SMASH GAMES 2: CHAOS | Super Smash Bros.

10 - The Veterans and the Partnership

Samus 

"Pikachu," Samus said, voice cold and hard. "Is that mustached midget still following us?" 

The mousy Pokémon, who was somewhere behind her, replied: "Ka!" The two had long since established a simple answering system: Pi meant "yes"; Ka meant "no." They were still working out the in-betweens, but Samus was confident that soon they'd have their own little lexicon of code-words-it would certainly make this entire ordeal easier. 

"Good," Samus said. She stooped slightly, gripping the navy-haired girl under the arm. "Get up." 

The girl obeyed, her movement slow and calculated. Samus didn't dare take her gun off of her-she knew a warrior when she saw one. Just looking at her, Samus could tell that she knew how to fight and protect herself. She kept a hard grip on the girl's arm, limiting her mobility, and said, "Pikachu, get the rope out of my pack. Tie this stick up on that tree over there." 

Pikachu leapt onto Samus's shoulders and unzipped the backpack before rummaging inside. He came out a minute later with a coil of rope. Samus shoved the girl over to a nearby tree and kicked her feet out from under her, making her collapse onto her behind. Pikachu worked rapidly, shackling the girl's hands together before tying the rest of the line around the tree. 

"I didn't kill him," the girl said, her voice gritty; her cheeks were flushed and sticky with dried tears. 

Samus ignored her and hurried over to Pit, who was bleeding from the gut. A wad of drenched cloth was lying on his chest. Samus discarded it and examined the wound, a hole drowned in blood. She moved calmly, wearing a thick poker face, but she felt as though her insides had been sucked out with a vacuum. She didn't even think her heart was beating, and it was all due to the sight of her friend lying prone in the red grass. 

Pit looked well and truly dead. 

But she wouldn't allow herself to believe that. Angels weren't immortal, he'd told her as much, but it would take an awful lot to bring Pit down-more than a stick of lightning, at the very least. All business, she placed two fingers against Pit's throat and waited with baited breath.  

Thank heaven-a faint, fleeting pulse. She grinned in relief. I knew it. 

"He's alive," she announced. She placed her palm on Pit's chest and paled a little at the cold touch. "But he'll be dead in a minute if we don't restart his heart. Pikachu?" 

"What?" the girl gasped as Pikachu bounded over and perched beside Pit, rubbing his hands together. "H-he's alive?" She let out a joyful sob. "Thank Gods!" 

Samus ignored her and shrugged off her bookbag, positioning it under Pit's skull. A second later, electricity jumped between the Pokémon's paws. The electric mouse held his paws apart and nodded at Samus. Samus nodded back. "Clear," she said. 

Pikachu stamped his paws down on Pit's chest. As the electric current fired through him, Pit's entire body bucked, as if he'd just been punched from behind. Jaw hard, Samus held him down as he continued to flail like a fish out of water. 

A long minute later, the seizure was over-Pit collapsed again, covered in sweat. Samus lay her hand down on his chest and found, with great relief, that Pit's heartbeat was back-a little fast, but at least it was there. 

The bad news was that his pounding heart was now pushing more blood out of his wound. "Do we have any gauze left, Pikachu?" Samus asked. She and her companions'd had quite a week, and they were getting low on medical supplies.  

But there was one strip left, as luck would have it-Pikachu pulled it out from the pack underneath Pit's head and handed it to her. She unrolled a wide swath and pulled Pit's tunic down before rapidly winding it around his gut wound. Almost immediately, the blood flow lessened. She checked his breathing and wound once more before sitting back and allowing herself to sigh in relief-Pit was definitely alive and looking to stay that way. But it didn't look as though he'd be waking up anytime soon.