Chapter 33: Aftermath
Lucas wasn't surprised to wake up in the hospital room this time. What did surprise him was what Mario said, and how Ness and his eyes glowed with a purple aura for a moment, but they went back to their usual blue soon enough.
"You had a fever too, Lucas! The difference is you just didn't a-have the Final Smash aura like last time..."
"It's gone now...wait, was that a PSI fever? And what's going on with Ness?" Lucas got up from crouching by Pikachu's bed. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know what's going on, but I feel great. It's just like what happened to you, huh? Weird..."
"No it's not, my eyes didn't glow like that after I woke up."
"Uh, yeah they did, except they were red, like that nightmare version of you."
"What do you mean they did? How come no one told me sooner?"
"Well, it looked kinda creepy, so I didn't wanna mention it, I just wanted to talk about how you were glowing gold like a super saiyan."
"Okay then...PSI sure is weird." Even now there was still so much he didn't know about how it worked.
"I don't care what color your psychic powers are. Pikachu had better be okay..." Samus said.
"He's a-fine, at least physically. As for mentally, you'll have to ask Mewtwo."
"His memories are restored, it just took much longer than it should have. Bringing those three with me was a mistake...I could have done this more easily alone without dealing with their emotional baggage."
"Like you're one to talk." Ness crossed his arms while frowning at Mewtwo. "You had as much as the rest of us, probably more. And didn't you say the whole point was giving us experience?"
"Yeah, and it worked! That's how Ness learned PK Teleport Omega." Lucas said. "I'm sure you could've done it on your own, and I know you had to deal with our nightmares too, sorry about that...but wasn't it easier because we all worked as a team?" The words hardly felt real coming out of his mouth. Ness beating Lucas's fears made sense, not the other way around. Had that all really happened?
"That is irrelevant. If I had done this alone, none of you would have seen my memories...and if you had this much trouble helping Pikachu, you are nowhere near ready to help Robin and Reflet."
Mewtwo turned away and teleported.
"Of course he left without explaining himself..." Samus muttered under her breath.
"He's right, isn't he? We're not ready..." Lucas sighed. "At least I'm not."
"Poyo!" Kirby said with puffed cheeks.
"What he said, don't listen to Mewtwo, he doesn't know what he's talking about."
"But you learned PK Teleport Omega and I didn't..."
"You got a PSI fever too, so you must've learned something, right? Last time it was PK Teleport Beta, so maybe this time you got PK Teleport Gamma?"
Lucas closed his eyes in concentration. His memories did feel a little clearer when he tried to picture a destination... "I think you're right, but that's still one step behind..." He said with a frown. How could he ever catch up?
"Pika?" Pikachu opened his eyes, then blinked at the bright lights above. "Pika!" He jumped straight into Samus's arms and clung to her tightly. "Pika..." Why was he shivering? It couldn't be the room temperature, and she wasn't wearing the cold metal armor, only her Zero Suit. Samus pet him softly with her free hand, then stared blankly at everyone else.
"Answers. Now."
"Give them a break, Samus, they've all been through a lot, not just Pikachu." Mario said. "And like I a-said, Pikachu's perfectly healthy physically. You're free to go, but let me know if he has any issues."
"Relax, doc, you don't have to kick her out." Ness said. "I can explain, but if I try to tell you everything, we'll be here all day, so lemme give you the short version." Ness said. "It went kinda like we expected: we had to look at Pikachu's memories and fight a bunch of his nightmares to cure his amnesia. The problem was, we had to fight our nightmares too...that was a little tough, but we managed, and like Luke said, we made a good team. Everything turned out just fine, ok?" Lucas knew what Ness looked like when he was lying.
"Did it? Tell me what Pikachu saw in there."
"Well, he saw stuff from his past, and you already know about all that. I guess the worst of it was what we made him remember, and what happened in Subspace, but he'll be okay." Ness said.
"What about what he saw from your pasts?"
"That's none of your business." Ness said with a frown.
"Pikachu's business is my business."
"Ugh, it's not like I wanted him to see anything, ok?! And he didn't see me fight Giygas anyways, so he dodged the worst of it."
"Only the worst of your problems. What about theirs?"
Ness crossed his arms. "I'm not a snitch. Plus Mewtwo would be pissed if you found out about his past, and I don't wanna deal with that."
"Chu!" Pikachu sparked his cheeks in annoyance.
"Fine, I'll stop bothering them..." Samus sighed. "Only if you're sure you'll be fine. Pikachu, do you still think it was a good idea to remember everything?"
"Pika!" Pikachu nodded.
"If you say so...then I'm proud of you for overcoming your fears." Samus said with a slight smile while stroking his fur gently again, then looked at the others. "I don't want to sound ungrateful, but if fighting all of these hallucinations was as almost as bad for the rest of you, then why put yourself through this just to help him? I heard you're even planning to do this again for Robin and Reflet. That's insane. You're insane."
"Pot, meet kettle. If we're crazy, you're even crazier!" Ness said. "We're done with our adventures, but you fight nasty stuff all the time for a living."
"It pays well."
"C'mon, we both know you don't do this just for the money. You take all the most dangerous missions out there, and it's not like a huge paycheck matters if you're dead before you get it."
"Someone has to, and I'm very good at it, so it might as well be me."
"That's not it, though, you're saying it all backwards. You're only good at it because you trained to be that good. The Chozo could've turned someone else into a fighter instead of you. It wasn't a prophecy or anything, and they didn't force you to either: you wanted it to be you."
"..."
"Knew it."
"You're right, I did train for this. I'm an adult dealing with problems I'm prepared for, and you're not. These people don't even need your help, they've gotten by without their memories...so don't get yourself hurt for no good reason. That goes for you two too." She said while looking at Lucas and Kirby. "Let's get out of here, Pikachu." She glanced back at Pikachu and started walking out the room with him.
"Pika pika!" Pikachu waved goodbye before walking after her. Lucas sensed gratitude in those psychic waves that was still hard to believe. Was Pikachu really thanking him despite everything he'd put him through?
"Poyochu!" Kirby waddled after them the moment they stepped out the door.
"Hey, he talked!" Ness said. "Well, sorta. Wonder how long it'll take him to talk like Meta Knight..."
