Hiding in my Skin, Broken from Within

Chapter 2: Cry for Help

Hiding in my Skin, Broken from Within

Chapter 2 - Cry for Help

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

The rock Charizard was carrying fell on Lucina's left leg. Immense, unbearable crushing pain flooded the blue haired Ylissean's whole being. The pain was so intense that she could only gasp, her face contorted into an expression of suffering, the pupils in her eyes shrinking in response to the sheer agony.

Panicked screams filled the arena as spectators and disqualified participants began to run for the exit. Lucina was lying on her stomach, pinned to the ground by the huge rock on her leg. The intense pain was making her delirious and everything she saw and heard seemed like a blur. She looked at Robin, who stood there looking on with a shocked expression on his face. Feebly reaching out her hand, she tried to shout his name but all that slipped out of her lips were incomprehensible murmurs.

Robin...she thought. Please...help...

Frightened, Robin slowly stepped away, knowing there was nothing he could do to help.

No...Robin...where are you going? Where is everyone going...? No...my nightmare...it's happening...

She heard a muffled yell to her right, and slowly tilted her head in that direction. Shortly after, she saw two men running toward her.

Shulk...? Is that you...? Before blacking out, she briefly saw the form of a tall, muscular man clad in blue.

Is...that...?

_______________________________________

Several hours earlier...

"Are we ready, everyone?!" Master Hand's voice echoed throughout the arena as he hovered over the stage equipped with virtual simulators of the various worlds' stages, that replicated them in almost lifelike quality. "Smash City's first All-Star Championship is about to start! Our first six rounds will consist of free-for-alls with eight combatants, and the four combatants with the highest amount of points at the end of each round will be able to advance. The semi-finals consist of team battles in which the participants that advanced from the first few rounds get to choose their partners, which will lead to the final round: the members of the remaining team in another free-for-all against Lucas and Roy! The last one standing will have the honor of fighting in the Championship Match against our newest fighter, Ryu!"

"This sounds really exciting!" Shulk said, as he waited with the other Smashers in the waiting room.

"Oh yeah!" Luigi chimed, his voice brimming with enthusiasm.

"Wow, Luigi," Mario said. "I'm-a surprised to see you as excited as Shulk here. Normally in these kinda situations you'd -"

"Brooooooo..." Luigi protested, puffing his cheeks in an irritated matter. "You know-a me better than that, Mario. Do I need to mention the many times I -"

"Luigi! Don't-a mention that in public!" Mario felt a bit embarrassed when it came to Luigi bragging about the times he went on his adventures and often ended up saving his own older twin brother in the process.

"Sibling rivalry, am I right?" Sonic asked Shulk, observing the exchange between the plumber brothers.

"Haha, yeah..." the blond wielder of the Monado agreed with a chuckle. Looking over at Captain Falcon standing against the wall, he noticed the blank expression the F-Zero racer had on his face. Falcon's helmet hid his eyes from everyone's view, but Shulk didn't need to have eye contact with Falcon to know that Falcon seemed somewhat stoic at that moment.