Hello everyone. Well, here is the chapter I promised to put up before the year was over. I actually had to rewrite the second half before I was happy with it. Thanks to everyone that's been reading and reviewing. Please, enjoy. I do not own Smash Bros. Wish I did, but I don't.
Chapter 4 – Do A Barrel Roll
"Stop. Stop! Can you please fly a little straighter?"
Kirby gave no indication that he had heard Zelda's anxious plea. Since the events at the Brawl Stadium, the two heroes had been following the massive warship, trying to ascertain where it was going and how they could stop it. So far, they had not been able to answer either of those questions. Zelda had briefly considered that their time might be better spent looking for Mario. The hero could have been injured in his sudden ejection from the stadium or he could have run into more of those shadowy Primids. She reasoned, however, that he would be able to take care of himself, if even half of Peach's bragging was to be believed.
No, the best thing they could do now was to keep tabs on the warship and try to figure out a way to stop it. Besides, Peach was still missing and the ship seemed the logical choice of where she would have been taken. So, Kirby and Zelda stayed on the ship's trail, flying low on Kirby's Shooting Star and keeping pace, hoping they could keep from getting spotted.
Despite the dire circumstances, Zelda found herself enjoying the flight. It was a new experience for her. The wind whipped her hair around her face and the soft sunlight made her pale skin glow. The pink tinted clouds wrapped around her like a security blanket. For the briefest of moments, Zelda could close her eyes and forget the troubles of the world existed.
"Aaah! Be careful!"
Then reality came rushing back to her as the Shooting Star below her tipped at an impossible angle. The muscles in her arms strained as she clung to the sides of the star, desperately trying not to get thrown off. The horizon tilted until it was almost vertical before leveling out again. Zelda slowly unclenched one arm to hold it against her stomach while the other kept a firm hold just in case.
"Must you weave about like that?"
Kirby looked back at the princess like she was daft, clearly not seeing the problem at all.
Hyrule's princess just sighed. "Never mind. Just get us closer." With a mental command from Kirby and a sickly groan from Zelda, the Shooting Star put on a burst of speed. Zelda concentrated on keeping the contents of her stomach from seeing the light of day as the duo slowly closed the gap to their quarry.
"We have to find a way onto the airship without being seen." Zelda squinted through the wisps of clouds and then pointed to the right side of the ship. "There. Head for that convenient set of platforms leading to the only open entranceway on an otherwise securely sealed warship."
Kirby nodded and furrowed his brow as he willed his flying star ever faster. By the time they had reached the first platform, the Star Warrior was panting and sweating. It had been a long flight and now Kirby was barely able to keep up with the ship's relentless pace. The pink hero slumped, his energy gone, which caused the Shooting Star to lose altitude fast.
Before they could descend any farther, Zelda grabbed Kirby and leapt for the platform. It was a pretty big jump and the princess almost didn't make it. She landed on the very edge, balancing precariously on one foot for a few agonizing seconds before she managed to shift her weight and land face down on the platform.
The wind seemed so much worse on the airship. It blew harsh and cold, trying to force the two heroes off the platform. Since Kirby was so light and so tired, he would have been sent tumbling to the ground if Zelda hadn't kept a firm hold on him.
"Kirby, are you alright?"
The pink hero looked exhausted, but nodded. They couldn't afford to dally on the outside of the warship, but Zelda was willing to wait a few moments to allow her friend to recuperate. While he did, the princess turned her attention to the platforms.
They weren't anything fancy or even well constructed. Just a series of metal plates stuck to the side of the airship at varying heights, forming a rough series of steps. It seemed they were added as an afterthought or perhaps constructed much later with whatever material was at hand. They didn't really blend in with the rest of the ship.
Soft footsteps and a small squeak let Zelda know that Kirby had regained his energy and was now standing at her side. She looked down to see the pink warrior also studying the path before them.
"Are you ready to continue?"
A nod and determined look was Kirby's answer.
Teleporting up the stairs would be fastest, but also take the most energy and tire her out as Kirby was. Better to go with option two. Calling upon one of her most important spells, Zelda spun in a burst of light and suddenly she wasn't Zelda anymore. Gone was her silk dress, long brown hair and dainty air. In their places was a blue and black ninja outfit, blond hair in a single long braid and the unmistakable presence of a warrior. Red eyes, not blue, glared out from above a cloth that covered the rest of her face.
