SPOOF CHASE PRODUCTIONS (http://spoof.maison-otaku.net/) PRESENTS... Magical Troubleshooting Crossover Fighting Tournament BETA : Round 4 A Street Fighter / Darkstalkers / Toshinden / Ranma 1/2 Samurai Showdown / Groove On Fight / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles / And Many Others Reader-Voting Tournament Fanfic by Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne (All characters copyright other people, obviously. If I ever even considered claiming that these were my own characters I'd probably be thrown into a small cell where I'd be forced to eat my own super combos to live.) -=- AUTHOR'S NOTE : Okay, we're restructuring slightly in response to reader ideas of how to handle the tournament. This file has R4 and R4's matchups... but in voting, you're gonna vote for R4 AND FINAL ROUND. That way we don't need three more posts, only one. So, at the end of the voting period, you'll get R4Results, and the Final Round and Results... and the BIG FINALE! WOOHOOO!!! In other words, you can stop sending in the little form I tagged after R3R. Sorry!!... I know I said a week, but response has been overwhelming in one day alone, and there doesn't seem to be any major problems... I promise to be more organized for the Next Big Thing. And for the lucky few who amused me sufficiently, I sent them a preview of my idea for the Next Big Thing. Beg them for it, maybe they'll tell you. Otherwise, have to wait... >:) ATTENTION FAN ARTISTS!! Wanna be relatively popular? I seek creatively whacked out individuals to illustrate the tournament. Select your favorite fight so far, draw a scene from it, and send it to twoflowr@glue.umd.edu in MIMEd attachment. All submitted entries will go on the webpage. You don't make a single buck off this, and I'll probably get diddley / squat amount of pictures, but it would kick so much ass to see a few fun pics... (especially considering what I have in mind for the Final Round...) -=- Somewhere... Somewhere in the core of evil itself, stood a figure. It pulsed. It breathed. It lived. It waited. It waited for fresh meat, for new victims. When found, it would test its skills, and it would feed the power of those who came to it. And perhaps it would obtain a pronoun somewhere along the way. Until then, it waited. * The Medical Building at block LV426 in Heaven had seen better days. Had seen better centuries, frankly. From the outside, it looked like a giant blackhead. Evil energy swarmed over the building, formed a hard crust, and turned what was once a hospital into a demented parody of Space Mountain. Small monsters roamed its surface, held at bay by angels with big fiery arrows, but so far anybody sent in had run out screaming. The situation was not optimal. "I warned 'em," Nicotine shrugged. "I warned the boy. Don't unleash evil powers with the ward unless you've got a spiritual container around to put 'em in. Otherwise they'll, well, you know..." "Grow," Skuld nodded, looking at the hideous blob of black slime that had formed around Medical. "Icky." "Can't you just blast it?" God asked. "We could," Nicotine said. "Just detonate the whole building... kablooey. We're a bit lucky, all that evil energy's solidified in the open air, and become a living thing instead of freefloating psychic pus. No containing needed, just a good hearty whack to the metaphysical testicles." "We can't do that. There's another problem," Skuld said, holding up a construction paper letter written with crayons. "Everybody got out safely, but we were sent this note... 'If you're looking for the little spirit girl, I've hidden her somewhere in the Medical Building. Send your strongest warrior or else! Signed, an Anonymous Person, OOHOHOOHHOOHOHOHOHOOO.'" "Devilot can be such a pest," God muttered, tapping His chin. "Okay. How about this. Invade the complex, rescue Anita, set a bomb to nuke the place and then get on with the tournament. Sound like a plan?" "Whoa! I'm not going in there!" Skuld exclaimed. "It's disgusting! And full of evil monsters and ectoplasm and things!" "Relax, Skuld-chan. I've got a strike team in mind to back you up in there. Go grab the following people from the tournament..." * B.B. Hood, in her new red cape she had ordered by Kawaii Mercs Unlimited, considered what she was being asked. "Okay. The Medical Building is one big hive of monsters and darkstalkers," she