Disclaimer: All characters, Samus Aran, Link, Mario Mario, Pikachu, Mewtwo, Zelda, Peach, Luigi Mario, Impa, Daisy, Fox McCloud, Krystal, Captain Falcon, Jody Summer, Ness, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Sheik, are © or R to Nintendo corp.
The OC's (Original characters) of Toadrice, Chef Gamdin, Apollo, the black haired, green eyed boy, the made up tribe of Sheikans, Star, Grace, Lucky, Mercury, Gabriel, Zip, Wing, Kass, and the concept of the yoshi evolutions, Red and Green, are all owned by Wolf—Shadow/WolfTrust/Wolf—Shadow's—Ghost, or whatever username she is using at the moment, and are not to be used without her permission. (Seriously people, I've invested a lot of time and effort into this story, and I really don't want my ideas to be ripped off)
Chapter 5: Retrospect
"As per our truce, we offer our weapons." Star held out her pistol, behind her the others did the same. Mewtwo made no move, but the weapon in her hand began to glow, multicolored shapes glittering over its surface, there was a small flash and it faded away like static. Star's palm faced the sky, empty. The whole process took about two seconds. She dropped her hand and looked up, all their weapons were gone. Now, obviously satisfied, Mario turned and said "Follow us."
"Wait," Luigi said before anyone could move. Inwardly Star groaned, had he found something else to play twenty questions with them about? Luigi squinted down at someone behind her, she followed his gaze to Lucky.
"Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked.
This was a question that could invoke very different reactions from her group, either to laugh at the pure irony, or to scream out and fall sobbing to their knees in sorrow. Lucky had a different tact, he stared up at Luigi with an empty face, then said "Not yet."
Luigi blinked and looked puzzled, Green jerked her head around and elbowed Lucky in the ribs. Lucky winced and looked at Green who inclined her head at him and made a little growling sound. Lucky turned his head around but did not look back up. There was a pause as the Smashers took in what Lucky had said and tried to figure it out.
Then Junior cleared the air by saying, "Are we going to start walking or are we just going to stand here and stare at each other all day?"
"Right," Mario said still looking a bit lost "Right. Follow us." He turned and started walking away, some of the others followed but the rest stood still and waited. So, they were going to form a circle around them, well that was fine. Star started walking up the hill, her long blonde hair falling into her face, she heard the others follow her out of the flattened circle of grass. She reached the top of the hill and glanced to her right. The tall woman in armor was standing only a couple of feet away. She turned her head back to the front as pain welled in her heart.
Her group formed a preplanned pattern around and behind her. Once they reached the top of the hill and started walking down the other side the Smashers did exactly what Star predicted they would, some began to walk beside them while the rest waited until they were past before starting forward and closing rank around them, so that no matter where they turned, someone would be there. If they had been anyone else, Star and her team would have fought them off at a moments notice, but this was different.
The woman in the armor was still beside her ,walking at an even pace, Star couldn't see though her visor but she knew the woman was gazing at her steadily, making sure she wouldn't pull any smart moves. Star hadn't even had to try and remember this Smashers name, it had been burned into her heart and mind for her entire life, and would not be forgotten. Samus, Samus Aran, that was her name, Star still had trouble dealing with the fact that she was here. Alive, breathing, walking, it made her soul hurt just to think of it. After all that had happen, all she had endured, this had to come along, but like the leader she was, she pushed aside this emotional blow
and focused on getting her friends back home.
There was silence on the way back to wherever the Smashers had come from, only the occasional person that would glance at one of them then turn and engage in a short lived conversation with the person nearest them, then silence would roll over them again.
Occasionally Star would spot land marks that were oddly familiar, but when she tried to inspect closer the feeling would vanish and she would once again be staring at unknown green land.
The walk wasn't very long, though to her team it seemed to take hours, but then they made a trek over a small rise, rounded another and there not fifty yards before them stood a sight that stopped her dead. The shock was not quite as bad as when she had seen the Smashers for the first time in… well, she did not know how long, but it was still enough to drain the color back out of her face. The Smash Mansion , intact, whole. Five stories high, its brown paint stood out almost bronze in the light, broken only by shining windows, both sides of the yard were blocked by the imposing hedge fence. Two marble pillars split the fence and each held one half of the large, black, spiked iron gate which stood open.
"By the Goddess." Gabriel said standing between Star and Grace.
