The Weapons of Power
It's official. I'm running out of title ideas. T_T
But anyways, I hope those of you back in school had a nice first day. Mine was excruciatingly painful and full of random boringness that derives from AP classes.
Disclaimer: Screw this disclaimer! I have money!
"The girl slowly crept into the room… and opened the door…"
Cimar and the twins leaned in closer to Rinku, their faces full of anticipation and fear. Rinku noticed this and grinned, the lightly tanned skin upon his face seeming to shift eerily in the moonlight. His green tunic was eerily close to the flames, close enough for the loose threads to just barely lick the tongues of the flames. If he leaned any closer, Link knew that he would immediately catch fire.
"It was dark and quiet…" Rinku whispered deviously, "And not a sound could be heard, save for her own footsteps…" His eyes traveled around the group, drinking in everything from Picho and Pichn's wide eyed stares to Cimar's furrowed brows. Obviously, the young man was looking for a way to logically explain the events in the tale Rinku had woven, a tale full of magic and mystery. Link smirked in Rinku's mind. If Cimar hadn't been a bit more accepting of magic as of late, he probably would've started ranting right from the moment Rinku said "magic".
"This story is pretty ridiculous," Zelda murmured, rolling her eyes. Around the middle of Rinku's story, she had lost complete interest in it and decided to read instead. Cimar's mind was full of novels he had read- and practically memorized- so it wasn't very hard to find some good reading material.
"Sh!" Cimar hissed, "He's getting to the good part!"
"Shut up, Cimar!" Picho whispered an evil grin on his face. "Your boyfriend's getting to the good part!"
Rinku's face suddenly became beet red, illuminated by the orange flames of the small campfire. "Why you little… I'LL KILL YOU!" With that, he leaped upon Picho and grabbed him by the collar. Unfortunately, he had to leap across the fire to do that so he caught on fire almost immediately. "Oh shit… PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!"
Cimar, who had rolled away to save himself recovered from his shock and shook his head. "Uh uh! No way!"
Pichn began laughing. "What's wrong, Cimar? You and Rinku having a lover's spat again?"
Cimar gritted his teeth. "One of these days…"
"Cimar, now's not the time to be arguing with little boys!" Zelda told him, "You have to help Li- I mean, Rinku!"
If Cimar noticed the slip up, he didn't indicate it. With a lazy flick of his wrist, a powerful wind suddenly whipped up, picking up the young prince and flinging him right into a nearby pond. Though he came up with mud all over his face, the pond managed to smolder the flames.
"Looking good, Rinku!" Ness laughed. Picho howled with him, adding insult to injury when he flicked a single tongue of PK Fire at Rinku's hair, causing the young man to have to dive again.
"Dammit, you guys! That's no way to treat the Prince of Hyrule!" Rinku sputtered as he stomped out of the pond. There was a fish clinging to his toe, but he got it off with one swift kick. Whether by accident or design, it landed right in Pichn's mouth, who swallowed it whole with one satisfied burp!
"Could use a bit of lemon… and sage!" Kirby said, smacking his lips appreciatively, "But it's good!"
Pichn pretended to look aghast. "Kirby, you are one weird, disgusting, twisted creature… I love it!"
"Man, ever get the feeling that we're surrounded by lunatics?" Link asked as Rinku shook the water out of his pointed ear.
"Trust me, Link… I've grown up surrounded by loonys… compared to that, this is like being in a small asylum…"
After their defeat of Sorius, the four of them immediately left Hyrule Castle, knowing that in a matter of minutes, the lords and ladies would recover and come after them. All four of the Smashers among them knew that they had to get out of Hyrule as soon as possible if they were to escape with their lives, but with little else to do, they had set up camp in the most secluded part of Hyrule field. While Cimar was able to sneak into the library to grab as many reading materials as he could carry, Picho and Pichn had raided both the Royal Kitchens and the Treasury. Thought the kitchens held enough food to last them a month, the Treasury was sadly depleted. Whatever had happened since the reign of Zelda's father had depleted the treasury to such a degree that the boys were able to completely empty it out. It turned out to be only a couple of silver rupees and a strange pack of some kind of battle armor that was too big for the twins to wear.
It was a strange kind of armor indeed. Though it seemed strong enough, it was very, very light and made of a very thin metal. The metal itself was as cold as ice and whiter than snow. It gleamed beautifully in the sun and glowed strangely in the light of the moon. Wherever they put it, it seemed to call out to them, as if begging them to take another look at it. Such a problem was solved when Rinku shoved it as deep as he could in Cimar's pack, burying it underneath the great layers of books.
Everyone but Cimar had all but forgotten about the pack of armor by now. Cimar, however, had poured over it almost obsessively, going through book after book until Rinku had literally pried the thing away from his hands and thrown it into the pond. They had spent the past hour searching for it and luckily, only a few pages were completely unreadable. Still though, Cimar had taken some serious offense to that.
Picho stretched and yawned. "Gee, I'm tired now…" Truth be told, Ness could tell he wasn't. There were plans, lots of them, running around in his guardian's head. And all of them had something to do with pranking the two Hylians in front of him.
Pichn nodded and stretched as well. "Yeah, I'm tired too…" he exchanged glances with his brother. "So we're going to get to bed, okay?"
"Whatever," Rinku muttered, picking up a nearby sword and sharpening it. Link knew that doing such a thing usually calmed a swordsman down and especially after the events in Hyrule Castle, Rinku could use the rest and relaxation.
"Fine with me," Cimar told them, not looking up from his book. None of the other guardians were surprised to see one coat of the armor they had found stretched across his lap.
Pichn shifted uncomfortably. "Well… yeah… night!" He dashed into the tent.
"And behave you two!" Picho said with a wink before he too ran in, howling with laughter. Rinku threw the rock he was using to sharpen with after him, but missed. Cursing, he grabbed another rock from nearby and began running it up and down the blade of the sword, his tense muscles relaxing with every scrape of the stone upon the blade.
For what seemed like hours, silence fell between the two. Though both Link and Zelda wanted desperately to talk through them, they both knew that one talk would lead to one kiss and then… as tempted as they were, Cimar and Rinku both had a reputation to keep. Besides…
They couldn't ruin everything for them.
Though the two did their best to stay awake, it became harder and harder as time moved on. Rinku suddenly found himself sharpening the sword with slowly decreasing vigor. The stone hung loosely in his hand and fell, but he didn't bother picking it back up. His eyelids drooped as he allowed the warmth radiating from the fire to engulf him. He was asleep before Link realized just what was happening. Smiling to himself, the Hero of Twilight emerged from his mind as a translucent spirit, completely unseen and unfelt by all.
Cimar was reading the same sentence over and over again by the time he finally let go and he too fell asleep. Zelda was out and about even before his light snores reached her ears. She knew Link was out here, she could sense his presence. She needed to speak with him and speak now, knowing that this moment with him might be the last ones they have alone together.
After all, it's a bit hard to stop and rest while you're on the run…
She found him by the pond, but whether he was sitting or floating, she couldn't tell. He was trying to skip stones, but never got past the step where you had to pick up the stone itself. His transparent hand kept passing through the stone and every time it did, Zelda could tell that the frustration built a little more in him.
It took him a while, but he eventually looked up at her. The moment they locked eyes, Zelda felt a great electrical surge in her. It empowered her and filled her, calming the princess, yet energizing her all at once. If she had a heart, she knew that it would be racing like a jackrabbit at that moment.
There was no doubt she loved him.
"What brings you here, Princess?" he asked, cocking his head.
Zelda sat down next to him, thankful that her translucent body prevented her blushing. "I… You… I…" She squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze, "I just wanted to speak with you, Link…"
"Speak then, Princess…" he said gently, his voice hiding just the smallest hint of urging.
Zelda took a deep breath to steady herself before she spoke. "… That moment in the courtyard… during Rinku's execution…"
It was Link's turn to be thankful that he couldn't blush. He looked down at the ground, not wanting to meet her eyes. "Oh… right…"
"Link, I need to know… did you really… did you really mean what you were about to do…?" The princess braced herself for rejection. She sat there, waiting for Link to leap up and deny it, telling her to stop dreaming so much and get back to the real world.
"… I… yes…" his voice was sad, bitter almost. But there was something behind the sadness and the bitterness that only the bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom could see. It a longing, a passion that had remained lodged within for a very, very long time. The desperate want to fulfill this passion, the need to live for the longing. All of that was in his voice and alone of all the people in the world, Zelda could tell what it was.
"Link…" Zelda moved her hand to clasp his, surprised at her boldness. The Hero gave no sign that he was uncomfortable with this, nor did he shake her hand away. He only watched as their fingers intertwined and pulled her closer to him, almost into an embrace.
And there the two Hylians stayed, locked within each other's arms. Nothing in the world could possibly tear them apart, absolutely nothing. They sat together under the starlit sky, all the cares and concerns they knew they had to face all but forgotten. All that mattered was that they were alive and together. They were living a dream and they never wanted to wake up.
Neither of them noticed when the wind took on a strange melody, as if it was blowing upon the holes of a small instrument lost in time. Neither of them noticed when the entire camp of the Hylians was engulfed in a dome of light and began to float upwards towards the sky. Above all, neither of them noticed when a strange voice began to sing along to the tune of the wind, a haunting melody that only Ness and Kirby could hear:
Audi famam illuis,
Solus in hostes ruit,
Et patriam sevavit…
Green was the first to find the question block. It wasn't very hard to miss, but the last ten million were full of nothing but coins. And when you only really had one life in this world, there was no reason for you to keep all those coins around. Luigi couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy that there seemed to be only one question block in the entire castle and the enemies were pretty minimal. Then again, Sonic was with them and he had used his great speed to take out loads of Bowser's troops.
