CHAPTER 12 - TAKEN
A faint gold radiance emitted from the back of Zelda's right hand. She'd just noticed it now amid this whole chaotic flurry of commotion so she glanced down at the top of her clenched palm, but her eyes widened in shock to see that the glow came from none other than her own Triforce of Wisdom.
This could only mean one thing: Link was still alive!
It had to be so. There couldn't be any other explanation. The mystic energy of her Triforce was directly connected with his after all, almost in a spiritual sort of manner. If her energy flowed, then Link's had to be the initiating spark in one way or another.
"Link...! Oh thank the Gods..." Zelda whispered through a sigh of relief, seeming to forget about everything else for a moment. At least, that was until a frightened shriek from someone behind brought her attention right back. The Hylian princess quickly looked back up, only to see the swarm of primids a couple of steps down from her.
"... Hold!" Uttered the dark-blue haired swordsman. His fellow warriors standing beside him appeared unable to hold back any longer. Their hands quivered while gripping tightly around their weapons. They'd even shifted their feet a few small paces backward.
"... HOLD!" He commanded again, this time louder yet more strained.
The front of that robotic horde was now a mere three meters away, but after coming up the royal balcony's final step, they inexplicably came to an abrupt halt.
Foreboding silence ensued. The primids all stood there, just staring straight ahead through their glowing red eyes until it seemed as though an unspoken command had been given. The entire first two ranks raised their weapons in unison, pointing them right at the group of warriors to form a razor-sharp barrier of mechanical swords, spears, and axes.
Daisy, Zelda, and those others could only stare back darkly. That earlier prospect of hope, albeit a slim thread, at least gave them something to try fighting for. But no longer. The bitter reality began setting in, because it really looked like there was nothing left to be done. The warriors certainly couldn't risk charging forward into that razor-sharp barrier, nor was there anywhere else to run.
Peach also kept her tear-lined eyes locked on that menacing mass, just waiting in agony for something more to happen. From behind, she could hear fearful whimpers and cries coming from the dozens of other helpless attendees, huddled closely together back there near all the rubble blocking the exit.
What were the primids waiting for? Why had they stopped like that? A dour and sinking feeling churned inside every one of the survivors.
Was this it, then? Was this how everything was to end for everybody here?
Suddenly, out of nowhere, two huge harpoons shot straight through the dense smoke and lodged deep in the concrete overhang-structure, directly above the royal balcony's top level. Attached to each harpoon's rear was a thick metal cable of some kind, and with a loud twang, they straightened to become fully taut.
People screamed, but something else came right after.
CLINK-CLINK! What looked like a pair of canisters landed in front of the primids, bouncing several times before rolling to a stop right at the feet of Daisy, Zelda, and those warriors. They had but a second to glance down at them, realizing what they actually were, but by then it was too late.
A pin burst out from the top of each canister, followed by a dreaded sharp hiss of what could only be high-pressured gas escaping. No one could see any of it though, for it was something invisible.
Peach suddenly started to feel very light-headed. All sights became blurred; all sounds dampened. She tried inhaling, but found no air to breathe. All she could do was struggle to let a cough spill out.
Time itself began slowing way down as she just watched everything happen through fading senses. Her sister, her dear Hylian friend, and the warriors all covered their mouths, coughing hard and gasping for breath likewise. Each of them stumbled around at the same time, unable to even hold their weapons anymore until one by one, they'd dropped to their knees and collapsed on the floor.
They all lay over there, knocked unconscious without a chance from whatever gas had been in those canisters. The front ranks of primids seemed to cast their stark shadow upon them, staring through those lifeless red eyes all the while and residing in that menacing pose with weapons raised.
Now the weightlessness overcame Peach entirely. Her body and legs felt as though they weren't there at all. She desperately tried reaching an arm out, towards the blurry group of motionless bodies, but just couldn't. Everything went numb as she finally fell to the cold tile floor. Facing upward on her back, one last cough escaped her lips. The muffled sounds of fire and faint shrieks were the only things left for her to hear, until that too drowned out into nothingness.
Her eyelids lowered; she struggled with all her might to keep them opened, but to no avail. Right as they were about to shut though, Peach managed to catch sight of something new coming down through the smokey shroud.
Two silhouetted figures repelled down the cables behind those lodged harpoons, detaching the ropes from their harnesses once they were at the base. Both landed with a thud on the balcony's top level, not far from where those unconscious bodies lay.
All the other horrified royal attendees had fallen dead-quiet. They remained huddled together near the rubble further behind, unable to do anything except watch those two figures swiftly look around in a manner which showed they knew exactly what to do. Each may have been wearing pitch-dark clothing with hoods covering their heads, yet there was something distinct about this duo.