"Dude." Mercury said his mouth open.
"Pikaa," Kass added to the fragments of sentences.
"Isn't that a site to behold." Junior stated rubbing his chin.
The Smashers were looking at them very oddly, well, even more oddly than they had been doing so far.
"What's up with you people?" the Smasher's Pikachu asked "You act like you've never seen the Mansion before."
"How far exactly, in the future are you from?" Princess Zelda asked kindly.
Star remembered with a mental slap that even having this kind of a reaction to something that the Smashers were so used to seeing and thought would stand forever, could indirectly altar the path of events. She snapped her back up straight and forced her face to relax and go blank.
We need to be as detached as possible. she said to the rest once we're in private we can get emotional and yell at each other at how cruel and unfair life is, but for the sake of everything that we've ever tried to preserve, keep you reactions in check.
The other all did as she said, Mercury shut his mouth, Grace relaxed her body but her face remained tight, the effect was the markings under her eyes looked even more deadly.
Star having been the last one to speak was now under the limelight for many pairs of eyes. Calmly she stared straight into Mario's and said "Well, are we going or not?" He raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing just turned toward the Mansion.
"You're the one that stopped." said Samus with a little distain. Star refused to look at her even though Samus still walked beside her.
When they came to the gate Star hesitated. There was security hiding in the hedge, would it read them invalid or would it recognize part of their DNA? Her hesitation last only a moment, then she stepped though. Nothing happened, she continued walking, hearing the footsteps of the others on the gravel road, she knew what was coming but had to act like she did not.
A loud alarm blared over the landscape, and a computerized voice spoke out from each of the Marble columns, as the whirring of machines burst forth from the greenery itself. "ENEMY OF THE SMASH BROTHERS, DO NOT COME ANY CLOSER OR WE WILL ELIMINATE YOU, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED."
Star turned around. Junior stood about two yards away from the gate with many strange black weapons pointed at him, all coming from the hedge. Many kinds of guns, some long sharp implements that could run through even the toughest of shells, two saw blades that were spinning in place while whirring loudly, even a mallet held high in the air, each held up by a long black metal arms with apparently well oiled gears.
"Impressive security system." Junior said looking mildly amused by all the dangerous weaponry pointed directly at him.
"Forgot it was on." Captain Falcon said with the air of someone who had obviously not forgotten.
"I would have thought that it would have found me from a lot farther off." Junior added now tapping one of his long claws on the nearest gun and inspecting in interestedly.
"It might have had problems identifying your cellular makeup with all of us walking so close together." Jody said. Star felt Wing pull closer to her. There was something else that was bothering the Smashers though, and while Samus was connecting with the security to make it let Junior through, Star hoped they would not guess
"Done." Samus said, and the security withdrew back into the hedge, which looked now as innocent as ever.
Come. Mewtwo said and hovered past Mario toward the large mahogany door. Everyone followed. The door opened itself as Mewtwo reached it. Star was amazed, the entrance hall had checker board black and white tile, and stairways to the left and right that formed the arch, she had forgotten how beautiful it was. Once everyone was in the hall, the door slowly closed and Mario looked at Star. "Impa, Ness , Captain Falcon and Mewtwo will show you to your rooms. Mewtwo will then give you directions on were things are located around the mansion."
"By the way, my name is Yoshi," chimed in the green dinosaur "I can't believe we forgot to introduce ourselves, that's Mario and his brother Luigi and there's-"
"Oh, we know all your names." Zip interrupted without thinking. Instantly Gabriel and Wing each reached up a hand and seized Zips muzzle. His large eyes widened farther and he slapped a furry hand over his mouth. Yoshi was left quite lost, his hands still in an introductory gesture, mouth open in surprise.
"You know our names?"" asked Krystal leaning against her staff.
"How do you know us?" Yoshi said dumbstruck, dropping his hands limply at his side.
"By reputation." Lucky said quickly.
A pause, then Grace said "We have things to discuss and would like to go to our room to do it in private."
Right this way. Mewtwo responded before anyone else could, and started to hover up the right hand stairway. Grace started swiftly after him, Gabriel right at her side, Star followed with the others at her side. The other three escorts had to take the left stairway. Reaching the top of the landing and starting off down the hall she heard Roy mutter to Marth "I still get a bad feeling around those kids."
