Name: Deucalion

Age: 367 (Appears 25)

Gender: Male

Species/Race: Ancient Shape shifter

(W.I.P I haven't finished Deucalion's CS but I'll add it in here as soon as I have)



Name: Danny ‘Dash’ Crawford

Age: 20

Gender: Male

Species/Race: Skinwalker

Powers: A Skinwalker is a person with the supernatural ability to turn into any animal he or she desires. To be able to transform, legend sometimes state this requires that the Skinwalker does wear a pelt of the animal, though this is not always considered necessary. Dash only requires a piece of the creature to turn into it, the smaller the piece the more energy it takes for him to transform.

He can shape shift into a Nightmare Form, at will without needing a pelt or piece of it to copy.

He can mimic others via this method; all he needs is a strand of hair. He can mimic others powers without changing his ‘skin’ though he prefers to mimic the whole person.

They also possess the ability to make any human or animal noise they choose. A skinwalker may use the voice of a relative or the cry of an infant to lure victims out of the safety of their homes.

Skinwalkers use charms to instil fear and control in their victims. Such charms include human bone beads launched by blowguns, which embed themselves beneath the surface of the skin without leaving a mark and human bone dust which can cause paralysis and heart failure.

Weaknesses: The only way to successfully shoot a skinwalker is to dip bullets into white ash, f no white ash is present is to shoot the skinwalker in human form.

Otherwise the skinwalker can be mortally wounded through many different ways but will eventually heal over time.

Blind in his right eye

Personality: TBD

Background: Danny hasn’t had the smoothest journey through life, he’s been passed from one family to the next from the word go. No-one wanting to keep a hold of him due to his behavior and deep seated issues, Danny learnt how to survive the world of foster caring. He refused to believe anyone could ‘love’ him and he stoically fought everyone that tried, refusing to let them in and often forcing people to reject him. Danny knew very little about his powers until around about age 12 when Danny met Deucalion a powerful shape shifter that had recognized Danny’s potential from the word go. Deucalion went through the lengthy process of adopting Danny, using his shady business ordeals to make it happen.

Over the next 4 years Deucalion taught Danny everything he could possibly need to know of his powers, he also successfully broke into the boys shell filling it with his own propaganda. Danny willingly believed him and agreed to help in any way he could.

He met Crash when he was 16, the two got on like a house on fire from the word go. Danny adopted the nickname Dash around this time, having not been beaten at a 100 metre race. A year later NIx came onto the scene, Dash recognized her as one of Deucalion’s disciples but thought little of it, she was a perfect fit for their little group. Turning them into the three musketeers...Dash grew increasingly involved with drugs over the next couple of years leaving high school way before Crash did he immersed himself in Deucalion’s back street deals as well as enjoying the occasional hit when he could get it.

He was around when Crash’s parents were killed; he took Crash away from everything taking him to New York to live with him whilst he needed him. The next step came when Dash introduced Crash to Deucalion opening the door into Deucalion’s group of shapeshifter’s. Unfortunately when Crash 'escaped' from Deucalion's grasp after having the 'Nightmare Form' revealed to him, Deucalion blamed Dash and has been giving him a hard time ever since.

Extra: Dash hates humans whether they have unique powers or not.

He considers Crash as a brother despite everything.

Dash has always envied Crash and thus has considered him his rival for many years unbeknownst to the red-haired shapeshifter.

Dash is extremely fast and agile with killer reflexes that he has defined over the years.

Dash has many different accounts as to how he lost the sight in his right eye its hard to tell which one is true. Also interestingly when he shapeshifts, If you stare into his eyes, his right eye will flicker back to its normal white filmed look. An easy way to be detected...he generally avoids eye contact but he can forget on occasion.





Name: Annie ‘Nix’ Travis (Real Name: Astrid Lindberg)

Age: 173 (Though she will say she is only 20)

Gender: Female

Species/Race: Nix shape shifter

A Nix is a shape shifting water spirit who usually appears in human form, unlike the Selkie shape shifters a Nix is capable of shifting at will by visualizing the animal they wish to be. They favour water animals or mythical creatures associated with the sea or water in general.

They have a natural affinity with water; Nix can control water to a degree she can pull it from the air or ground around her, using it to form protective bubbles or prisons as well as marking arcs or powerful jet sprays. She can manipulate currents in the ocean and command the waves

Powers:.

Blasting Off Again: Nix summons jets of water from nearby water sources and directs them at her targets, if caught in a blast there is a chance of being thrown quite a distance, in severe causes you’ll be nothing but a glinting star in the sky as they’re thrown unceremoniously from the battlefield. She also uses the torrents to hold down her enemies though she can only hold them for 30 seconds, she could potentially crush them within this time.

Cool your jets: Nix pulls the moisture from the air around her using her hands she winds the streams of water into a ball in her hands before firing it at her target, on impact the water begins to freeze and spread across the target. Nix uses this ability to slow down her targets as the ice takes a long time to spread.

Davy Jone’s locker: Nix encloses her target in a sphere of water, sealing them in place with whatever air they were able to pull into their lungs before it happened. The bubble can ONLY be broken from the outside; she can have 3-4 prisons active at one time.

Bubble beam: As it sounds, Nix raises her hand as if to blow a kiss except as her hand moves away from her mouth a torrent of light blue or clear bubbles stream towards her target they hit with the same force as bullets generally used as a knock back or distraction they grow larger and become less potent the further they travel from her.

Wherefore art thou Romeo?: Nix creates a large serpent like dragon his skeleton is made up of thick ice that is protected by a swirling cover of water, he will go out of his way to protect her taking any damage thrown her way and relentlessly assaulting her enemies. He shoots water from his nose and creates ice beams with his mouth. He is by far her strongest attack option.

Beauty Sleep: Nix can heal herself if she immerses herself completely in a natural water reserve for just a few hours, she generally takes on the form of a manatee when resting in river beds or a mermaid in other areas. It would take twice as long to heal if she used processed water, for example if she were to run a bath and lie in it she would very slowly heal, talking more along the lines of 48 hours depending on the extent of the damage.

Siren’s Song: Nix spent centuries defining her singing voice and took great care in making her image as appealing to the opposite sex as possible. When she sings only strong willed males are able to resist her, she uses her voice to attract them to her she can influence the weaker minded via this. To a normal woman the song repels them assaulting their ears with an angry scream; this does not apply to those with same sex tendencies they can fall under her thrall.

Shapeshifting: Nix can change her shape to mimic other forms though she favours water based creatures or mythical creatures. Her most common forms are a white horse, a human form and a mermaid form.

Weaknesses:

Shock me not: Nix is vulnerable to electricity; it doesn’t mix well with any of her abilities. She wears headphones that absorb electricity should it come near her, if they’re taken from her and electricity is fired at her she’s pretty much out for the count.
Humane: Nix isn’t like the others, she has fewer problems with killing people she doesn’t know but she draws the line when it comes to hurting those she has grown attached to. She would never harm a child under the age of 16. She believes you’re pretty much grown by then anyway.

Heatstroke: Nix needs to stay fairly hydrated, putting her somewhere she cannot reach water will cut her off from her powers. If she becomes too dehydrated her body will eventually give up and cease to function at a faster pace than most humans her body cannot hold water like the human body.

That’s not my name: If Nix’s real name is spoken it is quite frankly the end of her, her powers would be stripped from her and she would be paralyzed. That way Nix could be executed or left to waste away, the damage is not reversible as far as anyone is aware.

Personality: To be revealed IC (please...)

Background: Nix has spent centuries guarding an unoccupied spring up in the mountains of the Sarek National Park in the province of Lapland in Northern Sweden. She would sing to attract company unaware the effect her song had on woman she would often draw the attention of men or children when they traveled up the mountains. Nix was rarely unkind to people in the beginning, most viewed themselves lucky to have seen her and were always very pleasant towards her.

Her attitude towards humans changed when she was seduced by a young man, he was given a challenge, one he succeeded in and in the process broke Nix’s heart. She became wrathful in her endeavors purposefully luring men to her, she would challenge their character if they were not gentlemanly she would simply drown them if they were she would reward them by allowing them to leave.
After countless cases of people going missing were reported, people tended to avoid Nix’s spring some would still travel there but only to see whether the rumors were true. Most did not return...unless they were children.

When Nix turned 169 she met Deucalion for the first time, he had heard the rumors and come to investigate her. After showing complete resistance to her charm, Nix merely attempted to drown him after a very short battle Deucalion over powered her, after all he was overtly combat savvy where as she had never fought anyone in her life. Deucalion filled her head with ideals and promised to give her the one thing she had always craved companionship. Sold by his ideas she left the sanctuary of her spring and traveled with him for a while, he taught her pretty much everything she knows. She views Deucalion as a god and doesn’t really understand his operations in the human world, she does as she’s asked no questions. She was often paired with Dash to carry out Deucalion’s orders.

Nix met Crash when he came to live with Dash , she pretty much latched onto him from the word go, she was drawn to his positive attitude though she found his ‘Good morals’ tiresome especially when he refused to do certain jobs, namely killing or parcel running. She learnt early on he could be tricked into running parcels if he didn’t know the contents, he was quick to trust her word. Crash encouraged Nix to be more humane over the short period they worked together, some of it actually stuck with her but Crash was never able to shade her view of Deucalion. She shut him out when he tried, burying any feelings she may have had for him deep within her.

Extra: Nix is the only shape shifter that does not rely on shifting forms to fight, she uses her shifting powers more to disguise herself outside of combat. Though she is a water spirit she is still considered a shape shifter by nature, her kind can never return to their spirit form as it has slowly been bred out of them. They have become more human over the years due to cross species partnership.

Nix has an obsession with changing her hair color, she generally prefers having pink hair but has been known to switch from blonde to blue and so forth.

Nix has no quarrels with humans though she has drowned many a foolish man in her past, despite the legends she has never harmed a child and only ever acted in self defence to protect her spring and her innocence.

((Deucalion is the main antagonist; Nix and Dash are sort of like his left and right hand lieutenants. There is room for at least one more major villain if anyone wants to do one ^^ Otherwise I’m quite willing to hand over control of Dash, I’d like him to be Crash’s rival if possible, he could be revamped providing his name and ability stay the same?...though I'd really like Nix to be mine >.>))

Crash is a settler, a rare mutation in shape shifters. It is the ability to eventually 'settle' on one form. The settled form will give him access to the chosen forms powers as well as becoming fully vulnerable to their weaknesses.

Settlers are not considered the most powerful of the shifters by any means, it is the opposite of what they are. But they are held in high respect because whilst they are still able to shift, their powers can be transferred over without having to fully change form. The mutation is common in pure blooded shifters.

For example: Sensitive hearing and enhanced scent could be constantly active whilst being in human form instead of badger form.

Crash would be experiencing these cross over’s at the moment. Some of the most common triggers for a settler to choose a form and stick to it is love or finding a place where they belong, as shifters prefer to move around instead of settling anywhere. Shifters can form tight knit family groups but generally prefer a solitary lifestyle until they find their life mates, this doesn’t mean they do not stay in contact it just means meetings/large gatherings are rare. It takes a strong leader to group them together for long periods of times or dire circumstances.

