How did I get here? I've must have gotten lost in my thoughts again.
Hahaha... ahhh... I already miss her.
And... I'm not sure why. Well, I do know — she was a really good friend to me... she was kind and sweet, fun to be with, so it makes sense that I'm sad that I won't get to see her at all, or at best, not as often. But I miss her even more then I miss Master Porky, and he's my best friend.
So why do I miss her more?
Well... I haven't actually seen Master Porky for... it's been ages, hasn't it? Yes, and I didn't live with him at all, so obviously I would be less used to his presence then Miss Marsh's... yeah... that must be it.
But either way... I've gotta keep going, right? Right.
I'm on the higher floors of the Thunder Tower now — these ones are the 'scaffolding' floors, as Colonel Rysan called them. Master Porky's room should be somewhere up here.
There's a light breeze up here, being exposed to the outside. Despite there being guard rails on all the stairs and platforms, I can't help but be scared that I'll fall off the tower and, well, it wouldn't be the first time I've fallen a large distance, but I'm not exactly in a hurry to test my chances at surviving a second time.
Wait... I can fly... so if I just fall off... I can just fly back up. Yeah, that seems to a running thing today — that being me acting like a complete idiot!
Like letting her... ah, forget it...
Either way, it's probably just best to stay on solid ground.
As I climb up, I notice some of the screws seem to come to life, and jump out in front of me.
Yeah, so that should be surprising, but... I can't be bothered to be surprised. I... I just... DAMN IT!
Okay, deep breaths... deep breaths... that's what she always said...
Alright. Let's try things more... optimistically.
I'm going to see Master Porky again.
And... that's gonna be fun! Yeah, it'll be fun!
The screws that do get in the way, are very easy to take out. I use a special technique I like to call 'bashing them so hard they fly off the tower', to easily dispose of them. Part of me wonders if this is safe, given the fact that, well, the screws are holding the tower together. Okay, maybe I should stop then.
It's not too long until I reach the end, where the only way further is a ladder that goes through a pipe. There's a sign next to the pipe... His Highness's Room? So, I've reached Master Porky's room then.
With baited eagerness, I climb the ladder, wondering what the room will be like.
And, when I enter, I have to remind myself that I'm not royalty. I accept that.
Nor do I ever want to become royalty - if Prince Poo and Master Porky are any indication, becoming royalty requires a great deal of suffering, whether it be going through arduous trials and mental suffering in the case of the former, or becoming permanently deformed in the case of the latter.
Then again, I have gone through a great deal of suffering and deformation myself... but that's besides the point...
I say this all because of what my expectations for Master Porky's room to be like are. I would have thought, it would be like a throne room. And I would think a throne room would have... a red carpet, a throne and, maybe some statues — in fact, I believe Prince Poo's throne room had all three of those things.
In hindsight, I don't know why I'm surprised — Master Porky's room has exactly none of those things.
It's a child's playroom.
There's a jukebox playing a familiar song that I think I may have heard at the arcade, a star shaped hot spring in the centre, and loads of toys all around — guitars, bicycles, teddy bears, airplanes, it's got pretty much everything! The walls are decorated in white with some swirls patterned onto them. Meanwhile, the ceiling depicts a starry sky with a pink floor beneath with more stars on it.
It's... a sensory overload.
"Well then, I was wondering if you'd ever make it up here."
What the... I've been so preoccupied with looking around, that I haven't even noticed perhaps the most out of place thing in this room. In the centre of it all, is Porky in his capsule. He looks sicker and sicker by the day...
I turn towards him and bow.
"Sir."
Porky... chuckles at this for a bit before speaking.
"At ease. Ahhhh, it is rather nice to have people bow at your feet... very nice. So... I haven't seen you for... well, months. Hahahaha... you'll have to forgive me... when you get to my age, a few months is like a day. I've heard... good things about your progress."
"Yes. I have been training and have become much stronger since. I passed the test set to determine my leadership skills, and I have also gained some skill with cooking in preparation for Mi — Lil' Miss Marshmallow's leave."
"Ah yes... that robot is supposed to work here. You did get it here safely, didn't you?"
"I have. She is currently on the lower floors being registered in the tower's mainframe."
