Hey everyone! It's been a while, but now that I'm on winter break, I finally managed to get the next chapter done. A bit of a warning however: not only is it long, but some parts of it are more graphic and violent than what I have written before, so reader discretion is advised.
Enjoy!
Chapter Eleven: The Ruins of Grele
We piloted the T-Ship for what seemed like at least three hours. Ordinarily the journey across space would've taken a lot longer, but thanks to the T-Ship's hyperdrive, our journey which would've taken years was reduced to a few hours. Link, Starfire, and I had begun a journey to three different planets in the search for three pure metals that could form the Phantom Sword. Once we had this sword, I was going to use it against Bellum, who had been possessed by Majora, and cut both of them into microscopic pieces!
Our friends back on Earth were doing everything they could to hold off 'Majellum', as I called him. I know they had the Phantom Hourglass and some of Kalena's power to keep Majellum from 'eating' them, but I was still worried, especially for Robin. He didn't even have special powers like the rest of us, and yet he was willing to stand up against a foe that severely outclassed him. Spikey definitely had guts, but that alone wouldn't be enough to win this. Hopefully, we'd be able to find these metals, make the sword, and get back in time to help everyone.
A little later, I looked out of my cockpit and saw in the distance a spectacular dark-green colored planet. It looked about the size of the Earth, maybe a little smaller, and had a light purple glow around it which I assumed was it's atmosphere. Starfire piloted the T-Ship down into the planet's atmosphere. There was a bit of turbulence, but nothing we couldn't handle. After a few minutes, I was able to see the planet's terrain; which consisted mostly of grassy plains and dense-looking forest, though I was also able to see something shining among the trees. The T-Ship landed in a clearing right near the edge of one of these forests.
"Friends, this is the planet Grele." Starfire informed us. "Though it may be covered in vegetation, the race that once inhabited this world died out ages ago."
The three of us exited the T-Ship and leapt down to the ground. The air around us was peculiar; for some reason, there was a feeling of both life and death lingering in the air. Well, at least it was breathable. The air wasn't the only thing on this planet that was weird; the plants themselves almost looked like they were caught in-between life and death. I guess stuff like this was to be expected with alien planets, but still; it just didn't feel right.
"Who used to live here?" Link asked Starfire.
"And how did they die out?" I also asked her.
"This world used to be inhabited by a race of insect-like people known as the Greleians. I heard stories that they had the capabilities to survive for centuries, and had a magnificent culture based around mining. As for how they died out, no one is certain. Rumor has it that eons ago, they were at the peak of their civilization. Then all of a sudden, they were wiped out." Starfire answered.
"An entire civilization just… disappeared overnight?! How is that possible?" I questioned.
"I am not certain. But from what is known, something happened here that devastated their world and killed them off." She answered.
Link took a few steps toward the forest, then kneeled down and put his hand to the ground, picking up some of the dirt.
"How can we be sure that there is even any aquanine left on this planet?" He asked.
"The Greleians were renowned in the past for their mining capabilities, and as such, uncovered many natural resources. Perhaps if we can find one of these mines, we'll find the aquanine we seek." Starfire answered.
I butted in by informing the two of them that I had seen something shining in the forest before we had landed, and suggested that if we headed in that direction we might find some kind of clue that would point us in the right direction.
"I'm pretty sure it was in that direction." I said as I pointed to the east.
"Well then, I guess it's decided. Lead the way, Scarlette." Link declared.
Heh. It was nice that I was leading the team for a change. Well… the two team members that were here right now anyway. I was still worried for Spikey and the others back on Earth, but I wasn't going to let that distract me from the mission too much. Link and Starfire followed behind me as we headed into this weird Greleian forest. I was just glad that these Greleians were extinct; from Starfire's description of them being 'insect-people', I really wouldn't want to encounter one. Bugs creep me out!
Whatever I had seen shining in the forest, it was farther away than I had thought. We spent nearly two hours traveling through the forest and there was still no sign of a shining object. My feet were starting to get tired, but I was used to it so it didn't really bug me that much. What did bug me however, was the look of the forest around us. The trees had a dark purple tint to their bark, and the leaves were patterned really weird; almost like eyes. It made me feel like they were watching us, but that was impossible… right? And if that didn't make me nervous enough, I could also hear an eerie sound that seemed like it was coming from the wind. It sounded almost like someone's voice. All of the sudden, I heard a scream come from up ahead and jumped in surprise.
