| GCB Fanfics: Vs. Mode |
Vs. Mode - Interlude: Post-Round PartyWhen GCB officials approached the defending champion about hosting a gathering of the first round winners and some other characters as a brief respite from the fighting, Link balked at the idea. Unfortunately for him, Zelda was with him at the time, and the princess in her couldn't refuse the chance to play hostess. So, the thirty-two first round winners, some of the losers, and a few other guests found themselves seated within the spacious ballroom of Hyrule Castle. The winners were seated by fours at eight round tables in the center of the room, while the rest were seated around the outer tables. This wouldn't have been a problem if the winners could have sat where they wanted, but one of the GCB officials wanted them seated by seeds. To say that was a bad idea would be a severe understatement. Table 1 - Link, Cloud, Mario, Snake ---------------------------------------- Cloud had the dubious privilege of sitting between two of his rivals. Snake kept to himself, but Link and Mario traded some good-natured banter about last year's final before ganging up on Cloud. "Would you two leave me alone?!" "You're-a no fun," the plumber needled. "Let's do as the baby-eater says, Mario," Link said. "I am NOT a baby-eater!" Table 2 - Samus, Sonic, Sephiroth, Mega Man ---------------------------------------- This was also known as the table of death. The last time these four were together was in last year's Sweet Sixteen matches in the West Division. Needless to say, none of them except Mega Man tried to start a conversation, but no one gave a reply to the Blue Bomber. They settled on giving each other glaring looks in silence. Table 3 - Luigi, Master Chief, Kirby, Tommy Vercetti ---------------------------------------- The Chief and Vercetti were engrossed in comparing their weapons, leaving Luigi to talk with Kirby. "Have-a you ever felt-a that no one knows that-a you exist?" Kirby responded with a sad-sounding squeak. Luigi nodded, "Me too." Table 4 - Squall, Yoshi, Crono, Dante ---------------------------------------- Yoshi looked from Squall polishing his Lionheart, to Crono polishing his Rainbow, to Dante polishing Ebony and Ivory, and sank his depressed head onto the table. The little dinosaur suddenly had an idea. He used his tongue to snag the vase of flowers at the center of the table and laid an egg. The three others looked wide-eyed as Yoshi began to polish the egg when they finally fell to laughing with their odd tablemate. Table 5 - KOS-MOS, Bowser, Alucard, Ryu ---------------------------------------- The room shook as Bowser tried to sit down, breaking the chair and leaving an indentation in the floor. The King of Koopas roared in anger, but when a minigun was pointed to his snout, he calmed down. Ryu did his best to not laugh at the incident, and while Alucard sipped his glass of red wine. Zelda squirmed at serving blood, so this was the closest the half-vampire could get to an acceptable drink. Table 6 - Fox, Zero, Shadow, Donkey Kong ---------------------------------------- With Zero and Shadow deciding to brood, Fox was left with Donkey Kong as his company. "So, how have you been you big ape?" DK responded with some grunts. "I'm doing alright, thanks. How do you think you'll do in the next round?" The monkey answered with more grunts. "I am a little worried about facing Link, but- Oh, forget it! I can't understand a word you say, anyway!" With that Fox began polishing his blaster, while DK shrugged and put on some headphones. Table 7 - Ganondorf, Auron, Max Payne, Knuckles ---------------------------------------- The four had absolutely nothing in common. Ganondorf proclaimed himself the best fighter at the table, which led to Auron making a cryptic response and the other two ignoring the King of Evil as he continued his self-glorifying rant. Auron also gave up and resorted to meditation. Table 8 - Magus, Aeris, Kefka, Zelda ---------------------------------------- Despite being the lowest seeds in their respective divisions, there was still a lot of power at the last table. Zelda and Aeris were wary of each other, but were able to have a civilized conversation. Kefka talked to himself and laughed hideously at his own jokes, and Magus brooded. As he looked around the room, he was led to utter, "The black wind begins to howl... One of you shall soon perish." Despite the tension at the various tables, the fighters were able to keep themselves from leaping at each other's throats until the GCB commissioner himself stepped to the front of the room. "I'd like to welcome everyone that came to this gathering, graciously hosted by Princess Zelda. My congratulations to the thirty-two that have made it to the second round. We certainly look forward to your future battles. As you all know, there have recently been some malevolent incidents that have manifested themselves suddenly. Rest assured, the investigation is still ongoing, and security will be a top priority at upcoming venues. The Great Character Battle will go on, and anyone who tries to interfere will face serious consequences. The second round starts tomorrow, but for now, enjoy yourselves. Thank you." When the commissioner finished his remarks, the characters bolted from their tables to get food, and to mingle with more friendly company. ---- Curiously, Squall and Shadow left the room. Both received mysterious messages before their arrival, asking them to meet outside in the gardens. It was nighttime and they heard a rustling in the bushes. "It's you!" they blurted out when they saw who it was. "Yes, it's me. I want to help you out in your matches against the Marios." Shadow crossed his arms and hmphed at him. "Who do you think I am? I don't need help against a plumber. The ugly clone was no match for me, so the real one won't be that much of a challenge. I have no time to play games here," The black hedgehog said as he skated off. "What about you?" the figure asked Squall. The gunblade wielder rubbed his chin. "Hmm... I don't think I'll need the help either. Why would you want to help me anyway?" The figure angrily said, "I want to get back at what that stupid turtle did to me. That cute dinosaur refused to help me, so I want to take out his friends, the plumbers!" Squall was about to correct him, but thought otherwise. He could use the extra insurance in case the Luigi was truly as powerful his brother. "All right, kid. What do you want me to do?" ---- Zelda shrieked as the beat-up form of Ness limped through the entrance to the ballroom. Cloud ran up to the boy. "What happened?" Ness held back tears as he said, "I- I was attacked!" "By who?" "The first one was wearing green, and tall and sort of skinny...the other one was wearing red. He was short and...unskinny. They used something on my eyes so I couldn't see who it was until they were running away." All who heard Ness' description turned their eyes to Mario and Luigi, who were busy pigging out on heaping portions of spaghetti and meatballs. "How could you?! Wasn't Bowser crushing him enough?!" Jill accused the brothers. With spaghetti still hanging out of their mouths, the plumbers looked up fearfully at the angry group "What-a did we do?" Mario asked. "We were-a just eating the spaghetti!" Luigi added. A shouting match began as the Marios decided to run for it. Squall calmly walked in after the incident. "Why were Mario and Luigi running?" he asked Cloud. "They beat up Ness. That's why! They don't deserve to be in this tournament any longer." "That's right," Jill said. "Don't worry about a thing, Squall. You beat me fair and square, and we're going to help you beat that child abuser!" Squall shrugged. "You don't have to, but I guess it's all right. What did you have in mind?" Cloud and Jill didn't get a chance to answer as they heard screaming and shouting at the punch bowl. Samus' beautiful blonde locks stuck to her face, dripping punch onto and inside her armor. Sonic was close by as well. His quills were soaked as well. One look between S&S later, and the place erupted into chaos. Only the nearly-divine intervention of the commissioner was able to put an end to the rioting partygoers. Zelda may have thought the party was a failure, but the others knew better. Round two just got a lot more interesting... Next Entry Back |