As people cry out for help,
Who comes?
As loved ones scream in agony,
Who comes?
As the world crumbles and deteriorates,
Who comes?
Where is the Hero of Courage?
Where is the Hero of Loyalty?
Where is the Hero of Determination?
Where is the Guardian Angel?
Will, they ever appear to stop the world from falling into darkness,
Or will they themselves fall to the chaos within?
Only fate can tell…
Pray to Arceus for it to be on our side.
Today… could've been worse. Running around, freeing a princess, blah blah blah, normal Thursday stuff. Again, could've been worse. The world could be ending or something. Luigi groaned. He better not give the universe any ideas. Luigi was walking home after a pretty hectic day. It all started when he went to have some tea with the princess. Mario, his famous brother, and he were supposed to go to this party to relax with the princess for once in their stupid lives, but no! The stupid Koopa king just had to show up and ruin everybody's day. Yeah, just a normal Thursday.
Luigi sighed. He hoped his brother was cooling down a bit. Even though Luigi got credit for the stuff he does, Mario literally gets overrun with fans and he once admitted that he hated all the 'famous treatment' he always got and just wanted to go relax at home with Luigi for once, but the toads always had other plans. Every time and I mean literally every time, Mario rescues the princess, the toads throw a giant party, just because they can. It gets exhausting. Mario was stuck at said party, though Luigi was able to sneak away. "Maybe I can get home and read a book or something," he thought to himself as he walked.
He was about halfway to his house, around dusk, when a bunch of bushes on the side of the path started to shake. Luigi, being the scaredy-cat he is, jumped in surprise and quickly grabbed a stick from his belt. Since it was such a hassle to carry around their giant sledgehammers, the brothers had taken them to E. Gadd to see if he could make them more convenient. So, with the press of a button, Luigi's small stick turned into his wooden sledgehammer. Luigi watched as the bushes continued to rustle, defensively holding his hammer.
An orange and yellow creature toppled out of the bushes and into the middle of the road, panting heavily. A green creature, who had been held by the scruff by the first creature, skidded across the ground and landed maybe a foot away from the orange creature. It seemed to be unconscious and injured. "What in the-" Luigi lowered his hammer in confusion as he stood there watching the weakened orange creature try to stand. Emphasis on try, because its legs gave out from under it and it landed with a sickening thud on the path, panting like mad. The creature's eyes seemed unfocused and distant.
Luigi took a step closer, which made the orange creature's eyes refocus, almost like it could sense him, and lifted its head. Its Ocean blue eyes met Luigi's crystal and for just a moment they just stared. The creature's eyes widened, in what Luigi could only assume was in surprise, and immediately narrowed them as it started to growl. To the green plumber's shock, the creature slowly rose to its feet and stumbled over to the unconscious creature. Its hackles were raised as the creature growled even louder. Luigi backed up a bit. He didn't know what this thing was capable of and didn't want to mess with something he didn't even understand.
"Hey, it's okay," he said gently. The orange creature stopped growling for a second as he gazed into those ocean eyes again. Some form of recognition formed there for just a second, and then just like that, it was gone. The fear and rage returned in the blink of an eye, literally, and the creature started to growl again. Luigi bit his lip. He really didn't want to leave these two creatures out here in the night, especially with one being unconscious, but he didn't know what to do. The orange one was very protective of its friend(sibling maybe?) and Luigi would never be able to get close enough.
Making up his mind, Luigi slowly scooted around the two, the creature glaring at him the whole time and soon was on the other side of the path, and he started to walk away. He may have gotten about twenty feet away from the creatures when there was a shriek of pain that split the night air. Luigi spun around. That had come from the direction the two creatures were at! Luigi dashed as fast he could back down the path and as he approached his previous location, he saw four new figures.
Hammer Bros. They all were throwing hammers at the orange creature who whimpered, huddling over the green one. Small puffs of smoke curled from its nostrils as it tried to shoot one of the hammer bros with what looked like a fireball. The Hammer Bro just jumped up in the air and dodged it, and continued to through its hammers at the poor creatures. One of the Hammer Bros was holding a bag, slowly approaching the creatures from behind. The orange creature spun around at the sound of rustling and let out a frightened squeal, jumping back as the bag came down to snatch him. Instead of getting it, the turtle got the green creature. The orange creature's fur rose, fear and rage blazed in his eyes at it let out an enraged roar. It shot more fire at the Hammer Bros, but they all just jumped out of the way and laughed at it, as it collapsed in the dirt, eyes tightly closed with pain and exhausted.
The Hammer Bro went to grab it when there was a sound of a shriek from one of the other Koopas, as he flew over the head of the one with the bag. All the Hammer Bros turned at once to see Luigi standing there, hammer gripped in his hands like a golf club. He glared at all of them, eyes burning, though there was still that underlying fear under them. "Step away from the creature!" he growled.
