Chapter 12. Teamwork and New Friends.
I covered my face with my hands as a bright light absorbed everyone, and we were teleported away. I appeared in a forest, seeing two girls who were for some reason glowing shades of green and blue. I looked around anxiously for someone I recognized; when a small electric creature ran over to me.
"Hey, Lucas! I guess we're gonna be teammates!"
"Oh, Hi, Pikachu. Are you excited?" I was relieved now that I had someone I knew with me.
"Am I ever! I still don't know what we're doing, but you and I should team up!" I nodded, but averted my attention when a girl with a glowing axe spoke.
"Hi everyone; welcome to glow in the dark capture the flag! I'm Villager*, this is Rosalina, and we're your teammates. We are going to colour everyone the same as our team flag with clothing safe paint, washable hair dye, anything imaginable! Earlier today, we had a meeting on how everyone should be coloured. We decided on defining features, and we're going to make our plans come to life!" Everyone cheered as she concluded the explanation.
"This is gonna be fun!" Pikachu bounced around next to me. I looked around at my other teammates, and was soon greeted by Shulk and Sheik.
"Heya, Lucas! Isn't this cool?" Shulk asked with optimism.
"Yeah, it looks like it's gonna be super fun." I looked over to see Rosalina helping Sonic with his contacts and painting his shoes; while Villager* was dying Samus' hair as she reprogrammed the colour of her whip.
"Before it all starts, we should try to strategize: you know, come up with some kind of plan." A red-haired swordsman said, walking towards us.
"Very smart of you, Roy. I think the most efficient plan would be to put everyone in groups of two or three, and decide on who guards and who approaches." Sheik suggested. They were taking this awfully seriously for something that was just a game.
"I'd say we should pair people up; one with close ranged attacks and one with long ranged attacks, to balance each other out." I didn't know the boy who spoke. He looked like Pit, but he seemed like some kind of mean clone of him.
"I think Lucas and I would make a good team, maybe Pikachu as well." Shulk walked over and stood next to me. I think he knew I was anxious about being away from my close friends. I'd be comfortable around him; he was friendly, and being very encouraging.
"Yeah, I like that idea!" Pikachu stood on his back legs and clenched his fists. I was a little shaken up about having Bowser and that strange alternate Pit on my team, but being with Shulk and Pikachu made me feel a lot better about the competition.
"We aren't allowed to see who is on the team we'll be facing, all that we'll be given is their colour and a map showing the location of their flag. I'm sure if we keep the more agile smashers as defenders, we should do fine." Sheik pointed out.
"It would be best if Sonic and Samus stayed back to guard the ground, and I could keep watch from the air." The dark winged figure commanded.
"Good idea, Dark Pit." Roy nodded at him. Dark Pit... I wasn't fond of him. I knew a fair amount of people in the mansion; for the rest, I either hadn't met them yet, or forgot their name.
I suddenly heard the tall woman with pale blonde hair call my name and turned around. I think her name was Rosalina. She motioned for me to come over; I guess it was my turn.
"Hello, Lucas. Are you enjoying your stay in the Mansion so far?" She made polite conversation with me as she ran her dye-covered fingers through my hair.
"Yeah, it's good. Some of the other fighters are awfully scary looking though." I admitted, frowning nervously.
"They can be rude sometimes; you'll get used to it eventually. If anything ever happens to you, just tell me or Princess Peach; she's put them in their place on many occasions. If you don't feel safe, you can always come to us." She seemed like a very nice lady. No wonder Ness spent so much time with her before I got here.
"Okay. Thank you." I smiled as she finished up my hair. She took a small bottle from the side table and passed it to me. "What's this for?" I asked, curious as to why I was given the little thing.
"You drink it; It will turn all your magic an aqua colour. Whenever you do pk fire, pk thunder, or any of your psi based attacks they'll come out blue." I don't know who the chemist was that made this stuff, but it was really neat.
I drank it with some hesitation. It actually tasted quite nice, it was blue raspberry flavoured. I stretched my arm out and to my surprise, the hexagonal psi was shades of pastel blue and pale and green; rather than the usual yellow and light purple colours. After that, she took the clothing safe paint and painted the red stripes on my shirt. Earlier, Zelda announced that we all had to wear our classic outfits for the event, which made sense now.
I stood up and went over to Shulk, as Pikachu and Roy were called over.
"I say we have Dark Pit, Samus, and myself guard, with Bowser, Villager*, Shulk, Lucas, Rosalina, and Pikachu keeping the other team busy. While that's going on, either Luma, Sheik, or Roy try to get the flag." Sonic recommended, as him and Bowser came over to join our discussion.
"Good idea. Once everyone is ready we'll pair people off and place everyone accordingly. We won't be given the map until 5 minutes before the round starts, so we'll need to have everything else ready in advance." Sheik informed.
Once everyone was finished, we had decided on leaving Sonic, Samus and Dark Pit for defense; and putting everyone in small groups or pairs for mid-field or close offense. Shulk, Pikachu and Myself were put together; as well as Villager* and Roy, leaving Bowser, Rosalina and Sheik. With 5 minutes left before the matches started, we were given a map. Our play area wasn't that big, and it was blocked off by a holographic barrier so people could see the boundaries.
The first two rounds were Citrus against White, and Fuchsia against Indigo, which we got to watch. The other team representatives put the leftover paint and whatnot in the area between the two play fields. They were two lengthy but not very wide areas with the flags at each end. We had to stay behind the barriers once they were activated, so we couldn't interrupt the other teams.
I looked around for the purple eyed psychic, and smiled when I saw cherry coloured psi and a figure with light pink, red billed hat. Ness was on the red team, getting ready with Zelda, and some other pink thing. The first two rounds started, and we seen vibrant blurs of colours heading in all directions. Blasts of orange hopping along branches, along with white flashes of combat heading upwards to counter it.
