Chapter 6: Kidnapped

If this were any other situation, I'd be glad that my sleep this time was dreamless. However, I'm not glad due to what woke me up: a horrible, throbbing headache that felt like someone was slamming a sledgehammer into my skull with every pulse the blood in my veins made. It's so painful that I can hardly even open my eyes… what the hell happened to me? I try to get to my feet, but I find that my legs are too weak to support my own weight, and I collapse back down onto a soft surface… past experience tells me that it's a bed.

My muscles suddenly seize up and a spike of pain shakes my body. A PSI discharge!? But it was fine before! Before I…

Now it all comes back to me. I'd spent the day and the night with Princia so I could loosen up… but she was taken by some weird robot thing… I tried to pursue, but her servant lost her mind and pinned me down… and then…

Oh my God… what have I done…? I turn over on the surface and start to cry, grasping my agonizingly-painful forehead… I killed… all of those… how many died at my hand? Wait, no… I don't even want to know…

"Hey, hey guys! He's coming around!" I groan loudly at the volume of the voice – which I clearly recognize as Ness' – since it definitely doesn't help my headache. I hear him chuckle nervously. "Eh-heh… oops, forgot that you might have a headache…"

I groan again, this time at his ignorance. "What… happened…?" I ask weakly.

"Captain Falcon happened …" Ness answered, his voice taking on a significantly more depressed tone. "You… you snapped big time, man. You went on a rampage… the only way to get you to stop was to knock you out and, well… Falcon wasn't happy about his town getting wrecked… he kinda lost his cool on you. With a Falcon Punch."

Well, that explained a hell of a lot. Captain Falcon's signature move was something I was fortunate enough to not yet get hit by in a Brawl… no wonder my head hurts. "I… deserved it…" I tell him, my tears starting to come out again. "I… I didn't go nuts in self-defense… this time… I lost all control…"

I hear footsteps… only one set of them. Thinking back, Captain Falcon was the only one who went by foot; Mewtwo hovered, Master Hand floated and Ness was already here. If anyone else was in here now aside from Falcon and Ness, it was the former two. "Yeah, I… kinda figured that… but man! What set you off that badly?" Ness asks me.

I go into full-blown sobbing as I'm forced to remember the reason… "Princia… she was… taken…" I am tortured by another PSI discharge… am I being punished because I couldn't protect her?

"By who?" Falcon asks me this time… it's evident by the tone in his voice that he isn't happy with me… and frankly I can't blame him.

I search my rattled brain for the image of that monster… most details are blurry and out of place, but there was one thing that stood out… "Uhh… he had… a glass head… I could see his brain…" I tell them. "He looked kind of… like a robot…"

Silence, until Captain Falcon hisses one name with such venom that I'm sure he surprised even himself. "Deathborn."

"Who?" Ness asks him.

"An evil man that just doesn't want to stay in his grave." Falcon explains. "He's died four times already… maybe five after I raced him and destroyed his machine, but each time he was brought back with state-of-the-art robotics. He has the power to teleport things – including himself – wherever he wants… he loves throwing people into space and leaving them to die." I feel a chill do down my spine; throw people into space…? And this monster has Princia!? "But… what would he want with the princess of Magica? Kidnapping isn't his style…"

"Maybe he did it to set Lucas off?" Ness theorized. "I don't know…"

Now that was a scary thought… this evil creature, this… Deathborn thing, kidnapped Princia for the sole purpose of turning me loose on society? It sounds crazy… but right now I don't think I should be determining what's crazy and what isn't. "Deathborn is, unfortunately, an unpredictable villain that I don't know anything else about. It wouldn't surprise me if he tried that." Falcon replied. "But that isn't important right now… don't worry Lucas, we'll make sure that Princia is safe."

"I… I want to help…" I say weakly, but my body is wracked by another discharge.

"Out of the question." Mewtwo tries to keep his telepathic voice quiet so he won't hurt my head, but he fails. Would it kill him just to speak normally? "After your… actions last night, the police department has listed you as a wanted man." Wanted? As if things couldn't get any worse… "We're actually hiding you in Princia's home, having convinced the police department that you escaped from Falcon. And even if you were in good standing with the police, you are much too weak to fight right now. Your PSI is erratic and your body is in terrible condition due to the discharges."

"But… but…" I want to retort, but Mewtwo is absolutely right. I start to cry again... there's really nothing else I can do right now other than wallow in my own misery while I try to recover.

