CHAPTER TWO
Blades, Claws and Sparks
Felicia's eyes steadily fluttered open and she gave a light stretch. This was the first time she had opted not to travel in first-class on a train, but she didn't mind it. In fact, she liked it. It was far less formal than what she was used to, and there were a lot more children. That was important, because many children came up to her, all with smiles on their faces when they got to meet her.
"It pays to be famous, I guess." she thought happily. "…literally."
Felicia's cat-like ears pricked up when she heard a soft yawn next to her. She turned her head and smiled at the yellow mouse-like creature that was steadily shaking himself awake.
"Did you have a nice sleep, little guy?"
The mouse turned to her with a big smile.
"Pika-pi!" he said.
"Great! I did, too!" Felicia replied with a giggle.
If Felicia couldn't stand seeing children upset, then she really couldn't stand seeing small Pokémon upset. She had seen a Poké Ball for sale while she had been on her way to the train station. She hadn't thought twice about buying it and was delighted to find a Pikachu upon opening it. Pikachu himself was delighted to see that someone so pretty had taken him in. They'd only known each other for a few hours now but they were already thick as thieves.
Pikachu bounded onto Felicia's lap and prompted the catwoman to tickle him behind his ears.
"Chaa…Pikachuuu!" he joyfully squeaked.
"You like that, too?" she asked before giggling again. "I guess you and I have way more things in common than I thought."
Suddenly, the train lurched forward and nearly tossed Felicia out of her seat. It wasn't just her, though. Everyone she could see was looking around as though something was wrong. It took her a moment to realize that something was indeed wrong as the train slowed to a stop: they had left the train station only twenty minutes ago. There was no conceivable way they had reached their destination yet. When the conductor appeared in the car, everyone stood up and asked what was going. His only response was to give them a solemn look and simply say "Everyone, please remain in your seats."
Just then, two people appeared behind him, each of them appearing dangerous in their own way. The first one was a very large man with wavy brown hair wearing a pink muscle shirt and pants that looked a tad too small on his incredibly muscular physique, his dangerous aspect being that he had fists the size of a head. The other was a woman with long pink hair wearing a very provocative outfit consisting of a police officer's hat, a white shirt that was far too small for her, a pair of unzipped shorts, a studded choker around her neck and what seemed to be a whip in one hand and a pistol in the other.
"Alright, people." the woman said. "I'm gonna ask you this straight up and I want a straight answer: is there a Saya Kusanagi on this train?"
Everyone looked around the car in confusion, as though waiting for someone to raise their hand or stand up or do something so that these people would leave. The woman rolled her eyes.
"Okay, look, we're not going to kill anyone unless provoked. And what that means is get her up here or I'll be very angry."
Everyone started looking around frantically, practically begging for this "Saya" to stand up. This woman was threatening them with death and if this girl was on the train, she was being the most selfish person they had ever come across.
"For God's sake…hey! Whistle boy!"
The conductor snapped to attention.
"Yes, sir…I mean, ma'am. Yes, ma'am?!"
"You mind getting me a list of the passengers? You needed to check their tickets, right?"
"Uhh…y-yes, ma'am."
"Alright. Go get it. Now."
The conductor ran off and came back with a clipboard. The woman snatched it from him and steadily read down the last.
"Okay, Kagome, Komiya, Kurono…no Kusanagi?! Dammit! We're on the wrong train!"
"I told you to pick da odder train, Poison." the large man said in a slow and stupid voice.
Poison gritted her teeth and looked back at the muscle man with a furious look.
"Oh, shut it, Hugo! Yeah, you're right this one time, but that doesn't mean you can just rub it in my face!"
Everyone was silent, including Hugo, but that didn't stop a barely audible whisper of "God, what a bitch…". Whoever had said it immediately realized how big of a mistake they had made when Poison suddenly whirled around with a crazed look in her eye.
"Who said that?!" she seethed.
When nobody answered, she immediately began walking down the aisle and pointing her gun all about.
"Let me get something straight to you people: I'm not very happy right now, I can easily make you all very unhappy. So give me what I want and we'll…hey, sit down, cat lady!"
Felicia had stood up with an angry expression and flexed her claws.
"Why don't you tell us exactly what you want Saya for?" she asked.
"That's none of your business, missy. Now sit down before I put you down!"
"I'll sit down once you get lost."
Poison immediately pointed her gun at Felicia and started grinding her teeth again.