They weren't primids or anything robotic, but rather, they were both very human-like. One was tall and lanky, while the other fared shorter and much more stout.
Nonetheless, they quickly found what, or more accurately, who they'd come down here for. Not uttering a single word or sound, the stouter one hurried over to Peach's motionless figure and dragged her by her limp arms, back to where the lanky one had moved Daisy and Zelda together. With these three princesses now laying right next to each other, the taller figure took some sort of air-powered tool from a rucksack and aimed it down at them.
Out shot an elastic net which spread all the way around the unconscious trio, slipping underneath and tying them up tight like a cocoon.
Apparently the stout one boasted quite a bit of strength because he grabbed this bundle of princesses and hoisted them up over his shoulder without a hitch. The duo then took those hanging ropes attached to the cables from their descent and quickly fastened them back onto their harnesses. Finally, the lanky accomplice pulled out another small remote once done and wasted no time in flicking the switch on it.
Upon a second glance, their ropes had been part of a miniature winch mechanism set around those taut cables. Each one revved up and immediately began lifting these two mysterious figures back into the air, along with their bundled prize.
As for the unconscious warriors and those other surviving attendees, they were all being left to their fate.
The horde of primids kept standing rigidly with weapons raised, until it looked like they eventually took another step forward. Part of a huge black smoke column suddenly drifted across, obscuring anything that would've happened next.
Nothing more was seen down there on the royal balcony.
Nothing more was to be known.
Music: "Beautiful Lie"
Blades clashed, fists bunted, flames roared, energy bursts struck, robotic body parts flung every which way, and misty storms of particles spewed up amid the melee's ongoing mayhem.
Grunting with all his might, Mario hurled another primid head-first into the AstroTurf, only to then look up just in time and spot that tiny pair of shadowy figures ascending through the air. They were so high above that this was the first time Mario had even noticed those taut cables stretching all the way down from the Halberd's opened loading bay, but his blue eyes widened upon seeing the shape of that tight bundle being carried by the figures.
There was no fooling his mind. Mario knew right away that bodies had to be in the bundle, especially since he saw how they'd risen from the smoke shrouding royal balcony. The question was though, just who were they taking?
Yet, it seemed he had the strangest notion of clairvoyance on that as well.
A flash of memory... this tournament's representative princesses, honorably announcing themselves right before the opening ceremony had commenced...
Only three did stand there at the very front of the royal balcony, beautiful dresses cladding each in the day's glorious light...
One had been a silvery white, another had been a dark yellow, and the third had been a rosy pink...
Mario felt sharp aches throb in his chest when the dreadful realization came together.
Princess Zelda, Princess Daisy, and... Princess Peach!
They were the ones being taken! They had to be the ones!
He took a step back on wobbly legs, struggling to comprehend the implication. On one hand, this could've meant that they were still in fact alive! Maybe they'd survived those first missile impacts! On the other hand, he just couldn't know for sure. The only thing he felt dreadfully certain of was that they were the ones being taken. There was somehow no other possible answer.
Now Mario felt his eyes starting to tremble, unable to hold a tear back any longer. It leaked down his cheek while he watched those tiny figures rise all the way to the hull, disappearing behind a wavy plume of haze when they got there. The taut cables detached, collapsing atop an upper portion of the stadium.
"Take this, you SCUM!" Mario then heard a furious Meta Knight yell. His gaze finally lowered, focusing on the blue star warrior who leaped from primid to primid, thrashing them in whatever way he could. He grabbed hold of one's feathered antenna and barbarically smashed the top of his head right against its dark metallic face, crumpling it to pieces. Kirby also sprang past, leaping up to deliver strong kicks and punches to another few nearby.
Quivering hands gripped onto Mario's shoulder from beside him. Luigi mouthed words, trying to say something frantic, but everything fell mute. His older brother just stared back at him, cold and numb with that devastation over what likely happened to their princesses.
How? How could he try to tell him in all this madness right now? Just how would he even begin to say it?
Then there was Link! What about him? Did he know anything about how Zelda had been taken, either?
Nonetheless, the other smashers fought on in a chaotic blur around the brothers. Ike, Roy, Marth, and a frenzied Lucina tried to stay close to one another, fending off any approaches. Similarly, Captain Falcon and Little Mac seemed to stick together, while Red had joined back up with his brave pokémon. Alternately, Link was largely fending for himself, using both his sword and shield. He fearlessly bashed right up against primids of all types before swinging and slicing them to pieces.
