Day 11: Hidden Truth

I woke up and just stared at the ceiling. I smiled. Even though I now had 25 more days to live I just couldn't stop smiling. Slowly I got up and quickly took a shower and got changed. I didn't know what to do. Mewtwo would have nagged me telling me that I would have to get ready for my fight with Marth, but now that it was over I had nothing else to do.

I went down and got breakfast. I noticed that Ness had been discharged from the hospital wing.

I glanced at my cell phone once again. It happened so late last night I thought it was just a dream. But there it was, a text that just said "Survive Nugai" I just decided to text back

"Who are you?"

I wasn't expecting anything to return, however a minute later I received another text.

"A friend. You've been lied to, go talk to the Manager."

It took me several seconds to read over the text.

I've been lied to? What does that mean?

"Why?" I texted.

A minute later a text returned. "Trust me. Go now."

Against my better judgement I stood up and walked out of the cafeteria. I don't know why I was suddenly listening to a mysterious person sending me text messages, who seemed to know every single thing about me. Looking back, this was pretty stupid.

I had made it to the Manager's office. Using aura I could tell that she was in there.

I pressed my ear against the door listening to the conversation. I really shouldn't have, but as they say: curiosity killed the cat, and it was about to kill me.

"It was a success." The Manager said. "The program works; with it we will be able to defeat the Reaper!"

"Does he know that he was being used as an experiment?"

"No sir!"

I was frozen in fear. I knew they were talking about me. "The plan worked perfectly."

"It was a convincing show." The mysterious voice replied. "And an absolutely amazing battle. Soon the Reaper will be gone."

"We just need a way to insert the program. Unlike the test subject The Reaper won't be unconscious, and won't be as gullible when we insert it! It will be a lot harder..."

"We will take those sacrifices. They will be remembered as heroes who died to defeat The Reaper. Now then he must never find out! Eliminate him!"

"Understood sir!"

I just backed up and ran away. I felt betrayed. I was used. I knew now that they didn't care for me. To them I was just a test subject. Persecuted and treated as though I could become just like The Reaper because of my origins. Eventually I tripped and fell down onto two people. Ness and Lucas. I looked at them afraid and tried to get up and run however they tried stopped me.

"What's wrong?" Lucas asked.

I had become paranoid and quickly ran away from them.

Who can I trust?

I grabbed the Beam Sword that was at my waist and decided that I had to confront him... or 'it', since technically he doesn't have a gender... Anyways I had to confront Mewtwo.

"Nugai, where are you going in such a hurry?" Ness asked, having caught up.

"Do you know where Mewtwo is?" I asked.

"The cafeteria." Ness quickly replied.

I rushed off to the cafeteria to find that Mewtwo was sitting alone. I walked up to him. "We need to talk." I whispered.

"About what?" He casually replied.

"About the past ten days!" I replied. "How everything has been a set up for testing some program that was injected into me that makes me unable to defeat any one!"

Mewtwo shot me a look. "We better take this elsewhere." He quickly said. He looked around the room for a few seconds. "Dr. Mario can you come here I think he might be sick!" Suddenly Mewtwo's tail rushed and hit my abdomen winding me. I began to gasp for air. Quickly Dr. Mario rushed over towards us. Then with out warning Mewtwo teleported the three of us to the ruined city. Suddenly Mewtwo lifted up Dr. Mario and placed him on a giant floating stone slab. I looked up at Mewtwo who looked all kinds of pissed off.

"Stop Mewtwo!" A voice shouted. Rushing towards us was Ness and Lucas. Apparently they had followed me to the cafeteria and were also teleported.

"I will when I have answers! When did you inject it, the experimental serum?" Mewtwo shouted. I had never seen him this angry and judging by Dr. Mario's and Ness' reactions neither had they.

"After his fight with Lucario!" Dr. Mario replied.

"Why!"

"The Manager told me to!" Dr. Mario cried.

The ruined buildings began to shatter. Dr. Mario began to squirm fearing for his life. "Then you better start talking. Tell us all you know!" Mewtwo said while lowering the slab that Dr. Mario was on.

