"Ness? Are you awake?"
"Yeah… what?"
"Do you have any extra energy left?" Lucas whispered as he was repeatedly snapping his fingers, trying to get at least a small PK Fire flame started.
"Why…? Don't you know it's like 1 AM?"
"I can't sleep, and we have a lot of matches today. So I-"
"Are you sure you're not going through a psychic fever right now?" Ness was getting quite annoyed at this point. He was just one of the many smashers with an extremely short fuse in the morning.
"I'm not… I'm just asking for extra energy."
"Like I said, it's 1 AM. Of course I don't have any. Go get some from someone else, or the hot springs, and let me sleep…"
And so, Lucas quietly snuck out of their shared room to fulfill his early-morning quest of looking for some spare energy. The only ability he could still use now was PK Magnet, but it served no purpose other than for energy absorbing, and healing in smash battles. This isn't the first time this happened, and whenever it did, usually, something would have ended up broken by the time everyone started to get up for the day.
However, this time was going to be different. Lucas didn't feel like unnecessarily destroying anything right now, since enough things have been broken, and it was only a few days after the start of the Ultimate tournament. Instead, he figured that some person had to be the donor. Besides, nothing bad usually happens. They'll probably just not wake up until later in the day.
Alternatively, there was always the hot spring, as Ness mentioned. Though it's so early in the morning, and that place would most definitely still be closed. Master Hand banned anyone from using the hot springs at night; mainly because almost every time, the hand would go outside to find either the psychics, angels, or both sitting there to regain energy, in order to stay up longer.
"Just look at the bulletin board and pick someone who isn't going to have any smash matches today, visit that person's room, use the magnet on them and leave…" The psychic quietly said to himself as he walked down the hallway. Contrary to popular belief, at night, the mansion is completely silent. Lucas heard nothing but his own footsteps and breathing, which only now seem so loud compared to the surroundings of the quiet mansion. It almost had a slightly creepy atmosphere to it.
Every day, at 12 AM, the day's battle schedule gets posted on the bulletin board right in front of the main entrance to the mansion. The board itself was dedicated only to that schedule; it had photos of every smasher tacked on it, scattered here and there. In the center, the timestamps for battles were written in black permanent marker. Nobody knew who rearranged the schedule daily, but none of that really mattered to them. Master Hand, perhaps?
Today… it looks like Marth is the only smasher with nothing scheduled. Lucky guy… or is he? It was decided then, that the Hero King was going to be the subject that will be unknowingly giving up his energy to Lucas. The psychic supposed it was easy enough to accomplish, except for actually getting to where Marth's room is, on the 4th floor.
The 4th floor was known as the second most messy floor of the mansion, with items being scattered all across the floor, as well as some smashers' belongings. It was also by far, the darkest at night, since the night lights in the hallways were all broken due to a very powerful electrical surge caused by none other than a certain electric mouse. There were also no windows in the hallways of that floor, so no moonlight could get in.
It didn't help that all the smashers' rooms were arranged in a bizarre setup; each floor was practically a maze at that point.
Definitely not going to be that hard to navigate for Lucas… that is, assuming he had his psychic powers available. Though he doesn't, for now. The whole reason why this plan came to be.
That meant passing by the storage room to find a flashlight first.
The storage room alone was like that of the 4th floor, though instead of it being a maze, it now seemed to be a dark, open space. Nobody dared enter the room, not even the villains, for the atmosphere was far too… indescribable. Slowly opening the door and stepping inside, Lucas ended up having to absentmindedly wave his arms around to feel everything around him as he walked blindly through the room in search of said item.
Amidst all the items, a lot of which being particularly dangerous outside of matches, was a single, yet old flashlight hidden in the back of one of the shelves. Pulling it out from it's hiding place, the psychic gently shook it to check if it still had its batteries.
"None… oh well. I guess candles could work..."
What would one expect out of a flashlight that hadn't been used in who knows how long? Nobody really needed it anyway since most of the smashers had a light source of their own.
Lucas placed the flashlight back where he had found it, or at least somewhere nearby. He was sure they had ran out of batteries last week, and hadn't gone shopping for more since. Once again, he began to make his way to where he thought the candles were. Seeing as he found the flashlight already, surely the candles and matches weren't that far from there.
"Ah!"
He tripped. Over what, he didn't know. It was too dark to see. Though, the darkness did nothing to reduce hearing capabilities, hence the somewhat loud clacking noise of some objects falling onto the floor. Then, a rolling noise replaced the previous ones, and Lucas immediately began to feel the floor around where he fell. After what seemed like hours, but in reality about 5 minutes, he found a single candle, and a match box. Normally, the psychic was going to start a PK Fire, but instead he had to force himself to remember how a match box worked. Since most of the time he had his psychic powers, there was simply no need for matches or the like, even though his hometown, Tazmily Village, didn't have that much advanced technology.
