(A/N - Look at the scroll bar. Kind of short for a special, no? The truth of
the matter is that I've spent way too long on this chapter, nearly having
hit the two-month mark and being just about HALF way through. I also managed
to find my work ethic in my closet, which managed to kick up a minor dust
storm in my room. However, it didn't come in time, as tomorrow I'll be
leaving to head to some swamp out in the middle of nowhere to sell T-shirts
to unsuspecting natives. An interesting bit of trivia: when I was 13, I was
mugged by eight people. At once. I'm not making this up. There was also the
fact that during the convention alone, there were 59 assaults, three rapes,
and the interesting topic of a baby being flushed down a toilet. I am now a
racist bastard. ^_^

Point blank, the "special" will now be divided into two seperate chapters.
This is the first half, and the second I'll begin as soon as I return from
my angst session in the marsh. Happy reading, wish me luck, and send me
anything to defend myself with, for the love of God...)


















The tall city buildings stood, populated with their usual office workers,
high above the city skyline. They basked in the light of the artificial sun
situated a predetermined distance away, keeping the planet's temperatures at
a above-lukewarm temperature. That sun was beginning to lose altitude, and
it had began its descent towards the horizon a short hour ago.

A small hover-taxi parked at a point along the supported highway about
halfway up one of the skyscrapers, letting a uniformed man carrying a large
briefcase out onto a platform that led into the structure. Meanwhile, up on
the roof of the elegantly designed compound, a medium-built man sat hunched
over the very edge of the roof, the positioning of the sun casting a shadow
from a nearby attenna onto him. His hair was mildly spiked, and his lanky
arms were connected to his torso by large shoulderpads, with crescenting
blades on top. He down to the ground, carefully intercepting each and every
ship that docked. He was waiting for it to come. And he would be ready.

"Hee hee! Eeeya ooseeak alleed! Eekyaa rallee euro... Illiee allsoo ralee!"
the figure cackled, in an illegible dialect.

One that sounded distinctly Celestian.























TRANCE TRAUMA

Competition















Space is a funny thing.

Some people'll tell you that the darkness waiting upon them is only a sign
of the even DARKER situations ahead of them. I'd have to agree, I haven't
seen too many happy-go-lucky long-distance traders in my day. People fear
it, the great beyond, 'cause of all the scientific mumbo-jumbo that goes on
in the background. Black holes, aliens, the Death Star. The like. Space
means something now that it's never meant to me before. It's not just the
six months cryogenic freezing period between outposts, it's the rallying
call at a battlefield lightyears away, a battle I inadvertantly stumbled
into upon taking this job. Soon, as it stands, the Van Eltia that everybody
talks about, is going to be seething right at us, with the dreaded
Grapplers, Antimagnus, too many Trances, or all of the above.

I have people around me throwing cards around, partnering with funny-looking
sentinent "digimon", shooting lightning bolts, lasers, magic spells and
cannon shells, and it leaves me standing here... what am I? I'm an asshole
in bulky armor with only a gauss rifle and a tattered Sons of Korhal
ensignia to show for myself. I don't really give a flying fuck WHAT
Ultimanium says, the only way I'll be able to stand up for the Argetlahm let
alone myself is to figure out all this Trance stuff and get myself
supercharged. I mean, even a kid like Takato can figure it out, it can't
seriously be that bad...

"Raynor?"

Raynor blinked. "...uh.. yeah?"

"Did you ask me something?" Ultimanium was seated at his normal chair,
carefully studying the command module screens in front of him. Minonim was
at his side like usual, quickly scanning the data received.

"...uh.. yeah. What time did you say that we were going to arrive at Mute
City?"

"About three hours." Slippy said.

That's another thing. The talks of manipulation of space ALSO freak people
out. And walking, talking animals, like I said before. The two do NOT go
together. A couple hours after we left, one of those guys, forget what his
name was, he plotted our course to run through several minor space-time
compressions on a zig-zag towards Lylat-Hybrid. We cut our travel time from
a month to a week. I've spent all my available time in the past seven days
trying to get what I could out of the Argetlahm crew members on Trancing as
a whole, and so far all I've gotten is shrugs. Even Balkan, he has the nerve
just to tell me "your time will come". Pisses me off, the bunch of them.


********


"Exactly HOW do we get in?" Teisel asked. "You said that we had to wait
until Station Square revolved around Lylat-Hybrid to the point that we were
going to enter the system."

"Star Fox is a military-chartered task force. We could probably get
admission from any point if we deemed it a public emergency..." Peppy dabbed
at a sub-comm panel a distance away from the main podium. "...well, we won't
have to wait very long, long-range scanners are already extending from
Station Square around to us. I'm setting up a subchannel." Peppy pressed
another button, causing the screen in front of him to fizzle. The static
quickly died out, showing a small, cluttered office, with various receivers
and transcievers scattered around the room.

A large, buisness-suited man seated himself down in front of the camera,
stuffing half a pizza slice into his mouth. "Yeah, whaddya want?"

"...Eggman?"

"Yes, what the hell does it look like? I take it you want to get into
Station Square?"

"...is this signal coming from Station Square?"

"YES! Check the damned frequency!"

Peppy sweatdropped. "...uh... uh-huh, Station Square... but what are YOU
doing manning the outgoing inquiries?"

"If it's any of your business, this is my 39529th hour of community service.
Could we quit with the formalities and get cracking?"

"I was thinking you would've gotten hit harder for the entire Chaos
incide.."

"DO YOU WANT IN OR NOT?!" Eggman bellowed.

"...um... sure?"

Eggman started drumming on a keyboard next to him. "Identification number?"

"Ronald McDonald is dying his hair blue."

Eggman paused for a second, before wheeling his incredibly strained chair
over to a bookshelf, sliding out a giant binder labelled PASSCODES.
"...let's see here... why?"

"Because the animal activists told him to."

"Are you sure?"

"Dave Matthews told me himself."

"Okaaaay... Ronald McDonald dyes his hair blue..." Eggman flipped over
several pages. "...because of the animal activists..." Flip. "...Dave
Matthews told you to... aha! Lylat task force secret passcode Type 8A...
HERE we go.... Star Fox team. Stand by for retinal scan." Eggman grabbed the
drag-down flatscreen in front of him and moved it inbetween a pair of metal
plates. He pressed a button on the side, causing a brief red flash of light.
He removed the screen and swiveled it back into place. "Identity confirmed."

"..."

"...have a nice day." Eggman growled. The screen turned back to static.

"...we have access to Lylat-Hybrid," Peppy said. "All we have to do now is
just head for Mute City."



********



The Argetlahm continued on through space. It was a short time later that the
ship passed through a phalanx of small scanner probes, with jagged insignias
on them. The scanners settled on an infrared side view of the destroyer,
zooming in on the Great Fox, then quickly switching to the bridge, where Fox
was dealing out poker hands to the rest of the Star Fox team. Fox paused as
a loud beep radiated out from his headset. He reached up and tapped a button
on his helmet, while the other pilots took out small modules from their
jacket pockets and started fiddling with them.

Takato was slumped down over a guardrail, fast asleep. Falco stood up, ready
to wake the boy, until he noticed his rather... uncomfortable sleeping
position. Falco tapped Takato on the back, making him jump in shock and
fling himself over the rail, landing flat on his face against the clear
plastic flooring beneath the main walkway. It was a decent 8-foot drop.
Takato pushed himself to his feet, stretching. "...oh, hey, Falco. How's the
trip?"

"Uh... okay. Anyways..."

"I just had this really weird dream. You know how you're always supposed to
wake up BEFORE you hit the ground?"

Falco sweatdropped. "That's not the point. We just passed through a
first-line Cornerian checkpoint. We're entering the Lylat system. Where did
Ultimanium go?"

"Conked out, I guess. Anyways.. what time is it?"

Takato drew back his sweatshirt sleeve. "...it's already nine. Time to wake
up?"

Falco shrugged. "There isn't really... a 'morning' in space, you kn.."

"'kay. G'night." Takato collapsed back to the ground, fast asleep.


********


It was only after several disputes with non-"morning" people that Falco
managed to drag everyone up to the bridge. Ultimanium was the easiest to get
up and going, immediately returning to his chair and beating away at the
keyboards ahead of him. Everybody was lined up on the main walkway as usual,
peering out into Lylat space. Ultimanium looked up from his console in time
to catch the large, terran grassland planet Corneria passing by in the
distance.

Peppy entered a number into the comm terminal he was seated at, and rolled
his chair away to make room for Fox. The display lit up with the familiar
face of General Pepper.

"...Fox! Back so soon? I take it your investigation was a success. Do you
have the analysis information with you?"

"...yeah, we'll upload it to you right away. However, we conducted a joint
inquiry with military forces of Earth, and we've come to the conclusion that
a person was responsible for the Ki outburst. We have an identity, and
current headings. We request permission to continue operations."

"Permission granted. Not even we have information on what could possibly
create a power flux of that magnitude, and perhaps this culprit of yours
could shed some light on the situation? I look forward to receiving more
information."

"Can do. Fox McCloud, over and out."

Up on the main bridge, meanwhile, Slippy was yet again running over every
question that remotely appeared in any of his spectators minds...

"If we catch every space-compression from here to Mute City... then we
should make it there in under two hours, even shorter if we slingshot around
Titania..."

More interesting ideas flew across the room though.

"Smash Bros."
"Wonder if they got Digimon cards around here..."
"Do they import Elements?"
"I've got a date with destiny!"
"I've got a date with Dumbass."
"There's got to be a Miacas around here somewhere..."


********


The remnant of the journey carried on at a snail's pace. It soon came to the
point that much of the crew simply loitered on the bridge, with Minonim
constantly whirring around the command center, stopping people from pushing
any large red buttons on the control panels.

"I think I see it!" Serge stepped forward, adjusting a small trackball ahead
of him. The display next to it zoomed in rapidly on the horizon, revealing
what looked like a small star, with a large asteroid belt on both sides of
it.

Shaun nodded. "Mute City. The place could probably radiate light for a good
ways... does that look like the place to you, Fox?"

"Sure does. At this rate, we should be there in a couple of minutes."



********










A couple of minutes passed.

Away, in the distance, the full spectrum of light radiating off of Mute City
could be seen. It appeared to be a normal terran planet, but on careful
inspection a large metalling plate could be seen running across the equator
of the artificial planet. At least three quarters of the face of the
biosphere could be seen littered with buildings, skyscrapers, futurisitc
high-altitude freeways populated with a swarm of hovercars, various arenas,
sweeping wide tracks on which F-Zero preliminary qualifying races were being
held, and a gigantic space elevator ending at the top with a large, flat
platform. Several smaller moons could be seen off in the distance. High in
the sky, several smaller moons could be seen, each a different color.

Everybody spent a good while aweing over the epic megalopolis ahead of them,
before heading down to their bunks and getting ready for their day in
supposed paradise.

Locke strided down the hall, hoping to find a cleaner shirt in his bunk. He
waved as he passed by Raynor, who was changed into more comfortably-fitting
jeans and a muscle shirt. He paused as he faintly heard someone whistling
Eye of the Tiger. He would have thought a little more, except...

Swish, swish.

"Man..." Locke groaned. "That guy is seriously starting to creep me out." He
glanced around, before sidestepping into an adjacent bunk as the silouette
crept by, dusting the floors with his broom.

"JESUS CHRIST!!"

"AAAHHHHH!!" Locke tumbled out of the bedroom, with a... less than clothed
Teisel beating him back with his wrench. As Locke tumbled to the ground, the
door slammed shut behind him. Locke writhed on the floor for a little bit,
while Gohan, Vegeta and V2 walked by.

"Do YOU know who nabbed my clock radio? I swear, if I find out..." Vegeta
muttered.

"...better for you, you don't HAVE speed metal blaring in your face at 7 AM
on the dot every morning!"

Falco walked by. "There is no morning in space..."

Gohan sulked. "This had better not be a running gag..."

"Speaking of gag..." V2 choked. "Who the hell is singing?"

"EYYYYYYYYYYEE OF THE TIIIIGERRRRRRRRRR!!! DA! DA DA DA! DA DA DA! DA DA
DAAAAAAAAA!!" Gohan and V2 froze as Eric strutted by, wearing a tuxedo and
carrying a bouquet of roses in one hand, and a full-volume clock radio in
the other. The radio was linked up to headphones. "...oh... uh.. hey. What's
going on?"

Gohan opened his mouth to speak, but Takato poked his head out of a bunk
further down the hall. "Rika's not the romantic type! You're gonna get
creamed!"

Guilmon poked his head out of the door opposite of Takato. "Does someone
have cream?"

"Guilmon, what are you doing over there? Our bunk's over here!"

"Actually, our bunk's over HERE!"

"Then who's bunk AM I in...?"

"COULD I GET SOME PRIVACY HERE?!" Glenn, draped in a towel, grabbed Takato
by the seat of his pants and hurled him into the adjacent bunk.

It was then that Shaun stepped out of his bunk, in khaki jeans and a white
tank top. The first thing he saw was Eric. "Hey, gu... you're kidding."

"What?"

"We're disguising ourselves in formal dress? I guess you're right, there
could be a Trance down there... give me a second, I have a uniform I can
use..." Before anyone could say anything, Shaun shut his bunk door.

"Poor misguided soul." Serge sighed. He was seated against the wall, lifting
up a magazine as he finished his sentence.

"We should be worrying more about Casablanca over here." V2 murmured,
nudging towards Eric.

Again, Gohan was quickly silenced by Eric's palm directly planted in his
face. "Hey, don't worry about it. This is my night... I'll try to not bother
you, whatever you intend on doing."

V2 rolled his eyes toward Gohan. "...what ARE we doing?"

"I guess we'll have to try to find something... it can't be THAT hard to
keep ourselves busy."

As Gohan and V2 left, Vegeta went deeper into the ship, where his bunk was
situated. Most of the male crew passed by Shaun's bunk as he stuck his head
out, watching as the majority of the fighters entered the left turbolift.
Shaun paused hesitantly. "...nah. I need something comfortable to wear
anyways. I'll need maximum mobility..." He turned and looked back into his
bunk, before stepping inside and grabbing a small keychain off the wall,
with a pen-shaped crystal and a small steering-wheel shaped apparatus
attached to it. He clipped the small brass ring onto his belt.

"...I'm not taking a chance like the Trances again..."



********



The view scrolled down, making the female bunks' hallway visible. Inside the
nearest bunk, Rika sat in her overcoat with her chair leant back, slapping a
paddle ball back and forth. She tried to ignore the clatter-like rumble that
rolled down the hall, until Charmy's skates clanked to a halt, and she
quickly slipped in. She was changed out of her normal shorts, now draped in
a long silver dress. "...so what's going on here?"

"Absolutely nothing." Rika growled. She began to beat the ball back with
more force, wincing as the ball completely snapped off the rubber cord and
rebounded on the wall in front of her, rolling to a stop on the metal floor.

"Aren't you getting ready? We're stopping in Mute City in a couple minutes
now."

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Rika scooped the rubber ball off the floor
and slipped it into a nearby drawer.

"...I was thinking Eric would be putting on a show now that we've arrived in
a suitable dating jungle."

Rika still never glanced over. "If he's expecting me to walk out there in a
thong, he's got another thing coming. Towards him. Fast. Like my fist."

Charmy sweatdropped. "Well... no. I just thought that looked a little bulky,
that's all..."

"My wardrobe's decided. There's going to be no more on the subject." Rika
suddenly sprung into step, shoving Charmy against the door frame as she
exited. Charmy just shrugged, and followed suit. Renamon sat against the
wall a short ways away from the bunk entrance, watching intently as the two
crewwomen slid into the turbolift and raised it to the bridge floor.



********












The small door on the side of the bridge swung open with a clang, leading
out onto a metal catwalk not unlike the one at the Magnopolis spaceport. As
people began to file out, Ultimanium leading, though, it was easy to tell
that their surroundings certainly weren't of Magnopolitian style.

The entire surface around the Argetlahm was intricately-cut plate glass,
broken at the front by a blue-tinted metal structure that led out into the
main city. As the group began to exit the compound, they realized that they
were actually on a higher level - for several floors of catwalks beneath
them, there were people constantly buzzing this way and that - along the
walkways, through large suspended open areas (often with little shops, rest
areas and such) and in and out of taller buildings that stretched from the
very bottom of the superstructure to out of sight.

The residents were varied, as well, something that surprised the crew.
Raynor, though, brushed the observation off, knowing that this surprise
often came at new exotic ports - there were normal humans, among other
races, including different animal-like anthromorphs, several multi-legged
mermen, large buzzing insects that hovered a good three feet off the ground,
a variety of muscled workers hefting steel I-beams that could very well be
described as halflings, even a large, turreted purple octopus at a booth
serving what appeared to be some kind of dessert to several jumpy children.

"This is insane." Takato and Locke chorused.

Further off in the distance, behind a thick plate of translucent crystal,
highways could be seen erected high above the crowds. They were interweaved
between infinitely tall skyscrapers and domes, supporting leagues of
hovercars as they sped at unheard-of speeds up and down the roads. Off in
the distance, a large black rail rose above all the buildings combined. It
reached high into the sky until it ended abruptly. It appeared as if it were
pointed at a purple star, high in the sky.

Balkan held his heavy hand up. "What in the name... what is that giant
pillar for?"

Fox looked around. "...remind me to tell you sometime. Well, everybody, here
we are, Mute City. You ARE in semi-alien territory, so please, don't try to
get in too much trouble. Hey, Ulty, you got a time when we need to leave?...
Ulty?"

Ultimanium was also looking around. "... this place is WACKED... uh... you
say somethin'?"

"When are you planning on leaving?"

"I wanna check this place out too," Ultimanium replied. "Let's give
everybody a day. Back here by 1000 hours tomorrow morning. You guys can stay
aboard the Argetlahm for tonight, or you can check out what the hotels
around here have to offer. It's up to you."

Falco slapped his hands together. "Well, then let's have some fun. Before
anyone decides to run off on their loneso.." Falco paused, and looked off
into the distance, where Eric could be seen dragging a stationary Rika down
a walkway by her feet. Rika gave a weak wave to the rest of the crew as they
disappeared behind an archway. Charmy heaved a sigh in response.

Falco tugged at his jacket. "Okay, now... as I was saying, did anyone wanna
check out the Smash Elite Tournament? We've got to sign up right away before
all the slots are taken, and preliminary matches are starting in a couple of
hours..."

Tron leant forward. "Hell.. maybe I'll join up."

Serge nodded. "Me too."

