Clean Up R.O.B.
Disclaimer: I do not own Super Smash Brothers. That goes to Nintendo. The only characters I own are those from the Golden Land, angels from Skyworld including the royal bodyguards, Angel Assembly and archangels along with all the other angels and of course the witch hunters. I also don't own Queen's Blade as that belongs to Hobby Japan.
Summary: When it's cleanup day, R.O.B. is programmed to pick up the trash. Unfortunately, Rob lost an important item during the mix up and goes to retrieve said item with Shulk.
Pairing: Rob/Shulk
Rated: K+ (for older children)
Genre: General, Humor, Friendship and some Angst
Day 1 of Shobin week. I kind of got roped into this. Since I was one of the starters of the pairing, I got to do it even though I got too many fics to work on (P5, TWEWY, NSFW stuff, etc.) I am doing a spring themed Shobin fic for the week (with the last day not having anything to do with spring because porn). Day 1 is "Earth Day". Enjoy!
Master Hand's sudden announcement of a fifth tournament caught the universe by surprise. Granted, those close to the right hand should have known he had something up his sleeve. Master Hand was always that guy who said, "This is the last tournament season, so you better come and watch," and then a couple years later, will postpone the "final" tournament.
A new tournament meant preparing for the newcomers, and Master Hand starting the dreadful "Cut". While it's true that Master Hand made people leave the roster, he never kicked them out of the mansion. If the person chose, they could stay in the mansion to continue supporting their friends.
To say that people were surprised with Master Hand's treatment of Link was an understatement. The moment Master Hand had announced the tournament out of the blue, he declared that the star of the Splatfest Inkop would be participating in the new tournament (with her fellow friend). However, this should have been expected. Link and Zelda were on a special contract that only the original twelve fighters knew about. Every two tournament seasons, Master Hand would dump the Link and Zelda of that timeline and grab another one. The excuse involved "messing with the timeline". To some Smashers, Master Hand was talking out of his ass. He claimed to care about not wanting to mess up the timelines of the fighters but he had no problem dragging certain people from different timelines to fight against each other. Should something happen to Link or Zelda, disaster falls Hyrule. Then again, Master Hand worked within his boundaries, hence the "two term contract".
The new Link was from an unknown timeline. Compared to the other Link's, he was wilder, and more willing to make friends…in a rather aggressive way. Compared to the farmer boy, this Link managed to become friends with Pit, and that said something given Pit's hatred toward both Link and Toon Link. The sudden change caught the Hero of Twilight off guard. He argued with Master Hand about not giving him any warning. Master Hand had other excuses on why Link, unlike the other characters dropped, had to leave the Smash Brothers Realm. Supposedly, the maximum amount of Link's that can be taken out of the timeline was two. Link and Toon Link were the two Links, and anyone else would result in getting dropped.
The one excuse that did cause the Hero of Twilight to snap, however, involved his friendship with a God from another universe. Given how many problems Palutena had brought to the Smash Brothers Realm, befriending someone who claimed to be the God of Destruction would only bring more disaster on Master Hand, and everyone in the realm. He gave Link the choice of staying and cutting communications off with the God of Destruction, or to pack up and leave. Angry, Link chose the latter option, surprising everyone, especially Zelda and Marth.
Zelda pleaded for Link not to leave, but the Hero of Twilight packed up his things, and left without a word. She too would be next, but at the moment, she was allowed to stay. The fates of the other fighters from Hyrule were in jeopardy, except Ganondorf. He already knew he was going to stay because there was only one of him. Seeing his enemies being forced to leave felt good, and add the fact that Palutena celebrated Zelda being replaced by another one, (that might have a better personality than the one now), all was good for those two.
It was sober everywhere else in the mansion with Link's decision to depart. Marth should have been used to it. The Hero of Time had to leave, and now the Hero of Twilight left leaving him to get used to the Hyrule Champion.