"What the heck was that?!" I shrieked.
Starfire looked up ahead to find the source of the scream. I could tell that Link heard the scream too, as he was rubbing his ears. Considering the fact that his ears were long and pointed, he was probably much more sensitive to the scream than I had been. A moment later, Starfire flew back to us.
"Well? Did you find out what was screaming?" I asked her.
"I did. And it is quite fortunate for us! Follow me!" Starfire answered.
Link and I followed her as she floated up ahead. After following her for a few yards, she stopped at a small mound of dirt. A mound of dirt was screaming? Upon closer examination, I discovered that it wasn't the dirt that screamed; it's what was in it. While I was still up close, a tiny yellow worm popped out from the dirt. The sight of it made me shriek, and when I did so did the worm. It's scream revealed that it had three mouths; two of which were in place of where it's eyes would normally be. I stumbled backwards and fell down.
"What is that thing?!" I shrieked.
"It is called a mouthworm. And this must be a nest. Mouthworms are quite popular on Tamaran as a 'snack food.'" Starfire said.
"You eat those things?! Eww!" I claimed.
I grabbed Link's hat from his head and held it in front of me like a shield. Honestly, I don't think it would've done any good, but I REALLY hated bugs. Link gave me a funny look, took his hat back, and walked up to the mound. He picked up the worm by it's tail, and it didn't even squirm. Either it was completely oblivious or it was just super lazy.
"Oh yeah. I remember when you brought a bunch things of these to the tower and offered them to everyone as a snack." Link said. "No one else really wanted any…"
Then without warning, Link bit the worm's head off. I almost threw up from the sight of it. I can't believe he'd eat that thing?! Then again, these two would probably do a lot of things that I couldn't believe.
"Would you care to try one, Scarlette?" Starfire asked me.
"NO WAY! Keep those things away from me! I hate bugs!" I snapped.
"Technically they're worms." Link said after he finished swallowing the rest of the worm.
"Whatever! If it's even remotely like a bug, then I don't like it!" I said.
"You do not need to worry too much, Scarlette. Baby mouthworms like these are completely harmless. Full grown mouthworms on the other hand, are far more dangerous." Starfire told me.
While we were discussing this, I noticed something shining from amongst the trees. I rushed over to get a closer look.
"Hey! I see it! The shiny thing that I saw before! It's this way!" I exclaimed.
Before we left, Starfire dug up more of those worms for her and Link to 'snack' on. Seriously, I knew that these two were weird, but I didn't expect them to eat worms! Honestly though, I was pretty hungry. I don't think anyone remembered to pack food for this trip. But I was NOT eating a worm, so I decided to just power through my hunger; like I would do before back when I was on my own as a thief (I'm still glad those days are over).
After a short trek through the trees, we came upon a very large clearing. Not too far ahead of us was the thing that was shining; it looked like some kind of antenna, though it was broken.
"See! Up there! It looks like some kind of communication device." I told Link and Starfire.
"Umm… Scarlette? You may want to take another look." Link told me.
Both of them had shocked looks on their faces, and after taking a second look, I could see why. The antenna was actually the least impressive thing here, for it was attached to a very strange looking building with a gigantic door on the front. The whole thing looked like it was thousands of years old. Starfire flew all around the building, inspecting every part of it.
"This must be an entrance to one of the Greleian mines!" Starfire exclaimed.
"'So we're one step closer to finding the Aqua-thing-ine, or whatever; the thing we need to kick Bellum's butt!" I declared.
I ran towards the gigantic doors, and tried to open them. I spent nearly five minutes pushing as hard as I could, and even tried pulling a few times, but it was no use; all I got from it was cramp. You'd think that since I was a demigoddess that opening something like this would be no problem. I guess strength was one thing I didn't inherit from Ares.
"It's no use, it won't budge." I said.
"Hmm… maybe there's some other way in…" Link pondered as he looked around.
