This took for-EVER, I started this on MONDAY (It's SUNDAY now)it's my first songfic but I tried my best. let me know if you have any advice about the song part specifically.

I don't know THAT much about Pete, SB, Fruit, Illumina, OR the Simmers, sorry.
If you don't know who Fruitninja and the Simmers are, all you need to know is that Vixella + Zuez are referred to as the Simmers and Fruitberries + Illumina are known as Fruitninja.

I took some liberties; a lot of the dialogue is off and none of the crowd interactions actually happened (although almost everything anyone outside of Orange and Pink said did happen in chat - but 95% of the shots and deaths are the same.

Longest oneshot yet so yeah.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
An ultimate test against the best of the best
We're focused now, not a second to rest.
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Grian stared in shock at the scoreboard, frozen in place. They had been in first place the whole time, but still... he had expected something to go terribly wrong in Survival Games, yet it hadn't.

Competing against them was the duo themselves, Fruitninja. They'd clawed their way up the ranks from a low of ninth place to get into Dodgebolt as the second-place team.

Grian would have been happy for the Simmers to finally get into Dodgebolt if he wasn't so scared of what was to come.

Fruit and Illumina were terrifying. Fruit was literally a Green God, and despite it only being a nickname, he very well could be a god for all his insane skill. Illumina was no worse, an expert bowman and no less a master of PVP. Even the select few who could go toe-to-toe with one of them were no match for both of them combined.

Yet that was what Grian and his team would have to face.

"Are we allowed to back out now?" Grian commented, only half joking. They didn't reply, caught up in their own conversations.

"Who are we against?" SB asked curiously, walking over to the other three. "I didn't see."

"Fruit and Illumina," Pete told him, skipping over the Simmers. Everyone knew that the Simmers were only there to fill the roster. Fruitninja could probably manage to hold their own in a competition even as a duo.

"They really came back from like ninth or tenth?" SB whistled. It was impressive.

"I need to breathe, I need to breathe, I need to breathe," Grian mumbled, exhaling and steadying himself.

"You need a gong?" Pete suggested.

"We could do with a gong," False pitched in.

Grian nodded and pulled the small instrument out of his bag. He held it up in his hands and the others fell silent. "Alright, everyone breathe in."

They did so, and despite the clamor surrounding them, they were calm, the eye of the storm. Grian gave the gong a light tap and a smooth, resounding note rang out, drowning out the racket around them. "And out."

"In." Noise was muffled. There was no physical reason for them not to hear anyone else, but they didn't. It was simply them, their quiet breaths, and the soothing chime of the gong. "And out."

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
A chance to be a champion and glory within
As we wait for the games to begin.
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Grian could feel his teammates relaxing around him, but he couldn't calm down. He had gotten to Dodgebolt last time and failed, he'd had a panic attack in the middle of it, he'd let his team down, everyone was going to expect him to win, everyone was going to count on him again and he was going to let them down-

"Hey Grian, you okay?" False asked, evidently noticing his slight panic. Bit more than slight, a little voice in his head commented.

"Yeah, fine," Grian pushed away the thought and the help. He wasn't going to need help, he was going to be fine.

"Alright, we can do this," Pete called confidently, giving Grian a smile. "We've got this!"

Grian smiled back, pushing away his doubts. "We're gonna do it!"

"Yeah, that's the spirit!" False chipped in.

"Time to go," SB noted. Grian felt a familiar tug pulling him away and he was whisked away into the Dodgebolt arena.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Cause at the countdown, we're starting out on the ground
But we won't go down, we'll be up in the clouds
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Grian took a deep breath and stared straight forward, narrowing his eyes. He was going to win this, despite his doubts. He could do this.

Across the arena, Fruit and Illumina readied themselves, looking straight at Grian in sync quite creepily. "Good luck, G," Fruit called. Grian gave a small smile. In the end it was just a game, right? They were all friends.

"May the best team win!" Illumina added supportively.

"Which is why you're going down," False challenged, raising her bow as if to shoot. She didn't pull the string back, but everyone knew she was right on target.

"Love ya Falsie, but we're taking the crown," Fruit shot back warmly. He made it no secret that he adored the hermits, despite the competition.

"Just you try," False told him. Before Fruit could reply, a loud beep sounded out and a holographic 3 appeared in the air in front of them, right in the center of the arena. All eight players fell silent and tensed up, waiting for the game to start.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Take a chance now, cause it's once in a lifetime
And the crown is there in sight.
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Two more dings rang out across the arena as the game counted them in. Three, two, one, go!