Fox gave the two hesitant stares. "...uh... this IS the Smash Elite Fighting
Tournament... the contestants here are from all over the galaxy! I can't
exactly guarantee your guys' safety... the participants are usually rowdy,
coming from every dark place in space and all..."

"I'm pretty sure Millenial was a bit worse." Shaun mumbled. He planted his
hands on a nearby guardrail, looking out over a freeway beneath him. "I
wouldn't mind checking this out too. Maybe even I'LL join up."

Gohan shrugged. "Me too."

Fox looked over Gohan slowly. "...remember, the Smash battles are all
machinery-based... the 200 powerlevel limit? Remember?"

Gohan shrunk. "...aw, man... what does that leave ME to do?"

Peppy immediately stepped forward. "Hey, I need a crowd too! I've got a
qualifying race for the Silence circuit in the F-Zero Grand Prix! You wanna
head to that?"

Gohan brightened, as did V2. "Sure!"

The group exchanged waves. The higher powerlevel fighters, Ultimanium,
Vegeta, Balkan, Gohan and V2 among them, departed with Peppy to the main
streets of the city, while the remainder turned where they were and
continued down a side street.




********




Fox and Falco led the lower-powerlevel bracket down the streets, taking
multiple turns through unpopulated avenues until they finally arrived back
at the city center. The selection of races was even more diverse at this
point. Off in a secluded corner of the city square was what looked like a
large office building, with a large quarter-circle emblem to the right of
the door. The group stopped short of the entrance, as dozens of different
people flooded in and out of the building.

"...this is the subheadquarters of the main Smash Mute City Division." Falco
spoke. "This is where the new initiates go to have themselves put into the
lower ladders, and it's also the main access station to most of the arenas.
There's a fair-sized tube station underneath the building that leads to most
of the battlegrounds."

Takeru looked up at the rising building, and the expansion behind it. "...I
know we don't have enough time for a full-fledged tournament, but don't they
at least have exhibition matches? It would really help the time pass."

Fox looked back. "If you guys want to go in an exhibition match, it's up to
you. It's normally reserved for the less serious combatants, so it shouldn't
be too hard on you. How many of you wanted to go in?"

Everybody raised their hands.

Takato grit his teeth. "Guilmon? You can't go in there!"

"Why not?" Guilmon asked, blinking.

"Well... what'll people think? You're a digimon!"

"There's certainly weirder things around here." Teisel grunted, stepping
away as a large, uniformed lobster crawled by. The crustacean reached up and
tipped its small hat at Tron, who sweatdropped.

Patamon tilted his head. "How bad could it be?"

Takato backed away from the crowd staring at him. "..oh...oh, alright.
Guilmon, TRY not to make too much of an issue!"

"Yay!" Guilmon hopped ahead of the group and began lumbering towards the
rotating door that led into the vast lobby of the building. Everybody caught
on a split-second after, and quickly hopped into a surprised run as they
tried to keep up with the Rookie.



********



It was an hour later when the other half of the crew showed up at their
destination, a long, wide walkway that hovered at least 200 feet above the
ground level. On a large platform beneath them, dozens upon dozens of
smaller, colored vehicles were being tended to by their owners. Several
cranes were running nonstop, picking up the inspected racers and placing
them on nearby elevators. The far wall was made up of several giant plates
of glass, showing just beyond it a straightaway section of the Mute City
main track, and beyond it the city's skyline.

Gohan lent over the guardrail. "Are these the F-Zero racers?"

"All prim and proper." Peppy finished. "I already gave the inspectors the
dock number of the Argetlahm, so they'll be retouching my Arwing and
dampening the G-Diffusers so it'll be down to F-Zero regulation
specifications."

Ultimanium stared at Peppy. Balkan lent in front of him. "Are you sure
that's the brightest thing to do? There COULD be Trances after us, you
know."

"Trust me, I know these fellows. They wouldn't let anybody but themselves on
before they start shooting at them."

Everybody looked up as a giant speaker hanging from the celing of the bunker
crackled. "Racers #25662 and #59259, please report to the main registration
office for your inspection results."

Peppy straightened back up. "That'd be me. You guys wanna come? There's a
real great donair shop right across..."

"For the last time, we don't HAVE anything better to do!" Vegeta growled.

Peppy nodded uneasily. "..y-yes, right. Well, c'mon..."

Yet another maze of catwalks would follow. What everybody intended to be a
short jog eventually turned into a 20-minute test in navigation. Finally,
everybody arrived at a small office supported in midair aside from the main
catwalk, supported from the celing by several large pillars. While everyone
else went to wait in the abeforementioned donair shop, Peppy strided into
the office. The main lobby appeared like a bank, a small chamber with finely
polished floors, and several openings along a long counter. Two of the lines
had at least a dozen aliens and humanoids in queue, so Peppy stepped up to
the center opening, where the last person, a large, tall man in dark spandex
and a red helmet with the insignia of a falcon was just finishing up. As the
man stepped away, Peppy moved into his place.

"Hold up your badge." the female clerk droned.

Peppy dug in his jacket pocket for a small metal strip. He held it up while
the worker quickly ran a small laser pointer across from it.

"Racer #25662, Peppy Hare, our inspectors have finished inspecting the
racers, the Arwings, and have deemed them fit for use in the Mute City
qualifying round."

Peppy blinked. "As in the plural tense?"

"Well, yes." Peppy leapt as he felt someone poke him in the back. Peppy
whirled around... and found himself staring straight at Heero.

"Heero? What are you doing here?"

"Just having some fun." Heero lowered his head, chuckling. "You seem to be
alright with taking a multi-million dollar fighter into a drag race, so it
can't be that dangerous."

"What?!" Peppy fumed. "You think this is EASY?!"

"This isn't easy." Heero replied. "FIGHTING with this thing is easy." Heero
smirked as he turned away from Peppy. Peppy, in response, turned back to the
clerk.

"You let him in?!"

The clerk scanned Heero. "Racer #59259, Heero Yuy, piloting the Arwing II."

"No way..!" Peppy turned back... and found no one there. "...well, if Mr.
Yuy is so full of himself... we'll have to see how he does with the Arwing!"
Peppy placed his hands on his hips... though felt sort of concerned given
Heero's earlier performance with the Arwing... "...bah, what am I
thinking..." Peppy sighed again as Balkan and V2 walked through the doors,
their sizes totally mismatched.

"...was that Heero that just walked out?" Balkan asked.

"He's already signed up for the qualifying rounds... first race is on Mute
City's main raceway, two hours. Come to think of it... I wouldn't mind
seeing exactly HOW he does in a situation like this."

V2 crossed his arms. "Is that the same race you're in?"

"Exactly. I have a feeling he's going to get pummeled."

Balkan shook his head. "What is the problem? We have TWO representatives of
the Argetlahm running in the race. I really don't see the bad side of it..."

"Then you obviously know jack about F-Zero." Peppy shot back.



********



As everybody ran about their business, the artificial sun off in the
distance began to sink, casting an orange hue over most of the city. Down on
a walkway interweaved between several dozen other smaller ones, a small set
of tables and accompanying chairs were set up on a large, open grate linked
to a cafe that made up one tier of a gigantic tower. Seated at one table
near the edge were Rika and Eric.

"..." Rika sat with her arms folded, still in her overcoat. A single donut
on a plate sat in front of her, next to a cup of coffee. Across from her,
Eric sat behind a heap of pasta high enough to block his sight of Rika, with
several other side-dishes scattered around the surface.

"...I'm at least grateful someplace here serves nearly edible food." Rika
coughed.

Eric leant on the table. All his dishes were empty. "Yeah, alien dishes are
an aquired tastes." He held his arm up. "Waiter! Another plate of squid gut
pasta?"

"Oh, hell..." Rika scoffed. She began to get up from the table, but noticed
Renamon in her head screaming at her.

"SIDDOWN!!" the imaginary Renamon shrieked, causing Rika to fall back in her
chair again. She shook her head, and turned back to Eric, sighing in disgust
as he began to dig into another plate of the irregular pasta.

"Well, I'd better start up SOME kind of conversation before Renamon
notices..." Rika murmured to herself. She cleared her throat. "So, Eric.
Where did you get all your techniques?"

"Bah, only know a couple. The ones I DO know I found by accident. Were you
listening to a thing Magnus said?"

"I wasn't there."

"OH, YEAH!" Eric shouted. "I forgot. Anyways, I'm Magnus' brother."

Rika spat out a mouthful of coffee. "...what?! Why does no one tell me these
things?!"

"His mom was a summoner, and his dad was a refugee from Vegeta-sei.
According to what Magnus told me, I had successfully combined first level Ki
skill and the first tier of summoning, fire into the attack Neutron Flare.
Which reminds me... I have to talk to him and see if he knows any other
possible combinations."

"That's.. great." Rika said.

Eric placed his silverware down. "Well, that was great. You're gonna finish
that?"

Rika looked down at her quarter-donut. "Yeah. Maybe later." she took the
donut off the table and placed it in her coat pocket. "...so... now what?"

Eric folded his arms behind him and leant backwards. "Yeah, what?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what do YOU wanna do? We've already eaten, that's the first order of
business... so what's next?"

"I thought YOU were controlling this."

Eric shook his head. "YOU'RE the guest of honor."

"Ha ha." Rika droned. "Let's see... what CAN we d... we? What can I do?" She
looked around herself. Many of the walkways around her were beginning to
become less and less populated. "Man, I can't stick around with him ALONE
out here! There's got to be somewhere crowded where I can go... hmm.. that's
it! Everybody else is at the Smash competitions and the F-Zero tracks... but
where are those?! Crap... c'mon, think of something..."

Eric blinked. "...maybe... you wanna head to where the Smash matches are
going?"

"Let's!" Rika blurted. "...um.. yeah."

"Funny you should say that," Eric grimaced. "'cause look what I got!" Rika's
eyes went wide as Eric produced a pair of tickets and held them up. "I got
you and me free cover charge into Club Treno, it's a big place right near
Smash HQ! They're gonna have the preliminary matches on a big screen
tonight! I wonder if we'll see Fox and Falco! And if you're REALLY
serious..." Eric pulled out another slip, a coupon. "...you can get season
tickets."

Rika blinked in confusion. "...uh...um... I... guess?"

"Great! Everything's starting in an hour or so. You wanna head over now?"

Rika was still lost. "...sure?" **Is this guy serious?**



********



Serge, Takeru, Shaun and Crono all sat in a small booth, silently sipping
cups of coffee. Meanwhile, around them, a large group was seated in
scattered chairs at one end of the room watching a currently going match on
a medium-sized TV hanging from the celing. Onscreen, a short, fat man in
jean overalls was trading blows with what looked like a giant yellow rat. As
the rat attempted to whip his opponent with his jagged tail, the man grabbed
it and proceeded to hammer-throw his oppressor far off into the distance and
off the arena. The rat fell about 50 feet before impacting against a
purple-tinted energy barrier. In the corner of the screen, alongside
percentage damages of each player, the words GAME SET blinked. Shaun watched
intently as the spectators leapt into an outroar, cheering and giving each
other high fives, among other things.

Serge turned back to the group. "What are we doing here again?"

"We have to wait while everyone else goes through their physical testing,"
Takeru responded. "I was surprised we got right into the heart of Smash HQ
in under ten minutes, but it doesn't look like anyone else is going to be
that lucky."

Crono just sighed in response.

Everybody in the room turned their heads as a door slid open with a hiss at
the far end of the room, and another eight people of different heights
strided into the room, seating themselves at another cluster of seats around
a pair of tables. They had devices on their chests and backs, signifying
that they themselves just had matches. Shaun looked up again as more people
entered - Fox, Takato and Guilmon. "Well, guys, we managed to get Guilmon
registered as an anthro... what the?" Fox pointed towards one of the
occupied tables, where another group of four sat. "Holy crap! It IS you!"

"Whoa! Fox, great to see you again!" One of the figures raised its hand,
bulked up by some metal plating.

Takato stepped forward. "Is that..."

"Ryo Akiyama." a medium-height woman called from the back seat. Ryo scoffed,
staring across to her. Ryo resumed his smile, standing up.

"Takato. This is the LAST place I'd expect to find you. What's going on?"

Takato also had a mile-wide grin. "Ah, it's a long story. I was about to ask
you the same question!"

"Just lookin' for somethin' to do." Ryo wheezed. "We're all good friends
with Falco and Fox. We're in most of the same ladders. C'mon, guys,
introduce yourselves."

Seated adjacent to Ryo was a six-foot tall dog anthro draped in an
excessively long green cloak, and a totally out-of-place two-and-a-half-foot
tall* pink puff with large, beady black eyes. They both turned to Takato,
giving him blank stares.

Fox tapped his foot. "C'mon.. your name is..."

"....S-S-Scias." the dog answered shakily.

"And yours..."

The puff just stared at Fox, and shrugged. It was at that time that Crono
walked up and tilted his head at it. The creature responded. Soon, the two
silent protagonists were in a conversation of body language that no one else
could figure out.

Fox shook his head. "Kirby."

"And the last one..." Shaun stared at the woman, and received a knowing
glare back. "...ah, I FIGURED it was you. What's been going on?"

Takato turned to Shaun. "You know her?"

"Farah Oersted." she smiled, nodding.

"Farah was also one of the people who frequented the Van Eltia. She taught
me a large chunk of my melee moves." he looked her up again. "One of the
heroes that shut down Shizel, remember? Still... what are you doing here?"

"I've been here ever since the new Smash tournament started up a week ago."
Farah climbed around Ryo, and stood to her feet. She was draped in a long
orange and white dress, and wearing fair-sized boots.

Takato blinked. "She fights in that?"

"You'd be surprised." Shaun muttered. "Hey, Farah, we need to unwind until
the exhibition matches start, my friends here are enlisted. I might join up
if I get satisfactory results from my physical... what's been happening to
the guys since I've been gone? I'm kind of wondering what happened to
Reid... I hadn't even heard of him for a couple of weeks before the Van
Eltia incident..."

"Actually, he's here too. Everything's seemed to wind down a bit since
everything happened... about everybody's wound down finally, except Chat,
she kept running around screaming until she hijacked someone else's ship to
use for the time being. We haven't heard from her since."

Shaun sweatdropped.

"Keele was at work with some of his techie friends at Mintche campus, trying
to put together a minor Fringe engine for use in a rally car competition...
Reid agreed to haul it out into the big leagues for prior testing."

"REID is in F-Zero? That's the last thing I'd thought I'd hear. Does he even
know how to drive?"

Farah grimaced, twiddling her thumbs. "See, that's a good part of the reason
I keep an eye on him."

Everybody paused as an explosion rippled from outside. The intercom suddenly
kicked in. "Please do not be alarmed. The Mute City preliminary race is
experiencing some minor technical difficulties. Highway A6 will be closed
for the time being while car debris is cleaned."

Everybody present frowned. "I'm not sure if Reid's presence is a blessing or
a curse." Shaun grumbled.

"Hey, who's match is going right now?..." Ryo looked up to the television.
Onscreen, a pale man with spiked hair and curved shoulderpads waved a lanky
arm at his opponent, a blond, medium height teen in blue short overalls, and
a yellow undershirt. He waved a translucent blue sword at him in response.
Both contestants were stood on top of a building presumably in Mute City
somewhere. The rooftop was wide open, with crates and pipes here and there
to offer some sort of protection and tactical oppritunities. As the
spherical barrier of purple energy expanded out to shield the arena, it
stretched a bit beyond the edges of the facade, to allow either fighter to
fall off. The camera panned around for a bit before the announcer kicked in.

"Beginning round 17 of the Mute City Annual Smash competition, we have two
more gladiators fighting for the coveted slot above the first tier! Fresh
off the presses from our endorsement of Spira's Blitzball league three years
back, our first contestant appears to have been making some impact in the
lower levels of the league in his short time here. Make way for first-level
gladiator Tidus!"

Several people in the front seats started hooting. Everybody else clapped
politely.

"As for our second partic... hmm. This could be something, folks. Data on
our second fighter has been supressed in the time between registration and
our match. Based on cases in the past, this can't be a good thing for his
career, folks. Anyways, welcome first-level gladiator Hyades!"

Farah lent forward. "Hyades...?"

"Oh, he only tried to KILL us how many times!" rang out a shout from the
back. Everybody turned. Standing at the door was a medium-built man in a
blue G-suit, with a large helmet under his arm. He had a head of bushy red
hair that nearly stretched down to his shoulders.

"Reid?" Shaun stammered. "Weren't you..."

Reid shook his head. "Samaurai Goroh tried to do another trick. Off the edge
of the track."

"Aren't you supposed to still be racing though?"

"The bastard put a hell of a lot of shrapnel in the road behind him. Me and
some other cars got their fronts totaled, so I was excused along with them
and granted access into the first round of the F-Zero Jack circuit. I have
another race in Mute City, if I win I might be heading to Silence..."

"Silence?" Locke asked.

"All those moons that are heading around Mute City are artificial, too," Ryo
explained. "That's where they have the majority of the F-Zero races. It's
rumored that some of the highest-level Smash battles are held up there, too.
Silence is the light blue one. It's called that because an unidentifiable
source of white sound was discovered at that point in space when it was
first constructed, making the entire moon completely silent. That's about
all I know."

"What about the other ones?" Raynor interjected.

"All the ones that are visible to the human eye are Big Blue, 96% of its
surface is freshwater, Fire Field is a lava planet, Bianca City is a
sub-colony of Mute City, and Stark Farm doubles as an agricultural center
for Mute City."

"Any ot.." Takeru attempted to speak, but was assaulted with several dozen
Shhhs.

"The match's starting." One observer scowled.

Everybody turned to the screen. Tidus was becoming more restless as the
timer in the corner ticked downwards to game time. Meanwhile, Hyades sat
ready, his arms behind him as if preparing to defend.

"We're ready to go! 3... 2... 1.... FIGHT!"

Tidus began a jog up towards Hyades, anticipating an attack. As he began to
draw closer, with Hyades remaining stationary, Tidus broke into a sprint
straight at the impish fighter. He leapt up with a bellow and flipped
downwards, bringing his blade in one hand down at Hyades' head. Everybody
winced as a crackle echoed out of nowhere. Onscreen, it appeared that Hyades
was holding Tidus' sword off in thin air, but Hyades thrust his hand
forward, revealing a ripple of air in the direction of his palm.

"It looks like Hyades might be charging up for an attack. Tidus might have
his hands full if he can't push forward!"

