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Chapter Text

THE LONG ROAD TO EVO 2022

The morning sun shone through the window of Mario and Luigi’s quaint house. As the brothers were quietly asleep, a knock at the door woke them from their slumber.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” yelled Mario. “I was having that dream again!”

“The one where you’re throwing vegetables at a giant frog?” Luigi groaned, just barely able to get out of his bed.

“No, it was different this time! I swear it!” Before the brothers were able to start their sibling quarrels, the door knocked once more.

“Mario? Luigi? Something very important came in the mail for you.” Upon entering outside, Parakarry was sheepishly dragging his bag across the ground. “I don’t know how, but the guys upstairs did something bad.”

“What, ya mean overpricing 25-year-old games and drip-feeding them out for content?”

“No, no, not that again. The thing is, EVO is coming up, and we aren’t invited…”

Mario saw the letter and was shocked. Nintendo, despite massive success and fan appeal, backed out of EVO 2022. “I-it can’t be. We were doing so well! It was free advertising, why would Nintendo do this?”

“Mario, I think this is just a misunderstanding. Obviously, this is a thing against our parties. It’s not like our friends got uninvited, right?”

“It’s true! It’s true!” said a flying green parrot overhead. “Everyone got the memo!” Squawks screeched out holding onto the same letter.

Hyrule’s loyal postman soon followed, clutching onto a bunch of letters. “I had to get here from Gerudo Desert, so appreciate this!” All of a sudden, many different people came up and starting shouting, those across various dimensions, times, and galaxies are roaring at the new unfairness that happened.

“Certainly, ya have to know somethin’, Mario! You’ve been in talks with the bosses for the longest time!” squawked Falco.

“Paisanos, this is much of a surprise to you as it is to me. I never got the memo. Honestly there hasn’t been an EVO in years and I think this is all a big misunderstanding.” Mario tried walking back inside when all of a sudden, the blade of Masamune was positioned around his neck.

“Many of us have waited for this moment, and now is when you take it from us, plumber boy?” Sephiroth questioned as Luigi started pulling on his overalls nervously.

“Mario, I don’t think this is the right approach to calming this literal horde of people we have on our hands! We gotta do something!” The man in red sighed as he walked back to the crowd.

“I ain’t the smartest guy out there, but I know there’s some way we can get in. We have friends in the FGC that can boost us. Ryu, Ken, Kazuya and Terry are going to this event, right? We just need a friend of those dudes to vouch for us.”

“For US? Are you insane, Mario?” growled Bowser. “In case you haven’t noticed, shortstack, there’s like 100 of us that have been denied! How are we gonna get all of these losers in?”

Suddenly, a blue spot in the middle of the crowd made himself known. “I’ll do it,” Mega Man responded.

The super fighting robot shuffled out and started to examine a device on his hand. “Me and Ryu go a long way back, so all I’d need to do is pull a few strings and we could get in.”

As Mario was about to regain some kind of hope, a pelican flew in. “Pete! You’re here!” Isabelle swooned as she ran to hug him.

“I’ve got some more bad news, missy, apparently there’s a new head honcho at EVO.”

Mario impatiently snatched the letter and started reading.

“Oh no.”

“What?” the crowd asked.

“Sony’s in charge now.”

The Smash Brothers couldn’t know what to make of this. Sony? Partnering with Nintendo? They’ve always hated each other! They had differing views! “I know that sounds bad…” Pete sheepishly exclaimed before Mario started throwing a couple of fireballs at him in primal rage.

“Wow! Any of those things were to hit me, I’d be roasted.”

Why? WHY? Out of all the companies Nintendo were chummy with, Sony was definitely the last on their lineup. “Um… can’t we have anyone that can negotiate with Sony?” Luigi questioned.

Mario then had a bright idea.

“Someone who’s done deals with Big Blue, huh? I think I know just the guy.”

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“We know just the guy!” Mario said to the audience. “Think about it. What’s one company that Sony has bended to consistently?”

“Awful barely interactive walking simulators with horrible writing?” snarked Kazooie.

“No, no, no, we’re losing even more dignity than that. We’re going to Disney.” If the reaction to working with Sony was wild, boy, you should’ve seen it when they heard they’d have to deal with Disney.

Mario then jumped in the air, landing perfectly in front of the lucky bribe. “Sora, you’ve been with the big cheese himself, right?” Mario asked.

“We’ve met plenty of time over the years,” Sora replied, “but I barely talk to him now since he’s situated himself in his castle.” Luigi started to frown.

“But I do have a backup plan!”

Sora smiled as from a weird ship 2 weirdos beamed down.

“I’m Donald!” said the short one.

“Everyone calls me Goofy! A-hyuck!” said the taller one.

The Duck Hunt Duo ran up to their new allies, confused and intrigued at the toons. “It’s a pretty good likeness,” Pit noted.

Meanwhile, in another section of the world, the peaceful waves near Bikini Atoll continued their perpetual crashing and splashing. But underneath, another event was sent to change the tide.

SpongeBob SquarePants was busy setting up his normal Sunday routine: fry cooking, jelly fishing, and a ride around Glove World. As he skipped out to do his deeds, a small envelope flew out of the mailbox. “Hmmm…” queried the sponge. “This isn’t your ordinary, average, everyday mail. This is… ADVANCED mail.” He tore open the envelope and saw that there was an invitation. “Evo, huh? Gotta be one of those new rides.”

As he walked across the street he ran into Patrick, who coincidentally enough had the same letter and message. “You thinking what I’m thinking, Patrick?”

“Uh, we should dig a hole, and bury the letters in the hole, cover the hole and watch as we grow a letter tree?”

“Close enough, buddy!”

Meanwhile at ANOTHER section of the world, a letter flew through the woods of Jellostone Park into a humble burrow. Upon seeing the letter, an odd-looking rabbit started to open it up. “EVO, huh? I get to fight the best? I even get a prize?”

Bugs Bunny looked outside his burrow to see if it was a trick. “Vegas, here I come!” As Bugs started digging a new tunnel, he wondered if he needed to take a left turn at Albuquerque.

Chapter Text

SpongeBob and Patrick dashed towards Sandy’s treedome, hoping to get some kind of answer to this.

“Well, howdy-doo, sea creatures! Tell me, what are you doin’ here?”

“We’re here to go to something called Eva!” Patrick announced.

“Oh, ya mean EVO? Never been, but looks fun enough. I would like to show those pro players some kah-rah-tay skills, if I do say so myself.”

SpongeBob interjected. “There’s one problem. It’s in this place called Vegas, and that’s on the land.”

“Well, that is a problem. Nothing that my new rocket can’t fix!”

Sandy turned an inconspicuous branch on her tree, and suddenly from the trunk a giant rocket emerged. “It can hold up to 48 personnel, which is about a hundred thousand acorns. You’re gonna fit into this thing like baby back ribs on a wood-fired grill, SpongeBob!”

As Sandy’s rocket prepared to take a quite turbulent liftoff from the sands of Bikini Bottom, our two undersea pals started to notice there was something red slowly scuttling to the machine.

“SpongeBob, me boy! Just where do you think you’re going off to?” Mr. Krabs demanded.

“We got a letter to join this EVA tournament! I think we’re gonna kick some butts there! And I wanna start kicking!” blurted Patrick.

“Fightin’ people, eh? Well, that’s perfectly fine, boy-o! If only I got an invitation as well, I’d like to see the world’s best face against Armor Abs Krabs!”

“What about the Krusty Krab?” asked SpongeBob. “Isn’t that going to fail without me?”

“Not to worry, SpongeBoy, me bob! I’m gonna have you as an ambassador. Make a little food truck or something.”

The crustacean then threw numerous packages of produce and patties at the ship’s deck. “That should be enough to last you the whole trip and last me future customers as well! Arg-arg-arg-arg-arg-argh!”

Sandy, dumbstruck at her cargo space filled with fast food, still pressed on. Shortly after SpongeBob and Patrick quickly attached their sea helmets, the rocket finally breached through the calm waters and headed eastward to the Silver State.

As the rascally rabbit continued his sojourn to stardom, he had to dig himself back up for any way he could go. Breathing a sigh of relief, he was about to exit when a van knocked him onto a desert trail’s scorching pavement. If that wasn’t enough, a box of what seemed to be dog treats hit him as well. Looking at the cardboard and then at the culprits, he finally found a target to test his rusty scrapping skills.

“Of course, you know THIS means war.” Unbeknownst to the van drivers, no one was following their tail. Whoever was in the van was following another trail.

“Like, zoinks, Scoob! That was the last packet of Scooby Snacks! Now what are we going to eat?” a voice echoed from the convertible. Suddenly from the back a dog was desperately digging through a bunch of other boxes in order to find something edible.

“Rackpot!” chirped the pooch as another box of Scooby Snacks was fetched from the heap. As he was ready to grab the box something seemed to drill into the back of the Mystery Machine.

“What’s the big idea, Doc?” Bugs asked as he suddenly climbed up from the newly created hole in the van. Out of instinct, some ascot-ted figure in the shadows tried to grab onto the rabbit’s ears, desperately pulling to see if it was a mask.

“Alright, rabbit, let’s see who you really are!” shouted Fred.

“Quit yankin’ the merchandise, bub! What ya see is what ya get.” The whole crew started to ponder whatever that thing was. “Well, guess we’re both stuck here. Serves you right for hittin’ me.”

“Like, we were so busy finding out the next case, man!” Shaggy retorted.

“This could be the most exciting mystery we’ve had in years!” Daphne responded.

“A mystery, you say? Well, I’ve never really had something this interesting before. How about you maroons tell me where this wild goose chase is headed?”

“Regas!” barked Scooby excitedly as he grabbed the map.

“Well, whaddya know? That’s just where I was headed! Y’know, maybe this is the start of a beautiful friendship.” Bugs then leaned back and gave a huge smooch on Scooby’s snout. “What are we waiting for?” screamed the rabbit. “Let’s get this show on the road!”

“What are we waiting for?” moaned Mythra. “We should get this show on the road!”

As Sora was busy tuning up the blocky little ship that they had but it was but another futile struggle. “I’m not sure how this thing is gonna fit all of us. I mean, there’s likely 100 of you.”

Suddenly out of nowhere, Steve went up and placed an iron block on the Gummi ship. “Um… why doesn’t he help you?” Mario suggested.

“Well, I feel like we already get each other’s plan. Don’t you agree, Steve?” Steve simply nodded and went to find a way to have redstone power the engines.

“This may take a while,” Luigi worried. “Samus, don’t you have that new ship lying around?” Samus noticed her new sleek vehicle, albeit it had been drained of fuel since her latest adventure. Seeing whatever opportunity, she gestured many to the docking bay.

Falco looked at the massive purple ship and scoffed. “Like I’m ever goin’ in that hunk of junk!”

Fox tried to convince him to do something else. “We can always use our Arwings. After all, it’s not like it’s been used that much recently.” The 2 managed to get into their pristine vehicles, with Wolf not trailing too far behind.

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“Hittin’ the road with a whole group o’ maroons. Now that’s something I’ve been waiting to do again for a long time!”

“Wait, you’ve done this before?” Fred asked.

“Yeah, I usually go all around the world. Takes about 7 minutes for me to take it all in.” Velma then tried to examine what kind of creature was taking up the front seat.

“Geez, lady, take ease of the merchandise! I gotta look fly when I go to Vegas.”

“Sorry, I still can’t believe we’re talking to a rabbit.”

Bugs then pointed his thumb at Scooby, just finishing another packet of snacks.

“Rouche.”

As the Mystery Machine was riding along the sandy desert, suddenly the ride started to break down. “Aw, great. Looks like we’re stuck here,” whined Daphne, trying to kickstart the machine again.

“Like, zoinks Scoob! We gotta hurry and get out of this creepy place!”

“Relax, scaredy-cat. It’s not like there’s some kind of dust devil or somethin’.”

Just as if the powers that be had a cruel sense of humor, a dust devil did start to kick up. Even worse, the cause of this raging typhoon was some malicious marsupial. One all too familiar for our rabbit friend. “Me and my big fat mouth”, he groaned.

The creature lunged up and attempted in vain to take bites out of the Mystery Machine. “Like, Bugs, what is that thing?”

“It’s a Tasmanian Devil. Y’know, in the middle of the United States.” The Mystery Gang gasped, with Shaggy immediately trying to tail it.

“Don’t ya worry about that thing. He’s such a pushover.” Bugs immediately tunneled into the ground with the vicious beast trying to dig him up. “Hey ugly! Ya wanna bite outta me? You gotta catch me first!”

Taking that as a challenge, the Tasmanian Devil reared up its legs and attempted to pounce at the raucous rabbit. “Ya missed me, doc! Score one for the home team!” More slashes and gnashes were made at the party until the Tasmanian terrorizer started to look at the Great Dane in front of him, before taking a turn to bite out of that poor pup. As Scooby winced at what was about to befall him, what seemed to be some sort of translucent shield formed in front of his body.

The devil started to do everything in his power to break through this newfound barrier, only for a bubble to form from under him and trap the rabid beast. “Zoinks, Scoob! Like, is that some kind of alien?”

“I guess you could call me that,” a voice said from behind them.

“So, what do you think, Sandy? Are we gonna see aliens?” SpongeBob queried the squirrel.

“Listen here, sea critter. Since we ain’t leavin’ the ozone layer yet I doubt we’re gonna see some spaceship.”

“If that’s true,” said Patrick, “then what’s that red thing behind us?”

The sea star gazed behind the window and his eyes didn’t deceive him, that was some kind of flying object, one of the unidentified kind even. From within the machine’s hull, a harsh commanding voice was barking orders.

“GIR! What is this stupid ship in front of us? Are those pathetic earthlings trying to measure up to our superiority?”

“Look, boss! The spaceship is full of sandwiches! Yummy, nutritious sandwiches!”

“I know that, GIR, but shall we strategize our brilliant plans now?” the alien retorted.

“Outlook’s not so good. Water, water everywhere!” The robot’s head then exploded comically, only for it to restructure itself.

“Well then! I guess we need to lay low. THEN! We shall strike! And after that, Earth will bow to me!” As the alien did a maniacal cackle, suddenly some message got through the foreign technology. The video, grainy at first, eventually cleared to show what seemed to be a giant brain monster.

“Greetings, Zim! I have watched your antics and I feel that we need… an alliance!”

“What shall you offer the great ZIM?!” Zim responded immediately.

“Nothing much,” said the strange being, “but I want to conquer this dimension and all its worthless creatures! And you, dear Irken, are a part of my plan.”

“So what? The great Zim does not share! Especially not with my SACRED MISSION!”

“I have an army, a great army! One that can aid you in your seemingly never-ending quest! All you need to do is join me!” The brain thing started laughing in an odd manner as thousands of robotic ninjas lined the walls of the machine base that he resided in.

“Keep following that ship. The girl inside has all the knowledge we need.” After turning the communication device off, the brain creature walked away in his mechanical armor.

“Shredder, I’m pleased to say that we have a new job to do.”

The gunship, while designed as a vehicle for transport of the deadliest bounty hunters of the Galactic Federation, was surprisingly good in terms of hospitality. Samus, now relaxing in her own little pod with some exotic Zebesian organisms from one of her escapades, was busy scanning the skies to see if the other ships were still holding up. Rest assured; they were leading the way to EVO. She sighed, knowing she wouldn’t be alone in this trip.

Tailing in front, the newly expanded Gummi Ship was still a long way to go from Las Vegas. Luigi, bounding up and down anxiously around the ship’s deck, was trying to hide his insecurity. When attempting to go back to his garish dwelling quarters, Steve managed to crash head-first into Luigi, causing both of them to be quite startled. The blocky man gestured to Luigi to the room Olimar was sleeping in, his Pikmin bouncing upon the beds like tiny children.

Luigi declined. “No, Steve, I’m fine being alone. I totally am not nervous about us not making a deal with Sony and our EVO plan causing Nintendo to put us in hot water!”

The miner quizzically looked at Luigi, as much as his primitive cubic biology could allow. Mario, overhearing this, went down to his brother and cheer him up.

“So, what if we don’t get to play with the big kids, huh? In the end we’ll still be completely fine. Plenty of our friends are already in EVO showing what they’re made of, perhaps that’s a consolation?”

“I don’t know, Mario, even if we get a spot at EVO, I doubt Nintendo would be happy. Especially since they were the ones who started this whole Sony games industry thing in the first place.”

“Times change, Luigi. I’m perfectly sure both companies could make a deal.”

“Then why do this without either company’s knowledge? We’re basically asking for trouble!”

As the 2 brothers continued to bicker, a quick hit from the end of Donald’s staff against the interior of the ship caused them to go silent. “Will you 2 just SHUT UP? I was just having a really good dream!”

“A-hyuck! He was mumblin’ about bein’ a ninja under the covers. Which I guess is cooler than being a wizard, apparently,” Goofy added, while scratching his furry head.

“Listen, the people want a battle between us, and I bet the audience would be thrilled to have us fight again,” Mario assured. “They won’t even care that we’re breakin’ contract!”

“Yeah, sure. But if this whole thing blows up, don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Luigi sauntered back into his sleeping quarters, as Mario inched closer to the main deck.

“I hope we win somehow,” Sora said, “and I think our team has what it takes to get everyone cheering!” He smiled back at Mario, who couldn’t help but smile himself. If their plan worked out, perhaps the future would look brighter for their grown crew.

Chapter Text

Sandy’s rocket ship still held up despite the long flight, but soon an assault happened upon its surface. Lasers were being shot left and right, causing the vessel to lose altitude. Zim on the other hand, was enjoying finally utilizing weaponry once more.

Krang meanwhile started to scowl, but then attempted to smile in Zim’s presence. “Just my luck,” Krang gasped, “it’s time I introduce you to a good friend of mine.”

“The feeling’s mutual!” barked Shredder as he appeared from a dimensional tornado.

“Who are you, spineless Earthling?”

“Unless you want to get cut up into sushi, this is no way to talk to your new ally, you incompetent worm,” the ninja replied.

“GIR! This large man is threatening me!”

“Do not make me repeat myself. I am simply here to carry out a mission.”

“Take over the world?” Zim asked.

“Exactly,” mused Shredder, “and to do that I need you as my henchman.”

“The great Zim does not hench for anyone but his people!” Zim screamed, only for Shredder to bare his claws again. “But… THIS time… I guess I shall make an exception. NOW! I feel this ship has the right number of missiles to fire! Just need to re-calibrate the technology…”

Shredder then haphazardly slammed his fists into the alien technology, causing a shock that sent him backwards. “And I guess that works too!” GIR observed.

The alien machinery whirred and creaked as lasers, missiles, and rubber piggies were thrown upon the rocket ship. Surprisingly the Krabby Patties were left unharmed. The attackers managed to get their way into the ship, about to take down the seafaring squirrel and her associates.

“YOU! I recognize you, filthy water creature!”

“Zim?” SpongeBob observed. “Hey, buddy! It’s been a long time since we last met! How are things going for you?”

“I DO NOT CARE! We are no longer ‘friends’ as you call it! From now on… we are MORTAL ENEMIES!”

“But I thought Dib was your mortal enemy?” SpongeBob remembered.

“Well, last time I checked, HE DIDN’T GET THIS!” Zim reached into the backpack grafted to his flesh, and opened up an invitation.

“Wait a minute… SpongeBob, he has the same letter thing as US! Maybe he wants to go on the Eva ride as well!” Patrick guessed to the unwilling crowd.

“Somethin’ tells me these 2 ain’t here for a friendly chat, with the sharp things and whatnot,” Sandy inferred. “Well, I guess if they want a fight, then they’ll get one! SpongeBob, get your karate gear on! And Patrick… well...uh... Patrick, just hit them. Think of these guys like a piñata!”

Patrick then looked around. “Um, where’s the piñata stick? And who’s that invisible guy?”

“WHAT invisible guy?” Shredder yelled.

“The one who’s fist is about to meet your face,” said a voice as a punch thrown by a translucent hand hit against Shredder’s metal helmet.

The figure then faded into the light from the ship, revealing himself at last. “Danny Phantom!” the absorbent sea sponge announced exuberantly. The advantageous apparition then went and did a high-five to SpongeBob, before readying a fighting stance.

“This will be easy,” Shredder scoffed. “I doubt you weak-framed wimps have even the slightest chance of defeating us!”

“You’re gonna dance and then eat us?” Patrick screamed, barely even listening to the exchanges. “I won’t let you! Even though I may be delicious…” SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy and Danny Phantom all stood their metaphorical ground.

The Tasmanian Devil tried desperately to gnaw and scratch his way out of the primrose prison he put himself in, as this new face entered the party. “Hello, everyone. My name’s Steven. Steven Universe.”

“Interesting,” said Velma, looking at the exposed diamond in his navel.

“If I pulled this out of you, would you die?”

“It would be extremely painful,” Steven answered nonchalantly.

“Well, uh, can you fix this car?”

“Sorry,” Steven shrugged, “but I’m no mechanic.” He thought to himself for a minute.

“But I do know something that could work…” He whistled to the ground and out of a summoned portal came a pink lion.

“Well, I’ve given up. There is no logical reason to explain whatever THAT is,” Velma sighed.

“I guess this is some improvement. I bet we can pull this thing like a chariot!” Bugs brainstormed.

“Well, maybe? Does this lion ever get tired?” Daphne questioned. Steven shook his head and started to jump on his feline steed.

“I’m not even going to question this anymore,” said Velma, “and besides, we need to get going.” Bugs pulled a rope out of hammerspace and tied it around the beast’s neck. The gang with a few tagalongs rode off into the sunset.

However, as they were going on their merry way, they happened to notice a new vehicle, one of a sleek, black design. “Well, that ain’t good,” Bugs noticed.

As the car came to a stop, some new imposing figure oddly cloaked in shadow moved out. Scooby instinctually clung to Steven, whimpering about whatever new monster was about to rear its ugly head from the silhouette. Instead, the figure started to talk in a gravelly voice and lay whatever weapons it had on hand back in the convertible.

“A pleasure to meet you again, Shaggy.”

“Batman? Like, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you, dude!”

“The feeling’s mutual, Mystery Inc. However, I am not having a paid vacation this time.”

Steven immediately went to take a better look at this caped crusader. “Wow! You’re like a superhero!”

“Well, he is – but he doesn’t really have superpowers,” Velma elaborated.

“So, uh, does it hurt fighting bad guys?” Steven wondered.

“Well, of course it does. I’m only one man after all.”

“Yeah, yeah, we all appreciate the chit-chat, but can ya please explain while you’re here?” Bugs demanded.

“Like all of you, I got this letter for a tournament. But somehow, I doubt this has any good intentions. No one ever sends mail directly to my Bat-Cave, unless they would know something personal.”

“That’s the same reason we came here, man!” Shaggy replied. “Like, there’s no way I’m gonna fight in some death ring! That kind of life ain’t mine to live!”

“So why are these invites being thrown around like this, doc? We’ve never even HEARD of this tournament before, and now some guy with fancy handwritin’ is giving us these weird invitations? It just don’t add up, I tells ya!” the rabbit screamed while latching onto Batman’s mask.

“Well, whoever this person is likely doesn’t have our best interests in mind,” Steven concluded, “and I feel that we should stay on our guard from here on out.”

Everyone agreed and moved into the Batmobile, the Mystery Machine tied on top of it with the now captured Tasmanian Devil holding the thing together.

In the gunship, Link was busy looking out into the sky. He didn’t really know what to expect in this tournament. Sure, he’s fought Ganon’s army numerous times but if his fellow fighters were anything to go by whoever would come next could have some new, weird fighting style he would just have to work around.

He crouched down onto the hard floor and looked at his inventory for a moment. That moment was quickly thrown out the window by some rowdy attendants. Kirby and Wario were both trying to cut each other in line to get more food, and the Pokémon naturally practiced for the big day by gearing up for a battle.

“Now, child, remember that we must go easy. This ship houses most of us, and if anything were to break it could send us flying,” Mewtwo reasoned.

“Come on, just a little Vine Whip or Bullet Seed?” Red whined impatiently waiting to give Ivysaur the commands.

“Our future as a serious group could very well be jeopardized if we happen to show our… shall we say unorthodox ways of fighting.”

Greninja, ready to throw out a Substitute, started to nod at its fellow Pokémon as Ivysaur begrudgingly stepped back.

“Ivysaur, Razor Leaf!” Red shouted without warning. As Ivysaur sent out a flying sharp green blade, Greninja happened to dodge it and inexplicably place a Substitute in its place. The doll was launched at the wall before bouncing off and dissipating away.

Meta Knight then appeared behind the trainer, his cape flowing like a wind had manifested before him. “I hope you are not planning to do this again anytime soon, for I do not want you to start a fight between the deck.”

The small yet still intimidating swordsman raised his blade and that was enough for Red to back off. “Now then, I assume there is no more trouble on board, is there not?”

Pac-Man interjected. “We’re running out of food supplies! And if this trip is as long as Samus predicts, we might as well starve!”

Kirby then looked at Meta Knight and put on a sad face. The knight sighed to himself. “Fine, fine. We shall make more. Link! You are good at making food from anything, right?” The Hylian fished out whatever leftover fruits, vegetables and meat could be rummaged from his inventory.

“Kirby, I entrust that you will help Link cook more food. I am sure your stomach has some untainted stuff in there.” Kirby raised his hand and pulled out a Maxim Tomato in a clean bubble. No one else tried to question it. All of a sudden, a box sneaked up next to Kirby.

