Arc 1: Familiar Faces
Chapter 4: Acceleration
3 Days after Chaos Containment Breach (Altea's Letter)
5:00 AM
Robin Birdsnest is no stranger to being stalked. After all, Tharja stalked him for almost the entirety of freshman year because she thought he looked like the Latter-Day Church of Grima's founder, Grima Sterling. Hopefully, that's not the case with the blue-haired chick trailing him through Smash City Central Park, which is in itself strange, as the only bluenettes Robin knows of are Chrom and High-President Marth. Her clothing is even stranger, as she was decked out in a trenchcoat, a heavy metal band t-shirt, bright green jeans, and bunny slippers. Robin almost walks over to talk to her, because he's never seen her in his life, and really, who wears stuff like that?
"Hey, Robin! You study for that Lit test today? I kinda..forgot. Yeah, let's go with that." The guy running out in a hot pink bath robe, Chrom Lowell, is Robin's best friend and soon-to-be police officer. That's what Chrom calls himself even though he still has 1 year left of college. He's understandably eager, as his older sister, Emmeryn, is already in the force and in fact the police commisioner, and his younger sister is in the exact same class as him.
"Chrom, I can't bail you out all the time, but yeah, I have the notes about the upcoming Literature test. Also, its scheduledto be next week. Why are you so worried about it that you ran out wearing...that? It's Lisssa's pranks, isn't it?"
"Grima damn it Lissa!" Chrom yells before rushing back to his dorm, drawing some weird looks from the early morning crowd. Chrom is lucky that his and Robin's dorm is in front of the Park, or Chrom would have humiliated himself even more due to the coffee crowds. Lissa's pranks were starting to get more elaborate over time, but this one was relatively simple.
After the only Wariobucks in the area was closed after the incident, people started waking up earlier to get coffee from the McWario's across town. Robin thought that waking up earlier kind of defeated the point of coffee, but he didn't judge.
After that incident with Chrom, Robin's thoughts wandered back to his blue-haired follower, who gave him a start when he realized she disappeared. Not walked out of campus' central square. Not quietly hiding in the background. She just up and disappeared into thin air, and now Robin noticed, he noticed a few gaps in the crowd that were getting closer to him. A coincidence, or something else? Robin doesn't consider himself a superstitious man, but he's the first to admit something is off about this whole situation.
Robin is supposed to be in Math class right about now, but he can catch up later. For now, perhaps it's best if he goes off the radar for now. He nonchalantly meanders towards the Merric Lowell Department of Aerial Science and Research while texting Chrom he may not see him for the next couple days. He then chucks his phone into the bushes, so whoever-it-is can't track him. Being relatively untrackable is worth more than a phone, something Robin has learned the hard way. Shouldering his bag, he cuts through a patch of bushes and starts running.
He sighs. Time to go on the run again. This brings back memories, mostly bad memories, but memories all the same. It's just for a couple days. You don't even know that anyone is really after you! He thinks, trying to reassure himself. It fails, but it's either this or get caught by a ghost girl with horrible fashion sense, and Robin knows in a heartbeat which one he's choosing.
5:10 AM
This did not just happen. Lucina's target did not decide to just leave. Lucina spent countless hours researching his schedule, and she concluded that he was a meticulous intellectual who valued education above most other things. Therefore, it wouldn't be too hard to take him out while he was at a class. It wasn't much of a plan, but making anything better would take time, and with every passing hour, more of Lucina was slipping away. For crying out loud, she couldn't remember the face of Severa, her best friend, or Inigo, her...friend? Or...the really dramatic guy? She couldn't even remember his name now. Some leader she was.
If she wanted to give her companions the future they deserved, she needed to neutralize her target and change the future. Easier said than done, since apparently the future has preservation instincts. Her target had looked at her, which shouldn't have been possible, as she wasn't drawing attention to herself, which is the only way people can perceive her, or something. Lucina isn't a scientist on the effects of time travel, Naga darn it!
