"ANNNND WELCOME BACK TO THE CLASHDOOOOME!!" Hiro roared to the crowd. "ARE YOU READY FOR ANOTHER FANTABULASTIC MATCH??"

Dai, as usual, was more subdued. "We apologize for the extra-long intermission preceding this match, but Hokuto has apparently vanished from ClashDome premises, so we're declaring the preceding Hokuto vs. Kyoko match a forfeit to Kyoko. And now we have-"

"THE FIGHTING CLASH OF OLD RIVALS! THE MEETING OF EQUALS IN THE RING! FRIEND AGAINST FRIEND AND ONLY ONE WILL REMAIN!" Hiro enthused, then apparently ran out of Jolt Cola as he went on at a more normal volume. "Entering first, the only schoolgirl to run the World Warrior Circuit and still try to maintain good grades, give it up for SAKURA KASUGANO!"

There was a lot of cheering as the Shotokan Schoolgirl made her way out to the ring, accompanied by her nominal 'sister', Dark Sakura (WHAM! ahem) Sakura Yugure, who helped her template up into the ring and then moved back to a ringside seat, cheering like the rest.

"And our second fighter!" Hiro went on. "Plucked by our teleporters from the darkened recesses of a locked gym in Justice High, let's hear it for Darkfighter's Comeback Queen... MAKOTO RINDOU!"

Makoto came out looking a bit aggravated at the announcer's booth, but her glare softened as she noticed Dai waving a "GO MAKOTO" flag behind Hiro's back.

Hiro, realizing something was going on, glanced back, but Dai had hidden the flag by then and just gave Hiro the usual even stare. "Hiro? The match?"

"Oh, right!" Hiro said. "Both fighters have said they wanted to use the telepods, but they couldn't agree on a location, so we've picked one out for them! A special node with special rules and an advisor for each warrior who can talk to them by radio headset, Makoto and Sakura in a best-of-five match in... SUPER SMASH BROTHERS MELEE!!"

The two girls didn't have time to react before the teleporters derezzed them off to their battleground.

They appeared on what seemed to be a floating island of... astroturf?

"Hmm. Where... are we?" Makoto asked nobody in particular.

Sakura's eyes narrowed in thought. "I'm... not sure..." Just then, she spied something small and yellow standing nearby her, just a little ways down, and smiled. "...ooh, look! It's so cute!"

The Pokemon below her, a Pikachu in particular, didn't really understand her. After all, Pokemon rarely understand humans when they're acting all googly. "...pika?" it said, obviously confused.

Tsuskushi - Sakura's champion video-gamer brother and her advisor - tried to vocally intervene. "Um, sis, I wouldn't do that if I were--"

But Sakura, being the big sister and thus always knowing best, would have none of it. She reached down to pet the oh-so-sweet... whatever it was. "You're just a cute little thing, aren't you? Yes you are--"

It was a mistake.

"CHUUUUUU!" *ZOOORRRRCH* "Aieeeee!"

Tsukushi sighed audibly. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. Pikachus don't exactly like being petted by people they don't know."

"...a Pikachu?" Sakura's eyes widened. "Then that means we're..."

"Yes, you're in the Smash node already. More to the point, you're in the Pokemon Stadium, so watch out for those things."

"...okay..." Sakura looked around her nervously.

So *that*'s why I have these crazy headphones on," Makoto realized. "Um, do I have a guest announcer/adviser too? I never did have time for those darn things..."

Makoto got her answer in moments. "No worries, Makoto-chan! Those things fun are!"

"*GALLY??*" It just wasn't what she'd exprected.

"Hey! I *something* do for fun when cooking I'm not!"

"..."

Sakura shook her head. "I actually feel sorry for you, Makoto..."

"Ha ha ha! We've got this in the bag, sis! She's done for, no way can that cook beat me at video ga -" Tsukushi cut himself off with a loud gasp. "A LEVEL 255 MEWTWO?? HOW IN..."

Sakura blinked in surprise. "...that's good, right?"

"Um, 255 is as high as levels go in most games... and wasn't Mewtwo some secret Pokemon or something?"

"While the diner being renovated was, a lot of time on my hands I had." Back in the 'Dome, Gally grinned sheepishly, while Tsukushi looked as if he were ready to faint. "A pretty fair hand at Nintendo I am..."

Makoto sighed in acceptance. "Well, she's a dark horse as far as this goes, but I'll take what I can get."

