Chapter 6- Back on a Mission

God Help Me it's an A/N before the story.

If you pressed the last chapter button to get here- this is not the first new chapter. Go one before to get what you missed. Also, there'll be an action scene to rock the ages. Here's some music- www. Youtube. Com /watch?v=jL7zs1F5VpI (remove spaces) for when the action starts to get to its kickass-ction. XD

Don't let me keep you here go go go go!

"About a 10 minute walk from here is almost what one would consider a town center of the desert, or at least an outpost." Meta is busy explaining a plan on getting the hell out of here. "There's a nice oasis, a pyramid and some merchants and even a couple of huts. And at the oasis, there's a group of camels. Problem is, they're already owned."

"Well, pardon me for playing optimist, but think they'd assist us if we share our cause?" Luigi asks.

"Considering they threw hammers, of all things, at me, I doubt that theory is real," Meta replies.

"Hammer Bros," Luigi pieces it together. "Bastards. They looked somewhat like turtles?"

"I couldn't tell, they were covered head to toe in desert clothes save for eye slots, but yes, that could be imagined so."

"I have a plan," Luigi declares out of the blue.

"That was fast," Surprisingly, Meta takes a line I would have said.

"Okay, so we need two camels, presuming Meta Knight has no qualms with flying," Luigi begins.

"And I don't," Meta interjected.

"In that case, two camels. I imagine there's more than that, so I say we should attempt to cut their camels loose. But Hammer Bros are notoriously athletic, so there's a good chance they'll get them back and hunt us down. Therefore, we launch a counterattack."

Taking time to leap in the air (an impressive twelve feat by my estimations), he addresses this point with "I'm a pretty good gymnast and fighter so I can probably take them out directly. Snake, you're a good shot so stay with the camels and get them from a distance, but for the love of God don't shoot us. Meta, you can launch some sword moves on them but I'm assigning you the task of making sure that my camel doesn't stray from the course while I'm gone. Once all of the Hammer Bros are taken out, we pursue on. However, I do think it may be beneficial to take one with us as a hostage. Whoever this deity attacking us is, I believe that these people must be working for him, or else they wouldn't know to attack Meta Knight. Me I understand but not Meta." He faces us again and says "Are we cool?"

I pat him on the back and say "Damn good leading there, Luigi."

"I try," he responds, a proud lilt on his voice.

"Indeed," Meta adds. "I believe we shall be successful."

Luigi starts blazing a trail down the hill towards the outpost. "Then onward we go. Prepare for success, gentlemen!"

God, there's no way either of us couldn't be enthusiastic.

~Luigi's Narrative~

We enter the outpost, and follow Meta through the outpost, trying to be stealthy at it. Snake's good at this; if he screwed this up I'd probably punch his nose in. He stops us before we make for the oasis and whispers "We need to make sure that we don't bolt or look desperate for the oasis or camels. We don't wanna draw their attention. Also, Luigi, you said they know you? You need a disguise. Mostly it's the green that gives you away so I'm gonna give you this sweater." He digs in his bag, which seemed to be as endless as the stomach of that illiterate penguin on a cartoon I watched with Lucas one boring day. Out comes a grey sweater. I throw it on.

"They already know I'm trouble," Meta states. "And I doubt that a sweater's going to fix that."

"Well…" Snake hesitates, before sighing and revealing his plan, "I'm going to have to undignify you and hide you in my bag."

Meta Knight stands there blankly. "It's set in stone now. You're insane."

"Hey, we don't have a lot of options. It's either that or you take your mask off and make you up to pass as some random Pokémon."

"Bag it is," he states quick as a whip. I almost chuckle but hold it in. He climbs in, and the whole scene looks like a big-lipped alligator moment, and I'm a second away from bursting out in laughter. "Leave the top open, though, so I may access the fight if necessary." He requests.

Snake nods. "I'm in somewhat of civilian clothes so I should look average. Now, Luigi, we need to walk around the oasis casually. We're admiring the beauty of the desert."

"Don't make me laugh. This desert is as welcoming as the guards to Bowser's castle."