"Who the hell do you think you are to try and command me?!"
"I'll tell you who I can command."
She pointed a finger at Poison and smirked.
"PIKACHU, USE THUNDERBOLT!"
Pikachu sprang out as his red cheeks started shooting out sparks.
"Pika-CHUUUUUU!" he shouted, firing a large lightning bolt out.
The bolt struck Poison with a tremendous force and sent a painful jolt throughout her body. She screamed in pain, thrashing all about until it finally subsided and she lay on the ground with her hair sticking out in all directions.
"You stupid, little, piece of TRASH!" she growled before smoothing her hair down to the best of her ability. "Let's get her, Hugo!"
Hugo cracked his knuckles before yelling out and running forward to bring his boulder-like fists down on Felicia, who simply rolled out of the way and kicked both feet against his chest. He flew backward right before Poison jumped over him and came at Felicia with the whip, swinging it with all her might. She failed to make contact once Felicia barked out another command.
"Pikachu, use Quick Attack!"
Pikachu rushed forward a breakneck speed and slammed into Poison, knocking her backwards and off her feet. By this time, Hugo had recovered and started swinging his fists at Felicia. It seemed her speed heavily outmatched his power since every attack just sailed over her as she ducked and rolled away from them.
"Sorry about this, big guy." she said before dodging one last punch and slashing at him with her claws.
Hugo let out one small cry of pain before suddenly vaulting himself up and trying to bring his full body weight down on Felicia. She let out a cat-like shriek of terror before propelling herself out of the way, causing Hugo to simply fall flat on his face.
"Jeez, talk about dumb as a rock."
"Oh, you little kitty brat!" Poison growled. "This means war!"
"Don't forget, 'Poison'. This kitty has claws!"
Poison jumped at Felicia with a flying kick, only to be hit in the head when Pikachu jumped up and slammed his own head against hers.
"Ow…y'know, you and your pet mouse there are making this way more difficult than it needs to be."
"Hey, you're the one who threatened everyone with a gun when you're not only outnumbered but outmatched, too."
"Who're you callin' 'outmatched'?!"
"Uhh…you. I don't see anyone else stupid enough to mess with a Darkstalker."
"A wha…forget it! Besides, Hugo messed with you, too!"
"Yeah, but he's not a bitch…oh, yeah, by the way. The 'God, what a bitch' person. That was me."
"I figured."
"No, you didn't. If you did, you would have said it about three minutes ago. In fact, there's something in common: we may both be pretty faces but it looks like I'm way smarter than you."
"GAH! THAT TEARS IT! GET UP, HUGO! WE'RE GONNA RIP HERE LIMB FROM LIMB!"
Hugo got up as if on cue, while Felicia and Pikachu both sank down on all fours.
"You ready, little guy?" the catwoman asked.
"Pikachu pi!" the Pokémon responded, probably the equivalent of "As I'll ever be".
"I thought so."
Hugo began swinging his fists at Felicia while Poison began swinging her whip at Pikachu. Felicia jumped up on Hugo's arm, her slender physique just barely weighing him down before he threw a punch at her with his other arm only to have that arm jumped on as well. Hugo gritted his teeth and reared back for a headbutt, but Felicia jumped down and slid out of sight before he could finish. He looked all about before he realized she was lying on the ground behind him.
"Bottoms up!" she joked before rearing her legs and giving a sharp kick.
Poison was having just as much luck with Pikachu, as in none. Considering he was both much smaller and lighter than her, as well as an Electric-type Pokémon, his speed was naturally unmatched. Every time Poison aimed a kick at him, he simply hopped out of the way. It wasn't as though he was really that much of threat, she assumed. He was a Pokémon and therefore wouldn't attack unless Felicia gave him an order.
Or at least, that was what she thought up until she made an attempt to whip him. All that happened was he blocked the blow with his tail which had started glowing a steely gray. Iron Tail, a fact made painfully obvious when Pikachu slammed his tail against her foot.
"Owowowow OW! That hurt, you little rat!"
Poison couldn't be sure, but it seemed that Pikachu had grown a mischievous grin across his face.
"Oh, you think that's funny?!"
Hugo slammed his fists down, just barely missing Felicia before she rolled forward and slashed at his face. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her off the ground.
"Dose claws really hurt!"
"Sorry, but I'm just defending myself, remember?"