"I don't know a lot..." Dr. Mario said becoming calmer and calmer. "But... they do know now where you have taken him. I did a scan of the injection before administering it. In it were Nanomachines. They can track him anywhere. And most likely they are coming here right now... She approached me after he had fallen and been administered to the hospital. She gave me a vial and gave me rather explicit instructions to inject this into you and to never tell anyone. I questioned her but she reassured me that this would be the first step in defeating the Reaper. If this worked..."

"That's enough." Mewtwo said. "They've used us all."

"Mr. Mewtwo, what's going on?" Lucas asked confused.

"A lot Lucas." Mewtwo replied. "Damn, she had this all planned out. It was her idea to have Lucario ambush you and use that to see how much you had progressed during your training. She must have approached Lucario after I informed him, feeding him lies to ensure that you would be admitted to the hospital. How did you find out?"

"I overheard her and some person talking when I went to visit her office." I replied. Deciding that it was probably best to leave out the whole mysterious person texting me telling me to go and see the Manager.

"The Operator most likely... His real name is Great Thunder."

"They said I must never find out... Or perhaps they were talking about someone else." Off in the distance we could all hear a vehicle approaching us quickly. Everyone panicked thinking that it was The Manger.

"It can't be her..." Mewtwo said. "It takes a lot longer than that to get here from the Smash HQ."

"Can we destroy the Nanomachines?" I asked.

"In theory we should be able to." Dr. Mario said. "At least we should be able to shut them down..."

"How?" I nervously questioned

"Um... it might get painful..." Dr. Mario said.

My face suddenly went white. "How painful?"

"Well Nanomachines can shut down with a high enough voltage. Of course there is also the chance of causing the nanomachines to self-destruct. So you will have millions of tiny explosions going on in your body..."

I winced. Neither of the options seemed desirable. Suddenly the vehical that we heard rushed towards us like a blur. It then stopped. Stepping out of it was Captain Falcon. "What are you all doing here?" Captain Falcon asked.

"Talking." Mewtwo replied. "And you?"

"Preparing for the next race that's coming up soon." Captain Falcon laughed. "With all of the obstacles here in the ruined city its quite fun and it can improve your ability to react..."

Mewtwo just nodded.

"Hey Nugai." Captain Falcon said talking to me. "Your match yesterday was great. Too bad you lost though."

"We were just talking about that match." Mewtwo said. "We think it was rigged."

"What?" Captain Falcon said shocked. "Marth wouldn't have done that! Who rigged it?"

"We think the Manager." I said. "Inside my body are thousands of nanomachines. I was being used as a test subject for something to be used against the Reaper... I was never told about it..."

"Okay stop!" Captain Falcon shouted. "Nanomachines? This is beginning to sound like a bad scifi movie."

"Nanomachines are useful for all kind of things though." Dr. Mario said. "Like cleaning up plot holes."

"Nanomachines can do that? Okay this is really stupid."

"Shut up!" Dr. Mario said covering my mouth. "What if Snake hears you?"

"He isn't even here!" I protested.

"But he has ways to get around."

"He hides under a cardboard box!" I protested. I think I was slowly beginning to understand why one would go insane from this place.

"Yeah we all know, we just pretend that we don't notice." Mewtwo said.

"You're just pretending?"

"Well did you think that we were that incompetent?" Mewtwo asked.

"Well no." I replied. "It... was just... well... this world seems to run on nonsense."

"Anyways, we have to talk about the task at hand. We need to get rid of the Nanomachines, and confront the Manager about this!" Mewtwo said.

We all nodded. "How though?" I asked. "The Manager wants me dead!"

"If we all go with you, she won't be able to pull out a gun and shoot you! Or we could wait a few seconds." Mewtwo said.

"Why should we wait a few seconds?" I asked.

Off in the distance there was what sounded like an airplane flying low. We all looked up to see a ship approaching. "She's here." Mewtwo said.

