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Chapter Text

Egil was bored, plain and simple. Any time he tried to give an order to the Mechon army he had created to attack Bionis, the words would just not leave his head. The Machina wasn't entirely sure as to why the words failed to come on the most technical level, though he had paperwork sitting somewhere on his large desk underneath a bunch of Faced Mechon blueprints explaining why it was happening on a logistical level. Essentially, it said that while Shulk was away participating in a fighting tournament, Egil wasn't allowed to tear Bionis up and leave no home for the Monado wielder to return to. Of course, Egil wanted to protest that his major target had also gone off to the tournament as a result, but the rules were rules. Most Mechon were soulless units that weren't able to just shut off for the whole time Shulk was gone and not attack, but those minor units were ones Homs were capable of dealing with to some extent even without the legendary Sword of the Bionis to assist. At the same time, Master Hand was afraid those Mechon would terrorize guests if they came to check out Shulk's world, and thus Bionis was closed off to most people as a restricted war zone. The Faced Units were restricted from attacking, however. Instead, they just fought among themselves, both verbally and physically, trying to train up in preparation for the day they would be allowed to storm Bionis once again.

The tournament was a televised event that all of the worlds involved could watch (and even some that weren't involved), allowing people to cheer on their favorite fighters or representatives from their world. Egil also turned on a holographic television screen to watch the battles from time to time, often trying to learn more about Shulk and his fighting style before the two would actually have a chance to battle for real. More often than not, however, the overlord wanted nothing to do with the event that had put his plan to a complete halt. He busied himself with other things most of the time though, such as drawing up blueprints or checking in upon the Faced Units. Neither of those were necessary at this moment in time, however. As a result, Egil begrudgingly decided to turn on the television and see what was going on over at the tournament grounds.

Instead of being met with the likes of Mario and Pikachu or other individuals that the Machina couldn't honestly care less about beating the snot out of each other, Egil had tuned in to see two strange looking girls that appeared to have masks on their faces, one clad in green and the other in magenta. They were talking about something called a Turf War, going back and forth about a match that was about to begin. Red eyes squinted slightly as the mechanical man tried to figure out exactly what he was watching. What was this Turf War garbage? Where was the fighting that he had been promised would be broadcast on the channel?

Looking around his lab, Egil found his remote control to the holoscreen quickly enough, flipping through the various channels that were available to see if he had somehow ended up on the wrong one. Nope, there was nothing of the fighting on any of the other channels. Sighing with defeat, he switched back to the channel with the squid girls to find that it had already switched over to the Turf War that they had been talking about. There were four little squid children on each side of the field, each with an array of weaponry. One side was represented by a blue color and the other was orange. The weapons the kids held in their hands piqued Egil's interest, and so he decided to watch and see how this whole event played out. The countdown began... 3! 2! 1! And they were off! All eight of the children rocketed out of their starting panel and started firing, rolling, and slapping ink at the ground that was in the same color that represented their team, trying to coat as much of the field as they could. Additionally, they tried to 'splat' each other to send the other team's players zooming back to the starting grid and also turned into squids to slide through their team's ink with ease. All the while, the voices of the two squid girls could be heard giving play by play commentary, talking about how the match was going as well as some behind the scenes information such as the gear certain players were wearing or the weapons they carried.

Finally, the match ended and a rather rotund looking black and white cat strolled out onto the field. A helicopter took off and panned a camera down below it to get a bird's eye view of the battlefield. From here it was plain to see that the orange team had a bit of a leg up on the blue team, even though it was relatively close all game. The cat held up an orange flag, symbolizing how that color team had ended up winning the game. The squid boys and girls on the orange team leaped around happily while the blue team groaned in defeat. Once the match was over, however, both teams went over to one another and slapped high fives in the spirit of good sportsmanship. With that, the match was over and the camera returned to the green and magenta squid girls who immediately started jabbering some more about the match that had just been seen.

Right before Egil was about to shut off the television, they mentioned something about an event that would be taking place later in the week. The picture in picture then switched to an illustration of two large robots that were facing toward one another menacingly. The two ladies started talking about how this week's Splatfest would be Autobots vs. Decepticons in a series of Turf Wars of 'epic proportions'. They talked about how Inklings would take one side or another and fight to see which side would end up being victorious and then had a brief banter about the sides that were being supported by each lady.

“On one side, the legendary heroes of Cybertron... AUTOBOTS!" Said the magenta one.

“And on the other, the baddest evil robots ever... DECEPTICONS!" Answered the green one. "...So, Callie, which side are you o-"

By that point, Egil shut the television off, not wishing to listen to any more of the broadcast. 'Baddest evil robots ever', huh? Seeing as the red eyed machine man was bored and that whole Turf War held some middling interest to him (a lot more than the stupid fighting tournament that blasted Heir to the Monado was participating in, at least), he had hatched an idea to keep himself occupied. The main machinery that Mechon were mass produced with had been shut down by the spell, but there was plenty of scrap metal that Egil could fashion himself into his project. He had until the end of the week to accomplish his goal, which was more than enough hours available to complete the project with the amount of free time the Machina had thanks to the truce and the fact that he only really had his sister Vanea to distract him here in Agniratha. And with that, Egil set to work.

"Shulk, you were the one who wanted to go to this Splatfest... What is taking you so long to get ready?" A very impatient Robin was all prepared to go, dressed down with a purple hoodie that looked a lot like his well known Plegian robe, black skinny jeans, and white sneakers. The hood was pulled up, covering much of the tactician's snow white hair except for a couple locks that fell down in front of his face. The reason he had decided to change out of his usual outfit was because of the casual mood of the event he was going to, plus the fact that he would be a lot less recognizable to crazy Mii fans who would try to mob him due to his status as a Smasher. Pale hands had been inserted into the pockets of the hoodie as Robin leaned against a nearby wall, waiting for the younger male to come out into the hallway.

"I'm ready!" A moment later, a very exasperated looking flaxen haired boy stumbled out of the room. He was wearing a pink t-shirt with a white logo stamped on it and his typical magenta vest over that, gray fingerless gloves that went up half of his lower arms, brown cargo pants, and gray sneakers. His reason for the outfit change was the same as Robin's. Shulk's legendary sword - the Monado - was swinging from his back subtly as he panted, as he was out of breath from running around the room. The crimson weapon kind of defeated the purpose of changing outfits to blend in better due to it being one of the most recognizable pieces of its wielder's appearance, but Shulk was required to bring it around wherever he went due to the fact that the sword was helping to keep his Ether levels in check in a world that by and large didn't have much of the substance to begin with, letting him stay healthy.

