Tonight was the night.
Ness shivered from a combination of his nerves and the chilled autumn wind. The boy was quickly learning that talking about a rescue mission was much easier than actually executing one, but his determination didn't falter.
However, as they trekked through the woods, on their way to the alleged hideout of these mysterious kidnappers, Ness' mind was more pre-occupied with other subjects. For instance, the boy had been quite surprised at the people who were involved. Between him and his friends, the rest of Rock's family (minus R.O.B.), and Toon Link's group, they had quite the number of people. Even Red, a friend of Lucas' in the same class as Mac, had managed to convince them to let him come. Like Mac, he had no powers of his own, but Red was a licensed pokémon trainer, which most certainly counted for something.
There was also the fact that it was Halloween night. The hope was that the holiday would serve as some sort of distraction their group could use as an advantage, but Ness couldn't help but mourn his lost opportunity for trick-or-treating. Of course, helping others and trying to prevent a possible catastrophe was a bit more pressing of an issue. Ness would just have to ask his mother if they could buy some of the candy that always goes on sale the day after.
"You nervous?" A voice spoke up, and the boy turned his head to see Nana giving him a small smile.
Ness could only offer a shrug. "I'm okay, what about you?"
"I'll be alright," Nana laughed. "I'm certainly more nervous than you, though."
The psychic absentmindedly kicked at a rock, unsure of how to respond. It seemed no matter how hard he tried, the boy just couldn't get himself to feel that way. This wasn't the first time it had happened, either. Ness had long since realized he was the kind of person who never let anxiousness hit him until the very last moment.
"Hey," the boy spoke up once more, attempting to change the subject. "Am I the only one who's noticed that something's up with Dark Pit?"
"Huh?" Nana blinked, moving her gaze to further examine the one in question. "He seems fine to me."
Ness shook his head. "I don't mean that like, something's wrong with his attitude or anything, but I swear he looks just like that guy who's a grade above us- you know, the one with the wings?"
The girl paused, taking another look at Dark Pit. "Oh my goodness, you're right!" Nana's eyes widened in realization. "He's even got the same wings! I wonder if they know about this?"
The other boy pursed his lips. "Probably, it's way too freaky to be a coincidence."
Nana hummed in agreement, but the group's pace ground to a halt before the two could talk any further. It seemed they arrived at their destination, and Ness was quite surprised to see that the place they were looking for was nothing more than a large house.
Perhaps it was a bit fantastical to think that the hideout would resemble the villain's lairs of movies, but it didn't stop Ness from picturing it in such a way. Even so, if all they had to sneak into was a house, it seemed the boy's job would be a lot less harder than he thought it would be.
The group ducked back into the woods, out of sight from the house as they huddled among the bushes and grass.
"Alright, here's the plan," Lucina started, keeping her voice low. "Olimar, Pikachu, and Red's Squirtle are up first."
At her words, the trainer unhooked a pokéball from his belt. He paused for a minute, before taking off his over-shirt and using it to conceal the flash of light that resulted in the appearance of his water turtle. Slipping the shirt back on, he nodded for Lucina to continue.
"The three of you are pretty small, so sneaking in shouldn't be a problem. All we need is some reconnaissance. Break in, get a feel for the layout of the place, then sneak back out."
"What if we get caught?" Olimar whispered, unsuccessful at hiding his fearful demeanor.
Lucina paused. "Best case scenario, they won't catch you and think the pokémon are just wild. Worst case scenario, they catch you and Pikachu and Squirtle aren't around to help you escape."
Olimar gulped, but said nothing. A blonde woman, whom Ness identified as Peach in the dim lighting, gave the hocotatian a light pat on the back. "Don't worry," she said. "I know you can do this!"
"Anyways," Lucina continued. "Once you three come back, we'll start the second part. You kids," she gestured to the younger members of their group, and Ness' heart fluttered when he realized she had excluded him, "are going to be the distraction. Pretend you're trick-or-treaters, with Peach, Mac and I as your supervisors, and ring the doorbell. While they're busy with us, that gives Ness his chance."
It was the boy's turn to swallow nervously. "You have PK Teleport, yes? Use it to get as many prisoners out as you can." Lucina said, and he nodded in understanding.
If Ness hadn't felt anxious before, he sure as hell was now.
The first phase of the plan, as far as Ness knew, was completed with little difficulty. It took longer than expected, but eventually Olimar and the two pokémon returned to their makeshift hideaway in the woods.
"Sorry we took so long," the hocotatian huffed, out of breath from the run. "That place was not easy to sneak into, and we had to be really careful."