"Crap." I muttered. I had a small feeling that the Manager wouldn't hesitate killing the other Smashers out here in a secluded spot if it came down to it.

The ship landed, and the Manager and her sister stepped out of it. "Everyone, come back, something has come up." The Manager said. "Also, restrain Nugai." However, the Smashers didn't budge. "What are you doing? Restrain him!"

"No!" I shouted. "You're just going to try and kill me!"

The Manager wasn't too amused. "Who told you?" She asked.

"You did!" I replied. "I overheard you talking to someone about an experiment. I didn't know if you were actually referring to me, but going by your reaction, that's a given now!"

The Manager laughed. "So what?" She asked. "You're just a tool! We will just erase your memories and you will die in peace!"

"If you do that you will be no better than the Reaper!" Dr. Mario shouted.

"I don't want to hear about being above the life of others from you!" The Manager coldly said. "If you come quietly, no one will have to get hurt!"

"If I go with you, you'll kill me!"

"So, the question becomes, would you rather all die, or just have one person die." The Manager asked. "Think Smashers!"

I honestly expected them to betray me. However they all stood by my side. "We will fight until the bitter end!" Mewtwo replied.

"We're Smashers!" Ness added on. "And Nugai here is one of us! You're just the Manager!"

"Just the Manager?" She said rather annoyed. "I'll show you what just the Manager can do!"

"Yes, I'd like to see that myself." A new voice said.

Standing in between everyone was a person cloaked in a tardy black cloak. A mask covered his face, and in his hand was a giant scythe. It was clear how he got his name. This person was clearly the Reaper. Everyone was suddenly parralized, and unable to move. He just approached me and placed his hand on my chest.

"Get away from him!" Mewtwo shouted, however it was an empty threat. From inside of me appeared a strange blue ball of spinning energy. His hand reached into it and then pulled out a small piece. The ball then emerged back into me.

"Go!" He said, his voice was raspy, and clearly altered by a machine. "I have removed the Nanomachines from inside of you."

"Why are you helping me?"

"I owed you one." He said. He took the scythe and flew towards the Manger's ship. With one swing of the scythe he cut through the ship. However the Manager and her siser, jumped out of the ship before it had fully exploded.

"I don't know what's going on, but we better get out of here right now!" Mewtwo said tugging on my arm.

We began to run away. The Manager was rather annoyed and pulled out a gun. She fired, and several bullets rushed past us. When we were a fair distance, the Smashers stopped me.

"What did he mean by owed you one?" Ness asked.

"I don't know."

"This amnesia is beginning to be bothersome." Mewtwo sighed.

"Beginning?" I questioned.

We stopped running and looked off into the distance. We couldn't see the Reaper or the Managers. "Can we stop?" Ness asked gasping for the air.

"Yeah, now would be a good time to get some questions answered." Captain Falcon said, not all too amused by this. "Why couldn't we just hand him over?"

"We need to know all of the sides before we make this decision." Mewtwo replied. "I'm going to go with Nugai for right now, until he retains his memory, I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt."

"How graceful they are." The Reaper said. Suddenly, standing amongst us was the Reaper. Everyone stepped back rather afraid.

I was the first person to say something. "What did I do that required you to owe me one?" I asked.

The Reaper just laughed. "Well, you all were talking about that plan to use the Nanomachines to try and stop me. Now then, let's talk Nugai. Is that really what you're calling yourself now? Well, its a stupid enough name, I guess it would fit you."

"Sorry, but I lost my memory when I entered here." I replied.

He laughed. "I see, I could restore your memory, and remove the pointless fear of you dieing in 40 days. All you have to do is swear loyalty to me. I'd even be gracious enough to let all of them go."

I drew my beam sword and pointed it directly at the Reaper. "No." I replied.

There was suddenly a blast of energy that pushed everyone else away. The Reaper once again placed his hand on my chest and the blue ball of light came out once again. "What's going on?" He said rather shocked. "It's badly damaged."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"Your source code!" He replied. I looked at the blue light; upon closer inspection it appeared to be a bunch of different bar codes all tied together. "It's damaged. What the hell happened? I've never seen anything like it! Did the Nanomachines do this?"

