A Lion's story and Another arrival
Inside the giant lounge-room on top of the Royalhart building, some things had happened while Sly, Carmelita, Krystal and Falisa were having their comatose trip into the master thief's mind.
First of all, the rest of the different heroes' friends had returned from the dining hall, with Murray carrying some hamburgers along with him and Murphy flying with some soda bottles strapped to his belt while drinking a can of Coke on the way in, Diddy, Luigi and Globox carrying some sweets too. Cranky Kong came alongside Ben's uncle Albert, the old gorilla and fox babbling about various kinds of obscure formulas, experiments they'd both done, and other complicated stuff you needed to be an academic to understand.
Secondly, Ash had come with the idea that he and Misty should just let out all their Pokémon, thinking it would be no fair for their capsuled buddies if only Pikachu, Psyduck and Azurill were the only ones to get to see this new world.
The variety of creatures got a good deal of the other guys 'n gals a bit freaked out, but as soon they saw the Pokémon animals were just as good-natured and fun loving as some of themselves, they calmed down and began studying the new beings alongside each other.
Fox, Mario and Michael had a lot of fascination for the hulking Torterra, Fox because the giant turtle had looks kinda like some of the dinosaurs on planet Sauria, Mario because he found it nice to see this big tortoise was a gentle giant instead of a flame-breathing brute like Bowser. And Michael, well he was in awe at being able to actually touch a real-life version of the final evolution of Sinnoh's official grass-starter, the half-fox having a hard time to control his ecstasy.
Donkey Kong on his part found the fiery Infernape to be much fun too, the fire-monkey actually challenging the necktie-wearing gorilla to a match, and without even a stray flame spilling from his head, the two apes from different worlds made quite the show for the others. Falco and Murray actually made bets with each other about which one of them would win the fight, with Murphy putting in his own contribution by acting as a pro boxing-commentator.
Katt found the short Buizel to be of her liking, the little weasel-otter being just as tough a cookie as herself, as she experienced when the two of them had a round of arm-wrestling. Though the little guy was a Pokémon with the following powers and training under Ash's ownership, Katt hadn't been a lazy cat-girl in her free-time between the occasional pirate-hunting either, and after some tough five minutes, she got the half-weasel's arm laying flat on the board they sat at, the two of them laughing at the aftermath before they gave each other a hand-paw shake in respect of each other being great opponents.
In one part of the lounge area, there was a big swimming-pool, and it was there Misty let out all of her Pokémon, alongside Ash's Squirtle. Link and Zelda, Bentley and Penelope, Slippy and Amanda, Diddy and Dixie, Alexandra and Leomph were all standing around it looking at the different marine Pokémon, most prominently at the big Gyarados, being pretty intimidated by the monster.
Misty saw their looks and said, "Don't be afraid of Gyarados. He does looks like he's ready to rampage at a moment's notice, but he have learned to calm down when not in battle." "I hope for his own good he is," Link said wary, looking the giant water snake up and down, with Gyarados studying the green-clad knight too with its eyes in their constant frown, "Because if it tries something to threaten the princess, I'm not going to hold back my sword from it."
"Hey! He's not that bad," Misty said angry at him, "Or don't you trust my word for him?" "Sorry, Miss Waterflower," Link said with an apologetic face and a bow of his head, "I didn't mean to downgrade your skill as a trainer. I'm just worrying about Zelda's safety, that's all." "Oh. Well, I can understand that," Misty said back, glad to know the Hylian man wasn't serious about hurting her big pal.
"You don't have to worry that much about me, Link," Zelda said to her protector, "I am able to fend for myself if I need, you know." "I do know that, Zelda, I do," Link said to his princess, looking away from the younger girl and her creatures, "But I just don't want to see you hurt. You are, after all, the Princess of Hyrule, and I am your sworn guardian. If anyone tries something bad on you, I'll give them a painful reminder to not mess with a beautiful woman of royal blood."
"Oh, Link, you can be too serious sometimes, you know that?" Zelda told him, before a smile blossomed on her tender, but spirited face, "But you really know how to make me feel good too, what with telling me you care that much for me." "I'll always care for you, my Princess," Link said with a look of adoration for her, "Always."
"Aw, that's just SOOO cute," Dixie said at the scene between the knight and princess, "You should take notes, Didders, that green guy really can his pick-up lines." "Eww, Dixie," Diddy said, spitting out the banana he was currently eating, "You know I don't like to be compared to flirty people, that gives me the jeepers!" "But, I thought you wanted me to feel good around you," Dixie said with a little pout.
"Well, uh, yeah, I do, Dix, but, uh," Diddy said fumbling with his words, "Uh, that is, you are cuter and nicer than any monkey-girl I've ever met, but , oh man, do you have to hear me babble about how nice you look in all eternity or something? I'm not that good with mushy stuff, you know."
