Hello Again, AWIRT! Chapter 10 is here! …That's all I have to say right now.

SECOND Disclaimer: Cut Productions does not own Earthbound. If we did, this would look a lot more professional.

To God be the Glory

Onettsons

Chapter 10: The Fight

His hair couldn't move. It was plastered down. There was no way it could ever be subject to any style again. But he didn't care. In truth, he actually didn't know. Just as he didn't know many things, he didn't know that his hair was under a gray, relentless covering. Creeping tentacles from the stone cap sneaked down the rest of his face and stretched his pale skin. But he didn't care; didn't know.

After all, there was no time to know. There was only time for two things: work and fear. Unending work; limitless fear. But even though these two things were all he knew, his comprehension of them was slipping. After all, there was no time to know. Only to work and fear. These two things were no longer so much as certain aspects and times of his life, but were becoming his entire reality. The barred cell, the ghastly guards, the frightful screams, the agonizing labor: it was all blending together into an eternal shade of dreadful gray that was his life. He didn't know. He just didn't know.

Lucas didn't know that a tear slipped down to his chin and fell to the ground.

…

With the Arena looming over him, Ness did one last self-check. Excited? Check. A bit nervous? Check. Tons of training? Check. Shoes tied, hat cocked, hair brushed? Check, check, and nope. Ready? The boy closed his eyes and focused himself. Check.

Walking?

Check. Nine seconds of pushing through the crowd later, Ness was in the Arena on the day of his first match. Looking across the dark aisles, he spotted the sorta-familiar front row of seats that his team frequented. Hurrying there a bit too anxiously (he stepped on someone's foot), he looked around for his teammates. They weren't there. Nor was anyone else, as fear of the Dominter had recently turned the row into VIP seating.

"Great," the capper thought, "I might just miss it…" This was a scary thought for anyone who had spent their past two or so months preparing for a single event. But then a hopeful thought of reason entered: "Wait, they've got to be somewhere!" Somewhere meant the Arena 50% of the time in Onett, so this was a pretty relieving realization. Now to find them. Looking around him, Ness peered into the shadows to see if they held any clue. None were presented. He took a few steps forward, getting rather close to the chains which encircled the fighting ring itself. On either side of him he could see other spectators, but none of them were recognizable. His nervousness rising again, the boy scratched the back of his head, wondering what he should do.

What would happen if he couldn't fight today? Would that be bad? And if so, then how bad? Such questions floated, or rather flew, into his head. He exhaled heavily; panicking would not help him, but he didn't know what else to do. Once more he looked around. Once more, nothing.

Then a hand roughly seized his shoulder, dragged him backward, and spun him around. Ness then found himself staring into Matt's face. "Where have you been!?" the Dominter growled. The capper starred back at him, not answering, wondering who should actually be asking that question. Apparently, Matt didn't care whether he got a reply or not, as he turned on his heel and dragged Ness to who-knows-where. The bigger of the two actually knew where that was, so they got there rather quickly. The entire Dominter team was waiting for them, all relaxing in front of the barrier.

Ness, who was now freed of Matt's grip, looked at them almost angrily. "Why weren't you guys at the seats?!"

A familiar voice answered, "It doesn't take a genius to figure out that we go to the seats to watch matches, and here is where we go to fight them." It was guy with the pants.

"You're right. It doesn't. You probably just figured this out yesterday, huh?" the new guy retorted. Pants glared. Pretending to ignore him, the capper walked to the chains that divided the audience between the fighting inside the ring.

As he did so, Aaron leaned in and whispered, "You're next after this match. And thanks for making us wait so long!" Ness nodded sullenly, and quickly reflected over his move set. He ran over all the ranged and melee attacks he knew and how to do them about three times, then walked over to the barrier to watch the current match.

Link was there too as an enthusiastic commentator. "Ohhh, that's GOTTA hurt!" he said as one of the combatants was electrocuted. Surprising Ness, he actually sounded sincerely sorry for the lad, if only a little bit. "Bum-ba-bum-bum, aaaannnd he's down!" And he was. After all, it's hard to be up with a full size Onettson on top of you. It's even harder if the full size Onettson happens to be punching you in the face.