The Hammer Bros all looked each over and then burst into a fit of laughter. "We aren't going to do anything you say," the one with the bag stated as he picked up the orange creature who let out a soft moan, eyes fluttering weakly.
This only seemed to make Luigi angrier as he raised his hammer, his glare intensifying. "Put. It. Down."
The Hammer Bro from before walked back to its group as one of the other Bros said, "Like you're going to do anything about it." Luigi gave them a dry stare and slowly put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a blue flower that was cold to the touch. An Ice Flower.
"Don't make me." The Hammer Bros looked at each other before laughing.
"Oh, boy, I'm so scared of a flower!"
Luigi's eyes narrowed with a deadpan look. So these were new recruits who had no idea what this was. What the hell did Bowser teach his troops? Luigi rolled his eyes and crushed the Ice Flower in his hand. Almost instantly, frost crept up his arm, turning his usually green shirt into an icy blue. Before long, his shirt and hat were this color and his overalls were as green as his shirt usually was. He hefted his hammer onto his shoulder, now turned completely to ice.
The laughter around him subsided as they looked at Luigi up and down. "You want to try me now?" he deadpanned, watching as the Koopas all looked between each other.
"Uh, on second thought, maybe we should…" Three of the Koopas turned and ran back into the woods, the way they came. The one still holding the bag glared at where his comrades ran.
"You cowards!" he screamed before turning back the plumber. "You think you can scare me off with a power-up? You got that wrong pal, besides…" He dropped the orange creature on the ground, making it gasp in pain and pulled out one of its hammers. He held it high above his head, looking downright hysterical. "Take one step closer and the creature gets it."
Luigi froze, not wanting to put it in any more danger than it already was in. "Bowser wants this thing, I don't know why, but the strange creature that just showed up on his doorstep was pretty interested in them and I'm not going to get fired because you, a wimp, got in my way!" the Koopa snarled. Luigi's eyebrow quirked up a bit. What the heck was this Koopa talking about?
Before Luigi could ask the question aloud, the orange creature shot up with blinding speed, a speed that shouldn't be capable of anything that had taken so much damage, and bit down hard on the arm with the bag. The Koopa screamed(from pain or surprise, Luigi couldn't tell) and let go of the bag, as well as the hammer. The bag hit the ground with a thud and the orange creature eyed it with worry.
Before the Hammer Bro could do anything, Luigi screamed, "Let go!" The creature seemed to understand and dropped to the ground with a yelp, right as the Koopa went to grab his arm. Luigi ran forward and slammed the ice hammer right into the Koopa's shell, instantly freezing it and sending it flying into the woods.
Luigi stood there for a moment just breathing before his focus switched back to the odd creature now pushing its nose against the bag, letting out a soft whimper. Luigi cautiously approached the creature and froze when the orange creature looked back at him. Instead of aggression like before, the creature let out a whimper and nosed the bag again, almost like it was asking for help.
Luigi inched closer, opened the bag carefully and pulled the green creature out of it, its whole body limp. The orange creature watched him with caution, still not trusting him. "Come on," Luigi said, turning to look down the path toward his house. "My house is just a bit farther from here and you can stay there until we figure some things out, like why Bowser of all people would be interested in you and where you came from."
The creature nodded. Luigi turned to start walking down the path when the orange creature let out a soft bark. He turned and watched the creature jump into the bushes that they had originally rushed from and then emerge with two hats. Luigi blinked with surprise as the creature limped over to him and held out red and green colored hats that seemed to belong to the creatures.
He slowly took the green hat from the creature as it flipped its own red hat onto its head. He looked at the hats patch that sat on the front and paled. "Well," Luigi said, voice shaking a bit. The orange creature cocked its head in confusion as it stared up at Luigi. "I think I now know why Bowser was after you."
Mario was glad the day was almost over. He was exhausted and even that may have been an understatement. He yawned as he slowly walked down the path toward his house at around nine o'clock in the evening. He was so done with everything. Why couldn't Bowser just take a break as he did after the void incident? Those were really hard months, but at least they didn't have to deal with Bowser's shenanigans.
He let out a sigh as he approached his house. A lot of the lights were still on, which wasn't too much of a surprise, Luigi was still probably up. What was surprising was the amount of noise that was emanating from the house. There was a crash as Mario reached for the doorknob as well as a yelp of terror or pain, the plumber couldn't tell.
