The Smash Freshmen, Chapter Sixty-Five

The Smash Freshmen

Chapter Sixty-Five: Pit’s Escape

    Marth stepped forward out of the rubble, a cruel grin upon his face. Ike stared down Marth, placing himself in front of Robin, Daraen, Lucina, and Doctor Mario, his heavy sword held out before him.

    “Is that—that’s my ancestor,” Lucina said, “Marth, the great hero of legend.”

    “Stay back!” Ike ordered. “He’s not Marth anymore. Just a twisted hunk of scrap metal using his body as a puppet.”

    “But—”

    Lucina groaned as she crumpled to the ground, clutching her torso. Daraen rushed to her side. Holding her hand up, they both watched in horror as it disappeared into thin air for a split second.

    “What’s happening?” Daraen asked.

    “Both Marth and Caeda have fallen to the metals,” Doctor Mario coughed, sitting up. “The timeline is being rewritten. She and her entire line from Marth forward are disappearing from existence.”

    Daraen glanced up as Marth approached Ike, both swordsmen squaring off with each other. “Lucina, stay down,” he said softly. “It’s going to be alright.”

    Daraen stood and placed himself in front of Lucina, standing side-by-side with Ike. He brandished his lightning-shaped sword and opened a tome from within his long coat.

    “No,” Lucina said, pulling herself up and drawing her sword as well.

    “Lucina,” Daraen said with concern, “You’re in no condition to fight.”

    “I don’t care. I’ll fight at your side.”

    “But—”

    Marth flashed forward, slashed his sword in an arc towards them. Ike stepped forward, blocking the blow with his heavy blade. He knocked the blade aside and struck Marth with the flat of his blade, knocking him backwards. He stepped forward, slamming his sword into the ground and causing an eruption of fire to burst from the ground at Marth’s feet.

    “Come on,” Ike said, looking back at Lucina and Daraen while Marth recovered. “If you’re going to fight, fight. Otherwise get to safety. There’s no room for hesitation with these things.”

    As he spoke, Marth got to his feet and lunged at Ike again. Ike barely managed to parry the strike inches from his head. Daraen and Lucina looked at each other and nodded reluctantly. Together, they both jumped in to the fight. Behind them, Robin turned to Doctor Mario. “Is your wound serious?” she asked, looking at his injury.

    “No,” the doctor replied, wincing. “He only grazed me.”

    “Uh-huh,” she said skeptically, examining it. Heavy amounts of blood were staining his white lab coat. “Hang on,” she said, digging inside of her coat and pulling out a tome. “I’ve had some training as a cleric back in my world.”

    She opened the book and held her hand over the injury. Whispering a spell, magical energy passed from her hand to the cut, partially healing it. Once the spell was finished, she slumped back, breathing heavily. “How’s that?”

    Doctor Mario sat up and felt the wound. “It’s good,” he said. “Thank you.”

    Robin nodded. “Come on,” she said, standing and drawing her Levin sword. “Our friends need our help.”

“Steady.”

    Viridi grasped Pittoo’s arm, using all of her power to keep him frozen in place. Across the room, Pit sat in his cage of light, his unsettling stare fixed unwaveringly on Viridi. She tried to ignore him, focusing on her work. She held up a syringe of anti-metal and positioned it over Pittoo’s skin. With a sharp jab, she plunged the needle into his arm and drained the fluid into him.

    As soon as she released him, the fallen angel fell to the floor, writhing in pain. Viridi stepped back and watched the serum take effect. Pittoo rolled onto all fours and started retching uncontrollably. For a second, Viridi started to worry if the serum wouldn’t work after all or that it might kill Pittoo. The fear lasted momentarily however as Pittoo stopped his convulsions. Shivers ran all across his body as gray dust started to leak from every pore and pile on the floor. Once it stopped, the angel slumped to the ground, pale and shaking.

    “So, it works, I see,” Pit said from his cage.

    Viridi hurried to her desk and grabbed the green mushroom from off of it. She hurried to Pittoo’s side, who was beginning to show symptoms of the Orme attack that had killed him in the first place. She shoved the mushroom into his mouth and made him chew. The mushroom’s power took effect almost immediately as color returned to Pittoo’s face and his muscles stopped quivering.