Porky giggles madly before continuing.
"Good! Very good! I'm pleased... things are going very well. So... how do you find this Tower of Thunder then?"
"It is... a rather impressive accomplishment. A tower so high, that can generate this much electricity. It should be very useful."
"And it will be. Oh, it will be. But that's for later. For now... I have called you here for a very special reason. A very special task, that no one else can do."
Only I can do this? Well, whatever it is, I will do my best for Master Porky!
"What is this... task then?"
"You see... I've been here for about a week, and you see... I'M SO BORED!"
He's... bored?
"And so I thought to myself, what better way to cure my boredom then to have my best friend come over? And now that you are here... let's play! To the cars!"
With that, Porky's capsule opens up and he gets out of it, before rushing over to some miniature versions of those land based vehicles I saw outside the cafe... so these are 'cars' then.
"Well? What are you waiting for?!"
I must admit, this wasn't really what I thought of when 'special task only I can do' came to mind, but hey, why not!
With that, I quickly join him and the two of us immediately start racing each other around the track with the cars. Porky's evidently played this loads, because he very easily beats me, not just once, but four times. Still, I manage to get one win in there — I think he may have been taking pity on me, but I'm grateful nonetheless.
"Woo! That was fun! What's next, what's next?! Oh, oh, let's go in the car!"
Porky moves to a bigger car — these seem more like the ones I saw, ones that you can actually drive in.
The two of us try driving the car around — it's only big enough to hold one person, so we take turns, and it's quite fun to zip around the playroom like this! I struggle a bit with figuring out how you actually use it — much to Porky's amusement, I end up ramming into the walls a few times.
"Haha! You drive like my father used to!"
Porky keeps laughing, eventually transcending into a giant coughing fit, where he's forced to sit down on the floor.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah... I'll live and all... so come on! What's next? I know, let's take things to the sky!"
And so next up are the aeroplanes — using them gives a sensation similar to flying, and yet still quite different. Porky comes up with something interesting though — a race around the playroom, with him in the aeroplane, and my using my wings. It's certainly fairer then the racecars were since I've had experience flying. Porky still manages to just beat me though.
"Ahhhhh. Now I'm tired."
Porky returns back to his capsule and lies down.
"Can I have a look around the playroom?"
"Feel free. It's always nice to show off to a friend!"
I pace around the playroom, having a look at some of the toys. There's certainly a lot of them, in a multitude of colours. I wonder if Porky actually plays with them all. Over time my eyes are drawn to the hot spring.
Porky notices me staring at it and giggles.
"Haha! You know, that's only for me to use. But since you are my best friend, I suppose I'll make a special exception for you."
"Really? Thank you!"
I step into the water and relax... ahhhhhh...
It feels wonderful... all my muscles relaxing at once... it's been soo long since I've been in a hot spring...
After about 5 minutes, I get out, and move about some more. There really are a lot of toys her — AHHH!
"HAHAHAHAHA! Oh, that was perfect! That's the funniest thing I've seen in all these years! HAHAHAHAHA!"
In the middle of my pacing, I didn't quite notice a teddy bear in the ground and tripped over it. I need to be more careful... but what is this bear doing here anyway?
I pick it up... it feels rather soft, and cushy... sort of like Miss Marsh, I suppose. Its design is rather familiar... hm... ah! I believe Paula had one of these, didn't she? Though... is it the same one? No, it's likely to be a different one from Porky's time... right?
The bear itself looks rather old, the marks of time clear on it. There are some... marks still on it though... I think... they're letters? It's very hard but it looks like there were once nine letters, though most of them have faded away. I think I can make out a... an 's'... and an 'o'... and perhaps another 's' well?
The strangest thing, is that while the first four letters are evenly spaced out, the fourth and the fifth have are spaced out a bit further, and then the last five letters are spaced out evenly as well. It seems as if it were two words, one four letters and the other five.
I have this strange desire to know what it says... but I just can't make them out. Damn it!
...S. O.. S... yeah, that seems very fitting. Cause I think I need help...
"You seem rather interested in that bear. It's a special one, you know."
"Special?"