Now she had to track down her target, who faded into the crowd as soon as Lucina began muscling through crowd in the hopes of reaching him. He's most likely left the park by now. If he has a grain of sense, he'll have changed his clothes by now, so Lucina can't even see him in the crowd, let alone kill him. Maybe after some time he'll return to his dorm room, so if Lucina waits there, maybe there will be an opportunity. She sighs. She doesn't know enough about the city layout to go on a manhunt, so this is her only choice. The end will have to wait a little longer.
6:00 AM
Bowser Jr crawls through his open bedroom window into his room. He'd like to use the front door, but he's technically supposed to be asleep, and old Mr Kamek is going to give him a lecture, and then his bedroom door is going to be locked, and he won't be able to talk to her, and then she is going to get angry-No, don't think about that. He's done this plenty of times before, and he's never been loud enough to wake Mr. Kamek, but then he's never been beaten by that wimp Rock, either. Bowser Jr's terrified stream of thought ruins any hope of doing this bravely. The only reason he hasn't tripped tripped up Koopa Estate's security by now is pure muscle memory, and a lot of luck.
After entering his room, he sneaks through Koopa Mansion. The normally clean, orderly, boring house has been draped in shadow. It wouldn't be so bad if he was running back to his bed, but he was sneaking away from his bed, and towards her, and if Mr Kamek catches him he's definitely going to be punished. Bowser Jr's thoughts aren't exactly doing calming him down. He's actually getting more scared! Just stop thinking, he's talked to her before, probably nothing's going to happen, right?
He almost gives up, but then he thinks about how angry she'll be, and he...he's here. The big basement of Koopa Mansion, filled with boxes and boxes of stuff. Chancellor Dad bought a lot of this cool stuff, but Mr Kamek made him put a lot of it back because "that Fawful statue made entirely out of beans completely ruins the feng shui of the house" and Chancellor Dad would argue with Mr Kamek, and Mr Kamek would bring up how he's basically Chancellor Dad's dad, and Chancellor Dad would give up and put the thing in the basement forever. That was how Bowser Jr found her in the first place.
He had been exploring the basement when he was supposed to be asleep to try and find something cool, and he found this weird mirror covered in a sheet. It was gold, and decorated with stars and wings. It didn't look like the kind of thing Chancellor Dad or Mr Kamek would buy. But when Bowser Jr looked into it, she looked back. She had seemed nice at first, sending him on fun missions, like epically pranking Mr Kamek, or stealing Mr Mario's hat or tools, and stuff. It was stuff that Bowser Jr, probably would have done anyway, but it was so nice to be praised for the stuff he did, for once. It was little bit like having a mom, he guessed. He enjoyed it so much, he showed the mirror to Lemmy(the least annoying of his siblings). The rest kind of happened gradually. He didn't know why, but once he showed the mirror to the rest of his sibling, she started becoming a little meaner, the missions became a little harder, and before he knew it, she was yelling at them 24/7, sending them on missions to actually kill someone! Thankfully, it wasn't anyone Bowser Jr. actually liked(he didn't like anybody), only some random boring doctor. But still, they had to kill someone! Everyone was more scared of her than the law, so they stalked down Doctor Shulk and had cornered him, until that party pooper Blues showed up! Bowser Jr hated Blues' stuck-up, snarky attitude, and that was without him getting in the way of her schemes.
Bowser Jr stopped mentally roasting Blues when he stopped in front of the mirror. He gulped. It was time. He saw his reflection in it, as usual, and also like normal, it changed. The reflection's colors started getting dimmer, and once it was all dark, the reflection/shadow-thing's shape changed, getting taller, skinnier, and vaguely human-shaped with some weird crown-shape sprouting out of its 'head'.
"G-Greetings, my Queen."
Judging from the lack of your companions, you have failed, minion.
She spoke directly into his head. Bowser Jr knew this because once he had tried to to shut his ears against her, and she had somehow gotten louder.
