Season 8, Week 3: The Royal Highness vs. TEAM

The Royal Highness is: Mogo, q (but not the Q), The Astronomer, The Ideon, Mr. Fantastic(w/ Ultimate Nullifier) in a Z-95 Headhunter equipped with R-2 Unit #11, Invisible Woman in an Arwing, Human Torch in a Colonial Viper, The Thing in a Rockwell X-30, Queen Xenomorph #1, Astro Boy, Jedi Master #40, Marvin the Martian, Colonel Sanders(w/ Star Wand shaped bong), Major Nelson(w/ Devil Lance), Jeannie(w/Demon Rod), Horse #5, Horses #7-11, Navy SEAL Chief #11, and Navy Seals #33-35.

TEAM is: Leader-1, Cop-Tur, Chromedome, Stylor, Apeface, Spasma, Blaster, Rewind, Eject, Steeljaw, Ramhorn, Rain Dance, Grand Slam, Mr. Spock, Mother Brain, Krang, The Incredibles (Mr. Incredible, Elasti-Girl, Violet, Dash, and Jack Jack) in a Federation Shuttlecraft, Mega Man X, Elec Man, Flash Man, Coleman Trebor, Blake Stone, Chronos, Billy Mitchell(w/ Laser Sword and Laser Gun), Steve Sanders(w/Pokeball), Mr. Awesome(w/ Starwand), Jedi Knight #38B, Jedi Knight #40B, Jedi Councilman #2, Zombie Jedi Knight #36, and Vampires #11-20.

TEAM and most of The Royal Highness found themselves in absolute darkness. Billy Mitchell regained his sight as a billion points of light flooded his vision, distant stars filling the void in which he awoke. Though he could see nothing but empty space around him, his feet felt solid ground and he began to walk. Soon he found a man standing in wait for him, an individual of the Q-Continuum. "Billy Mitchell, expert gamer. Glad I got you here in one piece" he greeted. "Yeah, I guess. You're with the Highness, right? Where's everybody else, where are we?" Q gestured to his sides and several new lights entered the space, the glowing screens of hundreds of game cabinets. "Your personal heaven, no doubt. Welcome to the Grand Cosmic Arcade. Every video game of every planet can be found here, but the stakes are a little higher than usual. I thought since we were lined up for Section Z this week this would be the best place to play it. Need tokens?" He extended a hand full of shining gold coins and dropped them in Mitchell's open palms. He looked the coins over and saw they were engraved with the faces of several of his allies. "Alright, what's the deal? Why the coins, why are only some of my teammates on them?" Between them, a pair of back-to-back Section Z cabinets rose smoothly from the imperceptible ground. "Extra lives, of course. The allies you have are available for play any time, the others are scripted in. As a final catch, your job is to stop me from clearing the game, playing as the defending enemies. Any questions?" Mitchell cracked his knuckles and took hold of one of the several joysticks on the complexly modified cabinet. "I think I can figure it out as I go." They tapped the "P1" buttons on their respective consoles and the game began.

Jedi Master #40 was the first to enter play. Equipped with an in-game jetpack he sidescrolled his way along in the first level. In response Mitchell opened with Vampires #11-20, arriving from the other side of the screen. Q was making the most of his 9-death resource and mowed down the wave of vampires. The next encounter was with TEAM's own Jedi forces. Zombie Jedi Knight #36 was a slow and easy target, but Jedi Councilman #2 was more skilled and destroyed Q's first character. "Oh, did I lose one? Pity." He dropped two tokens in and Major Nelson appeared flying alongside Jeannie, equipped with Shining Force armaments. Though not much of fighters inherently, Major's wish was to kick some serious ass this match and Jeannie didn't disappoint. They bashed the Jedi defenders out and moved onward until they had reached Section E largely unchallenged by the game's default enemies. Billy was doing what he could to conserve ally tokens, knowing managing these resources could make all the difference, but Q was making progress and something had to be done. Conveniently, as the Section neared completion, the word "miniboss" began to blink on the screens and a Federation Shuttlecraft piloted by Mr. Spock appeared, opening to drop off he Incredibles into play. Immediately Elasti-Girl ensnared Jeannie and broke her neck, leaving Major Nelson without the badassery granted by his wish. Underpowered, he was overwhelmed by Mr. Incredible's super-strength. "Don't worry, I came prepared" Q said as he sent in a new squad.