"That guy's not gonna be fightin' for a while," Link stated solemnly.

"Yeah, I wouldn't think so," Ness murmured.

Link took the capper seriously. "Yeah, ya see, the sheer amount of damage this guy is gettin' is going to hurt him, but not really that much. But it LOOKS like he's getting beat to a pulp, and so everyone believes that's what's happening. It's gonna go to his head that he is getting beat real bad by an inferior fighter, and he's not gonna show up in a match for weeks."

Ness looked at him funny, facially asking if all that was really necessary. But what the Dominter had said was actually something profound, whether Ness picked up on it or not: the real damage in the fight was being done to the mind, not the body, which made it all the more harmful.

The finishing blow came: Crack! The capped boy's brown eyes darted up. "Match is over kid," came Aaron's voice, "You're up."

Ness breathed in, and with it all his anxiety and nervousness. He then breathed out, and all his anxiety and nervousness went with it. He stepped through the opened barrier. "It's show time."

…

His opponent was big, not enormous, but big, and of average height. He was from the Juntar Team, and was supposed to have a good amount of experience under his belt… or shoes. He had no belt. The only visual clue to indicate which part of Onett he belonged to was a weathered but seemingly permanent blue stripe around his wrist, the color of his team. This was better than Ness, whose appearance had no resemblance to his team at all, but then again, the Dominter didn't have a signature look.

He could tell his opponent was looking him over as well, and by now Ness was confident that he was a little afraid by what he saw. He hoped so, as he had trained hard for this.

Suddenly, the roar of the crowd died down to a purr, and the two dropped into a fighting stance. Locking eyes, they both waited for the other to say the word that would start the match. The waited one second too much, and the purr started to roar again. The Juntar yelled, "Check!"

Ness responded: "Check!" And the match was on. Both circled around the other in unison, and therefore no distance was proportionally gained. Several strategies flew through the capper's mind, and he selected on a fake dash forward. This almost made its target stumble, but instead he stopped at a flinch. After the flinch, he promptly rushed a kick to the Dominter's head. Ness saw the attack before his foot even left the ground, and jumped back fractionally. When the Juntar landed, he was in dangerous proximity to his opponent. His opponent promptly PK Blasted him back. In an impressive feat of footwork and shear ankle strength, he still managed to keep on his feet. Ness felt his competiveness rise as he strongly disliked how weak his attack now looked.

No matter. The Dominter rushed forward, trying to invoke a reaction.

Correct him. The Juntar jumped up, spun around and with his foot unleashed PK Shock.

Good job. The Dominter jumped and rolled to the left, satisfied that he had gotten a reaction.

Stop that. The Juntar moved toward and out from his rival and made several splashes of ringers to confuse him.

Get out. The Dominter dashed to his left, but still received some damage from ringers.

He's open. The Juntar took advantage of the moment and shouted the first thing that came to mind.

Brace yourself. The Dominter took his first hit and fell pitifully to the ground.

Finish it. The Juntar zoomed in a tad clumsily and tried to lay a hand on his opponents face, neck or chest.

Fight it. The Dominter grabbed the assailing hands by their wrists just as PK Fire was emitted from one of them. Acting on a whim, he used his strength and a slight Landwall to push himself up. He landed clumsily, almost falling down, but willed himself to keep his feet. The blue bearer had similar trouble, but not quite as much as the capper.

The two paused and caught their breath for a second, and then continued to do so whilst slowly circling each other. After 15 seconds of this, the Juntar cried, "PK Charge!" out of boredom. Ness dodged out of boredom and returned the favor with 'PK Bolt'. This was dodged in the same way and the same went for the Juntar's PK Snatch. Rinse. Repeat. This was how most matches were brought to a standstill in Onett, and although the audience didn't particularly like it, they were used to it by now.

