Chapter 25: Lost and Fallen

Lucas let out a groan as they turned a corner in a dark cave and found themselves back by the same corner vine they had passed six times already.

"Damn mole crickets." Kumatora muttered. "This map is doing shit all to help us, at this rate, we'll never make it out to the other side to get to that mountain."

"If I see this vine one more time, I might very well start my own fit." Boney sighed. "It doesn't help that we seem to be going insane."

Lucas only nodded his head. After the needle had been pulled, He, Kumatora, Paula, and Boney had left the area, after saying goodbye to Salsa and Samba of course. From there, a mole cricket had wandered into them, and asked them to come with them. Where they promptly figured out where the next needle was thanks to convenience in mole town.

Still as they wandered aimlessly around the Mole hole maze. They had shared a bit about themselves with Paula. The girl was quite friendly, Lucas suspected it might have had something to do with an underlying guilt she felt for what had happened to Tazamily. After all, her PSI energy was being used to keep the disobedient in check, Jeff and his father were being used to develop those abominable chimeras. Poo was more or less a bodyguard for the commander, and whoever Ness was, he was probably under their control too.

Lucas also noted the way Paula spoke about Ness, in a particular worried fashion. Almost as if she was expecting the worst to have happened.

"So…what do these bastards want with people like us anyway?" Kumatora asked Paula as they continued to wander around. "They already have someone willing to help them with their plan to pull the needles with PSI. So what do they want with the rest of us?"

"Well…" Lucas noted the worry in Paula's voice. "They…they don't want you…" she whispered. "They just want me…me and my own friends."

"What beef does that bastard Fassad have with you?"

"Um…" Paula shivered. "Actually, Fassad isn't the mastermind behind this situation."

Lucas felt his eyebrows raise. Fassad had mentioned a piggly king. Though, he always thought that he was just referring to himself. It felt like a very greedy thing to take pride in from him.

"His…his name is Pokey." Paula continued. "He's a nemesis of ours. The story is…very long. But basically, Pokey has harbored a resentment towards me, Jeff, and Poo in particular. Ness…I'm not so sure. Now that I know what those Needles do…I think I know what his plan is."

"What would that plan be…exactly?" Boney asked.

"Uh…well, call it a hunch, I don't quite understand everything Jeff said to me. But I'll do my best to try and explain."

Paula cleared her throat. "Well…Jeff theorizes that, since the Dark Dragon was the creator of the world, he reckons that whoever's heart is passed on to the dragon and granted its power, they would basically have the ability to reset the world to their own desires. Of course, since Pokey doesn't have the power to pull the needles, he can't make use of it himself. However, if he had a commander cyborg with no heart. He could essentially take the place of the commander at will and wish his desires to the dragon."

Lucas flinched at the thought. This Pokey person couldn't possibly be much older than Paula was…which made their enemy, the person doing all these horrible things, nothing more than a kid, just like the rest of them?

"What exactly…are Pokey's desires?" Lucas bit down on lip as he watched color fade from Paula's face.

"I-I don't really want to think about that…'' Paula whispered, he could see she looked ready to cry at the thought. "B-But…g-given what I know…I guarantee that Jeff, Poo, and I won't be in it."

"He's so angry with you…what did you guys do to him?"

"Well…" Paula's face was red. "A few months after Pokey disappeared. Ness…he…he got a letter from Pokey. He uh…he basically freaked out. But, the note basically told Ness that Pokey would personally kill me, Jeff, and Poo. He said that we had turned Ness against him. Ripped his life to shreds. He…he said some nasty things. And the things he'd do to us if we dared to go searching for him. He said to Ness, if he wanted to find him, he'd have to do it alone."

"That's awful." Kumatora growled.

"Oh it gets worse…" Paula shivered. "Ness decided to go out and look for Pokey. He got some help from a few other acquaintances of his from some Smash tournament thingy he competes in on occasion. Anyway, while they were gone, Jeff, Poo, and I all received separate messages, we thought they were from Ness' mother. And well, they were…just…uh."