Robin couldn't help but chuckle he removed himself from the wall and walked over to the younger Smasher, putting a hand under Shulk's chin and gently redirecting the boy's face up so their eyes could meet. Gods, his eyes were always so beautiful. As much as he wanted to just stare into the other's eyes for hours, the mage snapped out of his trance and asked the question on his mind. "So, what was it exactly that you were running around for in there?" Taking another deep breath, Shulk finally straightened himself out and puffed out his chest so that his boyfriend could see the t-shirt he was wearing.

"I didn't want to go to the Splatfest without this t-shirt, but it got buried under a bunch of our other laundry!" He stated, pointing to the logo emblazoned upon his chest. "I want to show my support to Team Autobots!" After a second, the boy's excited smile quickly turned into a frown as he looked up and down at the outfit that Robin was wearing. Shulk crossed his arms as he continued. "...Wait, what's with that attire of yours?"

"What, this hoodie?" Robin replied, looking down at his outfit. "I wanted to dress casually, much like how you did. Gotta 'stay fresh', right?" He made the Squid Sisters' hand motion while saying "stay fresh", which normally would have elicited a giggle from Shulk. However, the Monado wielder still didn't look satisfied.

"That colour makes it look like you're on Team Decepticons, you know." The seer huffed. "The team colours are magenta and purple for this Splatfest, and your hoodie is almost the perfect colour for Team Decepticons." Robin rolled his eyes, but after a moment of thought, a devilish smile found its way to the ivory haired male's face as he padded forward a step and leered up at the taller boy.

"Maybe I am on Team Decepticons... Did you think of that?" Before Shulk could protest, Robin reached up and stole a kiss from the seer's lips, immediately shutting him up. With the Monado wielder flummoxed by the suddenness of that action, Robin continued. "How's about I make a wager with you, then?"

"A wager?"

"Yeah, if we're gonna be on opposite sides, why don't we raise the stakes a bit?" Shulk's eyes squinted slightly before he spoke.

"...Go on. What do you want to bet?" Robin's brown eyes lit up a little upon realizing that the Homs was going along with this schtick.

"All right, whoever picks the side that wins the Splatfest gets to do whatever he wants to the other, okay? You're Team Autobots and I'm Team Decepticons. Have we got a deal?" The tactician offered up his right hand for Shulk to shake, but the wary seer wanted more information before he agreed.

"...Anything he wants to the other, you say?" He repeated, raising an eyebrow. "So if I wanted you to streak around naked after the Splatfest, you would?"

"Within reason, Shulk! Honestly!" Robin's reaction to the suggestion caused the blond to laugh heartily.

"I wouldn't actually suggest that!" He guffawed. "I'd like my boyfriend to have some sense of dignity once the wager is over. I have something a lot less humiliating in mind for when I actually win, no worries." Now it was the tactician's turn to laugh.

"Getting a bit hasty there, are you?" The mage smirked as he spoke. "The Splatfest hasn't started yet and you're already so sure that your side is going to win. Well then, I have something special planned for when MY team wins the Splatfest, as well. We'll just see which team actually comes out on top, though." And with that, Robin spun on the heel of his left sneaker and put both of his hands in his pockets once more. "Anyway, why don't we actually get going to the Splatfest so we can find out which of our teams is going to win the tournament without second hand hearsay?" He started walking away, figuring that Shulk would quickly catch up.

Sure enough, the blond sprinted a couple paces forward so that his steps were at the same speed as Robin's. He latched an arm around the elder male's own, their elbows hooked together. Smiling, Robin dropped his hand out of his pocket and grasped Shulk's partially gloved hand, holding onto it gently as they walked side by side. A friendly competition wasn't enough to ruin the tightly knit relationship the two had, after all.

Chapter Text

It was easy to tell where the Splatfest was taking place. Even from nearly a mile away, the loud music blaring from Inkopolis could be heard. Miis, Smashers, and others besides the Inklings themselves weren't allowed to go to the main square where the partying was taking place without express permission, as the squid kids liked to party by themselves. Instead, those not participating in the matches filed into a large stadium where thousands of voices speaking all at once could be heard. The music from the main square was barely audible over the din of the stadium, but there was music playing for the audience as well. It looked like a majority of the seats were filled by this point, so it was probably going to be difficult to find two adjacent empty seats that weren't being saved.

And yet, that was exactly what Shulk and Robin were going to need to do. There was no special preference out here in Inkopolis for Smashers. No special reserved seating for the heroes of the Nintendo universe or anything like that. After all, everybody came out here just for fun. Nevertheless, the two young men were determined to find two seats together in this large crowd before the actual event started. They squinted up at the stands, trying to make out anything that looked like free spots.

"Hey, over here!" Robin finally announced, nudging Shulk in the arm with his elbow. "I think I see something on this side!" Shulk quickly turned in the direction Robin was facing, leaning forward to make out what the tactician had found. Sure enough, it looked like two seats right next to one another about four rows up. Now that he knew where the hooded male wanted to look for a place to sit down, he hurried over to ask about the seats in question.

"Excuse me..." Shulk inquired politely to the people sitting around the seats in question. "Are those seats between you guys taken, by any chance?" The blond was expecting an answer along the lines of 'oh no, you can have them' or 'sorry, they're being reserved', but the response he got instead was a loud, high pitched shriek, which made the poor guy take a step back in shock.

"OH MY GOSH!" The girl who screamed jumped out of her seat excitedly. "It's actually you! It's Shulk, The Visionary! I'm, like, your biggest fan! That accent... and that sword! You're definitely the real deal! Please sit next to me! It'd be a dream come true!" By that point, Robin had hurried up next to Shulk, having heard the scream and picking up his pace to figure out what was going on. As a result, the blond backed up into the mage's arms, legitimately afraid of the crazy fangirl. The ivory haired male took one look at the situation and immediately took over.

"Sorry, but we have seats over a few sections from here, actually. I was just grabbing Shulk so that we could..." He was interrupted by another loud gasp followed by a second screech.

"Oh my gosh! And you're Robin, The Tactician Magician!" The fangirl squealed. "I almost couldn't tell from that weird outfit of yours, but that white hair hiding under that hood of yours is a sure sign! I'm like, your biggest fan too!" Chuckling, Robin pulled Shulk further away from the girl.

"Like I said, we have seats over a few sections from here with the rest of the friends that we came with." The mage winked at Shulk, hoping he would go along with the story. Fortunately, it seemed like he had no qualms doing so. "I told Shulk to look for seats for us, but we found them ourselves. Come on, let's get going." The blond swordsman nodded, following Robin away from the fangirl, who looked rather upset that her idols were going to go elsewhere to sit for the game. Once they had gotten away from her, Shulk sighed with relief.