"Well pretend you're somewhere you want to be," he says impatiently, summarizing the helpfulness of my bitching. As soon as he says that, I crawl into my mind spontaneously, finding myself in my imagination on my patio, listening to the harp as it airily goes through multiple notes like it was nothing. I see people walking by the fountain, holding hands and laughing. I see-

"Luigi, I said pretend, not actually going there," Snake has a hand on his forehead in defeat.

"My bad."

We start to walk around the lake, and Snake prompts me to make small talk. I shrug and say "Dave, with an oasis like this, you'd wonder why they don't just put an airport here and make it a tourist destination."

"Now, Jacob, don't get greedy," he chuckles. "Some people prefer untamed beauty, and not a polluted oasis."

"Damn. Got me there."

"I guess. But yeah, it is nice."

Personally I'm surprisingly annoyed to be near the oasis. I just don't want to be near another damned grain of sand- the sooner we leave the better.

We make our way to the camels under Snake's pretext of "Dude, check these out. Never ran into an actual camel before; you know, outside the zoo."

"The majestic beasts of the desert," I state in mock fascination. "It's not gonna spit in my face, is it?"

Meta Knight interjects, somewhat muffled. "Those are alpacas, Luigi,"

Worried, I whisper "As much as I thank you for that actual answer to my question, you're supposed to stay silent, remember?"

Meta Knight mutters an annoyed obscenity, clearly humiliated.

I glance at the Hammer Bros. They seem to be turned away, so I said "Now!" Without getting any permission, I take Galaxia and sever the ties to all five of the camels. Snake and I leap onto them as they make panicked noises, Meta Knight reaching from the bag and taking his sword back hastily. As I predicted, our cover was blown, and I heard the Hammer Bros shout with a Koopish accent amongst each other.

"Those fools!"

"They're stealing our camels!"

"The Almighty Ones will not be pleased with us!"

I still don't think they recognized who we are, though, so we just kept going. Looking behind, I saw one of the Hammer Bros grab his camel and chase after us.

"One's coming!" Snake shouts at me from a short ways away.

"We can take him!" I reply.

Sure, we can take one. But when we pass the pyramid of the area, a simple, frill-less brick structure, which was surrounded by twenty similar looking Bros, all with camels.

My eyes widen, my pupils shrink and I yell out "Oh my god, there's a whole army of them!"

Breathing heavily, Snake digs into his backpack and shouts "Showtime!"

Indeed it is.

Meta Knight flies out of the bag and keeps steady with our camels, waiting for us before joining the fray. It is when Snake gets out his gun and I crouch on the camel, standing with my hands on its hump does he fly out and shout "Charge!"

And thus starts the fight. I leap off and onto the sand, flying a good distance away from the others as we separate. The camels make a charge for me, but I let them come. I decide to confuse them so I look to my side, kicking the sand in front of me as if I totally don't comprehend their stampede. That was mostly for fun, actually. When they're within ten feet of me I leap up, over their heads, looking below me as they stare back in absolute shock. I have a pretty low falling speed so I was able to land on one of the rear camels of the cavalry, kicking its occupant under the chin, up in the air and to the ground.

Whipping the camel to speed it up, I start to catch up to the others. When I'm between a few others, I get their attention by stating "Nice afternoon, gents?" with a grin and wave. Furiously, they get out a couple of hammers to throw. Waiting till just the right moment, when the hammers are in the air, I jump. The Hammer Bros on my left and right are each knocked out by each other's hammers, and they fall off their camels.

Grinning with my eyes narrowed, I notice more camels are starting to skid to a halt, kicking up sand, and starting to double back for me. I continue to charge on anyways. One would think they'd find this suspicious, but their bloodlust precedes them and they come towards me. Timing it right again, I mutter "Sorry, boy," to the camel as I kick off of it, leaping above the cavalry as they crash into the poor thing, all piling up against each other. One could say my fighting skill could be based off of slapstick influences. I guess that could be true; it works, after all.

As I stand on the sand again, I notice Meta Knight has just finished using Galaxia to knock a bloodied Hammer Bro to the sand, the camel fleeing, panicked. He nods at me and declares "Impressive, Luigi. I do not remember you wielding so much skill."

