Chapter 91: A Cold, Rocky Start
It became dark, a little less dark, to white once again.
Sword opened his mouth but was forced to close it again when the chilling snow touched his tongue. His vision became organized and steady. He couldn't see much, but if he had to guess, Sword's head, no, half his body was buried in the snow. There was a pocket of air here but it was getting stale quick.
How did… oh god the cliff! Is everyone alright? The fall wouldn't kill them but that doesn't mean they were safe from danger. The Mii Swordsman attempted to pull himself out of his self-made hole but found no success. If anything, he seemed to sink deeper. His arms were entrapped, the only thing he could was wiggle his legs back and forth like a fool.
But then something grabbed onto his feet and pulled. Their grip was strong, could it be deermen?! He fought against the hands but there was only so much he could do with his head literally in the metaphorical sand. He was yanked out of the crevice with such might and was flung but on his back. Sword tried to reach the weapon he was named after but stopped as Brawler and Little Mac stood over him.
The fist-fighter gave two taps in rapid succession on the boxer's shoulder, as if he was giving him the cue that Sword was his responsibility as the Mii ran off to the side. Little Mac pulled the swordsman on his feet and dusted the snow off his shirt. "Welcome to the land of living." He said. "Are you hurt?"
"No. I'm not." Sword answered. "How far did we fall?"
"Don't know yet. We'll figure that out when we help others. C'mon!" The boxer rushed away from Sword towards one torn half of the carriage that was buried deep in the snow. Brawler, Little Mac, Greninja, Rosalina, Luma, and Robin were at the rear end, doing their best to get the door open. Sword was taken aback by the wreckage but ran to the rest of the Smashers, he overheard their panicked voices as he got closer.
"Pull your back into it!" Brawler urged.
"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Greninja strained to the fist-fighter as he pulled on the cold metal handle, ignoring the pain of the cold on his skin.
"Lucina! Guys! If you can hear us, say something!" Robin cried as he banged his sword against the metal. The tactician heard Sword coming around the corner and gestured to him to help. "Sword! Our people are trapped in the tram!"
"What?!" Sword shouted. "Are you sure?"
"We couldn't have them anywhere else. Luma's being hearing some noises from inside, it has to be them. Help us get them out of there." Robin went back to striking the door with his sword. The blonde Mii observed the metal frame. Despite being subjected to the snow for who knows how long, the door was still going strong. Brawler and Little Mac were over exerting themselves but sadly couldn't make it budge and inch. Not even with the assistance of the others bashing on the door.
Sword scanned further. What else could be done? The hinges that kept the door in place look promising, the screws were rusted to hell but they still seem to work. He took the tip of his sword and inserted it between the line of a single screw and turned. The idea worked, and resulted in the screw being twisted until popping it off. He smiled to himself as he turned to the members who watched his efforts. "You see that?"
The blade-welders took initiative and began unscrewing with their respective daggers and swords. When all the fasteners were plucked out, the two strongmen of the group successfully tore the door off and tossed it aside.
Snow filled the carriage and blocked the Smashers from entering the enclosed space. Brawler knelt down and started digging. His lip cringed from how cold his fingers were becoming. "G-God! My arms are already becoming numb. Help me with this, we don't want our people becoming popsicles here!"
Hands of all kinds scratched and tore at the blanket of white. They had so much manpower, but it still didn't appear that much progress was made. Things became a turn for… the better actually as a thin beam of blue energy pierced through the snow, nearly nicking Sword in the eye.
The blonde Mii yelped in surprise and fell on his back while his friends moved away quickly from the column of light. "Is that… Shulk's?" Sword asked. The energy blade moved in circles, then retreated back into the darkness. Not a moment later, the head of the precog himself pushed through the snowy entrance and shook his head. He panted as he spoke.
"Just want to say… sorry for being… wrong."
They found out later that their teammates failed to exit the tram as it fell, and subsequently got trapped inside. Thankfully, the rescue was straightforward; standing by as they all crawled out of there one by one. Mega Man, the last person to get off, was more than thrilled to escape that awful container. Being packed together like junk in a trash compactor, so much that could've gone wrong that didn't. If they could repay the guardian angel looking over them they would.
Brawler stepped close to Shulk and looked at his fellow fighters. "So is everyone fine, not too banged up?" Murmurs and nods all around. "Great! Now we can get back to business." Then the fist-fighter delivered a powerful uppercut to Shulk's jaw, sending him flying into the outer frame of the carriage he just pulled out of. Little Mac and Robin held back Brawler so no more harm could be done.
