Right. Because the first vote was such a mess, everyone can vote again for the last three; in addition to the first vote, which simply gives each character a point, one can do a "secondary-vote" for tie-breaking and for tallying votes after the first winner. Titles are included so you know a bit more about what each episode will involve.

MEET MEGA MAN: Capcom is frustrating
Involves Mega Man and Phoenix Wright.

MEET MAX: Who needs a sports car when you've got a B-Copter?
Involves Advance Wars (1, 2, and DS) and... Minecraft?

MEET ADELEINE: "Who painted pink flowers on my Electro Sapper?!"
Involves Kirby 64 and Team Fortress 2.

Just use this much simpler template:

Main Vote:
Secondary Vote:

(Here's Adeleine's story.)

MEET ADELEINE: "Who painted pink flowers on my Electro Sapper?!"

"And that's my budget plan for the kingdom."

Adeleine shook her head. "No, Dedede. You allocated 90% of funds to your own castle pantry again. That doesn't work."

"Bah! Sure it does. It's a recipe for a successful nation!"

"No, it's really not. You're taxing everyone too much and it's only helping you."

"Bah! A lot of politicians say the government needs to spend more money to help people. Ergo, I'm helping people."

"That position is, of course, debatable, or countries' politicians wouldn't be split on it. But usually, nobody's saying the government should spend 90% of its money on the king's food."

"Ahem! 89.999999%. My guards need nice fresh maggots to eat."

"Fresh... maggots. Not a very filling meal for your last line of defense."

"Come on! They've got plenty of protein!"

"You know, that actually explains a lot. Your guards must barely be able to hold their weapons on their wholesome diet of maggots. No wonder Kirby plowed through your castle, let's see... how many times?" Adeleine began to count on her fingers. "Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby's Dream Land 3..."

Dedede growled. "Don't start it."

"Kirby Super Star: Spring Breeze, Kirby Squeak Squad, Kirby Super Star Ultra: Spring Breeze, Kirby Super Star Ultra: Revenge of the King, and that's about it." Adeleine looked again at her hands. "Seven, and that's not just Kirby getting lucky."

"FINE." Dedede colored in a little more of a very tiny sliver on the chart. "I'll give them hard rations."

Adeleine noticed Dedede was using a pencil (which, of course, can be erased), but she decided nothing would convince Dedede any better than a chance to one-up his nemesis. "Right. So, I came because of something else."

"Then why are you givin' me some ridiculous lecture on politics?"

"You started it by mentioning your 'new budget'. Which, by the way, lacks funding for any significant navy or air fo-"

Dedede shook his head. "Don't start it again."

"Okay, okay. You know... I've been thinking. You remember the Crystal Shard incident?"

"Yeah, yeah. Workin' with that annoying Kirby... urgh."

"Well, you remember the time when Dark Matter took over my mind?"

"Sure. Join the club."

Adeleine sighed. "If it happens again, I need to be able to fight it. If I can't, who knows what could happen? What if I turned and tried to hurt my friends again?"

"Meh. Get some training. Meta Knight does that all the time." Dedede looked around. "Y'know, I never did see him leave after that military conference..."

"That's because I never did."

Both Adeleine and Dedede jumped. Dedede shouted, "STOP DOIN' THAT!"

"I must always train something. Be it swordsmanship, stealth, or something else, I am perpetually in training." Meta Knight looked Adeleine in the eye. "Training is what you need."

"Training."

"You have potential. Your ability to paint things to life was used by Dark Matter for evil. But you can use it to advance justice."

"Okay... but where do I train, exactly?"

Meta Knight looked out a window, into the sky. "Where it is not easy to train. If you want to fight well when the need arises, you must learn to fight well when you are training. That is a simple fact."

"Okay, where it's not easy. Are you saying I should make like you and duel one thousand foes on a volcanic mountain?"

"Are you kidding? Your main weapon involves paint. Paint and lava don't go well together. No, before I graduated to dueling on volcanic mountains and running laps in zero-oxygen environments, I simply found planets where there was fighting going on."

Adeleine nodded. "Makes sense. If it works for you..."

"It may work for you. You must be cautious- space is a dangerous place- but I can imagine there is much training you can do on another planet."

"Yeah... all right, you've convinced me. I'll find some planet to train on."

Dedede chimed in, "Great. Now will ya GET THE [SHAME ON YOU, DEDEDE, KIRBY IS A G-RATED GAME] OUTTA MY CASTLE?! Stupid Meta Knight..."

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(A WEEK OF GOOGLE SEARCHING AND WARP STAR RIDING LATER)
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"Argh! Does this thing work or not?!"

Adeleine kicked the crashed Warp Star. "Ugh! I'll never get to Azeroth at this rate!"

She looked around. The place she'd landed was a desert. A few eerily quiet structures and a railroad track were easily visible. Adeleine made the executive decision to get some water and shelter, quickly hiding her Warp Star.

BANG! Adeleine heard the sound of a bullet whizzing through the air somewhere, followed by a strangled scream and then a loud swear. (Little did she know, the swear was in German.) "Oh, no. There's some kind of battle going on..."

Adeleine pulled the Warp Star behind a fairly large rock, then pulled out a small notepad. It wasn't much, but it'd have to do. Adeleine painted a crude hand-held periscope, and it immediately materialized in the third dimension. She lifted the periscope to her eye and peered out from behind the rock.

Same eerily quite structures as before, but they were even more eerie to Adeleine now that she knew there was a sniper in them. Shouting could be heard, as well as the rattling of some kind of cart. Adeleine, however, was concentrating on locating the sniper.