It seems you have wasted the power I bestowed upon you and your companions. There will be consequences, ones that you will find extremely...unpleasant.
"I-It wasn't my fault, my Queen. M-m-my...sibl-..er...minions...are really dumb, and the unexpected showing up of Blues didn't help-
SILENCE! I do not wish to hear your insipid excuses. If you truly wish to earn my favor again, then you will accept my gift. The gift...of your final Awakening.
Well, that doesn't sound so bad, Bowser Jr. thought.
Hold still. This won't hurt a bit. It will hurt a LOT. And let this be a taste of your punishment if you fail me again. Now GO my swarms of doom! And conquer minds! Conquer worlds! Conquer, In the name of your mother, the Core Queen!
After that extremely ominous statement, some kind of….thing starts oozing out of the edges of the mirror. As it got closer, Bowser Jr sees that it looks like, some kind of swarm of bugs. Well, that's no good. Besides her, bugs are his greatest fear! And yet, he can't run away. He doesn't know if its because he's too scared of her or if he's being mind controlled, but the bugs get closer, and closer, and closer.
Then they start crawling on him, and they're cold, colder than anything he's ever felt, and he's already pretty uncomfortable, but then they start biting him, and its AAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAATHEWORSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHURTSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACOVERINGMEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANONONONONOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPLEASEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
7:00 AM
Maxwell has spent enough time in the hibernation pod. Now is the time for action. Simon and Gann are protecting Multiversal Internetworking System #3, and the Proto-Man is searching for High President Altea. Wouldn't do to cause an international incident by the absence of a country's leader! The only thing left in Maxwell's master plan is to obtain the false chip and give it to his soon-to-be puppet. Chrom Lowell. He's a good kid, not the brightest, he should be easy to manipulate once the weird Sterling kid is out of the way.
But one thing at a time, after all. He pulls out his dinky little flip-phone, and sighs. Once he had the power of creation and order at his fingertips, and now he has to use this...thing to contact quite possibly the slimiest man in all of Smash Kingdom.
"Hello Mr Wario. I would like to discuss the manufacturing of a, shall we say, specific, product." Maxwell opened the conversation. Best to get this over with as soon as possible.
"Who the Hades are you?! How did you get this number?! I can have you arrested for wasting my time, you-"
"There's no need for that Mr Wario. My employer will compensate you handsomely, in exchange for a worthless trinket."
"We-e-e-ell, that's quite a different story, Mr, uh, I didn't catch your name?" Maxwell's patience is running out already, and it hasn't even been a minute.
"I work for the government. And that is all you need to know. Your money will be wired to you shortly after this transaction is concluded, 1.5 million G, minus 100 thousand for every unnecessary question that you ask."
"Wa-hahaha! Now that's what I like to hear! Now, about this so-called trinket…"
Maxell can hear the greed dripping off Wario's tongue, but WarioCorps has some of, not the best fabrication laboratories on the world. So far, Wario has been acting exactly as predicted by Maxwell's plan, and he hates it. But if Maxwell is going to obtain a passable MIS#3 chip replica, it has to be from WarioCorp. Sucking up his contempt, he begins listing the characteristics that will determine the success or failure of his plan."Now listen closely, as I will only say this once. You will make a replica computer chip made with a base of pure graphite, laminated for extra durability, with 3 strips of polished copper on the top, and a green substance that glows with 0.8 lumens that will…"
8:00 AM
Wario is not an idiot. After that uptight government goon asked for a suspiciously specific computer chip, Wario fins himself with an...interesting dilemma. No, not whether to make it or not, Wario would have to be an idiot not to make it! The dilemma falls whether to mass produce it and distribute it to the public. It's obvious the chip is meant to be Altea's chip gambit, and its also obvious that the government does not want more than one chip in the civilian population.
Hmmm, what if Wario used this fake chip to become the High President? High President Wario has a very nice ring to it, doesn't it? But Wario knows about governing jobs, and he's not heading down that slippery slope.