“Hey, marshmallow… thing. I found this creature in one of my traps.” Snake’s hand reached out and gave Kirby a fat serpent presumably for extra meat. “This is a tsuchinoko, Otacon told me they are a rare find.” Link grabbed the reptile and stashed it away in his inventory, which after this meal was going to get a tad lighter.

Chapter Text

Some improvised stew dish was served up to the masses, and while it did take some time for the hungry mouths to get used to it, it was an overall resounding success. Min Min did offer some advice to the now head chefs on how to prepare such a broth.

“I’ve got to admit, those weapons you have can pack a mean punch,” Snake eavesdropped suddenly, seemingly appearing from nowhere. “That reminds me, I need to check in on the Star Fox team.”

Snake then pulled out a tiny radio and contacted Fox, still busy guarding the Gunship. “Come in to Foxtrot, this is Iroquois Pliskin, how are my eyes in the sky?”

“No present danger, Snake. We are still on the open ocean and if my estimates are correct, we should be there in about 3-5 days.”

“Figures,” Snake groaned, “guess I have to play babysitter for these lunatics.” He crawled back into his box and tried to calm himself down.

As Zim and Shredder were dumbfounded at their phantasmic new foe’s appearance, Patrick simply ran forward and attempted a futile punch to the ninja’s gut. Shredder retaliated by simply kicking him off balance. “You two are such meanies!”

He tries to lunge at Zim next, only for the alien to bark some commands. “GIR! Make sure you take out the trash.”

“Oh, boy! It’s garbage day for me!” The robot rushed forward and tackled the starfish, throwing him against the metal floor.

“Well, SpongeBob, it’s time to show these varmints how we do things down in Bikini Bottom.” The two managed to pull out some karate gloves and started chopping.

“Alright then, I guess it’s time we do business,” Danny smirked before his fists started to irradiate with glowing plasma.

Shredder immediately threw some smoke bombs at the opposing party, with Sandy deflecting them with her karate prowess. “It seems you have some bite in you, rodent. You’re almost as much of a pain in my neck as those loathsome turtles are.”

“Wait, what?” Danny responded.

“You wouldn’t get it anyways,” Shredder surmised as he did a couple of slashes at the phantom, only to get enraged that his cuts were phasing through his astral body.

“What’s the matter, chrome dome? Can’t hit a ghost, can you?” he joked as he started to freeze the floor near the ninja’s feet.

Patrick was still struggling with the robot now pinning him down and inanely singing about waffles. The sea star had to jump up and use his conical head to butt GIR off him. Unfortunately, he forgot the helmet on his head, and slamming it against GIR’s metallic hide it broke into several pieces. As SpongeBob tried to chop at Shredder’s backside, Zim happened to slash SpongeBob’s helmet as well. The sea-dwellers immediately noticed their situation, and that it wouldn’t be long before they would be left out to dry.

“Water! I need water!” SpongeBob screamed in a panic. Sandy, still trying to hold off Shredder’s rapid attacks, had to reach for whatever water cooler or dispenser she could find.

“SpongeBob! Patrick! Head to the bath!”

“Do math?” Patrick woozily questioned.

Danny, not preoccupied by this invasion, rushed the 2 to the bathroom. He quickly marveled at Sandy’s simultaneous shower and bathtub thingamajig, but then tried to barricade the door with his ice breath. Slowly but surely a wall was starting to form around the hinges, but Zim’s metallic appendages punctured through enough to dislocate it and leave it tumbling to the ground. He turned the tap causing a warm stream to enter the bathtub and tried to fend off Zim, now fed up with all this fighting and mindlessly stabbing whatever he could at Danny, who was dodging each attempt narrowly at his life.

SpongeBob and Patrick, now with newfound strength, tried their best to evade any oncoming collateral damage. Patrick looked at Zim, now pinning Danny to the ground, and got an idea.

“SpongeBob… this Zim guy is grumpy! You know what would cheer him up?”

“A bubble?”

“Maybe, I don’t know,” Patrick responded.

“Good enough!”

SpongeBob then took some shampoo and mixed it into the tub. Pulling out his trusty bubble wand, he scooped up the mixture and blew it at Zim. The alien was laughing maniacally as it seemed everything was falling into place. For once he could actually succeed at his mission!

More heinous cackling ensued for a little while until that small bubble hit him in the throat. Immediately his flesh started to burn from the watery makeup of the sphere, and lost balance, leaving Danny with an opening. “How? HOW was I SO CLOSE?”

“Now, SpongeBob! Pelt him with more bubbles!”

“Aye aye captain!” the sponge shouted as he kept blowing bubbles in various shapes and sizes.

“Stop! Stop with your acidic weaponry! I cannot take this torture!”

Danny smirked as it seemed that this madness was starting to end.

“…But HE can!”

Zim laughed as Mini-Moose tackled the phantom and the force threw him up against the wall. Meanwhile Shredder was madly thrusting his sword at Sandy, who tried to bob and weave through every thoughtless slam of the blade. “Why are you still STANDING, squirrel?”

“That’s the thing with folks that can’t think straight, I stand tall above ‘em.” Sandy joked before stretching out her Extend-O-Boots to rub even more salt in the wound.

Wiggling and wobbling around carelessly, she took enjoyment over this foe getting furious at her antics. It was good for a while, until the sword happened to slice the Extend-O-Boots clean in half, causing Sandy to fall onto the floor. Shredder took this chance to pick her up and slam her down into the pavement, breaking her helmet in the process.

“I would like to end this petty battle on my own terms, but I’m afraid we’ll have to cut this short,” Shredder joked to himself.

Zim then ran into the room. “Great news, earthling! Operation ROOM-WITH-A-MOOSE Mark 2 has left the other passengers incapacitated.”

“We have places to be, squirrel. But do not worry, I feel we will settle the score another day.” Shredder and Zim (with GIR and Mini-Moose tagging along behind) leaped from the ship and back into the alien’s spacecraft. The ship was losing altitude and plummeting at a fast rate.

“SpongeBob! Patrick! Are you 2 as safe as a snake in a burrow?”

SpongeBob responded from the bathtub. “We made it out fine, Sandy, but Danny, he…”

“Something’s wrong!”

Sandy entered the bathroom and was relieved that SpongeBob and Patrick were fine, but Danny Phantom was frozen on the ground, a golden base of some sort stuck to his feet.

“I don’t want to touch it! Sandy, do something!”

Sandy, out of curiosity, went to take a look at their friend. “I think I can get him into my lab for testing,” Sandy guessed, and as she went to grab him for her research, the touch from her paw dissipated the gold stand and suddenly Danny came to.

“What? What happened? I remember that alien guy shooting something, but then everything just… stopped.”

“What in tarnation did that little critter have?” Patrick interrupted and started to blurt out a crude depiction of what he saw.

“It was some black shooty thing! Zim tried to aim it at us but Danny jumped in front of it!”

“Yeah, thanks for the reminder,” Danny snarked, “but why would he do this? That weapon certainly seemed a bit too heavy for the guy.”

“Well, at least we know how to cure it. Are you sure there aren’t any side effects?”

“I feel a little dizzy and for a while everything went black. I couldn’t even feel anything in my body.”

“Well, that would’ve been helpful if we weren’t about to crash!” SpongeBob screamed.

“Wait, WHAT?” everyone else noticed as the ship rocketed towards an urban city.

The makeshift chariot of cars continued its way to the sprawling desert canyons. The Tasmanian Devil, still angrily gnawing at his bubble prison, was setting his sights on Bugs, who was looking out the window at the now pathetic predator.

“If me was not in bubble, me would sink teeth in you, rabbit.”

“Oh, don’t make me laugh, Taz. Knowing you, I’d bet you’d sink your teeth into the car first.” This enraged the marsupial, with him running around desperately and slamming his head against the walls even further.

Batman then notified the team of a bridge up ahead. “Do know that there’s a bridge coming our way. I have a feeling that we might get a little help…”

“Like, what do you mean, Batman?” As the bridge started to creak and shake against the pressure of the 2-truck chariot, something seemed to lift it up.

“Not to worry folks,” a voice echoed from below. “I’ve got you all safe and sound.”

After passing through that creaky bridge, the voice revealed himself to be a flying man in… tights? “Nice work, Supes. I knew you would be there to lend a helping hand.”

“Wow, and the Man of Steel too? This crossover’s gettin’ really meaty now, ain’t it?” Bugs said looking straight towards something.

“Um, Steven dude? Who’s he talking to?” Shaggy questioned.

“Probably the same thing I talk to when becoming Sunstone.”

“Wait, what?”

“It’s a Gem thing, you wouldn’t understand.” As Shaggy was about to question what Steven was talking about, he felt the Mystery Machine and Batmobile combination get heaved up feet above the ground.

“Let’s make this interesting,” Superman chuckled.

“Alright everyone, for your safety and sanity, please hold on to your seatbelts,” Batman responded. In a flash, the vehicles started to rush at a high velocity. Everyone was pushed back to the rear a lot, with Steven creating some shields behind him to soften whatever fall he and the others would endure behind. After a few minutes, the ride came to a complete stop.

“Alright, what is it now?” Fred wondered. Some weird clown below kept shooting wildly at the Batmobile.

“Not you again…” the caped crusader mumbled.

Superman, dodging the arrow-shaped bullets, dropped the cars down onto the desert sand.

“Well, looks like you’ve brought a whole party, B-Man! Great timin’ as well, I was just absolutely ecstatic to play with my new toys!”

“What kind of game are you playing now, Quinn?” Batman walked towards the demented jester.

“Well, I was mindin’ my business in Arkham Asylum, and suddenly BOOM! These weird ninja guys busted me outta the slammer! Some big guy told me to join his li’l gang and gave me THIS!” Harley touted the Dark Cannon proudly. “Wanna see what it does, Batman? Do ya? DO YA?!”

“Listen, I don’t want any trouble,” Fred reasoned, “why don’t we just go our separate ways and-"

Suddenly Harley shot at Fred, as a dark arrow phased through his being. Before everyone’s eyes, he became a trophy. “Well, well! Looks like I’ve won a prize!”

Chapter Text

“Well, all we need to do is to get that gun away from her, right?” Shaggy guessed.

“I haven’t seen anything like that before. Wonder if Lex Luthor made such a contraption,” Superman pondered while effortlessly dodging shots from the Dark Cannon. Steven decided to test if a shield could be used against the cannon’s ammo, but it broke upon contact, only slowing the bullet of darkness down instead of nullifying it.

“Wait, don’t we outnumber her? What’s stopping us from flanking?” Velma sensibly questioned.

“Hey clown lady! Ya want a whack at this ugly mug? Then go ahead!” Harley tried to get a few hits at the rabbit with an oversized mallet, with him digging into his burrow and desperately slamming down into the craters to try and deal some sort of damage. When it looked like she got him cornered, he pulled out a hammer of his own and aimed for her legs, knocking her to the ground. “Did ya honestly think that I wouldn’t bring my own hammer?”

Trying to get back on her feet, Harley grasped at the gun and shot madly at Bugs, as he kept popping in and out of his burrows. “I could do this all day, but, y’know, we have a tournament to attend.”

“What a coincidence! So do I,” Harley said, flashing another invitation letter. Bugs looked shockingly to a seemingly nonexistent audience.

“They’ll let anyone in these days,” he replied, before dodging another blast. As she was busy, Steven tried to summon a swath of shields in front of him. Shaggy, ever the coward, tried to hide himself behind them.

“Listen, Shaggy, I know you want to protect yourself, but you have to trust me. Go back to that car… thingy?” Shaggy then ran quickly to the combined Mystery Machine-Batmobile monstrosity and cowered behind the thing.

Harley turned around and immediately saw the barrage of hexagonal crystals that surrounded her. Shooting at them madly, it only slowed the ammo down as it shot randomly into the air. Steven then slowly pressed his hands together, putting the clown in a new prison.

“Hey! You think these walls can contain me, you meddling kids?” Pounding her fists against the newly formed cage, she dropped her Dark Cannon and thus Bugs Bunny nabbed it from one of his burrows.

“Looks like the circus show’s over, Doc!” he joked as the shot hit Harley, freezing her in a state of malice. “Yeesh, that’s a sight.”

Steven loosened his grip as the shields dissipated.

“This… THING, it seems to have some sort of unknown power. We should destroy it as soon as possible,” Superman observed.

“Um, like, I think something’s gonna destroy us first!” Shaggy screamed, pointing to a whirling tornado of fur and teeth whizzing to Harley’s trophy. Scratching all over it, he ended up kicking the base of the trophy, immediately reviving Harley, now in a daze.

“Wait a minute… oh, you little fuzzball! Ya saved me from those chumps! How’s about I call you Slobber? Would ya like that?” Taz started to get a little shy, but ended carrying his rescued ally further into the sunset, Harley shooting the Dark Cannon wildly into the growing night as adrenaline caught a hold of her.

“Well, now we know where to go, if she’s aware of the tournament,” Batman deduced.

“But our van can’t drive that fast to catch up with that monster,” Velma said, “it would take DAYS to properly figure out a direction!”

“Well,” Superman said with his cape magnificently flowing in the air, “I guess it’s time for Superman to save the day once again!”

“Su…per…man?” a deep metallic voice echoed from the canyons. The sound of metal landing against the desert ground was heard. An iron giant was towering above them, his shadow engulfing the wide stretch of plains. “Meet… Superman!”

“Are my glasses not working, or is that a GIANT ROBOT in front of us?” Velma screamed.

The rocket’s quick landing caught everyone off guard.

“Aw, nuts! We’re sinking in the water!” Sandy cursed.

“Aw, yeah! We’re sinking in the water!” Patrick chirped immediately after.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Patrick, I can’t breathe underwater! And this ship ain’t budgin’ if I don’t have air in my lungs.”

Danny looked at a broken hatch in the rocket’s walls and punched it open. “We can get through here,” he said.

They exited the spacecraft only to wind up in the coast of New York itself. “I’ve always wanted to go to the Big Apple,” Sandy said.

“But that isn’t an apple,” responded Patrick.

“I feel it’s a figure of speech, Pat,” SpongeBob corrected. “But looking at this place, we should settle down before we dry up.”

As they were thinking of something else to do, a cacophony of screams echoed through the bustling streets. SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy and Danny watched as a news crew pushed them out of the way. “This is April O’Neil, live on Channel 6 News, with an urgent report.”

“I’m sure this won’t be a waste of my time…,” said the cameraman.

“Quiet, Vernon! This is a serious report!” said another woman behind him. April pointed her camera upwards. “All throughout the city, a giant lizard has been destroying buildings and causing collateral damage. We advise those in the area to seek shelter immediately.”

“Giant lizard, huh?” Danny questioned. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

SpongeBob pointed up to the sky. “Actually, it’s something. Something BIG, SCARY and GREEN!” A hulking dinosaur was running amok in the districts, laying waste to whatever buildings stood in its way.

“I think it’s best we should move!” Danny shouted as they leaped away from what was about to be the creature’s next footprint. SpongeBob took a look at the monster’s head, noticing some kind of brooch latched upon it.

“That thing! It looks like it’s in pain!”

“Listen to me, SpongeBob. Even if that thing’s hurtin’, we ain’t gonna help it if it hurts us back,” reasoned Sandy. “All we gotta do is not agitate it further.”

Jumping and leaping through the windows, a quartet of silhouetted warriors were about to agitate it further. Steadfast and sure in their movements, the group were about to strike the beast and bring it to its knees. At least, all but one orange-coded member, who had turned back and skated towards the nearest pizza place.

“Michelangelo, you DO know that we can have pizza after we save the city, right?” snarked another shadow gripping to a pair of sais.

“Raph, I really need that fix, and my stomach’s gotten mondo growly.” The shadow in front of them pointed to the lizard as it was destroying a Viacom International office, munching the skyscraper pieces in its jaws.

“This is our duty as ninjas to protect our home,” he ordered, “and we should stand true to our duty.” The ninjas all nodded in agreement, even Michelangelo begrudgingly. Jumping onto the giant reptile, each of them started to tackle it, and tried to puncture it with their weapons. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to do that much damage. Falling to the ground, they tried to inconvenience it through other means. One of them threw a manhole cover at the beast, while another pulled out a fire hydrant and lobbed it at the creature’s head.

It seemed fruitless against the titan, until one of them stepped out of the shadows, rubbing against his giant, bulbous head. “I do concur that this beast has the gait of an anatomically incorrect dinosaur.”

“Geez, Donnie, when are you gonna speak English?” Raphael snarked.

“We have to hit its feet and it will topple over.”

“Can we help?” SpongeBob asked, sneaking up behind one of the figures.

“What the?” Michelangelo shouted and instinctively thrust his nunchakus at the sponge, with them bouncing off.

“Some kind of new mutant? As if this day couldn’t get any worse...” Raphael groaned. The leading figure jumped down and revealed himself, baring swords in each of his scaly hands.

Danny took a good look at this quartet. “What are you... some kind of teenage mutant... ninja turtles?”

“First off, that’s our name, got it trademarked and everything. Secondly, you’re one to talk with your... freakishly large hands! And that guy made of cheese too,” Raphael responded.

“Listen, we aren’t here to fight each other. We’re here to help one another! And stop that giant, big, ugly, scary monster from doing more damage!”

“We already have that figured out,” said Donatello. “We’re going to have to attack the feet of that thing, and hopefully that will cause it to fall.”

“What are we going to do next, Leo? Send it to jail?” Raphael joked.

“There’s some kinda device on its head that seems to cause its outrages,” Sandy concurred.

“If we take that off it, maybe it will act less mindless and savage.”

“Well, what are we doing standing around for? Time to kick some shell!” Leo rallied.

“TURTLE POWER!” the 4 ninjas screamed as they ran around the creature’s feet.

Raphael did a gesture towards the creature and then pulled out a fire hydrant that struck the beast’s toes. Of course, that barely made it budge. This caused Donatello to try and pull out some sort of machination that could stall it.

“What is the purple guy doing now?” Patrick asked.

“Relax, gumwad. Donatello always does machines to help us battle.”

“That’s a fact, Jack!” Donnie replied as he sculpted together a freeze gun made of some broken car bits. “If we can blast this at point range it will freeze the reptile’s feet up, and then we have a chance to use centrifugal force to knock him flat on his back.”

“Allow me to make this easier,” Danny volunteered, as he dodged and ducked around the creature while trying to freeze the floor around it.

“Good job, weird flying kid!” Donnie replied as he shot at the dinosaur’s feet, causing them to freeze up. Danny swooped in and used his freeze breath to strengthen those sub-zero shackles, as the creature started to sway forward.

“Michelangelo! NOW! Use your secret weapon!” Leo snapped.

“Ugh, you mean the lame one?”

“The city’s gonna crumble if you don’t use the ‘lame one’, Mikey! Focus on the mission!”

Michelangelo sighed as he put his nunchakus to the back of his shell and unearthed a grappling hook. Looking at the creature, he thought that this behemoth falling should bring some sort of excitement. “Cowabunga!” the turtle screamed as he skated around the streets wrapping his grappling hook around the edges of it from end to end. The creature took another step freeing itself from its icy inhibitors, only to trip and fall down onto the New York pavement.

Arising from the docks, SpongeBob looked towards the creature’s head and saw the brooch was short-circuiting. “Sandy! That thing needs to be thrown off now!” Sandy looked and nodded her head as she tried to karate chop it off.

“Let me try it, squirrel girl,” Raphael scoffed, his sai trying to pry the thing off the monster’s scales, only for an electric shock to register. “Well, I’ve tried everything.”

Sandy immediately came up with an idea. “How about we all try to take it off together?”

“You know, that could work!” Leonardo pondered.

The turtles, squirrel, phantom, starfish and sponge all used the most of their strength to rip the device off. Suddenly, the creature came to, looking around and seeing the new environment.

“What is that bogus thing?” Michelangelo wondered to the crowd. The beast stood up and responded in a heroic bellowing voice.

“Halt! I am Reptar!”

Samus, now reclined at the deck of her ship, was busy polishing up all her past weapons in her armory, admiring all the different suits she brought on her numerous bounties. It’s been a long while since they’ve all been together to be in a real tournament, hasn’t it? She pulled up a photo of all of them doing goofy poses as Sora took a picture with his phone.

“Now is not the time to reminisce,” she monologued loudly to herself, “we have to go and show the crowd what put us on the map.”

As she was about to check on the status of her ship, a blue streak happened to speed by, followed by 2 smaller yellow ones. Samus sighed as she activated her Shinespark. As Pichu and Pikachu started to wind down exhausted, Sonic slid to a halt to observe them. However, their moment of relief was short-lived as Samus zipped past them, only to press against a wall on the side gracefully and remove her helmet.

“This ship is well taken care of by the Galactic Federation, and despite the large size and strong backbone, it is NOT meant to be your little racetrack.”

“C’mon, Sammy, we’ve been good at avoiding any collateral damage,” the hedgehog shrugged, before some of the power suits fell out of their displays and onto the floor. “Well, kinda... good?”

Samus slapped her armored palm against her head and groaned. “Pikachu, I told you that rat was a bad influence.”

“Hey! How many times do I have to say it to everyone? I’m not a rat, I’m a hedgehog, HEDGE-hog! I don’t do that nose thing.”

“Didn’t you say you were tired of Pokémon? Why aren’t you tired now?”

“It was a different time back then! I was fighting a monkey, and Sega was still making consoles! Besides, these little lightning bugs are some of the only guys you have that even try to keep up! There were many times where I asked Fox to join, but he said no.”

“Well, if you insist, then maybe I’ll race you if it makes you stop.”

“Alright! It’s juice and jam time!”

Several laps around the gunship later, Pichu and Pikachu were tired and Samus’s suit started overheating. Cradling the Pokémon in her arms, she made sure they were warm as she put them close to her operating station.

“Great to know that you’re good with animals,” Sonic noticed, “hard to believe a girl like you could be that way.”

“Well, throughout my years on the front lines, some of the creatures I find are more than just mindless killers. I’m glad that I found others like them through these frankly odd little games we’ve played over the years.” She gazed at a picture of a baby Metroid, thinking back to her earliest days as a bounty hunter. “They saved my life as I saved theirs. Unlike the Space Pirates, there is some sort of compassion, some essence of purity that stays within them. I noticed that with Pikachu while we were fighting against the forces of Subspace. Despite not knowing me and hailing from a different world then I, the moment I saved him we instantly connected. I’m sure that you’ve felt the same way as well, hedgehog.”

“Well, um, it was nice chatting with you,” Sonic blurted out trying to stop himself from choking up, “but I gotta go fast, as they say! Bet that Captain Falcon needs help with his, uh, vizor!” He sprinted off away from Samus, pulling out a photo of all his friends from Mobius. Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, hell, even Eggman likely was worried sick at his trip. “Don’t worry guys,” he whispered, “we’ll show them the real super power of teamwork!”

Chapter Text

The turtle team and their newfound allies snuck away back into the sewers of the Big Apple. “Great to see you again, students,” a giant rodent in a cloak responded as he leapt down from the walls. “I see your run in with the dinosaur has been a complete success. Where is he anyway?”

“Right here,” Donatello replied, showing Reptar now shrunken to the size of an action figure. “Just had to bring my shrink ray up to speed and do a few test trials.”

“Ah, so it seems I have taught you well, and you seem to have some competent friends on your side.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you to, but we have a tournament to go to,” Sandy replied.

“I see,” the oversized rodent remarked. “Yes, I have heard of some of my students getting letters for a tournament to fight in. Given that barely anyone in this city would ever know of our location, I believe it is some sort of trap. Fortunately, it seems that whoever wrote these letters failed to get all of us.”

“Splinter’s right,” Donatello reasoned. “If we plan some sort of hidden sneak attack, then they will never see us coming.”

“Thinkin’ like a true ninja would,” Sandy reasoned. “That I can get behind! But first, we need some water for our aquatic pals. Second, we need a ride to Vegas.”

“Hmm...” Leonardo gazed at the sponge and starfish in front of him, “I bet Donnie could fix up some kind of machine to give you some perpetual hydration cycle, or something along those lines.” A short second after, Donatello test fired at SpongeBob using a water gun, filling him up and having him soak in the liquid. SpongeBob came up to the sewer’s surface, and started walking around, nothing really changing. For the first time in a long while, he wasn’t drying up.

“Patrick! You gotta try this!”

“Wow! Look at Mr. Fancy Pants over here with his wet body! I wanna be a fancy pants too!” Patrick slammed himself onto the ground, with the water gun spraying on him as he got up again. “I feel really good! Now let’s get driving!”

Reptar started to shake as his size morphed to be a little bigger, almost able to dwarf most people. “Ugh, this shrink ray needs some recombobulating!” Donatello moaned as he went back into his quarters and fixed it up, shooting Reptar with it again. “He’s able to fit now, but this will keep him in check.”

The turtles stealthily jumped from the sewers of New York into a shadowed alley. Danny followed by speeding through like a dart. Sandy and SpongeBob did a stylish karate kick in the opposing side, while the now person-sized Reptar rising from the ground and emitting a deep snarl. Patrick, ever the clumsy one, slammed his head to the pavement, then haphazardly crawled out last.

“Why aren’t you coming, Splinter?” Leonardo questioned.

The rodent peeked his head out and responded. “I still do not trust those invitations, and if my suspicions are correct, I would need to hold the fort back home. Who knows what kind of devious maniacs could arise during your absence?”

“We’ll do our best, and we’ll be careful,” Michelangelo promised his master, who began crawling back down underneath the city.

“Our ride should be here any minute now,” Leo reminded his growing motley crew. As Raph seemed to eye an imaginary wristwatch, 3 tiny freakish figures scuttled out from a garbage can nearby.

