Escaping from Dimension Central, Lucas goes back to the Mansion to plan the next move.

Piercing sunlight forces its way through my eyelids; I come back to my senses when the portal closes, expelling us into the beautiful garden in the center of the mansion. Ness, as the first one to touch land, rolls uncontrollably until he crashes with a pillar; Andonuts rolls once and ends up face up in the ground, with a hand grasping his smoking chest. I'm practically shoved towards the ground by the momentum we carried. I try to put my hands in front of me, but one of my arms barely responds, while the other doesn't protect me at all. My arm twists beyond its limits, so I hit the ground face-first. A loud ring fills my ears just before I black out again.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

The strength comes back to me and my eyes flutter open. While my sight turns clear, I feel motion beneath me. I'm not moving though. And then I realize I'm lying in a stretcher, carried by no other than Lucario (I get a glimpse of who's holding the front part of the stretcher: an Alloy). Lucario shows a strong grip in the stretcher as his eyes focus in the path. Glancing down at me, he notices I have recovered consciousness.

"Lucas," he says, "We are heading to the medical center. Your arm needs attention."

I manage to raise my head to look at both sides. I stay like that for a second before I slump back down. "Dr. Andonuts, Ness… Where are they?"

"Both of them are with Link. Don't worry, now focus on yourself."

Lucario concludes and an odd calmness comes with that. The motion of the stretcher is soothing, and just by ear I realize the mansion is in a state never seen before. Total silence. No yells of angry people, no cheers towards any Smasher fighting, no announces from Master Hand. Compared to what I experienced at Dimension Central, this is a huge change. The only real sounds come from the Alloy's feet, the clang that accompanies each step.

All this makes my eyes heavy.

"Lucas… Lucas?" Lucario asks. With that I'm pulled into another dream.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

There's a new sight when I awaken this time around. White walls surround me, soft blankets keep me warm. I raise my arm to confirm it is still there. I heave a sigh when I see it is there, carefully bandaged. Though it feels numb, the pain is mostly gone. Thanks.

I push away the blanket to receive some air on my legs. It's very nice in here. I never thought I was going to get some time to rest. This day has been chaotic.

I put down a foot in the cold floor, at the same time a chill wraps my bare torso, when a voice sounds in my head. "Rested well?" I suppress a yelp, but that didn't prevent me from almost tripping with something in the floor.

I take a deep breath and wait for my heart to calm down. "Lucario… You sca– I didn't see you."

"I decided to stay until you awoke. I wanted to make sure everything was okay."

I look at him, sitting in the floor, eyes closed. He stands up to point me with his paw at the far side of the room near a bureau. "Your footwear and shirt, in case you wondered."

"Thanks… You took off my shirt?"

"Don't get too excited, the Alloys did it in order to work in your arm."

I nod before picking up the shoes and my shirt to put them on. I need to see Ness and Andonuts soon. The last thing I remember is the Doc with that burn in his chest and Ness' tired and desperate look. I can only hope Andonuts is well enough to be of use for us. "Ah, Lucario…"

"Ness? Dr. Andonuts? According to Link they are in this same corridor. I will take you."

"How did you…?" I didn't know he had some sort of sixth sense; or can he read minds?

"Aura has a vast variety of uses, Lucas, but in this case your expression made it obvious. Come on."

I exit the room trailing behind Lucario. We walk down the ghostly corridor. There's plenty of light, but it's so silent. If I didn't know this place take for granted I would be on my guard.

"Surely Ness and the Doctor shared rooms," Lucario tells me, while he inspects the number of each room we pass by. "Here."

Lucario opens a door, but to our surprise there's no more than a lonely Alloy cleaning inside.

"Was Ness and Dr. Andonuts here?" Lucario asks the Alloy.

"Smasher Ness and Dr. Andonuts left one hour and a half ago," the Alloy responds. Then my eyes widen. One and a half hour? How much time I slept? Oh, those precious minutes wasted.

"Thanks," Lucario says. He turns around and signals me to exit the room.

"Lucario?" I want to start a question.

