---

Buck was just about to duck back into cover when he saw his good pal Freeman use his tech to catch a flying piece of bread. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only one and immediately his head jerked to the side as the dough ball plopped off his helmet. Now, Buck understood this fight was all in good fun, but the acrobat was pushing his luck. Buck picked up a nearby chocolate cake cake and looked sadly at his plate of deviled eggs as he exchanged them for ... frog legs? Buck shrugged; it seemed like it was the only other ammo nearby and he supposed it didn't really matter in the scheme of things.

Watching his friend take off, Buck aimed his cake in prep for covering fire in case someone wanted to make a mad dash at him. Splitting his attention as he kept an eye on the acrobat. Ezio seemed to be talking to his dead friend, which made a good chance to change his aim at him. Buck would've fired if it wasn't that all of the sudden Freeman was back again, tapping his shoulder. Buck nodded in confirmation on what Freeman had gestured, understanding the main threat Mario. Noting to lose, he threw the cake straight at Mario. The cherry on top sliding off as it flipped forward while traveling through the air. Buck looked down at his glove, noticing some frosting had stuck to his hand. He rested his frosted hand on Freeman's shoulder about to say something, but his partner's reaction told him all he needed to know.

Buck immediately launched himself forward, using his thrusters to push himself faster as he ran from his attacker scooping up a tray of cup cakes on his way. He found himself in the vicinity of his first target, sprawled on the floor. He paused, looking at his frog legs for a second, and placed them in memorial on the body. "Shame to lose such a wonderful ... er, creature, in the tragedy of war." Buck armed his now free hand with cup cakes as he broke out in a sprint at Ezio. He fired off a couple of cup cakes as he ran and kept the last two of the bunch, one in each hand. He continued charging forward, using a table as a spring board before activating his thrusters to close in on his target. Buck grabbed hold and pulled himself up in one swift motion as he faced his opponent with fists full of cup cakes in a defensive stance. It wasn't the best place for him to fight, but he was still confident he could win a one on one brawl with the guy. "That was a good shot with the dough ball, though I think you need to take better care at who you aim at. What do you say me and you end this quarrel hand to hand? Fist one to hit the ground?" Buck jabbed forward in rapid succession twice, launching both his cup cakes forward aimed at the middle of Ezio's body.

---

After launching the table at Freeman with an overjoyed smile, the expression immediately fled from his face when he realized that he had nearly flattened the physicist with the table. Mario paled in shock and was relieved when the man managed to dodge out of the way. Blushing, he rubbed the back of his neck as he waved at Freeman apologetically.

“Whoops.”

Right after, Freeman retaliated with a scatter shot of wedding cake. Mario, still wielding his trusty turkey bat, sliced through one of the cake missiles with it. Mario scowled, realizing some sort of trend was happening. Why was everyone attacking him? Were they all haters? His suspicions were worsened when he noticed a flying object out of the corner of his eye. Mario thrust his arms forward and thrust his hips back, bending into a “C” to dodge a turkey leg that soared passed his mid-section.

Another turkey leg? he thought, before his eyes rolled over to see Luigi standing next to crushSamus. Were they teaming up? Mario stared at the exchange between them. They were across the room and it was too difficult to make out exactly what they were saying, but he could tell by the smirk on her face that it was exactly what he had feared. That son ova’ bitch! Trynna’ steal my woman!?

Mario’s grip tightened on the bone of the turkey leg as a hard frown turned his lips. Luigi knew that he had liked Samus, but between the two of them, he actually had the balls to make it known to her unlike him. An envious flame appeared within Mario’s blue eyes as he thought, This means war!

Seeing Samus put her helmet on to hide her beauty was icing on the cake. Luigi ruins everything! The bounty hunter directed her cannon at him and Mario grasped the turkey bat with both hands, knocking the end of it against the floor before he raised it into a batter’s stance.

“Bring it! I’ll take both of you on!” Mario angrily bellowed. As she started firing oranges, Mario rapidly struck and punted each orange back at her and Luigi.

Edward Buck (+13) Level up!

Ezio Auditore (+6)

Quina Quen (+3)

Gordon Freeman (+7)

Amaterasu (+4)

Hunter (+3)

Samus Aran (+7)

Luigi (+7)

Mario (+7)





The door to the Council Room opened and standing in the doorway was a large man with blonde flat-top hair. A set of dog tags rested on his chest that was so cut his Army-green tank clung to his torso like a second skin. Two American flag tattoos stretched over the expanse of his deltoids and camouflaged cargo pants rode down the length of his legs into black leather combat boots. The man had a serious countenance as he regarded the chaos that erupted within the Reception Hall. A cake flew in his direction, and he tilted his head to one side as the creamy baked good just cut across his cheek, leaving a streak of frosting. The cake landed on the council round table, causing the other six to lean forward curiously with confused looks.