The underground shifter movement :D led by an ancient shape shifter Deucalion, he wants control and he hates humans with a burning passion. He is a man of vision, his vision is for supernatural forces to rule the earth and enslave the humans instead of hiding in the shadows. Although he has appealed too many of the supernatural's biggest leaders, the vampires, the witches/magic wielders, the demons (ones not associated with hell), the spirits. But they brushed his ideals aside deeming Shape shifter s too weak to even be recognized as a race by them.

Since then he has been gathering shape shifter followers, increasing his numbers and seeking out unique qualities in his race. Having an infinite knowledge of his heritage he has a very good idea on how to prove to the others he is worth their time. Crash is the first settler he knew of, he planted Dash in Crash’s world on purpose using him to manipulate Crash into trusting him. Deucalion is responsible for the death of Crash’s parents, he has in fact controlled Crash’s entire life by pulling strings behind the scenes making certain things happen that would push the family to places he wanted them to be, unbeknownst to them for years. When Crash’s parents became aware of Deucalion’s involvement in their lives, they were killed before they could escape his net.

Deucalion was one of the first Shape shifter s to discover the 'Nightmare form' whilst in ancient Egypt studying his ancestors, he spread it through his disciples.

He has plans for Crash although he hasn't been able to completely pull Crash into his net, he had been working very hard to give Crash no choice but to turn to him by crumbling his life around him. When Crash left his group unexpectedly Deucalion was furious, he blamed Dash for allowing him to slip through his fingers before he could reveal the 'nightmare form' to him. Of course he devised a way to do it sneakily and at the same time force Crash to return to him...it backfired, pushing Crash further away by cutting ties with Dash and trying to disappear.

Deucalion found him quickly but by then Mercy had already taken him away and completely out of Deucalion’s reach. Knowing better than to go up against Mercy's group of misfits he has been behind the scenes plotting and scheming. He is the reason Mercy pushed for Crash to go to Athalia thinking he would be safer there

Deucalion believes Crash will be able to master the nightmare form, and ultimately bring its traits through to his human form by 'settling'. He has then devised a way to imprint the modified nightmare form to his shape shifters giving them the ability to utilize the raw power of the nightmare form in any form they shape shift to.

Break up the idea into acts with a goal that must be reached in order to push it forward. By the end of it Crash will be settled with different powers.

Act 1 – My Masquerade Masquerade Ball, meet Deucalion. Aim of the act introducing the 3 to 4 main enemies and revealing their reasons for entering the school; bring them in under the cover of the masquerade ball. They will leave alive regardless of what the student’s do having left them with an ultimatum. ((I have a chunk of writing on how things would look at the ball and stuff, would really like it to be taken into consideration should this plot roll!))

Act 2 – Friend or Foe Decisions to be made as to how to move forward, two outcomes the students prepare to fight off Deucalion and put an end to his schemes or they send Crash to his fate. Each decision leads down a different path in act 3 and to a different outcome in Act 4.

Path 1 - The students opt to send Crash to Deucalion.

Path 2 - They let him stay and prepare to fight.

Act 3- What have you done? Consequences of act 2 either way this act will conclude with Deucalion’s army invading the school and hopefully being obliterated.

Path 1 - if Crash is sent away Deucalion will still come for the students using them to test the strength of his army. But his companions will be stronger after fusing with Crash's genes, in this case Deucalion will not fight, he will send the other 3 to do his dirty work.

Path 2- If Crash is allowed to stay; Deucalion will send Nix, Dash and ? along with weaker versions of his disciples. They will attempt to take Crash by force and to eradicate the students as they do, they can or can't succeed in getting Crash’s DNA, Dash will not be able to die.

Act 4- The War is Over The conclusion, Deucalion will reveal himself for the last time a few days after the battle has ended, telling Crash he won't give up is dreams and will grow stronger that they should all watch their backs Two possible endings. Tying up any loose ends that will probably be queried over the course of the season. Crash will have settled into new powers, time to relax before the next season.

Final Outcomes- Be Somebody Crash’s new powers and changes to be announced (with GM approval)

Path 1 - Crash would have already settled into his new powers and will return although he will have changed become more damaged, will re-script his character. Deucalion will appear.

Path 2 - When Deucalion appears Crash will promise him that he'll never allow him to complete his plans. Deucalion swears vengeance on the students and the academy. Crash will refuse to kill him. This doesn't mean someone else can't end Deucalion. Dash will appear apologizing for his involvement and that he underestimated him and the others, he will warn Crash that next they meet only one will survive the encounter.

((Random bit of info: Yes a lot of these acts have songs as titles >.> Their lyrics may not match but they were inspirational :P))

A successor to Ganonshaw, it is. (Pretty different, though)

Noxonshaw

Episode 1: The Welcoming Trumpet

Mark Noxus, leader of the Ardent Adventurers, simply sat on a sofa with a blank look. Ganondorf, who sat just across him, asked the cowboy,

"Why so constipated?"

The cowboy shook his head absent-mindedly, giving the middle finger to the King of Evil as he mumbled,

"No, there's nothing wrong with you, I just... I just couldn't get my eyes off of our fourth host in the show."

The Gerudo King shrugged.

"Megatron's a pretty chill guy. Well, if you take out ninety-nine percent of his personality, he's chill. He's obsessed with cubes and Matrixes these days."

The Ardent Adventurer looked slightly above the Roleplayer Guild screen. "We got... thirty seconds left."

The King of Evil nodded.

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

"...Do you like women?"

Mark raised an eyebrow at Ganondorf, who gave him an obviously bored look. The cowboy pointed at himself, mouthing "Me?" at the King of Evil. The Gerudo nodded as if Mark was naturally retarded.

Noxus nodded with a grin, saying, "Of course. I haven't met my 'dream girl,' though."

Suddenly, the lights in the room were turned on, revealing the two men in... Ganon's Castle!

"Welcome, welcome, welcome," Ganondorf said, clapping his hands together. "And you thought you'd never see me again for one whole week."

The King of Evil crossed his legs, explaining to the invisible audience,

"Now, we're not going to be staying here. In each episode, we will constantly change locations because destruction looms every second that ticks by in this show. Because my castle's totally going to be destroyed within a single episode of this show, right?"

The Gerudo King passed over the speaking duty to Mark Noxus, who looked around before stating,

"Now, we're supposed to have six hosts, but all of them seem to be... missing. So, without further adue, we will-"

Suddenly, a man crashed in between the two hosts, causing both of them to scream like women who just breathed in helium. He had fallen while sitting on a wooden chair that somehow did not break when it collided against the castle. It even left a hole at the ceiling.

A man with sunglasses, a fashionable suit, and a big fat frown simply commented,

"The Noxonshaw will introduce interviews, random battles, and whatever we want in it."

Mark Noxus blinked, readjusting his cowboy hat as he motioned over to the sunglasses-wearing man with the suit, telling the audience,

"Ladies and gentlemen: please say hello to Agent Smith. He will be one of your hosts."

A bunch of Agents cheered, for they praised their creator with all of their digital hearts. Agent Smith swiftly took out a white card, staring at it before simply calling out,

"Carmen Calandra."

...

...

...

"...Say what?" Mark asked the Agent as Ganondorf ate a cheese burger.

"Carmen Calandra. Carmen Calandra will now proceed to blip into existence for our show."

Everyone sat still in anticipation. Ganondorf stared at an empty chair sitting next to them, still eating his burger.

...That was not there before, he thought, though he prioritized eating his cheese burger over figuring out the origins of the chair.

Carmen would soon blip onto the chair... like a feather. Hopefully. The last thing Ganon needed was another person crashing through the roof and landing on a chair.

Carmen soon blipped onto the chair. Not like a feather. But also not like someone crashing through the roof. She blipped onto the chair in the most fashionable way it was possible to blip onto a chair.

Satisfied with her entrance, she looked around. It was still Ganondorf's castle, but there were a few new faces. Instantly recognized Agent Smith from the Matrix universe because of the fourth wall, Carmen simply nodded at him with a tilt of the head and a curious smile. She saw another man in a cowboy hat who she did not recognize, but she also saw Ganondorf, whom she addressed.

"Ganondorf, darling...no innocent audience members to kill? I'm hurt," she said, looking hurt in the most Hollywood diva-esque way possible. "Surely you know by now that that's the price of entry."

The audience laughed, though some of them booed Ganondorf. One of the Stalfos yelled, "Lord Ganondorf? How come she gets to kill us while we can't kill her?"

"Yeah, I mean like... it hurts. Getting killed, that is. Just kidding, I died like one-thousand f--king times."

The King of Evil shot two extremely slow orbs of dark energy at the two Stalfos, wanting to quickly deal with them using his... slow magic. The Stalfos stared at the incoming magic.

...

They blew up. The audience clapped in polite applause.

Ganondorf sighed, shaking his head at the Skylark.

"I'll just reserve room for you to... blast my audience apart."

Mark chuckled, while Agent Smith suddenly had a golden card in his hands. "We will immediately begin with asking questions," the Agent said, looking up at Carmen with an extremely monotone voice. "Ms. Calandra, please refrain from lying at all times during this interview we are about to perform."

Smith looked down at the card, causing the excited crowd to quiet down. The Agent looked up from the card, asking the student,

"What is your perception upon the concept of war, and who do you think best specializes it?"

Carmen addressed the King of Evil once more. "Oh, that would be lovely."

Before she could go on, Agent Smith began talking. Carmen was quickly bored.

"Oh Ganondorf, could someone else read the questions? Agent Smith is a simply wonderful human being in every way but isn't the most...interesting to listen to. Perhaps this...cowboy? Who is that anyway?"

She sat. She pondered.

"I guess I'll answer this one, though."

She sat some more. She pondered some more.

"War is...something that people do to settle disputes. It is sometimes necessary, and sometimes not. I should imagine those who are capable of fighting would be the most suitable to partake in the activity," she opined. "Guns certainly seem to work well," she added.

Agent Smith simply stared at his card for a few seconds.

He took off his sunglasses, looking up at the Skylark as he said with his monotone voice,

"Ms. Calandra, I've meant what kind of species is best at war."

Ganondorf and Mark simply thought to themselves,

You didn't say that, you vague a-shole.

Carmen sighed.

If there was any consolation about her participation on these shows (besides getting to kill Stalfos with ludicrous Halo weapons), it was her ability to know everything ever via the universe's oddly weak fourth wall.

"Do you know what a Pokemon type chart is, Mr. Smith?" she asked.

"It's like that. Certain species are the best at war against certain other species, but overall...there can be no clear answer."

The Agent nodded, acknowledging her opinion. He decided to be social with the audience, simply stating,

"I think humans are the most destructive among all things."

All of the Smiths laughed like crazy, while the Stalfos and Iron Knuckles laughed in both confusion and a state of "wtf" in their minds. Ganondorf glanced at Mark, who looked back at him.

Noxus looked between Ganondorf and Agent Smith, both who were staring directly at him. The cowboy raised his hands in confused submittance, blurting out, "It ain't my fault to have billions of jacka-ses worse than me, you know!"