No, it's much better to have some of Ashley's underground contacts 'accidentally' obtain a shipment of these chips, than Wario would have no responsibility for the use of them, and he would have the governments money, and the money of the chiphunters. After all, it worked before with Wario selling his new Model Gold computer chips, so why wouldn't it work again? This brings a dirty grin to Wario's face. There's nothing like the smell of new schemes in the morning. And coffee and donuts, of course.
?:? ?
Shulk is chilling on Rock's couch as they discuss whatever the Hades happened with Rock's brother. To be honest, Shulk is zoned out most of it, as he doesn't really know Blues and he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in months because of the nightmares. That probably explains why most of the day has been a blur to him.
It doesn't explain the Colony 9 garb Shulk is wearing. He frowns, wondering where it came from? What's a Colony 9? Instead of his usual red sweatshirt, he's wearing this mini-jacket...thing, with a black sweater and matching shorts and boots. And they're all muddy and smell like they haven't been washed in a month. Rock doesn't seem to notice, though.
Speaking of Rock, he's been blabbering on for a while now, and for the short time Shulk has known him, that seems slightly out of character for the child. But it's probably interesting, if Shulk could understand any of it. Shulk squints. Wait, isn't Rock speaking Smash Kingdom Basic? After straining his ears, Shulk decides that he is, and yet he can't understand a word Rock says.
That's the final straw. The clothes, and now this have convinced Shulk that this is a dream, or vision, or nightmare, or whatever it's called. All Shulk knows is that this is probably a portent for the future, and Shulk is going to die horribly later. Ah well, there's nothing to be done. Might as well memorize as many details as possible before the end.
Walking past the still babbling Rock, Shulk decides to watch some TV and see some current events. Flipping past frivolous channels like "Tidying Up with Isabelle Shizue", "Super Chaos Chrystals Z and Knuckles", and some random ringside wrestling post-match interview. Finally, Shulk finds some breaking news. A couple, actually.
The first is some Gerudo guy found President Altea's chip, broke it and is now delivering his High President inauguration speech. Something seems off about this whole situation, like everyone is missing some piece of vital information, but Shulk is used to this feeling. It crops up all the time in his life so far, so he ignores it.
The second and more interesting, is the arrest of former interdimensional scientist Thomas Light. Apparently, he was found with some unconscious blue haired girl, and everyone just assumed the worst. Some white-suited guy says that he meddled in an interdimensional incident. Light claims he's trying to save her life even as he's being dragged away by the police. Shulk wants to listen to more, but then a...creature explodes through Rock's apartment door.
Literally explodes, there's this strange purple fire everywhere, and in the middle of it, is some kind of reptilian thing. It's growling, and Shulk can see a glimpse of glistening teeth. He's never seen anything like it before, and on one hand he kind of wants to study it, but on the other he wants to run for his life. Rock has clearly decided which one he wants to do breaking out of his daze and sprinting for the fire escape.
The thing's mouth(?) opened and shot a fireball at Shulk, who snapped out of his daze and dove to the floor Unfortunately, a small apartment living room is not the best place for parkour, and Shulk smacked his head on the leg of the coffee table. Before he has time to shake off the stinging pain, he smelled the scent of burning carpet and flesh. He tries to get up before the pain of his body roasting registers and he falls again, writhing as his skin is melted off and he's cooked alive. He finally mercifully falls unconscious, never to wake again.
10:00 AM
Shulk wakes up from Rock's couch with a shout, then falls silent as he simply relishes the sensation of not burning alive. Ohh, intact skin feels GREAT! Now, what the actual Hades was that? He hasn't had a dream like that in weeks! Well technically, he hasn't slept in weeks but that doesn't matter. He and Rock need to get out of here ASAP! Speaking of Rock, where is he?
His question is swiftly granted when he sees Rock putting on a jacket and opening the front door.
