The All-Alex Rejects Chapter 6

WARNING: This chapter contains graphic content that some readers may be uncomfortable with. This content was not intended to be used to shock the audience (that would be tasteless); it was used because of preservation of the characters’ backstories and is essentially the reason why those characters became Rejects.
Viewer discretion is advised.

After walking for what seemed like hours but may have been minutes, the Rejects came upon a large building. It was made of dark brown and green metal, with chimneys towering high above the building itself. It was quite a contrast from the vibrantly-colored sky and grass surrounding it.

“What’s this place?” Alex Jr. asked.

“It looks like some kind of abandoned factory,” Morgana uttered fearfully.

“Can’t be,” Mars pointed out, “The chimneys are still smoking. If the factory was abandoned, there’d be no one to manage the furnace for those things.”

“Then what is it?” Paeton asked.

“I believe it is the factory in which Alex’s ideas are created,” Alice explained, “Inside are the complex mechanisms with which Alex creates the characters, environments, drawings, and everything else his mind creates.”

“So is this where we’re from?” Morgana asked.

“It appears so,” Mars said.

“Perhaps this place can explain what we need to do so we can get to that hallway we want
to get to,” Paeton suggested.

“But how will we get in?” Alex Jr. questioned.

“Well,” Paeton commented, “There’s no fence around it, so that probably means it’s got very loose security.” They approached the building. “There must be some kind of entrance.” They found a light brown door on the west side. “Here we are.” The door was unlocked. The Rejects entered.

Inside was a large, highly complex machine that seemed to resemble a newspaper press. The machine was moving so fast, they couldn’t even see what was on it. They could see the machine had several conveyor belts. The machine was also several floors tall.

“I wanna see what’s at the top,” Alex Jr. said. He saw a staircase nearby and started climbing it. The other Rejects soon followed suit. They climbed up 5 floors and nearly collapsed at the top. All of them, except for Alice, stopped to catch their breath. When they finally did, they looked at what was at the top of the machine. There were large containers with pipes connected to the top of the machine. Alex Jr. looked closely at the containers. They were labeled as ‘Music,’ ‘TV,’ ‘Video Games,’ ‘Literature,’ and ‘Other.’ “What in the name of holy white magic is this?” he asked.

Alice looked at the containers. “I believe they are where Alex gets his ideas from.” She turned to face Alex Jr. “Most of his characters are inspired by video games.”

“Really? Cool. How about the ‘Music’ and ‘TV’ ones?”

“Well, he probably also gets ideas from songs he hears and TV he watches.” She looked at the others. “’Literature,’ I am guessing means ideas he gets from books, though I am not certain which books…’Other’ has me stumped, though.”

“Say,” Paeton commented, “What’s that hose next to the ‘Other’ container? It’s not going to the machine.” Paeton followed it with her finger. The hose was connected to what appeared to be a small room. They walked over to it. Paeton grabbed the doorknob. “The door appears to be unlocked.”

“Paeton,” Morgana worried, “Usually unlocked doors are, um, traps. Maybe we shouldn’t enter…” But it was too late. Paeton had opened the door all the way. The Rejects cautiously entered.

The room contained nothing but filing cabinets. Not even that many, only about 5. They flipped on the lightswitch, but the light barely did a difference because the bulb was barely functional. They walked over to one of the filing cabinets.

“What’s inside these?” Alex Jr. asked. He went over to one of them and opened it up. Unsurprisingly, they were filled with folders. He looked at them.

“What’s in them?” Mars asked.

Alex Jr. turned to let Mars see the folders as well. “There seems to be these pictures of people in them. Like the first file I found had this girl with long blonde hair and a blue T-shirt.” He took out another folder. “And this one has a girl with a pink mushroom cap on her head.”

“What do you think this means?” Mars asked. He put down his folder and walked to the next filing cabinet. He noticed the folders inside were a different color. He looked inside the first folder. “Hey, look,” he commented, “This one has a girl with green hair and blue angel wings.”

