Chapter 27: Vs Pavlov's Dogs
Lucas slid across the dirt leading up to his house, careful to avoid the flowers. He went inside, closed to door, checked to make sure he hadn't left any windows open again (he hadn't), moved aside that creaky floorboard, and dropped down to the basement. A yellow glow from his finger lit up the room until he hit the light switch on the wall.
It had the stuffed animals, the copies of his photo collection, more books, the Franklin Badge and the futuristic sword handle collecting dust, Claus's old shoes, and more. Nothing was out of place. But more importantly, it had the computer he didn't use nearly as often as most people did. Slowly, it booted up. Slowly, he made his way to the instant messaging app. Even more slowly, he typed with two fingers.
[Hi Samus, where are you? I want to talk to Pikachu, is he with you? If he's not then sorry to bother you. Thanks for your time.]
Lucas waited, and waited, and waited. Staring at screens like this probably wasn't healthy.
[Samus is typing...] That only remained for seconds.
[I'm at the Observatory, and yeah, he's here too. What's this about?]
Lucas started to type, then pressed backspace several times. This would take too long compared to just talking in person, but then again, he'd already started typing. He sighed. Hopefully she wouldn't be mad.
He turned off the computer, left the basement, carefully covered the entrance again with the floorboard, walked out of the house and locked the door before running and teleporting. Just how many times would he have to teleport today?
Lucas slid across the Comet Observatory floor once again. Holograms glowed up ahead blocking out the blue miniature sun's glare, a red carpet covered the northeast path near the library, grass and flower beds surrounded the Terrace to the northwest, and a metal platform stretched west of that with just enough space for Samus's orange spaceship to rest. Lumas floated all around the observatory, but only one of them was the one playing with Pikachu by throwing a frisbee that he zipped through the air to catch, somehow turning at a 90 degree angle with a Quick Attack to catch it in his mouth.
"Whoa, that was so cool!" The yellow Luma said. "How'd you do that?"
"Chu!" Pikachu threw it back.
"Right, you can't talk..."
"He said he used his electricity to jump again. I don't think he knows the physics behind it, though, and I dunno either..." Lucas said while scratching the back of his head. "I bet it's like how I use PSI to double jump, though. Hey, do you know where Samus is?"
"Who's that?"
"Wait, never mind, I know how to find her..." Lucas closed his eyes and searched for her psychic presence, eventually finding it in the library. "Hey Pikachu, can you follow me? It's complicated, but I wanna talk to you and Samus, and if I explain now I'll have to say it all twice."
"Pika!" Pikachu happily followed him and ran across the Observatory floor until they reached the library.
"Wait, come back, Pikachu! Don't leave me for Mama's favorite! Nooooooo!"
It was strange to see Samus sitting on a rocking chair by the fireplace wearing casual clothing and reading a book. Even the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter needed time off the job.
"Hi Samus! Sorry I didn't text you back, I thought it would be better to talk to you in person because...uh..." Because of his pitiful typing speed, but she didn't need to know that. "Since I have to talk to Pikachu too."
"Pika pika!" Pikachu nodded in agreement.
"About what?" She put down the book to look at him.
"It's kind of complicated..."
"Well, I've got time. You sure got here quickly...the locals say you come here often."
"It's not that often..."
"Hey, I was adopted by aliens too, I won't judge." Samus shrugged.
"I'm not adopted, and she's not an alien!" Lucas blushed from embarrassment, then looked away. "She's just a human who turned immortal and can do magic, and she's from another universe...okay, maybe she's an alien, but I'm not adopted." Lucas shook his head. "Anyways, I was trying to talk about Pikachu...you know how I'm trying to help him get his memory back?"
"Yeah, he told me. What about it?"
"Well...he might be able to help me help him. If I wanna fix his memories, I have to go look in his mind, so I might see his nightmares, and I've got this problem where I'm scared of lightning, I know, I know, it's really stupid, I'm sorry!"
"It's not. I've had phobias too."
"Wait, really?"
"When I was a little kid, I was terrified of fire, the pirates, and anything that looked like Ridley. Sometimes just the smell of smoke was enough to throw me back to the past...but the Chozo helped me work through it. Old Bird told me something once: it's hard to confront the things that make you afraid, but if you always run away from them, you teach your mind it's right to be afraid. The only way you get out of that cycle is to face them, and it's never as bad in reality as it is in your mind."
"He sounds smart..."
"He was." Samus sighed. "Why lightning, anyways? Is it because the Pigmasks used it to blow up the houses of people who didn't conform?"
Lucas bit his lip. She wasn't wrong, but she didn't know the main reason. Almost none of the adults did.
"Never mind, forget I asked."
"No, I can explain! It's just...uh...can you keep a secret?" He'd already told Mario and Rosalina. What was one more? And if he couldn't even talk about it, how would he handle the training?
"Sure." She probably already kept plenty, considering her job, and she'd never been one to gossip.
"When I told the adults about my past, I lied...I didn't say that Mom died, but I lied about something else too. You know what I said about that masked boy I had to fight?"
"You said he killed himself with a lightning bolt your badge reflected...oh, that explains it."
"He wasn't just a stranger, though...he was my twin brother. I had a twin brother."
"..."
"His name was Claus. But it's not like he wanted to fight for the Pigmasks, they forced him to! They turned him into a cyborg after...after he tried to get revenge for Mom...he got hurt really bad, and they kidnapped him...they took him apart, and turned him into a monster...then when I fought him, he...he..." Lucas sniffled. "I don't even know why he did it! He was finally acting normal again, so I thought it would be okay, but then he..! I wanna say he had no choice, but I don't know...I know he was scared he'd go back to being Porky's robot and hurt me, but I could've helped him, I would've! But he didn't even give me a chance..."
Lucas sobbed. He thought telling this story would've gotten easier by now.
"Pika..." Pikachu nuzzled up to his leg, but he flinched away at the faint static current.
"I get it. You don't want to be mad at him, but when he made his choice, he took away yours, and that hurt."
"Y-yeah..."
