All right, I have reviews!
Link: Cool.
Zelda: No deletion, right?
NN1: YAY! (huggles me)
Ack! You're...crushing my spleen...
NN1: Oh, I'm sorry...WAAAAA!
(gasp) God...here's the story. Now excuse me while I find a first aid kit...ack...
Eliwood: I feel so sorry for you.
"I drove in a car and flew in a plane;
To come to your house and kick your door in.
Now it's down to this, it's just you and me;
I'll blow your fucking head off for my country!
I go to church and tithe;
I go to work in a suit and tie;
But this is war...
I'm really not sure why,
But the TV says that you are wrong.
Now here we are...
My feet hurt from the sand;
But still I march on gun in hand.
'Cause this is war..." -This is War, Smile Empty Soul
Chapter 7: Vertigo
The Ruins of the Empire State Building, Ground Zero
In the northern parts of what used to be Lower Manhattan in New York City, concrete canyons, rotting flesh and rusted metal shaped the ruinous wasteland where a great bustling metropolis used to thrive. All that was left of the great city were concrete ruins and rusted cars and lamps throughout the city, and the wind whistled through the death and anguish of the great marshland once known as Central Park. The pale ivory moon bathed the haze of the decrepit ruins in a ghostly light.
And here, the massive structure once known as the Empire State Building graced the ebony heavens with its haunting searchlights. Dark silhouettes of soldiers stood rigid on the rooftop, weapons lying next to them as they looked over the twisted landscape. These soldiers were armed and ready with the following orders: shoot anything coming in or out that wasn't a fellow comrade. They were more than willing to oblige to these orders.
As myriads of soldiers patrolled the dark hallways of the crumbling skyscraper, a young woman found herself stirring slightly as she opened her bright magenta eyes, not knowing what to expect. When they opened, she immediately wished she hadn't. The walls around her were gutted, rotten drywall sticking out of the many holes peppered in the room. Binoculars and telescopes lay forgotten across the floor, gathering dirt and grime. The stench of death lingered in the room, and the many windows around her were totally demolished, letting in pale moonlight onto the floor of the chamber. Outside, guards were stationed on the decks surrounding the floor, and weren't going to move anytime soon. There was also a crashed plane in one of the walls, the cockpit torn apart by twisted steel and rust.
"Eep...what is this place?" the girl quivered slightly.
"Hmph. You're awake." A voice replied. The girl shot up in terror and tried to run until she fell over onto the floor. Turning around, she saw that her arms and legs were bound with twine and duct tape. "You're not leaving anytime soon, Neimi."
"W...what do you want?" Neimi squeaked, a few tears gathering in her eyes.
"Is that really any way to treat someone who saved your life?" Neimi looked shocked, and then glanced at herself before spotting a roll of ace bandage covering her collarbone, the bright red of her blood staining the cloth. "Sit down. I took the liberty of..."
"P...please don't kill me..." Neimi pleaded, her tears welling down her cheeks.
"We will see if you die or not, depending on if you're willing to cooperate..." the young man smiled devilishly, walking over to the young archer and running a hand down her thigh. Neimi quivered and shook nervously as his hand ran down her leg. Before he began touching parts of her he shouldn't have, however, a commander burst into the room, completely out of breath. "Do you mind?" the young man growled angrily.
"Forgive me, Joseph, sir!" the commander replied.
"You'd better be damn right you're sorry!" Joseph Salazar growled as Neimi looked on with interest. "What the devil is so important you have to burst in here like a man on fire?"
"Sir! We have reports of a young man and several others coming to our base, sir!"
"C...Colm?" Neimi whispered hopefully, although it was loud enough for Joseph to hear.
"Fortify the tunnels leading into the base." Joseph growled. "Make sure the situation is taken care of."
"Yes sir!"
"Good; don't make me have to take care of you." As the soldier left, Joseph followed him out of the room, but warned Neimi, "If you try to escape, my men will riddle your beauteous body with bullets. Don't make it have to come to that."
As the door closed behind him, Neimi sat on the floor of the ruined building, thinking of only one thing at the time:
'Please, Colm...I hope you're okay...for my sake.'
The Mine Shaft Entrance, the Chancellorsville Cliffside
As the jeep squealed to a stop in a nearby thicket, Link, Zelda, Fox, Ness, Pichu, Luigi and their new comrade Colm cautiously stepped out and ducked into the bushes as they stealthily tiptoed over to the entrance. Looking at the elevator, they saw two soldiers sitting at some crates next to the elevator, their faces drowsy and frustrated. Watching the two swig at a half-full bottle of scotch, Link warned the assembly, "Stay back."