“Look, Ickis! A new group of unwilling victims to plan our operation!” a thin, snakelike creature whispered.

“I-I dunno, Oblina, looks like these ain’t the regular humans we come across," a timid purple imp-like being cautioned.

“Nonsense! I bet they would scare just as easily as any one of those little tots that scramble all around the city,” Oblina hissed.

“Well, if you say so,” a third creature responded, garbage filling its mouth. The three creatures tried to step quietly and closely to stay within the moving shadows.

“Krumm, I told ya we’re doing some important scaring here!” snapped Ickis, seeing the plump creature try to go back to the garbage can sneakily. Oblina rushed up to the figures and did a loud hissing noise, followed by her flailing her organs about. Naturally, such a disturbance caused the crew of heroes to turn their heads. Patrick immediately started screaming and running around, but the others didn’t really.

“What kind of mutagen did you digest, you... um, slug dude?” Michelangelo questioned.

“Mutagen? Sounds delicious, but I could ask the same about you. I mean, I haven’t seen monsters your type before,” Ickis responded.

“Monsters? Well, it takes one to know one, bunny rabbit,” Raphael groaned.

Before they could continue, a weird green and yellow van skidded by to a stop. April walked out and saw the crew now grown in a few members. “And I even broke a tire on the way here...” she pouted.

“Wait a minute! We can use this thing!” Patrick beamed, grabbing Oblina by the tail-end.

“Let go of me, you ignoramus!” she shrieked.

“Now, turn into a tire,” the starfish goaded, Oblina making a vicious sneer to him.

“What would be in it for me?” she asked.

“Well, you get to go to Vegas, and have a lot of fun meeting different people. If things like you get that sort of stuff...” Danny suggested.

Oblina took a moment to ponder to herself. Yes, the idea was alluring for sure. All the new, unsuspecting people she could scare easily would give her the edge over her classmates. “Ickis, Krumm, I’m going to do some ‘extra credit’. Tell the Gromble that it’s time I take a field trip.”

Everyone readied their weapons at the towering colossus in front of them. However, instead of attacking immediately, the giant instead tried to back away. Digging inside his compartments, he brought out what seemed to be a plant sculpture made out of scrap metal. His artificial olive branch was odd to say the least, but the crew still had suspicions.

Steven stepped up and placed himself against the giant’s foot. “He isn’t looking for a fight! If he was, he would’ve killed us already.”

“Then how did he know Superman’s name?” Batman questioned.

“Uh, maybe he’s a big fan?” Steven sheepishly answered. The iron giant nodded silently, inner mechanisms creaking as the action continued.

“I doubt we have a choice, Doc. With Taz and Li’l Miss Crazy out and about we’d need all the help we can get,” Bugs said in the most serious tone he’s had in a while. “Besides, I bet that hunk o’ junk can do wonders with our car thing.”

The titan decided to lift up the car combination and carry it like a frisbee in one of his massive hands.

“Um, I think that’s good enough,” Steven assumed.

“Good enough? If Fred sees what that robot’s doing to the Mystery Machine, he’ll lose it!” Velma exclaimed.

“But Fred ain’t really ‘there’ right now, is he?” Bugs responded, pointing his foot to Fred, still a trophy.

“We just need to get to Vegas, and then once situated we can fix him up... somehow,” Superman elaborated. The party hurried into the car combination, now hefted up by a giant new ally.

Short work was made of the canyon’s various treacherous pathways, as the titan giddily leaped and bounded over the roads they came across. Almost as if fate wanted to shake things up, things got out of hand. A huge tank rode across next to the Giant, which dropped the car and cowered in fear.

“Aw, I was just gettin’ used to this,” Bugs sighed, jumping onto the coarse desert ground. His eyes bulged out in fear as the tank in front of them turned into another giant robot. They could all immediately tell that this mech was not friendly.

It stood toe-to-toe with their iron giant, except more adept at weaponry in its design. Sharp edges and cannons filled with missiles adorned its form, and some kind of deep purple flesh was hidden between these garments, almost like it was some sort of armor. It continued to walk closer and closer to the group, crouching down only to shoot missiles from its shoulder.

Steven immediately jumped down from the car, bobbing and weaving through the shots while placing some kind of cover at any possible angle. Superman tried to use his ice breath powers to slow it down, and while it did freeze the bottom of the legs, the creature began to overheat itself and launch out of its icy prison. Throwing a few haymakers at the group, the mech was deadest on killing whatever got into its way. Batman latched a Bat Grenade onto one of its arms, which it wound up to do an uppercut. The fist hit the iron giant right as it exploded, launching him upwards and activating some program within. Falling down to the ground, the robot’s gaze became a blood red as futuristic tentacles with lasers attached shot out of his body.

“Um, is that supposed to be good?” Shaggy stammered, before a missile was fired at the creature, with him running quickly out of the way.

The giant was on a rampage, shooting various different artillery at the rivaling robot until it fell to the ground. It slowly dissipated into several tiny purple spots, each frantically crawling its way around the terrain until forming into weird black creatures with green attire.

“What kind of machine is this?” Batman wondered as the new army of shadowy soldiers started to attack.

“Whatever it is,” Velma said before swatting one away with a book on-hand, “certainly gave us an easier fight.” Shaggy and Scooby were still running in terror, the giant’s weaponry always seeming to get close enough to them that they could see the effects yet not be on the receiving end. The creatures attempted to swarm the giant, only for it to spin around and knock them off, leaving them to dissipate into the air.

The mechanical monster looked down at the damage caused, the primal anger leaving his artificial eyes. “No...”

“What’s wrong, mac? Ya hit that big robot right in the kisser! Or at least, whatever that thing was on its ugly mug,” Bugs reassured the titanium titan. The robot started to poke and prod at the ground, trying to find whatever bits and pieces of the rivaling creature still remained.

Crestfallen, he sauntered off back from whence he came. That is, until Superman flew in front of him, trying to comfort the metal beast. “Look, I know that having access to such destructive powers is a lot to take in. What you should focus on is how to control it. Use it to help for the good of all instead of using it to beat down others.”

The robot crouched down, the Kryptonian resting upon his open palm as a gesture of good will. “Thanks... Superman.”

Mr. Game & Watch poked and prodded around the Gummi Ship, trying to find anyone who could try and help him with something. Not getting the attention he wanted, he pulled out a bell from hammerspace and started shaking it around, a digitized beeping sound getting the attention of the whole crew.

“What is it, pal?” Mario said as he exited from his quarters. The little flat man put his hands out and mimicked a juggling motion.

“Looks like you lost your balls,” an orange Inkling smirked mockingly, only for Mr. Game & Watch to hit her with a hammer.

“Careful, Meggy, that gavel of his smarts big time!” another blue Inkling noted, rubbing a little bump on his tentacles. “Besides, he only uses those balls to taunt us when we get beat. It ain’t a super important thing, right?”

“Goggles, I’m sure that those balls are something that mean the world to him,” Sora wondered. “Don’t worry, little guy. We’ll get your balls back.” Mr. Game & Watch breathed a sigh of relief as Olimar walked to him and patted him on the back.

“Mr. Mario, if you please,” the spaceman squeaked as Mario gestured him to the intercom. Suddenly all the ships had a loud ringing in their ears. “Attention passengers! We have a dire situation on our hands!” Everyone outside the Gummi Ship perked up and looked to the speakers. “Our flat friend Mr. Game & Watch has lost his balls.” Meggy tried to control her laughter, but she started cackling to herself as she rolled around on the floor. “The ones that he juggles, I have to clarify.”

The passengers then tried to think about where those little balls could possibly hide. Of course, with the fact that they originated from the Flat Zone, they could basically be wedged into pretty much any spot.

Falco shook his head. “Listen, I ain’t the type of guy ta do some kind of search and rescue biz. I’m just gonna keep flyin’, and the rest of you go and help this guy find his balls,” he announced, with Meggy trying to stifle another laugh before Donald hit her across the head with his magic staff, only to quietly chuckle to himself. Meggy returned in kind, slapping his wizard’s garb with a giant paintbrush.

“Oh, now you’re gonna get it!” Donald screeched before Meggy slid off in a trail of orange ink. “It isn’t even that funny!”

Steve decided that the balls had to be found, trying to hit at the ship’s hull in order to get it.

“Wait!” Sora screamed, as Steve slowly turned to him, a look of confusion on his pixelated face. “We don’t even know if the... um, ‘spheres’ are on this ship!”

Steve dropped his pickaxe and started to crouch, scanning the ship for any sign for anything flat, black and rounded.

“Don’t worry,” Mario alleviated to Game & Watch, “he’s just getting used to our round, curved little world. You remember your first step into the 3^rd dimension, right?” Game & Watch nodded in 2 frames.

It was very odd, seeing everything blown up with depth, no longer limited to the same few actions and same set path. Almost liberating, in a way. Of course, that didn’t stop Tabuu from using this curiosity against him, convincing the poor guy that there were many new dimensions he could explore. It was a relief, Watch thought, that Steve never got to see how Galeem and Dharkon wreaked havoc on their worlds. Likely would’ve tried to do some sort of elaborate trap that no one else would get.

He found an unorthodox friendship in Steve, because the 2 both had differing world views. He liked it plain and simple, Steve always tried to make things more complex than his 8-bit mind could comprehend. Perhaps he could be the one to find his balls.

Elsewhere on the gunship, Snake was busy sneaking around to try and find Mr. Game & Watch’s balls. “This is so humiliating,” the once proud soldier groaned to himself, “all that military training leading to this?”

“Well, I bet it would be easier if you didn’t crawl on the ground like a moron,” a shrill voice squawked behind him.

“Oh, right, you two cereal mascot rejects,” Snake retorted to Banjo and Kazooie, who were trying to help.

“Kazooie! I know that Mr. Snake here has been... hard to work with, but I’m sure that his skills can help out!”

“Listen here, box boy, if you’re gonna search and rescue, you gotta do it right!” Kazooie snapped, barfing out a weird egg that hatched into a small mechanical bird. “Now you have an extra pair of eyes that aren’t covered by your stupid bandana!”

“Thanks, you overgrown turkey, but my eyesight is fine.” Snake hunched down and tried to search under any table or machine strewn about. He was sure the ball would be there when Villager appeared in front of him with a shovel. Loosely digging and tapping the ship floors with his tool, he shrugged and walked away, thinking that it couldn’t be hidden inside.

As Villager walked back to a comfier room, Sonic sped towards him. “Uh, hey, little guy, you wouldn’t happen to see any Chaos Emeralds laying around, would you?” Villager scratched his hair for a while, deep in thought. He shook his head and sat down on a beanbag. “Yeah, figures. Those things go off in the most mysterious locations sometimes. Last I saw of them was before this whole nonsense started, so maybe I just left them back home or at the mansion you guys love to hang out in. I’ll always find ‘em later.”

As the hedgehog ran back to his sleeping quarters, Villager laid down and started to doze off. All the sights at Vegas got him thinking of all the cool buildings and décor he could take inspiration from.

Little did he or anyone else know that the Chaos Emeralds were heading towards Vegas at lightning speed. However, it was not on their own volition. Some new type of power seemed to take hold of them, dragging them across the world. The gems eventually settled down in a dark lair underneath the Mandalay Bay Resort. A silhouetted hand grasped firmly onto a Red Emerald before laughing cruelly. “It seems the pieces are already falling into place.”

Chapter Text

A lone soul was thrust throughout reality, falling through a sea of infinite universal planes. A green paw reaching towards the mystical kingdom he once called home, now sieged by a growing black infestation the likes of which was darker than the deepest chasm. The golden armor he was recently rewarded with started to chip away as he continued his descent. Yet through space-time, he was able to use his powers to look for whatever heroes could be sent to stop the abyssal Nothing that grew in his homeland.

What was it that princess said again? “Heroes must converge to the desert’s edge?” Something about 2 who have survived the Nothing before, a boy and a girl. Their weapons, names, and accomplishments he couldn’t recall to the exact specifications, but he could very well try. 

Seeing a reality, like his, but odder and more obtuse, he swam through the void between time and space. Some round blue planet similar to Zanifeer, almost like the fabled “Earth” many of its scholars talked about. Yet, something was different. The landmasses strewn about its surface were off from what the folk in his world studied, and there was a large gaping hole on the side of it.

Using the gem betwixt his antlers, he saw a vision of two creatures holding hands, preparing for a new cycle of life. Not that it would last long, as it seemed that the Nothing was about to take its hold on this planet and contort it like it did his. Summoning his power to the gem, he transported the 2 around to the planet of Earth. It was a blur trying to get the details of the couple. One fit the description of a young boy, and it seemed that he was good at swordplay from what little he could bring up. Perhaps this was the one she talked about?

There would have to be a girl as well, right? Turning to another reality, one of a less saturated fantasy, he gazed into it and saw a girl, one with prowess with swordplay. This could prove interesting as well, and it seemed that there was no reasonable transport that could bring her to the fabled Earth in time.

Using the remainder of his power, he warped her to that reality, and upon seeing her, he knew she would fit right in. Growing tired, the guardian started to lose consciousness as he started to fall into Earth’s plane as well. One could only hope that the fall would be manageable.

The first thing Finn could feel after returning to the mortal realm was... sand. Cold sand caked his mouth as he came to.

“Where the donk are we?” a yellow figure questioned as he positioned himself out of the sandy dunes.

“Well, wherever it is, it sure is cold. And itchy, too. Didn’t expect our first reincarnation to be so itchy, though.”

“Well, whatever! At least I still got my hot bod!” The dog started to shape-shift his form into that of a giant chiseled man’s anatomy. 

Finn looked at himself. He was in the flesh. HIS flesh, back when he was younger and still growing up. “No messing around, Jake!" Finn cautioned vigilantly, "something tells me we ain’t here for a simple visit...”

Jake then morphed his skull around that one of his eyes poked out in a facsimile of a telescope. “Finn, watch out! Cover your buns, man!”

“Well, I’d say I got my-"

But before he was able to finish, a slash went across his shirt, narrowly missing his chest. Finn saw the figure appear from behind him, doing another precise swipe with a blade. He dashed quickly at this new threat and haphazardly slammed his sword down into the dirt.

"A girl is... confused with your method of strategy.”

Before she could react, Jake did attempt a grab at her, only for her to poke at his fingers, causing the arms to retract. “A girl of House Stark is not afraid of weird demon dogs. So whatever nonsense you may pull, I suggest you stop it.”

As Jake took the time to lick his wounds, Finn started to rev up a strike, his robotic arm’s fingers whirring like a saw-blade. Doing an uppercut, it happened to cut a small slice through cleanly the girl’s fur-coated garb, causing her to kneel down clutching her fresh wounds.

“Sorry, uh, it’s been a while since I’ve used this thing. I take it you’re some kind of warrior princess?”

“Princess? Well, I guess you COULD refer to me with such a title. A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell, and if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to end this ceaseless violence.”

“You and me both, sword lady!” Jake sighed as he pulled out a vial of healing Cyclops tears from Finn’s backpack.

“You think it’s some sort of game to you? Slashing that blade mindlessly about? I’m surprised you didn’t get killed with your technique...” Arya muttered as she continued to sulk in the cold sand. “...but I’m amazed a boy of your age and... ‘skill’ has managed to get the best of me.”

“I’ve been through a lot, Arya. Let me tell you upfront that this robot hand? Well, it ain’t for show.”

"Well? Did some kind of knave cut it off? Perhaps serve it to you as a pie?”

“What? No. It was... well, to be honest, it was daddy issues, technically.” Jake cleared the air about it. Finn did a sharp glare at Jake. “What? It’s true.”

“Well, you two seem to at least know how to fend for yourselves. Is it a bother if I join you, and hopefully get back to my kingdom?”

Finn’s sullen expression started to go back into a smile. “Well, Jake, you know what time it is?”

“Adventure time?”

“Yeah!" Finn did a congratulatory high-five. "Still got it!”

As the newfound trio walked, it didn’t take very long for them to come across some new company. Of course, if said company is a giant robot and 2 cars of different shapes and color schemes mish-mashed together, it wouldn’t exactly be the most obvious pick for alliance.

“What kind of odd giant is this? I’ve heard tales of them beyond the Wall, but never would I have seen one forged from steel.”

“Oh, my GLOB, dude! This is better than a giant - it’s a giant ROBOT! That makes it twice as awesome!” Jake grinned, stretching his neck up like a giraffe to see the mechanical marvel eye-to-eye.

“So, I take it you aren’t here to kill us?” Batman assumed, inching closer to this new group.

Finn, intimidated by this silhouetted stranger, attempted to clarify his situation. “No, sir. Um, we were just wondering where we ended up. Me and my buddy Jake were going somewhere and somehow, we got donked up into this weird desert. This girl also was there- “

“-And if there’s anyone that you’d accuse of trying to attempt murder, well it would be her! She tried to cut us up like we were salami, man!” Jake blurted out, only to see Arya glare at him.

“...But she’s cool now. So, we’re all fine with joining your little adventure since we have jack diddly squat to do otherwise.”

“That’s great to hear, doc! We’re headin’ for Las Vegas!”

“Yeah, yeah, Vegas!” Finn cheered. “I have NO idea what that is.”

Scooby-Doo slowly walked up to this new dog, studying his form while circling around him.

“Uh, you good?”

“Another talking dog? Rell, guess it is a small rorld!”

“OK, does anyone need a lift? I can turn into a car or some jazz like that,” Jake informed his new travel buddies.

“Well, the 2 cars we have are already filling up, so I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” Steven said.

Jake responded by morphing himself into a car and having his mouth move to his exhaust pipe. “OK, get in.”

“Um, not on your life!” Daphne screeched.

Jake morphed back into his normal self. “Oh well, your loss.” He then grew in size, around the same level as the Iron Giant. “Is this an OK choice? I just want everyone to say it.”

“Definitely better than having us go through your arse,” Arya mumbled.

“I’m just gonna pretend I didn’t hear that and we’ll all go on our way, alright?”

As the huge clunky van raced off in the New York skylines, some other creature was running alongside them. Of course, to them it didn’t look like much, but as it slowly rushed towards them, it seemed to be some sort of odd noodle-like animal. Some form of bickering was heard echoing through the street, as whatever animal it was started to fold in on itself like an ouroboros, a flurry of scratches and yells emitting from the thing.

“Watch it, Dog! I told ya we need to be in tip-top status if we wanna win the tournament!”

“Ok, Cat, but I thought I saw a bone back there!”

“Listen here,” Cat remarked, “when we win this we’ll be swimmin’ in bones! Bones as far at the eye can see!” As the two were about to continue arguing, the van slowed down and everyone inside came to look at the sight.

Both Cat and Dog, seemingly two heads connected into a stretchy, noodle-like body, tried to get into some kind of bipedal stance, with each head trying to configurate which would be on the top or the bottom.

“Well, I guess either the whole world’s gone crazy or mutation’s become the latest trend, because there’s NO WAY this exists,” Raphael chuckled to himself.

“Well, I’ve never seen something as ridiculous as a giant frog with a napkin around his head!” Cat snapped back, dragging Dog away from the vehicle.

“Well, uh, are you two going to the Evo thingy like us? A lot of people going here are pretty weird,” Patrick said, “especially Sandy. What even is a squirrel, anyway?”

“Squirrel? Where?” Dog barked instinctually, dashing around looking for a lead. He tried to go and rammed into Sandy, who looked down at this odd new species.

“Wow! Look at this! Some kind of weird cat-dog thing! Haven’t seen a sight like this since that two-headed rattlesnake!”

“Uh, excuse me Miss Squirrel, but we got invited to some tournament and Cat begged me to go. So, uh, do you know where it is?”

“Well, of course, my canine-feline friend! We’ve been on our way there hours ago!”

“Yes! Jackpot! We finally have a lead, Dog! You know what that means!” Cat jumped up and down.

“Uh, we’re gonna get a lot of bones outta this?”

“Correct-a-mundo, brother! Now, um, yellow lady, where shall we sit?”

“You can sit around the back, hopefully it’s not that much of a tight squeeze,” April responded. As CatDog started to uniformly walk into the vehicle, some other force slammed it back and the thing started to wobble over.

Fortunately, Reptar, still with the strength of a full-grown dinosaur inside him, happened to heave against the toppling car and push it back. Oblina slithered out of her place as a tire and got a closer look at the big lizard. Those features, that huge snout of razor-sharp teeth, the reddish-orange eyes that pierced through the very soul – now THAT was a monster! Maybe if she took some notes from him, she would up her scare game.

“So, Reptar, is there a secret to your scariness? Some kind of winning formula?” The dinosaur growled, pushing back the van. “Ah, I see. Not much of a talker. I love it!” The spindly little creature went to do a few more observing glares with her eyestalks and then shifted back into her little tire-shaped crevice.

Some other beast happened to make its way through as well. A hybrid dissimilar from CatDog, who seemed more like a lab experiment gone horribly wrong, this creature seemed like some giant polar bear with canine attributes. It started to sit on its stomach with a quizzical expression. “It’s OK, Naga. That thing’s not moving anymore.” An unfamiliar voice made itself heard for the group.

“Uh... have I just forgot to leave the Spirit World again?” the now blue-shirted woman asserted to herself, eyeing the strange new people she happened to bump into.

“’Spirit World’, huh? I’ve never seen any of these weirdos pal around there,” Danny testified while gesturing to his group, “no offense.”

The girl started to eye the group further, and reached out her hand as some gesture of alliance. “Name’s Korra, although you should already know that,” she boasted. There was a noted silence throughout the crowd.

“Well, if we knew some girl with a giant dog ran on the loose, we would’ve met her by now,” Raphael sneered, resulting in Korra narrowing her gaze.

“So, I’ve got this tournament to attend to, so maybe you should step aside and see how the Avatar works this one,” she responded, smirking before raising up a part of the ground and using it to surf away from the crew.

“Wait! Did you say tournament?” April asked, trying to catch up. “It wouldn’t happen to be in Las Vegas, now, would it?”

Korra raised her brows, then jumped high into the air only to slam down with gusts of air flourishing her impact. “How would you know about that?”

“Well, it’s roughly 2400 miles away... give or take a few centimeters,” Donatello answered.

“Whatever it is, it’s certainly not on any maps I’ve seen.”

SpongeBob butted in to the conversation. “Well, if you don’t know your way, then we can help you! I think.”

“That’s reassuring... uh...”

“SpongeBob SquarePants!”

Korra scratched her head and then stood up for her new crowd. “And I thought I’ve seen everything.”

Ness was busy calling his father again on that new cellphone device that Sora touted occasionally. He remembered vividly the day Wario bought one for him, saying it was to make up for him “wanting a new trophy in his castle”, to put in in his terms. It was useful though, as he no longer felt homesick after many nights in the Smash Mansion.

Tucking the phone back into his pocket, he decided to sit back on one of those beanbags that laid upon the ship’s cold floor. Isabelle really gunned for those, despite many complaints from the Galactic Federation. As he began to rest himself, a giant red shape threw itself next to him.

“Come on, you’ve gotta move a little, Incineroar,” Ness smiled as he tried to levitate the creature away from him. The Pokémon responded by grabbing Ness up and twirling him around. Despite this trying to come off as a gesture of happiness, Ness’s newfound dizziness begged to differ. Finding a moment and spot to re-orient himself, he looked at Incineroar, who towered above him with a cocky grin on his face.

“Alright, you’ve earned it,” Ness said as Incineroar did a body slam upon the beanbag, surprisingly staying in one piece despite the weight of a tiger thrust against it. Ness decided to cuddle up against his surprisingly pillowy pecs. Lying up against them was comforting and warm, as typical of Fire-types this size.

However, that comfort was short-lived when Wii Fit Trainer came around touting exercise routines. Incineroar just couldn’t resist and jumped off the beanbag as easily as he landed on it. Ness didn’t mind at all. At least this time he didn’t have to share.

Chapter Text

“Watch it! This equipment’s too sensitive to roughhouse in!” Donatello reminded as Cat and Dog tried to squeeze into a comfortable spot against the rest of the crowded space in the van. The turtle had a point, yet despite this, things were getting a little cramped.

Korra was still riding upon her bear-dog creature just fine, so at least it didn’t seem like they were pressed for space. “I wish I still had my rocket,” Sandy sighed, as a turtle shell pressed her up against one of the doors. Sliding out of the way, she tried to sit in the back seat, Danny noticeably phasing out of the car and starting to fly above it out of courtesy. A few hours of being cramped up started to feel uncomfortable, which was to be expected, so after some driving around, they managed to stop off around the Great Lakes region.

As they managed to catch some kind of breather after all this, screams were heard around the city. Citizens were left running in fear as numerous purple-clad ninjas were shooting wildly at whatever could be damaged. Leonardo’s eyes narrowed as he pulled his katanas up. “I should’ve known the Foot Clan would follow us here,” he said, as the other turtles brandished their weapons.

“Wait, you know these people?” Korra asked.

“The Foot Clan’s been a real pain in our shells for a while, ever since that mondo-evil Shredder dude started attacking New York City!” Korra, CatDog, and Oblina stared in confusion.

“He totaled my rocket!” Sandy yelled, which got them to listen. “If that no-good varmint’s trackin’ us down, who knows what kind of ne’er-do-wellin’ he’ll get into next?”

More explosions and shots were heard throughout the town of Royal Woods. A giant mechanical monster, not too different from the one the Iron Giant fought earlier, started to rampage through the peaceful streets. A giant wheel was its axis and main means of transportation, holding up 2 bodies of what looked to be a humanoid machination. One end had been designed with sharp sword-like edges jutting out from its arms and head, while the other shared the same rough design as its separate half, except with cannons and guns as part of its build.

