"PITTOO!!!"

My heartbeat increased with a slight hint of fear at the sight of the poor, tattered angel. But even more so at what or who could have brought him into such a state.
"H-He's not... dead... is he?" I heard Toony whimper in a quiet voice.
"N-No, never. He's too strong." I said in reassurance for both Toony and myself.
He can't be dead... right? He's just unconscious. Please just let him be unconscious...
I kept my weapon close, my breathing becoming shakey as I could feel my grip tightening, causing my knuckles to go white. The uneasiness was obvious in my stance and posture. I was stiff and was gripping whatever I had in my hands as if it was my life in the form of a physical object.
"I-I don't see anything yet. Let's try to get him down." Pikachu said, his voice more shakey than usual.
I nodded as I began to make my way over to the limp form of Pittoo upon the far wall.
Since I had made it half way, I thought that nothing was here other than us. But oh, was I never so wrong.
I had only gotten to the center of the room with Pikachu and Toony before a giggling laughter was heard, followed by the sound of the stone door behind us closing.
Pikachu panicked a bit, running for the door in attempts to open it again, but it was locked tight.
"What's this? Visitors? How rude of you to just barge right in." A familiar yet sly and taunting voice said.
I turned around just in time to see a shadow-like figure slowly fade into existence.
"L-Lady... Palutena?" Toony choked out as his ears drooped in fear.
She giggled, twirling her scepter as she stared the three of us down as a fox targets her prey.
Something was definately wrong with her. Although she is a normally confidant person, her stance seemed too confident, menacing and melevolant mixing with stiff-yet-flexible limbs. Her hair was a dark purple, as most of her outfit was black, and a dark mist rose from the tip of her staff.
I heard her giggle again from our petrified reactions, which only made my grip on my weapon tighten from both fear and enfuriation.
This was not Lady Palutena.
"Ah, I see you were admiring my little ornament over there. He does make a wonderful decoration, doesn't he?" The imposter said.
I growled, my fear only slightly fading from her words as it was replaced with anger.
"Let him go." I spat, poison dripping from every word.
Yet she only giggled once more in amusement.
"Fufufu, you're rather feisty, aren't you? But don't worry, you can join him rather quickly along with the others of your party."
My fury overwhelmed my body, making control over something as simple as my own thoughts impossible. Lunging straight for the taunting goddess mindlessly I attacked, throwing blows at her in every way I possibly could.
She dodged easily, floating around while using a lightweight spell to brush off my attacks.
Toony and Pikachu were frozen for a moment more until the next explosion due to the Mimic-Palutena throwing an attack my way. Snapping from their fear-induced trance-like states they both jumped into action. Pikachu threw a ball of electricity at the enemy whilst Toon Link took out his sword and shield, holding them at ready despite him already having claws he could have used.
A wretched smirk appeared on Mimic-Palutena's lips from their actions as she landed back into the ground before tapping her staff on the ground as she looked at Toony and Pikachu.
"Here, kitty kitty~" She taunted with a flick of her finger.
I growled at her words as I ran in for another attack, catching her off guard whilst getting a strong hit in at the same time.
The thought of fighting a fellow Smasher to the death is sickening to me, yet this was my only choice. All I could do was fight back and pray this wasn't the true Palutena clothed differently.
She, once again, threw an attack my way. I was quick to dodge, lucky not getting a scrape.
Is she after us, or is she just keeping us from getting to Pittoo?
Just as soon as the idea popped into my head, I turned around, throwing another attack at the Mimic-Palutena before sprinting for where Pittoo was hanging.
I could hear a responsive growl from behind me from Mimic-Palutena along with the sound of footsteps increasing in speed.
"(Y/n)! What in the name of Arceus are you doing!?" I heard Pikachu yell.
I didn't reply as I kept running, curious to see if my theory was correct.
The Mimic-Palutena teleported in front of me, creating a shield before firing a ray of shadow at me. Her eyes were narrow, beginning to turn a blood red and glowing slightly to show her obvious fury.
I inhaled sharply, skidding to a stop and falling on my hip to try and prevent being hit by her beam of darkness.
Quickly standing up I sent another attack her way with my (y/weapon) in a manner of defense.
"Sh-She's trying to keep us fro getting to Pittoo!" I shouted over all the noise as I backed up a bit.
Toony and Pikachu rushed over to where I was, ready to attack at any time despite being rather frantic and semi-terrified.
"Wh-What should w-we do?" Toony whimpered as he held his shield up.
I took in another breath as I furrowed my brows in determination mixed with sorrow, not hesitating to reply.
"We take her down." I replied in a grim tone.
Pikachu jumped, gasping slightly as his ears drooped.
"Wh-What!? But... It's Lady Palutena!" He replied.
Shaking my head, I rose my weapon to strike again.
"No, this isn't her. She's an imposter, and I won't let her cause any more damage!" I said before charging at the imposter, striking again with anger.
We were both locked in battle, struggling to be victorious.
Toony and Pikachu followed my lead only a few moments later, eventually striking her without hesitation.