"Wait a moment, Lucas." He closes his eyes for a couple of seconds. When he opens them again, a small smile appears in his face. "I should've done that before. I know where they are."

"Ah, Lucario, do you know what happened to my arm? What did you do?" I had to ask him. An odd tickling had started to bother a minute ago and I wanted further details.

"That. You've been applied a special treatment for burns. You can't imagine how much times in a month burn wounds are treated. It acts quite fast, personal experience, but it still requires a couple of hours. Leave that bandage on for now; you will be able to use that arm almost perfectly then. However, once we have spare time, you should have a better inspection of that wound."

"I was worried about that. Though, it seems okay for now." Of course, Lucario said he know where the others are, "So, where is Ness and Andonuts?"

"Link and Dr. Andonuts are in Master Hand's office, while Ness is in the back of the mansion."

Ness is what? Wasn't he hurt? Apparently everyone but me heals amazingly fast. At least Dr. Andonuts is already with MH. The faster he finds out a way to get us to Porky the better. "So I suppose we are going with the hand first."

"Exactly."

I find the long distance we have to walk a bit painful, but manage to complete it with a couple of grunts and questions of Lucario if I'm okay. We arrive outside of Master Hand's office when I hear a voice coming from Lucario's headset. "Hey, Lucario, has Lucas waked up?"

As a response, Lucario and I push the doors open. "Yeah, Link," I say.

I glance around to see that, indeed Dr. Andonuts is here. He's sitting in front of Master Hand's desk, with the latter one floating besides the Dr.

"Well, that is rather convenient," Master Hand mutters.

"Did you need us?" Lucario asks.

"Yes. Dr. Andonuts has explained Master and me his plan to teleport us where he thinks Porky may be."

"Interesting. And what does that plan could be, Doctor?"

"I still retain the coordinates in here," he taps his head twice. "I will check where they will exactly take you. It needs to be an open area, far from any danger."

"Danger?" I ask after noting the emphasis he puts on the word.

"Exactly, Lucas. As I said before, this place is where the chimera project started. Where we tested them, and where Claus was… trained, so to speak." The Dr. makes a brief pause, "And thus there may be hundreds of chimeras still living there–probably eating each other in this exact moment. I can't remember everything about it, though, the time I spent there has been left in oblivion. It's a very sad and dark planet. Porky altered the planet so life could survive there; not that he cared but he needed it."

"It will be a lot more dangerous than I first thought," Master Hand says, "Now, without a doubt Ness, Link and Lucario will go with you. Getting rid of Porky is our last option, and I'm not going to risk that chance."

Lucario clears his throat, "Is there anything else we need to know."

"The plan is pretty much to go there, locate Porky and make him stop by any means. Details about the planet will be given later when the Dr. has the coordinates ready. In the meantime, I order you to gather any stuff you need. Use this time to heal that arm, Lucas. I will call you once we're ready. You are dismissed, Smashers." A snap from Master Hand opens the door broadly.

We walk out of the room–Link joins us.

"Does Ness know about the plan?" Lucario asks.

"Just what's important," Link replies, "Since he woke up he seems low spirited." He lowers his gaze to the ground.

"I can't blame him. His mind has been freed from fighting, so he has time to think about what's happened on his surroundings."

I tilt my head. What are they talking about? "What you mean?"

Link gulps loudly, as if there was a knot in his throat and he doesn't want to speak. "Luigi… Marth… many others."

I instantly understand what he refers to. "Oh…" And there it is again: that guilt building up on me. It makes me want to lay down on the floor and forget it all. Right here.

A strong paw grabs my shoulder. I look up to meet Lucario's penetrating eyes. "You know it has nothing to do with you." An almost imperceptible smile in his face reassures me. "We ought to go with Ness. I know where he is."

But before we change direction, Link says, "I… I have to get some stuff. Uh, where is Ness? I'll see you there."

"In the back of the mansion, atop a hill, sitting. Any more details?" Another rare smile comes from Lucario. He seems the least affected by the tragedies, or maybe he just wants to cheer Link up.

"Thanks," Link pauses due to a long breath, "I will see you there."