While the two of us were lost in thought, Starfire floated over to the doors, took a deep breath, and threw one powerful punch at them. The force of her blow not only threw the doors open, it flung them off of their hinges. Link and I both had stupefied looks on our faces; although since Link was very familiar with Starfire, you'd think that he'd be used to her doing this.
"Heh. Never mind." Link said a little nervously.
She calmly walked into the building, and after Link and I were done being stupefied, we entered too. The inside of the building was rather dark, but it only consisted of one circular room with nothing inside, save for a device that looked like a lever in the center of the room. I asked who should be the one two pull it. Link mentioned that it could be some kind of trap, but I mentioned that it may also lead us to what we're looking for. After a few minutes of trying to decide, Starfire sighed and went to pull it herself. With one hand, she yanked the device over to one side, and we heard a big mechanical sound come from beneath us. Shortly afterwards, the floor we were standing on began to sink into the ground. I was freaked out at first, but quickly realized it was some kind of elevator. Oh yeah, duh! It was a mine after all, it'd make sense for it to go underground.
The elevator sank down for what was probably miles below the surface. It grew darker and darker as we went, but close to the bottom, Starfire lit one of her starbolts to give us some light. With a loud clanking sound, the elevator hit the bottom and we stepped off of it. We emerged in a large room full of old broken machinery. It was quiet all around, but somehow I could feel some kind of presence here; a presence other than Link and Starfire that is.
Without any warning, the elevator we had been on rose back up to the surface, leaving us trapped down here. We were all freaked at first, but Link suggested that there was likely another way out of here. With that likely being the case, we advanced ahead through a door at the end of the room. Upon entering, one of the devices in the room, which surprisingly was still working, activated and caused an electric barrier to block the way out and the way forward.
"Well that's just great! Now how will we get out?!" I asked.
Starfire shone her starbolt around the room, and noticed a device on the ceiling that looked like another lever.
"Perhaps that is the solution. Maybe if we pull that lever on the ceiling, the electrical pulses will cease." She suggested.
"Seems simple enough." Link said.
He pulled out a device that looked kind of like a handgun, except that at it's tip was an arrow-shaped hook that looked like it was attached to a chain. He aimed it at the lever, but was suddenly stopped by Starfire. She told him to take a closer look. The lever was also surrounded by electricity, and if Link had shot his hook-thingy at it, it would have electrocuted him.
"We need to find something to pull that lever. Something that does not conduct electricity." Starfire said.
I stepped forward, remembering the whip that I could make.
"Something like my whip? My whip that is not metal, and won't conduct electricity?" I asked smugly.
I concentrated and formed my whip out of glowing red energy. I flung it at the lever, and the whip wrapped around it, hooked onto it by an arrow-shaped tip. Maybe I didn't have enough strength to open the door from before, but I know I was strong enough to pull a lever. I easily pulled it, and all the electricity in the room shut off.
"Great work, Scarlette!" Link complemented.
"Heh. It was too easy." I gloated.
I pulled again to get my whip back. However, the lever was actually very fragile, and broke off when I pulled at it. My whip came back to me, but the piece of the lever also hit me on the head.
"OW!" I exclaimed painfully.
I could see Link and Starfire giggling slightly.
"It's not funny!" I snapped.
Actually now that I think about it, it was kinda funny. After all, I didn't even need to pull my whip to get it back, I could've just let go and it would've vanished. Honestly, sometimes I don't think these things through. Okay, I admit it, it's more than just sometimes.
After the throbbing in my head went away, we went through the now-accessable door, only to find a room with three more doors, one of which had what looked like a lock mechanism. Link and Starfire took a closer look, and determined that the door required two keys in order to open it. Hopefully, the keys we needed were down the other two paths.
"But which one should we go down first?" Starfire asked.
We all knew it was too risky to split up; this place could have more traps like the one from before. Neither of them made a decision, so I made one.
"Eenie, meenie, mynee, moe." I said as I picked between the two doors.
In the end, I picked the door on the left. Link and Starfire shrugged their shoulders, and went ahead. Starfire mentioned that that is the way that Beast Boy usually decides things, which instantly made us think of the others back on Earth, doing what they could to keep Majellum at bay. Hopefully, they'd all be alright when we got back.
The room beyond the door was a rather long hallway, and at the end was another door. I took a step forward, but Link stopped me suddenly.