"Do you think we're some kind of idiots as to make noise?" Colm acidly growled.
"We're coming with you, Link." Zelda added. "We won't be a burden. Haven't we already shown that?"
"All right..." Link answered.
"But what about the guards?" Pichu asked.
Smiling, Link pulled out his trusty revolver, rolled the barrel to match the two knockout darts, and stepped out of the bushes in full view of the guards. The two stood no chance as they fell over like...um...drunken men, the small green darts poking out of their necks. "I don't think they'll mind."
"Geez..." Ness said as all seven boarded the elevator up into the mineshafts.
Upon entrance, the teenagers cautiously tread into the crumbling mineshafts, pebbles and wood splinters crunching under their feet. As dirt lazily drifted to the floor, the CLUNK of the guards' boots became evident as they crept farther into the mine. Hiding behind an abandoned mine cart, Fox whispered, "What now?"
"Leave this to me." Colm answered. Before he could be stopped, the thief had crept out of his hiding place and over to the next hall, where he stealthily plunged his dagger into the guard's neck. Hiding his body in the hallway, Colm motioned for the others to follow him as he took out three more guards in the same manner. Making sure there weren't anymore guards, Colm called, "They're all gone now."
"Whoa..." Zelda squeaked as they passed the corpses. "What did you do to them?"
"Heh. All I did was plunge a dagger into the backs of their necks." Colm answered.
"Gee, that sounds so much better..." Pichu replied sarcastically before throwing up in the mine shaft.
"Oh, no-a, not again..." Luigi grumbled as he followed suit.
"Great..." Colm sighed, staring at the puddles of vomit in disgust.
A little ways into the mineshafts, and after a few soldiers, the Smashers had crept through the halls and out into the main hub room of the mine. To the left was a lookout point for snipers to take out intruders at the edge of the cliff. Wondering why they weren't shot at earlier, Link discovered that the soldiers were on break. Ahead of them was another mineshaft that spiraled up the cliffside, and to the right was an elevator up to Ground Zero. Pushing the button and not getting anything, Link told the group, "The elevator's out of order."
"Wha?" Zelda blurted out. "Why?"
"I think this is the answer." Fox replied, pulling the end of a rope that draped over the elevator. "The cut on this rope is too clean."
"So-a someone cut the-a rope so we couldn't-a get up there?" Luigi asked.
"Exactly." Link replied. "But the soldiers are getting here somehow. So either they were already here, or there's another elevator somewhere in this labyrinth of a mine."
"Great..." Colm replied. "Help me find it."
Having no other directions, Link just shrugged and began to continue through the winding mineshafts, the other Smashers following close behind.
The Empire State Building, Ground Zero
"Oh ho ho ho ho!" Joseph chuckled as he and Liebo stepped into the observation deck, where he was holding the magenta-haired archer. "Well, what does the lady archer want now?"
"..." Neimi gave him a bit of a cold stare.
"...why do you meet me with an icy gaze this eve?"
"Um...maybe because you shot me, hogtied me and am forcing me to listen to your bad accent?" Neimi offered with a bit of Colm's sarcasm. Blinking afterwards, she thought to herself. 'I sound like Colm...oh my. Tee hee...'
"Ooh, such words make my ego burn with embarrassment!" Joseph growled indignantly. "How dares you!"
"She dares because she knows it to be true." Liebo, his subordinate, offered unhelpfully.
Joseph's eyes narrowed and turned to face his subordinate, who shrinked back in fear. "If I want your opinion, I'll ask for it!"
"Yessir." Liebo replied nervously as Neimi giggled. Naturally, this seemed to lighten Joseph's mood.
"Ah, such a melodic laugh brightens my day! I can die happy."
"...may I go now?" Neimi asked.
"WHAT!" Joseph turned to the archer in a crazed romance that freaked out even the most seasoned asylum workers. "I would love to let you go, but you are a liability! Peh, the only way you would leave is in a body bag, my dear." He stooped down to meet the girl at eye level, stroking her cheek. He then replied in a corrosive tone, "My dear, you should give up being rescued. Your friend's forgotten about you, and there's no one who cares."
"What? Colm wouldn't leave me here...would he?" Neimi asked uneasily, tears forming in her eyes.
"I would not be surprised." Joseph replied. "You've probably caused him so much trouble that he's left you here to rot! Ha ha!"