The Prince smirked in amusement as he sat back in his chair, folding his arms before his chest. “And here I am missing the party.”

Vault Boy blinked his beady eyes, “Golly, what’s going on in there?”

Guile raised his fingers to his cheek, dragging them along the frosted streak before he brought them before his face to inspect them. Frowning, the veteran bellowed on an authoritative voice that he hadn’t used in years:

“What is this? A room full of children? Are these the heroes we summoned? I could have probably found better at an elementary school. Who started this mess?”

Gordon narrowed his eyes and smirked. It seemed like everyone in the immediate area was teaming up on Mario, especially Samus and the newly-arrived Luigi. Samus had fired a barrage of oranges at the red plumber, while Luigi had assumed an aggressive combat pose. He glanced to his side and saw that Buck had once again boosted away, having targeted the assassin. The room was still a scene of total chaos, with food flying everywhere. Gordon felt a wave of nostalgia. The last time he had a food fight like this, it was back in high school in Seattle, and it ended with him getting detention for a month.

Jumping back to the tables at the rear, Freeman was just about to pick up a corn on a cob when a voice rang out from one of the rooms near the reception hall.

“What is this? A room full of children? Are these the heroes we summoned? I could have probably found better at an elementary school. Who started this mess?” The instantly recognisable voice of Guile, Capcom's head, bellowed.

Freeman immediately panicked. He knew that everyone in the room was going to be in deep shit. Hurridly stashing away his Gravity Gun, he desperately began cleaning up the mess in an attempt to get away with murder. Unfortunately, there were spilt confectionaries all over the place, not to mention sauces and gravies and soups.

Getting a little bored of playing dead, Quina rolled over on to his/her side to watch the final chapter of the food fight unfold. From underneath the table, it wasn't easy to work out what was going on, yet Quina tried to piece together the events from what could be seen. The Green Man (Luigi) was clearly annoyed with the turkey and decided to give it a good kicking, which seemed rather redundant, as the turkey clearly didn't need to be tenderised. Further down the room, it was raining cake, courtesy of the Orange Man (Gordon Freeman). As Edward Buck - the Grey Man - headed towards him, or her, Quina quickly resumed playing dead.

Playing dead, of course, meant laying on the ground with his (or her?) tongue stuck out. The only real difference was that rather than being upright, Quina was horizontal on the ground. Presumably as an acknowledgement of Quina's acting prowess, Edward laid out the handful of frog legs on her (or his?) body and, at that point, there was simply no way that Quina could continue acting like a corpse. Sitting up, Quina gathered up the frog legs and, after double-checking that there were no more to be found in the immediate vicinity, gave one a tentative, almost gentle lick.

"Yum."

Something inside Quina snapped. In seconds, the frog legs were devoured, lost to the bottomless pit that is Quina's appetite. It was not enough. It could never be enough. Scrambling out from under the table, Quina couldn't even wait until she (or he) was clear of it before standing upright. The table teetered on the brink of falling over completely, scattering yet more food around the place and adding to the - in Quina's mind, at least - improved atmosphere of the reception hall. The fight no longer mattered, the combatants were no longer important, all that there was in this world was Quina and frog legs.

Waddling through the food related carnage, completely unconcerned now with the prospect of getting hit by anything, Quina made a beeline towards what, in this half-daze half-frenzy, looked like one of the largest frogs legs he - or she - had ever seen. It didn't exactly smell of frog, but then again, the smell of all the different foods in the air meant that it was quite hard for Quina to tell one food-scent apart from another. It would have to come down to taste, and so Quina reached out with gloved hands to grab the huge frog.

Just as Quina was about to grab hold of Luigi (@Bright_Ops), the booming voice of Guile intruded upon Quina's thoughts. The giant frog was not a frog. The hall was still a mess. Quina had trodden in some cake. The man who came through the dooor did not sound, or look, particularly thrilled with the bold new direction in decoration the heroes had decided to inflict upon the reception hall. After standing frozen on the spot for a moment, Quina glances at Luigi, then quickly leans in to give him a lick.

After all, it couldn't hurt to make sure that he wasn't really a frog.

---

The loud booming voice of an angry Major was sufficient to cut through the sweet dreams of even gods, and so it was that Guile's sharp reprimand dragged Ammy out of her pleasant nap and back into the waking world. Her eyes blinked open slowly, taking in the state of the room. The fight, for now, seemed to be over. She made a disgruntled little whine as she rose to her feet that turned into a open mouthed yawn as she stretched herself. Then she shook, scattering the the thickest of the food that covered her in a splattering circle around her. It didn't do her much good, and when she stopped her fur was still dyed in sticky yellows and dark red splotches speckled with crumbs and small vegetables too stubborn to know when to let go.