But the moment the Hero of Twilight left, and Inkop was welcomed into the mansion, Master Hand had asked his brother Crazy Hand to set R.O.B. and Mr. Game and Watch up for cleaning and reconstruction. Near the end of every season, these two would go out of their way to fix everything that had been damaged or destroyed in the mansion. Mr. Game and Watch started with all the cracks in the walls and potential leaks in the mansion, while R.O.B. ended up going into "Clean Mode", where he would go through every room, and pick up anything he deemed to be trash. This was good because it meant that slobs like Wario wouldn't be able to have a nasty room come the start of the new season. The main problem was the definition of trash involved picking stuff off the floor that might have fallen off the nightstand, and unidentified objects from other worlds that R.O.B. would register as trash.
In the past, R.O.B. had done the unimaginable. He had labeled Shulk's Monado as trash and managed to get a hold of it without any internal damages. He threw it in the dumpster with a bunch of other items from the Smashers, and took it all to Dumpster Galaxy. It was an adventure Shulk hoped he wouldn't have to experience again. The Homs always had the Monado with him, except when he went to sleep. The one time he didn't have the Monado just happened to be garbage day.
Just because Shulk learned his lesson didn't mean the other Smashers did. Take Rob for example; He had memories from previous timelines, and still didn't understand that he had to keep important items off the floor. R.O.B. will just take it and throw it away. The blond didn't know what Rob lost this time, but it was super important that warranted a search throughout the entire mansion.
They started with the dumpster area outside of the mansion, but so far, anything not considered trash wasn't even in the trash bin yet. Only spoiled food that has been in the fridge too long, and the trash in all the Smasher's rooms, were taken out along with stuff that Link did not bother to take with him. When the lost item was confirmed to not be in the trash, (not like Rob would be the type of person to dump into the dumpster anyway), they started to search for the robot that was charged with cleaning up.
While traversing each floor, Shulk got a sight of the other Smashers. R.O.B. made things more difficult for the others, and the Monado boy couldn't help but chuckle at some of the events going on that Rob ignored.
Ike was the Hero of Tellius. He was blunt and serious, but had his moments. For example, Ike enjoyed eating Kentucky's Fried Chicken, and always second guessed himself when looking at bird deities like Falco. Rumors from the Brawl era spread that Ike did not take practical jokes well, and was the main reason why he wanted nothing to do with Sonic.
Why was this important? Because R.O.B. was involved with dumping food from the fridge into the trash, BUT Ike was quick to accuse Sonic as being the one who stole the chicken from the fridge. As Rob and Shulk walked past the kitchen, Shulk saw Ike having his hands around Sonic's neck.
"GIVE ME BACK MY CHICKEN!"
"Guh…I…d-didn't…guhhh…"
'I should probably help him', Shulk thought to himself. Then he remembered the time Sonic had timed him out in a tournament and taunted.'Nah, he can end up in the infirmary'.
Normally, Shulk wouldn't be that mean, but just this once, he wanted to use his memories to get back at specific Smashers.
Shulk continued following after Rob, who searched every room on the first floor for the robot. Frustrated sighs continued to escape his lips, but he kept on searching. They went to the second floor where they saw Fox waiting patiently at the door for someone.
"Oh Fox," Shulk spoke up as Rob quickly rushed passed the leader of Star Fox. "Ike is strangling Sonic in the kitchen. I just wanted you to know in case you care-"
In the past, Shulk judged Fox before getting to know him. This veteran was so good in Smash. Too good, in fact, that Shulk dreaded fighting him and Mario the most. Someone with so much combat experience made someone who was considered a God look like a beginner. Fox loved to fight, and it left a bad taste in Shulk's mouth. Now that Shulk learned more about, him mainly because of the timelines, he noticed that Fox was a naturally caring person. Most of the money he won usually went to his homeworld, and he kept everything else. While Fox claimed the money was for Slippy to upgrade his weapons, Shulk soon learned from Peach that Fox sent the money to the orphanage in Corneria. War was always a problem in Fox's realm, so Fox always did what he needed to even when he wasn't around.
Additionally, Shulk learned that Fox was overprotective to those close to him. Sonic the Hedgehog was one of the few people Fox decided to look after, seeing as how Sonic had a hard time taking care of himself. This annoyed Sonic to no end, but Fox's persistence that started in the Brawl era resulted in a small crush developing on Sonic's end. It was very subtle, but because of all of these memories, Shulk finally saw that the crush was mutual. Fox just didn't like showing any sort of affection, after dealing with his own break up in his world.