While the two small simians continued with their funny discussion about love and the like, Bentley was having a blast studying the swimming Squirtle. "I have to say, it really is funny looking at an otherworldly species that looks like he could be of a cousin breed of my kind," the wheelchair-riding, glassed tortoise mused while looking eye to eye with the blue-skinned turtle in the water.
"You're one to talk," Alexandra said to him, "How do you think I reacted when I first met Leomph?" Here she thumbed at the stone-cat who was looking idly at the Goldeen-fish and the Politoed-frog swimming under the water surface, a feral look in his face of a predator ready to pounce on its prey mixed with a look of fear for all of the H2O in front of him.
"Well, yeah, that must've been strange," Bentley said, looking from the anthro lioness to the feral stone-lion and back. "Tell me something, though," he then asked her, "Exactly how did you guys acquire him anyways?"
"Well," Alex started, "before dad began the construction of this building, he wanted proof that there were other inhabited worlds other than Earth, and he wanted to see it for himself. Kalasta was of course not one to back down from that challenge, and constructed a portal to a different dimension. The conjuring-spell was very exhausting to him, but he showed dad it was no trick he was trying to pull.
"Michael and Falisa were both eager to go into wherever the portal led, but Kalasta told us that it was not safe for us to do so alone. Therefore he and Albert along with some guards went alongside us and dad to explore this new reality, as Kalasta said that even though it was risky, it would be good for us to see just what we could possibly be up against in the future.
"To our surprise, we ended up in a place filled with lava-pits, withering trees and old fortresses all around, surrounded by murky lakes and eerie, dark mountains and volcanoes. It was first when we saw a docked ship with propellers instead of sails on its masts and a dragon/turtle-like galleon-head that Michael realized we were in the Dark Land."
"Dark Land?" Mario said, having heard the conversation Bentley and Alexandra had, "You mean to tell me you guys have a-been in Bowser's territory already?" "You better believe it," Michael quipped in, who had become more interested in the water-Pokémon and now stood besides the pool-front, "And man, was I thrilled at the aspect of kicking shell right then." "Excuse me!" Bentley said with a frown at the mutt. "Ops! Sorry 'bout the 'shell' part," Michael said apologetically to the shelled reptilian genius, "What I meant was of course kickin' 'Bad Koopa-turtle'-shell." "Okay then," Bentley said satisfied.
"Anyways," Alex continued, "While Michael here was exited at this, Falisa and dad wasn't too keen on being in a place filled with God-knows-how-many kinds of monsters and whatnot. Me, I was more interested in one particular castle that stood close by. It just kind of... called to me, I felt. I took hold of Benjamin and dragged him with me towards the place, with the others following as fast they noticed we were heading inside it.
"When we came out on the other side of the entrance, we saw a pit crafted into the ground, with several Koopa Troop soldiers standing around, some of the more elite knight-types known as Koopatrols standing by an old, blue-robed koopa wizard near the middle of the arena.
"He was in the process of getting control over a giant creature which was obscured from where we stood. But as we all stepped down closer, we saw it was a lion-like monster made completely out of stone and shackled to the ground by heavy chains. That was the first time we saw Leomph," Alex said, stopping to look at the same creature she talked about who were trying to paw at the goldfish-Pokémon like a big kitten.
"That must have been Kamek who had made him," Mario said as he looked at the Thwomp-faced feline, "Of all the magicians under Bowser's command, only he knows how to create a creature or transform one into something else that radically." "Yeah, but it seems he wasn't too lucky controlling Leomph though," Alexandra said with a depressed look, "He was trying to get control of his newest 'creation' as he called it, by blasting spells on him, making the stereotypical mistake to talk about his work as he tried to tame him by force.
"He said that he had travelled to Earth himself and looked around in Africa for animals he could use to create new war-monsters to fight you," Alex said and pointed at Mario with her left pointing-finger, "Saying that the ones on the DK isles were to daft to be of any use, and also because Donkey Kong and crew would notice if their animal friends became abducted." "He's always been a smart old man under those thick glasses," Mario said, having both scorn for the Magikoopa and a bit of respect as well for his sometimes brilliant mind.
"Yeah, well he just went on and on about his search," Alex said before she got a very serious and angry look on her face, "Until he said that when he had been unable to catch any useful animals for weeks, he had went incognito as a rich old man who wanted some new ferocious pets in his private zoo. It didn't take long for him to find some illegal poachers who met his demands, and they went out to capture a bunch of animals, including a flock of wild African lions!