The group had been travelling between worlds for hours now and it was starting to get dark. But this didn't matter to the group, seeing as they were stuck in Bowser's castle, which was supposed to be the last location in the eight worlds. Though MS's and Green's Smasher inherited powers had worked fine before, they were now completely useless.
Bowser's castle was a formidable place, crawling with twisted beasts and magic darker than anything ever seen. It was with this black magic that Bowser was able to limit Mario to only the power ups he could find along the rode rather than the powers he had developed from training countless times with the Smashers.
Green was just about to hit it when MS jumped right on top of his head and smashed his fist into the block instead. A tiny crack appeared from where the young man's fist hit the block.
"This is-a it…" Luigi whispered, "A Super Mushroom, a Fire Flower, anything-a…" A white light appeared around the question box, growing in intensity and brightness with each passing second. All three guardians were forced to shield their eyes at the growing light. Luigi felt a surge of jubilation in him for the first time since they had entered this dreaded castle, a sense of peace that could only derive from knowing that their salvation was near.
Luigi bounced with excitement as the light began to fade away, revealing the shape of something large and round. Was it a Super Mushroom? A Fire Flower? A Helicopter Mushroom? Luigi eagerly leaned forward just as the light faded…
...and revealed a single gold coin.
"DAMMIT, MS!" Green shouted angrily, "You jinxed it! We could be Fire Mario and Fire Luigi right now!"
"Jinxed it?" MS asked, offended, "I did us a favour… now we can beat Bowser like real men!" He pointed to the great oak doors in front of him, the ones that blocked their way to the final boss of the castle.
Bowser…
"But I thought you wanted to throw more fireballs!" Green argued.
MS blinked. "… I WANNA REDO THAT QUESTION BLOCK!"
"Guys…" Miles said.
"I told you! I told you we should've stopped by those mushroom houses first! But nooooo! You had to use that Warp Flute we found and now we're stuck here in this freaking castle with no power ups, and-"
"Well… it's you're fault for… for being the guardian of what's-his-face instead of someone useful!"
"Well, insulting me won't get you any fireballs, so you can just go suck-"
"GUYS!" Miles shouted. MS and Green stopped arguing long enough to look at him.
"Sissies throw fireballs at Bowser," Miles said slowly, "Real men go for the switch right next to him that makes him fall down!"
"So you're saying that the Mario Brothers are a bunch of sissies?" a snide voice asked, "FINALLY! Someone agrees with me!"
Mario and Luigi knew that voice. It was an all too familiar voice, the voice of a certain spoiled little brat that they had to deal with numerous times. Out of all the children of Bowser, it was this one that they remembered most. The one known for his deadly skills with the paintbrush and his equally as deadly weight. Luigi trembled in fear at the mere thought of such a monstrosity, knowing that the whirling sound coming closer and closer to them could only mean one thing…
Bowser Jr. approached them.
The Koopa kid didn't look like he aged a day. By now, he should've been an adult at least. Slowly, the eye color of the guardians changed all around until the familiar blue and bright green gazed back at the Koopa. Mario frowned in confusion, not registering how on earth Bowser's son continued to stay young for so long. Bowser Jr. must've noticed this look as his black eyes gleamed in evil triumph and he laughed a truly evil laugh.
"Oh, you're wondering why I'm not an old guy like you people? Well, since Dad got pwned, I struck a deal with Tabuu to save my ass! So anyways, he said if I ever find anyone with a pretty little sparkle or something in their eye, I have to squish them!" his eyes travelled over each of the three guardians in turn, creating a rather unsettling feeling in the air. "And I see three pairs of sparkly eyes right HERE!"
MS and Green took a step back, they're eyes slowly changing from their respective colours to identical light blue. Meanwhile, Miles blinked once and his eyes were green. Sonic had always been the first for pretty much everything and that included switching minds with his guardian.
"You're not-a getting away with-a this, Junior!" Mario shouted, "Your father shall be told-a of your treachery!"
Bowser Jr. snorted. "That old coot? I gave up on him long ago! Around the time I wised up and joined Tabuu! I thought my dad was a great god or something…" for a moment, regret could be heard dripping from the young Koopa's voice, almost as if he was about to cry. But this soon vanished and he became the snide brat the Mario Brothers knew him to be. "But Tabuu opened my eyes to how stupid and pathetic Dad really was!" Bowser Jr.'s large meaty hand moved towards a small red button on his dashboard. "So I'm going to do what my dad was never able to do… I'm going to destroy the Mario Brothers… ONCE AND FOR ALL!"
"Junior, don't-a do this!" Luigi begged, "Your father would-a be ashamed-a!"
"My dad would be a lot of things…" Bowser Jr. whispered angrily, fat tears rolling down his cheeks, "If he hadn't gone to that stupid tournament… if he just listened to my ideas… he would've been something… but he's gone now… and he's not coming back…" His bottom lip trembled, "I remember… I remember when I would come up with a great idea and he does it all wrong… then he blamed it on me…" Bowser Jr. wiped his nose, "I was never good enough for him…but…" his beady eyes darkened.
"But I'm going to prove to my dad that I am good enough to rule an evil empire! I'm going to show him… I'LL SHOW YOU ALL!" without another word, he slammed his fist into the button and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
The ground began to rumble and shake. Right before the three Smashers' eyes, the floor began to crack underneath them. They could see the oceans of lava underneath, the endless bottomless pits that the great castle had done its best to hide from them. Luigi leaped a foot in the air as a huge chunk of the ceiling landed so close to him it barely scratched his elbow. All around them, great stones fell like rain from the ceiling, hailing down on the three heroes with almost lifelike ferocity.
Sonic was the first to recover his sense. "You guys… WERE TOO SLOW!" summoning up all the speed he had left in his feet, the blue hedgehog took off, becoming a dark blur as he raced away. Mario and Luigi stood there blinking for a moment before they began running as well.
"Stay with-a me, Luigi!" Mario shouted at the top of his lungs as he leaped over great fallen stones and just narrowly avoid the Thwomps as they tried to smother him to bits. He could hear Luigi's fearful breathing behind him as his little brother was forced to jump higher than he had ever jumped and run even faster. Without a single power up mushroom on them, the Mario brothers both felt quite weak and defenceless. While Mario knew he could handle himself without the mushroom, he worried a lot more for Luigi, who had continually relied on the powerful mushrooms over the years. What was more, Sonic was definitely not helping!
In fact, Sonic was only a few yards in front of Mario at the moment. Not being the strongest thing in the world, Sonic was having trouble clearing the giant pillar that had fallen in front of him. Though he pushed and pulled with all his might, the stupid thing wouldn't budge!
"Sonic, you need the Mario Brothers!" Miles urged.
"No way!" the hedgehog huffed, "I can handle pretty well on my own!" he continued pushing and kicking at the great stone, his tiny amount of strength not sufficient enough to push the giant pillar.
Mario rolled to the side to avoid one of the many Bowser statues that lined the corridor they were in. Up ahead, he could see Sonic struggling with a few rocks, but he could not move them. Though the plumber wanted to help him, his first concern was Luigi. A stab of fear overtook the plucky plumber when he looked around for his brother and realised he wasn't there.
"Luigi! Luigi, where are you!" he shouted, his voice lost in the roar of lava and the cracking of stone. Not one, but two huge Bowser heads landed on either side of him as Mario ran about, searching for the little brother he had sworn to protect. Running as fast as his short legs would carry him, Mario nimbly dodged all of the falling stone to find his brother.
Crack!
"WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
"It's what's- his- face!" MS shouted, recognising the voice. Mario skidded to a halt and looked around, searching for his brother.
"Luigi! Luigi, where are you, bro!"
"Mario…" a weak voice answered, just barely audible in the din. Mario skidded underneath a great arch of lava as it came up for him and spied Luigi, his legs pinned under a great pillar. Luigi was a mess, with blood and soot all over his face. What was more, his face was twisted in pain as he struggled to wrench himself free of his trap.
"Luigi!" Mario grabbed him and pulled, but his legs held fast. Behind him, Sonic had stopped struggling with the pillar and instead ran around as fast as he could to avoid the cracks and the lava. "Luigi! Are you alright-a!" He reeled back in surprise and horror as a single tear fell from Luigi's eye.
"Brother…" Luigi sobbed, his tears mingling with his blood, "Oh my brother… my dear, dear brother… this might be the end-a…"
"Luigi…" Mario felt a lump form in his throat. "Luigi… we can-a do this… don't-a give up now, Luigi…"
"How, Bro? How…?" Luigi shifted his weight again, his face twisting in pain as his legs were further crushed by the great rock. "Even if we… even if we somehow survive-a this… we have no way to get-a home… how are we going to go back-a to Smashville-a?"
Even Mario couldn't explain how.
"Brother… you have-a to leave me…" Luigi whispered.
"We'll just slow them down," Green agreed, "Two out of three is better than nothing…"
Mario was aghast. "Luigi!"
"We can't leave Green behind! … he still owes me five bucks! And I demand to see some fireballs! I WANT MY FIREBALLZ!"
Luigi firmly shook his head. "Brother… they need you in Smashville-a… they don't need-a me… they can't even remember my name-a…"
The rocks crashed around them, sending up drops of lava as they fell into the great ravine below. Sonic was still running, but his eyes were wide with fear. Sooner or later, his speed would fail him somehow and he'd fall down. Despite all of this, Mario kept a firm grip on Luigi's hands.
