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As soon as the words finished, he sent Link to go fight the others, still getting used to the new controls when a shadow passed over him from behind. The hairs on the back of his neck Rose, signaling danger. Very immediate Danger.

He was torn between the game and the feeling of death looming over his shoulder. He choose game. After all, he hadn't done anything wrong, in a while. His pokemon were in their balls on his belt. The last incident involving unscrewing the towel racks from the walls was never traced back to him, and was blamed on some other unforchent grunt. And that had been over a week ago.

So instead of stopping, he continued the game, trying to ignore the feeling of doom behind him. But in those moments he had lost any initiative he could have gotten, and was behind, having been nearly thrown out of the ring. His body remained tense, ready to haul out of there if necessary.

The blond gave Zach a sideways glance as he started to say something and thought better of it, but just briefly lifted his brows in lieu of a shrug and grinned. "All right."

The Rocket was quite familiar with the Wii's controls; a quick match was a popular choice for between-coding breaks in the programming sector, and Hayes' fingers moved over the buttons with a practiced ease. As long as he held the controller still, his shoulder provided little handicap. Vulpes wasn't the top-tier fighter he'd been in earlier versions of Crash Bros. and against Garth he was at a disadvantage, even with the latter's lack of a projectile. However, the character held a certain nostalgia value for the agent and being nerfed made him a challenge now.

Hayes liked challenges.

He focused on Garth for the most part, using speed to avoid Link's slower attacks. Nemerle watched the little figures on screen jump, dodge and attack each other for about a minute, then let out a sigh and closed her eyes, ears twitching at the occasional sound effect. But Seth's arrival provoked a change in the atmosphere that the Ice-type picked up on; she raised her head and looked over her shoulder at the tall elite looming behind them. Oh, him. She knew this one.

"Hello, sir." The agent didn't take his eyes off the TV.

At 2 lives, Garth landed the finishing blow on Link. It was just him and vulpes now. He took advantage of his longer melee reach to get in attacks with less risk of getting hit back, but nevertheless it was a tough match, clearly Hayes knew his character well. After a close match, and lots of dodges on both character's parts, Garth finally managed a counter that knocked him just far enough to fall into the pit. He finished by saying "Minna, miteite kure!"

Zach grinned and said, "Thanks, you too." He then turned to look at the tall rocket who apparently outranked Hayes, and said, still grinning, "Would you like to play... sir?" Remembering the sir at just the last moment.

He wasn't particularly surprised by the outcome of the game. But what did surprise him is when he was invited to play. Seth stared at the two grunts evenly for a moment.

He then snorted and smirked a little. "You wouldn't want me to play."

Yup. Zach was definitely new.

But when Panther chimed in.. that was interesting. Not that Seth scared the crap out of him, as the grunt himself had put it; that was common enough. But coupled with Zach's next comment, he'd never seen any pair so willingly - and in the blond grunt's case, unwittingly - dig their own graves.

Hayes did his best to keep a straight face.

At Zach's comment, Seth shot him a withering glare.

"Move over" he commanded before snatching the vacant controller and planting himself on the couch with the guys. Panther went completely ignored.

As the character screen came up, he quickly and decisively passed over Solid Ekans and Captain Pidgeot to select Mike.

Arceus take it, he was moving again. Nemerle huffed quietly when Hayes shifted away from her to make room for Seth. Rather than find herself squashed between, the Glaceon pointedly flopped over the blond's lap and curled her tail around her body so the elite wouldn't sit on it.

There.

Hayes was watching the screen as well, mostly because there wasn't any other safe place to look. He did spare a glance at the Ice-type in his lap, smiled, and lifted his controller out of the way. It was a little more awkward a position to play in, but the blond could manage.

Once Seth selected his character, the loading screen appeared: Frigate Porygon.