Earthbound: The War Against Giygas! - Prologue
Author's Note
Before we really get started, let it be known that you should not expect everything to be 1:1 with the original story and script. While maybe 80-90% (that number is made-up, just like this fanfic) of the game is the same, there are additions and changes to quite a number of things that I feel enhance both the simple plot and characters. This does not just extend to plot or characters though; this also applies "gameplay" with a few new enemies and bosses, altered PSI movesets, and more. Essentially this is the "Metroid: Zero Mission" to the original Metroid as this novelization is to the base game - keeping the essence and general idea of the original while adding new elements, updating underdeveloped elements to flow better, and adding additional "content". What are these changes? You'll find out eventually…
Updates will probably be erratic depending on my schedule, but the good news is that each update will be substantial enough to progress through the plot at a reasonable, brisk pace.
Anyways… without further ado, enjoy!
The year is 1999 in Onett, the sleepy and quiet town of Eagleland. A cool, light summer breeze blew through the air as citizens still out and about in the downtown were starting to head home, ready to turn in for the night and wake up refreshed for the next day.
And in an instant, that peace was shattered.
Suddenly, piercing through the silence and tranquility was a large CRASSHHH noise and the shaking of earth, coming from the north suburban outskirts of Onett. In an instant, police sirens wailed through the town as the Onett Police had started to get to the bottom of potential trouble. The discovery of what greeted the police, however, was quite unnatural.
A meteor had crashed into one of the hills, lodging itself as a large, yellow solid of mass. Surprisingly, there had been no major dust clouds whipped up from the impact, nor any other sign of physical damage. In fact, as far as casualties went, there were absolutely no casualties nor potential problems reported so far. The meteor might as well could have been equal to just one extremely large fart. Still, anything was possible by that point, so the police quickly set up a blockade to prevent civilians from any potential problems and went to investigating the meteorite.
Little did anyone know, however… this would mark the beginning of a great adventure involving three boys and one girl across the world, now known as the Chosen Four.
What really happened from that meteorite and inspired what is now a popular children's tale, more than ten years after the fact? We've kept the true details and the unpleasant memories under wraps for the longest time, but after enough time has passed for the hype and excitement to simmer down… it is time. It is time for the untold details and stories to be told to fill out the rest of the narrative.
Join us as we relive the classic tale of The War Against Giygas, all updated with never-before-seen events.
- Ness & Paula Iwata, Professor Jeffrey Andonuts, and King Poo of Dalaam
Ness, a young thirteen-year old boy, was one of many to be struck awake from the meteor. Dashing out of bed and turning on the lights, he looked out the window to survey the surroundings. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary… except one strange glowing, yellow light coming from west of their house. Piping his interest, he changed out of his pajamas into his usual clothes, put on his trademark baseball bat, and left the room.
From a first impression, Ness didn't seem too remarkable. He was somewhat short for his age, clocking in at 4' 11" and was a bit pudgy, but he was overall well-built from playing baseball nearly every day. His black hair was always messy, covered up by his baseball cap, and his clothes consisted of a simple blue and yellow striped shirt and blue shorts.
Before heading out, he took a small detour to his younger sister's room to check up on her if she's alright. His eleven-year old sister, Tracy, was already awake, presumably from the sound of the meteor as well. Unlike Ness, she didn't change out of her pajamas yet, clearly only just woken up. Her long blond hair was frazzled and messy from waking up suddenly, and when standing up was only a few inches shorter than Ness. If the meteor managed to wake up Tracy, one of the heaviest sleepers he knows, then it must have been pretty loud. Their mother might be awake too, ready to check up on both kids.
"Hey Tracy, you heard it too?" Ness asked.
"Yeah! You seem really freaked out, what even happened?" Tracy said, rubbing at her eyes.
"I'm not sure, but I'm going outside to check. I saw this big yellow light into the hills from my window." Ness replied.
"Oh wow! You think it's aliens?"
"…Tracy, aliens don't exist."
"Says you! I'll go with you, I wanna see for myself if it's really some weirdo alien!"
Before Ness could respond that it was really dark and it could be dangerous outside, their mother came through the door into check up on her children. She was a kind-faced, tall woman with short blond hair like Tracy, with a look of worry on her face. "Are you two alright? Did that strange noise scare you?"
"Yeah mom, we're fine," Ness responded, "but I'm gonna head out to check out what happened."
"Yeah, and I'm going too!" Tracy said.
"Er, Tracy-"
"Are you two nuts? Think of what could happen out in the dark, there could be some Sharks gang members running around, taking advantage of curious kids like you. You could get hurt."
"I'll be fine, Mom." Ness reassured. "I'll be bringing my old bat so if any of those Sharks come near me, I can at least fight them off. Remember that time last week when someone tried to mug me?"
Ness's mother sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Her son was definitely quite capable of handling himself if need be, but the Sharks were still a problem that could get Ness into trouble. Still though… "Oh, alright. You'll probably sneak out of your room anyway, so I can't stop you." Tracy started to get excited but the mother held up a hand to silence the young girl. "But nevertheless it's still too dangerous for Tracy to tag along. More targets means more opportunities for bad things to happen, and Ness can't always be there to protect you."