    “How are you feeling?” Viridi asked.

    Pittoo sat up, rubbing his head. “Like I’ve been run over by the entire Aurum fleet,” he groaned.

    “Is it . . . you in there?”

    Pittoo took a second to answer as he flexed his wings and fingers. “Yeah, I think so,” he said. “It was weird. I could see and hear everything going on around me, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Other times, it felt like I was in control, but my mind was cloudy and I couldn’t focus. I only said and did what the metal wanted me to.”

    “It’s alright,” Viridi said. “You’re free now. Which means it’s Pit’s turn.”

    Viridi went back to her work table and prepared another syringe. Part of her wasn’t proud of the fact that she had used Pittoo as a guinea pig to make sure she could use it on Pit, but the rest of her could get over it.

    Just as she was putting the stopper in the syringe, she heard a loud bang come from somewhere above her. Palutena? She called out with her mind. What was that?

    I’m not sure, Palutena replied. I’m going to check it out now. I think it came from the medical bay. Marth may have taken a turn for the worse.

    Viridi held up her syringe of glowing liquid. At least we have a cure if he has, she thought to herself.

    “V-Viridi!” Pittoo called out behind her.

    Viridi started to turn when a sharp pain pierced her back and a blade of liquid metal burst from her chest. She dropped the syringe to the floor in surprise. Viridi turned her head to see Pit standing behind her.

    “Hey there, sweetie,” he said coldly.

    “H-how?” she gasped, glancing at the cage of light he had been trapped in.

    Pit shook his head and laughed. “You and Palutena really should have checked the solidarity of that cage before sticking me in there. Especially with your powers being limited in this world and all.”

    Viridi looked down at her chest, concerned that the wound in her chest was not healing nor was the metal blade withering away from her divine energy.

    “What exactly do you think you’re going to accomplish?” she asked. “Do you really expect your metal to affect me? I am a goddess.”

    Pit chuckled. “Hades, Thanatos, Phosphora, Pandora, Medusa, Pyrrhon. And all without metal? You ‘gods’ aren’t so tough. To be honest, I’m curious to find out just what the metal will do to you.”

    Viridi focused all of her energy and thrust out her mind at Pit, pummeling at him with the sheer force of her will. As the metal had before under attack from the dark smash ball, the metal formed a shield around the angel, rippling under the onslaught.

    “You’re not a goddess here, Viridi,” Pit said, his face appearing in the midst of the metal. “You’re as mortal as me now. Why don’t you just give in?”

    Sweat, a new concept for Viridi, beaded on her forehead as she fought to keep her defenses up. Soon, her strength simply gave out as the effort and the wound in her chest became simply too much.

    Pit tisked. “Poor little Viridi,” he said, “Not used to being so . . . normal, are you? Don’t worry, my dear. Soon, you can have our power—”

    A dark arrow pierced Pit in the back, causing him to wrench backward and withdraw his blade arm from Viridi. He turned to glare at Pittoo. With one swift motion, he threw out his hand, producing a large block of metal that slammed into his doppelganger and pinned him against the wall. As if it had been little more than an annoyance, he turned back to Viridi, who had crumpled to the marble floor.

    “Wh-why?” she said weakly, a look of real fear in her eyes. “If you could get out of the cage the whole time, why wait until now?”

    Pit crouched over her and stroked her light blonde hair. “It’s simple, really,” he said, reaching over and picking up the syringe of anti-metal from where she had dropped it. “My master has a vested interest in this little project of yours, and he tasked me with procuring it from you once it was finished.”

    Viridi shook her head, trying to make sense of Pit’s words. “Why would he want that?”

    “He has his reasons.” Pit stowed the syringe inside his tunic and proceeded to collect the remaining samples of anti-metal from the desk. Once he was finished, he bent over Viridi once again and kissed her on the forehead. “If the metal takes effect, have some fun up here before you join us on the surface.”

    Pit stood and glanced at where Pittoo was still pinned against the wall. “You get to go free today, brother,” he said, “I would make you a metal again, but . . . with that stuff inside you, I’m sure you’ll understand.”

    With that, Pit turned and strode confidently from the room.