SMASH GAMES 2: CHAOS | Super Smash Bros.

8 - The Fall

Pit 

The aggravating thing about wings? Not being able to use them. 

Only Palutena, his goddess, could activate the Power of Flight, and on many of his missions, above and below, it had been irritating when the big Five Minutes were up and he'd been forced to put boots on the ground or have his wings burn to crisps. But now, it wasn't irritating-it was a death sentence. 

Wind roared in his face, sending him spinning end over end towards Palutena-knew-what. He could hear almost nothing over the screeching air in his ears-nothing but Lucina's screams. She was somewhere below, being pulled towards solid ground faster than himself, and he could just barely see her past the tears streaking down his bruised face. 

She was going to die first, and he'd be right on her heels. 

Desperation was forcing a loop to play through his head. He was calling Palutena's name over and over and over, begging for her to somehow, from wherever she was, activate the Power of Flight, to save his undeserving, worthless butt once more, but he got no answer, no answering burn in his wings. The only burning he felt was coming from his skin and clothes as gravity's unyielding pull yanked them down through the sky like rockets. 

The clouds of the upper sky began to clear. The sky opened up, yielding a view of the thick bank of clouds below them...and the earth below it. They were growing closer and closer to solid ground-some small part of Pit's mind that wasn't scrambling due to the nearness of death calculated that he had two minutes to impact. Two minutes to either accept his death, and therefore condemn Lucina to hers, to try to do something to save them both.  

Pit flailed, ripping at the backpack and sacks he'd taken from the armory. He tossed them away, the smoke bombs, the guns, the staff, sending them to rain down towards the ground.  

Then he anchored his arms and legs together, forcing his body into a streamlined position, which made G-force's hold on him that much tighter. He saw Lucina spinning through the clouds, the weapons falling past her. He shot downward, slowly growing closer and closer to his blue-haired companion.  

"Lucina!" he screamed. "Lucina, hold on! Hold on!" 

One and a half-minutes. Gods, he was cutting it close. Lucina's flailing figure grew close, but not close enough. He extended a hand, trying to grab anything, her cape, her leg, and an intense rush of déjà vu coursed through him as he did, pinning him in a memory that had him diving after his clone, his wings burning to black, feathery crisps as he did so... 

His fingers curled around her ankle. Yes! He yanked her to his chest, holding her tightly under her arms. 

"Fly!" she screamed, digging her nails into his back. 

"I can't!" he shouted as wind pounded him in the face. They cleared the cloudbank. Weak afternoon sunlight bathed the landscape below, a picturesque forest of pine, oak and spruce. It would've been a peaceful picture if they hadn't been careening towards it at a thousand-miles an hour. 

"You're an angel!" Lucina screamed in his ear. "Yes you can! Fly!" 

"I can't!" he roared angrily. He found himself cursing Palutena for having complete dominion over flight-and wishing, not for the first time, that angels could fly under their own power. 

But thank the heavens he could glide. 

If he released his wings at the right moment, the right height from the ground, then they might have a chance of landing without killing themselves. But it would be all about timing-something he wasn't very good at. 

The trees grew closer and closer. The sun seemed to rise above them, blinding Pit in its afternoon light. Wind continued to blast him, and Lucina continued to gasp and cry in terror. Not yet, not yet. His breath was shallow. Her nails dug into his back hard enough to draw blood. 

He could see individual branches in the trees now, smell the earthy scent of dirt and leaves. A gap in the trees appeared to his left. 

Now! He angled towards the gap and released his wings, opening them up like sails. They caught the wind, yanking him and Lucina backwards, slowing them down. His bones creaked painfully as they soared into the trees. 

Branches snapped all around them, and a hailstorm of pine needles rained, impairing his already-poor vision . Lucina twisted and cried out, which was not helping Pit's concentration. He struggled to keep his wings open and slow them down as much as possible, but they were still going so fast that they threatened to hyperextend and snap at any moment. They were still too high in the air to survive the resulting fall. 

Salvation appeared: a river twisting like a dark snake through the shadows of the trees. Yes! He angled his wings downward, and downward they went. Too hard! Lucina screamed at their descent-her long legs barely cleared the ground.  

A nanosecond before they reached the water, Pit twisted, positioning his body before Lucina's. His ankle glanced the ground and broke, and he didn't even feel it.  

What he did feel was hitting the river. 

It was like hitting a sidewalk from a hundred feet up. He was lucky he didn't break his back. But he was pretty sure he broke a few other things-pain scorched his insides like fire, making him flail mindlessly in agony. Water flushed over his head as he sank into the river, and it pressed between his lips, flooding into his mouth. Tunnel vision arrived right on time as his lungs bucked for air. 

Yep, he was a goner-no doubt about it. 

A second later, Lucina was dragging him out of the river and onto the soggy bank. Pit flailed like a fish as he struggled to get the water out of his chest. He hacked and coughed, and Lucina pounded him hard on the back, which only served to make his coughing worse. She rolled him over and forced his head down. The water finally exited his throat, making his chest spasm as it did. 

"Pit?" Lucina demanded, pulling him up to a sitting position. "Pit?" 

"I'm okay," Pit choked, "I'm all right." A second later, he fell into the reeds and fainted.