Quite a few edits have been made to this arc's previous chapters, such as adding more details to descriptions and slight alterations of quotes and random stuffs to make them make more sense. You can go ahead and check them out if you want to, though you probably won't notice much difference unless you remember very well how the previous chapters originally were. Some notable changes include how the van was knocked upside-down and the transportation device's description.

Chapter 36
The Strongest Prisoner

Captain and the girls walked up to Zoda and Pico's vehicle and the captain said, "It seems that they've escaped without their vehicles. Something tells me that they will come back to this place again…"

"Maybe we should stay here until they come back?" Sanae suggested. "That way, we will able to ask them why they kidnapped Cirno and also where they took her to."

"They probably won't be coming back here as long as there are people keeping watch of their F-Zero machines," CF told her. "On the other hand, I have every reason to believe that she has being taken to Dark Million Organization's base."

As they were saying this, Jody Summers and John T anaka's F-Zero machines, as well as some police cars, showed up at the scene. Jody got down from her vehicle and then ran up to CF and said to him, "Captain Falcon! We heard that the members of Dark Million Organization are causing trouble here! Is everything okay?"

"Everything is okay, Jody," CF told her. "We managed to bring them down, except for Zoda and Pico. They managed to escape during the chaos, but their F-Zero machines are still here."

"I see… Very well, we shall confiscate their F-Zero machines before they come back to reclaim them. That way, they will not be able to run around recklessly anymore."

"We also have a problem involving the case of kidnapping. One of the girls has been kidnapped by Blood Falcon."

"What?"

"Therefore, we must go and rescue her fast! She must be imprisoned in Dark Million's base at the moment."

Suddenly, a bullet whizzed into CF's head from the side and knocked the captain onto the pavement. Everone was shocked and Jody gasped, "Captain Falcon!"

However, CF stood back up and then picked up the bullet that had fallen onto the pavement and said, "Don't worry; my helmet is bulletproof, so I'm all right." He then turned to look at the top of a building and Pico standing there with a sniper rifle in his hand. "Pico!"

"Should've known that trying to shoot you in the head wouldn't work…" Pico said. "But then, you wouldn't be called Captain Falcon if you were to be slain so easily."

Zoda appeared next to Pico said, "Well, it looks like the captain managed to escape the jaws of death once again! Just like Pico said earlier, you wouldn't be called Captain Falcon is you got killed so easily!"

"The both of you are not going to get away with this!" CF shouted at them. "Why did you kidnap one of the girls? Tell me at once!"

"Now that Blood Falcon has successfully kidnapped one of the girls, I don't see why I should hide the truth from you any longer. The reason we kidnapped one of the girls is because Black Shadow wants to get his hand on the Light Essence!"

"What? How did you know about the Light Essence?" Nitori said in surprise.

Zoda placed his hand next to his ear and said, "No little secret can escape my ears, heheheheh! After learning about what the Light Essence is capable of, Black Shadow has decided to get his hands on it so that he can go to other worlds and conquer them! What better way is there than to kidnap one of the girls and then demand the Light Essence in exchange as the ransom?"

"You villain!" CF angrily said.

"Yahahahahahaha! There is nothing you can do now! Go along with Black Shadow's plan obediently and the girl will live!"

As Zoda was saying this, Bio Rex and Octoman suddenly popped out from behind their vehicles and fired from their bazookas. "They're not down for the count yet?" Reimu said in surprise.

Everyone quickly got out of the way to avoid the bazooka shells. Immediately after landing from her jump, Meiling charged at Bio Rex and hit him in the head with a roundhouse kick before he could react. Octoman quickly turned to Meiling to shoot her, but she kicked the bazooka from below to send it flying into the air. Octoman moved back in shock, but before he could do anything else, Meiling placed her palm a few centimeters in front of his face and said, "Scarlet Inch Punch!"

BAAAAAAAAANG!

The red energy blast that came out from her palm sent Octoman flying backwards until he landed onto the pavement roughly. "Good job, Meiling," Remilia said to her.

Meiling turned to her mistress and said, "I wanted to make up for not being able to protect Cirno. I'm sorry that she got kidnapped..."

"It's not your fault," Reimu told her. "You don't have to blame yourself for this."

Meanwhile, Baba and The Skull, who had reattached his head back to neck, quickly got into their F-Zero machines. Immediately after that, both Zoda and Pico jumped down from the building and landed right into the cockpit of their vehicles. Once they were inside their own vehicles, Pico got out a cell phone-like device and said to it, "Black Shadow! Quick! Teleport us all back the base!"

"You're not getting away, you vile villains!" Sanae shouted as she ran towards the Death Anchor.

Zoda waved at her from inside the cockpit and said, "Smell ya later, girly!" However, Sanae went ahead and jumped onto the cockpit and slammed it hard with her gohei, trying to break through it. "Hey, get off of my F-Zero machine!"

