Cloud VS Ike

**Cloud VS Ike** is Episode 1 of a Smash Bracket Fanon Battle made by Ninoheart5000 which puts *Final Fantasy VII's* **Cloud Strife** in a fight against *Fire Emblem's* **Ike**.

## Introduction

What would happen if two of the greatest mercenaries to ever live faced off in a battle and to find out who would come out on top? Hi, this is Ninoheart, and this is Smash Bracket Fanon--the wiki where we put every character in *Super Smash Bros Ultimate* into a series of giant written fighting matches to figure out who's canonically the strongest. To figure that out, we need to calculate their stats and feats, starting with Cloud Strife...

*\*Record scratch\**

What? Look, just I have "Nino" in my name does not mean I won't give Cloud or any other opponent of a *Fire Emblem* character a fair shot. They're not even in the same game. None of the playable *Fire Emblem* Fighters are. Anyway, onto Cloud...

## Cloud

Promises mean a lot to people, be they kept or broken, so do heroes. And on one starry night in Nibelheim, a young boy made such a promise to his childhood friend Tifa Lockheart that he would join SOLDIER, and that he would save her if she ever needed his help.

[*FFVII Remake* clip]

***Cloud**: "...I'm gonna be a SOLDIER. The best of the best. Like Sephiroth."*

***Tifa**: "The great war hero, huh? Mm...Isn't it pretty hard to become a SOLDIER?"*

***Cloud**: "Yeah. So I won't be back for a long time."*

***Tifa**: "Guess not. Think you'll be in the papers?"*

***Cloud**: "I'll try."*

***Tifa**: "Just...promise me one thing. When we're older, and you're a famous SOLDIER...if I'm ever trapped or in trouble...Promise you'll come and save me."*

***Cloud**: Huh?*

***Tifa**: "That's what heroes do. They save people. Please? Just once."*

***Cloud**: "Uhh..."*

***Tifa**: "Come on, promise me!"*

***Cloud**: "Fine. I promise."*

[End of clip]

That boy was Cloud Strife. And when the Nibelheim Incident broke out, he would not only save Tifa, but also his friend Zack from the very man he formerly aspired to be just like when he threw him into a Mako reactor, seemingly vanquishing him forever before he could do any more damage to the world; however, it came at a great cost for Cloud. In their weakened states, Zack and Cloud were captured and tortured for years. This experience left Cloud a broken man, even more so after Zack sacrificed himself to ensure Cloud's safety. The traumatized Cloud wandered the land as a mercenary when fate brought him to an eco-terrorist group known as ALF, I mean AVALANCHE (Yes, I have to scream. It's in all caps). Though he said he would only get the job done, it is reappearance of his friend that changed his mind and convinced him to go with AVALANCHE on another mission that would once again set him on the path of the hero he promised to be and then some.

On this second mission, he would get separated from the rest and run into Aerith Gainsborough: a flower seller he had met earlier who turns out to be his late friend's crush and a member of an ancient race known as the Cetra. As fate would have it, the same bad guys that AVALANCHE are trying to overthrow over at the Shinra Electric Power Company are after Aerith too in hopes of obtaining the secret to UNLIMITED POWERRRR!!! (Sorry, I couldn't resist). ALL of the power. Cloud takes up the role of bodyguard for Aerith and the two escape.

Cloud and Aerith soon see Tifa being hauled away in a carriage. Believing her to be captured, they pursue the carriage into Wall Market to save her. Fortunately, Tifa was never in any real danger, and had gone undercover for an espionage mission to interrogate a Shinra sympathizer, who eventually reveals to them that Shinra are planning to blow up an entire section of the city in an effort to eliminate the 6 members of AVALANCHE. Our love triangle trio returns to Sector 7 during the attack. Unfortunately, Shinra collapses Sector 7 and captures Aerith, with Cloud's original party barely escaping with their lives. The group vows revenge and makes their move to assault the Shinra Building and save Aerith, all while looking so cool that Cloud can't help but pose for the boxart! \**Camera flash*\*

