Legend of the Godly Wolf -大神伝説-
Chapter 9: Non Serviam
Author's Note: This chapter was a couple weeks late, but that doesn't matter. this time, thankfully. I'll definitely have the next one done on February 2nd. However, since I was considering making more use of extra stuff like images, links, and different fonts in the later chapters I may not upload them here, though they'll definitely be on AO3. The next chapter will be more ambitious than the previous ones, so I might give some updates as I'm working on it, mainly on discord, and perhaps on my new twitter, real_garegga4, as well.
11:13 AM, April 26, 2020
"So you're saying you believe those rumors?" Fox whispered to Falco. The two of them were waiting for one of the Smash Hotel's elevators, in a little corridor off of the main hall by the rooms with a window overlooking the grounds outside.
"Right." Falco replied with a nod. "It can't be a coincidence that Pikachu and Sonic disappeared as soon as Samus and Captain Falcon resigned."
"You have a point," Fox admitted, "but we can't do nothing. Wolf may not be causing much trouble right now, but we can't leave him loose like that!"
"I know," Falco agreed, "but I'm getting bad vibes from Palutena now; I don't think we should work with her gang anymore. 'We prefer doing things our own way,' remember?"
"But this isn't like anything we've faced before." Fox protested. He heard footsteps and glanced down the hall to see Wolfutena and the angels walking past. "Crap, it's them!" he hissed to Falco, then began hammering the elevator's down button.
Wolfutena glanced over and, upon seeing them, shouted, "Hey, it's McCloud!"
Fox turned back to the elevator. "Come on, hurry up!" He anxiously muttered to it, and it responded with a loud ding. "Finally!" He sighed with relief and stepped forward as the doors began to open, but suddenly a gray furry arm reached out and grabbed him, putting him in a headlock.
"Long time, no see!" Wolfutena said, leering down at his fellow canine pilot.
Wolfutena glared at the bird. "Flock off, feather-face, or you can stick around and find out the hard way."
"Oh, very original!" Fox muttered sarcastically as he struggled to pry away the goddess's arm. Rather than respond however, Falco ran towards the window, shattered it with a shot from his blaster, and leaped outside.
"You'd better be heading out to get backup!" Fox called after him.
"Hey, Fox! How's it going?" Pit asked, as the angel ran up the two.
"I've been better." The vulpine stated flatly.
"He's coming with us." The wolf gloated.
"Oh, cool! My room's still a bit of a mess after that fight with Terry, so we're all going to Saki's place." Pit excitedly explained.
"Uh, neat," Fox replied. "Could you let go of me now?" He asked.
"Once we get there," the goddess promised. "It's not far."
"He dragged Fox down the hall, where Dark Pit was waiting for them. "Try to relax," the black-winged angel told Fox. "They can be a bit much at times, but you get used to them eventually."
"Alright," Fox acquiesced, and simply stayed silent, listening to Pit's rambling, on the way to the room.
"It's been a while since we've had new guests, and now we have two! Snake and Wolfutena, both bringing over new friends!"
When they reached the apartment they entered to find Saki on the couch with Isabelle, Snake, and a blond-haired man in a sneaking suit similar to Snake's were all watching an old anime where a teenage boy in a green school-uniform was preparing to fight a purple-haired demon lady. Wolfutena released Fox, who stumbled forward, then slammed the door behind him.
"We've arrived!" He announced. "This time, we've got a special guest. Presenting: Fox McCloud!"
"Welcome!" Saki said.
"Hi there," Isabelle beamed.
"Hey," Snake muttered gruffly.
The blond man lifted a hand in greeting but said nothing, so Snake spoke up again instead. "This here's Raiden. He helped me out in the Big Shell incident recently, but he's had a tough time getting readjusted to civilian life afterward, so I invited him here to try and relax."
"Hey," Raiden said with a little nod. "Nice to meetcha."
"Nice to meet you, too." Pit replied. "Where's little Isa?" He asked Saki.
Isabelle pointed at herself uncertainly, which made Saki laugh. "No, no, he means my son! He's out with Airan right now."
"Ah," the angel said, then looked back at the TV, to see the teenager punching the demon to the ground and stomping her down through the floor to the hallway below. "Hey, I think I've seen this before!" He exclaimed.
"It wouldn't surprise me: it's a classic!" Saki answered. "Since my Saturn still hasn't been fixed after what happened to it at your place I got out my old Mega Drive and thought we could play Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyou Touitsusen, but it turns out no one else here had ever seen the anime, so I figured I'd at least show the first fight with the Toguro brothers."
On screen, the boy once again hit the demon in the chest and knocked her down, prompting another teenager with an orange pompadour in a blue school uniform to begin shouting. "Urameshi, how can you keep hitting a girl like that? I mean, you even hit her in the tatas!"
As the two debated whether it was okay for boys to fight girls, Pit grinned and asked, "Did you know that Kuwahara's voice actor here also played the drug-dealer in the classic film The Room?"