"That really got to me and my father, finding out that this hunched old lizard had paid for the hunting of a family of wild lions, the very animals we were descended from! But what really ticked me off, was when that old turtle outright said that after two of the hybrid's sisters had died in the process of earlier transformations, Leomph was the first surviving merger between lions and Thwomps. And then, after the spells didn't stop his trashing, he threatened the poor guy to obey him or end up just like his siblings!" Here, Alexandra became really mad as she remembered how poorly Kamek had treated his creation. Mario, Bentley and the others could only stare as they processed this information.
"For the love of margarita," Mario said after a while, "I had no idea Kamek could be that rotten!" "Neither could we," Michael said sitting at the pool's edge, his shoes and socks resting besides him while he splashed his feet in the water, "But that only goes to show, you don't know someone just because you've seen them in public." "Huh? You mean you've seen him before?" Slippy asked from where he sat by the pool, with Amanda sitting besides him and trying to feed Politoed a piece of fruit, without the light-green Pokémon-amphibian swallowing her glove too.
"Kind of have, yes," Michael said with a mysterious smile, "But exactly how I've done that, I'm better of explaining later. You guys wouldn't understand just yet." "Not to brag, but I'm able to build different models of spaceships, make holographic disguises and more," Slippy said with a bit of pride, "And you tell me I wouldn't understand you?" "Not at all, Slippy," Michael said apologetically, "I'm just saying that all of you, our guests, need to hear in full explanation just how all of this makes sense. Now, how about we forget about that for now and listen to Alex' story about our meeting with Leomph?"
"Okay, I guess we'll just have to wait then," Slippy said a bit confused still, but concentrated on the young black-and-white-haired lioness, him too wanting to hear the end of their tale.
"Okay, well," Alexandra said picking up from where she left, "It was when he fired a really nasty-looking spell that I had it, and Michael was equally pissed for my sake too, as he sprinted alongside me down the stairs, then ran up and tackled that old mage." "Yeah, and darn how GOOD that felt!" Michael said, making a big splash with his left foot when he said "GOOD", making Squirtle and Goldeen swim away in fright, "He had it coming for doing something that downright evil to a threatened species. It's alright for me if he grows giant Piranha Plants, but painfully transforming a lion from flesh to stone? No way!"
"Anyways," Alexandra continued, "When Kamek got Michael off himself, he became really confused seeing us. Anatomically, we stood out like whales among squids, a bunch of upstanding mammals mostly, among shorter turtles and fungus." "Mostly?" Diddy asked. "Yeah, mostly," Alex said to the chimp, "Some of the guards with us were also reptiloids and avians." "As in crocodiles and other lizards, and birds of different kinds," Michael explained to the monkey who didn't quite understand the scientific names of the different animal families.
"Well, Kamek didn't waste too much time and ordered his men to catch us," Alex went on, "But he didn't count on me and Michael and the others giving them one heckuva fight." "Well, I have to admit something," Michael said in Mario's direction, "Those goombas were a bit hard to flatten for me, and the koopas were actually fast to run away from me when I tried to jump them." "Well, it wasn't that easy for me the first time either, paisano," Mario said to the mutt, actually awed that the young wolf-man had went up against Kamek and his cohorts himself.
"Yeah, but still, you really kicked their asses then," Alexandra said to Michael, smiling at her friend with admiration for his willingness to stop evil. "Of course, I didn't just stand idly by either." "No, what with how both you and Falisa snatched up some of the Hammer Bros.' thrown hammers and hurled them right back at their owners!" Michael said with a laugh remembering the looks on the hammer-toting turtles' faces when they saw their ammo coming back at them with great velocity. "Good thing it wasn't boomerangs, though, or you could've been going on for hours." "Quiet, you," Alexandra said with a smirk.
"What really amazed me, though," she continued, "Was how that turtle-mage's magic powers were so equally matched with Kalasta's when they fought." "Humph," they heard from over by one of the tables standing close to the water, "He was just lucky that portal-spell drained me of most of my powers." Here everyone by the pool looked at Kalasta who sat besides the pool in a meditative position, his walking cane and a bottle of some strange liquid on his right. "That imbecilic youngster," the canine druid said under his beard, "He has only lived to be well over four hundred years, and he thinks that is enough to become all-knowing in terms of spell-casting? HA! What a cad."
"Uh, and exactly how old are you, then?" Bentley asked him. "Oh, I lost count after I reached past a millennium," Kalasta said tiredly, "But I remember that I was born sometime before 900 A.D." "Well, that is quite a while considering now it's year 2011 A.D.," Michael said. "Whoa!" Mario, Link, Bentley, Slippy and Diddy all said simultaneously at the revelation of his age. "Well, do not tell me my wrinkles are that unnoticeable," Kalasta said, looking at his right hand with a look of self-pity, "Because I can see them as clear as I can see you younglings in front of me."