"Well, that was quite the experience..." He tittered awkwardly. "Thank you for coming to my rescue there. We still don't have seats though..."

"Not to worry." Robin smiled back at the younger male. "I'm sure there are other groups of two seats here that don't have rabid fangirls guarding them. Here, let's take another look around."

About five minutes later, the Squid Sisters' voices started blaring through the stadium, welcoming everybody to the Splatfest. There was a roar of applause as Callie and Marie asked if everybody was ready to see some splat action. By this time, Shulk and Robin miraculously found seating together without causing any more of a fuss than they already had, even if said seats were rather high up on the stands. Trying to whip the crowd up, the squid ladies started calling for applause from each side in the audience.

"Who's ready to cheer on Optimus Prime?" Callie announced. "Give it up for the Autoboooooots!" Half of the crowd started hooting and hollering for their team. Even Shulk launched himself out of his seat to cheer on his team.

"And who wants to see Megatron bring it home?" Marie answered. "Show your love for the Decepticoooons!" The other half of the audience began to shout in support. Seeing how into the whole thing Shulk was, Robin answered by jumping out of his seat and shouting for the team he had ended up taking the side of to spite his boyfriend. As soon as he sat down, the ivory haired male looked over at Shulk, who looked a little annoyed.

"...Your hood has fallen down, you know." He droned deadpan. "Nice bedhead." Robin was completely unabashed. He just gave a smirk before leaning forward and grabbing Shulk's cheeks.

"Thanks~" Robin joked. "I think I look quite attractive with my hair like this, don't you think?" Not giving Shulk an opportunity to answer, the tactician pulled his boyfriend's face close to his own and silenced him with a kiss. After a couple seconds, they broke off. Robin was quick to notice that the younger boy's face was the same color as the Team Autobots shirt that he was wearing. "Oh, cheer up." Robin's voice was full of legitimate concern now. "We're here to have fun. I'm trying to live it up too, you know."

"Robin, we're in public..." The blond grunted. "Try not to be so mushy when there are plenty of people around that could take heed..." Sighing, Robin shook his head.

"You're far too concerned about appearances, Shulk. Live a little. Nobody cares if we're dating here."

"...I suppose..." Shulk conceded. "Still..."

"Look, the first match is about to begin." The tactician interrupted. "Let's watch." Sure enough, four purple Inklings and four pink Inklings had come out onto the field and the countdown for the battle was winding down. 3! 2! 1! Go!

In Inkopolis Square proper, almost all of the Inklings were partying and dancing to the music that was playing loudly... all except one. Near the back of the square, there was a peculiar looking Inkling that had taken the Decepticon role too seriously, all dressed up in robotic looking purple armor... At least, that's what all of the other Inklings thought of the squid kid in question. However, that was not the case. Nobody even suspected that the Inkling really was a robot - a Mechon, to be exact.

His mission was to cover the arena with purple ink. That was what he had been programmed to do by Egil. There was nothing about dancing to party music written into his code. In order to stay out of the way of the erratically moving children in front of it, the Mechon Inkling had moved off to the side and just lurked about in the shadows. He wouldn't bother the other Inklings as long as they didn't bother him. However, one pink Inkling girl decided to see what had gotten into the robotic stranger... Something was wrong if they didn't have any interest in dancing, right?

"Hey there!" She said, waving to the robot. "Nice outfit! You're really taking this whole Autobots versus Decepticons thing seriously, aren't you?" The Mechon's eyes flashed once, staring blankly for a second before giving an answer in a very mechanical voice.

"Scan complete. Enemy confirmed." He said, raising its Splattershot toward the girl. Not realizing it was a legitimate threat, she just laughed at the Mechon Inkling.

"Oh, you're one of those roleplayers!" She chortled. "You're taking your character really seriously, I can see. But you're missing out on the party! Come on, let's dance!" The girl offered a hand to the robot boy, but he continued to aim its Splattershot at her, ready to open fire. He would have too if it weren't for a voice that called out just then.

"Match 2 is almost ready to go!" A male voice called out. "If you're in match 2, get ready to head out onto the field!" Seeing as the Mechon Inkling was in said match, he lowered his weapon and started walking away without even saying goodbye to the squid girl who had tried to talk with him. She just shrugged and walked away. What a weirdo that guy was.

3! 2! 1! Go!

The second Inkfest match had begun! Most of the Inklings hurried out of the gate, splattering ink in front of their feet as they rushed onto the field. The only one that didn't was the Mechon Inkling, who was just sitting there with his Splattershot in hand, staring at the others running off. They didn't even seem to notice their fourth member wasn't joining them. Callie and Marie were jabbering to themselves about the strange behavior of the 'roleplayer' and their odd attire. A moment later, the fourth purple Inkling finally started moving, firing purple ink at every spot that had been left behind by his teammates with a strange amount of precision. It was enough for the Squid Sisters to take their words back about the boy's incompetence.

"Area covered." The robot said in a mechanical voice to nobody in particular. "Moving forward to the next area." And now he finally moved, heading into the next part of the arena. After sinking into the ink to refill his tank, he once again got to work covering up the parts that his teammates hadn't gotten around to splatting. At this point, the other team's representatives were in range, and the bot's eyes changed color from blue to red upon noticing them.

"Enemy targets sighted. Eliminate at once." And then the Inkling's precision shots were now focused on the pink team, shooting them all with an unbelievable accuracy, all while not moving from where it was standing. He continued this pattern of scanning, covering all missed spots, and accurately splatting the other team for a while. Even the Squid Sisters were amazed at the remarkable skill this player seemed to have, especially so considering their weapon of choice was a rather typical Splattershot - not even a custom type! Several ink blots had gotten on his metal exterior, but they didn't seem to phase the robot much at all.

It went without saying that Team Decepticons took that match, as none of the pink Inklings had enough skill to deal with the ridiculous accuracy the Mechon possessed. Even though everybody knew which team won, the helicopter took off anyway to get a bird's eye view of the battlefield. Sure enough, there was only a really small area that the poor Autobots team still held onto at the end of the massacre. Seeing as the pink team had gotten a narrow victory in the first round, it was now 1-1. The crowd was cheering from such an amazing looking match, but as the camera zoomed in closely on the MVP of the game, there was one individual who was not happy with what he saw.

"Is that... a Mechon?" Shulk whispered to himself, squinting at the screen. The way the metal was designed sure reminded him of the robots that came from the opposite titan to the Homs' home. Robin seemed to be aware that the blond was a little on edge, looking over at him. Trying to lighten the mood, he nudged the younger boy in the arm with an elbow.