"Aww..." Lucas said. He couldn't pick up any resentment from Kirby for all the trouble he went through either, at least not at him. Maybe he'd gotten too used to people being ungrateful after what he'd seen from some of the villagers back home.
The automatic doors closed behind Samus, Pikachu, and Kirby with hardly a sound. Lucas had never liked the idea of a door that was always watching you and decided on its own when to open or close. Real doors had doorknobs. Now it was just the three of them and the sterile air.
...Lucas knew why Samus had wanted to be trained by the Chozo. She was the only survivor of the Space Pirate attack on planet K-2L. No doubt she'd spent the rest of her life determined to make Ridley regret letting her live. Mom had always said being full of anger was just a way of hurting yourself, but Claus hadn't been a good listener. He hadn't been, either, not for that lesson...he'd just been too much of a coward to act on it until three years later. No, no, she wouldn't want him to think about himself that way. But what would she have said? She had always liked how he was so gentle he wouldn't even step on mole crickets, so what would she think of how he'd given in to his rage just like Claus? Of all the fighting he'd done, even if it was for a good cause?
"I hope he doesn't copy how Meta Knight talks, though. God, imagine him being all edgy and boring, that would suck, right Luke?"
She probably would've said that while he did a good thing, it wasn't fair for him to be the one who had to fight, would've done it herself with those powers she'd regained at the last minute if only she had survived. He could only guess, though.
"Uh, Luke?"
"Huh?" Lucas blinked in confusion. "Sorry, I missed that..."
"Eh, it wasn't important anyways." Ness shrugged. "So now what? We're done helping Pikachu, right?" He glanced at Mario, who nodded in confirmation.
"Yes, he's a-fine, like I said. It was only you and Lucas who had fevers, which means they must have been a-caused by your psychic powers. That explains why no one else who this happened to had them."
"Ok, so we did it. Hooray, go us..." He said without any enthusiasm.
"I just don't know why only you got a Final Smash without a Smash Ball in your sleep, Ness."
"Me neither. I thought it happened to Luke last time since that was his first time going to Magicant, but I've been there before, so I got nothing. Wait a second, how come I'm full of energy like he was?" Even the glow around Ness had only just started to fade, and Lucas felt exhausted unlike last time. "Wasn't that because he absorbed his Magicant? But I already did that a long time ago, so that doesn't make any sense!"
"Don't a-look to me for answers, your powers hardly follow any of the laws of physics." Mario said.
"Says the guy with the magic mushrooms."
"You know what, that's a-fair."
"I don't know how to explain it, then...ugh, whatever." Ness shook his head and adjusted his cap. "I don't wanna give myself a headache trying to figure all this out. Just give me a minute to breathe." Ness took a seat on one of the other hospital beds. "That was...a lot. Are you okay, Luke?"
"Yeah...well, no. I'm glad we did it, but I'm tired..." Lucas sat down on the hospital bed Pikachu was once sleeping on.
"Same. I mean, I'm not tired, but I am tired. I mean mentally. I guess that's what I get for fighting everyone's issues...I knew Mewtwo was messed up in the head, but not this messed up!"
"Sorry about that...I would've warned you more, but he didn't want me to, and I was hoping we wouldn't run into those memories again." Lucas said.
"And I'm a-guessing you won't be telling me what you mean by that?" Mario said.
"Nope." Ness shook his head. "I'm not scared of him or anything, I just don't want to deal with him getting mad at me, and it doesn't matter anyways."
"If you a-say so, but tell me if there's anything important I need to know when it comes to your health. Too many people hide their symptoms and hope they go away until they get worse. And speaking of a-symptoms, there's one thing I'm wondering...Ness, what happened in there when you had the Final Smash aura in the real world?"
"Uh, about that. It was the other me that got the Final Smash. Not that it stopped me from beating him!" His eyes lit up. "Well, it was Luke who beat him, it's complicated. I used PK Teleport to dodge his PK Starstorm and beat the other Luke, then he took down the other me, and it looked really cool!"
"Did it now?" Mario raised an eyebrow.
Ness turned to Lucas with a desperate pleading look. "Luke, you gotta back me up on this."
Lucas smiled. "Oh, I don't know...if you ask me, it was pretty cringey. He even yelled a stupid attack name and everything."
"Don't tell him that! Nooo...I've been betrayed by my best friend again..." Ness said with an overly dramatic sullen look.
"Who said we were friends?" Lucas said with a fake evil grin in Claus's image.
Then they both burst into laughter.
"It really was cool, I mean it. Thanks for helping me."
"Not as cool as you were. Dude, my nightmare was pulling out Giygas's attacks and you still took him down! If that's not metal I don't know what is."
Huh. He had, hadn't he. Then again, it was only a product of Ness's imagination, not the real Giygas.
"Cool or not, it's a strange a-coincidence that both of you had some evil doppelganger get the Final Smash in your dreams."
"I know, right?" Ness said. "It's weird they even showed up at all, I thought they wouldn't since we both beat them in Magicant already."
"And something about them didn't seem right this time...last time the other me was sad, but this time he was just quiet and creepy. I don't get why he attacked the other you, either...it's not like some part of me hates you." Lucas said. A knot formed in his throat, did he know himself as well as he thought he did?
"I wouldn't blame you if you did." Ness said sullenly.
"I know, but it's not your fault what Porky did, and you tried to stop him once he got worse."
"Thanks, but even if you did hate me, that still doesn't explain why my nightmare went after yours too. I've never hated you like that, that's for sure..." Ness frowned. "I guess I used to be a little jealous, though."
Lucas closed his mouth and tuned into Ness's telepathic waves.
"Really? I don't think there's anything about me to be jealous of..." Lucas tilted his head in confusion.
"I know a lot more crappy stuff happened to you, and I'm definitely not jealous of that, it's just...well, you got through it all somehow, and I had a hard time even though I had it way easier."
"That's not true, you went through a lot too."
"Nothing's as bad as losing half your family." Ness said.
Lucas tried to think of the words for a while. It was hard to believe Ness thought he was the weaker one.
