None of these characters are owned or created by me in any way. Also, this is very much SSB related, although it may not be totally apparent at the moment.

That, and this was done on the spur of the moment at eleven pm. I also had horrible gas at the time, which may or may not be a contributing factor. Read on.

--

Serious Consideration

--

“I’ll raise you five.”

“I’ll see your five and raise you fifteen.”

“It’s a shame to take your money. . .” The owner of the first voice leaned over his cards. Two jacks, a seven, a seven and an ace. Not strong. Not as strong as he’d like. One of his opponents was vulnerable to bluffing, but the other was a bit reckless. Anyway, he’d been bluffing a bit too much as of late.

The third player declared that he was in. The pot grew a little bit bigger with his stake. Three pairs of eyes locked over it, with intensity that a field of warfare would be stressed to match. A few significant chuckles, sneers and expressions were exchanged. Between them, the pot twinkled in the fluorescent lights like a besieged city constructed of wrinkled bills and pocket change.

The first player was feeling ballsy. “Two pair.”

“Two pair.”

“Five card straight.” Player three took the pot with a smirk. “Cast me for the next Indiana Jones movie, ‘cause I’m on a roll.”

The two two-pairers looked at the winner with deadpan eyes. “Rock. Never say that line again, or we will be forced to kill you.”

“. . .Jealous.” Rock muttered, passing his hand back to the dealer. “You just wish you had my poker face.”

“What face?” The largest one asked, placing another stake on his side of the table. It wasn’t dollar bills like the other two, but a small pile of glowing glass beads. “All you ever do is smile, Rock.”

“Lecture me when you’re up by fifty, Rid.” Rock muttered. “Maybe you’ll win it back in this hand?”

“Not happening.” The first speaker was feeling a lot less ballsy, but still quite ballsy indeed. “I’m winning it all this time. Starting with Rock’s helmet.”

“Less talk, more dealing.” Rid demanded.

“Ah, blow it out your. . .”

“Excuse me?” A fourth voice asked. It was smaller and more feminine then the three poker players, with the possible exception of Rock. “Umm. . .Is this the. . .Umm. . .” It sunk into silence, giving a distinct impression of wanting to get back behind the door again without moving suddenly. The three players turned to said door.

She couldn’t have been more than eight, by the look of her. But then again, she was one of those big-eyes, shiny-hair, hug-me-I’m-chibi types, so you never knew. She was in an orange dress with an overall flowery sort of look, not the least of which was a flower-shaped wand in one hand. Her hair was brown and her eyes were shiny with shock, and pointed directly at Rid.

Which made sense, as Rid was a dragon.

“Umm. . .The man outside told me to. . .umm. . .umm. . .” She ummed into silence. For a minute or two, the three poker-ers simply stared at her, taking in all the flowery details. She stared at Rid for the most part, but the other two weren’t anything familiar to her, either. The blue, spiky one who was dealing had a particularly bored expression.

Eventually, Rid snickered. “Friend of yours, Rock?”

“Never seen her in my life. Might be Capcom, though.” Rock shrugged. “Why?”

“I dunno. Big, shiny eyes, sounds girlier than Jigglypuff on helium. Has to be related to you somehow, right?”

“You son of a b. . .” Rock rolled his eyes and bit off the end of that sentence. “Bucket.”

“Bucket?”

“Yes, Rid. A bucket.”

“. . .Girl voice.”

“Sh-Shut up!” Rock squealed. Player one sighed. Arguments and poker were the only way to pass time around here. It’d end, though. Eventually.

Eventually, Rid took another look at the girl. “The game is five-card stud. You in or out?”

“What?”

“Five card stud.” Rid repeated. “You know. Poker.”

“What’s poker?”

There was a pause. Rid’s eye’s narrowed, and his jagged, purple snout was lowered into leering position. “You’re making fun of me.”

“Easy, Rid, she’s not making fun of you. We don’t want that mess we had with Geno again, do we?” The first player said, getting up from the table. “You play with Rock. I’m gonna break in the new kid.” The dragon locked glares with the blue guy, then gave her one last ‘I’m watchin’ you’ expression and started dealing with Rock. Spiky put a hand on her shoulder. “New in town?”

“Umm. . .Yes. I got a letter from a. . .”

“Yeah, don’t sweat it.” Spiky lead her to one of the few other features in this room, a television with a cutpurse couch in front of it. There was also a water cooler. “Here, have a drink. Don’t worry about Rid, he’s just a bit grouchy.”