"Did either of you hear that?" He asked us.
"Hear what?" I questioned.
"It sounded like… someone snickering." He said.
"But that cannot be. This mine is abandoned… isn't it?" Starfire questioned.
As we were wondering, we heard a loud mechanical sound from beneath us. All of the sudden, the floor opened up, and we fell through. Fortunately Starfire, being able to fly, caught both of us in the nick of time. Good thing too, because at the bottom of the pit was an uncountable number of sharp spikes, many of which had the skulls of some unfortunate victims. To think… that could've been us!
"Phew! That was close! Thanks Starfire. I lo… err… I owe you one. Heh heh." Link thanked Starfire nervously.
"My pleasure, Link." Starfire responded.
As, umm… touching as this was, we still needed to get across, and Starfire had extinguished her starbolt when she saved us. I decided to improvise by forming one of my weapons, a pair of nun-chucks. Thank goodness my weapons glowed, or else we would've been floating around in the dark for a the door on the other side was some kind of container. While it looked advanced, it also look really old. Starfire pulled it open, and pulled out a shiny blue key.
"Success! Only one more!" She exclaimed.
"But something is bugging me." Link claimed. "Those traps from before… how were they activated?"
"Yeah. If this place is thousands of years old, how is any of the stuff here still working?" I pondered.
None of us really knew the answer right now, so we decided to figure that out later. For now, Starfire tucked the key away and flew both of us back across the spiked pit. Once we were back in the room with the three doors, we were about to go through the door on the right, but Link stopped again. Once again, he claimed to have heard something.
"Are you sure you're not just hearing things? It wouldn't be a surprise, what with your kitty-cat ears and all." I asked him.
"Maybe. But still… let's just be careful." Link responded.
On the other side of the door was yet another hallway, and hopefully the floor wouldn't open up again. We walked about halfway through, when we once again heard a loud mechanical sound. I braced myself for the floor to open, but it didn't this time. Instead, we heard a loud thud from behind us, and saw a huge boulder rolling towards us. As we ran as fast as we could for the end of the hall, I noticed that the boulder had a slight red glow to it; though I wasn't sure whether that was good or bad. Whatever, right now we had to focus on getting out of this hall! Fortunately we made it right at the last second, with the boulder smashing itself in-between the doorway.
Though we were stuck, the key container was in the middle of the room. Something was wrong though; the container was already opened, and the key was gone! Upon closer examination, we found claw marks of some sort on the container.
"Strange…" Starfire claimed.
"What is it?" Link asked.
"These claw marks… they do not look very old." She said.
"So… what is that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"It means… there is something alive in here… and it knows we are here." She told us.
Only a few seconds after she said that, Link once again claimed that he heard something again. I was about to tell him that he was hearing things again, but before I could I noticed something moving on the wall on the other side of the room. It was veiled in darkness, but resembled some kind of… giant bug.
"Uhh, Starfire? Did you say those Greleian bug-things were extinct?" I asked.
"Yes. They disappeared thousands of years ago." She answered me.
"Then… what the heck is THAT?!" I said as I pointed to the thing moving on the wall.
When Link and Starfire looked towards it, six glowing red eyes lit up where the thing's head probably was. What's more, they lit up on three other areas of the wall too! You had to be kidding me! There were four of these things?! Each of them crawled off of the walls and snarled in an indescribable way. They definitely didn't look friendly; they looked kind of like reptile-cockroach hybrids. Cockroaches on their own were creepy, but throw in scales, claws, and teeth, not to mention increasing their size to nearly the size of Cyborg, and these things were beyond creepy!
"Greleians?! But… but how is that possible?!" Starfire exclaimed.
"I don't know, but I don't think they see us as guests." Link said.
"Well then, looks like it's time to squash some bugs!" I claimed.
Link drew his Master Sword, Starfire prepped herself with starbolts, and I formed two swords in my hands, ready for whatever these freaks had in store for us.