summarized. "The odds are slim that anyone will survive and the numbers are overwhelming and we'll have to fight tooth and nail to make it out with the hostage, assuming that the place doesn't up and explode when we set the bomb. Right?" "Uh-huh," Skuld nodded. "I'm IN! Sounds fun!" B.B. cheered, bouncing on her chair. * "I don't believe this," Sakura laughed. "I just escaped from that place before it sealed off, not to mention having just escaped from being an evil whacko for the rest of my life, and you want me to go BACK in there?" "Sakura's right. Why should we?" David asked. "We just went through hell to get that crud out of her system. No need to expose her again." "Ano... we don't want Sakura," Skuld said, checking her list. "He only asked for David." David paused. "Eh?" "No way," Sakura said, shaking her head. "I know what that place is like. I WAS that place. He's not going." "What?" David asked. "I can handle it." "No, you can't!" "I can too!" "Why are you being stubborn?" Sakura asked. "I could ask the same thing!" David replied. "Fine, then! I'll go with you!" Sakura growled. "Someone's got to cover your back. You saved me, now I save you. Fair's fair." David sighed. "Alright, alright. Just stay out of danger, okay? And Skuld... we're going there to destroy it. Not to study. Not to bring back. Right?" "That's the plan, hai." "We're in." * Kiyone looked at the contract she had been handed with reverence and awe. She held it like the Turin Shroud. "If I join this team..." she repeated, because she wasn't certain if she was dreaming or not, "You'll... DEMOTE Mihoshi back to mortal status so she won't be an immortal monkey on my back?" "That's the deal," Skuld nodded. "Pen! PEN!!!! Where's a pen!?!" Kiyone screamed, looking around. A small, funny looking penguin wandered in, lost. Misato quickly gathered him up, apologized, and wandered off to get a beer. * "Behold!" God said, exactly two hours later. "I call it... Magical Troubleshooting Crossover Scramble Team Beta!" "Stupid name," David grumbled. "Weapons expert in chainsaws and firearms, David," the Lord said. "He'll be left flank. Sakura, you're right flank. Skuld is central command, she'll be in the Banpei-kun APC directing your efforts. Kiyone and B.B., you're front and rear guards respectively. Move as a unit, kill anything that isn't Anita, and good luck. MOVE OUT, MOVE OUT!" The group shrugged, and nonchalantly wandered to the large smiling armored personnel carrier. "This is probably a bad idea," Sakura bemoaned. "Who cares? I'll be free of Angel Mihoshi!" Kiyone giggled insanely, right eye twitching for a change. "I'd climb Mt. Fuji for that!" "I just like to kill things," B.B. Hood giggled, locking and loading her shiny new uzis, which Mom had sent from home. ('Dear, take better care of your guns. I threw in some cookies as well and a new grenade. Remember to feed Sparky. Love, Mrs. Croft.') "Hey, wait a minute..." Sakura said, confused. "David, you've got a gun. Kiyone has a gun. Hood's got a gun. Why don't I have a gun?! I want a gun too!" "Do you know how to use one?" David asked. "Well... no." "How about a rocket launcher? You could borrow mine!" Hood suggested. "Never used one of those, either." "Grenades?" "Naw." "So no firearms, no projectile weapons, and no throwing weapons?" B.B. asked. "What's left?" So they gave Sakura a pointed stick. "Oh. Joy," she muttered. The Banpei APC rolled towards the hulking spectre of H.R. Geigerian novelty, and crashed through the doors. * Inside the complex, nightmares lurked. They weren't immediately visible, but make no mistake, they were there. The crew of four armed commandos, even if one was toting a sharp stick and looking quite peeved, skulked quietly through the corridors. "This place is disgusting," Hood snorted. "What's with the vaguely phallic grey-black slimey growths on the walls?" "I don't like all the hissing noises," David said. "Or the unseen shadowy figures trailing us." "What?" "The unseen shadowy--" "Where?!" Hood asked. "Aaaaa! Monsters! Dozens of them!" "Don't be ridiculous," Sakura sniffed. "If there was a thundering herd of crazy golems headed our way, my motion tracker here would be beeping wildly." The motion tracker began beeping wildly, its screen covered with a zillion little blue blobs. The danger and proximity readout was currently displaying common prayers for