Xiaodan von Brandt/Arcade

== Temporal Gladiators ==
=== Prologue ===
(The first mid-narration cut takes us to a panoramic landscape of the town square of Wittenberg in 1523 during the European Renaissance.)
* Xiaodan (narrating): Sehen Sie diesen Ort (see this place)? This is Holy Roman Empire-ruled Germany, under the reign of Charles V.
(Then, in the second mid-narration cut, we tour through the town, where everyone is seen minding their own business.)
* Xiaodan (narrating): And this is the town of Wittenberg, where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door six years earlier...
(Lastly, in the third and final mid-narration cut, we're taken to the interior of the von Brandt family's smithy house, where Xiaodan is with his parents, Qingmei and Laurenz, who are now 20 to 22 years older than they were in Bellum Bestiaes I and II, with her hair having become completely white and his, including his mustache, now graying as indication.)
* Xiaodan (narrating): And where my parents, Laurenz and Qingmei, and I reside.
* Laurenz (reprised by Travis Willingham): (handing Xiaodan a pair of European-style swords, one with a red blade and the other with a blue blade) Here, take these swords, mein Junge (my boy).
* Qingmei (reprised by Kelly Hu): I helped in the creation of bīng jiàn (the ice sword).
* Laurenz: Oh, did you, now?
* Qingmei: Undoubtedly so.
* Xiaodan: Dankeschön (thank you very much) for these swords, Vader (Father). But... Exactly what are they for?
* Laurenz: We assumed that, when you were old enough, one day you would become a großer Krieger (great warrior), just as we were in our younger days. Furthermore, as you know, today is your 19th birthday, Xiaodan, so from now until you are too old and senile to continue fighting, they are yours to own.
* Xiaodan: And... Do you have anything else for me?
* Laurenz: I forged for you this... (presents Xiaodan with a silver European-style plate with some gold over it) and these. (presents Xiaodan with silver and gold shin guards, as well as gauntlets made from the same materials) They could be of use to you.
* Xiaodan: Sure, I will take those as well. (takes the armor and puts all of it on)
* Laurenz: Now begins your first venture into adulthood.
* Qingmei: Zhù nĭ hăoyùn, wŏ de érzi (good luck, my son).
* Xiaodan: Shì de, Mŭqīn (yes, Mother).
(Later, we cut to Xiaodan in his home stage, the Autumn Woods, where he does a martial arts kata, followed by drawing Dōng and Westlich and spinning them in his hands.)
* Xiaodan: (narrating) Worry not for my well-being, Mŭqīn and Vader. I will prove to you that I am more than just a blacksmith's apprentice!
=== Rival Battle - vs. Emel Zengin ===
(Cut to the Temporal Arena, a floating, futuristic-looking arena somewhere in the middle of outer space, where Xiaodan and Emel stand a foot away from each other, looking at each other, a bald ancient alien announcer with rocky, dark gray skin who wears blue and dark blue sci-fi-themed armor stands in the center, and 30,000 human and alien spectators are seen in attendance, cheering.)
* Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Tournament of All Time Finals! The winner will go on to face the timekeeper himself, Jishi Yuan, for a chance to be returned to their native time period! On the left side is, from the European Renaissance, 1523, Xiaodan von Brandt! On the right side is, from the Ottoman Empire, 1301, Emel Zengin!
* Xiaodan: Darf ich Ihnen helfen, Fräulein? (may I help you, miss?) If you have any business, now would be a good time to state it.
* Emel: I never assumed that I would live to see the day a man as young and handsome as you comes in need of a little... iğfal (seduction) before he falls to my zehir (poison).
* Xiaodan: I will never become the plaything of a poisonous temptress! (goes into his fighting stance) Take your seductive wiles elsewhere.
* Emel: You know how men are. (going into her fighting stance as well) They become boring very quickly.
=== Sub-Boss Battle - vs. Jishi Yuan ===
(After the fight, a badly-beaten Emel is down on one knee and one hand.)
* Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the Tournament of All Time Finals is... Xiaodan von Brandt!
* Xiaodan: Your needless ànshā (assassination) of others is unforgivable and must stop immediately.
* Emel: Asla (never)! I had hoped to give you one last dance before I put an end to you... until you had to go and RUIN IT!
* Xiaodan: That is because the only frau (woman) I ever go near is my mother. You, on the other hand, are a third-rate huài nürén (villainess) who deserves no love at all.
(A temporal portal appears behind Xiaodan, who walks into it.)
* Emel: YOK HAYIR (NO)!! I will not stand for this FUCK rejection!
(Five seconds later, we cut to Xiaodan in what looks like the interior of an imperial palace in ancient China, with a giant hourglass standing in the middle of the area. Observing the hourglass is an elderly, balding Asian man with a long white beard and an ornate yellow and orange Chinese robe.)
* Xiaodan: Where... the fuck am I? Exactly what is this place?