As they walked Star remember exactly which room belonged to whom and how she used to run down these halls with her mother, in what felt like a separate life. Everything was so clean to her, it almost felt sterile. Whatever she touched was almost frictionless, everything seemed to have it's own glow, or maybe she was just to used to living in the dark. The longer she stayed in this place the more the tender memories resurfaced in her mind, ones that she only re-watched when she tried to go to sleep. Star noticed that Grace stayed as far away as possible from the white haired Sheikah woman, not that Star could blame her.
Here is one room, Mewtwo said stopping in front of an unmarked door. It opened soundlessly. 'Mewtwo must be using his powers' she thought as he glided through the door. I don't know how you arrange yourselves, so if two or three of you want to share a room you could. Mewtwo's voice drifted though her mind as the rest of her team filed in. She stayed behind, waiting for Junior to squeeze through. Suddenly her body stiffened and her entire being became alert. Soft footsteps walked up from behind her, she turned away from the door and twisted around to look, then felt the floor fall away from her.
Samus was walking down the hall in full amour, she made almost no sound, and if Star had been any less trained, she never would have heard the Hunter coming. Samus' head turned and looked directly at Star. The bounty hunters feet faltered for a moment, then slowly she walked forward till she stood level with Star, who stood only a head shorter. Star stared up into the green visor. She could see the outline of the woman's face. Samus shifted very slightly so that one of the large shoulder pads shielded her helmet from the light, allowing Star to see her eyes. The visor tinted her eyes, making them more green than they really were, but that didn't matter, she could remember the exact hue of blue-grey that those eyes were, the shape of her face, the color of her hair… Impa, who was still standing in the hall, must have moved, for the light changed just enough for Star to see her own eyes in the visors reflection. They lined up exactly with Samus'. The shape, the size, she had a hard time telling if she was looking at her own reflection, or straight through to Samus' eyes.
Star. Graces voice seemed very far off. Star? She wondered what Samus saw as she looked back into her eyes, Star. She blinked, Graces hand was on her shoulder. With a huge effort Star pulled her eyes away from the woman she missed so much and looked into Grace's red ones.
You need to see the room. Grace told her, understanding in her eyes. Are you going to be alright?
Star realized with a jolt that she had a single tear running down her face, she wiped it away forcefully, I don't think any of us will be for a long while. she answered walking into the room. Behind her Grace glanced at the Shadow Sage who stared right back. Grace dropped her gaze and followed her friend through the door.
Star was surprised to realize that she hadn't remembered how big the rooms were Thick, light blue carpet blanketed the floor. Two deep cushioned, grey colored couches stood in the center of the room facing each other, an oak coffee table between them. There were two large, plush reclining chairs sitting near the large window, through which, in the mid-morning light (she now knew what time it was thanks to the clock hanging on the wall), the stables and the hedge maze were visible. She walked forward. Paintings of different scenes from various cultures histories adorned the walls. A door stood open on the right wall, through it she could see the youngest members of the group, Gabriel, Zip, and Wing, admiring the king sized mattress. This was definitely a guest room.
Ness began speaking to the group scattered through various places of the room, "This room is pretty comfortable, and some of you could sleep on the couches. There are two more rooms just down the hall from this one, so you could split the boys into two rooms and the girls could have the other one. I know you might not like sharing but…" Star stopped listening to what he was saying and started looking at were her comrades stood. Mercury and Lucky each stood next to one of the reclining chairs. Red and Green stood close together in the upper left hand corner of the room. Junior was admiring a painting on the same wall, about four yards down from the yoshis. Wing, Gabriel, and Zip, of course had the bed, it was only fair as they were the only ones who couldn't remember what sleeping in one felt like. Grace was leaning on the left hand couch with Kass sitting on its top. That left the right hand couch with Ree hovering over it.
Is everyone satisfied with these arrangements? Star interrupted Ness in his tirade about how oddly the rooms were organized in his opinion.
I'm good. Lucky said sprawling in the chair, followed by agreement from everyone else.
Star turned to Mewtwo, "Thank you for the room, you can return to what you were doing before we came."
"We'll show you the other rooms first, the closets in the bed chambers should have extra blankets, if you need them." Impa said in a patient voice.
"That will not be necessary," Grace said "this room will suffice."
Mewtwo raised the skin above his eye which would be the equivalent of raising an eyebrow, Just one room, for all of eleven of you? Isn't that a bit cramped?