The one closest to us darted forward, but stopped short when Starfire shot her starbolt at the ground in front of it as a warning. It only bought us a few seconds though, because almost directly afterwards, the other three charged towards us, baring hideous pincers on the sides of their mouths and sickle-like claws on their hands; or whatever it was these things had on the ends of their arms. Link blocked their attacks with his shield and swatted them away with his sword. Starfire flew up out of their reach and fired several starbolts at two of them. But these things had wings, and flew into the air to chase after her. It looked bad, but knowing Star, she could handle it. As for me on the other hand, I had my own opponent to face.
The Greleian that had been stopped before was now staring me down with it's big insect-like eyes, which really gave me the creeps. This Greleian looked bigger and darker colored than the other three. Was this the pack leader? Even if it wasn't, the thing made me think of the leader of my old gang, the guy who used me like a weapon, which only made me want to squish this bug even more. It charged towards me, but when it was about five feet from me I turned invisible and dodged to the right. My foe stumbled a little in confusion, giving me the opportunity to attack it while I had the element of surprise. As quietly as I could (which wasn't easy considering a heated battle was going on for all three of us), I snuck up behind it and prepared to bring out one of my weapons. To my surprise however, the Greleian pounced and pinned me to the ground! It's as if it had seen through my stealth! With eyes as creepy as that, I wouldn't be surprised. I struggled to break free, but the monster's grip was strong, and it's sickled claws were digging into my arms.
"Arrggh! Let me go!" I growled at it.
Of course that wasn't going to get it off of me. As it stood over me, baring it's fangs and glaring at me with it's creepy eyes, it only made me think more and more of the leader of my old gang; how he treated me like a weapon and wouldn't let me go. Just thinking about it made me angrier and angrier. Soon enough, I was was angry that I didn't feel like me anymore.
"I said… let… me… GO!" I snarled.
Both Link and Starfire saw it. My eyes went blank and my whole body flared up with some kind of crimson energy; as if my own rage was increasing my strength. In an explosion of red power, the Greleian was blasted off of me, straight into the wall. What both my friends and my foes saw made them tremble. Crimson energy was surging out of the markings on my arms, more than usual. I formed two swords in my hands once again and advanced towards the Greleian leader. Despite it being afraid, it still engaged me in battle, which if you ask me was a foolish mistake on it's part. I'm still not entirely clear how it happened, but while I was in this state I was nearly three times as strong as I normally was. The Greleian tried foolishly coming in for a frontal assault again, but I (in my state of 'blind fury', I guess) overpowered it, grabbed one of it's forearms and brutally chopped it off! There were gasps to be heard from my friends but I didn't really pay attention. All focus was on my opponent right now.
Despite having lost a limb the Greleian came back for more, this time trying to get me from above. It would've worked… if it wasn't facing me that is! I brought out my whip and grappled the beast's neck, pulling it straight down where I got it into a headlock. From there I proceeded to bring out one of my swords again, but this time instead of chopping off a limb, I sent it straight into one of the monster's eyes! It went right through the beast's maw, then I swiped it upward leaving a gaping hole across the thing's face. The Greleian was gasping in pain, still trying to stay in the battle; but it was all in vain. I walked over to the writhing creature and kicked it down, then I formed my hammer and… well, you can probably guess what happened next.
Upon seeing the disgusting mess that used to be their leader, the other Greleians retreated, back into the darkness of the mine. Once they were gone, the enraged state I had been in had subsided and my mind became clear again. When I saw all of the bug guts on the ground in front of me, I cringed in disgust.
"Eww! How did that happen?!" I shrieked.
Link and Starfire looked at me with perplexed expressions.
"Scarlette, you were the one who did that." Starfire told me.
"What?! That couldn't be. I mean, I hate bugs, but… even I wouldn't do something that brutal to it." I claimed.
"You don't remember? Scarlette, you were enraged! Your entire body looked like it was on fire!" Link told me.
I didn't know what they were talking about. I would figure it out later, but it obviously had something to do with me having Ares' blood in my veins; well, something like that anyway. But for now, I just told Link and Starfire that they must've been hallucinating. Link kept trying to convince me that he and Star weren't hallucinating, but was interrupted by Starfire, who was searching though the remains of the Greleian that had been squashed. A moment later, she held up a shiny red key that was still partially covered in bug guts.
"It is the last key! Now we can open the main door!" Starfire exclaimed.