Naturally. "Thanks. Same to you, Meta."

With this going on, I'm nearly knocked off my feet as something whizzes supersonically by my ear. Jumping with a yelp, I swat at my ear as if that's going to help. I look behind me and notice a Hammer Bro, hammer in hand, getting ready to throw. Or at least was, but now he is slumping over, eyes rolled back, into the dirt unceremoniously.

"Damn it, Snake! Scared the shit out of me!" I shout.

"You're welcome!" he calls back gleefully. I can't see him that well, but he's one of the specks off in the distance.

"Luigi, I daresay we have some leftover soldiers to finish off?" Meta draws my attention back to the fight.

Getting my head back into the game, I reply "That we do." In fact, some of the distant traces of the cavalry are starting to surround him and me. I start to run, and he gets his sword out and heads in the opposite direction.

Two of the five I target from a distance. They're close enough to each other so it seems I could kill two birds with one stone. None of the Hammer Bros seem to have picked up that grouping up and charging at once just makes it easier to take them out yet, so I humor them, stopping to crouch. I place my hand in my back pocket and give a short squeeze. On the object in my pocket, for further clarification.

I see that they are getting their hammers out. Perfect, it's as if I was directing this. I let them take aim and then throw. The hammers get closer, closer, closer to my head, and my hands are still in my pocket. They're just about to make contact with my chest when I reach out and grab them.

Now, when I grab the hammers, their owners start to panic and gallop in another direction. Normally, it'd take more than their own hammers to scare them off, even if I did just pull a Neo on them and caught them out of nowhere. But I had just finished consulting the fire flower in my pocket and my gloved hands caught the hammers afire, making them much more lethal.

I'm not about to let them go, so I take a jump into the air, getting about ten feet. Then I take another immediately afterward to gain more height, making it fifteen feet up. Taking a short running start, I put every ounce of effort into my third jump, and this one's a doozy, I make it twenty-five feet up, towering above the others a considerable distance. I take the hammers, and throw them at the camels themselves. One of them hits the camel in the rear, and it jumps onto its back legs, falling over on its rider. The other hits the rider itself, hitting its center of gravity in some way that causes it to launch into the air a considerable distance, and then fall on the ground. An effective Meteor Spike, if I do say so myself.

I coordinate my landing so that I land on the last nearby occupied camel, descending slowly as my hands lose their flame. I get ready to land a kick on his face when he reaches his arm out and shoves into my chest before I hit ground, causing me to fall behind the camel. I grab onto the creature's tail as we sprint through the sands, me dragging it up with my skidding feet. I yank myself up, to resume the fight, but he is already standing on a hump, waiting for me.

I'm able to land in a quick jab to his face, toppling him just enough for him to lose balance and buy me time back up onto the camel's back. I throw a punch towards to his head, but I should have seen from the instant he didn't bother to defend himself that it was a bad idea. I hit his helmet, which stops me short and causes my knuckles to throb with pain from the hard surface. I jerk away, embarrassed, and stand defensive again.

It's a standoff of Old Town Movie proportions between us for a half-minute, us plotting attacks on each other. I notice Meta Knight in a distance engaged in a fight against another, and I see a third Hammer Bro fall to the sand, clearly shot. I was on my own.

I then come up with a risky plan that seemed by now my only resort. I reach across to land a punch to the side of his temple, which he successfully dodges. But by doing so he tumbles off the camel onto the sand, landing on his feet. But his delay is all the time I need as I grab his cloak, pulling him toward me in a death grip.

"Who are you working for?" I demand quietly, my voice laced with malice.

"You're a damn fool if you think I'm going to tell you." He spits back snidely.

"Really?" I take the cowl off the top of his head and wrap it around his neck amid his protests. As I squeeze it around his neck threateningly, I mutter "This is not something I do for fun, but I'm starved for an answer and you're going to give it to me. Now tell me, who do you work for? I know your damned king is not around so don't cop out with that, you bitch."

He chokes desperately, trying to come up with an answer. I loosen my grip ever so slightly on the scarf to let him gurgle out "The-the… almighty… ones."

"The almighty ones?" I reply. "What are they?"