"...it wasn't just me. It's not like I was braver than you...I only barely got through it, and it was only 'cause of Boney and Duster and Kuma helping me." And after it was all over, even their help hadn't been enough. "And I only got through Subspace thanks to you and Red."
"Thanks, Luke..."
"If you're a-going to talk telepathically, try making it less obvious to everyone else around you."
"How'd you know? Wait, don't tell me-"
"Don't a-worry, I didn't hear anything you said, it was just obvious from looking at you. Luigi and I can only use telepathy with each other, but we try to make it look like we're doing something else so no one realizes we're using it."
"Okay, I get it. I do this at home too, you know...I guess I'm getting sloppy."
"Or you could be too mentally exhausted to think of that. You should both take a break...there was something else I was going to ask you, but it can wait."
"Lemme guess, you're trying to figure out what the five..." Ness counted on his fingers for a moment. "I mean the six of us have in common, so you can figure out why we didn't get tired when we learned how to use a Final Smash without a Smash Ball."
"Yes, that's it. Now it's happened to Palutena, Bayonetta, Bowser, Mr. Game and Watch, Lucas, and you, and I have no idea why."
"Well, I'm a psychic like Luke, but so is Mewtwo, and it didn't happen to him yet. Palutena can use telepathy with magic, but that's still only half of us. And I don't get what she could have in common with Bayonetta...aren't they total opposites?"
A goddess who summoned angels and a witch who killed them. "Yeah...but they're both really powerful."
"And we're not, so that doesn't add up...well, I guess I was when I used the Earth's power to beat Giygas, and you used it too with the Dark Dragon, but does that really count?"
"I don't know...even if it does, there's still Bowser and Mr. Game and Watch. Wait...didn't they both get possessed by Tabuu once? And he sure was powerful." Lucas said.
"Huh, I wonder if you're onto something. It still doesn't make sense, though...there's more people who got possessed, like Dedede, then Rosalina's a goddess like Palutena, and Ike killed one, and it didn't happen to them, so I got nothing." Ness shrugged.
"I don't know either..." Lucas said.
"Well, it was worth a try." Mario said. "Like I said, though, you both need a break. I don't know if Mewtwo will still let you try to help Robin and Reflet, but if he does, be careful. Just remember to work together and combine everyone's strengths so no one has to do what they're bad at. That's how I a-fight, actually: it's tough being a jack of all trades, so you have to use all your skills together so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
"You already gave me that advice way back in the first tournament, I don't need to hear it again."
"And who won that one again? I don't think it was a-you, so it's worth repeating it for Lucas here." Mario said with a chuckle.
"Keep laughing while you can, old man. It's not like you won the last two tournaments, and we'll see about this one." Ness said with a smirk. "Alright Luke, let's get out of here and get something to eat. I know I'm hungry." Ness started walking to the doorway.
"Okay..." Lucas nodded. "Bye Mario!" Lucas waved as they walked through the automatic doors. "And thanks!" He said just before they closed.
They stepped into a hallway full of square white tiles and lights. It was silent other than their footsteps and the faint buzzing from the lights above. Now that things had finally calmed down, thoughts raced through his mind about everything that happened in there. Mewtwo had been stripped of his childhood memories and molded into a ruthless weapon just like Claus...Ash got a second and third chance thanks to merciful Legendaries sparing him from the consequences of doing stupid things as a ten year old, but Claus didn't...Pikachu got a chance to make up for taking someone for granted, so why couldn't he? How was that fair? Why did his thoughts always come back to Claus?
No, there was something else...something easier to talk about.
"You never told me you had a crush on another girl before Paula."
Ness shot a glance back at the closed doors, far enough behind them that no one would hear.
"Uhhh..." For once, Ness stumbled in his words. "Well, it didn't seem like it mattered, since me and Paula were already a couple by the time I met you anyways. I just thought there was no point bringing it up."
"But you told me about all the other stuff that was bothering you, even about Porky and Giygas. So how come you didn't tell me about this if it's not as bad?"
"That's the point...you opened up about all that awful crap that happened to you, so I didn't wanna whine about something so stupid. Everyone gets rejected sometimes, right? It's not a big deal." His face didn't match what he said.
"It's not stupid...and you didn't just get rejected, she was really mean about it and it hurt your feelings."
"It doesn't matter, I'm fine now. What about you? You sure you're okay after all that fighting?"
"Honestly, I don't know...but I'll feel better once we get something to eat. Where do you wanna go?" Lucas changed the subject like Ness clearly wanted him to.
"If you don't have any ideas, then uh...how about a pizza place? I know you like cheese."
"Sure."
"Ok...how about I teleport us straight there? Now that I've got PK Teleport Omega, I don't even have to land somewhere with a long runway." Ness said with a slightly smug grin.
"I don't know about that, you only just learned it, and you only used it in Magicant...maybe you should try teleporting around in here first? I don't want ya to warp into a shop and land on your face in front of everyone..."
"You know what, good point. You're still not over that time you fell from the sky, huh? Or is this about that other time in the arena?"
"That one in the arena wasn't my fault! I did it right, there was just someone in the way." Lucas pouted.
"Hey, no worries, I know I ran into plenty of walls too when I was first learning all this."
"I just wish I could use PK Teleport Omega too...at least if you mess it up now, you won't fly into something while going really fast."
"Yeah, that is handy, but you'll get there. That reminds me...when I first learned PK Teleport, I was scared I'd teleport into a wall like in one of those sci-fi shows. Or put half of me there and the other half somewhere else. Good thing that's not possible, right?"
Lucas nodded. "Yeah, definitely...I think the reason we can't do that is because we have to go somewhere we've been before, and I know I've never been stuck in a wall like that."
"Jeff says it's also because the portals we make have to push away the air in the place we show up, and they can't do that with something solid since it's too dense. Anyway, here goes nothing." He paused and put his index and middle fingers to his forehead in concentration.
Ness glowed a faint blue.
"I didn't mean literally nothing...ok, I must be doing something wrong. What did Ninten say again..? Something about how it doesn't feel like moving somewhere, just being there?" Ness muttered to himself.
