I tried to do something different with the flow of this chapter, so if you like it or not, just let me know. I know I have said this before, but maybe my updates will get a little slower from now on, sorry.
"I hope you are well and ready for your second battle today," Master Hand announced to the mages bellow him.
Rob and Robin grumbled in unison, eyes almost closed and mouths slightly agape from tiredness. Of all days they were forced to fight against each other early int he morning, it had to be this one? They were already restless and dizzy as they were, the last thing they wanted was to have Master Hand's booming voice resonating through their eardrums at 9 am. His voice was so powerful that made Rob wonder how the massive glass window that covered the entire wall behind his desk didn't shatter with it. Either it was a very solid and thick glass, or Rob's hearing sensitivity due to exhaustion was making him hear worse.
It could very well be both. The point is, Rob didn't want to be there. Master Hand could get that competition that he was forcing upon them and shove it up his... Something. Whatever his ass was supposed to be. Even it there wasn't any and his wrist was the closest thing to a rear their master would get, Rob would still imagine he had one. It suited the face he imagined for him. He hated he sound of his voice this early in the morning, he hated being in his squeaky clean, minimalist aesthetic bullshit of an office, he hated that the weather was now starting to clean up, so there were no clouds to cover the rays of morning sunshine that came through the windows and burned what little was uncovered of his retinas.
But, above all, he felt slightly upset for feeling so awkward when near his female counterpart after what happened last night between them. He didn't like it. He hated being so confused by everything that was happening between them.
That was a lot of hate for one morning, he couldn't cause even more headaches than he already had at the moment. Rob took a deep and silent breath to calm himself down. He subtly glanced over Robin, who still had her snooze mode face on. What was she thinking about? Was she even thinking at all or was her brain still trying to get to work? By the way she tried disguising another yawn, a third in the latest twenty minutes, he would guess it was the latter.
"I see you haven't gotten much rest last night," Master Hand commented.
"I'm... Sorry," she rubbed her eyes. "I'll get better once we get to today's battle."
"Uh, yeah," Rob scratched his head. "Me too."
There was a short silence between them. "Very well," their boss said, gesturing for them to follow him outside the office. "We shall go to Arena Ferox today. If you please follow me."
"Arena Ferox, uh?" Robin whispered, remembering what Shulk had told her yesterday.
"...And that's pretty much it," Shulk finished explaining his vision to the tactician.
"Spamming me with magic," Robin chuckled. "That's really something he would do. Rob was always more fond of using tomes than I."
"Tell me about it..."
"I'll see what I can do. Was there anything else in your vision?"
"I don't know... I mean, his spells seemed stronger, somehow, so I'd really watch out for them."
"Maybe he got some stats boosts," she put a hand on her chin. "Anyway, I'll keep in mind what you just said. Rob will probably camp in some part of the arena and keep throwing spells at me. I'll just make sure to dodge them in time and use the Bronze and Levin swords on him."
As they went over to the door, Master Hand saw Lucina and Shulk stationed just outside his office's door with their backs resting on the wall and chatting quietly among themselves.
"I presume you two are here to watch Robin's battle?" the hand asked, a little surprised with their presence there.
"Oh, Master Hand, good morning," Lucina greeted politely, quickly straightening herself up. "We actually were just waiting to ask you if it was alright to accompany them."
"It is quite alright, as long as you don't have any battles scheduled for now," the hand shrugged it off.
"Only in the afternoon," Shulk said, being accompanied by a nod of head from Lucina.
Shulk gave a concerned look at Robin, who didn't noticed his gaze and just yawned. Whatever happened to her it didn't look like it would do favors in today's battle. She didn't even bother neatly braiding her hair and just sported a lazy low ponytail. Though, really, the most prevalent thing in her face were the two huge eye bags under her eyes. Rob also didn't look any better.