* Jishi Yuan (voiced by Keone Young): This is where I observe the events of time, and have done so for thousands of years. (approaching Xiaodan) Wŏ huānyíng nĭ (I bid you welcome) to my chamber.
* Xiaodan: So, you must be Jishi Yuan, the man in charge of making sure time runs the smoothest it can... Long have I waited to be able to meet you in person.
* Jishi Yuan: The pleasure is all mine, son of Qingmei and Laurenz. I can tell just by looking at the shuāng jiàn (dual swords) that you carry that you have the elemental powers of both of your parents.
* Xiaodan: Mein Vater (my father) and I spent all of drei Tage (three days) working on them. Wŏ de mŭqīn (my mother) helped with bīng jiàn, Dōng, though.
* Jishi Yuan: So, you are an apprentice blacksmith, I see... I hope that, one day, you succeed your father when he retires.
* Xiaodan: Perhaps, after you send me home to 1523, he and Mŭqīn will see... (goes into his fighting stance) that I am just as much of a warrior as I am an apprentice blacksmith.
* Jishi Yuan: Let us see if you are worthy enough to face me in combat first. (goes into his fighting stance as well) Then I will send you back home to the time period from which you came.
=== Final Boss Battle - vs. Tempus ===
(After the fight, a badly-beaten Jishi Yuan is down on one knee and one hand.)
* Jishi Yuan: You have proven yourself to be the zhànshì (warrior) your parents trained you to be, Xiaodan. I am quite impressed with the prowess you showed in our fight.
* Xiaodan: Xièxiè (thank you). (helps Jishi Yuan up) I wish they were there when I did that. They would have been proud of me.
* Jishi Yuan: I will now use the last of my shíjiān lìliàng (temporal power)... (creates a temporal portal behind Xiaodan, intended for him to return home to the European Renaissance) to return you to your native time period.
(Suddenly, another temporal portal appears on the floor out of nowhere. From it emerges a tall, bald, muscular, rocky-dark-gray-skinned ancient alien in a gold and dark blue metal space suit with a large dark blue triangle with a golden hourglass emblem in the middle of it going across the chest and shoulders. He also wears futuristic-looking dark blue gloves and boots.)
* Tempus (voiced by Michael-Leon Wooley): (interrupting Jishi Yuan in the middle of sending Xiaodan back to his home time period) Not so fast, senile old fool. (Jishi Yuan leaves, and the temporal portal behind Xiaodan disappears, followed by the top half of the giant hourglass in the middle of the Timekeeper's Chamber breaking, the walls and roof exploding to pieces, and the sky becoming very similar to how it looks in the Chaotian Age variation of the Kronika's Hourglass stage in Mortal Kombat 11) I cannot allow you to return this young warrior home to his time period just yet.
* Xiaodan: (turning to face Tempus) So, you are the threat to the balance of time that Jishi Yuan warned me of.
* Tempus: In the flesh, Xiaodan von Brandt, spawn of German and Chinese warriors of the early years of the 16th century who battled against demons and rogue animal spirits before you were born.
* Xiaodan: Without them, I would not see what else there is to me besides being merely an apprentice blacksmith in a Heiliges Römisches Reich (Holy Roman Empire)-ruled town. The timekeeper says, and I am very much with him on, that your plans of bringing imbalance and disorder throughout all of time must stop here and now.
* Tempus: Oh, really? Allow me to show you what will be to blame for the sorry state of your homeland in the coming years.
(Tempus then uses his temporal powers to create the first of three visions inside the cracked bottom of the hourglass, which shows the German Peasants' War. What goes on in the vision is that rebellious German peasants are seen surrounding a knight, then more peasants surround the castle at Weinsberg.)
* Tempus: Soon will come an uprising by peasants burdened by taxes, but that will prove ruinous, for many will be slaughtered like mad dogs.
* Xiaodan: I hope they have the Artillerie und Kavallerie (artillery and cavalry) necessary to survive all of that.
(Then, in another vision, we're taken to the 17th century, where marauding armies pillage the German countryside and the corpses of famine and plague-struck Germans litter the streets of Leipzig, with some still living.)
* Tempus: ...Then will come the 17th century. Do not expect the 30-year war then to be any better, for violence, famine, and plague will take many.
* Xiaodan: Nein (no)! Why would you ever bring up such future devastation throughout my land?
(Xiaodan is shown the third and final vision, which shows a three-way split screen of, during the Great Turkish War, Holy Roman Empire soldiers battling against Louis XIV's army on the middle Rhine during the Nine Years' War and many Habsburg and Ottoman soldiers fighting against each other in the Battle of Vienna in what is now Austria during the Great Turkish War and the Austro-Turkish War of the 18th century in the Battle of Petrovaradin in what is now Serbia.) 
* Tempus: Because I highly doubt that your parents or you will be alive to see it all by then. Nor the other wars in the rest of Europe that your country will fight in.