SHEIK
Kirby jumped back, a bit startled at the unexpected transformation. He calmed down when Sheik pulled down the face mask to show that she was, indeed, still Zelda. She seldom used this transforming trick – Link was usually the only warrior Hyrule needed – but it still had its uses. In this form, Zelda's magic powers were sorely diminished, but her physical strength and agility received a significant boost, which let her effortlessly leap across the platforms.
The lady ninja was halfway to the open door when she realized that Kirby was not right behind her. The little puffball was having some major difficulties following. He was trying to jump and float across the platforms, but he was so light, the wind would push him back and he couldn't make any headway. Quick as a flash, Sheik leapt back to the starting point.
"Need some help?' she asked the slightly embarrassed Star Warrior.
Kirby didn't respond. He just looked at Sheik for a moment before opening his mouth wide and inhaling her just like he had Mario. A single flash of light and Sheik lay dazed on the ground while Kirby was now sporting a cloth face mask complete with a mop of blond hair. Thanks to his new abilities, Kirby could now traverse the platforms with ease.
"Peach was right," Sheik said as she shook of the dizzying side effects of Kirby's special move. "That is pretty disgusting." She took off after Kirby and soon both ninjas found themselves in a long dark utility corridor. Ugly grey steel lined the walls and floor. Masses of thick cables snaked their way across the ceiling.
"We could probably do some heavy damage to the ship from right here," Sheik thought out loud as she stared up at the cables. "Have to find Peach first, though."
Taking the lead, Sheik slowly crept through the corridor. The drone of the engines was muffled, but still annoyingly loud. The floor vibrated in sync with the din, creating a symphony of squeals and scrapes as the metal plates rubbed against each other. As a result of all this noise, Sheik really had to strain her ears to listen for any approaching enemies. Even with her ninja senses on high alert, she almost missed a much softer sound underneath all the other noise.
A quick hand signal stopped both ninjas in their tracks. Kirby looked around frantically, thinking that Sheik has seen something dangerous. The transformed princess rotated her head slowly, filtering out the background noise until her ears picked up on that sound again. Yes, right there. Above and in front of her. A mechanical whirring noise and a very faint beeping, almost like an electric heartbeat.
Sheik looked up and saw the source of the sound: a small surveillance camera steadfastly sweeping the area directly in front of them. The corridor was only dimly lit and the two heroes had been staying to the shadows so it was unlikely they had been spotted. However, they weren't going to be able to go any farther with that camera there.
Kirby gave his companion a concerned look. He had seen the camera too and had come to the same conclusion. Sheik held up a finger, signaling Kirby to remain quiet, while she drew out a throwing knife from her sleeve. One well placed toss and the camera ceased to be a problem. The two heroes continued on with Sheik neutralizing every camera they came across.
Finally, they made their way to the end of the corridor and to a steel ladder leading up to a hatchway. With Sheik still in the lead, the duo scurried up and opened the hatch. Fierce wind assaulted them once again as they found themselves on the deck of the airship. The bridge of the ship soared above them like an ominous tower. The entire deck was lined with huge cannons; the smallest was at least twice as wide as any normal weapon.
"Let's head there," said Sheik, pointing to the bridge. "Maybe we can find out who is behind the attack."
Both heroes started towards the bridge, but they'd barely taken two steps before Kirby yanked on Sheik's legs, bringing her to a halt. The female ninja glared down questioningly at Kirby, who pointed out into the open sky. Sheik took a quick look, but didn't see anything. She started moving, but again, Kirby grabbed her leg and held on this time. He pointed urgently out to the horizon.
Sheik huffed impatiently, but after a second look, she saw that there was indeed something there. At first, it was just a dark speck against the backdrop of white clouds; no bigger than a bug. Slowly the object, whatever it was, got larger until Sheik and Kirby could see that it was another airship.
The female ninja's first response was panic. Bad enough that they had one deadly ship on their hands, now they had to contend with two? But that fear gradually began to subside as Sheik realized two things. First, this other ship was smaller, much smaller. She doubted it could fit more than one person comfortably. Second, the smaller ship didn't have the malicious aura surrounding it that the bigger ship seemed to. You could feel the evil just oozing out of the giant airship. The smaller ship had none of that. In fact, and this was just a hunch, but Sheik could almost sense that whoever was in that smaller ship was a friend.
