He didn't know how it happened. All he knew was that he was backed into a corner and was too paralyzed with fear to move. Lucas started trembling in his shoes, which started to worry his allies, who were taking care of some of the other enemies. "Lucas, just hold on! Once this wave is done, we'll come over and help you!" one fellow smasher called out, a boy of roughly thirteen with brown hair, sapphire blue eyes, and Greek-like clothing, as well as a laurel crown. This smasher's name was Pit, a returning veteran to the SSB tournaments and one the smashers liked well. But in this fourth tournament, he was no longer the sole representative of his series.

Lucas wouldn't budge, though, and the psychic turned eerily pale and started to sway. Pit stole another glance in his direction and realized his friend's condition. He stopped battling the enemies momentarily and tried to help his friend by essentially being an angelic support beam.

"Ugh...Lucas, don't fall out now!" he pleaded uneasily as the main monster approached them. Then before either of them could raise a weapon or do a PSI attack, their worlds went completely dark.

"Ugh...where are we?" Pit asked nobody in particular as he came to his senses in a strangely dark room. He looked around to see Lucas standing nearby. But when the angel tried to greet his friend, he tripped and fell due to one of his ankles being chained to the wall. "What the-?"

"Huh? Pit!" Lucas called out, pulling at his leg before realizing a chain on it, too. The psychic pulled at his ankle furiously, but the more he fought, the tighter the chain became.

Suddenly an enemy's screech called out, which nearly sent chills down Pit's spine. "Cahahahaha! So you two finally made it to my domain!" a voice shouted angrily. The owner of the voice revealed itself as a creature that looked like a cross between a moth, a scorpion, and some cyclops thing. It flapped its wings furiously and screeched again.

"The...Chaos Kin? Is that what it's called?" Lucas asked his friend uneasily before turning incredibly pale in his skin complexion.

"Screehehehehehehe!" the Chaos Kin screeched again, extending its stinger almost in self defense. "You two twerps have no clue what you're dealing with! While you two were having your little comfort party, I snatched your souls!" The Chaos Kin revealed two glowing orbs from its claw and then made them disappear just as quickly. "But while you two are petrified, I have a bit of a party to throw. See you!" With that, the monster flew away. Lucas hung his head down, the best he could while being really dizzy.

"Pit, w-what are we going to do? We're basically stuck here until everyone else takes that thing down!" he exclaimed, which only made Pit even more uneasy about a plan he'd been thinking of.

"Don't fret, Lucas. I have a plan," he said, grabbing his Palutena Bow off the wall. "But it involves a sacrifice..." Trailing off at the end of his statement, Pit threw his bow to Lucas, who handled it with care so as to not drop it. "It's just kind of a memento. In case I don't make it back in one piece." Pit activated one of his Powers. "Trade-Off Power, activate!"

Suddenly the entirety of the inky blackness turned vast white, and Lucas couldn't see a thing. When the light cleared, the two were free but Pit had fallen unconscious. The psychic instantly tried to rush to a wall and call for help.

"Someone, anyone, please! We need some help!" Lucas' cries echoed through the inky darkness. "Please! My friend's hurt and we need to get out of here!"

Suddenly, before he could essentially pray any longer, the room started to crumble. 'Someone must've taken down the Chaos Kin and broken the spell!' Lucas thought as he grabbed Pit's bow and the two were teleported away.

"Gaah!" Lucas woke up in a cold sweat. He looked around for any sign of an unconscious Pit, and eventually saw him on the sidelines, being treated by Dr. Mario. "Ugh, what happened?"

"Pit must've activated one of his Trade-Off Powers," Palutena said. "The way it works is that the user sacrifices almost all HP to increase stats or rescue an ally. In this case you and Pit needed both."

"B-but..." Lucas stole an uneasy glance toward Pit. "I-is Pit gonna be okay?"

"Don't worry, Lucas. Pit's going to be fine," Palutena said, hauling Lucas to his feet.

Lucas wiped away some tears. "I-I sure hope so..."