"You're crazy," Ness bluntly said to Lucas. "Whose idea was that anyway?"
"It was mostly yours, actually," Lucas said timidly. They were talking about what Lucas was thinking about the plan Ness proposed before. Lucas changed his mind about the quick decision he made earlier. He at first believed Ness's original idea was stupid and wouldn't work at all, but after minor changes, he was sure of it's success.
'Minor changes,' actually referred to a complete change aside from going to the pigmask base. They were going to go in and practically destroy the base from the inside.
"I like it though," Ness nodded, "If you think it can work, and end this stupid war, I'm all for it."
Lucas felt awkward being the one who actually took charge of something. His more reserved nature more comfortable being a supporter instead of the leader. Someone had to do it though, and Lucas was the only one who could.
Lucas woke up in the dark. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. It read 3:54 AM. His stomach turned as he thought about what was going to happen in a few moments. He dressed himself and began to walk outside. It was cold in the hallways. There was little heat in the tundra where the anti-pigmask base was. Comfort wasn't something that the militia saw as necessary, though. It bothered Lucas.
Lucas found Ness sitting on against the wall near the exit. "Ness, what-"
"Shh," Ness hushed him. 'We need to be quiet,' Ness telepathically told Lucas, 'If we make too much sound it will cause problems.'
'Alright,' Lucas agreed to be quiet. 'What did she say?'
'Who?' Ness gave Lucas a look of confusion as he stood up from the floor.
'Remember, we were going to see if Kumatora could-'
'Right! I remember now,' Ness realized what Lucas was asking, 'She said she doesn't support this kind of illegal stuff but she doesn't go against it either.'
'Wait, this is illegal?' Lucas was horrified when he heard this.
'Apparently unauthorized action from a military base is a punishable crime.'
'Ness! I can't do this! I don't want to go to prison for life, or be put to death or-'
'Stop crying about it. It was your idea,' Ness rolled his eyes, 'Remember, we're doing it for our friends and family. It's the only way.'
'Alright.' Lucas was still not eased with the thought of doing something that was disallowed by authority.
'So we don't have Kumatora. Plan B it is.'
The two began walking to the point of departure where Ness planned to use PK Teleport to bring them to the pigmask base. They walked into a large room which opened to a field of land. Ness said he needed a really long straight line to use PK Teleport, which confused Lucas slightly. Lucas had never heard of PK Teleport before Ness told him about it.
They were both halfway across the room when a loud noise came from behind them. They both quickly turned back in confusion. There was a man standing there. "Hello boys," the voice of Flint rang through the room. "What are you doing up so early?"
"I'll ask you the same," Ness answered, taking a step towards him. He was still slightly angry about what Flint said to him about Lucas two days prior, even though Lucas told him it was okay.
"I asked you first."
"Alright, so-" Ness tried to come up with an excuse on the spot. He was cut off by Flint.
"Actually, Lucas, you tell me," Flint pointed to his son. He was very smart in doing so. Flint knew Lucas well, and one thing he knew about Lucas is that he was a terrible liar.
"M-Me?" Lucas stuttered.
"Yes. You."
"I-I um-," Lucas was breaking down at the thought of telling a lie to his father, "We're going.. for a walk."
"In the middle of the night?" Flint asked, "In the snow?"
"Yes," Ness answered for him.
"Lucas," Flint sighed, "I know what you're doing. I do not approve."
"But dad-"
"No, Lucas. Stop right now, or I'm putting both of you in prison cells," Flint almost shouted.
"We need to go, Flint," Ness told him, "We're going to take down the pigmask base, and we're going to get our friends back."
Flint started angrily walking towards the two boys, "Lucas I am your father and you will listen to me. You are not going to leave. Do you understand?"
Lucas looked down in shame. Then he realized he had a brother who needed him somewhere else. "No," Lucas said quietly and hesitantly.
"What did you just say to me?"
"No," Lucas said with a confidence that was almost comparable to his brother's audacity.
"I see how it is, then," Flint turned away. He pulled out a small radio microphone, "We have two prisoners on the run. They are currently in the ground level hangar."
Lucas looked forward in horror realizing about what he had just done. Ness looked forward in anger, wondering how Flint could hurt his son like that. A moment later, there were about ten guards coming through the door as the exit slammed shut. They began to step forward to place Lucas and Ness under arrest. Tension was filling both of their minds. They had to do something quickly.
'I can do this,' Lucas thought to himself, 'I can do this for Claus. But what is going to happen if I fail? Should we give up?'