Her suspicions were confirmed when the cannons all along the edge of the great warship pointed up to the oncoming smaller ship and opened fire.
Warning. Booster fuel reserves depleted. Engine temperature within red zone.
The fight with Star Wolf had been brief, but it was still long enough to allow the mystery warship to move farther away from Corneria. Even putting petal to the metal, it had taken Fox until just now to catch up to it. The Arwing's booster rockets had been completely drained long ago and the regular engines were now in danger of overheating, but at least now he had his first visual of the enemy.
Fox had never been one to blanch or show hesitation in the face of the enemy, but now, seeing what he was up against, he could not ignore the feeling of deep dread welling up inside him. The ship was like nothing he had ever seen. The visual images certainly didn't do it justice. Even the Great Fox, which was larger than any starship in the Cornerian fleet, was dwarfed alongside this monster.
Maneuvering his Arwing towards the back of the warship and keeping his distance, Fox hoped to stay out of its line of sight while he contacted his team. "McCloud to Star Fox, McCloud to Star Fox. Peppy? Slippy? Falco? Does anyone read me?"
"Fox!" Peppy's voice was faint and Fox had trouble hearing him over the static, but at least he had gotten through. He had been afraid they'd be out of range. "Where are you?" The veteran hare pilot sounded like a stern, but worried father.
"I've got a visual of the warship," the team leader replied. "And it is immense. No sign of the other squadrons." Peppy didn't respond at first and it was in that silence that Fox noticed the sound of laser fire in the background. "Hey, are you guys still fighting Wolf? I'd have thought you'd have sent him packing by now. What's wrong, Falco not able to pick up the slack?"
"Very funny," said the falcon pilot. "For your information, Wolf called in reinforcements from Venom as soon as you left." Fox felt a twinge of anxiety at that, but it quickly disappeared as Falco continued. "We're taking care of the last of them now."
"Great job, guys. Catch up with me as soon as you can. I'm going to follow the warship, see if I tell who's behind all this. Maybe find a way to slow it down."
"You better not take that thing down before I get there," Falco shouted angrily. "I want my shot at it."
Fox couldn't help but smile. "Don't worry, Falco, there's plenty of ship for both of us."
In that same stern voice, Peppy said, "I'd tell you not to get anywhere near that ship by yourself, Fox, if I thought it would do any good. Just promise me you won't attack it alone."
"Don't worry, Peppy, I'm not going to do anything crazy."
"Famous last words." And with that, the transmission cut out.
Despite what he said to his team, Fox had every intention of stopping this rampaging warship if an opportunity presented itself. However, as he continued to observe the ship, it looked less and less likely such an opportunity would arise. There was enough weaponry on the ship to outfit a whole fleet. Make that a whole fleet of fleets. And a quick scan of the hull indicated that it was made of some kind of super strong alloy Fox had never seen before.
An air battle with this thing was definitely out of the question. This called for a subtler approach. Maybe he could find a spot to land quietly and sneak inside. He was almost out of fuel anyway. Fox pulled his Arwing along the warship's port side, keeping low to avoid detection.
Suddenly, the cannons on the ship sprang to life. Fox's instruments indicated that his Arwing was being targeted on multiple fronts. The air was soon filled with yellow laser fire.
"So much for subtle." Fox jerked back on the control stick sending his Arwing rocketing straight up into a series of loop-de-loops and barrel rolls to dodge and deflect the lasers. The size of the warship was a disadvantage in this case; it didn't have the maneuverability of the Arwing. Plus, the cannons were spaced out so far from each other that there was plenty of room for the smaller ship to slip between the shots. Fox was beginning to think he might be able to pull this off after all
What he didn't notice was the grappling gun on the ship's deck. It was able to track the Arwing's moments far better than the laser cannons could. The gun fired and a metal claw tore through the air and struck the Arwing from behind, ripping a long gash in one of the wings and taking out the engine.
Warning. Engine damaged. Arwing unresponsive.
