A/N: Okay, I decided what I'm going to do now. I have to finish ROTHOT (Rise of the Heroine of Time), but I want this story to stay active. So I'm gonna alternate between the two stories in updates, so everyone's happy, alright? Sound good? It better. Meh. Well, anyways, if you're aching for more excitement that the last chapter failed to give you, then this chappie is the cure for your ailments! n.n Enjoy!

"On the tip of my tongue

An offensive is poised and rearing.

My intention: a bullet!

My body: a trigger finger!

…and my pen is a pistola!" -Pistola, Incubus

Brother Squadron: Chapter 5: Attack of the Frames

Morning came, and the Nintendians had a small meal of eggs taken from the last riot. After the short meal, groups of two, three, and four clambered into each caravan, and they were off. Their fleet of caravans bounced over the sand dunes as they headed northeast across the desert.

In the lead was the largest caravan, with Link at the wheel, watching the road ahead with intent eyes. Behind him was a tan drape, and past it was the back trailer of the van, where Luigi, Fox, and Falcon sat huddled on the floor, looking for something to do to deal with the extreme boredom.

"So…" Fox spoke up, cutting and shuffling a deck of cards. "Know any card games, kid?"

"I know Speed, Big 2, Go Fish, and Texas Hold'em," Luigi replied sheepishly, slightly embarrassed.

"Texas Hold'em it is." Fox passed out two cards to each of them, then placed three cards face-up in the middle. Luigi glanced at his cards, then calculated possible hands.

"I'm gonna flip the next card. You ready?" Fox asked, and Luigi nodded. Fox glanced over at Falcon, brows nodded in annoyance. "Yo, Falcon! Pay attention!"

Falcon, spaced out, slowly brought his gaze towards his furry companion, blinking away the fuzzy images and briefly bringing himself back to reality. "Oh, right… Hit me."

"This is Texas Hold'em, Falcon."

"Oh…" He looked back and forth between cards puzzlingly.

Covering a smirk with his hand, Fox whispered quickly to Luigi, "If his head got detached from his shoulders, it'd float right into space."

Luigi chuckled softly, smiling at the oblivious Falcon.

The drape was thin and Link's hearing was sharp, and he smiled softly at that comment. Then static rang out over the communicating radio, and a voice called out, "Link…? Link, you read?"

He grabbed the speaker and brought it to his face, switching it on. "Roger. What's up, Ness?"

"I'm picking up some strange readings…" Link grew a bit pale. "Strange readings" usually only meant one thing.

"What's their location?"

"I'm working on it…" A series of faint beeps and whining of machines followed, then a pause. Too long of a pause.

"Ness? You there?"

"… Oh, shit!" he cried, dropping the speaker and shouting to his bunkmates. "Guys, get out your guns! We're under attack!" Shouts blurred together, mixing with the static.

"What!" Link screamed into the speaker, sitting up in his seat, panicking. "Ness, what the fuck is going on!"

"Wire Frames! They're surrounding your truck! Get outta there!"

And then a gunshot rang out, followed by a loud pop and continuous fizzing. Shouts in the trailer indicated that the others were beginning to panic.

"D'GARVIT!" Link cursed, hand reaching for his gun. Just as he glanced forward, a male Frame's head popped out from above, scaring the crap out of him. The Frame cackled and raised a weapon, but Link beat him to the punch, drawing his revolver and firing several shots. The windshield shattered and the Frame's body bounced off the hood and collapsed to the ground, dead with a few bullets into the skull. There was a thump as they ran over it.

Link slammed on the brakes and tore through the tan drape and into the trailer. Luigi and Falcon were cowering in the corner as Fox stood above them, readying his rifle.

"Stay in the van and keep your damn mouths shut," Link ordered. "Fox and I'll take care of them."

More bullets rang out and holes began to pepper the van's side. Three more pops rang out as the other three tires loudly fizzed out of air.

"Fuck!" Fox shouted in fury. "Those damn bastards! I just filled those!"

"Come on, Fox," Link said heavily, attaching a bayonet to end of his Uzi. "Let's gun down some Wire Frames."

Fox nodded, and both leaped out through the open back way, ducking under the covers. Luigi shivered as he heard shouts and raucous laughter, followed by gunshots and sick thuds in the dust, then whoops and hollers of excitement. Luigi was never one for fights, especially with guns. But soon the excitement outside escalated as obviously more Nintendians and/or Wire Frames had entered the fray, and fear shifted to curiosity. Luigi looked down at Falcon, curled up in a ball and whimpering. In his mental state, he couldn't do anything to stop him. Pushing a drape to the side, he gawked at the carnage that laid before him.

The caravans were all parked in a circle, blocking any escape for their enemies. Many corpses laid twitching on the ground, none of which seemed to be a Nintendian, which was a major relief. But that's not what frightened Luigi. It was the Nintendians themselves. Upon seeing their enemies, they seemed to have turned into bloodthirsty animals, most of them touting a mortal weapon and shooting Frames multiple times, howling with wild abandon. Link snarled in revenge, body racking with the wicked rattling of his Uzi. A Frame in front of him convulsed as his multiple lead shells entered its body, collapsing limply to the ground. Link cackled cruelly, bonfires of built-up rage blazing in his azure eyes as he let out more lead into his foes. Fox dodged bullets intended to hit him with amazing reflexes, then swiftly returned the favor with a round of his own, with more successful results.

Luigi couldn't believe what he was witnessing. With their fury, the outcome of the battle was severely one-sided, and for a second, Luigi had pity for the Frames. But then he quickly reconsidered, as this was only what the Frames truly deserved. He continued to watch lead pierce flesh and crude javelins fly, as he could not tear his eyes away.