Still, she sat up without care for her dismal appearance and barked a greeting to Guile. She didn't know the representative personally, but she had dealt with friends of his during that chaotic "fate of two worlds" deal and she couldn't imagine an associate of theirs to be an unfair man even if she had had her share of...difficulties with the kingdom he represented and which she was, physically if not spiritually, an inhabitant of. That didn't mean, however, that she as going to be giving anyone up.

Before he had been able to really show Mario just how upset he had made him with his latest antics with the assistance of a woman who some might have been inclined to kill to earn the attention of, Luigi (and the food fight in general) was brought to halt by the screaming of an enraged Major... Through that didn't stop the oranges that were currently flying back at both himself and Samus! Trusting that Samus would be fine (if her armor couldn't withstand oranges then what was the point?) Luigi demonstrated a skill that he rarely got to use but practiced when he was on his own; Falling backwards, his right hand darted backwards in order to catch himself before he hit the floor. Once his hand was planted, he actually lifted the rest of his body off the ground as he spun to the side, dodging the flying fruit with the usage of break dancing before he managed to plant his feet back on the ground and stand back up as if nothing had happened.

At the demand to know who had started the whole situation, Luigi kept quiet. While a part of this had to do with the fact that you just didn't throw friends into the incoming fireball, he honestly didn't know how the whole thing had started; He had been a late arrival who had managed to come out of it unscathed by enemy fire (there might have been a bit of turkey on his shoes, but that was on him rather then anyone else).

Before he knew what was happening through, something large and wet ran up his cheek. More stunned then anything, Luigi turned and saw... he honestly didn't know what he saw, but it was big, had a huge tongue and had just licked him! His eye twitching, Luigi stood there for a moment before calmly turning and walking towards one of the few tables of food that hadn't been disturbed by the food fight in order to find a seat. The table had pudding and he -really- needed to eat a lot of it before that lick was driven from his mind.

A pizza smashed wetly onto the wall where his torso was level with just a second ago. If he had any breath to spare, Ezio would have laughed. Trying to nail him with a cuisine from his own homeland? Ha, keep dreaming! However, he was already scaling the back wall towards the next beam over. This one was slightly lower than the previous one, but he wasn't one to retreat back to an old vantage spot unless there was no other option. Rule one of being hunted: always be on the move. With just one foothold away from his destination, a soft splat made him look over. A second later, another two puffs hit a meter or so below the pasta sauce stain, spraying the vicinity with its fluffy cream interior. Unfortunately, that meant the lower right hemming of his robe was also caught in the resulting mess. Dammit, after all he did to prevent his robe from getting stained. Ah well, it wasn't as if he could rewind time.

Reaching out to clamber up yet another beam, he swung his body around, feet landing on hard wood. His instincts flared and he ducked his head just in time for a cupcake to sail over, then threw up his right arm to deflect the second cupcake aimed at his face. With no other immediate projectiles incoming, Ezio settled more firmly on his feet, staring silently at Buck as he joined him on the rafters. He eyed the remaining two cupcakes even as his hands went towards his pouch once again to grab a roll.

"Gracia for the compliment, and I did hit exactly who I wanted to. You are the one who fell my friend Quina. It's only fair I heed his/her final request of being avenged." Ezio flashed a grin as he tossed the bread in his right hand. "I accept your challenge...but you really should know better than to issue it in my territory."

The roll was aimed at Buck's head even as Ezio lunged upwards to hook fingers into the metal tubings holding the rafters up, ready to kick out at his opponent when a loud, authoritative voice boomed out. Previous intentions to kick Buck out of the rafters fled and Ezio froze for a split-second before dropping lightly back onto the beam in a crouch. A new door at the left-hand side of the room was opened, and there stood three figures he recognized instantly, one of whom was The Prince, head of the Ubisoft Kingdom of which Ezio was a subject of. Dannazione, Vault Boy and Guile too? Were they the ones who called this meeting together? If they were here, then the heads of the other Four Kingdoms should be here as well. Suddenly feeling more intrigued, Ezio sat down where he was, all but forgetting Buck's presence. He wasn't going to head down there now, especially not with a seemingly irate Guile on the ground. Staying up here was more ideal, where he could still see and hear what transpired below.

Naija kept a good pace with the short legged Qbert despite her lack of familiarity with moving on land and constantly stopping to look at the decoration, until they reached the elevator. Qbert hoped in and she followed, appearing in the dining room where she stared in horror at the carnage, the Lakitu‘s difficult task of actually reaching her meaning she had arrived much later than the initial set of heros. She had never heard of the concept of a food fight (and would probably have found it fun if she had been involved) but the flargent waste of the food was appalling. Food was important, particularly in an adventure as it fueled the body, healed wounds and empowered the soul. She could remember many encounters where her preparation had saved her from the brink of death or empowered her to strike a fierce blow against a monstrous god of the deep.