"Yeah, well," Alexandra began again, all eyes turning back to her, "It didn't take long before Kamek ordered his guys to let loose "the stupid Thwomp-Lion" on us." Here she got an edgy look on her eyes, then a sadder one as she stroke her hand over the back of the now attentive Leomph who laid down on the floor, giving her big unnatural pet a smile which was returned with a content growl. "I didn't want to fight against him for two reasons; one, because even though he now was a rock-monster, Leomph was still a lion; two, well, because he was hard as a rock." At this, Alex couldn't help but laugh a little at the description she gave him, as it was both fitting and funny at once considering he was, literally, a walking rock.
"Oh and man, was I scared when Leomph began raging about when he was let loose from his restraints," she went on, "He attacked both us and the Koopas without remorse. We just barely got away with some scrapes." "And some of those goombas he didn't flatten, he ate instead, "Michael said, remembering the not-so-nice scene of shredded goomba-parts and some crushed turtle-shells (one even with a dead koopa inside!), "I'm just glad those fungi don't have that much blood, otherwise I think I would puked then and there, it was this close to a veritable blood-bath."
"Well, dad wouldn't have any more of that," Alexandra said to her listeners, "And so he got the guards to blast him with some of their experimental weapons that Albert had outfitted them with beforehand." "I think you guys are pretty thankful still of those ingenious modifications I added to their guns, right?" Albert quipped in merrily from where he sat on a chair right next to Kalasta, both Julius and Benjamin sitting opposite of him, each with a coffee cup in front of him.
"Oh yeah, uncle, you nailed it," Benjamin said with a light chuckle to his father's older brother, "Those mods were ingenious, alright." "What? What did they do?" Slippy asked, really interested in hearing what kind of weaponry could stop even a stone-lion in its tracks.
"Well, to say it as simple as I can," Albert said to the crowd, "I had modified some M16 rifles and Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns with special cartridge-modificators that, when activated, changed the molecular state of the projectiles into one of several different universal base-elements, making it possible for the wielder to damage any being in existence of any kind of matter." "Wow," Both Slippy and Bentley said in awe at the professor's ingenious mind.
"Uh, could someone translate that to an understandable language?" Link asked with a dumb look, with most of the guys and girls around looking equally confused by the difficult words. "Sure," Michael said to him, "It's as easy as this: Albert had put some transformation-thingamajigs on some guns that, when activated, turns the bullets inside the cartridges ("the packs holding the bullets onto the gun," he explained to the pre-firearms-era warrior) from plain metal and gun-powder into different elements of nature, such as water, fire, electricity, you name it, they does it."
"Again with the big words, Uncle Einstein," Ben said hopelessly to his uncle, using the nickname Albert had acquired for being a professor with a high intelligence level and first name similar to the worldwide-known great thinker. "Heh. You know when it comes to my work, I can't help it with the detailed descriptioning," Albert just chuckled. "Mama Mia, you would have been a perfect partner for professor Gadd back home," Mario said to him. "Egads, you're right," Michael said in the Italian plumber's direction, both human and wolf-fox laughing at the inside joke of his.
"Seriously, the faster we find out about why we're here, the faster I'll understand their bond," Bentley said grumpily, the turtle being pretty agitated at the thought of the M-twosome, being that even though they had only met today, they treated each other like they were buddies from the start. 'There's some fishy business going on here,' the spectacled reptile thought.
"Eh hem, you guys wanna hear the last part or not?" Alexandra said to the persons around her. As the others focused on her again, she continued. "As I was saying, dad got the guards to shot at Leomph with their new guns modified by Albert. Back then, the guns had only some one-two custom element-options each as they were experimental, therefore the guards had to work together to get maximum use of the weapons.
"But it still worked. First, two of them shot at Leomph with water bullets." "Wait, so they literally shot at him with water guns?" Diddy said at her, followed by a good old monkey-laugh from the long-tailed chimp. "Yes, they actually did," Alex said with a smile herself, "Only these 'elemental'-bullets works in the way that when they impact, they spread their element all over the target, like a ball smeared with oil that's suddenly lit on fire." "Ugh, that sounds painful," Diddy said, gaining new respect for the prowess of the old fox.
"Well, it's only hurting you if it's an element that's normally painful to you," Benjamin said, sipping some coffee before continuing, "And just as Uncle had predicted, the 'Pokémon type'-theory seems to be universal." "'Pokémon type'-theory?" Misty said quizzaly, as she fed her Azurill a strawberry. "Yeah, it's a theory that, just like Pokémon in general, all kinds of creatures have their elemental strengths and weaknesses," Ben elaborated, "Such as a Piranha Plant, being a plant-based monster, is really weak to fire and ice, or a Gibdo, an undead mummy conjured by dark arts, having a big disadvantage against fire, light and healing magic." "Or a rock-monster like a Geodude," Alex said, "Being no good against water-attacks.