Tidus pressed down, shoving Hyades back. Tidus quickly rushed, flicking his
wrist forward for a sideways blow, but Hyades yelled out, swinging his hands
up and down. A 20-foot lancing beam of energy slammed down, hitting Tidus
square between the eyes. Instead of slicing through its target like the
attack was intended to, a ripple of blue energy crackled in response and
Tidus was hurled a distance backwards. He quickly got up, pushing on his
sword. In the corner of the screen, Tidus' percentage rose from 0% to 24%.

"An elemental attack! I thought those were strictly forbidden by Smash arena
rules!"

"Used to be. Lately the use of elements has been admitted, though the user
IS subject to severe penalties that may hurt his ranking in future rounds."

Tidus flipped forward, striking a surprised Hyades in the neck with the
sharp edge. Hyades rolled to the side from the impact, smashing through a
heap of crates. Tidus darted over and began to kick the body across the
concrete, quickly raising Hyades' percentage to 50% as Tidus leapt back into
a defensive stance. "Ouch! Eat that!" Tidus' tone quickly rose as Hyades
burst from the wreckage, leaping a good twenty feet into the air. Tidus
bounded forward with agility and leapt in an upward swing, smashing Hyades
further into the air. 64%.

"Eyah!" Tidus shouted, clenching his fist. The concrete underneath his feet
cracked slightly as he began to focus. "I've been saving this one for you!!"
Tidus leapt again as Hyades came down with a crash, swing his sword back and
forward again, spraying a rain of blasts down onto the ground. The hard
granite seemed to absorb the force at first, before exploding violently and
sending shards of rock into the air, Hyades leading. 105%. As Tidus came
down, he landed a hard overhand swing right on top of Hyades' head, spiking
him completely off the building. Hyades let out a squeal as he began what
appeared to be a ten-storey plunge, but instead impacted harmlessly against
a purple barrier. The words GAME SET were stretched across the screen. A
good portion of the crowd in front of the television jumped up, cheering.

"Wow! A near-flawless victory for Tidus! If he can keep a pattern like THAT
up, he should have no trouble in the next round."

A man walked up, switching off the television. "That's all the ladder
matches for today, folks. If you want, you can get front row seats at the
exhibition matches for free. Just follow the directions on the schedule."

Takeru watched as everybody got up and headed in different directions.
"...how does this work?"

Falco walked by, carrying a hockey bag. "We just use the tube stations we
told you about earlier. They lead all over Mute City. It should be a couple
minutes of walking from the station nearest the arena."

"Who's on first?" Patamon asked.

Takato leant on his toes, peering above the crowd around the newly-posted
sheet. "First match... Brinstar... the match's between... Takeru Takishi and
Guilmon... versus Serge and...Crono! Report to warpstation B7."

Fox shrugged. "Brinstar? They never toss that in exhibition matches. Well,
all I can say is that you guys are in for a ride, 'cause that's not any
normal arena. You're going to be warping to Silence, and you're gonna be
fighting underground. Brinstar is an actual planet, but it's a good distance
away from here, so they found something similar to its interior there."

"Any matches later?" Dante asked.

"Just a second." Takato pushed forward into the crowd, now nearly
diminished. "Second match... Dante Sparda and Glenn Fields versus Teisel
Bonne and Scias, at Green Greens. Report to tubestation #3."

Tron rolled her wrist.

"Third... Tron Bonne and Ryo Akiyama versus Robo and Erkel. Rainbow Cruise.
Tubestation #12. There's one more here - Locke Cole versus Cecil Harvey,
Fourside Heights. Tubestation A."

Fox blinked. "Cecil Harvey? What's HE doing in the exhibitions?"

Kirby waved his limbs around at Crono. Crono waved his limbs around to Ryo.

"...yeah, that's right." Ryo murmured.

"How do you figure out what these morons mean?" Teisel spat.

Ryo shrugged. "I'm used to it. Anyways, Cecil Harvey is THE original Smash
swordsman. Hey, Fox, you remember when Marth and Roy hung out around here?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Cecil stole the publicity from them. Though they never had a big match,
Cecil stole the title of Mute City's swordsman from the two when they
weren't looking. Normally Cecil's hanging around the medium-high level Smash
rankings! I wonder what he would be doing in the exhibitions... it's rumored
that he might be a paladin."

"Bah," Locke chuckled. "Let's just let the game go on, and may the best man
win."

"For some odd reason, the name sounds somehow... badass." Glenn rubbed his
chin.

"Then let's go." Falco nodded. "We don't have much time before these matches
start."

"Great, let's get a moveon. How about you, Far... ah?" Shaun turned to find
no one there. Ryo was headed out the door. "Hey, Ryo, where're you headed?
Your match starts in a couple hours."

"Sure does," Ryo chuckled. "I've got a couple of things to do before then.
Don't worry."




********




In a similar building on the other side of the city, everybody else was
seated on a large sofa set up in a lowered section of a restaraunt. Other
people stood, sat on the floor, or sat at nearby tables to get a good view
of the bigscreen in front of them. On the plasma television, repeated flybys
of Mute City's racetrack were being played. The eatery's patrons seemed to
shrink away from Balkan's side of the couch, him being at least two feet
taller than everyone else and extremely built.

"Aw, man, when does this start?" Gohan sighed. "We've been sitting here for
fifteen minutes already."

"Public humilations always take time." Vegeta muttered. "I'm watching to see
the one person that drives off the edge."

Ultimanium started to speak but was overshadowed by the two speakers set up
next to the television. "Ladies and gentlement, welcome to the first round
of the F-Zero Grand Prix, Queen circuit, set in beautiful Mute City. You may
be wondering why Jack circuit isn't currently being shown. As a matter of
fact, it is beginning in several hours..."

The camera switched to an isometric view of the starting grid, where racers
were quickly darting around their racers, standing and waving to the crowd
or seated already in their craft. "...and its winners will be added into the
Queen bracket partway through. We think this new setup will give some fierce
competition that's preserved throughout the rest of the season. We all saw
Captain Falcon's masterful qualifying time, but it looks like he'll have
some competition in the pole position today..."

"Let's get started, shall we? Leading the pole position in the first Mute
City race in the Queen Circuit... 1st place is held by Captain Falcon in the
Blue Falcon, as said before."

The crowd in the nearby grandstands rose into an roaring cheer. Everybody on
the couch held their ears shut as the treble from the speakers kicked in.
Onscreen, the figure in blue spandex gave a hearty wave from the crowd, and
clasped his helmet on. He immediately sunk into the superlight craft, and
clicked the cockpit shut.

"Second in pole position, suspended three times throughout his earlier
seasons for unsportsmanlike conduct but obviously back, Max Damage and the
Eagle 3!"

An extremely tall, shirtless bald with man with piercings around his body
gave an insulting laugh out into the crowd. He flipped backwards into his
car, landing on his back on a metal strip on top of his car. It lowered, and
a panel of cherry-red metal, colored like the rest of the vehicle slid out
over him. The actual machine was much like a sports car, with its axels
removed and replaced with F-Zero standard-issue opposing-gravity devices. It
was covered with a finely polished red sheen, and had a gigantic spoiler
hanging off the back.

"Third! Miles Prower in the Winged Victory!"

A four-and-a-half* foot tall fox stood waving, a pair of tails swishing
impatiently behind him. He kicked off the side of his craft, jumping and
falling perfectly into the cockpit. The vehicle looked like it had once been
a jet plane but cut in half horizontally, leaving a giant radial engine in
front powering the craft, and a tall fin in the back with an emblem of a
pair of tails. The entire transport was covered in blue patchwork metal
plates, connected with hundreds of screws.

"In fourth place, making a dramatic recovery from his qualifying race's
tragedy, Samurai Goroh in the Fire Stingray!"

A large man in an aging pilot's helmet and bomber jacket, with a shirt with
a rising sun underneath, stood grinning and apparently taking in all the
cheering that was going on with ease - even if it wasn't directed
necessarily AT him.

"Many of the trailing racers hail from the first qualifying rounds, as seen
last Wednesday. Of particular interest is Pico and the Wild Goose, as this
is the first F-Zero Grand Prix he's taken part in since his wild accident
three years ago. Well, with all regards, we welcome you back, Pico!"

The camera quickly zoomed into the middle of the pack, where a medium-sized
scaly figure was in the process of getting into his moderately-armored dark
green car. While it certainly didn't appear aerodynamic, it didn't look very
pleasing to get rammed by it.

"That's our lineup for today's race. We will now have a two-minute T-minus
for our racers to get ready and in their cars, as well as a last-minute
checkup by their faithful pit crews. We'll be back right after these
messages from our sponsors..."

V2 drummed his fingers on the cushions on both sides of him. "Awwwwww!!
This'll never get going!"

Gohan leant forward. "I think I can see Peppy in the front third." Everybody
else craned forward in response. Indeed, the Arwing stuck out like a sore
thumb in the phalanx of high-performance racers. Peppy bent down into the
cockpit and cranked a lever, causing the wings of the fighter to contract
and lock onto the sides of the ship.

Ultimanium remained silent.

"Something troubles you." Balkan groaned.

"I don't know why, but I'm kind of concerned about the Argetlahm staying
where it is..."

"What's wrong?" Vegeta mocked. "Lose your key?"

"That thing can't be moved by a cruise missile if it's parked in the
position it's in," Gohan sighed. "Don't worry. I'm sure Minonim'll have
everything under control if anything goes wrong. Say, how DID you lock the
place down, anyways?"

Ultimanium nodded. "Minonim, don't let anyone aboard that isn't fighting
Antimagnus."

"I'd advise you to think of a collective term for the Argetlahm before a
technicality causes it to vanish into thin air." Vegeta huffed.


********


The crowd's cheering could be heard, though at a much lower tone. The solid
concrete support celing above Ryo was mostly to blame. Ryo quickly rushed
through the hallways underneath the grandstand with a hockey bag slung over
his shoulder, rapidly turning as the path he remembered to the main stretch
pulsed in his memory. He breathed a sigh of relief as he came out into a
slightly wider hall, with a door of light at the end. He burst out into the
F-Zero Mute City starting grid, and quickly glanced around himself. He
grinned as he spotted a giant, dull-grey painted vehicle in the midst of the
group. It basically looked like a giant rocket engine with a hastily crafted
single-man cockpit on top, and a medium-sized sloping fin in the back with a
lightning bolt on it.

Ryo slowed to a stop as a cart rolled out from underneath the missile. On
top of it was a mechanic, in a long black t-shirt and slacks. He tossed a
wrench to the ground and sat up. He had a head full of brown hair, stuck in
clumps from sweat. He whistled, sweeping sweat off his forehead, blocked
somewhat by a visor.

Ryo nodded, and smiled as he rubbed his hand along the surface of the craft.
"Everything goin' well, Kazu?"

"It's about freaking TIME you got here!" Hirokazu huffed. "The damn race
STARTS in under two minutes, you know!"

"Hey, don't worry," Ryo quickly laughed back. "You know I always get here in
time!"

"'In time' is a bit stretching it. Hey, the Silver Thunder's all ready to
go. Everything's tricked out just the way you like it. Just go out there and
win."

"...you're pissed off, aren't you?"

"...I know it, I just know it, one of these times you're not GOING to come,
and every other car here is going to run me over when the green light hits!
I tell ya, Ryo, I don't think balancing Smash Bros. and F-Zero is really the
way to go."

"Just trust me." Ryo climbed up and over the Silver Thunder, sliding himself
into the padded cockpit. "I mean, every time so far, right?"

Hirokazu just frowned, shaking his head. He began to step away as the
engines of the Silver Thunder began to power up, lifting it a couple feet
off the ground. He picked up his box of tools and quickly darted across the
raceway to the far end, as much of the other mechanics and pit crew were
doing.

"Racers! On your mark, begin the F-Zero Queen Circuit Grand Prix! Let the
best man win! 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."

"GOOOO!!"


********


Takeru and Guilmon stood on one side of the capsule, while Serge and Crono
stood on the other. Outside, space was hurtling by them as the space station
beneath them began to shrink, and a distant moon started to take form.

"...Silence..." Serge droned.

"Say, why aren't our brains blasted out of our heads already?" Takeru asked.
"I mean, we're travelling way faster than the Argetlahm ever has and I
haven't felt a bump yet."

Crono turned and stared at Guilmon, who appeared to get slightly queasy at
the mentioning of his brains being dislodged violently. He tapped Serge on
the shoulder and whispered into his ear. Serge shook his head. "Well,
apparently it's already happened. Seriously, though, since Mute City has the
technology to create kinetic amplifiers, they must obviously have some sort
of method of pacifying kinetic energy and momentum."

"...wait a min

FRAAAASSHH

In a split second, the capsule's inhabitants were crushed against the floor
from the continuing force of the ship's high-velocity impact against the
surface of Silence, and their insides were blasted out in giant bloodstains
across the panel flooring of the craft.














































































Or, well, they WOULD'VE, except the kinetic dampeners well still in action
and the ship stopped harmlessly with the same FRAAASH, with everyone still
standing as they were a second ago.

"...that... was weird." Serge gasped.

Everybody backed against one wall as an entire side of the pod folded
backwards with a loud hiss. Outside, several technicians approached the
capsule, and started dismantling the doors. A pair of armed guards ushered
the group out of the space pod and out onto the catwalk in front of them.
While offering a comfortable amount of space to move around in, the pathway
was situated over a literal ocean of puke-colored acid, beneath the roof of
the exquisite caverns of Silence. Off in the distance, a large platform was
held to the celing by a series of girders. Beyond that, several other
similarly designed overhangs sat, many of them being used. There were
one-on-one duels in process on the two farthest ones. Takeru winced as with
one smash a contestant was hurled over the edge of the jagged rock platform,
but breathed a sigh of relief as he/she stopped with a crackle in midair as
a purple barrier underneath him/her brightened into view.

One of the technicians walked into view, flipping through a clipboard.
"Takeru Takaishi, Serge, Crono... Guilmon? Is this our teams for Exhibition
#237?"

"Confirmed. Takeru Takaishi and Guilmon versus Serge and Crono, Brinstar."
the other sung. "Could I please get you to follow our referee?" the man
pointed toward a tall, shriveled man standing next to what looked like an
upward-arched panel of metal with a large arrow painted on it.

Serge walked over, leading the group. "...so, how does this work?"

"I suppose you know many of the important rules of Smash Bros.?" the worker
asked in a raspy voice.

Crono nodded.

"...okay, then. Could I ask you each to step on this panel, one at a time?"

Takeru looked down at the embroidered panel stretching upwards off the main
platform. He turned back to Patamon, who had since seated himself at the
edge of the catwalk, ready to get a good view of the coming match. Takeru
focused on the strip of metal in front of him, and stomped down on the
lighted strip.

He screeched out in fear as the ground left from beneath his feet, and he
was launched in an arc, landing a good two hundred feet away on one of the
battle platforms - in a period of two seconds. Takeru raised his head,
wheezing in a cold sweat as he pushed himself off the ground with his right
arm. He looked up and around the platform. The lower level was awfully
plain, with several wide metal walkways built into the surrounding rock. In
the middle, a strange bird-like statue sat, crouched. The upper platforms
hung off of each side of the arena, held in place by strange,
cartilidge-like cords. Takeru reached behind him, drawing the Sword of Truth
out from the sheath hanging from his hip as the other three contestants
landed around him, Guilmon the nearest. "Wehee!" Guilmon cackled. "That was
fun!"

"Guilmon," Takeru quickly called out. "We're going to be fighting soon. I
know it might not be as comfortable fighting by me as it might be Takato,
but you have to keep a target. Go for Crono, Serge is far too dexterous for
anything but another blade to handle."

Takeru grit his teeth as Guilmon blinked at him, hoping his instructions
could sink into the apparently thick-headed digimon's motive. "...okay!"
Guilmon bobbed his head in acknowledgement.

"Good!" Takeru growled, holding his blade high. On the other side of the
arena, Serge and Crono were in similar poses, ready to attack at a moment's
notice. "It doesn't look like we'll have much else for a plan."

"Ready, combatants! And... fight!!"



********



Rika sat in the expansive lounge, drumming her fingers as she had been
earlier. However, this time it wasn't enough to drown out the growing crowd
around her. The room had at least triple the attendance the cafe she and
Eric had been at had, and the mood was further dampened by the excessive
amount of black light attempting to keep the room with some kind of
atmosphere. From a large door near the back, repetitive dance music was
blaring.

"Don't even THINK about it." Rika grumbled. Eric didn't have time to catch
on to Rika's sudden outburst, but looked up as she gave a disgusted glance
to the door several seats away.

"Whatever floats your boat." Eric said flatly, sipping from a glass of ice
water.

Rika, while somewhat repulsed at the sexual innuendo thrown at her, was
relieved that Eric wasn't the type to force her through hell in the sake of
'having a good time'. "Good. Now that we've gotten THAT down we can just sit
here in PEACE."

A good twenty feet away, the 56-inch TV rapidly switched from an uneventful
rodeo on TNN to a desolate cavern, the score panel in the lower left corner
totally replaced with red and blue symbols. "Welcome to our first exhibition
match of the night, ladies and gentlemen. This year's Smash tournament has
been met with great success, and we hope to expand that popularity with the
exclusive television showing rights of tonight's exhibition matches at the
Club Treno."

Rika glanced over, just enough to notice Eric nodding in her direction.

"Our first exhibition is set on the Brinstar depths of Silence. Team Red,
gladiators Takeru Takaishi and Guilmon, versus Team Blue, Serge and Crono."

"Heeeey!" Eric laughed. "It's TK!"

"Shh!" a voice came from the table behind, a man in yellow suspenders, and
standing red hair held back by a blue bandana. "Hey, we came here to dodge
the hooligans, ya?"

"...um.. sorry." Rika quickly covered up. "Just some friends of ours."

"Kimahri have 50 credits on Takeru." another gruff voice answered.

A short figure rose from the sea of heads, standing on a table. He was
draped in a hastily sewn blue cloak, and his face was shadowed by a large
steepled hat, only his beady yellow eyes visible from the darkness. He held
a carton held forward by a ribbon wrapped around his neck, resting against
his chest. "Peanuts! Get yer peanuts!"

"Hey, over here, little man!" another person stood up, a tall, blond man in
a light green coat. The person seated next to him, a shorter man in a darker
coat with a spiky haircut and a strange, pyramid shaped amulet hung around
his neck winced as his table was showered with a club's-worth of Shhs.

Eric turned back to the screen as Takeru and Guilmon began their mad charge
at their opponents. "C'mon, guys, let's give 'em a show they won't forget."