The girl pouted. "Aw, shucks. Well, I don't feel tired at all anymore, so can I at least be able to stay up for the night?"
The mother pursed her lips. "Okay, I suppose for this night only you may. It's summer, after all…"
"Yay!"
Armed with his bat (that had a long thin crack from the top to the hilt), Ness exited his house. Surveying the area, the light came from one of the hills to the west of their house. The only way to that light was through one of the trails leading up. Bat in hand, Ness started his way towards his destination.
On the corner of his eye to his left, he noticed a duo of police officers with barricades and a police car blocking the entrance to downtown. Ness raised an eyebrow at this but paid it no heed. After all, it was practically Onett tradition to barricade every little potential trouble, and there were jokes across the town that the police were going for the world record of barricading roads to prevent passage. Still, if police appeared on the scene this quickly, there's obviously something juicy that happened.
Ness continued through the path, passing by police officers patrolling the area and the natural wildlife of owls, nonpoisonous snakes, and crows until he passed by the old hermit Lier X. Agerate's house... into yet another blockade of police officers and barricades. Welp, now it ends here, Ness thought, though he still approached the police officers anyway while looking back at the hill with that light. He still couldn't see what exactly that light came out from, but he could have sworn he saw the chief of the Onett Police, Captain William Strong with an unknown person with him.
One of the police officers noticed Ness walking towards them and approached the boy. "Hey, is this kid your friend?" He pointed to another figure Ness did not realize was there until was pointed to. The person in question turned out to be Ness's next door neighbor, Aaron Minch, though most people in Ness and Aaron's school had called the latter "Porky", one that Aaron strangely had accepted as an identity. Ness himself was neutral and did not want to call anyone names, though Porky had irked Ness time to time due to his… questionable behavior.
Ness just shrugged and replied, "He's my neighbor, but I don't really know him well. Can't really call him a friend." The young boy pointed towards the hill with that strange light. "What happened up there that's causing such a ruckus now?"
The police officer crossed his arms. "A meteor just crashed on top of the hill here." Ness's eyes widened at the revelation and was about to ask a question, but the officer held up a hand to silence Ness and continued. "Currently our higher-ups are investigatin' to see if there will be any lastin' impact and other mumbo-jumbo. Point is, it's not somethin' you should worry about. On the other hand…" The officer jerked his thumb towards Porky, who seemed to be annoying the other police officers standing by, judging from their faces. "That boy's drivin' our team crazy here. He's been beggin' us to let him pass to check it out, but Captain Strong and Commissioner Gordon are both busy investigatin' the crash site and won't let anyone go through to see for themselves without verifyin' it's safe for the public to view. The kid won't take no for an answer, though, and we're comin' very close to callin' the kid's parents to teach him a good lesson. Can you be the voice of reason to him before we have to intervene?"
"I'll try, I guess." said Ness, not looking forward to this.
"Thanks, kid." the police officer said as he walked back to his original place to survey the surrounding area again. Ness walked towards Porky, who was begging with the police officers to let him through, and called out, "Hey, Aaron! What are you doing here?"
Porky looked back and sneered. "Oh, if it isn't Ness! You shouldn't be rubberneckin', you're getting in the cops… er, officers' way!"
"Isn't that what you're doing?" Ness replied, confused at what he said versus what he was actually doing.
"Not at all, for I, Porky Minch will be discovering all there is to be said about the meteorite. You can go home now and stop bothering the officers here."
Ness almost facepalmed. "But that's what you are doing, Aaron… and where's Alex? Aren't your parents going to be worried?"
"Who… oh, Picky?" Porky grunted. "He didn't want to come. And my parents are off at some stupid restaurant, I couldn't care less on what they're up to. Now shoo, I need to talk with the officers again to get a glimpse at the meteorite!"
Ness made eye contact with the police officer that approached him a few minutes ago and gave a shrug, who had a sympathetic look on his face and gestured him to leave the area, indicating all will be fine later. Since not much else could be gained trying to learn more about the meteorite right now, Ness decided to just head back home to go back to sleep. More information is sure to come in the next few days after investigations are over. Holding back a yawn, Ness began to walk back home.
After heading back home, he crawled back into bed, putting back on his pajamas, and passed out almost immediately.
Ness had an extremely bizarre dream right when he fell asleep. In it, he saw a blur of figures on a boat in a storm with rain falling very heavily, fighting against what seemed to be some huge snake-like creature, though Ness could have sworn one of those blurry figures was Ness himself. The huge snake-like creature struck the boat hard, sending the blurry figure Ness into the water while the other figures yelled out as they launched… something at the huge snake thing. Was it fire? No, it was electricity… or was that actually ice? They blurred together to the point where Ness could not see what was even happening clearly.
Those thoughts were interrupted when the snake suddenly convulsed hard, being bombarded by a group of colorful red, yellow, and blue geometric shapes and finally fell to the ocean, while blurry Ness landed in the boat, looking extremely pale and bruised and bloody while the rest of those figures helped him up and-
*knock* *KNOCK* *knock* *KNOCK* *KNOCK* *knock*
Ness groggily opened his eyes as he turned on the lights. Slipping out of bed, he shook his head lightly as he took in the new sound of someone knocking on his door, quite loudly. Sighing, he exited his room, passing by Tracy and his mother, who were still awake from the meteor crash and bothered by the loud knocking. He continued down the stairs to open the door to see who's causing the racket… only revealed to be Porky Minch.