"As I said, first two of them shot Leomph with water bullets, then a third of our guards shot an electric bullet at him-" "-Which in combination shocked him!" Misty said as she figured out the outcome by herself, "Whoa, that's exactly the same strategy Ash came up with on the fly when he battled Brock's Onix on his rematch against him."
"Well, what do you know?" Michael said with a sly smile, "Seems like we copied his style then. Heh, what a coincidence." "Yeah, like now you suddenly remembered that particular episode," Alexandra said smugly to him, "You, who knows over half of the series by your heart-" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, not now, Cruella," Michael said with a huff to his friend, using the one nickname Alex hated the most. "You know it's only the hair on my head that make me resemble that old witch!" she said with a frown as she pointed at her head. "Well, Exuuuuse me, Princess," Michael said with his best imitation of that particular line, one that both the dark-blonde-haired Link and the blonde/orange-haired Zelda couldn't help but feel like they should have heard those same words sometime before...
"Anyway," Alex continued, tired of all the abruptions, "After the electric shock hit him, Leomph went unconscious. The double layer of two rounds of water bullets around him had doubled the effect of the electricity, so that's why he went down for the count so fast. That's also why he's not too keen about water now," she said and patted the big lump of a cat besides her who looked at the water with some fear evident in his dark-red eyes.
"Well, Kamek was really mad as his "creation" had failed so fast," she went on again, "But before he got the chance to say another insult at him, I clobbered him with one of the remaining hammers lying around. That's when he went comatose. There were still some other Koopa Troop soldiers around, but as soon as they saw their leader had fainted, they ran away like scared mice. Uh, nothing personal," she quickly added to Penelope who had seated herself in a chair besides Bentley. "No harm done, Miss Royalhart," the young mouse-woman said to the younger big-cat girl.
"After the last Koopa soldier had run out the entrance," Alex continued again, "Dad said he had more than enough proof from this experience to see Kalasta's powers and predictions were real, and he wanted nothing more than to get us all back home safely. We all agreed on that, but I didn't want to leave poor Leomph there. I told dad that it wouldn't be right if we let a fellow lion be left in a world were he would be treated like a beast and die under a tyrant's rule."
"Or die because of me," Mario said in a small tone, looking at the living feline-statue with remorse. "If Bowser had sent him against me, I would-a perhaps have found some way to defeat him. Though I doubt I could smash him as a-easily as the Whomp King." "Knowing you, I'd bet you would put a couple of Bob-Ombs down his throat or something," Michael said matter-of-factly, "But yeah, either he'd get turned to rubble by that, or Bowser would have him turned into his personal bedroom-fireplace or the like if he failed."
"Mama Mia, what a fate," Mario said at the thought of the actually friendly Thwomp/lion-mix being killed and turned into something stupid like that. (Stupid as in a fireplace for a fire-breathing individual who lived in a castle surrounded by and filled with lava!)
"I'm just glad daddy agreed with me and got all the guards to help bring him back with us," Alexandra said with a content look at her father. "Yeah, well I did get moved by the way my little Ally told me the poor chap's fate," Julius told the listeners, "I was still wary of him, but Kalasta told me that if we took him with us, he would personally see to it that the rock-hard fellow got some manners knocked into his thick skull."
The old British-descended bureau-cat could only smile at Leomph when he said that. "But I'm glad that in the end, he ended up the way he is now, a perfect pet for my perfect daughter." "Oh, dad," Alex said with a blush. "You know he's only stating the truth, kitty," Benjamin told her with a smile of his own. "You shut it, ya foxy bookworm," Alexandra said with rosy cheeks to her boyfriend, "No nickname calling from you unless in private!" "Aw, and where's the fun in that?" the glassed vulpine said to her.
"Man, and I thought Sly had the copyright for that suave voice," Bentley said from his position, "Now both this four-eyed fox and this wild-mutt guy have to go and emulate him too? Geez!" "Ya know, I think it's cute," Penelope said as she looked at the fox and lioness banter, "It was kind of what made me first fall for Sly." "Do I have to save you from another pirate again to win your heart back?" Bentley said in a part annoyed, part flirty manner. "Oh, you poor IQ-ed turtle, you," Penelope said before she placed her lips on his right cheek, "LeFwee was enough for me to open my eyes, and you got the privilege to be my eye-opener... literally."
As the gang by the pool went on with their conversations, Rayman and Ly had walked out on the balcony along with Abigail to get some fresh air, and subsequently see how the foursome out there was doing.
Still after an hour, neither one of them seemed to be close to waking up, which kind of scared Abigail. "I just hope they haven't been locked in some everlasting coma or something," the young raccoon-girl said as she looked at Falisa with a worried face.