The battle lasted for longer than it should and we all ended up gaining a few wounds in the process. Yet, nonetheless, we made it out alive.
I had dealt the final blow on the Mimic-Palutena, landing a shot right in the center of her chest.
"NO! I WON'T LET YOU WIN! YOU WILL ALL PAY!" She had screeched, following her words with an ear-splitting scream as her body turned completely into shadow, breaking apart in a small explosion as each speck faded away.
Each of us was out of breath, panting to regain our stamina and energy.
Toony collapsed onto the grownd in exhaustion as he layed down flat, his ears drooping as his tail stood still. Whereas Pikachu placed his hands on his knees and stood in one place.
Although, unlike them, as soon as I caught half of my breath I ran for where Pittoo was.
"W-Wait a second! You should catch your breath first!" I heard Pikachu call from behind me.
"No! He could be losing too much blood! We have to get him out of these thorns!" I replied in a slightly frantic tone, beginning to climb up the tangling web of vines upon the cracked stone wall.
I could feel the throns digging into my skin as I climbed, yet that was the least of my concerns. With each step I got closer and closer to the tattered dark angel, soon reaching eye level with his unconscious form.
I reached into my sachel, feeling around until I found my small dagger. Curling my now cut fingers around the small blade's handel as I began to saw away at Dark Pit's binds.
"(Y/n), l-let us help out! J-just stay there a-a moment so we can get up there!" Toony said as he ran over to the bottom of the vines.
"N-No! Stay there instead! You can catch him when I get him loose." I replied quickly, not taking my attention away from what I was doing.
It took a while, but I was finally able to set him free from his painful prision of nature, carefully pulling him away from the wall and letting him down, where Pikachu and Toony caught him.
I let go of the vine I was holding onto, dropping onto the ground and landing on my feet.
Without wasting a second I rushed over to where Pittoo was layng on the ground.
Indeed, he was in a very sorry state, cut and bruised all over his arms, face, legs, and tail and ears?
Wait, he was also turned into a neko?
If it were a different time, I would have laughed at least a little, but he was in danger so that is not necessarily the best thing at the moment.
I quickly checked for a pulse by pressing a finger to his inner wrist.
"I-Is he okay?" Toony studdered as his tail twitched in anticipation.
I let out a sigh of relief before going through my sachel again for bandages. My hand met with something somewhat soft, indicating that I had reached the bandages.
"He still has a pulse, so he's alive. Thank goodness." I said as I pulled out the bandages, beginning to wrap up his wounds despite being wounded myself.
I could see Toony and Pikachu's tails relax a bit from my words as Pikachu moved over to where I was.
"L-Let me help you out with the bandages." He said as his ears perked slightly.
glancing over at him I nodded, smiling slightly as I handed him a roll of bandages which he took with a hint of caution from my hands before beginning to help bandage up the battered dark angel.
The bandaging didn't take too long with two of us working at the same time along with Toony helping out when he could.
I let out another sigh of relief as I sat up straight, looking at Dark Pit's resting form with sorrow and anticipation.
"H-Hey, (y/n), don't you have some of the h-healing potion left from before?" I heard Toony ask in a somewhat quiet voice as he tilted his head slightly, making one of his ears droop a bit in a cute way.
My eyes widened slightly in realization as I began to go through some of the things in my satchel again.
"That's right! Where did I put it...Ah!" I said with a bright smile as I felt the cold touch of a glass bottle.
Quickly I removed it from my satchel, seeing that there was still half left as I removed the cork that was sealing it shut, earning a slightly confused look from Pikachu as his tail swayed back and forth as if it were in the breeze.
"Don't mind me asking, but, how are we going to get him to drink it when he's passed out?" He asked.
I looked over at him for a moment before looking back at Dark Pit, setting the potion carefully on the ground so my hands were free to slide underneath his head and upper back to help him sit up.
"Y-You have to get him sitting up on an angle and help him drink it. Let me handle this." I replied as I used myself as a 'backrest' for Dark Pit's unconscious figure, keeping an arm around his arms, tattered wings, and upper back for stability as I grabbed the potion again.
"Are you sure?" Toony asked as he watched, from which I replied with a simple nod.
I carefully pressed the rim of the potion bottle against Pittoo's already slightly open lips as I began to slowly get him to drink the health potion until it was empty, making sure the whole time that there wasn't a possibility of him choking on the very thing that was supposed to help him.
I slowly placed the empty bottle on the stone ground as I kept the position I was in.
"Now all that's left is to wait and see if he wakes up." I said in a worried yet surprisingly calm voice.
"H-He's going to wake up, right?" Toony asked with a sorrowful fear and tremble to his voice.
"Of course he will, he's Pittoo. He practically laughs in the face of death daily, and that's often literal." Pikachu retorted.
I nodded, looking back at the dark angel in my arms, waiting for his eyes to open again.
"Right, nothing can keep Pittoo down for long." I said quietly before sighing slightly and looking at the ground with my eyebrows furrowed in sorrow.
No more comments were made by either Pikachu or Toony after those words. I didn't even try to force some sort of positivity into the moment to help cover the sorrow.
The silence soon became deafening from how heavy the weight of worry was that mixed into the room. Yet the silence was broken in a very unusual way, by a hoarse and tired voice.
"D-Don't... call me th-that..."
My eyes widened as I looked back at Pittoo, my mood lifting quickly when my (e/c) eyes met with his bright semi-purplish-red irises, which were only half open. A bright smile spread across my lips as an unconscious light chuckle escaped from his comment as I didn't hesitate to hug him tightly.
Thank goodness he's alright and awake.

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Phew! My apologies that this took so long to update, school and a huge essay have taken over my life and my time. But I decided to take a few days to write an extra long chapter to make up for how long it's been since the last update. Either way, I hope you're liking it so far! The picture was edited due to it being extremely hard to find one of Pittoo as Neko. All rights for the original goes to it's original owner. Anywho, I'll see you in the next chapter, Dragon Riders!

~ Hurneth Flamefury🐾🐉