"No...no...Colm wouldn't...but I always am such trouble...Even then...Colm...he wouldn't...WAAAAAAAH!" Before anyone could stop her, Neimi began bawling uncontrollably, the tears flowing down her cheeks and staining her clothes. Joseph and Liebo, after the first few seconds of noise, immediately began yelling obscenities at each other as the guards coughed nervously, amused at the goings-on behind them.
"What in the hell were you thinking, Joseph?" Liebo yelled. "Making an innocent girl cry should warrant the death penalty!"
"I'll 'death penalty' you if you don't shut up, Liebo!" Joseph shrieked, throwing his hands into the air in frustration. "How many times have you made an innocent girl cry?"
"That's beyond the point!" Liebo growled. "The point is you're going too ballistic over nothing! Let her alone, because not in this building will I let you do disparagement to her!"
"...what the hell are you talking about?" Joseph asked. Before he let Liebo answer the question, he finished, "Never mind. Just don't try me again, or I will crush you."
"..." As Neimi continued crying, Joseph got irritated to the point that he snatched up a sharp dagger of glass from the floor and advanced on her.
"SHUT UP!" Before anyone could stop him, Joseph swung his arm and struck Neimi on the shoulder, tearing into her flesh and making a deep cut in her skin. As blood dribbled to the floor, Neimi bit her lip to stop crying and ended up wailing a bit before hiccupping into silence.
"Ow...what did I do? I didn't hurt you..." Neimi growled, trying to bite back more sobs as her shoulder continued bleeding.
"...all you ever do is cry. That is reason enough." Joseph growled a bit more before swinging at her again. Neimi screamed expecting another blow, but Joseph instead tore apart her clothes with the glass shard until her undergarments were visible. "Oh ho ho ho! White lingerie? Yummy!"
"Eep! What are you doing?" Neimi squealed, using her hands to cover herself.
"...heh. That was fun." Joseph replied as he licked the blood off the glass shard. "Don't worry about it. I won't hurt you...much. Heh heh heh...Liebo! Come!" With that, Liebo begrudgingly followed the insane pervert as Neimi quietly sobbed to herself.
The Mine Shafts, the Chancellorsville Cliffside
"What in the hell is going on?" Colonel Magwitch growled to himself as he guarded a large radar jamming tower perched precariously on the edge of the cliff. "Where are these intruders Joseph is yelling about?"
His companion, Staff Sergeant Compeyson, just shrugged. "Dunno. All we can do is sit and wait."
"Whatever..." As the minutes ticked slowly by, sleep began to overtake the eyes of the two guards. The situation made Magwitch stroll over to the bags of flour perched next to a nearby box. Plopping himself down into them, he dropped his AK-47 next to him and fell fast asleep.
Meanwhile, Compeyson just shrugged and wandered around the radar jamming device, bored out of his mind. After what seemed to be several minutes, he pulled out a silver flask filled with scotch and began gulping it down to keep himself awake. Wiping some off his cheek, Compeyson stumbled around a bit like a drunken man until he tripped and fell face first onto Magwitch.
"Hey!" Magwitch protested, pushing the drunken dude off of him. "What the hell's your problem?"
"Um...hemi...hemo...mhelo...hilo...hemie...golbin...gloibn...goblin...hemigoblin!" Compeyson relayed drunkenly.
"Oh, god..." Magwitch growled. He proceeded to grab Compeyson by the collar of his shirt and slapped him silly. "SNAP OUTTA IT!"
"Ababyuuuhh?" Compeyson said.
"What?" Magwitch growled. "Speak English, dammit!"
BOOM!
Suddenly, the large BOOM echoed throughout the landscape, and both Magwitch and Compeyson whirled around to see the radar jamming tower ablaze. Before anyone else could put it out, though, the painful sound of metal grating metal squealed on that cliff as the radar on top melted from its perch and fell over the railing, sending it plummeting to the sea. As for the tower itself, it stayed on for a bit longer before it, too, was pitched over the cliff. Compeyson, after staring at the fiery spectacle, stumbled back into the cliff to hide. "AaaAAaaAAHhh! It'S (hic) ThE ApocaLYpSe!"
"HEY!" Magwitch yelled. "GET BACK HERE, YOU DRUNKEN BASTARD!"
Meanwhile, in the nearby mine shafts, Link sighed in relief knowing that the guards didn't find them. Fox, however, didn't sound very happy with Link's decision.
"For God's sake, Link! You could've woken up the dead with that shit!" Fox yelled.
"Hey, I drove away the guards, didn't I?" Link retorted.
"Will you shut up and move before we're spotted!" Colm growled, pointing to the passage to the next room. Grabbing a grappling hook from his satchel, he hurled the hook onto the top of the wall and climbed up to the top...