"We'll find her Lucas, I promise." Ness tells me. I feel his hand on my shoulder. "But for now, the best thing you can do for us is get better and lay low. Leave this to us."

"…Okay… I'm trusting you…" I say in defeat.

"Good boy." he tells me. "We'll be back in a jiffy. With the princess. Don't sweat it. How tough can this Deathborn guy be?"

I hear the exiting of footsteps, following by a door clicking shut. Now that my headache has had a chance to ease a little, I finally turn upwards and open my eyes. I'm back in Princia's bedroom, like Mewtwo said… and I wasn't going to be leaving for a while. Worse yet, there was nothing to help me fall asleep… I was going to be stuck like this, with these PSI discharges burning away at me while I have to leave Princia's fate in someone else's hands. Maybe I deserve it… maybe I deserve worse… what else did killers deserve but pain in return for the pain that they themselves had caused? This is what I've always told myself when I was on a mission for Super Smash Brothers… or even when I was fighting against the Pigmask Army.

Now I've become what I've been fighting against my whole life: a killer. A cold-blooded killer that enjoys making other people bleed to death. And I hate it… I hate what I've become.

"Your friends are mistaken." It's as if the entire room loses its heat, and an unsettling weight sets itself in my stomach… I recognize that voice. That man that filled me with fear with his presence alone. I turn my head to the left, and he is standing there. The man I met on the tower before my second psychotic episode. "In more ways than one."

"Wh… what do you… mean…?" I ask him. He places his hand on my forehead… it's as cold as ice… no, colder. But suddenly, I feel my whole body warm up… I feel… rejuvenated. My headache is gone, and so is my fatigue and pain. I sit up on the bed, shaking my head. What the hell was that? "What did you just do?" I ask him.

He blinks at me. "PK Healing. Don't tell me you can't recognize your own PSI technique?" At this information, I am completely shocked. This man… he can use PSI? Why haven't I been able to sense it from him? Who is he? "Your psychic friend believes that Deathborn is weak, when he really isn't. Even without his ability to teleport, he's more than formidable. And while it was Deathborn who took the princess, he doesn't have her now."

"What!? Then who does!? Tell me!" I plead, quickly throwing off the bed covers and getting to my feet.

He is still eerily calm… "The head of this world's universal traders, Don Genie." he tells me. "He's a corrupt official that likes dealing in illegal arms… and he's taken an interest in your power, Lucas." I'm unnerved now… he has my full attention. "He hired Deathborn to take Princia so you'd lose control of yourself again. He wanted to see your full power unleashed." He walks towards the window, looking out to the serene plains below. "You're friends don't know that they're facing more than one dangerous enemy, and it'll be their undoing."

No… they're going to get hurt because of me. They're trying to find Princia because I failed to protect her, and now something worse is going to happen to them… "That won't happen! I won't let it!" I say with determination.

He turns to me, his icy gaze staring into my soul. "You know that you're wanted by the police, who know enough not to underestimate you by now, and you'd still go through that to save them?"

"Yes!" I answer. "They're the only friends I have… the only ones helping me through my life… if I lost them, I… I don't know what I'd do…" I trail off for a moment. "They're going out of their way to help me. I have to pay them back."

"Hmm… you're motives aren't entirely selfish, nor are they driven by malice." he tells me, his head tilting to the left. "And your mind seems sound… how did it recover so quickly after you lost total control of it, I wonder?"

I start to feel even more uneasy than before… it's just like last time, he's inspecting me again. Just what is this man's fascination with me? I decide I've had enough of it and say, "Does it matter? The fact is that I have gotten better, so I have to do something about Don Genie! No where is he!?" I really do want to find Princia and my friends before it's too late, but I also just want to get away from him…

I feel a sudden, swift surge of malice from him that vanishes as quickly as it appears. Was he mad about being interrupted? "Sheesh, why are you in such a hurry?" Now he's succeeded in getting me red in the face; doesn't he realize that I have to rush before something bad happens? Somehow I think he does… but I don't think he cares. "Fine then, stand still."

Before I can question the command, his hand is on my shoulder, clothed in a snow-white shirt sleeve. His icy blue eyes suddenly turn in a bright red that appears to be shining, but at the same time doesn't look like it's shining at all… I'm not sure how else to describe it, but it's like looking into a red void. The energy I feel from him… it's so sickly and vile that I feel like I'm about to throw up just from feeling it. I'm suddenly afraid for my life, but before I can get my shoulder free from his grip, I am blinded by a flash of red light.