********



With a slight flash of light, every F-Zero racer on the starting grid leapt
another two feet into the air and launched themselves at sonic velocities
down the strip. As the crowds in the grandstands near the pole position
began the Wave, everybody in the cafe leant towards the television. The
camera angle switched to an overhead view of one of the cars in the middle
of the pack, one that hadn't been mentioned in the starting lineup. It had a
large spoiler on the back, keeping the largely under-sleek vehicle straight.
It was painted a midnight black, with dark red flame pinstriping on the
bottom. Ahead, some of the cars could be seen nudging each other as they
came up to a wide turn.

"Damn it, I lost Peppy," Gohan grumbled. "Why do they have to change the
angle every freaking second?"

"It's called dramatic effect, Gohan." V2 replied.

"These vehicles travel extremely fast for a purely mechanical design, I must
say," Balkan droned. "I don't believe I've seen this engine technology on
Earth at any point."

"That Miles guy is pretty good," Ultimanium gestured toward the front, where
the Winged Victory, the Blue Falcon and the Fire Stingray were all trading
blows. They broke off as the track curved upwards quickly, and the oncoming
traffic flew up and down the placed loop. Slowly advancing on the conflict
for first place was the Silver Thunder.


********


Ryo quickly tossed his yoke back and forth, weaving around the traffic on
all sides of him. As he came to an open area of the track, he could see the
usual aggressors of the race beating on the Winged Victory and each other.

"That's funny," Ryo coughed. "Goroh was supposed to do a crazy turn and blow
his racer to smithereen MINUTES ago. Well, maybe he just needs some
motivation." Ryo grimaced as he slammed the yoke forward, causing the
booster on the back of the vehicle to spout a small jet of turquoise flame.
As the Fire Stingray began another bank towards the Winged Victory, Ryo
jetted forward diagonally and rammed the pink hovercraft in the left rear,
causing it to turn out of control to the side. Goroh's frantic yells could
be heard as his vehicle flew spinning off a sharp turn which everyone else
graced with ease, and began falling until his vehicle fell apart in a
fireball. Goroh could be seen parachuting down into the city center of Mute
City, shaking his fists and cursing. Ryo pulled up alongside the Winged
Victory, with Tails staring at him in surprise. Before he could get his eyes
back on the road, the Winged Victory suddenly turned toward him via another
impact from the Blue Falcon. Ryo cursed as he quickly twisted his craft to
the side, and winced as it bounced off the mild energy barrier on the side
of the straightway, causing him to lose speed quickly. Another ten cars
passed Ryo before he could shoot forward with another boost of energy.

The first one was Heero.


********


Meanwhile, high above the race track, another Arwing flew lazily across the
sky, with Falco piloting it. He glanced down at his watch. "...bleh, 3:30.
Still have another hour." He turned back to the horizon, which was teeming
with towering skyscrapers. Falco always enjoyed a good flyby of Mute City
before a match started - he had clearly stated time and time again that a
quick half hour of reflection and relaxation helped him more than rigorous
training ever did. And the slow moving, beautiful skyline of Mute City was
the perfect place for that R&R. Falco suddenly jumped, however, as a siren
blared out from behind him. Falco pulled down a screeen in front of him,
revealing his pursuer. It was a police cruiser, at least three times the
size of his Arwing. "...uh... can I help you?"

"Please disable your blasters before we are forced to destroy you."

Falco sweatdropped. "...my bad." he reached up and flicked a switch on the
celing, causing a green light on the front panel of the cockpit to go dim.
As soon as it did, the police cruiser banked on its side and plunged down
towards the city.

"Can't blame ya..." Falco looked back up towards the skyline. Something
caught his attention though. Down on one of the tallest skyscrapers, a pale
man was standing, draped in bizarre armor. More strange, there was no roof
access in the first place. "...who the hell is that...?" Falco twisted his
flight stick to the side, feeling the Arwing tilt slightly and drop in
altitude. When he got to a safe distance, Falco banked the Arwing and flew
by the structure again.

Down on the roof, the figure... was watching him. Though Falco couldn't pin
his approval on it, it was almost like the man was maintaining perfect eye
contact with him. "...huzzah?" As Falco spoke out in confusion, the figure
responded with a toothy grin. A toothy grin... with jagged teeth.

Falco paled as he felt himself let go of the flight stick. As he left his
hand off it, the autopilot engaged fifteen seconds later to keep the
expensive fighter from plummeting to the ground.

"Eeeya ooseeak alleed! Eekyaa rallee euro... Illiee allsoo ralee!"

Falco felt the Arwing pause.



"Hyades."










********


* - Although their respective games render Kirby and Tails different
heights, I just changed it around a little to keep things in perspective.
For example, in SSBM Kirby is said to be eight inches tall. Well, if that
were true, that would mean that Bowser's under three feet. -_-' Boy, now
THAT'S intimidating.


********





END OF PART 1









TRANCE TRAUMA

Competition (Part 2)









Takeru hasted his pace with a growl as he lunged towards Serge. Serge got in
an appropriate stance to counter Takeru's assault. As Takeru leapt up high
ready to bring his Sword in a massive downward swing, Serge flicked his
wrist and struck the blade on the side with the Setra Weapon. Takeru lost
his balance in the air, landing in a slide next to Serge. As Serge advanced
on the body, Takeru bounded off the ground, spinning. He tossed the blade to
his other hand and struck Serge's barrier with a heavy side-slash.

Takeru 14%
Serge 16%

As Takeru landed back on his feet, he began slashing away at Serge, who
hopped back to dodge nearly all the blows. As Serge leapt back his farthest,
though, Takeru lunged forward in a fierce jab. The barrier took the impact,
though the sword was nearly managing to force through it. As Takeru applied
force, the damage counter ticked up accordingly.

Takeru 14%
Serge 32%

Serge grit his teeth. Takeru had just sat there for two seconds pushing. So
Serge smacked him across the side of the head with the sharp edge of his
swallow.

Takeru 22%
Serge 32%

Takeru found himself stumbling to his side, but quickly righted himself -
but not soon enough to avoid crossing right into Crono and Guilmon's sortie.
Guilmon backed right over Takeru in the process of dodging a ferocious swipe
from Crono's katana, and they both fell to the ground. Everybody on the
sidelines sweatdropped. Serge and Crono exchanged glances as the other team
quickly got up, Guilmon slipping and falling again.

Takeru 24%
Serge 32%
Guilmon 4%
Crono 0%

Serge leapt at Takeru, ready for another strike. Takeru flipped out of the
way, landing on a small platform above. Serge grimaced, running up a nearby
ramp to gain access to his target. Serge spun at the top, holding back his
swallow as he began another mad charge at Takeru. Takeru glanced over to his
side as a small capsule fell to his feet. "...an item!" He quickly picked it
up in his right hand, switching his sword. He held Serge back with weak
parries. As Serge began an overhand swing, Takeru rolled to the side, ending
up completely behind him. Takeru quickly tossed the capsule against the
ground, causing it to crack. He quickly bent down and dumped its contents
into his hand - a small land mine. As he finished he was hit hard in the
head by a devastating axe-swing from Serge. Beginning to feel the effects of
damage, Takeru was sent sailing a good 15 feet down the walkway.

Takeru 38%
Serge 32%
Guilmon 4%
Crono 0%

Down on the ground below, Guilmon had just about had it. After a lightning
quick series of swings, he reached forward and clamped his jaws down on the
end of Crono's blade. Crono's eyes went wide and he began shaking his sword
furiously, Guilmon trailing. Though slamming Guilmon against the ground
didn't do anything, the sword slipped from Crono's hand and Guilmon had
control over it. Crono stood for a second, staring at the digimon. After a
brief staring contest, Crono simply leant forward and punched Guilmon
directly in the face, causing him to fall over - and the katana to fly
spinning from his mouth. The blade arced through the air until it flew and
sliced apart one of the cartilidge ropes holding the platforms to the main
foundation - the one that Takeru and Serge were fighting on.

Takeru lurched as his end of the platform was launched into the air, strain
being released from the platform being tied down. Takeru screeched as he was
launched into the air, flying high above the platform and off into the
distance. Serge, while further down the platform, suffered the same fate. He
was launched through the air, though not to the same extent. However, it was
quite clear to see - they weren't coming back. Serge flailed his limbs
wildly, though Takeru was standing upright in the air. "Craaaap... If I want
to use MAGIC to get over there, I'm gonna have to concentrate..." he looked
down at the acid ocean seemingly miles beneath him. "..and THAT'S not
helping! There's got to be a w..." Takeru looked down at the mine in his
hands. "God, I hope this works..." Takeru closed his eyes as he clamped the
mine onto his chest. A loud bleep filled the cavern as everybody on the main
platform noticed a small explosion off in the distance. Serge watched as he
continued falling, shortly before he landed on his back on the surrounding
barrier. The energy cushioned him, but there was no more denying it - he was
gone.

Crono turned in time to see a charred Takeru torpedo hurl through the air
and land in a long grind along the rock platform. He stood, blinking, as
Takeru slowly got up, brushing himself off, and tossing his totally
destroyed cape to the ground. "Bet you didn't expect to see me back here?"
Takeru grinned as he lowered himself back into his fight stance. "Well, I
got blasted in one direction, so I needed something to blast me in the
other. I had just the ticket."

Takeru 135%
Serge N/A
Guilmon 10%
Crono 2%

Crono growled, dashing to the side to grab his blade from the ground. He
turned and rushed Takeru, beginning a long series of diagonal swings. Takeru
blocked them all, then cried as he jousted forward, punching clean through
Crono's barrier. The point of the Sword of Truth was inches away from his
face.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that was the prime example of a successful Smash
Attack to date. It appears that Team Red has taken this match by storm! But
don't relax yet, the last competitor of Blue may still have some tricks up
his sleeve, given that he has barely taken a scratch yet save for that last
Smash."

Crono appeared to hear this. He hummed to himself, levitating off the
ground. Guilmon and Takeru stopped their charge. "There is some reason I
don't like what this looks like."

"It looks pretty." Guilmon pointed down at the ground, where a series of
green lasers were tracing the ground.

"Ah, just stop it, Crono!" Takeru laughed insultingly. "Just get this over
with!"

Crono's light just intensified.

"..." Takeru paused. "...that... WAS the right thing to say, wasn't it?"

"...maybe he just really really really wants to win this?" Guilmon replied
shakily.

Takeru blinked as a crackling flash erupted from underneath Crono. "...I
think so..." Takeru advanced. "But he's not gonna!"
He hopped back again as a longer-lasting flash blasted forth. Takeru shook
his head. "Jesus, Crono, it's just a game."

Guilmon tilted his head. "Maybe he doesn't think it that way."

Takeru turned back. "Well, this is Crono we're talking about here. He
wouldn't attack, he'd just give some really obvious sign that he wants to
continue!"



TRANCE...


--------

Takeru stumbled as the light brightened to the point it was forcing him
back. Ahead of him, Crono gave an intelligible yell as his deep red hair
flared up into a neon orange. He tossed his sword straight up into the air,
and slammed his palms together, creating a clasping shudder as both his arms
were sheeted in excessively worked bright green metal, from the hand to the
elbow. He caught the blade as it came down, a large shock of energy escaping
from the gauntlets and into the katana. The blade grew slightly, and
broadened. He slammed the weapon into the ground, letting out another hiss
of electricity.

KRONOS - Thunder Trance

--------



"Well, this is lovely..." Takeru muttered, lowering his arms from his eyes.
"How is this match going to turn out versus a Trance?"

"Not very f**king good." Kronos hissed.




Long pause.

Takeru blinked. "Did Crono..."

Guilmon finished. "...just talk?"

"What's so f**king wrong with talking?!" Kronos spat. "What the f**k is the
big f**king deal?!?"


********


A long string of bleeps could be heard from the interior of Club Treno.

Eric dropped his head on the table. "We've created a monster."

"Looks like someone has a potty mouth," the announcer rang in his usual
excessively-cheery voice. "Thank God our sponsors were able to fund our
transmission of this match, otherwise even OUR minds would have been
polluted. Though we watch people kick the crap out of each other 24/7 for a
living, but anyways..."


********


Takeru grimaced, raising his sword. "Looks like he wants to go through with
this. Alright... um.. Kronos, we're trying to finish up this match, like you
insisted... well... could you please not kill us? Pretty please?"

"I just want to win, okay?" Kronos shot back. "I won't kill you if I win! So
f**k off!"

Takeru chuckled nervously. "..o-kay. Well, Guilmon, are we going to give him
a sho..." Takeru turned to see Guilmon bailing off the edge of the platform.
"...well, frick."

Kronos gave a shuddering roar as he blasted forward, a trail of blue energy
following him. Takeru didn't see any other way to stop an assault like this,
so he growled fiercely as he slashed forward as hard as he could to deflect
the charge. Their blades caught with an echoing ring - and Kronos wasn't
moving an inch. Takeru stood awkwardly with his sword to his side, fervently
trying to press Kronos away. Kronos departed, leaving Takeru stumbling. He
brought his blade up with a great swipe, trailing afterimages. He leapt,
kicking off the side of one of the higher platforms and bringing his katana
down hard on Takeru's head. Takeru screeched as the shield buckled under the
pressure, before shattering. The shield generator flew off Takeru's back in
a giant fireball.

"...what happens if he DOES win?" Takeru quickly ran through his head. "If
he manages to get out of here, there's still no telling if he'll be able to
control his Trance or not... and this certainly isn't Crono I'm dealing
with.. I have to get him unconscious, like Charmy did to Ulty... but this
time, he's got a shield in front of him!" He looked back to the main
warpstation, where Patamon watched with wide eyes. "...and I left my
digivice at the main platform!"

"Oh, that's it." Patamon sighed. Takeru stared back. "Hey, mister, is this
an out-of-control situation?"

"Well, yes." one of the workers sighed softly. Everybody in the background
was screaming and running for dear life.

"Keep filming." Patamon hovered over to Takeru's bag, and started digging,
as Takeru in the background rolled out of the way of Kronos' katana as it
smashed the metal plating beneath him to pieces. "Here we go! Patamon...
warp digivolve!"

Patamon lost sight as, momentarily, a pillar of light washed over him. It
quickly scrolled away, leaving his Champion form. He closed his eyes again,
feeling another, larger, wave of power being absorbed. He felt himself
elevate again, before another disc of energy clouded him. As the light
cleared, a pristine grassland was revealed. Over where a large katana could
be seen, it was quickly drawn from the ground. A giant, navy blue gauntlet
flipped the sword in its hand. Before returning the blade to the side of the
massive, similarly-heavily-armed seraphim. Several golden wings flapped out
from behind the angel's back.

"...Seraphimon!"


********


On a lone bench outside of Smash HQ, Fox, Cody and Armadillomon were in
conversation.

"...tonight's been TOO quiet. Even for a city." Cody murmured.

"Think there might be Trances here...?" Armadillomon queried.

Fox shook his head. "Please... I don't want to think about it." Images of
Millenial came to his mind.

"Fox!! Fox!" Everybody turned their heads to see Falco jogging off in the
distance. He continued running to the front of the bench, bowing and panting
for breath. "You'll never guess who I just saw!"

"Captain Falcon?" Fox asked.
"Ultimanium?" Cody asked.
"Elvis?" Armadillomon asked.

Everybody stared at Armadillomon. "...what? Maybe he did."

"That bastard Hyades is here!" Falco huffed. "I was doing a flyby of Mute
City and there that little freak was, sitting on top of a building cackling
to himself! It's almost like he knew we were here! It was freaky, it looked
like he was giving me perfect eye contact, and, and.."

"Falco, calm down." Fox interjected. "Now, what's with Hyades?"

"He was up on top of that building, just staring at me! And there wasn't
even a roof access!" Falco coughed. "Ever since that shitkicker dinged the
Great Fox, I'd been wondering where the hell he went!" Falco continued
grumbling as he kicked an empty pop can away.

Cody shrugged. "Well, don't a lot of things ding the Great Fox?"

"Not things that leave a big freaking hole in the side of the ship." Fox
said flatly. "ROB didn't even remember what happened , so we got in major
crap from Pepper the following day. It's always made me wonder - what kind
of ship, with a brush, could do that kind of damage? I heard it, I know
that, and it sounded NOTHING like the damage that we eventually found. Slipp
y nearly got sucked out repairing the damages, but that's nothing new to
him." Fox looked over to the group, which nodded. "Seriously, if he's a
Trance, I'm going to vomit."

He would have, too, if he noticed he was being watched.


********


"Well, ladies and gentlemen, this has been a long hard day of racing, and on
our sixth lap of the expansive Mute City circuit our starting grid has been
shaved down to six finalists. For those of you who have just gotten back or
begun watching, F-Zero Grand Prix races, unlike single ones, are based on a
Sudden Death policy - the two last people in each lap are eliminated,
leaving everyone else intact. This continues until the last lap, where the
first placer at the end of that lap is deemed the winner. Back to our race,
sports fans."

Peppy's Arwing glided across the track effortlessly, beginning a section of
track that lead in a slow corkscrew towards the ground. He was fifth at the
moment, with Black Bull trailing ahead of him, the Blue Falcon, Winged
Victory and Silver Thunder were all trading blows, STILL, though his prime
concern was Heero, who sat tauntingly in front of him.

"I'm obliged to turn on the blasters." Peppy muttered.

The Arwing ahead of Peppy wavered tauntingly. Peppy sighed as he watched the
fighter boost forward, this time landing directly behind the Winged Victory.
"Sounds inviting. You want road rage? I'll give you guys road rage..." Peppy
flipped back a small red panel on his right, and flicked forward the switch
underneath it. The red jetstream behind Peppy's craft quickly turned a light
blue as the craft began to pick up speed. Peppy grit his teeth as the nose
of the Arwing landed with a loud clank against Heero's left wing, shoving
him forward against the Winged Victory. The blue craft glided forward from
the impact, sliding it into first place as the Blue Falcon and Silver
Thunder slammed into each other in a failed attempt to sandwich the cobalt
plane. Tails turned and grinned at his pursuers as he took off ahead in
another nitro boost. Everybody blinked as they saw him sink into the
horizon, not aware of the sudden drop ahead. Every car drove straight off
the end of the track, landing on the starting straightway below. It was
under twenty seconds of the official start line.

Both Heero and Peppy growled, falling back in their seats as the both
reactivated their boosts. They both went around opposite sides of the Blue
Falcon and Silver Thunder. With their acceleration they were virtually
guaranteed slots in the next lap, but it was down to the Blue Falcon and the
Silver Thunder in a battle for fourth place. Black Bull was nearly being
lapped, so he wouldn't be a problem.