"I went through something like that too...nowhere near as bad, though, he was just a friend, not family. Remember what I said about how Dark Samus corrupted three other bounty hunters with Phazon?"
Lucas wiped his tears and frowned. "Oh...were you friends with them? But wait, none of them did...that...you said Dark Samus just drained all their energy after you beat them."
"I lied too. Yeah, it did, but with Rundas, he killed himself with his own ice first, right when he looked like he was snapping out of it. I still don't know if that was his own choice, or if it made him do it..."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that..."
"Like I said, it's not as bad as what you went through, and I'm over it now. Dark Samus is gone and so is all the Phazon. It helps to do something constructive about things that bug you, even if it's not blowing up a planet."
"You said Phaaze was made of Phazon, right? So there wasn't anything alive there..."
Samus nodded. "Right, so don't worry about it. But I've said enough...how do you think Pikachu can help you? Is the plan to train and have him keep using Thunder Jolt until it doesn't scare you as much?"
"That's pretty close...I was gonna start a little smaller, though. It was Rosalina's idea...she said I could start out just holding him and getting used to his static fur, then have him ramp up the voltage really gradually while I absorb it with PK Thunder. So I'm hoping it'll help me use that better, too...hey Pikachu, did you get all that?"
"Pika pika." He nodded.
"So...are you okay with helping me out? I'm gonna try to help you, so if that works, then we'll be even."
"Chu!"
"Oh...you're scared of getting used like a battery, so you think it'll help you too?"
"Pika..."
"Okay...but let's go somewhere else: I don't wanna mess up and accidentally zap a book, that would suck."
"I'm glad you're doing this, kid. Trust me, you'll thank yourself later." Samus said.
"I sure hope so..." Lucas walked out of the library with Pikachu following him.
"You said it was Rosalina's idea, right? Keep telling me you're not adopted."
Lucas ran out the door blushing.
They ran over to the metal platform supporting Samus's spaceship to train, since surely the ship had survived worse than a stray lightning bolt. Being behind the ship like this also kept all the Lumas from seeing him as easily.
"Okay, here goes nothing...just let me hold you and don't zap me until I say so, okay?"
"Pika!" Pikachu leapt into his arms and static coursed through his hands and his wool shirt already. He winced from the initial shock, then felt a faint tingling all over his skin that made his hairs stand on end.
"PK Thunder!" An orb of lightning formed in his right hand and he tried conducting all the static towards it while holding Pikachu with his left arm, though at this point it seemed like Pikachu might stick to him on his own.
"How do you make all that electricity, anyways? Is it okay if I read your mind?" Pikachu nodded. "Oh...it's mostly instinct, so it comes naturally to you, huh. Too bad it's not so easy for me..." Lucas sighed, so much for that helping.
"Chaa..."
"It was harder when you were a Pichu and you hurt yourself sometimes? But that's not the problem I'm having, I just can't make it a lightning bolt..." He tried firing the static he'd gathered that way, but it remained an orb that sailed through space until he let it dissipate. He didn't bother guiding its path. "Ugh..." Lucas facepalmed. He tried it over and over, but every time was just as ineffective. "Okay, you can turn up the voltage a little now."
The static tingling grew more and more uncomfortable. His head started to ache. "PK Thunder!" He took that orb and slowly compressed it in his hand, trying to crush it and fire it as pure electricity, but it slipped out of his grip and flew off uncontrollably before dissipating into sparks. "Ugh, come on!"
Then the electric current started to hurt.
Claus staggered towards Lucas and embraced him. Millions of volts still coursed through his charred flesh and singed metal, and now Lucas felt them as well since he'd thrown the Franklin Badge far away.
"No...no...I can do this!" Lucas sniffled and took a deep breath, then blasted more lightning orbs into space. Memories flashed by. He had felt how Claus did it back then, their psychic connection had always run deep. He aimed his finger at Lucas, concentrated lightning at its tip, prepared to meet Mom again, and-
Claus fired an intense bolt of lightning!
"AGH!" Lucas's hand spasmed wildly from electric shock and Pikachu fell from his other arm. Lifeup got rid of the pain quickly, but he couldn't stop crying. "I...sorry, I can't do this anymore today, I'm just too much of a fucking wimp."
"Pika..."
"Come on, you know it's true."
He didn't train any more that day.
The weekdays came before he knew it, and with them, battles.
On Monday, he found himself on a tiny grassy island with three platforms, the middle one higher up than the others, like Battlefield except smaller. Yoshi's Island. He landed on the right platform, Peach floated down to the top one with her umbrella, Mr. Game and Watch did the same on the left platform with his parachute, and Yoshi popped out of an egg on the middle of the main stage. A small but tangible cloud with a smile moved in a rectangular, counterclockwise path that took it through the stage until it emerged next to each side at regular intervals and looped back around until it went through the stage invisibly again.
"Just what I needed, the princess and the crybaby." Yoshi grumbled. "You're always fawning over Mario, but he's not as special as everyone thinks, I've been kicking ass since he was in diapers! And people still underestimate me...everyone calls him fearless now, but you wouldn't believe how much he cried then. If I never hear another kid cry again it'll still be too soon." He sighed.
"THREE..."
Lucas opened his mouth but couldn't manage a word in his defense, not when it was so unnerving to see a green dinosaur that looked almost like a Drago but smaller not only talk but talk like an old man.
"I'll have you know Mario has more than earned his reputation, and I'm not just a damsel in distress."
"TWO..."
"How many times has he rescued you again?"
"..." Peach twisted the handle of her umbrella.
"ONE..."
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
Peach pulled off the handle of her umbrella? Lucas squinted, she pulled out a blade hidden inside it, making the handle a sword hilt while the rest of the umbrella disappeared magically. Probably went wherever the golf clubs and tennis rackets and turnips came from.
"I hope you enjoy eating those words~" Peach said with an unsettling smile.
"GO!"
