Chapter 1: A Somewhat Strange Morning
Pit awoke to the sound of absolute silence. No yelling. No screaming. Lady Palutena hadn't even tried to wake him up for a mission. Usually he would have been sent out for the day to check on the humans because of strange evil activity radiating from the surface of the planet, but nothing had woken him up this morning. Pit decided that it was too strange to not investigate and got out of bed immediately, leaving his room in haste in order to find exactly what was going on.
He walked up and down the hallways of the temple and checked inside of every room, but found nothing. It was strange. It seemed as though his room was the only one that radiated any sort cheerful tone, something that most of Skyworld did itself. It hadn't even been this gloomy and quiet back when Palutena had been controlled by the Chaos Kin. Pit looked out one of the long windows of the temple and breathed in some fresh air to cure the nausea he was feeling from having the suspicion of being the only person left in the temple.
As he looked out over Skyworld, he found that it felt the same as most of the temple; very gloomy and desolate. Nausea overtook Pit again. He told himself over and over again that what was going on wasn't going on. He pinched himself a few times before doing another full search of the temple. He found nothing.
"Oh gosh," he said to himself as he returned to the temple's courtyard, "I'm the only one here." He repeated this multiple times before trying to comfort himself again, though it brought no avail. After standing in place talking to himself for a half hour, he finally decided on the terrifying fact that Skyworld was empty, as in no life left, except for him. Then he screamed.
"LADY PALUTENA!" he cried. No response.
"LADY PALUTENA!" he cried again. It was futile. Pit was about to start crying until he heard a voice in his head.
"Come," it said.
"Lady… Palutena?" Pit asked in surprise.
"Of course not!" it exclaimed impatiently, "I am most certainly not a lady, and my name certainly is not Palutena!" Pit felt foolish for asking what he did because the voice was gruff and masculine, and definitely did not belong to Palutena.
"Where are you?" asked Pit.
"Feel my energy radiating," it responded. That didn't help. Pit couldn't feel anything but gloom around him.
"What energy?" he asked after another few minutes. Then he paused before asking his next question, "Wait, who are you?"
"If you can find me, I will tell," it said, slowly becoming more impatient with Pit's little display of confusion. Pit decided it was best not to talk any longer and once again focused on his surroundings. Still he could not feel a single spark of energy, except from the direction of his room. He concluded that he must head there and walked back in that direction.
"Am I getting warmer?" asked Pit as he walked into his room, seeing that it was, as usual, rather untidy.
"At least something is normal…" Pit muttered to himself.
"No," said the voice in his head after a few seconds, "As a matter of fact, you just walked away from where I am." Pit sighed and walked back towards the courtyard. He suddenly came to the realization that as he had searched the temple twice, he had not found any of the weapons he had on hand.
"Hey voice in my head," he started, "Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"I will tell you when you find me," said the voice. Pit was getting frustrated with whoever the voice belonged to himself, so he found it surprising that he was able to pick up a weak energy reading from inside where Palutena's inner sanctum was.
Pit dashed up the steps and into the sanctum, only to find that it was completely void of everything, including light. He couldn't see a thing but he could still feel the energy signal getting stronger as he moved along.
"I can feel you coming closer," said the voice, "Follow my energy."
"That's what I'm doing," said Pit as he walked along the energy path as though it were a rope that he was hanging onto in order to keep his balance. It led him to a small alcove in the wall that was invisible in the darkness and that he was barely able to squeeze through. His wings felt squished against his back and he sidled into it. Thankfully, it was very short and Pit pushed out of it and into a dimly lit room with the small remains of a hot spring pooled around a pedestal, which had on its top a Somewhat Staff.
Energy rushed into Pit's head like a typhoon. This kind of power he never felt unless he was around a very powerful weapon. All weapons gave off a powerful energy, and the ones who were the most powerful naturally gave off more than the rest. If it weren't for his laurel crown, he would have had a severe headache around these kinds of weapons, as it channeled the energy through itself and then pushed it back out.
"So… what now?" asked Pit to the voice.
"Ah, there you are," he heard a voice around him say. Pit jumped back and hit his head against the wall.
"Ouch!" he cried. The voice in the room was the same as the voice that had been in his head.
"You have found me," said the voice, "Now I can explain."
"Who are you?" asked Pit, startled, "What do you mean I've found you? There's nobody here!"
"Please allow me to explain," said the voice, "I am the staff you see in front of you. I am the spirit of this Somewhat Staff." Pit almost jumped back again in surprise.
"How is that possible?" he asked. The staff suddenly twitched and then shot into the air, then slowly descending down towards Pit, levitating above the ground. The eye on its hilt looked directly at him.