Blink! He reappeared a few feet away and one foot in the air, then landed with a stumble that narrowly avoided falling on his face. "Whoa! That was close...hold on, gimme a few more tries." Blink! Ness reappeared a foot closer this time on his feet. Blink! And again, a little further away and to the side. "Ok, I think I've got it, now I just need to make sure I can do this long range too. I'm gonna go to my house's front door...check on me if I'm not back in ten seconds. If I teleport into a wall, you better give me a really good eulogy-" He said jokingly. Blink!
And he was gone. Another whoosh of air filled the vacuum he left behind.
Lucas started counting. One...two...three...nine...
Blink!
"-cause that would be the lamest way to die! Oh, I made it back in one piece. Neat."
"Um, congrats! What took you so long?"
"Oh, nothing, it just takes a moment to teleport a long distance. It's still way better than Gamma though...which reminds me, we should see if you can use that now."
"My PSI fever's gone, so I think I should be able to now, it's just...how do you actually do it? Do you just spin around really fast?"
"Sorta. Here, lemme just show ya. You don't have to spin like a ballerina, since you levitate off the ground just a little bit, like this. Then you gotta use telekinesis to give yourself some rotational force..." Ness floated a few inches off the ground and started to spin while glowing blue. "Then just close your eyes, think of where you're gonna go, speed up, and cut yourself a rift in space!" He spun faster and faster until a blue sphere formed around him simultaneously with another one a few feet away where he reappeared and spun slower and slower. He came to a stop, then stumbled slightly when he hit the ground and held his head. "Like that...ugh, still makes me a little dizzy even after all this practice. I'm never using this again if I can help it."
"Oh no..." Lucas said with a frown. "I'm gonna throw up, aren't I?"
"Hey, maybe I'm just bad at it and you'll be a natural. You never know! Just remember, you're going in a circle like with Beta, but you're not making a portal right in front of you, you're cutting it open all around you, so you don't have to watch where you're sliding. That means the only hard part is visualizing your destination while your head's spinning...how about I help with that on your first try?"
Lucas let in Ness's telepathic waves, which brought the image of the tiles down the hallway and the muscle memory of how Ness used this move himself. He did his best to copy the motions. Levitating was easy enough. Rotating himself was a little trickier than doing the same to an object, but he managed. More and more speed brought waves of nausea with it, and the image got fuzzier, so he hung onto it as tightly as he could. The blue glow surrounded him. Almost there...
Lights and colors whirled around him and his head ached even more than his back which hit the floor with a thud. There seemed to be two or three of everything, including Ness and the lights in the hallway. At least he was in the right place. Even when he sat up, it felt like he was still moving with how much his head was spinning. "Ugh, I knew it..." Lucas groaned from the nausea.
"At least you aimed it right, I'd call that a win. You'll get less dizzy once you're used to it." Ness said. He offered a hand to Lucas who struggled to get up on unsteady feet, then leaned against the wall and waited for there to be only one of everything again.
"I don't know if we should still get pizza, I don't want to throw it up and waste food..."
"It's fine, we can just order takeout. I'll teleport us there this time, you don't wanna make yourself even dizzier."
"But I still haven't tried long distance...ok, you're right." There was no way he'd do it right when his vision was only just starting to focus. "Thanks for teaching me."
"No problem, now let's get outta here." Ness offered his hand again this time while he glowed a faint blue, and Lucas took it.
And then they were gone.
A few minutes later...
"One medium pepperoni pizza. No, no extra cheese or sausages, I didn't say that...are you even hearing me over this?" Ness leaned his ear into the classic black 90s phone connected to its rotary base with a cord. "Yes, medium, not small...and what's with these prices? That's not what they were last week. Yeah, I know I've got more than enough Smash Coins, but it's still dumb."
Lucas watched with a smile while sitting and resting his chin on the back end of the couch of Ness's house.
"Ten minutes until it's here? Sure, whatever you say." Ness hung up the phone with a click. "That means it'll actually be at least fifteen, this isn't Mach Pizza."
"So what do we do while we wait?"
"I dunno, could just channel surf and hope we find something good." Ness shrugged and sat down next to Lucas, the remote floating into his hand.
So that was what they did. Channel surf. Unfortunately, none of the garbage in the ocean of TV shows caught his attention for long. It was one bit of mindless entertainment after another, just like the Happy Boxes he'd seen his neighbors staring into for hours on end.
"Maybe we should do something else besides watching TV, this stuff will just rot our brains..."
"I thought you got over hating TV."
"I know it's not always bad, I just don't like these shows."
"Hmmm...I know, how about we watch a match instead? Then we can learn something too."
"...Okay."
"The question is, which one? I hate how many there are to choose from now, it's like having to pick between a hundred different flavors of ice cream. Back in the old days, it was just the twelve of us, so it was easy to watch all the matches...now you can't do that unless you've got way too much free time." Ness said with a disappointed shake of his head. "So, live match or replay? Wanna look up one of the really popular ones? Or is there someone in particular you want to watch? Wait, let me guess, it's Bayonetta."
"Yeah, you read me like a book..."
"That's still a lot of matches to pick from."
Lucas stared at the TV in thought. It was still strange to think these ordinary-looking devices were windows to distant places and even the past.
"...Show me one where she lost." She couldn't have won every time, could she?
"That's what I thought you'd say. It's weird to see you hold a grudge, though."
"It's not that! It's not about revenge, I just..."
"Yeah, I get it, can't look bad against the same person twice. I had the same beef with Mewtwo back in Melee. Relax, it's not like losing to her makes you look weak, she's a friggin' powerhouse. Almost everyone loses to her."
"Yeah, but not that badly..." Lucas sulked.
"I keep telling you not to feel so bad about it. You weren't at your best back then, and you'll do better next time, I'm sure of it. Cmon, let's figure out her weakness instead of moping." Ness said while nudging Lucas's shoulder.
It took a few minutes even for Ness to look through the extensive database of recordings, which would've been a lot longer if not for the convenient ways to sort the long list by fighter and even by which ones they won and lost. Good thing Ness knew how to navigate all these confusing menus.
