Author's Note: Sometimes I still question myself why I'm still writing this mess.
Chapter 10: Trophy Tale
"!"
A twig is accidentally snapped because of a misstep, alerting Samus's group. The person who approaches them reveals himself to be a young teen with yellow hair, large square glasses, green jacket and trousers, black bow tie, white shirt underneath the jacket, and brown shoes. He's holding some sort of trophy, as indicated by its round base with the familiar "+"-shaped engraving. The trophy depicts some sort of badge, which is yellowish-gold on the most part and white on its inner circle on the center where it also has a blue lightning bolt painted on it.
"I'm sorry. Please don't attack me. I mean no harm." the boy spoke.
Noticing the trophy he's carrying, Popo gets to be the first from the group to talk back. "It's alright. We were simply surprised. By the way, is that a trophy that you're holding?"
"...This? Yes, it is. I noticed that you happen to have one in your possession. That Super Mushroom one, I mean. That's why I'm coming here." the boy points to the trophy held by Samus.
"I see, so you know about trophies just as much as, well, some of us..." Popo briefly looks at his allies.
"That makes things easier for me... because I want to help you." the boy said.
"What? Really?!" Popo is surprised.
"You see, there's something more about these trophies beyond what they look like and their rarity. Also, I think the woman over there seems to have an important task to do."
Upon hearing the word "task", Samus immediately replies, "The task for me is to rescue my trustworthy ally from the hands of the ruthless Falcon. We, in fact, managed to get into his castle, but... we didn't take him with us..."
"I'll help you with that too." the boy said back to Samus.
"Huh?"
"What happened there was a mere mistake. I'm sure that if more of us are involved, we can help you rescue your ally easier."
"You're just a kid. I don't think I can get anymore help after that blue parka kid..."
"HEY!" Popo shouted in annoyance.
"No need to worry." the boy assures her. "I'm armed. It's a mere freeze ray, but I think that's enough." he shows Samus his weapon, which looks like a typical sci-fi laser gun.
Samus still doesn't seem to be really convinced, but she just accepts, considering that she really and truly needs more people to help her.
Popo, upon realizing something else he had in mind, begins questioning the boy again. "Oh. About the trophies, um... what's your name?"
"Oops... Sorry for not introducing myself earlier on. I'm Jeff." the boy finally introduces himself.
"Alright, Jeff. About the trophies... we're trying to learn about the trophies' secret. However, the only clue for me is the symbol engraved on their bases. They're similar to the ones in Smash Tower. Other than that and the fact that our trophy can expose memories, I have no idea."
Jeff then sits on a log, next to Popo, and says, "They actually do have a secret. It's obvious that it's not uncovered by common people, but listen to this."
Samus, Popo, Link and Marth focus on Jeff while staying silent, wanting to hear his explanation.
"Long time ago, when our world, or rather, dimension, was created, the very first building to stand on this dimension's grounds is what the parka boy..."
"That's Popo. Sorry. I also forgot to introduce myself and the others. This woman here is Samus, this hylian is Link, and the blue-haired man over there is Marth." Popo suddenly said.
"Oh. Okay then. Alright, back to my explanation. The very first building to stand on this dimension's grounds is the Smash Tower, which Popo mentioned before. The tower is actually powered by its many trophies inside to stay standing. The tower's purpose? It's basically the heart of this dimension. If it's destroyed, all life in this dimension will be lost. Now, in the present day, have you all noticed about the colored meteorites that rain down our world?"
"The colored meteorites!" Samus exclaimed. "I've seen those before. I decided to research on them by myself until the whole incident involving my ally, Luigi, and our enemy right now, Falcon. If my memory serves right, I believe I've seen a quite large red meteorite and smaller blue ones, which are probably a result of the original meteorite being broken down. Speaking of colors, they also leak some sort of liquid substance."
"Huh. I thought that no one ever pays attention to that anymore."
"What makes you think about that, Jeff? To be honest, I've never seen such meteorite." Popo asked.
"...No one can figure out where the colored meteorites came from. Not even the more experienced scientists can figure that out. They all gave up and decided to shrug everything off as if they're ordinary meteorites. But consider this. From my recent observations, I've seen more meteors than usual. Sure not many of them, um, "survive" as a solid meteorite, just like regular meteors. However, I've seen one meteorite, colored yellow, managed to land somewhere around my observation spot, and its leaking liquid transformed into... something."
"What is it?!" Marth asked.
"Words can't describe what kind of abomination I saw. I think it has some sort of beak, so it's bird-like. But their entire body merely consists of that liquid substance, so they can morph into pretty much almost anything. The yellow one that I saw? After it morphed into whatever blob monster with beak it was, it managed to instantly escape my line of sight by zipping away quickly. I didn't even get to see it actually move an inch. It simply disappeared, like it warped, but a yellow trail remained on its path, meaning that it indeed dashed away, but in such speed that I couldn't see it."
"The liquid... it's sentient..." Samus thought.
"But what does that have anything to do with Smash Tower and these trophies?" Popo asked.
"And this is where I'm going to explain why. Since such abomination shouldn't even exist in this dimension, I have one possible reason. Our world is being invaded by beings from another dimension. Smash Tower by itself can't repel these beings, since it's usually near-impossible for those beings to show up. And that's where these backup trophies are needed."
"Huh?! These trophies are mere backups?!" Popo is surprised, and so is everyone else.
"Correct. According to the ancient text engraved inside the tower, those trophies are hidden and guarded by spirits until the time has come for them to be used to get rid of the abominations. Also, only the chosen ones are worthy of helping the tower, otherwise the unworthy ones will die when they enter the tower's secret chamber. And apparently, I'm one of the chosen. Samus, too."
"But I thought this trophy more or less belongs to Luigi..." Samus looks at the Super Mushroom trophy.
"Oh, really? So that explains why you're really desperate on rescuing him."
Samus simply nods.
"Anyway, from what I know, there are more of these trophies. We have to find the others as quickly as possible, starting from that Luigi guy." Jeff said.
As the discussion goes on, Link simply doesn't comment on anything, as usual. However, he begins to notice that his feet begin to look slightly hazy and fade into and from nothingness a few times, as if he's going to disappear.