"Na," Lucky answered "we'll be fine."
"Are you sure, we have plenty of room." Impa said with concern.
"Pik, ca, cha, cha, Pek." Kass replied.
"Err, what did he say?' Ness asked scratching his head.
"She said, Yes we're sure, please leave us." Junior translated looking away from the painting, and smiling politely. Star noticed that Ness winced when Junior spoke to him. This reaction had pretty much been mutual from all of the Smashers.
"You don't need anything else?" Captain Falcon grumbled in a threatening way.
"No." Mercury growled irritably.
Captain Falcon turned and left immediately. Ness hesitatingly followed a moment later. Impa did not look quite convinced, and Star could see Samus still standing in her amour in the hall trying to catch her eye. She refused to look at her.
Go on you two, Mewtwo said to the two woman, Your husband probably wants to talk to you, he directed at Impa and that suit is unnecessary to walk around the Mansion in, He looked at Samus I'll be downstairs in a moment. I just need a quick word alone with them.
Slowly Impa turned, and then in a brisk walk left the room. Samus held still a second longer, then continued down the hall. The door shut, most likely under the influence of Mewtwo. He looked around at them and hovered down so that he stood upon his feet.
Well I must say I'm thoroughly surprised. he said amusement in his voice, I'm especially surprised at you, he looked at Star, I just never though of her being… he paused and grinned and now a Mew joined the team, a rare feat indeed, but I'd have to say I am most thoroughly shocked at you, Bowser Junior, turning sides, what happened that made you do that?
"I though you would have read my memory and found out." Junior retorted with a grin on his face.
I didn't scan you that deeply. I recognized you with my eyes and all I needed to know was whose side you were on.
"Mewtwo," Star cut in "You know who we are, and you probably know what fate has befallen many lives, including the Smashers. As intelligent as you are you must know that they cannot find out who we really are, or what events transpired in the future, it could make thing worse than they are."
"That's kind of hard to imagine." Zip said running his fingers through the fur on his tail.
"Can we trust you to keep our secret?" Grace asked shrewdly. Everyone was quiet for a moment.
You can trust me to know what I'm doing. Woman's bathroom, which includes showers, sinks, and baths, is down the hall, around the corner, and three doors down. It will have 'Woman's bathroom' written in gold lettering on the door, can't miss it. The Men's bathroom is the same but on the opposite wall, it's the first room in the middle if you're walking up the stairs. The Great Hall is downstairs; you're probably always welcome in the kitchen, the Chef would be delighted to have visitors. The library is also open to you, just be quiet and try to keep them from seeing what you're reading. They'll be looking for any reason to undermine my word and interrogate you. We've been tricked a few to many times for some people's comfort. The lab on the fourth floor is also open, but only if someone is with you at all times, I would be the best choice, knowing who you are and all that. I'd stay out of the recreation rooms downstairs, but everything on the third floor is open, the gym, music room, holographic projector and the rest. The fifth floor and anywhere on the fourth floor besides the lab are totally off limits.
"I thought you trusted us." Green said cocking her head.
I do, but others don't, there have to be some boundaries, otherwise it's looks like you are controlling my mind. he replied calmly, I think that covers it. I'm normally not this helpful but the situation interests me. Mewtwo turned and walked out of the room not bothering to hover. One more thing. he stopped outside the open door, don't try to figure out how the builders of this mansion managed to place all of these rooms the way they are. We've tried every available strategy to figure it out, but I know they had their reasons for not telling us. Maybe they did it to remind us that there will always be mysteries and secrets surrounding each Smasher, but that sometimes secrets are for the best and we just have to learn to live with them. Sort of like what's happening here. he said in deep thought.
Light footsteps approached, and a tall blonde woman walked up to Mewtwo and stopped, long hair cascading down her back. She wore a blue, skin-tight, two piece outfit, had well toned arms and legs, and a beautiful face. Every little detail was imprinted upon Stars memory, but it was one thing to remember something from years ago, and quite another to see that something in the flesh after such a long time and so much pain.
Samus must have returned to her room to remove her suit, and was now on her way back downstairs. Star swallowed a lump in her throat and turned her head away even as Samus looked at her with a inquisitive expression.
I was just on my way to the Great Hall, it looks like you're going the same way, mind if I walk with you?
"Uh, you, walk? Why don't you just teleport like usual?' Samus said looking confused.
