Let's finish this thing! We're in the homestretch!

Day 25: Smashville: The Village of Memories

I woke up in the morning; it took me a few minutes to realize that I wasn't in my room, but instead a rather comfy chair. I looked around and realized that all of the Smashers had fallen asleep in the ship. I needed to go to the washroom, so I stood up and followed some signs. However, I passed a window, and looked out.

I was in shock at what I saw.

We were in space, and I saw a blue planet in front of me.

My mind was captivated. It was beautiful. Deep down, I felt like I had fulfilled some childhood dream.

I was suddenly reminded why I had gotten up in the first place. I quickly followed the signs and

I went to the washroom and did my business. After washing my hands I stepped out and went back to that window to look at the planet once again.

It was different from Earth, but I didn't care. I was captivated by the wonder. "Wow." I just repeated over and over again. "I never believed I'd see the world like this."

"It's your first time in space?" A voice asked. I jumped and quickly I turned over to see Fox drinking some coffee out of a cup.

"Yes." I said.

"I was like you once." Fox laughed. "I was in awe the first time I saw a planet from up here. It just makes you wonder, how small you really are in the grand scheme of things."

"You've seen other planets, right?" I asked.

"Yeah." Fox replied.

"Are they all like this?"

"No," Fox said. "There are quite a few that actually are quite ugly. But don't worry about it." I'm sure he was joking.

Fox walked away and I just continued to look out the window. I really felt small.

"Oh, look, Nugai is staring at the planet." Falco said. "Geeze, you better stop that."

"I won't." I said.

Falco just glared at me. "Really? It's just a planet it's nothing special. There are thousands more."

"When I was a child, I think one of my dream jobs was to be an astronaut." I said. "Exploring the final frontier, space! Maybe making contact with other life forms. Going out on adventures. Those were my dreams."

Falco just laughed.

"What was your childhood dream?" I asked.

"That's a secret." Falco said.

He walked away. Wolf approached me next.

Wolf just laughed. "You're still looking at the planet?"

I glanced at Wolf. "Yeah, so what?"

"Your more simple minded than Fox." Wolf laughed. He walked away.

I decided that it might be better if I got away from the window and stopped looking at the planet. Though I did pull out my cell phone and take a picture of it. I looked at it for a few seconds and then put my cell phone back in to my pocket.

I walked back to the seat where I had slept. I saw that several other Smashers were up, including Red. He stretched and got up, within a few minutes he was back. "Nugai." He said, sitting down beside me. "I can't believe we're in space!"

"Yeah." I laughed. "If I told everyone back home that I visited space, I doubt they would believe me. The perks of being a Smasher."

Red smiled. "Yeah, I couldn't imagine doing this if I wasn't a Smasher."

I didn't know what to talk about, but I figured it would be a while until we went back into the atmosphere, so I had to find someway to pass the time. "Red, can I ask you some questions, about Pokemon training?" I asked.

"Sure." Red said. "Although, would you mind if we walked while we talked?"

"No, not at all." I said.

We got up and began to walk around the ship. "So, what do you want to know about Pokemon training?" Red asked.

"Um, well, I'm not sure." I said. "You're just a beginner right?"

Red suddenly stopped walking. He glared at me. I could feel something in his glare, a sort of pressure, a weight of some sort. Just looking through aura amplified it at least tenfold. "I'm not a beginner," he said. "I'm a retired champion."

I looked at Red rather confused.

A retired champion?

"What happened?" I asked.

"I fought an opponent I couldn't beat. My father." Red replied.

I stared at him rather shocked. "Your father?"

"Yes" he replied. "I've rarely seen him, and he approached me one day. Like the last time we met we had a pokémon battle. He however beat me and told me that even though I was a champion I was still weak since I didn't know what strength was. And until I knew what strength was I would never be capable of defeating him. I then retired, but Master Hand approached me and I became a Smasher."

"I see." I replied.

Red just laughed a bit. "You're the first person I told all that to."

"I won't tell anyone if that's what you want." I said.

Red just smiled. "Thank you. So, Nugai, what is strength to you?"

"Strength to me? I guess it's the power to protect those close to me." I replied. "I want to protect everyone from the Reaper. And what is strength to you?"

"I used to think it was just power, a title. Like if I was the strongest Pokemon trainer around I had strength. But, I'm not sure any more."