"Mhm. It belonged to Ness's wife. When I went back to recruit Dr Andonuts, I took something from each of Ness's friends, and Ness himself, as a... memento of them. That yo-yo there? That was from Ness himself. No one but me is allowed to touch it."
I swivel round to where Porky's pointing to. There's a glass case with a crown on top of it. Inside it is a cushion with a yo-yo on top of it. Evidently, it means a lot to Porky.
"So, do you like my throne room then?"
"It is... certainly quite a lot to take in. I didn't expect your room to be like this."
"Age of an immortal, mind of a child. I remember as a child, I didn't get many toys. We were broke after all. But now, I have all the toys I could ever want. It's amazing, isn't it? New toys come and go. They get broken or become outdated. So what do you do?"
Porky takes a... breath before continuing.
"You replace them! When your action figures break, you get a new one that's tougher, rougher and badder! But the thing I've realised is that after a while, you start getting bored of all these toys."
"So... what do you do then? Do you stop playing with the toys altogether?"
Porky starts wheezing a considerable amount of this, before braking into a cough. It take a while before he regains his composure.
"BZZT! Wrong! Like a recipe that doesn't seem right or a story that doesn't have the ending you want, you go beyond just trying to find a new one. No. You make your own. You design it and then watch it all unfold exactly as you want."
"That's what I did. I took the place where the 'story' was supposed to end for me and surpassed the 'writer'! The person influencing it all everything on this planet... he thought he was the one who had control all this time... hee hee hee! "
"He never noticed that, slowly, I was taking the power! He thought, that he could end it all whenever he wanted, yet he never noticed that I, Master Porky, was adding my own chapters! I became the 'writer'! And then he... died. He died! What an almighty idiot! But even then, I still kept adding my own chapters. Take a guess. Why did I do it?"
Added his own chapters? I see... you wouldn't think that you could survive an onslaught of attacks like that... but Porky did. He survived where it should have ended. He extended his life to immortality. He added a new chapter... to his life.
"Because... you weren't happy... were you? The original end to the story... was your death. And you wanted to change that."
"Exactly. Ah...my friend... you and I are so much alike. It was as if... it were destiny that we should meet. As if we were... chosen. Chosen to bring a new age. But there is no such thing as 'fate' and 'chosen ones' in life. Only the idiots that delude themselves into believing they are 'chosen' and the idiots that believe in them!"
Porky takes what I think is a breath before continuing.
"You think I was happy, when I felt was dealt all that pain and suffering, by Ness and his 'friends'? How they rejected me over and over and over again? How I wanted to save Ness from them, only to realise I was too late... the friend I had, the only friend I had... to see him walk away... forever. FOREVER!"
Porky starts a violent coughing fit and starts hacking before spitting... something out.
"And the stars that rained down on me, the rockets that shook my bones, the fire that burned away at my flesh and the psychedelic explosions that rocked my mind? You think I was happy for it to end with my screams of agony deafening me with that freak watching me? NO!"
"I could have died there. Ohhhhh... I really could have. At any point, the entire world could have just collapsed upon me and that would have been it... No one would have missed me at all. Not my abusive mother, my deadbeat father, my brother who was nothing but a waste of skin and most certainly not, Ness. Neessss..."
There's a strange hissing in Porky's voice, and a lot... no, an immeasurable amount of irritation in his eyes. He stops for some time, so I take it I'm allowed to speak, but as I open my mouth...
"Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, NEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"
Porky is abruptly cut off by his own hacking and wheezing once again.
"My lord, I... I... I was not aware of how... greatly you... despised Ness."
"Despise Ness? Oh, I don't despise Ness. I hate him! I hate him with every single fibre of my being! He... abandoned me! And yet... I envy him so much..."
"But why would you envy someone like him?"
"It's... complicated. I remember back when I was so young, I'd look at Ness and think 'Wow, he's so cool!'. The worst part is that I still think that. Ness had everything. He had a mother that cared, a father that provided and supported, and a sister, who did more for him than my brother ever did."
"And, he had those friends of his... the ones who took him away from me. They supported him in everything that they did, and he was able to find love in one of them. And he even had children which everyone adored, and he was in turn adored by his children. How sweet."