safety in six languages for your convenience during times of certain doom. The first wave of alienlike beasts charged, from all sides. "LET'S ROOOOCK!!!" B.B. wailed, lighting up the dim corridor with uzi muzzle flashes. Kiyone followed in suit, tuning her blaster to 'Salad Shooter' and spraying the moving wall of grey weirdness with rapid fire energy pulses. David had his pistol out, shooting any that were far enough away, and slaughtering any that got close with the chainsaw; yellowish acidic Minute Maid orange juice spurting everywhere. Sakura, meanwhile, got pinned against the wall, jabbing at the things with her stick. They seemed amused by this. "Eh, screw this," she shrugged. "SHINKUUU HADOKEN!!" A wild blue ball of fire ripped through dozens of monsters in a cataclysmic inferno. Gross after gross of the icky things went up in smoke... along with most of her team. The threat was over, and the others just sort of took a nice lie down to rest and twitch. "Errr... sorry," she apologized, scratching her head. "Guess I got carried away..." * Meanwhile, in a much safer location, two figures and two goons huddled around a small monitor. "I don't like this," M.A.D. said. "We just finished retooling him. That is a dangerous location for him to be in." "Now now, we want our little toy to be as powerful as possible, ne? Ne? Ne?" Devilot asked, poking M.A.D. a few times. "For that, he needs training. For that, he needs a training ground. And how lucky we were for this mountain of evil to show up, AND to have that brat as bait to draw them in! You see? Only the strong will reach him past the nightmares, giving him prime hunting and cannon fodder! It is SO choice! OOOHHOHOOOOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOHHOOHOO!!!!!!!" M.A.D. unplugged his ears. "Well, if he breaks down, I suppose we always have the Final Upgrade available..." * The Magical Troubleshooting Crossover Scramble Team Beta sat around inside a fairly safe part of the building, grumbling and holding ice packs against their various burns and cuts. "It was an accident," Sakura mumbled. "I said I'm sorry..." "Whatever," David sighed. "Look, we need to get a move on. Do we have any clue where Anita is? Any at all?" "Skuld drew me a map," Kiyone said, unfolding it. "She said the most likely place would be in the basement, next to the Volatile Chemical Storage Room and the Nuclear Generator / Toxic Waste Disposal Unit and Dynamite Stocks." "Sounds fun!" B.B. giggled with glee. "Come on, everybody! Cheer up, we're gonna blow everything to hell! There's gonna be smoke, and explosions, and FIRE! YEAH, FIRE! FIRE, FIRE, FIRE-- Ow. That stick hurts, Sakura-chan." "We'll be fine," David insisted. "When we set the bomb, Skuld's supposed to hear our signal and come pick us up." * Skuld was meanwhile busy sitting in the APC monitoring the team for safety and health via the careful process of ignoring the monitors in favor of a TV playing Sailor Moon. "Hee heee... Usagi's so funny," she giggled, eating some ice cream out of a Dixie Cup. * The battle raged on for a whole six minutes. B.B. came up with the clever strategy which the team employed, which she called 'Run Really Fast To The Basement And Shoot Anything You See Even If It Is Not Moving'. This amazing gameplan carried them along monster-filled corridors and stairwells by the simple process of slaughtering anything in front of them and ignoring anybody coming up behind, with firm belief that Skuld would bail them out once they had Anita. "Hey, wait!" Kiyone yelled to the others, pumping six shots into a nearby two-mouthed freak. "Why the hell are we fighting our way down there and risking our necks if the APC could just bust in on its own?!" "..." David offered. "That doesn't matter at the moment!" Sakura suggested, lobbing small fireballs left and right. "Just kill anything with more than one set of teeth and run!" B.B. was really enjoying herself. "WAHOO! WHEEEE! EAT THIS, YOU MARTIAN BASTARD!!" she wailed, lobbing grenades around like water balloons and spraying the halls with generous amounts of redhot uzi lead. "YEAH! YOU! YOU WANT S'MORE?! YOU WANT IT?! DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE--" "Yo! Hood! Chill!" David ordered. "I'm trying to follow the map... turn left! No, MY left. Up ahead!" The group skidded to a halt in front of a door bearing various signs