A/N Nice to see you again, mysterious reader

Welcome to chapter 20! Chapter 20 is.. not a milestone!? Therefore, there will be no milestone party today.

It's Lucas's perspective this time

Nintendo owns everyone, they even own me

Please enjoy!


Chapter 20: Thinking


The vehicle sets off.

Duster claps, addressing everyone in the carriage. "Alright! We should start off with names, hm?"

I don't want to do names - I don't want to get too attached to these people! We're riding to our deaths, for goodness sake.

A woman smiles. "The name's Tessie. I'm the innkeeper at the Yado inn."

A man sniffs. "Good day. I am Sebastian. My position is the Butler for Pusher…"

The man next to him pushes him. "I'm sure you all know who I am. I am Pusher. The richest man in Tazmily, and henceforth the mayor of Tazmily, well, before that Porky came along."

A younger looking boy pipes up. "And I'm Ollie! Pusher's son. Nice to meet you all!"

A stern looking woman stares around at us all. "And I'm Elmore. Pusher's wife. What are you all looking at, huh?"

I clear my throat. "I'm, uh, Steven," I lie. My name is definitely not Steven. "I'm a... visitor. I was staying with Duster."

"That old codger?!" Elmore sniffs. "We should push him out onto the road!"

Duster folds his arms. "Now 'ey! Let's not have any o' that, m'kay?"

A different woman smiles more pleasantly. "I'm Caroline, the baker, and this is my daughter, Angie."

A young teen girl, presumably Angie, sticks out her tongue. "Why isn't Fuel coming along, mother?"

Caroline looks at Angie. "We've discussed this. Fuel and Lighter are staying back to protect the village. They don't trust Porky."

A man cheers from the corner of the carriage. "I'm- hic- Matt! We're going to be free! Woo-hoo!"

"He loaded up on the alcohol at my inn," Tessie explains, grimly.

The final person in our carriage looks up. "I'm, uh, Reggie."

"Good to meet you all," I say, bracingly. "But, we need to get out of here, as quickly as possible."

"Reggie disagrees," says Reggie, "Reggie thinks we should stay! Porky is offering us something great."

This is going to take me a while. "How do you know it's not a trap?"

"Why would it be a trap?"

I grimace. "He could - oh, I don't know - enslave everyone who arrives in his city? You'll never live a free day again."

Elmore glares. "And how would you know? You're just some troublemaker. You're a visitor! You don't even live in Tazmily."

I sigh. "Well then. Allow me to tell you my story."


Everyday, everyone wakes up, in their beds, wherever. But what nobody realises, is that every single day, any ordinary day could be the day. The day where something happens, something completely unexpected, that could completely change their lives. For better or for worse.

The smallest actions could have the largest consequences - say, last night, you forgot to extinguish the fireplace. In the morning, you wake up, to find that your house has burnt down. Your life is changed.

However, every morning, we wake and we breathe and we live without fear, without knowledge, any of the potential inevitable. One day, in the future, you will wake up, and it will be the day that you will die. You might not even know it, in the morning of that day. To you, it may just be an ordinary day - you might be going out, to work in the factory, as usual, but what you don't know, is on the way to the factory gates… you'll be stabbed. It may just so happen that a criminal has chosen that specific time to go to the specific place where you are, to stab someone, that ends up being you. You, perhaps, wouldn't have been in that place, at that time, if you'd decided to have one slice of bread instead of two… if you'd had one slice of bread, you would've been early. Again, the smallest actions can have the largest of consequences. You could've got to work before the criminal reached their destination.

...So, why don't we worry about everything? If every little action could inadvertently lead to our deaths, shouldn't we be extremely careful? The truth is no. We don't know when, or how, we will die, so there's no point, being picky over every little thing. That wouldn't be self preservation, that would be stupidity. So what should we do? We should live everyday to the fullest. We should embrace every day, though living with care, and we should start those projects, start that new idea, because today might be the day you die, and if you die, well, you won't be able to start the projects at all. You won't be able to finish that project that you love to do. Because every day, you wake up, and it may become a day that changes your life.

One day, my life completely changed. I had, indeed, woken up that day expecting mere normality. If I hadn't been in the right place at the right time, nothing would have happened, on that day. If I hadn't performed the small action - staying behind at the end of maths, to ask a question - it wouldn't have happened. I was young - 7, 8? I walked down the corridor, into the lunch hall, at exactly the right moment to encounter the regular bullies at exactly the right position in the cafeteria, just in the eyeline of a certain dark-haired boy - and those bullies had of course, threatened me, knocking my sandwiches to the ground. Ness had seen. Ness happened to be looking in that exact direction, at that time - he saw the incident, and he rushed to my defense. I didn't know him - I'd never spoken to this boy. I knew he was in some of my classes, but he usually stuck with Toon Link and Inkling. And so, I was invited over, to sit at their table - another small action, but one that has ended up meaning the world. And so, my life was changed.

I open my eyes. I should've taken philosophy, darn it, this is what happens if I'm alone with my thoughts for too long. Since Ness just, kind of went, during dinner, I've been worried. I cooped myself up - a bad habit, I know - in a cupboard, upstairs. I need to think, I need to be alone.