"..okay..." Deciding not to hurt her head thinking about any of this anymore, Sakura simply got into her ready stance. "Ready to lose, Makoto?"

Makoto pointed to the Pikachu, who was still standing next to Sakura. "Hadn't you better take up a stance further from that thing? Oh well, whenever you're ready. Hyah!" And she assumed her own stance.

"Pika!" As if on cue, The Pikacu waddled away quite cutely.

"Wow, it's almost like it understood you. Oh well. Let's dance. Kyah!" Sakura rushed Makoto, intent on ending things as quick and as flashy as possible.

"Remember," Tsukusho advised, "the object isn't to knock her out, it's to knock her away! Each time you hit her, her mass will get lighter and lighter, and the same goes for you! So get some good hits in, and then once you see her getting a little bit of hang time, hit her with your best shot!"

"Okay.. hmm... guess I'll just have to wear her down first..." Upon reaching her opponent, Sakura engaged Makoto with several close-range rapid punches. {Hmm. Speed-training with Hinata's done me some good too. I hadn't even noticed...}

"Good thing this engine uses countermoves!" After exchanging punches, Makoto parried one, and then in her window:

"ACHA!"

Hit by Makoto's Hayate, Sakura tumbled away, landing near another Pokemon... a Jigglypuff, with microphone at the ready. "And a powerful blow from Makoto puts Sakura at 20%!" Hiro clamored.

The Jigglypuff grinned happily. "Jiggly!"

"Hey," Sakura mumbled. "You weren't here before..."

"Jiggly?"

Tsukushi's voice rang in Sakura's ears. "...oh, no. Sakura, get away! Get away from that thing NOW!"

"Puff! Puff, jiggly!" The Jigglypuff put the microphone to its mouth.

"Huh? Why--" asked a confused Sakura, but it was too late.

o/~ Jiiiigallyyypuuff... Jigga-leeeee-hee-hee-puuuuuff... Jiiiigallyyypuuff, Jigga-leeeeeeeeeeee... o/~

And Sakura suddenly felt very... strange. "...oh... that (yawn) must be why..." The schoolgirl tried to fight it, but she soon asleep. In the midle of the arena. In the middle of the *fight*.

A major setback if there ever was one. Makoto near-boggled at what she was witnessing.

"Go in earshot DO NOT, Makoto, or fall asleep you will too!" Gally warned, stopping Makoto from the step that she was about to take.

"Oh swell. I *really* need a projectile. How do I get her away from it so I can clobber her?"

"Um... Cover your ears?"

"...oh. Right." Makoto did so, walked up, and was of course, greeted by the Jigglypuff, still singing in its annoying fashion. "Hey, get out of the way."

Jigglypuff didn't move.

"C'mon, move!" Makoto sidestepped, but all the pink puffball did was happily strafe with her.

Makoto was getting peeved now. "*Beat it!*" And after it STILL didn't listen to her, the karateka finally lost it.

"SCRAM!"

*PUNT!*

"Jigglyyyyyyyyyyyy..."

*ping*

"Annnd the first victiim of the round is none other than Jigglypuff!! Sent to 100% in one blow by Makoto's temper!" Hiro announced.

And Sakura woke up to see Makoto standing over her. Hopping to her feet, she sternly advanced on the gi-clad girl. "So! Trying to get an unfair win, are we? Taking advantage of a sleeping warrior... I thought you were above stuff like that!"

"H-hey! If I were gonna do that, I'd have jumped over the thing and kicked *you!*" {In fact, I wish I'd thought of doing that before I kicked it...}

"Stage hazards the Pokemon are, Sakura. Fair it would have been if she'd done it, or at least within the rules."

"Y-yeah! So there!" Makoto finished shakily.

"We're in a Pokemon Stadium, sis," Tsukushi added. "Those little guys are going to be there whether we like it or not. Let's just hope you don't run into a Charizard or anything."

Sakura threw up her hands. "Fine, FINE already! This place gives me the creeps. Guess I'd better just end this match quick! Eat this!" And with that, she proceeded to give Makoto a fireball barrage for the ages. "Hadokenhadokenhadokenhadokenhadoken!"

"*What* the--ugh! Oof! Gah!" Several of the fireballs hit their mark, before Makoto finally got into her old rhythm--parry, step, parry, step... she was used to things like this, and it showed.

"Now remember folks!" said Hiro. "There are no super meters in this game, so instead of charging the meter, Makoto's damage for the next blow she lands goes up with every parry, unless she gets hit first!"