The individuals standing with a collection of embarrassed or indifferent expression who were clearly responsible where a mix of humans and 2 other things she had never seen before. At least she assumed the majority where humans, she had never met any other than her beloved Li, and, briefly, the monstrously corrupt Creator. These individuals looked like Li and where supposedly heroes so hopefully they took after him in manner and deed and not the insane young boy turned god she had killed at the end of her adventure. Then again that last point made here consider what their definition of hero if a child murderer was considered one of them. It had been the right thing to do, he had kidnapped Li, destroyed several civilizations and she hadn't even known the humongous monstrosity was originally a human child before it was too late but she still did feel bad about it. It appears you probably don't have to be a good person to be a hero, though perhaps she was being too harsh on herself.

There were 3 trends in their dress: 2 individuals in light cloth or leather outfits armed with various swords and bladed melee weapons, 3 armor individuals armed with odd blocky tubes like contraptions and two men with fuzz on their faces in similar outfits differentiated primarily by color and letters on their hats. The final 2 members where a fur covered quadruped and an extremely fat creature with a long tongue. What an interesting bunch she thought to herself before it dawned on here that everyone else was standing while she was sitting crouched on the floor, that was probably going to be a source of embarrassment, she had never walked before. She also finally noticed the flat top haired man standing in a distant doorway looking in disdain at the mess, perhaps they where in charge, or at least had more respect for food.

She should probably introduce herself? That is what you did when you met new people, not accidentally almost drown them as she had done with Li. She had never seen this many people in a room before, it was kind of intimidating. She sung a few quiet notes of the Verse, the life force of the world thrumming in unison as she taped it, reminding herself that it was there and that she had control over it boosted her confidence a little. She awkwardly raised her voice to address the room at large.

”um, hello. I’m Naija. It is nice to meet you all?”

Those were the kind of things you were supposed to say right? She wasn’t 100% sure.

---

Crash was laying peacefully on the beach. Next to the bandicoot was the tiki mask Aku-Aku. This had been Crash's life for the most part of several weeks, the nefarious Dr. Cortex had not made any new attempts at world domination allowing Crash to do as he pleased which mostly had him lounging around N. Sanity Island. Occasionally his sister might bother him, Crunch once in a rare moment in an attempt to get him to do something else. That day however no one had bothered him at all besides his tiki mask guide following him. The day had been perfect, nothing could ruin it, except for one nuisance of a cloud that kept getting in the way of the sun. Crash grew irritated as he felt the lack of warmth that the sun normally gave his orange fur and opened his eyes, seeing a rather odd and lonely cloud in the sky that seemed to be growing closer.

Crash sat up looking at the cloud as it descended towards him, Aku floating up from where he had been laying looking as well. When the cloud was just close enough to touch an odd turtle popped out of it with an arm stretched out holding a letter. Hesitantly Crash grabbed the letter but starred at it blankly perplexed by the letter and its contents.

"Crash let me see it," Aku said, having Crash hold the letter for him to read what was written on it.

Dear Hero,

You are receiving this letter because you were chosen to undertake a most challenging task. Your life will be endangered if you so choose to selflessly take up arms in defense of your world as well as others…

"Hmm it seems that the time for relaxation is over Crash," Aku stated, Crash giving a nod of understanding that the letter must of meant something rather important. While he didn't quite know how to read he could piece together common words he had seen before and put a finger on the word 'yes' on the bottom of the page. The letter disappeared opening a portal below where he stood.

"Uh-oh!" Crash stated as he was sucked into the portal, Aku-Aku following behind the bandicoot through the portal before it closed.

---

Crash had used plenty of portals in his past adventures to stop Cortex, but it still disoriented him when he left one, this time it was no different as he tumbled out of the portal head over feet. He stood himself up looking at his surroundings."We definitely are not on N. Sanity beach or any of the other islands," Aku stated Crash giving a quick nod. Stepping from the platform the portal had disposed him on, Crash walked forward not noticing the orange round object that had stood just a few feet away and crashed right into it. Once more having to pick himself up, Crash looked at the orange round object and grew excited, thinking it at first to be his favorite fruit, only realizing now that going through portals made him a bit hungry.

The strange thing that turned out to be a creature made a series of sounds as Crash picked it up causing him to drop it shortly after in surprise. It didn't wait for Crash to try to speak his own gibberish before heading off, clearly not wanting to deal with the orange marsupial any more then it had to.