Peach jumped after Yoshi and cut a thrown egg into halves, and as much as he wanted to help her, Mr. Game and Watch jumped to the platform Peach abandoned and pulled out a frying pan out of nowhere from which he flung sausages at Lucas. He sidestepped one and deflected another knowing they weren't edible...on a closer look they were made of the same purpleish-black substance that Shadow Bugs were made of, that Game and Watch himself was made of. Lucas didn't know why he alone was alive in a way the others weren't, but the telepathic waves showed sentience and sapience clearly enough.
Lucas jumped. "PK Fire!" It disappeared into a bucket just before connecting, then the bucket also disappeared. Then just as he used his frying pan again Yoshi's tail swiped into him from below, knocking him up for Yoshi to follow up with a flutter jump and painful series of downward kicks.
"PK Freeze!"
Yoshi landed next to Game and Watch and swiped his tail knocking him into the air again, then jumped and reared back his head to slam-dunk him in midair, but both of them were frozen into a large ice cube at that exact moment and sent flying further upwards. Lucas jumped and double jumped, flipping through the air and setting himself aglow with Offense Up before kicking the icecube with a blast of PK Love that shattered it to pieces and sent both enemies flying.
He smiled as he fell in a rare moment of being proud of himself until a turnip hit him from below, sending tumbling back in the air and leaving him open to a magic blast below that he blocked with a PSI Shield which then shattered, making him have to block the sword slash with the Mystical Stick, the force knocking him down to the ground which he tried to hit with a roll, making sure he got the timing right by making everything seem to slow down.
Except it was so much slower that he couldn't adjust his movements to his body lagging so far behind his mind, making him land in a heap.
"MR. GAME AND WATCH...DEFEATED!" A pillar of light went up from the left side of the area, and just after that Yoshi canceled his forwards headbutt and flutter jumped back to the stage, distracting Peach from attacking him.
An Assist Trophy appeared on the platform above him, so he jumped up there while Peach slashed at Yoshi who blocked it with an egg shield and then rolled at her. Lucas raised the trophy skyward and from it came a Starman.
How ironic. One of the same aliens that Ness fought was now on his side, teleporting around the stage and blasting the others with eye beams. Lucas frowned, it made PK Teleport Omega look so easy. One laser blasted Yoshi away just as he came out of his egg roll, and Peach deflected the next one with a frying pan as she floated down gently, but it left her open to a stick swing that knocked her back to the other side of the stage.
She stopped herself with levitation and hurled a Bob-Omb at Lucas just as the Starman teleported in front of him, sending it flying instead and teleporting back to the other Assists in a blue flash. Then as Yoshi was about to flutter jump back, she floated to the ledge and slashed down right where he would have to land to grab it. His flutter jump sent him up far enough, yet he fell just short of the ledge where her attack landed sending him falling to his doom, despite his attempts to flutter his feet more and stall in midair. What was he waiting for? Nothing could save him now.
...Except that moving cloud that emerged from the stage just before he fell too far. The invisible audience gasped and so did Peach. Had that been on purpose?
He used that moment of surprise to grab her with his tongue and turn her into an egg that fell behind him and towards the blast zone. Lucas winced, he did not want to know how that worked. Peach broke free just in time to be headbutted into the abyss.
"PEACH...DEFEATED!"
"PK Thunder!" Lucas guided an orb of lightning towards Yoshi, but he flutter jumped up to the cloud as it reached its leftmost point, canceled the jump as soon as he was high enough and encased himself in an egg shield just in time. He scowled, PK Thunder Beta would've been fast enough. But now that it was just the two of them, there weren't any other thoughts to drown out the ones he was listening to.
"PK Freeze!" A wave of cold froze Yoshi's tongue to the ledge just as it grabbed it, making him swing into the stage's left wall painfully. Lucas ran up to the ledge preparing a blast of PK Fire to finish him off when Yoshi had a thought he hadn't expected: he pushed off the wall with enough force to swing in a semicircle until he was upside down! He moved fast enough to shatter the ice and fling himself to the right side of the stage, though not fast enough to avoid being singed by the edge of the explosion of PK Fire.
Yoshi ate a Super Mushroom that appeared next to him, and suddenly he was the size of a Drago.
Dodging would be the best thing to do, but something in him wouldn't let him run away. Not again. So he blasted him with golden hexagons and got smacked with a huge tail.
"GAME!"
Lucas sighed and endured the respectful clapping period. Second place wasn't that bad, was it? But it would've, should've been first if he could just learn.
"That was a solid performance, Yoshi: all three KO's were yours. That maneuver with the cloud was particularly impressive, was it intentional?" Master Hand said holding an oversized mic.
"Absolutely. I've gotten a little slower, sure, but with age comes wisdom. I'll admit the princess isn't all talk, though, and the kid came close. I was just messing with you two earlier to make ya slip up, nothin' personal."
"Well said. With that, we'll conclude this broadcast." Master Hand snapped his fingers and vanished, and they knew the arena wasn't being watched by cameras anymore.
Mr. Game and Watch beeped sadly.
"Hey, you're not that bad...you just got unlucky starting out surrounded like that."
He beeped somewhat less sadly.
"Aww, you're such a sweetie." Peach said.
Lucas blushed. "I was just trying to be nice!" He looked back at Mr. Game and Watch. "Um, anyways...there's something I should ask you: Mario told you how you're one of the five people who didn't pass out, right?" A beep of confirmation. "I'm one of them too, and I dunno why...Mario's trying to figure out what we've all got in common."
This time the beep sounded confused.
"Well...I kinda forgot some stuff about you, sorry. Could you give me a refresher? Then uh...maybe I could figure something out."
Mr. Game and Watch let him put a hand on his head.
The nameless shapeshifter wandered Subspace for as long as he could remember.
Then the left glove offered him an escape. He and the right glove gave him things he once had no concept of.
A home. Friends. Fun.
"Bro, check it out, he finally took on a permanent form!"
"What? Why does he look exactly like the character from those retro games you let him play? He's even nearly two-dimensional..."
"Cuz he likes him, duh! Yo, listen up, I got a crazy idea just now: how about I name you 'Mr. Game and Watch'?"