There! Someone in a wide-brimmed hat and glasses, with a lot of bottles of yellow fluid at his side, was sitting behind an open window with a large, powerful rifle. But who was the sniper fighting?

"Tiny baby man think he can stop me?! HA HA HA HA HA! CRY SOME MORE!"

Adeleine quickly dropped the periscope, hiding behind a rock and quickly trying to come up with a weapon to paint to life. The guy that just shouted in that funny accent was clearly out of his mind, and the fact that the shout was accompanied by gunfire and death cries was not very reassuring

BANG! Adeleine heard the sniper fire again, and heard a large thump; another man shouted, "Argh! That dummkopf keeps shooting them just as I'm about to Uber-"

BANG! "Aaaaagh!"

"Sheesh! Is he some kind of crazed gunman?!"

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"Argh! No, nobody else called me a crazed gunman, dad, only you. Why... why do I have this call going in the middle of a battlefield anyway? No... for the last time, will you put mum on the phone?! Honestly, I'm not a crazed gunman, I'm an assassin..."

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Adeleine had to do something about the sniper. But what? It was too dangerous to approach; what if the sniper saw her as a target?

Be it swordsmanship, stealth, or something else...

Stealth. She'd have to sneak around behind the sniper and either disarm him or take him out. Without attracting the attention of the other team.

Adeleine quickly painted a picture of another rock about her size on the first rock, making sure to specify it had a hollow inside. The rock materialized and Adeleine picked it up. Nice and lightweight. Then she hid under the rock, and began to proceed forward...

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"Boom, headshot. Boom, headshot again. Boom, headshot a third time... what's that rock doing there?"

The Sniper looked away from his sight. "Now, that's not usually-"

A grenade found its way into the Sniper's room; he leapt into the next to avoid the explosion, and shook his head. "Ah, they moved the rock to try an' get me! Well, I'll show them..."

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Adeleine made it into the building. She looked behind her; nobody else was inside-

"Whoa! Made me jump!"

Adeleine lifted the rock just a little. Someone was standing next to what looked like a very large gun. He was wearing a red suit like the sniper, but was wearing a yellow hard hat as well, and was significantly larger. And the gun. The gun was automatic and had a lot of ammunition. Adeleine shuddered.

"Oh, don't be shy. This sentry gun won't shoot at you, it's only programmed to get the BLU team. See?" The man patted the sentry gun on the head- err, rocket launcher. "It's a nice gun. See? I'm pattin' it on the rocket launcher." Adeleine slowly came forward, ready to run if need be.

"Whew! I thought that sniper was going to-"

"Sniper? You mean our friend up there? He wouldn't 'ave shot you. I mean, you aren't on the BLU team, so I figure you're not our enemy... which raises another question. What are you doin' here anyway?"

Adeleine sighed. "Long story..."

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"So you left your planet to train?"

"Yeah, I was going to head to Azeroth. But I hit a heavy gravity area and ended up crashing here." Adeleine was sitting off to the side, talking with the Engineer and watching his Sentry Gun and Dispenser at work.

"I guess that happens in space. But why would you want to train for combat?"

"Like I said. Our planet's constantly under attack by monsters from who knows where. I've had something take control of my body twice now. I need to be prepared for battle."

"Heh. Well, I don't know how to stop that, specifically. But I can tell you what... making 3-dimensional objects by painting them on a flat surface, that's impressive, even if it does tire you out. You seem like the tactical support type; there ain't a successful team that doesn't have tactical support. And I think you found a nice planet to train on."

"What do you mean?"

The Engineer chuckled. "Well, I figure us and the BLU team can put our differences aside and help you with combat training! After all, we are trained mercenaries."

"But haven't you been killing each other so much..."

"We come back. Some kinda machine thing we got here. It works fast, too."

"So you'll help?"

The Engineer nodded. "Sure, it should be no prob-"

Suddenly, electrical sparks began leaping off the Sentry Gun, while someone ran in and began clubbing the Dispenser with a baseball bat. The Engineer shouted, "No! Spy sappin' my Sentry Gun!"

Someone shot the Engineer in the shoulder; Adeleine immediately noticed a man in a blue suit materialize seemingly from nowhere, a pistol in his hand. Next to him, a guy in a blue baseball cap- the one that was clubbing the dispenser- laughed. "Ha! We ran circles around you!"

The Sentry Gun exploded in a shower of sparks, metal, and flame. Adeleine ducked behind a low wall. The man in the blue suit- clearly a Spy for the BLU team, the Engineer had told her about Spies- said, "Enough of you! Your Sentry Gun has been nothing but a thorn in our side."

"Yeah! It's cheap! It's like you're hacking!" The other one must be a Scout.

The Engineer grunted in pain; Adeleine heard a CLANG as the Scout hit his arm down. "You ain't gonna touch that shotgun, pal. We got you cornered. Now you're gonna pay!"

That Engineer is in trouble! I gotta do something! And then, quickly, a plan came together. It was simple. But it could work.

Adeleine quickly began to draw a Shotzo. These were invincible Dream Land cannons that fired a powerful cannonball at their nearest target. Adeleine's brush flew across her paper, and as the final stroke finished, the Shotzo materialized, falling to the ground with a slight clang.

"Scout. Investigate that."

"Man! I was about to hit his head with the butt of my Scattergun!"

Adeleine clenched her teeth, then lifted the cannon. It was heavy, but Adeleine managed to put it on top of the low wall. The Shotzo turned its barrel to face the quickly approaching BLU Scout, who realized too late what was happening. "Aww, [PUNK KID THINKS HE'S SO TOUGH USING THAT WORD]!"