like WARNING, DANGER, HALT, GO AWAY, IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE AT ALL FLEE IMMEDIATELY and WHAT ARE YOU, STUPID? BEAT IT and they opened those doors right up and went inside. * Inside was... quiet. "It's quiet," Sakura noticed. "TOO quiet," Hood nodded. "Why did you say that?" David groaned. "Whenever someone says it's 'too quiet' in an action movie, it suddenly gets very loud because someone's being horribly killed." "Well, excuuuuuse me for liking cliches!" The group listened, waiting for it to get loud. "It's still quiet," Sakura confirmed. "Still TOO--" "Shaddup," David ordered. "Look for a light switch. It's freakin' dark in here. Fan out." "But I thought in action movies, when the group spreads out, they get picked off one by one?" Hood smirked. The chainsaw toting boy ignored her, splitting off from the group to feel along the walls. The others followed in turn. "Anything?" "Nope." "Who asked 'anything?'" "Me, duh." "Yeah, but I can't see you." "Then find the light switch." "Hmmh." "This is tricky..." "Hey, did you just go 'hmmh'?" "No. Why?" "Well, I thought I heard that befAHRHGHGHAHAGRGHHH!!!" Pause. "Umm... David?" Pause. "Okay, David got whacked. Guys? Reform. The splitting up thing wasn't wise..." Pause. "Guys? Umm... anyone? People? Hello? I AHAHRGGHHHH!!!! MY EYES MY EYES M--ghgk..." "Kiyone? KIYONE?? Ack. SOUND OFF!" "Hood!" "Sakura!" Pause. "Crap." "Hey, Sakura, do me a favor?" "Yeah?" "Duck. I'm going to get postmodern on this thing's ass." Sakura hit the floor, and the room lit up like a cheap european discotheque; B.B. Hood had gotten out an M-60 from somewhere, and the muzzle strobed light through the room, briefly illuminating the horrid interior in minute flashes... The beast attacking them was inhuman. It bore giant silvery wings, and a single glowing red eye... a dark karate gi stained with blood, and matching wooden sandals... and... and it was about three feet tall. Then the lighting was no longer a problem, as Chibi-Cyber- Akuma opened a conduit from hell to pipe purple fire directly at B.B. Hood. The young girl was plastered against the wall, slammed an inch into solid metal, before falling to the floor in an unconscious thump. Sakura gabbled, too stunned to really do anything coherent about the single glowing eye of menace approaching her... "You, I know," Chibi-Cyber-Akuma said. "You rejected my teaching. Now... you die." "But your shoelace is untied," Sakura pointed out. The pint sized cybernetically enhanced demon looked down. Sakura launched a three part uppercut combo on him, knocking him flat. The red eye on his head went out. Not one to gloat over a victory, she located Anita hidden in a supply bin next to some volatile chemicals, planted the time bomb B.B. Hood had prepared especially, and triggered the 'Get Me The Hell Out of Here' signal for Skuld to come rescue them. * "Go Go Sailor Jupiter! Throw those oak leaves!" Skuld cheered, munching popcorn as the panic light behind her flashed in an electronic frenzy. * Time passed. The bomb she had stupidly set before signaling for a pickup was slated to atomize the building in five minutes. This wasn't looking good. Time to be clever. Sakura held the unconscious Anita up, using her glow to light up the room, and spotted a Yggdrasil Enterprises Power Loader Mecha, conveniently located in the parking space marked PLOT DEVICES ONLY. The exoskeletal suit had an equally convenient set of rigging cables on the back, which she used to lash all her downed companions onto the suit for rather awkward safekeeping. She stepped into the loader's passenger seat, keeping Anita in the harness with her, and fired the thing up. Two tons of yellow metal rumbled to life. Giant pincher hands whirrrred into place, and the loader was ready. This thing could take down any alien bastards Sakura would bump into. It was time to rock. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to move fast enough to get out of a bomb's radius in what was now four minutes, so she loaded everybody into the back of the service elevator that was nearby and had them up to the first floor in six seconds. * Skuld was surprised to look up and see Sakura tossing bodies into the personnel carrier. "Oh, hello. Are you done?" Skuld asked. "Get us," Sakura wheezed, "OUT of here." * At one minute to go, Devilot beamed into the basement, hanging her head. "Sloppy design. My bad," she said. "Well, let's get you back to the lab, boy. Loyal goons, if you will?" Her two minions picked up the crumpled form of Chibi-Cyber- Akuma, zipped him into a bag marked SPARE PARTS, and the group beamed out just in time for the complex to burn like holy fire. * A mushroom cloud arose where Medical Complex LV426 once stood, engulfing everything the zit on the face of Heaven into one tidy little nuclear sphere of armageddon. God watched the whole thing through Raybans. "Bitchin'," he grinned. "What a way to kick off the fourth round of the tournament!" The injured and the maimed collapsed, more out of surprise than pain. "We have to go fight after THAT?!!" David gagged. "Well, of course," the Lord replied. "We've got a schedule to keep." "Man, fighting to be God really sucks," B.B. Hood groaned. Somewhere amongst the charred, twisted bits of metal and dead splatters of ectoplasm was Kasumi Tendo, whistling a happy little tune and cleaning up the mess. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- THE YGGDRASIL SUCCESSIONAL FIGHTING TOURNAMENT : ROUND FOUR -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Okay, folks, this is near the end," God told the cameras. "I'm happy to say that it's been a damn entertaining fight so far, and it'll continue to be so as long as these foolish mortals beat the snot out of each other for my own amusement. However, there are rules, even though I continually bend them to satisfy my own appetite for mayhem. The rules are as follows..." 1. Bouts last for ten minutes. Any which go over this limit will be judged by megamis on hand, based on whoever had the upper hand throughout the fight. 2. There will be no draws or double knockouts. Any fights which cannot be determined in the ten minute period will go into overtime; double knockouts will wait until both fighters awaken and can continue. 3. Weapons are allowed of any kind. 4. Stepping out of the ring and into the shallow watery moat around it counts as a Ring Out, and the opponent in the ring wins. 5. All initial bouts were picked completely at random. Progressive bouts will be organized by victors of previous ones in standard pyramid fashion. 6. The winner after five rounds, the only undefeated fighter, will be the one who becomes the creator and god of all that exists. "Now, because I'm getting bored and want to start my eternal vacation soon, we're compacting the voting for Round Four and the Final Round in one. So after you vote for R4, make sure you pick who you want to win in each of the four combinations of who could make it all the way. Got it? Simple, yes? I didn't make you pathetic humans to be so idiotic as to not understand this. We're on the level. SO! Onward towards the CARNAGE! YEAH, BABY, YEAH!" MATCH 1 : KASUMI vs. MARIO/NARU Kasumi hummed the same happy tune she was whistling before, but in a different key. This key was actually more joyful and upbeat. It made the previous one look like a Nine Inch Nails song. She was feeling good. There was a bit of confusion over some large evil castle or something, but it blew up and she cleaned up the mess and now everything was tidy once more. Folks seemed very happy, except for the ones that were bleeding. Kasumi wasn't bleeding and therefore, she was happy. Mario and Naru, however, were arguing. "If we win the whole tournament, *I* wanna be god," Naru said. "You're-a too young to be god, kiddo," Mario laughed. "You wait-a while, you grow up, then you can be god maybe unless I get bored with the job..." "Meanie! I wanna be god, ME ME ME ME!!!" "Well, FINE! Then we won't-a use our combined Nario form here to beat this girl! I'll beat her on my own, and then we'll- a see who gets ta be god!" "FINE!" "Oh my, are you two having a fight?" Kasumi asked, concerned. "You should be good to each other, all the time. You're friends." "Shaddup and fight," Mario spat. "Would you like to see my pet?" Kasumi asked, taking her Skuld-chan no Tamagotchi Plus Alpha out of her apron pocket. Little Pichi happily wiggled its arms on the screen, and beeped once for food. "Yeah. Cute," Mario shrugged. Then Pichi leapt out of the screen, to become a six foot tall monster comprised entirely of little black and white dots that left craters wherever it stepped. BEEP. BEEP. BEEEEEEEEEEP, it intoned, like lead slabs falling on