Grian instantly dodged to the side, watching as Illumina dashed towards the arrow, scooping in up in one practiced motion and nocking it to his bow. There was barely time to register his movements before the arrow was in the air, flying towards Grian. He ducked and headed for the arrow, yanking it easily out of the soft ground and rolling it across the arena to False.

False picked it up easily and called out. "Let me know who you're going for, Pete?"

Pete didn't reply, intently focusing on his target. There was no time to wait for him, so False simply turned and added, "I'm going for Fruit."

Pete released his arrow, which whistled past Illumina's head. False let hers loose an instant later. It hit its mark, embedding itself in Fruit's head. Pink sparks burst from where he'd been a second earlier.

Quickly, Illumina ran over and grabbed both arrows, the Simmers stepping back to allow him to take the lead. Grian watched in slight awe as the bowmaster carefully aimed, his hands steady.

An arrow shot towards Grian and he shrieked slightly as he leaped away. The second one also shot just past him, nearly impaling him."Why are they going for me, why are they going for me!?"

"They know you're a threat," SB replied flatly, unfazed by the loud, chaotic, stressful environment. SB strode over to Grian and took one of the arrows from his shaking hands, giving Grian a concerned look as he did. Luckily, he didn't comment on it.

Grian nocked an arrow and fired it at Illumina, hoping to eliminate their biggest threat. To no one's surprise (or at least not his own) he missed. Opposite to him, SB hit his shot, eliminating Vixella in a second shower of pink sparkles.

Illumina once again took both arrows, standing calmly in the center of the opposite side. He released his first arrow, and before it even crossed the center line a second had joined it. Grian hadn't even seen his hand move.

With two identical bursts of orange, False and SB were out of the game. It was down to him, Pete, Illumina, and Zuez.

Pete and Grian each took an arrow and aimed, Pete once again silently focusing. He let his arrow loose and Grian followed suit, both missing the elusive ninja opposite them.

Illumina's masked face showed no emotion as he mercilessly eliminated Pete and Grian.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Take a shot, take it up a notch
If we're on the spot, we can pull it off
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Grian's breaths were short as he was teleported up into the stands. He quickly ran back down them so no one would notice this fact, but they noticed.

"Gri, you okay?" Pete asked as he walked out to join his team in standing on the edge of the pit.

"Yeah, yeah, fine," Grian replied quickly. None of them really seemed convinced, but for some reason they didn't push it.

"Hey, we're gonna do this!" SB called. "We may have lost the first round, but we can come back."

"Exactly," Pete agreed, clamping his hands on Grian's shoulders supportively. "We're gonna get you your first win!"

Grian couldn't help but grin, a warm feeling spreading through him. "Yeah, let's do this!" he called.

"Yeah!" False, Pete, and SB echoed in unison, raising their hands to the sky.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
If we take it to the limit we can watch 'em fall
So get your head in the game and we can win it all
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Once again they stood across from Pink, once again they stood with their eyes narrowed. The others were no less focused. They looked confident and ready, but Grian was too. Everyone had their limits, even Fruitninja, and they would hit them soon enough.

Just like last time, the game counted them in. Just like last time, Illumina raced for the arrow and fired lightning-fast. This time, his rush paid off and False was gone instantly.

That was okay. That didn't mean anything. They could still win.

Grian stayed near the back, letting SB and Pete have a chance to shoot. They readied themselves and took their time to aim... and it worked.

In a flash, Fruit and Illumina were out, their biggest targets eliminated.

"Yes!" Grian yelled exitedly. "Yes!"

"Nice," SB commented, remarkably calm and cool, probably some sort of penguin trait.

The Simmers picked up the arrows and fired at Orange, but Grian's incredible dodging skills were no match for them (or so he'd like to believe) and the missiles embedded themselves in the wall behind him.

"You're awesome, Grian!" False called from the sidelines. "They're missing you!"

Grian nodded in acknowledgement and offered the arrows to Pete and SB. Pete refused his with crossed arms.

"You shoot, you can do it," Pete insisted.

"No, no, I've missed two for two," Grian protested, letting SB have his arrow and fire at the Pink Parrots.

