When Rex was told he would be teleported into Smashville he wasn't sure what exactly he was expecting but it was definitely not landing face first on the ground. Yet that was exactly what happened. "Ow, a little warning would have been nice," Rex complained as he pushed himself up from the ground. Behind him Pyra also picked herself up.
"Well at least we're here," Pyra said. The duo took a few seconds to take in their surroundings. They had crashed into the sidewalk in front of a museum. On the other side of the street were a few shops and a cafe. Neither of them could see anything that looked like a mansion. At least it was a pleasant sunny day. All sorts of strange people walked around the town, Rex and Pyra only got a brief look from them. "It doesn't look like our guide is here."
"Or we were sent to the wrong place, he did have crazy in his name," Mythra said from inside Pyra's mind. Pyra felt that it was rude but her other self did have a point. Rex looked around for some kind of landmark. Aside from the inhabitants and machines with wheels that seemed to move by themselves the town looked fairly normal.
"Excuse me sir, could you give us directions to Smash Mansion?" Pyra asked. The person she asked looked like an ordinary but short human aside from the part where the top of their head looked like a mushroom. In other words they didn't look like an ordinary human. Pyra thanked the strange person for the directions.
Before they could get going someone came running out of the cafe. He was a strange mostly blue and black bipedal creature that had a white spike coming out of the back of each hand. "Are you the visitors for today?" He asked. When Rex and Pyra answered yes he continued. "Crazy Hand was supposed to do this later and send you inside the mansion but then he decided to do his own thing. You call me Lucario, I'll be your guide for today." Mythra immediately reminded Pyra that she had called it.
"It's fine. Anyway nice to meet you, my name's Rex and this is Pyra." Rex shook hands with Lucario. With a flash of light from Pyra she swapped out for Mythra.
"And I'm Mythra," she said. "So does Crazy Hand do that kind of stuff often?"
"Unfortunately yes," Lucario said. He gave them an odd look before quickly turning around before either of them could comment on it. "So do you want to explore this town before heading to the mansion?"
"Could we take a look inside that museum? I want to see what the history of the other worlds look like," Mythra said. Lucario gave his approval and led the way into the museum. The main room had four different passageways leading to different sections. According to the signs the first floor was for the natural history of the town itself and the second was about the history of the other worlds. Standing in the middle of the main room was an anthropomorphic owl. A sleeping anthropomorphic owl.
"That's Blathers. He runs the museum but he's nocturnal so this happens all the time. He's used to visitors waking him up if you want to talk to him," Lucario explained.
"Nah, let's let him get some sleep. We can find our own way through here," Rex said. The group went up the staircase to the second floor. There were a large number of hallways, more than Rex was willing to put in the effort to count, and each of them had a different symbol above them. One of the hallways was blocked off by a barrier of blue light and had a sign next to it reading 'New Exhibit Coming Soon: Stories of The Great Turf War.' Mythra walked into the nearest passageway with only a brief look at the sign next to it. Lucario trailed behind her and Rex.
The next room was full of old armor and paintings. Mythra ran up to the largest painting to take a closer look at it. It was of a war between two armies of strange creatures with a gigantic tree looming over it in the background, a flash of green light was coming from the center of the tree. According to the text beneath the painting it was titled War's End and showed the end of an infamous war, brought about by the sacrifice of the hero Sir Aaron. "That kind of looks like the world tree, don't you think?" Rex commented.
"It definitely looks similar," Mythra said.
"It's called the Tree of Beginning. Though in reality it's a rock formation," Lucario said.
"Oh is this from your world?" Mythra asked. Lucario nodded. "Looking at this picture reminds me of my world. Maybe they have some things in common." She turned her attention back to the painting and muttered something under her breath about the Aegis War. It was too quiet for Rex to notice. "You guys can go ahead if you want, I want to spend some more time looking at this painting," she said.
"I'll just explore the rest of this exhibit then," Rex said. He and Lucario left Mythra alone with the painting. Mythra eventually turned her attention to some of the other paintings in the room, she had seen enough armor for a lifetime. The rest of the paintings were high quality but didn't draw her in like War's End. She stopped at a piece titled Mourning for a Hero. A queen was holding a staff that Mythra recognized from the paintings that featured Sir Aaron. The queen had a sorrowful expression on her face. It was too familiar for Mythra's taste.