coffins. Mario sweatdropped. "Um, you can fight this one," he told Naru. "I'm-a gonna get some pizza." "Oh, no no, you should be god, it's okay, ne?" Naru giggled nervously. Pichi reached over with a dot matrix hand... and flicked Mario's hat off his head, putting the jaunty little cap on its own digital noggin. BEEEEP BEEP! it taunted. "...my hat," Mario gaped. "You... took... my... HAT! Naru! Merge! POLYGON BOOLEAN UNION! We're-a gonna kick this thing around a little!" "Gosh," Kasumi expressed. "That would be very mean of you, picking on poor Pichi. Pichi, please be safe!" On the sidelines, Skuld rattled a noisemaker. "Tear 'em to shreds, Pichi! Skuld Technology is NUMBER ONE!" MATCH 2 : SAKURA vs. UKYOU Things were much friendlier over at the second ring, where Ukyou, Anita and Sakura were having a nice chat. "If you want, you could come back to Nerima with me," Ukyou said. "It's a bit stressful sometimes, but more fun than wandering around with some silly Vampire Hunter." "Really?" Anita asked, smiling a little too widely as she tended to do now. "That'd be great!" Sakura laughed. "I've GOT to visit this 'Nerima' place. If it's half as weird as you've described it..." "Half? Try twice as much!" All the girls laughed, and everybody had a good time. Except that it was the moment for the fight to begin. Sakura and Ukyou took their positions in the ring, and Anita headed to the sidelines, carrying her Mary, Queen of Scotts Doll. "Okay, let's have a fair, friendly fight, alright?" Sakura suggested. "None of us are really in it for the competition, so let's just have a fun little match." "Un!" Ukyou agreed. "No feelings hurt, no anger. We'll just test our martial arts skills." "Well, I'll warn you," Sakura laughed playfully... "I'm pretty good against boys." "So?" "So I'll probably do very well against you!" Ukyou's left eye twitched. "I'm... NOT a boy!" "You're not?" Sakura asked, laughing stopping. "WOW! I didn't realize! I mean, with that flat chest and those butch clothes, I thought you were a man! Who'd have known? I was gonna ask you out on a date, but David asked first, and--" "I'm A GIRL!!" Ukyou yelled, swiping at Sakura with her spatula in a vicious arc. "Oi oi! Friendly match, remember?!" Sakura eeped, jumping out of the way. "Fine, SAILOR!" "Grr... I am NOT A SAILOR SENSHI! I don't yell stupid speeches or attack names or--" "Oh yeah? What about yelling 'Shinkuu hadoken'? And you keep flashing the crowd with those pretty red panties of yours!" "OOOOH, you..." "Come get some, Sailor Shotokan! Or do you need Tuxedo Dan to bail you out?!" "AAAAAA!!!" The girls jumped each other. "They're such good friends," Belldandy smiled. "Oh, and by popular demand, let's peek in on that date Sephiroth won in the mini-tournament..." EXHIBITION MATCH 1 : URD vs. SEPHIROTH "...there!" Urd exclaimed, digging the past of the loose change out of the couch in her heavenly apartment. "That should cover the Industrial Light and Magic bill." Sephiroth stared at the 5 metric tons of change that Urd had heaved out the window in little bags, to be picked up and delivered later. "If I wasn't an unfeeling half-Jenova breed savior and destroyer of the universe," he admitted, "That'd be really impressive." Urd dusted off her hands. "Okay, babes, time for our date. You ready?" The bishonen boy brushed his hair back. "I am ready." "Great! I got us tickets to that new romantic movie, 'As I Lay Crying'. It's supposed to be soooo dreamy and beautiful and has great costumes and sets..." "Forget it." "...what?" "I want to go to the chocobo races and place bets," Sephiroth said. "Then take you home and make sweet love down by the fire." Urd coughed. "I really think the movie would be a better pick..." "Races." "Movie." "Races!" "MOVIE!!" "Chocobo races or else." "Or else WHAT?" Urd asked, gathering a ball of holy fire in one hand. Sephiroth drew his sword. "Or else I will have to assert myself." "How about this," Urd bargained. "I kick your ass, we go to 'As I Lay Crying'. You beat me, which you won't, and we go to the Chocobo Races. Fair?" "Fair," Sephiroth nodded, and the two clashed. EXHIBITION MATCH 2 : RUMIKO TAKAHASI vs. KATSUHIRO OTOMO Meanwhile, elsewhere in heaven, two angels were busy having a quiet philosophical discussion over some green tea. One, the writer of 'Ranma 1/2', 'Maison Ikokku' and 'Urusei Yatsura'. The other