Right at that moment, the villains' vehicles disappeared in a burst of light, and everyone was surprised by the sight of it. Bio Rex and Octoman's vehicles also disappeared, but because they were not inside their vehicles this happened, they were left behind on the street.

"That's how the person who kidnapped Cirno disappeared as well!" Meiling pointed.

Unknown to them, Samurai Goroh was secretly watching the whole thing from an alleyway the whole time without getting himself into the mess. He looked at Youmu and said in his head, "That girl sure has skills! She will definitely make a worthy opponent! I'll just have to find the right moment to approach and propose a challenge to her!"

Black Shadow was standing in front of a massive black cylinder-shaped machine's controller. The machine gave off a large amount of steam from small openings around it and also made beeping sounds. After that, the door slid open and BS stepped in front of the entrance to look inside. Inside the machine were F-Zero machines belonging to Zoda and the others, and Sanae was also standing on top of the Death Anchor. "Well, it seems that we have brought back someone else as well!" BS said.

Sanae looked around and said, "What is this place? Whoa!" The cockpit underneath her opened and caused her to fall off to the side.

Zoda got down from his F-Zero machine and looked at Sanae. "Consider yourself unlucky, girly!" he said to her. "Now you've just made your way to Dark Million Organization's base, so don't think that you'll be getting out of here alive anytime soon!"

Sanae stood up and got into a defensive stance. "So this is where Cirno is imprisoned, right? Return her at once or else I'll exterminate you!" she said.

"Well, well, well! Who do we have here?" BS asked he walked inside the machine.

Sanae turned to face him and asked, "Who are you?"

"I am the Emperor of Brutality and also the leader of Dark Million Organization, Black Shadow!"

"So you're the villain that Captain Falcon talked about!"

"Did you come here to rescue your friend? Unfortunately, there is no way you can escape from this base even if you manage to find your friend. You're only going to end up being a prisoner here!"

"I will not be imprisoned here! I will destroy you!" Sanae said as she took out a card. "Sky Serpent!" The card glowed with white light and then snake-like missiles were fired from it at Black Shadow, but with a swing of arm, the villain knocked the missiles away to the side where they exploded after falling onto the floor.

BANG!

"What?"

Immediately, white light appeared around BS's body as he placed his hands together to charge up blue and yellow energy, and then he hurled a blue energy string at Sanae, binding her with it.

"What is this?" Sanae cried as she struggled with the energy string, but then fell onto the floor. "It won't come off!"

"Resistance is futile," BS told her. "You'll be joining your friend in prison. I'm sure she'll be happy to have someone accompanying her! Dark Soldiers, take her away!"

The Dark Soldiers immediately went to grab Sanae by her shoulders and then took her out of the place. "Let go of me!" Sanae shouted as she tried break free from their grasps. "Let go of me right this instant!"

After that, BS looked at the Big Fang and Deep Claw and noticed that there was nobody inside them. "Where are Bio Rex and Octoman?" he asked.

Zoda looked at the two vehicles and replied, "They never got the chance to return to their vehicles because they were knocked out."

"Whatever... We can bust them out of prison whenever we want to."

Blood Falcon went into the room where Cirno was imprisoned, and when he looked at the force field prison, he saw Cirno lying face first on the floor, seemingly unconscious. "Hey, what's wrong, little girl?" BF asked her, but he received no reply. He then reached his arm into the force field to touch Cirno. "Are you still alive?"

Suddenly, Cirno grabbed him by the hand and lifted her face, saying, "Gotcha!"

"Hey! Let go of me!" BF said as he pulled back his arm, but it came to a stop when Cirno's hand touched the underside of the force field. "Let go of my hand! I can't take it back out if you're holding onto it!"

"Why can you bring your arm back out and yet I can't?" Cirno asked.

"That's because you were already inside the force field! As long I do not step inside of the force field entirely, I can still come back out, but your hand is keeping me from doing so! Let go of my hand at once!"

BF tried to pull his arm back out, but Cirno gripped onto it tightly.

"I said let go!"

"No way!"

"Let go!"

"I can't hear you!"

"LET GO BEFORE I BLOODY PUNCH YOUR FACE!"

"Cool down, mister!" Cirno said, and then she slowly caused BF's hand to freeze over.

"AAAHHHHH! MY HAND IS FROZEN!" BF screamed. "SOMEBODY HEL PME!"

Cirno let go of BF's hand, but the villain still could not pull his arm back out due to the hand being encased in ice. "Help me! Dark Soldiers who are guarding the room! Get in here at once and help me!" BF shouted.

A pair of Dark Soldiers ran into their room and when they BF's predicament, one of them ran over to a controller placed next to the door and pressed one of the buttons there.