The Fantastic Four arrived in their team's spacecrafts, opening fire with the three that could. Violet was quick with a forcefield and deflected their fire, but she could only maintain the shield for a brief time and soon they were forced to take the offensive. Mr Incredible leapt on to the back of the Z-95 and tore open the cockpit hatch, flinging Mr. Incredible into the open. In response The Thing burst out of his Rockwell X-30 to take on Incredible toe-to-toe, knocking him away from Mr. Fantastic. Elasti-Girl filled her husband's place and began to tangle, pun fully intended, with the equally elastic scientist. He was an equal match physically but far superior intellectually, and in short time he had her tied in knots and incapacitated. When he was finished, he saw that his team was nowhere near as well-off. The Thing's resilience had ceased to hold up against Incredible's brute strength, and with the most durable opponent gone Mr. Incredible was free to assist his family. Invisible Woman and Violet were nowhere to be seen, and Dash trying to evade Human Torch with Jack-Jack. Fast as he normally was, he was relying on jetpack speed alone and couldn't escape Human Torch's flight. He was tackled and caught, and as the heat cooked him alive, Jack-Jack's physiology responded differently and he transformed to a body of liquid nitrogen. Both he and Storm erupted as the elements combined, destroying both. It became clear that Invisible Woman was caught in the blast when she regained visibility after losing half of her flesh. Reed Richards was now alone against his foes, and they surrounded him and tugged at his rubbery limbs in a bid to tear them off. With his last effort he stretched a hand into his pocket and produced the Ultimate Nullifier. "Not this time, you bobble-headed knockoffs" he said as he activated the weapon, destroying his foes and himself in the process. "How Pyrrhic. Not what I was expecting, Billy Mitchell, I'll give you that much. I'd better make the rest of them count."

Token by token, their game rolled on, and Q continually thwarted his opponent's defenses. Colonel Sanders swapped his starwand bong for Mr. Awesome's starwand, and Mr. Awesome died of a deadly marijuana overdose. Steve Sanders and his Pokeball opposed Colonel Sanders and his newfound Starwand, but the pokemon that emerged was an Electrode, self-destructing and killing both Sanders' present. The combined forces of Go-Bots and Transformers nearly had The Ideon defeated in their fight on Mogo, but the Ideon's Black Hole Cannon cleared the field at the cost of its planetary ally. Combining his might with Astro Boy, they made easy work of the Mega Man series trio in Section T, and utterly crushed Krang, Coleman Trebor, and Blake Stone in Section Y. Finally in Section Z, victory seemed imminent for The Highness. Astro Boy cracked open Mother Brain's jar, and though she tried to fire an eye beam at the powerful robots opposing her, the attack didn't connect and the Ideon slashed through her, ending the battle. "Well, looks like that's it. I've won. We've won! Guess you'll be off to the woodchipper." As The Ideon began moving to the battle's exit behind Mother Brain's remains, Mitchell wordlessly presented a single remaining token to Q, quickly dropping it in to the slot. Suddenly, all motion on the screen stopped as Chronos entered play. Mother Brain alone began to rewind, coming back together and finally stopping at the climax of her beam's charge. Expended, Chronos left play and time resumed. Once again the beam tore the screen apart, doing the same to the Ideon in its path. Impatiently Q drummed his fingers on the joystick. "Alright, fine. Bonus level, let's go all-in." He jammed the last of his tokens in and his remaining teammates joined the final fray. Bullets, lasers, and horses flew from all directions, the sharp sound of cracking glass was heard, and...