developed 'Roujin Z', 'Memories', and 'Akira.' "Anime," Rumiko explained, "Is meant to be lighthearted whimsical entertainment. The stories don't really end, and repeat familiar jokes again and again, so folks know what to laugh at and can enjoy things. It's largely character driven and if you have to lower the animation quality or pad out the stories to make a hundred episodes or thirty two volumes or so, well, so be it. That makes it anime." Otomo shook his head. "Anime is an artform. It needs the artistic integrity of a complete package. One whole story, driven by emotions and concepts, with attention to detail and motion. There's little difference between a live action movie and an anime; they're both there to stimulate an emotional reaction in the audience. To do that, you need to be innovative and sincere, and achieve an artistic whole." Rumiko considered this. "I'm afraid I don't agree with you, Otomo-san. We have a difference of opinion." Otomo nodded. "Well, we'll just settle it in the most rational, mature fashion possible." "Knife fight?" "Yes, a knife fight." Both drew inch long blades, hurling the tea and the table aside, circling each other menacingly. "I swear I'm going to tear your guts out and hang you by them, you pseudo-intellectual rat bastard," Rumiko snarled. "Not before I rip you open rectum to sternum so you stop torturing Japan with your boring crap, you bitch," Otomo retorted. And both lunged at each other with murderous intent and the fury of the blood in their eyes. (If you think this is bad, you should see when Shirow and Oshii went at it over 'Ghost in the Shell'.) "Okay, this is it!" the Lord proclaimed excitedly. "This is the last vote! We're giving you a little extra time so you can get those votes in, and so you can sit on the edge of your seat waiting to see how it all turns out. What's it going to be? Will Kasumi clean up this town? Will Naru and Mario get to become co-rulers of reality? Is Ukyou going to rule over the world with an iron spatula? Or will Sakura declare that Ryu-sama be brought to her to feed her grapes and fan her?" "Just give them the form already," Skuld suggested. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO CAST THE DECISIVE VOTE THAT CHANGES FATE!!! As is customary in reader-polled tournament fanfic, YOU decide who wins what fights! If you've read this far, you're probably interested in how it turns out, ne? It'll turn out how the majority of readers decide. DON'T DELAY! Mail in this form today! It takes very little of your time, and if everybody who's enjoyed this series so far votes, we'll have a better fanfic for all concerned. When deciding, consider all of the following... * Who conceivably would win, given the strengths of these characters and their abilities? * Who SHOULD win if you had anything to say about it, because they deserve it? * Who would make for a funnier fight later on if they won? What would maximize your entertainment value? * If you can't decide, perhaps you could flip a coin? Cut and paste the following form, putting X's in the boxes where appropriate, and mail to the given address. THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS DECEMBER 1st, 1997! After that, no more votes will be accepted, and Round 4 will be tallied, written and in the books. Good luck and may the weirdest one win! .----------------------------------------------. | ROUND 4 PAIRINGS : | | [ ] Kasumi vs. [ ] Mario/Naru | | [ ] Sakura vs. [ ] Ukyou | | [ ] Urd vs. [ ] Sephiroth | | [ ] Rumiko vs. [ ] Otomo | | | | FINAL ROUND POSSIBLE PAIRINGS : | | Vote for each one, since they're all poss. | | [ ] Kasumi vs. [ ] Sakura | | [ ] Mario/Naru vs. [ ] Sakura | | [ ] Kasumi vs. [ ] Ukyou | | [ ] Mario/Naru vs. [ ] Ukyou | | | | Comments about the fic series so far : | | ____________________________________________ | | ____________________________________________ | | ____________________________________________ | | | | MAIL TO : twoflowr@glue.umd.edu | | SUBJECT : Tournament Voting Submission | | DEADLINE : December 1st, 1997 | `----------------------------------------------' DO NOT E-MAIL A FORM IF IT IS PAST DEADLINE! Do not e-mail empty forms! Do not e-mail incomplete forms! You'll be wasting my time and yours. Be cool. :) Thank you, and enjoy the rest of Spoof Chase's MAGICAL TROUBLESHOOTING CROSSOVER FIGHTING TOURNAMENT BETA. -Stefan Gagne