After the events of the Tower of Infernity, the Shining Hope Squad thought it would be a good idea to prepare for the King of Fighters tournament in a unique way. So they visited a place they haven't gone to yet… Cross-World.

"Wow, this could possibly be our first time checking out Barry's place." Alice Right aka the Giant Hero Titanica noted.

"I figured if Jexis helping Zexi out in New world, we could help Barry build up his coalition as part of training." Hope said. "I… wanna get better at recruiting."

"That makes sense." Hagakure said.

"The coalition should be right around here." Ichrio said as they set down. Near the coalition, they saw Team Chronicle's ship parked.

"Looks like we aren't the only ones here." Fuyujiko said.

The Squadron made their way to the front gate before they heard a gun fire and bullets sprayed right over them.

"Eeek!" Mikan yelped.

"Alright, who shot us?!" Hiyoko asked.

"Hold it right there you!" a voice called out as a man in red armor was seen standing behind the gate. "If you think you can just walk right into our base, you have another thing coming, ya filthy blue!"

"What is this guy talking about?" Ibuki asked.

"I have absolutely no idea." Hope said.

"Hey Sarge, who's at the…" a familiar voice called as Barry stepped into view only to stop when he saw who was there. "...Oh god dammit Sarge, you just shot at the Shining Hope Squadron!"

"The who now?" Sarge asked.

"Barry, this guy shot at us because he thought we were filthy blues or something!" Hiyoko yelled.

"Yeah...he tends to do that to anyone wearing blue." Barry said, looking at Hope. "He's getting better, but it's still a problem."

"Yeah, I think you're right… Would you mind letting us in?" Hope asked.

"No problem! Grif, open the door!" Sarge ordered.

"Alright, alright, give me a sec…" another voice came from nowhere as the gate opened.

"Grif? That name sounds familiar…." Akane said rubbing her head as they walked inside. "Oh, wasn't he the guy Barry mentioned who wanted a Pizza place in New World?"

On cue, another armored man came from the guard post, but he had yellow armor.

"Hey, welcome to the Multiverse Coalition." Grif waved half heartedly. "Enjoy your stay. Now, if you excuse me, I'm off to get food." he said walking off.

"Don't eat those mushrooms again!" Barry called out to Grif before turning back to the squadron. "Hey Hope, welcome to Cross-World Standard! What can I do for you?"

"Oh, I was actually thinking about helping you get more members for your coalition. Since Jexi's helping Zexi in New World, I thought I'd help you expand too." Hope explained. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all!" Barry replied. "It would be nice to have some extra help around here. Come on in!" Barry waved as he led the Squadron through the gate and up to a tower that reached into the sky. "Welcome to Tower X."

"Wow, we're so high up in here!" Ibuki marveled.

"Indeed. Normally, it would take decades to build a tower like this, but since the two Cross-Events back in 2016, and the later breaking of the Dimensional Barriers, it's cut construction from years to only months."

"I might've had something to do with the breaking barriers part…." Hope chuckled.

"I thought you might." Barry grinned. "It seems you and your friends have had quite an impact on the Multiverse."

"Speaking of, mind telling us exactly who that guy in red and that lazy ass man in yellow are?" Fuyuhiko asked.

"I've never seen their armor. Are they from the Future Universe?" Sonia asked.

"Well, I think I've heard of some crazy experiments done in the Future Universe with some… unusual volunteers." Hope said.

"No, they're just crazy." Barry chuckled. "Although, they're no slouches in a fight, at least against people of their pay grade."

"Oh wait, didn't Penny mention something about a group of oddly colored guys in armor getting their asses kicked by Litmus in paris?" Akane asked.

"Yeah...they went to Paris to help track down Hawk Moth, but when they ran into Litmus, Grif ended up insulting his origami and...well...he went a little crazy." Barry admitted.

"I have never been so hurt by paper in all my life." a new voice said as a few more armored people came up. Two of them had cyan armor, while the last three were wearing black,dark red and pink.

"Oh, you think you got hurt bad?" the male sounding cyan armored individual said. "That guy managed to get past my armor and give me scars all over my body."

"Oh, your pain is better than mine…' the dark red one said. "Carolina and Wash only watched as that guy kicked our asses, thanks a lot you two!"