Pikachu leaped up and slammed Hugo's arm with a quick Iron Tail, knocking his companion free.
"Good boy, Pikachu!" Felicia chirped.
"Pika pikaaa!" the mouse Pokémon replied.
"Look out!"
Felicia balanced herself on her tail and gave Poison a strong kick to the chest, sending her stumbling backward into a wall near to where the conductor was crouching down in fear. All of a sudden, she got an idea and put into motion by first pointing her gun at him.
"Gloves. Gimme."
Needless to say, Hugo had his hands full with both Felicia and Pikachu trying to bring him to his knees, but he was trained to resist that as much as he could…and Poison would really let him have it if he didn't try his hardest. He made an uppercut at Felicia. She flipped over him. He made a stomp at Pikachu. He used Quick Attack to zip out of the way. He tried a body slam at Felicia. She flipped into the air and landed on top of him the second he hit the ground, this time pressing down as much of her weight as she could to keep him from getting up. Of course, this didn't help her much when she heard Pikachu let out a muffled cry. She turned and spotted Poison holding Pikachu in just the right spot that his cheeks were covered by the leather gloves she was now wearing. Pikachu made every attempt he could to shake loose whether it was by trying to smack Poison with his tail or bite her hand, but it did no good. Ever worse was that Poison had her gun pointed right at Felicia's head.
"You really shouldn't have messed with us, little kitty." she said sourly. "We're dangerous."
Much to Poison's chagrin, Felicia smirked.
"Coulda fooled me."
Poison gritted her teeth and tensed her grip on the gun.
"You stupid little…"
They say expect the unexpected, not the absolute absurd. The unexpected was that Felicia would find a way out of this predicament. The absurd was what actually happened.
It started as a light whistle, distracting everyone, including Poison and Hugo. Then it escalated into a loud rushing noise before a brilliant white light flashed through the scenery. Everyone shielded their eyes and was left in awe when the light had finally faded.
There was a young man standing from where the light had originated, and he looked like nothing they'd ever seen before. Firstly, he had a headband running through his blue hair and his face and eyes made him look much younger than he probably was. Secondly, he wore a medieval form of clothing complete with a long flowing cape, and finally, they could see a sword with a jewel-encrusted hilt attached to his belt.
He looked all about the train car having a look that indicated he had no idea what he was doing here, but then his eyes settled on the calamity that was going on in front of him. All four participants were looking at him with shocked expressions, none of them daring to speak. He smirked.
"Alright." he said. "Who's the bad guy?"
Poison grew quickly infuriated when everyone, including Felicia and Pikachu, pointed at her. Not just because they had done it without any hesitation, but because they had only pointed at her and not Hugo. The man sighed and stepped forward.
"Miss, would you care to explain what you're doing?"
"Uhh…I…"
Poison quickly shook off the stammering and tried to focus on how angry she had been before this man had shown up. Looking him dead in the eyes with a venomous glare didn't help since he was abnormally handsome.
"It's none of your business!"
"Well, it seems I have to make it my business. I can't just let you harm an innocent young woman like that."
"Innocent young woman? She's a friggin' nightmare!"
"How so? She delivered a few fighting words that you let get to you? That's human nature…though she doesn't appear to be human, but I digress."
Poison growled and dropped Pikachu before stepping toward the man with an irritated look.
"Look, pal!" she half-shouted, jabbing her finger into his shoulder. "I don't know who you think you are, but this isn't your fight."
The man smiled and brushed her hand away.
"Ah, yes. How rude of me. Please let me introduce myself. I am Prince Marth of Altea. And you are?"
"Poison…and I've never heard of Altea before."
"That isn't too surprising. Nonetheless, I will do battle with you if you don't release this woman immediately."
"Yeah? Well I'll tell you what!"
She aimed the gun right at his head.
"Bite me, pretty boy!"
Marth had placed his hand on his sword and unsheathed it so quickly that Poison had almost no time to react, and even then she could only tense her grip on her gun before it slashed through the air and he placed it back in its sheath. Nothing happened for a brief moment, but after Poison tensed her grip again, the gun fell apart. Marth had split it down the middle with a single graceful slash and had managed not to touch the aggressor at all as he did it. Poison's eyes bugged out and she roared before lashing at him with her whip, only for him to block it with his armguard. He smirked.
"So you let your anger get the best of you." he mocked. "This'll be easy."