Ness has fallen into a spiral of decline. Everything keeps happening, and it's all piling on top of him, weighing him down, making him gloomy. He hasn't laughed as much, progressively throughout this last week. He's not bouncing up, happily, when he sees me - he's starting to hide himself away, and he's often off in another world of his own. I want to blame myself. I really want to blame myself - but for once, I know, this isn't really my fault. Sure, there's a ton of stuff after me, trying to bring me an untimely death, and Ness is worried about that, but that's simply not my fault. However, it is my responsibility to keep him safe… if they're after me, they could very well be after him too. We need to keep by each other's backs - so the last thing we need is to distance ourselves from each other. We're both… psychic. I feel a small tingle thinking about it - me, magical? It's hard, so hard to believe, but it all does make sense. I'm slightly excited, slightly nervous - if the cost of magical power is being attacked by Future Humans, possibly being bullied by Olimar and Meta Knight, though we still don't know if that's actually related, weird people attacking me in the shower, and The Face following us around… then I don't think these powers are particularly worth it.

The Face bothers me. The Face simply doesn't fit. We know that someone is behind the Future Humans, and that same person was probably the person who attacked me in the shower, and who also tried to burn the book; Magical monsters and mythical creatures, "V". I feel the spine in my pocket. I'm unsure, completely unsure what the V section of the book's spine is, or was supposed to be… But, anyways, we know that one person, someone inside the school, is behind most of the things, and likely behind the disappearances too, but seemingly, The Face is an exception

I have a very nasty theory. I think that the Future Humans used to be actual people - who knows from how long ago. They could even be… reanimated corpses. Eurgh! But I think they're broken - I don't think they're supposed to speak Latin. I think in the… conversion process, I think something goes wrong. That's why as we keep seeing more and more, they look different, better, stronger.

I shiver, violently. I badly, so badly want to be wrong. It's just a theory… And what about The Face? The Face still doesn't fit that theory, at all. The Face doesn't make any sense! I can't help but feel that it is simply completely disconnected from this mystery. Then there's the grave, which I'm even less certain about. It could mean anything. I ball myself up, in the cupboard - Toon Link and Villager and Red are probably having a great time out there, but I lock myself away when I'm scared. I'm really scared. I'm just me, I'm just Lucas, I can't fight against all of this stuff that's coming for me. One day, I'll wake up, and it will seem like an ordinary day, but it will be the day that they catch me… I think of the Cloak. The Cloak, throughout the dream, it always came for Ness, it never gave up. Constantly moving - never ending. That's my life - except, The Cloak seems to be Future Humans and a mystery person going after me, always coming after me… I can't evade them forever. They will eventually catch me… the thought gets me down. It weighs me down like Ness is so weighed down too…

Ness. The therapy with Rosalina should help, I hope, but there's a whole weekend to power through first. So much could happen before Monday, when school starts up again. Heh. School. Magical powers, loads of weird things happening… But of course, we still have school. There's a sort of delicious irony to it.

I stand up. I can't stay in this cupboard forever. I've given Ness time to himself - I need to go and find him.

He's in the dorm, as expected. Buried 6 feet deep under all the covers, I can just see one of his feet sticking out… he must be roasting under there! I wander over, and pull off all of the blankets.

"Hey," I whisper.

His face is mellow - there's the stains of tears on the sheet below him, and my stomach suddenly lurches. He looks up at me, and smiles slightly, softly - I dive in and hug him. I don't like seeing him like this - seeing him sad. He deserves to be happy. He deserves to love himself.

"Mmf- Lucas!" Ness hugs back, slightly alarmed.

"I'm really sorry you're going through so much, Ness."

Ness nuzzles me. "It's not your fault, Luke."

Luke… he's not called me Luke in forever. I blush vigorously. "Are you feeling better now?"

He nods. "I've… yeah, I've come to terms with some things… I'm magic. We're magic. I'm gay. That's all… okay."

I rub his back. "That's good."

I know he won't be completely okay, not yet, but this is a start. It's looking up! I hug him more, happily.

"Lucas, you goof," Ness hugs me back, before changing his mind. "No, I'm the goof. I'm sorry."

I poke him, and he pokes me back, and we burst into fits of laughter - oh, it's such a relief to have happy Ness back, even if this may only be temporary. He starts to tickle me, causing me to fall out of bed onto the floor, laughing hysterically - curse my sensitive skin! I drag him down with me, and Ness yelps as he tumbles down.

He catches his breath. "I'm ready to read the how-to-do-psychic-stuff book now," he informs me, after calming down. I'm glad - I've hidden it well, but I'm burning with such curiosity...

I take the book off of the shelf, still full of residual laughter, and I place it in front of us. I open it up. "Let's try not to destroy anything while trying all this out, hm?"

Ness laughs. "Yeah."

He takes my hand, and we start to read, together:

The PSI (psychic) branch of magic is simultaneously the oldest and the rarest branch of magic that is currently known. Back in 400 BC, in the long-lost realm of Earthbound, sir Ninten wrote down and analysed the magical abilities that he found himself to have. They were found to strongly link to the psychic branch of magic - Ninten's journals of magic are the oldest known record of any magic. However, when Ninten wrote these journals of his magical abilities down, he was swiftly compromised by the authorities, as magic was, and still is, an illegal practice. Ninten was locked up for a number of months, and upon his release from jail, he knew he had to do something to hide his magical abilities.