Two balls of energy came rushing towards us. The Reaper just pushed the source code back into me and swung his giant scythe, cutting through the two balls of energy. Standing there was the Manager and her sister. Both were armed with a Super Scope. "I thought you were going to take my gift of letting you live!" The Reaper said.

"You have to die Reaper!" The Manager shouted.

"Before I kill you, I want to know something." The Reaper said rather annoyed. "What did you do to my little brother?"

WHAT? I don't need this right now!

They all looked at me. They all looked as shocked at this revelation as I was. I was confused, I didn't know how to react. "Not biological brothers." Dr. Mario managed to say. "I've gone through both of your DNA, you aren't related by blood."

"Oh good." I muttered. I honestly wouldn't of been able to expect THAT big of a bomb in my life. That must be a great conversation starter. 'Yeah, I'm the brother of a mass murderer... so where did you want to go for dinner again?'

"We only put the nanomachines in him." The Manager replied.

"Bullshit!" The Reaper shouted. "You want me to believe that his source code is that badly damaged by Nanomachines?"

"What are you even talking about?" The Manager asked. "What is this source code?"

I glanced at Dr. Mario and he just gave a shrug. I looked up at Mewtwo. He clearly didn't know what it was either.

The Reaper jumped towards the Manager and her sister. He swung his scythe and they jumped out of the way. "I didn't know the Manager was such a competent fighter." Mewtwo muttered.

"We have to get out of here, otherwise we will be killed." Dr. Mario said, grabbing my wrist. "Mewtwo, can you teleport us out of here?"

"I'd like to, but I've been trying, my power has been blocked for some reason."

"Captain Falcon, you need to take Nugai and get out of here! Go back to the Smash HQ, and tell them about the Manager and what she has done!" Dr. Mario said.

Captain Falcon nodded. "All right, come on Nugai."

We ran past the fighting Reaper, and the Managers. As we were passing them, they seemed to aim several guns towards us. They fired some lasers, however the Reaper blocked the attack. "You must be some person, for the Reaper to be helping you."

"I don't remember." I replied.

We got back to Captain Falcon's Blue Falcon. Surprisingly, it was still in one piece.

We got in, however Captain Falcon immediately drew his gun and put it right up next to my head. "Listen, Nugai, if I find out you've been helping the Reaper, I won't hesitate pulling this trigger." I nodded. As far as I knew I hadn't helped the Reaper. Of course, who knew if that would stand after my memories had been restored. "If I had my way, you would be dead right now."

"I understand." I muttered. Great, now I was fearing for my life…

We sped towards the Smash HQ. Captain Falcon had actually taken a back road with a secret entrance to a private garage, where I could only assume he worked on his machine.

Before we were about to go out back into the Smash HQ, Captain Falcon stopped me. He pointed at a monitor. "I think you should stop and think for a few seconds." I looked up at the monitor. There were a bunch of security guards running around the place. "Something happened."

"What?" I asked.

"I don't know, I just got back here with you. Although there is one way to find out." He went over to a phone and immediately dialed a number; he left it on speaker phone for convenience.

"Hello?" Someone answered.

"Snake, its Captain Falcon. I've been out of the HQ for the morning, what the hell happened?"

"It's that kid, Nugai, the Manager said that he was working with the Reaper. He disappeared, and now everyone is now trying to capture him."

"Snake, that's bullshit." Captain Falcon replied. "I'm with the kid right now. We just fled for our lives from The Manager, she wanted to silence him, and wasn't afraid of killing all of us. He knows something. And for some reason the Reaper was protecting all of us."

"Doesn't that just put more suspicion on Nugai?"

"The first time I met the Reaper was two days ago. He snuck into the press conference for the media!" I protested. "And then we met in the hallways before the match. He was asking for directions for seats."

"Do you swear that that was all?" Snake asked.

"Well, there was something else that he said." I replied. "It was regarding Lucas."