“Like mine?” Paeton asked. She walked over. “Well, I’ll be. They do resemble mine. Weird.”

Morgana set her flower down on the next filing cabinet. Inside was yet another color of folders. The first folder had a picture of a tall man in a purple robe with a mask over his face and a purple hat on his head. She looked behind to the next folder, which had a picture of a short woman with orange hair and a yellow dress. Her face was similar to a mask that had facial features painted elegantly onto it.

“This is weird,” Paeton said, looking at all the pictures they were finding. They found a lot of unusual characters, such as an angel with semi-transparent wings and an amputee bounty huntress.

After minutes of browsing pictures, they eventually came upon another filing cabinet, one hidden away. They’d have missed it, had it not been for Alice pointing it out. Paeton opened it and looked at the pictures in the folders. Her eyes grew as big as dinner plates.

“What is it?” Mars asked.

“It’s…it’s…us!”

“What?” Alex Jr. replied, “Get outta here!” He looked at the pictures in the front of each folder. Sure enough, there was one of Morgana, one of Mars, one of himself, and one of Paeton.

“Let me see my folder,” Paeton commented. She looked at the outside. “That’s strange…it’s a different color than the others. Your’s are all navy, mine is harvest gold.”

“I think the folders in the first cabinet were gold,” Alex Jr. replied.

“If Ms. Paeton shares the folder color with a different group,” Alice hypothesized, “perhaps she was once part of that group. And when she was sent to your room, her files were transferred over to a new filing cabinet.”

“I’m gonna take a peek.” She opened up her folder. The first page had a small photo of her and some general information. “Let’s see…It says ‘Name: Paeton Toadstool Birthday: October 10th Hair color: Brown Eye color: Blue Favorite Color: Red Favorite Food: Ambrosia’ Yeah, this is describing me fairly accurately. In fact, very accurately since I didn’t even know my birthday.”

“What else does the folder say?” Jr. inquired.

Paeton looked at some of the other pages of the folder. “Oh, my!” She held up a page with two pictures on it. One was a blonde princess in a pink dress, the other was an angel. “These must be Mom and Dad.” She looked at the text underneath the pictures. It described how the lovely Princess Peach and the loyal Pit the Angel met at a mansion for people to harmlessly fight in and fell in love, got married, and had a daughter together.

“Aw,” Alice commented, “how cute. Anything else?”

“Yeah, it’s got a dozen pictures of me, many with this…” she smiled seductively, “rather handsome fellow with pointy ears and a big nose. Mmm-MMM!” She licked her lips.

Mars looked annoyed at her. “You’re becoming Junior,” he remarked.

Paeton looked at the back of the folder. The last thing in it was a scrap of notebook paper. Paeton looked at it. "This says ‘Why She is Being Rejected: Too many negative characteristics, such as brattiness, rudeness, and anger management issues.’” Paeton became infuriated at this. “So I became a Reject because I get angry? JUST BECAUSE I GET ANGRY?!” Paeton almost tore the paper in half, but stopped herself at the last minute. “I’m fine…I just…”

Mars looked inside the cabinet. “Hey, Junior, I found one of you!” This folder was black as opposed to the colorful folders in the other cabinets.

“Hot damn!” Alex Jr. smiled. Mars handed him the folder. “Lemme see…’Name: Alex Harimon-Agins, Jr. Birthday: February 7th Hair color: Strawberry blonde Eye Color: Grey-blue Favorite Color: n/a Favorite Food: Cookies.’ Yeah, this is me.” He flipped through the contents. “Hey, here’s a picture of Mom and Dad!” The others gathered round. It was true what Jr. had said, his father was Alex, a young man with blonde hair and glasses. Junior’s mother was a woman with pink hair, part of which covered her eye.

“Mind if I see?” Mars asked. Alex Jr. handed him the page.

“Oh, man, my mother was a lucky woman. Of all the hundreds of beautiful women Alex knew, she was one of the ones who got to have sex with him. He must’ve been very fond of her.”