“Why?”

“Probably on account of him getting whupped by a girl all the time. Yeah, I said it! Don’t make me do to you what I did to that Vaati guy!” Rid, who had stood up suddenly with smoke pouring out of his nostrils, muttered something in a language Spiky didn’t understand and got turned the table right-side up again. “That reminds me. . .Don’t mention the girl thing. He’s touchy.

“Anyway, you’ve got a name, kid?” Spiky asked, pouring himself some water. The kid, who had brandished the flower defensively at Rid’s outburst, stopped crouching against the opposite wall.

“Umm. . .I’m Lip.”

“Lip?” Spiky raised an eyebrow. He had very strange eyes, now that she thought about it. “What kind of name is Lip?”

“It’s my name.” Lip responded, slightly offended. “Anyway, what kind of name is ‘Rid’?”

“Well, his full name is Ridley. Means something in Norfarian, which is what he was growling at me just before. He’s a space pirate.”

“There are pirates in space? How do they make the boat fly?”

Spiky gave her the same look he would have given someone who’d asked what kind of sound cheese makes. “. . .Anyway. . .The guy in the blue suit over there who looks almost as girly as you is Rock. Rock’s not as ornery as Rid, but then again, so’s a shrapnel bomb. He also goes by the name ‘Megaman’. Which is actually kind of ironic, considering . . .well, you know.”

“Know what?” Rock asked. Lip looked around to see where the other girl was.

“That.” Spiky snickered. “Anyway, my name is Sonic. Welcome to Serious Consideration No. 2.”

--

It was a building somewhere. Or possibly the idea of a building. Whose idea, exactly, was unknown, but some people said it belonged to a man named Sakurai. Some people said it wasn’t real, which was a difficult argument to make when the wall you’re leaning on feels pretty solid.

The first room in the building was called Discussion. Lip had been there, for a little bit. It was enormous, and positively filled with people. Lip had never seen so many people in the rest of her life altogether, and none of them looked familiar. A lot of them seemed to recognize her, though, and they’d done much arguing on that point. And no two of them were quite alike. There were loud people, quiet people, people who swore a lot and used ‘tardisms to get their points across. Lip didn’t know what a ‘tardism was, but Sonic didn’t speak highly of them.

Sometimes, someone would move from Discussion to the next room. The person who moved was, however, not a discusser. It was more like they were an idea of someone else, much in the same way that this place was the idea of. . .Something. Sonic had trailed off here, and been interrupted by an impolite joke from Rid.

Anyway, the second room was called Proposal, but it was more commonly referred to as the Hopefuls. This room had been smaller, much smaller, but still very, very large. Lip had been able to see both ends of one wall at the same time, but that was about it. The people there had been even more different. At least everyone in discussion had had two arms and two legs. A lot of them in the Hopefuls did, too, but there had been wings and tails and glowing auras and other, stranger things. Lots of spiky hair, in all different colors. Some of them hadn’t had arms. Some of them were arms, and nothing else. There had been one or two that Lip thought she recognized, but she’d been moving too fast.

At the far end of the wall, there was a series of doors. The man who’d been escorting her opened the door marked Number Two. And here she was now. In number two. Or at least the idea of it.

“So. . .Why is it called Serious Consideration? And why am I here?”

“Well. . .” Sonic sighed, and rubbed his head. “You’re not. Technically, nobody is here. Just the idea of somebody.”

“What?”

“It’s kind of like a dream.” Sonic muttered. “You’re not really you, you’re an idea of you created by the Discussers. They’re the only ones who are real here, except maybe Sakurai.”

Lip asked him to repeat that once or twice. It hadn’t made much sense the second time, either. “If I’m not me, then where is me?”

“I dunno. Wherever the real you was before you came here. Anyway, don’t worry about it too much. Just pretend it’s a dream, like I do.” Sonic took a drink of his water, perhaps dreaming that it was alcohol. “Speaking of which, where are you from?”

“My world is called Popples. I am it’s princess, actually.” Hearing this, Sonic muttered something that sounded like, ‘Not another one’, but Lip didn’t notice. “It’s also known as the land of the fairies.”

Sonic’s eyebrow raised unpleasantly at the word ‘fairies’. “You didn’t just say fairies, did you?”

“Yes. Why?” Lip asked. “Have you heard of it?”

Sonic didn’t answer immediately. “. . .Have you ever kicked anyone off a cliff?”

“What?”

“Ever used a rocket launcher?”