BLAM! The cannonball hit the BLU Scout over the head, dazing him; Adeleine used the chance to pull Scout over the low wall. The Scout looked up at her, more than a little confused; Adeleine put her foot over his mouth, snatched his weapons, and picked up the baseball bat. "Thought he didn't have any tactical support, didn't you?"

The Spy turned his head in time to see Adeleine whack the Scout over the head with his own bat, knocking him out. "What?! Why are you meddling in our battle, girl? That's-"

CLANG! The Engineer's Wrench hit the Spy's back. He lifted his head again to retaliate, only to see Adeleine shouting, with the Scout's bat over her head, swinging it straight at-

"BONK!" Adeleine's blow knocked the Spy out cold. Adeleine panted, dropping the bat. The Engineer groaned a little; he was still wounded, but he was grinning ear-to-ear.

"Heh heh! See? Not bad... Urgh... Could you move that Dispenser over here? Need to heal... urgh."

"Got it." Adeleine picked up the dispenser, then set it down by the Engineer, gasping for breath; it was even heavier than the Shotzo. The Dispenser began to heal the Engineer's wounds.

"You realize you just knocked out a Scout and finished knocking out a Spy? After dazing the Scout and taking all of his weapons?"

"Um, I guess..."

"You got fighting down. Probably just lacked confidence- which makes sense, considering that Dark Matter thing usurped your brain twice in a row."

"I guess... though I could still use some training!"

The Engineer nodded. "Our team will help you train, and maybe we'll get the Administrator to swallow her pride and let the BLU team help out."

"Really?"

"It's a deal."

Adeleine looked at the knocked out Spy and Scout. "They're still there..."

The Engineer lifted his shotgun, but Adeleine held up her hand. "No. I won't kill them. I've got an idea that will keep them from ever bothering you again." Adeleine grinned, reaching for her palette. "Going to need more pink here..."

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(ABOUT FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER)
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"Urgh... my head..."

The BLU Scout woke up, rubbing his head. What happened? Oh yeah, crazy girl shot a cannon at him, then took his stuff...

"My stuff! She took my bat!" The Scout held up his bat. "My Scattergun!" The Scout held up his Scattergun. "My Pisto- wait... I got my gear."

"We have our gear. We were lucky." The Spy groaned, then stopped. "Who painted pink flowers on my Electro Sapper?!"

"AAAH! My Pistol! She superglued it into the holster and painted a SMILING SUN ON IT?!"

"My butterfly knife! It's now a... butterfly knife!"

The Scout shook his head. "Well, there goes your plan, Bond! We got the crap beaten out of thus and then got pranked! You really got losing down, huh?"

"Shut up for your own good, Scout. Friendly Fire is turned off."

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"And that's how I ended up here. I've been here for a whole month's worth of combat training. Now, if Dark Matter attacks, he's going to be very unpleasantly surprised."

Mega Man nodded slowly. "All right. Now, how are we going to fix this Rental Wing?"

"No way. There is no way I'm getting back on a ship that's crash landed three times." Max shook his head. "Just hit the emergency warp button and send that garbage back."

"So you guys are really going for Smash Brothers, huh?"

"Yeah!" Mega Man pointed his Mega Buster at the sky. "I think we've got a good chance.'

"Well... I think it might be good for me to come along, then."

"Really?" Red raised an eyebrow. "You still don't look much like a fighter."

"Mind talking to the BLU Scout about that? Like the Engineer said. Tactical support. You always need that."

Max nodded. "She has a point."

"All right! In that case, welcome to the team!" Mega Man smiled. "Heck, we went from one to five pretty quick. You think we need a name?"

"Team names are for blundering fools." Red shook his head. "I'd prefer not."

"Ah, shut up, Red. How about... uh..." Max scratched his head. "Something to do with Smash... Smash bash, no... Smashdown Soup? Definitely not..."

Bomberman said, "I got it. Smash Seekers."

"Smash Seekers! That works."

"YES! That's a good team name!"

"Woohoo! Smash Seekers!"

Red rolled his eyes. "I suppose it's slightly better than mediocre. Now let's try to get off this blasted planet... Adeleine, you said you had a Warp Star?"

(Not really. Now, since people might not know what the characters even look like, I'll link some pics:

Mega Man looking very serious; a lot of people know what he looks like, but just in case... (and here's Phoenix and Edgeworth from his story, and also from the Phoenix wright series, both doing epic finger points)
Bomberman, in the mood for some demolitions (this is Altair, at least the one from Bomberman, and we all know Remi)
The original sprite for a Red Mage and a more artistic rendition of him (there could be more than one, up to four, in the original, but it would be stupid to have four of the same thing... also the Black Mage, what Wiz is, and the RSwiki page for Aubury, the guy who doesn't know what Final Fantasy 13 is and the Abyssal Whip that Red called the 'Abysmal' whip)
Big ol' Max, with his original sprite (because Max wasn't nearly as awesome in AW2 and AWDS as he was in the very first Advance Wars... that 150% direct attack boost is crazy! Also, Andy and Adder. By the way, yes, Andy is fairly clueless (he once said, and I quote, "what's an airport, again?") and Adder is really annoying in the only game he's in.)
Adeleine, or rather, her self-portrait courtesy of Brawl in the Family; the N64 graphics aren't exactly the best, so for now I shall eschew them. (Also Meta Knight (another BitF reference, heheh) and King Dedede, and the entire Team Fortress 2 team (from left to right, the RED team's Pyro, Engineer, Sniper, Spy, Heavy, Demoman, Medic, Scout, and Soldier; the BLU team is basically them with blue clothes instead of red clothes)

But here's Max's story.)

MEET MAX: Who needs a sports car when you've got a B-Copter?