Cat and Dog stood up and looked in horror. “Wow, Cat. He... that thing... doesn’t that look like us?”

“I can’t believe it. What kinda weirdo would make something with that much clutter?”

“No time to chit-chat, people – that thing’s gonna cut us to bits if we’re not moving!” Korra shouted, dragging Cat and Dog away before the thing’s scimitar-like horn tried to cleave them in two.

As it reared back to regain some kind of composure, some sparkle-like powder started to hit it. “Zounds! It seems you do not take kindly to my HYPER-CORROSIVE CROUTONS, foul creature!” What appeared before them was some kind of spandex-clad superhero, whose peculiar head happened to be a pair of toasts. “You chose the wrong suburbia to mess with, ruffian! And for that, you shall face the wrath, of POWDERED! TOAST! MAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!”

Well, that was straightforward.

As Powdered Toast Man did some hard-hitting punches and kicks towards the bladed side, some other figure, one noticeably sleeker than the toast-themed titan, started to attack with long-range lasers and missiles for the more armed half. A shot of plasma in the air was effortlessly avoided, conveniently providing light that revealed this mysterious new offender. It appeared to be another robot, noticeable a lot less bulky than the giant razing the streets, but one that had some kind of skirt and two steel pigtails jutting from its head. “Ick! You RUINED my paintjob!” she said, growing her arm to gargantuan size and punching one of the titan’s heads.

The bionic beast’s head was thrown back by the force, retaliating by attempting a huge headbutt, which slammed the robot girl to the floor.

“Well, we can’t just stand there and let that machine destroy this city!” Danny pleaded. “Some of you should have protocol for a giant robot, right?”

Korra smirked and started to clasp her fists together. “I might know a thing or two.”

The double trouble threat was still preoccupied by the strange superheroes flying around. Reptar and Korra went on the offensive and started to deal damage to the thing’s wheel, the earth beneath it harshly shooting up only for plasmatic fire beams to hit it as it recovered. The thing took notice with both of its heads turning to see a new band of fighters teamed up against it. This caused the toast man and robot girl to throw in some extra artillery at the beast, doing decent damage to the armor.

“Now, Dog! Let’s use our secret weapon!”

“Uh, I dunno Cat, I think we should-" but as the creature attempted to cleave the two in half Cat forced his conjoined compatriot to down a Choco-Muscle Protein Shake. “Yeah, let’s stretch some MUSCLE!” the now muscular and toned Dog screamed before grabbing the arm and ripping it off.

Reptar also managed to get a hit in on its blaster, as a mighty tail slam broke the arm in two, severing it from the rest of the body. The creature was weakened, its two major defenses now down for the count.

“Alright fellas, let’s show this tin can who’s boss!” Sandy proclaimed as everyone did their own final strike against the thing. As it exploded, Donatello noticed the remains of the machine started to morph and melt into tiny black specs that moved away from the city now in ruins.

“Well, I assume that’s that,” Danny smirked as he floated down to the scene. The two new faces also touched lightly on the ground.

“Wow! What an upstanding job you have done, citizen! I’m sure I can let Mr. President know about this!” said Powdered Toast Man.

The weird robot wanted to greet them but some kind of TV screen jutted out from her chest. “XJ-9!” the voice radiated from the screen. “That was a brilliant display of your weaponry you had against that giant mechanoid... creature? Is it alive?”

“Uh, it was. It turned into weird shadowy stuff.” SpongeBob recalled.

“Ugh, mom, it’s Jenny! You’re supposed to call me Jenny!”

“Sorry, I was just caught up in all the action. Plus, that robot didn’t tend to have the usual calling cards of the Cluster...”

Jenny pondered to herself. “So, if it wasn’t the Cluster, then who would...”

“Excuse me, um, Jenny was it? I think we know what kind of person is behind this,” April confirmed, showing photos she took of Shredder.

“Yeah, I can see that. That weird costume of his SCREAMS evil,” Korra observed.

“Well, citizens, if there is evil afoot, then I shall see to it that foot will get the boot it deserves!” Powdered Toast Man triumphantly blared.

“Well, I guess since school’s out for me, I’m available,” Jenny blushed.

“Available? That level of technology is tighter than bark on a tree, miss!” Sandy observed. “I oughta check them specs when we lay low.”

“Speaking of,” Leonardo interjected, “where should we go?”

“Guys, look! That large house could easily fit all of us!” SpongeBob pointed to some towering suburban household with slight damage.

“Wow! Look at the size of that, Dog! We could fit in like a glove!” As Cat and Dog were about to rush in through the doggie door, some strange girl dressed in black garb and raven hair suddenly appeared behind them.

“Sorry, this one’s occupied.”

“AAAAAAH!” Patrick screamed as he jumped in Reptar’s arms.

“Lucy, are you scaring guests again? I told you not to do that!” a fatherly voice echoed from the front door.

“My apologies, father. It’s just with all this noise and mayhem about, sometimes a little more peace and quiet should do. Although, when taking another look, these look like great Halloween costumes.”

“Halloween costumes? In the summer?” another child’s voice was heard from inside the house.

“Well,” Lucy said, “it’s never too early to practice.”

“Fascinating,” a smaller bespectacled girl walked out from the front door and took observation of this peculiar party, “it theems that many of these thpecimens are undithcovered species. Can I get a good look at you, athteroid?” she said, pointing at Patrick with a short pencil.

“Uh, yeah, that tickles!”

“Listen, listen, we should treat our newfound guests with respect, no matter how, um, unique they are,” the man of the household reminded his children.

“Sigh... and I just thought I’d scare them off good...”

The house looked just as big inside as it was out. Nice warm and bright lighting bathed the various rooms in a comfy glow. Which made the various little children wreaking havoc through the halls and rooms kind of jarring. Whatever. It was OK though, as the group at this point wasn’t exactly made of the typical family visitors.

“So,” the father of this astounding batch of kids pried, “where are you from?”

Elsewhere, the sands of the desert were shifting slowly as another group underwent a tired march to their destination. “I can’t feel my feet, man! This whole desert stuff is really bumming me out,” Jake whined. The Iron Giant heard the talking dog’s pleas and gestured something to try and lift him up.

Superman flying ahead of everyone else and started pointing. “I think we’ve found Vegas already.”

“Good, because I was getting tired of this cramped little car space. If it ain’t a burrow, it ain’t for me, brother!” Bugs spoke before eagerly jumping out of the Mystery Machine Batmobile hybrid.

“Well, we’re here. What do we do now?” Velma questioned as she thought to herself.

“Looking closer at the invitations we all were sent, there seems to be some kind of voucher for a ‘Mandalay Bay Resort’.” Batman observed as he squinted at the invite.

“Like, this mystery just keeps getting weirder! Who would just GIVE us the location?” Shaggy questioned.

“Yeah, no one should just ‘know’ all these weirdos for some reason. Has anyone here met with some omniscient dude?” Finn asked. Everyone thought for a moment before settling in their rooms, with the Fred trophy being dragged along by Scooby to one of them. They had to get their bearings with everything first.

“Now, I would like to advise you to find and scout out THIS creature,” a mysterious shadowy figure instructed from a screen. The creature in question looked like a reject from some sort of fantasy novel, with a green fluffy coat and antlers housing a heart-shaped gem betwixt them. “And make sure it’s captured to prepare for the tournament. We need proper power, after all.”

The audience of this message, a lone gray tomcat, threw his morphologically unusual thumb in the air, and started to leave the headquarters. “Good thing I got MGM to agree with this,” the voice exposited, “their hotel had the perfect body guard. Or at least, one distracting enough.”

Tom knew his duty crystal clear: find that weird dog thing. It wouldn’t be that hard, after all, with its vivid and striking appearance, it would be a lot easier to get than that mouse. Everything seemed like it would go off without a hitch, but of course leave it up to a small brown streak darting across the floor to do him wrong.

Jerry.

Of course, out of all the things Tom knew, HE would show up. Of course, when he was tasked for something important, that rat would always find a way to screw things royally.

Almost out of instinct or habit, Tom started to chase Jerry around, but the mouse cleverly weaved through the halls while the clumsy cat started slipping and hitting whatever was in front of him. Tom decided to grab some spare plates and tried to catch Jerry within them, only for them to comically shatter in two. Of course, with this back-and-forth going on for a while, both Tom and Jerry had fail-safes for each other as a backup. Tom pulled a stick of dynamite out of hammerspace and chucked it into the nearest mouse hole. Covering his ears and standing closely, he waited for the kaboom... little did he know that Jerry was going to send it right to him, covering him in soot. The wall around it started to fall a bit.

Oh well. It wasn’t as if he had any money on hand. And even if he did, it wasn’t really his job, so... off to catch that mouse! And that dog thing too, but doesn't hurt to get something extra, doesn't it?

Tom continued his path of destruction and hijinks with Jerry racing in front of him until they both ran outside and saw the green dog creature. Tom immediately rushed forward to grab it. The dog thing whacked the cat with its surprisingly strong tail, launching it to one of the rooms, very handy that the windows were open as he landed with his head knocking against one of the beds.

The Iron Giant, who couldn’t really get a room his size, decided to view the commotion.

“Well, uh, it’s a cat alright,” Steven said. “I should help the poor thing!” He grabbed Tom and performed a Healing Kiss upon him. Tom responded by jumping out of Steven and hitting the ceiling. Jerry crawled up to the room just to laugh, which Tom didn’t take kindly to, dashing at him only to hit his head in another wall. Tom ran off in a huff, jumping out of the window to grab that weird green thing. Jerry followed suit, if only to see what kind of hilarity could be gained from this.

Steven called Superman over from his side of the room to observe. After such a long excursion, it was nice to sit back and watch the action for once. And what action it was. The dog thing barfed out a flaming ball of plasma which Tom had to hastily skid across, albeit with his tail catching on fire and him doing a loud yelp. Jerry tried to take cover around the décor of the place, as this dogfight persisted much to Tom and the other creature’s chagrin.

As Tom pulled out a frying pan and was about to deck the poor pup with a whack, some kind of shield went up and clanged hardly against the metal instrument, with Tom physically reverberating from the collision until he fell flat on the ground.

“Leave this innocent creature alone, scoundrel!” a familiar voice said.

Superman noticed it immediately and jumped from the window landing down to the ground below. “Wonder Woman?”

“A shame we had to reunite this way, but I feel purity in this creature, and that vicious cat was going to capture it for nefarious purposes.”

Steven immediately rushed to the other rooms and told everyone else in their party to observe. Speeding towards Tom, Superman held the cat by his scruff and looked at him in a serious expression. “I don’t know who hired you and what convinced you to do this, but I suggest you stop this before I’m forced to hurt you.” Tom immediately dropped to the floor, begging and pleading on his knees. Jerry came and laughed, only for Tom to kick him with his free leg, causing the mouse to hush up for a bit.

“Schmowzow! Look at this little guy!” Finn chirped, trying to pet this strange new creature. Strangely enough, it seemed that the thing ran up to Finn with a knowing and loving stare. Nuzzling up against its new friends, the creature then frowned as it started to back up, its face tensed.

“Wait! What’s going on?” Shaggy guessed as he saw those same weird dark creatures from before. They went in and tried to overwhelm the new group, with them not really doing any damage to the seasoned fighters. Shaggy and Scooby took it to themselves to hide behind any stronger person in their party as much as humanly possible. A horde of these things started to rush forward in an attempt to dismantle and separate the group one by one, only for a giant rocketing glove to hit in the middle, causing a minor explosion to knock back the things and destroy a couple of them on low health.

“GARNET?! How did you find me?” Steven questioned.

“I did a few educated guesses,” the gem responded, touching her glasses in a manner to point out her third eye.

“Well, more company isn’t a bad thing, especially with Harley and that Devil roaming about causing who knows what,” Batman stated, eager for another strong contender in their group.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Batman, but my future vision saw all of you in great danger.”

“So what? Folks like us are in peril about every week!” Bugs said.

“Well, this kind of event is something I haven’t seen in a long time, and we should stay cautious. A new threat could arrive under our noses as easily as those warriors you fought against earlier. And if we are not prepared, I see things not ending well.”

“How would you know that?” Jake shrugged. Garnet, almost instinctively, dodged a shot from Harley’s cannon. “On second thought, you have a point, so uh, let’s get ‘em!” They all rushed forward as they decided to finally put an end to this chase once and for all.

Peach tried to walk daintily around the gunship, avoiding the constant moving and talking from other fighters. Eventually she came to sit down, her hand supporting her cheek. “Oh, dear me. I’m worried for Mario. He’s really convinced that things are going to end up alright. I don’t know how Luigi’s taking it. I don’t want to...”

“Um, madam, are you... doing well?” a soft voice echoed in the ship’s hull.

“Marth?”

“It’s nice to be your acquaintance again, Princess, although this vehicle Samus has us in, well, I’m still trying to get used to it.” He had some concern as well, although it was more of the sleek metal interior being something he never really saw in the kingdom of Archanea.

“A lot of our guests have given us a bit of culture shock, haven’t they?” Peach smirked.

“Well, it’s nice to have so many equals on the battlefield. That Cloud Strife knows how to wield a weapon of his caliber,” Marth mused, “although I could teach him a thing or two with how reckless he is with it sometimes.”

“Hey, with a tournament this big, it would be sweet if you decided to host another round of sparring.”

“How unexpected of you, Peach.”

“Hey, when you lead a kingdom like mine, you need to master SOME kind of defensive measure,” Peach giggled.

Marth decided to relax and lean up against the surprisingly cold railings, glancing down at the rest of the crew as they were having fun. “You nervous?”

Peach started to blush. “Um, well...” she stammered a bit before snapping to an anxious tone, “how did you know?!”

“I’ve been in the frontlines so often that it’s easy to tell when someone’s fibbing any kind of courage or resolve.” Peach turned away, making herself small to the Hero King. “That doesn’t mean a sign of weakness, though. I... I just want you to know, that whatever happens, with this EVO thing, with Sony, I will stand by your side.” Peach stood up and started to grow a smile on her face. “Being burdened with responsibility constantly is hard. Trust me, I am well aware. But this is not your kingdom, and it is not mine.” Marth tried to explain. “Mario, as blue-collar as he is,” he glanced aside, “still is the leader of our group. Everyone who joined the Smash Brothers had to go through him. He’s done some amazing things from what little we’ve seen each other and what I’ve heard in passing from your comrades. If anyone is going to win the opposition over, well it’s going to be him.”

Marth then took another glance at the crowd, still oblivious to their conversation. “Well, either him or Kirby, but that child’s not really one to talk.”

Peach snickered as Marth smiled a little. “You should really get into motivational speaking sometime,” she joked.

Chapter Text

The father of this particularly loud household was dumbfounded by the information given. “Uh, that certainly is a lot to take in. Ghosts, mutants, monsters, and talking robots. That’s...”

“AWESOME!” some white-haired kid beamed, trying to remain composed. “Just imagine if ARRGH found out about the Ghost Zone?”

“Lincoln, I’m not sure if your little TV show’s able to go there yet,” Danny clarified, trying to understand this new dynamic.

“Anyways, uh, you said you’re going to Vegas, right? Because, uh, a letter just got in saying they need me to do a magic act!” Lincoln sheepishly declared. “Well, you never told us about that! I wanted to go too!” one of his sisters shouted.

“Yeah! I want to see the fashion!” Lola, the pint-sized pageant queen chirped.

“Alright, alright, we’ll go. I’m sure Vanzilla won’t mind a couple extra guests in it,” the father said, gesturing to some of their newfound friends. After a few minutes of packing, they were about to set off when Sandy remembered something.

“Oh yeah, SpongeBob! I need to show you this new invention.” She pulled out a small box with a big red button on it.

“Ooh! That’s a real good-looking button. Can I touch it?” Patrick questioned, about to poke at it.

“Let me do the honors,” Sandy said, pushing the button.

All of a sudden, a maelstrom of patties, buns, sauces and condiments started to pour out, although they were perfectly wrapped to keep them untouched. “Yeah, so I was figurin’ if we needed any room in our rocket, we could just store your little patty bar in somethin’. I held onto this for the whole trip, and managed to use it to get all the ingredients before our ship sunk.”

“Wow, Sandy! Science is so amazing! But, uh, why wait until now to tell us?”

“Well, uh, I was too preoccupied with the whole ‘fighting giant monsters’ thing, so I forgot. Even geniuses forget sometimes.”

“Alright, can’t venture out to parts unknown on an empty stomach! So, who’s hungry?” SpongeBob declared, pulling out his reliable spatula.

The trip was off again as many of the guest riders were joyfully gorging themselves on a Krabby Patty or two. The Turtles were a bit skeptical at first until SpongeBob rearranged the ingredients into a Krusty Krab Pizza. “Hey sponge boy! I want mine with extra pickles!” Michelangelo shouted from the back of the van, which was tied to a bunch of other vehicles.

It was a relatively short excursion as they had to stop for a quick fuel-up around Indiana. It was best for them to get some air as who knows what other dangerous stuff could be thrown their way? So, they decided to drive uniformly in a line, waiting for everyone to fill up. Unbeknownst to them, the pleasant aroma of Krabby Patties just so happened to drift along to an unassuming house. There, some dozing cat started to take a whiff of this strange, new, delicious smell.

He started to yawn, and then stretched out to look outside. There, off in the distance, was a lot of trucks. This had to be some kind of barbeque! He looked towards the dog standing behind him and relayed some orders.

“Odie, you cover for me in case anyone notices I’m gone. In the meantime, I’ll be grabbing a few souvenirs.”

He was walking out when he happened to bump into another big cat, one that could potentially rival him in paunch. “What the?” the cat said, landing on his huge rump.

“STEEMPY! What’s holding you, you EEDIOT?!” Behind Stimpy, some small, scrawny Chihuahua started to literally bark orders to his lummox of a friend.

“Well, Ren, I think we’ve found another stray to add to our little soiree!” Ren eyed this peculiar pet and put his hand to his chin.

“Hmmm... and what kinda talent you got, kid?”

“Well, I can stomach 4 full plates of lasagna in under a minute...”

“Well, how’s that gonna help us with the tournament?” Ren whined, gritting his teeth a little.

“Tournament, huh? Well, I bet the prize is really good if it has every mangy mutt clawing for a piece of the action.”

“MANGY?! This tubby pampered pompous little pipsqueak is calling ME mangy? DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU’RE DEALING WITH?!” Stimpy tried to hold back his riled-up friend from clawing his way through this orange pushover. “WHEN I’M DONE WITH YOU, WHAT’S LEFT WON’T BE ENOUGH FOR THE MAGGOTS TO EAT, YOU BIG BEANBAG!”

As he stopped and pondered to himself, a brilliant idea sparked in that round, furry head of his. “Beanbag... gym bag... Eureka!” His scowl turned to an unhinged smile as he whispered to Stimpy his plan.

“So, we bring this cat along, and he’ll be the unlucky sap who takes all the blows, and we get the profit!”

“But Ren, wouldn’t we be fighting dirty?”

“I did NOT escape from some madman who feeds us faces in cans to hear any complaints from YOU, mister!”

The orange cat looked at an unseen audience and rolled his eyes. Ren walked up to him trying his best to maintain a cool composure. “So, new friend, new... chum... I suppose I was being a little too excited there. Yeah! Truth is, uh, you’re perfect for our new water boy!”

“Water boy?”

“Just go along with it, man! This cat’s looking like a real sucker, if you get me.” He turned to the cat again. “So, you’ll be the water boy who goes out with the water at the front of every match! Preferably in front of the opponent.” The tabby rolled his eyes and turned to make a smug expression to that same unseen audience.

“Well, who am I to turn him down?” he thought to himself, believing that whatever audience he was addressing could hear him too. “Fine, sure. But I get a cut of whatever food you earn.” Ren pulled his ears cartoonishly as he did an exaggerated grimace.

“Well... WATERBOY! I guess I’ll be happy to oblige. We are civilized creatures, after all.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now let’s get going! There seems to be a barbecue with our names on it!”

“Right-a-mundo, Mr. uh...” Stimpy guessed before looking at some sign on a nearby store with the cat’s smug mug crossed out, “Garfield, right?”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” The three, in a wobbly partnership, headed off to the potential smorgasbord laid before them.

When arriving, they saw a whole lot of strange people enjoying this buffet filled with beautifully-crafted burgers. The pet posse’s mouths started collectively drooling, as each of them started to trample over each other. It didn’t really take long for the rest of the group to notice.

“Well, ain’t ya fellers just adorable?” Sandy crooned, trying to pet them as if she wasn’t a talking squirrel.

“Uh, you wouldn’t know anything about a tournament, would you miss?” Stimpy questioned while trying his best to look cute.

“Well, small world ain’t it? We were just headin’ there ourselves.”

Ren objected, “Well, uh, you can count us three in as well! Now, let’s chow down, Stimpy!” Garfield gave them a side-eye. “Oh, after you, dear water boy.”

Garfield started to gorge himself on a large gathering of Krabby Patties. “My compliments to the chef,” he said, despite his lips not moving.

“Oh, none taken,” said SpongeBob. Lincoln had to do a double-take.

“Um, did you just talk to that cat?”

“Allow me to indulge you in something,” Donatello remarked, almost looking like he was going to use his bo staff as a lecturing stick, “we animals seem to have this innate connection with each other, and thus we somehow, through something not calculable, are able to understand each other clearly.” Donatello then put his hand to his chin. “Still don’t know why he THINKS rather than speaks, but a few tests later on wouldn’t hurt.” Garfield visually gulped, and this time everyone caught on to his thoughts, before their new arrivals entered the cavalcade of cars and other vehicles.

“Hello again, Bats! Did ya miss me?”

“Not at all,” Batman replied as he threw a Bat-a-rang at Harley’s Dark Cannon.

“C’mon, you again? Don’t you know when ta throw in the towel, clown lady?” Bugs sneered.

“Oh, do I? Lucky for you, a few new friends of mine are finally here for backup!” A giant purple spaceship started to dock near the hotel, landing harshly and scattering the ground beneath it.

“Finally, I am liberated from that awful spaceship,” Shredder yelled as he leaped onto the fresh earth.

“Well, I think it smells pretty good!” GIR decided to respond.

Zim crawled down using his mechanical legs and took a good look at their new foes. “Behold, foolish earth vermin! Your DOOM has arrived!” Jake had to take a second to laugh at this supposed threat before them.

“Hahahaha! Wow, you’re such a little guy! Aww, is the wittle gween man sad that he’s not tall enough to reach a chair?”

Zim responded to this mockery by shooting a Dark Cannon shot, Jake immediately shrinking down to dodge it. “We are not here for your jeering; we have instead come to END YOUR JOURNEY WHERE YOU STAND!” Zim shouted.

“Foot Soldiers! Come out to play...” Shredder said, as thousands of Foot Soldiers exited from Zim’s big ship.

“Big whoop. Ya have a lotta mooks gathered up against us. Need I remind you we fought against a giant robot! And won!” Bugs remarked. Shredder then snapped his fingers, causing the giant robot to reform and be joined alongside another two-headed one.

“I just HAD ta tempt fate, didn’t I?”

Elsewhere in the resort, LeBron James, famous basketball player extraordinaire, was busy looking over his schedule in his hotel room. “Hmm, it seems they want me to advertise for this video game? These deals get weirder and weirder.” As he was finished putting on his jersey, a spaceship started to ram into the side of his hotel. Two weirdly shaped people with asterisk like pupils spilled out.

“Aw geez, Rick, do you really have to give us-um, give us such a dramatic entrance?”

“Listen here (BUUUUURP) Mortyyyyyyyyy, i-if you’re gonna appear in a crossover you better make a great first impression!”

“No, no, no, not now! Not again! I just want something easy and get my paycheck.”

“Listen here, James, I know th-that you’re just here to get your pay advertising the next big thing but (BUUUUUUUUUUURP) you need to realize that there’s something reaaaal weird going on.”

“No. I’m not getting roped into whatever hair-brained scheme you and your toon friends have planned again. I just want to have fun, and me and my trip manager planned to go to all these hotspots...”

“Sorry to um, tell you we’re not going to do that, but uh Las Vegas seems to be in danger,” Morty stammered. “Th-There’s a lot of energy spikes we’ve noticed, and uh, we have invitations too so we were going to go anyways.”

“Whatever,” LeBron James responded, “but after this is done – you’re paying for the rest of my trip.”

As the two were about to shake hands, a giant explosion shook their room and the ceiling was bust wide open as a few figures slammed against the wall. Bugs Bunny, quickly springing to his feet, now realized that he wasn’t too proud to beg once in a while. “Um... a little help, doc?”

Little Mac was once again pushing himself to do more with his boxing expertise, with Doc Louis supervising him as per usual. “You’re gettin’ a little rusty, Mac! Put some oomph into it!” The sandbag, ever a reliable target, continued getting knocked across the floor, causing a few passengers to put it back in position. “Practice makes perfect!” he beamed, making sure to grab another one of his chocolate bars from his stash placed nearby.

The Wii Fit Trainer happened to take a peek at the training and tried to nudge at the boxer’s form. “Make sure to stretch your legs as well!”

Little Mac started to widen his stance and winded up for another few jabs. “Yeah, that’s the spirit, kid! Make sure to punch with your whole arm next round!” Mac decided to heave his bodyweight into a singular punch, slamming the sandbag to the ground.

“Good job!” the Wii Fit Trainer said, giving Mac a water bottle. Doc Louis responded by handing his student a chocolate bar as a reward.

“Not very talkative, is he?” the Wii Fit Trainer guessed.

