A massive thank you to all the reviewers and people who subscribed and favourited this thing! I love you all!
Since I've done five of my ten exams, and next week is a half term holiday for me, I decided to post this chapter up extra early to celebrate (and also to give me more time to write the next one, since I'm gonna be revising through most of the break). I thought there was going to be more progress in this chapter, but I didn't want to rush it so not a lot happens that I was planning on happening. This is a slight break from the horror theme, since I wanted to focus on a bit of character development. It will still have action in it, though!
I've already said waaay to much. On with tha chappeh!
The large crowd of fighters were assembled around the teleporters, all looking tired and miserable. Each of them awaited instruction from Crazy hand, who had gone to the control area to switch the small, rounded pads on.
Ganondorf was a slightly confused at the absence of Zelda and Toon Link, who were supposed to be returning to Hyrule with him. Not that it particularly mattered to him, or that he cared. He just had a feeling that if they didn't come back soon, then he doubted they would be there in time to return. Crazy hand had seemed more than insistent on them leaving as soon as they could, though it hadn't been made clear exactly why. Something along the lines of Link escaping.
He suppressed the urge to laugh. The idea of he and Link swapping roles seemed absurd, but even more strangely, it was true. The hero had turned away from the light he had so strived to protect before.
The world must have finally gone mad.
-oOo-
"Attention please!" Came a call from the doorway of the teleportation room. Crazy hand had arrived with a golden arrow in his grasp. "The power supply to the teleporters had been drained."
Exasperated sighs arose from all areas of the room.
"I found this in the control panel," he said, signalling to the arrow by twirling it in his fingers. "Does it belong to anyone?"
"What kind of a question is that?" Ganondorf growled. "It's a light arrow. The only person with those is- "
"Zelda." Finished Crazy hand with sudden realisation. "Okay people, just stay here. I have to go tell bro.."
But it appeared there was no need. In a blur of movement, the commentator was suddenly beside him.
"Pikachu's infected, and he's headed this way," Master Hand gasped. "Everyone needs to leave!"
"They can't. The teleporters are broken."
"What?" Master Hand almost shouted, before composing himself. "Right. We need to evaluate the most effective escape route-"
A green thunderbolt promptly tore past the doorway.
"Actually, screw that, we'll take the window," he concluded. The glass pane was set into the wall at the opposite end of the room. Not needing to be told twice, the fighters charged at it. Ike got there first, and swung his heavy blade into it. The weapon plunged through, sending shards of glass toppling from the second story to the ground.
Pikachu was now in the doorway, still surrounded by deadly electricity. He immediately sent bolts forking in the direction of the escaping smashers.
It was undecipherable whether they hit their targets among the chaos, but definite cries could be heard. Of fear, pain, or both, was another mystery to Master hand, but he decided that it was another question he would have to worry about later. All he knew was that the rest of the fighters were now gone, and that his escape route was clear.
He soared over to the window, brother in tow. The last few thunderbolts narrowly missed him, and struck thin air as he dived through the window and quickly swooped down towards the ground.
The mouse Pokemon leapt from the open gap after them, snarling, but stopped at he hit something solid. The shield around the mansion flickered as Pikachu made contact with it, before returning to it's invisible state. Crazy hand had activated it as soon as he and his brother were far enough from the mansion as to not get trapped inside.
"That shield isn't going to last forever, so we'd better get moving," said Master hand. "There's a secure base not far from here. It was originally a research lab to test out the items that were going to be allowed in brawl. Items like the smash ball were tested and then declared legal or destroyed, depending on their level of danger."
"Do we really need to know this? There are four infected smashers, and the only one we know the location of is Pikachu. We could be in danger," Snake stated plainly, glancing back at the Pokemon behind the shield, who hissed viciously and let out a torrent of angry sparks.
"Sharp as ever, I see. I suppose if you're that worried, Snake, I'll tell you when we get to the base."
With this, he glided ahead of the smashers, signalling for them to follow. Snake muttered something grumpily under his breath, before heading off after the group.