As Agent Smith began to question on whether Mark took the red pill or blue pill, which was what Morpheus should have done so much earlier, Ganondorf explained to Carmen,

"That cowboy's Mark Noxus. Galactic bounty hunter. He catches criminals and accidentally got involved with a World War that scaled among two worlds. He ended up becoming a hero for ending the war without killing any human being- except for one-, though I honestly don't give a flying sh-t because I'm Ganondorf."

With Mark Noxus breathing heavily for air, Agent Smith put away his pills before taking out another card.

Mark Noxus quickly snatched the golden card out of the Agent's hands, giving the sunglasses-wearing man a death glare.

"For your information, I never eat pills," the Ardent Adventurer said.

Agent Smith's face froze. He then began to mull over what Mark just said, rambling on about how one pill should have been chosen. Mark, on the other hand, stared at the next question before looking up at Carmen with a bright smile.

"So, anyway! I heard you like to use that trumpet of your's for some snazzy music. Y'mind telling me in how many concerts you've been at, or if you haven't been at one yet, tell me if you're planning in participating in one?"

Carmen observed the three hosts with amusement. This was more interesting than having just one host, especially since they apparently all hated each other. Or something.

She was also thankful that the cowboy she now knew as Mark Noxus asked the next question and not Agent Smith.

"I've been to quite a lot of concerts," she responded. "I had to. Otherwise I wouldn't learn any human musics upon my arrival on Earth."

She looked at the hosts.

"...yes, 'musics' is a real word."

She moved on.

"I've been to countless concerts all over the world, assimilating human sounds into my palette. But, except for a single party, I haven't participated in any. I would certainly love the opportunity, though."

The cowboy widened his eyes, nodding at Ganondorf to show that she was more interesting than him.

Ganondorf wondered why everyone had to hate each other. Then he realized he was the cause of why everyone hated each other. So he didn't give a sh-t and ate his cheese burger.

Mark Noxus, his interest piqued by Carmen's mention of "musics" and "concerts," said to the Skylark, "Oh, so you come from a different world aside from Earth... Did you ever assimilate the sounds of... y'know, alien-y stuff? Like... those weird Martian dudes or maybe something more sentinel?"

"Ugh, please," Carmen muttered in response to Mark's question. "I don't have time for aliens, you know. I was born from the stars and was sent here, and here I've remained. It's quite nice, you know."

Noxus nodded. Of course, not everyone was born from animals. Still, her origins pleasantly surprised him. With a warm grin, he honestly said to Carmen as he bluntly took a card from Agent Smith's suit,

"Well, you certainly don't look like any alien. You look like any kind of beautiful lass."

Mark took out a brown card, which he instantly threw away before taking out another golden card.

"Okay, so when-"

CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suddenly, the entire roof of the castle was blown off, with a bunch of Michael Bay explosions destroying the walls that once supported it. More explosions, explosions, and even more explosions appeared around the castle, causing one of the Stalfos to look up at the skies.

He screamed unnecessarily, quoting Transformers 4,

"OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!"

A metallic laugh growled across all of Hylia as the mechanical beast landed behind the hosts and Carmen.

"I am," the giant robot said, changing his rocket launcher into a deadly looking blade, "Megatron."

The hosts rolled their eyes as Megatron cut down the rest of the roof. The leader of the Decepticons roared, pleasantly enjoying causing destruction in wherever he walked... literally. Megatron snapped his spiky fingers, causing a giant, metallic throne to "poof" out of nowhere, before he sat on it comfortably. Ganondorf felt like his throne had just been usurped without even allowing him to do something to prevent his castle's destruction.

Megatron leaned over to Mark Noxus, his red eyes staring directly into the cowboy's, as he growled, "I'll answer the next question."

The cowboy simply threw the card straight toward Megatron, who caught it with his fingers. The leader of the Decepticons, who was the fourth host of the Noxonshaw, looked at the golden card. The inky-dinky words on it weren't helping him...

Meanwhile, Mark Noxus asked Ganondorf, "Was Megatron supposed to come out today?"

"Everyone was," the King of Evil grumbled, still sulking over his loss. He wished Megatron just shoved the Cube up his own a-s before flying into Cybertron.

"Impudent creature that sits before me," Megatron addressed Carmen as kindly as he could, "tell me... do you have the Cube?"

Ganondorf cried, Mark Noxus laughed, and Agent Smith rubbed his head due to how even he realized how stupid of a question that was.

Carmen blinked.

Literally nothing could surprise her in Ganon's castle anymore. When Michael Bay arrived with his team of CGI explosion engineers, she didn't flinch. Only blinked. When Megatron showed up, she also didn't flinch, only chuckled a little at the Stalfos' spot-on Transformers 4 reference, delivered most excellently. She'd have to remember to kill him later.

The now four hosts continued their humorous banter and conversation, before Megatron himself asked the next question.

Carmen sighed and nearly facepalmed.

"Megatron," she said, addressing the giant evil robot Transformer movie cash cow villain that sat before her. "Old boy."

She paused to conjure up her words carefully.

"Not even Michael Bay could create a plot hole so large that would allow me of all people to have your Cube," she said, still amused.

Megatron's eyebrows twitched erratically at her answer. He leaned closer to Carmen, growling,

"There is no such Michael Bay who would prevent me, the leader of the Decepticons, from having the Cube. Where is it...?"

Ganondorf genuinely wanted to cry.

Carmen titled her head at the Decepticon leader.

"Have you even watched the Transformers movies?" she asked simply.

"I'm sure a human boy who presents no real merit to the plot has it," she stated. "Perhaps you should try starting there."

Megatron suddenly bolted up from his throne, cutting it down with his blade. The throne blew up, explosions shooting out of every inch and corner of it.

Mark Noxus fell on the floor because he laughed too much. He quickly sat back up to look polite. Meanwhile, Ganondorf simply had his face planted into his hands, and Agent Smith was actually cleaning his sunglasses.

"No," the Decepticon leader roared. "You LIE!!!! I need the Cube RIGHT NOW!!!"

Megatron fired his gun at his throne, causing a magnificent explosion to occur. This Michael Bay explosion looked surprisingly awesome, though nearly all explosions looked the same, so no one gave a living f--k about it. The Decepticon leader pointed at the hosts- and Carmen- as he roared,

"All of you flies are all the SAME!!! GIBE ME THE CUBE!!! NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!"

Mark Noxus blinked, genuinely surprised that the fourth host of the show would point a gun at the other hosts in the first episode. Ganondorf simply sat, still demotivated by how stupid Megatron was in the show, and Agent Smith stood up from his chair, prepared to make any necessary actions to prevent the destruction of his audience, along with their guest.

Suddenly, due to the "Main Character" syndrome in Transformers, Optimus Prime came out of nowhere. In fact, an explosion randomly occured in the air, sending Prime out of it as if it were an interdimensional portal. An unnecessary slow-motion sequence began, with Prime slowly taking out his gun, pointing it directly at Megatron.

Time turned back to normal, and Megatron was shot by three bullets of mighty lead. Explosions shot out of his chest, and Megatron landed on his decimated throne, causing another explosion to ooze out of his a-s. The Decepticon leader's eyes glowed as he roared,

"PRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Just when Megatron stood up, Optimus Prime began to pump out more bullets of mighty lead, causing more explosions to erupt from Megatron. But Prime himself was also exploding because he was in a Michael Bay movie. Even though no one was clearing shooting him.

Ganondorf excused himself, proceeding to sit in the audience for awhile.

Agent Smith was recording the fight.

Mark Noxus was watching Agent Smith recording the fight, though he was sort of left responsible to make sure their guest did not blow up... because they were technically in a Michael Bay movie.

Optimus Prime shouted,

"Megatron! In the end, one must stand, and one must fall!"

"YOU SAID THAT FIVE BILLION TIMES IN THE ANIMATED SERIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS, PRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And thus, Optimus Prime deemed it necessary to take out his blade. With a mighty roar, Prime stabbed Megatron before knocking both of them off of the castle with one heck of an explosion erupting behind them. The two Transformers continuously fought each other as they fell down, flying off of the castle.

...

...

...

...Mark Noxus sat back down, simply staring at the golden card in his hand.

"...You, like, wanna answer one more question?" The cowboy asked Carmen. "Or do you wanna leave or somethin'?"

Carmen just sat there, amused at the entire explosion fest that had just occurred. She had, of course, not taken any damage whatsoever, since she was Transformers: Noxonshaw's equivalent of Megan Fox. Since she was also Carmen, her clothes also didn't get damaged at all. That wouldn't be right.

She looked up at the cowboy, who, along with Agent Smith, had recovered nicely from the shouty robot explodey fight thing. "Seriously," she began. "How does something explode that many times?"

Listening to his question, she responded. "I've got time. What's your question? As long as it involves 100% less Transformers."

Mark Noxus looked at the golden card again before putting it away. The cowboy made himself feel a bit more comfortable before asking her,

"You aren't interested in romance, aren't you?"

Agent Smith was watching what he recorded.

Carmen perked up at Mark's latest question. "It's not something I pursue, if that's what you're asking," she said. She pondered for a moment. "I've never really thought about it, now that I think of it. I was born from the stars, as you know. I tend to think about other things than humans do." Despite her answer, it was obvious that she was quite intrigued by the question.

Mark Noxus nodded, knowing what she meant. After all, it was easy to overlook love when whole new adventures lived within unseen places and ideas. Still, he felt satisfied with the answer he receive. The cowboy smirked, glancing at the Agent staring into his own phone's screen, before looking back at Carmen.

That's a big fat relief, right there.

He told Carmen, "You should check it out in more detail, sometime. After all, love is what most humans look forward to accomplishing. Maybe you can find your greatest music within it."

Carmen was silent.

She was thinking.

Well, this is a problem. He's right.

She responded with a rare return question.

"Why do you suppose most humans look forward to accomplishing it?" she asked the cowboy, hoping he himself was human.

The cowboy looked up at the skies. Now that the recording had technically ended with Megatron and Optimus Prime going ham, he decided to be completely honest with himself. Mark let out a relaxed breath, thinking of a good answer- a good explanation that could give her a gist of why humans wanted to accomplish such a simply thing known as "love."

"Humans... they see love in many ways. But penultimately, there's a primary reason connected to all of these 'ways.' Connection. We want to be connected- at least, humans want to. There is a certain connection that bonds these people together. A connection that gives a new spark- a new song- in their very lives, where our worlds are so dark and cold."

Mark Noxus looked at Carmen with a grin, happy to find that Carmen was interested in such a topic as well.

"I think these connections conduct the most beautiful music one could ever find. That's only my input on it, anyway."

Carmen sat and thought. The cowboys words were almost poetic. And they made sense. She was a little frustrated at herself for not seeing the merit in musical results through romance. However, she also didn't want to run back to the normal universe a hopeless romantic. She would merely continue her existence, accepting romance if it came. Maybe. Depending on who. I can't be seen with someone...unfashionable, she thought.

There it was. The real Carmen was back.

"Well, thank you very much for that insight. I may yet have to use it," she said vaguely. "Now...are there any further questions? I'd love to stay and chat, but I do have real life to attend to and I'd imagine the King of Evil needs to get right on his repair bills," she said, looking over at the Gerudo King with a smirk. "And I'd prefer not to be plugged into the Matrix," she said, looking at the Agent.