Since everyone was set, Master Hand snapped his fingers and teleported the fours Smashers to the entrance of the Arena Ferox stadium. The act was sudden and it didn't take them a second to go from the hotel to the stadium, which, while in theory was a lot more practical than going by cab or bus, the simple fact of having to suddenly materialize in a completely different place was a traumatizing experience to someone's body, so it came to no surprise to Master Hand that the Smashers started to feel slightly nauseated once they arrived.
Except for Shulk, who had eaten just about ten minutes ago and looked incredibly sick.
"Please refrain from vomiting here," Master Hand motioned for them to follow him.
Rob and Robin nodded and followed the floating white hand, while Shulk just walked further away and threw up near the closest post he could find. Lucina quickly rushed by his side and massaged his back in sympathy, motioning her hand for the Robins, who had turned around to see what the fuss was about, to continue walking. "We'll be there in a minute," she said.
"They'll be fine, let's go," Rob whispered to his roommate.
"Okay," she subtly inched away from him and walked ahead.
Rob let out a sigh and followed her.
Rob watched Lucina leave the elevator as they reached the floor her room was, Falchion strapped to her hip, still tired from the match 2-stock match she had against Diddy Kong and Bowser Jr at the Onett stage. While she still didn't have a spear, the swordswoman thought it was a great opportunity to test out her new moves she came up with for her, only to realize midway in the fight that getting used to her new style would take a lot more energy that she thought it would. It didn't help that Diddy Kong was a monster in the battlefield and wouldn't stop jumping from place to another, landing quickly and strong kicks and punches mid-air. Bowser Jr was a little easier to deal with, but fighting both young Smashers did take a tool on her.
The tactician could only watch her leave, dragging her tired feet on the red velvet carpet, with sympathy and hope she would give up on the idea of changing her move set, before she realizes how poorly that idea was being executed in the hard way. He got off from the elevator once he arrived on the next floor, having only to be careful to not step on any of the little Pikmin that occupied about 2/3 of the elevator. He waited for Olimar and Alph to lead them away from him and walked calmly to the left, his tiredness slowly hitting him as he got closer and closer to his room.
He opened the door and noticed the lights were already turned on, meaning Robin had already arrived before him.
"Robin? Hey, I'm back."
Just as he thought, there she was, laying on her bed, book in hands and an open bag of chips by her side. She was already wearing her usual white tank top and purple shorts to sleep and had her hair down and unkempt. She seemed completely immersed in her book, enough for her to only mutter a 'hey' without raising her head.
"You are here early," Rob commented as he threw his boots on the carpeted floor.
"Heh, I just wanted to sleep early this time," she turned a page. "You know, since our battle tomorrow is so early in the morning."
"Don't even remind me," Rob grumbled, throwing his heavy coat on a chair and belly flopping on his bed. "So, is this book any good?"
"it could be a lot better," she laughed, turning her head to him. "It's a romance that Peach suggested me the other day. Too much sugary for my taste, but it's harmless. Honestly, I think it's something Sumia would like to read."
They followed Master Hand to inside the stadium, passing by the Miis working on cleaning the place for another day of activities and that only stopped what they were doing to pay their respects to the big hand. Rob saw Master Hand choosing a random female Mii and asking her to go outside and clean after Shulk's puke. He could see her disguising her annoyance and leave after giving a nod of her head and with cleaning utensils in hand. Not the best way to start the day, even if cleaning was her job. Rob couldn't help but feel sympathy for her.
They reached a chromatic door that was at the end of the extensive dim-lit, gray corridor. Behind that door was the room that had the transporter platforms responsible for transporting the Smashers to their designated stages. Each stadium had about ten stages, so the transporters were a wonderful invention that avoided convoluted walking from stage from stage.
Master Hand motioned for them to stop on their tracks. "Now, I only need one of you to follow me," he announced, raising the tacticians' eyebrows. "I shall call the other one briefly."
"Hm, Rob, you can go first, if you want," Robin said, pointing to the door.
"Fine."