"I'm-a not leaving without you!" Mario shouted firmly, "We'll find a way, I know it-a!"
"Brother, just go!" Luigi begged as a rock narrowly missed Mario's head, "GO!"
Mario pulled and pulled, but Luigi was stuck and couldn't budge. Tears of frustration and anger streamed down the plumber's cheeks at the thought of him having to leave behind his little brother, the one family he had left. He felt a power surge past him, a power he had not felt since he had last soared through the stars among the Lumas, a power that only the most powerful of all beings could possess.
Mario's eyes widened in surprise as he looked to his right, where a single Red Star floated serenely right next to him. Above him, he saw a great gaping hole, just big enough to fit three people…
Or two plumbers and a hedgehog.
Mario reached out one hand and grabbed the star, but he didn't squeeze it hard enough to absorb the power. Instead, he turned back to Luigi, who was staring in awe at the power that had been blessed to his brother in their time of need. Mario held out his hand, where he knew lay the strength that would help both him and Luigi free themselves from this dangerous dungeon and take them back to Smashville.
The power of the Red Star was theirs.
"Luigi…" Mario opened his palm, where the Red Star continued to float, "Luigi… I need you with-a me…"
Luigi shook his head. "Bro… that power is-a yours… I was never able to master it-a…"
Mario smiled. "Luigi… I can't-a do this without you… you're a Mario Brother, after all…" he looked up to the sky, where the hole had widened considerably. Sonic ran up to them and joined the brothers, unsure of what to do. But Mario reached out his hand to Luigi.
"There are two Mario Brothers…"
They were losing…
It was the only thing that was evident in this fight…
The guardians were losing and soon enough, every single one of them would be defeated. All of them, from young Beeh to strong, mature Heather, would fall at the hands of the most feared fighting group in all the known worlds. Every guardian that dared stood up against Tabuu in this era would be rooted up and destroyed.
Was there no way to turn this fight around? Was their no saviour in their midst?
It was time for their true power to arise within them…
It was time for the guardians to reach Mount Smash at last…
"Pikana! Watch out!" Pikachu yelled as the girl was slammed against a tree by Mario, who had decided to help Princess Peach fight against them when he realised that she was actually in the most danger. Though she still lacked her Dragon Stone, Traca proved herself to be proficient with wielding a stick like a sword and Eric and Psyche had both improved their aim with Aura Sphere and Palutena's Arrows respectively.
But it was the three- man team of Heather, Sakura, and Pikana that had truly turned this fight around. In fact, their threatening efforts were so great that Heather had been forced to break away from the group to battle Mario. Pikachu watched in fascination as the Wolfon used a combination of melee attacks with her sword and staff to parry most of Mario's punches while at the same time trying to find an opening. Pikachu couldn't help but wonder if part of Wolf's former fighting prowess was beginning to show itself in Heather as well. The mouse Pokemon turned his attention back on Peach, who was battling fiercely against Sakura, both women using their golf clubs like swords.
"I can't find an opening anywhere on her!" Pikachu said worriedly, "And she's supposed to be the weakest one…" He leaped a foot in the air and slammed his noggin against the ceiling of Pikana's mind as the body of a young boy with green streaked hair sailed past him, the boy's black bazooka falling to the ground. In the distance, he saw Bowser wipe his hands in satisfaction before turning to Cam and Nask, who were trying to tag team him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Psyche, Pit's guardian, wrench Palutena's Bow apart into two blades and dashed forward with them, intending to stab the woman in pink. Her eyes flashed determined deep brown as she aimed a powerful upwards stab towards Peach's chin. Pikachu looked away, not wanting to see the tip of the sword collide with the once kind princess's face.
Wham!
Pikachu uncovered his eyes in surprise. Mario had leaped in and caught Psyche's attack with one hand, as if she was attacking with nothing more than a leaf. With a powerful twist to her arm, the plumber instead drove the blade downwards to catch Heather in the back of her leg as the Wolfon ran past.
Pikachu watched in horror as the razor sharp tip of Palutena's Bow broke the deathly pale skin upon Heather's left leg, causing blood to ooze out of the resulting gash. It wasn't a very deep cut, but it was enough to send Heather's blood gushing out of the wound like a fountain.
The Wolfon's scream ripped through the air as she fell to the ground, her face a twist of pain.
"HEATHER!" Psyche screamed, dodging Mario's incoming fist to kneel down beside her fallen comrade. Eric took it upon himself to protect the girl as he abandoned his tactic of throwing aura spheres around and instead switched to Lucario's Force Palm attack and high powered karate moves. Sakura soon joined him as well, leaving Traca alone to deal with Peach and her fearsome golf club and frying pan combo at Tabuu's hands.
Eric slapped his aura covered hand to his forehead. "Aw man! We just bandaged that leg!" Though it didn't hurt him all that much to feel the sting of his own aura, it was a pretty strange feeling all the same. Lucario continued using his powers to manipulate the aura around him, hoping to somehow energize his guardian.
"We will have to unleash every we've got if we are to defeat our enemy," Lucario said quietly, staying in his meditative position even when Eric had to Force Palm Mario right in the nose to prevent him from approaching the small group of girls.
"Tell me something I don't know!"
"Very well…" Lucario paused before answering, "Aly stole your mashed potatoes last Tuesday."
Eric's jaw dropped. "I sabotaged Mars' guns for that! Oh that girl… she's going to get it someday! No one touches my taters!"
Mario ran forward to meet him, his hand a great ball of flames. The two men met in the center, blue and red flames interlocked in a deadly game of chance. Eric gritted his teeth as he and Mario exchanged blows, knowing that one false move would cost both him and Lucario their lives. Meanwhile, the jet black aura that surrounded Mario never faded, indicating that somewhere and somehow, the plumber was gaining more and more energy while the guardians' drained with every passing second.
All around them, the fights were going horribly wrong. Blood was spattered everywhere the eye could see. And as if that wasn't enough, guardian after guardian was being dragged off to the sidelines, covered in gashes and bruises. Some struggled while others simply stayed still.
Eric watched as one of the guardians, a boy with a red scarf covering his face dragged a fellow guardian off the battlefield. She was the Pokemon trainer, a girl who looked no older than fourteen. There was a heavy gash on one cheek, as well as a great gaping wound just above her left eye. She argued with the young man dragging her away, but he paid no heed to her complaints.
"Let me stay!" she shouted, "My Pokemon are fine! Let go!"
"Yeah, your Pokemon may be fine, but you're not, kid," he answered gruffly, "stay here and if you have to fight, actually let your Pokemon do the fighting for you instead of trying to get hand to hand again, alright?"
She stuck his tongue out at him. "Jerkface!"
The boy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I get that all the time…"
Eric winced slightly at what happened next. With one swift chop, the boy whacked the girl in exactly the right spot and she crumpled to the ground where she lay unmoving. It didn't take long for the boy to turn around and catch Eric's disapproving glare, as well as the sudden flare in the aura surrounding him as Lucario's reaction to such an action shown through as well.
"What?" he asked with a shrug. "It's for her own good!"
Eric shook his head. "Nothing…"
Mario leaped up above him and prepared his fiery fist, aiming straight for his head. The pilot countered just in time with an aura covered arm and once again, the two were locked in the deadliest game of chance. Blue clashed with red, aura with power. But in their heart of hearts, every guardian in the clearing knew…
… There was no way they could win…
"Heather… Heather… stay with me…" Psyche sobbed, the Bow of Palutena all but forgotten on the ground beside her. Pit looked around worriedly as bodies and who knows what else flew all around them. As much as he hated to admit it, he was scared. Completely and utterly scared. This fear ate at him, feeding the anger at himself that had slowly built up over the years of being stuck inside a jar and seeming to mock him for everything he had ever done.
A fear he had not felt since his time in the Underworld.
"Psyche, step away from her!" he ordered. Heather was shaking like crazy, almost as if she was trying her best to suppress something. Pit already knew from first hand experience that the rage of the Wolfon was horribly lethal. If Black Heather was let out…
… none would survive.
"Hey, aren't you listening, girl!" he demanded, "Step away from the Wolfon!"
"Shut up, Pit!" she shrilled angrily, "You can't tell me what to do!"
"Like Hell I can!" he shot back, "Look, I'm not the type of guy to just sit around while people who are… close to me put themselves in danger…"
"… You… you do care…?" for a moment, Psyche forgot all about Heather and looked up, where she knew Pit was sitting somewhere, unable to fight or frankly control her body because she wouldn't allow it.
The angel squirmed uncomfortably in his guardian's mind, thankful that she couldn't see the red already building up in his cheeks. "Uh… well… I- WATCH OUT!"
"Out of my way!"
An ebony haired boy leaped in front of both Psyche and Heather, shielding the two with nothing but a strangely glowing sword. Mario, who had thrown Eric to the side and had come running at them, was forced back slightly, but not enough to jar him. Mario came running at Wrath again, this time with fire simply flying through the air like bullets.
That was when the song started…
Audi famam illuis,
Solus in hostes ruit,
Et patriam sevavit…
"Again, Wrath?" Meta Knight asked, staring in amazement as the pommel of his sword blasted light into the air. Wrath could only stare as a great beam of light was released from his sword, shooting up into the sky like a great shooting star. Just as the beam was about to touch the clouds above, it exploded in a huge shower of sparks, sending them raining down upon the guardians in torrents.
