A.N. I'm back with another chapter for you guys! Things have been pretty busy with classes and all that jazz, but I've been working on this fic in my down time. I recently spent my Saturday with a couple friends playing smash, and it got me hyped to work on this even more so. I'm hoping to get another chapter to you guys soon, but we'll see what happens anyway with that enjoy the chapter!^^
Chapter 25
"LADY PALUTENA!" Red covered his ears trying to block out the massive yelling from Pit. Lucas too was beside him trying in vain to shield his ears. Squirtle has withdrawn into his shell only peaking out when Pit stopped to take a breath. Red took pity on the poor pokemon returning him to his pokeball.
"I don't think she can hear you Pit." Lucas pointed out when the angel had finally given up trying to call upon the goddess. When Red had join the group everything had been going as well as to be expected. Lady Palutena had managed to lead them to Red's lost Ivysaur freeing him from the clutches of the monsters that captured him. At first Red was quite confounded by the voice that seemed to come from no where, but he was learning fast to just accept some of the quirks of his new companions. Not long ago though, Lady Palutena had gone silent.
To make things even worse Kirby had run off somewhere. Red thought he saw something in the distance earlier, but before he could figure out what. The pink hero had already dashed off after it. The young heroes had tried to chase after him, but Kirby was far too fast for any of them to even have a chance of catching him.
"This isn't like her! She has to be in trouble!" Pit cried looking up at the sky as if he would be able to see the goddess. Lucas frowned looking like he wanted to say something to reassure the angel but he couldn't come up with the words.
Red stepped up instead placing a hand on the angel's shoulder.
"The best thing we can do then is to keep moving. She's a goddess right? I'm sure she's fine." Though Red had no idea if that statement held any merit it seemed to lift Pit's spirits.
"I guess, okay let's keep moving the last thing she told us was your...Charizard was it? He's this way." Red nodded confirming his pokemon's name. The small group had made their way into the mountains. Eventually finding what appeared to be a systems of caves carved into the mountain. Inside dozens of monsters made their home, claiming the caves as their new lair.
"Do you ever wonder why monsters like hiding in caves." Pit spoke up as they entered a large cave opening on the side of the mountain. Red shrugged, plenty of pokemon made their homes in caves. However from the way Pit spoke monsters that attacked you were commonplace in his world.
"Not sure, monsters like these aren't from my world. The worst thing you'd find in a cave is a hoard of Zubats." Dirt crunched under Red's feet as they transversed the cave. Lady Palutena told the small group of heroes that Charizard was somewhere in this cave. Anticipation welled in Red's chest, eager to find his first pokemon.
"None of these things look like they're from my world either. You recognize any of these things Lucas?" Pit asked the psychic boy who shook his head.
"Thankfully not," Lucas was looking just as on edge as ever. Red was beginning to think the young boy was always in a constant state of worry. The pokemon trainer shrugged the thought away, they had more important things to worry about right now.
The small group traversed the many tunnels that made up the cave. Battling all manner of monsters that got in their way. There were various train tracks leading throughout the tunnels. A few minecarts still stuck on their tracks leading Red to come to the conclusion that this was once a mine not a simple cave.
It didn't manner though as eventually the small group came to hear loud roars echoing in the tight tunnels. Red didn't even need to question what it was, he knew the sound of his most beloved pokemon when he heard it.
"Charizard!" Red heard the protests of his companions as he went blazing ahead towards the sound of his pokemon. All the tunnels looked basically the same, but he heard another roar from Charizard answering his call. As he got closer to the sounds he caught a glance at the tunnel walls. Scorch marks marred the walls, Charizard must have been fighting something.
"Charizard where are you!" Red paused in his fast pace run to listen. After a moment another roar echoed down the hall. Red ran forward, the others were far behind him at this point, but it didn't matter he had to get to his pokemon.
The tunnel opened up into a larger chamber where most of the minecart tracks met up. At some point it could have been an unloading station for whatever they were mining from the mountain. Now however it was empty except for a few minecarts and some crates scatter around the room.
In the middle of the room stood Red's best friend, the first pokemon he ever got. Charizard was a large orange dragon like pokemon. With large wings, and a tail alight with flames. He would certainly be an intimidating sight to any foe.
