We’re on the Frontline!)
When Leo hit the ring, he rushed over to interrupt the fight between Yugo and Chipp. Lashing out with his axe, Leo attempted to take a bite out of Chipp. The ninja saw the weapon coming and held up one of his arm blade, blocking the attack.
“That wasn’t very nice.” Chipp said.
“BUSUZIMA!” (BR)
The mad scientist of Bloody Roar ran down to the ring headfirst and jumped in without a second thought. When he landed, Busuzima made his way over to the fight between Guile and Kyo.
Guile looked and saw Busuzima coming. “Here comes that Bloody Roar scientist from last year.” He warned.
Kyo turned and saw Busuzima coming. “Great.” He sighed.
On his way over, Busuzima engulfed himself in a white light, and when it vanished, running towards Guile and Kyo was a tall, green chameleon.
(Eliminated Seating)
Falco took a look at the entrance curtain. However, when he saw the familiar form of Busuzima turn into his chameleon form. His eyes bugged out as he jumped from his seat.
“HE’S BACK!!! LEON’S BACK!!” He screamed as he ran away in terror. “WHY DOES HE FOLLOW ME WHEREVER I GO?!?!”
Bakuryu watched Falco go, then looked at Roy. “That guy’s crazy.” He said.
“Try living at the Smash Mansion with him.” Roy sighed.
(The Arena)
“And now, the final fighter of this section…”
“AKIRA YUKI!” (VF)
The Ryu lookalike and main hero of the Virtua Fighter node came out to a loud cheer. Akira rotated his head for a couple of seconds as he made his way down to the ring.
Akuma the Hedgehog saw Akira enter and smirked. “Finally!” He said. “A real challenge!”
Akuma knocked Bob away and approached Akira. “Akira Yuki, I wish to enter a fight against you.” He explained.
“I’ll agree simply because you’re the first one in a long time that hasn’t called me ‘Ryu’.” Akira replied as he got into his stance.