"I hope you find your answer then." I replied.

Red smiled. "Me too."

We returned back to where we all slept. The rest of the Smashers were all awake now. "There's no way the Reaper would be able to find us in space." Sonic said. "I can't believe that we came up here!"

"This is so amazing!"

"When are we getting back on the ground?"

Master Hand floated into the room. "Hello, and good morning." He said. "I'm pleased to inform you that being in space is only temporary, and we will return back down when everything is ready. So, please make yourselves comfortable. I'm sure it will only be a few more hours."

I don't think anyone wanted to hear that it would take hours until we could all go back down, as there was nothing to do. Master and Crazy Hand disappeared, so they couldn't be pestered by the Smashers to go down now. I didn't even think that I could stare at the planet for much longer.

Red and the rest of the kid Smashers decided to explore the ship, check out every single room. I tagged along. There was a kitchen, some more washrooms, nothing too exciting. "Geeze, this place is so boring." Ness said.

Red nodded in agreement. "Let's hope we can get to Smashville, and it's better than this ship."

We eventually only had one last room to 'explore'. It was the storage room.

In the storage room, there were crates upon crates. All of them were giant metallic crates. That was about it...

"I wonder what's in them." I said.

"Blankets, stuff for survival." Popo said. "I'd also expect some food, but it's going to be airline crap."

"Well, maybe we will find something interesting if we split up." Ness said.

"Do you really believe that?" Toon Link questioned.

"No, but it's not like we have anything better to do." Ness sighed.

Somehow, I got stuck with Lucas, and Ness. I didn't know why we needed to be in groups, as surely nothing bad could happen to us. However, Ness seemed to have his own plans. "Finally, they're gone." Ness sighed.

"You wanted them gone?" I asked confused.

"Yeah, I have some questions for you Nugai." Ness said.

"Oh, joy." I muttered. "About what?"

Ness just seemed to smile. "About your world of course." Ness said.

"I don't remember that much." I said. "So, it won't be a very interesting discussion."

"Well, I had a dream, and I think it was you who was in it. You had moved to Onett, and were getting beaten up by the Sharks." Ness said.

I cringed. "That doesn't sound too enjoyable to me." I muttered. "Besides, how do you know it was me?"

"I just do." Ness laughed.

I sighed. "What else happened?"

"Eh, nothing much." Ness replied. "I took down the Sharks saved you, and then I woke up."

Well, that was anticlimactic.

I looked in a crate, and there was next to nothing there. Just some blankets, and a few t-shirts that had the Pleiades on it. "The Pleiades is a tour ship." Ness explained. "So, there are some items that they sell to customers."

"A tour ship?" I said confused. "But I thought this was one of the Smasher's ships?"

"It was, it's sort of an older model." Ness explained. "We sort of have it on loan right now. If they call, we have to send it back."

"And how do you know so much about this?" I asked confused.

"I've just been reading up on the info on all of the stages. That was just the prerelease info. Of course, I don't really know why we have an actual ship when we battle in a hologram." Ness sighed. "But still, it's fun to guess what the stages will be like."

I actually found it interesting that they also speculated on what the stages would be like. I wondered if they also guessed about who would become Smashers too.

"Do you also guess who else will be Smashers?" I asked.

Ness just laughed. "Yep!" He said. "We've get to see a large amount of applicants, and then we pretty much just start guessing who's going to get in, we start betting, and rooting for people."

I just nodded. "Do you also have like an in depth analysis and stuff on your end? Like looking at previous patterns?"

"A graph with only two previous reference points doesn't exactly have enough information to do much of an analysis." Ness said.

"I guess, that's right." I said. I wondered if people on this end fought bitterly over who would be in the Smashers and if anyone 'deserved' to be in it. I also felt like sighing as yet more absolutely useless information came back to me.

"Geeze, we better get back to Smashville some time soon." I sighed. "I don't know what else can be done on this ship with out me going insane."

Ness nodded in agreement. We suddenly heard a scraping sound, the sound of metal against metal. We looked up and noticed that several crates were falling over.

The crates fell towards us. Ness was the first one to react. "PK Flash!" Ness shouted, sending a burst of light that pushed the crates back a bit.