He had to teach himself how to hide his abilities - which was how he learnt how to control those abilities. He chronicled this in his journals, inadvertently informing the future generations how to hide their magic too.

Ninten soon died, and supposedly, his magic died with him. His journals were left on a shelf, in his home, and his home was left uninhabited for a number of years.

Over 100 years later, a family moved into this house. They were short of money, and the best that could be offered was this 100 year old house, in thorough disrepair. They moved in. On one particular night, the two children of this family (according to records they were named Hiydas and Jańas) discovered the journals of Ninten on the shelf. They went outside to attempt to recreate these abilities, and it so happened that Hiydas had been born with the LYT (Light) powers. The instructions on PSI power in the journals were reportedly enough, however, for Hiydas to learn how to use his own powers. Hiydas reported this story by adding to the journals of Ninten with his own words. It's unclear what happened to Hiydas afterwards, but Hiygas wrote, after his descriptions of the LYT powers:

"Have to run. These books are going to be buried in the forest."

Experts have suggested that Hiydas's light powers were noticed by the residents of their town, and the journals were henceforth buried in the local forest.

Multiple years later, the journals were discovered by a woman named Sashimi. Sashimi did not have any magical powers of her own, but she kept the journals on her shelf, as the idea of magic and the LYT and PSI abilities within the journals interested her. One night, however, Sashimi's house was robbed by a man named Didyas. Didyas was a distant descendant of Hiydas, and he happened to also have shown signs of magical powers. He had mastered the ELM (elemental) powers already, in order to rob Sashimi. He ended up stealing the journals, reading them, and he added his story and a record of how to use his powers to them.

A friend of Didyas visited, who Didyas had entrusted with information about his own powers. This friend demonstrated the DPL (diplomatics) powers, and information about those powers were hence added to the journals by Didyas's (unnamed) friend. Didyas then locked the journals in a large chest, and arranged for them to be taken up the town's mountain, to be guarded by a ferocious pack of wolves that were known for slaughtering the sheep and sometimes the residents of the town. However, on the way to the top of the mountain, Didyas, carrying the chest, was arrested for the robbery he committed on Sashimi. Sashimi inherited the chest again, and she simply left it in a room of her house until she died. The chest's key had since been lost, so the chest was auctioned off.

The winner of the auction was a very rich man called Joaquim. Joaquim, it is written, had made his fortune due to his CRN (creation) powers, that allowed him to create gold. Joaquim stored the chest in his house, and used his powers, that he'd kept very secret, to create a new key to open up the chest. Joaquim read the journals, and added his CRN powers to them. Joaquim then used his CRN powers to create 6 magical stones - one representing each of the powers, and one representing a power he had theorised - the power of Time. No such people with powers of Time have been discovered however. He hid these stones up the mountain, guarded by wolves. It is not known what these stones did, but they appeared to kickstart a sudden influx of people being born with magical powers. It is suggested that the 5 stones are the 'roots' of the five branches of powers - their existence enables more people to be born with powers, and they enable them to use those powers too.

Joaquim then used the CRN powers to create multiple copies of Ninten's journals, to sell to people that needed help with their new-found magical abilities.

Meanwhile, the possession of magical abilities appeared to be entirely localised in the town where all this had taken place, and where the stones were located, until a great empire invaded this small town. The empire stole all but the stone of Time - the stone of Time had unusually disappeared. As the empire took and sold these stones, people with magical powers started appearing within the empire. Experts suggest these stones somehow alter the genetics of people, to 'make them magical.'

Magical experts, in secret, studied the magic of all of the 5 different branches of magic. Unusually, though only one or two people with PSI have shown up since Ninten. Only 6 people with PSI powers, including Ninten, have been discovered, most recently Ness and Lucas-

Ness and I look at each other in alarm upon seeing our names.

More journals and books have been written since those, including this one, which include further details about the branches of powers. The first people to have each of the different powers (Ninten, Hidyas, Didyas, Didyas's friend and Joaquim) before the stones were created, all appear to have been the most powerful of their kind. An example is that never, since Joaquim, has anyone with the CRN power been able to create gold or magical stones.

The stones gradually spread around the world. The location of them is generally unknown, especially the time stone, which is completely lost. It has been theorised that the Time Stone can send people back in time, which would explain why the stone is unable to be found - as the stone would've likely gone back in time with these people. The current location of the psychic stone is believed to be in a vault of Onett city's bank.

This book will now outline how to use the psychic power:

Ness sighs. "About time, the big magical fairytale was nice and all, but it's unimportant."

I shrug. "The time stone sounds cool."

"And scary - I wouldn't want to be sent back in time!"

We carry on reading.

The PSI powers split into three branches. Ninten was unique in that he possessed all three of these branches of power. Every other PSI user can be defined by a single branch. The branches are:

Empath: Strong likelihood to reflect the emotions of other psychics. Often emotional, but kind. They frequently share dreams with other psychics, and can perform the telepathic ability and weak forms of the Fire and Ice powers. They are good at sensing how others feel.

Elemental: Seperate from the elemental branch of power, elemental psychics can perform strong Ice and Fire powers. Otherwise, they can occasionally share thoughts with people.