As we trek through the enormous mansion towards the "backyard" I take the chance to ask Lucario about how he felt. I struggled to find the right words, for I didn't want to say he didn't care. I was curious to listen to his answer and know if he was okay.

He gave me an honest answer. He said that in the inside, his heart was broken, the grief was overwhelming and his spirit was crushed. But reminding himself how he felt would've changed nothing. He had to suppress those feelings and give off a good vibe. At the end he said he was glad no-one could see his aura because, otherwise, we all would've witnessed the dull gray that surrounded him.

When he finished I had to ask, "Then, if you didn't want the others to know how you felt, why you did tell me?"

Lucario puffed through his nose with a hint of humor, "You asked… And, I think you are able to understand better in some way."

Our talk finishes when we arrive to our destination.

The entrance (or exit in this case) of this area is similar to the front door of the mansion. Lucario pushes the door, and the glare of the sun greets me. When my eyes adapt again, I see the mansion is only one half of this organization.

A huge field extends upon my view. Perfect for those who like to run, walk, have a picnic… whatever! To one side, small hills decorate the view; all with perfect lush grass blanketing it. The gentle wind blowing brushes the grass dragging my view into another section. A lake in the distance connected with a beautiful cascade. Then, even farther a forest probably as vivid as the Sunshine Forest back in home.

Lucario snaps me out of my astonishment saying, "Ness is nearby, we ought to go with him. He is quite downhearted. His aura makes it very clear. We have to treat him gently."

"Sure."

"There," Lucario points at a small hill. Atop it Ness is seated with his legs stretched in front of him; both, his bat and hat idly rest besides him. The wind brushes the grass around him and although the breeze is nice it just seems to bother Ness. He stays unmoving, unaffected by his surroundings, solely looking to the field that seems to span infinitely.

We start to climb the hill at the same time my mind is stormed with thoughts. Again, all of this has been caused by me. I could've stayed at my home, accepted my fate, and this wouldn't have happened. Could that be what he's thinking? Should I say sorry? I didn't say sorry to Lucario or Link… or Luigi or Marth… Hell! Even Mario.

Thankfully, I don't have to speak first; Lucario says, "Hey Ness. Have you heard about Dr. Andonuts plan of action?"

We hardly made any noise while approaching Ness, and still he doesn't react to our sudden presence. "He's going to send us to that planet Pokey took Andonuts once, but the Dr. has to confirm his coordinates first."

"Pretty much," Lucario says as we stand behind Ness. "Master Hand also told us to get ready for when we depart. We are going to unknown lands that could be infested in chimeras; we should prepare."

"Then go and prepare yourself," Ness replies instantly. His voice stays in a neutral, low volume and yet I can feel that vibe of his words: leave me alone, it says.

"We came to tell you about that Ness. You should grab any thing that you may need while we are out there," I tell him, almost begging to abandon his indifference.

And he turns his head around. His look bashes in my guilt; his eyes are red, his hair disheveled, his collar completely ripped and his neck has four red marks in one side, while a single redder one in the opposite. Bowser's claw. Ness' appearance screams lament and regret and hate. I have lived as a servant of that for many years. Seeing another person like that destroys me.

After staring at us for long seconds, Ness says, "I have," he raises his left arm. Three golden medals hang from his grasp–veins bulge out. With the medals shining against the sun I can make out a symbol in each medal. One mushroom in two medals and a sword in the other. What could that mean?

The medals reflect in Lucario's eyes before he looks away. "Each one of the Smashers has a symbol that represents them: Luigi and Wario's is a mushroom. Marth's is a sword," I hear Lucario's voice in my head.

They are all dead.

"I need not more than this," Ness says and turns back to look at the field.

"Ness," Lucario places a paw in Ness' shoulder, "Come with us. I know that, at least, you could some of those PSI stones."

"We will gather with Master Hand and Andonuts as well. You may want to listen to any thing they have to say," I say.

Ness turns back to us. He sighs and says, "Let's go." Taking a second to clean his nose with his arm, he picks up his bat and his hat.