"Do not worry, my dear Abby," Ly said to her with a reassuring smile, "They're just having such a good time in his mind." "His mind?" Rayman said puzzled. "Yes, his mind," Ly said, pointing at Sly who had a smile on his lips, as well as stains of tears from his eyes, "I can see clearly that both Sly and Carmelita seems to be very content in their shared subconsciousness, and both Krystal and young Falisa seems to be really liking the memories he shares with them too."
"Whoa, memory-sharing?" Rayman said in awe, "That's not an easy feat, isn't it Ly?" "Not too much of a feat if ones telepathic powers are strong enough," Ly answered for her limbless friend, "Though with how the two of them combined their powers to do this, not even I can break through their mind barrier and wake them up." At this she looked at Falisa and Krystal with a slight frown on her features.
"Oh man," Abigail said at the hopelessness, "If they don't wake up soon, I don't wanna be the one to break the news to Michael." "Couldn't we just shake' em to wake' em?" Rayman said, ready to go and give Sly a good shove. "No! We can't do that," Ly said hurriedly to him, "If we try to force them out of their coma, there's no telling what the consequences would be." "Consequences? As in..?" Rayman said wondering. "As in a psychological trauma," Ly said with a sad expression, "Seeing as their minds now rest in one, the girls could actually be locked in Sly's mind, and then he would become severely stressed and confused because of it, and they would perhaps not be able to connect with their real selves."
At this information, Rayman scooted ten feet away from Sly and the rest. "Bugger," he said, "I couldn't do that to them." "Well, nice knowing how NOT to wake them," Abigail said, "But what options do we have, then? Michael's expecting the last party to be here any minute, and-" "Whoa, whoa, wait!" Rayman stopped her, "Did you say "last party"? I thought everyone needed was already here." "Well," Abigail said with a light smile, "There's one last group of heroes that's coming here in another way than you guys." "Oh? But where from?" Rayman asked perplexed.
Just as Abigail was about to answer, a voice shouted to them, "Abby, Ray, Ly, get in here! We've got word from Robin downstairs that our final guests are here! Come on, we're gonna go meet them!" As they turned, they saw Alexandra waving them over from the balcony door. As they looked back to the raccoon, two vixens and the half-lynx, they decided they could figure out their waking later, before making their way inside.
Rushing over to her, Rayman asked his question to Alexandra instead, "Who are those last party members, and where are they from?" "Oh, wait and see, Rayman, wait and see," Alex answered mysteriously as she rushed after Michael who was in the lead of the group down the hallways going deeper into the complex.
Donkey Kong and Fox ran just behind the half-wolf, and they had asked him the same question. "And one more thing," DK continued a little angrily, "Why didn't you build a portal for them to fall through, too?" "Well, Kalasta figured out there was no need to make a portal for someone who would come willingly," Michael answered for the big ape who, now having a confused look, made the half-fox elaborate, "You see, the guys who are coming now, are well known back in their part of the Universe to be on the spot if called for help. And it just so happens that one of their friends who's coming with them, is the guy responsible for the advanced technology crafted in this place to make the portals work in the first place."
"Wait. You mean to tell me your engineers didn't build these portals without some help from another Galaxy?" Fox said surprised at the revelation. "Well, we Terran folks aren't that tech-savvy yet, I'm afraid," Michael said as he continued to sprint down the corridor, "Unlike you Lylatians, the closest Earth-people have come to manned space travel, are our moon and a couple of space-stations satelliting close to our planet.
"It's not like we can't get further out or something," the mutt went on, "It's just that our world is sadly filled with so much poverty, corruption, religious unrest and rogue wars, our politicians don't have time to finance the space programs as would be needed for us to get out of our own planetary system before well over some hundred years, at the best."
"Holy Goddess," Fox said at the information, "That really sucks." "Yeah," Michael said, "So the closest we normally ever get to space are in fantasy and video-games." "Flipping frogs, you guys really need an alien invasion or something to boost that space-thingy," Donkey Kong said. "And get many innocent lives killed in the process? I'd rather not!" Michael said with an angry look at the gorilla, "We've had enough of that shit with our stupid wars here on Earth already. It's not right if we should suddenly sacrifice over a billion people just so the next generation would fly freely in space."
"I have a feeling that you would make a great leader in this world, my friend," Fox said to him with respect for the young dog's resolve to keep his people out of harms' way. "Thanks for the compliment," Michael said to the mercenary, "But right now let's get to our last guests who'll be a big help against some evil-doers that makes some of our world's most despised war-criminals look like common burglars in comparison." And with that, he boosted himself down the corridor, all the others following suit.