Predictive: These branches of psychics often get feelings and notions about certain things, such as the presence of danger, or other people's emotions.

Ness points to the empath section. "That's definitely me. Emotional is about right, heh-"

I, meanwhile, look at the categories, perplexed. "Ness, I think I fit all of them. I think it was me who accidentally used the ice to put out the fire in school, and I definitely get notions about things, and also we share dreams, and…"

"Ryu did say you were extra-powerful," Ness reminds me. "Show off-"

I laugh. "Well, that's quite something. I'm the first psychic since Ninten to possess all three branches. Of course."

Ness nods. "I'm in awe."

"Better watch your step, or I'll freeze you," I grin.

"You wouldn't!"

"Wanna bet?"

Ness pouts, lightly shoving me. "Aw, you're a meanie."

"I know." I laugh, evilly.

"Alright!" Ness slings an arm around me. "Let's find out how to actually do all this stuff."

We skip ahead in the book - there's a load of waffle about each of the past Psychic users. I'm keen to find out what I can do-! I don't have time to read about some ancient people!

Power anthology:

Fire powers: Shout "PK FIRE," and aim your hands in a direction. A large fireball will be released.

Ice powers: Shout "PK FREEZE" and thrust your hands forward to launch an icy blast.

Telepathy: With another psychic, touch foreheads and you can speak in each other's minds. So long as you maintain forehead contact, this works.

All of the other abilities happen naturally.

"That was somewhat anticlimactic," I conclude. "This giant manual, and there's a single paragraph on how to actually do the powers-"

"We should wait for tomorrow, to try the fire and ice outside," Ness decides.

I make a face. "I was just thinking we could burn down the school-"

Ness laughs. "Maybe one day. But c'mon! Let's try the telepathy!" He takes my hands in his, a nervous expression on his face. "But, uh, how do we-"

I put my forehead against his, experimentally, our eyes just inches apart, our lips inches apart… I shiver, suddenly. I close my eyes, trying to speak inside my mind.

"Hello?" I probe. There's a resounding silence.

Ness's voice suddenly sounds alarmingly loud in my mind. "Lucas? Was that you?"

"Yeah- Ness, it's me! This is so weird."

"Hold on, Lucas, I'm gonna test something. Uh, hold up three fingers."

I hold up three fingers.

Ness's voice sounds excited in my mind. "It's really working! I'm not just talking to myself-"

I break the connection, suddenly, my head stinging. Ness frowns, concerned, and I rub my temple.

I shrug apologetically. "Sorry - it's just, kinda weird, is your head hurting too-?"

He rubs his head slightly. "Yeah, a bit. We should, uh, yeah, talk out loud. That's better, I think."

I let go of his hands. "I agree."

We sit in a comfortable silence for a few seconds, before I relax, leaning back against the bed.

"Heh, we've got superpowers," Ness whispers.

I smile. "Yeah."

"You've got better superpowers."

I grin again. "Yeah. I've also therefore got a ton of people coming after me. Wanna trade?"

Ness holds up his hands. "No thanks. Although, yes please, because I'd rather you be safe-"

I poke him. "You sap."

He rests his head on my shoulder. "Yeah."

I recall something. "I should mention, Pit is going to be sleeping uh, in our room tonight."

Ness nods. "Because sleeping in the same room as Dark Pit used to be in him hurts and he'd rather escape from all that?"

My mouth opens and closes in surprise. "Pretty much, yeah." Ness is more perceptive than I give him credit for. He grins. I prod him. "We'll have to share a bed though - is that okay?"

Ness nods. "Course."

Somehow we've ended up sharing a bed on most nights of this term so far - but that's okay. We're no strangers to sharing - whenever I stay over at Ness's house, to get away from my father, we have to share. It's admittedly surprising that Ness's father even lets me stay over, but that's cool with me.

"We should go find the others," I conclude. "But, we definitely shouldn't tell them about our, uh, abilities."

Ness nods in agreement. "Yeah - definitely."

—-—

We find them, predictably, in the games room.

"Oh, there you are!" Toon Link gets up from the couch to greet us. "Wow, it's been so long, you've aged about… 30 years, by the looks of it?"

Villager pulls Toon Link back down. "Toonie, chill. They're fine."

"You both interrupted my great story about what happened with Bowser, a wooden spoon and a fish though, which, quite frankly, is unacceptable, so, uh-"

Ness and I sit down on the couch opposite them. Ness grins. "Go on then, tell us."

"Well," Toon Link begins, dramatically, when he's cut off by Red sitting himself down next to Villager.

Red looks at Toon Link. "Well, go on, continue your cock-and-bull story, then."

Toon Link's head turns to Red slowly. "Excuse me, munchkin-"

"You're the smaller one."

Toon Link pouts grumpily. "Shush. Let me continue. It's a true story-"

Ness nods. "Sure."

"It is! Anyways, so, after you lot left the dinner hall, I realised that I'd left my jumper in the hall, and so, I went back in, and I saw Bowser hassling the cooking staff for more food, but, he ended up getting chased by all the staff, and they were all holding utensils and one was holding a fish-"

Villager laughs. "C'mon, Toonie, that's a load of rubbish, and you know it."

