"You can't possibly mean..." Lina started to say. Celina nodded, a grim expression on her face.
"Oh gods...this bad! Really bad!" Lina muttered as she started ringing her hands
"Celina," Pit asked,
"What exactly is black magic?"
Celina turned to Pit, "It's a power that has been known for centuries. If it's used incorrectly, it corrupts those who come into contact with it... making them crave chaos. It takes a truly pure heart to resist the effects of black magic. Malum's heart wasn't pure enough to resist the darkness, which is why he's become the psycho we just witnessed."
"Well one thing's for sure, I'll make him pay for what he just did to Penny." Pit stated angrily as he glanced back down at the unconscious girl in his arms.
"Well," Lina suggested, "From the looks of it, Malum isn't causing any harm at the moment so we best prepare ourselves for his next move."
"Sounds like a plan." Harlan replied.
...
"Pit, wake up!" Lina shouted as Pit awoke to find himself being shaken wildly by the black haired angel. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Lina, Celina, Penny (who had a few bandages wrapped around her arms), and Palutena standing over his bed- all still in their pajamas. Pit sat up in his bed and turned on the light.
"Huh? What's wrong?" he asked groggily, rubbing his eyes.
"It's Harlan," Celina answered nervously, "We can't find him anywhere!"
At that remark, Pit was at full attention. "What?!"
He looked down at the trundle bed on the floor. The covers were mussed, but there was no sign of Harlan.
"How?! I swear, he was right there when we went to bed!"
"I can sense there was a dark presence in here," Penny breathed as she brushed her hand against the trundle bed. "You know what that means..."
"Malum." Pit growled with disgust.
"Celina," Palutena commanded, "I need you to contact Viridi, ask her to send Pittoo and Rose...we'll need all the help we can get."
"On it!" Celina responded with a solute. Within minutes, she had dashed out of the room and launched herself into the sky.
…
"Feh, why should I care?" Dark Pit asked in a snarky tone.
"He was just an annoying super smart guy."
"Because this might be your one and only chance to prove that you're a good guy!" Lina answered, hoping that like the characters in movies, Dark Pit would take the chance to be Mr. Save-The-Day.
"Hmm," He hummed quietly as he seemed to ponder whether he should seize the moment.
"No."
Lina was dumbstruck. The Dark Pit in her dimension wasn't nearly as stubborn as the one in this dimension.
"Hmph. My Dark Pit is a whole lot better than you. He's not afraid to go and look for people who are in danger- even if he ends up putting himself in danger." Lina growled as she crossed her arms and turned away from the dark angel. She smirked when she heard him growl in frustration.
'Well, there's one thing they do have in common- they're both obsessed with being better than everyone else' Lina thought.
"Fine- I'll do it- but not because I care about being a good guy." Dark Pit snapped as he went off to find rose.
"Sure, whatever." Lina said with a smile.
"Wow, I can't believe that actually worked." said an all-too-familiar voice. Lina sighed to herself and turned to face the pink-haired angel. After their little "incident" a few days ago, let's just say things weren't peachy between them.
"Reverse psychology," Lina replied bluntly, "Oldest trick in the book."
Rose chuckled and crossed her arms, "Look airhead I-,"
"Lina." Lina growled, "My name is Lina."
"I call everyone from Skyworld airhead, get used to it." Rose snapped back. She then sighed and continued, "Look, I know we got off on a bad start. Okay... a really bad start. But hey, as long as you have your Dark Pit back in whatever dimension you came from, no touchie on mine, got it?"
Lina rolled her eyes, "Got it."
"Then we're on the same page," Rose replied. "Now then..." She walked past Lina and called down the hallway, "Yo D.P.! Get your butt in here!"
Dark Pit's grunt echoed down the hallway.
As he walked back into the room, he clutched his Silver Bow tightly and growled, "For your information, I was looking for you."
"Yeah, but I got here first. Let's get a move on, slow poke." Rose teased. Dark Pit rolled his eyes and followed the two girls out the door. When they arrived outside, Pit, Penny, and Celina were waiting for them, weapons in hand.
"Wow, I can't believe you actually got him to come," Penny whispered to Lina as they prepared their weapons.
Lina shrugged, "I have my ways."
...
The group soared through the sky, heading in the direction of a small town.
"Alright," Palutena said to them, "I'm picking up some sort of energy in that town; once you get there, split up into teams of two. Pit, you and Pittoo check the northern end of the town, Lina and Penny, you two check the Southern end, and Celina and Rose check the east and west ends."
"Understood Lady Palutena!" Pit responded. The group dived down toward the town.
...
"Okay, if any of us find Harlan, we contact each other, got it?" Pit explained.
"Right!" the others (except Dark Pit and Rose) replied.
"Then let's move out!" Pit cheered.
...
Celina and Rose walked through the empty streets of the Southern part of town. Not a soul was in sight.