Mark laughed, though it was more of a soft, genuine one. He said with a wide smile,

"We were done quite a while ago. Actually, that wasn't really a part of the show, really."

The cowboy stood up, dusting some debris on his pants, before putting his hands in his pockets. He had a job to do, as well. A job where he would need to go back to a life of poverty. He was no rich man, but as long as he had a space ship, some friends, and a gun, he'd be more than happy to risk more of his life in getting some cash. After all, he needed to save his sister as soon as possible.

Three portals appeared at the sidelines: one for Carmen, one for Mark, and one for all of the Agents. Agent Smith walked into the left portal, seemingly satisfied with the video he recorded as all of the other Agents followed him out. Mark Noxus, on the other hand, walked into portal at the middle. He stopped midway, looking back at Carmen.

"If you really want to know more about humans," Mark said with a wide grin, "you should go ask one. They just might know more than me."

With his last words said, Mark returned to his world, where he would continue his journey. He would come back for the next episode with some excitement prepared for his audiences.

Carmen watched the Agents walk through their portals, and listened to the cowboy's words before he himself vanished to another world. This show had been oddly...enlightening for a show that typically involved stupid questions, killing audiences and N64 graphics. Mark seemed like a far more charismatic host than Ganondorf (I mean, obviously), and Carmen assumed that the usual crop of guests would be showing up on this new show. Whoever they were, the twisted crazy Ganon world was definitely changing.

She just hoped they'd eventually move somewhere else. Somewhere more...good. And less pixel-y. The usual stuff.

And with that, she walked through the portal.

Noxonshaw

Episode 2: Fox-Fire Zone!

Ganondorf sat still, twitching erratically on his chair. Mark Noxus nervously glanced at Agent Smith, who wore the same expression, much to the cowboy's surprise. The two of them wore sound-proof headphones, only being able to talk to each other safely by using the headphones to communicate. With that said, except for the fact that everyone was wearing headphones (which were surprisingly light), nothing really changed. The audience cheered, the hosts were ready, and everything was prepared.

In Green Hill Zone.

Now, Ganondorf did not expect to be attacked by an extremely deformed... blue... thing, when he came to this world. The blue thing, however, was also the sixth host for the Noxonshaw. Mark and Agent Smith wisely wore headphones when they entered the world- in other words, they decided to do what Ganondorf didn't. And they sort of used the King of Evil as a guinea pig.

Now one of their hosts were mentally dead for the time being. No one really gave a sh-t because it was Ganon, anyway.

"Welcome to the Noxonshaw!" Mark Noxus said, eying the twitching Gerudo before looking back at the Roleplayer Guild screen. "Today marks the second episode of this show, and I'd like to thank our sponsors for not killing us when they heard they were going to receive nothing."

Agent Smith crossed his fingers, asking Mark,

"So who're we supposed to interview this time, Mr. Anderson?"

"...Uh," Mark Noxus looked down at a paper he had been holding for a while before shrugging. "Well, our guest's name is Kelly Miyabi, though she also has another name, "Mizuki," listed underneath it."

Mark asked Agent Smith, "How about we just go with 'Mizuki?' I mean, it says it's her actual name."

Agent Smith took out his cellphone and played Candy Crush. He hacked every single level to be beatable instantly.

"...Sooooooo without further adue," Mark Noxus said, ignoring Agent Smith's "saga" of crushing candies, "please welcome our second guest to the Noxonshaw!..."

"...Kelly 'Mizuki' Miyabi!!!"

Agent Smith muttered, "We should call her 'Trinity.'"

"...What's wrong with you today?"

A chair sat next to the hosts, and there really was no way to actually destroy anything in Green Hill Zone. In fact, it would actually be more troublesome to take care of natural environments instead of destructible castles.

Especially if they were in Green Hill Zone.

"WHAT ON EARTH-"

Mizuki immediately engaged a Death Blossom, sending exploding hair bullets in every direction. Then she immediately saw some...thing with headphones and light flashed over to it, stealing them.

Walking back over to the group of three that were looking at her authoritatively, she repeated herself, now able to hear again.

"What...on Earth." she said, scowling.

A Stalfos blew up. The audience laughed at the Stalfos, which lay twitching erratically as well. It would require rest at Ganon's Castle to calm it down.

Mark Noxus turned to Agent Smith, who looked equally confused. Had the warping system malfunctioned? Whatever the case was, they were glad the guest did not require an ear surgery. Noxus turned back to Mizuki, scratching the back of his head as he said apologetically,

"Er... sorry 'bout that. That ain't supposed to happen, but... apparently we ran outta headphones."

Agent Smith simply muttered, "So in the end, we need to do the interview."

Mark Noxus took out a golden card from his trench coat's pocket. He had just arrived from a bounty located in some underwater city. Right after he got a criminal caught and arrested by a galactic police federation, he was immedaitely sent here because... Noxonshaw. It was how it worked. The cowboy looked at the card before making himself feel comfortable again.

"Anyway, let's get right on with the interview! Ms. Mizuki, will you introduce yourself... if you don't mind, that is?"

Mizuki visibly brooded. And thought.

"Hold on. I haven't even been introduced in-character yet and you want me to go on and do an interview?! Do you know how ridiculous this sounds?" she continued brooding, looking around at the scene set before her.

Mark Noxus took out a soda can. The man blinked when it suddenly blew up in his hand. The cowboy quickly threw the can into a nearby trash can, acting as if nothing happened.

Mizuki looked at each of the hosts, the exploding soda can, the extremely odd scenery, and the extremely odd audience. On second thought...they probably know how ridiculous this sounds, she thought in frustration. Seeing as there was no exit anywhere in sight and she wasn't in the mood to fight, she reluctantly admitted to herself that she'd have to do the interview.

Looking up at the cowboy who had just asked her a question, she replied, still in quite the mood. "Well, you know my name already...what more do you need?"

Mark Noxus put up a thoughtful look. On a second thought, she did not seem too happy to come into a green place where... loud... stuff was... sorta blasting at full volume. He did not even know if the music playing in the background was at full volume in the first place.

The cowboy shrugged, simply uttering "Well, I guess you have a point." He tossed aside his card, taking out another golden card. The cowboy read the question before looking up to face her.

"So... from what I could tell, you are quite a formidable kitsune when it comes to fighting. In fact, it's as if you don't have anything to fear! Is it a lie that you do have things you stray away from?"

Mizuki's mood improved from 100% enraged to 97% enraged when the cowboy described her as formidable. But, she had to wonder. Where are they getting this information in the first place?! Either way, it was obvious to her that they were trying to get more strategic answers from her. But, there are some things she couldn't hide.

Before she was even able to think to try to lie, she responded "dogs." extremely tersely. "That's it." None of them are dogs, so I think I'm safe, she thought.

Mark and Agent Smith actually seemed surprised to hear that she was fearful of... dogs... Then again, she was a kitsune. Agent Smith completely defeated the Candy Crush Saga in one minute, allowing him to unceremoniously throw aside his cellphone. It amusingly hit the "dead" Ganondorf.

"Well, there aren't any dogs here, that's for sure," the cowboy said, with a confident tone. Still, he had to wonder how this woman would react if a dog suddenly blipped into existence out of nowhere. He did not want to further aggravate the woman, however.

Agent Smith thought otherwise.

The Agent held Doge in his arms, which constantly made remarks like "such tails" and "much anger." With a monotone expression, Agent Smith asked the kitsune,

"Like this one?"

Mizuki had already bolted. She had somehow reached the audience in the time it took Agent Smith to get out Doge, and was standing behind them.

"Do you want to do this interview or not?" she hissed.

Agent Smith was about to stand up with Doge, though he sat back down when he deemed it unnecessary to stand up for such an arrogant, ungrateful girl. Doge barked, "much rude; very anger."

The Agent put down Doge, letting it walk to somewhere within the audience as he motioned for Mizuki to come back.

Mizuki walked back. She was, predictably, fuming.

"Why am I here?" she asked curtly.

Mark Noxus shrugged. He honestly did not know why the heck Noxonshaw's directors would even think about putting the setting at Green Hill Zone while bringing in a particularly angry kitsune in. She reminded him of... no one. That was a surprise for someone who traveled through galaxies.

"Well, the Noxonshaw," he said, thinking of why they would bring her in, "aims to interview as many interesting people as we can. And it's fairly harmless."

The Ardent Adventurer gave Agent Smith a nod, thanking him for putting away Doge. Agent Smith was playing Sonic Jump, which made the bounty hunter flip the Agent off behind his chair.

He took out anohther card, reading it.

"It is said that you are not exactly aligned to both evil and good. If that's so, can you tell us some reasons as to why you would not pick a side?"

Mizuki, surprisingly, calmed down a little bit. "That's fair," she said to the seemingly more reasonable cowboy's explanation.

She was still mildly livid, but nothing a Snickers bar couldn't fix.

Listening intently to his next question, she thought for a moment.

"Staying aligned with one side of the moral spectrum would prove...inefficient for my purposes," she explained. "Why only use half of a double-edged sword when you could use all of it?"

Mark nodded, as if he knew what she was talking about. Actually, he was fully aware of what she talked about. There were times when one simply should utilize both sides in a battle to gain a greater reward. It was not a good tactic, but it was admittedly a fast way of making money.

"Good point there, actually. You do get a disadvantage if you permanently become a part of one side in a battle. Better off using all than half, I suppose."

The cowboy decided to ask further in the same topic. "I want to ask you something: if there is a side that has a certain being that you are fond of, would you still stick to not picking sides?"

This time, Mizuki answered immediately. "I wouldn't know...that's never happened to me before. I've always fought alone...for various reasons."

Agent Smith glanced at Mark Noxus, who decided to moving on would be good for the kitsune's comfort. The last thing they needed was an extremely ticked off girl who would burn Green Hill Zone down. But they weren't concerned about the Zone- they were more worried that they would summon an unwanted figure in at the wrong time in the wrong place.

Mark nodded, taking out another golden card. "I presume that's why you would not befriend others?" The cowboy asked, preparing his next question after this one.

Mizuki responded matter-of-factly. "Friendship is as much of a commodity as anything else. While I do value friendship highly - believe it or not - my life journey has so far benefited more from not having any ties with anyone. If that changes, I will consider forming friendships again. Also...most potential friends are humans. I don't have the best history with humans."

Mark and Agent Smith laughed a little, though Agent Smith himself was laughing at Doge's reactions in watching Youtube videos. Mark Noxus crossed his arms for a moment, remembering a time when he had gotten along well with humans. It was a golden age for him. He understood what Mizuki meant, but...

You can't make friendship after isolation. You can call an alliance painted with "friendliness" friendship, but it never will be. Never can be.

The cowboy decided to add in his own input.

"Well, people are pretty hard to get along with. They backstab you, present false love, though I guess it's mainly because there are so many people who get away with crimes these days. Never really did trust a man myself... well, except for three people."

Mark thought of a certain trumpet player.

"...Maybe four."

He took out his golden card again, scanning it before a smile was plastered over his face.