I expect pain to tear through my body, but feel none. I open my eyes… and I find that I'm outside, in the city around all of these bustling people. I'm standing in front of what has to be the absolute tallest building I've ever seen… I almost fall over when I try to look up to see how tall it really is. It has to be at least three times the height of the tower where I met the man. "Welcome to the Universal Traders main headquarters." I turn around to see that the man is behind me, also looking up the tower, but not with as much effort. "You will find Don Genie on the highest floor of the building, keeping your princess under his watchful eye. But be warned that only his most-trusted staff knows of the princess' presence, and his guards don't discriminate between shooting children and adults."

I look back up at the tower, and I gulp. God only knows how many floors are in the tower, and each one increases the chance that I could be caught sneaking around in there. Wait a minute, though… didn't the man just teleport me here? Wondering what was stopping him from sending me right up to the top floor, I turn around to ask him… but once again find myself staring at empty space. I look around frantically with no success; just like last time, he's vanished without a trace. And I was actually starting to think he was willing to help me… there is definitely something fishy going on. But fishy or not, Princia could be being held in this building, and my fellow Smashers could be in danger if I don't reach her before they do. Gathering up my courage, I enter the sliding front doors of the massive building.

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Personally I think that the inside of the building is unimpressive, but that might just be because I've been in Princia's home for too long. That and the massive amounts of people in here are blocking my view. All I can really make out from the entrance are some navy blue-coloured walls and a black-and-white checkered floor. I move along the sides of the walls so that I don't get lost in the crowd, eventually finding a spot on the wall with an elevated floor made like a railing, the space blocked off by it filled with soil and exotic plants. I climb on top of this to get a better view; the crowds are actually very, very long lines of people stretching out from wooden – at least they look wood from here – office desks, separated only by velvet rope barriers. Since this is the universal traders HQ, I'm guessing they're setting up transactions and stuff like that.

But I'm not here to trade stuff. I look around for anything that looks like a path to higher floors, and smile when I see an elevator at the far right. But that smile quickly fades when I see two robots near it. They are human-shaped, covered in silver-plating and have yellow eyes. Each is holding black tongs of some sort… I'm guessing that they're tasers. This must be what the man meant; unlike human guards, robots don't think twice before shooting intruders. Regardless, I'll have to go through them if I'm going to get anywhere. I move along the walls again. The people and aliens here don't pay it any mind, too focused on their own reasons for being here. I keep moving until I'm right beside the robot on the left side of the elevator door. It looks like a rather frail design, probably not for anything more than crowd control. I need to take them out without drawing attention… and I know exactly how. I clap my hands together and mutter "PK Thunder." I only call up a small crackle of electricity, then point both my hands at either of the robots. The sparks jump from my fingers to the robots, and they start to spasm. While they're disoriented, I press the "down" button on the elevator. Fortunately the elevator was already on this floor; the door immediately opens, and I slip behind the shaking robots and into the doors, pressing myself against the wall. I'm standing beside the main control panel, and I press the "close door" and the button for the highest-numbered floor, which is hopefully the top one.

Within a couple of seconds, the elevator starts its ascent, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Hopefully I wasn't noticed by anyone who would care. Look around the elevator, I can't help but notice how… plain it is with only beige walls. Those glass elevators on the observatory tower were so much more entertaining… but this is probably better, otherwise people would be wondering why a kid is riding a corporate elevator the top floor of the city's biggest office building. The only interesting thing in this elevator is the steadily-increasing counter above the elevator door, which currently lights up floor 25 out of 80. I'm suddenly reminded of the elevator in the Empire Porky Building… hopefully this one will be more reliable.

Nothing seems to go wrong for most of the elevator ride, now it displays 75 out of 80. But being a Smasher has taught me to prepare for anything; there could be more robot guards at the elevator door I'm about to come out of, so I start to charge another PK Thunder. When the counter hits 80, I hear heavy, clunky footsteps on the other side of the door. When it opens, I am greeted with two more robots staring right at me, this time holding heavy, powerful-looking firearms not yet at the ready. I don't give them the chance to prepare. "PK Thunder!" This thunder is more potent than the last one since I know I have to take theses ones out before they fire or raise any alarms. They start spasming and sparking violently before they ultimately collapse to the plush, red carpeting. My view now clear, I can see a long hallway that has several doors lined up along it. It splits into an intersection in the middle, and at the end opposite me there is another elevator.