Red went dashing over to his pokemon in his joy not noticing that the pokemon didn't share his look. He didn't notice the malice in Charizard's eyes until it was too late. Red's world went white for a second, the next thing he knew he was on the ground looking up.
Shakily he brought a hand to his chest, he flinched upon touching charred skin. Letting out a shuddering breath, Red looked to see Charizard's foot slam down next to his head. The fire type pokemon towered over the human.
Charizard snarled down at Red, flames coming from his jaws. Red blinked his mind finally catching up to the situation. Tears welled in his eyes, not wanting to believe his first pokemon would ever hurt him.
"Charizard…" Red muttered, the pokemon showed no remorse, a fire blast charging ready in his jaw. Red shakily reached for one of the pokeballs on his belt, but his body felt like lead. He had never been so seriously hurt before and his world was spinning.
Red didn't get the chance though as another roar resonated in the chamber. The pokemon standing above Red was thrown back out of Red's line of sight an orange blur flying by. Red heard various roars and the sounds of fighting happening out of his line of vision.
Gritting his teeth Red sat up to be greeted by a rather confusing sight. Two charizards were fighting, exchanging blow after blow with each other. The two pokemon looked like carbon copies of each other, aside for one looking more beat up than the other. After a moment of staring dumbfounded, it clicked in Red's mine.
"Charizard!" He called out to his true pokemon. The more beat up of the two charizards let out a roar slamming his tail into his opponent sending them flying into the wall. With a moment of reprieve from his enemy Charizard rushed to his trainer. The large fire dragon dashed to Red's side leaning down and nuzzling his trainer with his snout.
"I missed you too buddy, we'll talk later we have a battle to win right now! Ready?" Charizard let out mighty roar turning to face his opponent with renewed confidence. The other charizard had just crawled out of the wall he was throw into snarling. Charizard let out a roar wings spreading out, the flame on his tail growing in size.
Red struggled to his feet, but he managed to stand. Turning his cap around Red smirked.
"Alright Charizard use rock smash on the ground! Give yourself some cover." Charizard smashed the ground with his tail, dirt and debris went flying into the air leaving a cloud between the two pokemon. The other charizard roared letting out a blast of flames that soundly missed Charizard who disappeared in the cloud.
"Now use dragon claw Charizard!" While the other charizard had been focused on finding him in the cloud. Charizard had flown above the other. Now coming down upon his opponent, Charizards' claws glowed and the dragon pokemon slashed the other in the back.
"Good! Now use flamethrower!" The other charizard turned his head around just in time for Charizard's mouth to open letting loose a torrent of flames.
"Finish it up with seismic toss!" While the other was still disoriented Charizard grabbed the fire pokemon lifting him off the ground, and throwing him slamming head first into the ground knocking the pokemon out. Charizard let out a cry of triumph as the other pokemon lay on the ground. He quickly went rushing over to his trainer nuzzling Red, content with their victory.
"Great job Charizard," Red smiled lightly wrapping his arms around the pokemon's head hugging him.
"I missed you too." Charizard made a quiet rumbling noise in agreement. When they let go of each other they both looked to the other pokemon. Both trainer and pokemon's eyes widened as the defeated dragon appeared to be melting. Orange skin changed black, and began falling off into a puddle of black sludge around the pokemon.
The charizard shuddered and slowly it sat up. Red gasped its face was already half melted away and no eyes were presence in the creature's head. Only two red pinpricks remain of the beast's eyes. Charizard took a step in front of his trainer ready to defend the two again.
The creature appeared to smirk, though with its quickly falling apart face it was hard to tell.
"This world is imperfect, Master Tabuu will rule soon…" The creature's voice gurgled, and within moments the creature fell apart. Nothing but a puddle of black sludge remained, leaving pokemon and trainer staring in dumbfounded horror.
"What the heck happened here!" Pit's voice broke the two from the daze of staring at the puddle. Red looked at his pokemon then back to the puddle, and finally back to Pit who had just finally caught up to them with Lucas. Red gave them an uncertain smile scratching the back of his head.
"Heh, I ummm...found Charizard." The smile quickly fell from Red's face as the ground rush up to meet him. He closed his eyes before it happened though passing out into blissful unconsciousness.