"PK Love!" Lucas shouted, sending several hexagons towards the crates and knocking them back. The two combined attacks were able to redirect them away from us. The crates then landed on the ground with a loud thud, and we could all swear that we felt the whole ship shake.

My heart was beating like crazy. They had reacted before I had even registered what was going on. Had they not been there, I probably would have been killed.

I looked at Ness and Lucas. They seemed to of realized what had just happened. I think it was the realization of how close a shave that was, but they were both white. I also wondered if they only now were piecing everything together and just reacted initially on instinct. Before we were even able to get a single word in, the other Kid Smashers had reached us.

"What just happened?" Nana asked rushing towards us.

"The crates just fell," Ness said. "Geeze, that scared me."

"Me too." Lucas said.

"Could it have just been an accident?" Nana wondered.

"No!" Ness snapped. "I bet it was Toon Link playing a prank on us!"

"Toon Link may pull pranks, but he wouldn't try to kill us." I pointed out.

"Nugai is right." Nana said. "Toon Link's prank's have never been malicious."

"I've also been with Toon Link the whole time." Popo said. Toon Link and Popo had come running as soon as they heard the crash. I looked over them; both of them were out of breath.

"Then who pushed these crates down?" Nana wondered.

Everyone looked around confused.

"It could have been an accident, right?" I asked.

"No." Ness replied. "Not here. It was fully intentional."

"How can you tell?" I wondered.

"The crates are stacked in such a way that they will never fall down." Ness replied. "They are also strapped to the wall. The straps have been cut. Look around for them."

We did so, and we eventually found some straps. It was a clean cut. "You would need a sword or a knife to make a cut this clean, it wasn't due to age, that's for sure." Ness said.

We then heard the door open.

"Hello?!" A voice said. We all rushed towards the entrance. Standing there was Sonic the Hedgehog, he was leaning against the wall. "We heard a loud bang and felt the whole ship shake." Sonic said. "What happened?"

"Wait!" Captain Falcon shouted, he was running down the hallways towards us. "Geeze, Sonic, you run too fast."

"You're too slow." Sonic replied.

Captain Falcon just glared at the hedgehog. "Anyways, the other Smashers are all coming here, it would probably be for the best if you explained it then, so you don't have to repeat yourselves."

All the other Smashers came to the storage room. Each of them was rather shocked. We went in the storage room and explained what happened, that several crates fell over, and that we didn't think it was an accident.

"The Reaper may be aboard this ship." Sonic suggested.

Everyone looked at Sonic rather shocked. "No, that's impossible, Master Hand and Crazy Hand repelled him out of the mansion before we fled." Mario pointed out.

"That guy has some way for getting around." Sonic said. "I think he might of been able to predict us fleeing the Smash Mansion, and stowed away in here. Or maybe, it was another assist trophy duplicate that he used to attack the mansion while he snuck in."

Everyone was paranoid. I couldn't blame them. "Lucas," I said. "When you were with the Reaper, how did he get around? Did he just walk from place to place?"

Everyone glanced at Lucas. He would have the answers that everyone needed. However everyone's glaring made him rather nervous. He just stepped back afraid. Realizing that they were making Lucas much more nervous than he should be, they stopped glaring at him. "He could teleport." Lucas said.

Everyone was trying their best to remain calm. Certainly what Lucas just said wasn't helping matters at all. "Since he could teleport, he could just vanish when he needed to. He might have teleported out of the ship after pushing down the crates, thinking that he succeeded in doing the deed." Wolf said. "At least that's what I would say, but I can't smell any trace of that swine here."

"Neither can I." Fox said. "And he has a pretty unique scent."

"He may have covered it up somehow." Dr. Mario said. "And if he teleported, there should still be some trace of energy being left behind. Samus, please scan the place."

"Of course." Samus said.

"Don't waist your time." Mewtwo said.

Everyone looked at Mewtwo rather shocked. "Why?" Samus asked.

"I think we're all overlooking something." Mewtwo said. "Something important."

"What?" I wondered.

"First, we scanned the ship before hand to make sure there was no one extra inside of it. If he somehow was able to trick our sensors, teleportation requires you to know where you're going. Even if he stowed away in here, the storage room was locked until recently, he wouldn't know that we're in space." Mewtwo said. Everyone looked at the Pokemon. "I'd like to propose a new hypothesis then. He used an assist trophy, and set it to activate the moment someone walked into the storage room. The assist trophy would then kill whoever entered, waiting for us to find the body."