Come to think of it, he didn't really know how to properly use a flashlight either, but definitely knew it was a thing that ran on batteries. He already did learn PK Flash, as well as a couple of other moves, but for some reason he just never uses some in smash battles.
"What's up with this side of the box? Maybe if I strike a match on it it'll work?"
Indeed, it did work. All Lucas had to do now was transfer the flame to the candle. That, he actually did remember, luckily. The only difference was in the flame's origin.
With a decent light source finally available, Our protagonist left the storage room and walked to the stairs, since the elevator was also affected by the blackout. As Lucas was quickly walking up the steps, he noticed that his own shadow almost seemed to be alive with a mind of its own. It was like that of any regular person's… a completely black shape, yet somehow, his eyes were visible, with no shadow at all. "Perhaps, the eyes really are the windows to the soul.", he said.
As the psychic reached the 4th floor, in his peripheral vision, he swore he saw the shadow doing something other than copying his movements, and with the way he was holding the candle, it kind of looked like it was waving goodbye to something, or someone.
Lucas paused but if for a moment to do nothing but stare at his own shadow on the wall in silence before continuing. It was quite a fascinating and wondrous moment he wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon.
Let's not forget about the task at hand. Slowly, he turned around to see the familiar, messy hallway. If Lucas had been a part of the tournament since Brawl, surely by now he would have at least memorized where some of the smashers' rooms were located in this maze of a home. Fortunately, Marth's room was on that mental list of 'I know where this person's room is'. Down the main hallway, turn left at the 3rd intersection, then right, and left again. Easy enough, given that one had a good sense of direction.
He began to run towards his destination, trying not to trip on or set off anything on the ground, but suddenly slowed down and opted to simply walk with as little noise as possible, realizing that the rooms were not soundproof, and that some smashers in particular just so happened to be light sleepers. He was already at the 3rd intersection, standing right in the middle of the hallways, when…
The sound of a door opening. From what sounded like the 2nd intersection.
Then footsteps.
Immediately, Lucas hid behind one of the walls, and placed his hand over the candle's flame in an attempt to hide the light's brightness from whoever had just left their room. Out of fear, the psychic took a small glance at said smasher. It was Kirby, who most likely was on a quest of his own; that probably had something to do with food more than anything else. The puffball looked around, as if searching for something. Then fortunately, walked away. Lucas guessed Kirby wouldn't be returning to the 4th floor until later, so he still had enough time for his own mission.
It was odd; recently, he'd been suffering from insomnia, and everything always seemed to easily distract him. It really didn't help that exhaustion and/or a lack of concentration is the most likely cause of having disabled PSI. Lucas himself couldn't figure out the reason for it all, but he'd rather keep things to himself than go tell someone like Dr. Mario or Wii Fit Trainer about it.
He burned his own hand.
Okay, so what if his problems were worse than he first thought?
Only then did the sharp and searing pain hit him. He couldn't afford to make anymore noise, especially since Kirby is awake and wandering to who knows where. It took all of his willpower to not scream in pain, but in order for this to be a successful mission… some sacrifices have to be made. If anyone else were there, they'd see an absolutely mortified expression, with his other, not-burned hand, still holding the candle shaking heavily, while the rest of him was frozen in place. With PK Fire, never would his or Ness' hands get burnt while handling it, but for now… things don't work like that. Until then, he'd have to deal with it.
"Nn…!" The psychic's eyes were welling up with tears by now, but he wouldn't let that stop him from doing what he had to. This was important.
He left his hiding spot to continue on to Marth's room. Once again, he saw his shadow, only now it looked more in pain than he himself was. If Lucas thought he saw it moving on it's own earlier, it certainly was now. Without his actions, the shadow got down on its knees and seemed to shout and cry for help, yet no sound was heard, due to it being nothing more than a shadow as Lucas went towards Marth's room. He faltered in his steps, but didn't stop walking. At least it was distracting enough to forget the pain of his own burned hand.
Normally, Lucas would be surprised, scared, or both, at this; he didn't think it was possible. However, he didn't feel any of said emotions towards it. Instead, it was an awkward mix of curiosity, and sadness. He'd formed a bond: one with his own shadow. Maybe this was just a psychic thing, since for them it was far too easy to get overly attached to someone, but he was sure it never happened with something. Did that mean the shadow was theoretically alive? He'd have to investigate this later.
At last, he made it. The door to Marth's room stood before him, and it even had a name tag with the Hero King's name on it. Now was the time where he had to be most careful.
The psychic set the candle down on the ground; he didn't want to use his injured hand to open the door. Fortunately, the door wasn't locked, as there usually wasn't any reason to lock it at night, with nobody being up at this time. Though, it technically wasn't night time... but it wasn't dawn, either.