"What in the goddess's name is that?" the Hero of Time asked dumbfounded by the sight he was seeing. Standing on the deck of the Halberd the hero watched as a massive green dragon like creature flew in circles around the ship.
After Ridley was driven off, and Samus and Zelda had fallen disappearing into one of those portals. They had used the Halberd to pick up the remaining heroes that were in their group. Picking up Ike, Marth, and Yoshi they had been about to take the ship back to where Samus and Zelda disappeared in order to search for them.
However their plans had been cut short when a new tear in space opened, and a large dragon like creature had come forth. At first the creature didn't bother the ship, flying around wildly as if confused about its situation, but then it had began a ruthless assault on the vessel. Peach and himself had taken to the deck of the ship to try and prevent the beast from destroying the vessel them along with it.
The beast let out a fearsome roar, energy building up in its maw before letting out a beam of bright yellow energy towards the Halberd. Link threw himself down steadying himself as the ship shuddered.
"This couldn't get much worse could it?" Link groaned, but as if the universe wanted to prove him wrong another portal opened not too far from the ship, and Link gritted his teeth as the dragon came in for another attack not noticing the other tear in space.
"Meta Knight now would be a good time to get us out of here!" Link shouted up to the Dreamland native up on the control deck. A few strangler pirates had survived long enough to damage the ship's engines and main weaponry. The attacking dragon wasn't helping the ship get moving any faster either.
"Working on it!" Meta Knight called back, and Link could spot him up there messing with some controls. The hylian hero sighed turning his attention back to the new portal opening up. Out of it Link saw several small things fall out that Link couldn't make out what they were from a distance. Then out of the portal another dragon came flying out.
Unlike the other one that was slim, and a light green color with red and yellow highlights. This one was slightly bulkier with a dark green covering most of its body. It had larger jaws than the other one, and bright eyes that appeared confused at the situation the beast was in.
"Gobblegut?" Link heard Peach say in disbelief, he looked to the Mushroom Kingdom ruler for an explanation.
"You know this thing?" Link gestured the dragon, both dragons were serpent like sliding through the air. Gobblegut looked around as if trying to figure out what was going on.
"He's from my world, he helped Bowser when he was trying to take over the galaxy." Clutching his sword Link readied himself for the beast to attack the ship as well, but instead the other dragon roared at Gobblegut. Energy building up, the dragon fired a beam of energy at the new comer. Gobblegut let out a great roar of pain, but the dragon recovered his eyes narrowing at the unnamed dragon. The larger dragon went barreling towards the slimer beast his jaws coming to clamp down on the beast's middle. Roaring the unnamed dragon positioned itself so its head could aim at Gobblegut.
As the two beasts continued to duke it out Link let out a sigh of relief. Let the dragons fight it out, they had more important things to worry about. Before he could head back inside though the hero noticed a small glint rushing towards them. Pulling out his bow he prepared to shoot it before it got close to him or Peach.
"Wait," Peach held up her hand, and Link frowned. Within moments the thing flying towards them was visible. It was a creature of some kind that Link wasn't familiar with. It was small almost raindrop shaped, a bright yellow coloring that almost glowed like a star. Two small eyes were wide and it flew over to them. Flying right towards Peach, the princess caught the creature in her arms cradling it like a child. Before Link could ask what the creature was since Peach clearly knew. Two more flew in, a blue one and a red one, the creatures crowded around Peach making almost whimpering like noises.
"It's okay, you're all fine." Peach soothed them, before she looked at Link who was giving Peach a very confused look.
"These are Lumas, they're also from my world. Normally Rosalina looks after them, but if they're here…" Link watched Peach's face become strained with worry for this Rosalina person.
"Let's get'em inside then, they're better with us than roaming around alone." Peach nodded in agreement continuing to whisper soothing things to the distraught Lumas. The Lumas continued to make distressed noises though, gathering around the blonde princess following her inside the ship.
While Link went to talk to Meta Knight Peach tended to the Lumas. The poor things were completely distraught, and wouldn't stop shaking clinging to Peach. She tried to keep her expression calm. The Lumas were in essence children, and would easily pick up on if she was distressed. However the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom was deeply worried.
Lumas were in a way young stars in her world, and a woman named Rosalina looked after them as their mother. If Lumas were here than that meant the space faring woman was in trouble. Peach frowned, it wasn't enough that two of her closest friends were in trouble. Whatever was happening had to drag another one of Peach's loved ones into this too.