"Shulk, are you afraid that you might lose the bet if this guy keeps playing?" He mused. "He's really good. I think the Decepticons team is going to put him on for the final match if this keeps up. You'll be doing what I want soon enough~" The final match was worth the most points, so a player like that would make it much harder for the Autobots team to win, perhaps even impossible. As much as Robin was trying to inject some levity into the situation, Shulk did not interpret it that way. Instead, the blond got extremely angry.

"Shut up!" He barked. "This isn't about that stupid bet! I'm suspecting that squid kid is actually a Mechon! Why is there a Mechon in Inkopolis?" Not expecting Shulk's outburst, the ivory haired male frowned as well.

"Shulk, that's impossible." He stated, folding his arms. "There's no way that's a Mechon... Your world is a restricted zone. Nothing comes or leaves without Master Hand finding out and allowing it." The tactician then rose from his seat. "I'll even reassure you that it's not a Mechon. I'm going to go over to Inkopolis and see if I can find out more about that kid."

"Robin, you can't..." The Homs was interrupted.

"If it'll get you to calm down, I'll go talk to him. Now stay seated; I don't want us losing these seats that we took so long to find. It's just a quick trip to the main square, so I won't be too long. I'm also a Smasher, so I shouldn't have difficulty getting permission to go in and say 'Hello, are you a Mechon? No? Okay then, farewell'. I'll be back shortly." Before Shulk could protest further, Robin walked off, hands once again in his hoodie pockets as he went out of sight. The Homs groaned and buried his face in his hands, wondering just why Robin was being so oddly abrasive right now. Because of the seating situation, Shulk complied with the tactician's request. He'd be back soon enough anyway. Thus began the wait.

A patient wait that was ended abruptly. Shulk's eyes started glowing blue, the sign that he was receiving a vision...

Chapter Text

Egil had found himself in front of the holoscreen yet again today, knowing full well that the Splatfest he had snuck an entrant into would be participating today. Not only that, but he enjoyed watching little squid kids fling ink at one another a lot more than he did watching the Heir to the Monado and the other strange looking individuals duke it out in arbitrary battles where the purpose was to knock people off a small stage. Honestly, it just felt like a bunch of greedy kids trying to play 'hog the spotlight' with one another, which the Machina found extremely dull and pointless. That ridiculous, irrelevant game was the whole reason he was just lazing about in a chair right now.

The Turf Wars on the other hand were a clear sport with set rules that the Machina had figured out quickly enough (unlike the Super Smash Bros games) and could easily work into making a creation of his follow along with. Construction of the purple machine squid had allowed the mechanical man to vent a lot of his frustration into building something that wasn't a death machine that wasn't even use during this time of forced peace.

The kid's exoskeleton was shaped together easily enough with sheets of Mechonite, but then came the task of ensuring that he could change form in order to hide in the ink and refill his ink tank. There was a lot of fixing and modifying that went into making sure that the process was smooth, so as not to draw too much attention when the kid transformed.

After that, a basic Mechon code was hand-wired in and edited so that the Mechon would scan its surroundings and find any spots not covered in purple ink before shooting his own ink at those areas. The second directive was to shoot down any enemies if they were within its sights. After ironing out all the coding problems, he set to work with testing, making sure everything worked as expected.

Due to all the free time Egil had, he had finished well before the Splatfest and his efforts had then changed to work out how to get the robot from Agniratha to Inkopolis without bringing too much attention to himself. It was probably some Meyneth-blessed miracle that he had managed to get it through, and so the plan was in action.

Egil watched his robot creation perform exactly as expected during the first match that it had been slated to participate in. In fact, it almost worked too well, to a point that he was sure it was going to get scrutinized. But Meyneth must have blessed the Machina with yet another miracle, as no such scrutiny was made. Because of the theme of the competition, everybody was just sure that the robot was actually a real Inkling who was taking his roleplaying way too seriously, allowing Egil's creation to fly under the radar.

However, speaking of flying under the radar, there was a hidden code written into the Mechon child that Egil had forgotten to modify when creating the robot. A code that would prove to be deadly once it was activated...

Shulk stared off directly in front of himself with a vacant look on his face as his eyes continued to glow blue for a moment. Everybody around him seemed to be wrapped up in the high emotions of the squid cheerleaders that were performing during the break time between two matches, and so nobody paid the young seer any attention as he unblinkingly watched the future play out before him.

The setting was the main square of Inkopolis, that much was easy to tell. The buildings were coated with brightly colored paint and even brighter graffiti tags, glowing neon in this low light. Loud music likely coming from the Squid Sisters' performance was playing in the background. However, the main focus was not on the music so much as it was with two individuals standing in the darkness of a back alleyway with about 50 meters between them.

On the right, standing at the edge of the corridor and effectively blocking off passage to the main square was the mechanical Inkling, standing still with its Splattershot posed and ready to shoot. On the left was the Inkling's target, a very panicked Robin who Shulk could tell had been deliberately cornered by the other. Seeing as he hadn't brought any of his weapons with him, the white haired male was effectively unarmed.

"...You really are a Mechon..." The tactician said quietly, taking another step back from the kid. "Shulk was right..."

"Scan complete. Ether detected. Eliminate the Homs." The mechanical kid said in a monotone voice, still aiming his gun at the tactician.

"Wait! You don't understand!" Robin plead with the Mechon. "I'm not a Homs! I've only been in contact with one... Please, just let me go..."

"Eliminate." The Inkling repeated mechanically before firing something at the ivory haired mage. At first Shulk thought that it was just an ink splatter, seeing as the weapon the kid held was a Splattershot, but upon seeing the projectile enter the tactician's body through his thick hoodie, Shulk could tell that it was a normal bullet. Robin collapsed immediately upon being hit. The Mechon Inkling walked away, leaving Robin to die from his wound.

After that, the blue glow disappeared from Shulk's eyes as he could finally react to what he just saw. His heart sank into his chest as he realized that it was his fault that Robin had been murdered in that vision. The two were so close both physically and emotionally that some of Shulk's Ether had literally rubbed off onto the tactician and the Mechon had confused Robin for a Homs as a result. The seer did not want to know what would happen to Inkopolis as well as the Smash Mansion if it was discovered that a murder had taken place and the victim was none other than a Smasher. What would the Chrom of Robin's realm think if he found out that his trusted tactician had been killed during an event that should have just been risk-free enjoyment? A lot was at stake here besides the safety of the seer's boyfriend.

Shulk quickly launched out of his seat despite what Robin had told him to do, the bright red sword that had provided the disheartening vision in the first place swinging like a pendulum on his back for a couple seconds. After pushing his way past a bunch of other people's legs in order to get out from the row, he immediately started dashing down the stairs in his panic.

The tactician of Ylisse was not going to die today as long as Shulk had a say in the matter!