One by one, as the sparks gently kissed their wounds, they began to heal. One by one, the blood, bruises, and exhaustion faded from the faces of the last hopes of Smashville. One by one, the true power of the guardians was revealed, some through a sudden surge of energy while others through a single accidental hit.
"EAT MAH BAZOOKA, BITCH!" Pikana screamed from nearby, her little body revitalized as she leaped in front of Wrath and started chasing Mario around the clearing.
Wrath looked back at Heather, watching as she stood up and experimentally flexed her muscles. No longer were they small and rather stringy from days of malnutrition. Now they were large and strong, almost exactly how they were the day long ago when she had been dragged into the throne room of Tabuu's palace and condemned to be hanged.
"Amazing…" Wrath murmured, "… You look like you've just walked out of the gym, Miss Heather…"
The familiar, cocky Wolfon Smile appeared on Heather's face. "You have no idea…" then, with a swift twirl of her staff, she swung it around in a wide arc and rammed Mario on the head with it as he ran past. Pikana took this chance to blast Bazookie at his limp form until Sakura ran up with a golf club in hand.
Wrath and Meta Knight both felt a surge of energy as their own metabolism was buffed up. They watched as Mario's body flew like a rag doll into the blue, illuminated by a shining ray of golden light.
The first ray of hope to show itself in Smashville in a hundred years…
"Use Charizard! CHARIZARD!" Red shouted over the noise as all pandemonium began. Lin wrenched a Pokeball from her belt and threw out the Fire Pokemon, its flames happily licking her feet. She pointed to her target: Yoshi.
"FLAMETHROWER!"
The dinosaur leaped into the air, wagging its tongue at Lyn as it landed far away. The flamethrower had missed badly and he was choosing the time to taunt her for it. Gritting her teeth in anger, Lyn pointed at Yoshi again and ordered another flamethrower. Again, it missed.
Sam saw this and rolled his eyes, grinning. "You're doing it all wrong! You should hit him like… THIS!" He swung his katana blades at Yoshi, who grabbed one with his tongue and managed to twist it out of the boy's grip. But nothing could prepare Mario's ally for the brutal stab in the stomach from the second katana.
Joe ran forward now and grabbed Yoshi by his tail and slammed him against a tree. Making sure to keep him pinned against the tree, he delivered a swift punch to his face and ducked as Golfer open fired on it. Captain Falcon, usually one to live for glory was disappointed that Joe didn't use his trademark Falcon Punch.
"You're my guardian!" he insisted as Joe sat back slightly and watched Golfer shooting at Yoshi, "You're supposed to use the Falcon PAWNCH to end battles dramatically!"
Before Joe could answer, Golfer had grabbed Yoshi and tied him up. He, Sam, and Lyn were now using the dinosaur's tongue to slam him into a tree and back like a paddle ball. Of course, it wasn't long before Joe got bored of watching them and ran forward just as the Yoshi ball came sailing his way.
"Falcon… PAWNCH!"
Flames burst forth from his fist at the moment it made contact with Yoshi's giant snout. With a shriek of pain and despair, the dinosaur went flying out of sight and out of the battle. Joe wiped his hands, satisfied. Though his Falcon Punch wasn't nearly as powerful as the captain's he thought he did quite well.
Meanwhile, Sakura, Psyche, Traca, and Eric were still battling Peach. Though the three of them were strong, the princess was equal to them in strength and speed. It also didn't help that Eric and Lucario were arguing the entire time. Lucario refused to let Eric hit her because she was a girl.
"We may be warriors, Eric, but we still have morals," the Pokemon insisted.
"Morals my foot! This is war here! How am I going to be able to fight if I can't hit any girls!"
"Morals, Eric, morals," Lucario said quietly, "Besides, how would you feel if you were a girl and you got hit?"
"Are you implying something…?"
"Yes, yes I am."
"Screw you!"
Traca grabbed onto Peach's arms and wrenched them behind the princess's back, causing the woman to shriek in pain. Psyche sent an arrow straight through her throat to silence her, plus a half a dozen more through her head to knock her out. Even Pit had to admit that her aim was quite good now, but he still hated how she almost tripped every time she shifted position.
"Sakura, now's your chance!" Peach shouted excitedly. Always being the damsel in distress when it came to Mario's missions, she was quite excited by the prospect of being the heroine for once.
Sakura twirled her golf club in one hand, smirking. "I thought you'd never ask!" she dashed forward and thrust her golf club into the princess's side, propelling her right out of Traca's arms and off to the side. Before the woman could react, Sakura's golf club smashed into her side again and sent her ricocheting off every tree in the clearing.
"Here I come!" Peach cried out excitedly. Sakura readied her club like a baseball bat and prepared for impact.
Wham!
"Home run!" Pikana cheered as she blasted her bazooka at Peach's retreating figure. There was an explosion and a dark shape hurtled out into the blue and out of the fight. Pikana twirled Bazookie in one hand and smirked, satisfied with her handy work.
Meanwhile, the group fighting Bowser had turned back to the fight with a renewed vigour the great koopa hadn't seen before. With every swipe of his claw, another ten blows counteracted it. The turtle was enraged, his many roars rattling bones for miles around.
All around him Nask, Cameron, Wrath, Squall, and Ridere fought their hardest, but the Koopa was their equal in strength. Multiple projectiles from Squall and Ridere only served to anger the Koopa even more, but what really got him were all the Pikmin running around him as Beeh continued to lob them at him from a distance.
"Beeh, we can't do this forever!" Olimar pointed out, "We need a plan… something can will catch him off guard…"
Beeh frowned in confusion and looked down at the chain of six Pikmin at her feet. Olimar had told her earlier about how they could be used as a chain or a rope, allowing her to throw a chain of them out to grab onto ledges and stuff in a tight spot. She reached down and gently stroked the leaf of a purple one, wondering if they could be used for something else. Without thinking, she picked up the Pikmin and placed it near its fellows, where they began weaving a long chain for her to use.
Well, it was worth a shot.
"Pikmin Lasso!" she shouted, twirling the lasso of little creatures through the air before launching it with a great whoosh! Bowser didn't know what hit him as the chain wrapped around his neck, pulling the little girl through the air until she landed right on top of him. The other five guardians watched in utter shock as Beeh grabbed the Pikmin chain on both sides and wrenched it upwards, hoping to stall Bowser as he attempted to swipe at Cameron. Unfortunately, her strength was not enough and it wasn't long before Cameron went flying to the side.
Meta Knight knew what she was trying to do. The girl was trying to pull back Bowser's head and reveal one of his weak points: his neck. With that exposed, they would be able to take him down and end this fight once and for all. The only thing was, she was too weak to wrench him back and it didn't help that Bowser's stubby arms were now flailing every which way in an attempt to get her off.
"Wrath, now is your chance! You must help the young lady!" Meta Knight shouted. Wrath blinked stupidly, still transfixed by the sight of the young girl tugging on the Pikmin chain around Bowser's neck as though they were reins. The Star Warrior grew impatient. "WRATH!"
"Huh?" his guardian finally came back to earth. "Oh… right!" sheathing his sword, Wrath grabbed onto one of Bowser's flailing arms and used it to wrench himself up upon the Koopa's head. He relieved Beeh of one of the chains, and tugged it, but even with his strength, the turtle did not wrench back like he had hoped.
Ridere saw this and copied Wrath's example, only he used Snake's helicopter instead and landed lightly on Bowser's shell. Careful to avoid the spikes, the boy grabbed onto Wrath's end of the chain and pulled with everything he had. But though he was a master at aiming, his strength did little more than irritate Bowser even more. The King of Koopas screamed his hatred of this treatment to the world and beyond. But though the man power of three guardians pulled their hardest, it was still not enough.
"Nask, get up there!" Marth shouted as Squall used his Hookshot and grabbed onto Beeh's end of the chain. It took him a moment to realise that Nask wasn't moving at all. "Nask? Nask! Helloooooo?"
But Nask only gaped open mouthed at the boy yanking at the Pikmin chain, her eyes following his eyes movement and strain. Her Naginata hung loosely in her hand as a lump appeared in her throat. Her emotions became a storm in her mind and it took all of Marth's strength to plant his feet into the ground and prevent himself from being blown away. He could feel her disbelief, her anger, and her sadness smashing against him like tsunamis, taste the bile in her mouth from the shock she had just received. Her heart rate increased tenfold, but there was nothing he could do. The Prince of Altea could only watch as Nask's memories went out of control.
He saw the same scene in the castle long ago, but this time, the boy Nask had said was her little brother could be seen very clearly now. He was a short little kid with quick reflexes and from what he could gather from how fast he was solving the Rubix cube he was holding, an even quicker wit. Marth watched as his small, nimble fingers quickly turned the dials on the little contraption and in a matter of seconds, the mess of clashing colours became whole once more. He watched as the boy- still holding the cube- ran up to his sister and opened his mouth.
"NASK!"
That was definitely not Ridere's voice. Nask snapped out of her reverie in time to see Cam dashing over to her, Sigmund out and gleaming in the light. He was covered in mud.
Cameron looked once at the still thrashing Bowser before turning back to his long time companion, not missing how pale she was at the moment. "Hey, you okay?"
Marth felt his guardian flinch startlingly before composing herself. "O-Of course! Never better!" in spite of herself, her voice shook.
If Cameron heard her stuttering, he gave no indication he did. He followed her gaze to where Ridere stood, his face straining from pulling on the heavy Pikmin chain. For a moment, he considered telling her who that boy was. He decided against it at the last moment.
