Mugen Universe: Tournament of Champions- The Fanfiction Series

[OverMaster]

Inspired by this thread: http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=46801&page=1&pp=15

Promotional trailer:



The Omniverse is in inminent danger. Again. All that exists is about to come to an ending. However, this time it isn't the work of a supreme demon lord of all Evil, or a cosmic madman who gained domain over all the dimensions of existence, or a coallition of supervillains who have taken over the Omniversal Nexus of Everything That Is.

No. This time, all the universes are in danger... because the Heavens just want to end it all. To purify the Creation, it all must be remade from scratch... but not if Belldandy, the kindest goddess in all of Heaven, can help it. She is just about to give everyone a chance to save their lives and worlds...

*Ominous music sounds in the background*

Of course, you know this ain't gonna be pretty.

Especially when, well, that was NOT what the creators of the series had in mind when they started with it... And now someone's going to pay for it!

Based on the best-selling "Mugen Universe: Multiversal Tournament of Champions" videogame...

The Ultimate Battle has begun.

Live the action. The carnage. The weirdness. The wackiness. And the sheer idiocy... of the adventure of a lifetime... or something like that...


* We see a long series of scenes showing:

Excel Excel battling Puni Puni Poemy,

Street Fighter's Ryu and King of Fighters' Kyo Kusanagi sitting and eating ramen together as everything around them crumples,

Darkstalkers' B.B. Hood running after the terrified Lord of the Rings' Balrog monster with guns a-blazin',

Spawn fighting Lobo,

Saber Marionette Lime in an intense "scissors, rock, paper" duel with Catgirl Nuku Nuku,

Homer Simpson punching a yelling Peter Griffin in the gut... and Homer's hand being left stuck in Peter's tummy folds,

Ranma Saotome fighting Kenshin Himura,

The Smurf village being stomped on by Godzilla,

Superman fighting Son Goku,

Disgaea's Angel Trainee Flonne, KOF's Kim Kaphwan, Disney's Darkwing Duck and The Slayers' Amelia making a few sentai-like entrance poses together for Justice,

SF's Dan Hibiki punching Batvillain Killer Croc in the mouth... then rubbing his pained hand as he yells,

a quick, dramatic closeup of Belldandy's worried, shocked face zooming in into her right eye,

Evangelion's Shinji Ikari sitting in a chair complaining,

Freakazoid's Fanboy running after an annoyed Scarlet Witch while holding an old Avengers comic to his chest,

Emperor Joker and Mistress of Hell Hild going in a battle mano-a-mano,

and it all closes with a shot of Nabeshin going SSJ as he screams, "This all stops HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....!!!!!!!". *



Mugen Universe: The Fanfiction. Coming very soon.

[J Dog]

Alright! This is cool!

[Altraferne]

This sounds cool. So, um... wadda we post? Is this like a role playing thread?

[OverMaster]

This sounds cool. So, um... wadda we post? Is this like a role playing thread?

More or less, since anyone can contribute. Although it has more of a pure fanfic twist than the usual RPG thread. If you want to take a part, you can start by telling us which characters would you like to use.

[J Dog]

I chose my characters at the end of the Anime Cast thread. Go there to see which.

I'd like to start with an opening song that I like as it offers both Guys and the original Mads:

The MST3K Song by Joel Hodgson

In the not-too-distant future--
Next Sunday A.D.--
There was a guy named Joel,
Not too different from you or me.
He worked at Gizmonic Institute,
Just another face in a red jumpsuit.
He did a good job cleaning up the place,
But his bosses didn't like him
So they shot him into space.

We'll send him cheesy movies,
The worst we can find (la-la-la).
He'll have to sit and watch them all,
And we'll monitor his mind (la-la-la).
Now keep in mind Joel can't control
Where the movies begin or end (la-la-la)
Because he used those special parts
To make his robot friends.

Robot Roll Call: (Let's go!)
Cambot! (Pan left!)
Gypsy! (Hi, girl!)
Tom Servo! (What a cool guy!)
Croooow! (What a wisecracker!)

If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
and other science facts (la la la),
Then repeat to yourself, "It's just a show,
I should really just relax
For Mystery Science Theater 3000!"


My first part will begin at Joel Robinson's Hot Fish Shop in Osseo, Minnesota.

[Alan2099]

I'm not fully getting this. is this more of a fanfic round robin, role playing thread, or what/ Also, which characters are avalible for use and how many can be used per person?

[OverMaster]

I'm not fully getting this. is this more of a fanfic round robin, role playing thread, or what/ Also, which characters are avalible for use and how many can be used per person?

More like a fanfic round robin. You can use characters from any series you want as long as they aren't taken by anyone else, as many as you think you can handle, and don't worry about making too much sense with power levels, since this is intended to be rather on the frantic Harmageddon comedy side of things.

Episode Guide (subject to changes if anyone wants to change anything, and have a good cause for it):

1. The First Wave.
2. Culture Clash.
3. Night of the Living Unliving Whatever.
4. Love and Justice.
5. Nabeshin's Fairy Tale Theater.
6. Swords of Fire.
7. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer doesn't live here anymore. (Special Christmas episode!!).
8. Lobo Hina.
9. Old Jokes.
10. The Hunt for the Unknown Enemy, Part I.
11. The Hunt for the Unknown Enemy, Part II.
12. The Hunt for the Unknown Enemy, Part III.
13. The Obligatory Recap Episode.
14. The Obligatory Swimsuit Fanservice Episode.
15. Future Shock Value.
16. Suddenly, a Space Opera.
17. Sentai Wars, Part I.
18. Sentai Wars, Part II.
19. Neon Genesis eDANgelion.
20. Much Ado about Shakespeare. (Warning: Really Weird, Mind Twisting Episode).
21. Return to Those Days when we Laughed.
22. The Freak and the Dead.
23. Holy Bells.
24. Love at the Death's Frontier.
25. A New Earth, a New Heaven.
26. Screw this, we're going Home. (Special OVA episode).

[Alan2099]

Intresting. I'd like to see a preliminary chapter before I commit fully, though.

[KingEli]

Can I join in? Plus I did Guy Gardener(part 1) at the games bord.

[OverMaster]

Just wanted to say, I've been sick for the last couple of days, and that's why I haven't started this yet. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to begin with it.

[OverMaster]

Episode 1: The First Wave.


Prologue:

Somewhere in Tibet.

The small fortress of thick black walls was half buried under a few feet of snow at the peak of one of the world's highest mountains. It was supposed to be my Shangri La. My last hideout from the cruelties of the world outside. It was my safe place. And I was, at least, relatively happy with it.

Then, why was he there, intruding, hunting for me? Couldn't he just leave me alone? Did he need to hound my steps through the world, right down to my last safe hiding place? What did spur him to do so? What??

It didn't matter. It wouldn't matter anymore, never. I was prepared for him. As I heard him dispatch my guards sitting behind my working desk inside of my office, and I saw him through my TV screens, shooting his way through my troops, I caressed the gun in my hands. He wouldn't take me this time. I would make sure of it, one way or another.

Did he have any idea of how much had costed me to hire all those guards with the salary of a mangaka? He plowed his path through them as if he didn't have any care in the world, smiling with cocky confidence, every once in a while throwing a few grenades at them or pulling a bazooka out of his stupid hairdo to blow them up. It was all a game for him? Did he have such a low concept of me? Unacceptable.

He was getting closer. I already could hear the explosions near my door, complete with the desperate yells of the soldiers. It was time. Clearing my sore throat, I stood up and walked to the door, gun in hand.

"I'm waiting for you, SOB" I said then.

An Elite Ex-Green Beret mercenary being thrown through my door into the office was his way of saying "Here I am", two seconds later. As the unfortunate man fell to my feet muttering "He's crazyyyyyy..." very weakly, my tormentor stepped in to face me.

There was a grim resolve of his own on his eyes.

"Rikdo-san" he said, gravely. "We need to talk".

I pointed my gun at his forehead, right between his eyes, under his huge afro. "The time for talkings is over, Nabeshin. You'll never convince me to partner with you again!".

"Is that so?" he asked, critically, giving a long, cynical smoking of the cigarette between his lips. "You shouldn't be so obstinate. Everyone else already has given their approval".

"You lie" I growled. "You just want to trick me again...".

He shrugged, and before I could react putting a bullet into him, he threw a few documents at me. "You can check these out and tell me if I lie...".

I distrusted. But still, I just had to know if he was being sincere this time. The curiosity got the best of me, and I quickly picked up the papers and read them with widened eyes behind my glasses. "Th-this can't be...".

"Oh, but it is. And if you don't want to take a part on it, you'll be the only one left out. Your call, Rikdo-san. But I'd suggest you to do it... even if it's only for the good ol' times... and the most important thing...".

"Do you mean--?" I asked him, with some hope in my voice.

"Yes". He nodded solemnly. "Lots of money".

I had to sigh in defeat. "Okay. You win, damn you. I'll do it... for the money".

I pulled the old approval seal out of one of my pockets and held it over the expecting document as I pronnounced the old oath:

"I, Koshi Rikdo, hereby allow this to become the first episode of our massive group collaboration, the Mugen Universe Series!".


*STAMP!*

[OverMaster]

Somewhere else, a few days later:

Keiichi Morisato sat down at the back porch of the old reaconditioned temple where he had been living for the last couple of years, and sighed softly in the cold breeze of the Autumn.

He was missing her already.

Not only missing her, but even missing her sisters as well. The house was just too quiet without them around anymore, to the point it wasn't feeling like a real home anymore.

He felt just miserable. Slumping down his shoulders, the young man stayed quiet and silent, lost in deep thoughts and asking himself what had gone wrong, when he heard the knockings at his front door. He barely could gather enough interest on it to mutter, "Who is it?".

"It's me, Bro!" a familiar young female voice called out from the outside. She sounded so careless, always. In moments like that, he really couldn't understand at all how did she do it.

"Come in, Megumi. The door isn't locked" he said, barely loud enough for her to hear him. And a few moments later, she was standing next to him, smiling down at him.

"Come on, Keiichi. You don't have to worry so much!" she slapped him gently on a shoulder. "Didn't they tell you they'd be back soon?".

No, actually, they hadn't. That's what he had told Megumi, of course, but it was a lie. There was no way of knowing what would happen from then on.

Still, there was no point in telling his sister truths she couldn't understand, much less believe, and that only would hurt her even if she believed them. So he made the best fake smile he could and looked up at her. "Yes. You're right, of course. I've no reason to think anything bad will happen, do I?".

"That's the spirit!" the girl with the short brown hair winked an eye to her (slightly) older brother. "Now, what if we go out with Hasegawa and your Motor Club buddies to that party tonight, so they can talk to you again? You've barely seen them for the last few days...".

"I know, I know. Look, I'll try to go, as long as I'm feeling better...".

"Oh, please, Keiichi. You're starting to worry me. Be honest. There is something else to this you haven't told me...?".

"No, no, that's not it--".

Then a loud booming thunder in the gray skies cut his words short. Somehow, it had made him to shudder.

Megumi Morisato looked up. "Boy, looks like there's a real big storm comin' up...".

She didn't know how truly right she was then.

[OverMaster]

Yggdrasil:

The impossibly beautiful woman standing in the air, in a long white ceremonial robe, overviewed her handwork from above, and weakly smiled to herself, satisfied. She felt very tired, but also proud of her work. At long last, the Arena for the final match was ready.

Of course, challenging almost anyone else to a battle against the Ultimate Force, under normal conditions, would have been an exercise in futility. They would never stand a chance against her then. That's why she had to try and level the odds... make a special place where the strenght of the challengers would be equal to their resolve... Only then, they could have a prayer.