* Xiaodan: Then perhaps some of my descendants might... as shìbīng (soldiers) in those coming wars.
(The visions disappear, taking us back to the final boss battle.)
* Tempus: You are absolutely correct, young warrior. However, their time in the Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg armies will be no easier for them than your inevitable fate is for you.
* Xiaodan: Those who come after me will persevere in those wars, no matter the cost. Your defeat will ensure fucked... (goes into his fighting stance) the future of Mein stolzes und edles Land (my proud and noble country)!
* Tempus: We will see about that. You will soon know your place... (goes into his fighting stance as well) in the very fabric of time!
=== Ending ===
(After the fight, a badly-beaten Tempus is down on one knee and one hand.)
* Xiaodan: I have proven to you there is more to me than being just a blacksmith's son, have I not? I am a zhànshì (warrior)! (kung-fu-punches Tempus into the bottom of the hourglass, completely shattering it to pieces, some of which then embed in his abdomen and left arm, separating them from the rest of his body and causing blood to spill out of the severed pieces of him.)
* Tempus: No... You fool... What have you done!? (now legless and one-armed, crawls away from the severed pieces of him) I should have altered the timeline... (continuing as the giant hourglass begins to magically put itself back together) so you would never be born... when I had the chance! (one piece of hourglass then slices through his whole head, splitting it in two and exposing the split halves of his brain and tongue, then the hourglass sucks his whole, separated, now-dead body inside, causing him to disappear completely and fully repairing itself in the process)
* Jishi Yuan: (using his temporal powers to return his chamber to its original state, then approaching Xiaodan) Gōngxĭ (congratulations). You have stopped the threat of Tempus and may now return to the time period where you belong. (reverses the disappearance of the temporal portal intended for Xiaodan to return home to the European Renaissance) Jiā děngzhe nĭ (home awaits you).
(With that, Xiaodan walks into the portal, which disappears along with him. Afterwards, he is suddenly back in his native time period, where his parents are waiting for him in their smithy house.)
* Qingmei: (hugging Xiaodan) Huānyíng huí jiā (welcome home), Xiaodan. We have awaited your return.
* Xiaodan: Shì (yes), I know, Mŭqīn. Fighting that malevolent Weltraumkreatur (space creature) who planned to tamper with the very thread of time was tough, but at least I persevered to the end and saved all that is and has been written in guòqù, xiànzài hé wèilái (the past, the present, and the future).
* Qingmei: Not to mention you managed to make it out alive in one piece. (lets go of Xiaodan)
* Laurenz: However, you still have more training ahead of you.
* Xiaodan: What kind of training?
* Laurenz: Blacksmith training. Now, take this smithing hammer... (hands Xiaodan a smithing hammer) and this steel ore. (hands Xiaodan a heavy bag full of steel ore fragments) That should be enough for 50 simple Dolche (daggers).
* Xiaodan: Ja, Vader (yes, Father). I will get right on it. (gets to work on the dagger blades, starting by putting on a pair of blacksmith gloves and, using a pair of forging tongs, takes some fragments of the ore, heats them in the furnace, takes them out, and, using the tongs to hold a fragment in place, shapes it into a dagger blade on the anvil, then cools the hot blade down in a nearby barrel of water and places it aside, followed by repeating the process with two more fragments, which is quickly done step by step to save ending sequence time)
(We then cut to Xiaodan in the Autumn Woods. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a phoenix animal spirit materializes in a flash of fire in front of him.)
* Phoenix (voiced by Jennifer Hale): So, you must be Xiaodan von Brandt. You have shown everyone that there is much more to you than being merely a peasant apprenticed to his blacksmith father in the Tournament of All Time.
* Xiaodan: That is because the warrior blood of both my parents pumps right through my veins. Es ist mein Schicksal (it is my destiny).
* Phoenix: And it has been since the very moment you were born. From now until the end of your life, at which time I will go and find a replacement resident warrior, I will live inside your body so that you may use my power to change form, as your parents did with Vulpes Arcticum and Bubalus before you. (flies into Xiaodan's body, inhabiting it in the process)
* Xiaodan: This new power I acquired only recently... I suppose I should give it a try before the next major threat comes! (focuses his energy and is engulfed in ice and fire, during which he starts growing feathers, flames, ice spikes, and ice vapors all over his body; when the elements dissipate, the camera zooms away from him, now in the form of a human-sized fire-and-ice phoenix, which then screeches, spreads its wings, and flies out of the forest and up into the sky)
(Cut to pre-credits roll, where Iron Maiden's "Caught Somewhere in Time" starts playing as we are treated to short animations of all the characters, shown in full-body, in their home time periods, with the names of their voice actors/actresses on their left or right. Afterwards, the credits start rolling and the song continues playing.)
Category:Temporal Gladiators
Category:Arcade
Category:Mature