Mythra walked into the next room and stopped when she looked to her left and saw a statue of Sir Aaron, with Lucario standing by his side. The real Lucario was looking up at it. Rex was somewhere in one of the other rooms of the exhibit. Ignoring Pyra's pleas for tact Mythra walked up to Lucario. "You lived through all of this didn't you?" She asked, placing her right hand on her hip.
"So you caught on."
"Well the statue certainly gave it away. I'm guessing Rex just walked past it. Anyway want us to skip this exhibit? I'm also in the history books so I understand how you feel," Mythra said.
"I've put it in the past. While we're talking I may as well bring this up. I have the ability to see aura, the life force of all living beings. You and Rex have auras that seem to be constantly changing each other, I've never seen something like that," Lucario said.
"I did just dig into your past, so I'll share some of mine. Rex died when we first met. He's only standing now because Pyra shared our life force with him," Mythra said. "Not like I wouldn't have done the same or anything," she quickly added in a defensive tone, taking a small step forward. Lucario chuckled. "Hey stop that."
"Sorry, the way you said it was a little funny," Lucario said.
"It wasn't funny," Mythra insisted. She crossed her arms and took a few seconds to calm herself down. "So, uh, since we're already on the subject, how-"
"You can ask me about Sir Aaron." Lucario put his hands together and briefly glanced up at the statue.
"Was it that obvious? I just want to know what he was really like. I knew somebody who also ended up being a legendary hero and the records couldn't even get his food preferences right, not to mention some of the other stuff that got left out," Mythra said.
"He was a good friend and loyal to his kingdom. When he went to the Tree of Beginning to sacrifice himself he didn't tell anyone about his plan. He sealed me away so I wouldn't give my life in his place," Lucario explained. His voice was even and calm but Mythra could feel a few bits of sadness in it.
"Looks like we have a lot in common then. Addam sealed Pyra and I away once the war was over, our power was too destructive. By the time Rex broke it Addam had been dead for a long time," Mythra said. "Do you miss him?"
"Yes. But I don't let it drag me down. I had to make the same sacrifice Sir Aaron did so we met again in the afterlife. I'm standing here because Master Hand revived me, he needed my help to keep order between the worlds," Lucario said.
"I'm not sure if I would be able to do that," Mythra said. "I wish I could have at least been with Addam when he died but I'd only be insulting him if I stopped to mope. Nice to see that we have the same idea. I'd like to talk more about everything we've been through later. Right now we should get going, I want to see the rest of this museum," Mythra said. Lucario nodded and they moved to the next part of the exhibit. With a flash of light Mythra swapped out for Pyra.
"Thanks Lucario. Talking with you really helped, even if Mythra won't admit it," Pyra said.
As he walked into the exhibit on the Sheikah tribe Rex's eyes lit up. The room was filled with old, broken, and decayed technology. He had never been to a museum before but they always paid a good sum to salvagers who could get what they wanted. Someone else was already in the room, a blonde woman dressed in blue who was inspecting the largest machine. Rex eagerly ran next to her to take a closer look.
"This thing looks incredible," Rex said. He quickly read the label, it was an ancient war machine called a Guardian that could move autonomously. When it detected a target it would fire a laser at them. "Hey Pyra check this out, this thing sounds like it used to be a lot like Siren." Rex looked at the small gaps in the bottom of the Guardian, according to the label it used to have six legs that could bend to accommodate different elevations. He looked around and saw what was labeled as the leg of a Guardian. If it was really that flexible salvaging it would make a great profit, probably the most profitable part of the entire Guardian depending on how much the technology behind it was understood.
"Are you two the visitors I heard about?" the woman asked. Rex had almost completely forgotten about her in his excitement. Pyra walked over to join them.
"Yeah, sorry about barging in. I salvage this kind of stuff for a living so I got a little excited. My name's Rex, that over there is Pyra."
"My name is Zelda. I'm studying the ancient Sheikah technology so if you want to know more you can ask me." She shook hands with Rex and Pyra.
"How much of this thing do you understand? In my world there's a lot of ancient technology that we just don't understand," Rex asked.
"I'm making progress but there's a lot we don't understand, especially with how the Guardian actually operates. Before we could only turn them on and wait for the enemy to appear but recently I made a breakthrough," Zelda said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small slate, it appeared to be made out of the same material as the Guardian. "This is a Sheikah Slate, another marvel from the Ancient Sheikah." The screen on the slate came to life and displayed different icons.
"Woah, that looks incredible. What does it do?" Rex leaned in to take a closer look at the screen, Pyra pulled him back so Zelda could have more room.
