| GCB Fanfics: Vs. Mode |
Vs. Mode - Crono vs. Nook"Welcome back to Vs. Mode, where we're just about to have the last match in the Mushroom Kingdom. For those just tuning in, we just came from a gruesome match between Kefka and Pac-Man where the only representative of the sixth squad of Double-F decimated the old GCB veteran." Lucca sighs, "Unfortunately, all the Princess' horses and all the Princess' men are still having great difficulty putting Pac-Man together again. His rather unique physiology is leaving the Mushroom Kingdom's best doctors confused as to how to treat him." Brock interrupts, "But the tournament continues, and the next battle is a match between newcomer Tom Nook, and an old favorite of the viewers and my fellow announcer, Cr-" Nobody hears the Pokémon breeder finish his sentence as the first tones of Crono's Theme are immediately met with a loud chorus of cheers. While the amount is definitely less than that of Mario's, the number rooting for Crono is still considerable. The silent swordsman himself walks out into the arena amidst all the shouting and screaming and waves to the audience with a big grin planted on his face. He turns to the announcers' booth and saw Lucca there giving him a thumbs-up, which he returns. "Crono was a virtual unknown in the last tournament," Brock shouts over the noise, "one that almost no one thought would get far in the contest as he had to go through a string of some of the toughest competitors in the arena. But get through he did, all the way to the Final Four, blowing away competition such as Dante and Lara Croft, and even getting past the legendary Solid Snake. It took the likes of Mario to defeat him in one of the closest matches last year. And it would appear that his performance has gotten him quite a few fans, even among the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom." "Whoo! Yeah! Go Crono! Show that stupid raccoon what the kids from Truce can do! Yeah!" Brock visibly sweatdrops at his partner's behavior, "Uhh... and the other fighter for this round is Animal Crossing's resident merchant. Some people wonder what the tanuki is doing here in the tournament, considering how he doesn't even look like a fighter. When he arrived in Windfall Stadium, the first thing he did was not train, practice or spar like the rest of the contestants, but set up a shop to supply the other fighters with ammo, weapons and other items for a rather high price. While no one will doubt that he's now the richest participant here, one would have to wonder how he's going to handle a powerhouse like Crono and-" Brock stops the raccoon's introduction when Toad walks over and whispers something to him, "We seem to be having a problem with Tom Nook right now. It would appear that they're having difficulties getting him out of his shop. Max?" A large screen on the other side of the stadium turns on, showing a rather interesting scene in front of Nook's shop as the raccoon desperately holds onto a support post while two mushroom people make an effort to pull him loose. Max tries to ignore the commotion behind him as he reports. "Apparently, the officials of this contest just reminded Tom Nook that he's not allowed to continue his business here if he loses. Considering how he's been screaming things like 'all that potential money, gone!' and 'but I've been getting so much more than I did back in town!', I don't think he took that news all that calml- wait. It looks like Tom has told the stadium's officials that he's finally going to fight." Sure enough, the officials let go of the shopkeeper's legs and let him scamper back into his shop. A few minutes later, he walked out, carrying a large sack behind him, and strides onwards to the arena's entrance. "There goes a brave little mammal. Marching on to face insurmountable odds for the sake of capitalism. Back to you Brock!" "Thanks Max. And here comes Animal Crossing's Tom Nook, walking to the center of the ring. While he's certainly not a fighter like most of the participants here, one must not count him out prematurely as anything can happen here in Vs. Mode." Lucca gazes at the Pokemon Trainer levelly, "Brock, he's a shopkeeper, the most threatening things he's probably had to fight in his entire life were a few cobwebs while cleaning his stock room. Crono defeated a big monster that threatened to destroy our world. Although he did that with the help of yours truly and friends, I highly doubt that he would lose here." Brock edges away from Lucca just a little bit, and chuckles self-consciously "Err... oh look! The ref's about to start the fight" The ref-bot hovers to the center of the ring, raises both flags and faces Crono. "Player 1 ready?" Crono nods. The ref-bot turns to Tom Nook. "Player 2 ready?" The raccoon doesn't say anything. He just drops his sack in front of him, and lowers his head, making the shadows cover his eyes. The ref-bot, takes his silence as a yes and lowers both flags. "Combatants ready. Raise force barriers. Match 20, Crono vs. Tom Nook. 3, 2, 1... fight!" ---- "Power's on; game's started and, and, and... no one's attacking! Crono doesn't even have his sword drawn!" Brock announces, confused as much as everyone else. "Ah, it looks like Crono is walking over to the Animal Crossing citizen and it looks like he's asking Tom to give up. Aww... just like the Crono I know, preferring the peaceful solution over the slaughter-the-innocent-townsfolk way" Brock just stares at Lucca, "How'd you know what he's saying when he's so far away?" Lucca smiles smugly "Isn't it obvious? It's because I'm a genius!" ---- In the middle of the arena, Crono is indeed persuading the shopkeeper to concede, without much success. First he tries restating what Lucca said about the match, in a more delicate manner. Tom Nook responds with a firm "No" Crono then talks about how he is a merchant and not a fighter. Again the raccoon answers in the negative. Finally, he says that fighting would be useless since it will only lead to Tom Nook losing and going home in pain. At this point, the tanuki laughs, and it is not just an ordinary ha-ha-ha laugh; it is a full-blown maniacal, Kefka-like, cuckoo-cuckoo-I'm-ready-for-the-loony-bin-now laugh that makes Crono jump away in surprise. When Tom's long tirade finally