"HEY!" a soldier yelled. "Who the hell are yas?"
"Oh, shit..." Colm stuttered.
"GET 'IM, BOYS!" With war whoops and crazed determination, the guards grabbed their guns and thundered down the mineshaft, toting guns and bayonets. Colm, after one terrified look backward, jumped off the side and scrambled down to the floor, much to Link's surprise and amazement. Before he could ask what happened, Colm pushed Link into the mineshaft behind them and pushed them out of the way, just as several screams sounded from above. A moment later, the guards' bodies landed onto the floor with a sickening THUD, their necks broken from the fall.
Link just stared at the soldiers' bodies and just sighed in disbelief. "Geez, who are we letting protect this Island from our enemies?"
"A bunch of frickin' idiots, that's who," Ness replied with a crooked smile.
"I hear that." Colm snickered. "Come on; let's see what they were guarding."
"All-a right..." Luigi replied. Cautiously scaling the walls back up to the ledge Colm hurriedly jumped off from, they beheld a small mineshaft ahead of them leading up to a wooden room in the center of the cliff. Tables and chairs were scattered about, as well as a few empty bottles of scotch. What really mattered, though, was the fact that there was a bright magenta bow lying in the corner of the room, along with a light green quiver of arrows.
Colm rushed up to the forgotten items and nearly gagged. "These are Neimi's! She wouldn't be so careless as to leave them here!"
"We're getting closer, then." Link replied. "Perhaps the alternate entrance isn't as far away as I thought."
"Yeah..." Colm agreed. "Let's keep moving...for Neimi's sake."
Meanwhile, back in Chancellorsville...
"Go ahead, lad." An elderly man replied, gesturing to the abandoned lumber mill in front of him. "Take as much wood as you need."
"Whoa. Thank you for the lumber, my friend." A young man replied, noticing the stacks upon stacks of cypress wood stashed in the abandoned mill. The young man had tomato-colored hair, orange eyes and was clad in voluminous blue robes. Silently praying thanks to God before sighing deeply in content, he told the elderly man, "May God's blessings be upon you, sir."
"Thank you. Heh heh heh...maybe God will add a few years to my life, huh?" the elderly man replied.
"Yes...in faith he shall." As the elderly gentleman strolled off toward a small cottage nearby, the young man smiled at himself. Won't his people be surprised...
FLASHBACK: Three Days Ago, October 29, 2005, 4:30 p.m.
"Oh..." a nervous Eirika groaned as she paced back and forth across the throne room. Ephraim, Innes and Tana were gathered there as well, and all were debating over whether or not they should pull Colm out of the country. "This is just too much...how did Father handle this job, anyway? Oh..."
"If you keep that up, you're going to wear a hole in the linoleum..." Innes replied somewhat derogatorily.
"Shut up, Innes!" Tana growled at her brother. "You're not going to help anyone that way!"
"She's right, you know. Being derogatory won't help solve this massive a problem." Ephraim added in Tana's defense.
"Peh, you're just saying that because you like each other..."
"SHUT UP!" Ephraim and Tana yelled loudly at Innes as the both of them blushed furiously at his implication.
Meanwhile, the young Queen had just sighed at their debate, which soon deteriorated into a shouting match among the three. Sighing deeply, she was wondering what she could do until the tomato-haired man ran up to the Princess, gasping and sighing. "Oh, Artur. What's gotten you into such frenzy?"
"Well, we need more food at the Za'ha Region. The supplies have been running low, and the people are getting restless..." Artur said in response. "I'm afraid that if we don't get more aid there soon, there's going to be more innocent bloodshed."
"I know, I know!" Eirika complained before collapsing into one of the thrones behind her. She put a hand to her forehead and sighed heavily. "But this is just too much...Father...if only you were here..."
"...I apologize for causing you anxiety, Eirika." Artur replied remorsefully. "Perhaps if I came back a later time, things will be..."
"No, no; it's okay, Artur." Eirika replied. "Forgive me for my actions. We'll send aid over right away."
"All right...don't tire yourself, though."
The Za'ha Woods, Renais
As supplies were distributed amongst the people in need of aid in the region, the young monk sighed as he continued to help with reconstruction. "This is impossible..." Artur whispered to himself. "And to think that Eirika's as stressed about this as I am..."
"Sir?" Artur turned to behold an elderly gentleman in his 60's, dressed in a plaid shirt and dirt-smeared overalls. "Are you in charge of the reconstruction effort?"