"Now, was that really necessary? Those security bots aren't cheap, you know…" What!? Who said that!? I look around frantically for anyone nearby, but see no one… "You seem surprised. Didn't you suspect there more than a few robots for security in such an important place? There are hidden security cameras on every floor, as well as the elevators."

My face drains of colour. Of course there would be security cameras in the Universal Traders HQ, how could I have been so stupid!? But after thinking about it for a bit, my mouth curves up into a smirk. "So you've found me, what good will it do? I can short circuit any robot you send at me." I say to the voice coming from what I presume to be speakers hidden in the walls somewhere. If it were in my mind, I'd know.

"Oh no, you're mistaken. I have no intention of harming you." I've calmed down enough to take notice of the voice… it's not one I've heard before. It's deep and raspy, definitely male. "I only want to talk with you. My office is down the hall and to the next right you take, straight from then on."

At this information, I grow very suspicious. This could very likely be some kind of trap… but by the same token, if it is who I think is talking to me, then he knows just how powerful I am and wouldn't try to trick me. Besides, I don't know where else I can go from here… I'll take my chances. I slowly make my way down the hall as per the voice's instructions, my guard not dropping for a second and my PSI at the ready. I find myself at a large door with letters above it reading, "DON GENIE." It seems that I was right… I open the door normally and step through.

This octagonal office room seems needlessly large, having naught but a big potted plant in each of its eight corners and a large window at the end for decoration. In front of this window is a large oak desk made so that I can't see the electronics on the other side, but I can see the man sitting at it… in fact, the man behind it would be almost impossible to miss unless I was blind. He was huge, staring out the window with his back to me. He wore a black and white vertically-striped shirt similar to the convict stereotype clothing, except the black lines were much thinner giving it a valuable look. Two green jewels were on his shoulders, each with a small red cape sticking out of it… perhaps he was too big for a single cape to fit him. He was mostly bald except for three triangles of white hair, two at the side of his head in the shape of wingtips and the last on top of his head like a toned-down mohawk. "It must be exhilarating, having the power to destroy and renew life with the wave of your hand." he says, the voice the same as I heard in the hallways.

A low growl escapes my throat. "Don Genie, I presume?"

He turns around and steps around from behind the desk, giving me a better view of his wealth and… girth. "Where I come from, people respect their elders with words such as 'Mister' or 'Miss.'" Now I can see his front. His black and white shirt is held together – barely – by a large, green jewel. A red shirt is visible under it. He wears shiny black boots and has two jewels on either pant leg and shirt sleeve; the left arm has two red jewels and the left leg has two purple ones, and these colours are swapped on the other side. His shoulder-jewels are held together by golden bands which meet at a smaller, blue jewel that is attached to a purple ribbon at his neck. His left hand holds a solid-gold cane. His face is a little on the chubby side, offset by a monacle on his right eye that has a scar.

This man is an imposing figure indeed, but I am not afraid. I have a job to do. "Kidnapping one of my best friends and trying to make me level Mute City isn't a good way to get respect. Where is she!?" I demand.

"My my, such hostility…" Don Genie casually says, still walking towards me. "And from what I've read about you as a Smasher, you were supposed to be the most timid. It's surprising how much a little madness can change someone…"

I growl again, louder this time. "I said, where is she!?" I repeat. I didn't come here to mince words, and I point this out to the mogul by charging up PSI on my hand and pointing at him.

He stops his approach, but he doesn't seem fazed or afraid in the slightest. He grunts and says, "You arrived a little too late, boy. I only needed her here long enough for you to arrive… she was put back into Deathborn's care the moment you set foot into my building."

He lets out a light laugh. "What…!?"

"I didn't need her once you were here. Now I have you all to myself…" Don Genie says, his tone getting a slightly sinister edge to it. "And your power. This 'PSI' you wield is much more advanced than any kind of weaponry that I've even seen… and I've seen a lot."

"You kidnapped one of my friends and put the lives of hundreds in danger… for this? For my power!?"

Don Genie grunts. "I wouldn't expect someone such as you to understand. Not everyone can wield a heavy firearm, not just because they aren't licensed to, but because they don't have the skill or strength. But this PSI… it can be used by anyone with a functioning mind. If I were to reverse-engineer this power and sell it, I would make a fortune!" He starts to laugh louder.

I've heard enough. "You have no idea what it takes to wield PSI! You would risk the lives of that many just for money!?" I shout.