He pouts. "Whatever. It made you laugh."

"True."

Speak of the devil - I notice Bowser walking down, outside the games room. Something about it heightens my curiosity, and I whisper: "There he is! Let's follow him!"

Luckily, the others seem to be up for this, so we quickly creep out of the Games room, into the corridor. Bowser's lumbering along, quite slowly, presumably to go to his office, but I get the strong feeling that he's up to something.

"Come on!" I whisper.

Toon Link sighs. "I would, but Villager keeps staring at my ass instead of walking."

Villager slaps him. "I was not!"

I glare at them. "Guys, shut up!"

We keep on going, and Bowser enters his newly repaired office. Rosalina suddenly appears, however, and knocks at his door. Bowser's groan is audible, but Rosalina is let in…

We position ourselves outside of the door. I'm not even sure why we're doing this!

Bowser snarls. "What do you want, woman?"

Rosalina's tone is remarkably threatening. "You hurt Lucas."

I blush, deeply - so that's what this is about? I hadn't expected her to follow up on planning to have a go at Bowser. The caning still stings - I'll be sleeping on my front tonight, for sure.

"So what if I did? I punished him."

"He did nothing wrong!" Rosalina argues.

"He and his buddy Ness snuck out of my class!"

"It was for good reason," Rosalina disagrees audibly. "Ness was upset."

Bowser growls. "Good. Let him suffer."

Rosalina gasps. "How could you say that? You know, you are the most heartless piece of-"

"At least I'm not a woman!" Bowser growls. "You're only here because the HeadMaster owes you. You're not fit to work here."

"Oh really," Rosalina counters. "Then howcome all of my science class passed, while your entire English class failed in the last set of reports?"

I decide we've heard enough - fun as it is to hear Bowser getting verbally destroyed, I think it's not really our business. I beckon the others to follow me back into the Games room.

"Well, what was the point of that?" Toon Link asks, mildly frustrated, as soon as we sit down - except for me, I have to lie down, still.

"It was funny to hear," Villager shrugs. "And Bowser did look suspicious. Rosalina probably cut him off from whatever he was planning to do."

My mind whirs. "Hmmm…"

There's a pause - Pit wanders into the room, smiles just a little bit at me, and sits down, a little way away from us. I smile back a little bit - though I'm not sure if the others have noticed his entry.

A random thought suddenly distracts me. "Villager, have you seen Mega Man recently?" I ask, nervously.

Villager frowns. "Yeah, why? He's been in all my Crafts classes."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "Good. Just, I hadn't seen him around, and what with, uh, the disappearances…"

To my surprise, Popo suddenly slinks into the room, cutting me off - he's another person I thought might have disappeared. Good! I might finally be able to speak to him.

"Alright?" He grins, plopping himself down, in between Toon Link and Villager. Villager moves away significantly from him.

"...Hello," Red says, flatly. "Why are you here?"

"Because you're all my best buddies, of course, why else?!" He puts his arms around Villager and Toon Link causing Villager to look like he craves nothing more than death.

Red folds his arms. "Well, too bad, we don't actually like you-"

Ness hastily glances at Red. "Red! Sh!"

Popo appears unfazed, and he glanced over to the other side of the room. "Oh, hi, Pit, didn't see you there as well, where's your partner in crime then?"

Pit's eyes glaze over. "Not here."

"Aw, shame, given you don't really have any relevance or any significant personality on your own."

Pit grits his teeth. "Thanks."

"C'mon! Where's the humorous response, aren't you supposed to be funny?"

I glance nervously at Popo. "Popo, maybe best not…"

"Best not what? Have you got a problem?"

I fix my gaze on him. "Just, leave Pit alone."

"Why should I listen to you? You're titchy."

"Just do it-"

I'm cut off by Meta Knight and Olimar entering the room as well - great, this is becoming quite the unpleasant gathering. Olimar and Meta Knight unfortunately go right up to Pit. "Alright there? Still sobbing over your brother?" Meta Knight sneers.

"Leave me alone," mutters Pit, curling in on himself. Toon Link stands abruptly, and Villager attempts to sit him back down. Popo laughs raucously.

Olimar snickers. "Aw, look at his ickle face. He's been crying!"

Toon Link surges over to Olimar, and shoves him, hard. "You leave him alone!"

Villager stands and runs over, abruptly. "Toon Link! No! You got in a fight yesterday, don't get in another one!"

Olimar laughs - why does this always happen! I stand up as well. "Just leave us alone!"

Meta Knight laughs too. "No! You're too fun to mess with."

I glare at him. "Why do you do this? Why!"

Meta Knight laughs again. "Revenge."

"For what?"

Meta Knight shoves me down onto the floor. "How about… claiming to a professor that we were behind some disappearances? And Pit and his brother - getting us in all that trouble with Rosalina-"

I cover my face, "I'm sorry-! I just heard - because you said on Tuesday that you had 'business to attend to' and I assumed-"

Meta Knight brings his face nastily close to mind, and my full body tenses. He drops his voice down. "And what did we say? We said not to mention that, to anyone, or you'd end up in the medical ward for a month." Meta Knight glances at Olimar. "So, what do you say? We beat him up?"

Olimar nods. "You bet."