"Yes, I am?" Artur replied in surprise. He didn't expect the old man to be that direct. At any rate, he straightened himself out as the old man chuckled.
"Don't worry, I won't bite." He laughed heartily. "Anyway, I feel that you've been so helpful to us...that I'd like to donate some timber for use in the rebuilding work. What do you say?"
Artur nearly gagged. "Say wha-! You're serious!"
"As serious as a heart attack."
"...okay, then..." Artur replied somewhat skeptically. "You're sure?"
"Yes." The elderly man replied. "Just come with me. I have a mill at my homeland, the Smash Island, which has all the wood you'll need in this lifetime. What do you say?"
"All right, I believe you." Artur replied. "Show me the way."
With that, the elderly man beckoned Artur into a modest fishing boat near the Frelian border. Smiling to himself, the boat pushed off from the docks and into the vast blue around them, all the while slowly making its way to the Smash Island.
END FLASHBACK
"Sigh..." As Artur rubbed his hands vigorously to keep warm, he happened to notice several military personnel march past the mill, all patrolling the city from the aliens. After one quick glance, Artur tactfully came up to one of the patrolmen and asked courteously, "Sir? What's with the added patrols?"
"It's for procedure, good sir." The soldier replied kindly. "There have been reports of aliens touching down on our home, and even though I think it's a bunch of bullshit, we're still out here, guarding the city and keeping an eye out for odd events tonight."
"I see..." Artur replied, nodding in emphasis. "But orders are orders, aren't they?"
"Yeah. Personally, I'd rather be at home with my family, sipping hot cocoa and watching football. But no, I had to be called out here to this frozen forest."
"Oh well. What can we do?" Artur shrugged. Noticing a soldier that seemed to be older and wiser, he strolled over to him, and after a few minutes of hushed negotiation, Artur came back to the soldier, beaming with pride. "I convinced your superior to let you have the rest of the night off. Go back to your family."
"Thanks!" With that, the soldier happily jumped into a Jeep and drove off, the constant hum of the engine fading away into the distance. Sighing to himself, Artur walked back into the mill, turning up the fireplace in the upper rooms before plopping down into a chair and staring out over the city, deeply meditating on religious truths.
The Queens Midtown Tunnel, Ground Zero
Emerging from the mineshaft, Link stumbled out and brushed dirt off his tunic. Next to follow were Zelda, Ness, Pichu, Fox, Luigi, and their comrade Colm. As he squinted to try and make out the tunnel layout, Link ended up having to blink several times as his eyes reacted to the sudden loss of light to find something in the inky darkness. When he spotted the tunnel's exit some forty-fifty feet away, Link asked Pichu, "Crap...we need some light in here. Pichu, can you use Spark?"
"No need." Colm coolly interrupted. Pulling a torch from the inner folds of his cloak, he set it ablaze and watched as the light flooded the tunnel, letting the troupe see where they were walking.
The Queens Midtown Tunnel had changed dramatically over the years, as what was once a bustling freeway transformed into a nightmarish concrete canyon. Walls degraded into piles of dust and mold, and many of the iron support bars rusted into scorched stalagmites of metal and ashen debris. Cars were overturned and littered about the tunnel, the smell of corrosion and death lingering throughout. Much of the road had sunken into the ground, leaving uneven cracks and holes in places where sidewalks and people possibly stood. A collective gasp echoed through the dead canyon.
"Holy shit...you're sure this is where they took Neimi?" Link asked Colm skeptically.
"I'm sure of it."
"I'm-a scared..." Luigi whimpered, hiding behind Fox.
"We...we're here..." Pichu and Ness added, hiding behind Luigi.
"...it's probably not that bad..." Oh, how the Hylian princess would eat those words, big time. Zelda screamed as she stepped on a sunken part of the road. It gave way underneath her feet and formed a large hole in which Zelda would have fallen into had Link not stepped in and caught her in time.
"Careful, folks." Colm replied somewhat snidely, cautiously taking a few steps forward. "This will get deadly in an instant."
"Why you wanna tell me how to live my life?
Who are you to tell me if it's black or white?
Mama, can you hear me? Try to understand.
Is innocence the difference between a boy and a man?
My daddy lived the lie; it's just the price that he paid.
Sacrificed his life, just slavin' away..." –Have A Nice Day, Bon Jovi (Joseph Salazar's Theme)
Link: So, what now?
Well, now I have to update New Smasher on the Block by Christmas! SEE YA!
Zelda: Hey! Wait! ...now what?
Eliwood: Read and review, I guess.