"Where are the humans?" Rose asked. Celina began to feel uneasy. Something wasn't right about this situation.
"Agh!" Rose grunted which interrupted Celina's thoughts. She quickly turned. Her eyes widened at the sight before her.
"Hello wench." Malum hissed. He stood in front of Celina, and in his right hand, to Celina's horror, he held Rose by the throat. She struggled, gasping for breath.
"Rose!" Celina shouted as she charged at Malum. Malum squeezed Rose's neck tighter. Celina stopped mid-attack.
"One step closer," Malum threatened as he turned his face to Rose, "and she dies."
...
"Find anything?" Penny asked Lina as they went through crates in an alley.
"Ugh, nope." Lina growled in frustration.
Penny sighed. So far, no progress. Suddenly a chill ran down Penny's spine. She gazed up at a rooftop above them. On top was a figure in a long cloak, their face and head covered by a hood. In their arms they held a long blade... aiming straight at Lina!
"Get down!" Penny called to Lina as she pushed her out of the way. The blast from the hooded figure missed.
"What was that?!" Lina asked in alarm.
"I don't know," Penny replied, "but we can't let him get away!" The two took off running.
…
"Oh come on, it's just sitting there! It's not like it belongs to anyone!" Pit whined as Dark Pit dragged his doppelganger away from a stray piece of pizza.
"Use your peanut, dingle brain!" Dark Pit snapped as he spun Pit around so the two were facing each other.
"Who leaves a random piece of pizza- especially one on a nice plate- in the middle of a road?!" Dark Pit asked. Pit opened his mouth to answer, then shut it.
"Fine, I won't eat it." He sighed as Dark Pit let go of his arms.
"Besides," Dark Pit began, "It might have drugs or something in- Pit!" He growled as he looked back to see Pit happily munching on the pizza.
"Good gods, you're an idiot." Dark Pit growled as he walked over to the 'Hero of Light'.
"Hey, food is food!" Pit said as he shoved the last bite of pizza into his mouth. As he chewed the last bite, the sky began to get dark.
"Why are the clouds turning red?" Pit asked as he stared up at the sky, fear filling his gaze. Dark Pit turned to look at the sky, and then looked at Pit with a neutral expression.
"You're delusional, Pit." He said flatly as Pit stood up and began swatting at the air in front of himself.
"There are tiny demons attacking- why aren't you getting them off of yourself?!" Pit asked in a panic as he swatted one with his bow.
"There's nothing here!" Dark Pit growled as he walked up to Pit and smacked him.
"DEMON KING!" Pit screamed as he pointed his bow towards Dark Pit.
"What?!" He cried in confusion as Pit lunged at him, splitting his bow into two golden blades.
"Die demon!" Pit yelled as he nearly cut Dark Pit off at the head.
"Snap out of it you idiot!" Dark Pit yelled as he punched Pit in the jaw. As Pit hit the ground, Dark Pit noticed that his eyes had a glazed look to them.
"Drugs; knew it." Dark Pit muttered as he lifted up the now unconscious Pit.
"That's what you think." A familiar voice said from behind Dark Pit.
"Lights out." Harlan murmured as he hit Dark Pit over the head, sending him crashing to the ground.
…
"Did you hear that?" Penny asked Lina as they walked through the streets of the town, weapons out.
"Yeah, it sounded like Pit screaming." Lina replied as she listened for Pit again. As the two looked around for signs of the two boys, Penny gasped.
"What's wrong?" Lina asked as she looked at the young goddess.
"It's Harlan!" Penny exclaimed as she pointed at the figure of a young boy running towards them.
"Penny, Lina! I'm so glad I found you!" Harlan wheezed as he stopped to catch his breath. His clothes were torn, and he was bruised all over.
"What happened to you? The girls asked as they sat Harlan down to let him rest.
"Oh, I'll tell you what happened." The voice of another young woman said. The group turned to see none other than the Goddess of Nature, Viridi.
"Lady Viridi," Lina began as she kneeled before the goddess, "It is an honor to make you acquaintance-"
"It's alright- I already know who you are." Viridi said, cutting the angel off. "Dark Pit blabs about you all the time."
At that remark, Lina started blushing like crazy.
"I heard about this wacko called Malum who was killing trees with a strong miasma. I wouldn't stand for it, so I came down here to deal with him myself. I found him in the forest choking Harlan, so I decided to intervene. The minute Malum saw me, he ditched Harlan and disappeared." Viridi explained as she crossed her arms and stood as tall as she could. Despite her small size, her ego was bigger than everyone.
"Well then, shouldn't we go looking for Malum?" Harlan asked.
"We should. Let's go." Penny said as the group began to set off.
"I guess your job is done." A sly voice said from above. Everyone looked up and gasped.
"Die," Malum growled as the world went black.