"Come on G, I know you've got this," Pete told him, backing away. Meanwhile, SB released his arrow and missed, probably distracted by Pete and Grian's squabbling.

"Get your head in the game, guys!" False yelled. Both immediately turned away and dropped the argument.

Zuez picked up SB's arrow while Pete and Grian were still both refusing to shoot. Without hesitating, he aimed his shot right between Grian and Pete. They noticed it a touch too late, but they could have dodged. Instead, Pete looked Grian straight in the eyes and turned away, letting Zuez's arrow go straight into his chest.

Grian jumped slightly and sighed. Pete believed in him, but why? He just couldn't shoot straight, that was how it was.

SB watched him, giving an encouraging nod. He sent his own arrow straight into Vixella's head, then was promptly destroyed by Zuez.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Bring the heat, we don't miss a beat
Play it on repeat, it's our victory
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Grian could see the faith, the trust, the knowledge in SB's eyes as he was shot. SB could have dodged that and they both knew it.

"Why? Why again?" Grian muttered.

"Come on G, you got this!" False told him, giving him a thumbs up. Grian sighed, but smiled to her. He took a deep breath and steadied himself. It wasn't the final matchup, he was fine.

Grian picked up the arrow, feeling the hard wood anchor him, focusing on only the feel of the projectile beneath his hands. He swung it over the bow and pulled his fingers back along the smooth shaft to rest on the string of the bow. Ignoring the second arrow lying on the ground next to him, he pulled the bowstring back, the soft fuzz of the ocelot face sewn on his glove brushing against his cheek as he did so.

Ignoring the crowd (who Grian could hear had fallen silent, which did not help), he closed one eye and pinpointed his target, arrow-tip pointed straight at Zuez.

With one final burst of confidence, Grian untensed his hand and let the arrow fly, closing his eyes. He couldn't stand watch it fail.

A loud clang, like that of a bell, sounded and Grian opened his eyes again to see orange confetti rain from the sky. He'd done it. He relaxed, his tensed muscles loosening.

"Yeah, that's it, you got it G!" Pete called. Grian gave a small nod and waited for the others to be returned.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Last team standing at the final call
I'll take the crown and the coin, we can win it all
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

The others reappeared next to Grian almost immediately. False strode over to him and put her hands on his shoulders, looking into his eyes. "Are you ready to do it?"

"Yeah, I'm ready to win," Grian smiled back, gulping back his anxiety.

"That's the spirit!" Pete commented, pumping his fist in the air. "Let's do this!"

They turned to face Pink with spirits high, ready to win. Pink clearly had other ideas, but that didn't mean Orange would be letting them act on those ideas.

The timer clicked thrice, then dinged, and the game was on.

Illumina dove towards the center, sliding like a baseball player to home plate. In one smooth swoop, he had fired the arrow straight at Grian, aim true. Grian didn't have time to do anything other than instinctively dodge away, but as soon as he stopped moving, he stood in awe for a moment.

"Nice shot," Fruit congratulated his teammate. Despite them being the opposition, he was tempted to praise Illumina as well, but he stopped himself.

Pete and SB each grabbed an arrow and headed towards the line. Illumina and Fruit gradually drifted sideways, preparing to activate their training as soon as Orange fired their shots.

Once again, Pete and SB moved in sync, sending deadly missiles shooting straight across the field. Illumina ducked, but Pete's arrow went straight towards him and hit him in the head before he could get down. Fruit twirled sideways, but SB got him in the leg and he crumpled down before dissolving into pink sparks.

"Oh, yeah!" False yelled supportively. "Nice!"

"The big two!" Grian added happily, fear forgotten. Pete nodded in agreement and gave a wide grin.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Everyone's an enemy except my team
Watch each other's backs and we won't see defeat
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Vixella and Zuez picked up the fallen arrows, the responsibility having fallen onto them now that Fruitninja was gone.

A loud scream suddenly rang out from the stands, rising above the crowd and the clamor of the stadium. "GO SIMMERS!"

"Dream," Grian snorted under his breath, smiling despite himself. It was wonderful how supportive everyone was in MCC.

Distracted slightly by his thoughts and the happiness of Pete and SB's successful shots, Grian didn't notice the arrow until it was too late.

"Oh, sugar!" Grian yelped as he was eliminated, teleported away outside the arena.

"GRIAN YOU HAVE FAILED ME!" Tommy screeched. Jeez, what was with the Dream SMP and being unnecessarily loud?. "GRIANNNNN!"

