Chapter 24: New Discoveries
After defeating Rubrum, the team went outside of the complex to find another troubling discovery. The ants that were controlled earlier were now laying unconsciously on the street, upon closer examination of the insects it appeared that were in a coma-like state, which was most likely caused by the severing of the connection from Rubrum.
If they were kept like this, they would die. R.O.B. came up with a solution; he would install an automatic program in the Ant's hive network to keep them function. They would still be drones without a thought of their own, but at least they will still be alive and no longer a threat to the world.
After making sure that the ants were up and running, the team went back in their ship and flew back to headquarters.
After the team was dismissed and making sure that Gunner was fine, Lucario went into the kitchen, he was making a cup of green herbal tea. Everything that happened today was exhausting, taking a toll on his physical, mental, and emotional faculties. He hoped this mug would calm him down a bit; he looked tiring out the window, gazing at the moon when he heard the door to the kitchen open. He turned around to see Snake standing in the doorway.
"There you are Lucario, I've been looking for you." The solider said as he went closer to the jackal. "What are you doing in the kitchen? It's not like you to snacking at this hour."
"Oh hey Snake, I'm just…making something to calm my nerves, to take my mind off things." Replied the canine as he took another sip.
"Was it her?"
Lucario almost choked on the tea after hearing that, he gulped down his drink before responding. "What?"
"Are you upset that Gunner got knocked into her trophy state?" Snake answered in a firm but kind tone. "It was very shocking to see that happen to her, we hadn't an incident like that in a long time."
Lucario sighed before he put down the mug on the counter, turning towards Snake. "I'm not upset because she's been trophied, all Smashers can be revived after all. I'm upset that I wasn't there to save her."
"The promise you made in the sewer?"
"Yes, Exactly." Lucario answered, taking another sip of the tea. "She was so frightened, I thought I could calm her down if I promised I would protect her no matter what, I was determined to be her "shield" so to speak. But we all know how that turned out." Another sip. "Put in my best efforts and yet it was still fruitless. I broke my promise by failing to save her. Sometimes I wonder if I'm a good hero at all."
The Jackal was about to pick up his mug until the solider stopped him, putting a hand on his paw. "Now don't you dare say that about yourself. You're one of the most heroic people I've seen in my life. You time after time again, risk your safety, your being to protect those in need. You may have not been able to save Gunner, but she's alright. I've talked to her before she left. She doesn't blame or hate you for not being there for her. She understands that you tried your best. Gunner is a bit shaken form the ordeal, but she fine now. A good rest should recharge her batteries."
"I'm grateful she's doing well, but that's not the reason I'm upset." Lamented the Pokémon "I never thought of this before, but now I realized that this world is too dangerous for the common folk: Deadly hazards around every corner, blood thirsty beasts that would tear into your flesh without a second thought, and now terrorist running around, wrecking and sowing chaos within the land?! It's a miracle we didn't have a massacre on hands yet." Huffed the fighter. "What do I do if I fail to save those I can't protect?"
"You deal with it, and move on." Replied Snake.
Lucario looked at his friend in shock. "Deal with it and move on?!"
He nodded "Yes, deal with it and move on. With how big this world is, and how unpredictable the WOT can be, saving every creature in this land would be impossible. But you can't let this bring you down. Don't give up or push yourself to the breaking point. That will only throw you into an unending cycle of depression and misery; won't do you or the world any favors."
The jackal tilted his head to the side in curiosity as the solider continued to speak. "If you fail to save someone, you don't let it tear you apart. What you should do is grieve, learn from it, and continue your duty to help people. You may not be able to save everyone Lucario, it's a sad fact of life, but if you tried your hardest, did everything in your being to save someone. Then that's all that matters."
The blue canine looked at the floor with a sigh, staying silent for several seconds as he took a seat by the counter. "I suppose…you have a point there."
"That's not the only thing bothering you, is it?" Asked Snake, sitting next to him
"Unfortunately, so." Another sip.
"What is?" Snake questioned inquisitively.
Lucario hesitated, he didn't want to tell him what was clawing at him, but has to say it to get it off his chest, to keep things short, he explained his problems with a single word. "Rubrum."
"You mean when you killed him?" Snake replied with a kind but concrete response.