The boulder from before was still blocking the exit, but getting it out of the way was no problem for Starfire; her starbolt energy melted the rock straight through the middle. I couldn't help but feel that this girl had more power than she was letting on.
Once we were back in the main room, Starfire placed both keys in the door. After a few seconds of mechanical whirring, the door split apart three ways and then opened. On the other side of the door was another elevator, like the one we used to get into this mine in the first place.
"Do you think this elevator goes up or down?" Link asked.
"Well, only one way to find out!" I answered.
I went up and yanked the lever in the center of the room. The elevator shook a little, likely because it was really old, and then began to sink downwards. Great. We have to go down even further. Hopefully we were close to the aquanine, or else I might lose it again. At the bottom of the elevator shaft was another door, one that was even bigger than the one from before. Fortunately, this one wasn't locked, so Starfire was simply able to punch it open. On the other side, we found ourselves to be in a gigantic underground cave. The ground beneath us wasn't solid rock like the other rooms had been. Instead, the entire floor was covered with fine-grained sand. Our feet sank into it, but only up to our ankles. Still, there was no telling how deep the sand went. Link noticed another door far on the other side of the room, which hopefully was where the aquanine was. We raced across the sand towards the door (me and Link anyway; Starfire simply flew), but when we were about halfway across, both the entrance and the exit became electrified.
"Am I the only one that feels like something bad is about to happen?" I asked.
No sooner than I had asked that that the ground beneath us began rumbling, as if something was moving underneath us; something big. Only a moment later, not one, but three gigantic worms burst out from the sand.
"No. You're not the only one." Link answered, a bit late.
The worms stood at least twenty feet over us, although considering we could only see the parts of them that were above ground, who knows how big they really were! But the freakiest thing was that they had two mouths in place of where their eyes would be, and each mouth was filled with razor-sharp teeth.
"What the heck are those things?!" I asked.
"Mouthworms…" Starfire answered. "Fully... grown… Mouthworms."
So… these were the same kind of worms as the ones that Starfire and Link had been eating before we entered the mine?! I remember that Star said adult mouthworms were dangerous, but I didn't expect this! After Starfire had informed us of what these things were, the worm closest to us opened it's central mouth and inhaled a massive amount of air.
"Everyone cover your ears!" Starfire ordered.
"What? Why?" I asked her.
My question was answered a split second later, because the worm let out a tremendous roar. It was so loud, it made the walls of the cave crumble. Even with our ears covered, the sound hit us like a hurricane and caused our ears to rings afterwards. When the roar ceased, all three worms dove back beneath the sand. The three of us stood ready, back-to-back, prepared for whenever one of those worms would try to strike. Still, because of the sheer size of these things, not to mention the fact that there were three of them, it was obvious that brute strength alone wouldn't cut it for this fight. We needed a strategy, but what?
The ground began to rumble again, and I could see some of the sand a few meters in front of us being displaced, in a manner that hinted that a worm was coming straight for us. As I noticed this, Link happened to notice the strange plants growing around the edges of the cave. The worm emerged from the sand and lunged at us like a shark in the ocean. It was a little predictable at this point though, so we were able to dodge it rather easily. It was the worm that was waiting behind us that caught us off guard. I was able to keep it away using my bo staff, but it was still heavy enough that it knocked me down before it burrowed underground again.
"How the heck area these things able to find us anyway? They don't have eyes!" I asked.
"They must be detecting our movements in the sand. Mouthworms may lack sight, but they make up for it with motion-sensitive skin and sonar capabilities." Starfire informed us.
"So they use touch below ground and sonar above ground?" Link asked.
"Precisely." Starfire answered.
"Uhh, thanks for the biology lesson Star, but what we need to know right now is how to squash these things!" I remarked.
"That may be difficult. The hide of an adult Mouthworm is very durable. Our swords would simply bounce off, and the most my Starbolts could do is leave them disoriented." Star replied.
When Link heard that, it appeared that he had gotten an idea. He asked me to bring out my whip. In only a second I discard my bo staff for my whip. He then pointed over to the plants growing around the cave. They were shaped like bombs, complete with little flowers that resembled fuses.
"I have a feeling those flowers are as explosive as they look. If the worms can't be harmed on the outside, maybe they can on the inside." Link explained.