"Oh reeeeeally?" Makoto grinned evilly as she advanced, parry by parry.

{Not this again...} Sakura was running out of options, both fighters knew this, and she wasn't happy about it one bit.

"Hey, sis, I've got an idea. You know that charge fireball you sometimes do? Just throw one of those into the barrage. I'm betting it'll throw off Makoto's timing, and on top of that, it'll act like a Smash Attack from the game! Makoto's at 60%, so let her have it with your biggest one!"

"Hey, you know, that just might work! Got it! Hadoken! Hadoken! Hadoken! Hado--..." Sakura stopped, allowing the chi to gather in her hands.

Makoto, being none the wiser, merely stepped forward, letting her guard down as her reflexive parry whiffed. "Hey, what's--"

"...KEN!"

*SHOOM!*

As soon as the fireball hit, Makoto was airborne. "Aiieeeeeeee......"

*FWASH!*

".....eeeee*eeee*EEEE!" *WHAM!*

..then reappeared, plopping down into another arena.

A very COLD arena.

"Ouch ouch ouch.... note to self, landing from a Launcher hurts a lot more here..." She then notiecd that she was sitting--and shivering--in a snowdrift. "...Damn, it's cold here." The karateka looked around, and then up... and up... and even further up. "And tall!"

From Makoto's left, a familiar voice could be heard. "You have.. no... right to talk... about cold..." Makoto looked over to see Sakura, visibly and audibly chattering her teeth while holding her dress close to her. *She* was sitting directly on top of a giant ice cube.

"Guess we'd better end this fast so we can get warm!" said Makoto, superjumping two platforms up exactly afterward. "Come and get me, Sakura!"

"...oh, man."

Sakura did the best verison a superjump that she could in her half-frozen state... but unfortunately, in an effort to get to the same level as Makoto, tried to hang onto another ice block and pull herself up onto the platform above. This was not a good idea, as Sakura quickly found out when her tractionless fingers betrayed her and she slipped back down. "Eeeeek!"

"AHA! AN OPENING!" Jumping back down a level, Makoto hit Sakura square on the head with a powerful Tsurugi axe-kick.

"OW!" said the schoolgirl as she was hit for 20%. She tried to shake it off, but then realized that she had no *time* to. The arena--no, it seemed like the entire WORLD, was disappearing under her at an alarming speed. Still dazed, Sakura jumped up several planks and platforms just as she was about to get sucked into the invisible abyss below her. "What kind of crazy place is this, anyway?"

"It's called 'Infinite Glacier'," Tsukushi said. "And it's an auto-scrolling stage... for you, that means parts of it will disappear above or below you, so be careful out there!"

"Easy for *you* to say. You're not brittle. Now, where'd Makoto go..."

"Up here!" Makoto half-waved, half-taunted from the platform, having jumped back up to it using the recoil from her kick.

"Watch it, Makoto! That stage auto-scrolls - outside of a certain zone all the platforms vanish and you fall for sure!"

"Hai hai! Got it, Gally!" And Makoto was off, jumping platforms now as well.

"Not again." The chase was on. Sakura hopped from platform to platform--this time being careful not to slip on any ice, until she was just under Makoto. Once she was, she initiated a sort of stealth attack, letting Makoto have the weak version of one of her signature attacks from right below. "Heads up, Makoto! Sho-ouken!"

"Wha - aaack!" Makoto yelped as she was knocked on her bottom, though only for a paltry 10%.

Sakura jumped up beside Makoto's prone form. "And the follow-up! Hadoken!"

"Ack!" Makoto thought fast, kippuping from her legs, and parrying the chi blast just in time, which she followed with her Hayate rush punch. "ACHA!"

"Crap!" Sakura countered *that* in turn with her oft-unused Alpha counter. "Sho-ouken!" Crisis averted, she landed and caught her breath. "I really *hate* that parrying thing..."

"OOF!" Now Makoto was at 30%. "And you get the countermove for free with extra damage when you Alpha Counter. So?" Sweeping Sakura, Makoto leapt up to the next platform to get away.

Sakura jumped up after her. "Yeah, but it still leaves you free to do *that*!"

"Well, it's not *my* fault! You could have done your high kick counter, and that'd have kept me from sweeping you during the recovery!" Makoto fended Sakura off with a few quick punches.