"What?! What is Ike doing? What is Sonic doing getting caught? Come on now…"
Fox scratched the back of his neck, grumbling something under his breath before deciding to go down the stairs, and stop a murder from occurring in the kitchen, leaving Shulk alone in the hallway. Rob had disappeared into one of the lounge's, searching for R.O.B.
"Uhh…it's not here either!" Rob exclaimed. "Dammit! Where is he?"
"We haven't gone to the other three floors…" Shulk started. "But…I don't think R.O.B. would even be on the fourth or fifth floor…"
Only four Smashers were on the fourth and fifth floor total. Pit and Dark Pit had one room on the fourth floor, and Rosalina and Palutena occupied one room on the fifth floor. Hierarchy was in play for that, and Shulk had the option of being on the fifth floor. Shulk denied it because he didn't want to be seen as a God, "thus better than everyone".
"So the third floor…" Rob said quietly. "…I thought R.O.B. started on the higher floors first and then worked his way down…"
Shulk shrugged his shoulders. Honestly, that robot was unpredictable with his movements. Master Hand doesn't program the same commands in every timeline, so what might have happened before might not happen again.
"Uhh…if I lose this item…I'm going to…"
"Is it something that can be replaced?"
Rob glared at the younger Smasher. "Of course it can but it was a gift!"
"Oh? That's the first time I heard about it."
Rob puffed his cheeks. "I don't have to tell you everything Shulk. And no, it's not from Pit."
Whatever breath Shulk was holding, he ended up releasing it.
"You don't need to be jealous of Pit. We both know he is committed to his fiancé now."
"Doesn't stop him from flirting with you…" Shulk growled.
Rob rolled his eyes. "If you can complain about Pit, you can keep helping me look for my gift."
"Will you tell me what it is?"
"No. You'll have to wait until we find it."
Shulk hoped that they would find it soon. Curiosity was getting the best of him.
An hour later, Rob finally found what he was looking for. Shulk wasn't all that surprised that Rob's item wasn't in the huge dumpster, but rather in the garden instead. Before an hour hit, Shulk was hit with a random vision showing where exactly the item was. He didn't get to see what the item was, but he knew it would be found very soon. Sure enough, Rob had lashed out at the yellow Pikmin that had Rob's precious item.
Shulk honestly expected the item to be related to Rob's favorite novel series going around – either a bookmark or an autograph from the author. He didn't expect a purple pen to be the item that Rob lost.
"A pen? Really?" Shulk didn't mean to sound rude, but he wouldn't expect Rob to be all fussy over a pen.
"It's not just any sort of pen!" Rob exclaimed. "It's a gift."
"Oh?" Shulk wasn't exactly convinced. "Don't tell me you use that pen to help you at night."
Rob's expression immediately darkened. "What?! No! Where are you getting ideas like that! You know, you tell me to stop hanging around Pit but those ideas are what Pit would say!"
The tactician had a point. It's not like Shulk had a choice when it came to hanging with Pit, though…
"For your information," Rob continued, "This pen is a gift from Gretel."
"Gretel?"
"Yeah, she took a break from work, and went on one of those hunts for ingredients," the tactician explained. "She got a pen during her hunt, and gave it to me. It helps with issues concerning my body…"
Rob's voice trailed off. Shulk decided to keep his comment to himself. Because of what happened in Mecha Galaxy, Rob's lower body was damaged and replaced with robotic limbs. It should have only been for that timeline, but due to the Golden Land's time manipulation that was meant to get rid of one of the largest threats in the universe, Rob's damage to his lower region was permanent. Compared to what it looked like in that timeline, Rob's robotic limbs were nicer to look at and completely functional without a mechanic. However, Shulk took it upon himself to help Rob in every way he could. After all, it was his fault that Rob's human legs were messed up in the first place.
"How…does the pen help?"