“Well, Mac just lets his fists do the talkin’. Speaking of, Mac, we’ve got a lot of, ahem, ‘conversations’ in store when we enter the tournament, OK champ?” Doc Louis reassured.

Little Mac flexed his surprisingly fit muscles as he continued to practice sparring with the sandbag, almost launching it through the Gunship’s window... only for a few of the flying contestants to grab it in mid-air. "Wow. Guess actions DO speak louder than words," Doc Louis muttered to himself, making sure to fix up the sandbag before training resumed.

Chapter Text

Things all went peachy-keen for most of SpongeBob’s ride, however another stop would prevent them from a straight line through victory. Amazingly, some big furry creature, likely around 30-40 feet long (it was hard to see in the distance) was being observed by some amateur camera crew.

“Now, now, Marianne, this is a new discovery! Let’s be gentle with this thing now...” Upon closer inspection, this animal was a strange oddity, like some kind of giant caterpillar with a bison head, and without the usage of wings it was slightly floating off the ground. On it were two children riding on top of the thing, evidently used to this odd form of transport.

“Appa, please fly a little less, um, fast the next time you want to go somewhere?” the boy atop the thing asked nervously, before jumping down with a nimble, floaty entrance. Some girl followed behind him, landing in a show-off manner as boulders started to form from the ground and float a little, only to fall down on the ground, crumbling.

“What kind of business did we drag ourselves into this time?” she pouted.

Korra saw this girl and turned to the others. “Is anyone else getting a sense of déjà vu?”

“That’s weird, ‘cause I’ve never heard YOUR voice before.”

The boy with her nudged her elbow a little.

“Oh yeah, names, you’re supposed to give ‘em. The name’s Toph, it sounds like ‘tough’, which is what I am. Got it?”

The young bald kid next to her did a little grin as if he owned the place. “Of course, I bet you’ve already heard of me.”

“Uh... no?” Lincoln said scratching his head.

“Well,” the boy said, “I don’t pull this card often, but I’m the Avatar.”

Korra was completely caught off-guard with this information. ANOTHER Avatar? Toph NOT being an old lady? Did she just so happen to step into the past? “Aang, I- it’s nice to meet you again.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Aang chirped, trying to woo his new audience with his bending skills a little. “I must say, you look pretty good. Strange you know me, considering, um, well, I would remember someone like you a mile away.”

“Well, um, I’m what you call a ‘distant admirer’.”

Toph felt something was off about this newcomer, more so than all the other strange things she could sense across the ground. This woman’s heart started to pound in her chest faster than all the rest of this new crew. Something had to be up.

“Be warned, new girl. I’ve got my eyes on you,” she warned, pointing to Oblina.

“Good! Do I look scary enough for you?”

“Uh,” Toph had to clarify, “the girl with the ponytail.”

“Wow, Korra, looks like you’ve got a fan of your own!” Patrick said, oblivious to what was going on.

“Uh, we should get going! I bet Appa wouldn’t mind a few extra passengers, right?” Korra tried to deflect.

“Certainly,” Nigel said. “I will try my best to keep up with this new, fascinating animal! Now tell me, boy, what kind of creature is your ‘Appa’ friend?”

“Well, it’s a long story, but I’ll try to spare you the details.”

As the rest of the group carried on, Toph still stayed close to Korra. “You’re hiding something, and one day you’re gonna fess.”

“Hey ladies, sorry to break your little chit-chat, but hurry up! We got places to be!” Raphael barged in to drag them along. With the Humvee and giant flying bison as extra transportation, things got a lot less cramped.

“Oh, great, it’s the little (BUUUURP) corporate mascot coming to ask us mercy, Mortyyyyy!”

LeBron James sighed as he saw that rabbit show up again. Bugs took quick notice to the guests’ disdain, turning to an unseen audience. “Don’t they love me?”

“W-w-w-what do you want, for me to Deus Ex Machina our way into victory, rabbit? For us to (BUUUUURP) pull something waaaaaay out of our butts that would end this conflict quicker? Because I’ve grown tired of this (BEEEELCH) crossover garbage being everywhere these days!” Rick continued his rant to the chagrin of everyone else.

“Aw geez, Rick, w-we need to focus on beating up these psychos out there! Can’t you, y’know, can’t you just make some machine out of toilet paper or outlets and put a stop to it?”

“Oh, WOW, Morty, look at you critiquing the situation. What are you, a- (BUUUUURP) a regular old Gene Siskel or Roger Ebert now? Because i-in case you haven’t noticed, I spent ALL my money on fuel and alcohol! So, i-i-it seems that we’re screwed, Morty! And yet you just keep whining, you annoying piece of sh- “

            Bugs Bunny happened to grab Rick and Morty and turn them around, only to see a giant rocket land in the middle of the battlefield as our heroes continued to be overwhelmed. From there, a young kid with a huge head and cowlick appeared, accompanied by some older man who seemed to be his father, and some kind of small kangaroo in a tacky shirt.

“Deaugh, why are we going up against some weird robot thing, Jimbo? I thought we were going to one of those fancy pie restaurants.”

“Well, my radar sensed such a big energy source on the way here, so it’s natural that we give whoever is in trouble some extra firepower.”

Some scrawny girl in pigtails and a bow shoved the marsupial out, shouting “Move it, kangaroo head!”

“A-actually, I’m a wallaby, but...” The wallaby immediately shrieked, jumping out of the way from a Dark Cannon’s bullet.

Everyone else inside the rocket jumped out as the thing exploded.

“And I just put the finishing touches on that machine!” Jimmy cried, pulling out some technological ray to zap a few ninja robots. The wallaby tried to pull out a jackhammer that went all over the place and hit some of the minions. Still, with the two colossi on hand, it seemed that their team wouldn’t stand a chance. But they might as well give it the old college try.

Jake ballooned up to a gargantuan size, kicking down the two-headed mech, as the Iron Giant did his best to block any attacks with his metal frame. Rick shot out a bunch of portals, which Batman made use of by shooting several of his Bat-a-rangs through, slicing the Foot Soldiers to mechanical bits. Helga, the aforementioned pink-shirted girl with pigtails, never really fought anything other than her fellow classmates back in Hillwood, but these were robots programmed for maiming. Doubt she’d get in trouble for knocking a couple lights out, so she went in kicking around a group of them. As one was about to sneak up on her, she gave it a violent backhanded punch which shattered its head into pieces. Rocko, the wallaby, was too busy trying to bob and weave through whatever combat was going on, seeing his jackhammer generally mowing through the things. But those two big giant robots... they would need a lot more firepower.

Good thing a bunch of trucks came by, along with some giant bull manatee thing. “Hey, look, that’s the big thing we fought earlier!” Patrick noticed. He then saw the other brave fighters going against the so-called “big thing.” “Those guys are on our side! That’s good!”

“Wait, really?” Lincoln looked at the carnage unfolding. Well, there were some big superheroes there. They weren’t Ace Savvy, but anything that extraordinary was still a sight to behold.

“C’mon, let’s beat ‘em!” Toph shouted, rushing forward on a sliding chunk of earth while ramming into several of the soldiers.

“Well, no use delaying the inevitable, Stimpy. Let us CHAAAAARGE!” Ren screamed, pulling Stimpy along with him as he brandished a battle axe. The others slowly followed suit.

Reptar made quick work of several of the Foot Soldiers, crunching into them with his jaws, as Oblina wrapped around a few with her organs. Steven and Wonder Woman tried to shield whatever weapons were to be thrown throughout this extended battle. Cat and Dog ran around, their strange form acting like a natural tripwire. Rick managed to work in a few shots with his portal gun, banking on others to unknowingly run through, and it seemed to work as Jake would throw long and huge fists into them. Batman decided to plant a few smoke bombs to confuse the lot of minions, confusing them only for Arya to sneak a few extra hits in. Bugs Bunny held out a cape like a wannabe matador, causing some of the Foot Ninjas to run into it, gullible robots they are. Pulling away the cape, they looked in horror as a huge anvil was waiting for them to crash into. Danny used his ice powers to make the mooks easily slip onto each other, as Aang and Korra tried to redirect what was on the ground into various sharp and strong structures. Tom and Jerry didn’t really care about the ensuing battle, just trying to get a few hits at each other in the chaotic mess of fists flying.

Reminded of the winter hunt, Hugh Neutron pulled out his hunting spear and decided to practice up on snagging ingredients for caribou chili, managing to chase Taz away into an easy stomp when Toph threw him up into the air with a stalagmite, causing him to crash down with his headed planted firmly in the Vegas sand.

Harley Quinn decided to aim her mallet at Garfield, hoping to get an easy victory, only for him to casually walk away smiling as Jenny’s giant fists clashed with her instead. “Ugh, your hammer’s gonna leave a mark! It’ll take WEEKS for that to be repaired!”

“Oh, boo hoo, ya little crybaby. Howzabout I cave your metal FACE in next!”

Michelangelo bumped into Harley by thrusting his shell, knocking her on the ground. She tried to do a couple of kicks at him, but he tried to counter with some precise nunchaku hits, knocking her aside. “Yeah! Get shell-shocked!” The imposing titans at this point were quickly finished up by collaboration of this new, larger team.

“What? WHAT? We’re losing! How dare these EARTH VERMIN try messing with my glorious plan!” Zim screamed aloud.

Shredder then jabbed him with an elbow. “You mean OUR plan! But, if it’s ‘your glorious plan’, after all, then maybe you should take all the credit.”

“Well, uh, the next part of my plan is, uh, a STRATEGIC RETREAT! Everyone, to the ship! We shall formulate a new victory while we escape. Yes! YES!”

“But Zim, didn’t you say that we would beat them good this ti-?” Gir was immediately silenced by Shredder kicking him aside.

“This battle may be won, but the WAR is far from over.”

They all exited in the spaceship, trying to lick whatever wounds they had left. Zim crawled up towards the central screen and received a new message from a benefactor cloaked in shadow.

“I assume you have failed against their newfound alliances, correct?”

“Err... well... here’s the thing. Those puny stink beasts decided to unite their forces even more than before!”

“I foresaw this happening. However, I feel that your goals of domination will have more resistance going forward. There are a group of fighters who have been in this game longer than you, and they will not go down lightly.” The mysterious voice showcased on its screen a glowing orange circle with slashes cut into it, in front of the ominous light the group of aggressors were shown, their eyes glowing with a malicious yellow tinge.

“If these fools want to throw their lives away, so be it,” Shredder mused.

“Many of them have conquered worlds, slain gods, razed through armies while not even using a fraction of their true power,” the imposing figure informed, “and I propose we lay low, and pick them off one by one.”

“Well, yeah, if they’re as bad as Bats it makes sense to be a little stealthier, right?” Harley Quinn thought out loud. The group continued to scheme out of the public eye for a while, as our team of heroes went to rest at this strange new hotel.

“Hey, uh, who’s gonna pay for the fancy rooms?” Patrick questioned.

“Don’t worry about that,” Batman reassured, “I have a solution.” From his utility belt, Batman pulled out his reliable Bat-Credit Card. What a relief!

Luigi tried to get Mario’s attention, knowing his brother would be sleeping again. With a precise Super Jump Punch, he was able to launch Mario up and wake him.

“Weege, what’s the big idea?”

“Mario, we’ve made it!” Mario looked below a bit and saw the extravagant city and its numerous garish casinos. Stopping in a more remote spot of the city, they made it after a few days in that cold warship, a few surprisingly solemn when they had to leave the oddly comforting mechanism.

“Well, guys, it’s been an honor, but I think we should mosey on out of this tin can,” Cloud ordered, doing his best to exit from the complex gunship. Sonic, of course, sped out first, followed by Captain Falcon. A bunch of feet ran out, as Samus tried to facepalm her helmet as a response. Laying low, they happened to rent about a hundred rooms at the Mandalay Bay Resort as well. This was routine somehow for most of them, but for the ones who didn’t really experience this, they would be grouped into others’ rooms.

Shulk and his new Aegis friend were escorted to their new rooms, with Shulk immediately choosing his bed.

“Glad that’s over with, huh?” Mythra stated. Shulk decided to gaze off wistfully at the setting sun. “What’s eating you, Shulk?”

“Nothing really. I’m just skeptical about this deal Mario has us go through.”

“Hmmm... well, he’s very stubborn about this mindset. Personally as long as I get to fight with everyone else, I’m sold.”

“Well, you’ve had a lot of fun so far, but I have a feeling this is too good to be true. That this is some small part in someone else’s larger scheme.”

Mythra gazed down at her bed, turning away from her temporary roommate as her form shifted. “This is about what happened all those years back, right?”

“What?” Shulk was confused.

“When Galeem attacked. When we all turned to dust. You must be feeling something similar to that, right?”

“Pyra, I... well... when I stared at that thing, I could sense its power, and somehow its power influenced me, made me stronger. I could no longer see just one outcome.”

“Well, what did that do?”

“I gazed forth in time, and saw a multitude of futures. 14,000,605, to be exact.”

“Um... how many did you win?”

“1... at first. But it then shifted to the most plausible outcome. Like that was meant to mess with my very mind.”

“Galeem was a big jerk back then and he still is, what else is new?” Mythra sneered, temporarily going back to her more temperamental form. “And besides, I doubt that you would be able to do this NOW, as there’s no higher power type-stuff here. Well, that I’m aware of.”

Shulk, now starting to feel less paranoid, tried to rest down in his bed, only for Lucario to unlock the door with a Force Palm. “Does anyone else feel this kind of aura... surrounding you?” the Pokemon questioned.

“Oh, here we go,” Mythra sighed, leaping from her bed.

“I’m not sensing things wrong, either. I’ve been around ALL of you enough to notice your auras frequently. Around us there are beings that are just as powerful as us, if not more.”

“That is a bit concerning,” Shulk said as he put his hand to his chin. “Perhaps there is a logical explanation for this. For now, tell Mewtwo to warn the others. The last thing I’d want is for anyone in our group to get hurt.”

Lucario then quickly and quietly sprinted off, as soon all the fighters received telepathic signals of others in their midst. Mario wanted to get more sleep, so he sent a message back that everyone would need to check tomorrow. After all, the best was yet to come.

Chapter Text

It was a dawn of a new day, away from the cramped ships and metal corridors. The alarm unfortunately woke up everyone at the same time, causing many to rush out of their rooms. “Everyone, meet up in the food court, we have some things to discuss,” a voice message rung through their ears.

Upon trying to make themselves as unnoticeable as possible with surprisingly convincing cheap disguises, Mario decided to relay the news. “Mewtwo’s informed me that we ain’t alone in this tournament.”

“Of course, we aren’t,” Bowser snarked, “the rest of the other bozos from their other arenas are coming to get more of the spotlight. You sure came to a good conclusion, catnip!” Turning to Mewtwo, the Koopa King was immediately hit by a Confusion move, leaving him dazed a little.

“Well, what are we gonna do, then? I bet they’re all purty nice fellas, if you guys are anything ta talk about,” Goofy assumed.

“Still, we should tread carefully from now on,” Byleth surmised, “as us being here raises enough eyebrows already.”

“So, uh, what do you do with your laser eyes? Are they any similar to sulfur vision?” SpongeBob was busy chatting to his new friend for a while.

“SpongeBob, if I revealed all my secrets, well, there wouldn’t be anything left to surprise people with,” Superman explained. The group walked up to the food court and suddenly paused, seeing a bunch of people in odd disguises.

Lucario all of a sudden did a jab to Palutena with his spiked backhand. “It’s them, those are the auras I picked up yesterday!”

Mario immediately dropped his disguise and readied his stance in case any of these newcomers would try and do something funny.

“A-are we going to fight? Like, right now, Mario?” Luigi intervened. Steven stepped in front of the group and pre-emptively put up a bunch of shields in front of them, while Korra showcased some waterbending mastery, floating several huge droplets in the air (still cautious about showing her Avatar status to Aang at this point).

Isabelle marched forward, trying to call whatever brawl was about to happen off. “Please, before you attack, you need to know, we aren’t here to start a fight! You see, well, we usually do this thing every year, and one day it was announced we wouldn’t, so...”

“W-we wanna change that!” Pit blurted out to this new audience. “I mean, the company that’s running this show is one of our rivals, but STILL, it’s not like we haven’t made deals like that before...”

“OK, OK. This is gettin’ us nowhere, so let’s make it snappy, eh? You gonna scrap with us or not?” Bugs said, clearly getting tired of this drawn-out segment.

“No-no-no-no-NO, we-uh, by the way, who are you exactly?” Luigi stammered out.

“Wow, we don’t even know each other’s names, huh? Well, good time to start now. Hi! I’m SpongeBob!”

The red plumber took it to do his signature greeting. “It’s-a me, Mario!” This back-and-forth of names went on for about an hour as they all met up. Stories were told too, albeit very briefly due to time.

“Well, I was expecting some kind of big fight, but I’m glad we’re able to come to an alliance,” Batman said, jotting down every weakness of his new friends in his contingency notes, “but we were invited, unlike you.”

“What the?” Donkey Kong gasped, “So you’re sayin’ these guys have more experience than us?”

“Technically we do, but that’s beside the point!” Donatello clarified, “as the road we went down was filled with many enemies.”

Byleth furrowed his brow. “What kind?”

Bugs started to do some theatrics. “Well, for starters, there was this huge brutish mechanical Frankenstein’s monster! Shot missiles at me, y’know, pretty normal.”

“And then there was another big robot!" Dog screamed. "This one had two heads on each side, and a blade and gun to match!”

“Galleom’s back?” Lucas was caught off guard.

“And Duon as well,” Fox concurred.

“Wait a minute. You KNOW these dudes?” Finn asked.

“KNOW THEM? We had to fight them off,” Peach responded, “and I thought they were defeated for good...”

“Like, I didn’t even think they CAN be defeated, man!” Shaggy cried, “And we had to fight them again before meeting you!”

“Well, I doubt anyone could easily stomp out those purple goo monsters once they deform...” Velma noted.

“Purple goo monsters, huh?” Snake questioned. He turned to Mario. “Did they look anything like... this?”

Mario then spun around in place until he morphed into one of the shadowy soldiers, throwing a punch as a demonstration. Scooby-Doo and Patrick screamed as they cowered near each other.

“That’s what I thought,” Snake chimed, looking all smug next to everyone else.

“Those things are Primids, warriors formed by shadow. But we haven’t seen any in the flesh since the War for Subspace...” Zelda thought to herself.

“And they were formed by Shadow Bugs, and those only come from...” Samus said, looking at Mr. Game & Watch. “Wait a minute, Olimar, didn’t you say that Mr. Game & Watch lost one of his balls?”

Goggles started to chuckle a bit, only for King Dedede to knock him upside the head with his hammer.

“No one would willingly play with Game & Watch’s balls,” Palutena said blushing a bit before she quickly followed up with “or borrow them! That means someone in our ranks has stolen one for different purposes...”

“And come to think of it, that same jerk likely stole the Chaos Emeralds!” Sonic snapped, tapping his foot angrily.

“A consistent Shadow Bug source AND gems of infinite power? Whoever this stranger is, they’re playing with fire, and they want everyone else to burn,” Wolf surmised surprisingly.

“OK, did you see anything else suspicious?” Dr. Mario interviewed the group.

“Yeah, there was those nasty li’l varmints, Shredder and that weird alien thing. They held up a machine that shot arrows dark as coal in an abandoned fireplace!” Sandy explained, nudging SpongeBob into turning his head into the shape of the gun.

Mario and his party were left dumbfounded. “T...That’s a Dark Cannon. This shouldn’t be possible, we destroyed them after defeating Tabuu, a-and we all agreed to never use those things again!”

“Well, frankly I never even knew of this ‘Dark Cannon’ nonsense until now,” Bayonetta said.

“Then that means someone who’s part of the new blood could be the perpetrator,” Captain Falcon assumed.

Immediately eyes narrowed towards Sephiroth. “Don’t look at me, I’ve been just as eager to show my combat skills as you. And why would I need a pitiful weapon like that when I hold so much power already?”

The other characters shrugged indifferently. “Why would I summon my loyal minions to wipe you off the planet if I never get recognized for it, hmm?” King K. Rool bragged to himself, after which he tried to fit back into the crowd.

“Well gang, looks like our mystery got a little more interesting,” Velma claimed.

Despite an air of dread hazing their minds, his new budding group of fighters continued to congregate with each other. Meggy immediately tried to get close to SpongeBob as if he was some sort of celebrity.

“SpongeBob! SpongeBob! I’m such a big fan, I was on your team in one of the Splatfests!”

“Uh... OK! I have no idea who you are but I’m glad you know me.”

“Ugh, why are you still on about THAT square?” Goggles tried to push Meggy away from her current focus. “Everyone knows that Patrick is way fresher!” Goggles put his arm around the starfish, trying to get on his good side. To no one’s surprise, it was working.

“Did you hear that, SpongeBob? I’m fresh! I don’t know what that means, but I like it!” Patrick raised his hands in the air in triumph.

“It may look like an ‘S’, but on my planet it means ‘hope’,” Superman tried to clarify the origin of the logo plastered on his spandex suit.

“Well, uh, the ‘W’ on my hat stands for ‘Wario’! That’s gotta mean something, right?”

“Uh, sure,” Michelangelo tried to agree. Turning to an unseen audience he whispered, “Psst, don’t let him look at our belts.”

Mega Man knew his job, to try and reach out to Ryu and Ken. However, this protocol tended to make him simple minded. It wasn’t as stressful as taking on Robot Masters again, but still he walked rigidly on this one-way track. Little did he know someone else bumped into him, knocking him down.

“Oh! I’m so sorry! I was too distracted by everything; I didn’t even know you were there!” A stretched-out arm lifted Mega Man to his feet. Jenny picked up Mega Man and started to blush. “Wow, you’re... you’re... you must’ve taken quite a fall there, but I can... uh... fix... you up!”

Jenny tried to pull out some kind of cleaning equipment from her machinery, as Mega Man declined. “I’m fine, if anything, you should be more careful.”

“Yeah, uh, sure.” Jenny thought to herself. “Aww, he’s so CUTE! He’s like the brother I never knew I wanted!” Jenny lifted up Mega Man, despite his oppositions.

“So, uh, what’s the plan? Like, there’s this evil guy sending goons at every corner, and adding more cooks to the kitchen might help against that, but those guns got Fred!” The rest of Mystery Inc brought out the trophy of Fred as if it were a coffin.

“Poor thing,” Sora cried, tapping at the base a couple times with his Keyblade. The base dissipated and Fred was alive again, gasping for dear life.

“-and forget this... ever... happened...?” Blinking his eyes, and getting a feel for his surroundings, he noticed the large number of oddities circling him. “Who-who are you? Why am I here? What happened to the Mystery Machine?”

Rick explained it to Fred very loosely. “Look, ascot-hole, the (BUUUUUUUURP) short answer is that you’re fine, none of your organs are misplaced, and-and everyone around you wants to help, or in some cases simply tolerate your existence. Y’know, this is typical crossover stuff, you-you really should be used to it by now.”

Fred regained some sense of composure. “Yeah, yeah, sure, but is my van alright?”

“Depends. Does, uh, having it taped to the top of another car count as alright?” Jake clarified. Fred was shocked, but the absurdity of it all somehow lessened the blow.

“Well, uh, there’s a lot of you! That means... more of you to split up and search for clues, right?”

“Don’t worry, folks, he’s trying to force himself into a state of normalcy,” claimed Velma.

“Alright, gang! And...and you guys too. Let’s split up and search for clues!”

Fred's orders were answered with a resounding “Sure, why not?” and they were on their way.

Chapter Text

Donatello, Fred, and Jimmy went over their plan, whispering to each other as the group tried to move away, trying not to raise any more attention than they already were. Rick would occasionally pop in to criticize it and Isabelle would do her best to write it down and relay it to the rest of the colorful cast of characters. Decisions were thought over for minutes on end, and if they weren’t pressed for time, the discussions would last for a few days.

Mario, Mega Man and Sora would be the ones to talk to the higher-ups, and smaller groups were soon formed with the intent to figure out this shady overseer who kept sending opposition to them. Of course, with this many people around, it would be easier to search the whole area, and the entourage all split up with each group going their separate ways.

Bugs was assigned to investigate a nearby nightclub, bringing a few friends in tow. “Well, over the years I’ve been used to being a solo act, so you palookas better impress!” The rabbit pointed over to Luigi, Patrick Star and Cloud Strife, both signifying their attention by doing various signals.

“Alright,” Bugs furrowed his brow for a bit before sinisterly pulling out something from behind him, “who’s ready for a makeover?”

Sneaking backstage, Luigi, Cloud and Patrick were busy being outfitted for the occasion. “Yowch!” Luigi yelped as Bugs was pulling the corset a little tight for his liking, “why don’t we just get dresses that actually fit?”

“Well, doc, we need ta sell these people on it. You may not like doing it, but it works.”

“Oh, wait! I forgot to powder my nose! ...Oh yeah, I don’t have one.” Patrick blurted out.

“Come on, we can’t keep our audience waiting,” Cloud sternly demanded, as the four, now dressed for the occasion, decided to step out into the walkway and strut their stuff. Luigi just tried to cover his mustache the whole time, but the rest of them looked really convincing. It was then Cloud noticed Taz was stalking around the audience.

“Psst. Rabbit. That’s the creature you were talking about, right? The one with the big mouth?” whispered Cloud.

“A-yep. Dead ringer for that little beast. Let’s see if our charms convince him.” The group walked up to Taz and started flirting with him. Winking at Taz, Patrick tried to get up close to him.