They rescue Aerith and a new friend they meet along the way from a life of forced breeding, and quickly make a daring escape on a motorcycle! Well, only Cloud gets the motorcycle. Everyone else just decides to get into a truck, but not before coming across evidence that the elusive Sephiroth may still be alive. Cloud and friends travel across the land in pursuit of Sephiroth, following clues such as dead Shinra staff, weird biologically-possessed cultists, a brutally impaled snake monster, more dead Shinra staff, a part-of-an-alien boss fight, a beach episode, and tales of the elusive Black Materia--the agent of the ultimate Black Magic spell: Meteor, which he would use to injure the planet to such an enormous extent, that its life energy would all come together to heal its wounds, and at the center of it would be Sephiroth, whose aim was to absorb all the planet's magic and become a god.

You see, in the world of *Final Fantasy VII*, Materia are crystalized magic, or Mako, condensed in the form of orbs that people use to enhance their abilities. They can use magic such as Fire or Cure, access summons like Typhon and Knights of the Round, gain new skills and commands, enhance the effects of other Materia, or be granted passive benefits like improved dexterity or the ability to breathe underwater. And since we're talking about Materia, now seems like a good time to show off the equipment Cloud will be bringing into this battle.

* **Ultima Weapon**--Cloud's strongest sword in FFVII; Comes with 4 Linked Materia slots, increases magic resistance, and does more damage the more HP Cloud has
	+ **Master Magic** (Gives user access to all spells)-**Quadra Magic** (Cast the linked spell 4 times at half damage each)
		- Barrier, Berserk, Bio, Bio2, Bio3, Break, Bolt, Bolt2, Bolt3, Comet, Comet2, Confuse, Cure, Cure2, Cure3, Death, DeBarrier, Demi, Demi2, Demi3, DeSpell, Escape, Esuna, Fire, Fire2, Fire3, Flare, Freeze, FullCure, Haste, Ice, Ice2, Ice3, Life, Life2, MBarrier, Mini, Poisona, Quake, Quake2, Quake3, Reflect, Regen, Remove, Resist, Shield, Silence, Sleepel, Slow, Stop, Toad, Tornado, Ultima, Wall
	+ **Master Summon** (Gives user access to all summons)-**HP Absorb** (User regains health equal to 10% of the damage inflicted)
		- Choco/Mog, Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Titan, Odin, Bahamut, Leviathan, Kujata, Alexander, Neo Bahamut, Phoenix, Hades, Bahamut ZERO, Typhon, Knights of the Round
	+ **Master Command** (Combines Steal, Sense, Coin, Throw, Morph; Death blow, Manip., and Mime)-**MP Absorb** (User regains magic points equal to 1% of the damage inflicted)
	+ **Counter Attack**

* **Ziedrich**--Increases Strength and Magic Attack; Halves just about all damage.
* **Champion Belt**--Increases Strength and Defense

Got all that? Good. Though Cloud's party succeeds in getting the Black Materia at the Temple of the Ancients, JENOVA appears in the form of Sephiroth and manipulates the JENOVA cells injected into Cloud during Hojo's experimentation on him 5 years ago to force Cloud into giving her the Black Materia and almost gets Aerith killed. It is only thanks to the intervention of Cloud's friends that he is able to continue.

As Cloud recovers, Aerith travels to the City of the Ancients to find her own solution. Cloud and the others find her at the Forgotten Capital praying for Holy, the White Magic counterpart to Meteor. Cloud sees her and smiles. A sign of hope.

**[More to be Added...]**

## Ike

Ike is a bit of an outlier when it comes to *Fire Emblem* protagonists. He tends to prefer raw power over finesse and has no royal blood to speak of. Instead, he is the son of the renowned knight Gawain, who would later take on the name Greil, and a priestess named Elena, whose spirit carried a perfect balance of order and chaos.