"So you doubt that I am really alive?" it asked. Pit was so startled he almost pushed himself back into the alcove, instead circling around and stepping into the water on the ground. The voice was quite literally coming from the staff.
"I-I knew that Somewhat Staffs were living creatures b-but I didn't…" Pit stuttered.
"You didn't know we could speak?" it asked him, "Well, we can't. I'm just special for whatever reason." Pit backed up into the pedestal and decided it was best to sit down as his knees were practically knocking in shock from seeing the staff move on its own.
"G-go ahead," said Pit as he sat there shaking.
"I fear that the gods have fallen silent," said the staff, "In other words, I believe that they are all being held somewhere."
"Wait, so it isn't just Lady Palutena?" asked Pit.
"No, surely some god or goddess such as Viridi would have come to your aid had Palutena not answered you," said the staff, "And Palutena did not answer you, yet neither Viridi, nor Poseidon or Dyntos, other gods that fall into the 'good' category, have answered your calls."
"Are you saying they were kidnapped by someone?" asked Pit.
"I believe so," said the staff grimly as it floated over to Pit's side, "Though I don't believe it was a normal evil's doing. It was something far more dangerous, sinister, and mysterious."
"What was it?" asked Pit.
"I don't know," said the staff, "If I did, I would most certainly tell you. All I can say is this; they took the most extraneous precautions in order to cover their tracks and to prevent you from following those exact tracks considering you find them."
"By taking all of my weapons," said Pit.
"Precisely," said the staff.
"But… you're a weapon," said Pit in slight confusion, "Why were you not taken?"
"This evil I believe cannot set foot within a hot spring," said the staff, "It would kill it instantly."
"Reapers?" asked Pit. Reapers were completely vulnerable to hot spring water and died immediately if it touched even the slightest spot on their skin.
"I said before, I don't believe this is an ordinary enemy that you are facing," said the staff, "Reapers are out of the question. The answer must far worse." Pit shuddered at that thought. Reapers were likely the toughest enemies he had ever faced. If anything aside from a Clubberskull or Clobbler could top that… The staff suddenly flew into Pit's right hand and he instinctively gripped it like he would any other weapon.
"To find the answer, the thing that has taken the gods captive, we must journey out from here to gain information," the staff said, "Are you with me?"
"Absolutely!" Pit cried excitedly. Then his excitement faded.
"What if this requires… flying?" asked Pit nervously.
"Worry not about that," said the staff, "I don't believe we will need to use the skies."
"Oh good, because I can't fly," said Pit. The staff's eye looked at him as though he were an idiot.
You can't… fly," it said, "Yet you have wings…"
"They… don't work right," said Pit in embarrassment.
"No matter," said the staff, "As I said, I don't believe this will involve flying. But there will be plenty of danger on the Surface to make up for that."
"Oh boy…" said Pit. They sat in silence for a few moments before Pit spoke up.
"So when do we have to go on this mission to save the gods?" asked Pit.
"As soon as you're ready," said the staff, "All you must do is jump off of these floating islands."
"Wait, you want me to jump off of Skyworld while my wings don't work?" asked Pit in alarm.
"Of course," said the staff, "Even if your wings don't work, you should at least be able to glide or use them as a parachute right?"
"Uh..." Pit muttered under his breath.
"So let's go!" the staff cried. It suddenly pulled Pit towards the alcove he had come from.
"W-wait," Pit cried, "We aren't going to take any more time to discuss this!?"
"This is urgent," said the staff, pausing a moment to address him, "There is no more time to discuss. Haven't you been involved in urgent matters before?"
"Well… yeah, but…" The staff cut him off.
"Then let's go!" it yelled, pulling harder. Pit was dragged painfully through the alcove and then out of the sanctum. It pulled him towards the exit of the temple and then towards the edge of the floating island it lied upon. All of this time, it never occurred to Pit that he could have let go of the staff and saved time before he would have to enter this new journey. However, he only gripped harder, and continued gripping the hilt of the staff as he fell over the edge of Skyworld and into oblivion below. A new journey had begun.
A/N: This story is fiercely intertwined with a story that my friend, Game777Guy, is writing. That story is called the Dark Triad, and it can be found on both of our accounts. If the two stories are not read together, there will be events later in the story that will not be understood.
Just as a note, Game777Guy are editing these two stories. Thus, continuity may seem a bit out of whack as you read. We will be including details of our edits in author's notes throughout. My main revision is going to deal with the Somewhat Staff's character. I will be changing a lot of his dialogue to make his character more consistent throughout the story.
Oh, and before I forget, neither of us own Kid Icarus. All of its characters, places, and ideas belong to Nintendo.