He detached his cape and sword before assuming a fighting stance. Much to Poison's surprise, Marth was more than a competent fist fighter as she discovered upon him blocking her whip and countering it with a palm strike to her face. He was phenomenal. Every blow she attempted was blocked and countered, and before she knew it, she was on the ground after Marth ahd performed a quick sweep kick.
"Don't just lay there, Hugo!" she yelled. "Get that cat brat off your back and help me!"
Hugo bucked Felicia off his back and came at Marth full force, only for the catgirl to retaliate with a kick to the back of his head as she landed right beside Marth.
"Thanks for the save. Let me return to the favour." she said with a sly wink.
Marth smiled at Felicia's bravery and laughed somewhat when Pikachu hopped in front of them and faced their opponents with sparking cheeks.
"My mistake. This'll be ridiculously easy."
Poison and Hugo made the first move with the former lashing out with her whip and the latter aiming with a backhand. Marth ducked under Hugo's arm and elbowed his stomach before delivering a sharp uppercut to his chin, and Pikachu blocked Poison with Iron Tail before Felicia curled into a ball and rolled into her at full force. What she wasn't prepared for was when Poison suddenly managed to lock her leg around her neck, putting her in a stranglehold.
"For all the trouble you've caused me, I'm gonna send you to a deep dark place and I'm gonna have fun doing it!"
"Pika-CHUUUUUUU!"
"EEEYAAAGH!"
Poison let go of Felicia the second Pikachu slammed into her face and screamed bloody murder when she was suddenly jolted with a high dosage of electricity. Once the current had stopped, Poison was thrown backward into the wall.
Meanwhile, Marth had quickly realized that Hugo was more of a handful than he had bargained for. Dodging his attacks when his arms were almost as thick as tree trunks was enough of a pain. The worse pain was when one of Hugo's strikes connected, making Marth feel as though his ribs had all simultaneously cracked.
Sadly, Hugo wasn't finished. He seized Marth and threw upward before being down with his shoulder broadened. Felicia had seen this ahead of time and gasped. She knew what Hugo was trying to do and managed to react before he did it. She quickly leaped into the air, grabbed Marth around the middle and dove along with him out of Hugo's attack range. They collided with the floor and rolled over it before coming to a stop, Marth lying underneath Felicia.
"Are you okay?!" she asked in an almost panicked tone.
"Phew…that was a little too close for my liking. Many thanks…LOOK OUT!"
He pushed Felicia off and performed a powerful flip kick, nailing Hugo in the chin and sending him off his feet. Upon Marth and Felicia rising again, they stood back-to-back and traded blow after blow with Hugo and Poison respectively, Pikachu jumping in every once in a while to help them with a quick jolt of electricity or Iron Tail. Suddenly, both Hugo and Poison reared back and punched forward at the same time. Thankfully, Marth and Felicia ducked at the same time, causing their opponents to end up punching each other. Once they had enough room, Marth remained crouched while Felicia anchored her paws on his back and vaulted over him with her legs extended, giving Poison a sharp kick as she rose up and punching Hugo as hard as she could when she landed.
Poison gritted her teeth and was prepared to rise and let her rage fly when she heard the loud slide of a sword being removed from its sheath. As soon as she sat up, she found Marth pointing his sword directly under her chin, and as Hugo sat up, he found Pikachu and Felicia ready to strike again.
"You fought decently," said Marth. "But a good fighter knows when to surrender, or at least someone who actually cares whether they live or die."
"What're you gonna do?" Poison spat. "Kill us?"
"Only if you give me a reason to."
It came as no surprise that Poison would rather go back and face her angry boss than be murdered. She scowled and wanted desperately to imagine herself elsewhere at that moment, but before long, she gently pushed Marth's sword out of the way and stood up.
"C'mon, Hugo. We're done here."
Hugo stood, brushing away Felicia's hand when she offered to help him up. Regardless of that, he still shot her a passing glance and cracked a small smile. He may have been an unsophisticated brute, but he knew a pretty face when he saw one, and this catwoman was certainly one of the prettiest he'd seen. Hugo left the car without a word, but Poison shot a venomous glare at Marth (heh. You get it?).
"I don't care how hot you are." she growled. "We'll see each other again and I'll make you regret this."
Marth simply smirked.
"Next time we'll do battle by the sword, then." he mocked, tensing his grip on his blade.
