Chapter 4: Race Against Time

Flint grunted to himself as he lifted himself up. He found himself in an iron plated cell. The same cell that he built in the Sheriff's office. Though it was never used, Tazamilly never had any people steal or do anything worthy of being in jail...which was why there was only one cell block. It had a bed, and that was literally it.

All of a sudden, the door to the jailhouse opened, Claus walked into the room, clutching onto an apple.

"Hey...Dad…" Claus said.

"Hello Claus." Flint said, smiling a little. "Sorry about what happened earlier."

"It's okay, the town took it a bit rough, but other than that, everything's alright…"

"Where's Lucas?"

The orange haired twin's face fell a little. "Oh...I tried to get him to come...but...he's been crying at Mom's grave this whole time."

Flint felt his heart sink. He had missed Hinawa's funeral? His own wife's burial? The nerve of the Townsfolk...how long had he been unconscious?

Claus walked over to the jail window and placed the apple there. "I'm going to leave this here, The core might be a bit hard, but, make sure you eat it, okay dad?" Flint nodded in response.

"Claus…" Flint said has his son started to leave."

"Yes dad?"

Flint looked at him from under his eyes. "I love you kid, I don't want anything to ever happen to you."

"That's why I'm gonna get stronger, dad. I'm gonna get so strong even Dragos won't stand a chance against me!" Claus then ran out the door.

Flint let out a sigh. How on earth was he going to raise Lucas and Claus after this? He was a strong man sure, but, life without a mother was going to be hard on them.

He took the apple Claus left and took a bite out of it, he felt his teeth hit something hard, he pulled back and saw the beginning of a hand file wedged into the apple. Carefully, he maneuvered his way around the apple, finishing it to its core, where he carefully removed the file.

He walked over to the rusted lock and pyred the door open by wedging it between the locks. He opened the door and left the wooden shack. Only to find Duster waiting outside. The boy looked relatively remorseful as he saw him.

"Flint...I'm...I'm really sorry." he said. "I told em they should wait before burying Hinawa, just so you could be there for Lucas and Claus, but...they wouldn't listen...Please...if there is ever anything, and I mean anything, that I can do for you, please, let me know."

Flint nodded half heartedly as he walked past Duster, before something crossed his mind.

"Hey Duster," he said. "Thanks, I'll take care of them the best I can, but I'll make sure you know if there's ever anything I need help with." The thief nodded in response.

"Oh, your wife is buried up by the cliffside of Sunset Cemetery…Lucas has been taking it pretty hard...I don't think he's left since he arrived this morning."

How long was I even unconscious? Flint asked himself. He slowly walked off and passed the town. Taking note that the area felt rather...gloomy...on his way out, he accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry about that...Mister…" Flint looked at the man, he had never seen anything like him. The man was rather chubby, he wore a dark brown vest that covered a large pearly white shirt. He also had a heavy mustache that went dual sided with beady little black eyes that gave him an evil stare. He also wore a brown turban with a gold emblem of a...pig?...Weird.

"No, no, please, the fault was entirely mine." the man said. "My name is Fassad. I was just observing this lovely town of yours."

"Well...enjoy your stay then." Flint mumbled. "I'm in a hurry, so...see you?" he brushed past the man without saying another word. He made his way up the crossroads and to the north. Passing through an old run down cemetery and walking up to the cliffside, where he found Alec and Lucas. As he approached, he heard sniffles from Lucas.

He walked up to his son and placed a hand on his shoulder. Lucas flinched a little before looking up at him. His face was very pale, tear stricken, and his own striped shirt looked flooded.

"Dad…" Lucas sniffed, his voice was quiet, almost like a soft whisper.

"Yes Lucas?" Flint asked.

"I thought you said anything could come true...as long as we prayed from the bottom of our hearts?!"

Flint looked as his son, maintaining his composure in front of Lucas was very hard, considering everything that had happened. "I'm sorry Lucas...but...nothing will fix what happened. Even praying." he embraced Lucas in a hug, his young son clinging to him as tears fell from his face.