"Why are you doing this to her?" Ike asked, "She deserves to know, you know…"
Cameron looked back at Nask, who had turned her attention back on the little boy. There was something in her stare that told him there was no need for words. In spite of Ike's protests, Cameron shook his head.
"I think… I think she's got an awful lot on her shoulders right now…" he said quietly, "Besides… she's a smart girl… she can figure it out…" he cleared his throat and addressed Nask. "That kid seems nice. You should get to know him."
Nask blinked and nearly dropped her weapon. "Huh?"
Cameron laughed, "Alright, I see how it is…" in response to her confused stare, he raised the Legendary Thunder Blade in the air, as if saluting her. "Ready to finish this?"
Nask smiled and raised her Naginata. "I am if you are…"
The two waited until Bowser's thrashing arms revealed his flabby neck, the one weak spot upon his body that was not covered by his shell. The four guardians on top of the Koopa strained and pulled at the chain while the Pikmin struggled to hold it together. Together, the two raised their weapons, Nask's Naginata radiating ice from its blade while Sigmund crackled with thunder. Power and determination flashed from behind the two guardians' eyes, as did something else, a power so potent that no force on earth could wash it away.
Sparks flew, ice shards soared through the sky. But what the two focused on at this moment in time was the great thrashing enemy before them as he roared in pain and confusion, ignoring the obvious danger in front of him. Then again, none of them noticed when the mysterious song that had guided them all this time began wafting through the air again.
Cameron and Nask ran forward at the same time, their two weapons aimed right at Bowser's one weak point.
"FRIGID SPARK STRIKE!"
Ganondorf scowled and looked over his shoulder at the trembling little boy in the back while Mewtwo zoomed on ahead. "Get up here you little twerp! You're holding us back!"
The blonde boy, who was reminiscing in the back let out a low sigh. "You go ahead, Ganondorf… I'll be fine…"
"Like Hell you won't be!" the King of Evil snarled, "Remember the last time you told us to leave you behind? Half of the SmashMansion was blown up!"
Lucas shook his head. "I already told you guys that it wasn't my fault Snake forgot to put away the Bo-ombs after his match…"
"But you were still a clumsy oaf!" Ganondorf scoffed, "And that's that!" With that, he took off, leaving Lucas behind. As the boy's sobs reached the Gerudo's ears, he couldn't help but feel a tiny pang of guilt in his heart as he floated along. But he squashed this guilt like a defenseless fairy. He was the King of Evil for crying out loud! He may be on a penance journey, but that didn't mean that he had to treat everyone nicely…
… Right?
Meanwhile, Lucas was still immersed in his own sadness. Ganondorf yelling at him for everything had been pretty much routine ever since that incident with the Bo- ombs. By now, he was used to it. But it really pained him to think that the King of Evil still seemed to hate him to this day, even though the boy had helped him with his chores many times.
"I guess people never change…"
Lucas was just about to press on until he felt a rather strange tug at his gut. Many of the older Smashers had described such a sensation to him before, but he never thought such a sensation would be this… strange… nonetheless, the older Smashers had advised that he followed it, so the boy did so without complaint. Holding his breath, he dived.
Lucas had always disliked the ways leaves got in his face and this was no exception. Being in the center of a great forest, it was only natural that he would be getting an awful lot of leaves in his face.
But that still didn't mean he had to like it.
Lucas soon found himself in a tiny clearing, occupied by nothing except a single tent, a couple of small backpacks, a campfire, and three people. Well, "people" was a bit of an understatement…
One of the people was a human for sure. Even though he had pink hair, which was rather unusual by human standards, Lucas had to remember that it had been a hundred years since he had last seen any form of hair. The young man was rather plain in appearance, wearing all white from head to toe. But what was possibly one of the most striking features about him were his eyes. They were silver, the color of a freshly sharpened sword. He was leaning lazily against a rock, but his eyes remained wide and alert.
The second being in the clearing was definitely a Lucario, no doubt about it. Lucas knew the sight of the Aura Pokemon anywhere, but what he was doing all the way out here, he didn't understand. But that was when a closer look at him told the boy that this was not the Lucario he knew.
For one thing, the fur of the Lucario was dark red and black. Unlike the blue one Lucas knew, his eyes were emerald green. A black hooded denim vest covered his chest, emphasized by the large golden ankh necklace glittering at his neck. He seemed to be meditating as his aura flared up alarmingly at various times as Lucas continued to stare at him. Despite this, Lucas felt a sense of calming peace, the same kind of peace he often felt when the Lucario he knew was around him.
Though the other two were interesting, it was the one who sat to the right of the Lucario that the force was radiating from. He was a rather unusual looking character, a wolf in fact. He was covered from head to toe in rough gray fur, with a few white streaks. His blue eyes darted back and forth, as if he was on the watch for something. Clad in blue shorts, white sneakers, and a matching light blue hoodie, he looked like a much more casual version of Wolf. Perhaps his less hostile younger brother…
"Will you two kindly relax?" the Lucario asked, using telepathy to speak.
"Dude, there's some random blue idiot chasing after us for no good reason-"
"Except maybe the fact that you stole something from him…"
"Oh, shut up, Kai!"
"I'm only being realistic, Nao…"
"Anyways, so yeah, there's an idiot after us and he's probably got a huge army on our tail right now, and-" Nao groaned when he was interrupted yet again.
"Really? From what I could tell from what you stole, he'd be a lot more interested in those 'Guardians' and use his armies to try to hunt them down rather than trying to hunt down three random guys-" Kai couldn't hold back a chuckle as Nao started sputtering.
Lucas was taken aback. He couldn't believe that a group of non guardians had gotten a hold of some information that the guardians didn't have. He was surprised and fascinated by this and floated even closer to listen. As he neared, the tail of his cloud brushed the human- like wolf on the ear.
Two things happened at once.
First off, both Kai and Nao gave a start and nearly knocked themselves over. But while Kai was able to compose himself quickly, Nao started hyperventilating like crazy. Strangely, his silver eyes were shifting colors, from startling silver to cold jet black.
Second, Lucas was yanked in by the pull of some unknown force and wrenched through a great many dark passageways. As he zoomed along, he couldn't help but notice tiny spots of light surrounding him, blinking in and out as he passed. When he was able to get a good look at some of them, he noticed that they were memories, bits of a few broken memories. By the time Lucas was finally spit out into a rather dark void, he probably had seen about ten broken memories. And as if the mind of his new guardian sensed his presence already, the memories floating around him hid themselves so quickly the boy could only catch a glimpse of a few of them.
He suddenly became aware of the movement all around him as he stared out at the white portal that everyone had said led to the outside world. Both boys, Kai and Nao, were staring upwards, as if listening for something…
Or to someone…
For the first time, Lucas' guardian spoke. "Are… are you two alright…?"
Nao took a deep, shuddering breath and managed to compose himself. "Uh… no…? Teal, if some random voice started talking in your head… OF COURSE YOU'RE NOT FREAKING ALRIGHT!"
"You are not going crazy, Nao, if that's what you're wondering," Kai said amusedly, "I'm going through the same thing too, according to Mr… Ganonpork?"
Lucas started laughing when an image of Ganondorf's flustered, beet red face popped into his head. No doubt, the King of Evil hated it when people got his name wrong. Unfortunately, his laugh also caught the attention of Teal, who only raised an eyebrow.
Nao was grumbling up at his Smasher. "Of course I reacted the way everyone else did… what did you expect? You Smashers really shouldn't be sneaking up on your guardians like that… it sort of freaks them out and convinces them they're going crazy…"
"Maybe you are…" Kai said, he turned to Teal, where his eyes immediately flared up slightly before receding again. "But unlike us, Teal seems to have kept his cool when meeting up with…" he squinted. "I can't tell who you have…"
"I'm Lucas!" the boy squeaked, too afraid too look into Kai's eyes. "I'm Lucas! Please don't eat me!"
"Eat you!" Nao asked incredulously, "Why would we eat you!" He blanched slightly as Kai and Teal both looked at him strangely. "Uh… Mewtwo… mind reading powers…"
Kai nodded. "Yep, it's settled… we're all either going nuts or we're guardians…"
"Mm…" Teal agreed. "Lucas… it's nice to meet you…" He shifted uncomfortably after saying that, unsure of what to say more.
Lucas cleared his throat. "Uh… just wondering… um… how do you guys know about all of this? I thought it was supposed to be kept a secret…?"
Meanwhile, Mewtwo couldn't help but roll his eyes. Lucas, though possessing of great psychokinetic powers, still had a long way to go until he reached his level. What was more, even he was at lost to how Nao and his camping buddies had managed to get a hold of the information as well, but he was better at hiding his reaction.
"It was," Nao agreed, easily reading Teal's mind, "But that doesn't mean that we couldn't steal anything…"
"Steal?" Mewtwo asked, "No guardian of mine should stoop down to petty stealing, especially not when he is the vessel for the power that few can handle."
Nao rolled his eyes. "Geez, this was before I met you, Mewtwo!"
"Even so. There is no need to do something as small as climbing a mere tree when one can either teleport or levitate to the source."
"Great, Kai! Just great!" Nao threw up his arms, "Now I have another naggy jerk to get in my face! And I heard that, Ganondork!"
Mewtwo shook his head. "Petty insults are below us, Nao."
"Uh… Nao? Shouldn't we get on to… you know, what you took?" Teal asked, wanting to avoid a fight.
"… Right…" Nao settled down and brought out a few pages that were yellow with age. From looking at one side of each page, Mewtwo could tell that they were torn from a book of some kind. Unlike the books he and other Smashers had read back in the day, this one seemed to be written solely in black ink, with numerous notes and tiny pictures scrawled everywhere on it. But what caught their interest the most was one single name:
Master R. Hand.
