Author's Note:
Regrettably, I have to open up this story by mentioning a rather important detail. Any Mario content that happens in this part will come at the very, very end in a side-story. Part 5 and Part 6 will both share this issue, but it's the only way I can really justify placing it on instead of forcing my fans to go to FictionPress without any idea of when I'd actually have both Parts up.
So if you are here looking for a Mario story, then turn around now. If you are interested in what's going on though, I'd suggest at least reading Part 4's prologue "Travels of the Overlord" to get enough info on the main character of this part. You can read the other stuff at a later date in preparation for Part 6.
Either way, with that out of the way lets begin!
In the dead of night, a woman walks through an abandoned temple blanketed with darkness. On the walls were mosaic glass paintings depicting about ten different looking elderly folk, and below the paintings there was one crystal each. Once she reached the middle of the room, the woman raised her right pointer finger up and nothing else, her sleeve drooping to her elbow as she flicked her finger forward and created a glowing ball of aquamarine energy.
With a wave of her finger, the woman guided the orb towards one of the crystals and passed it right through, causing it to glow bright green. She then murmured to herself the following words while guiding the energy towards the other crystals in the room "Sages of times past, observers of the tribes of yesteryear…From beyond the grave I ask you permission as your descendant to open the room I wish to see. Recognize the activation of the ten crystals you left behind, and forgive me for what I am about to do."
When the crystals glow all the way, the woman dispels the ball of energy and watches as the crystals spread light into the floor, brightening the darkness with a rainbow flash for a brief moment. Power exudes from the floor that makes the woman's robe rise up slight, and ten voices called out to her and said "We accept your request again, but know that we are disappointed in you as well for making this decision."
The rainbow light then shrinks down into a pathway connecting the woman's feet to the bottom of a glowing rectangle at the other end of the room, and the light removes that part of the wall to reveal a passage that carried out the light of what appeared to be some flames from within. The crystals then dispel the light from within, and the woman scratches the back of her head and says quietly "Figures you'd say that, you stupid old bastards…"
The woman then slowly followed the trail until she entered the passage, laying one hand against the wall to the right of her until she made it into the room where the fiery lights came from. Inside this room was over a hundred alcoves, each one carrying a single lit candle inside of it. At the center of the back of the room was a small altar where two golden wings, one angelic and one demonic, were folded over a sphere illuminated with a pale neon glow that was wrapped around the center by a single string.
Slowly walking from the entrance of this room to the other side where the orb was, the woman looks around at the candles and stops to bow towards them all with one hand laid atop her chest. She then continues her walk towards the sphere, ending a few feet in front of it as a circle of energy appears around the bottom of the altar to halt her movements. "…Altar of the Overlord, do you not recognize my voice? Do you not recognize my aura, or my body? If you do not wish to be dismantled and turned into parts, then you will dispel your protective circle and allow me access to that which you guard!"
And just like that, the wings unfold from the sphere and the circle of light vanishes, causing the woman to sigh and remark "So you don't respond to the first three things but instead my attitude? …Unsurprising that you chose to do this, my departed love." The woman then stepped forward once and picked the orb up from the altar, holding it before her face as a particular memory comes into her mind "If you are ever troubled, and absolutely all other options are exhausted…Use this orb. I will respond to your call, no matter where in the universe I may be."
Unwrapping the string from the rest of the orb as she remembers those kindly words, the woman says to herself "I have no other choice…If I am to defy the horrible, fated futures, I have to call in outside assistance, even if it means revealing this tribe to him prematurely." Taking the string by the end, the woman puts it into her right ear, where it suddenly comes to life and latches onto the eardrums so it can connect to her brain. Her eyes glow a hazy rainbow color as she looks down at the orb, and as the haze in the orb begins to fade away she remarks to herself "I hope you will heed my call, inheritor of the Elemental Overlord's legacy…"
Clash of the Elements Part 5: The Lover From the Lost Aura
Chapter 1: A Day in the Life…
Morning…
The Earth was enjoying a time of peace and quiet lately. The fact that a human could wake up with about a 99% chance of not running into any natural disasters could all be attributed to some unknown soul that very few people have seen flying around in the skies during the moments when a hurricane, earthquake or volcanic eruption have occurred. Nobody has determined who this mysterious person is. Many speculate it's a superhero, or perhaps even a peaceful god that wants nothing more than to fight for the prosperity of humankind.