“So, uh, big furry guy, you wanna go out and, uh, have some ICE CREAM?” Patrick slowly lost whatever façade he was trying to put up.

“Oh, I wonder if they serve Dill Pickle Swirl here... I think you’d like that, wouldn’t you, BIG MAN?” Taz was easily swayed by that. It seems the one way through a Tasmanian Devil's heart was through his stomach.

“Well, if you want a scoop, then meet us in the back,” Cloud crooned. The Tasmanian Devil was whisked away, being brought back to the dressing room.

Bugs immediately ripped off his wig and makeup, putting on some barber getup instead. “Now, let’s see if ya can handle a close shave, mac...” Cloud, Luigi and Patrick watched as Bugs went to town with shaving equipment.

Luigi looked with morbid curiosity. “Maybe he could give me a haircut,” thought the plumber.

“Aw geez, Rick, are-are we just gonna, um, sneak up and get in the uh, the EVO tournament? Like, will they believe us? Do-do we have to get our hands dirty?”

“Can you just shut up Morty? Never thought I’d say this in my life, but LeBron James is our prized ticket, Morty! He’s gonna advertise some stuff, Morty.”

“How’s that gonna hel- How’s that gonna get us through?”

“Listen, Morty, this is gonna have a good payoff, Morty!”

“Well, the sooner I can get back to whatever pie places are here, the better!” Hugh Neutron explained.

“Shhh! Let’s just play along!” whispered Rocko.

LeBron James walked up to the guards standing up straight behind a table. “Alright, let’s get this over with. I’m here to advertise the event, and these are my... mascots. We’d like to enter, please.” The guards, surprisingly, didn’t move or even narrow their eyes at this.

“Uh, hello? Guard people?” Rocko knocked on one of the guard’s head, and found that the man’s head felt surprisingly firm. Looking down, he shrieked as his eyes bulged out of his head. “Is... is it normal for guards in this place to be bolted to some golden frisbees...?” stammered the wallaby.

Rick and Morty gazed at it. “Oh great, all this time we’ve been (BUUUUUURP) -been led into a trap. Let me guess, we’re gonna have to fight someone next?” Rick griped as he grew tired of these deceptions. A colony of Primids started to swarm them.

“What are we gonna do now?” LeBron James shouted, starting to pace around.

“Well, we need someone to distract them. Someone who can (BEEELCH) get through to put their dumb little brains in a trance. Someone who’s not afraid to do something extreeeeemely stupid.”

Rick and Morty turned their gaze towards Hugh. He wasn't surprised or offended, only looking at a solitary donut. "My time has come..."

"Rick, this is stupid, there's, like, there's no way this is gonna work," Morty stammered, already thinking of signing his last will and testament.

All of a sudden, the Primids were assaulted with Hugh’s routine...? He started to sing while jigging around with donut box in hand. “Who’s the super cool cop, who always gets the bad guys? DONUT BOY! That’s me, yeah...”

The Primids watched on in morbid curiosity. “Who brings a delicious assortment of sweet delights? DONUT BOY! Got a creamy filling...” The distraction was working like a charm (some of the Primids even danced around to it), and Rick started to stockpile whatever gadgets he had in his arsenal.

Morty and Rocko were a bit nervous but with how mesmerized the Primid army was, both slowly gained some sort of bravery. “Alright, let’s show these monsters how we do things old school,” teased James.

“Uh... yeah, let’s do that. I think that would be pretty good...” answered Rocko. LeBron James passed his ball over to Morty, who pulled out one of his Elemental Rings. “Let’s heat things up!” he boasted before hitting the basketball with a forward motion covered in flame. Surprisingly that didn’t damage the ball or its structure, and as Rocko pulled out a Suck-o-Matic to slurp the ball in, only to shoot it out at lightning speeds, he realized that maybe this kind of “game” wasn’t so bad after all.

Leonardo and Michelangelo were already undercover with convincing enough rubber human masks shielding them from any wary onlookers. Finding a restaurant seat, they tried their best to act natural. Arya followed as well, a bit put off by all the modern technologies and sensibilities. “So, what are we looking for exactly?” she questioned.

“Donnie’s said that one of those mondo-evil bad guys is lurking around somewhere. We just need to lay low and wait until we get a sign.” It seems that the heroes in a half-shell weren’t the only ones to think of a disguise thing, as a suspiciously green and deformed kid slinked around in the background with mechanical spider legs protruding from his back.

“Oh no! That alien’s right in our midst,” pointed out Leonardo.

“Then we shall take action against that imp!” Arya shouted while slamming her fist upon the table, starting to run up to him. The two turtles bobbed and weaved through the crowd.

“Huh? Who DARES try to run up to ZIM?!”

Arya did a swift motion and pinned Zim’s shirt to the wall with her sword. “Enough playing games with us, vile creature. Tell us everything you know or I won’t be kind.”

“Fine! I guess I have no choice, but GIR! You! Come and DESTROY them!” Zim tried to call out to GIR, but he was busy eating some pizza.

“Wait a minute, that’s what WE ordered!” Michelangelo noticed.

“Hahahahaha! At least I have ONE victory over you, Earth vermin!” A jab from the hilt of Leonardo’s sword shut Zim up.

Velma was tasked to look out for any signs. April and Daisy flanked her, trying to add extra support. “Could you imagine Vernon’s face once I get THIS on film?” April beamed, trying to get some good angles of the other two.

“Hey news lady! Better get my good side!” replied Daisy, trying to get some good poses in.

“I miss the gang already...” muttered Velma under her breath.

All of a sudden, a few bombs were thrown down on the floor in between the trio. “Watch out!” Daisy screamed as they all ran off in different directions. Little did they know that was part of the plan.

April, despite being split up, continued to film around the corridors of the hotel. “Hopefully I can still get some decent film around here,” she said to herself, “something exciting. I’ve gotta get into the action somewhere!”

A large caped figure leapt from the shadows. “You want excitement, April? Well, you’re in for a surprise!”

“SHREDDER?” April put up her fists in a defensive motion as she crouched a little to see him better.

“I think journalism like that deserves a reward – but not to worry, for soon you’ll BE the reward!”

Daisy and Velma finally regrouped, but a piercing scream was heard. “That’s gotta be April!” shouted Daisy, dragging Velma along with her. The two noticed April in the distance, covered by shadow.

Upon moving closer to her, Daisy went out to touch the reporter’s back, only for a cold, hard feeling to be noticed along her shirt. “Um... April, you good?” Daisy knocked on her for a while, the shirt somehow solid and the noise echoing through the empty halls. Turning April around, she and Velma gasped at what happened to her.

She looked ready to scrap, although a bit nervous, but her entire body had a plastic, artificial sheen all over it. April’s eyes, once full of life, were now glossy and empty, like a twisted taxidermy job. A weird brooch adorned her shirt, an equally strange insignia plastered on it. SpongeBob talked about something like this on that giant lizard. But, why would a company fund this? And why was she standing so perfectly still?

Velma knew what it was, but didn’t want to jump to conclusions. Slowly her eyes darted down and saw the very same trophy stand Fred was trapped in. “No. No, no, no! They got April!”

“Wow, nice figuring THAT out, Sherlock!” Harley laughed, before jumping down with a new Dark Cannon aimed directly behind the girls.

Shredder appeared from a smoke bomb in front of them. “And now it’s time you join her.”

Mario, Sora and Mega Man were walking to the backstage areas of the Convention Center. Armed and ready, they saw the Sony execs all waiting patiently for them, alongside Ryu and Ken. Things seemed almost too good to be true. Mario tried to go up to them and say his piece. “Um, sorry if this is uh, a little unorthodox, but we’ve come all the way here to request that we be re-added to the EVO line-up.”

Silence.

“I mean, Smash Bros has been a major selling point, and we have a lotta dedicated fans, you can’t just REPLACE that!”

Mario waited for a response, but he still was given the silent treatment.

“I can see this is getting nowhere,” Mega Man observed. He went up to Ryu and Ken, thinking he could talk some sense into them. “Listen, we’ve fought together and against each other numerous times. It was all in good fun. My friends just want that same experience. And, if we were to deprive them of that due to some legal company problems, how would the fans feel? You’ve fought with them; you should know that they’re really passionate about this kind of fighting.”

Ryu and Ken had their backs turned. Mega Man tried to reach out to them, only for him to be hit with a Shoryuken which sent him flying and slamming him into the wall.

The Street Fighters weren’t themselves, in fact they were just mere dark copies. Just like the ones from Subspace...

Mario put two and two together. “Well, looks like we’ve been set up!” he yelled, with Sora readying his Keyblade as Mega Man was tinkering with his Mega Buster.

“Yes, you have, plumber boy. It was almost too easy to fool you.” A menacing voice was heard from the speakers, only for the source of that voice to crash down, making a grand entrance. The speakers still blared, announcing what was about to go down.

“GET READY FOR THE NEXT BATTLE!”

Chapter Text

His fists readied; Kazuya Mishima finally revealed himself to the small audience. “Quite a shame, really. I wanted to see you and the rest of those fighters ripping each other apart. But you know how things get hectic around this time.”

Mario was enraged, about to throw a massive punch only for Mega Man and Sora to hold him back. Reaching into his overalls, Mario pulled out a phone and started calling everyone. “To anyone who gets this message, please head to the Convention Center’s backstage area IMMEDIATELY.” This caused quite a ruckus among the groups that were split.

Bugs got the news from his device while in the middle of his “operation” on Taz, dropping all his barber equipment and dragging his other crewmates along. The Tasmanian Devil was confused, but just shrugged it off and went to rummaging around the restaurant for scraps.

Zim and GIR were let go of easily, with Arya eyeing the two as her team slid off into the background.

Daisy and Velma were still trying to duck and dodge whatever offense Harley and Shredder were trying to throw at them, and things were getting harder by the minute. Daisy grabbed her crown and swiped frantically, hoping to get a few hits in, while Velma tried to survey the landscape and tripped them a few times with some kicks here and there.

However, the call disoriented them a bit, which gave Harley an advantage, picking up her Dark Cannon and shooting it straight at Velma’s chest. A loud “JINKIIIIIIIIIIES...!” was heard from her before she turned into a trophy, her voice becoming silent.

After throwing another one of those strange brooches, Harley tried to strike at Daisy, who ran off in a mad dash for the exit. As she was reaching for the door, Shredder aimed handily with the Dark Cannon, ending the battle in a single blow.

Grabbing the 3 trophies, they decided to head to whatever location Mario was talking about. Surely their temporary leader’s plan was already set in motion.

Mario was knocked back by a focused punch from Kazuya’s fist, ricocheting around the room. Mega Man tried to throw a few Crash Bombs only for Mishima to reflect them back at him.

“Don’t you see? It’s effortless for me to defeat you. So why are you still standing?”

Sora performed a Strike Raid that launched Kazuya back a little. “Even though you’ve been here longer than me, I found out. It’s because fighting isn’t for a simple winner, even though that is a major plus.”

Mega Man crawled up behind Kazuya and struck him with a Mega Upper. “We’re fighting because it’s fun, something you would never understand, because you just want to prove your strength and don’t care for any casualties you bring in the process.”

“Enough of your bickering!” their opponent demanded. “My good friends are about to show you the door.” A brown cyclone spun behind them, with the group dodging. Taz was baring his teeth, while also carrying Zim unflatteringly in his hand.

“Oh, those bozos? We can take ‘em.” Mario scoffed. However, Harley and Shredder jumped down from above, carrying the lifeless trophies of Daisy, April and Velma.

“What the... Daisy? What did you DO?”

Harley laughed at this ignorance. “Ain’t it simple? That dinky little gun did all the heavy lifting!”

Kazuya eyed the new trophies, noticing all of them had the same redhead/yellow dress combo. “Saki, I didn’t know you had a type,” Kazuya joked, only for the Shredder to get pouty.

“Listen, they were all there in the same room! I didn’t know it would be them specifically!”

“Well, enough talk. I have a feeling the lot of you will not go down easy, but I made these brooches to be sure that once you’re hit with the Dark Cannon’s rays, you’ll never try this stunt again.” Mario clenched his fist in anger.

“But why? Why would you do this?” SpongeBob questioned.

“Oh, you want answers, sponge? Well, let’s look back.” Kazuya flew up using his Devil Gene wings. “When I joined the Smash Brothers, I quickly and soundly defeated them one by one.” He grabbed onto Byleth’s neck and threw him aside.

“And when all was said and done, I still effortlessly trounce these fools with my power. So why delay the inevitable? They can’t pale to perfection.” Bayonetta and Samus tried to flank him from either side, but he did a double split kick to knock them away.

“Most of you lack that fighting spirit, that drive.” King K. Rool threw a punch with his boxing glove, which Kazuya caught easily in his hand. Sephiroth leaped up high to try and shot down with his sword in an attempt to stab the demon, but he crouch-dashed away.

“No one could defeat me in this state. No one... except YOU.” Kazuya pointed to SpongeBob.

Patrick ribbed Powdered Toast Man in the side. “Hey, I think he’s talking about YOU...” he loudly whispered.

“Sponge, you decided to make yourself known, along with your pitiful friends as well. I know you thought of me as a threat, so you decided to strike out of spite.”

“I don’t even know who you are!” SpongeBob tried to clarify, only for an Electric Wind God Fist to hit SpongeBob, stunning him for a while before launching him up against the roof.

“And the others who were invited. They would also pose a threat, so eliminating them now would prove beneficial.”

“Aw, so great you care about us so much, Doc,” Bugs Bunny mockingly cooed, “but if ya think we ain’t going down without a fight, you’re dead wrong!”

“Fine then. Let’s make this a fair fight.” Kazuya pushed a button and the seven Chaos Emeralds descended. “Alright, friends, let’s give them what they came here for.”

Zim, Taz, Harley, and Shredder were each handed one Emerald to hold and power them, while Kazuya clutched the remaining three.

“You dirty little...” Sonic was revving up for a Spin Dash only for Superman to stop him.

“Fine. If we beat you, then we can settle a deal. If you win, you can do whatever you want with us.” Mario agreed, with Kazuya growing a sinister grin as he started charging up a Devil Beam.

“Mario! Are you INSANE? With the power of the Chaos Emeralds, they’d become nearly unstoppable!” Sonic yelped, which was surprising coming from him.

“We still outnumber them, and besides, we’ve made many powerful friends along the way. Now, without further ado, LET’S-A GO!” They all leapt at each other.

“Like, so what IS a Chaos Emerald?” Shaggy tried to ask.

Sonic immediately responded. “Gems of infinite power. Turns mere thoughts into reality, can rip apart planets. Y’know, typical Mobius geology.”

“A-and you want us to stop THAT?”

“Well, Mr. Moustache over here thinks so but I have a hunch. My friend Knux could punch the power of all the Emeralds right out of me, so hypothetically if we were strong enough... eh, I’m not good at calculations. That’s more of Tails’ thing.” Sonic quickly regained his confidence, something that Shaggy found enviable.

“Are we gonna stop talking and start fighting?” Toph whined, trying to hold back an Emerald-powered attack from Zim.

“I like this kid!” Sonic affirmed before doing a couple of homing attacks against Taz.

Roy followed up by slamming Zim with the hilt of his sword, which made him stagger on his robotic legs. “Earthling FOOL! With the Chaos Emerald in hand, I am INVINCIBLE!” As Zim gloated a premature victory, Steven knocked him aside with a shield projectile, causing the emerald to drop from his clutches. Scooby then did a little kick that threw Zim into the heat of another battle, this time as collateral damage.

The Tasmanian Devil was busy using his spinning attacks now amped up due to Chaos Energy. Ripping and tearing through any kind of offense, he stopped to try and take a bite out of the Piranha Plant, who looked juicy enough to be a morsel for him. The plant winded up, smacking the marsupial with its bulbous head. As Taz tried to regain his composure, the Duck Hunt Dog threw an explosive bean can at him, which he ate mistakenly, only for it to blow up in his face. Through reflux, the Chaos Emerald in his possession was spat out from his stomach. As he rushed to nab it again, Danny phased through the floor and caught it in time, hitting Taz back with a laser of ectoplasm.

Harley Quinn was dancing around, the Chaos Emerald giving her increased speed and strength. Robin had to shock her with a Thunder spell, but she rebounded quite easily despite that. Gritting his teeth, the spellcaster decided to gain an aerial advantage with Elwind, to which the jester tried to keep track of only for him to fall on her and attempt Nosferatu. The hex was fine enough, greatly healing any damages he attained in the scuffle, but even a strategist like him knew that they would need more than that to take Harley down.

Diddy Kong rushed in, doing his best to keep up with Harley’s manic energy. He tried shooting some peanut bullets out from his wooden pistols. “Wow, you should join a circus sometime, chimp!” she teased. Diddy decided to run around her while Robin was busy looking for an opening.

Leaping onto her face, the monkey grabbed on and held to Harley as she scrambled for a way to get him off. Before she could subdue him, Diddy jumped off and clapped at her “performance”, only for Robin to strike a good hit in with his magical Levin Sword. Harley staggered to get up, preparing for another attack, but Korra knocked the Emerald out of her possession with a well-timed earthbending stomp that shot her up into the sky.

Shredder went all out on the offensive, trying to slash madly at Jake, who would always transform into a difficult form to hit. Pushing himself inwards like an accordion, the talking dog then sprang up, growing in size.

“Dude, for a guy named Shredder, you’re really bad at, y’know, shredding.”

“Insolent pup! If you didn’t wriggle around like a worm, I would’ve surely cut you into ribbons!”

“Well, ya didn’t. But I gotta admit, it's funny seeing you try.” Shredder charged up a strike imbued with the Chaos Emerald’s energy and did a clean swipe through his foe, slashing his head clean off!

...Or at least it seemed that way, as the orange hole shot Jake’s head back up. He improvised a sweeping kick that knocked Jake to the ground, and angrily stomped on him in order to shut him up. As he reveled in his tough victory, a Bat-a-rang knocked against his head. Shredder turned to see Batman imposingly standing in the shadows. Dashing towards the striking silhouette, Shredder gave an opening for Jake’s flattened form to slither away, re-inflating in case he wanted another battle to participate in.

“Foolish caped crusader. You cannot stop me with the power of a Chaos Emerald!” Shredder started to summon after-images of himself, all of them trying to hit Batman. The superhero expertly dove through each attempt at his life, and used his own smoke bomb to cover his surroundings. “And you decide to hide like the coward you are. Pathetic! I will find you even in this mist! And then-"

One of Cloud’s Blade Beams rudely interrupted his tirade, sending him careening and fumbling onto the ground. Jake rammed into Shredder as a horse which further ricocheted him right up to Cloud’s feet, who slid on the ground and did a slashing motion with his Buster Sword, causing the Chaos Emerald to fall from the tyrant’s clutches.

“Give it up, Mishima. This fight is over.” Mario stood defiantly against the demon before him.

“You’re right, plumber, in more ways than one.” He used the 3 remaining Emeralds to dart around the room and grab what was left. Garnet and Shulk foresaw the attack and decided to sneak behind him. Garnet grew her arms and wrapped around him, as Shulk tried to hold him further in place with his Monado Sword. Grasping onto the Chaos Emeralds, he radiated a burst of energy which knocked the two off quickly.

“You still believe you can fight against me? After all the power I have in the palm of my hand? Well, let’s see how the audience feels about this!” Suddenly a bunch of cameras and TVs fell from the roof, now recording every action. “Wouldn’t want to disappoint a crowd at this spectacle, now, would we?”

He aimed a beam up into the sky, reverberating a satellite which started to get overloaded with power. This caused the broadcast to break through into other worlds.

“What are you doing?” SpongeBob questioned.

“Well, the business can’t go on without a show!” Kazuya cackled, as the broadcast reached through every possible universe.

N. Sanity Island’s TV system was faulty at times, but it still worked as intended. Such a machine was able to pick up on the battle, with a napping bandicoot being waked up from it. A magic talking mask looked on as well.

“Crash! How were you able to turn that thing on?” Crash pointed at the nob, shifting attention to how it wasn’t turned on.

“Well, what is it now? Did Cortex announce another one of his world domination schemes again?” The mask turned to look at the footage. “This is certainly unprecedented. I feel that we should continue, and see if this has any bearing on our land...”

Somewhere in Snowdin Town, another sleeper was taking up real estate on the couch, some wide skeleton. Another taller skeleton jumped down from a higher level of the house and demanded answers.

“SANS! WHERE IS THAT NOISE COMING FROM? DID YOU FILL THE KITCHEN SINK WITH KETCHUP AGAIN?”

“well, check this out, papyrus. mtt tv’s been interrupted by... whatever this is.”

“HMM... THIS IS MOST PUZZLING. THESE ARE DEFINITELY HUMANS THERE. IS THIS ONE OF THOSE ‘HUMAN HISTORY’ PROGRAMS YOUR FRIEND KEEPS BLABBERING ON ABOUT?”

“there’s only one way to be sure. we gotta watch it through to the end.”

“DO WE REALLY?”

“nah. but you have to admit, this does look pretty fun.”

Papyrus grumbled as he sat down on whatever was left of the couch.

Timmy Turner was expecting to be subject to another night of Vicky’s misery out of the gate, and was ready for another saving throw from his Fairy Godparents. He was pleasantly surprised that the babysitter was enraptured in something else that the thought of terrorizing that little “twerp” didn’t even cross her mind.

Leaning on the stairway, he could faintly make out a lot of interesting figures. Some he’d even seen before, long ago. This certainly upped the stakes a bit. Such scale needed something to celebrate.

“Alright. Cosmo, Wanda, I wish I could get a bigger screen for this!”

“Really? We’re going to use our magic for THIS?” Wanda badgered.

“Wait a minute, I always wanted to rent out my own movie theater!” Cosmo responded.

The two godparents poofed a first-class theater experience into Timmy’s room, as they all sat and awaited the next action.

Daggett was busy wrestling with Norbert’s remote control. The beaver brothers tended to argue a lot over menial things, so a little rough-housing here and there was expected in the dam abode.

“Leggo my leg, Norb! I was in the middle of getting some good popcorn for the Oxnard Montalvo marathon tonight!”

“Oh, you and your plebeian tastes always amuse me, Daggett. Everyone knows that popcorn needs much more flavor than just the usual butter and salt treatment.”

“Quiet, you spoothead! Or I will have to unleash the wrath of... MUSCULAR BEAV-oh, what’s this?” The TV suddenly switched to a heated duel about to begin.

“Hmmm. It seems our satellite has been tampered with to show... THIS surprising display.” Norbert acknowledged.

“So, uh, we’re just gonna watch it through, right?”

“Correct-a-mundo.”

The two beavers sat down and stared at the tube as things were about to get crazier.

Another hard day’s shift for Mordecai and Rigby meant some R&R, likely a time to play video games for an hour or two. Any sense of respite from the frankly odd manner of dealing with their occupations was very welcome. Rigby slammed his tiny form onto the couch, trying to search for the remote somewhere.

“Ugh, this blows! The remote’s somewhere in these cushions but for some stupid reason it just can’t show itself!”

“Dude. Check out the TV,” Mordecai goaded, trying to push Rigby back to see the TV starting to shift and change signals in front of them.

“Yeah, it’s off. I know! I’m gonna fix it really quick, so don’t worry your butt off!”

Mordecai grabbed Rigby’s tail and placed him in front of the TV as it stayed on this odd station.

“Woah... that’s so SICK!”

“Hopefully Benson won’t mind if we spend a few hours or so watching this.”

Fred Flintstone, the breadwinner of his Stone-Age Family, was eager to get back into his average Paleolithic suburban lifestyle. Rushing back into the literal man-cave, he started tuning the dials on his rock TV. But somehow a different message was going through. These weird people looked a lot like that strange Jetson guy he met years back. Nevertheless, he ran to Barney Rubble’s house with the leg power used to carry a stone car for miles.

“Hey, Barn, ya seein’ what’s on the tube today?”

“Well, uh, yeah Fred. Looks pretty groovy, right?”

“Well, I haven’t seen somethin’ like this. You keep watch while I check to see if anything’s out of place.” Fred climbed up his boulder-built house to check the satellite, a turtle held together by some sticks in resemblance to such a mechanism.

“It’s a living”, the turtle said.

After some fine-tuning, Fred reclined back in his surprisingly comfy stone couch as the other cavemen of Bedrock watched in disbelief.

As millions of eyes across millions of worlds were set on watching everything go down, Kazuya started to do another monologue, but each attempt to shut him up proved to be ineffective. “Thanks to your little blue friend, these Chaos Emeralds allowed me to warp reality enough to bring you all here. It was hard sending all those letters, not even knowing where they would end up.”

“Wait a darn minute!” Sandy shouted. “Yer the scoundrel that set us up?”

“Of course, squirrel girl,” Kazuya sneered, grasping onto the Dark Cannon.

“This Subspace technology is quite interesting. I wonder if a potent enough battery could stop all of you?” The Chaos Emeralds radiated around him as everyone started fearing for their lives. Harley tried to process this in a sea of confusion.

“Wait a minute, Mr. K, when you mean ‘all of us’, do you really mean...”

“Well, you and the rest of your group have already done your part, so you’d have no use to me alive. However, a decoration adorning my walls would be a nice consolation prize.”

“Why you...” Shredder started punching the ground, and in a blind fury rushed up to Kazuya and gut him, only for the Chaos Energy to send him hurdling back.

Sora tried to sneak behind Kazuya, gripping his neck with the Keyblade. “You little PEST! You’ll be the first to perish.”

“No! I won’t let you get away with this, Mishima!”

“ENOUGH!” Kazuya roared, as he siphoned the Chaos Emeralds’ energy into the Dark Cannon as it started charging.