Everyone looked at Mewtwo rather shocked.

"If that's the case, then we should start looking for a used assist trophy." Everyone nodded and began to search the storage room.

"I found something!" Sonic shouted. And everyone came rushing over to him. In between some crates was a shell of what used to be an assist trophy. They laid it on the ground, and Dr. Mario approached it. It was now just a Wire Frame's shell.

"Okay, so what now?" Luigi wondered.

I was actually rather confused. I was positive that I had passed by this spot earlier, and not seen it. I had been using Aura to perceive everything. Even if it was stuck in between some crates, I should have seen that aura. Especially since it was so weird. It was as though space was bending around the Wire Frame.

Dr. Mario looked at the assist trophy. "We can go into its memory and see the last thing it transformed into." Dr. Mario said. He flipped over the Wire Frame, and pulled open what appeared to be a door on the back of his head. He plugged something into it, and then backed away. However nothing happened to the Wire Frame.

"It never transformed." Dr. Mario said.

Everyone just looked at the Wire Frame rather surprised.

"But look at all of these muscles, they are completely torn. It was definitely pushing something." Dr. Mario said. "That's all I can tell right here, anything else and I'll have to go back to my lab to see anything. I'll keep this under constant watch, and then once we reach Smashville, I'll give it another much more proper investigation."

The Smashers began to depart.

"Well, that's one mystery solved." I said.

"No, not at all." Mewtwo said. "Dr. Mario and I came to the same conclusion, but decided to stay quite for everyone's safety."

"What?" I said rather shocked.

"Wire Frames don't hide themselves." Mewtwo said. "It was placed there."

I now felt confident that I was right that the Wire Frame wasn't there before. "By who?" I asked.

"I don't know." Mewtwo replied. "Perhaps the Reaper did put him there as a precaution, maybe the Reaper wasn't involved at all and it was a giant accident. It probably would be better if you don't think too much about it. Just don't get separated from any Smashers, and you should be fine if there are any future attacks. But, I also think you don't have to worry as whoever tried to kill you will be much more cautious the next time he tries to do something."

I nodded. "Thank you Mewtwo." I said.

Mewtwo just laughed. "Don't mention it. Just stay with a group of the Smashers and you should be safe."

I knew it was the mole. He was trying to kill me. I wondered if the Reaper had ordered this. It just seemed weird. I thought that the Reaper would at least tell the mole to keep away from me, and that only he could kill me, or something like that. Maybe I was getting far too close to his or her secret. And one of the Smashers was going to do their best to keep me silent forever. I just smiled. "Bring it on." I felt like shouting. "I'll expose who you are and your secrets."

Lucas and Ness just continued to stay with me. I wondered, if now it was clear that someone wanted to kill me, and that I opposed the Reaper, would I be let off of the constant watch. Then again by this time, it didn't feel like they were just observing me. It felt like we were just friends, hanging out, and talking about stuff.

"Still, it's scary, stuff like that." Lucas said.

"Yeah." Ness sighed. "I really hope all this Reaper business is done soon."

"Don't we all." I said.

The two of them just laughed. We made our way back to the seats. All of us just talking about anything we could think about to try and get our mind off of the attempt on our life. Even though Ness and Lucas didn't say anything, I think they knew that one of the other Smashers were to blame and was a mole.

We eventually arrived at the village. Everyone wanted to see it, however Master Hand got out first and told us to not leave the Pleiades until he gave the signal that the coast was clear. Eventually we did receive the signal and we all stepped out.

I looked at the village.

It was familiar. Houses were scattered across the village, and there were plenty of trees, and also weeds. Tons of weeds, it was as though no one had tended the land for a long time.

"Mayor Tortimer said that there was someone who lived here, he used to keep the town together, but one day he left town and never came back." Master Hand said. "With him gone, everyone else left the village, and then, the village now looks like this. He agreed to help us if we restored Smashville to its former glory."

"What can that old turtle do to help us?" I asked out loud.

Everyone just looked at me. It took me a second to realize what I just said.

"Well, houses for starters." Master Hand said, seeming to ignore my little slip up. "Don't worry about anything else, Crazy Hand and I will set up the barrier around Smashville to keep him out."