Meanwhile, Robin was talking with a large Blooper that was standing in front of the entrance to the square. There was some kind of pop music playing from behind it that had quite a catchy beat. The Blooper sitting in front of the doorway had two of his tentacles crossed and was glaring down at the small human standing before it. It seemed to be fluent in Common, albeit with a voice that sounded like he was constantly blowing bubbles while talking, and so a proper conversation was being held.

"So you're saying you want to have an interview with one of the contestants?" The large squidlike creature said. "I already told you, no paparazzi allowed!"

"I'm not with the paparazzi!" Robin retorted, gesticulating angrily. "I already told you, I'm a Super Smash Brothers Tournament contestant!"

"And I'm the King of Hyrule!" The Blooper chortled. "Get lost! You're not getting in here!" The tactician rolled his eyes before pulling back on his hoodie to let the squid see his face and the rest of his snow white hair. The mage's chocolate brown eyes stared up into the squid creature with a fierce seriousness for a second before his face changed into a smirk.

"Well then, 'Your Majesty', I hope this should be enough proof to you that I really am the tactician magician." Still being sarcastic, he gave a pompous curtsy and then looked back up at the squid to see what his reaction was going to be. There was a surprised frown (or what the ivory haired mage had assumed to be a surprised frown, as it was a bit hard to tell with a Blooper) on his face.

"O-oh..." The squid started shuffling aside. "My apologies, Robin. Just be careful in there... A bunch of the Inklings are huge fans of Super Smash Brothers fighters. You're probably going to get mobbed for autographs if they realize who you are..." With that knowledge, Robin stiffened up a bit and immediately threw his hood back over his head. He really didn't want to get sidelined by excitable kids and spend extra time trying to get to the bottom of the Mechon situation for Shulk. What if the kid in question got called out for another match before he could sign autographs for all the Inklings? Hopefully the hood being up as well as the unusual outfit he was wearing would be enough to get the kids off his back long enough to find the mechanical looking squid. After thanking the Blooper and assuring him that it wouldn't take very long, Robin strode into Inkopolis, trying to keep on the down low.

There were probably hundreds of squid kids dancing around to the heavy beat of the music, all of which were in pink or purple. Robin's purple hoodie didn't stand out too much as a result. Still, he wanted to slink around without being noticed by too many people.

Of course, not being noticed at all was proving to be quite an impossible task. It didn't take long before one of the Inklings waddled over and tugged on the sleeve of the hoodie Robin was wearing. "Hey there, mister adult!" The girl chirped, holding fast to the tactician's sleeve. "What are you doing here? Adults aren't supposed to be here..." Noticing that the innocent child wasn't about to let go, Robin turned and gave her a small smile, trying to hide as much of his appearance as possible.

"I'm here to ask a quick question to somebody." He stated calmly. "I'm not with the paparazzi though, so don't worry."

"Not with the paparazzi?" The squid girl repeated. "Then why are you looking to ask a question? I thought only paparazzi asked questions to us..."

"Ah, you see, a friend of mine thought that one of you guys was an actual robot. I came here on his behalf to prove that he's being silly." Almost immediately the Inkling lit up, knowing exactly who Robin was talking about.

"Oh! You're talking about the Inkling from the second round match!" She giggled. "He's a bit of a party pooper, hanging out near the side of the square. Here, I'll introduce you to him so you can ask your question!" And with that, the Inkling girl grabbed Robin's hand and started leading him away through the square.

"...What do you mean you're not going to let me go through?!" Shulk had run into the exact same Blooper that had refused to let Robin through before. This time, the big squid was a bit more adamant about keeping the blond swordsman from entering.

"There's already a human in there, you know..." He responded. "I don't want everybody and their grandma coming in to crash the party. Besides, he said he wasn't going to be very long. Just wait your turn, he'll be out soon." Irritated with how abrasive the squid was being, Shulk crossed his arms.

"I'm telling you, there's not going to be a 'he'll be out soon'..." The Homs grunted. "His life is in danger and I need to hurry in there to stop him from dying." Instead of prompting the Blooper to move aside, however, it seemed that had caused him to start laughing raucously in that same bubbly voice. The squid's entire gelatinous body started to shake from how hard he was chortling. A tentacle wiped a tear out of his eye before he replied.

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! Oh, that's rich! Ahahaha!" The Blooper guffawed, making no attempts to stop his laughter. "Oh no! My friend's going to be killed by little squid kids! He's going to get splatted to death! He's deathly allergic to ink! Bahahaha! Oh my glob, I think I'm going to bust a gut..." The dismissive attitude was enough to prompt a devilish thought to enter Shulk's head as he seriously thought about taking the Monado off his back and flaying the damn squid all over the walls that he was guarding.

Wait... the Monado! That was how Shulk was going to get in! Not only did it prove that Shulk was telling the truth about the situation, but it also made it obvious that he was the real deal! Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

With that decided, Shulk took his sword off his back and held it in one hand at about chest height while he stared intensely up at the squid towering over him. The determination in his ringed eyes was easy to see, despite the fact that he wasn't even being looked into them right now while the Blooper continued to laugh.

"...So I suppose that means you're just going to let the vision that the Monado gave to me come true, then." He huffed, finally flipping open the legendary weapon so its blue Ether blade could be seen. "I saw a vision Robin being shot by one of the Inklings, and not with ink either, but a real bullet. If I don't hurry inside and find him, a famous Smasher is going to die today. I seriously doubt you want to be held responsible for preventing Robin's rescue, do you?" Almost at once, the laughing stopped as the Blooper looked down at the weapon that was being held in the smaller individual's hands, its glow highly visible even in the bouncer's peripheral vision.

"Wait... That's the Monado? That's the real thing?" His jovial attitude had disappeared in an instant. If it weren't for the fact that Bloopers were already white, color probably would have drained out of the poor guy's face faster than you could say 'stay fresh'. "I-I'm really sorry for getting in your way... Please don't hurt me... I was only doing my job." Thankfully for the Blooper, Shulk was opposed to excessive violence, even in spite of how part of him wanted jab the activated sword into the squid's stomach. Instead, he let the blade snap shut again and threw it onto his back once more before nodding to the tall creature who moved out of Shulk's way as he was focused on putting the weapon back where it usually hung.

"Thank you." The blond said with a wave. "I promise that I'm just going to grab Robin and leave... Hopefully with him still in one piece..." And with that, the Heir to the Monado entered Inkopolis Square unopposed, hoping that there was still time to save the man he loved from a terrible end.