Quickly Mario opened the door and called out, "Luigi?" All the noise abruptly stopped, except there was a noise of scampering claws on the wooden floor in the kitchen. A flash of green pasted by his vision, before disappearing around the corner. Mario ran into the kitchen and saw his brother kneeling on the floor. "Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" he said kneeling next to his brother, concern written all over his face. That was when he noticed that there was something orange shaking in front of him. He turned to look at it and it was some type of creature with orange fur, with yellow fur for a tail and around its neck, ruffled up to look intimidating, making it look like it was fire.
"What the hell?" Mario said. He looked at his brother with a skeptical look. "What the heck is this and what is it doing in our house?" he said.
Luigi's face flushed as he sputtered, "I'm honestly not sure what it is exactly." His blush faded as he fully sat on the ground and beckoned to it. "Come on, it's just my brother. He won't hurt you, okay?" The creature gave Mario one look before it let out some type of hiss/growl, before making its way toward Luigi, still trying to keep its distance.
"Seems friendly," Mario grumbled as the creature went and hid behind Luigi as both brothers stood up. Luigi frowned but didn't say anything as the creature let out another growl before it turned around and bolted toward the living room. "So… When did this thing show up?" Mario asked looking at his brother.
Luigi's face flushed again as he rubbed the back of his head as he said, "Well… There's actually two of them." Mario raised an eyebrow as Luigi pushed him toward the room the creature had run into.
"What does that…" Mario trailed off as he caught sight of a green creature asleep on the couch. The orange creature jumped up on it and curled as best it could before giving Mario the stink eyes and letting out a soft growl. The plumber gave it a raised eyebrow before turning back to his brother who had gone ahead and leaned against a wall in the kitchen. "Tell me what happened," he said.
Luigi shrugged and said, "Well, to put it simply, it looks like they were running from Bowser probably. They were attacked by some Koopas who had been sent to capture them and I couldn't exactly leave them out there." Luigi let out a sigh and said, "I don't think they come from anywhere around here."
"Well, obviously," Mario said rolling his eyes.
Luigi let out a snort as he said, "No, I mean like they aren't from here, this universe."
Mario blinked and gave his brother a deadpan look. "So, you're saying that these creatures came from another dimension like how we traveled to different dimensions during the Void Incident?"
Luigi started to play with his mustache nervously as he said, "Yes and no. It thinks they came from somewhere different like a dimension, but more along the lines of an alternate universe or something like that."
"What makes you think that? For all we know, these creatures could have fallen from the flipside dimension or the paper dimension or some other dimension we never visited!" Mario said.
Luigi shook his head and pointed at the doorway. "Look at their hats and tell me if you recognize them." With a slightly raised eyebrow, Mario poked his head into the living room and looked at the hats that the two creatures wore. He had gotten a small look at the orange creatures earlier, but he wasn't paying to much attention, but now that he was looking at them…
Mario's face paled. "What the hell?" he mumbled.
"Language," Luigi said with a small smirk.
"No seriously, what the hell?" Mario said spinning around to look at his younger brother. "Is this some kind of joke to you?" Luigi shook his head as Mario started to pace the kitchen.
"Mario, I think their us, or well, a version of us." Mario stopped his pacing and snapped his neck toward Listen, I got a good look at those hats when I got here a couple of hours ago and they have identical hats to us. They even have their names stitched to the inside of caps where ours are and get this! Their names are Mareon and Luigeon," Luigi said.
"You're kidding right?" Mario said, face paling even further. Luigi just shook his head as Mario started to pace again. "If all that is true, then, what the heck are we supposed to do? We don't know where they actually came from, other than they're from another dimension or whatever and there is also the fact that Bowser was interested in them! That doesn't sound good at all!"
"I don't know!" Luigi cried. "I'm honestly not sure what to do! We've never dealt with anything like this! The only time we've dealt with anything close to this was during the Void Incident and," Luigi shivered, "I really don't want to deal with that again."
Mario flinched at that and sighed. "We can always go see what Rosalina has to say. She's always been into this kind of thing. Or we could talk to E. Gadd again?"
Luigi sighed as he glanced into the living room. "Well, whatever we do we should do it soon. They act on animal instinct. If one is in danger, the other reacts. When the green one, Luigeon, woke up after we got back here, I think into a panic attack. Its fur seems to conduct electricity or it works similar to my Thunderhand, I'm not sure, but Mareon, the orange one was able to calm it."
Luigi looked back at his brother and said, "Bro, these creatures can't live here. It's too dangerous for and them. They don't seem too familiar with this environment like we are and that could go bad in so many ways…"
Mario sighed and said, "I know." He looked toward the clock on the wall and said, "Why don't we wait till tomorrow and then head out to the castle to ask the princess for her opinion?"
The green plumber shrugged. "It's better than doing nothing." Mario nodded in agreement and looked back to the living room one last time before walking to the stairs and climbing up them for the night.