“Actually,” Mars said in a ‘sorry to disappoint you’ tone, “it says here that Alex only loved two women ever in a romantic sense, never in any sexual sense.”

“What? That can’t be right!”

“It goes on. It says that your mother, White Mage, invited Alex over one night to make dinner, and while there, she tackled him onto her bed, took off his clothes, and had her way with him.”

“What?” Alex Jr. looked ready to cry. “That can’t right at all.” Alex Jr. looked at the page. It was all there in black and white. His father wasn’t the man he thought he was.

“Are you gonna be alright, Junior?” Morgana asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Junior lied through his teeth. He looked at the folder some more. “There are no pictures of me in here. Why?”

“I would suppose that unlike Ms. Paeton,” Alice suggested, “you were never in one of the universes and thus, never had a picture of you taken.”

“Well, let me just see what it is that got me rejected.” Junior looked at his scrap of paper. “’Why He is Being Rejected: his backstory involves controversial material and would imply to the audience that I have sexual feelings towards White Mage.’” Junior sighed sadly.

“Are you gonna be alright?” Morgana asked again.

“I’ll be fine…” Junior said, “I’ll be…fine.” He paused for just a few seconds. He looked at the folder one last time…and chucked it across the room. “GOD DAMN IT!” he yelled, “All this time, I thought my father was a great man, thought he was always surrounded by women. But instead, he was an asexual waste of space who didn’t even want to have sex with Mom!” He stormed out and stood by the balcony, crying.

“Should we do something?” Morgana asked.

“He’ll be fine,” Mars said. He looked in the cabinet some more. The next folder belonged to Alice. “Hey, Alice! This one is about you!”

“Really?” Alice asked. She walked over and took the file. “Well, I will be. It is about me!” She opened it. “’Name: Alice Buddy Birthday: January 4th Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Blue Favorite Color: n/a Favorite Food: n/a’.” Alice flipped to find her parents. One was an adorable grey robot with a rectangular head and big eyes, while her mother was a beautiful blonde woman with some wonderful endowment. Alice looked at the text beneath her parents’ pictures. She read what it said aloud.

“ R.O.B. sat out on his balcony in the Smash Mansion. He held a picture of Samus. She was so beautiful and R.O.B. loved her very much. He looked up at the sky. A lone star was shining. The robot looked at it and was reminded of an old saying. He quoted it. ”

The story involved Alice’s father, R.O.B., wishing to be a human so he could confess his love to Samus, Alice’s mother. The wish came true and the two fell in love, though R.O.B.’s human form was only temporary. But even as a robot, Samus loved him still.

Morgana started crying. “That was beautiful,” she said.

“What I want to know,” Paeton commented, “is why you were rejected. You seem like a nice person and your backstory is fine.”

Alice looked at her scrap of notebook paper. “’Why She is Being Rejected: no room for her in current continuity of either Universe Alpha or Universe Beta.’ Oh, I suppose that’s fine. ‘Plus, her helpful attitude would be very good for work in the Hippocampus.’”

“Interesting,” Mars commented, “I suppose that’s why you never came to the room.”

“It is truly a shame I never got to meet my parents,” Alice sighed. She walked over to the filing cabinet for the next folder. “Here is the one for you, Mars.”

“I’m not interested in reading it. But let’s see what it says.”

“’Full name: Prince Mars Lowell-Cometus Birthday: August 9th Hair Color: Teal Eye Color: Blue Favorite Color: Aquamarine Favorite Food: Cherry jam.”

“Okay, seems fairly accurate. But now I’m dreading to know who my parents are. My dad was probably an alcoholic who abused my mother on a daily basis, while my mom was likely a crack addict or something else horrible.”

Alice looked at the parents sheet. “No, Mars. It seems your father was an honorable knight while your mother was a loving queen-like figure.”