Rob followed Master Hand and shut the door. The room was truly something different from the rest of the stadium, being incredibly well-lit with fluorescent lamps and looking something that came out from a modern sci-fi movie. Rob couldn't understand what half of those machines and screens were for, but he knew enough to set the neon platforms on the floor to take him to where he wanted, so that was already something. However, there was a new element there that took him by surprise.
"Stats boosts?"
Right in front of him were displayed the stats boosts that he would encounter in Smash Run. Speed, Jump, Attack, Special, Arms and Defense, all six were there. He already had an idea of where that was going, but he would let Master hand explain it to him.
"In today's fight, you will chose one stat you would like to buff," Master Hand explained. "However, for one strength you gain, you must also chose a weakness. You are a tactician, so I expect you to chose wisely what would suit you better."
Right, one strength and one weakness. Rob analyzed the stats carefully, wondering what would be best for him. He was by far one of the (if not THE) slowest fighters in Smash Bros, so boosting up his speed would be a nice choice. But did he really want it? Rob was never a big fan of running around the stages, preferring to take strategic spots using his magic tomes on his enemies instead. If he upped his special attacks he would cause quite the damage, or if he made his defense better, he might just become a mighty glacier.
But then he had to choose a weakness.
Since he wasn't a big fan of moving around, he could weaken his speed, or his arms, since he wasn't a big fan of grabbing his opponents and throwing them around like rag-dolls.
What to do...
It was only after some good ten minutes of not exchanging a word with each other that Robin decided to break the silence.
"Rob..." Robin said in a rather quiet voice, closing the book she held and setting it aside as she sat up with crossed legs. "I'm still curious about something. What was up with that back then, after you apologized to me?"
"You mean..."
"Yeah," she hugged her stomach. "Uh, that."
"To be honest, I have no idea," he said, also sitting up.
"What? Come on, there must have been a reason," she eyed him suspiciously.
"I swear that there wasn't any!" he lied between teeth. Just drop the subject already, Robin. He didn't want to discuss that any longer.
"If you say so..." Robin turned her head away, her fingertips touching her cheek. "But... It felt nice," she whispered with a sheepish smile. "It's not like you to act nice like this, especially around me."
"What are you talking about? I am gentle!"
"Not as much as when you're around Lucina," there was a hint of bitterness in her voice.
"Around... Lucina," Rob mumbled, completely dumbfounded. "Wait, are you jealous of her?!"
"Why would I be jealous?" she tightened her grip on her stomach. "You and her can do what you want with your life, I don't care."
"Except there's nothing happening between us. I love Lucina like a sister," he explained, now sitting at the edge of her bed. "If anything, I should be the one wondering what is the deal between you and Shulk."
"Shulk?!" now it was Robin's turn to be surprised. "Rob, we're just close friends!"
"How close?"
"Platonic type of close, stop being ridiculous!" she threw her pillow at him, who caught it in midair and rested it on his lap. "And why would you care, anyway?"
"You tell me! You're the one who was getting worked up over implying I was having an affair with Lucina," he leaned closer.
There was a crushing silence between the two tacticians, brown eyes meticulously scanning each other in search for a single glimpse of a lie. Yet, they could find none. At that point, the tension between them should have at least started to dissipate a little. After all, none of them were actually having an affair with their friends, so that should have calmed their spirits down.
Instead, they just continued to nervously stare at each other. So Rob, genius tactician and mastermind that he was, decided to do the most sensible and logical thing someone in that situation could do.
Robin took a deep breath as she spawned at the Arena Ferox stage, the announcer's voice echoing through the vast place. That was going to be one awkward fight, she could feel it. At least it was a three-minute free-for-all, so no matter how much they dragged it, she knew it would be over after long and tortuous three minutes.
3... 2... 1... GO!
Robin dashed towards her opponent, taking advantage of the time he took to charge up his thunder tome. She sidestepped just in time to avoid an Elthunder spell, the ball of electricity flying centimeters away from her nose, and took the chance to slash him with her Bronze sword.