"Oh, but there's more! Ness was a psychic. He had all these miraculous powers, and everyone thought he was soooo great because of them. I thought so as well. He could do so many things... but I'll never forget that... that PSI... the PSI which he copied! Idiot! He couldn't even master it!"
Ness... copied PSI? But PSI techniques are universal... aren't they? Any psychic can learn any PSI technique with enough practice, so there would be no need to copy it. Unless Porky meant that Ness stole PSI...
"Did... is it possible to steal PSI from a person?"
"No. PSI is innate... most psychic techniques are universal to all psychics though. Any psychic can learn PSI with practice. Well, not any PSI..."
Not any PSI? Well, some PSI can't be learned very easily, such as PK Starstorm... but that's when it hits me. Porky isn't talking about PSI that can't be learned naturally, through psychic fevers — he's talking about PSI that can't be learnt at all.
"Such as... PK Love."
"Hmm... very good. Tell me, what do you know about it?"
"Not much. Only a few can learn it, who are 'chosen' and the power of the attack seems to be comparable to that of PK Starstorm. And..."
Yeah, it's time, isn't it?
"And...?"
"And... I can use it."
Porky slams his hands into the sides of his capsule, before he leans up to look at me.
"You... can use... PK Love...?"
"I... I can..."
"When?"
"Just about an hour ago."
"An hour?! Well then, how exactly did you learn it? What happened that made you use it?"
"I was travelling through this tower with Lil' Miss Marshmallow, and we encountered a group of batteries and robots, which had gotten loose from the power outage recently. The enemies outnumbered us and we were almost... defeated. In desperation... I... I... I did that. PK Love..."
"Interesting... soo, can you do it now?"
Now? Well... I suppose I could try...
I concentrate like when I use PK Thunder, and then...
"PK Love Alpha!"
... aaand nothing happens.
"Strange... let me... let me try that again. PK Love Alpha!"
And nothing happened again.
"Why... why isn't this working?!"
I try three more times, and nothing happens all three times. I... I don't understand!
"Enough. It's not gonna work.
"But... I... I... I swear it... it must seem like I'm lying, but I, I'm not, I swear!"
"I believe you."
"You... you do?"
"Mhm. And I'm sure the robot will corroborate your story as well. And so, I must give you an order. It's a very important one."
"What... what is it?"
"DO NOT TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS!"
"Wha... why not?"
Porky gives a sigh before answering.
"Ohhh... I really wish I could tell you. And I will. I promise I will, in the future. But for now... let's just say, that it's important that as few people know about this... power, as possible. PK Love is very... special... and in the future, it will be very important.
"But if... they, knew that you had this power... things could go horribly wrong. So it is important no one else knows. And because of that, I must ask that you refrain from using PK Love at all. Unless... Hm... well... how are you doing with your PSI?"
"Well... not much... I have learned Defence Down and the next level of PK Thunder. It's... not much though..."
"Hm... considering that you have learned PK Love... perhaps... it is time for you to focus on more on your mind, as opposed to your body."
"What do you mean?"
"You were having cooking lessons with the robot in the afternoons, right?"
"Indeed."
"Well, now, you'll no longer be having them. But instead of returning to your regular training, in the afternoons, I'd like you to spend some time with our psychic expert."
"Psychic expert? You don't mean..."
"Yes. Fassad. He knows perhaps more about PK Love then even I do. For that reason, I'm entrusting you to him, so that you can develop this power. In fact, I'll append my previous request — you can inform Fassad about this, and you may use PK Love under his supervision. But nowhere else."
Oh... oh no... I... I have to do training... with Fassad... oh no...
Okay... okay... alright... think of the upside! I'll become stronger, since Fassad is a powerful psychic. And hey, at least I get to practice with PK Love! So it's not... all bad.
It's only about... 95% bad.
"Okay... I promise I will keep this secret."
"Thank you. Ahh... you know... all the important people in my life seem to be psychic... Ness... him... and now... you."
"Do you... do you ever wish you were psychic as well?"
"Haha! You know, sometimes I do! For years on end, I've contemplated my sad position and thought not only about if I was psychic but also... what if I were Ness? What if I had all those things? It was pure envy that Ness has all these things, despite all the things that he did. The things he did to me.