Even the blonde-haired boy started wandering slowly around this proverbial battlefield alone, sporadically engaging primids but easily pummeling them into mist. It certainly seemed he knew how to defend himself, despite still being in a half-entranced state.
Just over half of the primid horde had been destroyed by now, yet this was only here, on what remained of the smash platform. Swelling ambiance from around the rest of Midair Stadium revealed something far more grim and haunting that'd been transpiring this entire time. Intense fighting had erupted all over the vast arena, but more and more, it became one-sided. Hardly anyone in the panicked crowds even knew how to fight, so they stood no chance against the swarming primid masses.
No mercy got shown. No remorse whatsoever. Countless people had been slain while trapped, or cut down in the aisles while trying to flee. Many just stood frozen in place, completely paralyzed with fear and meeting the same gruesome fate by sword, spear, or axe. Some did attempt to fight back, but it made no difference in the end. When one primid fell, twenty more were there to replace it.
Rubble lay everywhere. Fires kept raging across destroyed seating sections all over, with untold numbers of victims strewn about each vicinity from those missile blasts earlier. All the while, literal floods of screaming people packed through any and every exit to get out of the arena, but the multiplying armies of primids simply started pursuing them into the corridors.
Their sole purpose couldn't have been more clear. It was to cause as much chaos and carnage as possible.
"HAAAGHH!" Lucina effortlessly parried an incoming slash and countered with full force, stabbing all the way through the primid's head. Then she reared around and let out another fierce cry, about to strike the figure she sensed was right behind her, but froze in her tracks when she realized who.
The blonde-haired boy stood there rigidly, having stopped fighting. He'd been gazing up instead, at the horrors everywhere high above him.
Confusion overtook Lucina now, causing her battle-hardened focus to get thrown off entirely. She didn't know how to react at all, especially since the last time she'd seen this strange boy, he wasn't even on his feet. For several moments the blue-haired warrior princess did nothing but stare at him, when a spike of sudden pain exploded from the side of her right leg.
"AHH-!" Everything flashed red in her mind. She glanced down to see a primid's mechanical blade stuck quite deep in her flesh. Enraged beyond measure, she grabbed the robotic arm and pulled the blade out from her leg before violently hacking that primid apart.
"N-Nghhh!" Lucina gritted her teeth and hunched over, groaning against this agonizing pain. Blood spilled out of the wound, running down along her tight legwear. She tried putting pressure on it, but immediately got forced to fight almost a dozen more primids lunging at her.
How many had she even destroyed thus far? Probably upwards of thirty, at least, yet they just kept on coming. She raised her blade with only one hand and clashed hard, managing to block several swings in rapid sequence.
Slowly but surely, the wounded princess started to limp backwards. Half her fighting strength was suddenly taken away, although her will remained. She would try and fight on to the bitter end despite feeling more and more fatigued. Her left hand firmly clutched her sword's hilt, while her right hand kept holding the bloody side of her leg.
What Lucina didn't realize, however, was that she'd been backing up straight toward the platform's edge. By the time she looked over her shoulder to see where her footing was, not even a meter lay between her and the ledge.
She gasped loudly, feeling cold swells within herself.
A ways over, Ike yanked his great sword's shaft out from a primid's torso. He came to notice that Marth and Roy were still fighting tirelessly nearby, but not Lucina. Then he heard a faint struggling cry from somewhere behind him. He knew right away it was her voice, yet through the blur of mist and figures running by, what he caught sight of locked his attention.
Lucina stood right there at the ledge, precariously surrounded by those dozen or so primids. She couldn't react fast enough to destroy any of them due to being both wounded and exhausted. Her eyes were now wide with panic and fear.
What made Ike snap though was when a primid gave one last powerful strike, knocking Lucina's Dual-Falchion sword clean out of her hand. It disappeared from sight below the edge, leaving her utterly defenseless.
"NOOOO!" Bellowed the mercenary, making a mad sprint all the way over. Both hands clutched his great sword's hilt and he swung as hard as he could, unleashing his most devastating slash yet. Every one of the primids that surrounded Lucina got their heads severed clean off, much to her shock.
She'd covered her face, though once she saw Ike standing right there, all she could do was start weeping softly. Tears rolled down Lucina's cheeks again, not so much from the searing pain of her wound, but a bleak realization. Everything had been lost; her family, many of her friends, and now her cherished sword. She'd been rendered helpless to even fight back. This was also the second time Ike had saved her life so quickly, which'd only come from her own mistake of getting distracted.
Lucina couldn't feel anything now, other than the strangest shame.
"... Hey?!" Seeing her injured state, Ike asked frenetically, "C-can you move alright?!"