Mr. Game and Watch beeped happily.
"See, he liked it, I'm such a genius! Gahahahaha!"
Their generosity only came at a small price: fighting in their tournament. And he came to enjoy that, too. More alien concepts became familiar. More alien people became familiar.
But when the tournament was supposed to begin, he became a prisoner in his own body, controlled by an overwhelming force. It called itself Tabuu. He was forced to rain Shadow Bugs on the land with the power it gave him, and then fight the invaders when they took the fight to the airship he flew on. To his relief, he lost, and his body was his again. And he used it to take his revenge.
Things got better after that.
"Sorry you had to go through that...Tabuu was really a jerk." He frowned, then his eyes lit up. "Wait, that gives me an idea! You got controlled by Tabuu, and Bowser did too! I mean, I'm pretty sure he did...he used his Final Smash then too."
"Yes, but Game and Watch didn't use his, his Final Smash is turning into an octopus." Peach said.
Lucas sulked, he hated being wrong. "Well, yeah...but Tabuu made him stronger while he was controlling him, that's how he turned into that huge robot...I think it was called Guon?"
"Duon."
"Yeah, that...but it's still shapeshifting, so it was like his Final Smash but stronger, right? What do you think?"
A beep of confirmation.
"So that means you and Bowser have something in common! I think. I don't get what's going on with the rest of us, though...it's not like any of us ever got controlled by Tabuu." He sighed. "I guess it's back to square one."
Mr. Game and Watch shrugged and walked off to the circular teleporter platform, then disappeared from the stage in a flash.
"Well, it was worth a try, and I'm glad you're helping Mario so much."
"Thanks..." He paused, then remembered something. "How'd you do that thing where you turned the umbrella into a sword? I forgot what you said last tournament..."
"I didn't, I just pulled the sword out from inside the umbrella, and I stored the umbrella with my sealing magic. As for how that works...well, it's complicated, but it's how I store all those turnips as well."
"Oh, that's nice...how'd you learn how to use a sword anyways?"
"Toadsworth taught me fencing as a child. He always said violence was a last resort, though...he was in the war when he was only middle-aged, so he knew what it led to. Besides, Mother certainly wasn't there to teach me the royal family's magic, so I had to figure much of it out through patience and trial and error."
"What kinda magic is that?"
"Like I said, my ancestor was blessed by the seven Star Spirits, so all his descendants can call on their powers. Sealing magic and anything that warps space is Kalmar's domain, Misstar's is healing, Mamar's is sleep and dreams, Klevar's is time-"
"Wait, time?! Does that mean you can do the same stuff as Bayonetta?"
"No, I'm afraid not. I can only slow down a small area for a few seconds, nothing like what she can do. Just because I can use all of their powers on paper doesn't mean I'm equally skilled at them all. I never had much talent for offensive spells...but that's just an excuse to always rely on Mario, isn't it? Yoshi was right about me being a damsel in distress. The fact it's difficult shouldn't mean I can't learn at all."
"Er...okay, maybe he's a better fighter, but I'm sure you're better at other stuff, right?"
"What, like paperwork and diplomacy? Yes, I suppose. I could go on for hours about all the evidence I had to find to prove Mario's innocence and expose Delfino's corruption..." She facepalmed with her gloved hand, reflecting on a ruined vacation. "In the end I convinced Junior to admit he did it, knowing he'd be fine thanks to his diplomatic immunity. But their evidence was shoddy to begin with..."
"See, at least you saved him one time."
Peach crossed her arms and frowned. "That still doesn't come close to what I owe him...I have to learn to defend myself eventually."
"Well, at least you're trying. I'm trying to learn something too, but it's hard..." He frowned, unsure whether to say more. "You know how Ness can do more with the lightning? I can't..."
"I've found it helps to break things down into small steps, so you don't have to learn it all at once. Just be patient with yourself and you'll improve eventually...and it helps to have someone to teach you."
"Thanks..."
Small steps...patience...a teacher...something clicked in Lucas's brain, and now he felt stupid.
"Okay Pikachu, this time I'm not gonna try throwing any lightning bolts...not until I get used to your static first." Lucas said while holding Pikachu.
"Pika?"
"Can you raise the voltage slower, too? I think I rushed it last time..."
"Chu!"
As the static tingling shot through his nerves, an urban legend passed around by former Pigmasks came to mind: the myth of the boiling frog. He'd always hated it, of course: who would be mean enough to put a frog in a pot of slowly boiling water? What frog would be stupid enough to stay in it? No, only humans could be content as things gradually changed for the worse. Many of the villagers certainly had been thanks to the lies and entertainment distracting them. Maybe he could put a positive spin on that myth, though.
Ever so slowly he adjusted, constantly resisting the urge to tell Pikachu to hurry it up. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes to at least an hour. He absorbed the electricity into a sphere of lightning, not a Franklin Badge, and it didn't go anywhere this time. The more volts shot through him, the more he had to ground himself. Deep breaths. Taking in the sensations of where he was, not where he wasn't. He was sitting in Samus's spaceship, not standing in that cave. The metal floor was cold beneath him. He held Pikachu's warm, soft fur, not Claus's burnt, dying body. He only heard the crackling electricity, not his own sobs or screams. He wasn't struggling to forgive his hasty brother for crushing his hopes. He was in the present, not the past.
The present wasn't so bad.
Lucas let go of Pikachu. "Okay, you can try using Thunder Jolt now, and I'll keep absorbing them with PSI Magnet."
"Pika!"
"You're thanking me since you think that helped you too? Aw, shucks..." Lucas scratched his head and blushed.
One after another, he absorbed the jolts of lightning that arced across the ground in a pattern strangely like a Slinky, leaping from one point to the next in a semicircle. Pikachu gradually made them stronger, so he adjusted the PSI Magnet to compensate. Eventually Pikachu couldn't up the voltage anymore with that move, and he looked a little tired.
"Do you wanna take a little break?"
"Chu chu!" Pikachu shook his head, walked up to one of the machines, and drained electricity from it into the red circles on his cheeks.