-oOo-
"Worried?"
Lucas laughed bitterly at Pit's question, of course someone would assume that. He was Lucas after all, the most pathetic coward to have walked the smash universe. If he wasn't worried, who was?
"A bit." The psychic replied. "I've been through worse than this, though."
Pit smiled warmly, taking a seat on the small plastic bench beside Lucas.
The base was much smaller than the mansion, with only two floors. The ground floor consisted of a small training dojo and several amenities. The base did not, however, contain any bedrooms, as it was not designed for permanent residence. It seemed like the smashers would be sleeping on the floor from now on.
The basement was below ground, and held the laboratory and testing area. As the smashers arrived, Master hand had declared the floor off limits, unless special permission was granted.
It was in the dojo that Pit, Ness and Lucas sat, all staring numbly at the shining wooden floor.
"Where are the other guys?" Ness inquired, breaking the silence.
"My guess, the kitchen. Everyone missed breakfast due to the early start," Pit replied.
Lucas cringed a little,"I don't know about you guys, but I couldn't stand a piece of toast right now."
"Same. I guess I'm just a bit shaken up, that's all. I still think I'm in a weird dream when I think back about what just happened," sighed the angel.
"More like a nightmare," Ness grumbled.
"I heard that Master hand's planning something, though. Something to finish the infected off once and for all," Pit said grimly.
"But that will mean killing them!" Lucas cried, horrified.
"Better than them killing us," said Ness, more dismal than usual.
"Surely there's a way to make them better?"
"Nuh-uh. You heard what Master hand said in that meeting yesterday. There's no cure," Pit muttered, shaking his head. "I know it sounds terrible, but it's the only way."
Lucas could feel tears prickling in his eyes, but willed them away. He didn't want to seem weak, not this time. Now that something bad was happening again, he was determined to stay confident. Maybe then, Ness would be proud to call him a partner.
"Do you know exactly what his plan is?"
"Not really; just that it's going to involve sending us back to the mansion again..." Pit trailed off when he noticed the slight panic in Lucas' expression, "I'm sure he knows what he's doing, though. He wouldn't put us into danger for the hell of it."
"I guess you're right. I just don't know if I'm ready to back there."
"Not ready, you say...mentally or physically?"
"Both."
This caused a devilish smile to crack at the corner of Pit's mouth. Jumping to his feet, he called upon Palutena's bow. It quickly appeared in mid-air, and fell gracefully into his open palm.
"If that's what's bothering you, then the solution to your problems is staring you in the face!" He exclaimed.
"Um...where?"
"You know, the awesome-looking guy in the fetching white toga?"
"You?"
"Yes, me! All you have to do is train up, and your confidence will be through the ceiling in no time. Trust me, I know."
"You want me to brawl you?"
"It'll make you stronger."
Lucas shuffled uncomfortably, before asking, "what about Ness?"
"He's on my team," Pit said, grinning. "Learning to fight against the odds is one of the most valuable lessons of all."
"But it isn't fair!"
"So is having to put up with your complaining, now get over there!" Pit laughed, pointing to the opposite end of the hall.
The blonde psychic grumbled, before dragging himself off the bench and on to his feet. Ness moved beside him, placing a small hand on his shoulder.
"Good luck," he muttered, before dashing over to join Pit. Lucas was still in the process of plodding groggily across the room when a thought crossed his mind.
"Wait, how is this going to work? There aren't any boundaries, there's no time limit and no stakes."
"Alright then, we'll battle for this," Pit said, plucking a feather from his wing with his free hand and holding it out in front of him. He released his grip on it, but instead of falling, it started to float into the air. It moved away from Pit and Ness, towards Lucas, and stopped in the middle of the hall, a small distance from the ceiling. "First one to reach it wins."
"You can fly, though!"
"As I said, against the odds," the angel said.
"But-" he stopped when he saw that Pit was about to attack.