"We should perhaps follow it," Aku stated and with that off they went deeper into the castle not knowing what to expect. They were in for a surprise as they entered a room where it seemed a battle had occurred. Food was thrown about everywhere and at one entrance stand a rather agitated looking man. Crash made his way to some of the food that seemed not to be touched but Aku stopped him from shoveling food into his mouth, making Crash pout but ultimately obey."After we learn more then you may eat," Aku said to him.

Looking at the others that he now had snuck himself inbetween, Crash wasn't sure how to exactly feel. His experience with humans mostly involved Cortex and his henchmen who were bent on world domination but then again from what Aku had said, the letter was for heroes so perhaps these humans were different. There were a few other different beings as well there as well that were interesting to say the least.

---

Buck chuckled at the creature being called Quina; such a strange name for a strange creature. He stood there, taking the blow to the face from the roll. It wasn't much, but he didn't really dare to move as he was already a bit wobbly as it is. He watched the roll drop to the floor, before turning his attention to the three new characters that seemed to steal the spotlight on arrival. Buck figured playtime was over and he bowed to his opponent that may or may not have been paying any attention to him. That threw him a bit off balance, but he was meaning to get down regardless, so he fell and crashed into a table below.

Buck brushed off his armor of any dry food and other bits before walking over to his knife and taking it out of the wall. Looking around, everyone was still silent, and even his good war partner Freeman seemed a bit overwhelmed by their presence. Buck cleaned off his knife as he walked calmly towards the big gruff guy wanting answers. Nodding and gesturing to the new arrivals to come on in and find a spot.

"I did sir, Gunnery Sargent Edward Buck. From the 343 Industries kingdom? World? Military profession." Buck wasn't really sure how to address this person, but he wanted answers so Buck gave them. And really, there was no need for the whole group to suffer in case punishment for their actions were required. If it came to a fight, Buck honestly thought he had the better skills to take someone on. "I believe you have a job for us?"

---

As Samus fired the last orange from her cannon, she suddenly hears someone call out to them with a voice of heavy authority. It looks like whoever has invited them here has finally arrived into view. She looks slightly to the entrance of the room, seeing both an army-like soldier and a smaller, almost miniature-like man alongside him. She stops what she's doing as she retracts her arm cannon to her breast, standing at attention. Even as the oranges that have been deflected back hit her face, her helmet protected almost all of the impact force, only leaving a bit of a mess on her visor. Otherwise, she barely felt a thing. Samus' visor begins to clean itself off of the sticky orange residue as she looks on at attention.

The bounty hunter recognizes the soldier as the American army major, Guile. She has seen him on inter-dimensional TV in regards to the "Street Fighter Competition", where he as well as a bunch of other familiar faces like those of Chun-Li, Ryu, Zangief, and others fought in a competition to claim their title as Street Fighter master. She also recognizes the fact that the man has lost his companion, Charlie Nash, to that of the evil Shadaloo clan, M. Bison, or according to what she overheard in the news. She respected the man, even though she never seen him face-to-face before.

Meanwhile, Samus also sees another character come into the room, he looking like a crazy, almost ravenous-looking, anthropomorphic wolf, but paid little attention to him. When Guile asked who started this food fight, Samus looked at the mischievous red plumber, but says nothing. Or at least, she might call him out until Edward Buck "admitted" to this. It's rather surprising that he would actually take the blame for all of this, despite not having started this, but regardless what can one do. Samus turns her head back into view of the soldier, awaiting further instructions.

"Hello. Am Quina, is..." Luigi's twitching eye and then the carefully studied calm he displayed didn't seem to stop Quina from trying to introduce himself (or herself). It was only after he turned and walked away without saying a word when Quina realised that the Green Man was clearly quite hungry, and as much as it might have been nice to get a proper introduction, Quina couldn't begrudge Luigi for wanting food.

"...eat well," Quina called after Luigi, waving happily towards his back, "and try soup, Green Man!"

At least there were new people to satiate Quina's fleeting desire for proper introductions. The Grey Man Who Gave Frog Legs, Edward, kindly decided to handle the grumpy looking person who stormed in and demanded answers. Quina considered briefly contradicting the story that Edward Buck was giving, seeing as Quina was pretty confident that it wasn't the Grey Man Who Gave Frog Legs that actually started the fight. Then again, Quina was also pretty confident that this entire party was being thrown in her, or his, honour. Perhaps this whole angry-looking-man-with-flat-hair thing was just a play being put on before the next course was served? While all these thoughts were busy pushing their way through his (or her) conscious mind, Quina just stood there, perfectly still, staring at the gathered people.

"Um, hello. I’m Naija," said the small, crouched creature with green skin, "It is nice to meet you all?"