It was a match of Bayonetta against Sonic, Donkey Kong, and King Dedede in a free for all on Gerudo Valley. The outcome was obvious, the question was how. The answer wasn't clear at first when she did as well as usual. DK grappled with King Dedede and held back his hammer swing, which left him open to a demonic fist that punched up from a portal beneath his feet and launched him into the air where Bayonetta chased after him with one flying kick after another until he flew into the upper blast zone. Sonic kept avoiding both his opponents after that and tried to keep their focus on each other while he picked up items, and it worked, letting him throw a Bob-Omb to blast Dedede off the right side when he was busy bashing away Bayonetta's summoned demonic arm.
"Man, I wish Dedede was the one to take her down a notch, does it really have to be this guy?"
Lucas was too busy watching the screen intently to respond. After the two exchanged some witty banter, Sonic dodged nearly everything Bayonetta threw at him except some of the mostly harmless purple bullets, and what was really surprising was how she couldn't do the same to him. Again and again he hit her with homing attacks and spin dashes that wore her down even if she guarded some with demonic constructs of her hair, and he rarely left himself open long enough for her to hit back.
"I don't get it, why doesn't she slow down time? Is she going easy on him?"
"No way, that can't be right...let's keep watch-"
Ding-dong! The doorbell rang.
"-ing. Ugh, perfect timing." Ness paused the recording.
"At least they didn't take too long..." Lucas said. It had been sixteen minutes since the call, just one too late.
Ness's lazy hand wave opened the door with telekinesis, revealing a black-haired Mii with a typical cardboard pizza box. "You're a minute late, but I'll let it go since that smells great!"
"So that's why it's a medium...I thought you were only ordering for yourself, not him too. He should eat healthier if he wants less losses to cry about." He said with a chuckle.
"Not cool, dude. Only I get to make fun of Luke!" Ness got out of his seat with a glare and stood in front of him protectively.
"Only I get to make fun of Luke!" Seven-year-old Claus stood in front of a crying Lucas protectively and glared at Fuel for his rare mean comment.
Lucas opened his mouth, but no words came out. He wasn't seven anymore, he could stand up for himself now. Couldn't he? Anger and disgust made his already sick stomach turn.
"It was just a joke, don't be so sensitive." Oh, how many times they'd heard those words. What did Peach say? Deep breaths. She'd said not to assume malice in others either, which was hard when he could literally feel it behind that stupid smile.
"You know, I don't like people like you." Ness said with clenched teeth and fists. "You're just a spectator trying to feel important by making fun of celebrities. We're not even real people to you, just entertainment. You think you're better than him? I fucking know you'd be a crying mess if you went through even half as much crap!"
"Sure, whatever makes you feel better, kid. I'm not much of a fighter, but at least I didn't pretend I was qualified for the biggest tournament in the multiverse."
"Pretend? Are you kidding m-"
"Ness."
"Shit, sorry, I talked for you again. God, I never learn anything."
"It's fine." Lucas stood up, sighed and tried to look the Mii in the eyes. "I never said I was qualified, Master Hand did. If you've got a problem with me being here, ask him why he invited me. And for what happened with Bayonetta, I'll...it'll be different next time. Now get out."
He couldn't say he would win next time. Only that he wouldn't embarrass himself so much. Maybe.
"I haven't even put down the pizza yet, what, you want me to take it with me-ah!"
Telekinetic force ripped the pizza box from the Mii's strangely round hands and made it fly into Lucas's.
"I said get out." Lucas glared and glowed a faint gold, making his head spin again.
"Who the hell are you and what did you do with the crybaby?" The Mii said with a shudder before stepping out the door and slamming it shut.
The room was still spinning a little when he sat down. What had he done with his old crybaby self? The bitter preteen killed it and pushed its tears down when people stopped caring about them, until Claus died and opened the floodgates again. There had to be something in between he could be instead.
"Whoa." Ness said. "That was cool."
"No, no it wasn't...I shouldn't have gotten so upset." Lucas said with a guilty frown. "It's just some random guy's opinion, right?"
"Yeah, but you can't let people walk all over you."
"I know, it's just...what if more people say things like that? If I keep letting them make me upset every time, isn't that letting them win?" Bullies craved nothing more than attention.
"Well, that's why you're pretty smart to not use social media around here. And don't assume they're all like that, you've got plenty of fans too. Now let's go eat some pizza!"
Ness lifted up the cover of the cardboard pizza box, and it smelled delicious. "Uh, about that...I don't know if I should eat that yet. I'm still a little nauseous."
"Then we can warm it up and eat once you're feeling better, and in the meantime we can watch Bayo get her butt kicked. Doesn't that sound fun?"
Lucas smiled. "Yeah."
They sat down on the couch again and Ness unpaused the video. Sonic tornado-like offensive continued with Bayonetta only landing one or two hits in return, not that it took many to beat him. What was his secret? Why wouldn't she use her time-slowing trick now against the perfect opponent for it? Or was it why couldn't she? Just how did her magic work?
A Smash Ball appeared in the sky above the bridge in the middle of the stage. Bayonetta tried to get between Sonic and the multicolored sphere instead of hitting it herself and punched thin air, making a portal from which a large demonic arm did the same. The uppercut still missed Sonic who jumped away at the last second and homed in on the Smash Ball again and again until it shattered.
"Now I'll show you Super Sonic style! Come on, go ahead and hit me!"
"You're not a very clever mouse to walk right into a trap." Bayonetta smirked and stomped down summoning a high-heeled foot from a portal.
"I'm not a mouse or a rat, I'm a hedgehog!" Sonic wagged his finger and smirked when the demonic leg disintegrated into light on contact. "Sonic the Hedgehog! And nothing can beat me when I'm super!" Then he curled up into a gold ball and spun, sucking in streams of energy to charge his spin dash.
"I do love a challenge." Bayonetta punched at air and hit him with rapid-fire much larger punches, but none of them did anything. Except give her the Final Smash aura. "Like I said, not a very clever mouse!"
Sonic stopped spinning and stood on air in a sprinter's stance with his stored-up energy making him glow brighter than ever. "Smashing!" Bayonetta said, then the air and her eyes glowed purple and everything happened in a blur.
"GAME! The winner is...SONIC!" Master Hand announced.
"Wait, what happened? Play that back!" Lucas said.