Chapter Text

The Inkling girl did exactly as she said she was going to. Having seen the mechanical squid not long prior to Robin showing up, she quickly brought the tactician over to where he was standing before waving the adult off in order to continue partying with the rest of her friends. Robin thought it was a bit odd that she would ditch him that quickly, but he figured the girl probably didn't really want anything to do with the kid, considering his apparent loner status.

So now that the tactician was alone, he proceeded to talk with the mechanical Inkling... or at least, he attempted to. The kid seemed to be lost in his thoughts, staring down at the ground at nothing in particular. As a result, Robin had to wave his arm in order to flag the boy down and get his attention, all while making his greeting. "Hi there!" He said, trying to sound cheerful.

No response. Slightly irritated, Robin lowered his arm slowly back to his side. Did the kid not hear him, or was he deliberately tuning the mage out? Either way, to not even acknowledge the white haired male's existence got to Robin a little. As a result, the tactician flipped down the hood of his casual attire, figuring nobody was paying attention to him right now anyway. The other Inklings had pretty much all but tuned out the presence of the mechanical kid, after all. The only time anybody was going to be giving this kid heed was when he was out on the turf, which wasn't at the current moment in time. Seeing as the hood was now off, Robin stormed over directly in front of the child and placed his hands on his hips before giving his second attempt.

"Hello there..." The tactician hissed, not hiding his annoyance at all. "I'm talking to you, you know..." He was about to wave his hand into the kid's face if he didn't get a response, but it seemed that the Inkling had finally noticed Robin and looked up from the ground at him. There was a vacant expression on the boy's face as he stared Robin directly back into his eyes.

"Initial scan complete. Target is not an Inkling." The robot said in a mechanical voice. Chuckling a little, Robin straightened out again.

"Yep, you've got me there. I'm an adult." He had remembered what the Inkling girl who had brought him over to this spot had called him, in turn using it with the kid for some semblance of familiarity with him. "Don't worry, I'm not with any kind of news outlet or anything like that. I just have a quick question for you, is all."

"Please state the nature of your inquiry." The mechanical response came back. As much as Robin really wanted the kid to drop the roleplaying, clearly it was what the kid was comfortable with around him. He had spent enough time with little Lucina back home to know that you really couldn't push kids too hard to do something they didn't want to do, especially so if it wasn't your kid to begin with. Instead, the ivory haired male just chuckled a little under his breath and dealt with it.

"Yes, very well then." Robin took a moment to clear his throat as he tried to figure out how he was going to word his response. Was he going to play along with the robot schtick? Or would he continue to play the straight faced adult here? Eventually, Robin decided on the latter, resuming his speech. "You see, I have a friend who was a little concerned about your costume there. He's dealing with some... difficult things back home and your robot suit reminded him of the cause of his problems. I just need verification that you're not a Mechon, is all. Can you afford me - and him, by extension - a little peace of mind by reassuring me that you're not a Mechon?" It seemed like such a simple request. All he'd have to do is just say something like 'no I'm a real Inkling sorry for worrying you' and it would all be done and over with.

Instead, Robin ended up getting purple ink shot at him. The tactician only barely dodged an incoming ink splatter, yelping with shock as he realized that he was under attack. What was this kid's problem? Several more ink splatters came in Robin's direction, one of which managing to actually get on the sleeve of his hoodie. As much as Robin wanted to curse out the kid for getting ink all over his good hoodie, he was still being pursued. What had even set the kid off in the first place? Had the mere mention of 'Mechon' caused this to happen? He wanted to get out of Inkopolis Square as soon as possible so that the kid would stop chasing him.

Much to Robin's chagrin, he ended up taking a wrong turn somewhere on his way out of the area and found himself down a one way alley. The squid boy was right behind him, Splattershot aimed at the ivory haired human. At a time like this, Robin really wished he had brought a tome with him to the games - even just an Elthunder would be enough to shock the kid and allow passage by. Instead, the mage was between a rock and a hard place - or rather, a squid and a hard place.

"Oh my glob, it's really you!"

Unlike Robin, who had managed to keep his identity under wraps thanks to his unassuming attire, Shulk had the misfortune of being quickly recognized by several Inklings, not only because he was wearing the same vest he usually wore in his tournament attire, but because of the authentic weapon on his back, its blue lines glowing and making the Heir to the Monado unintentionally stand out. The glow had been enough to catch the eye of several squid kids, and when they realized what the glow was coming from and who it belonged to, a mob of children had found their way around the blond Homs. Shulk gesticulated nervously, not wanting to hurt any of the kids.

"P-please... I need to get through here..." He insisted, trying to stop the kids from pestering him for autographs. "My friend's in trouble... I need to find him before something terrible happens to him."

"Please sign my Autobots shirt!"

"I bet even the Decepticons couldn't beat you and the Monado!"

"You're my favorite Smasher!"

A plethora of different responses came from the kids as they apparently didn't listen to how Shulk needed to get going. This was probably the first time any of them had met any of the Smashers before, and so they were all star struck. How exactly was Shulk going to get out of this situation? If he signed one autograph, he was probably going to get bombarded until he signed a bunch more. Because of that, he didn't want to do any signings unless it was a last resort. Being polite and asking to get through had failed already, however.

To make things worse, a loud scream echoed across the square. Shulk's heart sank as he quickly recognized the voice as Robin's and that he sounded absolutely terrified. The Mechon was probably breathing down the poor tactician's neck right now, ready to kill him just as the vision had anticipated would happen. Now he REALLY needed to get away from these kids. As the adrenaline started coursing through the blond's veins, he quickly tried to hatch a plan, finally figuring out something that he could do to escape the crowd. Shulk pulled the Monado off his back, to which several kids gasped and swarmed closer as wanted to get a better look at the Homs' signature weapon.

"Sorry kids..." Shulk answered as he swung the red blade around. The center of the weapon started glowing green as a 翔 symbol appeared. A moment later, the blue glowing lines of the Monado started putting off a green hue instead, and an identically colored aura enveloped the young man's feet. "I hate to say it, but... I really need to bounce." And considering how he leaped over the heads of the squid kids a moment later, he literally bounced. Shulk was entirely aware that he had made a pun just then. He would have taken a moment to laugh at his own joke if it weren't for the fact that he had a crisis to avert and that if he stopped, the kids could easily swarm him again. Therefore, the Monado wielder took another leap into the air to hurry in the direction of the scream from a moment ago.

Shulk was ready to leap right by the alleyway down which Robin and the Mechon had gone, but the teenager thankfully heard a familiar voice as he was about to spring by. "You really are a Mechon..." The timid words rang in Shulk's ears and once more, his heart sank. The Monado wielder was thankful he hadn't bounded past yet again, otherwise he would have run out of time. The vision was in the middle of coming true, after all, seeing as Shulk remembered Robin saying those very words in the future he had foreseen. To further verify that things were going as originally anticipated, the tactician continued. "Shulk was right..."