She really wanted to take a short sleep now. The work had been too intense, with her Seals still on and all that...

Just a few moments of sleep, she told herself as she descended. Surely The Father wouldn't mind after all...

"Is it over, already?" a female voice asked, coming from behind her.

"Yes. It is finished" she answered, with the most beautiful voice of all of Heavens. "Everything is going according to the Plan".

"Are you sure about this?" the other woman... or rather, Goddess... asked. "This could be a classic case of a remedy being worse than the illness, if things go wrong at any point...".

"That will not happen, Peorth" she replied with resolve. "I know everything is going to work out at the end. It has to".

"Very well" Peorth of the Roses nodded solemnly. "Then, I assume we can pass on to Step 2 of your project?".

"Just let me rest a bit first, please. I feel drained... We will go for Akira after that".

The dark haired Goddess crossed her arms and said nothing. Then her longtime rival added, "Thank you for your help, Peorth... I know it mustn't be easy for you...".

"The alternative wouldn't be any easier for me either, Belldandy" she replied quickly. "I just hope you are right... and this doesn't turn out to be a fatally wrong faux pas...".

[OverMaster]

Arkham Asylum:

People feared the name. A dark castle of shadows, wrapped in thick walls and an aura of insanity. The Fortess of Madness itself.

There lived a Prince, do you know? A dark Prince of warm, charming smile and the heart of a devil. The Sultan of Swing, the Count of Chaos, Duke of Disaster. The Joker, for the pals.

And once upon a day, the Prince got an invitation to a Royal Ball...


He laughed dryly, just to himself. He had just had an idea.

He had to. Sitting restrained in the rubber room, almost choked by the tightness of his old straightjacket, faintly smelling of sweat and dried vomit, he had no other things to do than:

1) Scream to the walls, which really became stale after a while.

2) Fall asleep and have ideas while dreaming, and

3) Have ideas while being awake.

Of course, there also was Choice 4) Vomit again, but today's food hadn't been THAT bad.

Anyway, as for the idea... That was a real beauty... The newest, keenest escape plan ever! Surely no one ever in the history of mankind had ever thought about it before! Now, all he had to do was to--

"Wait a minute".

He had just heard a small poofing sound near him. He looked aside with curiosity to find himself staring at a tiny, big headed blonde woman with strange markings on her rounded face. She smiled wickedly, showing him some slight pointy fangs, and was half wrapped on a black cloak around her somewhat buxom body.

She was oddly sexy looking for being some sort of gremlin.

"I'm sorry, but the Mistress isn't here today" the ghostly pale, green haired man told her, as if she was the most normal sight ever. "Try coming back tomorrow, please".

The diminutive figure clad in black huffed at him. "Really? Figures. The reports didn't lie, it seems... You're really convinced you're funny".

He frowned. If there was something he hated to be called like, it was 'Unfunny'. "What can you know, Smurfette?" he snorted.

"The name's Mara" she replied. "I came to make an offer to you".

"Sorry, but I already accepted three proposals from the last hallucinations that came to visit me. My schedule is full for the whole week".

"This isn't a joke..." the little thing said sternly. "Wouldn't you like to be free again?".

"I'm already working on it".

"Yes, and looks like you're doing such a fine job at it...". She almost laughed cruelly.

He stared down at her, critically. "What can a mouse with makeup like you do to free me, Sweetcheeks?".

"Watch me".

With a louder, stronger Poof, she grew up to normal human size amidst a cloud of yellowish smoke. Joker raised a green eyebrow. Definitely this was a change for the better.

"I like what I see!" he chuckled, and tried to playfully ram his head into the crotch of the shapely woman standing in front of him now. She just kicked him in *his* crotch, instead. "YOW! You little-- I mean, big--" he almost choked, and gasped for air.

"Oh, don't be a crybaby" she waved a hand in front of his face. "I didn't even put any real strenght on it... Anyway, that's just a reminder for you to keep your hands quiet now that you have them free". And just by waving her hand again, the straightjacket loosened and suddenly fell from Joker's body.

"Hey! Neato!". He stood up and stretched his arms. "Much, much better, I'll admit it... So, Mera--".

"Mara".

"Whatever, Maria... I suppose you aren't here just because you're part of my always lovin' Fanclub, right?".

"They don't call you a Criminal Genius for nothing!" she noted sarcastically. "My employer wants to have a few words with you".

"Exactly which words, Marla...?" the Clown looked at her again with mild interest.

Her grin grew a bit. "I can tell you this: One of them is Apocalypse".

[OverMaster]

The zombie was scared.

Really. He--it-- literally trembled while backing away on shaky, clumsy legs, hissing hoarsely, almost slipping on the wet floor of the dark hall as he tried to get awat from the inhuman thing that had just massacred all the others. That little beast who was staring at him with icy cold blue eyes, a huge sadistic grin on her face. She advanced towards him fearlessly, aiming the impossibly large gun in her hands at him, stomping over the inanimate remains of countless other zombies splattered all over the hall as she did so.

Twirls of golden blond hair were visible coming out from under the red bonet on her head. She was not the mightiest, but certainly the most merciless Hunter in the world, *her* world, at least. Welcome to another of her job days.

"It's time to pay the piper, Mr. Stinky...!" she giggled in a perverted fashion, now stomping her way towards the zombie. "You're the last one standing, so I guess I'll have to savour you before this all ends... But it would be way better if you showed some guts first! C'mon! Be a man! Bring it on! Do your worst! Bam! Sock! Uuuuuuurrrrghhhh! Let me see that famed undead feral rage! Do you get what I'm saying to you, stupid beast?".

As if it could truly understand her, the unliving one seemed to decide to die (again) like a man (that is, at least better than his first time). With a gutural, low growl, he rushed forward to attack her...

... and had its head blown up by her as thanks.

"Jaaaaaaaaaaaaackpot!" B.B. Hood smiled with satisfaction. The Little Red Riding Hood from Hell, Scourge of Monsters all around Earth, softly blew some grayish smoke from the point of her gun as the zombie fell down, inutilizied. "Feh. Those UMBRELLA idiots... will they never learn, I wonder? And why it looks like their zombies are getting even worse with each attempt? They must be runnin' out of budget... Maybe they should try another area. I bet they could give Tupperware a very good run for their money if they wanted to".

She whipped out a cell phone from a pocket in her little red dress and spoke through it. "Yeah? Hood here. Yep, the zone is all clean. Prepare that money now, because I'm going to collect immediately. Yeah, yeah, my pleasure. I live for my job, after all!".

Then, a pause.

"I'll call you later, Eduardo..." she cut the communication as she cautiously walked to the nearest corridor. She could hear a suspicious weak zooming sound coming from there... and she didn't like it any bit.

Once there, her eyes widened. Some sort of weird vortex of light was opening in the middle of the corridor, and out of it was stepping a tall, buxom, female figure. It obviously had to be some kind of cheap Darkstalker trick.

Cool. The job had been way too easy anyway.

She jumped to face the unknown woman, aiming her guns for her massive chest. "Alright, Morrigan, or whoever the Hell you are! I don't know why are you here, but I can tell you where you are going to--".

Just a moment. That couldn't be Morrigan. Heck, she made Morrigan to look *flat* as a pancake.

The tall woman with long black hair looked down at the child and laughed, with a hideous laughter that managed to do what few others ever could-- scare B. B. Hood. "OOHHH HO HO HOH HO! You little kid! Why must you all children be so impulsive?".

Hood arched her fine eyebrows. What kinda freak was that? She wore nothing but tall black boots, spikey shoulder pads, a scandalous black leather bikini that didn't leave much to imagination, some jewelry, and a black, long cape. Be careful, she told herself. This must be a being twisted enough to give Zarock the creeps.

"Who are you, sister?" she demanded, not bothering to be polite. "Talk fast, before I get an itch on the trigger finger!".

The woman looked at her guns with a puzzled expression. "What are those things?".

"I asked you a question!!".

She humphed. "You obviously never learned any manners. You're even worse than Lina! Very well, if you want to know it so much... I'm Naga the White Serpent! The most powerful sorceress ever born! The world fears my name, kings and demons are nothing to me!". And then she laughed again with that damn laugh of hers, and her round breasts bouncing.

"Very impressive!" the Hunter snorted. "OK, I'm Baby Bonnie Hood, and I kick the buttocks of freaks in black for fun! Wanna take a number? I'm all willing!".

She looked down at her in true amazement. "YOU are Hood? The one I was instructed to look for? No way...".

The girlie looked at her with a cute but serious frown. "What do you mean?".

"Well, I was told by my latest patron to look for a Demon Hunter named Hood... He said he had a job offer for her...".

"Me, working for the same guy you work for...?" the child grumbled. "What's the catch?".

Naga shrugged. "Looks like he's searching for people who works for money for him. And he's got a lot of money, too".

"Lots of money??". Now she WAS interested.

"Indeed" Naga nodded. She passed Hood a small bag, and the kid could see it was full of gold coins weighing heavily in her small hands. Her eyes went wide like saucers. "He said this would be yours, only if you came with me to talk with him".

"Okay!" Hood nodded anxiously. She always could collect Eduardo's payment tomorrow. Or the next week. "I could be talked into doing some favors for this guy!".

[M203]

"The Ley Lines are in chaos..." The little Devil muttered under his breath as he drew his coat a little tighter around his chest. He watched as beneath him, the nuns, ministers and others serviant to the Order of Magdeline milled about, almost in a frenzy. It had been months since the last crisis threatening humainty had been averted, the Sinner known as Aion dispatched, and finally the world of humans and the world of Devils reaching some manner of accord, thanks to Pandemonium being appeased. Chrono put his ear to the warm, tiled roof basking in the morning sun as below, and listened as Ewan Remington spoke grimly.

"I am sorry to have called you all here, but things have been set in motion that may again require the efforts of the mgadeline Order. I am aware that the conflict between urselves and the Devils may be over, but I am afraid that we may need their aid yet again..."

As usual, Chrono heard as the voice of his partner, the rambunctious, and often obnoxious Rosette Christoper tore the stoic silence of the room in two.

"AGAIN!? But..."

Remington cut her off. "Rosette, I understand that Sister Kate has allowed you and Chrono some time away from your duties but this simply cannot wait!"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhkay, so what is it this time? Devils? An Apostle needs saving? What?" the fiesty nun shot back, only to find a littl hand over her mouth, and a arm around her wait, both appendages beginning to drag her backwards.

"I'm sorry about that Father Remington," Chrono smiled, embarrassed, and hissed into his partner's ear, begging her to be a little more patient.

"Thank you, Chrono." The tall, handsome minister placed a gold-trimmed tube of ivory upon the desk of the Mother Superior, all in the room letting out either a gasp of disbelief or a murmur of suspicion.

"It is," Remington cautioned, looking down at the elegant cylinder. "The final Revelation of Fatimah, the scroll which holds the secret words given to those Faithful, words which pertain to the remaining time humanity has been allowed by God."

The room was plunged into silence as Remington slowly, carefully twisted the top of the cylinder and with delicate fingers, extracted its cotents, unfurling the scroll.

None approached it, save Remington himself, who slowly, solemnly turned it around to face the assembly before him, and then nodded to Chrono, the Devil who had taken up residence in the House of God itself. The little Devil stepped cautiously forwards, and paused several feet away from the huge oak desk.

"Father Remington...I feel..."

If it were at all possible, Remington's features grew even more grim. "What is it you feel, Chrono?" He noticed the eyes of the little Devil begin to grow wide with fear, as his lips began to tremble.

"You do understand it, don't you Chrono? You do know what this means..."