"You don't say," growled Fox as he struggle to regain control of his ship. He pulled and yanked at the control stick with all his might, but it remained frozen. The Arwing was caught in a tailspin. The world twisted sickeningly. Fox couldn't get his bearings; his instruments were dead. It would be a miracle if he survived this crash.
He could still see the warship, though. The grappling cable drew back almost casually as if the ship itself was enjoying watching his plight.
If this is it, Fox thought, I might as well do a little damage before I go. Aiming blindly, Fox fired his own lasers.
When the laser cannons started firing, it shook the ship's deck so badly that it was impossible for Sheik and Kirby to keep their footing. Kirby fell over onto his back while Sheik was at least able to stay on her knees. She saw the smaller ship avoid the laser only to be struck down by the grappling hook.
"Come on, Kirby," Sheik shouted over the noise of the cannons. "While the airship's crew is distracted, it will be easier to sneak inside." She felt an urge to help whoever was in that small ship, this enemy of the large airship, but there was nothing she could do. At least they had provided a diversion.
Sheik had just been able to get Kirby on his feet when the smaller ship started firing at the larger one. Looked like it wasn't going down without a fight; the female ninja had to admire that. But then she noticed that the laser blasts were coming right towards them.
Kirby saw it too. He jumped in front of Sheik to protect her, but she knew that wouldn't help. Summoning her transformation powers again, Sheik quickly changed back into Zelda and cast a spell to raise a magical shield. She was a split second too late, though. The laser hit the deck right in front of the two heroes and the blast knocked them off the ship and sent them flying into the air.
"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!"
Diddy Kong's scream could be heard from one end of the jungle to the other as he arced through the sky. His limbs thrashed about, acting on instinct, desperately trying to grab a vine or tree branch that wasn't there. His vision flashed from blue to green back to blue as he twisted out of control. Was this the end? Was he going to die? What would happen once he hit that blue ground and all his bones snapped and…
Wait. Blue ground?
SPLOOSH!
Water exploded at least twenty feet into the air when Diddy dive bombed into the lake. At first, the young Kong didn't realize where he was. It made no sense to him. Then he tried to breathe and received a lung full of water instead of air. Panic fueled his body and he shot to the surface: coughing, stomach churning and head pounding, but alive.
"Oh, man, that was close." Diddy just floated there for a minute, bobbing in the water, grateful for whoever it was that invented lakes. His happiness soon gave way to anger at Bowser and what he did to Diddy's best bud. "When I get my hands on that oversized turtle, I'm going to turn his shell inside out. Nobody messes with the Kongs! Nobody!"
The water around Diddy started to churn as air bubbles rose to the surface and popped all around him.
The young monkey sniffed the water and the air. "That's wasn't me, was it?"
Suddenly, Diddy felt himself rising high into the air. He bent down and found himself looking into a pair of merciless yellow eyes. Diddy Kong was sitting on the head of an extremely long, extremely hungry looking green dragon.
"Definitely not me!" Diddy sprang up and ran as fast as his little legs could go, scampering down along the dragon's back like some kind of living staircase. The beast watched him for a moment, amused at the little monkey's antics, before jerking his body and sending Diddy flying back into the water.
The dragon roared; a sound that could shatter bone and turn muscle to putty. It certainly seemed to have that effect on Diddy. He couldn't move, he was so scared. The dragon smiled a toothy grin and licked his chops. He was clearly thinking of having a simian snack. That was motivation enough for Diddy to regain control of his limbs and swim for the shore with the dragon right on his tail.
The dragon's head leered ever closer, making Diddy swim ever faster. The hungry beast opened wide, lunged and ended up with a mouthful of sand. Diddy had made it to the shore, although he didn't seem to have noticed. He was still pinwheeling his arms and kicking his feet, swimming through the sand. It wasn't until he crashed into a palm tree that he realized he wasn't in the water anymore.
"Ouch," said Diddy, rubbing his head. He looked back at the dragon. It was still in the water near the shoreline, staring coldly at the young monkey. "Ha! Not so tough now, are you? Bet you wish you could walk on land like me, huh?"
The dragon slithered out of the water and onto dry land. Raising itself almost to its full height, it towered over the sidekick.
"Of course," said Diddy. He pulled out his twin pistols and shouted, "Eat peanuts, Lizard Lips!"