Mars, Paeton, and Morgana looked at his parents. His father was a rather feminine-looking man with long blue hair and eye shadow similar to Paeton’s, while his mother was a very thin woman with long platinum-blonde hair that covered her right eye.

“Oh, my…” Morgana commented, “Your mother is beautiful, Mars.”

Mars read his backstory. Similar to Paeton’s parents, Mars’ parents, Prince Marth Lowell of Akanea and Rosalina, met at the mansion for fighters and became close friends and eventually married and Rosalina gave birth to Mars. Mars looked at his reason for being rejected, which was the same as Alice’s.

“Now for me!” Morgana said. She opened up the last folder in the drawer. As with the others, the first page had her picture with general information. “Okay then…‘Full name: Morgana Birthday: November 2nd Hair Color: Black Eye Color: Olive green Favorite Color: n/a Favorite Food: n/a.” Morgana looked at the pictures of her parents. One was a beautiful woman with long green hair; the other was a rather lovely woman with pale skin and black hair. Morgana then looked at the text beneath their pictures with the story of how she was conceived.

Medusa entered the cell of her prisoner, the goddess of light, Palutena. She had chained Palutena up after taking control over Skyworld. Palutena looked angrily at Medusa.

"So, Palutena, I take it you are enjoying your visit."

"Your days are numbered, Medusa," Palutena groaned through clenched teeth, "I used the power I could to free my best warrior from your clutches. He alone will be able to defeat your army and end this war."

"Ha, ha! My precious Palutena, my army's invasion was just a cover-up. Just a red herring. I only wanted to get you."

"Why?" Palutena demanded.

"Because I've come to realize something. I now realize that I don't envy you. No, that's not it. Rather, I find you...irresistible." Palutena's eyes widened at this.

"What are you thinking of doing?"

Medusa whistled. A snake moved down Medusa's leg. She picked up its head and crawled it up her arm. "You can think of this snake as an...extension of my body." She stroked the snake and moaned in pleasure. "I intend to put it to good use." She smiled, staring at Palutena's waist. Palutena started sweating. Medusa lifted up the bottom of Palutena's dress and the snake slithered into-

Morgana read on in terror about how she was conceived. She read on about how Medusa forced herself onto her prisoner and the horrifying act between the two that resulted in Palutena becoming pregnant with Medusa's baby. Morgana started to cry, seeing what her one mother had done to her other mother.

“Geez,” Paeton commented, “That seems rather harsh and tasteless. That’s even worse than Junior’s backstory.”

“What I don’t get,” Mars commented, “How did Palutena get pregnant from Medusa using a snake?”

“Hang on,” Paeton said, “I think there’s a footnote about that.” She looked at the paper. “‘It’s a magic snake.’ Well, that explains it, albeit poorly.”

The shaking and crying Morgana turned to the last page of her folder. “‘Why She is Being Rejected: Backstory is too dark and involves horribly disturbing and controversial content which may lead some people to have inaccurate thoughts about my feelings towards Palutena. Of all these rejected characters, she is the biggest mistake.’”

“Boy,” Mars commented, “That last comment seems really harsh.”

Morgana cried and collapsed to the ground. “I can’t believe it…Not only did Alex give me such a horrible backstory, but then he said that I was a mistake…”

“Are you okay, Morgana?” Alice asked. She approached Morgana to comfort her.

“I feel…” Morgana started to change. “ANGRY.” Morgana’s eyes turned blood red and her hands became scaly.  “So Alex thinks I’m a mistake. Well, I’ll show how big a mistake I am!” Morgana quickly got up. She took her flower and threw it across the room. It hit against the frame of the door and landed on its side. Before anyone could do anything about it, Morgana ran out of the room, crushing the flower beneath her feet.

Mars, Paeton, and Alice knelt around the flower. Mars picked it up, seeing the watering can it occupied was in fine shape. The same could not be said for the dead flower. The stems were squeezed thin and the petals were crumpled and falling off. “Oh, no!” Mars worried, “What’ll we do now?”