Too much to think about. he answered cheerfully, a bit of a rare mood for him, if Star remembered correctly. They need some time alone to speak together and I'm sure the other Smashers have much to discuss as well. The door slid shut, but before it closed Star could have sworn she heard Mewtwo actually chuckling in his throat. Everyone in the room waited as both sets of footsteps faded away. She couldn't think of anything to say, and since she was the leader, no one else tried to start conversation either. Finally Grace made a small noise in her throat and got everyone's attention.
"We need to set some ground rules while we're here, it would help us keep our minds off seeing them alive. First, rather obviously, no telling them how we are related, speak of it to no one. Secondly, when talking to each other beyond the privacy of this room, we will speak only in Haversh, as only we know how to speak and understand it."
Star heaved a breath of air, "Yes, yes… Grace is right. Avoid speaking with them if you can. If they ask you any questions, answer to the best of your ability without giving anything away. If they ask a direct question that you cannot answer without giving us away, then don't say anything, just walk away. Everyone here has their supplies with them, yes?" everyone nodded, "Good, use them when you need to, but try not to let them see."
"Star, it might be a good idea to indulge ourselves a little bit," Lucky said addressing something that Star had been thinking about. "Enjoy the food, which is going to be a lot better than what we've been eating, drink the clean water, relax in the grass, check out the music room and play a little." He shrugged "I know our top priority is to return, but Wing has to do a whole lot of calculating before we can even begin to build a machine and that leaves the rest of us sitting around. Besides we could use a little break time."
She sighed deeply "I suppose, but whatever you do, try to do it quietly and without rousing their suspicions."
"Do you think we have everything we need to make the machine work?" Mercury asked Wing after a pause.
Wing put on a thoughtful expression and leaned against the nearest couch, "I'm sure all the metals that are needed are here somewhere. All the wire I need is definitely lying around someplace, but some of the parts, and all of the liquids that help pull apart the time line, I'm going to have to make from scratch." She frowned and tugged at a strand of brown hair, "Then comes the problem of powering it. If you remember, it needs highly concentrated electricity. Kass can create it, but she doesn't have enough electricity to power it all at once, and you know that has to happen for the liquids to solidify and break the time barrier."
"How long will it take Wing?" Star said.
Wing sighed, "Anywhere from a week to a month."
"All right, meanwhile you need to work on the calculations." Wing nodded.
"It's so hard to see them." Zip said his voice low and hopeless, "Its hard not to be able to hug them and say we miss them, every time I look at them, I feel… like I'm going to cry." He sniffed, Kass jumped down from the couch and rubbed against his leg for comfort.
"This is going to be very hard on all of us, its going to bend our will, test our resolve and bring back many painful memories. However, if we stick together and are cautious, we will prevail. Don't forget that if you need someone to talk to Ree and I are always here." Grace said.
'Strong and comforting words they were, but without the constant threat of danger, would they be able to stand strong against unresolved issues, or would they finally break without something to occupy their minds?' Star wondered.
"Know what?" Mercury said turning away from the window, "We have a great opportunity here. What if we tell them who we are, what happened to them and how bad things are? Then maybe they could stop all the events that led to things being so bad, and they'll never happen. The world would stay green and we could have peaceful, relatively normal lives?" His face was serious
"Because we run the risk of never being born and that would make things much worse. Think about all the lives we have saved, all the good we have done. All that would never happen, and you know what that would mean." Grace answered.
"She's right. Besides what if they manage to avoid certain things but then fail to do so with others? The universe might actually go down hill faster then before. We still have a chance to make things right." Star put in, tying to bring the mood up a bit, but even as she said the words they rang hollow in her ears. No, she had to just concentrate on one thing and that was going home. She needed to get them home and with as little damage as possible.
"We might keep that in mind though." Red consoled Mercury.
She knew that as silence spread through the group, so did old doubts and fears that they had thought had been dealt with some time ago. They needed to do something. She looked at Ree then at Grace.
"Grace, Ree, reconnaissance mission. You two are the best at stealth. I need you to go downstairs and listen in on their conversation. Ree join up with our minds so that we can see and hear what you do. Grace I think it would be helpful if you 'read between the lines', try and see if any of them have already figured it out. Also there might be some of them that have a lot of hostility toward us. See if you can figure out whom."