"What was that for, Brawler?!" Demanded Robin.
"What about 'I'm going to beat his ass if we survive this' don't you understand?" Answered the fist-fighter. "My fists ain't done with talking yet. Speaking of which, Shulk! I told you not to mess with the wire dammit! Now look where we are!"
The precog hanged his head between shame and embarrassment, then slid down to sit. "I know… I'm sorry, if I had known… ugh. I didn't think it would do that." Shulk covered his forehead. Sword couldn't tell if he was swallowing his regrets or fighting against a massive headache. Shulk relaxed and looked at the group. "What about our supplies? Did they-"
"Missing or destroyed. That fall took most of the supplies we had." Shulk turned around and addressed the group as a whole. "I hope one of you has a plan or something, 'cause we need it."
Villager raised his hand. Brawler. "Son, this ain't a damn classroom. Just speak."
"I thought the plan was to reach the cave?" The mayor answered.
"Yeah, that was. But we're in the middle of nowhere. I don't suppose any of you have the map?" Silence ranged, with the accompaniment of an awkward scratch to several necks. "Oh, so now we're triple screwed. Nice. Shulk! You better have another vision cooking up or I swear to god." Brawler marched to Shulk but was stopped by Greninja. Brawler rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to pulverize him, we don't have the time."
"I don't believe you." Said Greninja.
"And I don't care what you think." Said Brawler.
"This bickering will get us nowhere." Robin went in between the two opposing fighters. "Like you said, we don't have time. Why don't we spend our valuable daylight searching around?"
"What good will that do?" Villager asked, curiosity present on every inch of his face.
"Brawler is right." Gunner piped up. "If we don't have the map, we can use the physical stuff around here for reference." Gunner gestured to the plain they were. They were between a large snowy open crevice between the bulk of the two mountains. Looking up, they could see the trail from the tram on the left mountain. They came a long way. "Besides, our stuff could be hidden around somewhere here? They couldn't have all just disappeared."
"Where exactly do we search?" Questioned Wii Fit.
Gunner. "I don't know, I'm not thinking of an exact place… eh, why not start here with the wreckage then move outward? If we find anything, we meet back here."
"Sounds nice, but how long would that take?" Lucina replied. "If this search takes up the daylight, and the monsters start getting frenzy, in this field…"
"If we see those things, we'll just strike them down or call for help." Sword said. "But the crash could have attracted them to our location. What do you think?" He answered rhetorically, but Brawler took the answer anyway as it was meant for him.
"Screw it. It'll be stupid to go in blindly. So why not take the less stupid option and just go where we can. The cave is someone by the second mountain, so it's not like we're going in blind."
"Yeah! Let's do this! We survived this far, I doubt a little detour is going to ruin our day." Gunner said.
"In that case, if no one objects..." Brawler waited for an objection, it didn't come. "Then let's move and make haste. We need to find that cave before sundown."
"I'll help out with the search too!" Shulk rose to his feet and met the frustrated eyes of the fist-fighter.
"Oh, you better. Gunner, why don't you accompany blondie here while you're at it. Make sure he doesn't do anything geniusly idoitic or whatever." Shulk watched as Brawler walked away from his line of sight, and Gunner entered his.
"Wow, he sure is pretty chill today."
Shulk was confused. "You call that chill? He just said he wanted to make me his personal punching bag."
"For most people, no. But this is Brawler, if he is not baring his teeth ain't him being calm I don't know what is."
(*)
Shulk and Gunner traveled Southeastern from the wreckage for around an hour. They decided the best course of action was to get some distance between the mountains to get a better view. Shulk looked back at the pieces of metal from the tram from time to time as Gunner led the way, cannon in full capacity.
Gunner glanced back at the Hom, it was hard to not see that he was still bothered by the accident. "You ok?"
Shulk snapped his head back. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just checking something."
"It's about the crash, right?" The shooter stopped momentarily and took a scope of the area. She could see all the metal scrap, the smashers going to separate ways, and the low-key brightness of the sun that had been smothered in layers of clouds. "It was very sudden, I couldn't collect my thoughts well at the time."
Shulk sighed and rubbed his wrist. "Do you think we were safe up there? Hanging from the wire?"
She considered it, and decided to give her best opinion. "Well… it would have been nice considering we were too far up to be attacked by those deer."
The man delivered a strained groan and held his head, he just a step below tearing his hair out. "Why did I do that?! We could have been safe and I screwed it up. If I had stayed put-"
"I think you did well!" Interjected Gunner.