"And what about Lucas?" Snake asked. Even if he wasn't in the room, I was feeling intimidated by him.

I gulped. Captain Falcon was looking at me, his hand was ready to pull out that gun. "He told me that Lucas was suicidal. I thought it was just a bad joke!" I replied.

"That isn't a joke." Snake said. "That kid has seen some pretty dark things. Things that you or I wouldn't be able to imagine."

Does everybody know about Lucas?

"Wait, Lucas is actually suicidal?" Captain Falcon said surprised. "Snake how did you know that?"

"Well, I had to do some snooping. 'If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.' After all. It would only be a matter of time before everyone found out anyways, it's in his medical file."

"Well, I'm in my hidden garage." Captain Falcon said. "Tell the other Smashers that for the time being Nugai is innocent, so they don't burn him at the stake."

"Understood." Snake replied.

I breathed a sigh of relief. For the time being I knew some of the Smashers were on my side. Of course, one wrong step and I would be killed rather quickly by all of them. Captain Falcon went over to a machine. "Cofee?" He asked.

"Sure." I muttered.

He poured a pot, and I drank some. I spat out the coffee. "This is disgusting!"

"Yeah, sorry, I brewed it this morning so it's rather old. Not that the coffee was that good in the first place." Captain Falcon laughed. "So, the Reaper is your brother, or at least close enough that you can call yourselves brothers."

"I don't remember a single thing about him though. Some friend I am." I said. "Then again, it might be better this way, at least I can fight against him not knowing who he used to be."

Captain Falcon just nodded. He went back to work at a table, occasionally glancing over towards me. "Here, this might help you out a bit." He said. "Go into my Blue Falcon." I went in and he quickly began to hit various buttons on it. "It's a driving simulator." Captain Falcon explained. "You're going to go on a virtual racecourse. All you need to do is drive through the points, and you will obtain one a capsule. There are 25 capsules in all."

"Okay." I said.

The door closed and suddenly I was on a virtual raceway. Or rather the windows looked more like computer monitors displaying a racing game. I suddenly I felt at ease. Back in my world, I was ungodly nervous when I started driving. For that reason I had trained myself to remain perfectly calm. When driving, my senses would increase and become much better.

Three monitors dropped down in front of me. "3... 2...1..." I put my foot on the gas. "GO!" I began to drive straight ahead, and immediately into two different beacon things. They immediately disappeared. I assumed this is what Captain Falcon meant by driving through the points.

Up next was a boost, which I went through, however, the sense of speed didn't feel real. I didn't seem like I was going very fast or moving at all. I looked down at the dashboard to see that I was currently going 1085 KM/H. I continued going straight; this resulted in me hitting the third point. Suddenly, the course began to turn, I tried to turn with it to get the fourth point, however I missed it, and the following speed boost. I looked ahead, and saw three upcoming points; quickly I put myself back into the center of the race course. I hit the first one, however due to some overcompensation, I missed the second one. Quickly I got back in the middle to hit the third.

"Damn." I muttered.

The next points were separated. I went to the right to try and get the two there. However missed both. "Crap."

After the first lap I had only gotten 10 of the 25 points. "You got Boost Power!" A voice said.

I sped around the course, trying to remember where the points were. I got several more. And by the end of the lap I had obtained 17 of the 25 points. "Now it's time to get serious." I thought. I drove around, this time hitting each of the remaining targets. I breathed a sigh of relief, however the simulation didn't end. "I have to complete the course too?" I questioned. "Geeze..."

I did so, and as I crossed the finish line the course disappeared, and the Blue Falcon opened up.

Captain Falcon stood up. "How was the virtual race?" He asked.

"It was fast." I said. "Is that how you see the world?"

"Partly." Captain Falcon laughed. "It's much better when you race on a real course. Then you can feel the turbulence and the speed."

I stepped out of the racer. "That was fun." I said. "I'd certainly love to try the real thing some time."

Captain Falcon glanced at me. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were an old pro. You drove around like it was second nature."