There are even the rare few that theorize that it's an alien using his technology as a means of showing good will before he reveals himself. But amongst the general few who have caught a close enough glimpse to this person, they are in unanimous agreement that it's a male due to the frame of his body. However, for those out there who theorize that the person is a calm, meditating soul who eats nothing but vegetables and loves nature above all else…They couldn't be farther from the truth if they tried.
"WAHOOO!" A teenage boy lets out a happy cheer that echoes throughout the mountain range he is currently sprinting across barefooted. The ruggedness of the mountain rocks did nothing to hurt his feet, and he ran non-stop even when faced with steep climbs or a completely vertical mountain side. Once he does exactly that and makes it to the top of the highest mountain, he looks at most of the mountain range from above the thin layer of fog that had settled down in the early morning. Stretching his arms up high, the boy could hear his bones crack through his body before he remarks "Nothing like twenty runs through the Rocky Mountains before breakfast…"
The boy was wearing a black t-shirt with a flame emblem on the front of his chest and a nice pair of blue jeans. He was close to six feet tall and had a full head of brown hair that was a bit spiky all around, with most of the hair sticking out past the forehead. He also has blue eyes that he finally opens up once he finishes stretching, and a smile half as wide as his face. Now that he was done with his morning exercise, the boy named Mew looked down at the small humble house he lived in, which looked pretty small from this far up, and said "Lets see here…How should I head back down?"
Noticing a clean drop without any wildlife or plants between here and his house, Mew grins and lowers his right hand onto the ground, drawing in the moisture from the fog around him to swirl together a miniature discus of water with a flat top and a round underside. Mew then leaps onto it and holds a pose like he was a surfer, giving the water just a little nudge with his mind so he can send himself sliding down the face of the mountain. With a gleeful smile, Mew proclaimed once more "WAHOO!" only with a little more excitement in his voice as the mountain broke apart his water board bit by bit, leaving a trail of water in his wake until he reached the very bottom.
At the end of his little surfing trip Mew leaped forward before the last molecule of water dropped to the ground, landing himself on the grass before his house. Mew then turned to the right and looked at his abundant garden of fruits and vegetables, where he pointed his right pointer finger out at it and said "Let's get some strawberries for today." He pulls up about twenty strawberries, one for each successful run on the mountains, and brings them before his face. He decides to eat one of them and chew it for a few seconds, humming to himself happily before swallowing it and saying "Alright, they've grown well this year."
After plucking out another strawberry with his powers to replace the one he ate, Mew walks forward and carries the strawberries behind himself in a bundle before he held one hand out and opened the door to his house. Inside there was a small hallway with marble tiles leading to the back of the house, where Mew's bedroom and bathroom were, and to the left was the living room with the kitchen behind it. The TV was on with the local news, though to be specific they were currently talking about the weather around the world.
Mew walked to the kitchen and turned on the sink with a twist of the right handle, bringing in cold water that he uses to clean the strawberries, and he places them all in a bowl moments later. Mew then plugged in a blender and used his powers to move the strawberries into it while he walked over to the refrigerator and opened it to examine the contents. "Lets see here…I think an omelet sounds good today." Mew remarks before pulling out eggs, chopped ham, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and some shredded cheddar.
He worked hard to cook the eggs as needed in a buttered skillet, putting the rest of the ingredients inside of it and folding it over once he was all done. All the while, he used his powers to move a jug of lemonade from the fridge and pour it into the blender which he then turned on after putting on the lid. As the blender went off beside him, Mew finished up his omelet and put it on a glass plate from the cupboard above him. Once the blender was done, Mew put his strawberry lemonade in a glass and took it with him to the living room, where he sat down on the couch and prepared to eat.
But before he could do that, Mew leaned back against the couch and pointed towards the kitchen, saying to himself "Almost forgot the hot sauce." He pulled a bottle of tobasco from the counter and brought it over by focusing on the glass itself, and once he had it in his hand he promptly pulled himself forward and opened the lid. He sniffed the hot sauce from within, and remarked with a determined grin and an over-the-top voice "Today I will finally conquer you, vile hot sauce!"
Mew pours some of it onto his omelet and then uses a fork to cut into it, the gooey cooked cheese stringing out from within while some of the other ingredients struggled to stay inside. Mew lifted the omelet bite into his mouth and chewed it, twitching a bit from the hot sauce before he inevitably swallows the bite. "Ha…That wasn't so bad." Mew remarked, though it was clear he was putting on a brave act for himself as it didn't take very long for his body to start sweating.