I brace myself, but the attack never comes, as Ness and Villager suddenly pin Meta Knight to the floor, and Toon Link pins down Olimar-! I open my eyes and stand up, alarmed.

"There's five - no, six of us, and two of you," Toon Link says, chirpily. "So don't ever bother us again."

Olimar growls. "But Pit-"

Toon Link darkens his tone. "You don't mock Pit. Especially not for that. How would you feel if Meta Knight went missing?"

Olimar calls out. "Popo, help us!"

Popo laughs. "Nah, it's too funny seeing you pinned down."

Ness glares at Meta Knight. "I'd forgotten about that 'business,' that you're up to. What is it that you're doing?"

"Nothing that concerns you - but nothing to do with goddamn disappearances! Now, let me go!"

Toon Link, Ness and Villager release Meta Knight and Olimar.

"Go on - uh, pop off," Ness folds his arms. Begrudgingly, they leave, muttering under their breaths.

Toon Link cheers. "Wow! I feel so badass now. Was I hot, Villager?"

Villager makes a choking noise. "Toon Link-"

Popo cheers too. "Yeah! GG! Epic K.O."

A female voice sounds from outside the door. "Popo? Are you in here?"

Popo swears loudly. "Gotta dash. It's Nana. She's looking for me. She wants to write to Mother about my misbehaviour."

Popo runs out of the room in a rush, leaving us all rather bemused. Ness (persistently) ensures that I'm okay, which I fortunately am. Toon Link, meanwhile, heads over to Pit, who has his face in his hands, and is looking downright miserable. They had no right to bully him for Dark Pit's being missing - none at all! I even feel a bit of… anger, towards Meta Knight and Olimar. I don't usually feel anger, or hatred, I always say that I 'don't hate people, I just hate their actions,' but it's hard to live by such a principle. It's ingrained into human nature, our old survival instincts - dislike of others is a drive to hunt, to get the best food, the best partners, in order to survive. Therefore, I subconsciously find myself at the very least strongly disliking Meta Knight and Olimar. I don't get their cruelty. I don't understand it. Sure, we were wrong to report their 'business' as related to the missing people incidents, but, they're clearly up to something that's no good, so it needs to be found out.

Pit sniffs, and Toon Link speaks to him in soft tones: "It's alright, to cry, it really is. It's alright to be upset. Don't listen to them." He hugs Pit with surprising tenderness, and Pit hugs back.

"Thank you, Toon Link, I just, I just…"

Ness smiles at Toon Link. "See, Toonie? Your soft side is nice, and it is still there, and that's a good thing."

Toon Link smiles slightly. "Hm, maybe."

Pit brushes the hair from his eyes. "Thank you."

"Hey, it's no problem, bud."

Toon Link sits back down, lazily, and Pit brings himself forwards, integrating into our group. I can sense his nerves - all the confidence he has when he was with Dark Pit has vanished. I think, especially after that confrontation with the neighborhood bullies, Pit is going to become a permanent fixture in our little group. And, I reckon, especially for Toon Link, that's going to be a very good thing. I know Toon Link worries about himself, because Red and Villager are a sort of duo, and so are Ness and I… I know that can't sit well on his mind, I know he feels like a misfit, sometimes. But, maybe with Pit being here as well, they can get on well, and Toon Link can be happier. Meanwhile I know, for Pit, it's going to take a lot of time to process everything that's happened, and I'm not sure what to do about that, except, sort of, help him along through it, naturally. Inviting Pit into our room wasn't just an excuse to keep sharing a bed with Ness, though I guess it's an extra benefit. I sleep better when Ness is there, and I know it. I think he sleeps better too - I think it might be a psychic thing, perhaps.

"We should do something," Toon Link concludes, standing. "We should hit the baths, they're always nice when it's dark."

Villager nods. "Sounds good to me."

"Same," Ness agrees.

"Are you down for that?" Toon Link asks Pit, who nods in response.

"Yeah, that's cool with me."

We stand, embracing the sudden purpose of a plan before I realise something. "Erm, Ness and I, our swimming stuff burnt in the fire-"

"Well, you can start living the nudist life then," Toon Link shrugs, and I blush ferociously. Pit laughs slightly.

Ness blushes too. "No!"

"I got some spare stuff," Villager chimes in, saving us from mortal embarrassment.

Soon enough, we're all changed. I'm sure to dive in the deep end of the pool - and it's cold today, gosh. My teeth are even chattering as I break the surface again. The fireplaces around the outside of the pool are glowing magnificently though, illuminated in the pitch black. Unfortunately, I can no longer see Ness and I's constellation out through the skylight - the stars must've moved round. Oh well.

"Alright, here's what I propose," Toon Link rounds us up. "Races. This end, to the far end." He points to the other end of the pool. "There's nobody else here today, so it should be nice and simple."

Pit manages to defeat us every single time, so we're quick to move to basically just goofing around in the pool for another hour or so, and when we finally take our leave, we're all laughing hysterically, even Red and Pit, and honestly, it feels amazing, after the chaos of the day, just to relax, to have fun, to play, like we're young.

Pit grins. "Seriously, are you guys always this crazy?"

"Yes," Toon Link admits. "But hey, you fit right in."