"If you do not prefer dogs, what animals are you fond of?"

Mizuki was frankly jealous of the cowboy's number count for how many humans he trusted. Her counter was still at zero (parents not included). He looked like a human himself, but it seemed that he spoke like he wasn't. Curious.

Mizuki thought about his next question. "Animals which don't attack me," she responded simply. "Beyond that...I'm not picky. Animals are animals."

The cowboy thought about it. Now that he thought about it, nearly every single animal he was fond of were harmless ones. Then again, it seemed reasonable after getting chased by large, multi-eyed, rolling balls that were literally composed of disgusting reptilian skin and teeth.

"What about fellow foxes?" Mark asked, wondering about how Mizuki would feel about- technically- her own species.

"I do like foxes, now that you mention it," she said. "I can trust them. That's...better than most advanced species, if I'm honest."

Mark smiled. At least she was better at doing that than he did.

He then went through another card. Though, the cowboy began to feel uneasy. First things first, Megatron had not showed up yet. If he had succumbed to that god-forsaken theme song in the background, then it would be a huge problem for the entire show's safety. The Ardent Adventurer, however, did not exactly want to point that out.

He turned to Agent Smith, only to find that Agent Smith had turned to a new-face.

Mark Noxus paled.

A blue... thing... opened its https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX7zPlQjAr8

Agent Smith was blown off of his chair, flying through a three-hundred sixty degree running hoop, before he vanished from the naked eye. Mark Noxus blinked, reaching out for his gun, as he stared at the host that really should not have come out in this episode.

Sanic.

"So, uh," he whispered to Mizuki, slightly pulling her chair away from the hegehog, "I advise you not to get close to him here."

Mizuki was quite amused by Agent Smith's loop adventure. Turning to the cowboy after glancing at Sanic, she said simply, "It looks disgusting."

Sanic turned to Mizuki's direction. Mark was fully prepared to shoot if Sanic decided to go fast. Not that he even suspected he would catch him with a freaking gun, anyway. Because Sanic was 2fast4him.

"cum on step it up," the hegehog said to Ganondorf, causing the King of Evil to be blown into the skies. Ganondorf limply fell into an ocean.

Mark gulped. He fully suspected either he or Mizuki was next, but Agent Smith would probably come back to continue the show soon.

The cowboy pulled out his gun under a millisecond, firing eighteen bullets in three shots at the hegehog. As he suspected, Sanic was far too fast for him. Sanic literally took a sh-t on a dead bird, touched Ganondorf's floating body, went through the three-hundred sixty degree loop, and even drank one entire can of Coca Cola before coming back to his initial position.

Mark Noxus raised an eyebrow. Maybe he was definitely in for a ride, but having some fox fly alongside him would be trouble. So he decided to put his hopes on one final weapon.

Sanic bounced through the audience before going to the skies, penetrating the stratosphere as if it were made of silk. He went to space, through a star, and even a sun, before coming straight toward Mark Noxus, saying,

"ure2slo gottagofast"

Mark bolted up from his seat, yelling as he turned on a cellphone,

"I FOUND THE CUBE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It all happened too suddenly, for the ground blew up massively. In fact, the entire loop was destroyed by one huge explosion, and the rest of the ground around the loop was decimated by five more explosions. A metallic figure blew his way out, spiraling out of the ground as it fired rockets everywhere.

Megatron, the infamous leader of the Decepticons, roared at Mark Noxus,

"GIBE ME THE CUBE.... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The cowboy nearly sh-t his pants, but still, he felt glad to see that hulking figure of massive "Michael Bay" before him. Megatron landed in the ocean and began to run towards the land as if he were being filmed in a crappy Machinima film.

Sanic appeared before Megatron, with his signature smile as he began spinning his feet, saying,

"CUM ON STEP IT UP."

Megatron got so angry, he decided to use one of his genuinely godly moves in the Transformers movies.

It was called "Dominate the First Half of the Movie."

The leader of the Decepticons fired three explosive shells at the hegehog before changing his weapon into a blade. Three godly explosions filled the air, and Sanic was already getting ready to destroy the mechanical robot.

But alas, Megatron winning the first half of the Michael Bay movie was a law. In fact, it was in effect due to the fact that Megatron was in top shape.

The Decepticon leader suddenly punched Sanic toward the ground with his unfair Michael Bay physics, firing seven explosive shells on Sanic. The hegehog did not say anything, for he had been (unfairly) beaten by a robot that could not even comprehend the difference between a Rubix Cube and "the Cube."

"gottagofast" Sanic said before running away. Of course, no one would be able to kill that son of a b-tch.

Mark smiled... before he paled.

Megatron was going straight toward him.

"GIBE ME THE CUBE.... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!"

The Ardent Adventurer wondered where he should run to... before realizing there really was no place to run. He held out a hand at Megatron, desperately yelling,

"WAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT!!!!!!"

Mark wondered if it would work like how Sam- that one useless human- did it. Unfortunately, Mark Noxus was too important to even gain extra time. The cowboy took out his gun once more.

But alas, the Autobots had their own ten commandments. One of them was "Megatron must be stopped at all costs."

Right in front of Mizuki, Optimus Prime destroyed the ground, flying toward Megatron before punching him in the face. Sparks and explosions erupted from the other side of Megatron's face, and when Megatron landed, an entire mountain had been destroyed. The Decepticon leader stood up as he stepped on a hill to the point where it got flattened.

"PRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! THE ALL-SPARK IS MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE, AND YOU WILL DIE ALONG WITH THESE FOOLISH CREATURES!!!!!!!!!"

Optimus Prime decided to randomly pop him some wise-a-s quote,

"Like us, there's more to them than meets the eye."

Megatron roared as he charged toward Prime, firing six explosive shells at Prime. All of them were dodged because Megatron automatically sucked balls at shooting guns whenever he fought Prime.

Optimus Prime punched Megatron, though the Decepticon also fired an explosive shell on Prime's face. The Autobot leader then fired a gun directly at Megatron's chest, though the Decepticon leader continuously fired explosive shells at Prime.

Suddenly, Sanic flew towards the two and smashed them into the air. The two Transformers were sent to the skies, constantly beating each other up as Sanic went to space. And beyond space. He's 2fast.

Agent Smith had recorded all of that, sitting on top of a decimated loop ring. He began to check how well it was recorded.

Mark sat on his chair, his breath completely out of him. Megatron and Sanic were just a pain in the a-s to deal with.

Mizuki had, of course, taken zero damage, due to the Michael Bay Law of the Girl and the Ganon/Noxonshaw Law of the Guest. However, she had quite enjoyed the interruption. She was actually smiling.

"That was the best part of the entire interview so far," she commented to the cowboy, who was completely breathless. When she became happy, she became mischievous. "So, any more questions?! You have more, right?!" she asked him quickly and in a higher voice than before. This was not her, but seeing him so completely drained necessitated action.

Mark Noxus raised an eyebrow at the kitsune's sudden change of... atittude. It was actually a change for the better, for once. The cowboy huffed out several more breathes, simply staring at the blue skies. He reached out for his headphones.

The man took them off, and much to his surprise, there was no theme playing. At this, all of the audience took their headphones off, pleasantly happy with the "movie" they just watched.

Mark looked over at Mizuki, staring at her as if she were a puppy lost in the wild.

He then grinned before laughing. He laughed just a little, though. Keeping his grin- though it had grown noticeably melancholy- he looked over at her again as he asked,

"Where did you learn to smile like that?"

Mizuki's smile faded and was replaced by a face of confusion. "Is this...a trick question?" she asked. "...Because if it is, I won't be happy," she said, her face turning back to its state of anger from before. However, it quickly rescinded back to a gentler expression. "It doesn't happen very often, does it?" she admitted.

The cowboy nodded. She looked far more prettier with a smile, though he was obviously no ladiesman to start asking women to smile for him. They smiled when they wanted to, just like he did.

"No tricks there," he admitted, taking a deep breath before sighing with a small smile. "It's just... a good thing. To be able to smile with everything you have. Not many people can do that, you know."

Mark Noxus decided to continue to hold a conversation until the portals opened up. Did he always need to talk with the guests? No, he did not, and he was recommended by the Agent that he should not. Getting attached to the guests would probably make him conflicted when he returned to his own world again. Then again, Noxus himself noticed that the Agent was quite fond of annoying Ganondorf. A vague form of fondness.

He asked Mizuki,

"Do people make you frown, usually?"

Mizuki looked at the cowboy intently, speaking very deliberately.

"I can smile," she said. "I've just had things done to me that make me not want to." Pausing, she added, "and frowning takes too much work. I settle for brooding. You should observe sometime - I'm a professional."

Mark nodded, hoping that there would be a chance to observe one day. Though, it seemed that the day would never come. After all, even in his own world, people he met tend to never appear in his life again. And some would die smiling, even though it was logically and emotionally impossible to do so.

"Friendship," Mark said, looking down at the ground, taking out a metal penchant, "would be impossible for you to make soon. You should keep that in mind."

He spun the penchant around absent-mindedly.

Mizuki looked at the cowboy, once again with a hard face. She had been reminded of things she didn't want to be reminded of, and was no longer in a smilling mood. "That's not a question," she stated simply. She looked away, trying to curb her thoughts. "And believe me...I know," she added without looking back at him. "You try having everything you love taken from you and still want to make friends with the people who did it," she said softly.

Mark nodded.

...before bursting out with a small laughter. It was short, however.

He stopped spinning the penchant, opening it with a swift click. The cowboy smiled warmly at the picture of him being next to his hospitalized sister.

"You know," the Ardent Adventurer said with a distant, but hopeful smile, "I was lying about that 'you can't get friendship' crap."

Mark closed the penchant, looking at the clear skies. Without the annoying loop ring, he could see that it was literally as clear as day.

"I've..." The cowboy said, his smile now only a small part of his face, "Before I made my first human friends, I've killed 12586 people. That's more than what my sister can count."

He paused for a brief moment before continuing,

"But I ended up smiling even after ending those lives. It's... terrible. I'm a truthfully sinful man. Yet, I met people who accepted my sinful nature. Humans. We formed a friendship between us. Something that made me smile again."

Mark twirled around his penchant once more. "We, in the end, have done something that justifies our circumstances. But belief kept me alive. Faith that made me believe that somewhere out there, someone not on the side of good or evil, but on my side."

The cowboy smiled at the thought of his sister waking up once more.

"Your lost belief in others is the key that can let you smile freely. Our faith is our belief, and both of them lead up to the brightest smile you can ever manage to make. Before you trust in others, trust their faith."

Mizuki sat, listening to the cowboy give a glimpse into his own troubled life. Her eyes got wider when he listed his kill count. I don't value life, she thought, but that's a lot of lives. She sat silent for a long time after he finished.

"I've never met a human that didn't push me away...even the police who found me just kicked me back out on the street. My whole life I've been on my own, oppressed by humans. And I'm mean because I have to be. I'm a malevolent fox spirit. I'm not supposed to be nice...to anyone. How you saw me when I first arrived in this awful green whatever it is is more like how I usually am. But...hearing your story tells me it's possible there's hope. For me, it's the conclusion of my lifelong quest. I've got a lot of time left to accomplish it in," she said. "But for me, that quest involves an overlooking of life. If I killed as many people as you have, I wouldn't be ashamed. It's not in my nature. Hopefully I don't have to kill that many to reach my goal," she finished.