Captain Falcon and Ryo both exchanged glares from each others' cockpits. The
sides of the windows adjacent to each other opened as they drew closer -
soon, both racers were leaning entirely out of their racers, smacking each
other, Ryo starting. Falcon countered, but it was easy to see that they had
no idea what was happening on the road ahead. Both vehicles swerved slightly
as their drivers received vicious slaps from each other. Ryo's head was
forced back by a backhand, and he turned just in time to catch Falcon's
elbow in his face. He fell, sprawled sideways across his controls. The
Silver Thunder turned, and started skidding down the road completely
sideways. It was only a matter of time before the craft turned over and
flipped, bouncing viciously against the hard pavement. Everybody in the
audience shuddered as the Silver Thunder exploded in a blue shockwave,
sending debris everywhere. As Captain Falcon, Peppy, Heero and Tails all
shot across the finish line, ready for the next lap, all eyes turned to the
burning heap several minutes away.

Ryo fell out of the sky, landing braced on one knee. He slowly rose his
head, his clothes covered in burns and his bandana totally ruined.
Cautiously he stood up, brushing himself off. He turned back to his vehicle,
or what was left of it. What used to be a high-performance F-Zero racer was
a pile of burning slag, at least the quarter of it that was left at ground
zero. "Ryo!" Ryo turned to see Hirokazu running out from the pit stop. "What
the hell happened there?!"

Ryo shook his head. "Bah, I'll never understand Falcon."

A vein bulged in Kazu's forehead, his teeth grit in a stupid position as he
shook his fist. "That fucknut! He's ALWAYS the one who kills off someone in
the last minute!" He took a deep breath, sliding off his visor. "...well,
it's great to see the High-Velocity Dispersal Seat Mk. III works well,
anyways. Who knows what kind of a job I'd wind up doin' if I didn't know
you, huh?"

Ryo chuckled. "Makes me wonder. Hey, you hungry?"

"As long as we're gettin' Chinese." Hirokazu and Ryo simply strided off the
track and out through the grandstands, all the spectators making a path for
them, jaws dropped to the floor.


********


"No, we're not."

"Pleeeeeeeease!" Charmy ran another lap around the couch, V2, Gohan, Vegeta
and Balkan adjusting their heads accordingly to get a good view of the TV.

Ultimanium's face shriveled. "What the hell is wrong with you? We've talked
for about half an hour since you boarded the Argetlahm, and you're..."

"Please?" Ultimanium paused as Charmy shoved into his face.

"...no." Ultimanium thrust out with his index finger, pushing Charmy away
from him. Charmy stumbled back, landing flat on her ass. Everybody else in
the cafe started throwing their garbage at her.

"Hey, move it! You're blocking the view!"

Charmy squeaked and rolled out of the way as a giant thermos full of coffee
splashed where she once laid. "Please, Ulty? It's not what you think! I just
want to talk!"

"You sure didn't make it sound that way." V2 sighed.

"Last I recall, I think you were the one who screamed 'Ulty, go out with me,
PLEEEEASE'." Gohan droned, never lifting his eyes from the TV."

"S-so I'm a little spontaneous!" Charmy stammered.

Balkan leant over, whispering to Ultimanium. "Do you get this a lot?"
Ultimanium just stared at Balkan. "...sorry."

Ultimanium stood up, leaving off to the side. "Fine, fine, damn it. We're
only going to 'talk', LIKE you insist, and to that extent we're only going
as far as out onto the street. Understood?" Charmy nodded fervently. "Okay."

The door opened with a chime, with Ultimanium and Charmy stepping outside.
As with most businesses in the area, the cafe was set alongside one of the
many tiny catwalks that weaved throughout the city. Off in the distance, the
sun was beginning to set, making all the hovercar traffic that much more
noticable as black silohuettes, hanging in the air. As the door fell shut
with a slam and another chime, Ultimanium turned to Charmy. "Make it quick,
the commercials should be over pretty quick."

"Are you SURE that's what you want to do?"

"It's a bigscreen TV. It's a club. And there's plenty of alcohol ready just
in case. It's been a while since I've been able to do this kind of thing,
clubhopping and all, okay? Go and have fun like the rest of the crew."

Charmy tilted your head. "And how often do girls ask you out?"

"..." Ultimanium sweatdropped. "That's not the point. Listen, I'm pretty
confident I'm not the guy for you, and I don't particularly make it a policy
to have relations with my crewmates."

"Well, you must like me SOMEWHAT, how did you let me on the Argetlahm then?"

"I didn't let you on."

"...well, still!"

"I spazzed on you, and could have potentially eradicated you given you never
absorbed energy from my Trance form to diffuse the blast. I think that
should be unforgivable enough."

Charmy lowered her head. "...well, it WAS the totally wrong topic to rub you
about... I imagine the sort of pain you must be in, being right in the
middle of all this dimensionjumping, having to deal with the Magnusi, and
otherwise having the fate of the entire freaking universe sitting in your
hands, ready to self-destruct when you're not looking... I'm sorry."

Ultimanium stared at Charmy. Charmy stared back. There was a brief pause.
Both of their eyes seemed soothed by the conversation. Slowly, they began to
near each other, watching the other's movement.

Ultimanium sensed a undirected motive within Charmy.
Charmy sensed a lost meaning within Ultimanium.

They bowed toward each other, their faces moving closer. Closer, until they
could feel each others' breath. Charmy's lips quivered. Slowly, they began
to draw nearer.







"I'll get you a good seat for the rest of the race. Stay out of trouble."
Ultimanium abruptly turned and walked back through the door.

Charmy fell to her knees, threw up her arms and screamed.
"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"





********





Ships were coming in and out of the Mute City eastern port in a steady
stream, mostly recreational craft, though one particularly large cruise
liner and several small Cornerian destroyers could be seen docking. In one
medium-large drydock stood the Argetlahm, which slowly bobbed up and down,
though at a degree not noticable to the naked eye. The walkways around it,
all leading to different sections of the drydock, were buzzing with
vacationing famililes, business workers, security guards, and one lone
dalmation anthro sitting on a cardboard box, playing a guitar. An empty soup
can in front of him had an assortment of coins in it, tossed from
passers-by. A collar around his neck read Totokeke. (A/N - Guess this
crossover, people - just try me ;) A pair of walkways leading straight up
towards the Argetlahm were bare, however.

Weaving through the onslaught of frequent travellers was a short girl,
tan-skinned with short blonde hair, draped in a long, red sweatshirt,
covered with multiple burns. She had a small blue stone that appeared to be
embedded in her forehead, though as was the case with most strange people in
Mute City, no one noticed.

"First my interceptor gets captured, then my Zig gets captured, then my
ESCAPE POD gets captured! It's not like those illiterate fruits were doing
anything special with it!" the girl tugged on her socks, muttering to
herself. "Why can't there be any ships easier to steal, or anything..."

She looked up, at the Argetlahm dwarfing her view.

"...bigger?" she gave a low chuckle, stepping out of the onrush of people.
She reached in a large handbag strapped across her shoulder, and tugged out
a large pirate hat. She checked over the top carefully, brushing it off.
"...gah, gets a bit wrinkled in tight quarters, but it's better that than
having it swept away in a crowd..." she grimaced, slapping the giant hat on
her head. She walked up the catwalk leading to the cockpit escape door on
the Argetlahm, where she stopped.

"...man, if giant capships didn't have the security measures to back them up
they'd be practical." she began to check around the door, looking for some
means of opening the heavy steel gate. "...'kay, this one might take some
work..." she bent down, investigating the lower door frame as a monitor slid
out of the other side of the frame and set itself up behind her. It blinked
on, showing Minonim staring at the child, with a confused dim of his eye
lights.

"...well, better get this over with..." Minonim cleared his voice. "MINONIM
CURRENTLY ACTIVE IN AUTO-SENTRY MODE."

The sudden outburst made the girl jump, throwing her back against the door.
"I WASN'T HERE! YOU DIDN'T SEE ME! I DIDN'T DO IT! IT WAS... um... HIM!!"
she shakily shot her finger at a child sitting on a bench and licking an ice
cream, further down the ramp.

"REQUEST CONFIRMATION OF IDENTITY. ARGETLAHM CREW MEMBER. ARE YOU FIGHTING
ANTIMAGNUS?"

She paused. "Are you fighting Antimagnus? What kind of retarded password is
this?"

"THIS IS SIMPLY THE PROCEDURE I WAS INSTRUCTED TO DELIVER TO ANYONE ENTERING
THE ARGETLAHM, AS INSTRUCTED BY THE CAPTAIN OF THIS SHIP, ULTIMANIUM. I
REPEAT, ARE YOU FIGHTING ANTIMAGNUS?"

She rubbed her chin. "Got a one in two chance, I suppose. Um.. yes?"

"PROCEED." the girl jumped back, as, suddenly, the heavy door swung open.
She watched the door for a second, then made sure no one was watching, with
an evil grin on her face all the time. She stepped into the Argetlahm,
walking slowly across the polished bridge floor.

"...quite a piece of work." she stared down at the floor, and staring at the
metal flooring far beneath the Argetlahm. "And all the controls are
organized, too." she looked back up at the main panels, where Minonim was
still busy, fiddling with the controls. "...this should make a fine
replacement ship. Well, time to get cracking..." she walked up to the
control panel, but hopped back as suddenly Minonim turned to face her.

"...well, hello there. I take it Ultimanium's already talked to you about
our mission?" Minonim asked.

(Hmm.. since I got in on the first shot, he must think that I've already
talked to this "Ultimanium"! This is going to be TOO easy!)

"...yes." she nodded.

"Okay, then. I welcome you to the Argetlahm, under control by my captain,
Ultimanium. Being the newest inductee aboard the ship, could I register your
prefered callsign in the database for future use?" Minonim reached over and
tapped a button, causing a screen to eject from the control panel.

The girl finally grinned, leaning on the end of the control panel.
"...Chat."


********



"Well, I think I can speak for all of us watching this match that this one
will be quite memorable. Never before have I seen a match stretched out this
long. Crono must really want to make this one last."

Over on the battle platform, it DID appear to be occuring at a leisurely
pace. Takeru was caught between Kronos' shins as he sat knelt, punching
Takeru's head from side to side. With his other hand, he was making blind
swats behind him, keeping Seraphimon from getting close - the several times
that he DID come in contact with the Trance, the slaps were enough to make
even the large Mega stagger.

Takeru 1242%
Serge N/A
Guilmon N/A
Crono 2%

Takeru coughed. "Alright *WHACK* Crono, I *WHACK* get the po *WHACK* point!
I'll *WHACK* forfeit, if it *WHACK* will make you *WHACK* leave Trance!"

"It'll end, give it a f**king second! I have to make this humiliating first,
though." Kronos quickly whacked Takeru a couple more times.

"Okay, Jesus, just let me go already! You hear me out there? I give up,
okay?" Takeru sighed as a loud thrum washed over the small arena. The purple
power field slowly began to dissiapate. Kronos bounded off of Takeru,
standing a short distance away, as Takeru began to stand up. Even throughout
the intense beating that Kronos was giving him, the energy field stood
strong. What was left of it, anyways. Most of the energy had been diverted
to the kinetic machine, explaining the giant Takeru-shaped crater in the
ground where he had once been laying.

"Team Red has forfeit the match!"

Kronos tossed his arms up. "YEA-" a giant flash blinded Takeru. A split
second later, Crono was standing where his Trance used to be. His arms were
still in the air, but Crono himself blinked in confusion. He looked around
at the arena, heavily damaged from Kronos' attacks. Cronos quickly glanced
around, obviously perplexed at how the arena became how it was.

Seraphimon shrunk in a flash of light, leaving Patamon at ground level.
"...he doesn't know a thing that's been going on."

Takeru slumped over to Crono. "You won."

Crono stood motionless, still blinking. A couple seconds passed. Crono
grinned, and skipped cheerfully over to the exit platform.

"Team Blue has not won, however. Crono's abrupt change in power level is
strictly prohibited by Smash Bros. regulations. Team Red will take the win."

Crono slumped, sweatdropping.


********


Falco leant around the corner of the pillar, watching intently as the crowd
swarmed in different directions in the distance. Entering the crowd was
Hyades. As he was swallowed up by the crowd, Falco stepped around the
corner, casually walking into the midst. Falco stood in the middle of the
group, people scattered in all directions. He turned back as he began
walking again, spotting Hyades buying something from a street vendor. He
scowled as he began to approach him, but his eyes widened as several
children rushed by at his feet, knocking Falco down onto the catwalk. He sat
up, shaking his fists. "Hey, you little brats! Get back here!!" He cursed to
himself as he began to push himself up from the ground. He looked back to
the booth. Hyades was gone. "...damn it, you never DO stay in one place..."

"Please give this up." Falco paled as he felt a clammy hand clamp down unto
his shoulder. Falco spun quickly, knocking his assailant away. Hyades stood
before him, his cold eyes piercing into Falco. "I would not appreciate any
accidents occuring."

"I'll give YOU an accident!" Falco yelled as he lunged forward, striking
forward with his fist. A loud hiss filled the air as Hyades phased away,
leaving Falco tumbling forward and landing on his face. As he did this,
nearby people stumbled back, mothers dragging their children away from the
brawl. Falco threw himself forward onto his hands, and flipped back up. He
quickly turned around, staring down Hyades who stood unharmed where Falco
had launched himself from. "What the hell... quit with the parlor tricks and
let's get this over with!"

Hyades nodded. "Your call." He lunged foward, raising his hands high into
the air. He clawed downwards with his jagged nails, but Falco rolled out of
the way as the blades hit the ground with a clang. Falco quickly
somersaulted behind Hyades, striking him in the back with a vicious chop.
Hyades reeled forward from the hit, and as he hunched over Falco slammed
down on Hyades' outstretched back with a haymaker, collapsing him against
the ground. Falco looked up around him. There was a large crowd already
gathered, obviously Smash spectators from earlier matches that day. It
looked to be a famous backstage brawl wrestling-style, and nothing drove
that point home quite like the crowbar that someone had just tossed across
the ground to Falco. Falco bent down and picked up the bar of tempered
steel, but didn't attack, instead standing over Hyades. "I don't know what
you were thinking of trying to accomplish by ramming MY ride, but I'm
desperate enough to kill."

"This is your downfall." Falco blinked as all of a sudden, Hyades warped
back to a standing position, swinging a blade of yellow energy at him. Falco
shrieked in pain as the sword of lightning struck him in the side, causing
him to crumple where he was as blue energy arced across him. Falco shuffled
on the ground while Hyades watched with grim satisfaction, and the crowd
watched with horror.

"I'm not done yet," Falco coughed. Everybody hopped back as Falco suddenly
expelled the energy, slowly beginning to push himself up. He slowly began to
climb to his feet, shaking his head. "Let's.. just finish this.. I have a
really bitchin' headache now.."

Hyades snarled, leaping at the stunned avian. Falco quickly dodged to the
side as Hyades shot by him, Hyades slamming his foot onto the catwalk to
keep him from flinging himself off into the chasm below. Hyades turned back
to Falco, an expression of fury rapidly growing on his face. "I know this
energy. Is Trance! Allow me to educate you." Falco felt himself go limp as
Hyades dropped to his knees, screaming. He held his head in his hands as his
body began to warp wildly, his lanky figure sprouting large amounts of
muscle. He threw his arms back and bellowed as his exotic shirt exploded
from the strain, leaving what could best be described as a wrestler kneeling
in Hyades' place. His skin took on a dark grey tone, and his eyes turned a
frighteningly bright shade of blue.


********
This Trance has decided his alignment from the beginning of imbument - two
exact opposites. Fire and Ice. Not particularly helping is this Trance's
obscene strength and the ability to use that strength to power up his
elemental charge attacks. Don't stand still when he uses his Kaiser Slam
attack! His Wolf Fang attack can stop you in your tracks if you're not
careful - literally! Being a block of ice is not fun...
********

GEMINI - Dual Trance


"You're a Trance," Falco spat, holding the crowbar behind him with both
hands, ready to swing. "I guess that's it for playing fair." He took a deep
breath as the behemoth began to charge at him. Falco wound up and Gemini
reached behind, ready to backhand the bird out of existance, but looked up
in surprise as Falco was high in the sky, falling rapidly toward him.

"Hyaah!!" Falco dove out of the sky, ready to bring the crowbar down on
Gemini's head. Gemini reached up to intercept the crowbar but instead found
Falco's metal-clad boot in his face. As Gemini stumbled back, Falco pushed
off, performing a backflip and landing back on his feet. Almost immediately,
he began his charge again, swinging the crowbar into Gemini's side,
eliciting a groan of pain from the Trance. Falco took a brief second to
notice that a heavy bar of metal didn't do much to the Trance asides from
motivate him into ripping Falco's head off. Falco looked up, frowning weakly
as Gemini's gargantuan fist slammed directly into his face. Falco yelped
again as he was thrown back through the air a good thirty feet, toppling a
hot dog stand upon landing. Groaning, Falco began to raise himself from the
wreckage, stumbling as he got up. He took a step forward, limping. "Hah. To
be honest with you, Hyades, I was expecting your mighty Trance to kill me in
one hit, but I guess not too many of you are up to Antimagnus' expectations,
huh? You're going to have to do better than that."

"Perhaps YOUR Trance may pose a challenge. I will wait for your full form to
awaken before I do anything... rash. I will be waiting, Falco Lombardi, I
will designate a Smash arena for our true battle."

"Wha, running away so quickly?" Falco chuckled. "I haven't even got STARTED
with you yet!" he laughed harshly, picking up the crowbar from the ground.

"I shall await you at Final Destination. I do not want to be disappointed."
Falco growled as Hyades' voice gradually deepened. Not wasting another
second, Falco lunged foward again, ready to swat Hyades' head right off his
shoulders with the heavy bar of steel. Falco put all his weight into the
swing, but hit dead air. Hyades was nowhere to be seen. Falco held the
weapon in the air for a brief second before lowering it to his side.

"...damn." Falco looked up at the crowd around him, a small portion of the
spectators already gone. "...can he be serious about going to Final
Destination?" Falco looked straight above him. Off in the distance the
ominous tower of girders could be seen reaching endlessly into the sky, its
apex not visible from even Falco's distance back. "He's GOT to know that
place is off-limits... I haven't even been up there!" Most of the crowd was
gone by now. "That surge of power.. was that the beginning of me Trancing?
Nah, seemed too anticlimatic... I wonder how it actually DOES feel.." Falco
felt a chill run down his spine as the image of Millenial completely
obliterating El Trazos flashed through his mind.

"I wonder what Fox would say about all of this..."