Rosette came to his side, and together the pair stepped cautiously ever-forwards, until they looked almost directly downwards at the ancient Hebrew letters, a strange shape, sitting omniously in the corner of the parchment.

"This can't be..." Chrono stammered.

Remington nodded, and beckoned the pair of them into his chambers. As the door closed behind them, hrono noticed a petite little girl, her light blue hair tied into the most adorable pigtails and kept where they were with little ribbons.

Remington turned to face tha pair. "Rosette, Chrono, I would like you to meet one of my colleagues. This," he presented the adorable little creature, "This is Dokuro-Chan. As you may ave guessed, she is as I am. Except fr the fact that she is from our Covert Operations Section." It had already been a while since Remington had revealed himself to be an Angel during one of the more brutal battles against the Sinner Aion and his cohorts.

Rosette took a shallow step towards their "visitor," and then poked her repeatedly in the head. "So, what's all this about? We're suppose to be on extended leave, you know!"

Behing them, Remington took up the Scroll of Fatimah and nodded to the tiny Angel, who began to speak in a voice so soothing both Rosette and Chrono were mesmerised.

"We need you, Rosette. We will be leaving immediately."

Chrono's jaw dropped, as the young Angel took Rosette's and and began pulling her towards the door. He found the and of Father Remington uopn his shoulder, holding him back."But why!?"

Remington spun him around, and brought is face again to the scroll. "It doesn't burn your eyes, does it?"

"Wait..." Chrono whispered in disbelief. Heavenly objects never had a good effect on Sinners like him. "No, it doesn't..."

Remington sighed. "That is because the power behind this sigil is still sealed...it has been sealed for the last one thousand, eight hundred years." He spoke matter-of factly as he indicated the star-shaped brand at the bottom of the page, seemingly burned into the Nile-reed paper.

"One thousand...no...impossible!" Chrono stammered...

"You are needed elsewhere Chrono," Remington stated flatly, "Because if we are right, and the rumors about the Relief Office in Heaven shutting down are true, then we may again need the help of the Devils who aided us before."

THe Minister let out a sigh.

"Before this, we dealt with Devils. But never before have we dealt with a God..."

Before his eyes, Chrono watched as the paper surrounding the star-shaped brand began to smoke, as if it were burning. The words left his lips in a lisp of awe, but mostly it was fear.

"The God of Destruction...is coming?"

Remington's silence spoke volumes.

[OverMaster]

Somewhere in the snowy hills of Japan:

The man was surrounded by monkeys, sitting in a circle all around him. He was tall and thin, still young looking, with long dark hair and a long beard. His feet were bare, and he wore a brown robe, looking more like a vagabond than anything else. His voice had a real simian tone to it as he talked to the beasts in their own language, fluently, exchanging impressions with the group as an old friend.

They were alone in the hot springs mountain resort at those hours of the night. At least until the water in one of the nearby springs bubbled intensely, and a light vortex appeared above it. Scared, the monkeys quickly ran away, but the lanky man simply approached the water with interest.

"So, my pupil comes to visit at last" he pondered to himself. "There must be something really pressing urging her to do so".

From the vortex, a young petite girl with long black hair and blue rounded markings on her forehead and cheeks, all dressed in pink, emerged to face him. Her expression was absolutely serious.

"Master Beenuel" she did a quick, half unwilling bow at him. "Excuse me for intruding this way".

"It is somewhat disturbing to see you coming here, indeed..." he nodded. "Especially since you never have wanted to have anything to do with the lessons of your intended teacher...".

"Oh, please! We've already talked about this!" she told him. "With all due respect, you can't teach anything of any interest to me!".

Celestine, definitely this guy wasn't. What had the Oracles of Yggdrasil been thinking when they assigned him to be her future teacher? And yet, he was her last option right now. Just showed how badly messed up things were on a whole.

"Just because I am a minor deity, or because I am not fond of the machines you love so much? In any instance, if your position about it is still the same, why did you come here this night?".

She stared at his face, genuinely shocked. "They haven't told you about it??".

"Told me about what?".

"Ragnarok!".

Beenuel blinked quickly. "Ragnarok...? Surely you jest".

"I'm NOT joking!" she protested. "My Father called us back to Yggdrasil and told us about it, a couple of weeks ago! The End is near... that's why I am here".

He pondered what he had just heard silently, his eyes wide open. Finally, he spoke up slowly, "If that is true... Goes to show how badly they think about me. I never get a memo when this sort of thing happens. The God of Cheese gets more respect than me...".

"Stop thinking about your ego, will you?" the girl asked, almost scolding him. "Now, as God of Animals, this is bad news to you. All your precious beasties will be wiped off existence along with the humanoid races. So you have to help me to handle all this...".

He observed her with a critical look. "What is your interest in all of this, Young Skuld?".

"My sister".

"Which one of them?".

"Who else? Belldandy! You know her... She has been asked to handle the main basics of the Ragnarok Operation, but... she can't do it. She just can't. I've seen her... For the last days, it has been eating her alive... She couldn't bring herself to do it, so she proposed an alternative to our Father".

"And the alternative is...?".

"She'll put her own life in risk for the Universes. She's going to stage a... some sort of massive battle for the Future... and, if someone manages to beat her and the Ultimate Force, the Existence will be spared. She is going to... make herself killed, Beenuel-san... She's just going to throw herself at the mercy of the mightiest beings in the Universes... and I'm not going to stand there and let them to destroy her!" she announced, almost crying, stomping with a foot on the ground.

"And you want my help for that?".

"We have common goals. I know you don't think much of me, but we have no other choices, really. No other God in the Pantheon will help me with this, and odds are they won't help you either".

"Of course, you know you are challenging the Will of your Father...".

"No. He has approved this... Tournament, and as long as we play by its rules, we aren't going to disobey His Will".

Beenuel smiled weakly. His apprentice lacked very much in the field of Communion with Nature, but she still had a very stong determination. He nodded.

"I think I am willing to help you, then. Just tell me more about your plan".

[OverMaster]

Hong Kong:

Decades ago, Jules Chawang had been an elite Street Fighter. He had won several famed martial arts tournaments, and his name was respected in fighting circles around the world. That had been, however, far in the distant past. Now he was a spent man, old and tired, with blurry vision and a beer gut. He hadn't fought seriously in more than seven years.

However, he had not truly realized how low he had fell until that night. Beaten, literally pummeled... by the goof in the pink karate gi who has holding him by his shirt's collar now, behind that lowly bar, in the darkened alley.

His assaulter's already narrow eyes narrowed even more. "Why, Chawang? Why did you have to do it?!".

"F'r the love of God, Dan!" the old man coughed. "How could I know Sagat was going to kill him? I truly thought yer dad had a chance! Honest!".

The young man with the thin hair tied down in a long ponytail shook him a bit more, with cartoony streams of tears running down from his eyes. "You were his friend, Chawang! He trusted yoouuuuuu...! And you told him it was a good idea to challenge Sagat!".

"Bu-but that was so long ago!" he pleaded. "I'm sorry about dat, have been dat way f'r a long time! Don't hurt me, boy... Yer dad wouldn't have liked it...".

"Shut up! Now you're going to taste the full fury of Saikyo...!!".

"No! Please, don't hurt m--".

What was he doing now?

Dan was rolling in a quite ridiculous way all around him, taunting him while singing:

"You scum, treacherous bum,
foolish no-good, dirty crud!
Your no worthy of nothin', but taunts, piece of mud!
The Hibikis laught at you!
Saikyo! Saikyo! Taste the cold despise
of the strongest fighting style!
Saikyo! Saikyo!".

The old man blinked in disbelief. "What the f--".

"Hah hah!" Dan Hibiki stood up and faced him again. "Bet that truly shattered your poor soul, eh? You'll never forget the sting of the Saikyo Special Revenge Super Taunt!".

"Uhhh... sure. I'll never forget. Is that... all?" he hesitated.

"Do you want more?".

"No! No! I-- I have, um, tasted more than enough of your terrible rage, boy. But, since your going to allow me to live... I want to give you a showing of my gratitude... I'll tell you about something I just learned...".

"What?".

"There is a new World Martial Arts Championship coming. I'll bet you have quite good chances there".

"Don't tell me! But of course! Hah! Nothing will stand in the way of my style to victory!".

Jules handed him a piece of paper. "A woman gave me this... told me to give it to the greatest fighter I knew... It's an invitation. My gift for you, son".

Dan smiled, looking with mild fascination at the paper. "Very interesting...".

Jules smiled to himself, too. The boy was even dumber than his father. Surely he'd get himself killed in that jam the weird woman had told him about. The pompous arse had it coming.

"By the way, Chawang...".

"Yeah?".

Dan then gave him a good punch in the middle of the face. Granted, it wasn't too strong, since he was Dan after all, but still, it was enough to really hurt the frail old drunk.

"That's my parting gift for *you*! Thanks for everything, old weasel! WAHOOOOO!". He began to run into the night, full with enthusiasm. "I'll be the next World Champ...!!".

Jules spat a few drops of blood.

Stupid boy...

[OverMaster]

Yet another dark city.

The city was full of towers that pointed to the black sky like needles attempting to scratch the night. Its streets, narrow and shadowed by the buildings, were almost empty of any bystanders at midnight, since most people was almost too scared to get out after sunset. The criminal element ruled after the fall of the sun in the city without hope.



Now, that sounded dramatic, didn't it?



The gang was on the move, coming out of the jewelry store. Their steps were quick, echoing in the lenght of the lonely street, as the alarm siren blared behind them.

"Move it, guys!" their leader, a huge, corpulent humanoid with a... wolf's head, barked as they almost reached their motorcycles. "I don't wanna any problems this tim--".

His words were cut short by the impression of seeing the cloud of smoke appearing in front of them, between them and the vehicles.

"Aw, crap. Not him".

A voice was almost hissing, coming from inside the cloud. Threatening, in a sort of way.

"I'm the terror that flaps in the night...".

"Fill 'im with lead, boys!".

The night resounded with gunfire, but when it stopped, they saw they hadn't hit anything. Blinking, the five canine men stood up stupidly where they were, until they heard how the gas was poofing behind them now, along with the same voice.

"I'm the needle that breaks your bubble! I'm the nightmare that makes you spend your life in the psychiatrist's couch!".

"Shut up!" the leader prepared to end up with the strange tirade by turning around and aiming at the small caped figure appearing in the gas with his gun, but was stopped by some sort of smoke projectile exploding in his face.

Then the whole world went black.




A few minutes later, standing over the pile of tied, knocked out thugs, the caped feathered figure clad in purple dusted off his hands. "Look good while doing good, just like always" he muttered satisfied to himself. But something else caught his attention at that moment, making him to blink. It seemed to be some sort of intense white light, coming from the other side of the street. He looked at it, intrigued.

A very young female voice called from the light. "In this dark place, where Injustice reigns, I have come to meet the one who wields the flame of Justice! Sent by Heavens, here am I!". She was visible now: a small blonde of long hair with a light blue ribbon on her head, dressed in pure white. A human?? "Angel Trainee Flonne, at your service!".

An Angel? No way. He *had* met humans before, and he knew they... often were far from being likely to say the truth. Even when they had such radiant smiles as this child's.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, looking straight at her.

"I came for you, Mr. Mallard!" she said cheerfully, waving a little hand at him. "Why, we're going to save the Universe!".

[OverMaster]

"Apocalypse?" Joker huffed a bit, without truly looking too interested or impressed. "To be honest, I prefer 'Harmageddon'... sounds cooler, and more like a heavy metal band. But I suppose Apocalypse is also a fine way to spend a weekend. By the way, do you know which day is today? It's kinda easy to lose your notions about that sort of things in here...".