As a child, Ike and his younger sister Mist were raised in a band of mercenaries led by their father. Unfortunately for him, in spite of or because of his personal connection with the leader, Ike is looked down upon by many of his fellow mercenaries. Ike's journey begins when he and Greil take in a fellow exile in the form of Crimean Princess Elincia and escort her to the allied nation of Gallia. Tragically, Greil's past catches up with him in the forested border between the countries as a former pupil of his known only as the Black Knight demanded the band's surrender. Greil disagrees, but since swords beat axes in this series, the Black Knight defeats his former master in a duel, mortally wounding him in the process. Ike is nearly killed alongside his father, but is saved at the last moment by Tellius's own Lion King Caineghis, whose mere roar is enough to strike fear into the Black Knight's soul. Wanting to challenge Ike again in the future, the Black Knight leaves him with the weapon he initially offered Greil: the blessed sword Ragnell.

With his father gone, Ike takes the mantle as leader of the Greil Mercenaries and his father's last mission, but Ike goes one step further. With the help of animal-like shapeshifters known as Laguz sent by his old pal Mufasa as well as the empire of Begnion, Ike takes a full liberation army to reclaim Crimea. There, in the castle's throne room, he finds the man who killed his father: the Black Knight. With Ragnell, Ike is able to avenge his father by defeating the Black Knight, and slay the Mad King Ashnard, thus ending his eponymous war.

Three years later, Ike and the rest of the Greil Mercenaries return to action in dramatic fashion saving Elincia's retainer from a lynching at the hands of insurrection mob. Ike's old Laguz friend Ranulf then requests their aid when a war starts between Gallia and the corrupt nobles of Begnion. However, the chaos of the wars in Daein, Crimea, and Begnion awaken the goddess of order and restriction Ashera, who casts her judgement upon the world, petrifying all those she deemed to have weak souls. Fortunately, Ike and his allies are spared and, guided by Ashera's "dark" counterpart Yune, march into Ashera's Tower of Guidance and vanquish her to save the entire continent. Ike would go on to be known as the "Radiant Hero" of legend. Where he went afterwards is unknown, but rumors of one of his descendants circulated in the faraway continent of Valm.

If his story didn't make it clear enough, Ike is a **very** powerful beefy beast of a man. Heck, multiple characters across both his games joke about him having the strength, as well as the appetite, of a Laguz. The dude carries Ragnell, a two-handed sword as it were nothing! Look at those guns! Ike's only real flaw is that his resistance to magic is kind of a joke.

But it's not *exclusively* raw strength that makes Ike such a legend. Like most of the best Fire Emblem characters, Ike has access to a wide variety of weapons and skills, such as the ones he'll be using for this fight:

**Weapons**

* **Ragnell**: A legendary two-handed sword that grants the ability Aether--an ability that reduces enemy defense and heals the wielder. It can also strike from a distance.
* **Regal Sword**: A gift from Greil from his days as a knight; Similar to the rapier from other games, it inflicts 2x damage against armored and mounted opponents.
* **Ettard**: A personal sword of Ike's; likely also passed down from his father
* **Hammer**: Inflicts 2x damage on armored opponents
* **Urvan**: The axe that Greil used, and the most powerful axe in Tellius; Heirloom wielded by Ike. Grants Res+3

**Skills**

* **Radiant Aether**: Allows Ike to heal 50% of the damage he deals and negates his opponent's defense by half.
* **Nihil**: Negates enemy battle skills
* **Wrath**: Increases Ike's critical rate by 50% when he's in a pinch.
* **Miracle**: Allows Ike to survive an otherwise lethal attack.
* **Heavy Blade**: Extra strength at the cost of some speed
* **Veteran Intuition**: Reduces the chance of an enemy landing a critical hit

Again, got all that? Good.

**[More to be Added...]**

## Music Track

This episode's song is called "Toss A G". the name is a reference to the famous "Toss A Coin to Your Witcher" song and currencies in the *Fire Emblem* and *Final Fantasy* starting with the letter G. The song has ***[More to be Added]*.**