His laughter fades, and he smiles broadly at me. "In being the head of the universe's biggest corporation next to F-Zero, destroying lives has to be a common practice if you want to get ahead of the competition. But again, you're young, you wouldn't understand… though I can help you understand. If you were to help me reverse-engineer your PSI… you would become a very rich boy. Your problems of insanity and your being wanted by the police would disappear in an instant."

My right eye is twitching. He says I wouldn't understand… and quite frankly I don't ever want to. "I will never be a part of something like that, you fat tub of lard!" I roar. The PSI on my hand begins to expand, and I lunge at him. Upon covering half of the distance, however, I find my path blocked by metal rods having appeared out of nowhere. A "clang" above me prompts me to look up, and I see that there is a metal plate above me having fallen perfectly in place with the bars. I'm trapped!

I notice that Don Genie's expression has changed to a grim, annoyed one. "That's a shame, to say the least. Now that you know of my plan, I can't let you leave… and you don't seem to grasp that I don't need you alive to discover the secret of your power. If you won't help me willingly, then I'll have to take your brain apart and see what makes it tick."

I shudder at the sudden harshness in his words. If he really doesn't need me alive, then he could very well kill me right now since I'm trapped in this cage with nowhere to move. I notice the air around me starting to heat up, but I'm not the cause… I see that the cages of the bar are heating up from electricity. Suddenly that electricity is discharged, and pain tears through my body like a freight train. I can't hold back my screams of agony as my body seizes up… damnit, what am I going to do!? The pain is making it difficult to think straight… but I still try to focus. This is still electricity, meaning that it can be sucked up into my PSI Magnet. If I could just get one going…!

I clench my teeth, trying to bite back my screams as I fight off the pain. I see Don Genie looking at me in amusement with a sick smile on his face. My screams are reduced to growls… this man is trying to kill me, and for what? Just to make some money in the end? I won't let him destroy so many lives with my power just so he can become richer!

It's then that I find the strength. "PK MAGNET!" I roar, and a blue ball of static electricity expands out of my hand. Now instead of the electricity hitting me, it is pulled to the ball. Don Genie's expression has change from gleeful to surprised. I hurl the PK Magnet up and slam it into the ground to try and blow this cage away. An explosion does happen, but I suddenly find that I'm not standing on anything. I don't have time to yelp before I land hard on something. Damn, my whole body hurts… when I can see clearly again, I notice that I'm not in Don Genie's office anymore, but in a staff workroom full of cubicles. I look up and see a hole in the ceiling… I must've blown myself through the floor. Don Genie is looking at me from the hole, and he quickly vanishes from view. He can't be a happy camper. I decide that I've overstayed my welcome and dash for the nearest window and shoulder-tackle it, shattering it and starting a long, long fall to the ground below…

To the people watching me, it would appear that I've just committed suicide. But having fallen from high distances before, I know how to use my PSI to land safely. But first, I need to heal my wounds… I definitely have time, given the height of this drop. "PK Healing." I say as I fall through the sky, my PSI repairing the damage I took. As my descent nears its end, I flip my body upright and use my PSI to slow down, landing safely on the pavement below. I look around to see many shocked and surprise faces staring at me from the sidewalks around me. After blowing my way out of the city's most important building, I know I don't have long to get out of here. Ignoring the sets of gawking eyes around me, I dash into the nearest alleyway.

I know it would make more sense to wait until the heat is off, but I don't have any time to waste… Don Genie said that Deathborn took Princia from the building as soon as I'd arrived, and that meant they couldn't be far away. But how would I pursue them? He was probably using his F-Zero machine… catching him would be impossible unless I had one of my own, or if Sonic were here… realizing the unlikelihood of either possibility, I collapse to my knees in defeat. There was no way I could possibly catch them while he was driving… I punch the ground in frustration. I was so close! I whine and start to sob, burying my head into my arms while tears flow down my face.

A hand clasps my shoulder. I instinctively swat it off and jump back, charging PSI into my hand and pointing it at the uninvited guest… but I immediately disperse it when I see that it's none other than Ness. I let out a shaky, angry groan and ask, "What are you doing here?"

"That's what I should be asking you!" he retorts, but then he smiles. "But I guess I shouldn't have expected you to stay put… but I don't know how you're even moving right now. How did you recover so fast?"

I calm down a little. "It's a… long story…"

Ness looks behind him, down the alleyway. "We can talk about it later. Let's get back to the princess' place before the others know you're gone." I nod in agreement. The last thing I need right now is to face Master Hand's, Mewtwo's or Captain Falcon's wrath…