While Peach didn't know Rosalina as well as she did Mario and Luigi. The woman did help Mario save their world, so it was hard to not consider her a friend. And Peach did spend some time with her after Mario had saved her from Bowser that adventure. Rosalina was a kind person who definitely did not deserve whatever evil has come her way.
Walking to one the least frightening parts of the ship, Peach found a kitchen that was still warm from the ovens being left running. The Halberd was an impressive ship, but it certainly wasn't the most comforting place to be so this would have to do for a place to calm the Lumas down.
"Alright, it's okay you're all safe now." Peach gathered the three Lumas in her arms holding them close. These ones were rather small, smaller than what Peach remembered the last time she got to be around the star children. These Lumas must be young, Peach concluded.
The three Lumas curled up in Peach's arms still shaking. Peach wanted to ask what happened, find out what has become of Rosalina. The Lumas were clearly too distraught to talk right now though.
After several moments their shaking and shuddering calmed slightly, and Peach was able to loosen her hold on them without protest. She smiled lightly at the creatures glad to see they were calming down.
"Are you three okay?" The Lumas paused, seeming to ponder the answer for a bit. Then the gold one floated away from Peach nodding. The other two gaining strength from their kin floated next to them nodding as well.
"That's good, did you get separated from the Comet Observatory, and fall into that portal?" The Comet Observatory was where Rosalina and the Lumas lived, at the mention of it though the Lumas regained their distressed expression.
"Mama is in trouble," the gold one chimed.
"Bad guy was attacking," this time the red one piped up continuing for its kin.
"She told us to run and hide, that Gobblegut would watch us." Since Gobblegut once followed and obeyed Bowser one would think the dragon completely evil. Peach was a firm believer in seeing good in everyone though, and the dragon must have had its reasons for following Bowser in the past. So she didn't put too much thought into a former minion of Bowser helping Rosalina.
"Do you know who was attacking you?" Peach didn't want to ask the Lumas these questions, she really didn't. It was clear the poor things were scared beyond belief, but they needed to know what was going on. They were still mostly in the dark about what was happening here in Subspace. They only knew that for some reason Master Hand was commanding an army and tearing their worlds apart. Also Peach recalled the horrid creature that had copied Zelda's form mentioning someone named Tabuu.
"Didn't see him, Mama and Polari stayed behind." Peach frowned at that, she wasn't surprised Rosalina would confront whatever was threatening her children, but Peach had a slim hope that she would have gotten away to safety.
"Okay, thank you for telling me. I know you're scared, but it's going to be alright. Will you three be okay here while we take care of this. I promise we will get you back to your mother soon." Peach's comforting tone seemed to soothe the Lumas. They nodded the three giving Peach a small wave as she left them in the kitchen.
Leaving the kitchen Peach made her way up to the deck where she knew the rest of the fighters were coming up with a plan. She wasn't even a floor away before she could hear shouting coming from above. Clearly an argument of some sort was going on.
"Our priority should be to find where they are producing these bombs, and stop it." Peach heard Meta Knight's cool tone though it was strained and a slightly higher pitch showing the dreamland native was angry. Peach hurried along climbing the ladder to get up to the control deck.
"We'd have a better shot if we figure out where everyone else is first! These are our friends we're talking about we can't just leave them out there alone!" Link roared just as Peach entered the room. No one except Yoshi notice her, but the green dinosaur was standing back a frown on his face as the swordsmen argue.
"I agree with Link, we have more a chance taking out whatever is making these bombs with a larger group." Ike spoke up putting a hand on Link's shoulder to settle him down, but the hero of time was still bristling with anger.
"If we don't act quickly though, it may not matter if we find our friends." Marth stated grimly getting a surprised look from Ike and Link.
"Marth! You can't really agree with this metal faced weird! What about Samus and Zelda? Are we just supposed to cross our fingers, and hope they didn't fall into their death!" Link jabbed a finger in Meta Knight's direction who merely stood there wrapping his cap around his body. The green clad hero shot him one final glare before looking in Marth's direction again. Marth raised his hands in a passive manner frowning.
"I'm just saying Meta Knight has a point, the longer we waste looking for people the more time that will give to our foes to go about their deeds." Meta Knight made a small nod in agreement, but Link glared at the knight huffing.