A pang of cold was felt within the Aura master's body; the guilt forming in his gut made him shiver to his core. "Yeah, I just killed him. Just like that. Felt so unreal."
"I know." Snake said "The battle was pretty intense-"
"That's not the point Snake!" Interrupted Lucario; letting his bottled up emotions out in the open. "I killed someone, without a second thought!!" The fighter emphasized with snapping his paws. He took a second or two to control himself "Sorry."
"No it's fine; you have nothing to apologize for." The solider answered, taking the cup out of the Lucario's paws. "I just wanted to know why you were so disturbed, why does killing make you so upset?"
The Pokémon took a deep breath, twiddling his claws together before he responded. "Alright *inhale* I've told you about my personal life right? My memories that were copied from the other 'me'?"
"Yes, we shared countless stories between each other." Answered Snake.
"Then you should also know about my trainer, my longtime caretaker from the Pokémon Universe."
"The artist from the Sinnoh region?" Answered the solider. "I believed you mentioned him a couple of times in our discussions. You don't talk about him much."
"Well there's a reason for that, it's a very personal to me." The Lucario explained.
"If you don't want to talk about it-""
"No, no, no I have to" The canine said. "I usually don't talk about this with anyone, but, you're not 'anyone'. You're my right hand man. You've always been there for me when I needed you the most. You deserve to know about this."
"Alright then, let it on me." Snake told the animal.
The jackal nodded before speaking. "Like I stated before, I had a caretaker. Even though he spent a good deal of his life on becoming a Pokémon trainer, he settled down to become an artist, and became one of the most famous in the region. Eventually he found a wife to settle down and together they had a baby, a boy by the name of Andy. On their son's first birthday, they got a Riolu as a gift for their child."
"I'm assuming that Riolu was you?" Asked Snake.
Lucario smiled. "Yep, I was raised with that boy by his side, acting like his little guardian angel. Those days were the best time of my life."
"If those were the best times of your life, then why are you so hesitant to talk about it?"
He smile began to falter "Well things went downhill; when Andy turned 8 years old, the wife got in a car accident that ultimately took her life, and soon after, my trainer was diagnosed with cancer, it was terminal."
"Oh."
"Even when he was dying, he accepted it. Said that this was all Arceus's plan, and how things will get better in the end. The driving factor of his philosophy was that every life was precious, and how it shouldn't be wasted or snuffed out."
"So that's why you were against killing." Replied Snake.
"Yes, but the story doesn't end here." The canine's mouth twisted into a frown upon remembering the bitter parts of his past. "When both of Andy's parents died, his uncle came over to take guardianship of him, but to be honest, I think the orphanage would have been better than staying with that bastard. He was an absolute monster; he would constantly yell and throw things around, and gave verbal abuse every single day. One night, he went crazier than usual. I woke up from the couch to find him beating Andy with his bare fists. I have a lot of restraint towards that freak but that was the last straw. I went to town on him, breaking his bones, and knocking his teeth out. I was close to killing him but I stopped myself, not because it was illegal, but because it was not what my master would have wanted, I didn't want to disgrace his memory. "
"So what did you do after that?"
"After I beat him to a pulp, I packed everything I could, took Andy and high-tailed right out of there. We managed to catch a ride to the Aloha region and started to live out in the wild. We found a village entirely inhabited by Pokémon and we settled down. My memory was pretty hazy, I don't remember much of what happened after that."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that Lucario, I never knew that's what shaped you into the person you've become today."
"And now I feel like I betrayed myself, let down my master. I crossed the line that no one should ever cross, I've murdered someone, and I broke my code. I have become the very thing I despised, a monster."
"You're not a monster Lucario!" Said Snake.
"Yes I am, I murdered Rubrum!"
"Correction. You didn't murder Rubrum, you just killed him."
"That practically means the same thing!"
"Wrong. They are two entirely different things. Killing means the act of ending the life of another creature, and murder is killing someone with wrongful or malicious intent."
"Both of those definitions still involve ending someone's life!" Argued Lucario.
"Yes, but they involve different pretexts!" Countered Snake "Tell me, is killing an old man for his wallet the same as killing a terrorist holding someone hostage?"