ends, he stares at the spiky-haired swordsman with eyes that clearly states that whatever sanity was left in the raccoon's head has clearly gone bye-bye. "Oh, you would like that won't you? Have me lose and get booted out of this tournament and be forced to close down my shop here? Well that's not going to happen! For my sake and whatever profits await me in the future, I will defeat you!" And with that pronouncement, he opens the sack he was carrying and draws out something big and heavy. Crono's eyes widen and he starts dodging like heck. ---- "..." Brock states eloquently "..." Lucca responds with as much feeling in her words "...and they're off. Tom Nook surprises everyone by pulling out a rocket launcher from that bag of his and he has Crono on the run. While Tom Nook could use some help with his accuracy, all it'd take for him is one lucky shot to win this battle and Crono's not taking that chance." "Crono! What do you think you're doing! Cast Lightning! Cast Luminaire! Don't let that stupid raccoon push you around!" Brock faces the currently screaming scientist. "Weren't you the one who said something about Crono not being the type to pick on helpless villagers?" "I don't think Tom is what you'd call helpless right now" Lucca shoots back. "Point taken. Oh, and it looks like Tom has finally ran out of missiles. He's just tossed away the launcher and pulled out an assault rifle. Wow, just look at those bullets fly! Let us all take a moment to thank my fellow announcer Lucca for making the force barriers that have saved a lot of people from meeting a premature death today. As for Crono, he's yet to get hit, but all that running around has got to be taking its toll on him." "I guess Tom Nook's inexperience as a fighter is actually making things much harder for Crono. He's worried that using his sword or spells might accidentally kill the raccoon if he's not careful." Lucca comments bitterly. "Crono! Unless if you haven't noticed, that stupid rodent's been trying to kill you! Stop dodging and start fighting!!!" Brock moves away from Lucca a little bit more before continuing his announcing. "Looks like Tom ran out of ammo again, and- ah! It looks like other Hero of Time is finally doing something!" ---- Crono has been waiting for just this moment. Seeing his chance, Crono runs towards Tom at full speed while the raccoon is throwing away the rifle. With a quick hop, Crono slides across the ground and kicks away Tom's bag before he can pull out his next weapon. Tom blinks at his currently empty hands and looks up at Crono with a very nervous smile. "Ah-heh-heh... I'm sorry that I tried to kill you?" Crono gives Tom one good whack on the head, knocking him out of commission for Ref-Bot to do what it did best. "Winner: Crono." ---- "Well, the battle took longer than expected as one of the Animal Crossing representatives showed how much fight he has in him, but the winner was never questioned even at the beginning of this match." Lucca happily announces as the audience cheers Crono's name. "And that is that for the first half of the South Division. Join us again next week in Midgar as we finish the rest of this division's matches. For Lucca and Max, I'm Brock, and we'll hope you'll join us again on Vs. Mode!" ---- The hallway echoes with footsteps as Crono walks back to his room. He has to pack his things once more as they are moving to another stadium soon. As far away as he is from the arena, he can still hear the faint cheers of the crowds as Brock and Lucca continue to hype them up for the following matches. Crono imagines his friend entertaining the crowd as an announcer and smiles. He never would have imagined her going through that kind of job. "That was a rather pitiful performance out there..." Crono stops his long trek back to his room and turns to face the dark corner of the wall where the voice came from, already having a pretty good idea who it is. Magus walks out of the shadows in all his glory, his face with nary a trace of emotion. "The raccoon wouldn't have hesitated to kill you, you do know that, yes? You were rather fortunate. I sensed some powerful magical artifacts within that bag of his and I highly doubt that he intended to use it for tea and biscuits if he were to bring them out." The mage tells Crono with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. "You were the same in the last tournament. Never willing to leave the fate of your opponent to chance, always holding back what you are fully capable of doing if you know that it would risk the life of your enemy even though they were not as kind to hold back for you. That is why you lost to a plumber." Magus spits out in disgust. Crono scratches the back of his head in embarrassment as he recalls the last seconds of his match with Mario. He thought that he had the fight won, but Mario just had to have one last surprise up his sleeve. Still, he lost fair and square and he is not ashamed of it. "I was surprised that you did so well with that attitude of yours, but there are forces here whose powers rival even that of Lavos, and I doubt that the lost of a human life would be enough to deter them from using their full strength." Magus begins to walk away with his cape fluttering behind him, "Heed my warning Crono. Mercy may be a virtue, but there are times when one must be cold to survive." And with those words, he left, leaving the swordsman alone with his thoughts. Bonus! Tom Nook was woozy as he finally awoke from Crono's hilt to the forehead. Most of the spectators had already left, and he figured he should do the same. He had lost, and there was nothing left for him here. The raccoon thought about cheering for Mr. Resetti, but Tom decided he had better go home and better spend his time hawking his wares instead. He had entered the hallway to the locker rooms, when he was tackled from behind. "You look like you could use a pick-me-up." Tom stood back up and turned around to look at his attacker. "What in the world are you?!" "I'm the Bonus Poll of the Day! Do you want to fight me?" "Actually, no." "Too bad!" With that, the BPotD began battering the poor tanuki. No one heard Tom scream. After the Bonus Poll of the Day had its fun, it blew a raspberry and bounded off, having claimed another victim. Next Entry Back |