{...okay, she's right. But I'll be damned if I'm letting her know that---ow!} One of Makoto's punches had connected, darn things. "OW!" And another one. Fighting back, threw two punches, which were blocked, and then tried a desperate sweep--

"Hmph!" Makoto snickered as she repelled all of Sakura's attacks, and leapt again for the next platform as the stage started moving quickly again.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sakura followed. "Whatever hapened to ending this quick, anyway?"

Makoto pointed down. "THAT happened."

"Huh?" Sakura looked down to see the platform that they had just been on disappearing into nothingness.

"Hah! Gotcha." And Makoto reached out, grabbing Sakura and lifting her up by her neck. "I win."

Sakura tried to talk through forced breaths. "H-h-ey--(glaaaack) What are you... (coff) doing? We'll *both*--"

Makoto's eyebrows slanted - evilly, natch. "To mangle a quote... 'What you mean *we,* little girl?'

At the last second, Makoto released her chokehold on Sakura... and then grabbed her again, slamming her onto the ground and punching her there for good measure. Then she made her escape. Or at least, hoped she could. "Gotta - make - it....!"

Tsukushi sighed. "Oh yeah. That's game..."

"You are so deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeead...." Sakura yelled as she disappeared into the unknown below.

*FWASH!*

"Whew. Good thing too." Seeing as Makoto was dangling by one arm from the platform just before she beamed out, it was a deserved statement.

When Makoto beamed in, she was in for a surprise.

"Okay, good. So, now, where's this... GAAH! W-we're AIRBORNE!"

Indeed, she was darn near stratospheric, as Makoto floated high in the skies of the world of Corneria... aided in flight, of course, by the Great Fox, the mothership of the famous Star Fox team, who were the heroes of this world. Makoto knew none of this, of course--all she knew right now was that looking down was a VERY BAD idea.

On the other side of ths ship, Sakura finally warped in herself, and sighed. "Now, where am I? And more importantly, where's Makoto? She is in for *such* a whomping."

Tsukushi's voice crackled through Sakura's headset. "Um... sis... I can tell you where you are, but a bit of advice... don't look down."

"Huh?" Sakura looked around, then looked down. She was never the type to follow advice... "Eeeeeeeeeeek!"

Tsukushi shook his head. {I told her.}

Inside the cockpit of the Great Fox, a rabbit and a toad, both standing on their hind legs, looked at the ships's radar with concern.

"Something's landed on top of us," noted Peppy, the rabbit.

"W-w-what? T-t-t-that seems to happen a l-l-lot more often these d-d-days..." Slippy, the toad, remarked.

"Getting visual." Sakura appeared on the Great Fox's main screens a moment later. "It appears to be... a human girl?" Peppy said with wonder.

Slippy didn't get a chance to answer, because just then, the ship's com-link sparked to life, and the very loud voice of their teammate, Falco, erupted through it. "Hey, guys! I saw what happened! Don't worry, that bogey's as good as gone in five seconds! Just leave it to me!"

Peppey tried to intervene. "Falco! No! That's not--"

Falco cut the link.

"Damn it!" Peppy banged the desk in front of the control panel. "Stupid bird never listens..."

Back on top of the ship, Sakura was finally on her feet, doing her best not to let the winds knock her off balance.

{Well, I guess I'm stuck here until Makoto gets here. Looks I should just make the best--} And just then, a fighter jet suddenly zoomed by too close for comfort. "WHOA! What's that?"

"That's an Arwing, sis! One of videogaming's highest class of fighting starships! And I don't think its pilot looks too happy!"

Sure enough, Falco was not. Engaging his ship's speakers, he spoke. "Attention invader! You are trespassing on Starfox Team property! Prepare to become a smear on the rocks below us... but just in case you survive, you be sure to tell 'em it was the great Falco Lombardi who took ya' down! Heh."

"W-w-*what*? Hey, now! I mean you no harm!" Seconds later, Sakura was forced to run from sweeping laser fire. "Heeeelp!"

{Whoa! I think we're in trouble! Sakura's in trouble! And why do I hear blaster fire... oh, HELL no.}

Superjumping once, her fears were confirmed. Some kind of ship was shooting at her opponent! No way. Sakura was *hers* to take down. Makoto superjumped again... this time onto the fighter's front window. "HEY! HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE IN OUR MATCH!"

Sakura looked up again upon this sudden interruption. "How does she *do* that? She's insane..."

"I've always warned Falco not to strafe so low," Fox McCloud remarked as he walked into the Great Fox's control room.