"I… I don't know…"

"Lying ass." I squeeze again.

"No! I insist… they demand not to be seen… but have… powers beyond what the world has seen. They believe… their right… is to own the universe."

Damn. Another one of those villains. "Thank you. You're free to fly off like the little frightened bird you are." I squeeze my pocket again.

"Who…" he chokes out, "who are you?"

I smirk one last time, chuckling in a monotone. "Bingo. Ho ho ho."

"Wha-"

Before he can accuse me of who I am, I drop the scarf, and grab his shirt. I take my fiery fist and punch him under his jaw with a successful Fire Punch. He careens straight up in the air, barreling like a bottle rocket. I walk away from the scene as I hear him thump to the ground exactly where he stood before.

Seeing a camel, I hop on and make my way to the others, who are finished. Snake is on a camel and Meta Knight floats above, steadily flapping his wings.

"We've got them all," I breathe.

"Great," he grins. "We can get out of here now. Great job, all."

Relaxed at his words, I break out into a grin. "That was amazing. We did amazing!"

Meta chuckles at this. "We can recap how solidly we punished their fragile souls on our way out of this desert. Lead the way, Luigi?"

"With pleasure, Meta," I respond. I call out a "Hya!" at my camel, softly whipping it to get it going as we gallop across the desert, five times faster than we had before.

Two hours later found us fifty miles along, boasting our way through our recaps. There was many a soldier cut down by Meta's deftly wielded sword and by Snake's expert marksmanship.

Snake was finishing us off. "I learned a lot of what I knew by a legendary marksman in the deep woods of Appalachia by the name of Grit. He was about five years my senior but knew a world more than I did about gunfight battles. He had cut down many an evil man from fifty feet away. His victims never saw their killer. And I DAMN hope I did him proud."

I chuckle. "Gentlemen, we shall go down in legend. We shall be undefeated!"

"Good news for us," Meta is also unusually jovial, to a point; he's chuckled a few times. "I have an unshakable feeling that we shall solidly kick the asses of anyone standing in our way!"

I have to laugh at those choice words. "Good fight, Meta."

He does hesitate for a second to say "But the Almighty Ones will be a bit of a struggle. Unspeakable power and a hunger to take over the world. Then again, it's not the most original of ideas."

"Like the hundreds of superhero movies," Snake notes.

"Then again," I propose, "this could be the Christopher Nolan version of one- the true legendary success. The Dark Knight."

"The Dark Knight," Meta tries the name out. "I rather like that."

I nod. "Anyway, I see our next destination where we'll make camp. Get ready to end the day."

The others recuperate my nod as we speed up, approaching the area with a final rush. Finally, we enter grass and get in a half-mile deep before we stop. I get off causally, getting stuff out of my bag, but Snake stands there, mouth agape, as he stares forward to a snow-capped mountain another half-mile away. Even Meta is a bit surprised.

I chuckle, not looking over. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to The Transition Clearing. This place is the transition from the stunning distance of the desert and Cool, Cool Mountain." They are still a bit surprised so I elaborate. "Not much is known about this place, but there's a forested area to the north, a tropical riverside to the south, and to the east and west, the desert and mountain. All the different temperatures make this one of the most pleasant climates and places of the kingdom. And this is the perfect place to make camp."

There's a stream nearby, so I say "Fill your bottles. Pure tap water." I precede to do the same. Snake dives in face-first for a few seconds, and pulls out with a sigh of content. "So nice."

Meta puts a hand in hesitantly, but then sighs as well and declares "Gentlemen, I love this place."

I grin. "Good spirits, guys. Now come on, let's eat, and toast to our success with the best water in the kingdom."

They get their bottles out and clink with mine, and declare "To success!"

An hour later, I make myself comfortable on the bed of soft grass. Even without a blanket it's still comfortable, as is the nature of the clearing. I close my eyes happily and drift off. I start to imagine home, my comfortable living room. I imagine Daisy, in a friendly game of chess with me. I easily beat her in three moves and she tosses the board off of the table with a growl. I look around, shocked, and we both start to laugh. I imagine the patio on my apartment, the beautiful view. And then I hear the harp symphony that provided a contemplative soundtrack to my racing thoughts.