"You talk way too much" Mara snorted, and she raised a hand in front of him, touching his forehead. "Get ready".

"Get ready for what?".

Then he felt the world around himself to distort, the laws of physics and reality bending and breaking all around him, only to kick back into existence a few seconds later. He blinked, feeling slightly disoriented and weakened for a few moments.

"Whooo..." the Clown Prince coughed a bit, his legs almost trembling. "Did the Earth move for you too, Darling?".

And then, he looked around. They weren't in his Arkham cell anymore. They were in some sort of fine, well mantained office, not unlike the one you'd expect a high public officer having, although with a certain otherwordly twist, now.

"I see" he said, slowly rubbing his long chin with a hand. "Teletransportation trick. Not too different from what Luthor used to carry me to his Injustice League satellite, after all... Let me guess. You're working for him, righto, Honey?". He smiled at Mara again.

"Not quite" she shook her head. "You have no idea of how much MORE powerful my boss is". And she pointed at the small figure sitting behind the office's desk, smiling at both of them in a casual way. "There she is. Be sure of being respectful to her".

Joker blinked in surprise. "No way, Julian...".

He walked towards the dark skinned sitting little girl with long white hair, almost chuckling to himself. "Now this is funny! You know, cutie, you remind me of the time when I bombarded a kindergarten...".

"My name is Hild. Not 'cutie' " the child said to him. "Welcome to Hell".

Joker stopped right there. "Hell? Hmmmm. Doesn't look too much like Neron's place...".

"That is because this is *another* Hell. I'll explain it later" the girlie noted, in an even voice. "Now, just stay quiet and listen to what I have to say".

"Or else, what? You'll hit me with your dirty diapers?" Joker started to laugh, until he felt an intense, irresistible force pinning him, face down, against the floor. " ... Ouch. The baby's got spice!".

"Hmph" a man's voice sounded then, as Joker could hear steps coming into the office, and a tall man in dark clothes that reminded him of religious habits went in at a signal of Hild's. "I can say this lowly being is full of sins, just by looking at him. Making him into a productive member of our community shall be a challenge... but for you, Mistress, it shall be a welcome one".

"Hello to you too" Joker grunted from the floor. "Who are you, pal, the local babysitter?".

"The gentleman's name is Leopold Goenitz" Hild stated from her chair. "He will be working with Mara and you...".

She paused, and smiled down deviously at him.

"... And that's no joke".

[M203]

The air reeked of methane, and the ground released its bubbling wheezes as she treaded onwards between the red pools, once every so often stopping, looking downwards at faces that were all too familiar. The sky was red, and the atmosphere thin, and where there were pockets of oxygen, the breathable air stank of decomposition, decomposition that was all around her, in the ground, the ground of world made of crushed bodies. The crushed, soulles bodies of Gods long dead.

"Every single one of them, their residual energies indicate that they were at least equal to my Lord himself in power, some of them are even off the scale...what could have done all this..." she thought as she presed her bundled up cape closer to her nose. Then it hit her, the red skies, the red oceans, the ground, they were the remnants of a war long past. Bodies, bodies of Gods piled so high in the weightlessness of space that the sheer number of them had become a planet, with its own gravatational field, with its own atmosphere, and the oceans, they were the blood of the divine, the moons above her, the twelve silver crescents, were the vessels in which they once lived, crushed into perfect spheres by one being's will alone.

"This...this is what Urd sent me to retrieve..." Peorth turned pale, realizing that whatever she was to recruit for Heaven had, here in the Continuities beyond, evolved to such a state that it could very well end the system functions of Yggdrasil on its very own. "What in the name of Kami Sama was she thinking, extending a invitation to...to this place?"

The flash of light caught her off guard, and as the warmth surrounded her, so did the blue skies, the perfect clouds, and the sound of children wherever she turned. As her vision returned, she found herself face to face with an old man, bent over double with age, his torn rags bundled about his deshrivelled form so as to hide his face. From between the rags, his husky, cracked voice crept. "If you are looking for the being who made that world of death, you're a bit late. He has already left." The beggar pointed to the enormous hole in the ground, not five feet from where Peorth stood, and then towards the sky, where the silent juggernauts plied the skies, meandering their ways through the transluscent, almost organic buildings that seemed to rise forever towards the sky. "He caught the train."

Peorth was a bit too awe-struck to reply.

"Welcome to the City of Dreams, Daughter of Yggdrasil. I know, you can no longer sense your bretheren. That is natrual. You are beyond, what was it that he called it...ah, the Fourth Wall."

She reeled with shock, but before she could scream her disbelief, the beggar's finger found its way to her lips, silencing her.

"He literally caught the train. Only, he, uhmm, didn't really get the fact that even an octo-dimensional groundplane cannot support an inverted entropic field...he's kind of dumb that way."

A bead of sweat rolled down Peorth's cheek. "And how do you know all this?"

The snicker filled her mind, rather than her ears. "You..."

The old man gave opened his hand, and brought the space of distorted air to her face. "This is your sister's handiwork?"

"The Dimension Tide! But how...that..."

"It is nothing, she still needs to learn how to properly wield her power. Her heart is both her strength, and her greatest weakness. Now step through it, he is already in transit."

Peorth extended her hand towards the ever-shrinking anamoly, a mirage in the several dozen or so dimensions that made up the small space within the confines of the beggar's palm.

"Oh, wait. Before you meet him, tell your Lord that Seicross sends his regards. And take this to Nudoru." The beggar handed her a first aid kit that was quite comprehensive. "And tell him not to die so much, it's f*cking irritating when he keeps falling into my coffee. For that matter, he'd better not die again."

Peorth's features distorted, trying to take in everything that the beggar said.

"Your sister wanted a champion from this Continuity, and so I sent to your Continuity the one man who needed to find himself the most. However, Nudoru Kaarage cannot manifest in your form of reality without creating immense chaos. He is composed of simply too much matter on too many material planes. As he is aware, and as you now are, I have stripped him of the better part of his power. I do not want another debacle like that planet of death you landed on. In return, he will have the chance to earn a place in your Omniverse, in your Continuity. I have sent the memo, ask if your master got it. My fax has been playing up and I think it's seriously f*cked over."

The beggar pulled the rags away from his face as Peorth stepped into the anamoly, the Dimensional Tide which had fused every single reality in the one Continuity that mankind had come to know as the Fictional Universe. As she felt herself begin to fall, she saw the beggar's true face, the white mask, the sigils flowing across it, and then again, came the light.



~The space between existances~

"And you are?" the man with the spar of an enourmous nanoconstructed hull through his head asked.

Peorth could't speak, the scene before her was pure carnage; half his brains were hanging out the back of his skull with the white spar protruding a good war out of the back of his head, its entry point objiously his left eye socket. She held the nausea back as he extended his hand.

"Nudoru Karaage!"

"What! I can't hear you over this..."

The wind intensified suddenly, and her instincts took over as she willed hersef into intangibility in that crucial split second. The same split second that the skyborne train, three miles long, and its unwilling passenger-by-impalement slammed into the waters of Lake Toba, cutting like a hot knife through butter through the Earth's crust, right into the molten rock beneath, lava saturated with pockets of poisonous gasses.

"Oh My Go...what in Hell!?"

The portal opened right above her, and out tumbled her quarry, the half-masked man whose jawplate ended in round, dark goggles. His silvery-white hair mingled with her own jet-black crown as their craniums met, hald a mile above solid ground. Peorth clutched her head in pain. "YOU IMBECILE!!!!!!" She raised her hand, electricity arcing between her fingers, at the man she was tasked to recruit, the one being who might have stood alone and triumphed against the might of both the three Chousein and Yggdrasil combined, only to have him vanish before her eyes. Right into the engine of a Boeing 747...

She produced a cell phone from between her ample breasts. "Hello, Belldandy? He's here. But uhh, I think he's dead." A moment of silence passed. "No, no...he kind of died twice in the first five seconds that he was in this reality. Leave him be? Are you sure...alright."

As Peorth faded away, returning to her duties, the dark portal again opened. And spat its contents, the Killer of a civilisation of Gods, right into the path of a striking Indonesian Cobra.

Nudoru Kaarage had arrived. Now, all he had to do was to stay alive long enough to make a difference. :D

[OverMaster]

Down in the dark corridors of the UMBRELLA Labs of Wisconsin:

Naga pulled out a tiny, square device from between her huge melons, and pressed a few buttons on it while mumbling, "I just hope I remember well how to handle this... Honestly, I don't know why he couldn't just go with a simple teleporting spell, instead of this... thing".

B.B. Hood then noticed the air around them starting to shine in a strange yellow light, and could hear that annoying, loud zooming sound again. "Hey, what's this?!" she shrieked. "I swear, if this is some sort of setup against me, you'll be sorry...".

"Don't be so silly" the sorceress humphed. "I'm merely taking us with my employer". And then, they blinked out of existence, only to return to it a couple of seconds later. "Ah, here we are".

It seemed to be the eerie, sinister insides of a huge cave, barely illuminated by some diminutive red flames floating all around the ghostly figure that hovered high above the floor in the middle of the dark shrine at the end of the cave. The spectral being looked like a giant head with no body at all, but with a long, thick black beard, and burning redish eyes that looked like the eyes of either an angry saint or a devil.

"I knew it!" the killer Red Riding Hood almost spat in rage. "This is nothing but Darkstalker trickery! Who are you, Jedah's cousin or something?".

"Silence" a tall man in a weird battle outfit with tall boots and a half black, half red mask that covered all of his face (except for his cold eyes) told her sternly. He had been standing next to the shrine until he walked to meet the females. Then he talked back to the supernatural apparition as he looked down at Hood, analyzing her with his icy stare. "Don't tell me *this* is our third teammate. I thought this was supposed to be a serious assignment".

"You don't know about her potential, Deathstroke" the ghost (or whatever he was) spoke, in a voice with a recognizable English accent. "She has the deadly skills and instincts required for this mission".

"What in the world are you talking about?" the child asked, still very distrusting.

"The Heavens and Hells, the Cosmics and the Humans, all alike, they all are amassing their forces, preparing for the Final Day" the ghostly voice boomed. "The recruitment drives have started, fast and furious, all through the Universe, and anyone with any talent is being brought in by a party or another. Everyone is making a play for power... or mere survival. You are part of my soldiers in that war. My Mercenary Team".

"Now I understand even less..." Hood admitted, blinking.

"You will understand it soon enough. Suffice to say for now, I want you to eliminate the threats to the advancement of my other Teams in the battles that are about to come. You will be their support team, dispatching anything and anyone that can interfere with our plans".

"Wait, wait, wait!" the young Darkstalker Hunter shook her small hands in front of herself. "You still haven't even told me your name, and you want to push me into some sort of war for you?".

"You can call me... Moore. I will not tell more about that for the time being. If you do what I tell you to, you all will be greatly rewarded, with prizes far beyond your wildest dreams".

Naga drooled at the simple idea of that. Deathstroke the Terminator only stayed quiet and silent.

"Heh..." B.B. Hood made a twisted grin on her little cute face again. "Are you sure about that? I have pretty big dreams... But, anyway, as long as there are no doublecrosses or funny stuff like that... I could do it...".

[OverMaster]

Mini Interlude: Inside of the madman's mind.

They are simply soooooooooooooo unfunny.

It shouldn't surprise me, actually. People who thinks they are big stuff are always like that. That's the problem with them, they just don't know how to have fun.

Do they really think they'll never die? Oh, please. No matter how high and mighty and demonic they are, they'll have to croak someday. That's the thing. Nothing lasts forever. Nothing but The Joke. The Ultimate Truth of the Universe, the Fact about Everything Else being Nothing but...

... Nothing.