“No... NO!” Sora tried to run closer to him but the waves of power knocked him back every attempt.

Pyra turned to Shulk as Steven looked at Garnet. The two clairvoyant characters could only watch in horror, as both of them said two words that made both Pyra and Steven’s blood run cold. “We’re doomed.”

Clutching the Dark Cannon, Kazuya broke it with his bare hands, the shockwave from the bullet spreading across the room, hitting every target with perfect precision. Sora could only watch as this all went down.

Running faster, he tried to gain some sort of speed... but then some golden stand stopped him from going further. The once brave Keyblade wielder started to freak out as a coldness washed up his body. One final pained scream was all he could muster before the last remnants of flesh and blood were transfigured into lifeless plastic. The optimistic lights of Sora’s eyes faded, as did his scream into sickening silence. For a second, Sora felt pain and anger at Kazuya. But now, he felt nothing.

“What a pity you all could fail to see the signs of failure.” Kazuya walked around his new gallery of life-sized figures frozen in horror. Lifting Sora’s inert form up as a twisted prize, he was about to put one of the brooches on his now hard and waxy shirt, but some small figure jumped from behind and knocked him aside. Stumbling to his feet, Kazuya realized that the Dark Cannon blast drained the Chaos Emeralds of their energy, their glow slowly fading. He turned to face his new opposition.

“Who dares stand against me?”

The figure dropped his cloak, revealing himself to be very human-sized creature with big circular ears on his bulbous head.

“You’ve hurt my friends, and you’re gonna pay for what you did, Mishima.”

“That’s some nerve you have facing me here, rat.”

“I’m a mouse, bud. But that’s besides the point. You aren’t going to get away with this!”

“Fine. Let’s settle this, and see who really IS the strongest!” The two clashed as the ringing of battle echoed through the lifeless halls.

Chapter Text

The rodent interloper pulled out a Keyblade of his own, to Kazuya’s bewilderment. He started to shoot out pearls that knocked Kazuya off his guard and sent him flying for a while, disorienting him. While Mr. Mishima was pretty slow, he did try to grab this challenger and throw him to the side.

That wasn’t enough, as the mouse somehow stopped time, bringing Kazuya to a standstill. Rushing towards Sora’s trophy, he touched the base on it and it disappeared. The plastic seemed to slowly fade off his body as he fell to the ground and came to. Gasping for air and blinking for a while, he felt disoriented until he saw a familiar face.

“King Mickey? You... you saved me!”

“Aw, shucks, it’s no big deal, Sora,” Mickey said before dodging a beam, “but we gotta get this guy subdued first! I say we need more people.”

“Got it.” Sora dashed near SpongeBob’s trophy and grasped its base.

Like Sora, SpongeBob’s outer layer dissipated leaving him confused. “Ugh... what happened? Did I have a bad dream?” The sponge’s questions were succinctly answered by a giant fist aimed at him. SpongeBob squished himself downward to avoid the blow. Springing back up, he did a karate chop at Kazuya’s next attack, which parried it successfully.

Meanwhile Mickey ran up and touched the base of Bugs Bunny’s trophy, causing the rabbit to come to. “Hey! Who turned on the lights?” Bugs jumped as he saw who was in front of him.

“Mickey? Long time no see, eh?”

“Well, Bugs, I was just stoppin’ on by, y’know, trying to save the day.”

“I’m sure ya get real tired o’ that goody two-shoes shtick sometimes, eh doc?”

As the two were busy chatting with each other, Sora was busy handling Kazuya on his lonesome, and he was barely hanging on just landing hits on him. “Can anyone, um, help me out with this?”

Mickey Mouse pulled Bugs Bunny and SpongeBob with him.

“You can take it easy, Sora. We can deal with this. You just help with getting everyone else back to normal.” Sora zipped away as Kazuya turned to Mickey, Bugs Bunny and SpongeBob standing in defiance.

“Alright, gang, this is our moment!” the mouse triumphantly declared.

“AND WE’RE REEEEEEADYYYYY!” added SpongeBob.

Sora went and touched Mario’s trophy. Jolting back to life, he jumped up and readied his fists, only to notice Sora standing in front of him. “Oh, didn’t notice you there. So, I take it we’re gonna have to save everyone... again?”

The boy nodded, as Mario went and long-jumped into Kirby’s trophy, grabbing it and throwing it in the air. As Kirby came to, it almost felt like he was waking up from a long sleep. Floating to the ground, he decided to tap on Reptar’s trophy base.

The giant dinosaur came to by doing wild chomps in the air. Reptar slammed into Superman’s trophy, it sliding across the floor.

The Man of Steel groaned as he went on his knees, eventually pushing himself up to standing position. “Can’t believe that I’d need saving today,” he exclaimed while stretching himself, “but I appreciate the aid.” The small group started dashing around, reviving any fallen warrior they could.

Meanwhile Kazuya, while still a bit full of himself, was having doubts of ever besting this trio laid before him. He tried to kick at SpongeBob, who shot a homing bubble at his head, knocking him back and stinging his eyes. Turning around, Bugs decided to launch a coconut cream pie in his face, further disorienting him. Mickey threw an apple at his chest, which somehow knocked the wind out from him and sent him on the floor.

“How dare you make a mockery out of me, you miserable creatures!”

“Eh, to be fair, ya kinda did that yourself,” Bugs joked as Mickey summoned a walking broomstick to douse him with water. Stomping it out, smaller broomsticks formed from the splintered remains and continued to climb up their target. A quick Devil’s Fist broke them into dust efficiently enough.

As the mayhem ensued against their aggressor, the last of the fallen fighters had awoken.

“Well, would ya look at that? You’re surrounded!” noticed Mickey, deciding to stylishly leap up as Kazuya desperately tried to grab him.

“Don’t think this is over, rat, this battle has barely begun!” Kazuya prepared to strike everyone, who now started to dog-pile him. A demonic blast sent them flying away, as Mishima morphed himself into a destructively devilish new visage. “Let’s see how long you last.”

Devil Kazuya started by throwing some hefty punches into the crowd, which many tried to evade. Leaping up and flying down to strike from above, he was about to target Isabelle when Zim used GIR as a robotic shield against his attack.

“How dare you side with THEM, you vermin!”

“Big talk from a dirty Earth beast who stabs his coworkers in the back!” the alien retorted, jabbing him with sharp mechanical legs.

“Very well, you will be buried with the rest of them!” Grabbing onto Zim, Kazuya started strangling him only to punt him onto the floor. The Tasmanian Devil saw this and immediately rushed on all fours, landing a strong bite onto Kazuya’s angle. The force of the jaws of this monstrous marsupial slamming shut caused him to wince, leading to Pit ramming him with his Upperdash Arm.

“Can’t we just agree and stop fighting?" the angel asked, "that would make this story go by a lot faster.”

“Yeah, the whole ‘I’m evil and gonna kill you’ schtick’s grown really old, really fast,” Raphael remarked while looking to an unseen audience.

“Save da drama for another fic, will ya?” Bugs grunted as he kicked Kazuya in the groin, doing an aside glance to that same audience.

“Who... what are you even TALKING TO? THERE’S NO ONE THERE!” Mishima screeched as he slammed both his fists to the ground in a double axe-handle motion. Getting back to his senses, he could feel a small impact at his back as he turned and saw Luigi had shot himself like a missile to hit him. Kicking the plumber aside, he went to see Daphne, Velma and Fred try to sneak out of this.

“Oh, so some of you value your pathetic lives? Well, I won’t!” Rushing towards them, Kazuya was ready to splatter those meddling kids to a pulp. Shaggy watched as he started screaming. Tripping over the Chaos Emeralds, he noticed as they started to glow around him, enveloping him in a golden aura.

“You... leave... my friends... ALONE!” Shaggy shot across the room and did a powerful kick that was enough to make Devil Kazuya stagger.

“This can go one of two ways, punk. One, you walk away. Two, I walk on your FACE.”

“A weakling like YOU is not worthy to wield this power.” Kazuya snarled, readying a supercharged fist, only for Shaggy to catch it.

“Hey! Blue thing? Didn’t you say those weird Chaos thingies turn thoughts into reality?”

Sonic decided to respond. “Yeah! Think of something you’d really like!” Shaggy then put his mind to it, and a floating sandwich appeared as Shaggy ate it in one bite.

“Hey! Devil dude! You GOTTA try this.” Declining whatever that was, Mishima did an uppercut to knock Shaggy away. However, a giant submarine sandwich was used to cushion the blow, as Shaggy started to use it as a makeshift blade, swiping at his enemy with mad fervor.

Aang used earthbending to shackle Kazuya to the ground, but with his devil powers he broke free in a matter of seconds, leaving Aang in shock.

“ALL of you inferior fighters lack the strength to keep up with me.” Mega Man flew in on Rush while Pac-Man swooped down with a hang glider.

“Well,” the Blue Bomber replied a bit nervously, “I wouldn’t say ‘all’.”

Kazuya turned to see the other fighters of EVO staring him down. “Well. It seems the real stars of the show appear after all.”

“Mishima, you’ve gone too far,” Ryu warned, “your jealousy will only lead you to a dark path of failure.”

“And yet I’ve succeeded where you COULDN’T. I was able to bring those weaklings down to the level they’re meant to be.”

“Can you just shut it, old man?” Sol Badguy yelled, “If you really want to prove yourself, then fight for it?”

“Hahaha! Now THAT’S a worthy fight!” Kazuya’s eyes lit up as he held his ground and prepared for what he thought was a more legitimate battle.

Chapter Text

Devil Kazuya immediately did a hook at Ryu, who parried it with success. Cerebella tried to grab onto his throat with the giant hands on her head, putting him in a choke hold for about a few seconds before Devil Kazuya slammed her to the ground. Sub-Zero did his best to freeze the demon in his tracks, but a pinpoint laser melted away any icy chains put onto him.

“Quite the challenge you’ve laid before me, fighters. Keep this up and I’ll consider sparing you for a moment.”

Mario decided to give Kazuya a piece of his mind. “Hey, you! We’re still not done yet!”

“Oh, and why should I go back to fighting you simpletons?”

“Because when we’re together as a team, NOTHING can stop us!” Sora proclaimed.

“Well, sure. You can join the fun. Just don’t expect it to last more than a couple of seconds.” The fighting continued with more fists flying. Leonardo did a poking strike with one of his swords, which barely did any damage to Kazuya’s muscled frame. May threw herself forward, launching a giant anchor at Kazuya, who parried it back to her. Johnny Cage went up to kick Kazuya in the groin, but the man barely flinched upon impact.

“Wait a minute. Only a couple of us are fighting him at a time,” Roy concurred.

“So what? We’re just going to rush on in and dogpile him?” Luigi stammered.

“I mean, what else is there to do?”

Everyone started to rush in and deal hits. When several attackers pounded Kazuya all at once, there was significantly more knockback. Coming to took a little longer than usual in his new form as well.

“How? How could you break through my armor?”

“Well, it’s a little something called teamwork, doc. You should try it sometime.” Bugs Bunny mocked him. More attacks and blows were dealt with good enough force. Eventually Kazuya tried to retreat more times than he approached people. Bridget and Filia planned to trip him up with their yo-yo and hair respectively, joining in was Ivysaur with its Vine Whip and Oblina acting as some sort of rope. Falling flat on the ground, he tried to get up as Iori scorched him with a big flaming projectile.

Jake then appeared in front of him, almost in a taunting manner. “Hey, dude, squeeze me! I’ll totally NOT fart in your face!” Kazuya tried to punch him, only for Jake to bend and do an outstretched kick which threw him to the wayside.

Ren tried to force Stimpy to fart instead, causing Kazuya to run away also, hitting Wario in the process, his belly bulging.

“Wa ha ha ha! My moustache has deemed that you get my WARIO STEAM!” Wario crouched, showing his rotund rump, and then farted so hard that it launched Kazuya into orbit.

Still gagging from being at ground zero, he tried to recollect himself while flying. Superman came and threw him down with the force of a locomotive, as a waiting Piranha Plant broke his fall by chomping him. Left in a dazed and dizzied state, Ken decided to do his Shippu Jinraikyaku technique which took him out for good... or so they thought.

Hanging on to the last of his Devil Powers, Kazuya did an inhuman roar. “FOOLS! If I go down, you’re going down WITH me!” He rocketed up into the air with his devil wings.

“For I beheld Satan as he FELL from HEAVEN...!” Kazuya yelled triumphantly.

“...like... LIGHT... NING!”

Finishing his speech, he charged an Electric Wind God Fist and slammed straight down onto the room’s floor.

“Big whoop. So ya managed to dent the floor with your little lightshow,” Cat noticed, “the guy paying for that is going to be SO mad.” Kazuya laughed hysterically as from the impact cracks started to show, and the whole building rumbled.

“Wait, NO!” An earthquake started to rock the foundation of the Convention Center. “What did you DO?” Ryu yelled. “Now we’re all going to die!”

“How could you do this? You’re-you’re INSANE!” Zelda screamed.

Kazuya could only laugh deeply. “I already know.”

The structure of the building started to shake, as screaming was heard above them. “The whole thing’s gonna collapse in on itself!” Sandy shrieked.

A few visitors and guests started to fall down, with many of the fighters trying to grab them or cushion their landings. Samus caught one of the visitors and used the Grapple Beam to ricochet the both of them and lead the visitor to the closest exit. “C’mon, everyone. We got lives to save!”

Sonic then did a thumbs-up motion to Samus as he tried to grab as many shaken guests as he could to rush out the building. The convention center’s walls started to cave in and sink further down, which made a few of them worry.

“Bowser! DK! You go and hold up the sides of the thing. I’ll try to get some more people outta this place!” Mario ordered. Donkey Kong and Bowser used the extent of their strength to hold up the crumbling building, but were clearly struggling with such a huge structure. Steve went along and placed some iron blocks to try and further keep the building’s walls in place. Toph, still wanting to show her abilities off in a time like this, decided to form some thick pillars from the earth below, but that still wasn’t enough.

Meanwhile, the Iron Giant was watching as things kept crumbling to the ground. He didn’t want to add to the collateral damage, but everything was going by so fast and now people could get hurt... or worse. A blue streak flew up to him, revealing itself.

“You said you wanted to meet me?”

“Superman...”

“Yes, it seems you’re afraid of hurting people with your powers. Can’t say I don’t relate.” The giant started to look perplexed at the flying man before him.

“Well, I should get back to escorting the citizens outside. You can be Superman for a while.”

“Be... Superman?” Light started to shine in the robot’s already glowing eyes. Bounding with enthusiasm, he lifted up the building slowly in order to alleviate the other people bearing the weight.

Toph used her earthbending to prop up the others holding the building up, but it wasn’t enough of a reach. She was surprised to see Korra use some earthbending of her own to prop up some others. Feeling the ground shift like that, she turned to Korra.

“Ha! I KNEW something was up with you!”

“Well, no time to talk about it now,” Mega Man urged while trying to keep the building steady with his Super Arm, “there’s still plenty of people to rescue.”

“Fine, whatever. We’ll talk about it when I’m NOT trying to hold up a building. Again.”

A few more visitors were caught begrudgingly by Ridley, dropping them off near the exit point. As the last few bystanders were escorted out, one man was left standing. Kazuya silently knelt to the floor.

“Hey, muscle man! Don’t you value your own life or something?” Bowser questioned.

“What’s the use? You managed to best me with your faux-pas fighting skills. You’ve won. Best thing is just leave me here.”

Mega Man narrowed his gaze. “No. That’s not part of my programming.” The robot gestured to the rest of the people outside as he left his post, causing the building to cave in a little more. “There’s still one more person left in there!”

Mario knew exactly who he was talking about, and then in a single pointing motion at the building communicated something more dire than words ever could.

Jake, Jenny and Min Min outstretched their arms to try and get a clear grab at Kazuya. Donkey Kong, having also left his duty, tried to grab and pull the three of them, as Patrick went up to one of the walls in a vain attempt to exert enough force onto the building to push it somewhere else. Aang used airbending to try and make the rescue easier by causing a massive windstorm. Eventually Superman and Wonder Woman had to join and pull Kazuya out completely. As the once proud member of the Mishima legacy was thrust onto the Nevada sand, everyone watched as what was left of the Convention Center started to crumble away and fall.

Kazuya looked to the group in front of him. “Why... after all I did... why would you save me?”

“That’s the right thing to do,” Sora responded, as he used a healing spell to try and mitigate any injury.

“I see... you have truly proven yourselves worthy of entering this challenge.”

“Yeah, yeah, we get it, mac. But in case ya didn’t notice, da whole tower’s sunken down into China by now!” Bugs remarked.

“Don’t worry,” Mickey claimed. “I think we can still make this right.”

“I really hope so,” added SpongeBob.

Chapter Text

The whole party tried to think of ways to fix the mess.

“Aw, what are we gonna do now?” Patrick asked.

“Well, there’s already about a hundred of us. I’m sure that’s enough to fix this mess up fine,” Batman surmised, taking note of any surrounding holes or gadgets to prop things up.

“Whoop-de-do, Morty, looks like we’re gonna (BUUURP) gonna have to do a-a little community service. Isn’t that just gre- that just swell to do at Las Vegas?” Rick started to get impatient.

“Now, now, Rick,” Jimmy tried to console the drunkard for a bit, “our intelligent minds can find a way out of this conundrum.”

The big-headed boy started to wince as he chanted something. “Think, think, THINK!” Something started firing off in his brain, as images of the various friends he’s met along the way started to show up littered throughout his neurons and synapses.

“BRAIN BLAST!” he shouted to the surprise of a few.

“You there, Toph!”

“Huh?”

“With your earthbending powers, you can lift the building from the ground, right?”

“I guess, but it’d take a long time.”

“That’s where you come in, Bugs.”

“Me?” Bugs stopped chewing on a carrot he pulled out of nowhere and started listening.

“Your burrows can hollow the ground around the building and make it easier to lift.”

“Say no more, kid!”

Jimmy continued explaining his plan. “To those who held up the building and others with considerable strength,” Jimmy pointed to Bowser, DK, Mega Man, Jenny, the Iron Giant, and Superman, among a few others, “you will lift the building up to the surface. And Steve, I’m sure you can find some sand or dirt blocks to fill the hole well enough.”

Steve raised his blocky hand up as a kind gesture.

“Alright, let’s get moving!”

While Jimmy was just content to lift the building up and place it back down as it was, many of the others had different plans. Steve and Villager tried to spruce up the joint by adding extra foundation and protection on the building, while Meggy wanted to give the building a new coat of paint. Not satisfied enough, Mickey pulled out a paintbrush that shot paint from it like a hose to further add to it (and somehow fix it in some places).

“OK, I think we’re done with everything here...” Mario took notice. He turned to Mickey, trying to get his attention.

“Hey, Mick. I’ve uh... I’ve been a really big fan of yours since I was a little bambino.”

“Aw, well, I hear that a lot.”

“No, really! You’re the reason I wear overalls. Not the gloves part, that one’s coincidental.”

“Sure, Mario. You want an autograph or something?”

As the two continued to talk about fanboying and business, SpongeBob started to relax on the sand, looking up at the sky, when a little girl came and started to hug him. “Thanks for saving us, SpongeBob,” the girl cutely confessed, “you were always my hero.”

SpongeBob, despite having never met this person before, was wooed by the innocence in her voice and hugged back. He felt something warm, something comforting, like his heart was wrapped in the comfiest sweater near a waning fire that was just hot enough to roast marshmallows in. That kind of feeling.

“Looks like ya met one of your fans, huh?” Bugs Bunny remarked.

“That felt... amazing!” Mickey stopped his conversation with Mario to join up with the sponge.

“That feeling you have, SpongeBob? That’s the feeling of being loved.”

“But people in Bikini Bottom already love me!”

“Yeah! I’m one of them!” Patrick blurted out.

Mario jumped near SpongeBob and tried to explain. “No, it’s just that, for people like us, we’re well known across the world. That kind of love, whether you notice it or not, makes your life feel all the more special.”

“Alright, so you want me to vouch for you with Sony?” Mickey asked.

“Well, you’re the one with the castle. I bet they’d listen to you,” Bugs snidely remarked.

“Well, I’ll see what we can do.” Mickey ran off, and then ran back. “They agreed! Next EVO, me and my company will help fund a side-tournament for you.”

“A SIDE-tournament? Lame.” Goggles scoffed.

“It’s something...” SpongeBob tried to lighten the load.

“IT’S SOMETHING!!!” everyone else started cheering, happy that this conflict ended at last.

“So, uh, how are we gonna explain THAT?” Aang asked the giant talking mouse about the whole building crumbling apart thing.

“Well, I got just the thing here! Von Drake told me I’d need it one day.” Mickey pulled out a giant device and set the targets for it, trying to exclude Sora and all his friends by association. With one giant pulse, everyone who saw these events go down suddenly forgot about them, as if it never existed.

“Now, let’s try to blend in this time...” Isabelle instructed.

“OK, all things are set up for the gunship, but how are you going to get home?” Samus queried as she looked at the others.

“I feel it’s obvious,” Jimmy responded, “me, Rick and Sandy will use our portal technology to send everyone else back to their respective worlds.”

“Uh, yeah, OK. We’re doing that. But I don’t care how intel- (BUUUURP) how smart you are, it’s still gonna take a few days. So, uh, LeBron James, or whatever, that means I’m still paying for the rest of your trip. But this is-this is out of convenience!”

“Whatever. I’m certainly not going to forget THIS vacation,” James replied.

"Don't worry, LeBron James. You're always welcome to join the Smash Mansion anytime." Luigi tried to cheer him up.

"MANSION? Wow, now this I gotta check out," Finn perked up when hearing about this.

"I'll tell Master Hand about this stuff immediately. He's always glad to have new visitors!" Isabelle chirped, writing down all the names of these new characters in a clipboard.

The green antlered thing skittered up to Jimmy and whined as he saw the portal blueprints. “Well, look at that critter. Why are you lookin’ at us like that?” asked Sandy.

It then used its flexible tail to draw a sphere in the sand with noticeable, continent-like spots over it, and then quickly swiped at the drawing with its tail until the sphere was unrecognizable.

Sora empathized with the creature. “You don’t HAVE a home to go back to, huh? Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you, uh... what should we call this guy, again?”

“Like, we don’t even know who this guy’s supposed to be. Are you a reindeer, or a dog? Pick a lane, dude!” Shaggy added.

“How about we call him, uh... Reindog?” Michelangelo suggested.

“Really?” Red snarked.

“He’s a reindeer-dog thing! And besides, I’m mondo-bad at thinking of names on the spot.”

“Well, Reindog seems to like his new name,” Jake noticed as their new furry friend started jumping for joy.

“Yeah, sure. Besides, he’s got no home. It’s someone’s responsibility to take care of him,” Palutena tried to argue.

“We should all take care of him!” SpongeBob suggested, “and we could take him on walks and feed him kibble and other cute stuff!”

“If this ‘Reindog’ has no other options, then I’d say he needs a good home with us,” Superman added.

"Or we could make a new room in the Mansion for him!" Dedede reassured.

Reindog started barking happily, going up to Mario's party and licking the closest people with its tongue.

“I guess it’s settled, then,” Garnet remarked. "Seems like we're all gonna book a trip to this... 'Smash Mansion'."

“Well, we still have plenty of time in Vegas,” LeBron James suggested, “why don’t we make the most of it?”

“YEAH!” everyone else agreed, branching off to see the sights.

As the 3 groups scattered off, with Samus going to re-fuel her ship, a black speck in the distance made itself known, as if a camera focusing on the group shifted to him, showing a very ticked-off duck yelling out into the sunset.

“BOO! HITTH!!! WE WANT DAFFY! WE WANT DAFFY! Thay it with me, folkth. WE WANT DAFFY! What a load o’ malarkey...”

Chapter Text

SPONGEBOB continued doing what he did best - serving Krabby Patties with a smile! When not at work, he spent most of his time jellyfishing. Once in a while he would take his friends out on a trip to Glove Universe, though some were more apprehensive than others.

PATRICK dug further down below his rock to try and expand his living room. Upon hitting a hard spot in the sand, he found a mysterious box filled with "yellow shiny things". After thinking it over to himself, he ended up throwing the box away. I'm sure it wasn't worth anything.

SANDY patented a super growth formula for Bikini Bottom's plants. Mr. Krabs liked how it made getting ingredients easier, but then declined when noticing the vegetables spoiled faster. Everything's got a price in this economy.

REPTAR ended up hiding in isolation given its existence was some sort of anomaly. The town it resided in came to catch a few sightings of the creature, his appearance slowly becoming that of a local cryptid. Comparisons to the mascot Reptar were abound, but largely dismissed.

REN & STIMPY got enough money to move into a cramped, yet comfortable apartment. Their income was upgraded once they became spokespeople for Log! from Blammo. They can be seen driving around in a car repurposed from a failed job selling rubber nipples.

POWDERED TOAST MAN spread the deliciousness of Powdered Toast across the globe, notably becoming an ambassador and peacekeeper for America. For a while, he considered running for president, but then realized that it would prevent him from saving the day more.

ROCKO auditioned for a major role in a Really Really Big Man movie. He got a part in it at least - as a background character. Despite this setback, he believed it was but the first step to being a movie star. Too bad he found the concept overwhelming and quit to his regular life.

OBLINA took the knowledge she found on EVO to heart. Telling the others at Monster Academy about how scary humans thought tremors were got her some popularity within the school. She gets first pickings whenever a new mound of garbage gets thrown into the nearby landfill.