"I can already give you a long list of who does and who doesn't." Mercury said bitterly. Red laid a hand on his shoulder "Can't be too sure," he said in a low rumble, "always better to check."
"Pikac, ua, Pia," Kass said tilting her head.
"I agree, Ree and I will go. It is a good plan to make sure we know what's going on." Grace said as she and Ree started toward the door.
"Wait!" Wing said. Everyone looked at the youngest member of their group. "I'm scared." She said softly.
Grace knelt down and placed her hand against Wings cheek, "We're all frightened, Wing, and we all feel like crying, but the safest thing to do is to make sure that they don't find out, no matter how much it hurts us to see them again." The words sounded right in Stars ears but deep inside, past, all the emotional barriers she had put up, she felt very weak.
"We are going now," Grace said standing up and patting Wing on the shoulder. She and Ree opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Then, Grace vanished. Ree hovered through the door, the light shining on her coat. Her whole small body glowed white then disappeared, similar to how their weapons had. Star slid back into a more comfortable position on the floor, and the others did as well. Zip, after he had shut the door. Then they felt Ree join their minds together, and they saw what she saw, and heard what she could hear.
Mewtwo sat on the bench at the end of the table in less of a good mood than when he had first come down. He had been at the receiving end of accusations, threats and conspiracy theories, for a good twenty minuets before the other Smashers had finally started arguing with each other about who "these kids" were, how far in the future they had come from, and the 'stupidity' of letting them into the mansion. Mewtwo's arms were folded and his tail curled tightly, as his eyes swept the table, seeing if any of them had caught on to any clues. Impa and Apollo seemed to have thought of it, for they were speaking quietly to each other in the swift Sheik language, and both their eyes were wide. The Smashers were not ignorant people by any means of the word, but only the two Shadow people seemed to have made the connection. 'Perhaps,' Mewtwo pondered tapping a finger against his arm 'The Smashers have chosen, subconsciously, not to connect those dots, after all it is a pretty frightening concept, for some more than others.'
It was eleven-thirty and Chef Gam had taken the liberty of preparing a nice lunch, composed of some of last nights leftovers and a few things that he had 'whipped up while they were gone'. Most of the Smashers had not been able to finish their breakfasts before the alarm sounded, and some hadn't even made it downstairs. Mewtwo supposed that lack of food so early in the morning, and high levels of adrenalin, had caused everyone to be in more of a foul mood than usual, for now that they were relaxing on the bench and had some food in their stomachs, they were discussing the situation in much calmer tones and were no longer throwing out accusations. They were, however, still putting out reasons not to trust the children (and teenagers, as Daisy was kind enough to point out) upstairs.
"And what about those dinosaur things?!" Fox said angrily, slamming his palms on the table top "They look like the Sharp Claws from Dinosaur planet. Those beasts shouldn't even be sleeping in the Mansion."
"Watch who you're calling beasts," Yoshi snapped, something he only did if he was very annoyed "Those beasts are the same species as I am." The hall went deadly quiet. Everyone who had been speaking stopped and looked, open mouthed at Yoshi. Mewtwo found this highly amusing.
"Same species?" spluttered Kirby.
"Beep, deet, beep?" Mr. Game and Watch said.
"I think what he means is, how you can be related to those, Things, and I would have to agree." Nana translated.
"And how come we've never heard of them or seen them?" Mario asked, flabbergasted at this new piece of information.
Yoshi sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yoshis are capable of Next Generation Evolutionary Skip. Basically, what that means is that, within one generation we can adapt drastically to our environment. This only works when we are still developing within the egg, and it depends on the environment outside, such things as the temperature, the location, and even the food supplies, not to mention the state of the Yoshis that are taking care of the nest. Most of the time these will be our parents, but other Yoshis will also lend a hand. We, as embryos, can develop into three different stages of protective evolution." Yoshi stopped to make sure everyone was still following this. They were, so he continued. "I am a Passive; the place I developed in was peaceful, with a food surplus, and most of the time, everyone was in a good mood. I still have ways of defending myself, like my long tongue and my jumping abilities, but it was really necessary when I was developing. The next stage up is Defensive, they are a bit larger. Their mouths are thinner, their tongues longer. They can run at pretty much they same speed as Passives do, but have longer endurance. They also posses a heightened sense of smell and sight, but they have the same hearing as a Passives."
"That does not sound anything like the two that are upstairs." Link said with a gesture at the ceiling.
