Samus looked up as the door to her workshop swung open; a rare occurrence. No one usually went out of their way to bother her when she was in this room.
The intruder was none other than Ganondorf, who strolled into the place and stopped in front of her, the workbench separating them. He kept silent as his gaze shifted downwards, examining the blueprints that were messily scattered around on the surface of the workbench.
"Can I help you?" Samus flatly stated, raising an eyebrow as Ganondorf looked back up at her.
The orange-haired man remained as stoic as ever. He seemed in no immediate rush to address the original reason he came to see her, instead picking up one of the blueprints and examining it in further detail. "I see you've been busy." He nodded, satisfied.
"Yes, I have." Samus shot back, plucking the paper from Ganondorf's hands and setting it back on the table. He didn't seem too pleased by her actions, but disregarded them all the same. "Did you just come in here to check on me, or do you actually need something?"
The tall man was not quick to give a response. He frowned, as if trying to rethink his decision, before he ultimately spoke up. "It's been awhile since you've left the house, hasn't it?" Ganondorf mused; it wasn't inherently antagonistic, but Samus took it as such anyways.
"Your point?" She snapped, hiding the concern she felt upon the man's implications. "Obviously, I haven't been unproductive because of it." Samus said, gesturing to the papers on the table.
"I'm not doubting your contributions here." Ganondorf shook his head. "But you know Lucario has escaped, and we can't afford to let it run free for too much longer. It's a very real possibility that it could warn the authorities of our presence, if it hasn't already."
The blonde haired woman huffed, folding her arms across her chest. "So you want me to be the one to go get it? Instead of, I don't know, another lackey who's more interested in doing your dirty work?" She scowled, displeased at the prospect of donning her power suit once more. Still, her question was one of genuine interest. It made no sense for Ganondorf to force her into doing something she didn't particularly want to do when there were others that were both capable of handling the job and willing to pull it off.
"No one else is available for the job at the moment." Ganondorf answered, but failed to elaborate. The lack of detail in his explanation only served to fuel Samus' irritation.
She sighed, running a hand through her hair before her gaze drifted back down to the table, looking at the hand-drawn pictures and notes yet not quite processing the information. The blonde stayed silent, but Ganondorf remained where he was standing, patiently waiting for her to fully agree to the job he had just given her.
Finally, Samus looked back up, pursing her lips in frustration. "I've been here for months, and I still don't get any of this." She grit her teeth. Ganondorf said nothing. "The way you've trapped people here, the things you want us to do, none of it adds up." The blonde shook her head.
Ganondorf remained silent, crossing his arms in front of his chest and keeping his gaze on Samus. She continued. "I don't understand why you feel it's necessary to go through all this trouble to keep people here against their will, and I don't understand what, exactly, you want to do with this whole 'organization' business."
She turned her attention back to the table, shuffling through all the papers until she picked up one blueprint in particular and held it up to the man's face. Depicted on the page was a crisp drawing of an arm and notes hastily scribbled on the side. "Take this thing, for instance. Why are you asking me to try and make something like it? What could you possibly use some fancy prosthetic for in whatever kind of evil scheme you want to pull off next? Are you planning on chopping someone's arm off just to give them this instead? Why?"
"Samus," Ganondorf cut her off, his voice infuriatingly calm. He plucked the paper out of her grasp and set it back down onto the table. Turning her back to her, he strode towards the door, only pausing once and never turning back around. "Have you ever wondered where our powers come from?"
After that statement, he left; leaving Samus to her own frustration.
"Hey, wait up!"
Nana and Popo stopped simultaneously, turning their heads in opposite directions to find the source of the voice. The girl's eyes widened briefly at the person behind her, and she tapped Popo on the shoulder to get him to turn around as well.
"Oh, hi." He waved to the other boy, who had now caught up to them on the sidewalk a few blocks away from the school. "It's Pit, right?"
The winged boy smiled. "You got it. And you two are..." He trailed off, mentally racking his brain for the right names. "Nana and Popo?"
They both nodded, satisfied with the acknowledgement. "So what's up?" Popo asked.
Pit paused, pursing his lips together and suddenly looking anywhere but at Nana and Popo. He was a grade ahead of the both of them, and by the dictation of the social hierarchy and how their school split up classes, he should've had nothing to do with them or their group of friends as a result.