Lucario was about to respond but found himself pausing at the question, he thought of it for several seconds before speaking with a realization. "I suppose not, is it possible that the code I live by is wrong?"
"There is nothing wrong with your code, Lucario. Just needs some expanding." Snake Answered as he handed him his mug back. "Back when I was on the field, I did my best to knockout or sneak past enemy soldiers, even though I was trained to kill, I did my best to avoid lethal combat. But there were times that subduing my foes were not an option, I've encountered plenty enemies that if left alive, would cause too much damage for the world to handle. So in the end, I had to do the hard thing and take them out. Killing should only be used as a last resort. It is a terrible thing do to, but it doesn't necessarily make you a bad person, killing someone for wicked or selfish reasons makes you a bad person. That's the fine line that separates killing from murder."
"I see. It makes sense to me now." Lucario said gulping down the last of his drink. Snake was having a hard time reading his friends face, he didn't know what his friend was feeling right now. The solider was about to respond when the canine spoke again. "So why were you looking for me again?"
Snake's eyes widened slightly, now remembering to why he needed Lucario in the first place. "R.O.B. has found a clue that might give us information on FW, I came looking for you so we can review the evidence together."
"Ah, got it. Alright let's get going, we got work to do." Lucario said as he put his cup onto a coaster. The two best friends then walked out of the kitchen, walking at a fast pace to reach their destination.
R.O.B., Fox, and Samus were working on one of the monitors when they heard the door opened, they all turned to see Snake and Lucario enter the room.
"We're here." Declared the jackal, "There was something you wanted to show us?"
"[Ah yes, come closer you two, you're going to like what we found.]" Said R.O.B. as the solider and canine went closer.
"So what clues did you find about our mystery man, FW?" Asked Snake.
"We found a computer chip that had his name on it." Answered Samus.
"Where did you find something like that?" Spoke Lucario.
"Mega Man had it. When we interview him, he remembered that Rubrum installed the little gizmo inside of him. He took out, and gave it to us."
"Installed?!" Lucario said in shock. "Rubrum installed his tech into the boy?"
"Yep" Answered Fox, "This was the first step to his plan of world domination."
"What a bastard." Snake muttered to himself before asking "So what did you find on the chip?"
"[Well, we found this.]" R.O.B. inputted some commands on the keyboard and the screen changed into a login screen. There were two boxes to input passwords into. Above both of the boxes, was a riddle of some sort.
I was born from sparks and I breathe air into my body and exhale light into the world. I'm am constantly hunger and if I don't get any food, ill die. And the children I birth are made of ash,
What am I?
Input Password: _
I used to be free-flowing but now I'm rigid, anything that is trapped inside is stuck in time, waiting for a cold awakening, and I'm most commonly found in the arctic.
What am I?
Input Password: _
"A riddle?" Questioned Lucario.
"Yeah, we were surprised when we saw this; we didn't want to do anything until you guys came here."
"Hm," Said Snake as he looked at the monitor. "This needs a password, right?"
"[That's what it says.]" Replied R.O.B.
"You know that message in binary that we translated a week ago, Fire and Ice? I think we should input that into the boxes."
"[Seems like a good idea to start]" R.O.B. said in agreement. "[Alright let me put it in.]" His claws went to work on the keyboard.
I was born from sparks and I breathe air into my body and exhale light into the world. I'm am constantly hunger and if I don't get any food, ill die. And the children I birth are made of ash,
What am I?
Input Password: Fire
I used to be free-flowing but now I'm rigid, anything that is trapped inside is stuck in time, waiting for a cold awakening, and I'm most commonly found in the arctic.
What am I?
Input Password: Ice
Passwords Accepted, Welcome Back FW!
The screen changed to a black background, There were three square boxes present: A white box that was titled: Base, A blue box that was titled: Wii U, and an orange box that was titled: 3DS.
"Well this is new." Commented Fox.
"Hey, R.O.B." Said Samus. "Try clicking on one of the boxes"
"[Affirmative.]" Replied the robot as he clicked on the white square. Upon doing so a little pop-up appeared, it read.
{Attention! Access to this information is not available at this time. Click again when the trigger has been activated.}
"Trigger?!" Questioned Lucario. "What trigger?"
"Do you think it means trigger as in bomb?" Said Fox.