The loud sound of concrete shattering woke up all the sleeping people in the base. Everyone's eyes were on Lucas, even Ness'. People stood in awe of the rainbow hexagons that filled the room and faded away.
"I don't want to do this," Lucas said, his hand sparking with another PK Love ready to fire. "Let us go, please."
'Lucas, what are you doing?' Ness asked silently.
'I'm helping people,' Lucas answered with a sudden aura of confidence.
"Force is needed to contain the prisoners," one of the men said. He was clearly the leader of them. Lucas put up a Counter.
'Lucas, do something,' Ness told him worriedly, 'They're shooting at us.'
'I don't know what to do!' Lucas panicked, 'I wasn't actually going to use PK Love to hurt people. It doesn't feel right.'
'Then why did you say you would!?' Ness asked, clearly frustrated and confused, 'That was like our only leverage here. Screw it, I'll do something.' Ness fired a PK Rockin' gamma at the armed militia. It went through the counter Lucas had surrounded them with. It bounced back with a loud vibration and shattered the counter. They clearly had at least one PSI user over there. 'Lucas, we need another shield.'
'I'm trying!' Lucas tried to use another shield, but he was too tired and confused to think straight. He managed a shield, but it was a weak one, and the guns broke it within seconds.
Ness and Lucas would have been dead if it wasn't for a sudden earthquake. Everyone in the room ducked down to avoid bodily damage. It would have been pointless to try to fight with the magnitude of this earthquake. People could barely stand.
It stopped just as quickly as it started. Lucas and Ness looked up to try to defend themselves, but there was nothing to defend against. The militia guards were buried in the ground up to their shoulders. "Ness," Lucas whispered, "I don't think this is normal."
"Heck no it isn't," Ness said, also confused, "They are buried up to their shoulders in solid concrete." Footsteps echoed down the hallway. There were more coming.
"Go!" an angry voice shouted at Ness and Lucas. Ness took no extra time to think about it. His PK Teleport alpha had himself and Lucas flying across the floor and into the open land outside the building.
They appeared in a much different place than where they had left. The ground beneath them was red dirt, and there were rocks and mountains all around them. It was where they had been captured in battle almost a week before. The scratches and craters in the ground told them so.
"It's amazing how stupid you two are," a familiar voice said from behind the boys. Lucas and Ness turned around to see Kumatora.
"Wha- How did you-" Ness stood in confusion alongside Lucas.
"Well I heard quite a bit of noise, and I figured something was up," she answered the incomplete question. "I felt I had to do something, so I decided to help you, since clearly neither of you can escape the right way. And what the heck are we doing here anyway?"
"It's the last place I could think of before you brought me back to consciousness," Ness explained. "It was a brief flash of memory, and it was confusing. I remember it though."
"Why would you have to remember it?"
"PK Teleport only lets me go to places that I've been before, and I don't remember anything about the pigmask base, so I can't go there."
"We've got about ten miles to walk if my memory serves right," Lucas said, "And it would be best if we could get there before the sun rises. What direction do we go?"
"I thought you would know considering you've been there," Kumatora said, clearly frustrated with the little amount of planning the boys did. "It's south, and you're lucky at least I know that."
They walked south for awhile. All three of them complained about their ankles hurting after about an hour. They were half way there in an hour.
"Since I ended up coming with you, and I have no way of getting back myself, could you tell me what you're intentions are?" Kumatora asked. Ness didn't explain what they wanted to accomplish when he asked her to join them the first time.
"Well, we have friends over there," Ness explained, "We want to get them out."
"That's all?" Kumatora seemed surprised, "This is stupid."
"No, Kumatora," Ness kept going, "We're also going to take down the pigmask base from the inside. And Lucas' brother–the only other PK Love user in the world–is there also. We don't want them to take advantage of that. We've got a plan, but we need you to help us."
"Fine," she agreed to help–reluctantly, but it was still help they needed.
In the distance, they could see the large complex which was the central pigmask base. "Ok, we need to get in," Lucas told them, "Don't use PSI, they might be able to find us."
"Right."
Lucas nervously started taking a few steps forward, but was stopped by Kumatora. "Lucas, wait-" a bright flash came from their left. Lucas instinctively put up a PSI shield to block the oncoming attack. Lucas looked for the attacker in the dark early morning. A lightning bolt came shooting towards them. Lucas and Kumatora fell back from the impact. Ness was somehow completely unaffected, and it seemed that he used PK Thunder back at the enemy. Ness, who was the only one of the three still standing, used PK Rockin' gamma. It was enough to cause their attacker to fall unconscious.