"H-H-Hey! Picky's gone missing!"
"What?" This woke Ness up instantly. Though Porky was… a mixed bag, to put it nicely, Ness always had a soft spot for Alexander, Porky's brother, though he also preferred being addressed as Picky. Ness didn't understand but he rolled with it since Picky was actually one of the nicest kids Ness ever had met. "Did you know where he ran off to?"
"Yeah! The cops finished their stuff and went to go take care of some Sharks, so me and Picky went towards the meteor to check it out. But…" Porky then noticed Ness's mother in the living room, observing the two children. "Oh! Good evening ma'am, you're looking fine this evening." He snickered while Ness's mother's lips curled up in a slight smile. "Anyways, as I was saying… we checked the meteorite for any cool things. It was actually less exciting than I expected, but when I looked back after observing the meteorite, I couldn't find Picky! I think he ran off somewhere, can't you come help me? Else my parents are really going to kill me… hard…" He trailed off, shivering in fear at the thought.
Ness rolled his eyes. Chances are, Porky was fabricating some story of some sort, leaving Picky to fend for himself. But Ness said anyway, "Alright, I'll come help. But only because I like Alex and want to make sure he's alright."
"Yay!" Porky did a slight jump in the air out of joy. "I knew you were my bestest friend! Let's get out of here and find Picky... after you say good-bye to your mom and change out of those pajamas."
Ness looked down before blushing, realizing he was still in his pajamas. Rushing up to his room, he quickly changed back into his usual clothes and made his way downstairs where his mother was waiting.
"Before you leave, you should take King with you," Ness's mother said, gesturing towards the family dog, who was peacefully napping next to the sofa. "He might be old, unreliable, and lazy, but he could help find Alexander for you."
"Alright, mom. I've also got my bat with me, so we'll definitely be fine." Ness said as he approached King and called, "Hey boy. Time to go find Alex!"
Ness couldn't explain it, but for some reason he felt like he could "talk" to animals and hear their thoughts. He couldn't explain it and thought it was strange since everyone else but his family thought it was bizarre, but over time he slowly just accepted the fact. The dog "replied", (Do you want me to come? I got fleas sucking me dry and I'm tired…)
"Oh, it's only gonna take like ten or fifteen minutes, King. Let's go!" Ness said, rubbing around the old dog's ears.
(Fine…) King replied as he slowly rose and joined Ness and Porky, who was standing next to the door, leaning on the wall.
"Be careful, Ness and Aaron!" Ness's mother called as Ness readied his bat in his hands.
"Alright! Let's blow this popsicle stand!" Porky cheered as the three exited the house. "You take the lead and I'll go follow at a safe distance. You got that, Ness?"
Ness rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.
Ness, Porky, and King made their way back to the meteorite crash site. Most of the police were gone, presumably to take care of the sudden Sharks problem in downtown Onett. King started to sniff the air for Picky as they made their way to the site. Ness sensed something was wrong, though, and stopped moving.
"Ness…? What's up?" Porky asked fearfully, he and King also stopping in place.
"It's quiet… too quiet right now." Ness tensed up, holding his bat in two hands. "Normally there are owls out and about and some other wildlife here, but it's complete dead silence right now."
"But that meteorite should have scared them all off, wouldn't they?"
"It could be, but when I first going through here I still saw some wildlife… hm…"
Suddenly, King gave out a low growl as he stared ahead at the path. Ness could hear his thoughts: (I'm sensing some sketchy things beyond these hills. We should be careful!) At the sound of his growl, Ness gripped his bat even harder, bracing himself for what would come next. "I have a bad feeling about this," he spoke. "It might be some stray Sharks member hiding here to take advantage of the police leaving or something else, so just be careful."
A nearby bush started shaking. Ness quickly turned towards it, keeping an eye on it, readying his bat for any threat. The bush kept shaking, then suddenly a coil snake jumped out, aiming for Porky.
"Aiiiiieeeeeeeee!" he squealed, jumping back and hiding behind Ness, using him as a shield. "That snake was almost gonna kill me!"
The coil snake turned towards Ness and Porky, hissing at the boys and lunged forward. King yelped and also lunged towards the snake, knocking the snake off course and landed on the ground. Getting angry, the snake made a move towards King, but before it can do anything, Ness raised his bat to hit the snake and swung it at the snake's head. The bat connected, making a SMAAAASH! sound. The snake instantly fell down and stopped moving, while Ness just stared at his surroundings while Porky was hyperventilating and King circled back towards Ness's side.
"D-D-Did you see that? That was so scary!" Porky gasped.
"…Yeah." Ness agreed. Something really wasn't right. Wildlife around the hills was never violent and attacked people along the roads. "Let's go find Alex before anything happens to him… or us."
Next up is Chapter 1, where we start bringing in the changes, big and small, from the base game. Stay tuned!