"Wow, I didn't know you could do that...I guess we can keep going then. Okay..." Lucas sighed. "You can start using Thunderbolt, but just don't fry me too hard."
And he didn't, at least at first. Lucas managed to absorb one bolt after another into spheres of electricity to his own surprise, even if they started out weak. Maybe it helped that it wasn't a human firing them...Reflet had had an easier time bringing back unwanted memories.
By the end of the session he had to wipe a few tears, but he hadn't become a sobbing mess. Had this worked? Lucas walked down the spaceship's ramp and back to the Observatory floor, where he tried testing it out.
"PK Thunder!" Another sphere of lightning flew through the air. Lucas groaned. If only he knew exactly when it went wrong and how. "Wait a minute..."
Lucas focused and made everything seem slow the next time he did it. "PK Thunder!" In slow motion, the orb he tried to shoot out in a stream returned to its original form right as it left his hands. Then time resumed its regular pace. The problem was the psychic equivalent of muscle memory. Even if he might have been over his fear enough to do it right now, he was still used to doing it this way for almost a year. So if he wanted to do it the right way, he needed to remind himself how by watching someone else do it properly.
He felt stupid again.
The next day, while they were in the cave Mewtwo used to train, with the latter currently absent...
"Um, can you help me with something? I'm working on figuring out PK Thunder, but I think I have to see you do it to get it right...I'm too used to doing it the wrong way. Sorry, you don't have to or anything."
"Nah, it's fine, relax." Ness said. "I had to learn from Paula how to do it too. Here, I'll even show you what I'm thinking!" Ness reached out telepathically and they forged their usual connection again.
"Okay, you start like this...aim your hand like that...focus electricity right there, but don't shoot it yet...then concentrate on where you're trying to aim...then boom, lightning!" He zapped the cave wall.
"Is there any way you could do the last part slower? It all happens real fast there...ugh, sorry, I'm being dumb!"
"Dude, chill. It took me a little while too...okay, fine, maybe I learned a little faster, but I didn't have all these issues. I'm not sure how I could slow that down, though..." His eyes widened. "Wait, that's it, we can see stuff in slow motion now! Man, we really need to come up with a name for that move."
"Uhhh...maybe 'PK Focus'?"
"Eh, focus could mean a lot of things, this is like we're seeing slow motion on TV...so how about 'PK Slowmo'?"
"That sounds kind of weird..."
"That's just 'cuz you're not used to movies. Well whatever it's called, just use that while you're watching me."
Everything slowed down including Ness's telepathic waves. Lucas watched closely how sparks slowly gathered in Ness's hand and fractal diamonds of PSI glowed, until finally a bolt of lightning flew from his fingertip. Then time resumed its normal speed.
"I think I get it now...maybe..."
"Okay, then give it a shot. But one more thing: try making it a little weaker at first, 'cuz the more electricity you use the harder it is to control it."
Lucas sighed, if only he remembered that sooner. Then he took a deep breath and let go of his regrets. He closed his eyes, prioritizing concentration over accuracy. Time seemed to slow, his fever worsened, and static gathered in his hand.
He remembered how naturally using electricity was to Pikachu, since it was part of his body. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe it ended up as this sphere because he treated it too much like something separate and unnatural, not just because of the fear.
He ended up firing another ball of lightning, but he could feel what went wrong. A subconscious reflex he had to overcome. The next time he did that too much, and zapped his own hand. The next few times after that, sparks came from his hand and didn't hurt but didn't go anywhere either.
But eventually, a small lightning bolt flew into the wall and dispersed into static. Not that it was where he'd initially aimed...he was taking the broad side of a barn saying too literally.
Lucas's fever broke.
"WOO, YOU DID IT!" Ness gave him a high five and winced from the residual static zapping him. "Worth it. I knew you had it in you, bud. C'mere." Ness gave him a bone crushing hug he awkwardly returned.
"Aw, thanks, but my aim was still way off..."
"Details, schmetails. Doesn't matter, it's always like that at first. Now let's go get some pizza to celebrate."
"Really? Isn't that a little much?"
"Nope, we're not arguing about this. You worked hard and learned something, so you deserve a reward and I deserve some food."
"Hehe, okay..."
Lucas worked on his accuracy for the next few days.
The matches were mostly forgettable...some wins, some losses, overall mediocre. It turned out improving a single PSI technique didn't turn the tide of battle especially when he could barely hit anything with it. Or maybe he just hadn't gotten lucky yet.
He certainly wasn't lucky when Friday's match was against Luigi of all people, and in New Pork City of all places. Lucas clenched his fists. It wasn't the real thing, of course, but even this huge arena imitating it brought back too many memories. Gaudy city lights blotted out half the night sky. Smog choked the air. The stench made his nose crinkle in disgust. He stood on the ledge of the floating platform left of the center of the stage, and Luigi stared up at him from the left edge of the uneven lower right platform, with another strange platform swinging back and forth through the gap between them on metal cables.
"THREE..."
Luigi's pre-match anxiety mirrored his own, but what was he afraid of? They both knew how it ended last tournament.
Luigi fired off a stream of blueish-white lightning that made Lucas's body and mind go rigid with pain while he jumped high into the sky for the Smash Ball. One, two, three midair kicks and the rainbow aura was his to control. Every survival instinct in his brain screamed at his muscles to move, but they stayed put even after the shock faded. The other half of his brain decided he deserved all this pain and whatever was next.
The Negative Zone expanded in a black sphere with Luigi at its center. A chill went down Lucas's spine when it engulfed him and inverted all colors. His shirt's yellow stripes became purple, red became green, and Luigi's green hat became red. An overwhelming fatigue made him stumble drowsily and nearly black out until PK Healing kicked in, but that kept him awake long enough to sense the wave of negative emotions. Fear, anger, self-loathing, and jealousy. Jealousy of his older twin who was always better at everything.
Luigi's mouth moved, but Lucas didn't hear what words came out. All the pain and fear faded away into an overwhelming rage that made him sick to his stomach.