"Good…" Lucario says. He approaches Ness glaring into his eyes, "Now, tell me why the hell you haven't go to get those wounds checked?"

"I will, I just needed some air beforehand."

"I have to go to my room. Packing a bunch of berries would be a good idea," Lucario says and almost instantly disappears.

"Ah, Lucario, always showing off his speed in a subtle manner," Ness says. "Hey, wanna come with me, there's something I want to show you."

"Sure."

"By the way… Sorry for being like this, but all that's happened exceeds my limits. I really liked Luigi and Marth… Wario too."

"I'm the one who should be sorry–everything's my fault." Ness opens his mouth to respond but I continue, "However," I force a small smile, and hopefully spread it to Ness. "Remember what I told you about the Needles? Well, when we get rid of Porky, I will pull those Needles. The Dark Dragon will be released then and hopefully… hopefully just as I plan the Dragon to restore my world it will restore all harm Porky has done to us."

Ness's eyes opened wide as if he needed them to hear clearer, "Apparently, you forgot to tell me a few unimportant details."

"I don't want to get anyone's hopes up."

I barely convinced Ness to get his wounds checked after entering back into the mansion. It was not more than fifteen minutes we spent in the medical center before we were going to our room. Ness told me the thunder sword was there, so that nagging thought about me losing the sword disappeared soon.

A few seconds into our room, Ness speaks up, "It's such a shame you never got to experience this beauty."

I ignore my business to see what he's referring to. And there he stands, rubbing the huge television a little too affectionately.

I shrug, "Who knows? Maybe I will sometime."

I pick up the thunder sword's grip. I sigh dropping it inside my pocket.

"This is what I wanted to show you and give you," Ness says. Suddenly I detect I gray blur flying towards me; I cover my face, only to see that it has stopped mid-air. Ness "holds" it from the other side of the room using PSI.

The object falls quietly in front of me. I pick it up, and inspect every inch of its uneven surface. It's a simple rock… with a tremendous power emanating from it.

Probably noticing my clueless expression, Ness explains, "That's a PSI stone. Perhaps you wondered how I could get a hold on Mario and Bowser at the same time in DC. How I suddenly got that much energy."

"Yes…" I don't take my eyes off the stone. Its power it's quite mesmerizing, "I was thinking about that."

"Well, this little miracle gave me that PSI boost. If you focus on it, you can absorb the energy within it. You may think is not that useful, but trust me, just like it happened in the Central, it has saved my life countless times."

"So that was why you suddenly… exploded."

He chuckles, "I think so. Besides that, you can boost your PSI to use telepathy like Lucario, or remember almost anything with perfect memory; next-to-instantaneous teleportation; motion sensitivity… Even mind control! I remember taking over a poor mole by accident. So yeah, it's like those products on TV that supposedly have a thousand uses, but that's bull; actually these little things have more uses! Okay… the PSI stone doesn't do all of that. It helps you to do it."

I don't understand the last part of Ness' explanation, but that doesn't matter. Now, in fact, I look down at the PSI stone. Really, I can do all that stuff with PSI?

Every minute we spent supplying ourselves with the stone Ness never lost hold of the medals. It destroyed me in the inside to see the consequences of this invasion. I didn't ask if he was going to take the medals because it was obvious after he strapped them around the handle of his bat. As the bat followed Ness' movements, the medals glinted with the last rays of natural light.

Forty minutes after that we begin our way back to Master Hand's office. He hasn't announced anything, but probably Dr. Andonuts is almost ready, and I want to hear from the Dr.'s own mouth how is the place we are going to.

In the middle of the mansion, Lucario joins us. I see he did prepare, for now he's a small, blue pouch hanging from his shoulder. He asked Ness if he had his wounds checked, or if he just changed his clothes (while we were in our room, Ness changed his old shirt with a fresh one). I responded for Ness saying the true. Lucario is pleased and we continue.

We meet Link outside Master Hand's door. He tells us he was about to call us. MH said they were ready.

The doors before us automatically open, "Come in," Master Hand greets us.