It was rather curious how, despite their similarities, both Robins had different ways of fighting. They had the same attacks and special moves, but that was about it. Robin was a lot more aggressive, having a preference over taking more risks and using her Bronze and Levin swords more often and only using her tomes when she was in a dire situation and was forced stay away from her opponent when her damage percent was already high enough to make her be sent flying with ease. Rob, on the other hand, only ever use the Levin sword when he had overused his magic and had to wait for them to recharge.
He rolled out of the way before Robin could slash him once more. From the way she moved, it was safe to bet that she preferred to boost her speed. "Arcfire!" he shouted, throwing a big ball of fire in an arc motion at Robin in order to stop her. Unfortunately, she activated her shield. Fortunately, he took that as an opportunity to grab her by the collar and force her to her knee, since shields could not protect the fighter from being grabbed.
Luckily for her, Robin managed to break free before any real damage could be done. Rob kept spamming Arcfires, trying to force her to retreat to the border of the arena.
"Ah, there he is!" Shulk exclaimed from one of the bleachers. "It's the vision I had."
"Vision?" Master Hand, who was currently floating by his and Lucina's side, asked. "Did you foresee this outcome, Shulk?"
"I-It was just this part," it was technically a half-truth. "I didn't tell them anything, though."
"Right..."
"You can do it, Robin!" Lucina cheered.
"I thought you were cheering for Rob?" Shulk asked.
"But I am."
Robin jumped over her opponent, using Elwind to carry her up and hit him from above and stopping him from trying to burn her alive.
It was time to tip the scales in her favor.
Rob leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, bringing himself close enough to her that their knees touched. And for a moment there, everything seemed right. For those short five seconds, he was in pure bliss, the rest of the world didn't matter int he slightest.
However, as soon as Robin pulled herself away, her eyes staring at him wide open in shock, the sudden realization of what just happened hit him like a bullet. What had he done? Why did he kiss her like that without a second thought? Chrom would better appear out of thin air and fire him from his position of tactician, because for someone who was required to use the most logical of thoughts, Rob was doing a piss poor job at keeping his reason intact.
He mumbled an apology and hastily got up from her bed, without any courage to look her in the face. That shower sounded really inviting all of a sudden. It sure did...
Rob felt a firm grasp on his wrist, forcing him to a halt. Was she going to slap him? He wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. To his surprise, however she made him turn around and crashed her lips on his once more, shakily, yet gently, caressing his soft white hair in the process. The kiss in itself was messy, kind of sloppy and far from perfect, but Robin would be lying if she said that wasn't one of the most wonderful sensations she ever felt. Her heart started beating even faster once she realized that, not only Rob didn't break them up, but he actually pulled her into a tight embrace, returning the kiss with the same passion.
They continued liked that for quite some time, until suddenly Robin found herself pinned against a wall by her roommate.
"Rob," she let out a breathy moan, receiving another kiss from him. "M-Maybe..."
"Hm?"
"We should stop."
As if waking up from a trance, he let go of Robin, still trying to catch his breath. She was right, maybe they should stop.
That didn't mean he wanted to. Honestly, with the sight of her there back against a wall, ruffled hair, mouth agape from panting and messy tank top that exposed enough cleavage (and man, it sure was something), it was all enough for him to want to throw her in his bed and go even further from where they stopped.
Basically, what he needed was a huge dump of freezing water on his head.
"Uh, yeah, I'll just... Go take a shower, or something," he mumbled, pointing with his thumb at the door behind him.
Robin bit her lower lip nervously and walked away from him and sat on her bed again, not really paying attention to anything in particular. Rob gave one last look at her and walked towards the door to the bathroom. He was about to grab the doorknob, but his hand froze on the spot.
What was he thinking? It was Robin who he was lusting over. Robin, the girl that occupied his role in some sort of alternate universe and could easily pass of as his twin. In fact, for a lot of people there who were not that close to them, the two were actually considered twins to them. But of course they were not twins, that was preposterous. They were just different versions of the same person. That wasn't weird at all.
No, that was pretty fucking weird.
"Hey, Robin."