"Fox!" Peppy exclaimed. "You're back!"

Fix nodded in response. "I got a 'distress call' from Falco. Remind me never to listen to him again."

"S-s-should we call him b-b-b-back?"

Fox mulled this over, and then decided, "...nah. It looks like he's about to learn a valuable lesson."

"Eh? Another human female? Hey, get off my ship, *girl!*"

{Girl...?}

That did it.

"TANDEN REKI!"

"Uh-oh. That trouble is," Gally said, still through her headset. Makoto ignored her.

But Falco couldn't. "What the-"

*WHAM!*

Falco's Arwing shook as Makoto punched down... *into* the hullmetal.

"-HELL!" Falco's ship started *veeering* around as Falco tried to shake Makoto off.

"Isn't she supposed to be fighting *me*?" Sakura wondered aloud.

"And now it starts," said Fox, smiling back in his seat.

"OFF! GET OFF MY SHIP, YOU CRAZY GROUNDPOUNDER!"

Makoto, still powered up, clamped down on the ship to dig into the metal. "AT THIS SPEED? ARE YOU NUTS?"

"Hey! You need any help up there?" Sakura yelled up.

"Help? Like what?" Makoto said, still hanging on.

But as Falco swung his ship through an outside loop, Makoto's tune changed quickly, shrieking loud enough to make ears ring in the Clashdome! "Yaaaaahhh! Yes! Yes I do! I don't even care what it is, just do SOMETHING!"

Sakura shrugged and started volleying fireballs at the Arwing. "Arrrgh. Can't that thing hold still?" she grumbled as most of her shots missed the crazily jinking fighter... but a fair number still slammed into the Arwing's left wing, which began to smoke and tremble alarmingly.

Makoto and Falco, in uncanny chorus, yelled, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU *DOING*?"

Falco's next bank passed over the Great Fox and Makoto bailed out... but not before smashing a fist into the hull in front of the cockpit. Falco's control board began to spark alarmingly at this final blow.

"#$#! @#$#!" Falco yelled, ejecting. "I can't believe this..."

"Whaaaaaat? You said you wanted help..." Sakura told the escaping Makoto, laughing nervously.

Makoto, as she landed, hit the steeply-sloped part of the Great Fox and found her deisre for revenge sidelined in favor of desire for other things, like balance and traction. "I didn't mean thaa-aa- whoawhoawhoa!"

Tsukushi wasn't slow to advise Sakura, "Sis! Hadoken, quick!!"

Sakura shrugged. "Sorry, Makoto-chan... but I still owe you." Charging up a stage-2 Hadoken, she let it fly, and the smashing blow sent Makoto flying over the edge of the spaceship, limbs pinwheeling madly. "And there we go," Sakura finished.

"Whaaaagh!" Makoto howled, starting to fall - and in a pure Smash Brothers move, when she stabbed her hand up in a Fukiage uppercut meant as a futile gesture, she went rocketing back up like a midair Shoryuken, rising past the ship-edge again. "WHOA! I didn't know I could do that here!" she cried, eyes wide and delighted. "So *that's* how that feels-"

"Bai bai!" Sakura singsonged.

"-huh?" Makoto shot back, looking around as she fell.

Sakura was standing right on the edge of the ship and Roundhoused Makoto. Sakura's massive side power-kick sent the Rindoukan fighter up to 130% and hurtled her away from the ship like a meteor.

"Aiiiii!!!" Makoto screeched.

*FWASH!*

"That was a good try though!" Sakura called after her. {I didn't know we could do that here. I need to try that next time...}

As Sakura warped into the next stage from atop the Great Fox... she fell on top of a moving hovercraft. "Now where am I? And ... why is the world moving so fast?" She peered around for a moment, then made the universal 'time' T-sign. "Okay. Time out. Why can I never end up on SOLID GROUND?"

Makoto, meanwhile, fell far enough from the Great Fox to have left the stage, and warped in as well, *also* landing on a hovercraft. "WHOOOOA!" she cried, windmilling her arms to catch her balance. "What the HELL?"

"The F-Zero Adventure Stage that is!" Gally told her over the comm. "Watch your footing, and low bridges beware!!"

"Not quite. Actually, it's the Big Blue racetrack," Tsukushi corrected her. "And you're in the middle of a race! Literally!"

"We're supposed to fight like *this*?" Sakura complained.