"Because, that worked out so well on the barrier around the Smash Mansion." Sonic sarcastically said.

"Don't worry." Master Hand said. "This one will be different. We now know what we're up against. It won't break so easily."

The Smashers seemed to be relieved by this revelation. I felt relieved for a different reason. I knew this was the village that had the key to my memories.

We walked into the barrier of Smashville, and I immediately noticed that there were several Wire Frames that were walking around. "What is the point of the Wire Frames?" Pichu asked.

"It's to make sure that no intruders get into Smashville." Master Hand said. "I have programmed them so that if an outsider doesn't have permission to enter Smashville, they will expel the intruder."

Yeah... they will last a long time against the Reaper and his scythe

The other Smashers seemed to take a bit of comfort in that. Of course the increased security measures meant nothing against the Reaper.

"This is the Town Hall!" Master Hand said as they got to a building. Standing outside of it was an old turtle with a beard. Mayor Tortimer.

Mayor Tortimer just stood there with open arms. "Thank you, for coming here, all of you!"

"I'm glad to see you're doing well, my old friend." Master Hand said.

"Yes, Master Hand. I see you look as healthy as always."

I couldn't help but wonder how a giant glove looked healthy.

"We're now going to distribute the keys to the various houses in the village. You will own the houses, and can do whatever you want to them. Renovate them, expand them, whatever. You will also be grouped together with several others."

Ness, Lucas, Nana, Popo, Toon Link, and Red were called up first. They were each given a key and then Mayor Tortomire pointed to a piece of paper. Which I assumed was a map.

I actually wondered why I wasn't grouped together with the other kid Smashers. I just looked around the village and noticed a house. I walked away from the crowd, and to the house, however Mewtwo just teleported stopping me.

"What are you doing?" Mewtwo asked.

"That house." I replied. "It's calling me."

Mewtwo looked at the house. It was just a normal looking house. Rather plain actually.

I was dragged back to the crowd, and was soon called up, alone. There was silence. A few of the Smashers were doing their best to hide their whispers. I however was looking at Mayor Tortimer who was staring at me.

"A few years ago, there was a human who came and lived in this town, who looked just like you." He said.

"I'm sorry, but I know I've never been here before." I replied. I decided at this point I better lay low, and try not to draw attention to myself with another comment that came out of nowhere.

"Really? You remind me of that young man so much."

"I'm positive." I replied.

"What was his name?" Mayor Tortimer said. Trying to think. "I'm sorry but my memory has been going in recent years. But, this will be your house."

He used his cane to point at a point on the map. Much to my shock it was that house that was calling me. I was handed a set of keys, and then I was free to go on into my house.

I enjoyed the first few moments of freedom, quickly running through Smashville, until I finally got to the front door. I suddenly paused. Everything about the house seemed familiar.

I walked into the house. It was strange, I looked around across the room. I could tell where everything was. I knew each and every of the items. I went down to the basement, where there was a couch.

I knew I had lived in this house before.

"What's going on?" I said confused.

I went up to the second floor where there was a bedroom. I lied down on the bed and looked around the room. It was all too much; I shot up and ran downstairs and outside. I ran through the town. Each of the Smashers gave me odd looks.

I eventually got to the beach. I sat down, and looked at the waves.

It was far too cold to actually go in, but I just sat there and watched. I now knew that Smashville would be the village of my memories. I would be able to fully restore them here, rather than that small trickle that I had been gaining.

I breathed in the crisp air. And then I heard a voice. "Do you remember anything?"

I turned around and saw Mayor Tortimer. "Master Hand told me that you had amnesia. I figured you were lying back there."

"I now know that I was here previously, I don't know what else though."

Mayor Tortimer just smiled . "Is that so." He said walking away.

I turned my attention back to the ocean. I watched as the waves crested against the shore. "when I'm out here all of my troubles seem to just wash away."

I felt relaxed too. I closed my eyes, and fell back on the sand. I really should have checked if there we're rocks behind me first. I got back up and quickly brushed away the rocks. I fell back down and closed my eyes.

I remembered another thing from my past.

I was on the beach, with a younger reaper. We were camping. Behind us was a forest, and we went in to explore.

"This place is great!" the Reaper said.

I glanced at him.

"Where do you think this path goes?" he asked.

