Chapter Ten
"I don't understand it. Why are you all taking a break? Most of the time we cut away to other scenes than seeing most of us fight..." Toro asked, a bit disappointed of how these fights were turning out. Both Master Chief and Banjo won, Scorpion hadn't returned, plus the basilicom was being raided by a crazed child.
Ratchet popped open his communicator, hoping he could at least have some contact with Sly... Or Radec, the alternative resort. "Sly? How's everything going over in Lowee? Did you meet the Smashers and find out if they know about Primeval's disappearance?" There was a bit of noise on the other end, unfamiliar voices.
Finally Sly responded after talking to them. "We met them alright, but most of us are separated. And they don't know anything about Primeval, in fact, it turns out something was taken from them. How are things on your end Ratchet?" He looked back at the basilicom, then at the intruders from Leanbox.
"The child that Sweet Tooth adopted ended up causing quite a massacre, so far no one was terribly hurt as we all got away in time and no one is in there." Clank responded. "We also obtained our own visitors that originated from the other nation known as Leanbox. Most of us seem to be fighting for some particular reason."
Sly sounded a bit confused. "I have an unusual hunch, but ask them if something was taken. Or if they had to do with either Primeval or the Mirror of Twilight. Can you do that for us Clank while we search for the others?" The last one puzzled Clank, but he didn't question the raccoon at all.
And since everyone seemed to be resting for a bit, it actually would be a good time to ask about it. "Excuse me, but does anyone here have a moment?" Their attention turned to Clank. "I might have missed a memo, but since being here saves us from going out of the way to ask… What is it you all needed in Lastation? And did anyone have to do with Primeval's disappearance?"
"We're came to Lastation for the girl you're all holding onto. She does not belong here, Reimu said that only one place is for her: locked away in the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion." Master Chief explained to them.
"Scarlet Devil Mansion?" Donte felt his curiosity piqued.
"Locked away?" Anger boiled in Sweet Tooth. "That kid we found? You Leanbox freaks lock her in a basement without making contact?" Most gave him a surprised look from those words. "Hahaha… Sorry, but I'm not going to stand for that! I may have killed the family of Marcus Kane and many other people, but even I got my priorities!"
"I have to agree with Kane for once. There is absolutely no reason to exile a young girl!" Kratos growled, showing even more detest for those before him.
"Says you two…" Nariko mumbled.
"You don't understand! She's not a kid or a human girl! She's older than all of you and a vampire!" Ichigo squealed obnoxiously. Donte's interest rose even more.
"For some reason I had a feeling that was the case from how she sucked up the soup I gave her!" Toro mew'd. "Take her then! She tried to destroy us! Please! If it continues, Noire will flip-"
"No. We're keeping her here." Donte said, smugly. For some reason, Kratos and Sweet Tooth instantly didn't like the look in his eyes. "Ratchet, Clank. Go up against the cat-guy for us. This is gonna be a wild ride, and I'm gonna fight for this kid..." The lombax flinched from the forced challenge.
Blinx however prepared himself with his TS-1000 vacuum cleaner. "Hope you got more than the wrench and your little robot buddy! My abilities of using this may be watered down from Vert, but I'm still willing to put up a good fight no matter what! After all, Vert originally made me to rival with your Crash Bandicoot!"
As the sun began to rise, Clank wanted to find a better solution. "Now, now. You still haven't answered my question. Do you know anything of Primeval?" Blinx stopped in his tracks, utterly baffled and gave a confused look before shaking his head. The other Leanbox residents did the same. "Or the… Mirror of Twilight?" Now both parties seemed puzzled by him.
"Sorry guy, but none of us know what you're talking about. I'm sure Vert would have told us, and I doubt she would ever sabotage anyone." Blinx responded, Kazooie's snickering following after. "Cut that out bird-brain! She may have not treated you and the squirrel well, but you know what I mean! Now let's settle this, lombax!"
Putting her armor back on, Samus stepped on her knocked out opponent. "Just another day of taking out intergalactic threats or weirdos… And I didn't even have to use my Smash Ball after all! Might as well disarm the guy so I won't be bothered again later. He already showed off half of his weapon, hopefully I can find them."
Samus removed every weapon from Radec's belt and under the straps of his Helghan suit. "Knives, grenades… How the heck did he keep all of these guns?! He has more inventory space than Princess Toadstool and Link, geez!" Finally, she managed to take them all for herself. At least until they were not needed by her standards.
"If the tracker serves me well, then I should be able to find the others! And quick!" Samus checked her own digital map, which allowed her to find any Smashers that could be in the area. She instantly spotted two specs, but they were two floors above and three rooms across her. "That must be Arle and her little orange pet! They're the only duo in this area, at least I think..."
Without much warning, her communicator came on. "Samus?! Are you there? Mega Man lost contact with Fox earlier and wouldn't stop worrying, where is everyone?!" Meta-Knight yelled over to the bounty hunter, who rolled her eyes.
"Unfortunately, we were all separated thanks to a bunch of Sony characters from the Playstation All-Stars. Good and bad news was, it was some colonel. He acted like the usual creeps and I remembered that he was low-tier enough to have it named after him." Meta-Knight glared at her, as he hated 'tier-talk' because it usually led to the warrior being brought up.
Rock instantly made his way over to the communicator. "Y-you mean everyone could be in potential danger by the Lastation residents and Arbiter's itself?! H-how close by is the Great Fox?! Meta-Knight, I think it's better if we go to the desert and leave Mewtwo be! He likes being alo-"
"Whoa! What was that about Mewtwo?! I thought Blanc was only using him for emergencies!" Samus yelled, making both the knight and robot cringe.