However, Ike and Palutena had insisted that he be left out of whatever conspiracy was in the works in Mashs city, and Pit had had enough of it. If the two of them weren't going to tell him everything, he'd get information from another source; and it was well-known throughout the school that Nana, Popo, and everyone in their friend group had powers.
"I'm just a little worried," Pit finally said. "I guess it's none of my business, but I couldn't help but notice that one of your friends hasn't come to school in a really long time, and you guys seem kind of upset about it. Is everything okay? Did something happen?"
Nana and Popo both paled, looking at one another for guidance and finding none. "Gee, uh, that's nice of you to notice..." Popo started, and Pit just barely picked up on the slight waver in his voice.
"Ness' dog died." Nana suddenly blurted, earning stares from the two boys. "And it hit him pretty hard. So he just hasn't been to school lately because he hasn't really been feeling up to it, you know?" She lied.
"Yeah!" Popo shook off his surprise and joined in. "Don't worry, we've been visiting him and he's getting better, so he should be back at school at some point. Thanks for worrying, though, that's really nice of you."
The winged boy pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at the two of them. They bent a little under his harsh gaze, but still stood their ground. Finally, Pit sighed; he really didn't have any way to prove their lie was wrong without coming off as insensitive. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." He said. "I hope your friend feels better soon, then."
Nana and Popo gave him an approving nod, and Pit turned around, as if to leave. But before he could, he stopped after the first couple of steps, an afterthought coming to mind. "You know," He added. "If you or your friends ever run into any trouble, you can let me know, okay? I know about what's going on in this city." The winged boy half-lied, watching as Nana and Popo flinched.
He hurried off before they could get the chance to call him out on the bluff.
A click resounded through the emptying hall, barely audible among the chatter of students on their way home for the day. Red opened his locker to yet another letter, the light paper falling out. He caught it before it floated to the floor, and though he already knew what it was, turned it over in his hands to confirm his suspicions.
The boy sighed, opening up the envelope with only his name scribbled on the front. He unfolded the paper it contained, reading its contents as he placed the envelope back into his locker.
'Will you be my friend?
Yes/Yes (Circle one)
-Ashley
PS. I'll turn you into a frog if you still say no.'
"Man, you got another one of those?" A voice sounded behind him. Red turned around, greeting Mac with a small nod. "What's the deal with this Ashley chick?"
The other boy shrugged; this was the fifth letter he'd received this month. Still, he folded it up and placed it on top of the other four sitting in his locker. It was a bit pointless to stockpile the papers, but Red just didn't have the heart to throw them away.
If he were approached any other way, the pokémon trainer would have no problem being friends with someone who wanted to be so. But he'd never even talked to Ashley before; they had only ever seen each other in the halls at school. However, the girl was notorious for her insistence on being a witch, as well as her standoffish personality.
Obviously, the claims of witchitude were false (otherwise he would have actually been turned into a frog a long time ago), but she did seem plenty unapproachable to Red. The girl had never bothered to confront him in person, opting instead to slip the letters in his locker. Of course, he could've been the one to initiate the interaction in response to the letters, but the boy wasn't exactly the social type himself. For now, he just couldn't bring himself to do anything on his own.
The boy plucked his phone out of his pocket, pulling up a notes application and typing out, 'How were your classes today?' before flipping the screen around to let Mac read it.
"They were alright," The other boy shrugged, leaning back against the other lockers. "There was a test in my English class, but I think I did pretty good."
Red scrunched his nose up in a silent snicker, erasing his last message to type a new one out. 'You mean pretty well? Lol. Glad to hear it, hope you get an A.'
He barely gave enough time for the boxer to read the response before flipping it back around, his fingers tapping against the screen as he was already writing his next message. Mac rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
The other boy shrugged, flipping the phone back around to Mac. 'Any news from Toon Link and the others?'
"Nothing about any of the captives, if that's what you mean." He replied after he finished reading. "But I heard that the five of them met up with these college kids and this police officer guy. It turns out they were doing their own sort of weird investigating about this whole issue, so I'm pretty sure we've teamed up now, or something like that."
Red's eyes lit up. To think that there were other people out there who had managed to catch on to what was going on without any outside help, and to have run into them! How lucky was that?
Mac read the other boy's expression, and smiled back, but the boxer didn't seem as pleased. "Lucina also said that we should just hang low for now and just focus more on locating potential targets than actively engaging the SSB."