"Oh, hey Shulk. Apparently Roll finished the food before she went to school, so I was going to go buy some more. I didn't want to wake you up, and I didn't want you to wake up alone in a unfamiliar place, so now that you're up, I'll just get going now…" Rock mentions out before heading out the door.
"Rock, wait. We need to leave. Now." Shulk blurts out.
Rock looks confused for a second and asks for clarification. "Like..going to the store together? That seems kinda weird."
"No, I mean leaving your house for a while. There's something after us, and it's going to break into your apartment." Shulk says, and he can physically feel Rock's opinion of him dropping
"Oh really, that doesn't sound suspicious at all. Y'know, I cut you some slack because of the whole Junior thing, but you're sounding either really creepy or clinically insane, and I don't want any of that around my family."
"NO, wait, I can explain. You see, a couple of months ago I had these suspiciously vivid dreams that seemed to predict the future. The amount of time between the dream and the event varied, but it happened every time. Until I dreamed that I was dismembered and murdered in my own bed by a morbidly underweight man with a dirty purple mohawk. Then I left. The dream couldn't happen if I wasn't in my bed. But the dreams got worse. Then the coffee shop incident happened. Then the orange girl died. And I had more dreams. And they got worse. I started living on the streets to avoid the assassins. Then I realized that you might have some answers, and well...you know the rest. But I had a dream tonight, some kind of fire-breathing reptilian thing is going to bust in here and murder everyone." Shulk isn't much of a gambler, but he's losing Rock, and he needs something better to convince him. Glancing at one of the pictures on the wall gives him an idea for one last try.
"WAIT! I'll tell you something I saw in my dream. It was your father. He used to be a robotics scientist, but that was just a cover-up, wasn't it? He was actually a dimensional scientist!" Shulk waits with bated breath. He doesn't know for sure if its true or if the studies of Thomas Light are common knowledge, or even if Rock knows the truth about his father. There are so many things that could go wrong, but for once, it seems that Palutena smiles on Shulk, as Rock sits down, stunned.
"How? How did you know that? He didn't even tell me. Blues did. Dad kept this a secret for my entire life! So how did you know that!?"
Rock feels horrible, with this encounter dredging up the events of the past couple days and compounding his previous horrible mental state. For a while, Rock's world was determined by rules. Social customs and norms, the laws of physics, etcetera, etcetera.
But now, the President is choosing his successor with some kind of game. A man became some kind of monster of metal and machinery in the span of a couple seconds. And now some guy Rock met yesterday apparently can predict the future and has access to information he shouldn't, and has been doing it for months. MONTHS!
But Rock is resilient. He survived Dad losing his first job at the M. Hand Nervous System Research Center and he and Roll do their best to avoid making extra work for Dad and Blues. He can survive this.
If he wants to keep surviving, though, he'll need to take action. He moves to gather up the family pets, when the front door explodes in an inferno of purple fire. That technically shouldn't be possible, but its nothing compared to what Rock's seen before, also HE'S IN MORTAL DANGER MOVEMOVEMOVE.!
He weaves under a fireball and darts toward the fire escape. He tries to shout to Shulk but he coughs instead. Apparently there's not a lot of air to breath when the flames are burning it away. Shulk doesn't need any prompting, diving away from a fireball. Rock stops watching Shulk's acrobatics and starts fiddling with the window latch. Was it always this finicky? It hurts to breathe now, the air is so hot.
Shulk gestures for Rock to step away from the window, and he wraps his jacket around his fist before smashing it on the edges. As he clears broken glass away from the window, Rock notices the thing fushing at Shulk. Before he can think, Rock steps in front of Shulk and braces for impact.
The thing lunges. Rock tries to bat it away with his hand but it chomps down hard. It hurtssssss. This is uncomfortably like the coffee shop. Rock won't let that happen again. He won'tttttttttttttt. A flash of orange and heat erupts from Rock's entrapped hand, and the thing goes flying back. His hand has mostly stopped hurting, but looks normal, except for the massive teeth marks. What was that energy? Rock stops wondering and starts focusing on the very real danger of fiery death.
