Chapter 3: Into the Junk Pile


Author's Note: Hey, everyone. Sorry this took a little bit to finish up. I was actually having some trouble on where certain things should be placed, but I'm glad that I was able to get it done. I fear that I'll accidentally rush some events in this story, so please let me know if you feel like I'm doing something like that, okay? Anyway, enjoy Chapter 3 of the story!


"Man, this guy just keeps goin' and goin'!" Little Mac as he carefully jumped from one rock down to the next , looking to see that Shulk and Lucario were making their way down the chasm that the large airship had crashed into very swiftly. The boxer may have been muscular, but he was never a fan of hiking, considering he was more of a runner.

"Don't be chicken over some rocks in a pit," Shulk remarked in response to Mac, and with the Jump ability within his Monado, he was able to keep himself close to the Aura Pokemon.

"Hey! I ain't scared of nothin', got it?!"

"Maybe you would move more efficiently if you stopped running your mouth so much," Lucario said under his breath. His red eyes locked onto the fallen ship, examining any details that looked out of place compared to all the other pieces of junk lying around. "Prepare yourselves, for we are approaching the destination."

"Don't worry! I'll catch up eventually!"

Lucario landed onto the cold gravel, with Shulk landing behind him, but Little Mac still had some time to go in order to get down to where the other two were located. The Aura Pokemon looked around for a few moments before taking notice of a stone head that was sticking out of the ship. He knelt down and reached for it, moving it up and grasping it in his hands firmly. The stone head looked to be of a character with scaly skin and grotesque features, sharp horns and teeth complimenting it. Shulk caught up to Lucario and looked over his shoulder in order to examine the specimen as well.

"Whatcha got there?"

"It looks to be the head of a terrifying creature. The leader of this ship, perhaps."

"I don't get how there could be the leader of this ship when it looks like no one was even piloting this thing to begin with. Well, I can't really see anything clear in this ship, so I guess no one was piloting it…" Shulk trailed off when thinking about what he had said. Why was there a ship here when it had no pilot? It just didn't make sense in the slightest. The short boxer made his way down and finally landed on the flat ground, walking around to examine the area.

"Man, this place is pretty freaky lookin'," Little Mac said under his breath as he tried his best to examine the contents of the area. He saw how Lucario and Shulk were standing next to each other to closely look into the contents of the statue head. However, at the corner of his eye, Little Mac took notice of a light faint glow, which caused him to turn his head to the glow's general direction and raise an eyebrow. "...Huh?"

The boxer looked back to the other two, but seeing as they were not paying attention to what he was looking at, he continued to move towards the glow. It looked to be hidden behind a few rocks and ship parts, so Mac used his strength in order to pull each rock out one by one, and once he was finished, he could see that the light glow was being generated from something that looked to be a machine of some kind. The glow was directed from a small red light on the top of the machine's head. Little Mac didn't want to do anything that would potentially destroy this machine for it was looking damaged already. With a gloved hand, Mac slowly reached for the glowing light and pushed down on the button slowly, fearing what might happen. This caused the robot's eyes to flash a light green color, causing Mac to spring back and fall on his rump. The machine turned its arms over and pushed itself up, now standing tall in front of Little Mac. Mac watched as its arms turned back to their original place, as well as its eyes now turning into a dark blue color. The sounds of the gears turning had caught the attention of both the Monado wielder and the Aura Pokemon, causing them to turn their head and look to where Mac was. They quickly rushed to him and looked to see that the robot was now coming out of the shadows.

"You fool, what did you do?" Lucario questioned while helping Mac up to his feet.

"Hey! Don't blame me for nothin'! I was just tryin' to turn this guy on because he looked like he was still working! I didn't mean to try and kill us and stuff!"

Just as Mac had finished saying this, the robot moved itself out of the shadows fully, and was now staring right at the three. Its eyes turned into a bright green color, and it began to scan the information of the other three in front of it.

"Loading… Loading… Loading… Scan complete. Targets do not pose threats, but will strike in the moment of needed self-defense," the robot had said this, and it caused quite the shock to Lucario. Was this thing some sort of artificial intelligence that was just thrown away along with the rest of the materials on this ship? Maybe this thing actually had answers that the three actually wanted before.

"Fascinating. It seems as though this machine was able to examine our innermost thoughts and reactions, causing it to give results of how we usually do not attack for the intent of killing. Well, maybe most of us."