"I wasn't finished." Yoshi replied tapping his foot on the ground, "The last stage is called Aggressive. This is a huge evolutionary leap, the muzzle elongates, the mouth has sharp fangs. They do lose the ability to grab things with their tongues, but they can taste smells in the air with them, which adds to their already incredible sense of smell, that is twice as good as those canine things. What are they called..? Oh, yes, blood hounds. Their eyes move to the sides of their heads, which gives them a wider range of vision. They can see in the dark very well, but this also means that they can't see certain colors, and that varies with each individual. Their tail, backs and legs, are lengthened considerably. They run faster then race horses and for longer periods of time, and as you have seen, their feet evolve long claws, and the long talon on the inside of the foot. They have an extremely high instinct and reflex rate, but…" he raised a finger in the air, "they have a limited cognitive ability in the area of creativeness. Simplistically speaking they can't really perceive how a painting is pretty or full of passion, happiness, or sorrow, it's just a flat object to them."
"So they can't feel emotion, like fear, sadness, or love?" Zelda asked.
"Yes they can, they just can't see it in art work or literature. That's not to say they aren't intelligent, they are. They also can't really string words together very well, they understand things perfectly, they just don't know how to form sentences well, that's why when they speak to each other they mostly do it with snarls, squeaks, grunts and the like."
No one spoke, everyone was taking in the information. Samus took a deep breath and said "So, to sum it all up, their main focus is survival and they have adapted to make sure that they do, but along the way they got rid of a few things that would not necessarily help them to survive?"
"Yep." Yoshi said
"And you say that is an evolutionary skip? So a Passive Yoshi could lay an egg and, if things got bad enough, it could hatch out as an Aggressive? Or vise-versa?" Jody asked slowly.
"Yes…" Yoshi answered puzzled.
"Dose that mean that they might be from about twenty or so years in the future and something extremely bad happened that we couldn't stop?" Peach said, hitching a ride on this train of thought.
"Could be… but it also could be, that they are from a thousand years in the future and Yoshis just evolved into the aggressive state permanently." Yoshi said with a touch of fear.
The room was filled with grim silence, then Luigi who had not closed his mouth during the whole explanation stuttered out "You and those… those, two, cannot possibly be the same species, it's like comparing Free Willy and Jaws!"
This did a great deal to lighten the mood. Mario burst out laughing, Jody gave a giggle, Captain Falcon actually grinned, and Samus gave a small smile, while the rest of the group looked very perplexed.
"What's a 'Free Willy'?" Zelda asked curios.
"And who's jaws?' Popo said rubbing his mouth.
Both questions sent Mario into a roaring laugh and even managed to get Luigi laughing along with his brother. Conversation started up again, as everyone tried to get someone to explain about a large black whale that was stuck in a big glass tank, and an overly large shark, with a taste for sentient beings, and how this related to the strange children and Bowser Junior upstairs.
Mewtwo looked down at his own empty plate as everyone began eating again. He helped himself to some fruit, meat, and bread, either by teleporting them, or, if they were close enough hovering them onto his plate. Pichu suddenly jumped onto the very end of the bench, almost falling off in the process. She then pushed off and landed on his shoulder. He turned his eye to look down into her light green ones.
"Mewtwo," she said in a very low whisper so that no one else could hear. "Do you know who they are?"
Yes. he spoke in her mind alone.
"Would you tell me? I promise I won't say a word to the others."
He considered that, his eyes roving the table watching the other Smashers eat. He could trust Pichu, she was a youngster, but she could keep a secret. He looked back into her small rounded face and told her. Pichu's eyes went wide and her small mouth fell open in surprise.
"Are you going to tell the others? I mean…" she leaned forward to look around Mewtwo's head and down the table at her friends, "it's pretty deeply connected to most of them."
You don't know the half of it.
"And you're not going to tell me, are you?"
I think its best, for now at least, to see if they can figure it out for themselves. He used his powers to lift his cup into the air, placed it against his lips and tilted it backward allowing the water to flow into his mouth.
I'll let fate take its own course of action, for awhile, for now, he paused and lowered his glass They'll have to decide things for themselves.
Pichu wanted to ask who he meant by that but she knew that he wouldn't answer, so she returned to her seat. She looked up at Jody and Falcon then at Samus, how fate could change things so drastically. She was left pondering how they would all react, if they found out, and what the future would hold for them now…