"No idea." I replied.

We followed the path. Our imaginations seemed to soar, thinking that it would lead to another world. We were only met with disappointment when we found that it just went back to the campsite.

"I guess not any place can be a portal to another world." he laughed.

"Yeah," I said disappointed.

"Speaking of which, do you think we will ever lose that ability?"

I looked into the forest. "I hope we don't." I replied.

I came back to reality. As I knew now we didn't lose our ability to cross over. But would that always be the case?

I heard footsteps walk towards me. Instinctively I turned my head. It was a person I had never seen before. He wasn't a Smasher, so I didn't know why he was here. The most notable thing about him was that he had white spiky hair. Well, actually that wasn't true. There was something that stood out more about him. He was wearing a suit, on the beach. A black and white checkerboard pattern suit.

"I'm surprised to see someone on this beach." He said, "I guess you're also rather surprised to see someone here too."

I didn't know how exactly I should react. I didn't know if this guy was a friend, or a foe. I just watched in shock as he sat down, no doubt ruining a rather expensive suit.

"I've been across many planets, and many beaches." He said. This guy was just giving me weird vibes. Was he another person like me who could go into video games? Did he work for the Reaper? "But few are like this, Smashville, the village of escapism."

"Who are you?" I asked.

He just smiled. "I'm just an observer."

This guy. I didn't know what to think about him. His aura wasn't displaying anything that was hostile. I thought that if he was with the Reaper, I'd be under attack right now, and he wouldn't of just walked up towards me. I figured he was friendly enough. And decided to keep talking to him.

"So, what brings you here to Smashville?"

"I would just like to see how things play out." He said.

"Play out?" I questioned.

"I want to see you and the Reaper fight, and how that will turn out. It's almost time for that fated hour."

"NUGAI!" A voice shouted. I glanced back to see Ness rushing towards me. "What are you doing out here all alone."

I glanced at where the other person was sitting, he was no longer in sight.

Oh crap… I better not be going insane…

"Just looking at the waves, and getting lost in thought." I replied.

Not much of note happened the rest of the day. Whoever the mole was, and tried to kill me earlier didn't do anything else. Most of the Smashers were rearranging their houses to try and figure out where to put stuff, and then consequently arguing with whoever they were sharing the house with. Somehow I had been dragged into it with the Kid Smashers.

"Come on, Nugai!" Ness said. "Don't you think that the big screen TV would look great on this wall?"

"But what about the glare on the TV during the mornings when the sun will be on it?" Nana asked.

Ness just looked at her. "Then we will have curtains to block the sun! This isn't rocket science."

"I really don't want to be dragged into this." I muttered.

"I really wish I got my own house just like Nugai." Ness said. "Then I could have it whatever way I please."

"You'd burn down the house and then be stuck with us regardless." Popo said.

"Once Nugai leaves, I'm taking his house." Ness said.

"Could you at least wait until I'm gone before you start arguing over my stuff." I muttered. "Besides, I might just take everything back to my world with this handy dandy cube." I pulled out the cube and just fiddled with it in my fingers. "By the way what is this thing anyways?"

"Just something that can manipulate space." Red said. "It has the same technology as the Pokeballs, although it's much more advanced since it allows for multiple objects inside."

I looked back at the cube. "So could this store a person inside?" I asked.

"Yeah. In theory." Red said.

"Interesting." I said.

I helped the kid Smashers put stuff around the house. Eventually it was getting late and I walked back to my house.

I reached the door and touched it. Something flashed into my mind.

"Finally, I paid off my debt to that bastard raccoon." I said. "I've got my own house! I'm never going to leave here again! Good bye world, I'm not going to miss you."

When I came to I was lying down on the ground. My head was pulsing. I just looked around. "What just happened?" I said.

I got back up, and walked into the house. I just made my way upstairs and collapsed on the bed.

Much smaller compared to the last chapter. Oh well. I passed my word count goal for this story of 100,000 words anyways.

Well, as you know, Smashville is too long a name to be imputed as a town name in Animal Crossing. I really only am using Smashville because that's the name of the stage in Brawl. I forget the actual amount of characters allowed (I think it may be 9…)

Also, add Pleiades and Mayor Tortimer to words I actually have to look up and triple check to see if I've spelt them right every single time I write them.