"I stole these long ago," Nao explained, "I was just hanging out by the wall of that huge mansion… castle… thingy in the distance when I heard the guy screaming. Man, you should've heard him! Man, he was swearing so much, it would've nuked Lucas's innocence right there!"
Lucas winced at the thought. He was never one to approve of cursing of any kind, even though the other Smash children often swore with relish when the older ones weren't around.
"Show them what you took, Nao," Teal ordered quietly, "We don't want to bore the Smashers, after all."
Nao looked offended. "Bore! I'll have you know that-"
"Shut up and do as he says, Nao," Kai interrupted, "You're starting to bore me!"
Scowling, Nao pointed to the blurry black text, careful not to smudge the ink with his finger. It was written in prose form, like a poem and seemed to flow with some kind of hidden rhythm as it spanned the three pages. Curiously, the three Smashers leaned in along with their guardians and began to read.
Though evil rises and Heroes fall,
It shall be defeated once and for all.
A century shall pass, bleak and gray
But thirty five guardians shall carry the day.
By goddess' wrath, a villain amends
From heaven's light, an angel descends
To protect the innocent, a huntress' creed
With thunder and lightning, a Pokemon is freed
"Is it time to eat?" the dinosaur asks
To lead them to victory, the mercenary's task
The Hero arrives, a sword in his hand
The Princess returns, in search of a friend
To Altea, the prince escapes his dark cage
The lone wolf howls for the Scion of Rage
For the young child, his world has grown
Cold and hungry, the pink one moans
To reclaim his honor, the Star Warrior must
The dragon's flame a prince must trust
Within the shadows a mercenary hides
Upon a great tank the heroic fox rides
The master of aura can see through all lies
A bird of prey soars higher than high
The young hero sets sail, hoping to prevail
All through this, a Pokemon trainer tells his tale
The spaceman stands, frozen in fear
The princess thinks of the one she holds dear
The young warrior is finally given his time
And a racer must find a way he can shine
A yellow electric mouse creates a new light
While the hedgehog of blue speeds towards the fight
The plumbers team up to leave their mark
While the PK kid creates quite a spark
The psychic creature follows his path…
The pages ended there. The Smashers found it strange how a prophecy could end so abruptly, but then again, these pages were torn from a book.
A book that could easily be stolen.
Teal stared quietly at the prophecy, wondering how it ended. Though he had read this numerous times since Nao had stolen it, he couldn't fathom how it would end. He assumed that it went on about each Smasher for a bit more, but afterwards?
He couldn't imagine.
"Teal… I can tell you're thinking about something…" Kai observed. "Ever since we've met you, you're always thinking about something… and you've rarely spoken a thing…"
Teal squirmed uncomfortably under the Lucario's gaze. "I…"
Nao cocked his head as he read the boy's mind. "You have an awful lot to hide, man… but…" he squinted slightly at him. "I can't figure out what you're here for… I mean, you crash here in some kind of ship from space! You have to be here for something!"
"…" Teal remained quiet.
"Teal…?" Lucas asked, "Erm… what are they talking about…?"
"… I'm not searching for something…" Teal whispered, "I'm searching for someone…"
"Aw man… do us a favor and please don't turn this conversation into one of those cheesy soap opera things!" Nao whined. Kai silenced him with a glare.
"Who are they?"
"Her name is Heather…" Teal smiled as the memories began floating into view, memories of slightly happier times than this, and "She and I met long ago… long after I came here, in a village far away…I had been trying to find passage to Hyrule, but was attacked while in the air by creatures unimaginable… I was shot down and crashed landed in a small village… by the time I woke up, I was severely injured and even more badly shaken… Heather was standing over me, I was scared of her when we first met… I even tried to run from her, but… but she was able to calm me down and told me everything about this whole war… how innocent lives are being taken at the hands of an evil tyrant…"
"…" Lucas remained silent. The war was a cruel, horrible event that ripped apart many lives. For the first time, he realized just how horrible this whole thing was.
"For four years, I trained and lived with Heather together with our teacher, Regenade," Teal continued, "We trained for many hours a day, almost non stop. I hoped that if I helped Heather enough, the three of us- Regenade, Heather, and I- would be able to weaken Tabuu's armies just a little… enough for someone else to deliver the final blow to him if we should lose our lives in the battle…"
Lucas suddenly became aware of a great wave of emotion, of heartbreak and misery that flooded his guardian's mind. Faintly, he was able to hear screaming, as well as the sounds of mass destruction all around him. But because these were mere memories, they seemed to fade in and out, like a radio…
"But everything went so wrong…" Teal's voice was hollow, his face pained, "the village was attacked and the three of us were separated…" a scream filled his mind, causing Lucas to jump. "Though we did our best to quell the battle, nothing we were able to do alone could stop it. Master Regenade was killed…...and Heather... " Teal's voice cracked slightly at the name. "could take no more...she left...she left to avenge him and her family against Tabuu once and for all...and never returned..."
For the longest time, every soul around him was silent. Lucas felt overwhelming guilt wash through him, knowing that it was his fault that all of that happened. Had he been not so weak in that fight where his soul was ripped away, perhaps he could've put a stop to all of this. Ganondorf turned away in shame, hiding the guilt etched all over his face. Along of the three Smashers did Mewtwo remain completely neutral, still angered at himself for not being powerful enough to stop Tabuu single handedly as he had defeated Mew so many years before.
Well, at least that was what he kept telling himself…
A few minutes passed before Nao cleared his throat. "So… what now…?"
Before anyone could answer, they were cut off by a great scream. It echoed throughout the woods, reverberating off the trees and shaking the leaves all around them. It was the loudest thing they ever heard, filled to bursting with anger, hate, and misery. If it had not been so far away, it would have deafened all who heard it. It was a wail of rage, no doubt about it, but where it came from and how it happened, none of them, not even Mewtwo, could tell.
Kai and Nao both instinctively covered their ears and closed their eyes, willing that the scream would pass before they were discovered. Meanwhile, Lucas was extremely surprised to see Teal, who instead of covering his ears, lifted his head. His ears were up and alert.
"Teal…?" he asked, "What is it…?"
His guardian was shaking his head, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. The scream began to die down, so Kai and Nao both uncovered their ears and looked at Teal, wondering the exact same thing Lucas was. Unexpectedly, Teal took off running just as a single word passed from his lips…
"Heather…"
Every single one of them was exhausted as could be. Though victory was theirs, they had been drained to their very limit. Had it not been for the strange miracle of the falling lights, it was clear to them that they would have lost.
Tired though she was, Psyche managed to find enough energy left within her to reach into a hidden pocket of her rags and pull out a thin, leather bound book. She had not touched the thing in the longest time. But as the girl gently turned the frail book in her hands, she couldn't help but notice the huge stain of crimson splattered across its back cover.
His blood…
"You're still thinking about him, aren't you…?" Pit asked, "Shouldn't you… I don't know… just let him go already…?"
The girl clutched the book to her chest as she held back a sob. "I… I'm trying… but I can't… oh Pit… I loved him… I loved him like a brother and now… now he's gone…" A single teardrop ran down her cheek and hit the very center of the red stain. "H-He… he was the only thing that was worth living for… in those factories… it was like he kept me alive…"
Pit sighed. "Look… I don't know what you two did back then, but… you've got an awful lot to live for now, Psyche…" He glanced once at the red spot, but immediately looked away, not wanting to gaze at it for too long. "If you really cared about him… if you really cared at all… you should-"
"Shut up, just shut the Hell up!"
Psyche held back more tears as she bit her lip and clutched the book even closer to her chest. "Oh no… they're fighting again…"
The two stood in the middle of the clearing, the other guardians surrounding them in a huge circle. They stood in the center of the circle and with every harsh word exchanged, their anger and hate for each other flared up even more behind their eyes. Pit watched in revulsion and fascination of this strange argument, unsure if he should tell his guardian to stay away or to shoot a good arrow at them to get them to shut up…
"You're horrible!" Traca screamed, "You didn't even stop to listen to me!"
"I listened alright!" he retorted, "And I don't buy it!"
Cameron stepped forward and grabbed Golfer's shoulder. "Listen you-"
"Cameron, did you not just hear what she tried to tell me! Come on, that's like something that happens in some sort of cheap spy movie or something!"
"Let it go," Cameron snarled, roughly trying to pull him back. When all he received was a backhand slap in the face, his anger flared. "WHY YOU LITTLE-"
"NO!" Lin ran forward and grabbed Sigmund away, just as the mercenary was reaching for it. Next thing he knew, there was a frying pan aimed right at his face. Scowling, Cameron calmed down and sulked back to the circle.
"You choose now to not buy any stories!" Traca yelled angrily, "You choose now, of all times! Of all the times they lied to you at that academy…"
"Well, maybe someone taught me a lesson a bit too well! It's a huge surprise, considering that you always failed at those bounty hunting te-"
Sakura slammed her golf club in his shin. "Don't insult her like that!"
"Yeah, don't insult me like that!" the girl repeated smugly. Instead of a golf club, she received a Red Pikmin to the face. It was soon followed by a whole storm of eggs. Glaring at Beeh and Mah, she stomped on the little thing before turning back to the argument.
"And then there's that one time you told me my gun was in the boiler room somewhere when instead you hid it on top of the freaking roof! I spent hours looking around down there!"