Seeing Marth pointing the blade at her, especially after slicing a handgun in two with it, instantly got Poison nervous and she left without another word. The second Marth sheathed his sword, everyone in the car broke out into applause and cheering. Marth and Felicia smiled brightly before standing side-by-side and bowing deeply.
"No need to thank us, dear people." Marth said.
"Conductor, could you tell the driver to get the train moving again?" Felicia asked.
The conductor smiled and gave the catgirl a quick salute before heading off to the front of the train. Felicia returned to her seat, Pikachu jumping up on her shoulder. She patted the seat next to her, a motion for Marth to sit with her. He did so after reattaching his cape and sword, and before long, the train was moving again.
"You were great! Thank you so much!" the catgirl chirped.
"Not a problem. Anything for the innocent. I believe we haven't been formally introduced."
Felicia nodded and held out her paw.
"My name is Felicia. And this is Pikachu."
"Pika-pika!"
Marth took Felicia's paw and gently brought it to his lips. Felicia flushed bright red and gave an embarrassed smile as Marth looked up at her.
"Pleased to meet you, milady."
"So Marth, how do you get here?"
"Eh?"
"There was this big flash and then all of a sudden you were there. Where did you come from? There's no way you're from around here dressed like that."
She suddenly realized how offensive that might sound and quickly started waving her hands all about.
"N-not that you look bad in them! They actually suit you!"
To her surprise, Marth laughed.
"You're a funny girl, Felicia. I like you."
He adopted a more serious expression before stroking his chin.
"As for how I got here…I'm not sure. I was out scouting and I saw a strange light. When I went toward it, I suddenly found myself standing here."
"Oh…well, do you know how to get back."
"Unfortunately no. This is very troubling for me because, as I said before, I have a very high position of power in my homeland and it can't function properly without me. Really, I just hope they found a proper stand-in until I get back…or rather, IF I get back."
Marth's face fell and Felicia was quick to place her paw on his shoulder.
"It's okay. If there's any way I can help you, I will."
Marth looked back up with a smile.
"Many thanks. So what is your profession, Felicia?"
"Me? I'm an entertainer!"
"Really? How so?"
"I do a whole bunch of things. Acting, music…really just a lot of artistic stuff. I'm part of a touring theatre group entirely made up of catwomen. We just finished a tour and I'm on vacation right now."
"I see…and Pikachu?"
"He's my pet. I just bought him today."
Pikachu leaped onto Marth's lap and stared up at him with large happy eyes.
"Pika-pika! Pikachu!" he squeaked.
"Awww!" Felicia squealed. "He likes you!"
Marth chuckled and scratched behind Pikachu's ears. The mouse Pokémon promptly started cooing in delight.
"I seem to have taken a liking to him as well. One question, though. Where are we?"
"We're on our way to Osaka."
"Osaka?"
"Yeah. In Japan."
"Japan…I'm afraid I've never heard of that."
Felicia smiled. This man wasn't familiar with a lot of things that existed in this day and age. The perfect chance for her to make a good impression.
"Stick with me and you'll never forget it."
And there we have our first two chapters. In case you didn't catch onto it, there's a pattern for the chapter content: the first, third, fifth etc. chapters will focus on Saya and whoever happens to be with her at the moment, while the second, fourth, sixth etc. chapters switch to another set of characters, and they'll eventually all link together. I have to say that some of the inspiration for this came from Twilit Smash Nova's "Space and Time Cannot Divide" (which is a novelization of SSBB's Subspace Emissary) that I highly recommend you go and check out right about now.
For those of you who paid attention, you might have noticed something regarding how I handled the Devil May Cry series, as in you might have thought: "Wait, so Kat and the reboot Dante are in here, but so is Trish from the original series? That doesn't make sense!" Then a light probably came on in the back of your head and you thought: "OH! That means the Dante that people actually like is in here, too! Awesome!"
...no, I'm probably wrong. Also, please note that this chapters were just a short sampler. The rest of it isn't going to come out for a while because I have another story to work on, so...yeah...sorry. Sad face. ):
SOUNDTRACK SO FAR (gotta have us some kickass tunes to accompany the action)
Saya, Ness, and Lucas- "Pollyanna" from Earthbound (SSBM) -This means I recommend the Super Smash Bros. Melee version. Heads up. You're gonna be seeing this a lot.
Marth to the rescue- "Together We Ride" from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (SSBM) -See?