In the end, despite all their bravado and illusions of grandeur, they'll all vanish in the void, like the sound of laughter in the winter wind. What power will they keep then? Who will hail them, tell them how uber they are, when everything is wiped off and the theater's lights are out? Then, the only thing they'll have is how much fun did they have in their lives.

And they'll find out they didn't have any.

Too busy chasing their dreams of power and supremacy. You should listen to that little pipsqueak Hild, talking as if she's the biggest thing since the rubber chicken, acting all mysterious, giving me nothing but the basic info. Try finishing your potty training first, kiddo. And Mara's even worse. What a stuffy, full of herself gal. You'd say she thinks of herself as someone with real big power, instead of just Hild's puppet. Maybe I can't throw lightning bolts out of my hands or float like a stupid butterfly, but at least I'm the owner of my own fate. That's more than what Mara could ever say, by the looks of it so far.

Sure, I'll play along with them for the time being. But that's just because I want it so. It's not like I'm impressed by them being *the forces of Nifelheim*... or by that fanatical Goenitz goon always looking above my shoulder. Pompous cretin. From what I've heard so far, I think he was killed by some losers, and Hild took pity on his pathetic hellbound soul and made him one of her lapdogs. Or something. Whatever the case is, I, The Joker, am not going to be scared by a simple preacher of Heck with a bad haircut.

They told me we need to form a four members team for some sort of battle against Heaven and anything on the way to Heaven, too. So, that makes us Mara, Goon-enitz, old wonderful Yours Truly, and the guy Mara went off to recruit now. I get the basic rules of the contest. What still puzzles me, is, why did they choose *me* of all supervillain people in my world? True, no one can hold a candle to my sheer genius and unparalleled showmanship, but still, I'll admit I'm kinda outmatched in the raw power department. I'm not a brawler. So, why me?

I asked Hild, and she just smiled. "You'll understand it later". What kind of answer is that? Just like I said: dumb little brat from Hell. We'll see who laughs last.

I only hope we get to see Bats along the way. We simply must.

If the world is in danger, he WILL be there.

And we'll dance under the pale moonlight again.

[M203]

~The man with seven scars, the white-winged princess, the Red Destroyer and the Naru Punch~

"What the hell is he, some kinda monster!?" "Kill him, kill him!" "You two, flank him on both sides! Quickly, or we're all..." The second in command of Hellywood, the flyting fortress screamed as the smell of blood reached her nostrils, behind her the would-be ruler of Earth, the mad king Hamdo, his hands shaking uncontrollably as his eyes darted around the room, and the finally to the monitor, where a tall man clad in blue coveralls with cold, brown eyes stared back at him.

"Where is the woman? The one you kidnapped up last week?" his icy tone barely breaking as he landed swift blows onto the heads and bodies of several more of Hamdo's soldiers, seemingly without moving. The men convulsed for a moment, and then their bodies ruptured, their intestines spraying the walls in a collage of blood and gore. "I have come for her, call back your troops. There is no need for any more of them to die today..."

Terror overtook him as Hamdo fired point-blank into the screen.

No less than fifty decks below, more bodies broke apart, more heads gave up their contents and yet more bodies hit the floor as the man strode purposefully forwards, not once breaking his stride, until he reached the door at the end of the corridor. The holding place for recent "aquisitions." He felt over the door, tapped it a bit, establishing how thick it was. There was no need for undue force; as a matter of fact, he knew that the door shattering would flood the room on the other side with deadly shrapnel. He stepped back a ways, and with a small twist of his hips landed a crushing kick into the center of the barrier.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.....TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAA!!!!!!!"

The princess came to as the door to her cell shattered, and she looked up at her rescuer through hazy vision, the result of the beatings her captors were only to happy to have dished out over the past week. She had fought, bitten and clawed her way through every ecounter, strugging to make bloody sure that every man of Hamndo's who had tried to lay a hand on her flesh would think that she was too much trouble to even try raping her.

"Kenshiro..." she coughed, her voice raspy. Her last would-be assailant had thought it would be a lever thing to try choking her into unconciousess. Her belongings fell before her, the arconium-ceremi sword and the lever-action rifle. Together with assorted rounds, and the blue, short-hemmed dress that she always wore.

"Nausicaa. Get up, there are more coming, you have to leave. I do not want for any more of these misguided people to die for their king. There is a hangar three decks below where your glider is kept. I will meet you again in the town nearest here..." The tall man spoke with anger, as te strong fabric of his coveralls began to rip as the gigantic muscles of his chest grew to immense size below them. "There has been enough blood shed by his madness. It ends now."

Nausicaa scrambled through the dark corridors, using the flat of her sword to sway her way through the children without killing them. The adults she did not go easy on, sprinting from assailant to assailant, spinning with each cut to deliver a deft crack to the temple of every secod man. The flying fortress began to shake as she reached the hangar, the ancient steel beams and trusses buckling from what seemed to be irresistable pressure. The door before her fell away as the frame of Hellywood buckled, vital portions of its structure ceasing to exist above her. As she kicked the throttle all the way down, the place that she had been held captive for a hellish week seemed to explode form all around, and as she again soared into the blue younder, the explosion behind her caused her to turn back. She gasped with horror.

Hellywood was dissapearing, no, it was being consumed from the inside out by the expanding barrier. Parts of it collapsing, others collapsing into themselves. I moments, the remnants of the flying fortress crashed into the hot desert sands, aided in their descent by the few remaining safety systems. Testament to the power of the Muso Tensai, and the skill of the last person left alive who could use it. She descended, and came scraping to a halt in front of the largest section as the boys poured out of it, all of them looking up at the giant of a man who towered over them.

"Hamdo and the men who made you fight and kill are dead. The war is over, you must make your own way in this world..."

*Some time later*

"Celestine said to meet him here," Nausicaa whispered, her thoat still sore as she massaged it. "Where is.." She found a flask of water held gently in front of her.

"Drink, don't talk. You still need to rest."

She drank, wondering how a man as brutal as Kenshiro could also be as kind and understanding as anyone else she had met. He seemed to read her thought as he answered.

"This is the fate that belongs to all of us, the practitioners of Hokuto Shin Ken. Some use it to commit injustices, others use it to become kings. There can only be one Heir for every generation." Kenshiro replied. "One week ago, in this very place I thought about what life would be like if the nuclear war had never happened. Then a man came to me, calling himself Celestine."

"That was the same day I arrived here," Nausicaa said, sill rubbing her aching neck. "the day they took me to that place. I met him too, he said that I should be here if I wanted to stop the war from ever happenning, to stop the God Warriors from ever being created..."

Night came quickly, and their tiny fire, in the middle of the dying town lit the shattered buildings of their apocalyptic world, casting dancing shadows as the flames licked the black air. In this day and age, no-one save the warlords had much at all, and both Nausicaa, the princess of the Valley of the Wind and Kenshiro, the heir to Hokuto Shin Ken, the Fist of the North Star, were thankful for the little meals that the townspeople had afforded them, a sign of thanks for ridding their lands of the mad king Hamdo.

"They did not have enough for themselves, but yet..." Kenshiro's voice betrayed his sadness for a world that was dying as he held up the tiny piece of bread. A tear rolled down Nausicaa's cheek as she gazed into the tiny flask of water that a small boy had brought them, he had thanked them pofusely for saving his elder brother from Hamdo's madness.

"And they never will," the voice came from the opposite side of the fire. Both Nausicaa and Keshiro looked up, and found there a man whose exquisite robes, sharp features and stragnely-styled hair stood out beyond anything they had ever seen. The marks on his face, the smoothness of his hands, they told of his past to Nausicaa. The sadness in the man's voice spoke volumes ot Kenshiro. "Celestine." The heir of Hokuto Shin Ken nodded to the man and poured him a cup of water, which he recieved gracefully. Everything about the man held grace.

"It is beginning," he fixed his eyes on Kenshiro, and then on Nuaiscaa. "The end of everything is coming. You are the only two chosen from this world to represent Earth in the Final Conflict between Heaven and Hell. Armegeddon itself." Celestine's face was grim.

"What can we do then," Nausicaa asked him, "we're only human."

"And that is your greatest strength, Nausicaa. Only the righteous of heart may stand a chance against her. I do not wish to see her die." Celestine looked up the the stars.

"Who is going to die?" Kenshiro asked, taking a nibble from the tiny loaf of bread he held in his right hand.

"The kindest, most gentle Goddess I have ever known. She was my student once upon a time, and I was her mentor. She grew up into a beautiful young woman who treasured life so much, she was willing to give up her own for the sake of the world."

Both Nausicaa and Kenshiro looked at the man in confusion.

"Her name," Celestine began, "is Belldandy. Two months ago, her Father, my Master decreed that i was time to start anew. The ultiverse would be wiped out and then rebooted, everything in this multivers is going to be recreated. It is Heaven's way to start afresh when things have gotten out of control. She could not bear it, especially when she wa the one asked to carry out the plan for the full system reformat. She put forward an alternative plan, to give the strongest beings in God's multiverse a chance to show that they deserved to exist. What she proposed to Kami Sama himself was a tournament of epic proportions, where it would be proven one and for all that good can and does triumph over evil, and that existance is still worth saving. Gods, devils, humans and superhumans are coming together, taking sides, establishing the battle lines in this last conflict. I have been asked to select a group of four who will enter this great battle as a team." Celestine sipped from the rusted old cup. "I need you, for your are the most righteous of heart left in this forsaken timeline."

"So, if we succeed, then the war will have never happened?"

[M203]

Celestine sighed, and began again. He explained that in this particular universe, the great battle did not come to an end. Instead of reaching its definitive conclusion, the governments of the Earth had organised a task force made up of the elite within their own forces. They struck at Belldandy during her own match, and were destroyed. The sheer number of dead and dying awoke somthing terrible, and it descended to Earth from the Lunar Dungeon, and itself took on the Goddess of the Present in mortal combat, for the sake of the world it wanted to protect. The battle between them was so intense that all of mankind that everyone except those in the know thought it to be a nuclear war. It was not. It was a clash of infinites.

"So we have a chance now, a way to retur everything to normal?" Nausicaa couldn't believe it.

"This is normal," Celestine explained, "what the two of you have is a chance to change this normality to somthing better. Should you choose to take part in this greatest battle, and should either of you emerge victorious, then you will be granted a wish. Any wish. And the wish you make will come true. However, it is also very likely that both of you will not make it, and that you will lose your lives in the prelimanary rounds."

Nausicaa and Kenhsiro fixed their eyes on Celestine. It was Kenshiro who spoke first. "If there is even the smallest chance that all the lives lost will be saved at the cost of my own, then so be it. I have asked myself many times before if there could ever be such a trade, I have seen too much pain and suffering visited upon man by other men. I accept your offer." The princess nodded. "My people are dying because of the Toxic Jungle at the other side of this world. If I can save them, and give them a better life, I'm willing to sacrifice everything I have to do it, even my own life."

Celestine smiled. "You're so much like her. Very well then, let us go." With a gesture, a sphere evneloped the trio as another two joined them. "These will be our team-mates for the tournament. May I present Naru narusegawa, and the man with her is called Raven."

The pair stood before Nausicaa and Kenshiro, and introduced themselves. Naru was bubbly and friendly, but Raven was her complete opposite, cold and foreboding. "I've had enough of fighting," he explained as the big red machine descended slowly behind him, a low and sinister growl echoing from deep within the Geno Breaker. "I've killed so many people, all in the name of what exactly? A madman? A cause? Nothing. Let me tell you this, that wish blongs to me, and if anyone or anything gets in my way..."

"Enough!" Celetine spoke with authority. "Save your anger for the battlefield, Raven. Your entire planet is counting on you. Do not deny your own heart."