"It was a prank and you know it!" she snapped. Roy felt her anger flare up, almost as hot as her dragon's flame. Not for the first time, he was thankful that she know longer held her dragon stone. "Besides, you hid my dragon stone in the plumbing once!"
"That was because you-"
"Golfer! Stop being a Dick!" Ridere shouted.
"Stop butting in, Ridere!"
Nask stepped forward, her Naginata spewing forth some dangerous looking shards of ice. "Don't talk to him like that!" Marth was surprised at the strength of her voice. It was like she was a shield, a shield designed to defend the green haired boy at all costs.
"I can talk to him however I wa-" He was immediately cut off as Nask slammed her Naginata into the ground and sent a whole snow storm his way. He just barely dodged. "What? That's it? I mean, come on-"
Ridere's face turned red. "You ask for it pal..." Ridere reached for the yoyo that hung at his side while Golfer prepared his gun. "It's time to… SPIT SOME RHYMES!"
"Bring it on, Ri-" Golfer was suddenly confused. "Wait, what…?" His answer came to him as Ridere began tapping the beat to a rhythm. "Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me…"
"Alright Golfer, check it out, it's Ridere from-"
"Shut up, Ridere," Squall spat. The boy scowled at the former captain, but remained quiet.
"Yeah, shut up," Golfer agreed. Samus clenched her fists in anger. Her guardian needed a good beating, but then again, so did Roy's guardian. She couldn't stand it when two people on a team argued for no reason.
"It's your fault and you know it!"
Traca was practically in tears now. Whether she was faking it or not, the huntress wasn't sure. "I've told you! I'm sorry! I did it so-"
"A likely story!"
"It was for my family! Golfer, you have to understand!"
"I understand alright… you threw away your best friend just so you can try to find out something from some random guy about your family!"
"My mom, Golfer! My mom! I don't know who she is, and-"
"You used to never care about who she was!"
"Well, I've changed, okay?"
"Oi! Shut up over there!" Eric shouted from one edge of the clearing. There was a medical kit next to him and he was struggling with holding Pikana. Wrath was trying to bind a few of her wounds, but as Pikana struggled some more, he was forced to try to hold her down as well. "You're pissing off Pikana!"
"Lemme at 'em! Lemme at 'em!" the little Pokemon screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks, "I'll splat 'em!"
"Get down!" Eric snarled through gritted teeth, "You're going to open up your wounds again!" Wrath was struggling with her as well, thankful for the rubber gloves he had been given to wear to ward off the Pokemon's sparks.
At that same moment, someone screamed out, "NO, GOLFER!" The sound of a gunshot filled the air as well as the whoosh! of a bullet as it whizzed towards its target. Roy gasped in horror as the dreaded projectile sailed faster and faster towards the winged girl, aiming right for her neck…
Plink!
Both Traca and Roy sighed in relief as a certain Wolfon stepped in front of them, the bullet bouncing off her metal arm.
"Stay out of this Heather" Golfer scoffed.
"Oh no..." Wrath didn't even think twice about stepping back, being the only other guardian to witness Black Heather besides Psyche.
Golfer snorted.
"No one wants you going ballistic right n-"
BANG!
Everyone screamed in fright as a red energy exploded from inside of Golfer's stomach, which caused the boy to choke out blood and collapse on the ground. Heather then flicked her left wrist around and forced Golfer to stand right up, which only put him in more pain. All around the circle, every human standing there was trembling in fear as her side of that deadly emotion called rage was released to the world.
"H-Heather..." Nask shakily spoke, taking a step forward to calm her down. Marth squeaked in fear as Nask took a step closer to the already enraged woman, worried for her safety. After all, even if Nask managed to calm her down, there was no telling what she could do.
But it was all too late...
"Traca, did you ever find out what happened to your parents?" Heather asked.
"No. No I didn't! He betrayed me because he wanted ME TO KILL YOU GOLFER! Not leave you to be killed! No, he wanted ME TO KILL YOU! OF COURSE I WASN'T GOING TO DO THAT YOU BASTARD!" Traca screamed, crying. Golfer's eyes widened in horror at this.
"Who was this man, Traca?" Heather asked.
"I don't know...but I remember, he had short, combed back brown hair, a stocky thin feature and...orange eyes..." Traca looked at Heather.
Red psychic electric energy crackled in the palm of Heather left hand as she dropped her staff from her metal hand.
"Now that man...that man that Traca just described...HE, is evil. THAT MAN, is evil. That man...is Clark Wolfon. Now HE, betrayed me...he betrayed me and the rest of my family to Tabuu...and he didn't regret it. Not one...single...bit...and...AND..." Wolf's eyes widened in terror as flames suddenly burned up all around him and Heather's entire vision...
...turned blood red.
"AND I'M NEVER GOING TO KNOW WHY HE DID IT!" without warning, Heather shocked Golfer with her red energy. Golfer screamed in pain.
"TRACA SURE DOES LOOK LIKE SHE'S SORRY DOESN'T SHE? SHE SURE DOES LOOK LIKE SHE'S REGRETFUL AND FEELS GUILT DOESN'T SHE? BUT WHAT ABOUT MY UNCLE? WHY, HE WAS THE ONE WHO SET IT ALL UP BETWEEN YOU TWO! AND HOW LONG AGO DID MY UNCLE BETRAY ME? FIFTEEN YEARS AGO NOW! FIFTEEN! AND LOOK, HE'S STILL WORKING FOR TABUU! AND I STILL DON'T KNOW WHY HE IS, OR WHY HE BETRAYED ME! BUT WHAT I DO KNOW, IS THAT HE FORCED ME TO WATCH ALL MY FAMILY DIE IN FRONT OF ME AS A WARNING TO OPPOSING HIM! ALL OF THEM, ONE...BY...ONE! AT LEAST YOU GET THE FUCKING CHANCE TO SIT DOWN AND TALK WITH TRACA AND FIND OUT WHY SHE DID IT AND MAKE UP! AND WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU GET THAT CHANCE? YOU JUST CUT HER OFF AND DON'T FUCKING LISTEN TO HER AND DON'T GIVE HER A DAMN RIGHT CHANCE! ME? I'LL NEVER GET THE CHANCE!"
Wolf howled as he took for cover from the flames and red lightning spiralled out of control inside of his guardian's mind. A horrified look adorned Wolf's face when he saw Black Heather screaming from being electrocuted by red lightning. Wolf screamed and screamed in desperation to Heather, the raging fires starting to burn him to ash so to make him cease his very existence.
Samus's eyes widened in terror when she saw Heather's eyes continuously flash between orange and red.
The rage was corrupting her...
"MAY I ASK THOUGH, DID TRACA TAKE YOUR FAMILY AWAY FROM YOU? HMM? DID SHE REALLY TAKE ANYTHING AWAY FROM YOU IN THE END? I DON'T THINK SHE DID! NOT TO MENTION SHE WAS ACTUALLY ORDERED TO KILL YOU, BUT SHE DIDN'T! SHE REFUSED! OF COURSE SHE WASN'T GOING TO KILL YOU! SO DOES THAT MEAN SHE DIDN'T BETRAY YOU WITHOUT REGRET? DOES THAT MEAN SHE HATES YOU! IF ANYTHING, SHE HATES YOU BECAUSE OF THE SELFISH, STUBBORN DUMBASS YOU ARE, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE HATES YOU! TRACA CLEARLY DIDN'T DO THIS WITHOUT A SENTIMENTAL, GOOD REASON! SHE WAS TRYING TO FIND OUT WHO HER PARENTS WERE FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR FAMILY DON'T THEY? DON'T YOU? HELL, THE WHOLE FUCKING REASON WHY I AM WHO I AM TODAY IS BECAUSE OF MY FAMILY! WHY DO YOU THINK I FIGHT? WHY DO YOU THINK BLACK HEATHER EXISTS? WHY DO YOU THINK I EXIST TO DESTROY EVIL? MY FAMILY OF COURSE! I FIGHT IN THE NAME OF MY FATHER AND OF THE WOLFON FAMILY TO BRING THEM JUSTICE! HELL I EVEN ASK WHAT THE HELL DO YOU FUCKING FIGHT FOR?" Wolf roared at Heather to realise what she was doing. To realise what she was becoming. But as he looked around her mind, he could see that it was almost over for him...and for her. Soon, the fire would swallow him and Black Heather whole.
Now all that had to happen...was for Heather to cut the throat connecting Golfer's head to his body...
"HEATHER! NO! STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
Wolf's fur stopped burning. He opened his eyes as he saw the chasm of Heather's mind suddenly break into pouring rain. Steam rose from Wolf's body as the rain poured down, quelling the throbbing burns he felt. Wolf was surprised to find an unconscious Black Heather bent over and hanging from her chains. He looked back to see what had happened.
Psyche had grabbed Heather's left arm, stopping her from finishing the job...
Samus watched as Heather's flashing eyes abruptly stopped and returned to their normal colour. Golfer was released from her psychic hold and despite his pain, he immediately backed away as far as he could get from the Wolfon, absolutely terrified. He was not alone in that either. All the other guardians had got away as far as possible, for the whole time red lightning had flashed across the sky, clouds turning black. Now, it was just grey clouds and rain, with blue lightning. It was now just normal weather...
Inside their guardians, the Smashers could only feel sorrow for Wolf O'Donnell...
Psyche could feel Heather's left arm tremble in her grasp, along with the rest of her body trembling. She looked to see a shadow cast over Heather's eyes. Whilst she couldn't see the eyes, she could see the tears rolling down her cheeks and her gritting teeth.