Shulk has finished the window and is climbing out. Rock keeps an eye on the creature, which is starting to twitch. The heat in the apartment is unbearable, Rock needs to get out! He practically shoves Shulk out of the window and falls onto the cool grate of the fire escape. He could just rest...he's so tired...no. He and Shulk need to get to safety. Shulk has undone the ladder and is climbing down. Rock follows and hops to the ground early. He just wants to get out of here. He definitely doesn't want to think about how his arm is probably going to be infected.
The good news is Rock doesn't have to think about those things. The bad news is he does have to think about how to escape the man who just stepped into the alley, the man who changed Rock's life forever, the man who killed Orange-
"Hey all of you, put your hands up NOW!" Who's that? Rock glances past Ridley(How does he have his skin back?) and sees the blonde police officer from the coffee shop. Then, because the universe doesn't already hate Rock enough, the thing that started burning down lands in the alley with a thunderous CRACK! Rock hears the telltale sound of fire alarms and hopes someone called the fire department, because Rock and Shulk are going to be a little bit occupied…
Ugh, this chapter was a doozy. Unfortunately, the next chapter will probably take as long to upload, but please stay with me. I have big plans for this little story. In slightly less depressing news, I decided to make some character bios to keep people from losing track of so many characters, and I am going to add a lot of characters. Anyway, here are the bios were inspired by the ones in Naryfiel Lilith's A Thief's Legacy. That work probably inspired me to start writing fanfinction in general. Here they are!
Lucina: An awkward girl who'll do whatever it takes to change her friend's terrible fate. There are no lengths she won't go to to fulfill her mission. Also has been having some weird headaches. Status-c2qgr97q92
Pit: A kind-hearted and eager boy just trying to find his way in the world, but the one thing he wants in the world is to see his brother again. Status-Pure
Dark Pit: A cynical but resilient boy trying to survive. Deeply resents his brother and doesn't want to see him ever again. Status-Pure
Rock: The son of a former doctor who tries his best to support the family despite being a minor. Is a little...peculiar for his age. But beneath his exterior lies the heart of a child, which Rock is. A child, that is. Not sure where I was going with that. Status-Deawakened
Samus: A hard as nails cop who is taking the defeat and capture of her partner pretty hard. Takes no bullexcrement from anyone. Status-Pure
Shulk: A normal, nice, approachable guy. Except for his nightmarish visions of his brutal deaths. He also has the nagging feeling that something is wrong with...everything. Status-Chained
Maxwell: The self-appointed guardian of this fledgeling universe. Will stop at nothing to prevent the tragedy of the Core. Status-Classified
Zelda: The Hon. Vice President of the Smash Kingdom, who is trying to find the missing High President in order to avert a national crisis. Responsible and business-like, she also has a mischievous side, which is not showing up due to the aforementioned national crisis. Status-Pure
Ike: The resident grump of the Smash City Police Department. He is fiercely loyal to his friends, and bitingly indifferent to his enemies. Does not think much of politicians or business-people. Status-Pure
Robin: An intellectual young man with a mysterious past. Is friendly, and is good at befriending people. Is horrible at cooking. Status-Pure
Bowser Jr.: The spoiled, brash, and immature heir to the Bowser business empire. Has no business experience, and is only a little smarter. Status-Awoken/Corrupted
Blues: Rock's cool older brother. Unfazed by almost anything, including taking extra jobs to support his family. Is annoyingly adept at being secretive. Status-Classified
Oh and because I want to add more information on the World of Reset, I'll be inserting some mildly plot relevant info in here. Don't worry, I'll mark new or changed entries so you won't miss anything!
Well, loyal readers, I'd say see you soon, but I'm a pathetic lazy piece of crap and probably won't finish the next chapter soon and I'm really sorry.
-Adrael out.