Unable to face the mercenary any longer, she pivoted her head away, looking down at her blood-soaked hand as it pressed hard on this ghastly leg wound.
"Lucina!? Here, let me-!" Right as Ike stepped beside her to try and help, he caught a glimpse of something dreaded in his peripheral vision above. Another huge support beam from the retracted roof's framework had broke off and was barreling straight down, but before Ike could even utter his next word, it struck.
CRASH! A mere couple of meters next to where they stood, the unimaginable force from the impacting beam cleaved the ledge apart. The very surface gave way beneath their feet, swinging downward and causing Lucina to flail backwards.
"AAAAHHH!" Over the edge she started tumbling, but Ike made a desperate dive onto his belly and barely managed to grab hold of her bloody hand. Now he lay there, partly hanging over the tilted edge himself while a panicked Lucina dangled below.
"Lucina...!" He firmly shook his head. "Don't...! DON'T YOU LET GO!"
She writhed frantically and struggled to get a better grip around his hand, yet the slick blood all over her finger-less glove prevented her from doing so.
"HERE!" Ike then lowered his other arm, yelling, "GIVE ME YOUR OTHER HAND!"
Despite trying with all her might, Lucina just couldn't manage to fully grasp his other hand.
"COME ON! REACH!"
"Ahahhh! I-I can't...! I'm... I'm slipping!"
Bit by bit, the blue-haired princess felt her fingers sliding out. Several long and agonizing moments of more attempts went by, until everything seemed to come to a stop.
"I-Ike...!" She gasped, tears leaking down her face as she stared helplessly into Ike's own frightened eyes.
"No... DON'T...!" He desperately pleaded, but nothing could change the inevitable outcome. An empty, fearful sigh was all Lucina gave as the last of her blood-soaked fingers slipped from the mercenary's grip.
In this frozen wave of silence, she fell.
"... LUCINAAAAAA!" Screaming at the top of his lungs, Ike watched in utter devastation as her limp figure got smaller and smaller down in the open-air. Both arms kept hanging there over the ledge, before he clenched his trembling hand that was stained with Lucina's blood.
Now, a thick tear streamed down the mercenary's own rigid cheek. His eyes boiled with the bewildered rage of how he couldn't manage to save her. Lucina had made no further cry nor sound; she just fell, almost in a way that seemed willing.
Soon enough though, after straining to let out a bitter sob, Ike forced himself to refocus. He slowly got back on his knees and numbly looked over to see a pair of wide blue eyes upon him. The blonde-haired boy lay nearby, propped up on his elbows after having been knocked onto his back from the beam's jolting impact. He'd witnessed this whole tragedy unfold not far in front of him, but he wasn't the only one.
Similarly dazed from all the ongoing mayhem, Mario kept standing there with Luigi clinging onto his shoulder. The battle raged, prompting his weary gaze to wander around in horror and see more of the smashers getting overwhelmed.
Little Mac had drifted apart from Captain Falcon and fought alone. He landed rapid punches on the primids' metallic bodies, swiftly sidestepping any attempted strikes back before finishing them off with strong haymakers or uppercuts. However, he was becoming exhausted; panting hard and grunting with every desperate swing of his gloved fists. The robotic figures mounted on Little Mac more and more, until one suddenly approached in his blind-spot.
It swung its axe upward, but by sheer chance, the flat side was what struck the young boxer right across his head; knocking him out cold. The force made his body tumble all the way back and roll over the platform's opposite edge, disappearing from sight altogether.
"MAC! NOOO!" Mario heard Captain Falcon yell from a ways over, looking just in time from beating down a primid to see it happen. Link dashed behind him and sliced another sword-wielding primid's torso in half without a mention, right as it'd begun lumbering up.
Then there were Marth and Roy. Despite having lost sight of both Ike and Lucina, they'd managed to stick together and were trying to head back towards Red and his pokémon still deep in the fray. Ranks of primids constantly moved across and blocked their path, forcing the two heroes to skirt dangerously close along the ledge. Nevertheless, they cut their way through with relative ease, until a primid's spiked fist swung and caught on Roy's cape.
"GUAAKKH!" It yanked hard around the red-haired swordsman's neck, making him lose all balance and spin. Before he even knew what'd happened, he leaned right out over the ledge with a foot slipping half-way off. The single counterbalance holding him back was his stretched cape, stuck on that mechanical spiked fist. It started tearing slowly, only to rip loose all of a sudden.
Petrified, Roy fell forward into the chasm until a slender hand shot out and grabbed hold of his arm. Marth had mere milliseconds to lean back and brace for the weight, but he'd completely underestimated just how much it was. He too got pulled off his feet, tumbling out over the ledge and plummeting with his red-haired companion to their fate.
