"Remind me again why we're stuck on the side of this road, sticking our thumbs up. We look like idiots."
          "Yeah, I never realized how much I abused flight until that old fart took it away. Where'd you learn to drive anyway, Ichigo?" replies Uub.
          "I don't recall having said I knew how. I just got tired of waiting for you to get in the driver seat."
          It began a few days back, when after chasing down a thief following a mugging, Ichigo accidentally stumbled across an interesting gathering. Incidentally, he recognized a few of the people involved; namely Yakumo, Minsc, and Piccolo. Curious as to what was going on, he decided to hide in the shadows and eavesdrop. Unfortunately, he was almost immediately spotted.
          [Begin long ass flashback sequence....right....about..............now.]
          "So, what are they talking about?" a voice asks from behind him.
          "I can't really hear them all that good. A couple of them seem rather pissed off though. Wait a second, who the hell are you?"
          "Hey, old man. What are you doing over there? And who the hell are you talking to?" shouts a short, blue-haired kid with pointy ears.
          The old man stands up and approaches the crowd. "Oh, no one in particular. Just the last member of our little gathering. Everyone, this is Ichigo Kurosaki. Ichigo, this is everyone."
          "And just how do you know my name?"
          "Now we can get on with the show. As you all know, I've invited you all."
          "Invited?" interrupts Khellendros, who happens to be stuck in human form for some unknown reason. "I seem to remember it a tad differently."
          "As well as you should, my dear dragon friend. Now be a good boy and entertain the children." The old man snaps his fingers and Khellendros finds himself transformed into a purple dinosaur. He also feels the sudden need to sing into a nearby studio camera. Throughly confused as to what just happened and where this camera suddenly came from, Minsc just stands there scratching his head as Khellendros begins singing some song about love.
          "So, anyone else want to interrupt? No? Good. As I was saying, now that Ichigo's here we can actually begin. Who's up for some Pictionary?"
          "Pictionary? You brought us all here to play a board game?" asks Piccolo.
          "What? A board game? Why would you want to play a board game? I brought you here for a reason, Mr. Namek."
          "But you just said...."
          "We're all here to solve a mystery. There's a body over there and it's our task to find out where he was killed and with what by whom. My guess is Ms. Peacock in the study with a revolver."
          "What body?" asks Yakumo. "I don't see any corpse?"
          "Corpse? Someone died?" the old man replies, shifting around the room.
          "What the hell is wrong with this guy?" asks Chi-Chi.
          "My first guess, a lot," replies Itachi, breaking his silence.
          "You liar, there's no body here," states the old man after he finishes his search.
          "But you," begins Yakumo.
          "So, shall we got on with it then. As I was saying before Mr. Kurosaki so rudely interrupted me, I brought you all here to participate in, well, it's sort of a race. I've gathered you all completely at random, I assure you."
          "Funny that somehow we've all met before, isn't it?" Yakumo asks Minsc.
          "Before me I see two groups of individuals, each seven large. I've paired one member of each group with another of the other group and you will work together in this race. In order to maintain a semblance of balance and fairness, I've removed any of your little special abilities that deal with travel. I've also locked that silly dragon in a human form in much the same balancing act. Wait, where did he get to? And who invited Britney Spears to this party?!?"
          "Who?" asks Uub.
          "The purple dinosaur. Britney Spears, you know, the pop star? Oops I did it again? Hit me baby one more time? Ring any bells?" He's met with only blank stares.
          "Did you just turn that dragon guy into the singing dinosaur?" asks Supergirl, pointing towards Khellendros.
          "What? I can't do that. I'm no magician. I can't just snap my fingers and make things happen. Why would you think that?"
          "Can I kill him now?" asks the Eradicator.
          "Hey Barney, stop singing and get over here," shouts the old man. He snaps his fingers once more and the purple dinosaur becomes human once more. Khellendros looks around throughly confused, then rejoins the party. "Okay, Mr. Kurosaki, you'll be teaming up with Mr. Uub here. Love the mohawk, by the way. Ms. Son....man that sounds weird. Chi-Chi, you're with Piccolo. I believe you know each other already. Your son's just fine, by the way. Itachi, you get the fun of babysitting the demon child, Laharl."