"Ahh, finally." Max kicked back in the recliner, taking a sideways glance out the window. "Workout done, no Black Hole artillery batteries near my house, rocket launcher training finally out of the way... I can get some relaxing."

Max's hand was only barely on the remote, however, when his cell phone rang. It was Nell- using the HQ phone- and the call was labelled 'urgent'. Max swore under his breath; this was probably a new mission.

"This is Max."

"Ah, Max! Good timing. I'm sorry if this is inconvenient, but I have a favor to ask."

"Yeah... what is it? It's urgent, you say."

"Well, Hachi and I are heading out for a conference with Olaf and Kanbei. We're thinking about establishing a trade route now that there's no wars going on. We need you to head to Border Base Alpha and... ah, keep an eye on Andy."

Max rolled his eyes. Andy was, surprisingly, an officer; while he was decent enough at commanding with help from a tactician, Andy was still a kid. It was probably Nell's attentive supervision that kept him from completely messing up and getting the Orange Star troops killed- no, scratch that, it was definitely Nell's supervision.

"Go to the base, babysit Andy. That's it?"

"That's it. You're close, so it shouldn't be tough."

"Can't the troops do it?"

"We're using the new remote vehicles for defense around that area. Very useful, but they can't keep an eye on Andy."

"All right, all right. I'll watch him. Can't be too much trouble, right?"

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"Oh, I see. Max, you've gotta be careful about saying things like that!" Mega Man looked around at the carnage around him. "You're a character in a video game and now in a fanfic esque thing. Stuff like that might be mistaken by the author as foreshadowing, and you'll end up having more trouble than you ever expected."

"Objection, Mega Man." Red had his hand up. "We won't be breaking the fourth wall discussing story mechanics HERE. We have our dignity, don't we?!"

"Shush, Red. You acknowledged the existence of player characters and other games in your series when you debuted!"

"Pah."

Max nodded. "Yeah, I guess I'll have to stop that. Anyway, here's how the rest of it went."

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"Max! Can I play with the tank? Can I? Can I? Can I can I can I can I can I PLEEEEEEE-"

"No, Andy. The tank is not a toy."

"Yeah it is! You control it with a remote!"

Max shook his head. "That remote Megatank shoots full-size shells, has a mounted machine gun with enough force to decimate an entire squad of infantry, and is large enough to roll right over someone. It is not, I repeat, NOT a toy."

"But that's not fair!"

"It's perfectly fair!"

"You're just mad 'cause I beat you so bad at the War Room simulator last week!"

"Actually, that completely slipped my mind, but now I remember, you had an Action Replay plugged in-"

"No I didn't!"

Max groaned. "Urgh. Look. No playing with the Megatank. That's final."

Andy was about to say something, but someone shouted "Mail call" outside. "Right. I got it. Andy, you're coming with me."

"NO FAIR! What did I do?!"

"I can't trust you near the Megatank controls!" Max dragged Andy to the base's front door, opened it, and- watching Andy like a hawk- went to the mailbox, then grabbed the mail. "From Beefs? Who is Beefs?"

"Who cares? Open it!"

Max walked in and opened the large envelope to find a small book. "Oh brother. 'The life and times of Beefs, the incredibly amazing officer that was the best thing to happen to the world, ever, no question'. Give me a break."

"That sounds stupid."

"It probably is. But hey, we should probably read it anyway."

Max sat down in a chair and, reluctantly, began to read aloud.

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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BEEFS
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One day, there was a cool awesome guy called Beefs. Beefs was awesome and had an incredible face that he gazed at in the mirror because it was so flawless.

Beefs had an annoying subordinate called Frag that was stupid and dumb. Frag lost battles that Beefs would have won because Beefs made faster decisions than stupid dumb Frag, who couldn't even use a Super CO power without getting crappy hits sometimes. Beefs also knew a stupid and crazy mad scientist called Rash as a subordinate that was annoying and giggled too much. And he had a moron above him in the chain of command called Raptore that Beefs knew was dumb and stupid, but he pretended to be cool and smart.

An old paratrooper that was stupid like everyone but Beefs told Beefs not to destroy his beach. Beefs tried to fight the paratrooper, but he cheated and was a stupid cheater and beat Beefs. Then Rash gave Beefs lousy bargain bin laser beams that Dumbei the dumb stupid samurai got past because they only fired once every two days. The stupid people beat Beefs because they were stupid cheaters that cheated stupidly.

Then stupid Raptore told Beefs he failed. The stupid people were in a conspiracy, so they stopped cheating against Raptore because they hated Beefs, because they were stupid. But Raptore was stupid and dumb, so he lost. To hide his dumbness and stupidness, Raptore killed his boss before he fired a missile that Beefs designed, though Rash stole the idea when it was still in Beefs's mind. But Beefs was cooler and smarter than everyone else and let them lose in the war for Omega Land because they are stupid. Ha ha. They are stupid. Beefs is amazing."

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"What the heck was that crap?!" Andy spat on the book. "It's dumb."

Max nodded. "Words cannot explain how dumb this is. Wait. Something's suspicious about this!"

"What?"

"Look at this. This sounds like the Black Hole army officers, wouldn't you say? Frag sounds a lot like Flak- in fact, suspiciously like Flak. Terrible Super CO power and failed missions. Rash must be Lash- Lash was a mad scientist, though she wasn't stupid. Raptore is Hawke- clever, switched his name to a different bird of prey. Which leaves..."

"Sturm! Wait, Sturm is Beefs?"