"What the hell?" Dark Pit said. "That's not right at all, where did you get that idea? I'm sure your goddess never let you watch that movie, either."
"No," Pit admitted, "but I've heard Lady Palutena talk about it and she even showed me a little of the game. The boss fight against him was so cool; Oney did such a good job on the music."
In the anime, the discussion had taken a brief pause so Urameshi could kick the demon in the head and knock her face through a wall. However, Urameshi turned back towards Kuwabara as soon as that business was taken care of. "You yell way too much." He accused him, and the argument continued.
"Well, Fox," Isabelle said, "are you glad to be here? I'm surprised you came here with Wolfutena."
"It's certainly not how I expected my day to go," Fox admitted, "but it doesn't seem so bad. It's better than that day I had to fight Max Payne, Riddick, and Niko Bellic, at least."
Meanwhile, the TV was showing a flashback of Urameshi and the demon leaping towards each other as the fighter explained the shocking revelation that, as he put it, their "missus was actually a mister." "Okay, I admit it: I was curious," he narrated as the flashback showed him grabbing the demon's breast. "Things didn't seem right up top," he reached towards the demon's crotch, "and, well, you know…" the vision of his disgusted expression faded to the present as he concluded his story: "The family jewels have not been stolen."
"Hmph," Raiden scoffed. "Way to go, Mr. President."
The group continued watching the anime without much more discussion, until Saki brought in some sandwiches.
"Airan made us lunch before she left. She even made the bread herself." Saki said, proudly.
Everyone dug into the sandwiches but, aside from Pit, they soon slowed down and inspected them dubiously.
"What is this?" Snake muttered.
"I think she needs more practice with the bread." Wolfutena said frankly. "It's like The Phantom Menace!"
"She's done fine before," Saki said, a bit curtly. "It just turned out that our yeast was expired."
"I think it's fine!" Isabelle said, then turned away so that Saki wouldn't see her grimace as she swallowed.
They ate slowly, so that by the time they finished Kuwabara had already dealt the killing blow to the younger Toguro brother. He toppled over backwards, the sword that his brother had transformed into falling from his limp hand, and their employer began to panic at their defeat.
"But, what about the other brother?" Dark Pit asked, annoyed. "He didn't get stabbed! Can't he just transform back?"
"You know, I never thought about that." Pit admitted.
"They reveal in the next episode that they threw the match," Saki explained, "so I guess they were just hoping no one would realize something was off. They probably had a backup plan. Maybe he was going to surrender or something."
"If you say so…" Dark Pit muttered skeptically.
Once the episode was finished, Saki turned on the Mega Drive and began explaining the basics of the game as he got it set. "So, it's this four-player fighting game..." he began as he handed out six-button controllers to whoever wanted them. Pit eagerly snatched up the first one offered, while Wolfutena took one to hand to Fox, then grabbed one for himself. Lastly, Raiden took one as well with a shrug. "Anyways, it's basically just like Treasure's Bleach games, if you've ever played those," Saki concluded, and the four jumped into a free-for-all match, Pit selecting Kuwabara, Fox picking Kurama, Wolfutena choosing Elder Toguro, and Raiden going with Sensui.
When it came to the stage selection, Saki advised picking the kakai barrier, a peculiar black void with blue grids on the floor and ceiling converging into a net of orange energy in the distance. "I like it because it reminds me of the Phantasy Star II battle screen," he explained.
When the match started, everyone took a couple seconds to try out their special moves, before Elder Toguro rushed at Kurama.
"Ack," Fox gasped, as he tried jumping between planes to get away, but Wolfutena was alway in hot pursuit.
"Well, McCloud, does this bring back memories?" the wolf taunted. "It wouldn't surprise me if you had a rough childhood like this on your homeplanet. What was it again, Zeist?"
"No," Fox said as he fought back, Kurama punching the shapeshifter then whipping him away with a thorny vine. "It's Papetoon."
Fox took the offensive, managing to get through Wolfutena's defenses to deal decent damage, and Pit spoke up. "So, now that Fox is buddies with us, I guess things are settling down, right? I mean, I think we're done with the trouble with Lady Palutena, right? If no one's helping her, maybe I could try to talk some sense into her."
Kurama whipped at Toguro again, but it seemingly did nothing. Then, the shapeshifter popped up out of the ground behind him. "Nothing personnel," Wolfutena quipped as his character transformed into a sword and stabbed Kurama in the back, defeating him, then hopped into the other plane to go after Pit's character.
Toguro teleported behind Kuwabara, but the bulky teenager simply swatted him away, slamming him into the edge of the screen and stunning him. He ran up to him and pulled off a super move, viciously striking the demon with a dozen quick slashes of his spirit sword. When did you learn the supers? Wolfutena nearly asked, but Fox addressed Pit first.
"Well, she still has Shulk with her, I think." Fox said.
"Shulk doesn't seem like the type to hold a grudge." Wolfutena remarked. "We got off on the wrong foot, no doubt, but his friends have told me that his vengeful phase is long behind him. He'll come around too."