Shulk looked at her - deadpanned expression. "Gunner, I almost crashed the tram."
"But you didn't!" She argued. "You steered our ride pretty well down the slope."
"I know you're trying to lift my spirits, Gunner. I appreciate it but… now's not the best time. We have to find that cave before sundown." Shulk walked passed the Mii, whom the latter caught up with the Hom at an even pace.
"Look, if it's about Brawler and the others, I'm sure they'll get over it-"
"-It's not that." Interrupted Shulk. "It's just… I'm tired of all of this."
"Huh?" Gunner cocked her head. "Tired of…?"
"Everything." Shulk responded. "I'm tired of the snow. I'm tired of sleeping with one eye open. I'm tired of the fact the world is in danger but we don't know what to do. I'm tired of constantly being reminded of home… this is slow-burn torture."
"We'll be okay. We survived wo-"
"I know we survived worse." Shulk strained loudly through his throat.. "Sorry I didn't mean to… it's been… Do you think we're going to be okay?"
"We'd survived so far, but that's not what you meant. Isn't it?" Gunner sat on a large rock. Shulk followed suit by upturning one of the seats that fell from the sky and used it.
"I've been thinking ever since we left the mall." Shulk leaned back in the chair and attempted to rest in spite of the cold. "Assuming the cave is a bust. What do we do then? We're nearly out of supplies, we're too far out from the ruins of civilization and we still haven't figured out a way to get back. This has to be a FW's prison."
"FW?" She remembered that she told Shulk about all that they know from before the transportation incident, including FW. It's been a long time since they discussed that shady character. "You think FW put us here to trap us?"
"Those crystals you and your friends found were no coincidence, I refuse to believe such things at this point. He's probably working for Master Hand or at the very least giving aid to him."
It would make sense at first, by giving the crystal to them, the Miis, as well as all the Newcomers fell into the shady mastermind's trap; depleting their men in half, causing disruptions in multiple areas… but there is something that she couldn't shake off. "You have some points but... "
"But?" Shulk tilted his head.
"The crystal helped us out by gaining better moves, we became professionals within weeks. If he wanted to get us out of the equation why did he do that? If I wanted to imprison someone, I'd make them weaker, not stronger."
Shulk nodded his head. "Yeah, I remember that talk."
"And don't you think it's strange that the Newcomers have been showing up in this place when we arrived?" Gunner said.
"Now that you mentioned it, it's strange." Shulk agreed. He didn't know much about how the Smasher's were able to find and rescue Newcomers exactly, but he did know that involved going into the uncanny of places most of the time. "You mentioned that Newcomers don't appear at the same place twice. Yet we found multiple in this tundra hellscape."
"Sounds like a coincidence." Said Gunner.
Shulk understood what point was trying to make, so instead, he did it for her. "You think FW sent us here on purpose to save the Newcomers?"
"I've been thinking to myself about this issue ever since we got here." Gunner explained. "I have trouble what to make of him. It's like some days he's a friend and other times an enemy. If he wanted to destroy us, he's doing a poor job of it. He must have a bigger plan in play that we're not seeing."
"Whether he's intentions are good or bad, we're just pawns in his game, and we let it happen." Shulk scoffed and kicked the snow. He shoved his hands into his pocket and took a breath of the chilly air. "It's ridiculous. I feel like it'd laugh at how absurd this all is if reality itself- no, all realities were at risk of an eternal dictatorship. Would it have killed him to leave a quick memo?!"
Shulk ranted. "Why did it have to be like this? Why didn't this FW character just come out hiding and just helped the Smash Brothers. Why did our buddies just happen to appear in the places that we go to. Why did those hands have to be so grabby about everything?! We could have potentially made something good, and spent our energy into helping the WOT or whatever. We didn't need to prepare for war. We didn't need to be scavenging just so we can have a comfortable living. We didn't need to scare off our lives. Every. Single. Day. Over what upcoming calamity might be happening to your friends back home. It was all unnecessary. I don't know what to think anymore. I don't know what to do. I… what's wrong?
Shulk stopped oozing his misery when he saw Gunner staring out into the distance. She cracked a semblance of a joyful smile and pointed to a section of the mountain. It was far away but even the Hom noticed that a large gaping hole was visible in the rock.
Shulk took out the pair of binoculars hanging from his neck and looked through the eyepiece. He was absolutely elated at the sign by the entrance.
Old Cave.
Man that took way too long to get that chapter out. I was quite busy this month with my job, barely had the time to write. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter, sorry if it may seem short, I'll try to make it longer next time. Till next time.