Raven spat onto the nonexistant ground in protest. "At the very least I want that wife of mine to stop nagging me every three munites."

Naru and Nausicaa giggled, and Celestine smiled his approval. "Then I bid you welcome, to the battle that will decide the fate of existance!"

[OverMaster]

Nifelheim:

"Everyone's gonna die, gonna die, gonna die" Joker sang cheerfully as he walked through the hall right outside of Hild's office, time and time again, his arms open, like a child playing to fly. "Everyone's gonna die, and boy I'm so happyyyyy...".

Inside of the closed office, Goenitz snorted very slightly. "I still don't understand it, Mistress. Why him?".

"He has his uses, you can be sure of that" she told him, back into her voluptuous, six feet tall adult form in the skintight dress, smiling quietly to herself as she stayed sitting behind her desk. "I know he can look like nothing but an annoying burden right now, but he has a link to something I desire. And I'm not willing to let THAT go".

"But he is so... pathetic. No powers. No view of the future. No rationality. The man is nothing but madness, and chaos".

"Precisely..." Hild almost chuckled, delighted at the idea. "Chaos...".

"Excuse me, please?".

"Oh, I won't spoil the surprise for you. Just be patient and take care of him during the tournament. Don't let anything to happen to him until the finals".

"If that is your wish, consider it done". He bowed formally to her. "However, if you don't mind about it, might I ask why did you show yourself to him in your... more youthful form?".

"I wanted him to take me lightly, that's all. Play a bit of mind games with his fractured mind. Let him to think of me that way; so he'll be for a small surprise or two later on".

"Hmmm".

"You can leave now, Goenitz".

"As you say, Mistress".

[OverMaster]

Tokyo:

She was walking back to her home, her shoulders slightly down, her normally lively steps slower than usual. The average looking (but still cute) schoolgirl in the sailor-type uniform walked alone through the afternoon, depressed as she couldn't stop thinking about him.

She hadn't seen Ryu in such a long time...

In moments like those, she really wondered if she meant anything at all for him. She knew his journeys of training were hard, rigurous and long, but surely it wouldn't kill him to stop by every once in a while in Tokyo and talk to her. Just for a short while.

Stupid girl, she told herself. He barely knows you, after all. And of course, he doesn't know how do you really feel about him. The heights of your admiration.

"And even if he knew" that annoying, tiny voice inside of her was saying again, "odds are he wouldn't care about it anyway".

Then she heard another voice, but this time, she really could hear it, coming from behind her. It made her to stop right on her tracks.

"Sakura!".

She spun around; she knew that voice very well. And there he was, smiling down at her in that arrogant, slightly goofy way of his. The man in the pink gi.

"Dan!" she said, surprised. "When did you come back to Tokyo?".

"Ahh, just yesterday". He crossed his arms and chuckled. "I was in Hong Kong, you know... winning throphies, recruiting dozens of students for my school... the usual stuff".

"Yeah, yeah, sure...". She nodded weakly. Who did he think he was fooling? Surely he had just been receiving poundings again. "Then what brought you here?".

"I have an offer for you".

Now that was unexpected. "An offer? What are you talking about?".

He showed her some sort of... invitation? "I just got this. It's my ticket for a new massive World Tournament. Something like that 'King of Fighters' event... but this time, obviously it at least has some class, since they invited ME...".

"Man". She blinked. "I think I've heard something about that. I thought it was just a rumor, though... And you want me to join forces with you for it?" she guessed.

"Hah! My student is as bright as her sensei!" Dan beamed, nodding with enthusiasm. "I was required to show up with a team of four... well, that's what the invitation says... so I immediately thought of you. Whaddya say?".

Sakura's already big eyes widened hugely, and her heartbeat quickened. If it meant fights galore, surely Ryu would be there.

She would be able to see him again.

"Okay!" she almost jumped, excited. "Count me in, Dan! I'll give it my best!".

[Saint_007]

So, this is a fanfic for the characters listed in the Omniversal fighting game, or is the venue open for other characters? Even those from YvtW threads? Apparently, Benueel is here too.

[OverMaster]

So, this is a fanfic for the characters listed in the Omniversal fighting game, or is the venue open for other characters? Even those from YvtW threads? Apparently, Benueel is here too.

Actually, he was in the Omniversal Fighting Game thread, too. But yeah, pretty much any character from anywhere could be fair play here.

[OverMaster]

The old manor was quiet as a mauseloum that morning, as it had been for the last weeks. She liked it that way better nowadays.

Sitting in an old red couch, a shadow of the woman she once was, the young, fair skinned female with long black hair, all clad in a long white robe, stayed staring at the huge portrait hanging from the wall in front of her. In the image, the inanimated eyes of her sister looked back at her.

It had been that exact same way for hours since she was awakened. She had not said a single word, neither wanted to eat anything. She just wished to stay there, thinking, and staring, fully knowing she wouldn't find an aswer, anyway.

The butler's voice drew her back to reality. "Madame, excuse me for intruding like this" he said from the room's door, his voice dry and formal, "But three ladies want to talk with you know. They say it is because of an urgent matter".

"Tell them I'm not in conditions to meet anyone today" she answered, still not moving. "As a matter of fact, tell them I won't be available for the whole week".

He seemed to hesitate. "Yes, Madame, but... Honestly, I doubt they would take that for an acceptable answer. They... seemed quite determinate to talk with you... And one of them... well, one of them has... something... around her that... worries me, to say the least".

She finally looked back at him. "Exactly what do you mean?".

Then she saw her for the first time ever. She was stepping next to him and into the room. An old-style, traditional Japanese priestess, with pale skin and distant, cold eyes, in the clothing style of an age long gone. There seemed to be something eerie, supernatural around her, like an aura. The current owner of the manor could have said that even if she had not seen the two ghostly creatures floating around the newcomer.

"Chizuru Yata Kagura" the unknown woman said, with an unemotional tone of voice. "We simply have to talk, right now".

Behind her, other two women stood. One of them had European features in her face, a purplish hairstyle that made Kagura think it made Benimaru Nikaido's look normal by comparison, and also a peculiar liking for clothes styling, by the looks of what she was wearing. The other dressed in a much more conventional way, with long skirt and gray blouse, and had long hair in a tone between the stark black and the dark green.

"Forgive us for interrupting your well deserved rest, please" this latter woman made a reverent bow at Chizuru. "But this just can't wait for long. My name is Setsuna Meioh, and these ladies are Miss Rose" she signaled towards the one standing next to her, gently, "and Miss Kikyo" she added, doing the same with the priestess. "I'm afraid we may need your services, Kagura-sama".

"Why for?" Chizuru sighed deeply. "I'm not in any shape to help anyone".

"We know" Rose replied, softly. "We have heard about your unfortuante encounter with Ash Crimson".

Chizuru's eyes narrowed at the mention of that name. "How do you know about that?".

"We have our ways, Kagura-sama" Setsuna assured her, very seriously. "Just like you have yours. You are still a very resourceful woman, and we have a need of you. The world's greatest living authority on the study of the Orochi...".

Now, Chizuru's eyes widened in shock. "The Orochi? You mean you are--".

"He is coming again, Kagura-sama" Setsuna nodded solemnly. Then she handed her an invitation.

"The 'King of Fighters'?" she asked, examining the piece of paper. "But it wasn't supposed to start at this time of the year...".

"Not the King of Fighters. Something much, much bigger. And much more dangerous" Rose said.

"The end of the world" Kikyo added, still apparently emotionless.

"It can't be..." Kagura's voice was a gasp. "You want me for your... team? But I can't... I lost...".

"Yes, Mr. Crimson took it from you. Your power" Rose said. "That's why you haven't been able to feel it coming. But we did. I saw it... in my tarot cards... The coming of a power that makes the might of my nemesis, Bison of Shadaloo, to look insignificant".

"Bison of Shadaloo?". Chizuru had heard the stories about that man.

"I also felt them... the rips in the fabric of time and space... Only small ripplings in the universal continuum for now, but they will grow and grow until all Hell breaks loose. And the God of Destruction will be in the middle of all of it" Setsuna continued. "I have friends that are working on their side to prevent it from happening, but we need an expert on the Orochi matter. That is where you come in, Kagura-sama".

"And about your missing powers..." the priestess took a tiny, shining slice of crystal from inside one of her long sleeves. "This may help you to regain some semblance of them. Normally, I would never do this, but these are desperate times demanding for desperate actions". She gave it to Chizuru, who could feel the power flowing out of it into her hands.

"This can't be... I always thought it was nothing but a legend... The Shikon no Tama ...".

Rose spoke then again. "Use it wisely, Kagura-sama. It's a very dangerous thing. Then again..." she paused, and sighed, "it's also the least of the dangers we shall be taking on from now on".

[OverMaster]

OT: Kinda been busy lately. Maybe I'll be able to update this Monday. Coming next: The last member of Mara's team!

Edit: Ahh, what the heck. Just a quickie bonus DVD-like extra for now...Never say I didn't give you anythin'.






MUGEN UNIVERSE OMAKE PART 1!

Interviewer (off screen, his face not seen): "So, what did move you to take parts in this story?".

B.B. Hood: "... You kiddin', right? I haven't had a paid gig on a videogame since Capcom vs. SNK for the Neo Geo Pocket. And I have bills to pay! It has been horrible, I tell you! This is the first fic I've been able to star in in two years, as well! Those stupid fanwriters just keep on trucking Morrigan lemon stuff!". *Bawls her eyes out*

Skuld pats her on a shoulder: "There, there, take it easy, Bulleta-chan...".

Joker: "Didn't they give you anything for the PSP Darkstalkers remake?".

B.B. Hood (still crying): "They said they didn't have to pay me anything for a mere remake of a game I had already acted for...! Those heartless bastards...!".

Bizarro: "Me hate fighting games! Me no like fights! Me like strategy games! Nobunaga's Ambition am bad!".

Naru: "... Whatever. Anyway, I had to pay the costs of Keitarou's new medical treatment. And I didn't have many options since Akamatsu-san devoted himself to Negima and only to Negima...".

Amelia: "You shouldn't have hit so hard, then...".

Naru: "How could I know I would hurt him that time? He's supposed to be near invulnerable!".

Amelia: "Yes, but I still think you should have stopped after you grabbed the crowbar...".

Naru: "Hey, he was being a disgusting pervert!".

Deadpool: "Look, you were both in your honeymoon. Weren't you expecting him to ask for anything like THAT? If so, then I have some swampland in Genosha I can sell you...".

Naru: "But how on Earth did he expect me to make THAT with my MOUTH?!".

Interviewer: "Might we... go back to the topic, please?".

Joker: "Sure. I'm just a little publicity whore. That's why I jumped in, for my fame! And my fun! Oh yeah, and my public. Look for my upcoming roles in Infinite Crisis and Batman Continues, kids!". *Waves to the camera*

Laharl huffs: "Prima donna...".

Goku: "I wanted to take on new rivals! I just love having a good fight!".

Akuma: "I cannot deny there is an appeal to trying to find worthy opponents, even if you have to pass through tons of worthless pond scum for one".

Deadpool: "Yeah, we love you too, Demon Dude".

Urd (hiccuping, to the interviewer): "Hey, kid... Before I answer, can you bring me 'nother beer, please...?".

Rio Kinezono: "Just for the money. Believe me, I wouldn't dare to mix with this people if there weren't money into play. By the way, this interview also will count as a bonus payment for me, right?".

Interviewer: "Uh, I don't think so".

Rio, Lina, Vampire Nabiki, Reiko Mikami, Uncle Scrooge (all at once): "Ah, crap".

TO BE CONTINUED.