The pokémon trainer paused, lips folding into a frown. He took a moment to think before he tapped out another message. 'Uh, I know Lucina's like, from the future, and probably knows what she's doing, and I can respect wanting to be cautious, but uh, isn't that a little too cautious?'
His friend nodded. "Yeah, I kinda feel the same way. I mean, there's probably a good reason behind it, but I just feel like we won't get anything done very quickly if all we do is work from the sidelines. And maybe it's not a bad thing to them, but the more time we have to take to bring down the SSB, the more time Shulk and Samus and Ness and any other innocent person has to spend stuck with those people. What if we aren't able to take down the organization before something horrible happens to them?"
Red could barely detect the quiver in the boxer's voice, and quickly moved to place a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. While it was true that the two of them had only gotten closer because of the events surrounding the SSB, and the trainer still didn't know very much about his friend's home life, he could guess that the disappearances of Samus and Shulk in particular were hitting him hard. After all, they were his family; how could he not? When all was said and done, Red held a lot of respect for how Mac was handling his situation.
Suddenly, the pokemon trainer froze, his hand moving back to his phone. "Huh?" Mac started, raising an eyebrow at Red as he flipping his phone screen around for him to read.
'I have an idea! I know Lucina said no direct confrontation, but hear me out for a sec. Last time we tried to sneak into their hideout and it didn't go so well, but what if we tried flipping the situation around? Instead of us coming to them, let's try to get them to come to us!'
"Lucario, would you like some dessert?" Rosalina offered, moving to pick up the pokémon's dinner plate. Before she could reach for the dish, it picked it up on its own and stood up, scooting its chair back into place with its hind leg. The blonde haired woman blinked for a moment, then let it follow her to the kitchen sink. As she began washing the plates, Lucario picked up a dishtowel and dried them off, then placing them back into their respective cabinets. The pokémon stayed silent the entire time.
"Ah, thank you." Rosalina said, drying her hands off with a different towel after she finished her task. It had been a good while since the pokémon had come to stay at her house at the suggestion of Peach and the others, and the two of them had yet to break the ice with each other. Lucario insisted on being overly polite with everything, and while the blonde woman appreciated that it was trying to show gratitude for her hospitality, she couldn't help but feel like it also created an awkward barrier between them. "You never answered my question, though." She paused, thinking of something. "Have you ever had chocolate before?"
Lucario frowned, then shook its head. The other hummed in disappointment, then crossed to a different part of the kitchen and opened up the cabinet where she kept food, pulling out a chocolate bar. "Would you like to try some, then? It's delicious." Before she received a definitive answer, Rosalina unwrapped the packaging and broke off a row of chocolate squares, holding it out for the pokémon. Lucario sniffed it, then tentatively took it from the blonde and bit into it.
Rosalina's eyes twinkled in amusement as the pokémon's eyes widened. She could almost hear it start to growl in content before it abruptly stopped, as if refusing to show any weakness. Lucario quickly finished off the rest of the chocolate and bowed its head in thanks, then turned around and left the kitchen, most likely to retire to its room for the night.
The blonde haired woman unwrapped more of the candy and broke a piece off for herself, inwardly feeling a bit of pride that she was able to finally do something to crack the pokémon's aloof attitude. Granted, it wasn't by much, but Rosalina was a patient person, and forcefully dragging Lucario out of its shell wouldn't do either of them any good. For now, she was just content with the baby steps of progress she'd already made.
A soft creaking noise pulled her out of her thoughts. Rosalina started, swallowing the chocolate that was already in her mouth and displacing the rest of the confection on the counter. The sound could've just been the wind pushing against her old home, or Lucario opening one of the more squeakier doors. However, with the events that Rosalina had been made aware of recently, the woman did not want to let her guard down.
She crept out of the kitchen and into the living room, her movement slow and steady so that she didn't recklessly charge into the situation unprepared. The room was empty, save Lucario, who had undoubtedly heard the noise too.
Another creak, barely audible, punctured the tension. Neither could tell which direction it came from, but Lucario raised its paws, which began to glow with its aura. Rosalina reached over to her right for anything to be used as a weapon, her fingers wrapping around a short lamp. She reached down to unplug it from the wall.