Luigeon let out a soft groan as he opened his eyes and looked around with hazy eyes. Where was he? Was he home? No, that can't be right, he remembered being sucked through a portal by… A shiver ran down his spine as slowly stood up. Gosh, everything ached. He looked around and couldn't help but feel at peace. This place wasn't his house but it was at the same time. Luigeon shook himself waking his sleeping brother next to him. Mareon let out a snort as he opened his eyes and blinked up at the green Jolteon. He let out a soft whimper as Luigeon nudged him with his nose.
A head popped out of the doorway that Luigeon assumed was the kitchen from his brief moments of being awake the night before. It was the same guy too. Luigeon still felt kind of surprised when the person came in with a smile a moment later. He hadn't seen a human in so long, he almost forgot what one looked like.
"I see you both awake." The human said, kneeling before the soft surface that they were laying on(a couch, Luigeon guessed). "I got something for you to eat." The human put a mushroom on the couch before them and watched carefully. Mareon eyed the thing with distrust but carefully got up and sniffed the object with distaste.
Luigeon's brow furrowed at that. He knew his brother didn't trust humans, even though that incident had happened about a decade ago, but this man saved their lives if Luigeon remembered what Mareon had said the day before.
His brother took a bite of the strange-looking mushroom, took a second to chew, deemed it okay and then gently pushed the fungus toward the Jolteon. Luigeon raised an eyebrow but shrugged and took a bite. The thing was as good as say, a Pecha berry, but it was edible. A second head popped around the edge of the doorway and Luigeon almost choked. This guy was wearing read and seemed shorter than the other human.
"Hey, Luigi, we should…" The human stopped when he noticed them. Luigeon could feel himself unconsciously tremble as Mareon padded over to him, a low growl rumbling at the back of his throat.
The tall human, Luigi, looked over his shoulder at the short human and smiled gently. "Mario gets in here I want to give a proper introduction." The short human looked between Luigi and them, a cautious look in his eyes, before shrugging and walking over.
"Mareon, Luigeon(How did he know their names?), meet my brother Mario," Luigi said gesturing at his brother. The human, Mario, knelt next to his brother and gave a short wave. Mareon's growling didn't stop but Luigieon took a small step forward and sniffed him. Luigeon didn't know how to feel at the moment. These two seemed nice like their humans back home, but the last time they had seen any human…
Luigeon licked his lips nervously and let out a soft whimper in hello. This seemed to make the human smile and he said, "It is nice to meet you." Luigeon smiled and let out a snort. Mareon, looking distrustful, took a step forward and made a snort.
Before anyone could respond, there was a knock at the door. Luigeon let out a yelp of surprise, jumping slightly, as Mario's head snapped toward the door. His brow furrowed as he looked at Luigi who just shrugged. They both looked at the Pokemon and Luigeon could feel a shiver crawl up his spine. Both brothers stood up and walked toward the door as Luigeon and Mareon crept toward the edge of the couch to see what was going on.
The red human opened the door to reveal a beautiful female human. She wore a beautiful pink dress and had long golden hair. She carried a pink parasol and had a crown on her head. Luigeon's eyes narrowed at that. He recognized that crown.
"P-princess!" Luigi stuttered in surprise as his brother just stared in astonishment. "What are you doing out here? Is there something wrong?"
The woman smiled gently as she straightened her dress slightly. "No, nothing is wrong, at least not yet. I know that I don't normally come out here, but this is a special case."
"A special case?" Mario repeated, eyebrow raised.
"Yes," the princess said as she fiddled with fingers in a nervous gesture. "Last night after you left, I heard a noise coming from the garden, so I went to investigate and well… I found this in the rose bushes." She stepped aside a Luigeon froze as Mareon took in a sharp inhale. Beside the human princess, stood their own princess, Princess Peacheon.
Author's note: Sorry this took so long to get out. This chapter just became longer than what I was expecting all that jazz. Anyway to more important matters.
As you saw at the begging of this chapter, there was what I'm deeming as "the prophecy." This is relevant to the plot so please do keep it in mind. Anyway, this is going to be a common thing that will occur at the beginning of each chapter. You will either be getting something from the past, to explain some events that can't really fit in a chapter, a check-in with another character, like Bowser and Bowtonator(Since I was always asked about those two in the original) or a brief snippet of that chapter. This is something new that I'm trying so I do want some feedback on it. Chapter 2 is in the works and those of you who are curious about the Adventures of Steven and Eve, go check out my Tumblr page, there is an update.
Also, there is art for this upcoming arc on Tumblr as well, so be sure to go check it out. I post updates and art there every now and again so make sure you go look at that and stay tuned for the next chapter. I think that is all I have to say, so make sure you leave a review so I know what you all think and how to improve in the future.
-TheDragonTale