[M203]

Bits and pieces, here and there! :D

"This way, Mr. Morningstar!" The pretty little thing beamed as she ran ahead of the tall, well-built blond man in his immaculately kept tuxedo, his steps purposeful and measured as opposed to her own playful skips. He had become curious of the child over the course of the last few hours, the time in which he had been summoned back to Heaven, to answer again to his Father who he had come to loathe.

"Be careful not to fall, Sassami!" he spoke camly to her; he knew all too well that others around him responded the best to words that did not threaten them, but instead seemed to show concern. He had time and time again used these simple methods to gain the advantages that he desired over almost everyone and everything that he had come across, but this child, she was different. She was an Avatar, one of the chosen few who could channel the power of Gods, or in her particular case, a Goddess, the Chousein called Tsunami. And in time, it would be Tsunami that Sassami would become."Are we here?" He smiled down at her, as they stopped before the intricately decorated door. Lucifer had known it well; this was the only door in his Heaven that was to have never been opened until the days of Ragnarok came.

"So it is time," he muttered, "my Father has decreed this I trust?"

Sassami only nodded; Lucifer's words had brought the gravity of the situation back to her. Being taken from the Masaki Shrine by none other than Tsunami herself and then being thrust into the care of the Goddess of War called Rind was a harsh blow, but being told that the most powerful beings in the multiverses were being summoed to do battle for their respective worlds, that was, to her, even worse.

The door creaked open, Sassami ran ahead into the big, plush chair before the screen at the other end of the room. Lucifer approached with care; this was the office of a Chousein, another of the beings whom he had been told, was tasked with the orchestration of Armeggedon itself. He shortened his steps as the blue-haired woman appeared beside her Avatar.

"And you are Tsunami." He casually spoke, moderating his tone so as to appear unimpressed. The Goddess only smiled her reply.

"And my sister? Is she well?" his tone became stern, demanding.

"She is suffering." Tsunami's expression became one of concern. "She bears a great burden in these last days. However, other matters demand your speific attention and she will have to find the strength within herself if she is to pull through all this."

"You expect a child to handle such a task?" Lucifer supressed his rage; even though he had known his sister for only a short amount of time, he did remember her kindness, and how gentle she was. He also remembered how much value she placed on life. "Would it not b better if this task was left to him?"

"But he's..." Sassami found the Goddess' hand on her shoulder.

"He is a loose cannon, such operations must be handled delicately. Summoning him would be like swatting a fly with a planetary collision. It has been decided that he will sit this one out. The operation is too big to risk with the likes of him being around." The brown-haired Chousein appeared beside her contemporary. The Goddess Tokimi. Lucifer nodded; he knew full well the being which Tsunami was speaking of. Even though he was but a planetary-level diety, his skill in the use of his power was nothing short of amazing. Similarly with his disregard for authority. "You should direct your attentions to this matter in particular," Tokimi gestured at the screen which had just formed beside the Morning Star, who began to take in the scene before him.

"Now that, is simply impossible..." Lucifer's surprise shone through his veil of control as he observed the real-time transmission from one of the many audience rooms, where beings fresh to the Omniverse were interviewed. He watched as the man with white hair, a half-face mask and a white trenchcoat walked straight into the embodiment of hid Father's wrath, the green-cloaked Spectre, and walked out the other side...



*The interview from Hell...*

"Now, just how many of you do I need to kill before you yahoo's just LEAVE ME THE F*CK ALONE!?" The half-masked man spat through his mouthpiece as the Wrath of God crumbled behind him, still twitcing. "Trans-spatial phase variance, you're now crumbling into yourself three Continuities removed. Beyond the Fourth Wall, so there's pretty much squat that can be done about it." The trenchcoat swirled as the white-haired man spun around and seemingly, physically dragged a member of The Endless into the Material Plane. Lucifer recognised her as Delerium.

"Look girl," Nudoru shook her, "Seicross told me that I could have a chance to earn a place here, so open up that door and take me to the Goddess called Peorth." The fabric of reality shifted around him, just enough to be noticible. "Alright, the rest of you jokers too! GET IN HERE!"

Death, Destiny, Destruction, Dream, Desire and Despair simply became, and were met with a well-placed roundhouse kick which slammed them all into the wall behind them. "Lords of Disark you bunch sure aren't," the half-masked man muttered, slamming a seemingly scattered fist into the bright white light which had suddenly filled the room, causing a large golden, three-faced man to fall to the floor, his form de-rezzing continually. "Judge, jury and executioner. You must Heaven's High Inquisitor. Sh*t you can do when you've been three quarters removed to a multiverse you have no jurisdiction over, isn't there?"

Ultimate Force seals began to flow over the fallen, binding them in the positions they were in. "Where. Is. Peorth?"

The door burst open as the pint-sized Angel of extremely violent deaths skipped her way into the room, and presented Heaven's latest "guest" with an envelope. "Your express mail, Sir!" Dokuro-chan smiled.

"Huh?" Nudoru opened the envelope, not noticing the tattered edges that were consistant with Al-Quaida tamperings with registered mail.

"Damn you, moron!" the letter began, "who the f*ck told you to go and beat the living sh*t out of everyone you came across? You some kinda f*cking retard!? Now quit it and quit f*cking up! Lift the goddamn seals and just listen, damn it man no wonder you keep dying so often! You are a f*cking retard!"

The letter ended with only a brand, one he knew only too well. It was the seal of Seicross, and with it came all too often things that were bad. The golden circle interlaced intricately with whists of silver began to glow, and finally, impossibly thin tendrils of silver spewed from it, and dissapeared as they enveloped everyone in the room. Dokuro-chan approached him, with her impossibly huge spiked club grating across the floor behind her.

[M203]

Nudoru Kaarage quickly read through the rest of the letter as the little Angel hefted the instrument of impending doom over her head.

"These guys are on your side, moron! If you can't f*cking see it I'll explain it to you: you just kicked the sh*t out of The Endless, the wrath of that partiular continuitiy's God, and the Living Three-Faced Joke, uhh, I mean The Living Tribunal, all of whom you will be answering to if you f*ck it up," The glowing words screamed across the page and then vanished as Nudoru read them. "Get it straight, from now on you are working for them, and not for me. Since you want to find yourself so badly, these boys will guide you on your way in exchange for a little service; they all agree that Armeggedon is coming too early, and since the Goddess of the Present has been empowered by The Big Guy himself, there's squat they can do about it for now. Which is where you come in."

Nudoru looked up for a moment. The club was already screaming towards his head. He hastily sped through the remains of the letter.

"That's right, as of now you're a f*cking TOOL! So have a nice day and go fall in one of their coffee's when you feel the need to die, because you sure as hell aren't coming back here until you're happy! ~Your roomie, Seicross."

"Oh snap..." were the only words that escaped him as Nudoru's brains splattered across the wall, and the blue-haired Angel of Really Violent Deaths began to pound the rest of him into a bloody mess.


*In the next room*

"That's just...wrong!" Lucifer tried to control his urge to vomit, indicating that Heaven's High Inquisitor, the Living tribunal was already throwing up in three directions at once because of Dokuro-Chan's onslaught. Spectre was holding back his own sick wish his cape as he desperately tried to hum away the sound of breaking bones and ripping flesh at his back, and The Endless were just stading there in awe of Dokuro-Chan's pin-point bone-breaking abilities.

"I never knew that a human body could stretch that far before it broke in half...oh...I think that half just landed in front of Dokuro-Chan again...oh...oh my..." Dream whispered to Death, who kicked a small bit of spleen back in Dokuro-Chan's general direction. "Hey, this bit was getting away!"

"Don't worry, I got it!" the petite Angel beamed as she slammed the spiked club down hard, causing shockwaves to tear through the corridor outside.

Tsunami smiled, as she indicated the corpse of Nudoru Kaarage, which was being clubbed into consistantly smaller and smaller fragments, only to momentarily regenerate in order to be met with the same abuse over and over again. "Meet your new teammate!"

The Morning Star stood aghast at the debacle before him, watching as the envelope that the Godkiller recieved suddenly puffed a white cloud of dust over his remains.

"That isn't..." Lucifer began.

"Anthrax...spores." Sassami finished.

Destruction of the Endless noticed the flowings of unknown energies slowly making their way back to the envelope. "What's this?"

"it looks like..." Dream bent over to examine the flow more closely, "it seems that this being is having the better part of his power removed from him."

Everyone in the room began to smile wickedly as the Godkiller slammed into the blood-soaked floor at their feet, tumbling out of a portal which had opened up above them. "It's payback time!"

[Saint_007]

I was in fact pretty eager to start posting and all fired to go...

Until I saw the name of Tsunami and other such bigshots. Then I had a flashback to Yeoman's Crisis attempt.

Seriously, what the hell are the lower tier supposed to do? Sit pretty and let the adults play? Ryu, Kusanagi, Spiderman and such are going to be little more than walking targets later on in the tourney. And that officially killed my appetite. I'm going to be reading the thread, but it's doubtful if I'll join.

Talk about getting bummed pretty quickly. :rolleyes:

[M203]

Bro, I think that this is a bit more than a huge slugfest, there are going to be several levels of engagement, physical, emotional and political[for me, Tsunami and the other omnipotents will fulfill a political role and not engage in combat] Where the street-tiers will engage on the physical front. Overmaster and I did not intend this to be a slaughter[only Nudoru gets slaughtered] but rather, somthing else. :evilsmile

[Saint_007]

Bro, I think that this is a bit more than a huge slugfest, there are going to be several levels of engagement, physical, emotional and political[for me, Tsunami and the other omnipotents will fulfill a political role and not engage in combat] Where the street-tiers will engage on the physical front. Overmaster and I did not intend this to be a slaughter[only Nudoru gets slaughtered] but rather, somthing else. :evilsmile
Weeeellll.... since you put it that way... I'll give it a shot and we'll see how it goes...

[OverMaster]

I was in fact pretty eager to start posting and all fired to go...

Until I saw the name of Tsunami and other such bigshots. Then I had a flashback to Yeoman's Crisis attempt.

Seriously, what the hell are the lower tier supposed to do? Sit pretty and let the adults play? Ryu, Kusanagi, Spiderman and such are going to be little more than walking targets later on in the tourney. And that officially killed my appetite. I'm going to be reading the thread, but it's doubtful if I'll join.

Talk about getting bummed pretty quickly. :rolleyes:

Hey, on my side of developments, at least:

1) A major thing will happen soon (shortly after Akira's challenge to Earth scene) that will alter power balances in a major way, thus bringing people to fairer levels of power closeness (you can kind of think of it more or less like DC's Genesis event. But hopefully not so sucky). Hint: Both Belldandy and Nabeshin have part of the blame for it.

2) This is partly inspired by the MTCFF Ultra and Racewing Productions fanfiction fighters series, that didn't take themselves too seriously, and featured characters like Rayden, the Liquidator, War Machine and friggin' Kasumi Tendo fighting on more or less equal grounds. Sure, this one's intended to have more drama than those, but still, at the end of the day, it's going to have also a big dose of black and otherwise humor. It isn't intended to be as straightforward as the Crisis were.

Another thing to ponder is the Crisis had to rely on NPCs so much because the number of posters with PCs wasn't too high, but this is thought about from the start as a showcase of mostly previously established characters.

[OverMaster]

Somewhere else:

She sat bored in a bench, waiting for her father's meeting to end as she petted the head of the sleeping GIR resting on her lap. Then she yawned softly; her father had awakened her way too early that morning. And then there was the fact he had made her to sit down there to wait, for more than one hour now, as he talked with the visitor. And, then again, of course, there also was the fact she didn't like that woman any bit.