"I could drive in my world." I said. "I remember driving at least."

"But to be able to react like that. And it was as though you were used to going at 1000 kilometers an hour."

I nervously laughed. While driving, memories began to come back to me. One particular memory was of myself doing that course multiple times, along with several others. "Maybe you're actually the legendary racer Famicom!" Captain Falcon joked.

"Famicom?" I questioned.

"He was a legendary F-Zero racer. They say that he never lost a race that he took part in, and then, one day, he just vanished off of the face of the earth."

"Did you ever race him?" I wondered.

"I wanted to, but, I never had that opportunity." Captain Falcon laughed. "He always wore a mask, so no one even knew who he was. And he never had any interviews either."

I remembered that in my many journeys into this world, I had used the alias Famicom. I hoped that Captain Falcon wouldn't talk anymore about Famicom. Perhaps, granting my wish there was an announcement that blared through the Smash HQ. "Attention every Smasher, this is Snake! I'm calling an emergency meeting at the boardroom."

"Well, looks like, we have to go down to the boardroom." Captain Falcon sighed.

We stepped out of Captain Falcon's garage and he escorted me towards the boardroom. Other Smashers stopped to glare at me, and I braced myself for the glares of death as I entered the boardroom. Snake sat on a chair. "Nugai, sit right here." He said.

Captain Falcon escorted me to beside Snake. Captain Falcon then sat down beside me. Within a few minutes the entire boardroom was filled. "This better be important." Wolf growled.

"It is." Snake said, standing up. In his hands was a file folder.

I looked at Snake confused. "What's with the file folder?" I asked.

He put it on the table. "I've been doing a bit of snooping in the Manager's office." He replied. "Take a look at all of this."

We looked at the file folders. Documents upon documents on the nanomachines. "What are these?"

"These are the documents on the Nanomachines." Snake said. "These are strictly experimental. It was how she was planning on killing the Reaper. The issue is with these being untested. She had actually planned on using the Nanomachines on us to test if they work. However, then Nugai appeared, and she decided to use them on him instead."

"Wait, she planned on using something that could kill us?" Wario said outraged.

I was relieved, now that the Smashers knew that the Manager viewed them as expendable, I was safe.

Suddenly the doors burst open. Standing there was the Manager and her sister. Rai, Sui, and Tei were also behind them. Mewtwo, Lucas, Dr. Mario and Ness were strangely absent. My heart sunk. I was afraid that either the Manager or the Reaper had killed them. "Perfect timing, Miss Manager." Snake smiled. "We were just talking about you. What happened, it looks like you've been through hell?"

"Nugai sold Lucas, Mewtwo, Dr. Mario, and Ness to the Reaper!" She said. "We were barely able to escape. We were rather lucky that Rai, Sui, and Tei were there. Smashers, restrain Nugai!" However the Smashers didn't budge, they just continued to stare at the Managers. "What are you doing, restrain him!"

"I've had enough of your bullshit." Snake growled. "Why don't we get a second opinion on what happened? Kid." Snake pointed at Rai.

"Well, No Name went to talk to the Manager, however he overheard her talking about how the experiment was a success and how she planned on killing him, then he fled. When the Manager found out, she followed, and asked us to come along. And then she went and tried to kill No Name, and turn the Smashers he was with against them, but then they were saved by the Reaper, with the Reaper wanting to repay No Name for letting the Manager talk really loudly about using Nanomachines to kill him. Then they fled, but the Manager caught up, and then Captain Falcon and No Name came back here, while we decided to intervene and stop the Reaper from killing the Manager."

"What happened to the others?" I asked.

"No idea." Tei laughed. "The Manager fled and ordered us to retreat. They could be dead for all we know."

"You're lying!" The Manager shouted outraged. "That isn't what happened!"

"It is." Sui said. "As you know, it is our duty to remain neutral. We have only relayed the truth about what has transpired here today. It was your arrogance that brought you down, you thought of the Smashers as nothing more than pawns for you to order around. Maybe you're no better than the Reaper."