Makoto, glancing about, noticed that she was on a car three places back from Sakura's. "Oh no, no WAY, I am *NOT* hanging back here for Sakura to fireball to death, one more loss and I'm out-" she cut herself off, leaping from car to car to reach Sakura's hovercar.

Sakura boggled at Makoto's heedless risktaking. "...how does she *do* that? Okay... steady... steady... don't look down..." she admonished herself... then looked down. "..aw, crap..."

Makoto, still jumping, shot back, "It's called desperation!!" A glance ahead, though, revealed a low bridge approaching, and although she was still one car away from Sakura, she dove flat to the roof to get under it, calling out, "Whoa-! DUCK!" as she did.

"Eeep!" Sakura cried, hitting the roof herself. "Whew.. thanks."

As the bridge passed, Makoto popped up. "No problem. I may be behind but I mean to defeat you properlyEEE!" she finished in a windmilling-arms yell as Another hovercar hit hers from the far side, caroming it into Sakura's.

"Whoa!" Sakura yelled as Makoto was catapulted into her. Grabbing the gi-clad fighter, she went on, "We can't keep doing this..." Looking up, she grinned. "Hey! Some platforms! Let's hope they hold. Makoto! Jump!" she cried, letting go of Makoto and superjumping to the more stable ground.

"You don't have to tell *me* twice!" Makoto cried, following her.

Sakura hauled Makoto up onto the more stable ground. "...and they actually expected us to fight like this? ...hey. Why is this thing moving?"

Tsukushi came in over the headphones. "Um, sis... I hate to tell you this, but..."

"Then don't tell me," Sakura groaned.

Tsukushi went on, a bit quicker, "Remember Infinite Glacier? There's scrolling in this too, only it's horizontal. That platform you're on won't be here forever. And one more thing..."

Gally chimed in, her tone frantic "Heading over ocean you two are!"

"Oh, just *swell,*" Makoto groaned, pulling her hand out of Sakura's grip. "We've gotta end this quick! HAJIME!" she cried, and the *second* Sakura had dropped into stance (reflex on hearing "BEGIN," ya know) Makoto laid into her with the Triple Fierce... but she'd forgotten about the knockback affect, and Sakura went hurtling right off the platform to land back on a hovercar.

"Whoa! Well, that's gratitude," she muttered, tossing a fireball to throw Makoto off as she made her way back.

"Aaaack!" Makoto cried, using the double-jump she'd just discovered to pass by the fireball. "Hey, at least I waited for you to get into stance!" she complained, then saw she was directly over Sakura and acted. "TSURUGI!" she yelled, the *chi*-powered ax-kick plunging Makoto straight down.

"OW!" Sakura yelled, having failed to evade. Noticing her damage meter was at 70%, she grumbled, "This is NOT going my way..."

Makoto, though, ended up wobbling as she landed on the sloping hood of the hovercar. "Whoa - Oh no not AGAIN!" she cursed as she fought for traction.

Sakura wasted no time in going airborne for her Otoshi axhandle-strike, knowing that the move - which could slam Zangief into the ground hard enough to bounce three feet into the air - would send Makoto right off the track.

Makoto, seeing her leap, moaned "Craaap!" and in a desperation move, jumped straight up without good footing, aware that she was in deep trouble.

"Aw, nuts," Sakura grumped as the Otoshi whiffed, landing on the hood herself.

"Awp - LOOK OUT!" Makoto yelled, a half-second before landing - in the same space Sakura had touched down in. A split-second and one collision later, they *both* tumbled forward along the hood.

Hiroshi, naturally, marked out. "Oh my GOD! They're both hanging onto the front of the hovercar, trying to avoid falling at those AWFUL SPEEDS!"

Struggling for purchase, Makoto ground out, "When I find out who picked this stage..." as she managed to climb a few inches farther from falling onto the roadway.

Sakura, however, found herself slipping. {Stupid.. damage factor... can't hold out much longer...}

Makoto growled and put her anger at whoever had selected their battleground to good use. "TANDEN... REKI!" The hood of the car, made of metals far less tough than an Arwing's hull, went 'CRUMP' as Makoto dug her suddenly-superpowered fingers in, then reached for Sakura with her free hand. "Come on! I'm not dumping you on that roadway!"

"Um... all right," Sakura replied, though even as she grabbed Makoto's hand, she thought, {I wonder why she's being so helpful...}

Makoto hauled Sakura back up onto the hood, where they crouched for a moment to catch their breath. "Phew. I did say I meant to earn this... and I hate high-speed falls."