“A what?”

“Where do the lasers come out of that flower you’re holding?”

“Where do the what?”

“. . .” Sonic looked at her for a moment, sighed, and tossed the empty paper cup over his shoulder. Rid roasted it with his breath before it hit the ground. “How the heck did you get into serious consideration?”

“That’s what I wanna know! And what the heck is Serious Consideration, anyway?”

“Serious Consideration is the last stop before the biggest fight in history. And that’s not an exaggeration. This shit makes World War Two look like Duck Duck Goose. Gorillas go flying ass-first into orbit every couple of minutes, little yellow mice run around chopping your legs of with lightsabers and absolutely everything blows up. If there’s anything to fight over, then they will fight, and just being in each other’s eyesight is reason enough. There’s weapons everywhere. There’s weapons on the weapons. There’s weapons on the weapon on the weapons. There’s weapons on the weapons on the weapons on the weapons, and those are rigged with high explosive. This is going to be the third time it’s happened, and the whole world is watching now. And they call it ‘Brawl’.”

Sonic sat back in the chair, smiling grimly at the second door in the room. It said ‘Brawl’ in big, black and red letters over the top of it. Lip was looking at it too, with amazement. “. . .How do we escape?”

Sonic fell over. Rid and Rock whipped their heads around, then burst out laughing. Lip asked what was so funny. Rock stopped laughing, with some effort. “Escape? Are you kidding? Everyone wants to be in Brawl!”

“What? Why? Everything explodes!”

“Exactly!” All three of them said at the same time. Sonic stood up, shaking his head. “Lip, don’t you get it? Brawl is the be-all and the end-all experience. The people who get chosen are marked by history. It’s the final culmination of the strength of all beings, in this world and others. It. Is. Epic.”

“Not to mention how much fun it is.”

“Yeah.” Rid snickered. “A real blast.” Rock leveled an accusing glare at him. “. . .What? it is.”

“And you say I make bad jokes. . .”

Lip stood stunned for a minute or two, then began edging for the door. “Right. Well, have fun being blown up, Sonic, Rock and Rid. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find the way back to Popples. . .”

“Relax, kiddo.” Somehow, Sonic had gotten from one side of the room to the other before Lip could so much as reach for the knob. “First of all. . .” He opened the door. What should have lead to the Hopefuls was another Serious Consideration Number 2, complete with another Sonic, Rid, Rock and Lip. “There’s no way out, which makes sense because you’re not really here.” The door was closed. “And even if there was, getting out of Brawl is the last thing you want to do.”

Lip took a definitive step away from the cosmically confused doorway. “Right. Because we all want to be in little gooey pieces all over the place. I’m just allergic to getting my legs chopped off by flying gorillas with laser rats, or whatever you said.” She was stared into silence. Rid and Rock had put down the cards. “What? You die when you get blown up. That’s why we don’t have bombs on Popples.”

“Uh oh.” Rid intoned. Rock nodded his agreement. He collected his share of the pot and put it in a pocket. With the other hand, he placed a shiny blue helmet over his spiky brown hair.

“What?” Lip looked back to the door, but Sonic was gone. “ Uh-oh what?”

“You never tried out for Melee, did you?” Sonic was at the poker table, shaking his head. “Kid, you don’t know what you’re missing.”

“I don’t know anything, dammit!” Lip shouted. Fairy princesses didn’t swear, as a rule, but this was one mother of a day. “Will you psychos just tell me what the hell is going on here or not!”

“All right, all right. Don’t get your ponytail in a knot, kid.” Suddenly, Sonic was in front of the television, without seeming to go through the motion of walking over to it. It hummed to life at the clicking of buttons and the flipping of switches. Every now and then it would make a loud popping noise. “Guys. Two on two at Yoshi’s Island, okay? I’m with the kid.”

“Yoshi’s. . .” Ridley rolled his eyes and tossed his cards away. Rock had been winning anyway. “The place that looks like it came out of Looney Tunes? Screw that, let’s do Final Destination!”

“You wanna give her a heart attack? She comes from a planet called Popples, for Pete’s sake!” Sonic retorted. “Cut her some slack, she’s new.”

“Fine. . .Just get rid of the banjo, okay?” Rid muttered. Sonic nodded, pressed a few final buttons on the T.V. and stood back. The room began to fill with blinding light and, of all things, the sound of cheering. The last thing Lip remembered was Rid, muttering to himself. “Popples. . .Popples. . .Small, colorful place outside the Lylat system? I might have invaded there once or twice. . .”