Lucas used Lifeup on himself and then Kumatora. "Let's go before more show up," Ness hurried them.
All three sprinted across the rocky field surrounding the pigmask base. They reached the entrance of the base. There was a large door where they tried to enter. It was like a garage door, but likely inside were military vehicles. There was a small door right next to it, which they hoped they could enter though. It was locked.
"Well I guess we can't knock," Lucas said. Kumatora immediately melted off the door hinges with PK Fire.
"Stop complaining and come in," she motioned Lucas to go through the door.
The inside of the room was a vast sea of concrete. Lines and markers used for orderly vehicle movement were painted all over the floor. White tanks were lined up with pigmask symbols on either side of each tank.
"Alright, we're in, where are we going now?" Kumatora asked with an acrid sarcasm, "It isn't like we have anywhere to hide unless we want to get brainwashed, and I don't think that's worth it."
Lucas tried to orient himself. He had only been in the base for about an hour before he was brought into battle. "I'll figure it out, give me a minute." Lucas looked around the large empty room for about five minutes, trying to remember where things in the building were.
"You have no idea where to go, do you?" Kumatora asked the frustrated blonde boy.
"Wait," Lucas told her. He stood there like he was listening to something. "Did you notice it?" Lucas asked the other two.
"Notice what?" Ness stood there confused.
"It's Claus," Lucas said, "He just used PSI of some sort. I know it."
"How can you be sure it isn't someone else?" Kumatora had doubt in Lucas' observations.
"I think I can tell what my twin brother's PSI feels like after living with it for most of my life," Lucas argued. Neither Ness or Kumatora decided to argue with that logic, and started following Lucas. Two metal doors led into a wide hallway. It was empty, which was favorable to them. It was early, so the brainwashed people were probably sleeping. They crept past closed doors, trying to not make any sounds or catch anyone's attention.
In moments, they had reached the room which they believed had Claus in it. Lucas stared at the door, filled with the excitement of knowing he would see his brother for the first time in almost a week, the longest time they had been apart from each other. He knocked on the door, quietly. He imagined Claus hearing it and complaining that he had to get up and open the door.
The door opened, and Lucas, Ness, and Kumatora saw Claus standing in surprise. "Lucas!" Claus couldn't keep quiet. He embraced his younger brother, who in return did the same.
"Claus," Lucas said softly. Lucas was then brought out of his excitement, "Claus, we need to hide."
"Get in here then," Claus brought the three into the room. "Lucas, why did you decide to come back here? I'm glad you got away from the other military but, why'd you come back here of all places? And who is this person?" he motioned to Kumatora.
"The people who captured me and Ness," Lucas began awkwardly, "Well.. Dad was one of them." Claus seemed to be shocked by this, and he explained to Lucas the way the other army was described to him in contrast to what he believed their father would do. "This lady is Kumatora, by the way," Lucas broke the mood by mentioning Kumatora, who was leaning against the thick wooden door. "Also, why we came back here," Lucas started answering, "I thought of a way to bring down the pigmasks, but we need to be here, and we need your help, Claus."
"I'm all for it," Claus readily replied, "I've been working on something myself, but it won't quite work anyway.." his voice trailed off. The four of them stood there for about a minute, "I think I'm going to go back to sleep. It's almost six in the morning."
"Where are we supposed to go?" Ness asked.
"I don't know, sleep on the floor or something," Claus became tired irritated when he got over the excitement of seeing Lucas again. "Hey, Lucas," Claus started to ask.
"Yes?"
"If you saw dad, what about mom?" Claus asked. Lucas stared at Claus blankly and didn't answer. This concerned Claus, "Lucas?"
"Claus," Lucas began to cry after believing he was over it, "Mom is... gone."
I'm sorry that I keep posting these later than I say I will. I just have so much going on right now with finals coming up in almost a week and teachers cramming everything they can. Summer is almost here though, and I should be able to post more then. This story will be finished in time, and I'm not going to give up on any story that I write here like some authors here do with their stories. I have a writing rate of 3 paragraphs per night, so expect another chapter in like 2-4 weeks I guess.
Reviews/comments/criticism are very appreciated. I mean seriously, the reviews that are left make my day better, criticism and compliments alike. I'm considering answering questions/responding to comments via PM, so if you review, I might PM you with a response.