"Mewtwo had… Jumped off into one of the lands bordering Lastation and Leanbox, as we wanted to investigate the lands as a smaller war was going on. But he insisted that most of us stay behind so he could-"
"I guess better him than-a you Meta-dweeb! At least he can cover up his identity as a person and isn't OP in Smash terms! Wahahaha!" Wario laughed, in which Meta-Knight gave him the 'look of death'.
"Well, he's kind of right there. Mewtwo could easily pass himself off as just a humanoid with powers down there, until they see his tail I guess. And Rock, don't worry! Your girlfriend and Sonic will be safe on my watch!" Samus joked to him with a grin under her helmet.
"Huh?! H-hey! We only met a week or two ago! Plus, I'm just a fighting robot, I'm not programmed to have feelings for humans… I think." Rock felt the circuits in his face heat up, making him blush a little
Meta-Knight thought it over. "Fine. I'll save Kirby and the others at Arbiter's, we cannot risk the All-Stars trying anything against us! Mega Man, that means you and Pit will go down to the border and find Mewtwo!" The fighting robot flinched upon that, wishing to object.
Instead, Pit grabbed him by the waist. "Alright! Just like old times! Classic 80's Nintendo heroes! The only one missing is Simon Belmont!"
"Please do not give me Captain N memories, it may have not been so bad for you, a lot of the Robot Masters are still traumatized by their renditions. And most are still baffled that it took the 'Game Master' fifty times to reach Cut Man…"
"You're telling me! I got reduced to a money-grabbing alternate love interest for that gary-stu of a main character in the comics. Plus I don't want the mental images of Simon and Mother Brain again." Samus shuddered before closing up. Pit attempted to laugh it off nervously.
Spreading his wings, Pit flew out of the Halberd while Mega Man used the Rush Jet, in order to find Mewtwo in the realms that bordered Leanbox and Lastation...
Yet Rock couldn't help but feel a bit of regret on the mission Meta-Knight sent him on…
Mario, Luigi, Reimu and Cooper finally arrived in the snowy lands of Lowee. "DK? Diddy? Hello? The green plumber called out, a large ape approached the group. While he didn't recognize the two outsiders, Donkey Kong did not seem to be hostile toward them in the slightest. Alongside him was a smaller chimp with a Nintendo cap.
"Luigi! Mario! Back so soon? What happened to Ness and Snake?" Diddy chirped, much to the surprise of Reimu. "And who are your new friends? Are they one of those really obscure games? Or from outside this nation? Am I asking too many questions?"
Swallowing, the teen was a bit nervous about confronting the Kongs, Mario allowed Cooper to speak up. "I'm Cooper. Reimu and I come from Leanbox… Though the shrine maiden here comes from Windows games. We'll explain the other details later, I just have a big question that's been bugging me!… Do you remember Banjo and Conker? The bear and squirrel?" Diddy looked confused, DK simply didn't respond.
He began hitting his own head a few times before responding. "Sorry. I don't know who those are at all. But it feels like I might have…"
"A-are you sure? You took them with you to Timber Island, along with Tiptup and the croc, right?!"
"Well, I know that Tiptup was there from the start... And Krunch snuck on the island, but it was Dixie and Tiny who came with me. How do you know who Tiptup is? I haven't seen that guy in forever!" Diddy was now curious about the outsider, like he may have been connected to whomever created him.
"Tiptup is a friend of Banjo! He has a lot of kids and stuff!" Cooper then paused. "Wait, do you ever remember seeing a Killer Instinct logo in Star City?"
Now Diddy was even more surprised he knew about Future Fun-Land. "It feels all familiar, but it never happened I'm sure. Even then, Dixie would have said something! who told you all this anyway?"
"Banjo and Kazooie themselves! And Glacius! The icy-liquid alien from Killer Instinct? We're all from Rareware!" Diddy's eyes widened a bit. "You even used to wear Rare related stuff!" The chimp could vividly remember that company, it was the one that made him.
It seemed that Donkey Kong was the only one that didn't have the memory come to him. "I have a solution! Yoshi!" Mario exclaimed, the green dinosaur showing up from his name being called. "Go-a swallow a blue shell! You and I are taking a trip to Timber Island! Our solutions might be there!"
"You do that Mario! But be careful!" Luigi waved, seeing his brother and Yoshi take off. "Why don't we ask Dixie, Tiny, Funky, and Cranky about all this Diddy? Maybe they'll know something!" Both Diddy and Donkey Kong agreed with him, running off back to the Jungle.
Cooper followed close behind, but then turned around. "Reimu, aren't you coming?" Then he remembered, that she was more worried about any incidents. "Better idea Hakurei! Why don't you go fly back to Leanbox and tell Gunstringer about the Mirror of Twilight incident?! We need all the help of yokai-busting we can get!" That was something Reimu understood, and flew away.
While it was another partial lie, there wasn't many ways to get someone from a Japan-only independent Windows game character to understand things.
((Dialogue hefty chapter! Finally the characters are explaining things better to each other little by little, and we learn about the girl Sweet Tooth found... And yes, the Captain N jokes had to be made eventually! It's probably going to be a running-gag along with any possible tier-joke I can cram in.
On the plus side, there seems to suddenly be a continuity error with Diddy and Cooper's stories… Who was really at Timber Island? Conker and Banjo? Or Dixie and Tiny? Was a Killer Instinct Logo really in Star City? Tiptup is a friend of Banjo's still? Yay questions!
Also, the next chapter will be a small flashback, then Mewtwo vs. Glacius, where we finally learn more about Frinnia!
Unrelated notes now… I watched a movie recently that I became obsessed with, a murder-mystery/suspense movie called "Deep Red", "Profondo Rosso" in it's original Italian name. Somehow I learned about the score first, which was done by Goblin. I would recommend it greatly if you're into horror genres maybe?))