"YOU UNGRATEFUL JERK!"
Luigi leaned backwards and ducked under his clumsy swing. A lightning-fast uppercut coated in reddish-black lightning knocked out of the sphere of inverted colors and into the blast zone.
"GO!"
They each held their weapons while staring the other down, neither making a move. Lucas squinted, what was he waiting for? Well, any time to prepare was welcome. He used Offense Up, Defense Up, and listened to Luigi's thoughts waiting to guess his first attack.
He's not coming down? I could jump up there, but then he'd have the high ground...wait, what am I thinking?
Luigi raised a palm and blasted him with his Thunderhand technique.
Claus fired an intense b-
"PK Thunder!" Lucas grit his teeth and pushed the memory down while absorbing the bolt in a sphere of lightning that he tossed aside to disperse harmlessly.
He reacted so fast, it's like he knew what I'd do before I did it! Wait a minute...that's a-right, he can read minds! Oh no, no no no, if I lose to this kid I'll be a laughingstock! Not that I'm not already one... Luigi took a deep breath. Pull yourself together, Luigi, you beat him before, you can beat him again. It doesn't matter if he guesses my moves if he can't stop them, right? Yeah. It's fine. Now if it was Mewtwo then I'd panic. Luigi stared up at him, then his eyes widened. Mama Mia, he can hear the thoughts I'm having right now, can't he?! Sorry kid, I'm not trying to make fun of you, really! Ugh, I'd feel terrible if I heard that, but then again you spied on me first...uh, listen, let's just fight. I don't wanna hurt you but this is a match and I'll look like even more of a coward if I run away. An awkward pause. Wait, maybe I'm lucky and he's not actually listening...but then why isn't he moving?
"PK Freeze!" A charged snowflake of ice-cold PSI flew through the air and detonated into a spray of icy shards in midair near Luigi, who jumped on one of the platforms on the right just in time to use it as a shield. Then he jumped again and again, going up the series of five platforms on the right end of the stage until Lucas had to look up at an angle to see him.
Lucas squinted, what was he doing up there? He used his Green Missile technique to launch himself forwards, but it didn't go far enough to reach Lucas's platform, so he aimed a blast of PK Love that exploded like fireworks in the city sky. Luigi escaped the worst of the blast by pushing himself downwards, no, pulling himself downwards with electromagnetism that made him stick to the metal wires suspending the platform! He slid down at an angle that should have made him fall off due to gravity, then jumped.
But he didn't go high enough to reach the ledge. Instead he thought he was sneaking up on Lucas by running up the metal wall that went down from the right edge of the platform. Lucas leaned back at the last second when Luigi ran over the 90 degree angle and swung his electrified hammer, time seeming to slow for just a moment. Lucas frowned, just when he thought he'd learned something, he met someone who made him look like a total novice. But he could let that frustration fade in a fraction of a second. His hairs slowly stood on end from the charged hammer passing right above his face. His body couldn't keep up with his mind, and it was still hard to move normally with that difference, but something about being able to force things to stop happening so fast was so refreshing.
Time resumed. Lucas stepped back.
CLANG!
His stick blocked Luigi's hammer releasing a shower of sparks. Good thing he didn't use a sword. Lucas kneed his leg and got an elbow to the chest in return, but that weakened his grip enough for Lucas to overpower him, only for a jab to knock him back off his feet right as he swung at Luigi's face, making the hit only graze him. Lucas landed on his feet and slid across the lower section of the platform until his back was to the gap between him and the far left platforms.
ROAAARRRR!
A familiar roar from below made Lucas's blood run cold. Luigi gulped.
Mama Mia, there's no way I'm going down there! But if I could knock him down instead...crap, now he knows I'm thinking that, but I bet he's a-thinking the same thing.
So Lucas did the last thing Luigi would expect and jumped down.
"What are you thinking, that's crazy!"
Levitation slowed his fall to the tiny platform floating left of the main lower one, which started at a slight angle down and left before one would have to step up to reach the flat section beneath the swinging platform, a part of it which was breakable. That was where a pink monstrosity stared him down with its yellow eyes and opened its maw full of sharp teeth. It might have been a replica but the pain and instant KO would be all too real.
Lucas jumped forward to the slanted platform before Luigi could zap him with a thunderbolt from above. Then it charged with thundering stomps while Luigi landed on the platform behind him. Rock and a hard place.
"PK Thunder!" A sphere of lightning flew from Lucas's hand as time seemed to slow. The faster he made the sphere, the less precise he could be, but this got rid of that weakness at the cost of a headache. He guided it up and over its mouth, then down towards the button on its back in the small time before it could chomp down on him. He angled the shot as precisely as he could while its jaws got closer and closer...
ZAP!
The ball of lightning pushed the button down and made the Ultimate Chimera collapse in a smoking heap inches from Lucas, its eyes turning black. Lucas sighed in relief that the replica was as accurate as his shot.
"You can a-turn that thing off?!" Luigi gasped instead of attacking, giving Lucas time to jump and double jump past the Ultimate Chimera and look back before he got attacked from behind.
"PK Fire!" A fireball shot from Lucas's palm towards Luigi who answered it with a lightning bolt that met it in the middle in an explosion of fire and sparks. Luigi jumped forwards and spun like a tornado to clear the smoke, then threw his hammer, but Lucas ducked behind the Ultimate Chimera using it as an invincible shield the hammer bounced off of harmlessly. Luigi pulled his hammer back to his hand with magnetism and ran forward to get around that shield.
Lucas slowed time again while sweating buckets. His heart pounded unusually fast for the slow motion. Either this worked or he was screwed.
Only one way to find out.
"PK THUNDER!" He pushed the button on the Ultimate Chimera's back and flooded it with millions of volts using PK Thunder Beta. The first thing its yellow eyes saw was Luigi.
ROAAARRR!
"WAAAAAA-!"
Luigi jumped back from its massive bite while screaming in terror, but Lucas blasted him with another bolt of PK Thunder, forcing him to block it in midair which kept him still for just long enough.
CHOMP!