"Can you really kill the past though?" Raiden asked. "Maybe we can't get rid of our dark sides, they just lie in wait for when they can reawaken."
Kuwabara lunged at Sensui, but before his attack connected the former spirit detective's hand turned into an arm-cannon like gun, and with just a few shots Pit's character was down, leaving Raiden the victor.
"Raiden, quit being a killjoy." Snake admonished.
"Sorry," Raiden apologized. "I guess I've gotten more pessimistic since we last saw each other. It's all well and good to say that we'll move on, forge a new life forgetting the past, but the old feelings don't like to go without a fight."
"Our moods all go through ups and downs," Snake said, "that's why I invited you here."
"To try to cheer me up?" Raiden asked. "Well, thanks for the invite."
And thank you for coming!" Isabelle chimed in, patting Raiden on the thigh (she couldn't reach his shoulder).
"Did you at least do what I asked, last time we met?" Snake asked.
"Yeah, and I have to admit, the Egg McMuffin is pretty good." Raiden confessed. "Even that can't fix everything, though. Solving our problems isn't that easy." He turned to Wolfutena. "Whatever trouble you're having with people, I hope you can get over it, but I wouldn't relax just yet. If you ever run into more trouble, remember what we said here today."
Wolfutena cocked his head, caught a bit off guard by this sudden warning. "Don't worry," the canine goddess reassured him. "I have a feeling everything's going to be fine from now on."
Palutena stood over a marble basin, the water inside rippling as she held her staff over it. Meanwhile, Sulk was giving her a status update. "So, Eggman didn't seem that interested in what we're doing, but he seemed as if he would be willing to let us borrow one or two of his robots. As for Wesker, he has agreed to assist us personally."
Palutena nodded as the Homs explained, and Shulk continued. "As for the Maverick Hunters, they wouldn't agree to help us in any official capacity, but I did strike a deal with one of their navigators, Layer. She'll work with us on the condition that when this is over I'll give her some, er, 'enhancements' that'll impress Zero: equip her with ballistics, if you know what I mean."
"I suppose she wants to put in some overtime with him." Palutena remarked as she swept her staff over the basin, and colors began to swirl through the liquid.
Shulk walked over to look into the basin, as the image of a teenage girl, with a blonde, braided pony-tail, a bright red outfit that showed off her midriff, and a few triangular marks painted onto her face. "Wait," he said, "isn't that the girl from Lucca's orphanage? Except, she looks older, and what's with that outfit?"
"It is indeed Kid," Palutena confirmed, "albeit a few years after the orphanage burned down."
"Burned down?" Shulk asked, then grimaced and placed his hand on his forehead. "Oh, wait, this must be that other timeline. Ugh, it's such a pain trying to keep all those different dimensions and time-periods straight. Do you really think she'd be willing to contribute?"
"I believe so." The goddess answered. "It shouldn't be difficult to convince her there that Wolfutena may be linked to Lynx."
"I see…" Shulk replied. Palutena then waved her hand over the water again, the image shifting to reveal more toil and trouble for the lad.
"Have you gotten around to talking to Baion yet?" Palutena asked as they looked down at a man with spiky, bluish hair wearing a lab coat and red-tinted glasses.
"Not yet," the Homs admitted, "though I looked into his background a little. His homeworld is shockingly similar to Rex's, but I'm worried that he's, well, more like Malos."
"Nonsense!" the goddess replied with a laugh. "He just didn't want those furries running around his world unchecked; he's exactly the sort to need to put Wolfutena in his place."
"If you say so…" Shulk muttered uneasily, as the image in the basin changed again.
"Anyway, here are a couple others who've already agreed to join us," Palutena said, and the liquid reflected the image of both a Dude with a goatee wearing a trench-coat, sunglasses, and an T-shirt with an alien face on it as well as a swordsman in light, plain armor with dark, slightly unkempt hair. Shulk did not recognize the former, but he recoiled at the sight of the latter.
"Nope, I've had enough. I can't work with him!" Shulk said forcefully.
Why not? Do you have some kind of problem with our little ouji?" Palutena asked. She waved the hand over her basin, and the waters showed visions of him in battle, slashing his way through legions of enemies.
"Of course I do. He's a psychopath!" Shulk spat.
"Don't be a hypocrite!" Palutena countered. "I know you enjoy a good fight as well. How many times have you said you're 'feeling it' in the middle of combat?"
"This is different," Shulk answered, and pointed at the warrior's face. "See that sadistic grin there? That's not a little combat high."
"Perhaps his enthusiasm for violence can get a little out of hand," the goddess confessed, "but he's a skilled fighter. You should feel honored to have a chance to work with such a spectacular combatant. We'll surely be able to put a stop to that menace with him at our side."
"Well, he can stop him without me then." Shulk retorted, and turned to leave.
"What are you going to do, then?" Palutena asked. "Go and join the other deserters?"
"I suppose so," Shulk answered as he departed. "Anything is better than sticking around here." He paused for a moment, then shouted back: Non serviam!"