When Michael stopped, he was in front of some big doors with a sign over them reading 'Docking Bay'. As the others reached him, the doors opened and a tiger stepped out. He was clad in a light armor like a middle-ranking soldier, but his arms and head was uncovered, letting you see his fur was colored light brown with dark-red stripes instead of a common tiger's orange with black stripes-coloration, but he retained the white from his jaw and down like all of his kind. He was tall, pretty fit, and with some goodlooking biceps on his arms, evidently from long hours training with weights.
When Abigail came through, she ran up to him and gave him a hug around his waist, as he was too tall for her to put her arms around his neck unless she jumped up on him. "Hi there, gorgeous," he said down to her. "Hi, Robin," she said to the tiger she embraced, "Sorry I'm late." "You're never too late, my masked princess," he said to the smaller woman, returning the hug as softly as he could. After hugging for some ten seconds, they parted and Robin looked at Julius who just came walking in after the others. "The last of the extraterrestrial parties are here, Sir," he said to the older lion, "They arrived at exactly 1615 hours."
"Very good, Private Porter," mister Royalhart told the tiger, "I hope there wasn't anyone from NASA who spotted their descent?" "No, Sir," Robin answered his superior, "From what our men on the inside have gathered, the lightshow-phenomena caused by Miss Gaup and the blue-furred vixen messed up their satellite-readings too much for them to make sense of the situation. Luckily, they think it's just some stray radioactive space dust that caused the temporal disabling of their cameras."
"What? They had to sneak in?" Fox asked from where he stood. "Well, travelers from outer space are not something you see around here every day, mister," the tiger said to Fox, "That would become quite the fuzz. But, uh, who are you again?" "Oh, great, now I have to do all the introductions all over again," Michael said with a palm to his face, "Next time, Robbie, you're attending the full welcoming party with us." "Suits me just fine, Mikey," Robin said to the mixed mutt.
"Alright, Fox, meet Robin Porter, part-time guard here at Royalhart Inc. and Abigail's partner in love and sports," Michael said to the mercenary leader, before looking in Robin's direction, "And Robbie, this is Fox McCloud. Yes, THE Fox McCloud," he said with a smug smile to the now slightly slackjawed cat, "The leader of Star Fox and savior of the Lylat System."
"Whoa, like, seriously?" Robin said in awe as he looked at the vulpine commando/pilot. "Yes, seriously," Michael said, "But ask for his autograph after I've explained everything for all of them." "Oh...okay," Robin said a bit speechless'd, looking at the other people with them also, "Whoa, that's quite the crowd you've gathered here."
"Yeah, and it's about to get bigger," Michael said as he looked at the gate behind the tiger, "I'll introduce you to them all later, but right now, could you be so kind as to escort us to our latest batch of guests?" "Well of course, mister Arnesen," Robin said to him with a mock bow, opened the doors and let them trough.
The others became shocked when they saw the size of the bay, as it easily took up the space of 1/2 of the giant building. In contrast, the docking bay was large enough to place three average overseas-tankers side by side in there, or as R.O.B. calculated, eight spaceships the size of either the Great Fox I and II, and there would still be space for more!
One third of the hall was connected to the sea outside by a large gate that was locked at the moment, and you could see about a dozen small boats and two yachts as well as some Navy-type Cruisers docked by the port.
The most of the bay was pretty empty besides some planes and cars of different designs parked in the right part of the hall from the water, but right in front of them, to the port's left, they saw a squad of guards standing by some peculiar-looking vehicles that didn't look like normal aircraft by American, and frankly, Earth standards at all.
And by the sound of it, they had their hands full with the newly arrived party.
As they stepped closer, they heard talking between the guards and the foreign individuals.
"Now I told ya whippersnappers to get your hands of my goldurn gun," they suddenly heard an old man's voice call out. "Well, sorry mister "armed-and-dangerous" robot," one of the guards said, "but we're only doing this for safety measures-" "Pah! "Safety measures", my circuits!" another old man said with a loud voice, "Back in my day, the only safety measures needed was a good old whopping on the enemies! Why, I remember back in the battle of Luxun 3 in the second revolution after the Craggymite Empire's fall, I whopped a gang of Agorians so bad, they-" "Cronk, not now!" they now heard a young woman say to the old-sounding male.
"Seriously Talwyn," a young male said to the girl's voice, "Are you sure they don't have an 'off'-button?" "We weren't built with one, rookie," the first old voice said to the young man, "We are modified to never quit our duty before we're run out of juice, or get defeated in the line of duty."
"No need to be so melodramatic, Lieutenant Zephyr," a boasting voice belonging to a man in his forties said all of a sudden, "With me around, you all could just kick back, relax, have a long-drink and watch as my partner does the dirty job." "Qwark, you are this close from getting a Negotiator rocket up your ass, you know?" the young man said with a mocking threat to the brash man. "Be nice to him, little fella," another middle-aged voice said to him, "The Captain's only venting air as usual."