"It can do a lot of things. Recently I was able to unlock a feature that lets me influence how Guardians operate, but it's far more complicated than any other feature. I was able to link it to a single operating Guardian but I don't know how, and I can't repeat it for some reason," Zelda said. She looked down at a symbol on her right hand.
"These things sound like they're dangerous. You're being careful right?" Pyra asked.
"We already learned a lesson about trusting the Guardians the hard way. The one I'm experimenting on doesn't have any legs and it's a trapped in a room that it can't destroy, even if it's corrupted it won't be able to cause any harm. Anyway I was able to change one thing about the Guardian with the Sheikah Slate. I can make it target things that it wouldn't have before but I'm still trying to understand just how it works," Zelda explained. She put the Sheikah Slate back in her pocket.
"That's so cool. You aren't thinking of actually using it though are you?" Rex put his right hand on the back of his head.
"Oh goddess no, the Guardians have destroyed enough already. But if I can fully understand how they work I might be able to use that knowledge for more peaceful purposes or make the Guardians harmless," Zelda said. "Right now my world is filled with ruins from more prosperous times. We need to do everything we can to bring ourselves back to that level." She glanced at the deactivated Guardian, taking a slight step away from it.
"I know how you feel. I'm always picking up relics from ancient civilizations and they seem to know way more than we do now. Space in our world is running out and people are squabbling over what space is left. That's why Pyra and I are going to fix it," Rex said.
"How do you fix a lack of space?" Zelda asked. Rex smiled.
"Well in our world there's a thing called the World Tree sitting right at the center, and on top of it is a paradise called Elysium. According to the stories people used to live up there with our divine father the Architect, but he sent us down to the Cloud Sea so we've been living on the Titans ever since. But now the Titans are dying out and if they go extinct we won't have anything to live on. So if we climb the World Tree and go back to Elysium there'll be enough space for everyone again," Rex said.
"I see, so you're in a race against time. I hope you and Pyra are able to reach it," Zelda said.
"Thank you," Pyra said. "I'm starting to feel better about our odds. We've found a lot of people who are willing to help."
"If you two do become Smashers I hope you'll have reached Elysium by then," Zelda said. Pyra held her right wrist with her left hand.
"Oh don't worry, we will," Rex said. "It was nice talking with you, we should probably go see the rest of the place while we still have time."
"Farewell for now," Zelda said, waving as Rex and Pyra rejoined Lucario and went to tour the rest of the museum.
The rest of the tour passed without incident, both for the museum and Smash Mansion itself. Pyra liked the cooking supplies in Smash Mansion, Mythra liked the lake that was nearby, and Rex liked the lack of rent. Lucario finished the tour by bringing them to the teleporter room that would return them to their world. "This was where you were supposed to arrive. We're going to need to wait for Master Hand before you can return," Lucario explained. "So, what did you think?"
"I just wish the rest of our friends could have come with us, Tora would have loved to see some of the technology you guys have," Rex said.
"If we become Smashers will we be able to invite our friends to the mansion?" Pyra asked.
"Yes. For some reason it's easier to summon people from worlds that already have a Smasher, so you would just have to input the right things into that console over there," Lucario said, pointing to the control panel.
"That sounds convenient, wouldn't want anyone else to land face first on the ground," Rex said. He put a hand on his cheek, the pain was mostly gone.
"It'll probably still happen to Zeke," Pyra said. "Will we be able to visit the other worlds?"
"Yes. One Smasher even used this teleporter to invite some of the other Smashers to her racing tournament," Lucario said.
"Your world sounds like it would be a lot of fun to explore Lucario. Maybe you could give us a tour of that too sometime," Rex said. Pyra awkwardly looked away.
"I'd only be able to show you around a small part of it," Lucario said.
"That's fine, I'm sure it's still great. And we can show you around our world once we reach Elysium, right Pyra?"
"That sounds like it would be fun," Pyra said. Master Hand teleported into the room. Rex and Pyra jumped back in surprise, Lucario was unfazed.
"Apologies for my tardiness, recruitment season is always extremely busy," Master Hand said.
"No problem. We'll send the letter when we make our decision," Rex said. He got onto the platform with Pyra. "It was fun visiting."
"Goodbye," Pyra said. Master Hand snapped his fingers and activated the teleporter. Rex and Pyra waved as they faded out of Smash Mansion and back into their world.