The Ardent Adventurer grinned. He hoped that she would not kill 12586 people just to meet people truly willing to accept her. She might be lucky, actually. Maybe she would be gifted with a world where she could laugh faster than he was.

Four portals opened, and Mark Noxus simply snorted at their appearances. He looked over at Mizuki before roughly rubbing her head.

"And I trust you'll keep your word."

The cowboy stood up, stretching his back as he began to walk toward the portal. Today seemed fun. Except for Sanic. That dude really scared him...

Agent Smith seemed happy with his video, as he brought all of the Agents together to watch it as they left. Ganondorf's body was carried out by the Stalfos.

Mizuki was relieved to see a portal open for her...though, with the progression of the "interview" or whatever it had become, it was pretty predictable.

Walking behind the cowboy as he walked towards his portal, she soon reached hers. "I always keep my word," she responded to him as she stopped in front of her portal. "And thanks," she said, immediately turning and walking through her portal.

For though it was an extremely odd experience that ended on a hopeful note, and the most sincere words that had been said to her in a long time, Mizuki hoped she never had to experience it again.

Mainly because of Sanic.

Mark smirked as he entered his portal.

Athalian Idol: Episode One – Otaku Onslaught!

"It's not just surviving that counts...it's surviving in style!"

A melodious voice echoed through the halls of Calandra Studios.

Floating cameras zoomed around, casting cinematic shots of the complex and plastering them back on huge plasma screens as the voice continued.

“Here at Calandra Studios, we pride ourselves in delivering only the finest entertainment for the discerning viewer.”

The screens all changed to a shot of Carmen Calandra sitting in a very elaborate television studio. She was wearing a very ornate floor-length dress, a modestly huge necklace and earrings, and her gigantic sun hat. She had a sparkle in her eyes and looked like she was on top of cloud nine.

This was mainly because Calandra Studios was actually on top of Cloud Nine.

“What I meant to say was,” she said, continuing, “I pride myself in delivering only the finest entertainment for the discerning viewer.” She smiled, and with a flick of the hair continued. “Welcome to my private universe,” she beamed. The screens all showed extraordinarily cinematic views of her private universe, which so far consisted only of a cloud named Nine and a sprawling studio complex on top of it.

In exchange for keeping Link off his back while his castle was repaired, Ganondorf had given Carmen an alternate universe of her own to muck around in, and she had gotten to work fast. Her personal studios provided the ultimate in fashion and cinematic service to the demanding skylark, and she had recently decided to launch a new show (with some assistance from Ganondorf in the whole instantaneously blinking characters into existence thing) and gain even more entertainment from watching others fight.

And today was the day of the pilot episode. On her desk in front of her she had a number of papers, each with an exact transcription of a different character sheet from the Athalia Academy student directory. She made a mental note that alternate universes tended to have a very weak fourth wall.

Looking over the CSs while her cameras focused on providing sweeping panoramic views occasionally graced with J.J. Abrams lens flare, she pondered, soon arriving at a satisfying conclusion to her conundrum of who to cast first. The pieces of paper disintegrated in a decidedly Binary Rifle-like fashion and she turned to face the camera.

“Today marks the inception of a new era in entertainment,” she said. “For today, a new show is born: Athalian Idol! A fairly ridiculous amount of fireworks shot up from all around the complex, exploding in spectacular fashion while the studio audience cheered and applauded. A formation of jet fighters screamed overhead, a parade occurred, banners were unraveled, and…so on. The pageantry was off the charts, and just that one moment had probably expended more raw energy than the entire eight-episode run of the Ganonshaw.

Carmen continued. “In this show, contestants from the prestigious Athalia Academy will participate in a combat challenge located in a battle arena specifically built for that character. Points will be awarded for their performance and progress through the many waves of enemies, as well as how stylishly they do it. I’m Carmen Calandra, and if there isn’t some element of sophistication and style in a show I run then I have an auto-sequence set to kill me instantly.” The audience applauded. A minor fireworks show occurred. “Fortunately, this will never happen,” she said with a glowing smile.

“For this inaugural episode, we will be using Battle Room 3B. And that can only mean one thing. Ladies, gentlemen, and starships, please welcome…”

“RYUUUUUUUUUU…………YAMAUCHIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!”

A siesta and hot dog eating competition were held.

The audience cheered and applauded.

The anime girls that had been placed in the audience front and center specifically for this episode screamed in delight.

And Ryuu’s theme played over the loudspeakers.

He blipped into existence.

Except he didn’t, because that would be the lame Ganondorf way to do it. This was Calandra Studios.

He exploded into existence in a brilliant flash of color. Not a Michael Bay explosion…a pretty explosion. Obviously.

He was not assaulted with a jarring view of N64 graphics and the King of Evil.

He was assaulted with adoring fans.

His happy explosion put him right at the front of the main thoroughfare where all of the parades, hot dog eating contests, Woodstock concerts, and people enthusiastically selling $5 pirated DVDs were going on. As soon as they all saw him, they dropped everything to fangirl hardcore. Screaming, yelling and chanting his name, they picked him up and passed him down the crowd like he was at a rock concert. A peculiarly large amount of these celebrators were cute anime girls.

At the other end of the thoroughfare, at the end of an inconveniently large amount of grandiose marble steps, was the entrance to Carmen’s personal chambers. Dropping Ryuu down in a large empty room being faced by Carmen’s TV studio, which was basically a throne room with cameras and a desk, the crowd receded to allow Ryuu to speak with Carmen. Carmen’s office chair/massive throne was turned with its back to Ryuu in typical fashion, leaving her identity a mystery.

The instant moment Ryuu "blipped" into existence, he simply mumbled,

"What the f-ck? OH MY GO-"

Suddenly, Ryuu was blown away by people chanting his name. And so many of them were... girls. Girls. Anime girls. The otaku's lips quivered, his eyes wide in absolute surprise.

"Oh my God."

They chanted his name as he was being carried. So many of them were so happy to see him. Ryuu thought he just saw a girl he remembered getting a really good ending for.

"Oh my God."

It was a parade for him. Filled with anime girls.

Anime girls.

"OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

The otaku managed to- actually no, he did not get to calm down when he was placed in Carmen's personal chambers. He had put some tissues over his nose due to a nosebleed he was experiencing. The dark-haired, sunglasses-wearing student, however, felt extremely worried that he would pass out due to how worried the girls looked. So he simply trudged up to the throne, falling on his knees, as he asked,

"Oh, almighty creator of this beautiful place, who on God's green Earth are you?"

Carmen smiled from her office throne. Ryuu had enjoyed his entrance, she surmised. Turning around in her chair to greet him, she smiled and said "Ryuu! How nice of you to join me! I trust that the girls treated you well?" She was very amused by his current state. "And it's really not necessary to grovel, dear. This place has only been tailor-made for you, is all. Nothing major," she said with a delightful chuckle.

Ryuu blinked.

"...Er, I literally can't stand straight," he said honestly, not reading the mood. "I hurt my knees because someone hugged me too hard."

Carmen frowned a bit at his lackluster reaction, but smiled again because of his reason.

"Well, that tends to happen when 20,000 people are all your adoring fans," she said. "Doesn't happen very often, does it?"

Ryuu laughed, nodding a little. He was too happy to look like a gangster right now. Well, not that he was a gangster, but still.

"Anyway... what am I here for?" Ryuu asked, attempting to get back up. He knew that something was up... but even if he died here, he would be too happy because of all the anime girls around. He had just witnessed something beautiful. Period.

Carmen continued to smile. She knew Ryuu would want to get right to the chase. "Well, you're the first ever contestant on my new show, Athalian Idol! I felt like you missed out Ganondorf's little show, so I thought it was a good idea to bring you in first," she said as the little floating cameras danced around Ryuu.

"But...I'm not just going to make you do it like Ganondorf did," she said. "It's an offer, of course! Like anyone civilized would do. And is there anywhere more civilized than here?" she asked, looking out at the throngs of people having a completely civilized riot.

"I built a battle stage for you," she said. "Are you familliar with 'Horde Mode'? Of course you are! It's like that, except with the judging and style points of American Idol. Simple! And, of course, as with any personal universe, the fourth wall is practically nonexistent," she finished, looking at the Roleplayer Guild screen in delight.

"So...what do you say? Do you want to show off to all the adoring anime girls that showed up to watch you lay waste to hundreds of enemies?" she smiled, eager with anticipation while being completely confident in his response.

Ryuu's eyes had widened in surprise as Carmen explained just what he would go through. A horde mode? That sounded like even more of a paradise for him. Hordes of punks and lots of girls cheering for him... of course he would go for it. He played enough Alien Invaders to know how to score points, though Devil May Cry would only help him out a little... sort of.

When Ryuu thought of girls, however, a certain white-haired student he knew of popped up in his mind.

The sunglasses-wearing student blinked.

Wait... if I do well here, maybe that can prove how awesome my plasma power could be. And, uh... I guess I can brag a lil'. To... I dunno.

Anedine cheering for him in the sidelines... he imagined it.

Suddenly, Ryuu went "HNGHHHHHHHHH" as he shot out more blood from his nose, covering it with a red tissue. He did not care on how strong his foes were: he just needed a way to stop thinking about that white-haired girl cheering for him with pom-poms. Now.

"Oh, you're freaking ON!!!" Ryuu said, rather motivated in a really weird way.

Carmen continued to smile some more. She was enjoying this, though she expected not even close to as much as Ryuu was. "Excellent! I knew you would," she said.

She pulled a large lever on her desk.

The floor gave way, splitting right down the middle and dropping Ryuu into the battle room.

The live studio audience, right there next to the battle area, was made entirely of anime girls. Carmen couldn't resist.

The battle stage was a simple box with glass on three sides (the audience side, the reverse side where Carmen watched, and the top), but it would be adding features as the rounds went on.

Ryuu looked down at the ground, which seemed to vanish.

"Oh, that's great."

The otaku yelled his way down the entire path to the battle room, though he did manage to land correctly. Rolling a few times, the sunglasses-wearing student raised an eyebrwo. The battlefield seemed simple... and lo behold, there were too many anime girls for him to even comprehend. Ryuu instantly looked away from them, cautiously waving at them. He did not want to blow up before the battle did not even begin...

Carmen had now reached the battle area and was watching happily from her viewing platform. She would call the rounds and send the enemies.

"Let's start simple," she said over the incredibly natural-sounding intercom. "Round One...BEGIN!"

Just then the two walls opened up like garage doors to allow the enemies to enter the field. The first round had only two enemies, who were basic fabric dummies. Easily fried by plasma or a good old-fashioned roundhouse kick to the face, they were only intended as a warm-up. And for that, they were not slow. They were quite fast, and they always moved in an exact mirror of one another.

They crossed onto the battle floor and began quickly circling Ryuu, slowly tightening their arc to eventually reach him with their basic melee bats.

