Author's Note: Hey guys, I've got something big to talk about! For the last two weeks I've been working on something for My First Game Jam over on itch io and I actually managed to release a game! It's called A Gang of Weirdos, which is published under the name of Shit City Dreamer, and it's a free game made in RPG Maker MV about restoring a world! It takes an hour or two to beat and I'd appreciate it if you check it out!
Now without further ado... there was another reason why I made that Normals anniversary chapter. Note that there are references to the Empty Room, so maybe go read that too.
54: Tower
—-
Our story today begins in a small town, a town that looks fairly average on the surface. Nice humbles houses, well maintained lawns, kids playing in the streets or inside, a good place all around. But you don't want the story of the nice town, because that'd be mundane. Unless you're looking for a nice slice of life like the Daily Lives of High School Boys. But this is not an anime slice of life.
And so, this nice non-mundane story begins with an object falling from the sky and crashing like a meteor. It collided into the roof of a house that belonged to an old man, who was sitting out on his porch drinking ice tea or whatever old people drink.
Two people tumbled from the object, groaning in pain. And then proceeded to fall off of the roof which was even more painful. One of them was a blue canine like creature and thankfully, he landed on his companion, who was a robust penguin that could take a lot of punishment.
"You said you could fly those things..." Lucario groaned from on top of his friend (?), Dedede.
"Hey, I got us here, didn't I?" Dedede snapped. He took his former Normal friend, Lucario, when the Halberd began descending during the escape from the Smash Castle on one of the air ride machines Meta Knight had stored away. "Besides, I wasn't exactly a 'character' in Air Ride, but a boss so I never got to ride one of the normal rides..."
"Dedede, you could have killed us!" Lucario said, now thankful that they even reached anywhere at all.
"It's better than staying in the ship." Dedede said, making a grumpy noise. "Where are we, anyway?"
"My house." The owner finally spoke up, after regarding the two strangers.
Dedede and Lucario quickly scrambled to their feet, looking abashed. "Mister, we're sorry about your roof." Lucario apologized.
The old man just looked up, said "yep," and kept drinking his iced tea.
It honestly seemed like he didn't care in the slightest.
"...Well, we got off scot free."Dedede stated before proceeding to walk away whistling.
"Dedede, I know that you're an anti-hero but you should take some responsibili... ty?" Lucario was going to stop him, but that's when the Pokemon Smasher noticed the rest of the neighborhood.
As mundane as the neighborhood seemed on the surface, there were bizarre things going on that people didn't seem phased by at all. Such as a raccoon in a trash can selling trash to other raccoons while the owner of the house stood by expecting a cut of the money. A lady cutting her hedges into bizarre shapes. A bunch of cats doing choreographed dance. In fact, Lucario thought about it and realized that if this world was even remotely sane, the old man should have freaked out upon seeing him and a giant penguin, let alone ask them to repair his roof.
"...Well, I suppose we're in our element." Lucario said quietly, following after Dedede.
THE NORMALS 2: MINUS 2
CHAPTER 1: FOOD
Of course, after crash landing on the paradoxically mundane and strange planet, Lucario and Dedede honestly had no idea what to do. However, first things first, they had to find a place to stay, at least until they could figure out what to do.
Although, they were both wary about staying in the same place together. As they both used to be Normals, they could be pulled into story nonsense the longer they stay together. The Protagonist Principle, it was called.
But I'm going to set it straight to you guys: you aren't the protagonists.
"Huh? We aren't?" a worried Dedede answered. Both of them were sitting at separate tables at a fast food place, needing to sate the hunger that grew during the trip.
Yeah. See, you guys aren't the real protagonists and you're starring in a side story, where the protagonist role just kinda shifts around. So yeah, just bare with it until the end of the chapter and you're off the hook.
"That's a relief." Lucario said. He took his tray of food and went to sit back with Dedede, now willing to take the risk of coexisting. It's just like old times. Well, Meta Knight and Falco weren't there, but whatever. "Dedede, so, what do you think we should do?"
"Hm... with all the weird things going on, do you think anyone would notice if we steal something?" The king suggested.
"I don't think so- no! We're not going to be robbers!" An annoyed Lucario said. "Besides, with that Giygas monster out there, people will need our help, and we can't help anyone from a jail cell!"
Dedede stared at him with a completely dead look in his eyes. "I really don't want to fight Giygas."
Lucario turned his gaze toward the burger in front of him. "...I don't either." He admitted. "It just looks like... there's a void inside of him. A never ending void that... I don't... want to be trapped in a void again..."
Realizing that thinking about Giygas is bringing up some memories, Dedede snapped him out of it with a pat to the shoulder. "Hey, you know what, let's focus on getting a place first."
