Onett
Ever since Ness disappeared, Lucas was starting to feel lonely.
The town had been pretty quiet since then, and all of Ness' friends had ordered a search party. Lucas had explored the town and beyond in search of his best friend, only to find no sign of him.
Today, after another effortless search, Lucas had heard Paula had lost all hope. Boney wasn't even interested in a game of fetch. Kumatora was still going strong but he was weakening by the day. But Lucas held on to his beliefs, just like Ness would.
If his friend had taught him one thing, it would be to never give up… no matter the odds.
And that's exactly what I'm going to do. Lucas though as he ventured off alone into the forest, willing to find Ness at all costs.
The forest was empty, as part of him expected. Well then, if he couldn't find Ness directly, maybe he could find some clues to his disappearance…
The sky rumbled above him, catching his attention. In confusion, the boy watched as storm clouds gathered ahead, lightning flashing inside.
Guessing this to be a threat of some kind, the boy from Nowhere lit up his fingers with PK energy. As he did, something inside the clouds flashed and fell to earth like a stone. Picking up a blue trail behind it, it smashed into the ground just meters away from him.
As a futile attempt to defend himself, Lucas closed his eyes and brought up his PSI Magnet shield from his right hand in case any stray energy rocketed towards him. All that passed him, however, was a cloud of dust that drifted harmlessly.
Opening one eye and lowering his PSI Magnet barrier, Lucas peeked towards the smoking crater. That could have been another meteorite, for all he knew. Cautiously, he creeped over to the crater and looked down.
Inside was a crystal; a strange crystal unlike anything Lucas had ever seen before. With every second that passed, it pulsed with light. As he drew closer, he noticed the light getting brighter…
Telling himself the glow meant nothing, Lucas reached out to it in wonder. The crystal seemed intoxicating… he could feel like this had a connection to Ness' disappearance.
The second his palm rested on the crystal's gleaming surface, tendrils of lightning struck Lucas' body, making him collapse in pain. A second later, he was whisked away from Onett…
…
Feeling drowsy, Lucas slowly opened his eyes to see a gray landscape before him. Groaning, he pushed himself up, trying his best to stay awake. Where exactly was he?
His eyes adjusting to the sight, Lucas immediately noticed worn-down pathways and rusted cages with gaps in the bars. Plaques near the cages were almost indecipherable. Inside the empty cages, Lucas saw some evidence that animals were once held inside. Now, they had managed to escape. Staircases, trees and other buildings lay off in the distance.
Lucas' mind clicked. He was in some sort of abandoned, shut down zoo. But what exactly had caused it to shut down?
As he explored the area, Lucas began to feel slightly creeped out by the silence and emptiness of the ruined zoo. Maybe he should consider leaving…
He continued onward, kicking a discarded soda can in his path. He stopped in the middle of a path, noticing something strange in the air. It looked like a purple particle…
As soon as he spotted it, a bunch more of the particles floated down to join together. Lucas took a step back cautiously, unsure of what to do. The particles rose up, now taking the shape of a weird thing that seemed to be as empty as the zoo.
Before Lucas could do anything, more of those particles landed, forming into more monsters that reached out for him in silence. Eight in total completely surrounded him, leaving no chance of escape.
Lucas looked around in a panic. He had no idea of what to do. Those things would be on him in a matter of seconds, and that would be it…
A loud thud grabbed his attention. Turning to the noise, Lucas' heart dropped as he recognized the source of the sound.
A Pig King statue. If Lucas was right, it needed an insane amount of damage to take it down. Yelping in fear, Lucas bolted away from the scene. The eight creatures turned to give chase, but two of them were crushed beneath the statue's feet. Its arms sent the rest flying. Setting its sights on the boy, the statue lumbered forward as Lucas ran for his life.
More of those monsters showed up in Lucas' path, lunging at him. Lucas swatted some of them away with his stick, blasting others with PK attacks. A whirring noise from above made him look up, all the while never slowing down. Some sort of helicopter thing with gloved arms and the same face as those monsters was holding a bucket, which it dumped down onto the fleeing boy. Lucas yelled out as he narrowly avoided chunks of red-hot metal that crashed down all around him. More of them hovered in to take their share, so Lucas sped up with his lungs working overtime.
Boxes and wooden pillars also stood in his way. Seeing no other choice, Lucas jumped over them and kept running. He heard a series of crashing noises, indicating the Porky statue had smashed clean through them. If there was one thing about it, it was relentless.
The chase was frantic and left Lucas almost tired out, but he refused to stop. The statue chased him through an underground section in which Lucas had to open gates by hitting switches. After that, there was a brief moment of relief when the statue followed Lucas across a large pool and fell inside. Lucas had breathed out a sigh of relief and stopped to catch his breath.
However, for reasons unknown to Lucas, the statue had simply dropped from the sky. Panic and adrenaline flooding his veins once more, Lucas bolted away with the statue stomping after him.
He didn't look back. He didn't want to. He had to find a way to hide from this thing. He had to-
"AUGH!" he screamed as he tripped over something and landed face-first onto the cemented path. Looking over his shoulder, Lucas gasped when he saw his leg caught under a branch poking out from the pavement. Knowing the statue was getting closer, the boy desperately tried to scramble away. The branch held firm, and the poor boy remained trapped.
Fearing this to be the end, Lucas put both hands on his head and whimpered. He mentally pleaded for the stone beast to have mercy on his soul as its shadow loomed over him…
This was it… For a brief moment, the only sound Lucas heard was his own heartbeat, going a mile a minute. Soon he wouldn't hear it anymore…
"PK THUNDER!"
A flash of lightning penetrated through Lucas' eyelids and he heard a loud sparking sound. His eyes shot open and he looked behind him to see the Porky statue collapse to the ground in a heap. A boy floated down directly in front of him and Lucas' heart nearly stopped. Could… could this be?
The Pig King statue righted itself and shook itself off with a low bellow. It launched itself into the sky, with the boy in hot pursuit. Now airborne, the boy shouted out another command.
"PK FLASH!"
A green light flowed out from his body and absorbed itself inside the statue. The stature glowed brightly until…
KABOOM! It exploded into hundreds of stony shards.
Lucas raised an arm to shield himself from the debris as the boy landed. Getting a better look at him, Lucas recognized the baseball cap instantly. "N…Ness?" he whispered.
His friend turned around, adjusting his hat and giving Lucas a smirk. "I saw you fall from a rift in the sky. You landed here and I decided to find you. Good thing I showed up in time, huh?"
"Y…yeah." Lucas muttered, still not believing his friend was right here in front of him.
Something in the smoke whirred, making Ness turn to face his enemy. A lone canister propelled by eight spider-like legs came into view, a pig snout symbol near its bottom and a boy with an open mouth strapped inside.
"Porky…" Ness muttered before turning to Lucas, wiping some PK energy off his hat. "Care to join me? I could use the help."
Looking down at his leg, Lucas noticed that a piece of the statue's debris had destroyed the branch his leg caught on, meaning he was now free. Getting to his feet, Lucas smiled at his friend.
"Use the help? Looks like you need the help!" Lucas said with a chuckle. Smiling back, Ness turned to face Porky with Lucas alongside him…