"So, it's all settled?" Ness asks.

Dr. Andonuts has his hands in his back, his look inspired confidence, along with a satisfied smirk. "The coordinates have been confirmed. The teleportation will take you to a "safe" place. I can not tell you, however, how much time you have before a crowd of hungry chimeras flood that area."

"Wow, that makes me a bit uneasy. Just a bit," Ness comments.

Andonuts shook his head, "I can't help that."

"Doctor," Master Hand says, "Please tell them what you told me about Porky's planet. They will need more than simple instructions."

The Doctor proceeded to do as told. All my attention was put into his words.

His theory suggested the planet was home of the chimeras that were teleported here, the Smashers' planet. The lands were mostly barren of life. Only wind and dust blew endlessly in its surface. Around the planet a lonely moon orbited. About this moon, Andonuts knew next to nothing. He had only been there once; it was safe for life to exist but he said we didn't have to worry about that.

Then he talked about the location we were going to be teleported. The spot was outside a city... A city? I asked out loud. Yes, Porky had constructed a city in the planet (if there were any more cities Andonuts did not say anything); and, at the opposite side of the city–if he remembered exactly, the Dr. pointed out–was Porky's stronghold. A place that resembled the chimera laboratory (memories haunted me for a second; I hated every inch of that place where damnation was weighed down on you the moment you stepped in) was surely where Porky was hiding. He wished he could teleport us inside Porky's facility but with him around and the chimeras in the city roaming about in search of nonexistent food, he decided it was wiser to teleport us outside the city.

After that he closes his eyes, stress was visibly put on his eyelids. "I can't remember anymore... Sorry," he said.

He also pointed out his amnesia was Porky's work and he couldn't do anything else.

Dr. Andonuts seems to have finished talking. I need to interrupt now. I need to expose my idea. I only hope they understand going to the Islands first is the best. I want to make sure Claus is, or not, there, everything is okay, and pull at least half the Needles.

I gotta talk now, "I have to say something. Before we go to Porky's planet, I'd like to go to the Nowhere Islands first."

Although he's a hand without a face, Master Hand doesn't seem pleased with the idea, "Why you want to go there suddenly?" he asks with a sigh.

"First, I don't know if you've heard about my brother–"

"I explained Master Hand everything I knew…" Andonuts interrupted, his voice decreasing in volume.

I grimace and nod. "Then, I need to know if Porky took my brother when we had the incident with the teleport; Porky would be able to repeat what did and take control over my brother. Not only that. Moreover, I think it's a good idea to pull at least half the Needles while we are there, that way Porky won't have too much options if he plans anything… And maybe I can see if everything's going well there…"

"I can't deny that sounds like a good course of action," Master Hand begins, "But what about us? How much will this take you?"

"I expect no more than an hour," I say.

Lucario, who had been silent for the most part, says, "Hmmm, but we will have to return here after that, to teleport to the other planet. That will take too much time."

"And can't you adjust the mini-teleport you attach to the invitations for the Newcomers," surprisingly, Ness suggests, "We could use that from the Nowhere Islands, and may be able to spare some time."

"Right," Master Hand slowly responds, "In that case, give me a minute to add the coordinates."

And the minutes passed. It was not a minute, nor more than ten. Still, it was an eternity to sit in one corner, while listening to Ness' bad jokes.

Finally, Master Hand reenters the room, Andonuts at his side. We stand up knowing that was our cue.

"Link," Master Hand extends one of his giant fingers, where a small hexagonal device sits. "This will take you to Porky's planet. Take good care of it, there's no time to make another." He makes a brief pause before handing another device–this one looking like a headset. "When you leave Lucas' homeworld, make sure to keep me updated."

He snaps his fingers and a golden trail unfolds out of the room, "Follow it; it will take you to Lucas' homeworld teleporter." I glance to my companions: Ness, at my right, stands with his head held high; Lucario, at my left, has his eyes closed, but his ears twitch slightly with each of MH's words; and Link, besides Ness, takes one last look of his reflection on his sword before sheathing it.

"Our world relies on you, good luck Smashers."