Snake shook his head. "I don't think that's likely, I think when it said 'trigger', it meant as some sort of direct order or event."
"But what could that be?" Asked Samus.
"I…don't know."
The group stayed awfully silent for a moment, the silence was broken when R.O.B spoke up again. "[I'll try to see if I could hack into the program, why don't you all go to bed. You deserve it.]"
The rest of the Smashers nodded and began to exit the room; Snake and Lucario were the last ones to leave when R.O.B. called out "[Oh, and uh Lucario.]" The both of them turned around to the robot.
"[Thank you for what you did today, I don't even want to imagine what would of happened if you didn't you your final smash. You too Snake, you did a fantastic job on the mission as well.]"
The both of the nodded silently as they exited the area, with them gone, the robotic Smasher went to work on the computer, seeing if he could hack into the system.
Gunner was slowly walking trough the hall, treading lightly due to her having low stamina. It's been quite the emotional roller coaster these past 5 hours, and all she wants is to go to bed.
The shooter approached her room and opened the door ever-so slowly. Inside, she could see Brawler sleeping on his bed whiles Swordfighter was resting on the floor.
The female Mii tip-toed into the darkened room, not wanting to awaken her teammates, she successfully sneaked inside, until she accidently bumped into the dresser, making the vase that was onto of it, fall down to the floor.
*CRASH!*
"What the hell!" Said Brawler; turning on a lamp to investigate. The fighter relaxed when he noticed the shooter.
"Oh, it's just you." The fist-fighter said in annoyance, "Gunner, why the hell did you wake me up? Further more, why did you arrive so late? Some of the Smashers were worried because of your absence."
Gunner cringed when she listened to his words, not wanting to disappoint her friends. "I'm so sorry Brawler, I didn't mean to. I was on mission with some of the fighters, it was pretty tough, but we manage to complete it."
"Ah, whatever." Replied Brawler. "Nothing you can do about it now, just try not to do it again."
"Don't worry; I'll try not to in the future." Gunner answered as she saw Swordfighter on the ground. "Why is he sleeping on the floor?"
"He wanted to stay up until you returned to our room; however, staying up late at night is not his forte and he promptly fallen asleep on the rug."
"Should we wake him up?"
"No, its best if we leave him be until tomorrow morning, it'll be better that way. Besides, I doubt you can wake him up, he's a heavy sleeper."
"Oh." Gunner said as she lowered her head, feeling somewhat sad. Brawler looked surprised seeing her like this, which drove him to ask "Man you look like s**t, what happened to you?"
Gunner, ignoring his language rose her head up, and responded to the question. "Something bad happened on the mission I was on, I'm still scared to talk about it."
The fist-fighter loosened up, he always thought Gunner was kind, but was easily frightened by the littlest things. Because of this line of thinking, he really didn't take her comments that seriously. "Come on Gunner, it can't be that bad-"
"I died." Gunner said flatly, slightly shivering upon remembering.
"What?!" The male Mii said in shock. "What do you mean you died?"
"I was on a mission to rescue another Newcomer, on the way we encountered ants who wanted to hunt us down, using their cyborg abilities to take us out!"
One of Brawler's eyebrows raised in the confusion. "Cyborg ants?"
"Yes, cyborg ants! They were forced to be that way because their king want to make to perfect, and thought he was helping them and-" Gunner stopped herself, not wanting to get off track. "Look the point is, that I got knocked into my trophy state when I was there. It was unbelievable."
"What happened when you were turned into a trophy?" Brawler asked in curiosity.
"It so unnerving, I remember something large falling on me, then the next I'm all fine and dandy." The shooter explained. "Lucario said that I became a statue, and also that uh…when a Smasher goes in this state, they are not conscious, like they're in a coma or something. Very scary to think that happened to me."
"But you were turned back to normal, right?"
"Yeah, but I still died!" Gunner retorted "How could this happened to me? Everything was going so well. This is just…I don't even know what to say" She said to herself.
"Gunner, look." Brawler spoke to the Mii "If you're worried about dying, then you're just kidding yourself. We are Smashers, we can't die. Don't you remember what Marth said? We are eternal. Death does not exist for people like us. You being revived just prove you're just worrying about nothing. Calm down."
