Draco: I know, I know, this is getting ridiculous. Don't worry, though, this isn't going to be a main project. In fact, it's mostly compensation for having to take down my Heart To Heart playlist.

Here's the story. I've been playing Kid Icarus in anticipation for some LVD with someone other than the witty-named AI Fighters and jackass cheaters, and for some reason I felt like writing something a little... darker than usual. Yes, making Vanitas a vampire just wasn't dark enough for me. Hey, Rosa-Vam has a hell of a lot of comedy, you can't write very good serious fanfiction about it.

Anyways, the subject of my darkness is as follows; I'll be doing my take on a few of those times you get finished for some reason other than getting blasted in Crisis Mode. You know, those things that no fool would ever make the mistake of doing? (Okay, I'll admit those Centurion Strongarms are hard to protect on higher Intensities (or even just with a club) but that's not the point).

No, I'm not doing these in order. This one is from Chapter 21. Don't miss the Chaos Kin when he breaks his head on that rock; if you didn't cry, you're a Heartless.

Kid Icarus and all related subjects © Masahiro Sakurai and his Project Sora (no, not that Sora).

The Chaos Vortex: Broken Wings

It was desperation.

No, it was anger. Skyworld ravaged over three years, Lady Palutena's body turned stone cold sepia, her soul in the Chaos Kin's hands. Or... claws. Pit was desperate to protect his goddess, but he lost because the Chaos Kin had made him angry. Nothing more.

The staff in his hands was his biggest problem. Blades had wider blasts. Claws had rapid fire. Orbitars had some serious homing. And if you fire a shot off from a club, be damned if you don't scare them long enough to dash up and strike them with a melee blow. But the Laser Staff in his hands fired in a straight line, no thicker than a twig; and in his anger, had hadn't even taken aim. He'd just fired.

The shot flew between the Chaos Kin's wings, tearing through the stone into which it had just crashed.

He fired again; but by now the parasite had recovered, flying around the shot and taking off. Pit shouted in desperation, feeling his wings start to heat up, and he raised his staff again as another eyelike gap opened in front of the Chaos Kin; but the shot died as it hit the eye, and as his wings tried to take him forward the rift in the vortex closed.

"NOOO!"

"You're out of time," Viridi gasped, her voice weak. "And... you're out of flight. I can't even get you home..." The nature goddess' image appeared in his mind; tears were trailing from her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Pit."

Pit's breath was heavy as flames started to spark across his wings. "No..."

Viridi's voice reached his mind again. "I'll save your wings... Try and find a safe place to land."

The angel only closed his eyes as the light faded from his feathers; and as the Chaos Vortex's twisted gravity dragged him in a direction he knew not where, he only folded his wings and parted his hands, letting it take him where it so pleased.

The air whistled through Pit's feathers, racing his hair in front of him, and as his body raced past debris that looked like temple ruins memories began to race past his mind.

I'll strip you of your wings and sever you from the heavens forever!

Medusa's threat seemed so mild now, compared to what Pit had been through. Hades had certainly meant to hold true on his promise to make the Goddess of Darkness 'look like a sweet, cuddly bunny'; waging the humans against themselves, fighting off the Aurum just so he could claim the planet - he was just so vile it was hard to set up anything worse, even just for Pit to imagine.

At which point, they'll drive themselves to extinction battling for it. And that's good for my business!

Lord of the Underworld definitely made Hades a serious player in the whole warfare game; how could it not, when all death brings you a new batch of victory? Pit wouldn't be surprised if he had the Reapers sorting out which dead were best fit to be suited up for battle.

I'm talking about their interior - specifically, their souls.

Medusa's fortress had reformed her commanders for Pit to fight, but if what Palutena had said about Pandora was true for all of them, they were just souls, mixed up to give them the powers.

Add a pinch of memories to a lot of souls. Put them in a blender and hit frappé!

If Hades could bring about something as great as Medusa, just by reforming a few dead souls with her thoughts, who was to say he couldn't pull about something simpler than that?

Isn't it obvious? These brutes have a complete disregard for life!

Viridi had hatred for the humans, but the only difference between them and the Underworld was just their form; humans were natural, the Underworlders were monsters. If Viridi hated them that much...

All you have to do is conquer anyone in your way!

Pit's eyes snapped open.

With a whirl of movement, the angel arced around and spread his wings. His fall slowed, and he whirled his staff in hand until a temple structure drifted towards him. He thrust the weapon out, causing it to hook on the column, and he arced around it swiftly, whirling into a flip.

"Find a safe place to land, huh?"

Pit drove his sandals into the stone, grasping his staff at his side.

"I'll do you one better - I'll find a safe place to fight."

He kicked off the marble, wings outspread. On his own, he couldn't fly - not without the Wings of Pegasus - but he didn't hesitate to leap from rubble to rubble, wreckage to wreckage, staff braced behind him until he caught sight of what he was looking for.

"Hey, you overgrown locust!"

The Chaos Kin reacted to Pit's shout as he raised his staff, taking careful aim.

A breath passed through the angel's lips.

Then he fired.

A single shot at maximum distance from a Laser Staff was more than enough to knock the Chaos Kin out of the sky. The abomination tried to flap its way around, take cover, but Pit quickly raised his staff again, holes in its wings with a couple volleys of continuous fire. As the Chaos Kin began to plummet, Pit set a hand on his laurel crown.

"Guess who, Viridi!"

Then he took two steps forward and leapt, arcing into a diving glide as he chased the Chaos Kin towards lower ground.

Draco: Yeah, I knew I was gonna turn it light around the end.

When you think you're about to die, emotion leaves you. Under those circumstances, Pit could easily figure it out through backflash montage. His wings function enough to let him glide, just ask the Smashers - and with that, all it would take is a bit of tricky maneuvering for him to find the Chaos Kin. He's an angel - and that's how angels get things done.

Reviews, if you please!