"Yes?"
Robin turned her attention towards him, still visibly nervous, and saw Rob slowly walking up to her, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck and eyes glued on the floor.
"Can I ask you something?"
"..."
"D-Did that feel good?"
She turned her head to the other side.
"It's just that... I thought..."
"..."
"Do you want to make out again?"
"..."
Rob winced from the lack of response. Okay, maybe he really should get going and leave her alone.
"... Yeah."
And that was enough of an answer to him. Rob immediately rushed to his counterpart's side and threw himself in her arms.
"HIYA!"
Robin slashed her Levin sword in the air, making contact with Rob's stomach as he tried to recover to the stage using Elwind. Due to the high damage he had already suffered, there was no way he could survive after one of their strongest attack and the male tactician was sent flying away.
"Alright, good," Robin whispered as she landed on the stage.
She ran to the opposite side of Arena Ferox, praying silently for the platforms that would appear every now and then to rise from the ground. She already had one KO pointed guaranteed, and with only thirty seconds to go, all she had to do was avoid Rob and keep throwing magic spells at him to keep him away.
Robin looked up and saw the respawn platform appearing above her. She stepped back as Rob jumped out from it and started charging his tome again. Robin didn't want to risk getting hit, so she just stood where she was, bracing herself for the time she would activate her shield. Of course, he didn't release Thoron right away, preferring to keep it until the moment was right. He ran towards her, Bronze sword ready, when the stage started to be enveloped by a purple mist, catching both by surprise. Platforms suddenly began to rise, just as Robin wanted to.
Rob cursed under his breath. Really? Was now the time for them to appear? The tactician jumped out from the one he suddenly found himself in. He saw Robin running beneath one of the slowest platforms and decided to follow her. With only twenty seconds to go, he had nothing else to lose. However, as soon as he landed on the stage, he found that Robin was closer than he'd expect and was caught by a surprise attack by her Nosferatu tome.
Nothing made him wish he could run away faster than that moment.
From the bleachers, Lucina bit her nails as the spectacle unfold bellow them. It didn't help that Shulk was right by her side, cheering for the other Robin. What was he doing? Robin usually was a lot more quick-thinking and cunning than that. Worse, it was clear that the other Robin was also not in her best conditions, because half of the attacks she did during that entire fight missed really badly.
So it really came down to who was doing less worse in that situation, which was the other Robin in this case, and Lucina just couldn't wrap her head around to why Robin was doing so terribly in that fight.
"ROBIN, YOU STILL HAVE YOUR THORON CHARGED," she screamed, making Shulk jump on his seat. "IF YOU CAN'T GET CLOSE TO HER, USE IT!"
"Lucina, I don't think he will listen to you here," Shulk tried to calm her down.
"But don't you see?" she pointed at the two tacticians. "He could easily kill her now and make them go into a Sudden Death."
"What good would it do him if he went to a draw out, when his opponent is more agile than him."
"It's still better than loosing like this," she crossed her arms, waiting for the announcer to announce the end of the match. "Something isn't right with him, I can feel it."
Shulk just kept watching, listening to Lucina's words carefully. She was right, something was wrong with them. If it was because of he was thinking or not, he couldn't know, but he just knew Robin would be more than eager to tell him.
Can you guys tell how much will it took me to not write "but he just had the feeling" right there at the end? Ha ha, fuck that meme and fuck me for loving/hating it. Can you also tell that fighting scenes are not my forte? Because they aren't.
I'm going to answer Ethereal780's question here, because I think it is of interest to some people: I'm not going to get into the customization moves at all. Yes, they are a thing, but they are not the default and not allowed in For Glory mode. This is also the reason why Miis are there, but they are not official Smashers.
I'm sorry for the lack of anyone who isn't Robin in this chapter, but I needed to reserve this chapter to only them. I'll try to show more Smashers next chapter, I swear.
P.S.: No, they didn't have sex or anything, but you're free to imagine how the rest of the night went for them. The thirst was real. You're welcome.