"Please, kind Sirs and Madam," one of the soldiers said to the concealed aliens, "If you would please come peacefully, it'd be-" "It would be no fun," Michael said as he stood in front of the guards who had their backs turned to them, "It's okay, Private, we'll take it from here. You guys are dismissed." "Sir, yes, sir!" all of the troops around said in military fashion, and walked away from the people in front of the spacecrafts.
The others in Michael's group were pretty baffled at the gang that stood in front of them. Two of them were a couple of robots, kind of like R.O.B., but they looked more built for combat than for ship maintenance. One of them had a brown coloration and a long face with a light-blue scanner for eyesight on the front and a black rubber under-lip, while the other one was more blue with a head like a bell-shaped helmet with a red optical horizontal lens and a mouth built with a tooth-like under-jaw, both of them holding some funny guns in their three-fingered steel-hands.
To their right, there stood a big man (over 10 feet tall!) with a chest and arms ripe with muscles, and some comically short legs, dressed up in a suit consisting of much green and some black and grey that made him look just like a superhero from a comic book, wearing a green mask over his head that didn't go over his mouth and big double-chin, a funny antenna sticking up on the top of his head-mask, and a comical gun strapped on his belt. On his suit's chest, there was a symbol of a blue atom with a yellow thunderbolt shooting from it, looking like a stylized 'Q'.
Also of note was even though he had a kinda human-like look and skin, he had only three fingers on each gloved hand.
In front of him stood a much younger and shorter woman, apparently in her beginning twenties, dressed in a green sweater, dark-brown pants and gloves, with a small gun strapped to her belt, and a red hair-band tied over her brow to keep her half-long hair from hiding her pretty face.
Now you could almost say she was human, as she had a young woman's build and looks, along with five fingers on her hands instead of just three like most of the other men around her, but some features gave her away as an alien. First of all was her long, thin, naked pink tail that ended in a small, slightly spear-like outgrowth. Second were her ears that were long and pointy kinda like Hylian ones, giving her an elf-like look. And finally, she had a light-purple/pink skin-pigmentation, with some darker purple spots here and there on her face.
Besides her, there stood a slightly shorter guy, but he seemed to be about the same age as her. He was very different from her too, as he had a face that looked like it was 3/4 cat and 1/4 dog, and he had yellow fur with brown stripes visible on his cheek and long ears. And about his ears, they looked a bit unnatural by Earth standards, as they were feline-like, but flat and without visible ear-holes. He also had a long thin tail coated in yellow fur with a bushy tip with brown stripes on the end.
He was dressed in an orange/brown shirt, a backpack-like strap around his shoulders adorned with a light-green plate with yellow outlines, brown 5-fingered gloves with long sleeves(with a peculiarly big wrench in his left hand), a pair of green pants, held up with a belt with an arrow-shaped beltbuckle pointing down, done in light-green with a yellow rim, and normal brown boots.
Between the two of them there stood yet another robot, although this one was no taller than about 2 feet and some inches. He was a silver grey, with black-painted limbs, his three fingers on both his big hands included. On his chest there was a ventilation lock for cooling his complex machinery. His head was shaped like a ball, with his mouth taking up the lower third of his face-part, with two big, light-green, perfectly round optical lenses for eyes, and a small antenna with a red light-bulb in the end on top of his head.
Behind the furry guy, there stood a rather big man (though not just as big as the green-clad macho-man) who were a more portly guy than most of the others. He had deep-blue skin with small spikes on his shoulder-blades and on top of his head, and a nice-looking beard growing around his mouth. On the bridge of his nose, he wore some simple glasses. He was dressed in a white shirt, with orange pants held up with straps over his shoulders, with some keys and some other tools hanging on his belt, and big brown boots. He too had three-fingered hands.
With his clothing, you could easily tell that he had the same job as Mario was dressed for: being a plumber.
On his left stood a younger, but about same-sized, guy with just as peculiar looks as the rest of them. His skin was a light-yellow, and he had a pretty big chin just like the comic-hero-like man, only this guy's was flabbier than macho you could say. He had red spiky hair that were held up by a metallic headband with a lens attached to it, like one of those clockmakers use when fixing intricate workings with very small parts. He was dressed in a white lab-coat, with a shirt underneath that didn't quite hide his rather big belly, and fitting jeans and shoes. What made him stand out, though, were his right arm and the upper-right part of his face: they were mechanical.
Other than that, his whole appearance simply yelled one thing: geek.
AN: Oh, new guys coming through.
A highfive to anyone reading this who gets who the latest addition to the story are.