Foreword: Alright, lets rock, people. Chapter Twois coming your way like a bolt of sweet, sweet literary lightning. As this chapter will prove, I am back, and I am here to STAY! VW00T! ahem, Anyway, for you who reviewed, much thanks, and I hope others follow your example. Okay, now on to the story!
Chapter 2: The Downsides of omnipotence.
Smash Manor was having a slow day. Most of the Smashers were still on the mend from big match-ups, including Mewtwo, who just 2 days prior had been involved in a spectacular team match with Fox versus Marth and Roy. They had succeeded in besting the pair, but it had left Fox in the Med-wing for a day and had left Mewtwo with another killer headache.
Mewtwo liked being alone, so when the other Smashers left him out of their plans to hit the mainland to recuperate, he took the opportunity to sit in his favorite chair, relaxing and meditating. He let his mind wander, as was his practice when he meditated, and enjoyed the soothing peace and quiet the day had brought. He was entranced for almost an hour when an annoying itch in the back of his mind roused him. He woke from his existential musings and floated off his chair.
He started to speak, but stopped, choosing instead to follow his instincts, which led him to the Communications room. His fur stood on end as he approached the door, and he unwittingly hesitated. Something in his mind told him he wasn't going to like what he saw and heard in here. Mewtwo compared feelings to smells, by thinking that this place reeked of death. He then heard sounds coming from the room, breathed in deeply, and opened the door. Inside he saw Samus and heard her mayday call. Mewtwo realized quickly that Samus was in danger and tried to communicate to her mentally, but was having difficulty pinpointing her psyche, so he focused harder, but Samus's mental signals were growing weaker by the moment. In a last ditch effort just to find her, Mewtwo thrusted his entire consciousness onto her, linking them physically as well as mentally, and succeeded in finding her. His timing however, could not have been worse, because at the exact moment he located her, her ship crashed and the strong mental bond between them dealt Mewtwo an extremely powerful blow as Samus's physical form was, apparently, mangled. The ungodly pain Mewtwo felt was quite literally enough to floor the 6'7" pokemon, and was also severe enough to knock him out.
Several minutes passed before the world faded back into view, and Mewtwo looked around, and then tried, in vain, to sit up. As he did, the world flashed white with pain, and elicited a groan of displeasure from the seemingly immobile psychic. Mewtwo's head was throbbing again, but he concentrated as hard as he could manage, and after a few moments' concentration, managed to lift himself up telekinetically. He opened his eyes and tried to assess his physical damage, and from what he could see, nothing was really broken, but his right arm and both his legs were completely immobile, so he guessed that Samus, if she was in fact still alive had had all of those same appendages utterly pulverized by the crash. He floated there a moment, and as he thought about it, couldn't help the tears streaming down his cheeks. He wasn't sure Samus was dead, but the chances of her surviving something this serious were less than spectacular. He thought about what to do for a moment longer, and after wiping his cheeks with his only good paw left, he set about getting in contact with the other Smashers.
Meanwhile, Samus had been trekking for hours through a set of downward sloping tunnels, not exactly sure where she was going, or even where the hell she was for that matter. She turned a corner and her suit bleeped at her, informing her that the temperature had plummeted to absolute Zero, and yet, there before her stood a creature, a large red best with wings covered in feathers, feathers that Samus noted were black and distraught looking. It spoke not a word, and at a second glance, Samus noted that it seemed to be frozen up to its waist in a solid block of ice. That in itself would have been trippy enough, but then Samus realized why it wasn't speaking. Clutched in its jowls were three small, humanoid figures. Samus started to ask, but the beast took the figures out of its mouth and spoke first.
"Cain, Judas Iscariot, and Marcus Brutus..." It spoke in a voice that gave Samus the willies, but she listened, "You need not know why. My master awaits you, right through there." It pointed at yet another wooden door, this one just as seemingly unused as the last one, and went back to busily chewing on the figures, which resumed their tiny screams. Samus nodded to the creature and headed through the door.
Mewtwo had, through great effort, finally managed to assemble the majority of the crew back at Smash Manor. He informed them of the current situation.
"Alright, time is precious so I'll try to be brief. The reason I have gathered you all is because one of our own is in serious peril and needs our assistance. Samus's ship sustained critical damage and has crashed somewhere. I cannot say for sure if she lives or not, but I do know she sustained heavy injuries right before she fell unconscious." He received many varied reactions, but he silenced them and continued. "I know where she is, but in an unfortunate turn of events I too am hurt, so I will need help in finding her. Which of you cares enough to help me?"
"Count me in!" Fox, Mario, Link, and Captain Falcon all said in stereo. They all had their reasons for helping. Fox wanted to help an ally and good friend, Mario and Link saw it as a hero's duty, and Captain Falcon saw it as an opportunity to finally get in good with the bounty hunter of his dreams. Kirby, Donkey Kong and Mini-Link also wanted to come. DK was coming because he was the strongest of the heroes, Kirby for his ability to hold his breath underwater seemingly forever, and Mini-Link because he wanted to bug his older self, a tedious but nonetheless common habit of his.
"Okay, but we still need transportation, as I cannot carry us all in my current condition." Mewtwo stated bluntly.
"We'll take the Great Fox then." Fox piped in, in his usual matter-of-fact tone, and when everyone else agreed, the party set out in search of Samus.