"Scan complete." A mechanical voice sounded, the words identical to the vision yet again. "Ether detected. Eliminate the Homs."

"Not on my watch!" Shulk screamed as he jumped toward the robot kid, having finally opened up his blade so he could attack the machine that was trying to kill his boyfriend. Seeing as Monado Jump was still active, the blade was glowing green as he leaped. The Inkling turned around after hearing Shulk's voice, switching to its squid form to barely avoid having its head lobbed off by the Sword of the Bionis. A second later, Monado Jump faded and the Ether pouring out of the Monado changed back to its usual blue color while the aura on the wielder's feet faded away.

The mechanical squid stood there for a moment to assess the situation as well as perform another scan on the newcomer. "Scan complete." He said afterward. "Warning: large ratio of Ether to target size detected - Monado confirmed. Destroy the Monado." Now that he was no longer having his life threatened by a mechanical squid thanks to a change in target, Robin took a moment to try to process everything before he finally yelled out to his boyfriend.

"Shulk!" He shouted. "Thank Naga you're here! You were completely right! That kid IS a Mechon!" The hoodie-wearing tactician leaped over the squid form of the enemy as he stood next to the man he loved and quickly reached up to place a kiss on his cheek. Of course, seeing as the Mechon hadn't been eliminated yet, Shulk still had a look of determination on his face as he stared down the kid once he had changed back to his more humanoid appearance. Unabashed, the clearly shaken mage continued. "You had a vision that I was going to die just now, didn't you? Is that why you're here?"

Shulk nodded briskly. "You're completely correct." He answered. "Had I not jumped in just now, you would have been shot with a real bullet in the heart after pleading for your life from that foul Mechon." That was enough for Robin to shake his head in disgust.

"Unbelievable... An actual Mechon snuck into a Splatfest..." He spat. "I can't believe I almost died here of all places... Now I wish I had my tomes so I could help you out, Shulk..." A second later, the ivory haired male had to back up a step as Shulk raised the Monado up in front of the tactician's face. In doing so, the red sword ended up deflecting a bullet shot meant for Robin's head. After saving the other yet again, the blond looked over at the smaller man and gave him a confident smile.

"Not to worry." He grinned. "I can deal with this Mechon myself. Just hang back so you don't get shot at again." Robin gave a quick nod of affirmation before jumping back a little to give the Homs some space. As a result, the Monado wielder hurried forward with his trusted weapon, expertly dodging gunshots whenever he could and deflecting them when he couldn't. Realizing that he was getting closer, the Mechon changed back to its squid form and tried to slip away from Shulk. Unfortunately for the Heir to the Monado, this was a successful action, as the Ether blade just barely missed taking off one of the squid's mechanical tentacles. The blond Homs cursed, quickly realizing that the Mechon was much faster in his squid form than in his kid form. This was going to be a really fruitless battle if the machine kept slipping away from him whenever he tried to put the legendary weapon through its mechanical carapace. But perhaps that was the Mechon's intention - tire the Heir to the Monado out and then kill him while his energy was down...

Chapter Text

There was quite a bit of back and forth as the Mechon and the Monado wielder battled. Shots were fired as the blond tried to run up close to the kid in order to strike him down. The moment Shulk got too close, however, the Inkling slid away in his squid form.

At the same time, Robin was standing a short distance away, trying to make sure that he didn't get targeted instead. He had no idea whether this robot was capable of concocting a strategy to take the unarmed tactician hostage in order to get Shulk to surrender or not, but he didn't want to risk it. At the same time, seeing as Robin was a tactician to begin with, he started barking strategies for Shulk to try instead for a chance to catch the squid. Of course, the Mechon could hear these strategies too, so Robin's assistance was essentially invalidated. The white haired male really wished that he could help more in this situation, and that he had thought to bring a tome or two with him just in case something like this happened. It was too late for that, however.

Just as things were getting monotonous with the whole routine the Mechon Inkling had going about, with how he was shooting at Shulk and then slipping into his squid form to get away, a splat noise could be heard from behind Robin, causing the tactician to turn around and try to figure out what going on. There was an Inkling Girl in pink holding a gun up, pointing it at the Mechon. It wasn't just her, either. There were a large number of Inklings that had gathered outside of the alleyway where all of this had been going on. The ink splatter that she had fired ended up falling right in front of the Mechon's trajectory of movement. Seeing as he didn't have access to the Kraken powerup, the robot was forced to redirect himself around the ink splatter while also avoiding Shulk's sword.

A moment later, a purple blotch of ink flew past Robin, just barely avoiding his hoodie and it hit the robotic squid as he rose up into his kid form again. An Inkling Boy had fired the shot at the Mechon with a Paint Roller. The purple ink got all over the robot and he was forced to take a moment to try to get the goo out of his optical receptors. The Autobots and Deceptions teams were working together to help Shulk get rid of the cheating menace once and for all. Plenty of ink splatters flew through the air from the kids' various weapons, getting all over the ground and the robot (not to mention Shulk and Robin as well, but several of the kids assured the Smashers that the ink was water soluble). But the onslaught of ink proved to be enough of a distraction that the Heir to the Monado could finally make a move without his target slipping away. The Mechon was unable to detect neither Shulk's Ether nor the Monado's while there was so much icky goo covering his body, and that proved to be enough.

"We don't need any Mechon disrupting the peaceful atmosphere here! Monado... Buster!" The blond swordsman yelled as his sword's beam changed color from its usual light blue to purple. It grew to twice its initial size before Shulk swung the Monado downward onto the disorientated machine. He was cleaved in half easily by the legendary weapon, the destroyed Mechon throwing off sparks as it fell into two pieces in the large puddle of purple and pink ink that completely surrounded it. With the Mechon defeated, Shulk let his weapon flip shut as he gave a sigh of relief. At the same time, the Inklings that had gathered all started to cheer, glad that they had helped a Smasher defeat a legitimate threat from his own world.

"You did it!" Robin cheered as he threw his ink-covered self onto Shulk after the legendary sword had been replaced on its wielder's back. The blond Homs was nearly thrown to the ground from the strength of his lover's enthusiastic tackle. After recovering from his disorientation, the younger Smasher returned the affection, throwing his arms around Robin and holding onto him tightly. They were both already covered in ink, so it didn't really matter if they splattered even more ink onto their bodies. They had both made it out alive and a Mechon had been destroyed.