"Hey, I'm not the guy that insulted his crane." the man in black armor said. "I wasn't going to fight someone over a piece of folded paper."

"Besides, we did manage to calm him down afterwards." the woman in cyan armor added. "He would've killed you guys if we didn't."

"At least Donut didn't make the situation worse." the dark red man said.

"Aw come on Simmons!" the man in pink armor said. "I was going to offer a massage to him! Perfect way to relax!"

"Greaaat… more armored idiots." Hiyoko said.

"Not entirely." the woman said. "At least two of us have brain cells here."

"Hey!" the man in dark red said.

"Barry, are these more of those Reds and Blues?" Hope asked.

"Three of them are" Barry said. "The other two are remnants of what's known as the Freelancer Project, an experiment paring soldiers with AI."

"So do they have names like the others?" Ibuki asked.

"Actually, we don't. We have code names." the black man said. "My codenames Washington, but you guys can call me Wash. And this is Carolina." he introduced the cyan woman.

"Hey." Carolina greeted.

"Pleasure. And you three are..?" Ichiro asked.

"Oh, my names Tucker!" the cyan armored man said. "It's so great to finally meet you guys, Barry's told us a lot about you."

"My names Simmons." the dark red armored man said. "Have you guys already met Sarge yet?"

"Yup, and he shot at Hope because he thought he was a Blue." Ibuki said.

"Yeah, he does that." Simmons said flatly. "You think that's bad, try working under him."

"And whos the Pink one?" Peko asked.

"I'm Donut! Pleased to meet ya!" the pink soldier said. "And for the record, it's lightish red, not pink."

"How about we give you guys a tour of the rest of the HQ?" Tucker asked.

"That would be great." Hopesaid.

Tucker then lead the others to a hangar bay filled with finished and working vehicles.

"This is our engineering bay and main hangar." Tucker siad. "Were working on restoring some of the vehicles and fixing some ones Barry brought in."

"Who's in charge of all this?" Kazuichi asked.

"(That would be me.)" a voice in Spanish said as a brown-armored figure walked towards them. "(Hello, I am Lopez, mechanic for the Red and Blues and the Multiverse Coalition.)"

"Another one… wait, no, A robot?!" Ibuki asked.

"(Yes, I am not human. No, I am not a Terminator, I can tell you are thinking that.)" Lopez spoke.

"This guy must be a real whiz with machines if he's in charge of all the tech here." Hope said to Tucker.

"Well, it takes one to know one, and he was the only guy who knew how to fix our vehicles when they got broken, so...makes sense he'd be good with machines." Tucker said.

"Although he gets misunderstood a lot by everyone because his language settings are set to spanish." Simmons said. "Which is a dead language in our world."

"Not on mine." Sonia said. "I happen to speak spanish. If you need any help understanding Lopez, I can translate for him."

"Which would be great, because i think you get into a lot of situations you dont want to, huh Lopez?" Ibuki grinned bumping the robot.

"(Do not treat me like a roommate, I barely know you.)" Lopez spoke.

"So, is that everyone from your squad?" Hope said.

"No. There's actually one more guy on our team." Wash noted. "Hey, where is Caboose anyway?"

"Oh, he's in the Upside-Down." Simmons said.

"The what?" Gemini asked.

"He got stuck in an alternate dimension or something." Simmons answered. "We don't really know if we can-"

"Hey guys, I'm back!" a new voice said as a man in blue armor walked in. "I found the door!"

"And you must be Caboose, right?" Fuyuhiko asked.

"Yes! Hello, people I don't know!" Caboose waved.

"Caboose, these guys are the ones Barry's told us about." Tuckersaid. "The ones we were supposed to help in Paris, until Grif insulted Litmus's origami."

"Oh yeah! Do you know where Church the Cat is?" Caboose asked the squadron. "I lost him when the paperman tried to kill us."

"He's probably spying on Hawk Moth right now like he was supposed too." Hope said. "I'm sorry you got into that situation. Luckily Penny was able to give us the backup we needed."

"What?! Penny was allowed to go, but not us?!" Simmons asked.

"Is Freckle's sister okay?!" Caboose asked.

"Caboose, you're overreacting. Penny came back while you were in the Upside-Down." Tucker said.