Quina stared at Naija in the same way that a cat watches a mouse; a mix of curiousity at seeing such a thing and anticipation of a meal in the coming minutes. After waddling a little closer, Quina squatted down to get a closer look at the little figure, taking in the carefully constructed and tiny clothes, the webbed hands and feet, the little mop of white hair and coming to one conclusion: this talking almost-frog was special. It meant something.

"Am Quina. Hello," Quina began, not really considering the notion that Naija might feel uncomfortable being loomed over by such a large person, especially one that enjoyed eating things, and especially one that possessed an appreciation for the culinary virtues of an animal that Naija might easily be mistaken for, "special Naija. Here for party? Yes?"

Naija was indeed rather uncomfortable with being loomed over, though apart from the white and red creature all the occupants would do so. She did appreciate Quina’s crouching so that there was less looming involved that there would have been if she had stayed standing. However the look in the bearings eyes was one she had seen many times before, It was the most common examining stares in the deep. ”I am hungry, will this be food?”. Naija was keenly aware that 90% of the time the creature would decide that yes, she was and she would have to flee or kill them.

She looked over the strange creature as it spoke noticing the apron and funny hat. Was this thing a cook? that might be a way out of this predicament. She was rather surprised to be called special and hoped that wasn't meant as delicacy. Quina also appeared to think this was a gathering for a party and not one for saving all of existence, though perhaps for them those were the same thing. It was only here for the banquet.

”I am actually here for the stop the virus from destroying everything adventure… I mean mission. It looks like I have miss most of the party.”

She smiled awkwardly, generally gesturing to the mess.

Growing very uncomfortable with the staring she tensed, preparing to try and leap away and possibly use the bind song to grab the massive fork before it skewered her. Naija hoped that maybe if she gave the creature something else to eat she might not have to deal with such an eventuality.

”Are you a chef? I myself am quite fond of cooking, maybe you would like to try some of my work?”

She reached into her inventory screen and retrieved a Plump Perogi and offered it to the hungry creature.

It was a tasty seaweed wrapped around an assortment of meats, eggs and mushrooms and cooked in fish oil. It was interesting in that it would also provide a boost to defense and to energy attacks, in her game at least, she was not sure what it would do here (probably nothing other than taste good). Still it was a complex dish and she hoped Quina would be satisfied with the offering and move her from category of 'food' to the category of 'makes food'.

The Hunter maintained his position off to the side. Having landed a hit on the one person to directly engage him with these....food projectiles..... he kept to himself. Every now and then he would have to duck or leap to a side to avoid some food that had missed its target, but he still remained largely untouched. Frankly, the Hunter found this whole charade to be pathetic. If these were supposed to be the greatest heroes of the realms, he was very underwhelmed.

Just then, a man in strange garb with a rather distinct hairstyle @Holy Soldier came in and took control of the situation. Thank the Great Ones somebody here was responsible. The Hunter made sure his attire was still largely spotless. Should it become covered in blood soon, he didn't want to taste anything else with it. He turned his attention to the newcomers, heralded by the return of more whispers, before turning back to the man clearly in charge. Time to find out just what he was here to hunt.

Surprised by the interesting development and revelation of Naija being a chef, Quina's gaze shifted from "eyeing up dinner" to "intensely curious", although the difference between these two looks (or, indeed, any other look) wasn't particularly easy to discern. This whole thing about a mission, and a virus, and an adventure also sounded quite interesting, but that could wait until after the festivities celebrating Quina's status as a hero.

"Quina is chef, yes," the tone of his, or her, voice suggested this was a fact that Quina was proud of, "shall try food from special chef, yes."

Carefully taking the offered perogi in one gloved hand, Quina sat him/herself down on the floor and held it up to her (or his) face to inspect the offering. It was small, but pleasant to look at, with the little crimped edges reminding Quina of a pastry he, or she, sampled in Mama's. Before the unfortunate business of getting thrown out of there. Nodding a little in approval, Quina carefully bit the Plump Perogi in half and then remained perfectly still.

"Is... is wonderful," stammered out the stunned Qu, "has egg! Has savouries! Seaweed! Like, is like sort of seafood, not too much. Like home? And button mushroom!"

Quina popped the final half of the perogi into her (or his) mouth and let out a long, contented sounding sigh. Whereas nearly everything else that Quina had eaten in the past ten minutes disappeared into the bottomless pit that was Quina's stomach in a matter of seconds, Quina took her (or his) time chewing on the perogi. The look on his (or her) face could possibly indicate contemplation, or possibly satisfaction, or maybe even bliss; Quina was certainly experiencing all three. With a satisfied swallowing noise, Quina offered his, or her, hand down towards Naija.