"How dare you even suggest that? He shouldn't be in this world! None of them should! They should all be stopped before they become like the Reaper! If we allow them to continue to walk around they will kill us all. You understand don't you?" She said to Rai, Tei, and Sui. They however just turned away.

"Don't drag us into your battles." Sui said.

The Manager stared outraged at the Smashers. "And what about you? Are you just going to let him walk free? Even if he has talked with the Reaper? He could be the death of you all!"

"He is also a Smasher!" Marth said. "And if those Nanomachines were what caused him to lose the match. What you did is unforgivable!"

"I'm your Manager, none of you would even be able to live alone if it wasn't for me! You all think you're something special? You're nothing without us!"

"Sorry, but I think it's the other way around." Wolf sneered. "You're nothing without us. If it weren't for us, you would just be overseeing some shitty reality TV show, or perhaps some burger joint."

Strangely I had a small craving for hamburgers…

"Who are you going to believe, me or him?"

"Him!" They replied. "He is a Smasher after all."

"He isn't a Smasher! He was just some lab rat we signed up to test a weapon for the Reaper!"

"And he doesn't have a file folder in front of us saying that he was willing to experiment on us for a weapon that could kill the Reaper." Ganondorf added on.

"And he certainly wasn't willing to leave his allies to die." A new voice said. Standing behind the Manager was Mewtwo. "Not to mention, he also has a Smash Ball necklace!"

They all glanced at me, I pulled out the necklace to show them. The Manager seemed infuriated. "I thought I ordered them to take it away!" She growled. Unfortunately for her, nobody in the room was deaf. They just glared at here. For now the Manager was defeated. She stomped away frustrated, and cursing under her breath. All of the Smashers seemed to unanimously decide that it would probably be for the best if they watched over me tonight, however they would decide who at a later time.

The boardroom began to empty. I just constantly looked at the necklace.

"So, what is this necklace?" I asked.

"It's the sign that you're a Smasher, didn't they explain that to you?" Lucas asked.

"No. It was just given to me." I nervously replied.

I noticed that Dr. Mario was leaving the room and quickly chased after him. "Wait, Dr. Mario, I have some questions I want to ask you."

He stopped ant turned to face me. "Okay, in that case please come to my office." He said. I followed him. Somehow I could tell he was on a constant watch, it was as though he was expecting someone to shoot at me from a distance.

When we got to the office, we both sat down in chairs and began to talk. "I guess you would be the person who would know this the best, who exactly are Rai, Sui and Tei?"

Dr. Mario chuckled. "Sorry, I'm not someone who knows that. They are quite the enigma."

"Why do they remain neutral?" I asked.

"You're asking the wrong person." Dr. Mario sighed. "I'd imagine that they are so powerful that they don't want to support any side. Perhaps they feel that they don't want to influence things more than what is necessary. If you're just going to ask me questions about them, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"What is a Source Code?" I asked Dr. Mario.

Dr. Mario just sat there. "I don't know." He replied. "This term is new to me."

"The Reaper said my Source Code was damaged." I explained.

"I see." Dr. Mario said. "Perhaps your Source Code being damaged has something to do with your amnesia, and your lower than normal life expectancy. Of course, that's just a useless guess. All I can say is relax, and we will try to figure this out soon."

I nodded. "Thank you, Doctor."

I stood up and walked out of the office. Standing there, waiting for me was Lucas and Ness. "So, since Mewtwo said that we weren't supposed to take our eyes off of you, you're coming to sleep in my room."

I looked down at them.

Gee, I'm stuck babysitting. Thanks' Mewtwo.

"It won't be babysitting." Ness replied, having read my mind. "We can take care of ourselves… Well at least I can, Lucas still wets his bed sometimes."

"I do not!" Lucas protested. He still wasn't a good liar. I made a mental note to work on that tonight.

"With what Lucas has gone through, I think that's allowed." I said. I could only imagine having nightmares every single night watching the most painful moment's of my life over and over again. Deep down, I knew Lucas was strong, any lesser person probably would have successfully killed themselves.