He flew to the blast zone in a split second.
"GAME!"
The Ultimate Chimera turned on Lucas who yelped and jumped half a foot, only for it to disappear now the match was over. Lucas let out a sigh of relief.
"The winner is...LUCAS!" Lucas turned around in surprise, then awkwardly tried to do the victory pose where he waved his finger as it glowed with hexagons. "That was one crazy stunt you pulled off there, kiddo! Didn't think you had it in ya! Got anything to say to the crowd?" He held the huge mic next to Lucas's face and he froze on the spot.
"Um...um..uhhhh..." Lucas wanted to turn invisible.
"Still not much of a talker, huh? You should take a public speaking class, gahahaha! The crowd only likes the quiet types if they're cool about it. Then again, they do like an underdog story..."
"..."
"Well don't just stand there, go revive him already!" Lucas nodded rapidly, put away the stick, and walked up to Luigi's trophy when it appeared back on the stage, tapped the base, and watched as it glowed gold.
"-AAAH!" Luigi finished his earlier scream, looked around, then sulked when he saw Lucas instead of the Ultimate Chimera. "Oh, I lost...typical."
Lucas offered the traditional post-1v1 handshake with a smile. "It's only 'cuz I used a stage hazard...I bet you would've won if it wasn't there."
"C'mon, hazards are part of the fun! What's life without a little chaos? Boring, that's what!" Crazy Hand said. "Real fighters know how to adapt. And I think that's a good note to end it on. Until next time, three-dimensional-dweebs!" He snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash.
"It's like he a-said, I didn't adapt." He sighed, then accepted the handshake. "You earned this, kid."
"Uh, thanks..." Lucas put his hands in his pockets. "Sorry I yelled at you last tournament..."
"About what? You never yell at anyo-ohhh, that." Thankfully Luigi had gotten used to telepathic messages from people besides Mario again.
"Yeah. That. Sorry."
"You said I was ungrateful since you're an only child, and that made you jealous, right? And your telepathy messed with the Negative Zone somehow..."
"Uh...about that...did Mario tell you already?"
"Tell me what?"
"Crap, he didn't...uhhh...well..." Lucas bit his lip. Should he tell him? Just how many people would know at this rate? Then again, how could he apologize properly without explaining? "Can we talk somewhere else?"
"Oh, right, we're in public. Trust me, I get it. Let's a-go to the teleporter room."
They walked to the small floating circular platform that appeared nearby and stepped on it one at a time, Luigi going first and disappearing in a pillar of light. Lucas jumped on it next and waited.
Instantly the city sights were replaced with a square room full of equally square white tiles and other circular platforms floating in front of holographic images of other stages, Onett and Magicant. The holograms served as live broadcasts as well with information on the latest or current match off to the side. Lucas hopped down next to Luigi.
"There shouldn't be too many people in here as long as we don't go to the main room...not that they can hear us anyways. So what were you going to say?" The exit led to a massive room leading to many others just like this one.
"Um...well...I lied." Lucas hung his head in shame. "I'm not an only child."
"Okay...but I don't a-get it, why lie about it?"
"That's the thing...it wasn't really a lie. I am an only child, but I didn't use to be. I had a twin brother named Claus, and he got turned into that masked boy I talked about."
"Mama Mia! That's terrible...why didn't you say anything about it before?"
"It's the same reason I lied about Mom still being alive...I just didn't wanna talk about it, and I didn't want everyone to pity me."
"No wonder you were mad at me...you're right, I was ungrateful, but I'm trying to be better now. Don't a-get me wrong, I never hated Mario...I just hated how I was always one step behind."
"Me too...Claus was always braver than me too, but I'd do anything to have him back. That's why I got so mad, 'cuz you had everything I wanted and it still wasn't good enough!" Lucas fumed, then frowned. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell..."
"No, I deserved that. Sorry about that...I'll try not to take him for granted. I'd rather be second best forever than be an only child."
"Yeah..."
An awkward silence filled the air like static.
"If Claus was that masked boy, how'd he end up like that? You said the masked boy was brainwashed, so did they kidnap him?"
"Sort of...it's hard to explain..." Lucas sighed. "Mom died because one of Porky's Chimeras attacked her. Then Claus wanted revenge, so he went after it, but he died too...at least, he would've if they didn't find him and turn him into a cyborg..."
"And then he was a-forced to fight for them, and he almost destroyed the world..." Luigi frowned. "Just like me. Mario said he told you about the whole adventure with the Chaos Heart, so you know what happened, right?"
"Yeah, sorry you had to go through that...but Mario saved you in the end, and I couldn't save Claus. Mario said I did my best, but so what? It still wasn't good enough..."
"I don't know what to say...it's not your fault, since he's the one who did it to himself. I'm not a-trying to blame him either! I know he felt like he didn't have a choice..."
"Didn't he, though? I don't wanna be mad at him, but he didn't even let me try to save him...I don't know, maybe if he did, it wouldn't have worked and the world would've ended. But...I just...ugh, it's like he thought I was still the little crybaby he had to protect! I wanted to be the one to protect him for once, but he wouldn't let me try!"
"Mama Mia...I'm sorry you went through that, but I understand why he did it. When Dimentio fused with me and the Chaos Heart, I didn't know if I'd survive if Mario killed him. But I was okay with that...I thought maybe the world was better off without a coward like me." He paused. "I haven't told many people this, but I felt like that for a while after it was all over too. I was too much of a coward to go through with it, but for once that was a good thing."
"Um...don't tell anyone, but I felt like that too..." His lip quivered, but he couldn't manage to cry. "After I woke up the Dragon and they still didn't come back, I wanted to do the same thing as Claus so I could see him and Mom again...I think the only thing that stopped me was knowing Dad couldn't take losing me too. Well, that was until I got to the tournament, I felt better after that...but it was still really hard. It's still hard now, just not as bad..."
"I'm a-glad you made it through that. I don't know if I could take losing Mario, and I'm over twice your age..."