"You don't have to share if you aren't comfortable." Lucas said calmly to her.

"No…it's fine…" Paula shook her golden hair a little. "Uh…when we each got to Ness' house, we were greeted with Fassad. He um…he told each of us that if we didn't come with him, he'd kill Ness' family. Naturally, he chose to bring us all there separately. That way, each time we got there, he had another one of us to threaten us with. He chose me first, then Poo, then Jeff."

"You didn't just burn him alive?"

"Well…he already had Pigmasks…" Paula whispered. "I suspect they're using some old Mani Mani Technology to hypnotize people from our, and your world to join their army."

"So they're under hypnosis…but how…" Kumatora pondered on the thought. "What does most everyone have in Tazamily that Lucas does-"

"The happy boxes!" Lucas stomped his foot. "I knew they had something to do with this!" he paused for a moment. "Wait…what's Mani Mani?"

"It's uh…it's a statue that Pokey and his master, Giygas…that's another long story." Paula started. "Basically, it's just this weird thing that hypnotizes people to do their bidding." She looked down in disappointment.

"I'm just worried." Paula's tone was on the brink of collapse. "I don't know what has happened to Ness. Pokey's probably already gotten to him at this point. At this point, the least I can do is try to help you guys."

"Don't worry," Lucas gave the girl a reassuring smile. "We won't let that happen to you."

"Don't make a promise you can't keep." Boney barked.

Paula gave him a reassuring smile. "Thanks." She said, "I know I've already apologized for the horrible…horrible things that have happened to your home. But…truly, I can't forgive myself, and it's unlikely that Jeff and Poo will either."

"It's okay…" Lucas replied. "I…I would've done the same thing if someone held my brother, mother, and father hostage. You saved your friend's family." He glanced over at Kumatora, while Paula's smile was up. Kumatora gave him a doubting look. Which he somewhat understood. It wasn't clear if Fassad would've kept his promise to the three of them.

"Hey, we're here!" Boney barked.

The three of them each let out a sigh as they saw an opening in the exit. Sunlight and snow! Just what they wanted to see!

"Great! The next needle is within our grasp! Let's go get it!" Lucas pointed up towards the mountain as the three of them walked up there.

I know its very much in bad taste to try and shoe-horn in all the stuff that makes the events of this story canon to my EarthBound Series. However, very much intended for this story to be canon. Of course, my OCs haven't been discovered yet. And it's blatantly obvious that Ness and the others are very much more mature and serious. And a lot of Ness' interactions with Pokey, despite the Pokey I use being the Pokey from Ness' world, feel very off. I've had comments about that myself. This story is partially being used to give justification to these interactions. As I've gotten a few comments here and there asking why Ness hasn't bothered to try and fix Pokey's life if he keeps popping up. I'm certain people familiar with my other stories could get some hints or just ignore the thought all together. But...since I already had this file stashed away, I just decided I'd publish a Mother 3 Novelization and work around it.

And look at that, you all seem to really enjoy it :) Very much proud of that. Though, It does admittedly hurt me a little inside to know most of you all wait months just for me to crank out a 1,000 - 1,500 word chapter for this, when my other stories have longer chapters. Of course, It also kind of hurts that I know some people lose interest the second they reach chapter 3 and see that I'm already adding stuff to story that doesn't really need a lot of fixing.

Oh well, I hope you all are enjoying this. I know it may have been better to show a flashback or something for this section. Show how Paula, Jeff, and Poo ended up in the unfortunate situation they're in. However, the Chosen 4 being here aren't the focus. It's on Lucas, and how he's supposed to help. Ness will show up though, maybe a bit sooner than you all are expecting ;). However, I don't want the spotlight to be taken off Lucas, this is his heroic adventure, not Ness's.

Thank you for reading, I'll see you all, next time!