The Pokemon slowly calmed down. "Alright." He picked up his burger, but as he brought it up to his mouth, a thought occurred to him. "...Where did you get the money to buy this food?"
"Take a guess."
"..." Lucario decided to not press him on it and turned to eating.
CHAPTER 2: JOB
Lucario and Dedede walked down the street casually, not even receiving a stare despite being surrounded by humans. As they thought about what to do, they go by a poster that was stapled on the wall:
"PIZZA DINOSAUR"
"The most stores in the world, the most pizza job openings - now hiring, always hiring! We are better than Mona Pizza!"
"...Now why is Mona Pizza vaguely familiar?" Lucario said, trying to recall where he heard the phrase.
"Who cares, they have jobs here!" Dedede proclaimed, excited. Than he mellowed out. "...Eh, but I don't want to work. It's still not my thing."
"Hm, I'm actually wary myself." The Pokemon shivered, remembering the disastrous time where he and the rest of the Normals had to cook breakfast for the rest of the castle. Thank goodness ROB got most of the blame for that. "...But hey, we have to do something..."
So thus Lucario and King Dedede went to get a jobs at the pizza chain, and both thankfully ended up becoming delivery boys instead of the ones making the pizza. Dedede even used the last of his most likely stolen money to buy a pizza to eat on the way to their first delivery in one of the store's cars.
"Bleh!" Dedede spit some of the pizza he was chewing on out of the window while Lucario drove. "The crust is too tough and the sauce is too thin!"
"Maybe you just have high standards." Lucario said from behind the wheel. As he pulled up to a red light, he reached for the open box and bit into a slice. "...You were right. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry this is actually awful."
But despite the awfulness, Pizza Dinosaur was still successful and the two were still in their pocket, so they decided to bare with it and do their jobs.
CHAPTER 3: SKY
The two have settled into a small apartment, with Dedede getting furnishings from who knows where. Ordinarily Lucario would be judgmental, but given that they're already barely meeting rent on their salaries, he decided to look the other way for once.
Besides, there were more important things on his mind.
"Is it me, or is the sky turning red?" Lucario noted during one of their deliveries.
"Eh, it must be sunset." Dedede offhandedly answered, not even bothering to look outside the window.
"It's noon."
"Huh."
"...I do not like that shade of red. It reminds me of..." Lucario tried to shake it from his mind. "Maybe it's just a weird thing going on..."
So they continued their delivery run, as the skies turned toward a darkening red. After their work for the day was done, they started walking home when they heard a bunch of people gossiping in front of a game store.
"Did you hear? That WarioWare company is releasing a bunch of new games!" One girl said.
"Yeah, that'll keep my mind off those red clouds!" A boy said.
"I heard that people are acting weird up north when those clouds starting rolling in."Someone else said.
"Forget about it, video games!"
King Dedede and Lucario looked at each other, astonished. "We're in the WarioWare universe? Oh, we can try reaching out to Wario's employees, since he knows us and all." Lucario said.
"...Do you really think that Wario put a good word in for us? ...Do you honestly think he helps people?" Dedede asked, dead serious.
"...Yeah, you're right." Lucario sighed. "Well, at least we know where we are. We can figure out what to do from here."
CHAPTER 4: GAME
"Hey Lucario!" He heard Dedede yell from outside of their apartment door. Before the Pokemon could go answer it, the penguin king kicked the door in, carrying a game console and box in his arms.
Lucario sized up his friend. He seemed to look frenzied, a manic look in his eyes. "...Where did you..."
"Not important, I thought that we should pass some time by playing video games!" King Dedede set the console down and plugged it into their television (which was of course stolen from somewhere).
Lucario picked up the box and examined it. "Oh, you got that WarioWare game?"
"Yeah! Everyone's talking about how good it is! I even saw people fighting over it!"
"Wait, wha-"
"Let's do this!" Dedede declared, taking the case to retrieve the disc inside. Slam dunking it into the console, he handed a rather perturbed Lucario a controller as the game started up.
For a brief second, something that looked like a title screen popped up on the screen. However, it was then almost immediately replaced by a picture of Wario's face, which made the two players jump. "Wah! This is WarioWare Inc's DRM, and I see that you didn't buy this game legally!"
"I... don't think this is how DRM works." Lucario murmured.
"So for your crime, consider your games bricked!" The Wario faced declared. Then, true to its word, the game shut off.
The game console also started sizzling, smoke emerging from it.
"...I could get us a new one!" Dedede offered.
"I didn't even want to play in the first place."
But just like that, his carnal desires of materialism being egged on by an unknown force, King Dedede ran out of the apartment.
