Earthbound: Time Reflux

The Fight Begins

Tessie was captured and the Starmen began hypnotising it. They applied metal armor to it’s body made of Gigoid alloy, the very metal that Starmen use in their armor. Slowly, Tessie, although struggling, fell prey to the Starmen’s hypnosis. The starmen now had their new weapon of destruction, “Starmanial Tessie”.

Ness and the others waited for the Starmen to do something. Ninten almost jumped into the water and swam to the other side. Jeff waited anxiously for Tessie to come and deliver them to the opposite shore...but nobody came. “Guys…? Where’s Tessie?” Ness asked, showing some concern.

Jeff answered glumly, “I-I don’t know. It’s usually here...but now it’s not…” The ground once again trembled under the group’s feet.

“Uh, who’s Tessie?” Ninten broke the unnerving silence of the rumbling Earth. A shadow was casted over everyone, and every single one of their heads turned to see the rising army of Starmen in the sky. Each one of the Starmen jetted across the lake towards the group. Ness pulled out his old bat. Paula set her frying pan ablaze. Jeff readied some bottle rockets. Poo focused his PSI. Ninten cracked his knuckles with a smirk, “Let’s do this.”

Flying into the air, Poo released a massive PK Starstorm Ω. The energy crashed into the hoard of flying Starmen, taking out many of them in a single hit. The surviving Starmen continued soaring to meet the heroes and take them out. Paula, taking a defensive stance, casted PSI Shields around everyone; Ninten took the liberty of strengthening the shields. Paula and Poo then both used PK Thunder, followed by Ness unleashing PK Rockin’ Ω. The moves decimated the remaining Starmen in an explosion of smoke and flying colors. “That wasn’t that bad.” Ninten said while stretching. “It really could’ve been harder--” He was sent flying into a tree by a Starman Super. Nobody had ever seen any Starman teleport that fast.

Quickly standing up, Ninten rushed towards the Starman and knocked it halfway back into the lake out of rage. His fist did more than just dent the metal, it broke straight through. Shaking off his hand, he noticed many more Starmen coming by teleportation. “That was only the first wave…” he thought, “Get ready guys, we’ve got a lot more on our hands!”

Each one of the five split up and went for a group of Starman Supers. Poo had already unsheathed his sword and was making quick work of many of them. He went on to help Jeff by holding off the Starmen while Jeff set up the Multi-bottle Rockets. Ness was having extreme nostalgia. His bat crashing into the metal of the starmen brought back many memories. He even took this moment to practice his short distance teleportation, as he zipped around Starmen, destroying them in a single blow. He caught up to Paula and they both released PK Fire and PK Flash together, creating a blinding light accompanied by a fiery blast. While this did much to take out the remaining Starmen, more kept coming. Almost endlessly.

Soon the four were surrounded by endless amounts of Starmen, with more coming from over the lake. It was an overwhelming sight. Ness and Ninten had had enough of this, and both of them charged into the field of opposition.

“Ness!! Ninten!! Come back! It's too dangerous!” Paula yelled into the crowd. Ninten and Ness had already disappeared.

The duo dashed along, bashing starmen and dodging numerous lasers coming at them from all possible angles. Surrounded by psychic shields, they wrecked multiple starmen in single blows. Both were increasingly angered. The fire in their hearts burned furiously.

“Ness! Watch out!” Another bright beam shot toward Ness, in which he twisted his body to dodge it.

“Ninten, behind you!” Ninten pivoted on his heel and thrusted his hand into the starman towering over him, shattering its body. Ninten shook his hand vigorously from the impact, then kept at the coming hoard of starmen. In the distance, a red spot could be seen rising up.

Starman Ultra.

He fired a beam that homed in on Ness. Ness smirked confidently and braced his shield, only to find that the beam bounced off and disabled his shield. The beam went towards Ninten catching him off guard and launching him several feet away. Ness began running to find Ninten, but stopped to observe the large looming shadow that covered the sun.

“What the...could it be...?” The organism dived down at lightning speed. Ness’ eyes widened and he stumbled back a step.

“TESSIE?!”