"No. Adder is beefs. Whose dossier mentioned he liked his own face and believed his skills were superior? Adder's. The old paratrooper is Sensei, and 'Dumbei the samurai' is Kanbei. Those are Yellow Comet COs; Adder was in charge of the Black Hole campaign on Yellow Comet territory, so he'd probably be angry at them. Hawke did have his boss killed, and Adder did get slow-firing Laser Cannons in one of his battles against Kanbei. And the insane level of ego-stroking in this little story pretty much fits Adder's personality."

"Heh heh heh. Good work, Max. Too bad that, while you were busy reading my wonderful decoy, Black Hole troops surrounded you! Heheheheheh.. HAHAHAHA!" It was Adder's voice, ringing over a megaphone.

Max growled, "Adder! That conniving little..."

"Max, our HQ's surrounded!" Then Andy's face lit up. "Does this mean I get to play with the Megatank now?"

"No. You get the rocket trucks, believe it or not, you're better with them. Let's go teach Adder who NOT to mess with!"

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"What happened to Adder?"

Andy grinned at Bomberman's comment. "We kicked his butt! And he tried to run away, but your ship hit him!"

Mega Man looked sidelong at the wreckage of the crash-landed Rental Wing. "So Adder is stuck..."

"Under... your ship." Adder crawled out of the Wing's wreckage. "Medic..."

Max nodded. "Right. Troops, get Adder to a jail cell!"

Andy shouted, "WOOO! We even shot down your attack satellite with our anti-space missile!"

"Attack satellite? There was no attack satellite!"

"Yeah there was! And I hit the button on the space missile to shoot it down!"

Max groaned. "Urgh. You wasted our missile, then. But at least the missile won't cause any damage."

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"After so long, we've constructed a 20x20x10 house made entirely of FURNACES! Yes!"

LolzIRawk stared at the massive creation. It had taken lots of stone to build, but it was there- a house built from nothing but furnaces and a door.

"Whew! Sure took a lot of stone to make." EpicFarmer looked behind him at a massive quarry dug into the ground. "But it worked."

"And since it's Creeper-proofed, nothing can possibly harm its struct-"

BOOM! An enormous missile went through the atmosphere and blasted the house apart, leaving a crater in this wake, to the astonishment and horror of the two Minecraft players.

"Uh..."

LolzIRawk was silent.

"Was that... TNT?"

"No. It was a missile."

"Oh."

"Notch hates our guts, doesn't he?"

"He does."

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(ABOUT AN HOUR LATER)
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"All right, Andy. Nell will be back in two minutes." Max pointed to the base. "Stay there and tell her I'm going to try out for the Smash Brothers."

"Really? AWESOME!"

"Yeah. I figure, since I know how to use a rocket launcher now and I still know how to punch someone in the face, I'll have a decent chance if I work with Mega Man and Bomberman and ignore the annoying red guy. Don't answer the door until Nell gives you the code word."

"All right!" Andy ran back into his base. Max looked at the Rental Wing. "That thing fixed?"

"Yes. But I warn you. It's a deathtrap." Red looked at the ship with what could only be described as rancor. "A [RED MAGE GETS VERY ANGRY INDEED] deathtrap."

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"So now I've heard everyone's story!" Adeleine cheered. "Now I'll get half of what you guys are saying!"

"Half? You give yourself too much credit for doing the impossible." Red shook his head. "I still don't understand how Max can use a rocket launcher."

"Training. After our HQ was nearly taken by Black Hole in one map, we all got mandatory weapons training. Now they don't try to take our HQs anymore."

"And is Black Hole..."

"Black Hole is a country from space that attacked Orange Star, Blue Moon, Green Earth and Yellow Comet."

"There, now you understand." Adeleine pointed toward a planet in the distance. "Hey, is that the Smash Center?"

"Yep. Sure is." Mega Man began to speed up the ship. "We should be there soon."

Bomberman cheered. "Now we're gonna get started! We're gonna go for the Smash Brothers!"

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(PLAY OMINOUS MUSIC NOW, IF YOU CAN)
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"Ah ha ha ha ha! You mean the blue boy made a fool of you?"

The Capcom executive shook his head. "No, no... he didn't-"

"He did." Dr. Wily, across the table, rolled his eyes. "As I expected. He even gave out our excuse, and now Mega Man has left his planet. Kindle, this is bad."

"Yes, but it's hilarious to see this rube fail in such a manner!"

"Might I remind you, the one who beat this 'rube' is on the same side as the one who took part in crushing your invasion of Omega Land, KINDLE?!" Wily glared at her, growling. "So don't be hasty in making light of it! You always do that!"

"Both of you calm down! YOU'RE fighting for DUMB REASONS!"

"Silence, Mujoe! We only hired you because you're dumb muscle and we need that."

"Really, Wily? I don't think we need his ilk. Bandits... how passe."

"SHUT UP! I'm a recurring villain in a series much more fun than YOURS!"

"More fun. Huh." Kindle rolled her eyes. "Because kicking explosives around with no aim is fun to a rube like yourself?"

An ominous voice shouted, "WHO HERE IS BICKERING?"

Wily groaned. "Dark Matter again? Listen, pal. We're really trying to pull it together. But Kindle is such a prissy [WILY DOESN'T LIKE KINDLE] and Mujoe lacks an indoor voice. If you could possess Kindle to do something herself for once and tear Mujoe's [WILY DOESN'T LIKE MUJOE EITHER] vocal cords out, we'd have much more luck."

"MUST I TELL KEFKA YOU FIND YOUR ALLIES DISAGREEABLE? HE WILL BE ANNOYED AT HAVING TO REPLACE YOU."

Wily gulped. "Uhh, no, no. Mujoe, he's a good guy. And Kindle, she's got so much class. Please don't kill me. Now, where were we?"