Alec turned to face him. "Hey Flint," he said. "I rushed straight here after I heard about what happened with you and Hinawa, I've been taking care of the boys." Flint nodded as they stood looking over the grave, Lucas still clinging onto Flint.

"Just after such a wonderful time with grandkids too…" Alec suddenly shot awareness.

"Um, Flint," he said. "Where's Claus? He said he was going to see you...but he never came back." Lucas suddenly twitched as he said that, something that both men picked up on.

"Lucas, do you know where Claus is?" Alec asked.

Lucas hung his head. "N-N...No…" he said weakly.

"Lucas!" Flint said calmly. "It's not good to keep secrets from people." His face suddenly fell.

"Please...Please don't tell me when he said he was going to get strong so a Drago couldn't face him he meant it.

"N-N...N-No!" Lucas panicked. "He didn't take your homemade knife and go into the mountains to kill the Drago!" he felt himself speak. "Ahhh…darn it."

"Well, it's a good thing you raised him to be honest." Alec said. "But Claus can't possibly think a homemade knife can kill one of those things. Why didn't you stop him?!"

"I...I told him I wanted to go…" Lucas sniffed. "But...he wouldn't let me." Lucas then stood up, before running away crying. "I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!"

"We've got to go," Flint said. "I can't lose Claus, not like that."

Alec nodded. "Good thing Bronson made this as a sort of coping present." he took out a spear with the sharp Drago Fang as the head. "Take it, We'll need it in case of danger."

Flint nodded and took the spear from his father-in-law. "We need to get moving."

"What about Lucas?"

"He'll be fine...I'm certain." The two took off down the cemetery. The ran past the area and up through the woods. Then, they found themselves at a river up near Alec's house.

Alec looked over at four blue frogs that made their way up the stream, forming a stepping stone bridge-like path.

"Just hop on them." Alec said, noticing Flint's confused expression.

The two hopped over the frog's heads. They found themselves by a large pink shell house in the center of a large lake.

"Oh, my Magypsies friends might be able to provide some help."

"Who?" Flint muttered.

"The Magypsies, they're a few friends of mine, live isolated from the rest of society. They might be able to provide some help."

Flint shrugged and pushed open the door. He found himself in a very pink house, just about everything was pink. But, that wasn't the strangest part.

The people inside the house all seemed like Men with pink hair. They wore a lot of makeup and hairstyles varying to women. However, Flint couldn't quite tell what the deal was with that.

One of the people, one with relatively short red hair, wearing a green kilt and overshirt with light green high heels approached them. The person also wore green pearled earrings.

"Is that you Alec?" The person asked.

Before Alec could answer, the one with a pink afro set of hair and purple makeup wearing a large fur coat spoke up.

"My, my, who are these two?" she asked. "Don't be rude! Ionia, introduce us."

"Of course Aeolia, where are my manners." Ionia said. "This is my good friend Alec. And...uh...who's this with you?"

"My name is Flint, I'm Alec's...son-in-law."

"Flint, you say?" Ionia asked. "Well, it's very nice to meet you. Well...how about you stay a little while with the rest of us Magypsies?"

"We don't have the time for that." Alec said. "Have you seen an orange haired boy...around the age of ten? Striped shirt? Anything like that."

Aeolia perked up. "Ah yes," she said. "That rambunctious little squirt from a while ago? I suppose that makes Flint his father…" she peered at him. "Ah yes, I can see it in your eyes they are just like little boys."

"So, where is he?" Flint asked. "Where is my son?"

"Ah, yes, he took off a while ago." Aeolia said. "He was in a great hurry, mentioning something about avenging his mother. Of course, I felt bad for the kid, so naturally, I did the right thing, I sent him on his way with a super-powerful PSI technique."

"YOU DIDN'T STOP HIM?!" Flint shouted at the person. "HE'S GOING TO GET HIMSELF KILLED!"