Mew basically tries to ignore this and take a drink of his strawberry lemonade to cool his body down, but after the first gulp of his drink he lets out an exasperated gasp before slanting his eyebrows and remarking "I've fought demons and Earth's natural disasters, and yet hot sauce is almost like my Kryptonite…" Though even with that comparison, Mew wasn't going to let his omelet go to waste as he continued to eat into it, taking drinks of his lemonade to keep himself from being burned out from the hot sauce. At the very least, the core of the omelet tasted fantastic.
By the time Mew was done with his omelet, he was satisfied with himself and leaned back against the couch while folding his arms behind his head, stating as he felt fullness in his stomach "Even though I don't NEED to eat, there's a lot to be said about making something for yourself. Thank you for your contributions, mother nature!" He gave his praises to nature itself with a quick gesture towards the sky past his ceiling, and then he lifted himself up and looked at the TV while remarking "Lets see what is going now…"
He raised his eyebrows in curiosity at what was being reported at the moment. "Hurricane about to hit the southeast coast? Seems a bit early for one of those, it's still a couple weeks away from summer…" Mew remarks to himself while rubbing his chin, while the TV showed people beginning evacuations of the major cities, though there were some blatant close-ups of the people holding up signs saying 'We're waiting for you, mysterious savior!' Or something along those likes.
Seeing this as his signal, Mew grins and pulls his hand away from his chin while stating humbly "Oh come on guys, I was going to help you out without that bit of attention you threw my way." He was about ready to head for the door when a dark, raspy voice reaches into his mind and remarks "They call you a savior now…But their hopes in you will be dashed once you eviscerate them one by one. You should just let the hurricane sweep them away into the sky, save them the trouble of having their expectations betrayed."
The voice belonged to the ethereal form of the Dark King's demonic ally who referred to himself as 'D.', and the being currently resided within Mew's mind against the boy's will, doing so for the last two years. However, while one would think that Mew would be fazed by 'D.'s' words, the boy instead brushed them off with a shrug despite the demon trying to latch onto his right shoulder with a claw from beyond to add to the eeriness of his voice. "You're really still trying to pull this? It's been two years, get some new material already."
The nonchalance Mew offered to the demon was of no use, as 'D.' was silent for just a moment before he sneered and said "You can brush me off as much as you want, boy…But you cannot avoid me forever. Either you'll get angry or die of old age…Either way, I get your body, and I can definitely be patient for the second one. Hell, you may likely die sooner than that." Mew was busy walking out of his house while the demon talk, and with a smile he says "If you say so."
He then takes off from his house and goes high up into the sky so he wouldn't run into any planes or get seen down below by others. Looking to the right, Mew gestures out with one hand and comments "Just need to go that way to find the hurricane. I got probably ten minutes before it hits, so I need to get there in half that amount of time!" With an enthusiastic proclamation Mew folds his arms out to the side and then flies off as fast as necessary through the air towards the east.
But while he flew, he thought about what 'D.' had said to him. It was true what the demon mentioned though. If Mew got angry enough times, the barriers keeping the demon from latching onto his subconscious and taking full control would break. Death was also another means of allowing the demon control. Mew felt very concerned about the demon's presence even though he has learned how to not be affected by the creature's words, though this came at a bit of a cost…
Mew hasn't had much contact with others in the last two years. It's been nothing but time spent in isolation at his own home, with only the times he's gone out to stop natural disasters breaking up the pace of his day. But he had to do this to prevent 'D.' from having ammunition against him. "It doesn't bother me…too much…" Mew murmurs to himself at the end of his thoughts, his melancholy expression and glance aside being replaced by one of widened focus as he looks ahead of himself and sees his target.
A massive hurricane, quite possibly a Class 3 one, was swirling it's wide clouded mass towards the southeast coast of the continent. Violent rains and winds were hitting the ocean waters down below, and the eye of the hurricane was black and swollen. Mew quickly flies over to above the eye of the hurricane and pays attention to the direction it was moving. "Counterclockwise rotation this time? That's pretty rare around here…Oh well, time to get to work!" Mew puts on a chipper attitude as he holds his arms down and concentrates on the hurricane.