"Go Sasha!" A female this time- Shubble. Grian wasn't even upset in the slightest anymore. This was just MCC, and the chaos that was MCYT.

"She killed a man, feeling good!" Scott commented, giggling. Ah, yes, Scott.

From inside the arena rang out the sound of a kill. Grian looked down to see that someone had avenged him, striking down Zuez. He headed down to the edge and called down. "Nice!"

"Thanks!" SB yelled back, not turning to look at him for fear of being hit. However, he didn't have to worry. Vixella missed both shots, coming close to hitting False but not quite succeeding.

"GO FALSE!" A cry arose from the stands where Purple and Lime were sitting. Gem was cheering in support of her fellow hermits, leading Jimmy, Fwhip, Ren, Martyn, Cub, Quig, and Hbomb in a little dance.

"Thank you Gem!" False called back warmly, smiling.

"Win it for us hermits!" Ren told her. "You've got this Falsie!"

"Aww, thanks Ren," False replied, blushing a bit. She picked up an arrow and pointed it right at Vixella, her aim true. The projectile plunged right into Vixella's chest, sending her away and into the stands.

"YES FALSE!" Gem screamed.

Scott's loud "WOOOOO!" drowned out anything else Gem said, but ended soon enough for Grian to hear Quig, Jimmy, fWhip, and Cub scream out "FALSE SUPREMACY!" at Gem's command. Grian laughed softly and smiled, panic blown away by the antics of his friends- his friends who were always there for him.

They were quickly teleported back into the arena and ready to start, lining up together. Opposing them was pink, their opponents.

It was four versus four.

Facing them: Fruit the Green God, Illumina the bowmaster, Vixella the Simmer, and Zuez, the man named after a god for a reason. I ntimidating foes to be sure.

But they something far more important. It didn't matter how good or bad they or their opponents were, because they would always win. Why?

Because they were a team.

They supported each other, laughed with each other, fought side-by-side. They won together, lost together, and they would do this together.

"We can do this," Grian told them. And his team agreed.

They nodded and stepped forward together, ready to face their opponents as a group.

Ready to win.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
4x4 you'll see us taking off
Ace in the skies, you know we can't be stopped
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

As Game 4 started, Grian was excited. If they could win this match, they could win Dodgebolt... they could win MCC.

As if reading his thoughts, Fruit called confidently, "Time for the best team to win!"

"Don't worry, we won't drag your demises out," False told him sweetly, giving him a self-satisfied smirk.

"Yeah, False!" Pete, SB, and Grian cheered on their teammate. Gem's voice shouting "GO FALSE!" rose high above the rest of the noise in the arena to join them.

Fruit shuffled back slightly, dipping his head, then affectionately replied, "Well, can't argue with my queen False."

"That's right!" Grian called boldly. "Sorry, Fruity B, but it's hermit time!"

Pink had no reply but to narrow their eyes threateningly, at which Grian nearly laughed. They were unstoppable, and Pink knew it.

The timer dinged, starting the game, and Grian confidently went for the first shot, only narrowly missing Illumina. Illumina let the arrow fly past him, then snatched it midair and sent it boomeranging back, straight at SB. Grian's jaw dropped at the feat and everyone fell silent.

Illumina followed up with a second incredible shot, knocking Pete out of the game instantly.

There was silence.

False and Grian took up the arrows. Grian squinted, carefully planning his shot, then released the arrow and failed, again. False didn't fail, of course False didn't fail. False was amazing, far better than Grian himself. She took out Zuez. It wasn't Illumina or Fruit, but still, any successful shot was a good one.

Illumina picked up their arrows with a satisfied grin, his bow once again moving faster than light to knock out two people in one round.

Apparently Pink were the unstoppable ones.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
I'm not a quitter, I'm a winner and I'll win it all
I got the strat and the skill, back you up against a wall
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

"Oh, no," Grian muttered. Oh, biscuits, it was down to the final round, winner-takes-all.

"Two to two," Pete pointed out helpfully.

"COME ON HERMITS!" someone yelled from the stands. Yes, thank you, that's definitely going to make him feel so much better.

"We've got this," False told them confidently, gesturing to all the fans decked out in orange gear. "They know it too."

Grian nodded and gulped. He was so close... He could only imagine how much pressure would be on him next MCC if he didn't win this one, and he was already nearly overwhelmed by it.

