Midair Stadium Locker Room: A Little Q&A

[SHM 128 III]

In the bowels of Midair Stadium, beneath the massive battleground and screaming fans, like any ordinary stadium, was a locker room. Most of the time, Brawlers came down here to prepare for an upcoming fight, or to take a quick shower after a particularly messy battle. It rarely housed any 'motivational speeches' that are so common in sports films, possibly because the fighters usually went solo.



For now, however, it was home to a slightly perturbed plumber. Mario paced back and foward, trying to figure out what was going on. First, that Laharl guy crashed the party, prematurely ending his fight with Sonic (where did that hedgehog go, anyway? All he knew was that he ran off not long after the battle without a word. Probably getting into more trouble already...). Then, this 'Mega Man' showed up, helping them send the demon overlord packing. Of course, he was appreciative of that, but... Well, he was honestly quite concerned: these two newcomers acted very similarly to the way Sonic and Snake did when they appeared. Could more people from other dimensions be entering This World now, too? While this was racking Mario's brain, he tried to push it aside for now. At the moment, he was trying to find something for Mega Man to eat.

... Do robots even need to eat? He wasn't exactly sure, but the kid looked hungry after all he just went through. Only finding half an Italian Sub in his locker, Mario figured that was better than nothing and brought it back with him. He left Mega Man with May and her Pok?mon by a bench near the entrance to the locker room. Hopefully, they didn't decide to go wandering off anywhere, like a certain hedgehog...

[Vize Viper]

And as for the Blue Bomber, he was sitting on the bench, petting his mechanical dog. Rush of course was loving it, his little stump of a tail wagging back as forth as he barked.

Rock, however, was a bit pensive. He didn't know where exactly he was, or how a Robot Master could've sent him here... but at least he still had Rush, who didn't seem too worried.

"We'll be ok, won't we, Rush? We just gotta find a way home."

"Bark-bark!" Was the only reply as the robo-dog put his paws up on the bench to lick the mechanical boy's face with a somehow slobbery tongue.

With a laugh, Rock futilely tried to hold the dog back, and only ended up tumbling off the bench, unharmed and still laughing as he hugged his canine companion.

[Mage]

Krystal was sitting on the same bench as the others, she looked at MegaMan smiling. Nothing more touching then a boy as his dog, she looked back at May wondering what she was going to do next. "So May, what are your plans?" She asked the female Pok?mon trainer.

[AnT]

(Normally a character can't be in two threads at once Except Mr Referee, but I wanted to settle something. This takes place before the forest thread)

Smirking, sheepishly, she scratched her head, which was abandoned from the red bandanna, freeing her short pony-tail. "I don't think I'll be much help with you guys. I gotta find my friend; hopefully get him to enter the tournament." Hopping off the bench, May smiled and held a hand at Krystal to shake hers. "Been awesome fighting with you guys. Sorry I didn't do much."

[Mage]

Krystal looked at her hand, and grabbed it with her own shaking in a friendly gesture. "Thats alright, you did a little more then I did. I hope you find your friend too, right now I need to find my partner."

And with that outside of the arena appeared an elite, space fighter aka: The Arwing. A familiar figure jumped out and started walking in the arena.

[AnT]

"You bet! Catcha around." with that, May energetically ran out the door, arms hanging like she was flying.

[SHM 128 III]

At this point, Mario came walking in, sub in hand. Realizing that May had just left (and Krystal was still there... I He forgot about her), he walked up to Mega Man and offered him the sandwich.

"Here, you-a hungry?" Mario asked, sitting down on the bench, "I-a had a sub in my locker. I'm not-a sure if you robots eat-a, but..."

[Vize Viper]

Rock looked up as Mario offered him the sandwich. He didn't need to eat the sandwich, but it'd be rude not to accept, right? Besides, he was feeling a little drained after that fight earlier...

With a grin, the boy sat up, and took the sandwich. "Thanks... Mario, right?" The boy started to take a bite out of the sandwich, and was interrupted by a loud whine.

The source of which was now staring up at Rock with THE most dejected expression ever conceived by dog-kind.

"... Ok boy, fine." The boy chuckled, pulling the sandwich in half, and giving half to the robo-pooch, who wolfed it down eagerly. The boy on the other hand took careful, neat bites out of the sandwich.