No more were they seen, while everything else swept by in what felt like a flash.
The once-massive primid horde diminished more and more, largely from the unrelenting fighting power of Red's Pokémon. Only a handful were eventually left, standing scattered about the platform. A still-furious Meta Knight took it upon himself; leaping around to each and every one of those remaining primids. He relentlessly pelted them back into mist with his bare fists, but after the very last one smacked the turf, the blue star warrior couldn't restrain himself any longer. He bellowed through a pure, unfettered rage:
"... GRRAAAAGGHHH!"
Naught but brooding stillness followed, enveloping him and the other surviving smashers. Mario, Luigi, Captain Falcon, Link, Ike, Red, his five Pokémon, the boy, Kirby, and himself were all who survived here. Most panted with exhaustion from their adrenaline long since wearing off, but another despairing sensation had set in.
They now could see the true extent of the horrors above; the horror of how Midair Stadium was all but in ruins.
Friends had been lost. Families torn apart. Seating sections high above still had whole crowds of panicked people trying their damnedest to escape this arena. Then there were the pursuing swarms of primids, as well as the dreaded notion of what chaos could be going on inside the corridors.
Meta Knight's eyes welled with tears a second time at the mere thought. He felt sickened; not so much from believing the fight was temporarily over, but more so because his own battleship had been responsible for causing all this carnage and collateral destruction. It'd been hijacked from him, yet as for what exactly happened, he just couldn't recall much of anything right now.
Finally though, he glanced back over at Kirby and opened his mouth to break the silence. Hesitation overcame him instead, for the pink star warrior was gazing upward through widened eyes. All the others, including the boy, were warily looking up for that matter, so Meta Knight quickly did the same.
Something new was descending through the vastness of the stadium, amid the ash-filled air.
A dark, rounded silhouette carrying some sort of spherical cargo steadily came down through towering plumes of dark smoke, until the group could actually make out what it was. Green robes and a long hat clad this shadowy figure, while a pair of glowing yellow eyes shown from its otherwise shrouded face. The object it carried beneath revealed to be a large metallic sphere, marked with horizontal red lines and a stark 'X' on its front.
After getting to about ten meters or so above the smash platform, this cloaked figure hovered there and gazed down at the group of survivors. No one knew what to think or feel at all, though Red's pokémon were certainly tensed up. Pikachu hunkered on all fours while Charizard growled deeply. Meta Knight also narrowed his eyes, bearing the strangest indication that he might've recognized what, or even who this figure was.
Without any warning, the large sphere got released and dropped heavily on the turf right in front of everyone.
Nothing more happened at first; they all just looked at this foreboding red 'X' facing them, but then the sides let out a sharp hydraulic hiss. Each half started to extend outward, splitting the 'X' straight down the middle. The entire sphere opened apart to reveal a big glass tube within this metal casing.
What lay inside the glass though left everyone dumbfounded. A black orb with a tint of bluish-purple floated there in the center, held in place by arcs of electricity. Just below it was a display panel, with what appeared to be a time code reading five minutes.
Glancing back up, Meta Knight stared coldly into the hovering figure's yellow eyes. All it offered in return was a slow, single nod; one which almost seemed to acknowledge who Meta Knight and the others were, and what fate they would soon meet.
That wasn't the only factor either, because several low-toned beeps abruptly sounded from the little display. Those numbers on the time code didn't read five minutes anymore. Rather, it now read three, then four, then five seconds less.
Everyone's hearts just about stopped. This was a timer on some sort of bomb, and it was counting down right in front of them!
The cloaked figure waited no longer and quickly ascended the whole way through the stadium's vast space. After disappearing back into the Halberd's cargo bay, the huge bay doors came to life once again; sliding together and shutting with loud clangs.
Slowly but surely, the massive dark underside of Meta Knight's battleship began to drift forward, allowing rays of the bright afternoon sun to start piercing through the thick clouds of haze and ash.
Daylight finally returned to the open-roofed arena, but how everything had changed.
Each second on the timer kept falling by one of those dreaded low beeps. The smashers and that blonde boy all seemed frozen where they stood, fearfully watching these red digits count down without the slightest idea of what to do.
This very well may have been the bitter end.
"Um... hey, you guys."
All of a sudden, someone's voice spoke up. It was Captain Falcon, and he couldn't have looked more determined. Nearly everyone glanced over at him as he announced:
"... I think I've got an idea."
Whatever his plan, it needed to be fast. Close to half a minute had already gone by with no sign of the timer stopping.