Ryuu blinked. Dummies began to circle him, and they looked fairly easily to destroy. Still, if he were in a Horde mode, then that would mean that preparing his weapons immediately would prevent him from being unprepared.

The otaku took out his lightsaber handle, twirling it in his hands before grabbing it tightly. A red beam of plasma came out of it, glowing vibrantly.

Not enough. I don't know what's gonna come out, anyway.

Ryuu clenched the lightsaber with his two hands, closing his eyes. He needed to focus on breaking the limit he put on himself. It was easy: it just took time. The otaku stood still for a while, letting the dummies get closer with their bats.

His eyes shot open, and the instant moment he did so, the plasma blade turned into a brilliant white. Ryuu swung his blade in a spin attack motion, cutting down the dummies in one attack.

"Good, good," Carmen said. "Let's ratchet up the difficulty a bit." Engaging the protocol for round two, she called out "Round Two - BEGIN!"

The doors opened again, but this time instead of two dummies, there were 50 fast-moving hover drones. Easy to kill, but they were swarming at him, 25 in each direction. They were equipped with a single light gun that just caused a dull pain where they hit. They moved in an unpredictable, random pattern at varying altitudes.

The anime girl audience began clapping for him after his first round victory, and Carmen smiled as the swarm descended.

Ryuu raised an eyebrow at the next wave of enemies. They were... surprisingly similar to the first dummies. The only difference being that they had guns instead of bats.

The otaku rolled his eyes, having had plenty of experience with his sister shooting at his face every time he did not wake up to go to school. Still, he hated pain.

The sunglasses-wearing student ran toward one of the group of twenty-five, his blade ready in hand. The otaku cut down some of the more predictable bullets before dodging the rest, hopeful in just ending the group of gunners in a few strikes. Maybe in one, even.

The dark-haired student leapt over toward the group of twenty-five before wildly swing down his blade to cleanly slice one of the gunners down, the plasma leaving an extremely hot singe mark on the floor. He then swung his sword horizontally, cutting three before proceeding to cut even more. It took Ryuu three heavy strikes to destroy the group of twenty-five.

Ryuu quickly headed over to the other twenty-five, letting his plasma blade leave a permanent scratch on the floor. It was part of his strategy- he would need to use it later. After charging toward the group of twenty-five, he emerged victorious, being hit once in his ribs. It felt... like someone tried to bruise him.

"What a well-executed round," Carmen said, more to the cameras than to Ryuu. "And it was also very stylish. Except for that one hit, it was a flawless round. Seems like you need something more challenging," she said, pondering. "Ah!" she said, with a mischievous grin. "Round Three - BEGIN!"

Three platforms rose out of the floor, with the middle one higher than the outer two. Only one door opened this time, and all that could be seen was the shadow of a figure, whose identity was hidden. That is, until it give a taunt.

"Show me yo' moves!"

Captain Falcon leapt out onto the battle arena, straight from Super Smash Bros. N64. Immediately leaping onto one of the lower platforms, he jumped and down-B'ed into a Falcon Kick heading straight for Ryuu.

"Man, I'm ready for-"

Ryuu simply stared at the man who just came out of the platforms.

When a Falcon Kick approached to cave itself into his face, Ryuu screamed like a little girl before dodging sideways, rolling before facing Captain Falcon.

"Captain F--king FALCON?!" Ryuu whispered as if the show were crazy. "What the hell?! Does that mean my plasma is supposed to CUT people down?!"

Ryuu looked at Carmen for an explanation, still giving Captain Falcon the cautious evil eye. He needed evil eyes.

Carmen stood on her viewing platform...with an N64 controller in her hands.

"I don't know Ryuu, you tell me," Carmen responded cheekily. "Just watch his damage meter on the wall," she said, pressing a button to open both the doors to allow out of bounds kills.

"Surely you've played this game before, right?" she asked. "Now you get to LIVE it! FIGHT!"

...

"Show me yo'-sho-show me yo'-show me yo' moves!"

And with that, Captain Falcon lunged at Ryuu, using some direction+A melee attacks.

"Grr," the otaku growled. If he had one thing he really hated, it was when people made it sound like he needed to kill "things," not things that looked like people. White plasma was something he had used before, but he did not enjoy cutting people down with it.

Needless to say, he was pretty pissed.

The otaku did a backflip, avoiding one of Captain Falcon's basic attacks before dragging his body away from a punch. After dodging several attacks, Ryuu swung his white lightsaber toward the captain, hoping that the captain would not be sliced and diced or something.

The Captain wasn't sliced or diced or something, he was merely hit around a bunch and his damage meter went up. Damage: 36%.

He attempted to immediately come back while he was right next to Ryuu with a Z grab.

Ryuu sighed in relief, only to find that the captain immediately returned. The otaku felt like running, but then he thought of something.

Just take a step back...

The otaku literally took one step back, standing on one of the seared cracks.

Alright. Grab me!

The Captain happily obliged, grabbing the otaku and tossing in the opposite direction (dat directional switch tho), kicking him in the process. As soon as he finished, he ran after Ryuu, winding up a Falcon Punch to where he predicted Ryuu would end up.

Ryuu looked back at where he would eventually land. The Captain did not throw him forward like he expected, but he still had one last resort. His eyes crackled with white plasma energy as he gathered strength toward one arm.

With Captain Falcon gathering strength for a Falcon Punch, Ryuu threw his white plasma blade straight toward the captain.

The Falcon Punch was successfully interrupted, with Ryuu's plasma blade hitting Falcon square in the center. His damage was now high, and a well-placed hit would send him into the bound kill zone. Attempting to come back, Falcon started with a Falcon Kick across the ground at Ryuu.

Ryuu landed, skidding to a halt. Now was his chance.

The otaku ran towards his plasma blade, which had been flung into the air like an N64 Beam Sword. Catching it, the sunglasses-wearing student gathered his strength once more. To break the kick, he would need to gather his strength once more. Yet again, his eyes reeked of plasma energy, letting plasma seep into his blade.

When the Falcon Kick came, Ryuu wildly swung his blade upward vertically as strong as he could.

Ryuu accidentally on purpose timed his blade perfectly with the incoming Falcon Kick. Falcon briefly paused mid-air before being launched very quickly out the door and into the respawn aether with a satisfying K.O. sound.

Carmen put down her N64 controller and picked up an XBox 360 controller. "Alright. That was impressive. Though, I've never been good at playing Captain Falcon, so...that's my excuse," Carmen explained. "Round Four will be the the most 'horde' like of this 'horde mode'. Are you ready, Master Chief? Round Four, BEGIN!"

The arena changed again, putting up helpful Jersey barriers, sandbags and other cover locations. The door closest to Ryuu opened and a Covenant dropship's worth of Elites, Grunts and Brutes came barreling down the hallway, guns blazing.

Ryuu literally wanted to complain on how all of this would tire him out before the main battle. Still, he knew he had to follow the rules. And there were anime girls just sorta cheering for him out there. Nonono- remembering them would get himself pwned. He need to focus on the battle.

The otaku took a deep breath, clenching his plasma blade.

When a door behind him opened, Ryuu roared, swinging his blade horizontally at the enemies. Now, the last thing that should come into mind was getting close to the sunglasses-wearing bladesman, especially when one mainly had ranged weapons. The otaku manaed to take out several Elites at once, though he rolled over when a Brute shot some sort of sharp-looking grenade launcher at him. Ryuu slid over behind a sandbag.

Why were these things so sturdy, anyway? The dark-haired fighter decided not to care about it. He clenched his weapon, waiting for the enemies to advance toward him. Some of the explosions were starting to hurt his head.

Right after most of the enemies began reloading, the dark-haired student leapt over the sandbag, bringing down his sword on the Brute with the grenade launcher. He then cut down another Brute before punting away a Grunt like a soccer ball. It actually felt... fun. It felt as if he were fighting the punks he met at middle school.

Ryuu felt a plasma bullet sear through his arm. The otaku turned to the Grunt that just fired a Plasma Pistol.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Ryuu asked with an evil grin, his eyes flashing green for a split second.

"I'm MADE of PLASMA!!!!!!!

The dark-haired otaku smashed his blade on the grunt, dicing it effortlessly and leaving an extremely large sear mark on the floor. He seemed quite accustomed to the Hordes. Just a little. Aliens made it better.

Carmen applauded Ryuu's performance. "Definitely both style and substance in that performance," she stated. "Well Ryuu, because pacing is not my forte and I can't be bothered to invent another five rounds when you are clearly dominating all of them, we are moving to the final round (does not include bonus rounds)," she said. The anime girls in the audience squealed with joy at Ryuu's stellar showing at Calandra Studios. They were all in love with him.

"So...for this final round you are only going to have one opponent. But it will target your biggest weakness," Carmen said with a sly grin. "Round Five - BEGIN!!!"

The same door opened again, and again walked a figure. It looked smaller and slimmer than the ones before, and when it entered the battle floor the reason was clear.

It was a girl.

But not just any girl.

An anime girl.

In fact, it was an anime samurai girl, who was a master of her craft. Carmen smiled almost evilly at the scene. This round...would not be easy.

Ryuu dropped his weapon.

"Wait," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose, motioning for the girl to stand still for a second. He stood quietly for a while.

All of a sudden, Ryuu slammed his head repeatedly on the ground as he screamed,

"DAMN YOU CARMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW DARE YOU PLAY WITH MY FEELS AT SUCH A WRONG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The otaku rubbed his face against his hands, simply wondering what he should do.

First things first, he grabbed his weapon. But how? How was he supposed to strike such a pretty thing? More than the fact that he was fighting an anime girl, the idea that he was fighting a girl baffled him. Women were one of his biggest weaknesses. What could he even do to win?

Should he give up?

...

...

...

No, Ryuu said, clenching his teeth. I shouldn't disappoint.

A thought of a white-haired girl passed by his head. As much as she motivated him, he could not bring himself to attack the samurai girl.

Carmen simply shrugged at his outburst. "You accepted the terms," she said. "It can't be helped. Besides, it's quite all right, you know. She's not real, after all."

As the otaku was clearly struggling with the situation he faced, Carmen offered some help. "If you would like, Ryuu, I can offer you an...alternate final opponent."

Ryuu raised an eyebrow at her offer.

"And who might this alternate opponent be?"

"No hints!" Carmen responded cheekily. "You have to choose the alternate, and then fight whatever it is. I can assure you it will not be another anime girl."

Ryuu grit his teeth, raising his blade up as he pointed it at Carmen. The clenched teeth slowly turned into a grin, as the otaku dangerously asked with a seething voice,

"How about I fight you?"

Carmen simply smiled, and the window she was looking through immediately turned black. Barely seconds later, the entire battle arena changed size and shape, now a large, circular colliseum. The audience was even larger and even more anime-filled, and were louder than ever. But they suddenly became silent. Ryuu was in the middle of the colliseum, and Carmen was standing behind him, a good distance away.

"I was the alternate," she said simply, holding her trumpet in one hand.

Ryuu felt satisfied to hear that he would be facing her, anyway. He, however, knew she was a ranged fighter. She did have an advantage when it came to attacking from a distance, and she had even better abilities than he did. The otaku did, however, have a trump card of his own. Never did he try to use it before, but honestly, losing his consciousness for an ability did not sound safe at all.