I get it! His plan was to chuck one of those bomb-plants into each of the Mouthworms… uh… mouths. Heh heh. The only problem is that those worms probably wouldn't willing eat them. That's where my whip came in.
"Starfire, you use your starbolts to stun the worms as they surface, and Scarlette, you use your whip to force it's mouth open." Link ordered.
"Wait. What?!" I exclaimed. "Link, I know I'm tough but I don't think I'm strong enough to force something that big to 'open wide'."
"You seemed plenty strong when you squashed that Greleian from before. Just try your best." He told me.
I wasn't really sure what he was talking about. The Greleian from before? I didn't squish it, it walked into a trap or something… didn't it? Regardless, I agreed to try.
"So what are you going to do?" I asked him.
"Me? I'm gonna give the worms a major stomachache!" Link quipped, rather badly.
Star looked confused at his statement, while I just looked unimpressed.
"I'm gonna toss bombs in their mouths, okay?" He re-stated.
Star understood now, and I understood before, it's just the way he put it was a little embarrassing. He ran over to one of the bomb-plants, while Starfire and I watched and waited for exactly where one of the worms would surface. Just a few feet away from us, the sand began to shake, and one of the Mouthworms rose out and opened all three of it's mouths wide. It was inhaling air, and we knew that wasn't good.
"Hurry, Star! Zap it before it blows our ears off!" I told her.
Starfire shot a charged starbolt straight at the worm's head, and it exploded in a flash of green light. The worm was stunned, still above the sand, waving it's head around and pointed towards the ceiling all disoriented. Now it was my turn. I ran around to the back of the worm, twirled my whip around until I was able to get a good shot, and flung it towards the thing's head. My whip's sharp tip hooked right through the worm's upper lip. It jerked around for a moment which caused me to lose my balance for a moment, but I quickly recovered and tugged my whip forward, which caused the worm to reel over backwards and forced it's center mouth open. Either the worm was weaker than I had thought, or I had more strength than originally thought, cause I did not think I'd be able to keep this thing's mouth open for long.
Fortunately I didn't have to, cause Link ran towards the worm with one of the bomb-plants in his hand, which appeared to be hissing and glowing red. He threw it straight into the monster's gaping mouth, going straight down it's gullet. Only a few seconds after swallowing the bomb, the whole worm disgustingly blew apart. I shielded myself form the explosion of worm guts; getting caught in a 'worm shower' was not on my agenda. After the first worm was dead, the second one caught us by surprise and came up right underneath of me. Fortunately, Starfire warned me just in time and I was able to leap out of the way before I became worm food. This put it in the perfect position to be zapped by Starfire, then whipped by me. After Link chucked another bomb into it's mouth and it exploded into a bunch of little worm chunks, we focused our attention on the final worm.
The final worm however, began to play a little smarter (which, for a worm, was actually kind of impressive. Do those things even have brains?). It kept itself at a distance, and began inhaling.
"Uh-oh! Quick Star, shoot it!" I yelped.
She tried to, but the worm paused during it's inhaling to dodge, then succeeded in letting out it's ear-splitting roar; although it wasn't as loud as before. Even so, it was enough to give us small headaches, even with our ears covered, and caused the cave walls to shake and debris to start falling.
"Oh no! If that worm roars one more time, the entire cave could collapse on top of us!" Starfire warned.
"Well, I'm not going to let that happen!" Link said. "I have an idea."
Link began to run towards the worm with a bomb in his hand. Starfire urged him to stop, saying it was too dangerous. I agreed; either Link would be hit by the worm's roar again (which for him, with those cat ears of his, would really hurt), his bomb would explode before he reached it, or the ceiling would fall and do us all in; but Link went ahead anyway. However, when the worm began to inhale again, he stopped about halfway between us and the worm. He tossed the bomb as hard as he could towards the worm. It wasn't going to reach! At it least it wouldn't have if the worm hadn't been sucking in air, which caused the bomb to be sucked in with it. The worm swallowed the bomb, though it tried to cough it back up. It wasn't able to, and the final worm went out with a bang.