********


Teisel writhed around on the ground, Glenn's frequent kicks just nicking
him. Teisel flung himself back onto his hands and sprung forward,
torpedo-kicking Glenn square in the face and sending him skidding backwards,
but shrieked as Dante yelled and brought down his sword in a massive cleave,
barely dodging. Teisel was dodging both Glenn and Dante's attacks, dodging
behind trees when catching his breath. The grass-sheeted platform on which
the match was being held was fairly large, but it didn't seem that way when
the Bonne spent any spare time of his diving out of the way of fatal
attacks. Off in the distance, Scias stood tall on a large stack of star
blocks, staring out into the difference.

"YOU STUPID DOG!!" Teisel dove, rolling out of the way as both Glenn and
Dante attacked his position. "FREAKING HELP ME!!"

"...j-j-just a sec." Scias droned.

Teisel 145%
Glenn 67%
Dante 22%
Scias 0%

"Give a rest," Dante muttered. A Bob-omb strolled in front of him. Dante
flipped the sword around and hit the explosive with a golf-swing from the
flat side of the blade, sending it hurtling off into the distance. Teisel
screeched as he ducked under the projectile, and watched with worry as it
flew off into the distance and landed in a fireball at the foot of Scias'
pillar, unveiling another five bomb blocks in the process. Everybody
shielded their eyes.

FWADOOM

Everybody looked back up. Where the column of blocks had once been, a
charred Scias stood in the middle of a large crater. The anthro shuddered,
dropping a coat of ash to the floor. He appeared bright as new. "...o-ow."


********


Rika leant back in her chair, arms folded. Most of the tables around her and
Eric were now vacant as everybody gathered to watch the Green Greens match.
"I don't get it! What the hell is that other guy thinking?"

"..." Eric stared at the screen for a second, but lurched back in his chair.
"..."

Rika glanced over to Eric, who was certainly looking uncomfortable in his
chair, the back completely broken off of it from Eric's sudden leap
backwards in his seat. "...NOW what's wrong?"

"...Scias is sure to do something, I'm sure of it," Eric murmured. "But
that's not the point. Doesn't it feel like something isn't totally right
with this match...? I mean, asides from the static and all. It doesn't look
like the match is getting full playback and all, like someone is trying to
break into the broadca-" Eric suddenly froze as the screen burst into
static, causing a series of different-pitched groans from the front row.
Everybody shuffled back as Hyades' pale face appeared on screen. "What the-"

"Greetings, sports fans. I terribly hate to interrupt this exhibition match
of yours, but I do believe that you would be interested in the entertainment
I have to offer. In one hour another exhibition will be held, a one-on-one
battle between the champion, me, and the challenger, your Cornerian "glory"
Falco Lombardi on the Final Destination arena!" Hyades chuckled for a second
before breaking out into shrill laughter. "Keep in mind that I am able to
control these broadcasts, so I must say, we should get some prime camera
angles of your fate - if Falco Lombardi loses, I will waste no more time and
destroy this city from the inside out. Manage to impress me, and I might
delay your destruction and give the oppritunity to Antimagnus - a much
quicker and painless death, I agree. Stay tuned, sportsfans!" Hyades tossed
his head back and gave another banshee laugh as the television shut off by
itself.

Eric stood up, ready to leave. "This is bad."

Elsewheres, on a giant-screen television suspended off a larger building,
the same announcment was being made. The catwalks were cluttered with
wide-eyed patrons listening carefully to the revelation. Right in the middle
of the crowd, were Fox, Cody, Armadillomon and Shaun.

"What the hell?" Cody sighed. "We just look away for a SECOND and Trances
are already raping us. What are we supposed to do now?"

"What I'M wondering is how Falco's supposed to handle Final Destination,"
Fox muttered. "That place is nothing but trouble."

Shaun rolled his eyes over. "What IS Final Destination?"

Fox pointed off into the distance. There was the massive metal tower,
reaching into orbit. The purple light in the sky seemed to be pulsing a
darker version of its normal self. "Final Destination is at the very top of
that space elevator. One small platform, and that's all I've been told.
There's been rumors that losers don't come home from the Final Destination,
hence its name. Supposedly there's no shield barrier around the arena."

"That's just plain stupid!" Armadillomon growled. "Then how-"

"That would be why they call it FINAL DESTINATION." Shaun repeated.

"We have to find Falco before the match starts," Fox grumbled. "He doesn't
have any idea what he's going up against, and chances are if he's already
encountered him Hyades has other tricks up his sleeve."


********


Charmy sat at one of the tables in the cafe, leaning with her head resting
against the polished surface. The remainder of the group's half-finished
cups of coffee sat in no particular order around the table, while everyone
else in the coffee shop's couches, talking, not even paying attention to the
race that was going on. Everybody turned over to the screen for a brief
second, then turned back, everyone grumbling at once.

"Captain Falcon. Always Captain Falcon." the cashier muttered. Everybody
else nodded in agreement.

"Who was shut down in the second last lap again?" Gohan asked.

"Peppy and Miles." V2 responded.

"What, so it was between Heero and Falcon?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, God forbid if Peppy walks in here..."

Ultimanium, Balkan and Vegeta were all slumped on another couch nearby.
"Ultimanium," Vegeta groaned. "If you would mind telling me, exactly what
the hell is that girl finding so interesting about large piles of concrete
in the distance? She's sat and stared for three damned hours now."

Ultimanium leant backwards. "Nice view or somethin'?"

"There's a lot of ships," Charmy sighed. "A lot of 'em. Capital ships are
pouring in here like no tomorrow. Holy crap, that one has fins just like the
Argetlahm!"


********


(If you cannot figure out the significance of this last sentence, please
remove yourself from these premises now.)

Chat sat lazily in the captain's chair, slowly twisting the main thruster
stick to the left and right. "Gods, this thing flies like a boulder. Maybe I
should've gotten something with more oomph..." she turned the chair to the
right, where Minonim was continuing to trick out the coffee machine, which
now looked more like a torture device than anything else. "Hey, is there any
way to make this thing move a TEENSY bit faster?"

"Engines are running at 95%," Minonim called back. "Any more output may
produce strain on the Chronoshifters."

Chat sunk in the seat, folding her arms. "C'mon, this is the survival of
Ultimanium we're talking about here," she fibbed. "If we don't get to the
Van Eltia soon he'll probably be dead!"

"It won't do us much good if the engines are on fire," Minonim shot back.
"...still, if Ultimanium has already gotten to the Van Eltia..."

There was a lengthly pause. The noise of the city below slowly began to
dwindle. Chat stood up, heading to the edge of the bridge to look down on
the city. She winced as she swore she could hear an aggravated scream from
down below. In a split second, she leapt back landing on her ass as suddenly
Ultimanium flew up from the city below, Regen ki trailing him, and started
pounding on the front window like crazy.

"Ah, it is you!" Minonim sighed.

"Who the hell is this?!" Chat cried.

"It's Ultimanium!"

Chat started paddling backwards across the floor of the bridge, beginning to
pale. "...ACK ACK ACK ACK ACK ACK-" she whacked up against the open bridge
access door. She slowly looked up to her side - and saw a very pissed off
Ultimanium. Chat shrieked as a hand reached down and grabbed her shirt by
the collar, dragging her up into the air a good three feet off the ground.

"YOU have some EXPLAINING to do, MISS!!" Ultimanium roared.

"It was him." Chat said meekly, pointing at Minonim.

Minonim bowed his head in shame. "Yes, it was me. I'm afraid I've broken the
coffee machine. It DOES look to be a suitable torture device, however."

Ultimanium grimaced, looking down behind Chat, where her large pirate hat
lied sprawled on the floor. "Oh, this is JUST great. I leave for a fucking
DAY and the Argetlahm's already under siege by pirates! MINONIM, I told you
not to let anyone aboard this ship that was fighting Antimagnus!"

Minonim shrugged. "She said she wasn't."

Ultimanium facefaulted, allowing Chat to break free of his grip. "If you'll
GIVE me a damn moment I'll TELL you exactly what I want with the Argetlahm!
If you give me a moment of your time..."

"How the hell did you even get by the failsafes?! Only I'M supposed to be
able to communicate to the Argetlahm through Minonim-"

"Actually," Minonim finished. "Crewwoman Chat stated that you were already
at your destination. Through my protocol the Argetlahm can be harnessed if
you are reported to be in danger."

"WHY THE HELL DO I EVEN *HAVE* YOU AS SECURITY THEN?!" Ultimanium bellowed.

"Just.. hand over the ship, okay? Otherwise I won't have to get nasty."

Ultimanium glanced over to Minonim. Minonim gave a responding beep. "Power
level of Argetlahm crewman Ultimanium: 1 billion. Power level of Argetlahm
crewwoman Chat: 45."

"THIS ISN'T FAI-IR!!" Chat writhed around on the ground for a brief second.
"Listen here Ultimanum-"

"Ultimanium."

"Whatever! I, Chat, am the great-great-granddaughter of the pirate king
Aifried, assigned to steal from the rich for the poor and dispense justice,
and I think borrowing a ship ISN'T AGAINST THE RULES!"

"I'm going to find this thing in a chop shop if I let people like you in
here." Ultimanium muttered.

"Actually, Ultimanium," Minonim interrupted. "Crewwoman Chat has clearly
stated in her profile that she is searching for the Van Eltia."

Ultimanium paused. He turned back to Minonim. "...the Van Eltia?" he glanced
back at Chat. "How do you know about the Van Eltia?"

"BECAUSE IT'S MINE!!" Chat screamed.




"It's.. yours?" Ultimanium sighed, blinking.

"Yes, it's mine!" Chat snapped. "It was handed down to me through the family
heritage, and it was upgraded and turned into a flagship by the Celestian
and Inferian authorities, and it got overrun by Grapplers, and.."

"...do you happen to know someone named Shaun Garin?" Ultimanium asked.

"So don't get on my nerves! And... huh? Do YOU know him?" Chat sat in a
daze.

"Of course, he's with us right now. Actually, he's down in Mute City
somewhere. I haven't seen him since we docked."

Chat blinked. "You know, jet-black hair, large hand cannon, bomber jacket,
carries a yo-"

"Yes. I know."

Chat remained still for a second, before resting her arms behind her head.
"...holy crap. You're serious?"

"Yes." Ultimanium nodded.

"...it's been YEARS since he left the Van Eltia. AND HE NEVER GOT IT BACK!!"
Ultimanium hopped back from Chat's outburst. "He was SUPPOSED to get it
before his 21st birthday! As it stands he has under a month!! What the hell
is he doing on a vacation to freaking Mute City?!"

"He's with us," Ultimanium groaned. "We're heading for the Van Eltia."

"Oh, and I imagine you'll be able to TELL me EXACTLY where the Van Eltia is
at this point in time, right?" Chat mocked.

"We should know. A force far worse than the Grapplers is headed to seize it.
It's in Exodus system."

"THANK YOU, Sherlock! Eternia is in Exodus system! OF COURSE it'll be
there!"

"Don't mind her, Ultimanium," Minonim cut in. "You were down in your bunk
when Shaun was here, explaining the Van Eltia situation more in-depth. Shaun
used to live aboard the Van Eltia, before the Grapplers invaded. He managed
to escape with one of his mentors, a man named Max, and later fled the
Eternia alignment of planets."

"...so that's why he went so psycho when Balkan first mentioned it..."
Ultimanium stared off into the distance. "So, what were YOU here in Mute
City for, Chat?"

"I've been hijacking ships for years on end trying to get one decent ride
back into the Eternia subsystem. Usually one planet to another, dump the
ship, grab another one. Otherwise I would've been attacked by the galaxy
officials, for sure... I had charts with me that had all the wormholes in a
ten-lightyear radius mapped out, so if I had a half-decent ship I could
probably re-enter Eternia in about a month."

"Man, I don't know how I'm going to take another MONTH." Everybody paused as
Heero walked by. He received several stares. "...oh, did I interrupt
anything? If Peppy stops by tell him that I parked the Arwing back in the
Great Fox just like he nags to do. Hey, what's with the midget? Is he with
us or something?"

"SHE!!" Chat screeched. "Anyways, what are you planning to do with the Van
Eltia when you get a hold of it?"

"We're not trying to get a hold of it, just help Shaun liberate it, given
all the Trances are heading there..."

"Trances?"

Ultimanium and Minonim exchanged glances. "I'm not sure if this'll have a
positive impact, but..."

--------

"WHAAAAT?! I can't have people KI fighting in there! Whenever that ship gets
a scratch on it I lose a little bit of myself!!"

"I don't imagine they'll just let us march in and say 'um, could we take
this outside?', I mean, they're all rebels from Balkan's army, and that was
a radical party to begin with. If you want them out of the Van Eltia, you're
going to have to take a risk. Besides, I don't think you'll find too many
people that are willing to do this, let alone for free."

Chat grumbled to herself. "You've got a point. How fast is this thing?"

"Chronoshifters." Ultimanium droned.

"Specs, please?"

Ultimanium paused for a brief second, and looked back at Minonim. The probe
bobbed in acknowledgment, and turned to the control panel as a small slot in
the side printed out a long sheet of dot matrix paper. Minonim tore the page
off and handed it to Ultimanium, and Ultimanium in turn handed it to Chat.
Chat grabbed the sheet, quickly running up and down the scribe of
usually-illegible statistics. "W-whoa! These are state-of-the-art
mechanics!"

"Thank you. We upgraded." Ultimanium said flatly.

"No, I mean, if we even go at 50% engine power we can get to Eternia in a
week at most!"

"Wait, wait," Heero spat. "Fox said that it would take us YEARS."

Ultimanium rolled his eyes. He turned back to Minonim. On cue, a visual
representation of the Argetlahm came up on one of the screens, with the
Great Fox hanging off the hangar. The smaller ship blinked, followed by
another sheet, which Chat tore from the slot. "...well, this would be why.
The Great Fox uses default plasma engines."

"You make it sound like a bad thing." Heero murmured.

Chat held the sheet forward. "According to your history of plasma engines at
the BOTTOM of the sheet, it would appear that default plasma engines were
taken out of Magnopolitian commercial and military usage... 800 years ago."

Ultimanium and Heero facefaulted. Chat walked by, tossing the sheet over her
shoulder. "Yep, that's a fossil you've got over there. I'm surprised I can't
see the runic writing." she chuckled softly as she finished.

"I HEARD THAT!!" Slippy yelled from off the bridge.

"So what's the story? Are you heading out for the Van Eltia right away?"

"As soon as I managed to find a ride." Chat nodded. "Do you mind if I take a
position on the bridge?"

"As long as you can run it properly. I'm sure Shaun's getting sick of
running communications at this point," Ultimanium sighed. "I guess. Did you
still want to talk to Shaun? I can get some of the crew looking for him."

Chat paused. "We have a crew?"

"Well, duh, this thing doesn't run itself... well, actually, Minonim runs it
all by himself, but I have a large group of mercenaries that was originally
hired to help fight the Trances, and they've all agreed to assist in
retaking the Van Eltia."

"Okay, then. Don't worry.. I'll head down there and look for hi-" Chat,
while speaking, headed towards the bridge access and tossed the door open.
Heero held her back as she nearly stepped out into Mute City airspace. Chat
sweatdropped, shoving herself back in. "...er.. on second thought.."

Minonim raised himself. "The transport that Shaun used to access the
Argetlahm has some sort of one-man flyer in the back. I do believe it is the
Aibird that he was talking about when he was introducing himself."

"I'll use that, then," Chat chirped, ducking into the turbolift. "They share
the design of the Van Eltia, you know."


********


Traffic in the main avenues of Mute City had significantly increased during
the period following Hyades' announcment. Though it had apparently been
played only on the few frequencies that broadcasted the Smash games (the
Club Treno getting playback of current exhibitions, normal stations playing
reruns of matches from the night before), roads were packed with cars trying
to get to the very edge of the city in a vain attempt to escape the possible
aftermath of the Final Destination match. Fox weaved through cars, leaping
up and running completely across vehicles' tops and hoods where the traffic
was too dense, heading towards the spire of metal at the middle of the city.
It was only a short distance from where Fox was at the moment, and it would
take mere minutes for the dexterous fox to get there. He slowed down as he
heard shouting from behind him. He finally looked over his shoulder, where
Shaun sat keeled over, regaining his breath.

"You gotta slow down! Fox, Hyades isn't a normal Trance! He has mastery of
the Craymel Artes, and his magic might make quick work of Falco before his
muscle will. You have to help him! Catch!" Shaun grunted as he hurled his
crystal and its chain through the air, which Fox caught with ease, even 30
feet away. He looked over the gem in his hands before turning back to Shaun.
"Fox, I can sense some sort of energy within you, and it is best aligned
with the Great Craymel Efreet! I have trouble using fire Artes, but I think
you might be able to harness it way easier than I can. You're holding a
Craymel Cage, it's holding a portion of Efreet's energy within it! You might
be able to use it to counter Hyades' magics if he tries to use them!"

Fox nodded. "Thanks. Anything else I need to know?"

"There's a steering wheel-type-thingy on the other end of the chain. That's
a Parasol, spin it like crazy and it'll attract other minor Craymel in the
area! You'll probably have a faster cast time that way!"

"Okay! What are you doing?"

"I'm going to head out and try to gather everyone back aboard the Argetlahm!
You and Falco try to keep Hyades busy while we work!"

Fox turned from Shaun, clipping the Craymel Cage onto his belt. He dashed
across a crossing as the light above him turned green. A large truck
barreled down the hoverway, blaring its horn, though Fox kept on running,
diving and rolling underneath the truck as it lumbered in front of him. Fox
slid running around the corner at the end of the next block. Ahead of him
was a large courtyard with chain-link fence around it. Usually the base of
the tower was heavily guarded and intruders would be shot on sight, but not
a soul was there. Fox quickly scaled the fence and tossed himself over it,
beginning to run as he landed. At the base of the tower there was a ten-foot
tall plastic wall on all sides. Fox ran straight for the elevator access on
the far end of the easily-100-foot-wide pillar - the car wasn't there.

"Hell!..." Fox tilted his head back. Faintly, he could see a long distance
up the pillar, as the car slid itself up the tower. "...DANDY!" He scanned
the base of the spire, looking for some sort of emergency stop device. All
he found was a sign a distance away from the door.