"You don't get it." Gunner retorted. "I'm not upset because I turned into a statue; I'm upset that I was so vulnerable. You weren't there Brawler; the entire team had to fight just to stay afloat. It was a nightmare, an utter terrible nightmare. And I don't think I can deal with it anymore."
"So what are you going to do?" The male Mii replied as he folded his arms.
Gunner stayed silent for a moment, taking a deep breath as she gave her answer. "I'm going to quit. I'm going to stop with all the training and fighting, and stay here. Perhaps I can do some chores around the mansion to bide my time."
"What?!" Brawler said, it almost looked like he was offended by her statement. "So you're just going to give up and throw in the towel. Resorting to becoming a damn maid? Are you kidding, Gunner?!"
"I'm not joking, I'm quite serious." The Mii told her friend. "I never thought of it before but this line of work were in, it's too dangerous. Too many monsters and deadly obstacles around every corner, it's just too freighting! I'm not cut out for this, it'll be better for me if I just stay here. That way I won't be vulnerable as well as not to become a burden for the team."
"Gunner." The fist-fighter said softly, walking up to her as he put both of his hands on the shooter's shoulders. "That idea is retarded."
"Huh?" The female Mii said in surprise.
"You believe quitting will save you from the dangers of the world?" Brawler asked, when Gunner didn't respond, he continued. "It won't, this world was born from danger. Fighting here is practically a skill one needs to survive. You heard of Tabuu right, you think everything would have gone well if the Smashers had backed down? No, the world would have been long gone if that was the case. I also had some experience with this lesson of life."
"You mean the mission you went on?" Questioned the shooter.
"Yes." Answered the fist-fighter. "On that mission, I had to prevent a polluted dam from breaking apart. I literally had to punch through monsters and climb the damn thing to save the day. I had given up; there could have been a chance that the land would turn into a radioactive mess."
"I know the WOT would be in a much terrible place without the Smashers." Retorted the female Mii. "That's why I should get out of their business; because there is no way that I can match up with them. You know I'm not a good fighter."
"You're not a good fighter right now!" Brawler counter-argued, taking his hands of her, as he narrowed his eyebrows. "The fighters here were terrible at fighting when they first came to this world, but eventually they got better and improved themselves, and they became powerful bad-asses you see today. This is what we talked about before: not giving up, pushing your self, and grabbing life by the balls. You can definitely match them if you give it time. Don't put yourself down on a path of unfulfillment and deliberate weakness, when you can raise yourself up to new heights. Just give it a damn try. Okay? For me, and Swordfighter?" He asked in a kind but bitter tone.
Gunner was about to argue her point, but then she thought about. The Mii stayed silent for a couple of moments before saying. "Alright Brawler, I'll give it another shot." The shooter said to the fist-fighters relief. "But I'm taking a break; I need to collect myself before I can start again."
"That's fine, just don't take the coward's way out and rot away in a hiding place somewhere." Replied Brawler as he went back to bed, shutting up the light. "Night."
Gunner yawned, supposed it's about time she went to bed, but first she take care of something first. Once her eyes adapted to the darkness, she went to the wooden chest that was placed near the door. This chest was a place where the Mii's would put their personal stuff in, and they shared it between the three of them.
Inside the chest was: a spare sword, brass knuckles, a spare energy clip, and most importantly; a small crystal ball and a tiny red sphere, she lightly tossed the blue sphere that was in her pocket, wanting to preserve the treasure she gotten of that capsule, once it was inside, she went to her own bed and put the covers on her, slowly entering the dream world.
Inside the chest, the three balls were reacting to each other, glowing in unison as they got closer to each other. They then merged into together, forming into a much bigger ball. The left side of the ball was red and the right side of the ball was ball, and in the middle, a thick wavy line of white separated the two colors, the sphere had also grew in size, growing to the size of a baseball.
The artifact glowed for several seconds before the glow faded out. Lying still, waiting for the next person to touch it to reveal it's power.
We are almost to the end of act 1, i hope you guys are enjoying so far, for the next chapter, I'll be giving Mega-man a chapter of his own.
Like always, if you want to message me about the story, or leave a nice comment, then PM or leave it in the reviews, i'm always looking for feed back.
Till next time.