As Makoto paused to shiver at the thought of road rash, Sakura had time to blurrt out, "Thanks..!"

Then Makoto went on, "But I need this win. FUKIAGE!"

KAPOW!

"You are so deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeead..." Sakura hollered down as the reverse uppercut sent her flying away into the now-familiar *FWASH!*

Sakura beamed in first, to land on a large, flat platform in silent space. "Hey. This platform is welcomingly... stable." Walking around a bit and failing to find any hazards, she called, "Helloooooooooo......." but her only reply was, "..looooooooooo...looooooooooo.." from an echo. "Where am I?"

Then Makoto arrived, going instantly on her guard, ready to move or evade any danger. "Okay, now what..." There was a pause. "...there's... no stage hazards...?" she asked, still looking about skeptically.

"Makoto! Final Stage that is!" Gally chimed in through the headphones.

"Aw, nuts. What's the danger here??" Makoto groaned.

Gally shrugged, though Makoto couldn't see her. "Only your opponent. An arena for one-on-one battles it is."

Makoto perked up. "Finally! A round where it's just our skill!!"

"Ohhhhhhh yeah," Sakura replied, grinning broadly and cracking her knuckles. "Finally, I can get down to some good old-fashioned payback!" And then a Pokeball appeared out of nowhere in front of Sakura. "...Bwah?"

"Items will still show up here though," Tsukushi told her.

"...oh. Well, couldn't hurt," she shrugged, throwing the Pokeball in front of Makoto.

She was wrong.

*PFWOOSH* went the Pokeball.

"CHAAAR-III-ZAARD!" roared the massive Pokemon, blasting out flame everywhere like a demented blowtorch.

"WHOOOA!" Makoto yelled in honest fear, diving for the only safe, not-flame-able ground she could reach - between the legs of the lizard. "SAKURA NO BAKA!" she roared, shaking her fist at the schoolgirl from her dubious sanctuary.

Sakura boggled. "Awww... I can't get to her down there..." She inched towards the Charizard as carefully as possible... but not carefully enough. She was hit by the fire anyway, just as the pokemon disappeared. "Yeeeeow! Hothothothoooot!" She howled, beating at embers in her fuku.

Makoto, seeing an openeing, cried, "Aha!" as she charged at Sakura... and discovered a bit too late that she should've jumped instead. "OW! Yeow ow itai!" she cried as her bare feet hit flame-heated floor, sending her into a frenzied hop as she tried to cool her singed appendages.

Gally sighed. "Hopeless they are..."

"HEY! I heard that!" Makoto shot back... and then a BIG baseball bat appeared near Makoto. "Hmm?" she said, scooping it up by reflex before registering *exactly* what it was, besides a club. "Aw no - not a sports tool!" she groaned, recalling her difficulty handling a bat at Gorin High, but began to advance on Sakura anyway.

"Um... Makoto? That's a bat.. a very big one..." she said worriedly, backing up to stay out of reach.

"I know, and the balance sucks rocks!" Makoto complained, hopping forward and swinging at Sakura, who ducked. Makoto nearly augered herself into the platform from the follow-though on the massive thing. "Gaaah!"

"Woohoo! An opening!" Sakura yelled, dealing Makoto a running kick and sending her towards the edge of the platform, putting her damage meter at 15%.

"Gah!" Makoto spat as she got hit, and tossed the bat away. "The heck with this thing! ACHA!" she yelled, smashing a rushing Hayate punch into Sakura for payback.

Sakura's damage meter jumped to 20%. "Owww!" she yelled, flying back in turn. "Geez, her and her power..."

Then a small device appeared in front of Makoto. "Huh? What's this?" she said, picking it up, and instantly, Makoto vanished.

"Uhoh... that was the Invisibility item..." Tsukushi groaned.

"...huh? Makoto? Where'd you go?" Sakura said at the same time, missing her brother's comment.

"What do you mean, 'where'd I go'? I'm right here!" Makoto said, hurling the device at Sakura, to whom it seemed to appear from nowhere rushing at her head.

"Whoa. What was that? A bomb or something?" Sakura said, ducking it. "Makoto, darn it, show yourself! I can hear you talking!"

"... hold on. You really can't see me?" Makoto asked, then her tone turned eeeevil. "Oh reallllly..." Silence.

"No, I can't... uh oh," Sakura complained.