"But now... now things are soo much different. You know that saying, 'good things come to those that wait'? Well, I've been waiting a very long time. I've lived through so many generations — I have no age! I've survived the end of the world!"
"And Ness... he doesn't even have a tombstone now! But he doesn't matter anymore. With you, you, my one, true friend, we will make this world our own. All the Ness... Nessi... Nesses... whatever the plural of Ness is! All of them, will be eliminated."
"And then the world... will be pure again?"
"Exactly. The world will be exactly the way we want it. All the people that hate me... gone. Forever!"
"Gone? As in... we kill them?"
"I can hear it... the apprehension in your voice. You're adverse to killing, I imagine. So you should be."
"Killing those who stand in our way... is it truly necessary? Could we not just capture or imprison them?"
"We could. And we will. I am not without mercy. And those who accept the changes and have been previously misguided, they will be welcomed into New Pork City. But what about those who continue to fight? What about those who cannot be reasoned with? What then? It's either you or them."
"So then... you kill them. Kill them before they kill you. And... that's why you wanted me to become the Commander, isn't it? In case we needed to do so. And, that's why this tower has a laser on top of it?"
"I was wondering if you'd ask about that. There will be a time where we must fight fire with fire... or lightning in this case. And that... that will be very useful. In fact... that time is already upon us. The war has only just begun. And to win this 'war', we must kill."
"We kill, to protect. To ensure success. Because in truth, an evil person is not just evil. Do you want to know why I could never really hate Ness, despite all the things I've said? Because, despite all the things he did to me, none of them wouldn't have happened if it weren't for those three. The ones who... corrupted him."
"So despite all the things he did, and despite all that I've said, I will never truly hate him. But a few bad apples spoil the basket, don't they? So we grab the bad apples and keep hurling them out until they give up and rot away."
"So who exactly do we go about this war?"
"Patience. I'm not exactly a particularly patient person myself but living for an eternity kinda forces it in you. New Pork City, the centre of it all, is large but it needs to be bigger."
"But the Thunder Tower has completed, right? So... now we have the power for such an expansion."
"Indeed. Once my city is complete, we start. And you, my friend, my partner. You have a very special role to play. When we succeed, all the people we have saved, will look to me, Master Porky, with you by my side, as the Commander of the Pigmask Army, the greatest army in the world!
"And... I will be there to support you at every point."
"Thank you... you know, I thought that Ness was the only one who truly understood me. But I was wrong. You... you and I are truly alike. Both of us have come from families that hated us, and both of us have suffered greatly, both physically and mentally. But now, both of us have come together and now this island will become our playground!"
Porky extends a mechanical claw from his machine.
"Ready?"
With my own hand, I shake it.
"Ready."
A/N: 15 chapters... I can hardly believe I've gotten this far! And Happy New Year as well!
Apologies that this one isn't as long as the others, but with it, that concludes this mini little arc of sorts. I've had the idea for this chapter for some time — specifically, a chapter that had Porky go on a giant rant about why he hates Ness which gives some insight into his twisted mind. I may have gotten a bit too heavy with the 'writer' metaphors though.
One thing I'm not sure is clear that I'll clarify — at one point Porky mentions 'him' copying PSI and not mastering it. While Claus (incorrectly) assumes Porky is referring to Ness, Porky's actually talking about Giygas being able to use PSI Rockin, but not being able to use above the Beta variant of it.
There's one more thing I'd like to discuss here — a challenge of sorts. You know that teddy bear that Porky has? Can you figure out what was written on it? I've given you 3 of the 9 letters, so see if you can figure out the rest.
Here's something that might help you figure out the answer — who was the previous owner of the bear? I think it's fairly obvious who the bear belonged to — in fact, you've probably already figured it out! But if you can answer that, then that may just help you out.
I do intend to reveal the answer to this little puzzle — but it won't be in this story, rather it'll be in a future story for Earthbound that I have plans for.
So I dunno, make your guesses in the comments if you want! I'll say this: don't go too crazy over trying to figure it out — because the answer's kinda dumb. I just wanted to throw this in because... hey, I thought it'd be fun.
Next time, Claus begins his training with Fassad.