"Question." Akane said. "Who the hell is Freckles?"

"He is my friend." Caboose said.

"He started out as a mech, got blown up, and he's now the size of a racoon." Simmions said.

"Okay…" Akane said.

"So, now would be a good time to explain why you're here?" Carolina said.

"Well, like we told Barry, we wanna help the coalition expand. How many members do you guys have exactly?"

"Oh, it's just us, Doc, Orihime, Ichigo and his son Kazui." Tucker said.

"Not that much of a force. I heard the old Coalition was MASSIVE in members from Rainbow and the others who went there." Hope said.

"Yeah, Caboose can tell you all about it. He was the only one of us who was actually there." Simmons said.

"Oh yeah, there was Marcus, Penny, me...and that's all the people I can remember." Caboose said.

"Well, we're here to help expand your efforts. We want to help recruit more members for the coalition." Hope said.

"About time! We could use some more people around here!" Simmons said. "I'm no Grif, but even I could use a break every once in a while."

"More members could help make the base bigger, and a lot less empty." Wash said.

"Who do you guys have in mind?" Tucker asked.

"Well, we know some people who might be able to help. Let me make a few calls…." Hope said.

Later...

"So, I invited some old friends to come and fill some space in the coalition." Hope mentioned to Barry as the other members were gathered.

"Who exactly?" Ichigo asked.

"You'll see. They'll be coming through the portals any second now…" Hope said before something appeared out of one of the portals.

"Heya, Hope! Long time no see!" a familiar voice called.

(Cue: Event~ Circus~ - Skullgirls)

A familiar girl with old time clothes on and moving like she was animated in the 1930s rubber hose came out with a gang of items.

"Hey, Peacock! Glad you could make it!" Hope said.

"You know I would! A chance at gettin' back in the groove with another coalition? How can I say no?" Peacock asked.

"Your first old friend is a… living cartoon?" Simmons asked.

"Peacock isn't a cartoon, she's human. Well, half human anyway. She was experimented on to be an anti-skull girl weapon. We met her during the Furious Universe tournament when Yosuke accidentally ran into her." Hope said.

"A half weapon-half cartoon girl?" Tucker asked. "Badass!"

"Hey, is that Caboose?" Peacock asked. "I was wonderin' where he went after the old Coalition got disbanded."

"Hello!" Caboose waved.

"So, are these his buddies?" Peacock asked.

"Yeah, this is the Red and Blue team. Well, only Tucker is part of the blue team." Hope said.

"Not much of a team if there are only two members, if you ask me." Peacock mentioned. "How did you two even survive if it was just you guys on the team against the reds?"

"Actually, the reds and blues don't really fight anymore." Tucker said. "We're more of a single group these days."

"That's pretty weird. I woulda expected you guys to be shootin' each other." Peacock said.

"That's what Sarge did to me when I got here." Hope said. "How do you guys even tolerate him?" he asked Simmons, Grif and Donut.

"Well, he has his moments. Besides, we're kinda stuck with him." Grif said.

"So was Peacock the only former alliance member you called?" Wash asked.

"No, I actually called for some people I knew long before Peacock came around." Hope said pointing to the portal.

(Cue- Like a Dream Come True- Persona 4)

7 faces familiar to Hope came out of the portal.

"What's up, guys?" Hope said.

"Glad you called us. It's been too long since we actually were a part of a team." Yu mentioned.

"The Inaba Investigation Team?" Barry said in surprise. "Well, I'll be. Here I thought you all retired from Multiverse adventures."

"Nah. Naoto's working with the Universal Police, so we should do our part too." Chie mentioned.

"After the GGG Cup, we were worried we didn't have anywhere to help. But then we heard that Hope was looking for membership in this new coalition. How could we refuse?" Yukiko asked.

"It's a good way to help out some worlds. And it's also great to help out new faces. Right, partner?" Yosuke asked.

"It sure is." Yu said.

"And it's a good opportunity to whip Caboose's lazy-ass friends into shape." Kanji said.

"I'm pretty sure it's only Grif who's the lazy one." Carolina said.

"Well, this would be a good opportunity for us as well." Rise said.

"Rise can help out with communications. She can use her Persona to get some communications online and help with Intel." Hope said.