Several rounds of ammunition came spinning out of the guns with deadly accuracy. The dragon opened his mouth wide and swallowed the whole lot of them.
Diddy let his arms drop dejectedly to his sides, the pistols hitting the soft ground with ominous thuds. "Probably not the best battle cry when you're using edible bullets," he mused. "I don't suppose you're allergic?"
No such luck. The dragon seemed to like his appetizer and was ready to move on to the main course. It approached the small monkey slowly, enjoying the fear that was oozing out of him.
"Wait! Wait!" begged Diddy. "You don't really want to eat me. Just think of the hairball you'll be coughing up later."
The dragon was just about to make a quick lunge when a high-pitched whistle pierced the air. The beast hesitated and rose up, cocking its head to determine the source of the sound in case it was a threat or competition for its meal. The whistle grew louder and louder as an Arwing, a cloud of smoke trailing from its engine, screamed down towards the beach, clipped the dragon on the head and crashed in an explosion of sand onto the shore. The dragon wobbled a bit and appeared a little woozy, but it hadn't been a direct hit, so it wasn't really hurt – more liked shocked.
Diddy's attention was momentarily pulled off the giant monster to the other strange thing that was on the beach. He'd never seen anything like it. It was as big as a treehouse and made of metal, not wood. It did have lots of sharp edges. Was this some kind of flying monster?
The canopy of the Arwing popped open and Fox rushed out of the ship, coughing violently on the smoke. They say any landing you can walk away from… he thought, trying not to hack up a lung. The pilot hero looked at his ship; it was utterly destroyed. Flames burned on the wings and in the cockpit while smoke billowed out of every orifice.
Fox was so busy inspecting the damage to his scrap pile – I mean spaceship – that he didn't notice the long shadow looming over him. It was the low, threatening growl that finally caused him to look up.
Instead of getting scared, Fox just sighed in a defeated kind of way and pinched the bridge of his nose. "First a giant warship, now a giant snake. Nana McCloud told me there'd be days like this."
The dragon was eyeing this newcomer with increasing fury. First it attacked him and then it had the audacity not to be terrified of him? With another growl, the beast lunged and for the second time that day got a mouthful of sand as Fox nimbly leapt out of the way. Twice more the dragon attacked and twice more Fox effortlessly dodged it.
When the dragon paused for a moment, assessing this much more agile meal, Fox accessed the scouter device attached to his right ear. A green visor popped out over his right eye. "Might as well find out what you are, eh big fella?"
The computer scanned the dragon and accessed the universal database before relaying the following information:
CLASS: POKEMON
SPECIES: RAYQUAZA
THIS DRAGON SPECIES OF POKEMON LIVES IN THE OZONE LAYER OF THE ATMOSPHERE, BUT CAN ALSO BE SEEN ON THE GROUND SEARCHING FOR FOOD. IT IS RUMORED TO HAVE GREAT INFLUENCE OVER THE WEATHER. ITS MOST POWERFUL ATTACK IS THE DRAGON PULSE LASER.
As if on cue, Rayquaza opened its mouth and shot a ball of blue energy straight at Fox. Without batting an eye, the vulpine pilot activated his reflector shield and bounced the attack right back. The giant beast hadn't expected that and was pushed backwards as it collided with its own Dragon Pulse. Rayquaza just shrugged off the attack; it didn't seem to do anything except make the beast even madder.
"You're a tough one, ain't ya?" said Fox.
Seeing that its energy attack wasn't going to work, Rayquaza went back to trying to chomp down on Fox, but its speed was still no match for Fox's reflexes. Rayquaza then started to use its tail to try to stun Fox or at least slow him down. The pilot hero still managed to dodge all the attacks, but he knew this couldn't go on for much longer. He had to drive this dragon away.
"I don't suppose you know anything about how to defeat this thing?" Fox asked of his scouter.
BIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS INDICATES A SKELETAL WEAKNESS ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE LOWER JAW.
Fox looked up and saw that among the many scales that protected Rayquaza's hide, there was indeed one tiny bare spot at the base of the creature's mouth. "It's always the hardest spot to reach, isn't it?" The next time Rayquaza lunged, instead of moving to the side, Fox ducked underneath the beast's head and let loose a barrage from his laser pistol. Most of the shots were absorbed by Rayquaza's hard scales, but a few did find their mark. The great beast's entire body stiffened. It roared in pain before diving back under the surface of the lake. A few air bubbles broke the surface and then everything was calm.