Heather released her grip on her sword, the weapon clattering to the ground.
Her left arm became released from Psyche's grip and went down to her side.
She stumbled backwards...
She looked around at the terrified, young children around her...
"How can you look after everyone else...when you can't even look after yourself?"
Heather screamed...
...and ran away.
"Chester!" Pichu whined as his guardian slipped on a pile of moss on the ground was dived behind a log to take cover from Aly's bullets. One of them just barely grazed the undead boy's cheek while another managed to lodge itself into his leg. Despite this, he was still able to walk. Thankfully, the bullet had missed his brain…
Or it could've been messy.
"Pichu, I told you already, I don't have any freaking wipes!" Chester whispered, looking nervously over his shoulder to make sure Aly wasn't right behind him. In fact, he could hear her stumbling through the forest at that moment, shooting at everything that moved.
"But Chester…" Pichu sobbed, "I need wipes!"
"And I said I don't have any!" Chester growled, "Now if you're going to keep pissing yourself in my head, at least find a bathroom or something in there!"
"But the bathrooms have scary sparkly vampires in there!"
"You do have a point.
"To only shoot you until your heart explodes and your skin burns in Hell…"
"Aly, the only sure way to destroy a zombie is to nuke the brain!" Fox rolled his eyes, "You should know that!"
"I don't give a shit! I came to this city... to shoot zombies… ON MOTORCYCLES!"
"Aly, how many times do I have to tell you? We don't have freaking motorcycles!"
From behind a tree stepped Mars, his expression completely unamused. Aly scowled as he stepped forward, muttering about how he always ruined her fun. Chester simply sunk lower behind the log, hoping that nothing would give him away. Pichu shook in fear at the sight of Aly's guns, still filled with bullets because she was lightning fast at reloading it.
"What is it now, Mars?" she huffed, "Can't you see I'm shooting zombies here?"
Mars frowned. "Uh… first off, you're shooting at one zombie. Second, this isn't the Left 4 Dead world, and-"
"Who said it wasn't?" Falco demanded, "There are zombies, random people screaming at you, a hell load of guns, and danger around every freaking corner! Oh, and did I mention how teammates keep getting in the freaking way!"
Mars sighed. "… I am surrounded by idiots…"
If Aly had heard him, she gave no indication that she did. She did a quick sweep with her eyes, searching for any sign of Chester. Mars frowned and grabbed the gun from her hands.
"Chester…? Are the scary people gone…?"
Chester checked and was satisfied at how Aly no longer seemed to have a gun. Without thinking, he stood up and began walking towards them. At the mere sight of him, Aly pulled another three guns from out of nowhere and began shooting at him again. Chester dived to the side, but one of the bullets caught him in the leg. Pichu felt the stabbing pain and cried out so loudly the walls of Chester's mine reverberated all around him. The undead boy grabbed his head and collapsed, moaning as the force of a thousand headaches hit him.
Aly took advantage of this and leveled her gun at his head before her finger made its way to the trigger and squeezed…
"Aly, no!" Mars shouted, yanking the gun out of her hands. The bullet ricocheted off a branch from above and slammed into Mars' chest. Lucky for him, he was wearing a bullet proof vest. Falco couldn't help but be disappointed that his guardian wasn't shot.
After all, he'd deserve it for running away from a fight.
Hesitantly, Chester stepped out from behind the log and cleared his throat. "Uh… listen…"
Aly reached for another gun, only to be stopped by Mars. She scowled at Chester. "Look, Mr. Zombie, if you're going to eat my brains, take his instead! His tastes like chicken!"
Chester blanched in disgust. "I'm not here to eat your brains! I'm a lot smarter than my cousins, thanks."
Aly eyed him suspiciously. "Well, if you're not here to suck our brains out, then-"
"Shh!" Mars suddenly interrupted. His eyes were trained on a certain jet black building not far away, where the balcony of it was completely visible through the trees. Motioning for the other two to get down below the bushes, the pilot knelt down as well and watched as a certain glowing blue man stepped out onto the balcony, black cloak billowing in the wind.
Falco growled his hatred as the man stepped out into the grey light, followed by what he recognized as his own body. "That stupid body stealing bastard… I'll-"
"Sh!" Mars hissed again. From a hidden pocket of his suit, he pulled out an odd looking instrument with what looked like a satellite sticking out of it. What was more, there was also a set of headphones attached to it as well. Falco watched as the pilot expertly positioned it so it wouldn't be seen on the ground and turned up the volume on the headphones. It was loud enough for both Chester and Aly to hear through them without having to put them on, but not loud enough for the sound to carry to the balcony.
"Eric made it about a week ago," he explained after catching sight of Aly's raised eyebrows. "This is still a prototype and he wanted someone else to test it out in case it decided to jump on him and oh… skin him alive or something…"
"I keep telling him it wasn't me that stuck the virus into his potato peeling thing…" Aly muttered angrily.
Fox whistled. "If we had one of those during the first Subspace War…"
Chester watched in fascination as Mars began tuning the thing like a radio. Random static came out of the headphones at first, but gradually, voices began speaking from it. The static garbled them slightly, but as Mars raised the satellite thing towards the sky, they became crystal clear.
"You're saying that Sorius of Hyrule is dead?" the blue man asked, "Are you certain?"
Falco's body garbled something in response. It was clear that Tabuu took this as a confirmation from the low growl he emitted at the news. Something else was said by Falco's body, but none of them knew what.
"What…?" was all Tabuu could say. Falco's body repeated the garbled mess. From their position, the three guardians could easily see how Tabuu's chest heaved up and down in excitement and surprise, how his face seemed to light up in the grey daylight around him. They saw his right hand trembling as he grasped the balcony, as if trying to prevent himself from swooning.
"Y-You… y-you're saying you've found eyewitness proof that… that confirmed… Sorius was a guardian!" Tabuu finally gasped. Falco's body garbled in response. "The guardian of… of Ganondorf, no less…?" another garbled response.
They watched as Tabuu's hand clenched itself upon the railing of the balcony, his head upturned at the dark grey sky above him. All of them winced in pain and fear as a laugh was torn from his throat, echoing for miles around. But what truly scared them the most was when his cloak fell to the ground and great bolts of powerful energy blasted out, revealing his powerful glowing wings.
"Here me now, Guardians of the Smashers!" Tabuu screamed to the sky, "Here me now and listen well! You have failed! One of your number is dead! Thirty five of you are needed to defeat me and through the hand of one of your own, one of you has fallen beneath the cold bite of the steel blade! You shall never, never defeat me! You have failed, guardians! FAILED!"
Aly and Mars exchanged looks of worry and surprise. Fox's and Falco's mouths dropped open as Tabuu's words reached them. Failed? How could they have failed? After all the fighting and all that they went through, one of there number was dead.
Ganondorf, King of Evil, was no more…
Alone of the three guardians, Chester continued gazing at the sky. He watched as three more streaks zoomed right over Tabuu's head, rocketing away like shooting stars into the night sky.
One of them was quite large and bulky looking. It was colored very gaily, in bright blues, reds, and yellows. As it dashed past, it seemed to blow a wet raspberry at Tabuu.
The second one was cream colored and seemed to float around robotically, almost. Its every movement was rather jerky and for some strange reason, Pichu felt very, very sorry for it and angry all at once.
The final one was just as big as the first. Only this one was pure green streaked with white. It seemed to glare at Tabuu as it passed, but was soon out of sight.
Tabuu lifted his head once more to the heavens and let out a rancorous cackle. "Send out all the Smashers you want, you stupid hand! You shall never defeat me with one of your number dead! You might as well simply hand these so called 'Guardians' over to me as slaves! You have failed, Master Hand! Failed!"
"Is it true…?" Aly asked, tears choking her voice, "We've failed…? One of us is dead…?"
Mars' answer came out in hollow tones. "… I… I… I don't know, Aly… I just don't know…"
Chester turned to the two of them. "What are you two saying!"
The two pilots stared silently at the undead boy. "…"
"Just because one of us is dead… doesn't mean that we can give up just like that…" Chester said, "Because… we've made it this far already… and… and we shouldn't let Master Hand down…"
"But Chester…" Mars shook his head, "You heard that Tabuu guy… all 35 of us are needed to-"
"To Hell with thirty five!" Chester spat, "Thirty four of us is fine enough for me! We've made it this far already and there's no way I'm turning my back on Master Hand when he needs us!"
"Chester…" Aly sighed. "It's hopeless… we've known it was hopeless since the very beginning… I mean, just look at the power levels that guy has…"
"OVAH 9000!" Fox shouted. He caught Aly's glare. "Sorry, couldn't help myself."
Chester sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look… you guys didn't have to come fight for Master Hand, you know… you could've just run away from here at the moment you guys found Fox and Falco and used their powers to your advantage… but… tell me this… if this whole situation is hopeless, why did you guys still stick around…?"
Mars frowned. "… I don't know…" Aly shook her head as well.
Chester held out his hand. "Look, I know you two don't want to be here… heck, I don't want to either… but… but we're guardians and guardians have to stick together… so…" he held out his good hand. "Guardians?"
Mars hesitated for a moment before grasping it. "Guardians."
Aly grinned and grabbed onto both of their hands. "Guardians!"
The three threw their hands up into the air.
"GUARDIANS ARISE!"
Well, I hope that was alright. I actually wasn't too sure how to end Teal's part to tell you guys the truth. ^^' Well, easy come easy go, I guess…
Anyways, yeah… band and school have really eaten up my time lately… But I've devoted as much as I could to this story!
Anyways, see ya next chapter!