          "I'm not a kid, you idiot. I'm well over a th," he begins before being interrupted.
          "Moving on. Scarface, if you can draw yourself away from the hunt for a day or two, you're teaming up with that android guy, the Eradicator. Try not to kill each other. Mr. Minsc, you're with the gothic vampire-looking guy, Kuroki Kaze. Finally, Ms. Spandex, the so-called Supergirl, is with you Mr. Fujii."
          "Ms. Spandex?" Supergirl asks, raising an eyebrow.
          "Now that you're all teamed up, we can get on with the race. Your goal is Long Beach, California, namely the Queen Mary."
          "And why exactly should we play along with this?" asks Laharl.
          "You want to fly again?"
          "Well, yeah, that'd be good."
          "Then make it to Long Beach. The spell I placed on all of you ends when you cross the finish line. Get there by any means you can think of and the spell ends."
          "Convenient," replies Khellendros, obviously annoyed by both his human form and lack of flight. "So killing you won't effect this in any way?"
          "Not nobody, not no how!"
          "Try this on for size," states Laharl, attempting to punch a hole in the old man. However he quickly finds himself falling face-first onto a cement parking lot. He pulls himself up and notices Itachi is there, also confused.
          "Last one there is a rotten egg! On your mark, get set, go!" the old man shouts, his voice ringing through their heads.
          That brings us to the present, where we return to Ichigo and Uub who find themselves stranded on a Nebraska roadside. Sadly, the radiator on the 1988 Ford Escort Ichigo won off a lottery scratch ticket has overheated and exploded, rendering the vehicle useless. Thus the hitchhiking.
          While they continue to barter passage West, we find Minsc and Kaze riding a Greyhound, Itachi and Laharl waiting at the airport, and Khellendros and Magneto barreling down Missouri highway in a stolen Ferrari, a half-dozen police cards in tow. Somewhere in Iowa, Scarface and Eradicator have stopped in a motel for the night. Yakumo and Kara have similarly stopped off in St. Louis. All the while, Chi-Chi and Piccolo sit waiting at the Queen Mary, having called in Gohan for a quick lift. Dirty cheaters.
          Fast forwarding a bit since I can't really think of any more means of travel, we'll pick back up after everyone has arrived in Long Beach. Once there, they are rejoined by the old man, who just pops back into existence in front of them. "Congratulations everyone, you all made it here in one piece! I wasn't really expecting you all to actually make it, so I'm afraid I don't exactly have enough prizes to go around."
          "Prizes?" asks Ichigo.
          "Yeah, for first place, second place, so on and so forth. Prizes. You know, like you get from most races. This was a race, right?"
          "I'm pretty sure you said it was kind of a race, not that it was a race," explains Yakumo.
          "Well that's unfortunate. I guess there won't be any prizes afterall then, since it wasn't a race. Tootles!"
          "Wait, what...."
          Before Piccolo can finish asking his question, the entire gathering simultaneously vanishes in a flash of light. Everyone but Magneto, anyway. "So, Eric, or is it Max? It doesn't really matter. I kept you here to give you a warning. Amongst all the others you are the most powerful. Overexert this lack of a nerfing and you'll be punished."
          "....."
          "Now be gone," The old man snaps his fingers and the armor-clad mutant vanishes like the rest. "Now to see about that copy of Spaceballs."

Rewards
Yakumo Fujii gains 5 (+1 as writer) Exp and a Companion (Supergirl).
Scarface gains 4 Exp and a Companion (Eradicator).
Khellendros gains 4 Exp and a Companion (Magneto).
Piccolo gains 4 Exp and a Companion (Chi-Chi).
Ichigo Kurosaki gains 4 Exp and a Companion (Uub).
Itachi Uchiha gains 4 Exp and a Companion (Laharl).
Minsc gains 4 Exp and a Companion (Kuroki Kaze).