There wasn't a single thing the small, silvery white-long haired child liked about that lady. If you could even really call her a lady. She seemed to exhude treacherousness and evil out of every pore of her skin. And her smile was so unnerving, so...

Devilish.

There wasn't really any other word to describe it well. What was he thinking, making deals with her? This just couldn't end well, not at all, the little girl thought bitterly as she stopped petting the head of her alien pet.

Still, she couldn't question his authority. Just like she couldn't do anything but obey when she heard his commanding, but even so quiet, voice calling out for her.

"Bell? Come here, please".

She walked to the dark, huge throne room of the Council's Headquarters, carrying GIR in her arms. She stopped right before the majestic throne where the tall, massive and imposing figure of her creator sat. "Yes?" she asked softly.

"The time has come, Bell" he told her, gently. "You must go now with Miss Mara to your new assignment. I'm sure you'll make me proud once again".

From the back part of the room where she stood, Mara thought of how much of a weird kind of sense of humor her boss could have at times. Recruiting a Bell for the war against Belldandy. Cute, Hild. Cute.

The girlie had turned around to look at her, with those wide and huge round clear eyes of hers. It was evident she didn't like her at all. Although the feeling was most definitely mutual.

Neither of both of them said anything, though.

"I'm sure Bell will satisfy all of your expectations" Dr. X was saying for Mara from his royal seat, a strange shade of golden light shining in his eyes. "As I told you, her raw power is that one of a true Powerpuff Girl... potential almost on the Pre Crisis Kryptonian scale... and the heart of a warrior, as well. Don't let her appearance to fool you".

"I'm never fooled" the she-demon replied dryly. "So don't worry about that".

"Just remember... if anything, and I mean anything, bad ever happens to her..." he started to warn, now with bigger, more pressing tension on his words, "... no matter who you are, you can be sure you'll have Hell to pay".

Mara frowned at him. "You REALLY don't have to use that tone with me. Don't be afraid about the girl. We'll give her back to you safe and sound... along with your share in our prize, for course".

"I hope so, for all of our sakes" the mysterious sitting figure nodded. Then he gestured to the child. "Take care of yourself, Bell dear".

They hugged warmly, as Mara looked elsewhere. Such stupid displays of sappy affection made her to feel sick.

Then, the girl walked to her, saying nothing but "I'm ready".

Mara looked down at the creature she held on her arms. "Are you going to take that thing with you?".

"Girly is my friend" Bell shot back. "I'm not going if I can't go with him!".

"Okay, okay! Sheeesh" the demon shook her head, as the three of them disappeared in a cloud of yellowish smoke. "Seriously, you're almost as bad as the buffoon...".

Once they were gone, someone else, also small and female, cautiously approached the majestic figure in the throne. She asked, in a low tone, "So, what do we do now? Surely we aren't going to stay still as all of this goes on...".

"Indeed, not" Dr. X answered. "Call on the forces, Samantha. I want you to investigate something. Bell may be our best card in this whole affair..." he paused, "... but we would be foolish if we didn't have other aces under the sleeve".

[Saint_007]

It was just another day for your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, swinging from building to building, having just finished today's quota of photographs for your ever-friendly slave-driver at the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson. Thing fighting Hulk (again), Random Ridiculous Loser Bad Guy of the Week #19827 comes crashing into New York (again), Webslinger beats Loser Bad Guy Senseless (again), but still winds up smeared all over the Bugle as "turning on his newest partner-in-crime" (noticing a pattern yet?).

But today, he was feeling realy good about himself. The bad guys seemed to have just taken a break for the week, leaving him with one good week of just kicking back and relaxing with Mary Jane, picking off minor thugs who he was pretty sure he can handle with both hands tied behind his back. Well, there's the organised crime section, but Petey was pretty sure Daredevil had that under control, what with him being the new head honcho of Hell's Kitchen and all...

And speak of the Devil (he chuckled at the pun). Blind Ol' Matt Murdoch was standing on the roof of an apartment building. Apparently waiting for someone.

Well, might as well drop in to say hi, thought Parker as he swung down.

"Hey there, Matt-" Spider-Man began as he made a ten-point landing on the roof, but the blind lawyer cut him off.

"Sorry to ruin your good mood, old friend," Matt started. "I can tell by your pulse and breathing that you're really excited about something. And given how rough your past few weeks were, you must have been looking forward to a good vacation."

"Okay, Matt, you can stop now. You're beginning to scare me."

"Funny, I haven't even started," replied Matt dryly. From the look on his face, he felt anything but humorous. He pulled out a white envelop with a red wax stamp on its back. "Some...one... dropped this at my office earlier today. He said he would have given it to you directly, but you were busy."

"What's wrong, Matt? You look really spooked when it comes to this guy."

"Well, if you had exceptional sense like mine and he only lets you know he's there when he gives you something, and that he seems to know an awful lot about us, what would you do."

"Okay, now I'm getting scared." Spidey tore open the wax seal and opened the envelope.
To Peter Parker, AKA the Amazing Spider-Man...

Congratulations! You have been chosen to participate in a grand tournament of champions across several Universes. However, a word of caution...

While you might have been a contestant in several such tournaments before, the stakes for this one are much, MUCH higher. It involves the survival of a giant mass of existance stretching across multiple dimensions and universes, namely the Multiverse. The details are currently too complex to get into, but you will learn them quickly enough as you go on.

What is of paramount importance is the fact that the fate of your world, your Universe, and that of many others, is up to you and a few others selected for this tournament. As such, you must be fully prepared in body, mind, and spirit.

You will find me waiting at the New Jersey waterfront, tomorrow night, at about 7:00 PM EST. There I will provide you with further information and necessary items. I hope you will be punctual.
"Great," Spider-Man muttered as he put aside the note. "My good mood has been officially killed."

"That bad?"

"Yeah. You know, Ragnarok times a bajillion, end of all existence across oodles of realities and universes. Fun stuff." He shot a web upwards. "Hey, Matt, I'm going to be gone a while. Mind covering up in my sections?"

"I'll manage," replied the blind man gravely. "What about Mary Jane?"

"I'll... I'll manage," Peter sighed under the mask. "After all, hey, what's the price of my happiness against the greater balance of the cosmos? I'll see you again, Matt - I hope..." With that, he leapt into the sky.

"Good luck, my friend," Daredevil replied, out of Peter's earshot.

Later that evening, Mary Jane was sitting on a couch, across from a tired Peter. She was dumbstruck.

"And you're going? This this... set-up?!"

"Yes, MJ."

"You realise this could be a trap?!"

"MJ..."

"Peter, when will you realise that you made a promise to me about quitting this super-heroism nonsense? And I made you make that promise for a *reason*?" The redhead got up angrily in her chair. "Do you know how many nights I spend each night awake, wondering if you'll ever be back? Do you know the amount of times I stay up late, afraid you'll be found in a ditch with your head split open, or even not return at all?!"

"MJ, please-"

"And now you want to go to this?! You realise how much this sounds like a trap?! God knows I might be the biggest fool around at times, but Peter..." her voice soothed to a pleading tone, "can't you see? Isn't this a trap?"

"Mary Jane... if it were a trap, then whoever sent it will make sure I'll have to go. And if it's the real thing, MJ," he looked up at her, "then *not* going would be worse."

"Please, Peter..."

"No, MJ," he spoke softly. "Please listen to what I have to say. All this time, I've been risking my life, so that nobody gets hurt. Especially not the ones I love. MJ... you said you're always worried about what would happen if I never returned home.

"What I can say is - you don't know the half of it. What I feel every time some maniac cuts loose in the city. For some reason, I know that if I don't stop him, nobody else can. People will get hurt. People will get killed. I owe it to their loved ones to save them; even if I never knew them, even if they're ungrateful.

"Because I know that sooner or later, if I don't help them, someone I know, someone I love, will be next." He got up and held the reluctant MJ in his arms. "And after Gwen, Uncle Ben, and our child, losing you would be the one thing that I couldn't bear.

"So I have to go. The thought of losing you... it's too much for me to bear..."

"Peter," MJ said sobbingly, "I love you..."

"And I love you too MJ..."

OOC: I'm using Spider-Man, and hope to make a team with Ryu, Kyo Kusanagi, and Ranma Saotome, if it's okay with you bunch.

[OverMaster]

OOC: I'm using Spider-Man, and hope to make a team with Ryu, Kyo Kusanagi, and Ranma Saotome, if it's okay with you bunch.

OOC: I have no problems at all with it.

Edit: Next from me: Akuma and Rugal!

[M203]

~The commentators from Hell, Heaven, Limbo and Beyond~

"As the Tournament will be broadcast live across every Universe with a Champion representing it," the Tribunal began its breifing, "we have decided that, since the rules will speak for themselves, that there will be a commentary panel to keep the audience apace of the stages." The face of Equity puffed up its veil in the direction of the table before them, and spoke in its turn. "Everyone gets a fan-pack with a rulebook, a big bottle of coke, some chips, and a Sensu bean in case things get out of hand." The face of Necessity then spoke. "And some fan-packs will have a Yaoi/Yuri original creator artbook too...hey, fanservice is a necessity!" "Will the two of you just be quiet? Just because we are out of a job for the moment doesn't give you the right to be a@sholes!" Just Revenge butted in, silencing the other faces of the Tribunal. "Now, as was being said, to keep the audience apace of the battles in every stage of the Tournament, there will be a panel of four commentators, and they will represent the good, the evil, the neutral, and the ignorant. As The Endless are basically embodiments of concepts with really nothing to do but have names that sound cool, they will be providing the interviews."

"HEY, F*CK YOU D!PSH!T!!!" Death screamed from her seat at the rear of the auditorium.

The men and woman in the room looked at each other, and began to murmur amongst themselves.

"Silence, please!" The Tribunal spoke. It had been a long day, since the number of them, perhaps the highest powers in existance besides the being whom they answered to had been suspended from their duties. "Here's the roll call, Lucifer, you'll be speaking on behalf of Evil, I will be speaking on behalf of neutrality, Spectre here will be commentating from the perspective of Good, and you, newcomer..." he raised a golden finger at the half-masked man who had earlier punched him in the face of Just Revenge and then displaced him from the concept of of the tangential vectors of reality, "since you're on loan, it might be best if you spoke on behalf of idiocy...uhmm...I mean, of the Beyond, as my Master has no power outside of this continuity. Yours will be the fresh perspective, as you are, obviously, clueless."

The men and woman in the room again began to murmur.

"The Endless, as they embody concepts that cannot be destroyed within this Omiverse, will be conducting the on-site interviews since some of the guests will have a penchant towards extreme voilence."

"HEY F*CK YOU, A$$HOLE!" Dream shouted from his seat, sticking is middle finger up high. It had been a while since he had been released from his binding, stuffy character role.

"Now, if you will all follow me, we will adjourn for lunch and then begin to familiarize ourselves with the entrnts who have already been recruited. Please note that only a small number have thus far accepted, and a great number are still considering their invitations." The Tribunal motioned towards a growing pile of dockets in the table at the center of the room, surrounded by plush lay-z-boys.

Again the others began to murmur.

"What in the name of The Prescence could be more pressing than the matter at hand!?" The face of Just Revenge screamed in frustration, as the others looked back at it.

"It's nothing really," Nudoru Kaarage snickered behind his mask.

"No, nothing at all," Destruction and Death replied as well, their hands over their mouths.

The tribunal sighed, and then motioned towards the antique door at the end of the room. "Please, this way. Luncheon will be Steak and potatoes..." He turned to leave, but the others again began to murmur.

"I didn't know he was into big hair..." Delerium whispered to the newcomer, the God-killer.

"That's some serious curls," Nudoru thumbed at the