"Hey! I told you that chicken was out to get me! It wasn't holding any punches back at all!" Little Mac exclaimed this while giving a groan to the Aura Pokemon, and soon enough, he was met with a pat on the back from Shulk.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, green bean. We know that you weren't doing anything to kill those chickens on purpose. I was even joking about eating 'em."

Suddenly, the machine's green eyes returned to its normal color of dark blue, and it began to speak up after the other's had spoken.

"Greetings. I am the Robotic Operating Buddy, or ROB for short. My purpose is to assist those who are in tough situations, and because you three helped activate me, I now bestow myself upon you."

"Hey! A new partner! So, are you able to do any funny tricks or something? Can you do the robot?" Little Mac began to ask many different questions that did not seem relevant in the slightest, so he was then met with Shulk placing a hand over his mouth in order to get him to shut up for a moment. "M-Mmph!"

Lucario now stood before ROB and held the stone statue head in his hands, raising it slightly in order to show it to the machine. He moved it to where ROB would be able to clearly see the face on the head.

"What can you tell us about this? Is this your leader? Who is this?"

"That is Bowser, the King of the Koopas. He is in charge of leading the Goombas and Koopalings in order to take over the Mushroom Kingdom."

"Mushroom Kingdom?" Shulk asked while Little Mac was released from his grips. "That sounds like place with some exciting adventure!"

"But why were you with some guy in an airship if he basically ditched you after?" Little Mac questioned while moving back in front of ROB.

"The King of Koopas began to embark on a journey in order to gather the shards of the mighty Smash Ball. I was programmed to identify the locations of the shards, and we set off on a mission to siege a nearby castle, for the leader there locked the shard deep within the castle. Unfortunately, we were attacked by the forces there, and the airship that I was carried in was shot down, causing it to crash into the Gaur Plain. My systems were shut down until the three of you re-activated me."

ROB gave a slight bow in order to show his thanks to the three fighters, and even though the situation was explained clearly, Lucario held up one of his hands in order to show he still had one question about what was going on.

"I still have something to ask, ROB. What are the shards for the Smash Ball? What exactly is the Smash Ball? If the airship crashed from this land of war, wouldn't that mean it is very close by?"

"The Smash Ball is-" ROB began to explain what was the true meaning of the Smash Ball, but the sudden sound of a few pebbles falling from above stopped him from speaking. His vision was directed upward, and he could see a dark figure that looked to have a cape and a mask now turning back and running off. Fearing that information could have been released on accident, ROB shot up with his rocket boosters, causing Lucario, Little Mac, and Shulk to give a surprised gasp. Lucario immediately moved himself from rock to rock to climb the chasm, and Shulk did the same, Little Mac tried to go the same speed as the others, but it wasn't that productive in the slightest.

"H-Hey! Wait up, you guys!"

ROB shot out of the chasm and eventually landed on the dirt ground, now looking around in the process. The figure that had came into view before was now gone. Lucario landed next to the robot, and Shulk did the same. Sadly, Little Mac had a ways to go.

"What was it that you saw?" Lucario asked the machine.

"There was someone watching us from above, but I cannot comprehend the direction they moved to after. They are gone now."

"What do you think we should do? You basically got ditched by this Bowser guy, so shouldn't we go after him?" Shulk asked while placing a hand on the robot's shoulder. ROB turned his head in order to look back to the swordsman, shaking his head after.

"It would be unwise to confront the Koopa King without any resources. Despite your fighting abilities, there is not enough power to stop him and his forces. The best possibility we have is to visit Princess Peach Toadstool at the Mushroom Kingdom. She bears one of the shards of the Smash Ball, and she will surely be able to explain something we do not know of it and its power."

Despite being left behind, what could be seen was Little Mac's green glove, and he managed to pull himself up to where he could catch the attention of the others. He gave a confident smile while raising up one of his fists to them in the process.

"Alright… Then that's what we're gonna do, team!"


Author's Note: And welcome to the end of the chapter! I hope you guys had a good read, because I know I had a lot of fun typing this story up. You guys might be wondering who's the figure that ROB had seen, but I'm not gonna tell you. I'll keep it very vague until it's the right time to make a reveal. Tell me which characters you would like to see in the next chapter or chapters to come! I'll see what I can do on integrating the right people at the right times. Anyway, thanks again for reading, and I hope you guys have an awesome day!