--

Ready?

GO!

Lip wasn’t totally sure what was going on. All she did know was that she was standing on top of a big, yellow block with eyes. It wasn’t that frightening, actually. Not in comparison to Ridley, who was charging at her with a mouth so full of fangs there was barely any room for the fire. She did the first thing that came to mind, which was to swing the wand.

Common logic says this should have resulted in a sniggering noise and an extra-crispy flower princess, but Common logic didn’t seem to be talking at the moment. A big, white flower sprouted between his eyes, causing him to crash into the blocks. They started spinning, dropping Lip to the turf below.

Turf? Lip looked down and felt grass between her fingers. Serious Consideration had been floored with linoleum. And it hadn’t been outside, either.

Were. . .Were those hills staring at her?

There was a thud. Ridley rolled off the ground, pulling the flower out by the roots. Some odd instinct took over, and Lip waved the wand again. A bigger daisy took its place. To judge by the growling, it was quite painful somehow. Rid managed to ignore this one, instead head butting Lip into a rocky incline behind her. It didn’t hurt. Well, a little bit, but not as much as getting head butted by a dragon should.

The big, blue ball of energy that came screaming out of nowhere hurt a bit more, though. On top of another set of yellow blocks, Rock was taking sight for another attack. The words ‘neutral B’ appeared in Lip’s mind for some reason. Without thinking, she raised the flower.

A cluster of panels. She was a little more familiar with these, although they usually didn’t come out of thin air and smash into people, even if they were pointing a laser gun at her. And when three of the same type touched, they were supposed to vanish. Not explode.

Sonic’s words echoed in her head. ‘Everything Explodes’.

They exploded. Rock flew off the blocks, landing roughly in the dirt. Lip would have usually asked if he was hurt, but for some reason, she felt an irrepressible urge to do it again. Maybe it had something to do with the cheering of the crowd? The crowd that she couldn’t see?

Lip didn’t get the chance, though. A purple spike the size of a lamppost pummeled her back, sending her flying across the dirt. It was Rid again, with eyes like burning coals on either side of a rather pretty daisy. His tail swung dangerously in all directions, especially towards Lip. Somehow, it didn’t seem like the wand was apt to do much in this situation.

Something moving way too fast bounced off Ridley’s head, bounded into the air and came down with a resounding thud. It was Sonic, standing on top of a mildly-concussed dragon with a clever grin. “Watch closely, kid.”

Sonic vanished. What happened next was too fast for her to see clearly, but there was something to do with a bluish whirlwind and some kind of aerial shockwave. Rid went tumbling ass-over-ears into the background. Sonic grinned, dusted his hands off and was about to say something when a big, blue laser knocked him off his feet, over some pipes and down a put. There was an almighty Bang, and Sonic. . .Exploded? Or something.

Which made it very strange when he reappeared in a flash next to Lip. “Rock you smiling son of a bucket, I was trying to explain how knockouts work!” Rock just shot him another laser.

“Just because we’re taking it easy on princess noob here doesn’t mean I’m not going to fireball spam your pointy ass. Dance, varmint!” The buster cackled and the ground under Sonic’s feet burst. Sonic danced, of course. His shoes represented the entirety of his wardrobe, and he didn’t want to replace them. “Lip? Wanna do me a big favor? Then go over there and kick Rock in his rocks, if you don’t mind.” Sonic turned his head to one side, so as to keep both Rock and Lip in his vision. Lip, however. . .

“You. . .just. . .” She was currently backing up towards the edge of the stage, which was marked by a couple of big, green pipes. “You just blew up. I saw it. You were. . .”

“Relax.” Sonic hadn’t stopped dancing. “That was just a knockout.”

“Knockouts don’t explode!”

“Everything Explodes!” Three voices called out. The third was Rid again, climbing over the pipes with burning eyes. One hand was holding a small black ball with a fuse and yellow feet. It terrified Lip, somehow. The words ‘Up B’ appeared in her mind.

She waved the wand. A flower appeared under her, forming a platform. It happened just quick enough to place her above the trajectory of the black ball, which Ridley threw overarm. It landed next to Rock.

Sonic nodded. “Everything. . .”

Lip covered her eyes. “Explodes?”

“Right.”