"Good thing this isn't live so we can rewind." Ness rewinded the footage to just before Sonic was done charging his spin dash, then paused. "The frame rate on this thing is insane to let the slowmo get this slow..." The video played again at an eighth of its normal speed which made it move forward at a snail's pace while they waited for it to get to the part where it would speed up. "Did you know the real term for slow motion is 'overcrank'? It comes from the old days of film reels where they literally had to crank the wheel faster to film it at a higher frame rate."
"I don't get it, don't they want it to be slower?"
"That's why they have to film it at a higher frame rate so it looks like the scene's moving slower when they play it back at a normal frame rate." Lucas tilted his head in confusion. "It's like that PSI move we learned that seems like it slows things down, because what it's really doing is speeding up our brains. I know, let's call it PK Overcrank!"
"Uh...I still don't get it, but okay? Hey, I think it's almost there!" Lucas said looking at the video.
"Smashing!" Bayonetta said, though it was distorted due to her still being in slow motion. Her eyes and the air turned purple, then she moved at a normal speed, no, even faster, despite the video being slowed down. A purple portal opened and conjured a draconic demon out of her black hair tinged with a red glow, just like last time. Its enormous head emerged and chomped down at Sonic to devour him whole...
Sonic reappeared right next to Bayonetta and flew at her with his spin dash which sent her flying into the blast zone. The moment she hit it, the purple glow faded and time resumed its normal speed, which meant Sonic was nearly frozen in place by the video still being in slow motion.
"What the heck? He was almost moving at a normal speed even though time was super slow!" Ness said.
"He was still going kind of slow, though...I think she would've dodged if he didn't surprise her like that. But how come he didn't get eaten?" Then it hit him. "Wait, he used that stupid teleporting move like he did on me!"
"Yeah, it's called Chaos Control." Ness said. "Now I get it...he was going so fast that even though she made time go way slower, that just made him go a normal speed instead of really slow! Ugh, how come he gets to be so unfair?! I almost wish he lost, he deserved it for wasting his time taunting. I guess it was smart of him to teleport and fake her out like that, but whatever."
"I still don't get it...even if his Final Smash counters hers, why didn't she just slow down time more before he got the Smash Ball? Then she could've beaten him. I mean, even I beat him, and I didn't stand a chance against her, so that's weird."
"Hey, this isn't DBZ, it's not all about power levels in real life. And uh...what if she can't slow down time whenever she wants?"
"But she did it at the end, so how come she didn't earlier?"
"Maybe it's easier for her to use it if she has her Final Smash. I mean, that slows it down even more than she does normally, right? It lets her summon that big monster too. So what if it tires her out if she uses it too much without the Final Smash?"
"That doesn't make sense, she used it a lot against me and Rosalina...she kept slowing me down whenever she dodged, it's like she was mocking me for missing." He said with a frown.
"Well, Sonic sure wasn't missing."
"Wait...this sounds so stupid, but what if she has to dodge to slow down time?" Lucas said. "Ugh, I don't know, I'm probably being dumb. Why would her powers have some weird rule like that? But I swear she did it every time, is that just a coincidence?" Was he remembering something wrong?
"No, you might be onto something. I know, let's watch some more replays, then we'll know for sure!"
So they did. Sure enough, every single time Bayonetta slowed down time was after narrowly dodging an attack, whether that was by a mere sidestep, a fancy backflip, or even turning into a swarm of bats for a moment. Unless she was using her Final Smash.
"Yep...you were definitely right, that's some of the weirdest magic I've ever seen. So now we know her weakness! Just never miss, easy peasy."
"I wish...it's not like I can just be as fast as Sonic. And his Final Smash counters hers too, but mine sucks since she'd just dodge it...uh, no offense!"
"It's fine, I was thinking the same thing. Not that PK Starstorm sucks, it's just not good against her or Sonic." Ness sighed. "So if we wanna beat her we have to do it before anyone gets to use a Final Smash."
"At least now I know where to start, but I should've thought of looking up old matches sooner. I'm just a stupid farmboy who's scared of technology..."
"Porky gave you a lot of good reasons to not like technology, and it's not your fault you grew up in a village without any."
"I guess so..."
"Just focus on the positives, alright? Now you know her weakness, and you can always look up more replays if you want. Might help to look at your own replays, too, that way you can figure out what you're doing wrong. I know I don't like watching my losses either, so I get it if you don't feel like it..."
"Maybe later..." Did he really have to watch himself be humiliated in that first match again? "So now what? Should we go talk to Mewtwo again? I don't know if he'll change his mind."
"It's not like he said he wouldn't help us anymore, he only said he doesn't think we're ready yet, so he just wants us to train more. I bet he's moping in his cave somewhere."
"It's too bad ROB hasn't made all those fancy wristband phones...communicators...whatever they're called, so we can't call him." Lucas said. "How do those even work? Touch screens are weird enough, but Mega Man said it's holographic, so you can't even touch it..."
"I dunno, and I doubt he'd answer our calls anyways. You know how he is. Let's eat our pizza and give him some time to cool down before we go bug him again."
"Okay." Lucas nodded.
The two of them turned off the TV and sat down at the table where they opened up the pizza box. Thankfully it was still warm, and his headache was mostly gone, so he didn't have to fear throwing it back up. A few geometric sparks of PK Fire were just enough to make up for the heat lost from the delivery time without setting the whole thing ablaze, in a careful balance copied straight from Kumatora. Lucas savored each bite. He had always liked cheese, unlike Claus, the only one in the family who didn't. It was smelly and icky, he'd say while sticking his tongue out, or try to sneakily feed it to Boney just like the broccoli. What would he think of him and Ness eating this pizza? What would he think of Ness, period? He would probably be mad at him for being Porky's friend once. But Claus wasn't a hateful person, he'd be able to forgive him eventually...right? They were so much alike just like Claus was with Fuel, and they could have been good friends. They could've both been here laughing it up and teasing each other for their poor taste in food.
Lucas gulped down his last bite of pizza. Claus would probably tell him not to mope about what ifs.
...Moping about what ifs was what Mewtwo was doing right now, wasn't it?
Ness teleported them to the cave once they were ready.