"Am Quina. Is good to meet you, special-not-frog Naija. When Friend Ezio come back, Quina will show you him. Think he is getting cake for more party, maybe."

Naija watched in worried silence as Quina sat down to sample her cooking. To her relief and delight they seemed to love the dish, taking time to savor its rich flavor. Calling it wonderful even. She was extremely pleased with this, before today only she, Li and their son had ate her cooking and she always had that little worry that they only said they liked it because they where her family. A positive external review, and by a chef no less, was marvelous to hear. In her new sense of pride she completely forgot that only moments before she was potentially going to be Quina’s dinner, in her mind they where now only Quina: the odd chef who likes my cooking.

”Well all the ingredients were from the sea and it was cooked in the sea so I suppose it was seafood. I am glad you liked it!”

She beams up at Quina with pride.

Though this did bring up the dual questions, how would she get more ingredients so far away from aquaria and what was land food like. Spread all over the floors, guests and walls at the moments was the immediate answer, but would it make a good substitute for her recipes when fresh? Perhaps was there an ocean nearby where she could get similar ingredients? That would be preferable.

Then Quina stuck out her hand and offered to introduce her to an Ezio when he returned. Hopefully she would not need to bribe that individual as well, she would quickly run out of her stores if she had to give food to every land dweller she met.

She stared at the outstretched hand while thinking all this before realizing she maybe wanted to shake hands? Another custom she had vague memories of the concept of, but not one she had ever partaken in. She gingerly grasped the offered gloved hand and politely shook it.

”I look forward to meeting this Ezio friend of yours”

The loud crash that sounded when Buck made the deliberate choice to fall onto the table return Ezio's attention to the guy. Admittedly, he had momentarily dismissed the other's presence at the arrival of the three Heads. The gentlemanly thing to do would be apologise for the slight, but Buck had already moved away. Well, less move, more fell. While his armour protected the man from injuring his spine or something, the sheer gracelessness of the action still made Ezio cringe. Granted, he should stop expecting soldiers to act like Assassins. They were from vastly different worlds, and clearly staying put at heights without a decent perch wasn't in their training. Nevertheless, the armoured man had moved with effortless grace when on the ground. Buck's willingness to shoulder the blame for this fight and legitimate question for the reason behind their gathering was interspersed with the arrival of two newcomers, one of which was the legend Bandicoot. By the gods, this was getting more serious by the minute if they were pulling in legends left, right and center.

From his spot, Ezio kept watch as Quina - ever friendly and eager to make new acquaintances - wandered over to the girl with green-tinged skin, webbed feet and ears shaped like a fish's fin. Something changed hands, and predictably disappeared into Quina's mouth. Their voices weren't exactly loud, but the reception hall was quiet enough for it to travel to his ears, soft as it may be. Any words he didn't hear was figured out by the context of what he managed to grasp, although Quina's unusual wordings made the conversation slightly difficult to follow. Which was why he figured hearing his name from the little being in chef's clothes was a fluke. Until the one who introduced herself as Naija repeated his name. Crossing his arms, he wondered if introducing himself was worth the risk of drawing any of the Head's eyes, then abruptly dashed that thought aside, because surely none of them would be kicked out over a mock fight.

Decision made, Ezio leaped two beams over until he came across a pillar. Then he hooked his fingertips on the ledge, judged the distance between this ledge and the one mid-way up the pillar before letting go. A second later, he gripped the lower ledge to halt his descent, then let go completely to hit the floor, landing on the balls of his feet to soften the impact. Picking his way carefully through the dirty floor, neatly avoiding clumps and patches of unidentifiable objects, he snagged two plates with a miraculously still intact chocolate pudding. Stopping beside Quina, he handed a plate to him/her.

"Here, Quina. For your earlier efforts. And also I think meal time is at a close, so might as well eat while you still can, hmm?" Ezio smiled and was about to throw a wink when he paused, again realising his cowl was still up. Oh well, leave it up. The other plate was handed over to Naija. "The same goes for you, signorina. And a pleasure to meet you. If you haven't already guessed, I am Ezio."

---

Crash's eyes wandered around aimlessly around the room examining the mess. A person wearing some rather odd looking armor stepped forward as being the culprit but even with Crash not being there when the apparent food war began, he doubted it was the armor guy who started it. He didn't seem to be the type to start a random food war. Looking around Crash would probably point the finger at either the short man with an 'M' on his hat, or perhaps the larger similar looking fellow with an 'L'. Or perhaps the strange creature talking to the frog looking girl.

The rather agitated military man seemed familiar to Crash, something involving some form of competition but he couldn't exactly remember what it was about. Going by appearance he would assume fighting and probably was some competition that Crunch would of been interest and tried to get him to watch. Before he could make any better attempt at trying to remember where he saw the man before, Crash was interrupted by his stomach growling again reminding him that going through portals left him peckish.