"When you're not available, the pen allows me to manipulate the parts inside of these legs," Rob explained. "I don't really understand how that works, but since this pen was obtained from the Golden Land in some way…"
"They are time manipulators," Shulk murmured. "It would make sense…"
"Granted, you're the best mechanic I can ever hope for, but I don't want to burden you all the time."
Shulk's cheeks threatened to turn pink at the praise. The praise was undeserved.
'I should thank Gretel for going out of her way to do this. She won't remember it in the next timeline, but she helped us out a lot in more ways than one', Shulk thought to himself.
Rob placed the pen back into his robe pocket, and approached the Homs. Shulk was taken aback by the smaller male in close proximity of him.
"Sorry for dragging you around," Rob apologized. Shulk couldn't see it, but he had a feeling the snowy haired tactician was frowning. "I'm okay now…"
"It's not a problem…"
Despite being together for so many timelines, Shulk still couldn't stop himself from getting flustered. The blond recalled how there were many timelines where Rob wouldn't say anything about how he truly felt, and the Homs remained oblivious until a tragedy occurred that forced him to realize his feelings. Now that many events had settled down after the Mecha Galaxy incident, (until the Great Evil returned many years later down the line). With these memories that Raven had blessed him, he could make sure that Rob wouldn't suffer as badly as those other timelines. And it wasn't just Shulk with the memories. Pit and Rosalina maintained their memories as well, (Rosalina longer than anyone). Two divine beings and one of the most powerful angels were capable of delaying the inevitable, and keeping those they held dear safe.
"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT! R.O.B., GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE! YOU CAN'T TAKE THAT FROM ME!"
Pit's voice boomed from the mansion. The tranquil moment the young couple shared ended because of the angel captain. Shulk felt a migraine coming on. No matter what timeline it was, Pit would still find a way to piss him off.
"Wonder what R.O.B. took from him," the tactician wondered out loud.
"Knowing Pit, it was probably something pertaining to his engagement," Shulk said with a sigh.
"Oh? That is important. I guess… I should go help him…"
"I don't think that is necessary-"
Even if Shulk protested with helping the light angel, Rob already made his decision to help his friend. Pit became more tolerable, now that he took his engagement with his fiancé more seriously. It's amazing what spending time together in one timeline could do.
"Man… what a pain…" Shulk mumbled darkly to himself. Rob already got the head start back into the mansion, but the Homs trailed after him slowly. The Yellow Pikmin that had stolen Rob's pen continued to stare at Shulk's back in confusion.
Me: Done with 3474 words. Notes!
1. Because I decided anything pertaining to Smash 5 will be post Mecha Galaxy, there will be a lot of references. Note that just because Smash 5 is on the horizon doesn't mean I won't be writing pre Mecha Galaxy. Problem is as listed above, I'm doing a Persona 5 fic and The World Ends With You fic so it cuts down the time in the Smash fandom. Plus, I work, pay bills, file taxes, etc.
2. Inkop is the name of the female Inkling for my universe. It's literally Ink + OP (overpowered) and it gives the impression that she's kind of cocky for a kid.
3. When BotW Link was confirmed, I knew it was curtains for TP Link. This was a rule I brought up in a ficlet where each Link is replaced every 2 seasons. I do want to bring up that the Yellow color story introduces the very character that makes Link consider quitting Smash but there was never a reason to. Post Mecha Galaxy, he has a reason. BotW Zelda will also be in and TP Zelda got to go away but I am positive that Sheik and Ganondorf are safe.
4. Post Mecha Galaxy, many plot points happen but the main one I want to spoil is that Pit, Rob and Shulk all remember the previous timelines for better or worse. This means Rob and Shulk are pretty much an established couple while Pit actually stays committed. Rob's body does get ruined as implied in the ficlet but after Mecha Galaxy, he can maintain it better than the timeline his body was ruined. Most of the villains that have been dominant before and during Mecha Galaxy (the Band of Six) have been "deleted" by Raven in all timelines and the Great Evil was pushed back a few more years allowing for Pit, Rob, Shulk and Rosalina to try out different ways to beat him instead of delaying his return (without sacrifices anyone).
That's it. Reviews are appreciated. Ja ne!