Well, they were used to it most of the time. More like…95% of the time. But NOT when the fight involved a Dominter. The mere word Dominter made every citizen of the town feel one type of excitement or another. So when a match with a new and semi-hyped-up member of the infamous team boiled down to a simple shoot-out, the onlookers were naturally unimpressed. Whispers swarmed like locusts through the crowd and all carried the same general statement: "I think this guy's a rip-off!" The message was passed on, until Dominter had everyone excited once again; because if this was all their new guy had, the top dog was slipping. This prospect grew tenser in the air and in the minds of the Arena, until every member of the audience was on their feet and cheering/chanting their own version of one thought.

This profoundly confused the two fighters down in the ring below, who had no idea how to interpret this extreme turn of events and were now barely even fighting at all. They couldn't understand the gibberish that the mixed mass of varying cries produced, but the Dominter team did. They knew what it meant, and they didn't like it. Aaron turned to their representative in the ring. "Come on…Do Something!"

Ness couldn't hear him, but a small voice of reason told to stop trying to discern what the crowd was shouting and to focus on the task at hand. The boy looked over and saw his enemy still, but undeniably not much longer, looking towards the fans. The Dominter took his chance and ran as fast as he could forward and shouted with all his might, "PK SLIIICCE!"

In the new-fallen hush the Juntar slammed into the floor and rolled and tumbled until he finally halted. But this wasn't over. "PK Snag!" Ness's chain found its target and dragged it back fiercely. The capper set his aim and – "PK Fire!"

Two words. Match. Over.

…

Ness stepped out of the fighting ring feeling proud, but strangely unsatisfied. He felt even more unsatisfied when he was greeted with a very unsatisfied audience. This audience was none other than his own team, who looked just about as glad to see him as a swarm of mosquitoes. He wondered what he had done wrong.

"What was THAT!?" Aaron asked angrily.

Ness gave him a sideways glance. He was feeling a bit underwhelmed with his first bought in the Arena, but that didn't mean he could tolerate insults about it. "My victory. Did'ja miss that?"

"Oh, no. We didn't miss that," came Link. "We also didn't miss what happened in the crowd either."

"Yeah, and just for the record, did'ja miss THAT!?" Aaron snapped.

"Standing. Cheering. Screaming incoherent nonsense. Yeah, I got all of it," the capper replied confidently.

"Yeeeeeep, he missed it, alright," Pants said. There was a general assent to this, and the new member began doubting his immunity to fault. Had he done something wrong after all?

"You took the match to a standstill, which has not happened in Dominter history for AS LONG AS I HAVE BEEN AROUND!" shouted Matt.

"Yeah, and he's 233 years old!" Aaron backed him up. "And now that you've sunk us that low, the rest of the town can't help but add a little more water!" Everyone stared at him in silent confusion. "What?! You don't get it?"

"We were supposed to?" At this Aaron became quiet. There were a few light giggles which attracted his grilling glare. The perpetrators were hardly grilled and returned slight mocking grins. Ness waited for his teacher to calm down and then resumed his confusion.

"What standstill did I bring the match to?" he asked a bit more civilly. Not for the first time, the only response he got was a look which made it look like he had asked the dumbest question ever.

"*cough* *cough* shooting everything *cough* and doing nothing *cough*!" Pants replied. 'Shooting everything and doing nothing' was the common Onettson term for the exact thing Ness had done which had caused such an uproar.

It then dawned on the capper just what they were accusing him of (even though he had really known what they were criticizing from the start, although he had been too stubborn to admit it to himself). He felt a little shame, but only an inconsequential little as he was still mad. "Yup, dude. You fail," Link said a tad sympathetically; Ness refused to look at him.

The entire team was quiet for a while. It began to get awkward, feet shuffled, until finally the capper burst out, "Well, I WON, right!?" and stormed off.

"You better do better next time!" Matt shouted after him.

"And I hope you're going off to train!" Aaron put in. Once he was far enough off, Ness dipped his head into his hands and sighed deeply.