--

Two minutes and about two hundred explosions of varying descriptions later, Lip felt she was getting the hang of this ‘Brawl’ stuff. You kicked people off cliffs, and they got back up again and tried to do it to you. It had been a shock, the first time Rock slugged her with a spinning uppercut and sent her flying off the arena. At first, she thought she was dead, what with the bright light and loud noises. But sure enough, she was right back where she’d started, with Rid and Rock double teaming Sonic on the other side of the valley. The crowd cheered whenever anyone got punched, kicked, shot or, most of all, blown up.

It had been a bit of a disappointment, then, when a huge voice had declared, ‘GAME!’ and the screen had turned black. There was an image of Rock and Rid posing, with some other stuff that Lip didn’t recognize, and then. . .

Back to Serious Consideration Number Two. She was exactly where she’d been before, except that she smelled faintly of gunpowder. Sonic was grinning at her from in front of the television. “Well? What do you think?”

“. . .Let’s do that again.”

“That’s the spirit.” Sonic turned back to the T.V., but. . .

“Hold on a minute.” Rid elbowed him out of the way. “The item switch got messed up again.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It tells us what kind of explosions we get to play with.” Rock responded. “Come on, Rid. It looked fine to me. Let’s do Great Bay this time.”

“It was messed up.” Rid insisted, flicking buttons and pressing switches. “I got hit with a Lip’s Stick at least twice, and that should be off. . .”

Sonic blinked. Something had just occurred to him. “Lip’s Stick?”

“See, Rid?” Rock was leaning under the dragon’s shoulder, eyes fixed to the screen. “Lip’s Stick is off. Even though you know I like it on, does wonders for my projectile combos. . .”

“Don’t start that again. You’re not getting the stupid flower if I’m not getting the proximity bomb.”

“Lip’s Stick. . .” Sonic muttered again. He stared at Lip’s wand, as though seeing it for the first time. “. . .Guys. Look at that.”

“What?”

“What?” Rid turned his head around. Since he had an awful lot of head to turn, Rock was knocked over. “Sorry. What? It’s just the new kid. Anyway, I’ll get you good next time, Sonic. Bitches don’t know about my laser. . .” He chuckled, flicking on something that said ‘Super Scope’.

“Her name. . .” Sonic stated, severely. “Is Lip. And she came in here with a rather familiar Stick. In fact, she’s holding it right now.” Sonic growled. “Look.”

They looked. All of them, even Lip, who had a feeling that it was about to explode. It was a while, but Rid was the first to speak. “. . .Well that explains why you got shuttled through the Hopefuls so quick.”

“What?”

“Why didn’t you tell us you had references?” Rock demanded.

Lip shrugged. “Nobody told me. What’s references?”

“It means you were in Melee. At least, your stick was.” Rock rubbed his chin. “Damn. That flower thing’s been raising eyebrows ever since Melee. . .” With a snap of his fingers, Rock was struck by another realization. “And that pink block! The one that looked like Kirby’s stone attack, remember that, guys?”

“Yeah. . .I thought that was just a glitch. Kirby got confirmed ages ago. . .”

“Are you talking about that time I hit Rock with the garbage block?”

“Right!” Rock exclaimed. “Kirby once told me that that block hadn’t come from any of his experiences, and that it had something to do with Lip’s Stick! You did that, right?

“And this all means. . .What?”

“Basically? You’re on the fast path for brawl. You would have been in Melee. Your stick was, at least. And so was the garbage block, thanks to Kirby. But then you got. . .errm. . .” Rock paused, and looked sideways at Sonic. The hedgehog formerly known as Spiky nodded, very slowly. Rock sighed. “Basically, you got shafted.”

“Never did like that guy.” Rid interjected. “Can’t trust a guy who runs around in pantyhose, even if he has got a skirt on. Even more so, actually.” Rock muttered his agreement.

“What guy? Who are you. . .”

“His name. . .” Sonic’s voice was surprisingly sharp, and there was an eerie aspect to his smirk. “. . .Is Link. And he’s six years overdue for a whole lotta karma. . .

“You see, Lip. . .The lineup for Melee consists of twenty-five official entrants. However. . .Shortly before the final selection, it was expected to have twenty-eight. That’s three left. Three who had been recognized for their strength, and had earned the right to compete. . .” Sonic put a hand to his chest, not quite hearing Rock’s muttered comment about how dramatic he got about this subject. “I was one of those three. The third, and final competitor. The second was a man called Snake. And the first. . .Well, apparently, it was you.”

“. . .Why?” Lip asked, interrupting Sonic’s speech with the same effect as a walrus in front of a minecart. His thick, blue eyebrows clenched mightily. Rid coughed.