I stayed focused on my friend, who was closely followed by Zelda and the other pink one. After trying to sneak around, they neared the other team's flag, but were stopped when they seen a strange muscular creature that I remembered being on stage with the other day. Zelda approached by teleporting, but was cornered when she re-appeared.
"Zelda, watch out for Mewtwo!" Ness yelled while trying to defend himself from Fox. Link and a blue haired lady ran up behind the two of them, trying to cover them from the others a few meters away from the flag. Fox tried to block the attacks, but had his shield broken by girl with the blue hair.
Ness ran over to help Zelda, and the muscular figure shot some form of condensed energy at him. He jumped, used his psi magnet, absorbed it, and kicked him out of the way landing beside Zelda to fight off Mr Game and Watch. The other little pink one floated in, grabbed the flag and started to retreat.
I saw Princess Peach and the tall one with the orange beard chase after her as she approached her base, but she tossed the flag down to Luigi. He caught it, and ran back towards their base with Olimar for support. The puffy one was trying to keep Pac-Man and away as best as she could, while Luigi ran on. He got there safely, and the match was given to them.
I didn't know them overly well, but I had liked most people on the winning team. We were up next, taking on the team that was just beaten by Ness' team. The second round started, and Pikachu ran behind the trees ahead of us. The three of us snuck around back there until we were close enough to the flag to see Roy and Luma fighting off the orange-bearded one and Robin. I heard a scream and turned around, to see that Shulk had been ambushed by Princess Peach, and Pikachu ran ahead to help Roy and Luma.
"I'm okay Lucas, stay back here and use your projectiles to your advantage!" He began to glow a dim shade of yellow, and seemed to defend better against the surprise attack from her. I looked over to Pikachu who was helping Rosalina and Bowser near the center of the field. They were fighting Mario and Dr. Mario, while Roy and Luma fought off Pac-Man, Toon Link and Diddy Kong.
Roy and Luma looked out outnumbered, so I sent out pk freeze and ended up hitting Pac-Man. I did a pk thunder to stun the other two after that, leaving Luma to go back with Rosalina, and Roy had the flag to himself.
"Nice!" Shulk congratulated me.
I seen Roy grab the flag and start running back. The rest of our team just had to wall out the others so Roy could get back, and then the match was ours. I sent a pk fire at the 3 who were guarding to keep them back far enough, and Roy was back with their flag within a few seconds.
The next round was us against the yellow team, and the round started with the same strategy. We got to our spot behind trees to see what we were dealing with, and Shulk decided that him and I should go help defend. A lot of people were going ahead rather than staying behind, so his plan made sense. Pikachu went up to try to make a clear path for Sheik, while we went back towards our base.
As we went back along the trees, I heard something approach us from above. Whoever it happened to be was very quiet, but I could still make out something in the trees above us. I let out pk thunder and ended up knocking Robin* out of the tree, where Shulk then fought her off.
"Good job, Lucas. I probably never would have heard her up there." He said, sounding proud of me.
"Thanks!" We ran back and we were met with a penguin-looking figure, and a man with a helmet and a form fitting suit. I dodged the penguin's hammer and hit him with my psi. I grabbed the helmeted one with my rope snake, to throw him towards Shulk. The two were launched towards the sides, and we seen Sheik running back with the flag yet again. The mango coloured team was one of the hardest yet, but we still managed to pull off another victory.
We won our next round against the White team as well; It was similar to the first match, but white was very heavy with defence. Shulk, Pikachu and I were fighting Charizard, Yoshi and Villager for most of the round. It was about 15 minutes until Luma was finally able to sneak in and get the flag, which was our longest fight yet.
Our last round was against the cherry coloured team, which I remembered Ness was on. Pikachu went a different way than Shulk and I, but he said it has something to do with fighting Greninja. Some theory about lightning beating water or something I didn't understand. We spent our time keeping the slower characters from getting to our guards at the base.
I continued to freeze them, leaving Shulk and his sword to do the rest. We seen Samus kicking people towards Sonic for him to grab and throw back, along with Dark Pit shooting arrows from above. Pikachu came running back with something in his mouth, which Shulk saw. He started glowing blue, and suddenly ran a lot faster. He was being chased by Link and the blue haired girl, both of which were catching up fast.
"Throw it here, Pikachu!" Shulk yelled running towards him. He caught the flag and ran back as fast as he could, earning us our final victory.
"Yeah! Awesome job everyone!" Villager* cheered as she high-fived us all. Our team representatives met in the center to figure out who won. Peach and Palutena wrote a few things on her clipboard, and then we were all teleported back.
Samus and Palutena went over to Peach to announce the winners. She picked up her pink and yellow mic and brought up a list of all the team members and their colours.
"Hey everyone! I hope you all had fun tonight with our custom event. Unfortunately we can't give prizes to such large teams, but the winners can absolutely have bragging rights!" Palutena said as the audience cheered. Samus took to mic from her to conclude the event with the winning teams.
"So, we've determined that third place goes to Fuchsia, second place goes to Citrus, and first place goes to Teal! Congratulations everyone!" The number of wins was shown on screen for each team and Ness ran over to congratulate me.
"Good job Lucas, you were awesome! My team was on their break period when you fought Citrus, and you hitting Robin* with pk Thunder was insane!" He high fived me and I smiled.
"Thanks, Ness. I thought your team did good as well!" We were then dismissed by Zelda and Rosalina, and most people started going back to their rooms. It was 1:45 in the morning, so it made sense that everyone was tired. Ness and I both had a really fun time.
I went back to shower and wash the dye out of my hair and shirt, and I heard that the serum that I drank would wear off by the next morning. I thought the event went really well; it was nice that no one was a bad sport about losing.
