Pumpkin Picking Plight
Deep within the bright-autumn-leaved Ochre Woods of the Pokémon world, a merry group of five playfully tussled and picked ripe orange pumpkins. One of the five was native to this world: a bright yellow Electric Pokémon named Pikachu. The other four were children from a far land called Eagleland: a dark-haired boy in a striped T-shirt and red cap named Ness, a blond girl in a short pink school dress named Paula, a blond glasses-wearing boy named Jeff, and a boy in a karate suit named Poo.
"Look, my pumpkin is bigger than yours!" laughed Poo as he waddled ahead of Jeff, proudly clutching a pumpkin that was almost too large for him to carry.
"Are you asking for me to throw an ear of corn at you?" Jeff yelled back playfully as the two raced to a large mound of pumpkins where the children deposited their pickings.
Paula laughed as the two boys joked with each other while she tried to pull a pumpkin loose from its vines. At last she called for Pikachu to try and cut the stem with a burst of electricity so that she could place it on the pile.
Ness, meanwhile, had become separated from his friends and wandered away from the pumpkin patch, to a shallow stream that flowed through the woods. Here sat a lonely pumpkin the size of a basketball on the bank of the stream. When Ness picked up the pumpkin to carry it to the pile of pickings, however, something surprised him—he expected to feel the smooth outer surface of the pumpkin, but his fingers instead touched a place that had something carved into it.
This lonely pumpkin bore, carved into its shell, a symbol that looked like a simple star, such as one might hastily draw on paper, except that it had one line missing. The symbol itself appeared broken apart by the pumpkin shell's ripples. Ness recognized the symbol as that of the Bond of Salvation—a bond forged across realms of the Nintendo universe when one character saves the life of a foreigner and made stronger when the indebted one repays his or her debt, or severed when the indebted one fails to save his or her rescuer's life—a bond that all those who were good-hearted held sacred, whatever else they believed.
But Ness's blood ran cold at the fear of what the symbol, broken either incidentally or intentionally, likely signified: that someone who had saved a life fairly recently might be in danger. Since Ness had been one of four victims of wormholes in Nintendo's N-gate system from the infamous Wormhole Crisis of a few months ago, he had an idea of who the victim might be this time: Starfox crew commander Fox McCloud, who had rescued Ness from an ambush by fighter ships called Wolfens on Planet Venom of the Lylat System.
Deeply disturbed, Ness carried the pumpkin to the pile to show to his friends.
"Pika?" Pikachu questioned. (Translation: What's that on the pumpkin?)
"It's the symbol for the Bond of Salvation, only it's broken up," Ness answered to his friends' questioning looks as he sat down near the pumpkin patch.
Paula and Jeff looked just as worried as Ness was, but Poo finally said in a dismissive tone, "Maybe whoever carved it had just tried to carve a star but couldn't quite do it."
"How can you take it so lightly?" demanded Paula, shocked. "I think it means that somewhere in the Nintendo universe a bond of salvation will be severed. What about you, Ness?" As Ness and Paula were both masters of PSI psychic power, Paula very likely sensed Ness's apprehension.
"I think one of my fellow SSBM fighters might be in danger—should I tell any of them about this?" was Ness's only reply. At these words, Ness felt Pikachu bury itself in his side and embrace him, whether fearfully or protectively, neither the young boy nor the little yellow Pokémon knew.
Jeff pondered for a moment, then reasoned, "It couldn't hurt to tell a few SSBM fighters what you're afraid of, Ness, given that you're a psychic and have a good sense of danger lying ahead."
Slightly encouraged by both Jeff's advice and Pikachu's protective behavior, Ness resolved to tell the first fellow SSBM fighter that he thought would believe him upon his next visit to the Centropolis (the central hub of the Nintendo universe).
A/N: If you have any idea of which Smasher will be the first to fall at Nephorius's hands, please feel free to voice your predictions.
Once again, I must ask reviewers to please refrain from the use of Fire Flowers and similar items.