Unfortunately, that final bang caused the ceiling to begin collapsing! Link and I grabbed Starfire's arms so she could fly us as fast as she could towards the exit. Fortunately, the doors were now unblocked, so she was able to get us all through before the ceiling could squash us. On the other side of the door we witnessed a marvel; the entire room was enshrined with precious gems! They were everywhere: on the floor, the walls, and the ceiling.
"Which one of these is the Aquanine?" Link asked.
Both Starfire and I shrugged our shoulders in response to his question. However, it didn't take long for me to guess.
"Hey guys, look over there." I said.
I pointed over to a single, crystal-like stone sitting on a pedestal near the end of the room. It was placed right in front of a plaque that depicted some kind of dark serpent that looked like it was eating a ball. It was written in… umm… foreign, so I couldn't read it. But that was beside the point.
"Maybe that's it?" I inquired.
We all went over to it, and Link picked it up. There was a small tear-drop-like symbol on it and it was glowing slightly. We concluded that this must be the Aquanine. As Link took the stone though, the letters on the plaque in front of us began to glow. I stepped back a little, unsure of how to react.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"It appears to be a message of some sort. But it's in an alien language, I can't read it." Link answered.
Starfire interrupted, saying that she was able to read it.
"You can?" Link asked, looking a little confused. "Wait… how? You didn't… uhh…?"
"Oh! No no no! Of course not!" Starfire answered quickly. "Ancient Greleian text was one of the languages I was taught during my educational studies on Tamaran."
"So… you learned it in school?" I asked her.
"Exactly." She responded.
I didn't know why Star overreacted to Link's question. I mean, of course she'd have to learn it in school; how else could she have? I guess I'd find out more about that later. Right now, Starfire began to read to us what was on the plaque.
"To the brave souls who find this message, we belay to you our tale. The world you stand on was once a paradise, a utopia of riches and life. All was at peace… until it came. The sky ripped open, and from the hole in the stars came the dark one. A monster that possessed power beyond the minds of any of us. The beast began to sink it's foul tendrils into the very planet, drinking the life and beauty from it. We tried to stop it, but all failed, and the world began to turn as dark as the monster itself. Even I begin to feel the monster's evil presence clawing at my mind, turning me. I leave this message, and this fine metal, in the hopes that a savior will one day learn of our plight. Before my mind rots from the pure darkness that consumes it and our world, I leave this warning: Beware of this Consumer of Worlds… it's path of destruction is far from over…"
"Consumer of Worlds? What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"I don't know, but… that serpent on the plaque…" Link stated. "I feel like I've seen it somewhere before…"
As Link was thinking, the wall with the plaque on it opened up to reveal another elevator. We entered it and Star pulled on it's lever, propelling us upward. To my relief, the elevator took us back above ground.
"Finally!" I said as I stretched my arms out. "It was getting really stuffy down there!"
"Well, we have one of the metals…" Link began.
"Now that leaves just two more for us to find." Starfire finished for him. "We should leave for the next planet right away! The closest one to here would be Crimsone."
"Hey, I'm all for getting these metals to make that sword to kick Majora's nonexistent butt, but can't we rest for like, ten minutes?! My arms are still sore from wrangling those worms!" I exclaimed.
It was decided. We would all take a ten to fifteen minute break to get our strength back. I was still really hungry. Starfire had held on to a few of those baby worms from before, but I'd still rather eat a rock before I'd eat one of those nasty things. I was actually going to consider just that, but before I tried it Link stopped me, pulled out an apple and handed it to me.
"You had that this whole time?!" I yelled.
"Sorry. I forgot about it until just now. But you can…" He began to say.
He was interrupted however, because I swiped the apple from his hand and began frantically chewing on it. It was nothing but a core in less than a minute, and then I ate that too.
"…have it." Link finished, looking bewildered.
It was only one apple, but now I felt much better. Link and Starfire were both curious as to why I hated bugs so much. Well… it was this encounter with a cockroach once while I was still in my old gang. Let's just say it crawled into… the wrong place. In other words, I really didn't want to talk about it. Instead, we decided to journey back to the T-Ship. Our communicators had a signal that told us where it was, so it wouldn't be hard to find it again, even amongst all these trees. With the Aquanine obtained, I guess the Crimsonine was next. I wondered if this planet Crimsone would be as much of a pain in the neck as Grele was.