"Show yourself!" Rosalina called out, gripping the lamp like a lifeline. The only response was a dull thump, as if something had just fallen onto the carpet. She followed the sound, moving out of the doorway and closer to the couch.
Lucario's ears perked; it gave a quick, sharp bark of warning that sounded too late. An arm covered in orange plating shot out from behind the furniture, nailing Rosalina straight in the gut. She gasped, stumbling backwards from the impact.
The intruder calmly moved out from behind the sofa, their body covered completely in orange armor. Although their face was completely masked by a helmet of the same color, it stared down Lucario as the pokémon stared back, a low growl in its throat. Rosalina, still recovering from the blow to her gut, could only watch to see what would happen.
Oddly enough, the intruder didn't move. "I think you know why I'm here, Lucario." For a moment, the blonde woman thought of the possibility of Robin being the one in the suit; but she quickly shook the thought out of her head. This person was much too tall, and their voice was distorted by the helmet. "Let's do this the easy way, please. I don't want to hurt you." They shook their head, disappointed, but Rosalina could not tell if the feeling was genuine.
Lucario seemed to understand, though. The glow of its paws died down, but they stayed raised.
The figure, too, seemed to lower their guard. They reached out a metal-coated hand, the palm facing upwards, as if asking for an agreement. Rosalina's gut clenched; she didn't need anyone to tell her what that offer was.
Still, the pokémon didn't hesitate. It huffed and shook its head, gently swatting away the figure's hand. Its paws began to glow once more as it prepared for a fight.
Likewise, the intruder clenched their fists; they were the first to attack, swinging out their right arm to land a punch near Lucario's head. It saw the attack coming and ducked out of the way, shooting its own paw out to strike its enemy's stomach. The force of the impact sent them stumbling a couple of steps back, but no real damage had been done to the armor; it even looked like the one who was wearing it was unaffected, as well.
Rosalina's grip loosened from the lamp, her eyebrows furrowed as she watched the two fight, feeling oddly calm about the way they were destroying her living room and how the pokémon was in danger. If Lucario's punch couldn't do anything against that armor, there was no way a measly old lamp could serve as a proper weapon. The blonde had to think outside the box; if they couldn't damage this person with brute force, what else would have to suffice?
An idea hit her, and she scrambled to her feet and back into the kitchen. The orange-clad intruder noticed her disappearance and made to follow, but Lucario launched itself onto them before they could take a step in her direction.
However, it was easily becoming evident that there was little more the pokémon could do to fight against this figure. Brute force was ineffective, and launching an aura sphere in such a small room would surely cause even worse damage than what had already been done (and Lucario refused to ruin anything else in the house if it could be helped).
There was little more than it could do than block any incoming attacks from the intruder, leaving them at a stalemate until Rosalina came shouting from the kitchen, her footsteps fast approaching. "Lucario, duck!"
The pokémon dropped to the floor immediately, leaving the other with no time to react before flames launched forward, straight towards their torso. They threw an arm up in self defense, the metal quickly heating up as the flames licked it. The wearer couldn't have been comfortable with that kind of heat. Lucario stared in awe as its enemy did well to hide their panic, but they wasted no time before rushing across the room and out of the open window, gone in almost an instant.
"Are you hurt, Lucario?" Rosalina asked; the pokémon looked back up at her, a used match in one hand and a can of air freshener in the other. It shook its head, standing back up to its full height. "What a relief," she sighed, discarding the can and match onto a side table and moving to take a seat on one of the ruined couches. Lucario could barely detect the unease in her voice.
It crossed the room to take a seat next to her. Neither of them said anything for a good few moments, hoping the silence and stillness would calm their nerves. "I hope I didn't injure that other person too badly," Rosalina finally mumbled.
Surprise, surprise, I haven't ditched this story. I won't lie though, during that holiday season I had a lot of distractions and not a lot of motivation. But meh, who's even still interested enough to care about this thing anyways, lol? For maybe like the two people who are, here's what I'm thinking right now: this impromptu haitus of mine isn't really over. Part of the reason I'm posting now is to at least let y'all know that. I don't think I'll be able to keep up with the weekly-update thing I wanted to have, which is kind of a letdown for myself, but meh. You live and you learn, and also college comes first. I'm still gonna be writing, but I won't start posting again until I have enough of a 'head start', so-to-speak, to actually keep up with that kind of posting schedule. Stay tuned, I guess, and thanks for reading!