"Hey, Grian?" SB said quietly, suddenly.

Grian turned to him. "Y-eah?"

"No matter what happens, just remember; you got into Dodgebolt. You got sixth place. You did an incredible job today, and even if we lose this, everyone's still proud of you."

Grian felt his face grow warm as a blush spread across it. "Aww, thanks SB."

"I mean it," SB told him, smiling.

"He's right, G," Pete added. "You're an amazing player."

"Well, thank you," Grian replied. He didn't know where all this was coming from, but he didn't particularly care.

"Now let's go kick some butt!" False cried, pumping her fist in the air.

"Yeah!" Pete, SB, and Grian chorused.

"Grian supremacy!" False yelled.

Gem evidently picked up on their conversation (it wasn't like they were being quiet), because when Pete and SB echoed False, their words harmonized with other voices calling the same thing.

"GRIAN SUPREMACY!" the cry rang out, resounding through the arena.

"Time to win this," False told them excitedly.

"Let's go," Grian said, confidence restored. "Time to win this."

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
We're ready to go, out on a roll, down with the flow
Come on, let's get on with the show
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

They lined up proudly, staring down Pink. Pink was no less threatening, returning their stare determinedly. The arena was loud with cries of "Orange Ocelots!" "Pink Parrots!" "Go Simmers!" "Go Hermits!"

"Ready to lose?" Fruit called tauntingly.

"Yeah, I hope you are," False shot back proudly.

Fruit stepped back, a bit deflated, evidently having no response to that. Illumina took his place, striding forward and calling, "We won't need to be."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Pete told him. He opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could, the timer chimed and the game began.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
You're in my court on your last resort
Down on your luck, I'll hunt you for sport.
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

SB took the first shot this time, stepping forward and aiming for Illumina. The ninja dove to the side, avoiding the arrow easily, then grabbed it from the wall and moved forward. On the other side of the arena, Fruit mirrored his movements. In sync, they let their arrows fly towards Orange.

Illumina's narrowly missed Grian, while Fruit's eliminated False.

Grian felt his nerves skyrocket at the whistling sound of the arrow zooming past his ear. He let Pete and SB shoot as he tried to steady his quick, short breaths.

Pete succeeded in killing Vixella, but SB missed. That was alright. One for one. They could do that.

They could win this.

That illusion was quickly shattered when Fruit turned around and rapidly destroyed both Pete and SB.

Fruit was the hunter, and they were the hunted.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Race you to the finish line, night and day
We're getting in the game now, take it away
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

"No, no, no, no, why me?" Grian complained, gut twisting. It was down to him, down to him in the last game of Dodgebolt, down to him to win Dodgebolt. Again.

Again it was him standing against three, alone, when moments before there had been two people next to him.

Again.

But before he knew it, the stands had erupted.

"GRIAN TIME!" screeched Hbomb. Tubbo copied him, beginning to chant. "GRINE TIME, GRINE TIME, GRINE TIME!"

"Let him win!" Jimmy yelled.

"GRIAN NEEDS THIS!" fWhip added.

"GRIAN SUPREMACY!" rang out again, followed by a scream of "THE GRAIN TRAIN IS COMING!"

Grian cracked a small smile at how the entire crowd seemed to have begun to root for him.

He took a steadying breath and aimed, taking his time to make sure he got the shot.

It paid off.

Fruit was knocked out.

Grian attempted to quickshot Zuez afterwards, but didn't make it. Still, he'd knocked out Fruit!

There was a screech of "YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" from the stands- a voice Grian didn't recognize. One of the newcomers, he thought.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Take a chance now, 'cause it's once in a lifetime
And the crown is there in sight
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Illumina and Zuez picked up Grian's arrows and stepped up. Grian resignedly prepared to dodge, knowing full well he'd be killed right then and there.

He leaped sideways as Illumina shot his arrow. One down. One to go.

Zuez's shot right where he'd been a second earlier, but he wasn't there anymore. Two down, how!? How was he alive!?

There was silence. This was his chance. He could actually win MCC. If he could do this, that was...

His breathing quickened again and he had a rush of deja vu. Again, again, again. Again! Not again! Why again?

It was all the same. He was facing off against the Pink Parrots. His team was first in the event. His team had shot first and missed, then Pink had successfully killed one of his teammates. They'd killed one of Pink's players and missed one. Then, Pink had shot the other two people on his team. It was down to a 1v3. He killed a Green God, then missed his second shot. They missed both their next shots. EVERYTHING WAS THE SAME!