--------
ATTENTION

The Final Destination space elevator's controls will not function for
another thirty minutes after the command has been placed to raise itself, to
allow for a non-interrupted match. This security feature was added in early
2012 when a large gang assault was launched on the Final Destination
platform. Should the car be activated, please wait the specified period of
time to be serviced. Thank you.
--------


"RRRGHHH!!" Fox viciously kicked at the wall, hitting a girder behind the
weak plastic shield. "OWWWWW!!" He hopped back, holding his foot. He finally
stood back up, looking up the grim structure again. "Man, there's got to be
another way up there... If this wasn't in the atmosphere, I could probably
just CLIMB up there if I wanted! I don't even know if it IS... I guess
there's only one way to find out..." he tapped a button on his helmet.
"...Slippy. I need you to fly my Arwing straight to the base of the Final
Destination tower, it's an emergenc-"

FWAM

Fox shook his head as he felt his fur being blown back. He looked to his
side and saw his Arwing's landing gear stretching out and buckling as the
fighter braced itself on the ground. Fox raised an eyebrow as the cockpit
slid open, and Slippy bounded out. "...well.. that was fast."

"When I had an oppritunity to be useful, you wouldn't believe how fast I'd
take the offer." Slippy grinned, beckoning Fox to the Arwing. As Fox walked
by, he gave a Slippy a bestranged look. He turned back as he clambered up
the side of the small fighter, sliding himself downwards into the cockpit.
"Slippy," Fox shouted. "Shaun's running through Mute City, trying to rally
up the Argetlahm crewmembers and get them back on the ship. I need you to
help him."

"Can do! Just make sure I get at least one fight before this is all over, at
least."

"Millenial." Fox barked, as the Arwing's gear retracted and the ship began
to rise rapidly into the sky. Slippy just frowned, shaking his head.
"...man, I need to get outside and do something."


********


Locke checked around himself cautiously as the roof access door opened in
front of him. He was standing on top of a tall office building, where Tidus'
match had occured earlier, dwarfed only by another pair of corporate towers
near his position and the Final Destination space elevator. He could see the
equipment being used to sustain the barrier around the towers on a building
next to the one he was currently on. On a suspended platform at the far edge
of the rooftop, a custodian stood, facing outwards. He was talking on a cel
phone.

"Are you kidding?! That's horrible! But what a... no way! C'mon, this is the
last exhibition match for the day! Just feed this through to the station and
as soon as it's over we'll cut the link!... listen, the rest of Club Treno
paid top dollar for the showing rights to this and I'm not going to let it
go unnoticed! Listen, you moron, the F-Zero Grand Prix will have already
moved to the rim moons in a week! We'll never draw an audience! Oh, fuck
you..." the worker continued muttering obscenities to himself as he clicked
off the phone. He turned to see Locke. "Oh, it's you. You're the contestant
fighting Cecil Harvey right away, right?"

Locke rubbed his head. "Uh-huh. Hey, what was going on a second ago..?"

"I was getting to that," the worker sulked. "Seems there's some weird guy
named Hyades that's taken Final Destination by storm and is issuing a
challenge out to one of the high-ranking Smashers. He's insisting that he's
going to blow up the city if he wins. Some of the people living in Mute City
have already escaped to the outskirts of the city, but while we still have
an audience all the feeds are linking up to Final Destination to get THAT
match broadcasted all over Mute City. Quite frankly, no one's going to be
watching us. My boss says that if we want the match broadcasted we're going
to have to give it a week."

"We don't need to wait."

Locke and the man both turned, looking up the side of an adjacent building.
On top stood a tall man, with a sword hanging off his hip, light reflected
onto it from his blinding white plate mail. He had a long, red cape, and his
head was covered in thick, combed purple hair that reached down to his
shoulders. "Just a second..." the main strained as he leapt forward off the
building, falling another thirty feet and landing on the edge of the other
roof, right across from where Locke was standing. "I couldn't care less if I
have an audience. I entered the exhibitions knowing no one would care to
watch. I just want a fight."

Locke smirked. "Well, SOMEONE'S awfully eager," Locke began to draw the long
dagger from his belt. "If he's willing to go I have no problem."

The worker looked between the two. "The shield equipment is already set up.
Just get on the vests and we'll be ready to go." Locke and Cecil both picked
up large, black vests from one corner of the rooftop. Cecil removed his
torso armor, slipping the vest underneath, while Locke simply slapped it on
over his normal clothing. After they outfitted themselves, Locke and Cecil
made their way to opposite sides of the rooftop.

"You know the rules, gentlemen," the worker shouted. "Stock: One. First one
to fall loses. 3... 2... 1... FIGHT!!"


********


Falco stood leant against the paneling of the elevator, tapping his foot.
The elevator car was furnished with white plating for the walls and celing,
and had a forest green carpet that was extremely well-kept, given the number
of warriors that had probably trampled over it throughout the last Smash
season. Opera music was playing softly out of a speaker in the top corner.
Falco opened an eye as one wall began to slide downwards, revealing a large
glass plate behind it. He stood upwards, leaning forward as the panel
completely disappeared from sight. The window was of a hard plexiglass,
though crystal clear, opening out unto the horizon of Mute City. The feature
was presumably put in just for kicks.

"Well, Final Destination IS the elite suite." Falco sat himself back against
the wall. He shook his head. Was he feeling something pressing down on him?
The elevator had increased in speed slightly. He turned back to the opening.
He watched for a brief second, after which the view turned white. He was
entering the cloud cover. "...no way. How can this thing go so high?" Falco
stumbled as he felt the force increase. The elevator rapidly increased in
speed, and when Falco finally regained his bearings the cloud cover was no
longer visible outside of the window. The sky was a perfect blue, that was
gradually beginning to die out in a perfect black. Falco opened his eyes,
looking down. He could see most of Mute City from this far up, and he knew -
that wasn't a very easy thing to imagine. As he anticipated another boost in
speed, he felt himself sulk from the pressure - and as fast as it had
started it was over. Falco could no longer feel himself rising. He looked
down at the massive height he had gained - he was in space. Mute City was
but the size of a spread-out candy wrapper. He hopped as a ding resounded...
and the door in front of him slid open. Watching the entrance for a moment,
he slowly began to slide out.

Falco was standing right in the middle of a giant octagonal platform, with a
strip of crude granite down the middle. Around the edges was a band of
purple metal, which arced in various patterns on both sides, covering up a
fine panel of cross-linked catwalk. Falco gaped, as, off in the distance,
the thick line that was the Lylat-Hybrid asteroid belt could be made out
clearly. Falco whipped around as he heard a loud grinding. The elevator car
was beginning to sink back through the hole in the platform where it had
come from. As the car disappeared, two panels of granite slid out and
covered up the hole, blending in perfectly with the rest of the strip.

Hyades stood at the very edge, looking outwards.

"Alright, Hyades!" Falco called out. "This is over! Though, if you really
want a fight..." Falco stanced himself. "You've ALSO come to the right
place."

"...this is no normal Smash match," Hyades sneered, slowly pivoting his head
back to Falco. "There is no worker supervising the match. As it stands no
person is watching us. The shield barrier is disabled."

Falco stumbled back. "Hell..!"

"And the safety barrier is weakened as well. Normally a member of the avian
race such as yourself requires oxygen to survive. My Trance power can
withstand these feeble needs. YOU, on the other hand.." Hyades held up two
fingers. "...have five minutes before the oxygen within the barrier is used
up, at this rate."

"You rigged this." Falco growled.

"You were silly enough to come here!" Hyades cackled. "Well, we should
start, it would not be very fun if you died of natural causes.. instead of
me!" Hyades made a distorted yell as he began to shift into his Trance form.
Falco stood, ready to fight. Gemini began to walk slowly towards Falco, and
Falco began to back away accordingly. "Well, what's the problem, little
bird? You made the decision to take the challenge. Don't tell me you're
backing down.. or should I say, OFF."

Falco hopped back a short ways - and felt himself lurch backwards. He waved
his arms frantically, regaining his balance. He turned, looking down. He was
at the very edge of the platform - and it had a particularly dizzying view
of the planet below. He glanced back up at his opponent, still approaching.
"Oh, man..."

"The end result is the same. I, on the other hand, can make it quick.. and
painless."

FROOM

Both Gemini and Falco remained still as a fast-moving blue and grey blur
blasted straight up from behind Falco. Gemini turned to stare at the
intruder, growling. Falco took the chance, and dove forward at the behemoth,
tackling him and sending him to the ground. As Falco leant over Gemini,
winding up a punch, the Trance grimaced, kneeing Falco in the rear and
sending him skidding across the pavement behind Gemini. Falco rolled as he
came down, again coming within mere inches of the edge, springing back up.
He ran and leapt at the giant again, swinging his feet one after the other.
Gemini successfully blocked both kicks, and brought a massive fist down to
Falco as he landed. Falco dove between Gemini's legs, dodging the attack.
The ship still flew in a tight circle high above the platform, watching
intently.


********


"Falco can't last through this," Fox muttered. "As soon as he screws up,
Gemini'll pound him.. there's got to be SOMETHING I can do..." Fox continued
to brood, but sat up a second later. "...I hope this works..." Fox reached
up and started tapping switches on the side of the cockpit, before flicking
a larger toggle switch at the front. "...if I screw up these blasters are
toast.." Fox continued to wait as the screen in front of him remained dim,
then suddenly lit up:

HYPER BLASTERS ENABLED. 03

"Three shots. They sure don't make 'em like they used to." Fox returned his
hands to the flight stick in front of him as a loud clank erupted from
underneath the Arwing, a pair of long blue tubes slowly lowering out of the
bottom of the ship, near the base of the wings. "Now, just keep 'im st-"

"This is the Galaxy Police. I have already given you a warning. This is a
registered No-Fly zone, and blasters are to be disabled. After you have done
this, please leave the area. If you fail to comply force will be used."

Fox tossed his head back, cringing. "..ugh.. Falco?! Why did you forget to
disable blasters?.. he probably thinks I'm the same guy!... damn it, I don't
have time for this!!" Fox rocked a throttle wheel on the side of the cockpit
forward, causing the Arwing to boost forward rapidly. The fighter flipped on
its side as it whipped into a lightning-fast turn, boosting again as it
rocketed at the large police cruiser.

"This is your last warning."

"This is yours!!" Fox yelled, slamming the button on the joystick. Both
canisters on the bottom of the ship glowed brightly before blasting out a
bright surge of blue energy, which blazed through the air and completely
blasted through the bulky hovercraft, imploding it in a wave of fire. Fox
dodged around the wreckage as the flames died quickly, using up any air from
the craft, and the cruiser began slowly to fall out of the sky.


********


Gemini ducked away as the police cruiser off in the distance burst into
flames. Falco quickly rushed up, yelling as he delivered a fully-charged
flying roundhouse kick directly into Gemini's face, sending him spinning
into the air and falling to the ground halfway across the platform. Gemini
roared as he pushed himself from the ground, where there now was a large
crumple in the platform. "That... was a very cheap hit on me!"

Falco blinked. "Well, what was that, the-" Falco turned to spot the Arwing
as it flew by. He quickly dug in his jacket pockets, digging out his
receiver as it started bleeping.

"Falco!" Fox shouted. "Get Hyades away from you! If you can get him still
and alone I'll be able to blast him!"

"Are you on this? You are off this! Eagle Talon!!" Gemini stuck his hand
out, bracing himself as a wave of force leapt from his hand, blasting out
towards the Arwing. Fox's eyes went wide as he desperately tried to roll
around the blast, but yelped as the blast instantly shattered the left wing
of the ship, and the Arwing slowly began to fall into a downwards roll.

"Fox!! Eject!!" Falco screamed.

Fox shuddered as he clasped his hands around a large plug on his right side.
Groaning, he gave the lever a hard yank, and it came out of its socket, a
short string holding it in. "...what the hell!! Work!!"

"Fox!! You don't HAVE all day!" Falco shouted. Gemini began to approach him.

"I have no force to shoot the pod OUT!" Fox yelled back. "The propellant
G-Diffuser.. isn't.. working."


--------
FUEL LEVELS OPTIMAL
HULL INTEGRITY OPTIMAL
WEAPONS SYSTEMS OPTIMAL
G-DIFFUSER...............ERROR


"G-Diffusers have experienced a malfunction," ROB64 droned. "Systems scan
indicates that G-Diffusers have a 99.999998% chance of working correctly."

"Well, he's one to nitpick," Falco muttered. "99.999998's good enough for
me."
--------


"THIS KIND OF THING ONLY HAPPENS IN MOVIES, OR BOOKS, OR FANFICTION OR
SOMETHING!!" Fox screamed.

"Hang on, F-augh!" Falco coughed hard as Gemini bashed him in the back of
the head, sending him back another distance across Final Destination.

Fox twitched. "Hang on. There's always a backup plan." Fox reached for
another lever - and didn't find it. "...JESUS CHRIST!! I TOLD Slippy to FIX
THIS!!"


********


Slippy sat at the workbench, tying the lever string to a large
counterweight. "There we go. All to factory specifications. Now to just slip
this in, and-" Slippy turned to the empty space where Fox's Arwing was
usually parked in the Great Fox hangar. "...uh oh."


********


"This is bad." Falco groaned, hanging onto the edge of the platform. He
slowly lifted his arm up, checking his watch. "Under three minutes of air
left... now what?.." Falco struggled to raise his head, looking upwards at
Gemini.

"Are you ready to surrender?"


********


Locke quickly switched the blade of his dagger to the other side of his
clenched fist, charging Cecil. He leapt forward, hoping to find a chink in
the heavy plate mail of Cecil. Cecil simply flicked his sword upwards,
knocking the knife out of Locke's hand. The weapon clattered to the ground
several feet away. Locke quickly ducked, rolling to the side as Cecil swiped
quickly ahead of Locke's path. The blade caught the top of Locke's tunic,
tearing a large gash in the cloth as Locke dove for his weapon. He snatched
the knife off the ground and stood back up, holding the edge in front of his
face to meet Cecil's. Both fighters struggled for control of the attack,
before Locke pressed on the hilt of the dagger with his other hand, making
Cecil fumble with his sword. Locke swooped in, digging the knife into a
joint on the crafted armor. He stomped down hard on the handle, prying
Cecil's kneepad loose. Locke dodged to the side as the strained metal
whizzed by his head and landed a short distance away from the edge of the
rooftop.

"Some chintzy armor you got there." Locke casually remarked.

"You should see the Evermore stuff."* Cecil shot back, punching Locke across
the face.

Locke 12%
Cecil 23%

As Locke's head reared back, Cecil smashed him again across the face with
his sword, sending him flying onto his back. He bounced off the ground,
landing flat on the concrete. His head lied a meager two feet from the edge
of the roof. As Cecil approached for the kill, Locke suddenly lent up,
grabbed Cecil by the ankles and drug him right off his feet. Cecil's sword
fell to the ground, which distracted Locke long enough for Cecil to boot him
in the face as he fell. Cecil continued to bicycle-kick Locke directly in
the head as he lied on the ground, before shoving himself backwards and
sliding backwards to his sword.

Locke 45%
Cecil 32%

Cecil was approaching Locke again, and Locke knew he couldn't pull the same
stunt twice. He was in a tight situation. So he did the best thing he could
think of. Attack Cecil's loosely clothed knee.

"GOD!" Cecil hopped backwards, yet again falling on his back, clutching his
knee with one hand. "I don't take kindly to cheap shots!"

"You haven't seen nothing yet." Locke sprung up, leapt into the air - and
stomped right on Cecil's magical land. For mobility reasons, it wasn't
particularly as well-armored as other, more vital parts of the body. First
mistake.

"...." Cecil's face turned ghostly white, and his eyes looked as if they
were ready to pop out.
"...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGG
GHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Locke 45%
Cecil 156%

Locke dashed over to an item crate that was rolled onto the arena by an
automated robot, and pryed the top off with his knife. He dug around
inside... and took out a parasol. "...huh? You have to be kidding..."

"URRGHH!!" Cecil sprung up, his face beet-red, and charged Locke. Cecil
began slashing like crazy at Locke, while Locke gently fenced off the blows
with the parasol. As Cecil charged up for a spinning attack, Locke reached
over and whomped Cecil in the back of the head with the umbrella, sending
him flying from the kinetic pack's increased output. Locke dashed over as
Cecil slammed into a wall, and began kicking him down.

Locke 45%
Cecil 189%

The worker just sat on the side of the arena, shaking his head and watching
with a pained expression on his face as Cecil was showered with cheap blows.
"The things that get you ahead in this game..."


********


Falco shuddered in pain as he watched Fox's Arwing slowly fall beneath his
sight. He leant further over the edge of the surface of Final Destination,
watching in horror as his wingmate's fighter began to fall faster and faster
towards the surface of Mute City. "...Fox!..."

"I don't believe we're finished..." Gemini laughed, pressing his foot down
on Falco's heel.

"Son of a BITCH!!" Falco bellowed. With one graceful movement, Falco pressed
and launched his feet off the ground, smashing Gemini in the face, and
completely swung off the platform, grasping the edge with his wings. Falco
swung forward, pressing his feet against the slanted edge wall of the
island. With surprising force, Falco completely launched himself back onto
the platform, flipping through the air and stomping as hard as he could on
Gemini's face. As Gemini stumbled back in confusion, Falco landed, sweeping
the hulking Trace off his feet. Falco somersaulted back to his feet, quickly
executing an arcing axe-kick down onto Gemini's chest, knocking the wind out
of him. Falco finally leapt forward, performing a flying elbow drop directly
onto Gemini's face.

"GGGAAAAUUUURRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!" Gemini bellowed in pain as blue blood jetted
from a rupture in his face. Gemini roared as he reached backwards, grabbing
Falco by the leg with both hands. Falco yelped in surprise as Gemini began
to twirl him around for a hammer throw.

"You said we were playing fair." Falco coughed.

"And this is not?"

"A Trance isn't my idea of playing fair."

"So what is your response?"

Gemini slowed down as he noticed Falco with his blaster in hand. "Not play
fair." Gemini shrieked in pain as Falco yanked on the trigger and, quite
literally, blew off his face. Falco was prematurely hurled from Gemini's
hands, but he landed on his hands, pressing off and flipping back onto his
feet. Gemini writhed around in his stance, what remained of his expression a
bloody mess. "Are we going to FINISH THIS?!"


********


Fox blinked. He franticly checked around him. A small fire had sprouted on
his control panel, which he quickly extinguished by dabbing his jacket in
his saliva and covering the blaze. "This.. isn't a dream." he sat back,
watching in pain as the straight view of the Arwing had begun to devolve
into a spinning kaliedoscope. "God, I'm gonna be sick... not that it
matters... I'M DEAD MEAT OVER HERE!!" Fox screamed to no one in particular.
Fox whimpered as the spinning view gradually turned into a straight color.
"Any procedures, any precautions... NONE! My eject doesn't work! Nothing...
am I not supposed to incinerated instantly by an enemy blast or just get
sucked out into space instead of just get one long ride down into a ground I
know full well will splatter me?! I ju-ech-" Fox scrambled through a side
compartment, digging out a barf bag. He breathed in the fresh-packing air of
the container, shortly before vomiting.