Makoto snuck around behind Sakura and wedgied her with her fuku, causing serious pain even if it didn't register on the Damage Meter. "Hee hee! It'd be dishonorable to win like this, but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun!"

Then a pokeball dropped, and Makoto accidentally kicked it. It popped open as Sakura looked over at the noise, revealing... another Jigglypuff.

"Oh, no, not one of those again," Sakura blurted out, clapping her hands over her ears.

Makoto, likewise seeing the snooze-inducing Pokemon, cried, "Aaaack!" and tried to run - and as Gally couldn't see her, she didn't yell at Makoto to cover her ears too.

And the SONG began. "~Jiiigllly--puufff... Jiiigllly--puufff...~"

"Oh... (yawn) no..." Makoto groaned, slumping down asleep and starting to snore.

"Grrr.. PUFF!" The Jigglypuff growled and started drawing over where the snoring was coming from. The doodling revealed Makoto's location... and a momant later, the invisibility wore off... revealing a very marked-up Mako-chan.

Sakura couldn't help it, she giggled.

"Huh, wha?" Makoto groaned, waking up as the Pokemon vanished.

"Nothing..." Sakura said, trying not to smirk.

Then Makoto looked down, discovering the lines drawn all over her, and inaccurately picked Sakura as the culprit. "OIII! Sa-ku-RAA!" she growled, giving her friend an angry glare.

"What? I didn't say a word." Sakura replied, thinking Makoto was angry at her for the laughter and grinning impishly... and then a Bob-omb appeared directly in the middle of them.

"What's that?" Sakura asked.

Makoto skidded to a halt, her abortive charge at Sakura grinding to a stop. "It's big, round, black, and it has a lit fuse, I'm not sticking around to find out!!" she cried, running the other way.

Of course, then the lit Bob-omb started walking. Towards Makoto.

"Aaaack!" Makoto yelled, glancing back at her pursuer, then she saw the discarded baseball bat up ahead. "Okay, here goes NOTHING!" she yelled, nabbing the bat and whirling as the Bob-omb came within range. "FORE!!!"

"That cry the wrong sport is from!" Gally said, nonplused.

"DO I CARE RIGHT NOW??" Makoto roared back as the bat connected with a mighty CRACK!

"And it's a long line drive!" Sakura, a sometime baseball fan, cried, running back and catching it. "HA! You're out, Makoto! Hey, this thing's kind of cute..."

And then realization struck. "..hey. What AM I doing, anyway?"

"Hit the deck?" Makoto offered tentatively.

Sakura blinked at her. "What? It's a perfectly cute harmless... *ticking*... aw, cra--"

Gally turned to her fellow advisor. "To you quote, Tsukushi, 'Oh yeah. *that's* game.'"

"Mou!!" the brat replied, folding his arms.

Is it over?" Makoto asked the void she was floating in.

The portal finally opened, spitting Makoto back out into the middle of the ChashDome ring. And lo, there was much cheering and snapping of photos.

"And thanks to an *amazing* comeback," Hiro shouted through his microphone, "this game's winner is Makoto Rindou of Japan's Rindoukan Dojo!"

{FINALLY!} Makoto sighed in relief. {I thought I'd never get out of there. When I find out whoeverthought this crazy match up...}

"MAKOTOOOOOOOOO!"

"YEOW!" The screech had come from her headphones, which Makoto relexively tore off and threw into the distance. As soon as she had done so, Gally ran up to her, giving her a huge hug.

"Makoto! You did it! I win you'd knew!" she said jubilantly.

"Thanks for having faith in me, Gally," Makoto replied. "Say, where's Sakura? I want to congratulate her on a match well-fought."

"To her room she was taken. Cold she was knocked," Gally said.

Sakura's head hurt.

Bad.

Really really bad.

"Oh, maaaan.. did anyone get the license of that truck? I'll sue for their kids' college funds..." Opening her eyes, she saw her little brother Tsukushi standing over her.

And suddenly she remembered it all. "You..." she said darkly, rising up to throtle her brother. "Why didn't you TELL me that thing was a bomb?"

"What? I thought that was just common sense! I mean, it was sparking, and ticking, and... uh oh." Tsukushi had seen that look in his sister's eyes before, and now, his 'common sense' told him that he had best run for it, which he did.

Ignoring her headache, Sakura leapt out of bed and pursued at top speed. "Get back here, you ditzy arcade otaku! I'll teach you to withold vital information!"

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!"

No matter where one may travel, siblings are universal.