"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad you all made it out alright," Peach smiled, her comment earning murmurs of agreement among the group. "Did you get a good look at the inside?" She asked.
Pikachu squeaked in approval, and Dark Pit dug around in the backpack he was carrying. Taking out a pen and a notepad, he handed it to Olimar. The hocotatian understood what the dark-haired boy wanted of him, and he set to work on drawing a rough sketch of the house's interior.
Olimar was by no means an artist, but the group understood the many squares on the page to indicate different rooms. The small man used the pen to point to the first large box he drew, which housed a number of smaller boxes. "We didn't manage to get a whole scope of the place, it was just too dangerous," he started. "But from what we could see, the first floor doesn't have any bedrooms. Just things like the kitchen, living room, a study, and the like."
The hocotatian moved his pencil to the other large box on the paper. "The second floor, on the other hand, has a lot of closed off rooms. There's no windows here, either, so I think it's safe to bet that that's where they keep anyone who doesn't cooperate with them."
A few moments of silence passed, everyone processing this new information. "Alright then," Lucina spoke up. "Is everyone ready for the next part?"
The group exchanged nods, many of them standing up in preparation. Dark Pit once again reached into his backpack, pulling out a slick piece of metal and handing it to Ness. It looked quite like a piece of armor, but the boy hand no idea what it was supposed to do.
"This stuff's called xenoite; it enhances our powers. Lucina first used it to take us to this timeline, so it should give you the power you need to make multiple teleportation trips." He explained. Ness couldn't bring himself to give a verbal response, instead nodding and taking the piece of xenoite from Dark Pit. The boy was awed as he felt an unnatural jolt when the cool metal touched his skin, but he ignored the feeling for now, instead putting the object in his pocket.
"Alright, let's go," Lucina said. With that, a large portion of their group had left. Ness was now alone with Dark Pit, Pikachu, Olimar, and Red, whose Squirtle had long since been returned to its pokéball. Dark Pit had taken to spying on their group from a distance. Meanwhile, the psychic spent the next few moments frantically analyzing Olimar's crude drawing, as if it were the study material he needed to pass this metaphorical test.
The winged boy nudged him on the shoulder, jerking Ness out of his thoughts. The paper dropped from his hands. "They just knocked on the door, it's time to go!" He hissed. The psychic wordlessly stood up, pulling the xenoite from his pocket and shooting one last look at the group. Olimar smiled and nodded his head, while Red shot him a thumbs up.
"Trick or treat!" Their voices were almost in perfect unison as the front door opened. Lucas bit back his surprise when a large penguin, of all things, was the one standing before them.
To no one's surprise, though, it looked a bit disgruntled as it eyed all of them, scanning their faces, poorly-made costumes, and bags held in their hands.
"What are you kids doing trick or treating out here? The neighborhoods are that way!" The penguin frowned and pointed over their heads, in the direction of the way they came from.
"Oh, we know that, mister." Nana put on her largest smile, coating her voice in fake sweetness. "But what's Halloween without a little adventure or mystery?"
"That's right!" Popo continued for her. "I mean, even little babies can go trick-or-treating in the regular neighborhoods. But what's cooler than going to a house in the middle of the woods and doing it?"
The penguin's frown deepened, now looking at their three "chaperones". For a moment, Lucas feared that he was suspicious of the ulterior motive; but he had to remind himself to stay calm. The man couldn't prove anything if all of them played innocent. "Of course, we understand if you don't actually have any candy," Lucas chipped in. "We just thought it would be fun to try; we didn't actually expect someone to answer the door!"
The stranger's eyes shifted to gaze at Lucas, and the boy felt as if his heart would freeze.
Ness swallowed thickly, turning around and dashing off into the woods. At first, it was difficult to pick up speed with the many trees serving as obstacles. Eventually, he could feel his power start to flow, enhanced by the metal he was clutching in a death grip. His surroundings blurred into distorted colors, darkened by night. Ness concentrated hard on where he needed to be, and the blurry images became brighter as he shifted into a place with artificial lighting.
The boy slowed down, and eventually stopped running. Blinking a couple of times to reorient himself, Ness took off down the hallway he had teleported into, careful to be as soundless as he could.
But there were many doors in this place- which one was he supposed to get into? And hadn't Olimar said something about the doors being locked? Ness deepened his breaths- he couldn't afford to let his nerves get the best of him.