He wanted to cry, wanted to stop, wanted to scream that it wasn't fair and he couldn't do it. But for his team's sake, for the hermits' sake, for the sake of all his fans and friends who wanted him to do this, he pulled himself back in.

He steadied his aim.

He prepared himself.

"Guys," Grian called, getting the attention of his team. For one blissful moment, there was no one else. No arena, no Illumina, no Zuez, no crowd, nothing. Just him, Pete, False, and SB. "I just want to say, before whatever happens happens... it's been a blast."

And he shot.

And he hit.

And the crowd went insane.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Take a shot, take it up a notch
If we're on the spot, we can pull it off
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Grian ignored the specifics of their calls, focusing solely on Zuez. Zuez was walking up, readying himself, slowly preparing for this. Zuez was just as bad a shot as Grian, so this could either be awful or amazing.

Zuez's first arrow streaked past Grian in a blur of gray.

Zuez nodded slightly and notched a second arrow, releasing it carefully.

It flew past, and Grian sighed in relief. God, it was so stressful.

"GRIAN SUPREMACY!" Cub's loud cheer broke through Grian's concentration and he smiled warmly. He didn't even know Cub very well. They were friends, of course, but not to the level that he and Scar or he and Mumbo were friends. And yet here Cub was, cheering him on. The hermits had something special, and Grian could always count on that.

In a stark contrast to Cub's focused energy, Scott was screaming his head off in excitement, and Grian couldn't help but giggle at his antics. Scott wasn't as obviously a gremlin like Grian or Impulse, but that man was chaos if Grian had ever heard the word.

Grian glanced up to see Jimmy yelling "Oh my gosh, NO WAY!" from his place next to Scott, the couple in hilariously stark contrast to one another.

Grian drew back his bow and trained his attention back on Zuez. His arrows both flew wildly past Zuez into the wall behind him.

"Oh, come off it," he muttered.

"It's alright, you got this!" False called down encouragingly.

The crowd fell silent, the world seeming to hold its breath as Zuez lined up his shots. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

The arrows charging at him.

Time slowing down.

Diving and twisting out of the way.

His foot slipping off the edge.

But he lived.

He pushed forward with his stable foot and fell onto his stomach on the soft ground with an audible sigh of relief.

Everything seemed to release their held breaths with him.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
If we take it to the limit we can watch 'em fall
So get your head in the game and we can win it all
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Scott was screaming again, Gumi (that was her name!) had joined him. The crowd was going crazy. Shouts and yells rang out through the arena.

Grian slowly strode over to where the arrows lay on the ground. He picked them up, letting their hard, rough shafts ground him in reality.

"Come on, you can do this!" Pete called to him. He could, he could do it. He could (No matter how much his brain tried to tell him otherwise).

Across from him, Zuez was tense. Grian himself was tense. Everything was tense, pin-drop silent, everyone waiting. Any moment, MCC could be won.. or lost.

And Grian knew that he had done it. He might lose, but he had won in every way that mattered. He had improved from last time. He'd made his team proud. They'd gotten first place in the event. He had made amazing friends and amazing memories.

Satisfied, happy, calm, Grian released his arrow.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Bring the heat, we don't miss a beat
Play it on repeat, it's our victory
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

What happened next, Grian could only describe as a fever dream.

His arrow hit Zuez dead on in a burst of stars. A large holographic banner appeared, announcing their victory. And everyone was screaming.

He heard his name, he heard shouts of "YES!" and "ORANGE!" and "GRIAN SUPREMACY!" There were cheers and shouts and tears of joy. The stands were screaming, the admins were screaming, his team was screaming, he was screaming.

Everything was orange, everything was loud, everything was so surreal. He'd done it. He'd done it. He'd 1v3ed Fruitninja. He'd made his whole team proud.

He was dragged away by the magic of teleportation and taken along with his team to the podium, to walk where he'd never set been before, to walk in the footsteps of gods, of kings, of legends.

He was a legend, he realized. He had just been down, his team eliminated, the Pink Parrots advantaged in every way, prepared to take the crown like everyone knew they would, but he had single-handedly defeated all three of them in a match that would go down in history.