"Seriously, thanks for this," Pit rubs his neck, somewhat shyly. "It helped to take my mind off… yeah." His face falls back to a gloomy state again, and Toon Link bumps him on the shoulder. "Anyday."


An hour or two of talking later, back in the games room, with Pit occasionally chipping in, at least more than the ever-quiet Red, Pit takes his leave to move a few things to Ness and I's room, leaving just the rest of us. There's a sort of silence that falls.

Red huffs. "Are we going to have to deal with him for the rest of the term now?"

My heart sinks. I'd been afraid of this... "Red, he's cool with you, isn't he?"

Villager puts a hand on Red's shoulder. "Hey, I know you aren't keen on change, but he does mean well."

"Yeah, I think he's awesome," Toon Link agrees, somewhat defensively. "What's your issue with him?"

Red sighs. 'For one, I don't think he likes me, and he's weird."

"We're all weird," Ness counters. "And, why wouldn't he like you?"

"He just, didn't speak to me, at all."

"Well, did you speak to him?" Villager reasons.

Red scratches his head. "No, but-"

"Well, there you go."

"But, starting conversations is hard for me," Red admits. "I don't know what to say. He's talkative, he's loud, I don't get why he's not talking to me."

"He's going through a lot of emotions," Villager explains, calmly. "He just needs time to find himself again."

Red leans back. "I suppose."

There's a mildly uncomfortable pause.

"We should head up to bed," Ness decides, taking me by surprise.

I frown. "Wha-! it's not even that late, yet."

"We should make sure Pit settles in," he explains, standing up. I follow him, mildly confused.

When we're out of earshot of the others, I take Ness aside. "What are we really doing?"

Ness rubs his face. "Lucas, I can't wait. I wanna try out the ice and the fire powers. We might not get another chance until tomorrow, and I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight, and, I kinda wanna learn how to control them, so they don't like, happen accidentally, because, what if I say, you know, the PK words, in my sleep, and we all burn?"

I nod, understanding. "Okay, that's cool, let's do it... But… Ness, you didn't have to lie to the others."

Ness looks down sheepishly. "I know. But they'd be freaked out by our powers."

I rub his shoulder slightly. "Just say, 'Lucas and I have gotta go do something', please… because, I just feel really bad lying to our friends."

Ness nods. "I understand. I'm sorry, Lucas."

I hug him. "Hey, it's okay. Come on, let's uh, go do some magic."

He takes my hand in his. "That's not something I ever thought you'd say."

"Neither," I smile. "It's been a weird, weird week."

"There's always tomorrow," Ness mutters, grimly. "It could definitely get weirder."

We exit the main doors, without any sign of any professors. "Let's hope it's good-weird."

It's a pleasant night. The wind is kind of blustery, but there's no rain and it's not too cold. There's only a few clouds,which means the sky is lit with a twinkling array of specks of light. I think I know where Ness is leading us - the forest is on one side of the school, but on the other, past the sport fields, there's a huge lake. The whole area around the school is pretty much untouched, as a matter of fact, it's extremely remote, which, thinking about it, is unusual, but HeadMaster Hand has always wanted to do things differently. Co-ed classes, having a female professor, having a literal pool inside of the school, all that sort of thing, but I like it. We reach the lake, and stare at its glittering surface. The moonlight is particularly bright tonight, and I actually have to shade my eyes, in order to look at it.

Ness looks at me. Feeling foolish, I thrust my hands forwards, at the lake. "PK freeze!"

The wind suddenly picks up, and to my astonishment, a blue blast of something erupts from my hands, striking the water of the lake, immediately freezing a reasonably large section to ice - woah. I'd been expecting to need a few tries to get it to work - but I won't complain.

Ness stares at me, just as surprised as I am, before attempting to copy my motion, thrusting his hands forwards, and also shouting "Pk Freeze!"

Nothing happens.

Ness blushes. "Um, maybe another try- uh, PK Freeze!"

This time, a small ribbon of icy magic flies out of his hands, freezing a modest patch of the lake. Ness pouts. "Is that all I can do?"

I resist the temptation to laugh. He's kinda cute when he pouts. I get a sudden idea, and I take his hand. "Remember in that dream - we summined the fire at the same time, and it was huge? We should try that with the ice-"

Intrigued, Ness nods.

I breathe in deeply, before calling: "3...2...1…"

"PK FREEZE!" we both yell in unison. I hope nobody is looking out the window.

The wind grows wild, and I gasp, squeezing Ness's hand tight, as out of both of our hands, an immense blast of blue strikes the lake, causing the whole thing to freeze completely. The whole lake. Amazed, I'm brought to my knees - such power! Ness's eyes are wide - he's alarmed too.

"I guess I'm not the most powerful one after all…" I say faintly. "We're the most powerful," I say, and Ness lightly shoves me.

"That's cheesy."

I laugh, despite everything. "We just froze a whole lake using the power of friendship. If that's not cheesy, I don't know what is."

He laughs too, and my eyes linger on him just long enough for me to make it awkward. Damn it, me-! I hastily turn back to the lake, releasing his hand.

"PK FIRE!" A volley of fire shoots, rather alarmingly, from my hand, melting a small circle of the ice on the lake. My hand doesn't feel particularly warm when summoning the fire, not cold when summoning the I e, strangely.