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THE SMASH SEEKERS
(I FINALLY FINISHED THE PROLOGUE)
(WOOT)
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Right, so one of these villians is going to have an... altercation... with the team soon. But which one? You guys can vote on one winner!

Mujoe, the ridiculous bandit boss/wrestler hybrid with no indoor voice
Faced Bomberman in three separate games. Has no indoor voice; constantly yells about everything. Gets angry easily. Has expanded his skillset to merge hand-to-hand combat and bomb throwing; this has called into question his will to live, but it works. Makes very simple plans, along the lines of "steal X and use its power" or "gather Hige Hige Bandits in general vicinity of Bomberman and try to kill him". (Kindle: "Why must I work with this constantly-shouting rube?")

Dr. Albert Wily. Award-winning scientist. Robot-builder. Megalomaniac.
Mega Man's arch rival. Disgruntled after trying eleven times to conquer his own planet, Wily decided to branch out to other planets, eventually becoming the voice of "reason" among himself, Kindle, and Mujoe. Usually fights in one of his own giant machines, like the Wily Machine and Wily Capsule. Plans usually involve robots and traps with a little complexity. (Mujoe: "He also keeps asking for EARPLUGS! And he's A SHRIMP!")

Kindle: condescending, scheming, and snobbish... and owns tanks
Kindle was one of the Black Hole Commanding Officers in the war of Omega Land. Remember how Adder had an ego? Kindle has an ego too, and is generally a snob. But it gets worse; Kindle has more authority in the Black Hole chain of command, and nobody's questioning her large requisitions of tanks and artillery (Koal and Jugger are both suck ups, Flak is a moron, Hawke and Lash [SPOILER], Sturm [SPOILER AGAIN], [TWIN SPOILER: BOTH THE GUY'S NAME AND WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM], and Adder, in this, just got the crap kicked out of him and isn't really worried about that as much as he's worried about breaking out of jail). Kindle likely refuses to fight, instead commanding armies of tanks; no doubt she forced Wily or Mujoe to give her some kind of emergency weapon. (Wily: "She did. And she still owes me twenty bucks for ammunition!")

Obviously Dark Matter and Kefka aren't showing their faces first, because they're the big guys on top. (This was hard for Kindle to accept.) Anyway, I'll have a vote out now. And I'll advertise it in the title.

(Voting is still going on! This is the last entry before voting ends. And yes, all five of those characters are in at least one Mario Kart game.)

"Right, here's the problem. If we show our faces, we end up getting punished for 9342 murders we didn't commit." Bomberman looked outside. "And if we don't..."

Max growled, "Whoever's behind this gets away! Whether it's Capcom or someone else, they know our faces and they don't like us."

Adeleine nodded. "We've got to find them and stop them. But what exactly is Red doing?"

Mega Man did a quick scan, then said, "Red's been gone a total of twenty-four minutes thirty-seven seconds. He's used a White Robe to cast Invis about ten times now. And he's made a few... coin exchanges?"

"Coin exchanges?"

"I guess we'll find out-"

"Now." Red reappeared in front of them, his Invis spell wearing off.

"Red! What took you so long?"

Red grinned. "I found the perfect disguise. We've got to stick around here to find out who's after us, right?"

Max nodded, clenching his fists. "When I get my hands on 'em-"

"And nobody will think of kicking a big-time Mario Kart racing team out of the kingdom."

Bomberman raised an eyebrow. "So..."

"We're... switching places... with a big-time Mario Kart racing team."

"How..."

"Don't worry, they're not dead." Red pointed to his pack. "I paid them off. Now here are our disguises..."

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"Donkey still confused. Why we ride in big black long car? Why we no ride in go-kart?"

Toadette shrugged. "I'll explain on the way. Driver! Smash Center, as fast as possible."

"But Donkey wanted to throw banana peels at skinny whiny guy."

"Yeah, yeah, I wanted to-a throw stuff at Waluigi, too. But, ya see, we got-a more important stuff to do." Luigi kicked back in a chair. "Like-a gettin' a frappe."

"Donkey still no get it! Long car is boring."

"IT IS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JUSTICE." R.O.B. took a quick look outside the limo's window. "OR SO I HEAR."

"This have anything to do with red hat guy?"

Paratroopa nodded. "Yes, Donkey Kong, this has something to do with the red hat guy. See, here's how it went..."

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"A monkey suit? Really?" Max covered his face with his simian-disguise-covered palm.

"Correction. Gorilla suit." Red tossed his green cap in the air, caught it, and replaced it on his head. "We're disguised as a team of Mario Kart racers that's not as well known. We'll use these disguises to move around the town without arousing suspicion."

"Still feels weird wearing a... whatever this is. It's like one of those old powdered wigs, but with mushrooms instead of hair. Oh well, whatever works!"

Max groaned. "You wouldn't be sayin' that if you had to wear a dang monkey suit."

"Gorilla suit! Now stop griping, you'll have to talk in fractured english to convince anyone you're Donkey Kong."

"Hey, this isn't so bad. Look at my disguise! It's got wheels! Woooo!" Mega Man, disguised as R.O.B., rolled around in circles.

Bomberman had his explosives stored in the shell part of his Paratroopa disguise. "Say, Red. How'd you get these?"

"Magic. Duh. Anything inexplicable happens, a wizard did it. Don'tcha know the rule?"

"Where I come from, it's 'Dr. Wily did it'..."

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"Okay. This is-a the signup office. Let's-a go!" Red pushed the door open, and they came in; Red whispered, "Remember what you rehearsed!"

Adeleine began to examine the area. Not much out of place... a few fountains, she'd have to spy-check those-

"What are you doing?" Red whispered harshly at Adeleine.