[Mage]

The female fox looked at the robots enjoying the sub, must have been a nice sandwich , the girl thought. "So shall we start asking Mega Man some questions?"

The pilot started walking downstairs to the locker room, where Krystal and the others were talking.

[SHM 128 III]

"Yep, it's-a Mario," the plumber replied, "don't-a worry about me, I'll just-a pick up something on the way home. I was more-a hungry for pasta, anyway."

There was a bit of a pause as he tried to think of what to say next. Krystal was right; they needed information, but he wasn't sure exactly how to question a kid. Heck, Mario wasn't very good at questioning anyone.

"So... Mega Man... That's-a your name, right?" Mario finally began; he thought he heard the kid call himself 'Rock' a few times and wanted to make sure, "How did you get-a here? We... Don't-a get many visitors to This-a World. Only two, in fact, and one of them was-a Sonic, that-a blue hedgehog I was supposed to be fighting."

[Vize Viper]

Rock considered how to answer Mario's first question, looking at Rush before his eyes turned back to the plumber.

"Well, my name's Rock, but most people back home called me Mega Man, at least when I'm in my armor. And as for your second question... I'm not sure." The boy shrugged helplessly, and gave a nervous chuckle.

"I mean, the last thing I remember is fighting Dr. Wily's latest Robot Master, Warp Man... then I'm landing in a bunch of Stadium seats."

[Mage]

Krystal looked at Mega Man confused. "Dr. Wily, who is that?"

"Is he related to Tabuu?" A familiar voice called out.


Krystal stood up looking around. "Ah, that voice..."

The approaching figure finally came inside...

Yes it was the ace pilot and leader of Star Fox, Fox McCloud himself. With a smile he waved at the three. "Krystal glad I found you, long time no see Mario."

The female fox immediately jumped up, and ran to Fox embracing him with a hug. "I was wondering where you were, Fox..."

If you look closely, you could see some faint, red blush marks under Fox's fur. "Ah, Y. yeah I'm here, don't worry Krystal." He patted on hand on her back.

[Vize Viper]

Rock's attention turned to Krystal as she asked her question, and he just... stared for a minute.

"You've never heard of... oh, right... different world..." The boy then heard the second fox's question, who, he assumed from Krystal's addressing him, was actually NAMED Fox. ... Huh.

"Well, he's a roboticist from... my world, who uses his robots for evil, causing fear and terror as he tries to conquer the world. And it's my job to stop him... For the sake of eventual, everlasting peace... Even if it takes a new version of me to get it." The boy then shook his head in reponse to Fox's question.

"And no, I don't think he's connected to Tabuu. I don't even know who that IS."

[SHM 128 III]

Mario waved at Fox as he entered the room.

"Hello, Fox. Long time no-a see."

Mario then turned to listen to Rock as he explained who Dr. Willy was. From what he gathered, this guy sounded almost exactly like that Dr. Eggman character Sonic was always going on about... Minus the "eternal everlasting peace" bit.

The fact that Rock didn't know anything about Tabuu only served to prove Mario's suspicions. Virtually everyone in This World knew about Tabuu. If Rock didn't know about him, then he couldn't have been from This World, unless he was created within the last year, which seemed highly doubtful.

"Tabuu was... Well, we don't-a really know who or-a what he was, but he-a sought to bring This-a World into his own reality, where he could-a control it with an iron fist."

Mario paused after saying that. Considering that the rightful rulers of This World were fists, that might have not been the best analogy to use. Oh well, whatever worked.

"Anyway, he used-a portals linking different dimensions in order to acomplish this-a task. In the process, that was what-a brought Sonic and Solid Snake, another visitor you haven't met-a yet, to This-a World. However, when we defeated him, we thought-a the portals were destroyed..."

He looked at Rock straight in the eye.

"I-a guess you proved that-a wrong."

[Mage]

The ace pilot took ahold of himself for a minute to let Krystal go and come up to the two. "Indeed it has Mario, I heard that you were all under attack by someone."

Krystal was alittle surprised when Fox let her go, but she realized they had work to do, so she shook it off and stood beside Fox. "Thats right, a demon boy in fact. He along with this boy aren't from this world."

Fox nodded. "Ah I see, we recently had some strange radar readings from the Great Fox about dimensional interruptions."