I study the hole, the wind suddenly whipping my hair up into my face. "I'm not sure what use this fire power actually has, it's just kind of… dangerous. We can't use it on anything attacking us because then we'd destroy everything else, too."

"I agree," Ness says, readying his attempt.

"PK FIRE!" Again, a smaller burst of flame shoots from his hand, forming a considerably smaller melted circle on the ice.

"I'd say we should try that together, like with the ice" I mutter, "but I think that would destroy a lot of stuff, so let's not."

Ness laughs softly. "Good plan." He instead lies back on the grass, and I follow suit. The stars are really quite something tonight - but it's hard to appreciate them when I think that Ness and I just froze a whole lake! We're powerful, and it's crazy. We're powerful, but it's okay.

My fingers brush lightly against Ness's in the darkness. I notice that, unlike in the pool, we can actually see our constellation, out here - amici optimi. It's a funny thing, it's just some stars, but seeing it, now, it reminds me… It reminds me that there is some good in the world. Just a little. The moon disappears behind a small torrent of clouds, and the sky dims.

I close my eyes.

...

"Placet Auxilium!"

Of course-! My heart pounding, I rise to attention. Of course we'd be found out here, we've been found every single damn day by these things - once again, it lumbers towards me. Ness stands by me, suddenly alert, once again freaked out by them - this one looks, dare I say, new… it's smaller than others that I've seen, but it's definitely had another upgrade. Breathe, Lucas, Breathe! Today, its legs are coated with a white cylinder of metal, the only part of it that seems to be showing up, at the moment… when the moon comes back out, maybe I'll be able to see more-

It's fast. This one's much faster than the other ones! Why is it so fast! Maybe the speed issue has been fixed, maybe, maybe- I dash, but it's catching up, it's coming, it's coming!

"Placet Auxilium!"

It's not like the crying one from yesterday - this one is definitely coming for us, and I back away even faster, grabbing Ness's hand, as the wind sends ripples through my shirt, causing my hair to obscure my vision, again-! The moonlight reappears suddenly, and Ness lets out an audible gasp. My eyes are drawn upwards, to its face, a face that I recognise…!

The face of Dark Pit stares back at me.

A/N Oops, I left you on a cliffhanger. How mean!

Ah, I had a ton of fun writing the lore and the intricacies of all of the magic powers this time. Luckily, you don't have to remember all those historical names! I'm aware there were about a billion new names this time around, what with all of those Tazmily villagers in the italicised section as well.

Pit is suddenly a whole lot more relevant, which is fun. I like writing Pit, but not quite as much as I love writing Toon Link too. I'm tempted to write a spin off after this fic is finished of him, in this fic. No promises though!

I thought I'd finally mention that Olimar and Metaknight are up to something, given it was, what, Chapter 2 that they'd claimed to have 'business' to attend to, and I'd failed to mention that since. Another thing that was long overdue a return was definitely Popo, and also Mega Man, who are two characters that I have sadly strongly neglected.

Anyways, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next one will hopefully be… soon, whenever soon may be.

Notes:

Tessie, Pusher's family, Caroline and Angie, Matt and Reggie are all canon villagers from Mother 3. I'm going to aim to keep them in character, what with the limited info there is on them in the game. All the jobs that they have are indeed the jobs they have in the game. I hope you hardcore Mother fans enjoy their presence.

Ninten is the protagonist of Earthbound beginnings. He's not someone who wrote journals about magic in the game, though, I just thought it'd be nice to name-drop him. All of the other people in the lore of the magic had made up mythical-sounding names.

The PK Freeze and PK Fire powers are tributes to those abilities in Smash Bros. The telepathy, meanwhile, and the mechanics of it, was newly created by me.

Reviews:

! A review arrived just as I was about to finish up af upload this. And it' (yay my wordcount goes up)

"Lovely fic you got here. I spent the last couple nights binge reading it since I've got tons of time in my hands these days lol.

It's a nice story, really and I love how Lucas and Ness are so affectionate together. Smol beans are in love but they don't know it fully yet.

Some terms are a little anachronistic for the 1800s like emoticons in the mail or "gay" to describe homosexuality. The word meant "very happy" until the 1960s, and gay people were called homosexuals, q*** or perhaps more pejoratively, sodomites. It wasn't an accepting era, sadly.

Also the Latin. I lol'd at "Dolor in asinum" because it meant "sadness in Donkey". Maybe "cruciatus in culo" would be a closer translation to pain in the butt :)

Speaking of which, I wonder who's that guy who spoke to Duster and crashed Porky's show. Could it be...? Hmm. I think it's best if I just wait and see :D please keep up the great work! Cheers."

First off, thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying my fic! Second of all, oh no! My Latin skills are hopeless. Curse you, Google translate.

As for the anachronistic language, I just decided to modernise the speech of everyone who spoke. You definitely wouldn't find anyone using the vocabulary that everyone seems to at that time, but sadly I am not a skilled enough writer to make everyone speak like they did in the 1800s. Therefore, I hope the modern language doesn't negatively impact the fic!

Having said that, I'll definitely fix my Latin. I am literally facepalming at that calamity.

Anyways, thanks for reading, all you readers! See you next time!

~ ReadyforTeddy