"A fucking recon mission killed Fox McCloud!"

Fox twitched. That twitch changed into an uncontrollable shudder. That
shudder changed into laughter.

"FUCKING BRILLIANT!!"

A bright red aura grew around the tattered Arwing. The falling ship was
already too close to the atmosphere for the Arwing's automatic
countermeasures to have any effect.

"WHAT DOES THIS FREAKING ANTIMAGNUS WANT FROM ME?! I JUST DO MY JOB! I WATCH
THESE WORLDS!! GET OFF MY BACK!!!"

Familes began to scream as a fireball plummeted down from the sky, barely
missing a cluster of office buildings.

"TRANCE, MY AS-"






Fox opened his eyes. "...Hey, cool, I'm dead!" He shook his head, and looked
around him. His Arwing was frozen perfectly in the air - a foot from the
ground. He was ready to crash directly in the middle of a park. A pair of
teens, a boy and a girl, were sitting on a picnic cloth mere inches away
from the tip of the Arwing, both holding glasses of champagne. The bottle of
wine sat in a small ice bucket between them. They were both pale. "...hey..
wait a minute..."


TRANCE...


"Waaaaaaah!!.." Fox shielded his head as shards of metal began raining down
around the Arwing, again just barely missing the couple. Fox uncovered an
eye as the wrecked steel began orbiting the Arwing, pasting itself on to
wherever it had been blown off. Fox watched in amazement as the destroyed
wing of the Arwing seemed to magically grow out of thin air. The metal that
remained on the craft darkened in shade, gaining a fine polish. Fox shook
his head as the Arwing fully repaired itself, and pulled down a panel from
the celing to check the back of the craft. He looked at his hand. It was
solid grey. Fox yanked back his hand in shock, and looked over the rest of
himself. He was completely covered in grey fur. "...WHAT THE HELL?!"


********
Truly a Trance of a different color! Physical properties are nothing sacred
to those who have the power to manipulate them - and Fox is no exception!
Using forces close to thought, this Trance can move absolutely anything with
his will! This Trance's Psychic Hammer skill can knock enemies flat from
miles away! His Psion Wave produces an impassible barrier of EMP energy that
can be commanded with merely a thought!
********

AIAL - Physic Trance



"This.. is.. too.. GAH!" Fox quickly leant forward, looking out both sides
of the Arwing's canopy. He checked back on his rear-view panel. The engines
of the Arwing had completely stopped. "...why am I not falling..? I mean,
the engines, should be turned on-" as Fox finished his sentence, on cue, the
engines fired up. "JESUS! What is HAPPENING here?!" With a loud roar, the
Arwing plunged itself straight into the ground. The fighter, with its front
tip in the dirt, stuck upwards out of the dirt. "...well, I don't know how,
but this thing is stopped... and not a scratch. Now, just to get it back to
Final Destination..." Fox suddenly lurched forward, as, all of a sudden, the
engines roared up again...

...and the Arwing flew completely backwards into the sky.

The couple exchanged stares. The boy dumped his champagne out, shaking his
head. "...never again."

Fox screeched as the Arwing roared up through the sky, still backwards, at
easily triple the speed that the ship normally flew at.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.." Fox's voice disappeared as he was launched into
the sky. "..HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Fox was thrown back in his seat as the
Arwing stopped and sat perfectly still in space. He looked around, blinking.
He was sitting right alongside the Final Destination platform. Falco sat
stared at him, a twitch in his eye.

"...yeah." Falco finally muttered.

Fox's Arwing remained still, though pivoted to face Gemini. "I think I have
a present for you." Fox held up the Craymel Cage in his hands as the cockpit
opened. Gemini froze in place as Fox hopped out of the Arwing, landing on
the platform. The fighter simply hung there as Fox positioned himself
between Falco and Gemini.

"...Efreet..." Gemini coughed.

The Craymel Cage pulsed with red light, causing Fox's hand to shake. Fox
slowly began to walk towards Gemini. The Trance bellowed in rage, his hands
turning a bright yellow as he brought them down in front of Fox. "Thunder
Blade!!"

"Flame Wall!!" Fox growled. White energy glowed around Fox, before forming
itself into a barrier of molten rock in front of him. The Blade cleaved a
small ways down the wall, but became jammed in the magma. Gemini ripped his
hand back, the sword of energy disappearing as he did so.

"FOX!!" Falco shouted. "Don't use flame magic, we're already running short
of oxygen for you to start lighting things up!"

"...I just need one more cast." Fox stood to the side, watching Gemini as he
began charging up another Arte. The Craymel Cage in Fox's hands flashed red
once more. "Let's see what sort of stuff I can do with this Trance...
Arwing, fire on my mark!" On cue, the hyperblasters glowed an eerie blue as
they began to charge up.

"It will take more than a simple Arte or laser to defeat me!" Gemini roared.

Fox flicked his other wrist towards the ship, setting a disc of flame in the
air, hanging vertically. "How about laser Artes?" Fox grimaced as he snapped
his fingers, causing the Arwing to lurch back as a pair of giant blue energy
balls blasted forward with a shriek. The wall of fire buckled to contain the
blasts, but finally shattered, spewing ash into the air - and leaving two
giant FLAMING blue energy balls still going forward. Gemini screamed as he
shielded himself, but even that was not enough to defend properly. The shots
hit the platform in different areas on Hyades' side of the battlefield,
covering it in a tremendous explosion. Falco threw his arms in front of his
face as chunks of twisted metal and shards of granite began to rain down
around him, while Fox simply stood and watched. Gemini gave one last shrill
scream as his third of the platform was completely severed from the Final
Destination, and began plummeting towards the City. Fox continued to watch
as Gemini toppled off the platform, erupting in flame as both him and the
giant chunk of metal began to enter the atmosphere.

Falco slowly began to stride over to Fox. "I sure hope that doesn't land
anywhere TOO hazardous..."


********


Confetti flew through the air, carried by the constant breeze that whirled
throughout the awards ceremonies for the afternoon's F-Zero race. At the
very center of the audience, there was a large three-man podium set up, with
Tails on the 3rd slot, Heero on the second, and Captain Falcon on the first.

"...how much time do we have before ceremonies?" Tails winced. "I REALLY
have to go."

Heero looked down at his watch. "Ten minutes. You should make it."

Tails gave a confirming nod. As soon as Tails could be seen dashing over the
horizon... a massive piece of metal fell out of the sky, crushing Captain
Falcon. Heero's eyes widened as he turned to his left - and stared right
into the bottom of the Final Destination platform. Or a large chunk of it.
The shattered disc landed perfectly on its side - the first and third slots
on the podium were completely smashed several feet into the ground by the
flying space junk, while Heero's position was left unharmed. The platform
was miniscule inches from Heero's face.

"..."


********






The traffic in Mute City hadn't lightened up, even with Hyades' defeat. Not
one of the broadcasters, through their exclusive deals, dared to rise up to
Final Destination after Hyades' announcement. This, of course, meant that
the city was still collectively running around like chickens with their
heads cut off. The entire crew of the Argetlahm, along with Fox's friends
and several other Smashers hoping to escape being swept away in the flow of
evacutees.

Chat shook her head, turning back to the rest of the group. "No one has a
clue what's happening. How long is this going to carry on?"

"I wouldn't count on getting to the Argetlahm too quickly," Dante growled,
leaning against the wall of the building and watching as a family vehicle
swerved through the lanes of the hoverway a short distance below the catwalk
him and the rest of the crew stood upon. "The spaceport would probably be
the first place these people are heading if they want to get out of Mute
City in a hurry."

"Well, we can relax for the time being," Cody sighed. "Hey, Fox, you were up
with Hyades? You used your Arwing, right?"

Fox sat up from the ground suddenly. "..oh.. yeah. So?"

"What did you do with it?"

"It's... parked at the Great Fox." Fox had previously returned to his normal
form, and dared not to inform Ultimanium of his recent Trancing, given he
preferred his head on his shoulders instead of the ground. The truth of the
matter was, Fox was already mentally piloting the Arwing through the skies
of Mute City, its canopy pilotless, and returning the fighter to the Star
Fox dock. Slippy would have to deal with a rogue Arwing parking itself in
front of him, but that was the least of Fox's concerns.

"It's great to see you all again," Farah said, smiling. "I was wondering
what happened to the two of you." She stared over to where Shaun was seated,
next to where Chat was still watching the constant traffic rolling by.

"We can take heart that Chat hasn't really gone wacko and Shaun hasn't been
killed yet." Reid earned a smack across the back of the head from Farah.

"Are you two really from the Van Eltia too?" Takato asked. "You seem pretty
normal to me."

Reid frowned at Takato. "I wouldn't head up there if I could avoid it. With
all the additions and 'enhancments' that the bigwigs in Eternia designed for
the thing, I could get lost in there for days."

Farah nodded. "He did once, actually. We had to send out a search party."

Takato and Rika exchanged stares.

"...well," Locke stepped in suddenly. "How did everyone's Smash matches go?"

"Brilliant," Tron pouted, her arms folded. "Ours got cancelled halfway
through 'cause the bozos running the cameras had the godly inspiration to
attempt to watch a match they couldn't even see, and we were left with no
supervision."

"How about the F-Zero races?" Raynor asked.

Gohan sighed, looking behind his back as Peppy and Heero were seated on
opposite sides of the catwalk, staring each other down. Heero held an
obnoxiously large gold trophy in his lap. "Winning by a technicality," Peppy
moaned. "I never thought I would get so underhanded..."

"I didn't see YOU in the final lap." Heero shot back.

"I never noticed the date going on," V2 snickered. He sprung up, sitting
himself besides Eric. "So, get any?"

"No."

"None?"

"No."

"Not a bit?"

"No."

"C'mon.."

"No."

"Not even any mushy stuff?"

V2 was promptly kicked into the air by Rika. "Thank you." Eric muttered.

"...guys," Falco looked up, causing everyone to shift their gazes toward
him. "...Hyades said before he started his match that if I lost that he'd
destroy the city. But if I won he said that Antimagnus would take care of
it. Do you think... Antimagnus would come to Mute City?"

"If it were to happen I believe we would have ample warning," Balkan
wheezed. "Antimagnus is not one to go for cheap kills."

Guilmon suddenly stood. Everybody shifted over to him. "Guilmon?" Takato
asked. "What's happening?"

"I don't know, Takato," Guilmon responded. "But... my fire's getting
hotter!"

Chat looked up from the catwalk. "Guys, the traffic's starting to thin out.
We should get to the Argetlahm before anything else really inconvienient
happens."


********


The sun was completely over the horizon of Mute City. Word had apparently
gotten out somehow, and some of the vehicles that were leaving beforehand
were now returning into the heart of the megalopolis. Vegeta stood close to
the massive bridge dome, his arms folded, watching over the City as it began
to wind down. Most stores closed, but the ones that remained lit up the
night with neon signs and large lit billboards. He shifted his eyes to the
side as he could hear some conversation occuring near the center of the
bridge. Fox stood a short distance away from Shaun, Takeru and Charmy,
leading the conversation.

"So, where're we headed next?" Fox asked.

"We're going to follow the charts that Chat's supplied us," Shaun sighed
back sleepily. "With the Chronoshifters at full power and all the nearby
wormholes open to us, it'll take us under a week to get to Eternia in
Exodus. Once we get there.. we wait. Antimagnus and the Van Eltia are bound
to be in that area somewhere. See you tomorrow, I'm getting to bed. Oh, and
Fox.."

"Yeah?"

"The Craymel Cage worked well, I take it?"

"You said the Craymel were 7D figures, right? I think I was able to use them
a lot better than normal people mostly because I was in sync with them,
mostly because being Trance is becoming a seventh-di-"

Shaun glared at Fox. "...uh oh." Fox sighed.

"You went Trance," Charmy murmured. "We know what Ultimanium did when he
realized I had potential Trance energy. I'd stay on your toes if I were you.
If Ultimanium finds out about any of this, you can kiss your ass goodbye. I
don't imagine he would be so merciful on a member of the same sex, too."

Fox nodded fervently. "I'll make sure of it."

Shaun began to walk to the turbolift. "Well, I've had enough. I'm hitting
the sack. Fox, keep the Cage, you've already put it to better use than I
usually manage."

Takeru looked up at the night sky. Even with the mass light pollution, the
stars shone in great number and intensity, the effect amplified further by a
large strip of starless sky where the Lylat-Hybrid dateline could be seen.
"...I don't know why, but it seems all of this will be a spectactular sight
more so when we're finally finished..."

"...finished with the Magnusi." Charmy finished.

Takeru nodded. "..yeah."

Patamon flapped his wings furiously, raising himself to Takeru's head level.
"Aw, TK, do you have to get philisophical at a time like this? Or emotional,
or whatever... you know, I just don't understand you anymore."

Takeru smirked. "You're telling me."

The peace was interrupted by a loud honk, coming from the bridge access
door. "Jesus, what in God's name do these people want at this time of
night?" Vegeta growled. "Is someone going to get that or something?"

Fox cursed, shaking his head. He walked over to the heavy steel door,
flipping down a lock on his side of the metal panel. The door swung open
slightly, and Kirby and Scias simply marched right in. Scias' cloak drifted
mysteriously across the floor, while Kirby skipped forward in uneven steps,
dragging a large suitcase behind him. "...could I ask what YOU guys are
doing here?"

"...F-f-fox," Scias stuttered. "..."

Kirby looked back up at Scias in disgust. He tugged furiously on Scias' long
green sheeting, before shaking his head and unpacking his suitcase. He sat
down, taking out a sticky-note pad and a felt marker, and began to scribble
viciously. A minute later, Fox leant down to read Kirby's message, and in
response Kirby smacked the note against Fox's forehead. Fox stumbled back,
blinking before tearing the note from his face. He started reading again.
"...you guys need a room? Don't you guys usually stay in the Smash HQ
bunks?" Kirby bounded up, tearing the paper from Fox's hands. He sat down
and continued writing on the other side of the sheet. He gave it back to
Fox. "...you mean the HQ's closed? What.. the Smash season's been
cancelled?!"

"..." Scias took a deep breath. "...our f-flights don't come... until-til
the end of S-s-smash s-season."

"Sorry to ask, but do you have room for one more?"

Fox looked up. Standing at the door was a medium-height woman, with brown
eyes, and long brown hair that fell down behind her. She was in a pair of
simple jeans and a small tank top. "...do you? I can pay, if you want.." she
began shuffling through a small stack of paper credits.

"This isn't my ship, ma'am," Fox replied.

Ultimanium walked by. "They can all stay. They have to be gone in the
morning."

The woman nodded. "Thank you, sir. How much do you want..."

"It's on the house. Remember, though, we're leaving in the morning on very
important business, so we would like you gone before then. Charmy, can you
show our guest to the female bunks?"

Charmy nodded. "..uh.. sure."

"...thank you. I need to bring something, though..." she ducked back
outside, and strained against the catwalk railing outside as she began to
wheel in a five-foot long case on a handcar. "Can I keep this in my bunk?"

Minonim suddenly went off. "Sir, scanners indicate the contents of that case
are high-frequency energy weapons."

The woman shook her head. "Please, I don't want to cause any harm."

"Don't worry," Ultimanium grumbled. "If she wants to raise trouble she'll
have to get by me first."

Fox, Kirby, Scias and the new guest all headed for the turbolift, Charmy
leading. The turbolift next to that one opened up, with Glenn stepping out
in his boxers. He sipped from a can of beer, suddenly turning to the woman.
"...whoa! What have we got here.."

"Back off." the turbolift closed, cutting Glenn off from the group. He
looked back up to Ultimanium, shaking his head. "Women."

"Put something decent on." Ultimanium sneered.

Glenn instantly turned around and stepped back in the turbolift.


Inside the turbolift, Fox, Kirby, Scias and the guest all stood in a line,
stretching from one wall to the other, the large carrying case included. Fox
glanced over. "Hey, you said you had high-frequency energy weapons in there,
right?"

"...yes."

Fox stared down at the large metal box. "That wouldn't happen to be part of
a hazard suit, would it?"

"..how did you know?"

"You're Samus Aran, right?"

"How do you know me?"

Fox stretched out his hand. "Fox McCloud. I was on the opposite end of the
Smash league ladder two seasons ago. These are my friends, Kirby and Scias.
You had an interesting win streak back then," Samus reluctantly shook Fox's
hand. "You took out those two guys in the preliminary matches using only a
trash can lid, right?"

"Well, yes. I wouldn't say that's the greatest thing I've had going for me
though." Samus smirked. Her Smash personality was beginning to return,
tossed away only a short time ago with the announced cancellation of the
current Smash league. "I bet you've never managed to KO a person using your
pinky before."


********


Peace and quiet was soon established on the Argetlahm, as it sat dormant in
the Mute City drydock. Still, in one male bunk, Guilmon snorted and rolled
over on the blanket that was spread out on the ground for him in Takato's
bunk. Call it a bad case of indigestion if you will. "...my tummy hurts."
Guilmon coughed harshly, feeling his throat begin to burn. "...this fire's
getting too hot." He slowly pushed himself from the ground, leaving the room
and slowly walking down the hall to the turbolift. He rose up several
floors, and made his way into the washroom just prior to the bridge. He
gripped the faucet with both claws and twisted it to the right, letting a
weak stream of cold water out. Guilmon jammed his head underneath the tap
and took in a mouthful of water, drinking it slowly. He raised his head
finally, nearly completely soaked. "...Shaun says the Cruhmels amplify their
elements nearby when things happen. And Shaun says the Cruhmels are on the
Ven Altia. Is there a Cruhmel aligned with my fire...?" Guilmon waddled over
to the window, looking out and upwards over the city. Many lights travelling
through the sky pointed out mobile spacecraft. "...Is the Ven Altia close?
If that's the case.."

A larger light pierced through the sky.


"Is the Argetlam almost done?"






--------
* - Cecil cameos as a shopkeeper in Ebon Keep on the SNES game Secret of
Evermore, asides from his starring role in FFIV. While the armor IS chintzy,
he does give you a bazooka when you first talk to him, so I can't complain.
^_^
--------


Next Chapter - Yet MORE crossovers! Angry spellcasters! The beginning of the
Endgame! And.. RAKUGO LADY! >o< \oo/