Grian's team wrapped him up in an embrace, crying "Let's go!" and "Yes!" and "You did it!" and "Go Grian!" He was lifted into the air and carried triumphantly out along the Walk of Fame to stand proudly in front of a cheering crowd of friends.

Tears of joy ran down his face and his heart beat nearly out of his chest in happiness. He'd done it.

Below him, the crowd was screeching.

"GRIAN SUPREMACY!" Cub and Ren chorused.

"ONE V THREE!" Jimmy yelled.

"YOU DID IT!" Scott called proudly. How he could manage to scream like this without killing his voice, Grian honestly couldn't fathom.

"Congrats!" the admins called, not needing to yell, their voices magically amplified.

"I'm gonna cry," Pete said giddily. "I'm gonna cry."

"Aw, yeah, Grian, you did it!" False scooped Grian up in the biggest hug possible, squeezing him tightly, until he nearly couldn't breathe, but he didn't care.

SB turned smoothly to Grian with a beam lighting up his face. "You did it."

Grian would never forget that night.

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━
Last team standing at the final call
I'll take the crown and the coin, we can win it all
━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

Slowly, people began to disperse and mingle about, chatting about more trivial things. It never ceased to amaze him how supportive everyone was.

Not one person was upset that Grian had won.

Not one person was anything but supportive at Grian's victory.

Not that he hadn't fully earned it.

"That was insane, Grian!" Phil called as he swooped overhead, soaring with his wings spread wide.

"Thanks!" Grian called back happily. His friendship with Phil wasn't as well-known as many others, but they had a special bond as avians.

"Of course, mate, you deserve it!" Phil told him, diving away before the conversation could continue. Grian wasn't bothered; he would be back later.

Grian saw Scott hanging casually from a tree as Jimmy, fWhip, and Gem sat beneath it chatting. Grian hopped up on one of the points of the giant crown ringing the Walk of Fame and shouted at the top of his lungs like the chaos gremlin he was, "SCOTT, I WANT YOU TO KISS MY COIN!"

Scott looked over at Grian and grinned. "Of course. NOXITE!" Gem rolled her eyes at this

The man in question swooped over, gliding wingless through the air. Ah, the powers of an admin. He raised an eyebrow quizzically at Scott. "Yes?"

"Can you give Grian's coin? He wants me to kiss it," Scott told him, as if that were the most normal thing in the world (To be fair, considering that it was Scott this was probably quite a common occurrence).

Noxite chuckled and pulled out a coin from his belt and flipped it to Scott. It was large, similar to the size of a casino token. Scott caught it easily, and (still upside down) brought it to his lips, locking eyes with Grian. Grian could see the laughter in those ice-blue eyes and smiled conspiratorially.

Scott was interrupted by Jimmy giving him a pretend-pout and crying, "Hey, you're only supposed to do that to me."

"Aw, poppy, don't worry," Scott told him, pulling away from the coin. "We can do this even better later."

fWhip made a disgusted face and Gem giggled at it. "Come on fWhip, you should be used to this by now."

fWhip smacked his sister lightly on the arm. "Well, I'm not."

"Thank you, snowflake," Jimmy smiled sweetly. Grian snorted, but smiled. They were adorable together.

Scott flipped down from the tree, startling the trio beneath. He landed gracefully, and walked over to Grian, holding the coin out in his hand and smirking. "Here you are, one very much deserved MCC winners' coin."

Grian took it happily and nodded to Scott. "Thank you very much."

"Of course," Scott turned to Jimmy. "Come on, petal, I believe there was something you wanted to do."

Jimmy jumped up and ran over to Scott, slipping his hand into Scott's. They at least had the decency to head away out of sight before... you know.

Beneath the tree, fWhip childishly muttered something else about Scott and Jimmy and it was Gem's turn to smack her brother.

Grian left them to their antics, reveling in his own happiness. Below him, a voice spoke up.

"How's it feel to finally win?" Seapeekay was below him, camera dangling from his neck, hanging just above his "California Pizza Kitchen" shirt. He held a clipboard in his hand, held casually by his side. He'd come as a journalist this MCC, documenting all that happened. Not that he didn't anyways despite literally being in the event.

"It feels... I did it, Callum." Grian told him happily.

"Yeah, you finally did! Reddit's gonna love you," Seapeekay told him, mentioning as he always did his friend Reddit, the temperamental one who was obsessed with MCC.

"I did. I won it all."