The otaku turned to face Carmen, spiking his white plasma blade down into the ground. He said with an air of confidence,

"I can't go down without a fight. A good fight, that is."

Carmen smiled her same smile she always smiled when it wasn't really an appropriate situation for such a smile.

"Oh, Ryuu. Even you are unaware of what you can do here. But, for the benefit of the doubt, I will enlighten you."

"In this colliseum, your powers are overdriven to their full potential, as my universe's algorithms predict. You will be far more powerful than you're used to, so you certainly have a chance."

"And, whoever dies here just gets sent back immediately to the real world. No harm, no foul. It's the most beautiful part of this whole place I call home."

"All that being said," she began.

"I'm overdriven too."

With that, she planted her trumpet on the ground and deployed a Thumper, sending a ripple through the ground of the whole colliseum.

The audience remained silent.

Jumping completely over her trumpet and taking it with her once she landed back on the ground, she began to run towards Ryuu.

She was a ranged attacker, but in this state, her melee prowess was formidable.

Ryuu laughed, his teeth gritting tightly against each other. He continued to laugh when she explained that he had far more power than usual.

"I was already in a condition where I could beat so many things here without any buffs," he said absent-mindedly. "Yet, here I was, thinking that I had just grown a little stronger."

Ryuu's eyes shot out white plasma from his eyes, fusing with the plasma seeping out of his tightly clenched teeth. He gathered as large amount of plasma, gathering them on his free arm.

"If you think you're so damn 'overdriven'..."

The otaku- no, the dark-haired student smashed the ground, causing a violent pulse of plasma to horizontally fly in all directions, ending the ground ripple as he growled,

"Get ready to see my Paradise Dreamwork."

Ryuu twirled his blade around as he stood up again, waiting for Carmen to hit him. Or at least, attempt to do so at close-range.

Carmen ran at the otaku, swinging her trumpet faster and faster. The fact that he stopped her thumper made her a little annoyed. But above all, this was fun. And fun was when she was the deadliest.

By the time she closed in on Ryuu, her trumpet was spinning around her hand approaching the speed of sound. As she reached Ryuu, she leaped into the air, a huge vault that covered a great height and distance. The world went into slow motion as her viciously spinning trumpet caused a massive sonic boom as it cracked the speed of sound. As she completely leaped over the otaku, she sent the supersonic hammer in every possible direction. She didn't plan on causing any significant damage, but she sure wasn't going to be damaged.

Ryuu widened one of his eyes, as if he was extremely pissed off at the annoying sound coming from the sonic boom.

"That trumpet's getting on my nerves."

The otaku smashed his hands together, creating a massive amount of plasma to collide against the power of sound. Sound prevailed over the plasma, but with the price of being severely weakened. Ryuu stood, slightly damaged by the move Carmen had just used. She was bound to have some sort of annoying movement ability that would prevent him from attacking her head-on.

Ryuu smashed his blade into the ground, clenching it without pulling it out. He focused on gathering all of his plasma for this particular ability. The dark-haired student closed his eyes.

I gotta find the exit.

I gotta find the exit.

I gotta find the exit.

I gotta find the exit.

I have to find the exit.

I see it.

Ryuu opened his eyes, his entire body glowing a deadly red, as he whispered,

"Paradise Dreamwork."

A red light enveloped the otaku, shining brightly like a red star. It shone to the point where everyone would see the color red for five entire seconds, energy pulsing through out the ground slowly... and steadily. The light soon died away, returning the arena back to its normal color.

Where Ryuu once stood lay a suit of armor standing still. Dead red. It had the color of blood red hearts. It covered every single part of Ryuu's body, and its design looked dangerously similar to that of a dragon hunter. Blood-red horns protruded out of the helmet, and a solid blade of pure plasma lay within the armor's hand. It was not as petty as the lightsaber was: it was three times larger, and it genuinely glowed red because of its solid form.

The suit of brilliantly red armor looked at Carmen without moving an inch. Then, it slowly raised its weapon. The armor motioned for Carmen as if it were saying "come at me, bro."

Carmen stood there and watched as Ryuu activated a special ability of some sort. When the suit of armor appeared, she yelled out to Ryuu, "Hey no fair...I don't have anything cool like that," entirely in jest.

Basically she now had to fight both Ryuu and his demonic armor. Cheap shot, she thought, kidding herself as much as possible. When the armor motioned for her to come at it (bro), she obliged profusely...by standing still.

"Armor, huh?" she yelled at Ryuu. "Armor is heavy. Do you know what brings down heavy objects, Ryuu?" she asked. She was not about to find out just how powerful this imposing suit of armor was if she could help it.

So she Sonic Quaked. Planting her trumpet on the ground again, she played into it long and loudly, using the correct vibrations (she knew them for this world) initiated an earthquake...and not just a tremor. The colliseum began to collapse and the audience fled. The ground was shifting, shaving and upheaving. She looked back at the armor, and Ryuu, wiggling her eyebrows twice.

The suit of armor stood still as the ground bellowed and roared. And soon... the ground was shifting. It was changing.

The armor chuckled before it snickered. It sounded surprisingly similar to Apophis.

"Who the hell said plasma is heavy?"

The suit of armor charged towards Carmen, its speed twice as faster than Ryuu's fastest running speed. The armor leapt over and skidded across the ground, letting its sword leave a giant scar crackling with light-red energy across his path. Ryuu laughed, intensely excited, as he stopped mid-way during his charge toward Carmen.

"Burn to cinders, everyone!" Ryuu yelled carefreely, energy gathering at his free hand, pointing it directly toward Carmen.

The armored bladesman fired a massive beam of white plasma, which proceeded to decimate the wall behind Carmen. Whether she dodged the basic attack was up to her.

Carmen dodged the "basic" attack. If that's the armor's "basic" attack, I don't want to know what advanced ones are, she thought. She yelled back at Ryuu in the midst of all the yelling. "Hey, when do I get to look cool?" She realized full well that she was not using an overdrive against somebody who was, but...couldn't she get something? "I'm glad I haven't tried any of my Inception Buttons or anything," she thought. She was pretty annoyed by the earthquake not doing anything.

After the armor fired its beam, Carmen decided to get a score on the board. Charging up in scarcely three seconds each time, she launched a volley of three powerful Inception Kicks directly at the suit of armor. Hopefully that at least knocks it back, she thought as she strafe-ran around it.

The armor laughed when three powerful sound attacks headed straight towards it.

"How about you bring out your ultimate power already?" It asked, simply creating a wall of plasma instead of a beam. "You can't run forever: I can chase forever."

The kicks reflected off of the walls, causing more of the sidelines to crash down. Turning its helmet toward Carmen, it seethed,

"Let's end this game of cat-and-mouse."

The suit of armor dashed towards Carmen, violently swinging three times at her direction. Each strike left behind traces of the air being affected by the abnormal amount of plasma from the blade. The armor did not laugh, but it certainly looked like it was enjoying itself too much.

Carmen avoided the first two strikes just fine, but was grazed by the third. Even a graze such as that sent her flying across the destroyed colliseum with a nice plasma burn running all the way down her back.

She landed close to the collapsed wall, in severe pain from both the strike and the impact with the ground. She lay motionless for a little, then struggled to get up. She'd just be finished if she stayed still too long. She stood up slowly, almost falling as she did so. Standing in the middle of the smoldering wreckage of the colliseum, she addressed the suit of armor, and in turn, Ryuu.

"You can beat my simple horde mode. You can destroy my colliseum. You can taunt me, and you can even hurt me. You just did that one, congratulations."

"However."

Her eyes shone with the wrath of a thousand suns.

"You cut my dress."

"That," she said, while pulling up her trumpet, "[b]will not be tolerated./b]"

An eye for an eye. An overdrive for an overdrive. Truthfully, she was hoping at best for a stalemate.

The armor had seemed to forget (or maybe it just didn't care) that she was also extremely powerful currently.

And so, she pressed the Inception Button.

Sending out a ferocious wave of low, dense sound that shook the already shaken ground, that collapsed whatever wasn't already collapsed and was a sufficiently high decibal to shatter normal eardrums, the Inception Button activated, pointed and focused on the suit of armor. It coarsed through the air it traveled in, causing the air to char from the magnitude of the sound.

And most of all...it kept coming.

Carmen stood, playing her most monstrous noise, with eyes of fury, but a mind of concern. "How long can I hold this?" "Will it do anything?" "Will I die if it doesn't?" were all the thoughts she had in her head. But her extraordinarily powerful state allowed her to keep playing the note.

The armor felt an incredulous surge of energy pass by it. It laughed, simply walking toward-

Something snapped.

It stood still, as if it had been frozen throughout time. The sound continuously played and played... Pain. It should feel pain from the power, yet why did it not feel it?

Then, Ryuu, who was inside of the suit of armor, felt pain. That caused the armor to smash its blade on the ground to keep balance.

".............."

The suit of armor looked at its free hand, watching itself peel away from Ryuu. A fleshy hand was what lied inside the cold shell.

"...My host," the armor said as if it were pondering. "He is too weak to handle such a noisy ability......"

It then looked at Carmen, who was playing the trumpet, as it stated,

"Today, you win well. Fair and square. But once my host grows stronger- yes, anyone can get stronger- I will see to it that I stand tall."

The suit of armor slowly merged into Ryuu, growling,

"I will be waiting..."

The entire suit of armor vanished once the Inception Button's effects had ended. Ryuu staggered for a bit, kneeling on one knee.

"Who-Whoa," he muttered, "The f--k happened in the arena?"

The otaku did not seem to remember some parts of the battle. He, however, was far too tired to get up. He simply sat still, wondering if some freak accident happened and he just happened to get pwned by it again.

Carmen stood as the armor vanished. She stood with her trumpet down as Ryuu apparently came to. She breathlessly responded, "Paradise...something," and fell down from complete exhaustion.

"Want to call it...a draw?" To her, two combatants sprawled out on a decimated arena both too exhausted to even move was nothing if not a draw.

Ryuu sighed, exhausted. He crawled over to Carmen, which took him a while. The otaku himself was way too tired to even think about anime. A draw sounded like a nice idea.

He wondered how he was even alive right at the moment. The dark-haired student jokingly booped Carmen's head with a finger, simply saying "I win," as carelessly as possible. He then collapsed, simply staring at the ceiling.

Carmen reached out her arm and attempted to boop Ryuu back, but completely missed and just hit the ground again. She managed to let out a small chuckle. "...that was fun," she admitted oddly.

Ryuu nodded, too tired to even think about choosing a topic to talk about. "Ye," he said, out of breath, "that felt pretty good."

The otaku tilted his head toward her, at least attempting to let her 'boop' back. He seriously needed to know if he was actually alive or not. At least, for now, that is.

Carmen attempted once more to boop Ryuu back, but just the effort of moving signed her final breath, and she blissfully returned to the real world in an instant.

The otaku huffed one last breath. He sure did have a good time. Especially the anime girls.

....Now that he thought about it...

...this must have been the first time he actually had fun facing off with a woman.

Ryuu returned to the real world as well. A good dream, it was.