"Well, that wasn't so bad," said Fox.
"That was so totally awesome!"
Fox flinched at the new voice and pointed his laser at the little monkey that was bounding his way across the beach towards him. Diddy Kong took no notice of the weapon and ran right up to Fox, bouncing on his heels and wearing a look of hero worship he usually reserved for Donkey Kong.
"When that dragon came along it was all like 'GRRR!' but you were just 'eh, no big deal' and then it tried to zap you and you zapped it back with its own zapper and it went 'RAWR RAWR RAWR' and you were jumping like 'nyah, nyah, can't catch me' and then you went BANG BANG and the dragon ran away like 'no, please, don't hurt me' it was the coolest thing ever!"
"Uh…thank you." The little monkey had been speaking in such a rush that Fox only picked up every third word or so and the whole time he had been talking, the monkey had moved ever closer to Fox. The pilot hero had to back away a bit just to keep some space between them. The little guy may have eaten too much sugar, but he didn't seem to be any sort of threat, so Fox holstered his laser and introduced himself. "Fox McCloud. Captain of the Great Fox and leader of the Star Fox Corneria defense team.
Diddy confidently took Fox's outstretched hand in a firm handshake. "Diddy Kong. Supreme Second Banana and Vice President of the Candy Kong fan club."
"Charmed." Fox scanned the sky. As he expected, the warship was nowhere in sight. He had to get back into the air and find it again. A crackling sound drew Fox's attention behind him where sparks were shooting out of the cockpit of his damaged Arwing.
"I'm obviously not going anywhere in this," muttered Fox, walking up to the wreck. "Wings bent. Boosters shot. Shielding cracked. And that grappling hook sliced my engine apart. And on the day the warranty ran out too. Well, hopefully the communicator still works." Fox carefully reached for the ship's control panel, but quickly yanked his arm back when the whole thing blew apart in a shower of metal shards.
"So much for that hope," said Fox. He tapped the electronic device on his ear. "My scouter's communicator is too weak to reach past the atmosphere." Fox looked down thoughtfully to see Diddy still looking up at him wide-eyed. "I don't suppose you have a quadratic crystal prism array I could borrow to boost my transmission signal, do you?"
In his most excited voice, Diddy squealed, "I have no idea what you just said."
"I didn't think so," Fox said gloomily. "Well, how about a radio I could use?"
He received only a blank stare from Diddy.
"Phone? Telegraph? Two cans attached with a string?"
More blank stares.
Fox touched his fingers to his forehead in thought before continuing. "Okay, let's try this a different way. What do you guys do around here when you want to talk to someone far away?"
"We yell really loudly."
"I don't think I have the lung capacity for that," Fox deadpanned. "Can you at least tell me where I am?"
"This is the Congo Bongo Jungle," Diddy said.
"Uh huh." That didn't really help Fox. He had been hoping for a planet name or quadrant number, but he supposed that Diddy wasn't going to be able to give him that. Hopefully someone else in the area could, but he doubted it. "You live around here?" Fox asked distractedly as he took in the dense foliage around him.
"Not really," admitted Diddy. "I just fell into the lake after DK and I stopped a bunch of turtles with a floating wagon from stealing our bananas."
"Hmmm. Wait, what?" Fox was sure he hadn't heard that correctly, but he didn't get the chance to ask Diddy to repeat it. The young monkey suddenly started hopping wildly about having remembered why he had been flung into the lake in the first place.
"Oh my gosh, DK! I gotta help DK! He's in trouble and I gotta save him and…"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down." Fox grabbed hold of the panicky Diddy and forced him to stand still. "Who is DK?"
"Donkey Kong, my best bud," Diddy said, panting heavily. "He was captured by this big, mean, nasty-looking turtle with a huge gun. I gotta find him."
Diddy shot off down the shore, but stopped short when Fox grabbed the end of his tail. "Hold up there, little fella. You don't want to be going around looking for gun toting turtles."
"But, DK…"
"You'll get hurt if you go alone," insisted Fox.
"Well, then…" Diddy's eyes darted back and forth as thoughts whipped through his brain at lightning speed. Then he smiled and said, "Why don't you come with me?"