"We could barely take this ship. Wherever they're making the bombs is bound to be more heavily guarded than this. And we had more people to take this ship, now we're down two of our strongest players, and you think we can take an even stronger base. That I will remind you we don't even know where it is!" Meta Knight glared at Link as he ranted he body tense as if he expected Link to attack him.
"You don't know where your friends are either. Everyone who came to this tournament could be spread across dozens of different worlds by now. It'd be impossible to find everyone." Meta Knight pointed out, his cool yellow eyes expressionless to the cold logic he was speaking of.
"Then we should split up, and find everyone we can." Peach's voice came alerting everyone to her presence. Ike shot Peach a relieved look, mouthing something along the lines of "they've been at this for a while". Peach smiled at the swordsmen before focusing on the task at hand.
"We have a place we can call safe for now, so we should make use of it. While a few of us go out and look for where they're making the bombs the rest should look for everyone who can help us." Peach reasoned, sounding very much like Zelda the blonde thought smiling. The hylian ruler was an expert at negotiations and wordplay, and it seemed it was rubbing off on Peach. Link seemed to agree as he nodded crossing his arms thinking over Peach's plan.
"It would be unwise to separate with so few of us. What if one team runs into trouble they can't handle." Meta knight pointed out, Peach smiled at him causing the Dreamland native to hesitate.
"Then they retreat and join back up with the main group of course. It's not perfect, but it's better than arguing about it. Can't you see that this is clearly their plan, they know we're not as strong alone so they've separated us." This statement was met with nods, and Meta Knight looked away briefly as if embarrassed.
"Very well, if this is our plan than who will search for the bombs?" Meta Knight folded his cape around himself speaking evenly. Peach thought for a moment looking over the group frowning. She was no tactician this decision was better left to a warrior. Luckily Marth stepped forward resting his hand on his sword.
"Yoshi and I can go," Marth glanced at the dinosaur to make sure he was okay with that idea before continuing. "Yoshi is the fastest of us, so if we run into trouble we should be able to make it out of it." Yoshi made a small noise of determination bouncing on his feet.
"Alright then the rest of us will search for everyone else." Link said, unfolding his arms nodding towards Marth and Yoshi.
"We will take the Halberd so if you run into trouble look for us in the sky." Meta Knight informed the two, and with that Marth and Yoshi left to head out in search of wherever the bombs were being produced. With the two gone it now fell on the rest of them to find everyone before it was too late. They were heroes in their world's for a reason, and Peach knew together they could defeat this evil.
"You're more powerful than I expected, but it is futile to resist…" Rosalina panted holding her arm that she was fairly certain was broken now close. The mother of lumas had known something was wrong as soon as she felt the first tug of something entering the galaxy. Whatever creature hovering above her now had ripped a giant hole in her world bringing monsters and all manner of chaos with it. Rosalina had done her best to hold off the human god like being while her lumas escaped, but now it was over.
The Comet Observatory was in ruins, falling apart in space without power. Shakily Rosalina stood, Polari her faithful luma companion trilled softly next to her. Unlike the others who Rosalina had ordered to flee, the first luma Rosalina ever met would always stay by her side. The god like being gazed down at her as if confused by her defiance.
"You will continue to fight, even though you know it is useless." Rosalina chuckled humorless, feeling somehow lighter even though her words now could be her last.
"I may lose now, but my friends will defeat you. If my end continues the cycle then I am not afraid, because I'll fall knowing someone will stop you." The god was silent for a few moments as he hovered down closer to Rosalina.
"You speak of the ruler and the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom. Your logic is flawed, as is everything in this world. It is why it must be remade anew. I will recreate the universe in perfection, and if you do not accept it...you will perish." With that gathering energy in its hands the god like being threw one last attack at Rosalina, and the mother of lumas lost herself in darkness.
A.N. I just had to make another reference to a Smash 4 character but hey there is a reason Tabuu is going after these characters himself, but I'll expand on that later. But also no Samus or Zelda this chapter. We'll catch up with them next chapter I wanted to spend at least one chapter on our other heroes especially on the ones we haven't seen in a while like Pit, Lucas, and they're little group. With that final note reviews are loved and I'll see you guys next chapter!^^