"That sounds perfect." Barry said. "Welcome aboard."

"Well, I can do more than provide support now. Himiko!" Rise said as Himiko appeared as the satellite moved and revealed a humanoid face as she transformed and now showed long red hair, her skintight black bodysuit body and four satellites floating around her as her dress covered her upper chest as the flaps of it waved behind her.

"Hot damn!" Peacock said.

"So, does this mean you can fight now, Rise?" Hope asked.

"Yeah, I can. Pretty awesome, huh?" Rise asked.

"I'll say." Hope said.

"So, is this everyone?" Yosuke asked.

"Well, I called Ms. Fortune, but she said she was busy with some leads on something, she didn't say." Hope said. "We might need more people if were gonna pull this off."

"That shouldn't be too hard. Hey, any of you reds and blues good with advertising?" Ibuki asked.

"Well…" Wash drifted off. "...Some of us are."

"What makes you say that?" Teruteru asked.

"We had a water park once." Grif said. "It was going to be awesome...and then DONUT BURNED IT DOWN!"

"It was an accident! How was I supposed to know lube was flammable?" Donut replied.

"How do you burn down a water park?" Mahiru asked.

"I didn't burn down the whole water park. Just the park part." Donut said.

"Getting off topic here." Yosuke said.

"So, what should we do to attract new members?" Chie asked.

"We could always try going to different worlds and see what members we can recruit." Hope said.

"Wait, I have an idea!" Barry said, pulling out a USB. "This USB contains the names of every member of the Ultra Hero Force, past and present. If you can get in contact with the former category and ask them to join the Coalition, it'll be a big boost to our numbers."

"Who do you want to add specifically?" Hope asked.

"Well, there is one group I had in mind." Barry said, walking over to a computer and plugging the USB in. "A group that came and left before you even met Jexi. An original founding group. The DigiDestined led by one Davis Motomiya."

"Um...I dunno. Jexi said Davis wanted to lead a normal life. I'm not sure if he wants to be a hero again." Hope said.

"Not to mention a lot of our guys are now with the Jump Force." Akane said.

"If we wanna secure the Coalitions spot in Cross-World, we need to find new members. Ones that aren't former members of our group." Hope said.

"Hmm...well, there is one option." Barry said, turning to the Inaba Investigation Team. "Do you remember when you all met Labrys and met that other group of Persona Users?"

"You mean the Shadow operatives? They're busy, but… maybe we can ask Labrys to help out." Yu said.

"Who's Labrys?" Tucker asked.

"Another robot, like Lopez and Penny. She's an Anti-Shadow suppression weapon." Yosuke said.

Caboose heard that, and thought of what that meant.

"In short Caboose… she could possibly be another sibling to Freckles." Hope said.

"YAY!" Caboose said. "Where is she?"

"If I had to guess, most likely at the Kirijo Labs." Yu said. "We'll call her up and ask if she can come."

"Okay, that's one… we need some more, but at least we're getting somewhere." Hope said. "Barry, what else do you need besides members?"

"Well, we could use something like a flagship, but that's already in the works." Barry said. "What we really need is publicity, a way for people to know we're available to help."

"Well that's easy. The best way to spread the word? Fight bad guys!" Ibuki said. "Go around accepting missions, beat the crap outta some gangs, help some people and they'll spread the word about the Coalition."

"A great idea, Ibuki!" Penny said.

"It's also a great way to get some training in." Hope said. "Win Win."

"Then that's what we'll do!" Barry said. "Simmons, check the news outlets! See what's going on around the Multiverse."

"I'll get on that." Simmons said.

"In the meantime, we'll get prepared for a deployment." Barry said. "Red, Blues, you guys ready to get back in action?"

"Not really…" Grif said before Sarge hit him with the butt of his shotgun. "OW!"

"The Reds are ready for action!" Sarge said.

"I'm so ready for another crack at adventuring!" Tucker said.

"Where should we start?" Akane asked.

"How about we try some of the worlds mentioned in the UFT?" Hope said. "I'm sure Trixie would love to help out."

"And we should get to work on improving some of th facilites here, condition ourselves for the tournament." Akane said.

"Alright, then lets do it! The new Heroes coalition will be in top shape before the tournament!" Hope called.

"Yeah!" the squad called.