"Lucas would understand…Heh! He would probably understand a little too much! …if only he were here." Wait a second! Lucas was in Onett, right? The black-haired boy looked up and spied an exit from the Arena. Without even thinking about what he was doing or what he was going to do, Ness raced out the exit to find his friend.

…

The shaking hand moved with unseeable speed, caught the fire warrior's neck, and the other hand, which had been secretly charging a Singe Poke, slammed itself into the fire warrior's face.

Green burning began.

Agony indescribable pulsed steadily through him. In him before was fire, warm, restless, and peaceful. Now it was drowned out by fire, cold, methodical, and full of wrath. This was more than burning, this was more than pain…this was agony. That was the only word he could think of. Agony filled his mind as it filled his body.

A minute before he had been standing tall, but now he was on his knees. A minute before he had been above all, and now another was standing over him. And a hand in his face…a hand in his face…burning his face…

By all the force not in him he took the hand off. But the damage was done. The green master stepped back to allow all those watching to behold what their Great Flaming Leader had become. And the ones who did see never looked back.

This leader looked up and saw a tidy little house, standing out against all the other houses of the town. It was colored in a bright yellow shade of paint, and its roof was a strong red. The small yard around it was well-kept and even. Healthy plants grew in pots on its doorstep and its windows. And in these windows lurked a green-eyed ghost; a horrible, fallen mutant. And it made the leader scream.

Whew! I shouldn't take this long on updates, but I do, nevertheless. I'm just in a stage of life where writing and getting to writing is hard, so you'll just have to bear with me for a while. I am gaining speed, albeit slowly, and I GOT OUT OF SCHOOL TODAY :DDD. PRIVATE SCHOOL SCHEDUALS FOR THE WIN! Hopefully, that will mean the next chapter will come quicker than this one, but Christmas time is still busy. Oh, right. MERRY EARLY CHRISTMAS or HAPPY 12/12/12!

I'm probably going to apologize to you guys every update for a while, aren't I? Well, in any case, I am still sorry about my unacceptable laziness, and I hope you will forgive me…and stick with me.

On to the replies!

Roseal: Thank you for no grudges. Thank you. So you like my action scenes? There are going to be a lot of those in this story, so that's truly great. The fighting scene in this chapter is done in the same style so I hope it delivers. Ya know, your comment about writing-quickness really pushed me during this period, so to you I am very grateful.

Innocence: I'm glad you liked chapter 9, and I hope you liked this one too as well as its fight. Oh, by the way, what's your new profile picture from? Or is it original? Thanks for the review!

animefan4eva5: Yeah, I'm trying to put as much Lucas into the future story as possible. So! Ness finally remembers Lucas again! What did you think? And I'll do my best to keep up the work.

TheMysticalQ: The fights aren't exactly random, they are more orderly and organized than that (most of the time). And for the fun of it? ...Well, yeah. It's like the Roman Coliseum. But is it pointless, or isn't it? MWAHAHAHAHA! …Gosh Murphy! I keep macking – Argh I mean making – mistakes like that! Thank you for letting me know, though, I do try to make my document error-free.

PenfullofChaos819 (for his review on chapter 8): No need to worry, I enjoyed your review! I see your knowledge of Earthbound has grown. Interesting stuff, no? It is ironic when you think about the situations Ness and Lucas are in, considering the blonde is the most, shall we say, 'tender' of the two and he gets the tougher situation. Wrong Nintendo© mascot there! You're right, they don't really know what quality entertainment is, but you've got to admit that cake-evisceration is a major saving grace. Yes, the process of the prison is really quite horrible, but Lucas has more purpose than that. Back to Ness, I couldn't stop chuckling at your outcry against Aaron. The punching bag to a bit of effort to design and describe on my part, but I'm satisfied with the results. And now the boy is wandering half-awake through the streets, meets a bunch of baddies, and does a prom run! He might call Paula, but radio towers haven't yet made their way into Onett yet. I do feel a bit dissatisfied with the end of this scene, but I like the very end. I'm very glad you like the chapter and I hope you enjoy the rest.

This is Nacartor of Cut Productions, signing off.