"Ah!" Crash stated to himself remembering his pack and grabbing it and opening one of the zippers. Reaching inside he pulled out an odd shape fruit that closely resembled a mix between a peach and apple. He quickly ate it not caring about those around who might of been watching. Once the wumpa fruit was gone and Crash felt that it would sedate his hunger for awhile he waited to hear why he was called to the strange castle full of other heroes.

"Great. Dougan stiffed me. Again." Garrett mutters to himself as he counts his payment. He was supposed to get 500 gold for this job, but instead he only got 200. He really should just stick to using Basso as his contractor... Nonetheless, he pocketed the cash, planning on robbing Dougan's home later as retribution. Bastard probably didn't have 300 gold worth of loot in his house, but what matters is the message that robbing Dougan would send. And that message is: 'Don't cheat Garrett out of his money.'

Eventually, Garrett arrived at his hideout, a room in a hotel. He used to stay in a clock tower, but eventually he realized how stupid it was to stay in a place so visible and moved on. This place was still only temporary however, as he needed a hideout that had a hidden room for his loot and equipment. After all, a good thief doesn't leave his treasures and equipment out in the open; what if one of the staff checked the room? So, while he was staying here, Garrett resorted to having all of his equipment on him, but it was starting to get cumbersome carrying around a bunch of arrows, lockpicks, and his bow, blackjack and sword.

Shaking the thought off, Garrett dropped all his equipment on the bed and undressed, before putting on his civilian clothes. Just as he finished sliding on his tunic, however, he saw a small cloud with a smiley face on it enter the room through the window. He quickly leaped for his sword. Then, a creature resembling a turtle popped out of the cloud and Garrett yelped in surprise, falling backward and landing on his ass. The creature snickered, before dropping a letter in Garrett's lap. "What in the world..." Garrett mutters, watching the creature duck back into the cloud and fly out the window.

Rubbing the back of his head, Garrett stood up and opened the letter.

Dear Hero, it read, You are receiving this letter because you were chosen to undertake a most challenging task. Your life will be endangered if you so choose to selflessly take up arms in defense of your world as well as others… It went on to explain something about a virus. The closest encounter Garrett ever had with viruses was the Gloom, but this sounded much, much worse. "... Man, saving the world is almost like a pastime for me now..." Garrett murmured to himself. It wasn't long ago he planning on retirement; now the only thing that's retired are his hopes to retire.

With a sigh, Garrett grabbed a nearby pen. It hovered over the no box for several seconds, and he almost checked it as well... But eventually he figured this was much bigger than anything he's faced before. That, and this might offer him new thieving opportunities. "Well, I've got nothing better to do." He says, before setting the pen down. He then got dressed into his thieving attire, leaving the hood and cloth down. Gearing up, Garrett grabbed the pen and checked the yes box. The letter disappeared in a puff of smoke and for a minute Garrett was confused.

And then the world faded away.

---

Garrett appeared in the foyer of Tetris Castle, looking around in shock for a moment as his crummy hotel room was replaced by a large, open room of a beautiful design. "There must be a lot of loot to steal here..." He whispers to himself. Garrett looks around and continues walking, then accidentally bumps into a small, bipedal orange creature. "Hey, watch it!" He says.

@!#?@! it replies.

"Uh... Well a bunch of gibberish to you too, guy." Garrett replies to the small creature. It then continues to spout gibberish, and motions for Garrett to follow it. Wordlessly, Garrett complies. It leads him to an elevator, then presses a few buttons. Soon enough, they warp into a new room. Garrett looks around... And sees a trashed dining room. He raises an eyebrow, but says nothing. Qbert leads Garrett past the dining room and to another room. Garrett stood in the doorway, looking inside.

Inside, there were 7 seated figures and a number of others. Garrett faintly recalled the names of a few of them, though others were blanks. He knew of Mario, Luigi, Samus, Crash and the seven that were seated but couldn't recall the names of the others for the life of him. Guile said something about 'being able to find better at an elementary school' and then asked who started... Something. Mostly, the others stayed quiet. He saw a large blob with a long tongue and a chef hat talking with a hooded man in all white and a small, green girl. 'I hope that hooded guy doesn't like stealth, white isn't good for blending into the shadows at all...' Garrett thought to himself.

After a moment, Garrett realized what was going on: they had a food fight in the dining room. It's a shame he missed it, considering he had never been in a food fight all his life. After all, you don't waste food when you're a orphan living on the streets and he had, in his opinion, gotten too old to be in one now. Garrett chuckled. "Guess I'm late to the party, huh?" He says, walking into the room at last.