We got up to Ness' room and he opened up the door. Immediately Ness ran to his bed and jumped on it. "I'm keeping my bed. You two can fight between the couch and the floor."

"Look, I'm pretty sure, the Manager isn't going to try anything else." I protested. "I'm perfectly fine, I can sleep by myself."

Ness however didn't hear me. Instead he went to the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice. "Do you want anything to drink?" he asked. "Unfortunately, I don't have anything alcoholic."

You're how old?

"Not even the Smashers who are of age are even allowed to have alcohol in their fridges."

Oh crap… I hope my fridge is okay.

"The Network wants to make sure that no one does something stupid, since it would be a PR disaster." Ness laughed. "You should have seen Mewtwo and alcohol!"

Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!

"What happened?" Lucas asked.

"I can't tell you…" Ness nervously replied. "Mewtwo would kill me. Let's just say the property damage was in the billions."

"I'll take some orange juice then." I sighed.

Ness poured a glass of orange juice and passed it to me. I began to drink it.

We sat down and watched some TV. Ness had placed it on an old match. Dr. Mario VS Ganondorf. Partway through one of the matches the phone began to ring. Ness immediately answered it. "Hello." He said. Both Lucas and I glanced at him, each trying to discern what the conversation was about. Eventually he hung up the phone and let off a heavy sigh. "Well, it looks like I'm going to have to fight you tomorrow Lucas."

Lucas smiled. "I can't wait. Hopefully we can have a good match."

"Now if you pardon me, I'm going to go get some ice cream." Ness said, walking towards the door, however I grabbed his wrist and immediately punched him in the stomach. Ness fell onto the ground and Lucas gasped in shock.

"Not on my watch you aren't!" I replied.

"Damn it, that hurt!" Ness muttered.

"That was the idea." I replied. "No ice cream for you tonight! I'm going to make sure you fight Lucas."

Perhaps this wasn't a good idea. Ness struggled to get back up and immediately lunged at me, causing me to hit the floor hard. It seemed as though he had used some of his psychic energy to give him a bit more force.

Lucas just stood there completely shocked.

Ness made sure I wasn't getting up. He pinned my shoulders to the ground. I questioned how much he weighed, either he was strong, or I was pathetically weak. I didn't think a kid his size would be capable of holding me down. "Get off of me, or I'm telling Lucas." I calmly said.

He suddenly stood up.

"Tell me what?" Lucas asked.

"Nothing." Ness replied. "Now, let's get back to watching some matches!"

We watched a few more matches. I eventually decided to talk to Ness. "Ness, can I talk to you, alone?" I asked.

"Sure." Ness said.

We stepped out into the hallway. He seemed to be the first to ask a question. "Why did you punch me?"

"I didn't want you to throw the match again, I thought that was obvious." I replied. "Why don't you want to fight Lucas?"

"I can't fight against him." Ness replied. "He's gone through too much. How can he smile like that after all he's experienced?" I didn't know how to react. "He saw his mother die, he saw his brother commit suicide!"

"He needs support." I managed to say. "Somebody to lean on and help him. I think he can smile because you're there, along with the rest of the Smashers, they are helping him move forwards and fill in the holes in his life."

Ness just began to cry. "It's just too sad!" he said. "I don't know what I'd do without my parent's or my sister!"

I did the first thing that came to my mind. I just placed my hand's on Ness' shoulders and looked at him. "I know you're strong. You're going to fight Lucas tomorrow! You're going to give him the match that he deserves! Do you understand?"

He nodded, once he had wiped away the tears we went back into his room to watch several more matches.

Notes:

Famicom is the alias that Captain Falcon used during the story Mode of F-Zero GX. Which of course was a reference to the Family Computer, what the NES was called in japan.

The Rai, Tei, and Sui here are different than the characters with the same name in some of my other fics.

I have a poll in my profile. Please vote, I'm curious about when people want an epilogue posted. Either the same day as the last chapter, or the following day after the last chapter is posted.