Inside, the Hero King was asleep on his bed, facing away from the door, wrapped up in blue and gold sheets. On the walls, several, somewhat old looking books were on the shelves, as well as a small red chair and matching table in the corner. The walls were painted gray, and the carpet had the Fire Emblem symbol on it. Overall, it had a bit of a castle-like feel to it. Unlike the rest of the 4th floor, Marth's room was... immaculate. One wouldn't think it belonged here.
He brought his candle inside and crept closer to his target. The candle's light gave Lucas a good look at Marth... he was smiling a little in his sleep, for some reason. He was also hugging his sword, the Falchion, tightly. It was in its sheath, so it couldn't cut anything anyway.
Cute... Who knew? Marth, I'm sorry... He thought, as he set the candle down on Marth's nightstand. He then extended his now free hand in front of the sleeping Hero King. Using the only psychic ability he had left, he emitted a faintly glowing blue orb of light from it. The moment the orb touched Marth, the process of draining his energy began.
After a few moments, the smile on his face turned into a frown, and he held onto the sword tighter, almost as if whatever he was dreaming about had suddenly vanished. Was that really happening? Taking his dreams, along with his energy? ...That was new. When did...?
Lucas took it as a sign to stop, for the psychic felt bad for Marth. He did stop though, since by then he had already gotten most of what he needed for later.
Mission complete. Lucas picked his candle back up, and quietly left the room. He knew Kirby was awake, and who knows what will happen if he gets found out? So he tried to walk as quickly as possible without making a lot of noise. He also had to ignore the pain of his other hand while doing so, making things harder. Healing that was of last priority. Luckily, his and Ness' shared room was on the 2nd floor, so it wouldn't be that far away.
Instead of taking the stairs, Lucas hatched a plan to fall through the space in between the railings. Even with the candle light, he couldn't see all the way to the ground floor, but he was going to catch himself with PSI at the 2nd floor.
One could find Ness flying a lot of the time. The first time Lucas figured out he could fly was during the events of the Subspace Emissary. Up until that point, he thought that he could only double jump and PK Thunder: and that was the closest thing to flying, he supposed.
A little while after that, Ness had taught him; by using his PSI to pick the other up and place him on really high places, and then shoving him off and leaving him to figure it out himself, because-
"It's just gonna happen the moment you subconsciously think you're going to die from falling."
"At this height, I actually will die!"
"Nonsense. I'll catch you, of course."
"You say that every time!"
They were at the roof of the tallest building in the city. They spoke telepathically, since yelling obviously wouldn't work at this height.
"Well, in that case, good luck, and goodbye, Lucas!"
"HEY, WAIT-"
As he was falling, Ness flew up to meet him.
"So, how's your Saturday going? Did you know you look a lot like Yoshi when you're flapping your arms and kicking your legs like that?" He asked casually.
He'd been falling for a while now, but in an instant, Lucas suddenly stopped. Was he flying? A few seconds passed before he realized that he finally learned to, before the effect disappeared against his own will, sending him plummeting back down again.
That was the last thing Lucas remembered before he blacked out midair.
When he came to, he was in the mansion's infirmary. So Ness probably didn't catch him again, but must had done something else. He never bothered to ask about how he didn't die.
He preferred to stick to the ground since then, even if he did improve. As such, he hadn't done it in a while. So before he jumped off the stairs, he tested it himself. Gathering energy at his feet, he tried to fly the same way he did it before.
"Come on, please work, please work with me here..." he whispered to himself.
A bit unstable at first, though he did eventually manage to figure it out. Then, he actually did jump down the stairs, but fell a little lower than intended. That was fine, flying wasn't too hard once you got used to it.
Now that he was back on the 2nd floor, he blew out the candle, since the moonlight was shining brightly enough through the windows. Thank goodness the hallways here were much less cluttered, and their shared room was just to the right of the 1st intersection.
Walking down to their room, the psychic wondered if Ness, at one point, had the same issues as him right now. He frequently got bouts of homesickness, didn't he? Though usually a simple phone call always solved that...
"...Poyo..."
Kirby. He's going back to the 4th floor. The puff was nowhere in sight, but Lucas sensed him coming up the stairs. Forgoing the whole "Be quiet" thing, he quickly shut the door to his and Ness' room, and prayed Kirby wouldn't notice. With that noise, however, Ness woke up.
"...Hey... Did you find any energy?"
"Yup, sure did."
"...Can I have some?"
"Wha... why? I literally just got back a few moments ago. I didn't bring enough to share."
"Remember how I asked if you were having a psychic fever earlier? See, a few minutes after you left, It happened to me, and I'm pretty sure this is going to be a powerful new thing I'll learn, seeing as it is a pretty bad case..."
"No. Get your own. I'm not about to deal with you. Nobody except Rosalina is okay with watching you every time this happens. You're too high-maintenance like this."
"Please?"
"...No means no. I still have to fix my burnt hand..."
"What?"
Author's Note:
This was planned to be a oneshot, however this may or may not have a 2nd chapter in the future.