"Hello? Anybody home?" Ness cupped his hands around his mouth, making his voice loud enough to echo off of several walls of the dim and damp cave. Lucas walked and pointed his finger forward as a flashlight. Only the drips of a stalactite interrupted the silence. Lucas's footsteps splashed through a puddle made by the droplets dripping from above one at a time.
"I don't think he's here..." Lucas said too quietly for an echo. That familiar psychic wavelength wasn't in the air.
"You better not be hiding from us!" Ness aimed his own finger glowing with PK Flash to light up more of the cave. "Wait a minute, that crater wasn't there before, was it? No, I'm sure it wasn't."
Lucas followed his gaze to the sizable dent in the ground and the scattered rubble near it. "Then where did it come from?"
"Maybe Mewtwo got so mad he felt like breaking something. He's calling us stupid kids when he's the one throwing a tantrum, what a hypocrite! Geez, he should've just beat up a Sandbag like a normal person."
Earlier...
The sound of teleportation disturbed the cave's silence. Mewtwo clenched his three-fingered fists which glowed with barely-restrained psychic energy. The children had seen everything. Why had he let them? Now they all knew the same fact his scientific brain had deduced: the destruction of New Island's lab was not his origin. He had once been a naive, curious, and even sweet child. He had a friend who had accepted him for who and what he was, a friend he forgot along with every bit of kindness she showed him. Somewhere deep down he was too afraid of his pain to remember. All of this led him to only one conclusion.
He was not born a monster, he had made himself one.
Mewtwo let out a roar and blew a crater in the ground near him with a Focus Blast that sent shattered stone and wind everywhere. His purple aura naturally repelled the rocks headed his way and scattered them across the cave. Only the dust got in his eyes. He tried to pretend that dust was the only reason for the water leaking from his eyes. With another shout he blew away all the smoke and dust with a spiral Psywave that reached all the way to the ceiling and broke off one of the many stalactites.
Now the results of his outburst were clear to see. More shame built up in his mind and dampened the power emanating from him instead of strengthening it. Was he no better than the children?
No...at least the children had some innocence.
This wasn't enough of a distraction, nor would a Sandbag suffice. He needed something that could fight back.
Mewtwo teleported again.
He reappeared at the summit of Icicle Mountain. Lucario stood at the very top, balancing on one foot on an icy point despite having his eyes closed.
"I thought I'd find you here." Mewtwo said.
Lucario's red eyes opened. "If you came here to meditate, there are other places where you won't be disturbed."
"No, I came here to spar. Your aura and steel typing shield your thoughts from my telepathy, and like you I seek a challenge."
"Your psychic energy conceals the emotions in your aura from me as well, so both of us can only rely on our skill...very well, I accept your challenge." Lucario jumped down from his perch in a blue blur and landed a few feet away from Mewtwo on the snowy summit. On this level terrain it was apparent just how much shorter Lucario was, yet he didn't flinch at all at a larger opponent. Right now Mewtwo envied that kind of inner focus. "Now we stand on opposing sides when we were allies before. How ironic."
"That match was a while ago, but now that you mention it, you've reminded me of something. Crazy Hand was wrong to call it a battle of Pokemon trainers against wild Pokemon. You are no wild Pokemon, you were trained by Sinnoh's fighting-type gym leader. The fact Maylene isn't here with you is irrelevant."
"I'm surprised you know that, considering you're from Kanto. You've done your research."
"I have good reason to stay informed about Sinnoh considering it was the site of a crisis that nearly destroyed and recreated the entire universe. I would have destroyed Team Galactic myself if the news of what they planned got out before they were already defeated."
"I'm sure the battle against Cyrus would have been easier with your help." Lucario paused. "I may not be a wild Pokemon anymore, but neither are you, considering you were made by human scientists. You even acted as if you were the trainer of our team of four by coming up with that plan. Not that it worked."
"I underestimated the child's-Lucas's mental fortitude. I thought if a mere taunt was enough to make him lose his composure, a real attack would break his psychic defenses easily. I won't make that mistake twice."
For once, he doubted his own words. What if he had made that mistake again already by telling the children they weren't ready?
"But enough talk." Mewtwo took a fighting stance by using Psystrike to create a large spoon of psychic energy that he wielded like a polearm. Opposite him, Lucario copied him by using Bone Rush to conjure a transparent blue staff made from his aura and wielding it in his own two-handed stance.
Lucario ran at him in a blur and Mewtwo barely blocked in time. He pushed back the blow and repaid it with three of his own that were parried in rapid succession then answered with another swing Mewtwo clashed with. Pink and blue sparks of energy scattered as Lucario continued to copy him.
No, it was the other way around...how nostalgic.
Mewtwo parried Marowak's Bone Rush with his bare hand surrounded in a sphere of energy, making sparks fly from it and the bone club. More power flowed into his hand which sent the Marowak and her club skidding across the stone cave floor. Rocks flew from the cave walls and ceiling and buried him alive, each glowing with pink psychic energy. He overpowered the Alakazam's telekinetic grip with his own and floated the rocks around himself while getting back on his feet.
Mewtwo threw all the rocks back at Alakazam. Blink! He teleported just in time and reappeared far to Mewtwo's right. At least his speed was decent, he thought before ducking under Marowak's thrown bone. How stupid of her to disarm herself for one attack. "Agh!" Mewtwo fell over forwards and clutched his aching head while cursing his own stupidity, he should have paid more attention to her thoughts which were now pride in the boomerang attack working. Alakazam focused psychic energy with his spoons, which were made of psychic power themselves, and tried burying him in rocks again, but a single wave of Mewtwo's hand redirected them towards Marowak instead. Unlike Alakazam, she was too slow to avoid them.
"Good, your instincts are sharp: you have to come at me both at once to have a chance to survive...I'm an invasive species disrupting your habitats, aren't I? So try to kill me and feed your Cubone children, or take back your old meditation space." He said looking at each of them and hearing only the Marowak's thoughts. The Marowak dug her way out of the pile of debris, at least the slowpoke could take a hit. And despite being an inferior version of him in terms of combat ability, the Alakazam knew Teleport like Mew, a move he still hadn't grasped...Mew had taught him the thrill of fighting an equal and the fear of being killed by one. Even if he was the world's strongest Pokemon, it was not the strongest creatures that survived, but those most capable of adapting to change.