The violent winds and such are no match for Mew's control over the elements, as the boy quickly grasped hold of the hurricane with his powers and began to slow down the pace of it's rotation by pushing the clouds and winds in the opposite direction. Mew was so nonchalant about the whole affair being taken care of so easily that he spent more time conversing with himself about various things. "Hmmm, I wonder if they'll actually name this hurricane considering how quickly it'll go away? It's the first one of the year, so they'd probably name it something starting with 'A' if they do so…"
Lifting his eyes up and contorting his chin a little, Mew then says "Hurricane Albert? …Alex? Alvis? Amanda? …How many hurricanes have been given girl names, now that I think about it? Maybe I should look that up when I get home. Thank god there was enough metal and spare wiring around the mountain to make my own wi-fi device, otherwise I'd have to pay a ton for service." Mew was so deep into his own conversation that he didn't realize for a bit that he had already dealt with the hurricane by the time he was done mentioning the wi-fi.
Flinching momentarily, Mew looks down and says "Oh right, the hurricane…It's already gone. I should've timed it, I need to break my record from last year." Folding his arms together and nodding his head twice in content, Mew remarks "Welp, job well-done Mew, you saved the south coast again. I know I shouldn't be counting, but I've think I've helped them out more times than any other part of the world."
Tilting his head a bit and tapping his right foot against a platform of air he just created, Mew thinks back a bit and says "Then again, I do help Africa out a lot with their dust storms and famine…I am seriously trying to keep a tally of how many times I've helped certain places out. God that sounds so egotistical…" Mew sighs and laughs off his silly little conversation by laying some fingers against his forehead and shaking it, but then he pulls them away when he hears the sudden cheers of the people down below.
He can hear them this far up because a few moments ago he set up some invisible wind tunnels that can carry the noise up to him. Tapping one hand against his cheek, Mew pondered just dipping down to see how the people were celebrating. It would only take a moment, so in the end Mew decides on just going down past the clouds for at least a minute. If he kept his distance, he wouldn't be spotted anyways, and thanks to the pair of long-range binoculars he happened to have tucked away in his shirt at the moment he'd be able to look down at his fellow humans.
Pulling the binoculars out from the collar of his shirt, Mew looks down upon placing them in front of his eyes, stating in a curious tone "Of all the things I wish I could use my elements for, increasing how far I can see is definitely one of them…I guess making these binoculars is good enough compensation." Looking down towards the ground, Mew finds multiple people standing around cars and on the back of trucks, happily celebrating the fact that another hurricane was dealt with.
The people were kind enough to have brought streamers and fireworks, making Mew say with a light chuckle "Heh, they really have a lot of faith in me…Wish I could at least let them see their savior, but that's the con of being an unsung hero. Now let's see here…" Mew moves the binoculars around a bit to see more of the people, but then stops once he sees a rather distressing sight from his point of view. Two humans, both about his age, maybe a little older and both a boy and girl respectively, were in the middle of a loving embrace, signifying that they were boyfriend and girlfriend respectively.
At first Mew just let out a quiet, bothered grumble and tried to ignore the matter, but then the boy pulled out a ring and proposed to the girl much to her excitement, and Mew's grumble became more pronounced and his lips stretched out into an annoyed frown. However, it wasn't until the two locked lips for a rather…unnecessarily long time that Mew's grumble could barely be contained by his mouth and he let out a very, VERY bothered sigh and pulled the binoculars away from his face to show that his eyelids were shut halfway and he had a very clear expression of jealousy on him…
Afternoon…
A few hours later, we find Mew slumped in his couch with the same expression of jealousy on his face he had earlier. He was mumbling to himself "Yeeeeep…All alone…Nothing but myself and a demon in my head…" With his hands laid on the arms of his couch he sighs and says right away "Man…I wonder how Riku's doing out in space. Hopefully he didn't go and get himself killed, but he hasn't contacted me since he left and all…"
Thinking about things through a bit, Mew suddenly has a spark of inspiration and says "Wait a second, perhaps I can create another clone, one that can be my friend! …Actually, I wonder if I could create a clone that's a girl?" When he realizes that what he just said was incredibly creepy, Mew shakes his head and punches himself hard enough in the side of his face to knock himself down onto the side of his body on the couch, with his head knocking against the arm of the couch for a moment.
After a few seconds of contemplation over whatever the hell could have driven him to even consider such insanity, Mew pulls himself upright and snaps his right fingers, stating in a cheerful tone of voice "I can have plenty of fun by myself! Lets see what's on TV!" Mew then uses a spark of electricity from his fingertips to turn the TV on, and he crosses his legs as he lays his feet atop the table and leans back to see what is on.
"We now return to our 1# rated show, 'Love Hospital General'!" The announcer claims, and Mew whistled in somewhat forced intrigue and said "Oh nice, a soap opera! Yeeeeep, living the life here in Mew's abode!" He decided, nonetheless, to watch what was going on in today's episode. Right now, there were some unnecessarily dramatic close-ups of a woman's face as she cupped her hands together and said "No! Say it's not so, Joseph!"