Whereas it was a happy result for the Heir to the Monado and his white haired lover, it was less of an ideal end for a certain Machina watching everything from Mechonis. Because the whole Mechon ordeal ended up distracting Inklings from getting out to the next match, which had ended up being called and nobody responded, the battle between Shulk and the Mechon Inkling had ended up being televised. The impromptu programming showed just how much the blond had been struggling, to the help that the Inklings gave, and finally the Monado Buster that had finished off the robot for good.

Needless to say, Egil was pissed off. His hands had curled into fists and he was just about ready to hurl his remote at the holoscreen in frustration. How dare the Heir to the Monado destroy that Mechon that had taken so much time to hand build without the mass production machines that were normally used! Even worse, Shulk might have actually lost the battle if it weren't for those meddling kids splatting so much ink onto his robot, which just further enraged the overlord. And because it was clear that it was a Mechon that had disrupted the Splatfest, Egil had a sneaking suspicion he was about to receive a scathing message from a certain hand regarding the incident, as it was almost assured Master Hand had seen the whole ordeal thanks to the fact that the Splatfest was being broadcast on the same channel the tournament usually played on. What should have been an innocent disruption of the competition that would have ended peacefully somehow had been foiled.

Due to the fact that the broadcast only caught the tail end of the battle, Egil had no idea that Robin had been the cause of the Mechon's aggression to begin with. What the Machina did realize about the tactician thanks to this broadcast, however, was the fact that he and Shulk were an item. The tournament coverage didn't really go into detail about the lives that the fighters led outside of tournament matches, and things like relationships between Smashers were kept on the down low. The media wasn't allowed inside the mansion so as to not disrupt the fighters while they were on their down time, after all.

"...What's this?" He said to himself, squinting at the screen while it lingered on Shulk and Robin giving each other very messy hugs. His curiosity in Shulk's relationship appeared to be enough to calm Egil down to some extent. "I didn't realize the Heir to the Monado had somebody special in his life. That white haired individual is another one of the competition fighters, isn't he?" The Machina stood up from his chair and walked over to a desk where he had information about the Super Smash Brothers Tournament laid out under a bunch of other junk paper. After looking through the garbage for several minutes, the overlord found what he was looking for. It was a short booklet about the new fighters to the tournament. Egil had only briefly looked at the page on Shulk in an attempt to glean more information about his enemy, but now he had a new reason to search through it.

"...Robin, the Tactician Magician..." He read aloud, having found the page spread about the white haired human. Egil started to look over everything on the pages, how it talked about the Plegian being a slow but powerful fighter, his tomes and how they broke in battle, and a bunch of other information regarding the tactician. If Shulk and Robin were lovers, it made sense to gather a little more information on somebody who might come to battle against the Mechon forces sometime in the future. Considering Bionis was a restricted world thanks to the Mechon army, it wasn't very likely that Robin would come here, but on the off chance he did, Egil needed to be ready. And he was going to be more than ready, just in case...

"...What do you mean, Team Autobots should have won?!" Robin barked at Shulk after the two of them had taken a quick run through an outdoor shower in order to get all the ink off of their bodies. As the couple of Inklings had said, the stuff was water soluble, and so it just fell right off once water was added, leaving their outfits looking as clean as they had been before being worn to the Splatfest in the first place. It so happened that in the end, regardless of the Mechon Inkling, Team Decepticons took home the victory. Shulk was less than happy with the results of the competition, however, and he had ended up starting to take it out on the smaller Smasher.

"I'm saying that the one match where that Mechon interfered screwed with the results too much!" The Homs snapped back. "That match should have been thrown out because the Mechon was all but cheating! Instead, it ended up counting and made all the difference!"

"What would you have preferred have happened then?" Robin's hands went to his hips. "They already had the finals and all of the kids were looking rather tired. They set up an odd amount of matches in order to prevent a tie from occurring because the Inklings need their rest after a long night of partying and splatting. It wasn't anybody's fault that without that rigged match, it would have been a tie and they'd need to do another tiebreaker round!"

"You're just saying that because you know that Team Autobots could have taken it home if there was a tiebreaker round!" Shulk shouted. "They won the final match, so it was more than likely that they would have beaten Team Decepticons again in a rematch!"

"You have no way of knowing that! It was a closer match than you're giving Team Decepticons credit for! They didn't get steamrolled, for Naga's sake!"

"How is 56 to 44 in any way considered to be 'closer'?! I thought that you were a genius tactician! I would think that would require having basic math skills! There's a 26 point difference between them!"

"They would have switched out the teams again so those same kids wouldn't play twice!"

"Those were the MVPs for each team! If those are the best players for each team, then clearly Team Autobots had an advantage!"

"You have no idea how the runner-ups for those MVP slots would have performed against one another!"

"...Well, you're incorrigible!" Shulk had run out of comebacks to use against Robin's train of thought. Perhaps it was a bad thing to get into a logic argument against a tactician. As a result, the blond had lowered himself to an insult. Robin's eyes narrowed as he stared up into Shulk's ringed cerulean ones to give his response.

"Admit it." The ivory haired male said, trying to remain calm despite the fact that the younger had gotten under his skin. "You're just worked up because of that Mechon. You wouldn't care about the results if it wasn't for that, and you would just accept my 'punishment' that we agreed to. Instead, you're blowing steam because of the presence of a stupid robot from your own world." Robin watched as Shulk's eyes constricted for a moment, but then a very angry scowl found its way to the teenager's face.

"How dare you!" Shulk shouted, roughly grabbing Robin by his hoodie and lifting him off the ground a couple centimeters. Even the look of fear in the smaller male's chocolate eyes wasn't enough to make the blond let go. Shulk was absolutely irate right now. "You have no idea what kind of impact the Mechon have had on my life! From a young age, Homs are taught to fear Mechon, and our species is nearing extinction because of them! Extinction, Robin! Soon there will be no more Homs if those bloody mechanical bastards are allowed to wreak havoc freely on Bionis! You nearly died tonight yourself! You should be bloody lucky I had a vision that saved your arse back there! There's no way you can understand how I feel right now!"

"...Shulk, I..."

"Goodbye!" The Monado wielder unceremoniously dropped Robin, who collapsed completely upon being let go due to not expecting having to land at that current moment in time. He then wheeled around 180 degrees before continuing his angry lecture. "You don't care about my people at all! I thought you of all people would understand me, but clearly that's not the case! Don't expect me back in our room tonight! I'm going to find somebody else to spend the night with!" And with that, Shulk stormed off, not waiting for any kind of reply from the downed tactician.

But Robin made no effort to get back up right away, as it was. Tears had found their way to his eyes as he thought back on the argument that had just occurred. He couldn't believe he had been so rude to the point that Shulk had gone to those kinds of lengths to tell him off. The tactician thought that he was a terrible person, and he wouldn't be surprised if Shulk never wanted to look at him again...