If the other clones could adapt to the wild, so would he.
When Marowak threw her bone and Alakazam tried to pin him in place with Psyshock after he sidestepped it, he broke free of his grip and flew towards Alakazam in a blur, his feet gliding just over the rocky ground. Did he really think Mewtwo's physical defense was as frail as his own? He pulled the boomerang out of its flight path and into his hand with telekinesis, then tried focusing his power into it just as Alakazam did with his spoons. It formed a flickering energy projection that surrounded and extended from the bone making it a longer club. He swung that club at Alakazam. Blink! And only cracked the ground beneath him. Mewtwo growled in annoyance, then glared at where Alakazam reappeared with glowing eyes and used Disable. Psychic-induced muscle memory loss meant no more teleporting for the time being.
The Alakazam sweat profusely and tried flying away through the cave tunnel with telekinesis, but even his speed couldn't match Mewtwo, who shrugged off another Psychic and whacked him in the back of the head with a great deal of restraint. Even so, that managed to knock him into the cave wall where he fell unconscious after a single blow. How weak. The unstable projection shattered from the impact leaving only the bone itself in his hand.
"Marowak!" The Marowak slowly charged at him and tried headbutting him with its exoskeleton, an attack he let land to test its power.
"Ugh!" Mewtwo flew backwards and lost his grip on the bone. His body ached all over from all his wounds...he wasn't supposed to feel this much pain. "Remember when I said you had a chance? I lied." He said with an evil smirk.
Mewtwo used Recover. All the psychic power he'd held in flooded the cave with an overwhelming pressure that made Marowak's hands shake holding her bone.
"I was suppressing my power even more than the armor did to give myself a challenge against you weaklings, and to fool you into thinking I could be killed so you wouldn't flee on sight. You should be proud: by making me get more serious, I consider that your victory."
He let the Marowak flee and went back to meditating. Even now, he lacked the skill to match his power. Mew knew much more than him after living so long, and that meant one thing: he only survived because they went easy on him. That fact shattered his pride and reminded him he could still feel fear like any other creature.
But it was thanks to that fear that he was able to change.
Lucario's foot hit Mewtwo's head out of the clouds and into the snow after parrying his spoon yet again. Didn't Lucarios use their spiked hands more their legs? Mewtwo de-summoned his weapon after Lucario had done the same for his and got up, focusing his energy into his fists instead. Mewtwo wiped the snow off his bruised cheek, that metallic skeleton certainly made up for Lucario's fighting type and smaller size, not to mention the aura empowering him.
Even so, he still should have had the advantage in speed and strength when adding his psychic power, so how was Lucario keeping up? The two of them ran into close combat and exchanged a series of blows at high speeds. Lucario kept deflecting his attacks to the side and countering with his own at just the right times as if he was the telepath. Were his own attacks too predictable? Lucario grabbed him in the middle of a punch and slammed him into the snow behind himself, using his own weight against him. Then he threw an Aura Sphere at point blank range that Mewtwo barely dodged in time by teleporting ten feet behind Lucario.
Mewtwo levitated dozens of snowballs and ice shards and threw them in a hail at his foe to abuse his range. He couldn't ignore the evidence before his eyes, Lucario's martial arts skills were clearly superior to his own. Where had he learned them? Was it simply because he wasn't a Legendary capable of defeating most enemies with raw power alone? Or had his trainer taught him? How lucky of Lucario to learn from a human he got along with. Giovanni only showed him how to be more ruthless and efficient, and his only other teacher was experience.
Experience like seeing how Lucario dodged and weaved his way through the volley of ice and blocked what he couldn't avoid, mostly unscathed by the type he resisted. Mewtwo threw a red Aura Sphere next, making Lucario throw his own blue Aura Sphere to detonate it prematurely and send snow everywhere. The little damage he took only made his aura brighter. Mewtwo surrounded himself with a barrier when Lucario closed the distance in a burst of speed, making the first punch bounce off.
Then a karate chop shattered his Reflect into particles.
Mewtwo groaned in pain from the blow that came after that before he could react. Of course the humans just had to teach him Brick Break. He had it so easy compared to having to teach the stupid humans something instead.
It was hard to believe he was training humans now, and that it was working. They'd learned under his haphazard attempts at guidance, refined their skills and even overcome some of their fears. What was this strange feeling? What did that make him, a trainer? If he was skilled enough to teach others then why was he losing this fight so badly? Why was he reacting so slowly?
Soon he only felt pain from the Meteor Mash to his face. Then he blacked out.
Mewtwo blinked and wiped the snow from his face when Lucario revived him by tapping the base of his trophy.
"I want a rematch." Mewtwo said with a frown.
"Sorry, but not right now. Something clearly has your attention more than the fight, and I'd rather fight you at your best."
"Hmph. It seems you're afraid you'll lose next time."
"Believe what you want. Whatever troubles your aura, I recommend meditating here to clear your mind. You'll have your peace and quiet since I have other places to be today, and the Ice Climbers are no longer here to visit. I have to admit, I miss them occasionally showing up to distract me."
"..." Mewtwo had nothing to say to that. He just watched as Lucario jumped off their plateau and ran over to the Summit stage on the mountainside to use its teleporter.
He tried sitting still and closing his eyes in concentration, but couldn't find a moment's peace. When had he learned to hesitate like this and reminisce in the middle of battle? Fighting had once come so naturally-or to use a more appropriate word, easily-to him. Everything had changed for the worse the moment he remembered everything. He could never go back, but why couldn't he just deal with it?
I made them stronger...so why did I let them make me so weak?!
"I don't think hitting a Sandbag would help him..." Lucas said.
"That's bad news if we want him to stop being moody. I don't know where he went next, either."
"Then let's find something else to do while we wait, I'm sure he needs time to calm down anyways." Lucas held his chin in thought for a little while. "Wait, we still have to go tell Robin and Reflet how we managed to help Pikachu!"
"Yeah, you're right, let's go talk to them then. Just give me a sec."
Ness teleported them both yet again to visit the tacticians.
Lucas couldn't blame Mewtwo for being moody about everything that happened with Pikachu when he was too. But they had to move on...there were more people they had to help now, weren't there?