"Man. Am I glad the week's over." Shadow said with a sigh of relief. "So Fang. You got any plans for Saturday? I'm pretty sure you don't have much else in store except spending time with Narico. How is your little bro doing by the way? He and the CMC still hanging out together?"
Fang smiled. "Yeah. Narico likes to spend time with them at their clubhouse a lot. He also really likes going to the library to hang out with Spike. The two of them really like talking about comics with each other. But as for weekend plans, I've got nothing."
"Then it appears we're in the same camp." Venus said as he approached the two. "Hello again you two. Happy Friday!" Venus fist bumped Shadow and Fang. "Hard to believe that Hearth's Warming's coming up so soon, huh?" Venus let out a fond sigh of his time with the Elements of Heroism so far. "Hard to believe a couple months have passed by so quickly."
"Time flies when you're having fun." Akage said as he leaped down from his perch in a tree. "Then again, I've only been here for a week so far. Glad to see all of us new EoH members got some free time that isn't intruded upon by mutant changelings or other villains."
Shadow beamed, and nodded. "Yup!" He then got an idea. "Say, since we've all got no plans for tonight, how about we hold a Guys' Night at Burst's place? I can't think of a better way to give us something to do."
"You sure about that Shadow?" Venus asked. "Burst seems like a nice guy, but I doubt he'll just let us roll right into his house and have ourselves a whole night's worth of fun."
Akage shrugged. "It couldn't hurt to ask. So what've we got to lose?" And with that, the group headed to Burst's place and knocked on the door. "Moment of truth my friends."
"Oh. Hey guys." Burst greeted as he opened the door. "What brings you all to my place tonight?"
Shadow scratched his head. "Well, me and the other new members were thinking. . . could we hold a guys' night here? Let's not kid ourselves. While most of us are aware of each other, we can't really call ourselves friends yet. So we figured, this could be a good way for all of us to get to know each other!" Shadow then hid his face behind his beanie cap. "Pleasesayyes."
"Sure." Burst said with a shrug. "Just let me make a couple calls." Burst dialed up Inferno, Steel, Tyrannus, Ace, and Ice's numbers on his phone. "Hey guys. You all down to hang at my place tonight? Shadow and the rest of the new members decided to hold a little get-together. Of course I'm ordering us some pizzas! My fridge doesn't have enough food for ten people. Anyway, be sure to bring some sodas and a couple movies or games. I've got a Nintendo Switch and a PS4. Cool. See you all in a few."
Burst Stream hung up, and smiled. "So. Any last minute items you guys wanna bring to the party?" The younger members all dashed to their homes before returning a few minutes later with various entertainment items. "Alright then. Guys' night is officially ready. Just gotta make the call for the delivery."
About fifteen minutes later, the rest of the Elements of Heroism showed up. "Hey everyone!" Inferno greeted. "Who wants to kick off tonight with a couple rounds of Street Fighter?" The guys instantly gathered around Burst's TV. Each of them took turns fighting as each player who lost a match forfeited their controller to the next player. Needless to say, Akage was utterly destroying everyone else. "Geez Akage! Were you also a pro gamer on top of being a ninja?"
"You forget." Akage said with a smirk as he landed a devastating combo! "These games were developed in my homeland. Meaning I had access to them sooner than any of you. The result being that I owned all of you."
Steel went to the door, and called out that the pizza had arrived. Prompting Burst to dismiss himself to pay for their food. When he returned, Tyrannus had put on Jurrasic Park on the DVD player. "Sweet." Tyrannus said with a smile as he grabbed a slice. "Watching a movie just isn't the same without snacks." The movie marathon from there consisted of Star Wars, The Avengers, and a Godzilla movie.
"Alright. Looks like the only thing left to do is share a bit about ourselves." Burst said with a smile. "So who's got the guts to spill all their info?"
Dark Ice smirked. "Sounds like a job for the Element of Courage." Ice clapped his hands together. "Well, I guess the only thing I really need to share is that I wanted to be a voice actor when I was in my teens. One of my favorite shows was Fairy Tale, and my favorite character was Natsu. Heck, I even have a hairstyle similar to his! Plus, I can relate to his temper and tendency to get fired-up!"
"I guess I'll go next." Tyrannus said with a small smile. "I used to be bullied a lot as a little kid. Ironic that it's usually the bigger kids that are the bullies. One annoying nickname they gave me was T. Rex because the thought I'd stomp them like the dinosaur my shorthanded name shared. But I tolerated it all just to prove that they were wrong." Tyrannus then saw Shadow jump onto him and give him a big sympathy hug. "Shadow. I got over this when I was seven years old. You don't need to make me feel better."
Shadow shook his head. "I don't care! You still need healing hugs!" Everyone shared a laugh. "Well since I was so eager to jump-in, I'll go next. I was a cosplay freak as a little kid. I still am! Every Nightmare Night I would spend a week prior to the holiday just to perfect or customize a costume! I always wanted to make my hobby a career, and now I've got a whole cosplay shop!"
"Hmm. I'll have to stop by." Akage mused. "I could use some good prop weapons. That, and I could use a Ninja Turtle costume." Akage then noticed the odd looks everyone was giving him. ". . . What? A real ninja can't be allowed to like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Well, I'm breaking that trend!" Akage sprung to his feet, and raised his fists to the air! "I AM AKAGE STRIDER! AND I LOVE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!"
Venus soon recovered from the shared laughing fit the rest of the guys were going through. "M-My turn now. I use women's hair care products to maintain my hair."
"Well that's obvious." Fang said with a shrug. "I mean, how else do you get it to look that good or smell that nice? It's no secret dude. As for me? I guess the thing I wanna share is that my mom used to call me her little pup." Fang's face went red. "For. . . obvious reasons."
Steel scratches his chin. "I'm guessing it's probably because you followed her around a lot. Same with my mom." Steel let out a fond sigh. "I guess that brings me to my item. My parent's originally wanted to name me Razor." The other guys burst into laughter. Steel cracking a smile before joining in. "Yeah. Subtle, wasn't it? They would've been better off naming me 'Edge Lord'!"
"Oh-Oh that's too good!" Inferno said as he clutched his sides. "Okay then. It's my turn." Inferno took a deep breath. "I used to not like music at all." He then noticed the shocked expressions on the others' faces. "Yeah. Pretty crazy, right? But all that changed when I heard the Pokémon theme song."
Ace gulped. "W-Well since we're on the topic of anime, I-I. . ." Ace shut his eyes. "I LIKE CUTE SLICE-OF-LIFE ANIME!" He then threw himself onto the floor. "Finally got that out of my system. . ."
"Well now," Inferno said with a smirk. "Looks like the only one left is our fearless leader. So what deep dark secret do you have to share with us? We'll take it to our graves before we spill it to anyone else! Or, y'know, our girlfriends make us cough it up."
Burst blinked. "Might as well not keep you all in suspense." Burst Stream sighed and steeled his gaze. "I've got a villain crush. In specific, that villain would be Nightmare Moon." His cheeks then slightly reddened. "Believe it or not, she was my first kiss. It was right after she'd knocked me around after her return."
"Burst." Steel said as he put a hand on Burst's shoulder. "You are now officially the most badass person I know since you were able to hold your own against an Avatar and get a kiss from the goddess who tried to bring eternal night all without dying."
And so, guys' night came to an end. However, in the Castle of the Two Sisters, the slowly recovering Nightmare Moon couldn't help but sneeze as she felt someone mention her.