HELGA was in financial trouble once her father's beeper store was losing more customers. She tried to convince Bob to move onto cellphones, which were obviously the future. Bob declined for a while until Olga suggested the exact same thing. 

CATDOG felt better about their skills and abilities. When cornered by the Greaser Dogs, Cat and Dog both retaliated by force. Their bullies have been noticeably more hands-off with them since...

NIGEL continued with his successful nature show, making sure that most of the profits from it went to benefit wildlife preservation. On occasion he visits schools to teach kids about the wonders of nature.

ZIM was frustrated that another plan for world domination went awry. But he figured out a new plan. Humans got into this trend of "NFTs" and word is that they are both a waste of money and energy. Tapping into that market could leave Earth powerless, so he immediately signed up.

JIMMY decided that his dimensional transport device needed a little more tinkering and upgrades to make it reliable. Upon doing a test run, he ended up on an unfamiliar alien planet. Sheen unexpectedly was there to greet Jimmy there, and the two devised a working plan to return to Earth.

HUGH made a fortune off selling duck-themed merchandise to the highest bidders. It was only logical to put half of the money gained into Jimmy's college funds... and the other half to getting delicious pie. Hey! Sometimes we get hungry.

JENNY returned to school for a writing class. Her report on all the crazy stuff that happened at EVO was enough to get her an A+. 

DANNY took being open about his ghost powers to his advantage. He's used it to move ahead whenever he was stuck in long lines, for example. But recently he's harnessed his ice powers to make a new skating rink for Casper High.

AANG wanted to continue the heritage of the Air Nomads. With the help of the White Lotus and other close allies, he was able to secure all the Air Temples as historical sites for future generations to be educated about. He also routinely did various trips to the Southern Water Tribe to officiate penguin-sledding competitions.

TOPH and Bumi wanted to test each other's skills out. Meeting up at his castle in Omashu, the two went on a legendary battle that ended up destroying half the town. Oh, well. They built it afterwards with slightly different monuments. Doubt anyone there knows who "Melon Lord" is, nor do they want to.

KORRA signed her likeness over to be an icon of the Pro-Bending circuits. She didn't participate as much as she used to, but from the seats she's just as pumped as she was in the heat of it. 

LINCOLN decided that his magic acts needed a little more "oomph" after seeing other people pulling off such logic-defying things flawlessly. He's been teaching himself how to fly and summon elemental spells, although they're just smoke and mirrors tricks at this point.

LUCY felt so alive being trapped inside an unconscious death-like state when she was a trophy. Trying to ride that high, she and her mortician clique decided to experience many forms of temporary sensory deprivation to no avail. She still told them what happened, but it's not like magic trophy stands were easy to find.

LEONARDO continued honing his training with Master Splinter to the point where he could freely juggle between his two swords. Enhanced flexibility made grabbing with them a lot easier than usual.

DONATELLO used his technological knowledge to set up his own web forum for other fellow mutants. It's become very popular in certain circles, and with a few inside jokes developed as well. Many users dread the moment it gets big and a larger company makes a bid to acquire the domain.

RAPHAEL needed ways to use his attitude for something other than back-handed comments. He became a stand-up comedian with his snarky asides now being the perfect vehicle to vent out aggressions while making people laugh!

MICHELANGELO tried his hand in making new takes on the classic dish of pizza. Many of them were underground hits, the anchovy and hot fudge pizza became a guilty pleasure of many in New York.

APRIL reported on the huge EVO event to Channel 6 news. Instead of being laughed out of the room, her story was well received and people tuning in were amazed at all the video evidence. To be fair, extra-dimensional happenings did occur quite a bit in these streets for a while.

THE SHREDDER having been humiliated by a new group of heroes returned to the Technodrome very hostile about his failure. Krang decided to have a laugh at his expense, only for that laugh to turn into loud bickering between the two.

GARFIELD would go back to his lazy ways and just lie down in his bed whenever he wasn't hungry or wanted to watch TV. The simpler life was one he preferred to lead.

BUGS BUNNY had a good night's rest in his burrow. Tomorrow he's expecting some maroon to show up and try to hunt him for sport again. A good fighter always stays prepared for the next attack, and preparing a sharp tongue is perfect for cutting deep into the opponent's psyche.

TAZ entered an all-you-can-eat barbecue and ate everything but the kitchen sink. While many attending would've loved to step in and stop his rampage, trying to talk sense to a ravenous Tasmanian Devil didn't pan out well in the past.

TOM & JERRY still had it out for each other, constantly fighting and throwing any kind of usable bludgeon and ammunition that could be salvaged from everyday life. Perhaps one day, if the dust ever settled, they could set their differences aside and live in peace together. ...On second thought, NAH!

SHAGGY was never the same after his brush with Chaos Energy. While its effects haven't messed up the status quo too much for Mystery Inc, sometimes Shaggy would hit something a little too hard. Could the energy of Chaos reside within him, or is it something more?

SCOOBY-DOO got into a game of poker with another hound with a surprising huckleberry-colored fur coat. He bested his opponent with aplomb. The reward? A stash of Scooby Snacks in exotic flavors and colors.

VELMA tried to make sense of all the illogical happenings she found during the gang's mystery hunt. They had experienced supernatural events before, but not multiple at once. Is it just that every other world is strange, or is her world the only strange one?

DAPHNE followed wherever the wind took her and wound up in a fashion contest. She attended but only ended up 3rd place, the judges had came to the conclusion that her getup was "retro, but not retro enough". Everyone's a critic these days.

FRED scrounged around for parts to tune the Mystery Machine into an even better vehicle than it was before. Eventually his knack for sleuthing and his fascination with different diversions led him to star on the cover of a monthly issue of Traps Illustrated.

BATMAN looked over and made sure he and Alfred created extra security for the Batcave. New gadgets surrounded the central hub, more dead ends were put in place to misdirect, and to top it all off they changed the password to the computer.

SUPERMAN continued his protective duties at Metropolis, being on the lookout for more extra-dimensional threats than usual. In other unrelated news, Clark Kent happened to report on this weird "EVO" thing. It's one of the best articles the Daily Planet has had in years.

WONDER WOMAN was fascinated by the numerous fighting styles displayed by her newfound allies. Upon her return to Themyscira, many Amazons took notice that her fighting involved a lot more jumping and aerial attacks than usual. 

HARLEY QUINN ended up back in Arkham Asylum, where she's expected by the staff to remain there content. Harley did blab about her trip to EVO and her alliance with the Zim and the Shredder, but most inmates chocked it up to her losing her mind more than usual.

FINN continued on the path to reincarnation, his spirit landing in a newly born frog. In this new form, he decided to find more adventurous challenge that took full advantage of a frog's jumping powers. There are some if you know where to look.

JAKE reincarnated as a firefly, one that ended up ostracized from its group. Its light seemed to be blue for some reason. Well, I'm sure this has no deeper meaning than that. 

STEVEN traveled across the United States, and happened to garner some attention for selling his own homemade brand of the Cookie Cat ice cream on the streets. Under the light of the moon, he dons the vigilante identity of Tiger Philanthropist: donating to charity and periodically using his Gem powers to stop minor offenses.

GARNET took a while to get her bearings: returning to her designated room and meditating for 6 days straight. Gazing into the future, she found that there was a timeline where the Crystal Gems became a facet of the U.S. Military. Whether that would become a reality remained to be seen.

RICK tinkered more on cross-dimensional amplifiers on his tech to go outside the Central Finite Curve, seeing if other universes had anyone smarter than him. He never got around to it for he assumed that was an impossibility.

MORTY went on to make a podcast with Mr. Poopybutthole discussing about all the stuff he was forced to learn about other planets and universes, so he wouldn't have to bare this knowledge alone. The expense got 1 million listeners on Spotify.

THE IRON GIANT found that Hogarth Hughes was living a better life in his absence. Upon reuniting, the two immediately rekindled their long-lost friendship. He spent his days making more artistic sculptures with Dean when Hogarth wasn't in school, helping the beatnik get a thriving art career.

ARYA STARK ventured out into the Sunset Sea, and got into many fights along the way through it. Notably, there was a scrape with a giant sea serpent where she barely survived. Her plans are to head back and find other brave souls to conquer these uncharted waters.

LEBRON JAMES enjoyed his time in Vegas, which was a nice respite after all the fighting and helping people out of a crumbling building business. His true calling was on the basketball field rather than the battlefield, to which he continued to play many games. He's proud that he got extra residuals for that Sprite Cranberry commercial every holiday season.

MARIO returned home fulfilled that he was able to land a successful deal with Sony and meet his giant dwarf-sized rodent idol. He celebrated by inviting the Mushroom Kingdom over for a party and cake. Flipping the usual conventions on their head, I see.

LUIGI was thankful that this whole EVO drama was over with. Professor E. Gadd congratulated his efforts with the Poltergust 5050. It cleans up everything! Except chocolate. That's a tough one to get out of your clothes.

DR. MARIO went back to his profession of helping the sick and needy. Recently he found a cure for the common cold in his Mushroom Kingdom. Being the boon to society that he is, he sent it immediately to the closest lead doctors he could find.

PEACH started to get into acting as a career. She's primed to take the lead role in Shroom City: The Musical!

DAISY decided to revisit Sarasaland to check on her kingdom. She found that King Totomesu made for an imposing, if a bit unruly steed.

ROSALINA and her Comet Observatory traveled across many different stars and solar systems, making new friends in the hopes of getting her out of her shell. This willingness to be open caught the attention of an evil entity, but that's a story for another time. That story involves rabbits with guns.

BOWSER found it peaceful to finally recline back in his throne for once. Thinking about pursuing other careers, he started to get into music and playing guitar. His new album, "When I Look In Your Eyes It's Like A Thousand Bullet Bills Are Raining Down on One of My Enemy's Castles", has become a gold record.

BOWSER JR. tried to use Kamek's magic to cheat on a math exam, only to be found out immediately due to him having issues aiming the wand. The Koopalings have been forced into a study group with him in order to make him succeed. Only time will tell if this works.

PIRANHA PLANT campaigned for better union wages and health insurance for lackeys and minions the world over. Most major antagonistic groups are starting to take those commands to heart.

YOSHI opened up his island for visitors, using his house as a makeshift hotel. Sure, the service isn't the best, but a view from up top the Yellow Switch Palace mountain is worth the price alone.

WARIO tried to buy a social media website for 50000 coins, and was laughed quickly out of office by the CEOs. He started up his own forum instead, but the only people who used it were Waluigi and all his employees at WarioWare Inc (but only because he said he'd pay them extra).

DONKEY KONG took a nice extended break with the works: a banana sundae, a nice coconut drink, and a few nice swims along the beachside. Cranky Kong complained that he "would've finished up this EVO nonsense in 10 chapters max". 

DIDDY KONG decided to go and take a ride around in his Crystal Coconut-powered jetpack. Upon hitting a floating island in the sky, he realized he could be the first to adventure through an uncharted part of Kongo Bongo. He returned below with a smattering of oddly-colored bananas.

KING K. ROOL gained more self-esteem and respect from his Kremling Kutthroats after showing his skills back in Vegas. Using his new knowledge, he pledges to re-open Krazy Kremland with a new casino section (his minions are unaware that it's a money-laundering scheme).

LINK tried cooking a few new recipes in Hyrule, and discovered an ancient manuscript for this dish called "pizza". Every town he visits and feeds this to says it's a big hit.

ZELDA returned to her kingdom, seeing that there have been a few unsuccessful attempt at overthrowing it. She found the perpetrators and made sure to give them jobs that would boost the economy. Lamp oil, rope, and bombs are one of many commodities that need to get back in circulation.

GANONDORF set up a new stronghold in Gerudo Desert. Koume and Kotake have made sure to tend to any wounds he sustained on the trip to EVO, and he's picked up a knack for interior decorating during construction.

SHEIK watched over Ganondorf's new fortress and its building process in order to get a better understanding of its weak points. All funds she got from playing her ocarina in Goron City paid for any supplies she needed for these excursions.

YOUNG LINK took it upon himself to fix up Kokiri Village and improve its security. Many noted that he was way too cautious for a kid his age. If only they knew.

TOON LINK set sail again on the King of Red Lions to return back to his beloved grandma. She heard of his adventures on the Spirit Tracks and whittled a model train set for him. He appreciated the gesture.

SAMUS was in consideration of the next leader of the Galactic Federation, but she declined. She preferred being mostly independent, but still gave her number to those who remained in the Federation's employment.

DARK SAMUS laid low, hiding among the rogues in the galaxy's criminal underbelly. One violent outburst in an alien trader's site led her to be recognized again as a threat. She decided to ultimately wait until Samus caught wind of this and do her best to win another fated duel.

RIDLEY knew that the Space Pirates were a shadow of what they once were, so he decided to continue the facade of him being dead. Of course, only Samus knew he was alive, but that made it all the more satisfying for him to plan his next solo attack.

KIRBY along with Chef Kawasaki decided to make his own five-story, eight-layer strawberry cake. Out of generosity, he decided to share what he had with all his friends in Dream Land, even if it did mean trekking across the plains, deserts and islands to get to some of his recipients.

META KNIGHT and his crew on the Halberd decided to spruce up his ship, making sure to put more of an emphasis on being aerodynamic and stuffing every pocket with cannons. Haltmann Works Company was impressed and called off an attack to admire the "usage of destructive technology".

KING DEDEDE needed some good PR among his "subjects" (no one thought he had any royal power), so he ordered a revival of his beloved show "Dedede: Comin' At Ya!" with 13 standard episodes. Despite apprehension, many lauded the show for its humor and wit.

FOX took his son Marcus under his wing and started training him to be as good as a pilot as he was, maybe as good as James McCloud. General Pepper was ecstatic to see new blood join the ranks, and with both Fox and Pepper's encouragement the new recruit started making a name of his own.

FALCO used his roguish charm to get a chance to become a racer in the G-Zero circuit. Those who bet on him were surprised to see him come out on top for 3 races in a row. After losing once, he decided that being part of Team Star Fox was his true calling after all. That and it had a more secure budget.

WOLF camped out alone near Venom, going to work on his new take on Fox's Landmaster. His planned method of attack is to show up and outdo Fox in a shooting competition. As to how that will get Team Star Wolf back together? He's been working on getting that loose thread tied up some other time.

CAPTAIN FALCON laid low for a while, choosing to spend his nights at any pub he could drive to. Looking at the other racers in the F-Zero prix get their time in the spotlight made him appreciate the dedication the others had to this sport. Occasionally he'd make "comeback tours" on the tracks to stir up attention.

RED and his loyal team of Pokemon continued to go sightseeing around the regions in hopes of any upstart trainer being brave enough to best them. Red does have to go a little easy on some of them, but he's found his passion fighting others for a greater challenge.

PIKACHU still perched atop his owner's shoulder after all this time. Well, if you fought through over 20 seasons' worth of flashy battles with him, of course you'd cling onto that shoulder! The two plan out their next adventure... wherever and whenever that happens.

JIGGLYPUFF tried to get into the music business. As expected, her performances were a sleeper hit. Emphasis on sleeper.

MEWTWO made sure its powers were used for the benefit of the Pokemon world. However, many of its followers simply wanted its psychic powers to use for simple conveniences. At least there's an audience there, and the goal of protection is still kept somewhat.

PICHU wandered across the land with his twin, the two of them trying to figure out new what exciting places they could use to play and get into all sorts of mischief. 

LUCARIO sought out his partner Riley, who was busy trying to pass on the ancient art of aura manipulation to a new generation of users. He tried pushing himself further with his natural ability to manipulate aura and has gotten stronger as a result.

GRENINJA had took his role in Kalos as a vigilante seriously, trying to quickly dispatch of any threats or rumblings of an evil team attacking. Those lucky enough to catch him in the act note how efficient he is with his tongue.

INCINEROAR went back into a lavish life in the ring with some masked royal figure acting as his partner and mentor. The kids of Alola loved whenever he brought out his Darkest Lariat move upon them.

NESS felt that he had enough adventure for a while, so he signed up a side-gig at Mach Pizza, using his PSI Teleport technique to get to locations in the blink of an eye. Thanks to his efforts, the business is booming!

LUCAS was preoccupied with helping out what remained of Nowhere Islands, making sure that his friends didn't miss him during the trip. Life may have been a struggle for him now, but he's been doing his best to make things better for his world's future, even if it is one step at a time.

THE ICE CLIMBERS found a brand new mountain to go climbing together. Sure, they would occasionally stumble and fall back to the base of the huge alpine, but the fun in climbing mountains is to test skills and push yourself to limits. At least, that's what the Ice Climbers always said.

MR. GAME AND WATCH was happy that he got his balls back. (Don't laugh!) He's taken on a new outlook on life, and returned to his low-wage job as a chef. He's become way too comfortable being a cog in the corporate machine, but with so many odd jobs he's taken over his time in employment, it's a comfort.

MARTH wanted to give back to the people of Archanea using his status as king to ratify new, kinder laws. Caeda was supportive with his endeavors.

ROY focused his efforts in rebuilding Lycia and establishing a new curriculum based on knowledge. Many purported that the kingdom has never been this well-read before.

IKE came out of his shell for once and tied the knot with Soren. Everyone around them were supportive enough. Following the announcement, the two took time off to try and strengthen their relationship. 

ROBIN tried to get some sort of therapy. His therapist was awestruck when he found out that "the monster inside him" was more literal than he realized. Well, all of us have to slay our own dragons at some point, right?

LUCINA was pressured by her friends to utilize her time-traveling abilities to affect the economy. She declined, stating that she's focusing on overcoming her greatest obstacle... her crippling fear of bugs.

CORRIN gained a smattering of political influence on both Nohr and Hoshido. While the citizens aren't exactly warming up to his ideas of unification, they were real impressed about him transforming into a dragon once in a while.

CHROM asked for help from his peers about how to control his strength. They accepted only to regret it later due to the intense amounts of property damage amassed from "swordplay". Whatever. It's coming out of his pocket this time.

BYLETH returned to a life of academia where a new group of students from far-off lands will learn about weaponry. He's been hoping that none of them will end up as another war criminal by the end of the semester.

PIT decided to check out new locations for hot springs. He stopped for a while when one "toasted his sacred buns". The Centurions never let him live that down.

DARK PIT became part of a scene group. The other gods all agree it's the result of him being hungry for attention. 

PALUTENA tried to do her own cooking again, but it resulted in The Great Mutton Leg Invasion of Skyworld. She gave up and used her powers to add a takeout location at the corner of every street. 

OLIMAR found out that Louie spent all of the funds of Hocotate on an "exclusive" charcuterie board. Thing is, the board's way too large for someone their size. He's stuck stranded on another distant planet, waiting until the team's attempts to sell it off for more money are successful.

R.O.B. tried to get out more and meet new friends. On his journey he discovered a weird, chibi-like robot with amazing powers. The two made nice immediately. The robot offered his smaller friend to go kart-racing, but the two decided that a more leisurely activity like golf would suffice.

VILLAGER let all the power and influence of being mayor get to his head, and started to run for president. He was immediately denied because he was "too young". In secret, he's doing his best to pull strings across the government so the laws change in his favor.

ISABELLE decided to head out and do some fieldwork for Blathers and his ever-expanding museum. Both of them were amazed when they found a golden Gyroid statue from some ancient civilization. Further research is needed for this anomaly.

WII FIT TRAINER decided to become a professional dancer, inspiring flash mobs across the world. She says it's for the good of keeping a healthy body, but we all know she likes dancing. Don't hide it.

LITTLE MAC went back into the boxing ring to challenge a new opponent, some new fresh face known for a successful YouTube career. After knocking the opposition out, the boxer went on to say he'd made "a severe lapse of judgement". 

SHULK decided that his old look was getting a little boring. Stranding himself in the wilderness, he tried to grow an unkempt beard to make himself look more imposing. Only time will tell if this turns out to be a success.

PYRA & MYTHRA felt comfortable slipping back into their separate forms and trying to experiment with different friend groups. However it was hard when both of them wanted to drag Rex along into their escapades, them usually trying to complete some form of challenge to decide.

THE DUCK HUNT DUO put their differences aside and used their skills as a means to excavate for gold. The Wild Gunmen, close family friends, appreciate their aid (and give them food in return, so you know they got handsomely rewarded).

MII BRAWLER took a short stop on Wuhu Island to challenge Matt, the champion of the boxing ring. Their battle was so intense and frantic that the match ended in a stalemate, angering a lot of betters.

MII SWORDFIGHTER was assigned to give The Dark Lord more self-esteem. She's making a lot of money and earning a lot of respect being his business associate.

MII GUNNER went to take a nice vacation with the Badge Bunny. Together they discovered that life isn't always about scoring the most points in an arcade.

THE INKLINGS were shocked to see the culture of Inkopolis change from under them. While Meggy decided to keep to herself and still do missions as Agent 3, Goggles came off as a "cringelord" by the other Inklings he once viewed as friends.

MIN MIN invested enough in her ramen stand to make her restaurant a chain. Max Brass is rumored to sponsor her, having struck a deal with her company to make several commercials.

SONIC and his friends agreed to search for wherever the Chaos Emeralds scattered to now. From Tails's research, they've all landed in a mysterious archipelago called the Starfall Islands. Well, can't say no to another adventure!

BAYONETTA decided that her old look wasn't "chic" enough to keep. Tying her hair up into twin pigtails, she's garnered a lot of attention from many lustful boys across the past few weeks. She's been thinking of entering a long-term relationship as well.

JOKER set the Phantom Thieves out to steal a few more hearts - notably, a so-called "kingdom" of movie reviewers who tend to verbally attack children for being cringe. 

SNAKE changed his identity yet again to try and hide a veil of secrecy. Unwillingly, he was appointed as vice president by the current man in office, Steven Armstrong.

SIMON continued to check various haunted villages and abandoned castles for any lingering evil that dared poke its head from underneath. The townsfolk are starting to warm up to him because of it.

RICHTER and Alucard decided to head further outside their familiar home in search of more supernatural events to put a stop to. They found that a seaside trading port was the perfect place for many demons and abominations to reside.

CLOUD bet a lot of money on Chocobo races, having had a successful win rate of 99%. In his off time, he started to write poetry and share his experiences on paperback.

SEPHIROTH searched for a new purpose in life, eventually using his power to... ahem.. "suggest" to be an owner of 50% of Shinra's stake. While he has to play along with the company's new goal to save the environment instead of harming it, he knows it's but a means to an end for him to regain full power.

THE HEROES went their separate ways following the EVO announcement. The Luminary became a public hero, with his numerous adventures being adapted into books. Erdrick considered quitting the hero business entirely, but decided against it because no job would accept him. Solo decided to gain some new armor. Eight had to go on a separate adventure when Munchie wandered off into a cheese culturing farm.

BANJO & KAZOOIE used their legal ownership of Spiral Mountain to refurbish Gruntilda's Lair into a condo. On weekends they tend to have barbecues with the neighbors from Jinjo Village.

STEVE stumbled onto a portal featuring a realm he had never seen before. Naturally, he started digging, somehow striking gold not even 3 meters deep. It didn't take long for him to make a new house situated in the center of a huge island's mountain.

MEGA MAN went back to helping Dr. Light with various machines in his lab. The doctor has been very under wraps about "Project X", something that he said would change the world of robotics for the foreseeable future. Mega Man, meanwhile, successfully invented a helmet for Auto to wear.

RYU hung up his belt for a while, getting into meditating. While on his retreat, he heard that a new generation of Street Fighters were planning to show their strength. That was enough to rekindle the fire within him.

KEN lost it all after a series of bad decisions. Now functionally poor, Chun-Li became his caretaker and oversaw his new job application as a telemarketer. Maybe one day he'll return to the ring, but it won't be easy.

TERRY returned to South Town with the rest of his competitors. They all agreed that this was one of the weirdest events they've ever participated in. 

PAC-MAN found love again after his frankly easy divorce with Ms. Pac-Man. His new wife was surprisingly good at sating the energy of Pac-Man's rambunctious kids. While they may no longer be married, Pac-Man and his former wife were still on good speaking terms.

KAZUYA decided that he needed to recuperate his public image after his plan's failure was viewed by millions across multiple worlds. He decided to openly flaunt his devil form and bought himself a fancy new outfit. Revealing a new King of Iron Fist tournament, he has been hoping this would prove fruitful in both crushing his enemies and gaining respect from his shareholders.

Weren't there people we forgot? Oh yes.

As SORA bid farewell to Mickey, Donald and Goofy, unsure if he would ever see them again, he walked back to his hotel, and noticed that REINDOG was following him. The creature realized that THIS was the brave warrior who survived the Nothing! Hopefully he could find that other girl he was instructed to retrieve. The both of them sat down in a hotel room when Chip and Dale showed up to relay some information.

"Sora! Someone wants to see you! She's been waiting here for hours!" one of the chipmunks squeaked.

"Hmm? What is it?" replied Sora. 

The two chipmunks stepped back as a meek yet mysterious girl came into his view. She was smaller than him, and looked unfit for combat, yet her grizzled face and eyepatch in spite of her disposition made Sora feel some kind of empathy.

"H-Hello, Sora," the girl asked before gaining some confidence, "I've heard about you from other worlds, and I feel that if we work together, you can help me save MY world from the Darkness that took it."

"Trust me, I've been there before. And I'd like to help!"

The girl's eye started to light up. "Great! I'm sure we can be great friends!"

"Likewise," Sora added. Reindog finally saw the two before him. This was his mission, and with some experienced fighters perhaps Zanifeer could be saved after all. The three entered Sora's Gummi ship, rocketing off with a newfound sense of hope.

...You didn't think this was the end of the story, did you?