"I am sorry my dear…But I am not an only child. All this time, the person you've loved…Is my twin brother Alexander!" The man named Joseph admitted, and there was an over-the-top drum sound before the woman gasped and admitted "T-Twin brother…? How long have you known about this?" "I didn't learn of this until recently…I'm sorry to have deceived you…" Joseph said.
"But Joseph…If your brother acted like you, and looked a lot like you…Then doesn't that mean in the end that I really have loved you all along?" The woman said as she extended a hand out to touch the man, but Joseph shrugged her off and said "Our love is not to be, for you see…I am actually a robot surgeon from the future!" This news should have thrown the woman into a state of shock, but instead she suddenly licks her lips lustfully and forcibly turns the man around while grasping his shoulders tightly and stating "Oh darling…I have my own secret…"
"I have an INCREDIBLE fetish in regards to machine…So why don't we play a little role reversal and you can turn me on?" The woman's seductive nature overpowered Joseph's robotic senses, and the two locked into a kiss and dropped onto the floor in a matter of seconds. Moans were heard deeply from below, and Mew just stared in blatant annoyance before shutting the TV off instantly. With a nonchalant shrug, Mew said "Oh who am I kidding, the show went downhill after Maxwell was revealed to be from Mars."
Mew then turned to the right and noticed a radio nearby, and flicked a finger towards it to send a spark that would turn it on while remarking "Some music should do me some good." With a little bit of fine tuning, Mew gets a clear signal and was just in time for the next song to play. "Welcome to Channel 97.5, where we are currently in the middle of our Last Century Classics Marathon! Next up is 'Love Me Too' by The Beatles!"
Once the DJ had finished his announcement, Mew immediately went back to his expression of annoyance, and only let the song play for ten seconds before he shut the radio off and said with slight exasperation "Ok, my patience is being tested here, obviously. That's fine, I still have video games, and there's no way I can run into that stuff there." Running into the back of his room, Mew grabs a portable system and then heads back into the couch to sit down, laid back, and decided to enjoy himself.
However, it didn't take very long for him to remark "Oh? I'm about to reach max rank with the main heroine. I wonder what happens if…I…." Mew's enthusiasm is quickly shot as he closes his eyelids, nonchalantly shuts the portable system off, and then lays it on the table. He then pulls back, lays his hands on his legs, and remains silent for just a few more seconds before he looks up towards the sky, puts on his best smirk and says nonchalantly "If you want to not be subtle universe, then you'd be better off just dropping a hammer that says 'Here, take this gift you lonely, pathetic cretin!' right on top of my head."
"…Unless this is all an attempt to prepare me for that cliché'd moment where all of a sudden a girl that is right for me appears at my doorstep. Or they contact me via my mind, or crash in through the ceiling." Mew lists off a number of things to reassure himself that all those coincidences from earlier were leading to something, and he hopefully looks at the door and the ceiling before poking into his own mind to see if someone was trying to contact him. Nothing was successful, naturally…Which leads to Mew laying deflated against the couch for another few hours…
Evening…
…In fact, he didn't end up eating either lunch or dinner by the time the dead of night rolled around. Mew, however, stops his acts of self-depression and leans forward on the couch, scratching the back of his head and saying "I got to stop doing this to myself once a week. I'm wasting days worrying about something I cannot control. For now, I should just go to bed and-" As Mew began to pull himself off of the couch, he suddenly heard a voice calling to him from somewhere unknown.
"Hello? Heeeeeeello? Can you hear me?" The voice was clearly feminine, and with everything else that he could take into consideration so far Mew was right to raise his right hand up and remark "Niiiice try 'D.' I applaud you for trying to copy a female voice, but I'm not falling for it." "What? Are you seriously assuming I'm that demon?" The voice quickly replies in disbelief, which surprised Mew right away and grabbed his attention more than it did before.
"That voice…Impossible…That bitch hasn't died of old age?!" 'D.' quickly chimed into the conversation in a surprisingly puzzled tone of voice, and Mew said to the feminine voice in his head in a serious tone "…Ok, you got my attention. Who are you?" "Well I'm glad we settled that matter quickly. Forgive me for intruding your mind like this young Elemental Overlord, but I'm afraid I cannot divulge my identity just yet. However, I have come to you with an urgent request, and I think you'll be interested in what I have to say…"
Next Time: The Secluded Tribe