Samus, however, wasn't exactly aware that she needed rescue right now. She had seemingly stepped out of the darkness and into a luxury resort of some kind. All around her were seemingly happy people engaging in sins of the flesh and mind. Gambling tables of every variety, from blackjack and Poker to Baccarat and Craps, and slot machines of every shape and variety you could imagine. There were men standing in lines choosing beautiful women from conveyor lines, each of the women as voluptuous as the next. As Samus was about to think something negative about the horny men, she saw something that shut her right up. She saw lines of women waiting to do the same thing from a line-up of men, who were all muscular and OBVIOUSLY well endowed. Samus merely sighed and shook her head as she walked on. She walked past a HUGE bar area, from which her sensors picked up more than the smell of just alcohol. Again, she just kept walking towards the "Manager's office" as it was so labeled. Samus was consciously wary of everything around her, because as tempting as some of these things were, through her visor they had a surreal and too-good-to-be-true look about them. After a short time more of wading through the nonsense, she finally arrived at two MASSIVE stone doors, on either side of which huge stone gargoyles. As Samus looked them over, she got the feeling that messing with either of them would prove to be a fatal mistake. She calmly pulled open one of the Stone doors, and stepped inside, and into the trippiest room she had yet encountered today. It was decorated like a science lab. Purest white walls and ceiling, beakers and test tubes filled with god-knows-what, and equipment that would have made Doctor Frankenstein jealous was all around her. The only thing that was out of place was a large black desk, a big, black chair behind it, and a smaller chair upholstered in what looked to be red velvet. Samus noted that the black chair behind the desk was faced away from her. But not one to be unnerved easily, Samus sat cautiously in the smaller, plush chair. As she sat for a moment, a voice suddenly spoke to her.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Aran. Yes, as you have undoubtedly guessed, we know who you are." There was a soothing, friendly tone to the male voice, but for some inexplicable reason, it gave Samus, a war-hardened bounty hunter, Goosebumps. The voice went on. "I assure you that you are in no imminent danger, Ms. Aran. I know you have a thousand questions, so I will do my best to answer what I can."
"Okay then," Samus started, "who the hell are you?"
"Fair question." The voice answered, and then the chair in front of Samus swiveled around, revealing its occupant, the voice's owner. He was a lithe gentleman, his features gaunt and spindly. His long, shiny hair was the color of volcanic glass, as were his eyes. His skin was pale, but only slightly, and his smile revealed his teeth, perfect, but somehow too perfect. His only non-human features were his ears, which were pointed at the top. He held out his left hand in greeting. "They call me many names, but I prefer you know me as Mephisto."
"Okay, Mephisto then." Samus shook his hand, but only to see if he was real, which he indeed was.
"Your next question then, Ms. Aran?" Mephisto chuckled bemusedly.
"What is this place?" Samus asked, trying to mask her curiosity with her usual all-business tone of voice.
"Ah that, Ms. Aran, I cannot truly tell you, suffice to say, it is of neither your Earth nor sky." Mephisto said, still smiling all the while, a fact that did not escape Samus's notice.
"Fair enough, then perhaps you can tell me why I was brought here, and how in the hell I can get out of here?"
"Ah! Finally a money question." Mephisto chuckled. "Well, Ms. Aran, I personally brought you here for two reasons. One was to save your life. Had I not intervened, the crash would have torn your body into several pieces, which I think would have been a terrible waste. The other reason I brought you here was to warn you."
"Warn me?" Samus was truly confused now. "About what?"
"Evil forces, the like of which you have never seen, are at work, conspiring against you. Your very soul, as well as the souls of all your friends, is in jeopardy. You are the only person who knows of this plot now who will be able to do anything about it. I will help you as best I can, and even provide you someone who will assist you further in your own world. He is the only person who will be able to help you." He took out a glass from somewhere, filled it from a nearby beaker, and sipped it. He then continued. "I know you have no reason to believe me, but I assure you that I speak the truth. Now, unfortunately, the person who is to help you is a double agent of sorts, as he works for me as well as directly for the forces plotting to steal your souls. He is not to be trusted, but nor is he one to be trifled with. As of now, this is all the information I can give you on the matter, I will have more later, and then he will have the rest once you meet him. He will contact you through me when he is able to meet you."
"Okay..." Samus took a deep breath. "So basically, I'm stuck doing this no matter what, right?"
"Yes."
"Crap." Samus hated being told what to do, but she hated not being able to escape something she didn't want to do even more.
"Well, Ms. Aran." Mephisto said, almost sounding sad, "Our time together draws to a close. You asked ealier how to get out of here? Well, as it happens, you already are..."
"CLEAR!" a loud, familiar vulpine voice shouted from somewhere.
Samus felt an ungodly pain in her chest as the world flashed white, and then faded to dull blackness and silence...
Fox put the paddles down and quickly checked Samus's pulse.
"Okay," he said, "I have a good beat, steady rhythm... I think she's stabilizing. Let's get her back to Smash Manor on the double!"
Mewtwo watched near helplessly as the others helped load the brutalized form of his good friend onto the Great Fox and floated silently after them.
After a few days of closely monitored intensive care, Samus had stabilized enough to the point of moving to the regular med-wing of the mansion. Her status was monitored closely, and after a few days of tests and scans, it was decided that she should be awake, and it was unexplainable as to why she was not. It would be several weeks before she could be expected to be mobile again, but she should at least be awake. Mewtwo had a sneaking suspicion that he knew why she wasn't waking up.
'Maybe...' he thought with a frown, 'its because of me...' He sat beside Samus's still body, and focused hard on finding her mind, wherever it was. 'Please, Samus, wherever you are... come back to us... I'm... so sorry..." He vowed right then and there that he would not leave her side until she awoke, and stood his lonely watch there day and night, silently crying and hoping for his friend's safe recovery.
END