"Checking for potential threats, areas we could be ambushed, possible spy hiding locations-"

"No! Toadette did not do training in Team Fortress 2! If you're wearing the pink pigtails, forget your training!"

"Is there a problem?" A security guard looked at them with a raised eyebrow.

"No, nothing's wrong."

Max shouted, "OOK OOK OOK! BANANAS! Where bananas?"

"R.O.B., do you have bananas?"

Mega Man reached into the back pocket of the disguise. "NO. NO BANANAS. SORRY."

"I've-a got one banana. That's-a-gonna have to do." Red tossed Max a banana; Max began to peel it, chomping off the top.

"Next."

Red urged the rest of the Seekers forward. "Oh, yeah! Luigi and his-a team wanna do the Mario Kart tournament!"

"Yes, we have your reservation. The tournament begins in four hours. I assume you're here to pick out your vehicles?"

"Oh, yeah! Ah... Right?"

"Absolutely right, Luigi! What karts do you have that are purple?"

"Well, if you're a team, your karts all have to be red or blue..."

Why were red and blue the only team colors people could think of? Bomberman wondered that, but he kept it in his head while Adeleine said, "Oh, okay. Well, something that has a high top speed..."

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"See, you can tell that's a weak point in the structure. If you laid a bomb there and at the other supports, the whole thing would fall down! Of course, managing that with the security around here would be close to impossible, and there's no good reason to blow up an inn, anyway."

Adeleine nodded. "There isn't. But this is all really interesting."

"So tell me. Where would a Spy be hiding?"

"Hmm. Probably behind the oven, since a slight shimmer in the air would be expect-"

"Gwahahahaha! Hey, if it isn't Paratroopa!"

Bowser pointed at Bomberman. "So, you just too lazy to work for Bowser any more? Yeah, I see you there talkin' to Toadette. What secrets have you told, huh? What forbidden info?"

"What?" Bomberman was clueless as to how to act. What was Bowser doing here? He figured the best response would be 'what'.

"Yeah, you think you can get old Bowser to give you an easier job by making him nervous, eh? Not gonna happen. You give a secret about the castle to her, and both of ya's are gonna roast- URK!"

Adeleine was holding Bowser by the throat, much to the astonishment of the minions with him. "Listen, you oversized scale faced fire-spitting twit. Bo- uh, Paratroopa hasn't told me anything about your stupid, probably badly furnished and barely defended crapsack of a castle. I have to deal with, um, your constant Mushroom Kingdom raids so much I'm USED TO IT. And if you think idle threats are going to bug me, you're wrong. Dead wrong, maggot. You got that?"

"Err..."

"YOU GOT THAT?!"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh! Just worried about my castle!" Bowser pushed Adeleine away. "Just get the [BOWSER SAID A SWEAR WORD] away... and no tellin' secrets about my castle!"

Adeleine nodded, and walked back to Bomberman. "Sorry."

"It looks like you got a little training from the TF2 Soldier. Called Bowser a maggot!"

"He won't mess with me again. Or Toadette, for that matter."

Bomberman nodded. "And if he does?"

"After your lesson, I think I can find the structural weak points of his castle and paint smiling suns and pink flowers on them. Just to embarrass him."

"Adeleine?"

"Yes?"

"I'm glad you're on our side."

"Same here."

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"Blast it, Max!" Red shut the door to the Transport Kart. "Your constant monkey noises are breaking my concentration!"

"Yeah, well, you said to act like Donkey Kong, so I'm acting like Donkey Kong."

"Pah. You can act like Donkey Kong quietly."

"Wrong. I may not know much about biology, but I know apes make lots of noise. Flak... I told you about him, right? Black Hole officer? He's the closest thing to an ape I ever saw and he makes a lot of noise."

"Hmph. Didn't Flak call you a gorilla once?"

"Well, see, he's wrong. I'm not a gorilla."

"Then why are you dressed like one?"

"Shut up!"

Someone started knocking on the door; Red Mage opened it, allowing Mega Man to get in. Once the door was closed, Red asked, "Any info?"

"Like you wouldn't believe. I traced the fingerprints on the posters. Cross-referenced a lot of databases. And the fingerprints that have touched every poster belong to one of two people; therefore, one of those two people must have placed the posters."

"Great. Who are the two people?"

"Either it's Toadsworth- which doesn't make sense- or..."

(The winner of the poll, with but one vote, was Kindle.

MUST THINK OF NEW POLL... Bullet Bike (though Bomberman's is probably redder to match the Paratroopa disguise, as opposed to the green one here), Offroader (with Waluigi in it, so it's the same color), the ROB-BLS Mega Man's got, a Pirahna Prowler like Max's (though ideally he'd be driving a tank), a Magikruiser (exactly the color Adeleine would be riding because of her disguise), and a Mach bike (just like the one Red's on because of the disguise). That's a lot of karts... also, here's a Stealth Fighter made by Orange Star; Black Hole copied Orange Star's design for the Stealth Fighter, so theirs is the same, but painted black.)

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Max groaned. "Tell me you didn't say what I think you said."

"No, sorry. I said Kindle."

"Not the snobbish one from Wars World, right?"

Mega Man nodded. "It's the snobbish one from Wars World. File says here that, after [THE MEGAMAN IS A SPOILER], Kindle vanished from records for a time. Later, she assumed command of a remnant of the Black Hole army, but this remnant has not taken part in anything significant. Their only known activities are defensive in nature, shoring up the defenses in Black Hole proper."

Red shook his head. "Then why are her fingerprints all over the posters accusing us of an inconceivable number of murders? Did she set them up?"

"Toadsworth probably put them up, but Kindle was likely the one who made the posters, and I'll guess she tricked Toadsworth into it."