"You humans live such short lives anyways." another Magypsies said calmly. This one wore a big yellow winter jacket and had a bald head. "It's best that you go out and make the most of it."

"You IDIOTS!" Flint growled. "Why wouldn't you tell him to go home! WHAT THE ACTUALLY HELL DID YOU THINK HE WAS GOING TO DO?"

Alec was taken aback by his sudden outburst. "Flint wai-"

Flint turned around and took off, ignoring Alec's calls. Nothing mattered right now, all that mattered was finding Claus. As he took off through a cave, he was unaware that someone was watching him.

Flint was exhausted, he had run through a large valley full of vultures and exploding living trees. Thankfully (if you could say that) he hadn't seen a body. So there was hope that Claus was still alive.

He found himself lurking towards a dead end when he spotted something. A baby Drago was nibbling on what looked like a shoe. Then, after a careful investigation, it hopped off. In the distance, Flint could hear a loud screech from a mother Drago.

He walked over to the shoe and picked it up, and when he did, he felt his heart sink. It was the same green colored shoe Claus had been wearing.

"No...No...NOOOOOO!" Flint roared. A sudden burst of energy suddenly erupted from him. What was this feeling? Such power and energy emerging from nowhere? Even though he was exhausted? What was this boiling steam of emotion he was letting out?

He recklessly charged up the cliff, where he found the mother Drago, only, it had a bunch of metal stuff on it? That didn't matter anymore, all he cared about was taking what it took from him. He let off a scream and charged at the baby, bracing the Drago Fang. He heard a loud screech and saw a flash of the green tail before it cut to black.

ΩΩΩ

"Wake up." Flint grunted as he shot his eyes open. He found himself still in the valley. The Mother Drago and her weird metallic armor lay defeated on the ground. The baby nudging itself by her fallen mother.

"Turn around and look at me, you damn fool!" Flint spun around and was met with a weird sight. A young person of some sorts, his eyes hidden behind a red hood stood before him. The person wore a black cloak and seemed to have taken damage as there was a hint of blood pouring out near his foot.

"Who are yo-" he was cut off as the hooded person raised up an arm, silencing him.

"Blinded by Anger, you will do more foolish things." The person said. "You would've died had I not intervened. Don't you have another son at home? One who has already lost so much. What would he think if his father never came home searching for his twin brother?"

Flint paused, in retrospect, what had he been thinking? To charge at a family of Dragos, that was suicide, even if the Dragos fang could've done something. And then with the weird metal armor? It took three entities just to take down that caribou.

"My son, Claus, they…"

"What happened to your wife and son...it's awful. You have my condolences. But please, think about what you'd be doing to Lucas."

Flint bit down on his lip. The thought of Lucas, at home, crying to Boney, only to be told that his father was now dead...like his brother...like his mother? What had he been thinking?

He shook his head. "I...um...thank you...so much." he said. "I hadn't considered any of this. Please, how can I make it up to you?"

"You can go home, grief with Lucas, raise him properly. Whatever else you do, whether it's look for your other son, or anything else, I care not. Just please, don't let your son lose anymore." The person then vanished in a flash of pink light.

Flint took one look at the wounded mother, then, he shook his head. He picked up the Drago Fang and walked back through the valley.

Of course, since this story is a retelling that will be canon to my current Earthbound Series, I'm going to introduce a couple of unique twists on the original Mother 3 story. I'm not sure what exactly I'll do, but I do want a couple of things, like maybe including Ness and friends. Our little red-hooded Assassin's identity is still undecided, it could be my Original Character, or it could be someone else from the Mother Series.

Anyway, I know the Drago Fight is a pretty big moment, but again, I'm offering my own interpretation. Also, fighting scenes aren't really my thing, I'm usually a much more character focused person. I like to develop and overwrite characters, whilst balancing out small little fighting segments within them.

That's all for this month's chapter, I hope you enjoyed it, leave a review with predictions or thoughts, or just saying nice is always greatly appreciated. See you all next month, where we begin Duster's story.