And this time I really hear it. I bolt up, but luckily, Snake is asleep and Meta, who was known to not sleep (only to wait), is on a flight. So I get up, and instinctively follow my ears, darting into the forest. I blaze a trail around trees and over rocks until I end up in a wide clearing, the moonlight shining through.

For the first time, I see her.

She sits on a rock, playing the harp. Her eyes are closed but I can see the rest of her. Her hair is cropped to her neck, a color between brass and blonde. Her nose and lips are slim, stretched in a look of an unoccupied member of the world and a serene victim to an outside force of music. Her skin is not pale, not tan, but certainly not in between- I can't quite describe it. She's about as tall as I am, slim and small-chested. Her legs are very long, just over half of her body. I'll admit she was quite pretty. I watch as she plays effortlessly; I can tell she's a long ways away. It makes her seem a lot prettier.

Finally, on the finishing notes, she looks at me and smiles, still positioned on the harp. "Hi there, Luigi," she says quietly, in a slightly rough voice and accent I couldn't quite identify. "You're every bit as cute as I've heard you were." She giggles a bit, but not like a schoolgirl, but as someone who knows I was going to turn red at that and felt a sneaky accomplishment at that.

"Perhaps I should introduce myself," she continues. "Unfortunately, I can't, for my own name escapes me. Think I could trouble you for a word anyhoo?"

A/N. This is where I start really getting enthusiastic.

Our mystery woman is going to me one of my favorite characters ever. I can't wait to explore her more. Also, the last main character shall be revealed next chapter- there will be many more characters but she'll be the last pivotal, frequent one until a future date far along- but best not to say more. I'll also enjoy writing her. Here's a hint- this character, previously with a gender that could be determined due to her being part of a species, is one of the largest forces in Luigi's life. Is a smasher. Care to guess?

But please don't review guesses on the mystery woman. I'd prefer to keep that under wraps.

Also, for a bit of fun- I thought I'd provide some voice actors for the characters. Yes, I see this as animated more than live-action, so I thought I'd share how I hear the story for those who hear dialogue as well in their head.

Snake and Falcon have notable voice actors, so I don't need to go into that; they do a fine job.

Luigi Segali-Johnny Depp. Cliché, hooray! Yes, everyone ref's this guy at one time or another, but I think he'd be a good match. He's not typical Depp material but has some similar undertones, and after hearing his work in the insanely terrific Rango, I think he matches the green man's nervous sensibility as well as his optimistic dedication. He just seems to fit well.

Meta Knight- James Earl Jones. DUH. This is Darth Vader and Mufasa. The best voice in the business and just what Meta Knight needs. The threatening yet subtle deep, rich voice of a warrior who's seen it all. I… do wonder what he'd sound like crying though.

Daisy-Grey DeLise. For those who don't know her, DeLise is arguably the most famous cartoon voice actress in the business. Her résumé consists of half of the cartoons of the last decade- psychotically wicked Vicky of Fairly Oddparents, cunning Azula of Avatar-The Last Airbender, down-to earth Goth Sam Manson of Danny Phantom fame, Daphne Blake of the 21st century Scooby Doo series, just to name a few. After the first few shows you can pinpoint her voice in hundreds of cartoons and varying personalities, and she'd be perfect for the spunky tomboy princess of Sarasaland.

The woman with the harp-Cote De Pablo. NCIS fans grin and favorite. Ziva David of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service has just the accent I imagine for this lovely girl, but also the composed demeanor and occasional coy jab that she will have at disposal. Probably my most immediate choice.

I'll do the same for pretty much any new character in the series without a voice.

Considering this and five have been released on the same day, I really don't have much more to say. Except Rango is the best movie of the year thus far- not that I've seen any others, but I have a feeling this will be a strong contender for the best of the year. Beans is epic.

Anyway, have a good one all!

MoD

P.S.- Grit is not in Metal Gear Solid; he's from Advance Wars. A bit of AU tidbit I put in to show my dedication.

Also, the line about Meta Knight only waiting is a tribute to the epic Soundwave0107. XD