"Makes sense. But why does Kindle not want us here?" Max scratched his head. "There's something going on."

Mega Man nodded. "We'll have to figure out what. To do that, we have to keep our disguises."

Max groaned. "Meaning I gotta keep wearing the [SWEAR WORDS... TO THE "MAX"] monkey suit... when's the Kart race?"

"Eight minutes and thirty-four seconds right after I end the sentence."

"Dang!" Max slammed the gas. "We gotta hurry! The track's on the other side of the city!"

"MAX, YOU BLITHERING IDIOT! THE LIMIT IS 35 THROUGH HERE!"

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"Kart race is gonna start soon."

"Can't wait! This is gonna be a blast!" Adeleine added, "Literally, a blast!"

Bomberman tapped the Bullet Bike on the side. "This thing goes fast, right?"

"Yep! It's almost like a heavy light bike. Higher Top Speed and lower Acceleration. It's great at drifting, too."

"Nice." Bomberman checked his watch. "Uh-oh. It's five minutes on the dot until the race begins. The rest of 'em still aren't-"

"It's-a me, Luigi!" Red (in full disguise) entered the garage. "Let's-a go!"

"Red, there's no one else in here. You can talk in your normal voice."

Max and Mega Man followed Red in, and all five of them immediately went to their Karts. "All right. First race is on Luigi Circuit. Let's get to the start line..."

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"Kindle! Kindle! Hey, Kindle! Kindle! Kindle! Kindle! Kin-"

"I heard you the first time. What do you need?"

Mujoe said, "JOB DONE! Just like you asked! I put the tanks right where you-"

"HUSH." Kindle whispered as harshly as one could whisper, "We are in a public place. Are you incapable of comprehending the idea of surprise attacks?"

"Oh, right! Okay! JOB DONE! That's all you need to know!" Then Mujoe raised an eyebrow. "But why are ya SHOPPIN' in a Mushroom Kingdom store when you're gonna DE-"

"Do I need to remind you again, Mujoe?" Kindle looked around. "Thank your lucky stars there were no people around eavesdropping. As for why I'm shopping here... I supposed there wouldn't be much of a chance to, after excavation has begun beneath the city. Aha ha ha ha ha!"

"Hey! Villainous laughter?! I LOVE THAT! Let me try! GAH HAHAHAHAHAHA-"

"For the last time, Mujoe!"

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"And, as you all know, we were getting low on funding, what with the hefty donations the Mario Kart corporation made to the national defense budget! But we still managed to crank out a 5-vs.-5 Team Racing To-"

"WHATEVER! WALUIGI HATES THIS TALKING! LET'S GO ALREADY! WALUIGI TIME!" Waluigi slammed the front of his Offroader, generally throwing a hissy fit. Bomberman rolled his eyes. At least he didn't have to work with that guy.

The announcer continued, "Ahem. As I was saying, we still managed to crank out a 5-vs.-5 Team Racing Tournament..."

Mega Man looked around, his R.O.B. disguise allowing for a 360-degree range of vision. The other team consisted of Bowser, Waluigi, Dry Bones, Wario, and (strangely enough) Birdo. The Seekers seemed to have the even-numbered positions at the start; Mega Man was in the 10th-place position.

"So, without any further ado, let the race begin!" The crowd roared as a Lakitu flew to the starting line with a traffic light. As the countdown from 3 began, Mega Man waited. At the optimal time, his foot hit the gas pedal to get an early boost; when the light hit green, the ROB-BLS surged ahead, passing up Birdo and Adeleine and ending up in front of Waluigi.

Each of the racers managed to pick up an item, except for Dry Bones; Max had driven his Pirahna Prowler right into him, knocking the lighter Dry Bones off the road into the grass. This was allowed in Mario Kart; the Karts were very durable and had excellent shock absorbers. Adeleine caught up with Mega Man just as they both got a Triple Mushroom out of the box.

"Shortcut, right here!" Mega Man fed one Mushroom into the Kart's power tank, which automatically digested the chemical potential energy in the Mushroom and caused the kart to go really, really fast. Both Mega Man and Adeleine did this, using the speed boost to get themselves through dirt to a ramp that carried them over the remaining dirt; this allowed them to bypass a curve with ease, putting them a while behind Bowser, who was in first place.

"Leave Bowser to me!" Adeleine's Magikruiser shot ahead with a second Mushroom boost, and then a third, and slammed into Bowser's kart with sheer force; this allowed her to snatch Bowser's Banana Peel while causing Bowser's kart to spin out. Mega Man easily passed it up as they entered the second lap.

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"Down on your luck, Red?" Bomberman had just been hit by a Bob-Omb and was now in a distant 9th, just ahead of Red.

"Cars haven't even been invented where I'm from. Even a genius can't learn to drive well in a day. Plus, they're cheating!"

"Nah, Red. They aren't cheating. But hey, you win some, you lose some, right?" Bomberman looked ahead. "Adeleine told me you get the best items when you're losing, so we still got a chance."

"Better yet, something's likely going to happen that will get us out of this." Red looked into the sky, his eyes open for anything unusual. "Writing race scenes gets repetitive after a while, so the author will probably have a conveniently placed attack by Kindle during the race. I told you about Kindle on the way here, right?"

"Yep. Wait, a battle?! You're prepared for that, right?!"

"Of course I am. I'm always prepared. You'll never catch me unprep- WHOA!" Bomberman had knocked Red's bike off the road.

"Always prepared, huh?"

"Shut up and let's at least try to catch up to WHAT IN BLAZES IN THAT GIGANTIC PLANE DOING APPEARING IN THE AIR OUT OF NOWHERE?!"