The angel moved blindingly fast, plucking an arrow from his quiver, drawing it back in his bow and firing in one quick motion. Lucas' first thought was to run, but in a split-second decision he jumped, flipping over the projectile and landing smoothly on his feet. As soon as he landed, he noticed a ball of PK thunder was surging towards him. He sidestepped, but it quickly changed direction and charged for him again. This time he jumped to avoid the attack, but it caught him on the way up and knocked him skywards.
Luckily, he stopped short of the ceiling and began to tumble back to the ground, when he saw Pit floating quickly over to the feather. As he fell, he forced energy into his palms and sent PK fire at the angel, who was knocked back. Upon landing painfully on his back, he noticed Ness approaching him, ready to attack, and swept his feet around. They caught on Ness's legs and caused him to lose balance, before falling.
He promptly jumped back up and closed his eyes, letting his own PK thunder into the air. It struck the recovered Pit once, twice, three times before he could save himself, this time causing him to fall from the air. Lucas double jumped at the feather as his opponents were down, but couldn't quite reach it. Before he could try again he felt something sharp dig into the skin of his arm, and yelped as he found it was Ness' Snake. The capped psychic yanked on the creature, causing Lucas to cry out in pain as he was dragged backwards.
Pit groaned from where he lay. He was badly burnt, and that included his wings. It seemed he was going to have to take Lucas out of the equation. Standing up, he grabbed both ends of Palutena's bow, and snapped it apart. It separated easily into twin daggers. He spun them fluidly between his fingers, testing their power. Feeling the vibrations of magical energy buzz through his palms felt satisfying enough, at the very least. Smiling confidently, he sprinted towards his opponent, who had managed to free himself of Ness' snake and was currently sending a kick into his friends's stomach.
There was a whistling sound as Pit's blades moved. Lucas crumpled when they slashed his back, enabling Ness to recover and grab his partner's shirt, hoisting him from the ground where he had been only a second before.
Electrical power surged through Ness' body, which he channelled into Lucas. More screams of pain erupted from the blonde as he was shocked six, seven times before being hurled into the wall by Ness.
As Ness had been holding Lucas, Pit had taken the opportunity to go for the feather again. His battered wings pushed him forwards with powerful beats, even though they burned painfully. When he was in range, Pit licked his lips with malicious excitement, feeling the tips of his fingers tingle as they stretched out for the feather.
"Got it," he called, dropping slowly through the air. Ness, who was standing over his brother, held out his hand and helped Lucas to his feet. Pit ran over to the pair, handing them a feather each. Lucas was at first confused by this, but realised the purpose of the gesture as the pain and dizziness inside him began to lift.
"Good match. You really gave us a run for our money, there," Pit panted.
"I still lost," grumbled Lucas.
"Oh come on. Everyone knows it's the taking part that counts," said the angel, laughing.
"I'm sick of hearing it."
"Aren't we all? There were two of us and one of you, yet you managed to land some nasty hits on both of us."
"My stomach still hurts, and that feather was supposed to heal me!" Ness smiled.
Lucas didn't return the expression. Instead he sighed, "Whatever," and made his way over to the door. Ness made to follow put was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
"We'd best let him be for a while."
"He's upset-"
"I know. Sometimes you just have to let people think things through. Something is clearly bothering him..."
"He thinks he's weak," Ness sighed. "It's because he's had a rough past, and that has caused fears to build up inside him. They're strong fears, but he doesn't think they are. He thinks he's pathetic for not being able to get over them."
"Lucas is one of the best fighters I know."
"Exactly, but he keeps missing that. Every time he loses a fight, it knocks him down so badly...I don't know what to do."
"We should give him time. One day, something will happen that will help him prove to himself how strong he is."
"How would you be knowing that, Mr Oracle?"
"I don't, but it's happened to a lot of people, including myself."
"We'll see. Until then, how about we get something to eat?"
Pit's mischievous smile returned. "Sounds like a plan."
No one actually got infected in that chapter like I was planning, so that'll be moved on a bit. I hope you still liked it, though :)