A low growl sounded, the boy whipping around to find himself face-to-face with someone. Ness inwardly sighed in relief. The trio of time travelers had described the appearances of the culprits behind the abductions, and the psychic was thankful to see this pokémon did not match any of the descriptions.
Before the creature could do anything else, Ness spoke up. "I'm here to bust you out." He hissed, causing the creature's eyes to widen in shock. "Quick, take my hand, I'll teleport you out of here!"
At first, the pokémon just stared at Ness' outstretched hand. The psychic could only mentally beg for it to make a decision, and quick. They only had so much time to lose!
Eventually, it placed a paw on his hand. Ness smiled, quick to get a tight grip on the creature's hand before he took off down the hall once more. His power surged through him again, helping the pokémon match it's speed with Ness', and in a flash the two of them found themselves back in the woods.
The group who had stayed behind all smiled in relief as the being Ness rescued looked around in shock. It was hard to tell, but the psychic thought it was smiling too.
"Quick," Dark Pit wasted little more time. "They're still at the door. Do you think you can make one more trip?"
The psychic shot them a quick smile, elated at his success, before taking off for the woods again. The pokémon's rescue had gone so smoothly- if he still had more time, then Ness surely wanted to make the most of it!
The penguin let out a hearty laugh, and Lucas tried his best to hide his silent breath of relief. "Oh, I get it! Aren't you kids the mischievous type! I don't know if we have any candy I'd want to give you though, let me go take a look real quick."
The psychic shifted uncomfortably in his spot as the stranger walked off. He left the front door open, but Lucas could not see anyone else inside the house from where he was standing. More importantly, what if the penguin accidentally caught Ness while it was on the search for candy?
Thankfully, it seemed this wasn't the case, as he returned a few moments later with an opened bag of wrapped up, bite-sized chocolate treats. "Here we go, I managed to find some." He shoved his rounded hand into the bag, bringing out a handful of the sweets and dropping one into each of their bags. "So what're your costumes supposed to be?"
"We're Ice Climbers!" Nana and Popo exclaimed in unison, each gesturing to their matching heavy coats.
"I'm a robot." Rock smiled as his friends tried to bite back any snicker or laughter. The penguin, on the other hand, did not pick up on the irony. Instead, he just nodded along.
Toon Link refrained from speaking, only gesturing to the eye-patch he wore. "Ah, you're a pirate?" The stranger guessed, the boy nodding and giving him a toothy grin.
Eyes turned to Lucas, and he froze once more. He'd hardly dressed up; instead wearing a simple yellow and red striped shirt and shorts. "I'm a bee," he blurted the first thing that came to mind. "I guess it's hard to tell, this was really last minute for me." Lucas laughed.
The penguin snorted. "Well, you tried. I'd give you an F, for effort. Happy Halloween, folks!"
The psychic cringed at the terrible joke, but hid it with a smile. "Thank you!" He chorused with his friends, walking back down the front porch.
As they left and the penguin was about to shut the door, Peach turned back to him. "Thank you very much, sir. Sorry for the trouble."
"Aw, don't worry about it, have a good one!" With that, he shut the door, leaving the group to hope that Ness could successfully make it out without their distraction.
As they walked back to their hiding place in the woods, Popo looked to Lucina. "Any idea who that was? He seemed pretty nice for a bad guy."
Peach laughed lightly. "I think most people are a bit too complicated for us to classify any one of them as just a hero or a villain."
"But still," Mac cut in. "He was awfully friendly for someone who's supposed to be hiding something. What's up with that?"
"His name's Dedede." Lucina jumped in with an explanation. "And we were definitely fortunate it was him who opened the door. I'd like to think his heart's in the right place sometimes, but he's still incredibly greedy, for the most part."
"Huh," Popo hummed in thought, pulling out the candy Dedede had given him and examining it. "Makes sense, he just gave us Almond Joys. Ugh, who even likes these?" He joked, scrunching up his face and sticking his tongue out in disgust.
Lucina looked back at him, an eyebrow raised. She failed to see the humor in Popo's words. "I do, actually."
The boy frowned, then shrugged. "I stand corrected. You can have mine if you want it, then."
The bluenette gratefully accepted, unwrapping the treat and taking a bite out of it. She shoved the wrapper into her pocket and deposited the last of the candy into her mouth as their group caught up with Red, Olimar, and the others left behind.
To their surprise, standing with their friends was a pokémon Lucas could identify as a lucario. "You're back!" Olimar sighed in relief. "How'd it go?"
"It was a little fun, actually!" Peach smiled. "The guy at the door ended up being very nice, and he didn't suspect a thing. How about over here? I see we have a new face in our midst!"