“Well, Lip. . .what’s the most impressive thing you’d say you’ve done? Ever. Including past lives and things you might have forgotten.”

“Things I might have. . .What kind of question is that?” Rid just gazed at her, awaiting an answer. “. . .I guess it would have to be the time I defeated Cordellia.”

“Who was she?”

“A three-hundred foot goddess of creation. Also my mom. Long story.”

Ridley nodded. “Three hundred feet, huh? That sounds fairly epic to me. . .” He looked at Sonic. “He once defeated a trans-temporal time-controlling entity inside of a void of nothingness created by the destruction of reality. Did a pretty good job of fixing the universe afterwards, too.”

Sonic shrugged. For a moment, his usual good humor shine through. “Personally, I like the one where I stopped an apocalyptic space station from colliding with earth. And Snake had that story about taking out a sixty-foot mechanized nuclear silo. But I digress. . .

“The three of us had been recognized for what we had done. We’d earned a place. You and Snake had already had references put in. I was the last, so none for me. . .But either way, it was all looking pretty bright. We were past Serious Consideration. We were in. . .

“And then. . .we were out.” Sonic folded his arms. “It was a man named Link. An elf of some kind, actually. He was the second one to be chosen for Melee, and a veteran from the original gathering. . .” Sonic growled. “I’m not sure why he did it. Personally, I think he just didn’t want to share the limelight with twenty-eight, so he settled for twenty five.” A sigh, and a long pause. “He shut us out. Deselected us, somehow. The ideas of us that had been created for Melee were discarded. You and Snake were completely forgotten, except for the references. His was some kind of bomb or a cloak or something. . .”

“And you weren’t?” Lip asked. The other three snickered.

“Tell her why you weren’t, Sonic. Go on.” Sonic snickered, shaking his head.

“Long story short, I’ve been remembered by the first of the original gathering. A guy called Mario. He’s been itching for a fight with me, and was pretty disappointed when I couldn’t make it for Melee.” He sighed. “Well, I’m not planning to disappoint him twice. And when I get the chance. . .Well, you know what I always say, right?”

“Everything explodes?”

“Yup. I just have to find out what does it to elves. And let me tell you, I’m ready to experiment...” A roll of laughter from the three. It took a moment to subside, and when it did, Sonic was in front of the T.V. again. “Well, if you’re gonna last long in Brawl, you need to get pretty good at Melee. You ready for Final Destination, Lip?”

A little smirk crossed her lips. “Does it explode?”

“Let’s find out.” The white light again. The crowd. The voice. . .

Ready. . .

--Epilogue--

“I see your ten and raise you another ten.”

“Twenty.”

“Could you make it thirty? Papa needs some new shoes.” Rock snickered. A five-card straight. That pot was sixty dollars and a handful of whatever it was that Norfarians used for currency. New shoes? New car was more like it. And all he had to do was keep smiling.

Three pairs of eyes locked. One more pair, a bit lower than the other three on account of her height, just stared at the pot.

Sonic spread them out. “Two pair.”

“Two pair.”

“Five-card straight.” Without so much as a wink, Rock reached forward for the pot. Five cards smacked his hand away from the other side of the table. “Flush.” A pretty accurate word for the way the grin disappeared. Lip pulled in her take with the wand.

Rid let his head drop to the table. “Greeeeeaaat. Not one, but two that just smile all the time.”

Lip chuckled as she counted up the winnings. “What do you say, boys? Up for another hand? Or would you rather take a stab at Final Destination again?”

“Sure, but only if I get my sensors.”

“Not again, Rid. . .” Sonic groaned. Another groan overtook his. It was the door leading in from the Hopefuls, which hadn’t been opened since Lip first arrived. The opener was young, male, with blonde hair and a striped shirt. That pretty much all you could say about him.

“Umm. . .Hi.” He said, giving Rid an odd look. “Um. . .I’m Lucas.” He looked around the room with a little sigh. “So this is Serious Consideration? I thought it would be a little nicer. . .”

“It ain’t.” Sonic stated, flatly as he dealt out a new hand. Rid gave Lucas the once-over. “The game’s five card stud. You in or out?”

“Five card stud?”

“You know. Poker.”

“What’s poker?”

Sonic, Rock and Lip sighed. Four were not about to become five. . .Not by the Ridley was leaning over the table with one eye squinting devilishly.

“You’re making fun of me. . .”

END