"Please don't say I'm so resilient...I hate it when people say that. Even if they're right, it's not like I had a choice. It was either learn to live with it or...you know..."
"Yeah...I know."
Another silence ensued.
"Mario told me something earlier...he said he's not more talented, he just pushes himself harder so he can protect you. So it's not like he's trying to one-up you!"
Luigi chuckled and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Uh...thanks, but I already knew that, he told me a while ago."
"Oh. Sorry. I guess I was just being stupid."
"You weren't, really. Thanks. It's a-fine. Not everyone talks things out like us." He said. "That reminds me of something...you know how I never became a doctor like him?"
"Oh, it's 'cuz you thought he'd be better at that too?"
"Exactly, that's why I minored in electrical engineering instead. Then later I picked up a thing or two from E. Gadd...it even helped me use the Thunderhand better! Magic breaks the laws of physics, but it doesn't mean they're not good to know."
"Okay then..."
"What I'm a-trying to say is, even if you think Claus was better at a lot, try finding stuff you're good at too. Maybe you've got your own talents, and even if you don't get as good as him at something, so what? That doesn't mean you can't do it...second best is still pretty good."
"I guess so..." Lucas sulked. "It's not like he's around to learn anything anymore, though."
"Mama Mia, I shouldn't have a-said that..." Luigi hung his head in shame. "I'd better go before I bother you anymore. Good luck, kid."
"Wait, one last thing, don't tell anyone about Claus!"
"Okey-dokey."
Luigi finally walked out of the room and left Lucas with a lot to think about.
Was there even a point to keeping these secrets any longer? Everyone he'd told so far hadn't judged him...but then again, he'd only told them for a reason. Were people judging him more because they didn't know the full story? Telling everyone one at a time would be exhausting, and telling them all at once would be overwhelming. Was there any good way to do it? Would it be worth it or would it backfire?
Lucas sighed. He'd think about that once he got home, and considering where he was, he might as well go there the normal way. He walked through the doorway to a huge square room connected to many others just like the one he came from. Above each of the entrances were holograms like the one directly across from him saying 'Universe 16 Stages' with the symbol of a boxing glove above it. A glance back showed the entrance he came from said 'Universe 7 Stages' with the symbol of the planet Earth. He'd always wondered why only his universe had a planet as its symbol...Lucas frowned, maybe it was a reminder of how valuable their world was and how close it came to ruin. He didn't know why it was number 7 either, strangely lining up with the number of Needles. The numbers increased in number in a clockwise direction starting from the one to the right of the main exit displaying 'Universe 0 Stages' with the Smash symbol, and right of that was the entrance to the room that led to the stages from Mario's universe. And Mario was '01' in the roster. He held his chin in thought, they must have been in order of which fighters were recruited first. That would explain why Link's world was second, Samus's was third, and so on.
But that didn't matter: Lucas was tired and needed sleep. He walked across the floor full of white tiles with two black stripes cutting through it at an off-center angle that crossed closer to the bottom right part of the room from his perspective, or bottom left for someone coming from the actual entrance he headed towards...
A hallway which led to an even larger room of a similar design. There were even more people bustling about here, but thankfully just enough for him to go unnoticed if he didn't approach anyone first. Like the previous room, it had entrances to other rooms, some which contained teleporter platforms, and others which led to more rooms still, and some, like the one labeled 'Master Hand's Office', that were kept off-limits to most via automatic doors that ironically required handprint verification to open. This was it...the main teleporter room used to travel all over the World of Trophies. More had been added since the third tournament, but thankfully the route to where he wanted to go was the same, so he wouldn't get lost and have to ask one of those Mii guides. He closed his eyes, tuned out the buzz of thoughts and emotions all around, and headed down the path labeled 'Residential Areas', then 'Smashville'. Then finally, stepped on the teleporter platform that led to the area closest to his house. A pillar of blue light surrounded him...
And then he was gone.
The walk home was uneventful. At least he could look up and smile slightly admiring how the night sky was only a little dimmer from light pollution, since Master Hand had the bright idea of inventing downward-facing street lamps. Or perhaps not so bright.
Either way, Lucas ended up watching the stars even after he got home thanks to the book he'd borrowed from Rosalina's library earlier that week. It acted as a sequel to the storybook that told the tale of Rosalina's turbulent teenage years where she explored the universe and gathered the seven Grand Stars and over a hundred Power Stars. Like the storybook, it was in third person and written as if it was a fictional story despite being an autobiography in reality. Unlike the storybook, it was past a first grader's reading level and hundreds of pages long. For seven years, Rosalina traveled the stars where she went through adventures, battles, and worst of all puberty. But despite how vast and empty space was, she didn't have to face all those struggles alone: she was always meeting new people, whether they were aliens or Stars.
By the end there were stars in Lucas's tired eyes too. If she could go from struggling like him at the start to being as cool as she was at the end, then maybe...
Lucas closed the book, put it away, snuffed out the fireplace, and tucked himself in to bed.
"Ah!" He jolted out of the covers and his fading nightmares. They slipped through his grasp like water before he could remember them fully, which was for the best when all he remembered was the feeling of static.
That feeling jolted the neurons in his brain into action, making them sift through the early morning haze to the events of the past week. This process continued while he cooked himself breakfast, including an omelette as usual. What was that idea that came just as he drifted off to sleep again? Lightning...fear...something about public speaking? It all jumbled together until he'd finished eating.
Then it hit him: it wasn't one idea, but two. He climbed down to the basement once again, turned on the lights, and put two important items in his pockets: a coin with the Smash symbol and the number 1000 on it, and a futuristic sword handle covered in dust. He turned on the computer terminal after that to check something...
[33rd Place: Lucas]
He smiled. Not as high as he was hoping, but it was an improvement, even if there was a long way to go before qualifying for the Top 16. His smile vanished when he scrolled up.
[28th Place: Ness]
[1st Place: Bayonetta]
Lucas let out an exasperated sigh and buried his face in his hands, then hit the power button. He went outside, took the coin out of his pocket, visualized his destination, and teleported.
He had better things to do today than worry about his ranking.