Just then, a single bang rattled his eardrums, and sharp pain struck Luigi across the head. He fell back from the force, dizzy eyes gazing at the olive ceiling above. Luigi knew with the last bit of consciousness left that he had been shot, but wondered why he hadn't just died. A blow to the forehead should've wasted him in an instant.

Soon, all his thoughts drifted away, and the sounds of the melee outside melded into a dull roar. Dizzy, his head slumped to the side, his eyes glancing upon a bloody bullet that lay beside him before they blurred out all images and faded to black…

"…Nemo tos nadajras… Kalm ias de sanval…"

His ears heard this heavenly voice before he had begun to awaken. Black faded to white as his sight slowly focused. He stared up into a bright ray of light, and his brain told him that he was approaching Heaven. The fuzzy silhouette of an angel appeared above him, singing softly to him.

"…Nodo de kemo lan… Parn yern morn…"

Luigi gazed at her in awe. She had the graceful face and the long golden hair he expected to see. But why did she have pointed ears…?

"…Parn yern m…" But the slapping of boots on steel made her turn away, and the singing stopped. Another voice, strikingly familiar, spoke to her.

"Hey, sis. How's he doing?"

"I believe he's coming to."

"He is?"

"Yes, but he looks uncomfortable. Could you dim the lights?"

At that moment, the ray of light dimmed into a small circle on the ceiling. He was slightly disappointed on not embarking to the afterlife, but this feeling waned as he looked upon the woman above him.

She was another Hylian, head pointed down with a perfect chin. Eyes of sapphire gazed upon him and her cherry red lips gave him a warm smile. Her long blonde hair flowed past her shoulders, held back by a purple bandana. Her pointed ears were unscathed, as if this woman wasn't infected by the poison that swept through the Badlands.

Beside her appeared the Squadron Leader, a look of relief on his impish face as he smiled down at Luigi. "Hey, kid. Welcome back to the world of the living."

Luigi groaned, groggily sitting up. He brought a hand to his forehead, caressing a bandage that was secured around his wound. But how he acquired that wound was all a blur in his mind. "… W-what happened…?"

"You got caught in the crossfire. Looks like a bullet found its way into the caravan and struck you down." Link grinned, wrapped an arm around his shoulder, and held out his other hand. Resting in his palm was the bloody bullet. "Good thing it was a glancing shot, or you'd be dead. You have got to be the luckiest bastard I've ever known."

Luigi looked at the bullet, baffled. Link curled his fingers around it, placing it down on a table as he withdraw his arm off of him.

"We found you after the ambush was over," Link continued, approaching the girl's side. "And it was my sis Zelda here who took you in. She's the medic of the squad." Zelda nodded in acquaintance, then squealed as Link pulled her in by the waist, clutching her in his skinny, yet powerful arms. She laughed as she tried to escape his grip, both of them taking in delight. It was typical sibling quarrel, and as Luigi watched he felt a somewhat hard tug of envy at his heart. Him and Mario used to so the same…

The siblings soon pulled away, and Link continued. "We took on the ambush pretty well, none of us died, thank God. The cocksuckers blew out all four tires on our truck, so we're probably gonna be staying here for a few nights."

Luigi nodded, though it rattled his senses more. Zelda gently pushed him back down onto the crude, yet surprisingly soft bed.

"You need your rest," she gently told him. "The injury really rattled your head, so you'll be kind of upsy-daisy like this for a few hours. Other than that, you'll be fine."

Luigi grunted softly in response, weakly smiling. Link smiled and patted him roughly on the shoulder.

"Alright, then. Get your rest, kid." The elf then swiftly left the caravan to leave them alone and attend to other matters. Zelda turned to a small table, bringing out a bowl, crusher, and a distinct type of herb, known only by Hylians. The lovely scent it produced intoxicated Luigi to no end, as he had never smelled anything as beautiful as this in such a long time. It smelled like the fresh rain and sun of yester-decade, and it brought Luigi into a state of numb-like calmness.

"Y'know…" he spoke up dreamily, eyes staring up at nothing, but still seeing Zelda's graceful figure in his intoxicated brain. "Your big bro is a nice guy."

He could feel her smile sweetly. "He is… His hardships have solidified his exterior, but his heart is always in the right place…" Crushing the leaves into a clear paste, she came over by his bed and sat down on a crate. Scraping two elegant fingers through the paste, she began to rub the fresh-smelling herb across his neck and shoulder bones, exposed by the white tank top, as his jacket had been removed. He sighed dreamily, falling deeper and deeper into the herb's spell.

"Y'know, at first, I coulda sworn you were singing…"

"I was," she replied. "Hylian lyrics are said to calm a frightened or wounded spirit. So are these herbs, drawn from the old Hylian forests. I… managed to save some…"

Luigi smiled, eyes close to creasing shut. "Then… Can you sing some more?... Start from the top…"

Zelda nodded and smiled, and as she kept spreading the herb across his skin, her mouth drawling as she sang. "…Nemo tos nadajras… Kalm ias de sanval…"

The soothing melody was like a lullaby, and Luigi was put to sleep calmly, satisfied by the fact that there was still loveliness in this doomed world…

"Bat your eyes, girl,

Be otherworldly,

Count you blessings,

Seduce a stranger.

What's so wrong with

Being happy?

Kudos to those who

See through sickness…" -Warning, Incubus

A/N: And there's Zelda for all you who keep asking. And yes, her and Link are sister and brother. But just for this fic. And she's the younger one. Remember that. So don't get mad at me for that, okay? I just didn't want some sort of romance to interfere with Link and his responsibilities, and it… well, just… kinda fits… I dunno. So no mean reviews, mmmkay? Mmmkay. Review.