Lucario barked, nodding its head as it took the time to examine each of them. Dark Pit, however, frowned as he leaned his back against a tree. "Well, it was going great. Ness came back out with Lucario in a flash, but after that he went back in." He started. At the mention of his friend's name, Lucas looked around to see if he had come back, but his face quickly fell upon seeing him still gone. "He still hasn't come back out yet." The winged boy confirmed, pressing his lips together to mirror the tension he felt.
Lucas bit back a gasp, panic quick to settle in. They'd already left the house, and therefore they no longer had the advantage of a distraction. If Ness was still inside, he was in even more danger than before!
"Oh, no." Peach breathed, her eyes widened. "You don't think they caught him?"
"We have no way to know for sure," Lucina clenched her fists. At that moment, Lucario barked once more, pointing a paw further into the woods, away from the house. Lucas could see her draw in a shaky breath. "But you're right, Lucario. If they did catch him, they'll suspect something and come looking. And if we stick around, they're bound to find us. We have to get out of here."
"Wait!" The psychic finally spoke up. "We can't just leave him like this! What if he needs help?" Almost immediately, Lucas knew how futile his words would be. He could already see it wasn't an easy decision for Lucina to make. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that they didn't have very many options to choose from. And from looking at the faces of his friends, seeing a mixture of fear and uncertainty, he knew they were feeling the same way.
"Yeah? And what kind of help do you have in mind? We can't exactly go knocking on their door again to tell them we lost a kid." Dark Pit said. Lucas made no effort to reply, his gaze situated with the ground and his throat thick, sure signs that he was about to cry. The blonde was a bit embarassed to have been reduced to tears so easily, but Ness was his friend! They were just going to leave him behind, and deep down the psychic knew it was tactically the best choice to make; he just couldn't believe it was actually happening.
Toon Link shot Dark Pit a nasty look, and the dark-haired boy sighed, bending down to Lucas' height. "Look, if he's been caught, there's nothing we can do for him right now. But if he hasn't, he still has the xenoite, and he'll be smart enough to get himself to safety as soon as he can. We can't afford to stay here and wait until that happens, though. You just have to trust him to be strong. Okay?"
Lucas sniffed. "Okay," he sighed. Even if the winged boy was trying to encourage him, it left the blonde feeling a bit bitter; his crying didn't mean the other boy needed to baby him. Still, he trudged along with the others as they began to make their way through the woods and back into town.
During the walk, the psychic felt a hand come to rest on top of his head. The boy looked up at Red, who lightly ruffled his hair in an attempt to comfort him. In addition, the older of the two made no effort to use a weak smile to tell him it was going to be alright. Instead, the pokemon trainer made motions with his hands, his mouth set and brow furrowed in determination. 'This isn't the end,' he signed in encouragement.
The surroundings blurred around him once more as Ness made the trip back into the house. Finding himself in the same hallway as before, he crept through the area as soundlessly as he had previously done.
Something cold and sharp grabbed at his ankle. Ness stumbled, crashing onto the carpeted flooring. The boy whipped his head around, eyes widening in panic as his mouth dropped open in shock and terror.
The shadows on the walls were moving, one of them outstretched to latch onto his foot.
"That was a nice trick while it lasted, boy. But I'm afraid you won't be leaving this time."
Ness' heart jumped as he looked up, making eye contact with a man that could have easily been three times his size. His dark-colored skin and orange, curled hair gave the man away as one of the people Lucina had warned him about.
The boy tried to swallow his fear down, yanking his foot. However, not only did the shadows on his foot keep their cold, iron grip, but another crawled off the floor and clutched his arm and pulled, pinning him to the spot. The xenoite he'd had clutched to his hand dropped to the carpet with a dull thump.
He was about to scream, hoping his friends at the front door would hear him and take action, but yet another shadow flew off the wall and clamped his mouth shut. Ness' voice became nothing more than muffled cries as the man towered over him, watching him struggle with a stern, yet emotionless expression.
This was it. He'd taken the risk of breaking into the house a second time. Now, the psychic was going to pay the ultimate consequence.
Ness couldn't tell if it was a shadow or his own terror that was causing his vision to darken and his body to feel faint, but it hardly mattered anymore; the end result was the same.
I probably should've posted this when it was, y'know, Halloween... but I just wasn't ready yet. Instead, I'm posting it on the lovely Nov. 6- my birthday, hehe. Also, this is no guarantee, but I do expect updates to be picking up the pace again, if only slightly. Thanks for reading!