A part of Fox had been expecting this question. "I'm sorry, really I am, but I have my own problems to deal with." He felt a pang of guilt at disappointing the little guy, but his mission had to take precedence. "I'm looking for a spaceship that attacked my home and almost destroyed it."
"Spaceship?" asked Diddy.
Fox actually had to think for a minute as to how he could explain this to Diddy without getting too technical. He decided to keep it simple. "It's a ship that flies through the air instead of on water."
"Skyships!" shouted the young monkey excitedly. "Oh, oh, I've heard of those."
"You have?" asked Fox, not quite believing it.
"Yeah! The village elders tell stories of ships that can sail through the air from distant lands. A lot of the grownups don't believe them, but I always thought it would be so cool to see one. Hey…" Diddy's eyes widened as if he just realized something. "Are you from one of those distant lands?"
Rather than go into detail, Fox simply nodded.
"And is that your skyship?" Diddy pointed to the wrecked remains of the Arwing.
"It was," Fox said sadly. "The war-, uh, skyship I'm looking for is much bigger and less on fire. I was chasing it when I got shot down. My teammates are coming to help me destroy it, but I fear they won't get here in time to prevent the ship from doing more damage."
"Damage?" squeaked Diddy fearfully. "Do you think my village is in danger?"
"Possibly." Fox had no idea where Diddy's village was located, but the harsh fact was that no place was safe with that warship on the loose. "That's why I have to go. Good luck with your friend."
"Wait!" Diddy grabbed Fox's arm as the pilot turned to leave. "We can help you find the skyship. If you come with me to save Donkey Kong, I'm sure he'll want to return the favor."
"Thanks for the offer," said Fox kindly, "but this mission will be dangerous. Possibly even deadly. I don't want to put anyone else at risk. So, until my team gets here, I think it best if I work alone." With a farewell salute, Fox left Diddy standing on the sandy shore.
"Let's see," Fox muttered to himself. "If I triangulate my current position based on the angle of my crash descent, I should be able to estimate…"
Fox was cut off when he felt a tug on the collar of his jacket so strong it knocked him off his feet. He looked over his shoulder and saw Diddy pulling him into the jungle and speaking in his rapid fire manner, "Okay great we're a team you help me we'll help you now let's go go go!"
After a few minutes of futility struggling to get out of Diddy's grip, Fox shrugged and said, "Then again, a guy can't have too many friends, now can he?"
As Diddy Kong and Fox disappeared into the dense vegetation, Rayquaza slowly and silently reappeared from the lake. Revenge. That's what it wanted for the humiliating defeat it suffered at the hands of that fox creature. It didn't even care about eating him anymore, Rayquaza just wanted to destroy that fox. No one got away with attacking a legendary Pokémon.
Rayquaza charged up another Dragon Pulse, aiming for the edge of the jungle that the fox and the monkey had entered. Before it could get off a shot, the great beast felt something hard and sharp collide with the right side of its head. The Dragon Pulse sputtered out. Rayquaza examined the beach and then the sky, a low, angry growl, coming from its throat, but it saw nothing that could have attacked it. It decided to try once more, but this time it had barely built up any energy before it felt three more hits in quick succession. The beast looked around again, but whatever had hit it was already out of sight.
This was too much, even for Rayquaza. This was the last time it tried to find a meal on the ground. With an explosion of water, the legendary dragon rose into the air and disappeared in the clouds while a pair of green eyes watched its accent from the safety of the jungle.
"Some heroes," the hidden figure muttered to himself. "They were almost blasted to bits by an overgrown salamander. What chance do they have against Subspace?" He supposed that, in fairness, the fox guy did have a few good moves at least. Nice speed too. "Reminds me of another fox I knew," he said sadly.
He didn't know if he could trust these two or how much help they'd really be. They could just as easily get in his way. He always worked better alone anyway. "I hope these guys can take care of themselves from here on out. I've got other places to be." A gust of wind, the blink of an eye and the figure was gone.
There it is. Hope you liked it. I think it will be pretty easy for most of you to guess who the mysterious figure is, but don't spoil it for anyone who might not know. I'm trying for at least one chapter a month, so look for the next one after the holidays. Reviews always welcome. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!