Lucario shrugged and decided to start watching television. Nothing really good seemed to be on, so he flipped to a news station. He found that it was a good way to learn about the going ons in that world.
There was a panicked newscaster on the screen. "Do not buy the new games released by the WarioWare corporation!" He declared. Lucario was immediately concerned - the man seemed genuinely afraid. "The government has reported that it messes with your mind, makes you more violent! It's like those red clouds! The only copies that seem to be safe are the illegally obtained ones that get bricked by the built-in DR -"
Suddenly the man was gone, replaced by a "TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES" message. Lucario just stared at the screen in shock, wondering what on earth was going on.
Then the message disappeared. The man was now replaced by a woman smiling with eerie calmness. "Ah, please forgive that. The station would like to take back their comments on the new WarioWare game, and we would like to declare it to be game of the year."
Lucario decided to turn the tv off.
CHAPTER 5: COLLAPSE
There was something seriously wrong with King Dedede.
There was something seriously wrong with everybody.
As the days go by, King Dedede started filling their apartment with stuff, all stolen. It didn't matter if neither of them needed it - King Dedede got it for the sake of getting it. One day while the Pop Star native was adding potted plants to a pile, Lucario nervously approached him. "Why are you taking all of these things?"
That's when King Dedede looked at him, with a deranged look in his eyes. "Because I'm a king! And kings deserve everything!"
With that, the penguin king left to take more stuff.
Eventually King Dedede stopped coming to work with Lucario, fanatically devoted to his self-ideology. However, Lucario soon decided to leave too. On his delivery runs, he saw people acting more unusually than they used to, partaking in aggressive actions or acting more depressive. He pretty much handed in his resignation after a customer attacked him for daring to ask her for a tip.
And the sky...
The sky completely settled on that red color. It looked like a void, and whenever Lucario looked outside, he saw nothing.
Just.
Nothing.
It reminded him of the Empty Room.
And it's emptiness.
Whenever he looked outside he felt as if he was spiraling into that void again.
Whenever he was outside he felt that the world would one day be swallowed up by the empty darkness, spiraling into forever.
He couldn't take being outside anymore.
Lucario found himself curling up in the apartment, watching tv. He mainly settled on watching the older stuff, because a lot of the new shows seemed to be getting as bizarre as everything else. The Pokemon allowed himself to become a shut-in, watching television or playing video games (though avoiding the WarioWare games like the plague), and was actually thankful for Dedede's heightened kleptomania because he kept bringing in necessary things so that he may never go outside.
So that he may never be swallowed by the void.
Sure. Sure Dedede stopped talking to him, growing aggressively concerned with his own needs. But. But. But it's better than being outside. Better. Better than being outside.
Outside.
CHAPTER 6: REUNION (?)
Somebody kicked in the door that day, and it wasn't Dedede.
"Lucario!" Falco shouted, upon seeing his old friend. The avian felt like hugging him, in defiance of his normal attitude. "Dude, what have you been up to?"
Lucario was wrapped up in a blanket, controller in his hands in a dark room illuminated only by a television screen surrounded by mountains of stuff. The Pokemon looked from the glowing screen to Falco.
And there was absolute panic on his face. "No! No!" He tried to throw the controller at the arrival, but of course it was still plugged into the console so he just ended up disconnecting it instead. "The void! It swallowed me up after all!"
"...What are you talking abou-"
"I'm hallucinating again! No! You're not real!" Lucario scrambled away from Falco, all jittery like. "No! I can't be in the void! I'm real! I'm real!"
Falco could only stare at him, unsure of what to do, in complete shock of what Lucario turned into.
Master Hand showed up behind him, carrying King Dedede in his palm. They had found out about King Dedede's location from watching the screens and seeing him rob a store during a Black Friday riot, and they had only found out about Lucario because of Dedede's mad murmurings.
"No don't touch my stuff... don't touch him he's my friend mine..."Dedede growled from inside the glove, but was otherwise incapable of doing anything about his cushy confinement.
"How are things over here?" Master Hand asked amidst Dedede's futile struggling.
"...Lucario is not doing any better." Falco said quietly, regarding his Pokemon friend sadly. Seeing the state Giygas' influence had reduced his friends to was painful and only fueled his hate for the guy even more. It made him wonder about Meta Knight, his other former Normal friend... "Lucario, you're going to have to come with us."
"Nooooo! Don't take me into the void!" He screamed.
"...You're going to have to subdue him." Master Hand stated solemnly.
"...I guess so." Falco approached the terrified Pokemon uneasily. "Sorry... this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you."
COMING SOON
THE NORMALS 4: WRONG NUMBER
Author's Note: Reunions are good. +u+