Immediately, the temperature within the force field started to increase, and Cirno was starting to sweat profusely. "Ugh... It's suddenly getting really hot in here..." Cirno cried by flapping her collar. "What's happening...?"

The rising temperature slowly melted off the ice that was encasing BF's hand, and when the ice was gone, he was able to pull his arm back out. "Phew... At last..." BF said, and then he looked at the suffering Cirno. "Tsk! You sure have the nerves to mess with me! And it looks like you don't like the heat as well! Suits you right! You should continue to suffer from this torture for a while!"

Cirno fell onto her back and panted heavily as the heat was torturing her greatly. "It's hot... It burns..." she cried. "I can't... take it... anymore... Someone... Please lower the temperature... Please..."

Just then, two Dark Soldiers carrying Sanae came into the room. When Sanae saw Cirno inside the force field, she said excitedly, "Cirno! You're here!"

"Aha! Looks like we have a new prisoner!" BF said. "I'm sure that little brat will enjoy some company!"

As the Dark Soldiers took Sanae closer and closer to the force field, the shrine maiden suddenly broke free from t grasps when she struggled again and then used shoulder bashing to push them away. "Cirno! Are you all right?" Sanae asked as she ran up to Cirno and bent down next to her. "Cirno! Are you all right? Whoa! It's hot in here! They're torturing you, aren't they?"

Cirno slowly opened her eyes and looked at Sanae. "Sanae... What are doing here...?" she asked weakly.

"Actually... I have no idea how came here as well, but now that I'm here, I'm going to rescue you!"

"Did you run inside... the force field...?"

"What force field?"

"Anyone who goes inside the force field cannot come back out!" BF told Sanae. "You must be really dumb to run into the force field by yourself! But then, I don't blame you for not being able to see the force field. It's invisible after all!"

"What?" Sanae said in shock. She tried stepping out of the place, only to run into an invisible glass-like wall. "There really is a force field!"

"You're an idiot... Sanae..." Cirno grumbled before passing out.

After the incident out on the streets was over, Captain Falcon, the girls, and the other members of the Internova Police Force returned to the headquarters to discuss about their next step.

"Luckily, we have the data of Dark Million Organization's base in our database," Jody said as some policemen worked on a computer in front a large screen. "That way, we can have a better look at the base's surroundings and then come up with a way to break into it."

"We have found the picture of the base, ma'am," one of the policemen said, and then he pressed a button that showed everyone the picture of the base on the large screen.

"That's the base?" Marisa asked. "It's floating in the air-ze!"

"Cool!" Aya commented.

"Wow! A flying base!" Nitori exclaimed.

"We have also found out its exact location," the policeman said. "It is situated in the sky around the Underworld area."

"Underworld?" Reimu said curiously.

"It's the place where the villain known as Deathborn lives," Captain Falcon told her, "but I managed to defeat him. He was also responsible for putting Black Shadow out of commission for a while as he managed to get Black Shadow to work underneath him. As Deathborn does not tolerate failures, he used his powers to transport Black Shadow to the outer limits of space, but somehow, Black Shadow managed to return with the help of his minions."

"Can you show us a more detailed look of the area?" Jody asked the policeman.

"Yes ma'am," the policeman said as he got to work on the computer again, and then the large screen showed the picture of a rocky area that had a dark, cloudy sky. One could also see the base hidden among the clouds.

"Okay, we shall use the Falcon Flyer to get there," CF said.

"Assuming that you are taking the girls along with you, will there be enough space?"

"I'm afraid that we will have to squeeze in a bit. Actually, I plan to sit in my Blue Falcon while it is being carried inside the Falcon Flyer. The girls can go sit in the Flyer's main body. Don't worry; I will set its computer to autopilot so that we can all reach the base with no problem."

"If only we have regained our flying abilities... Sigh..." Reimu said with a sigh.

"You can fly?" Jody asked curiously upon hearing this.

"Yeah, they told me that all of them here can fly," CF told her. "Remilia, Aya, and Cirno can fly using their wings naturally, but the others use some sort of an unexplained power to fly. Unfortunately, this power is lost whenever they come to a new world, but it usually comes back after several hours have passed."

"Sometimes it won't come back until a day has passed," Marisa told him. "As we often fly around back in our world, it's really inconvenient for us to not be able to fly, even if it is for a limited amount of time-ze..."

"I pity you... But look on the bright side; at least you haven't lost that ability forever! All right; let's head for the Falcon Flyer. You shall take flight using that thing until your flight abilities return!"

Soon afterwards, Captain Falcon led the girls to the outside of the headquarters. CF went up to his Blue Falcon and got out a small device that had several buttons on it, and when he pressed one of the button...

"Hmmm... Now what?" Aya asked while tapping her feet against the ground.

CF looked around the sky and said, "It should be here any second."

Suddenly, they all heard the sound of engine and when they looked up, they saw large flying machine that was blue and yellow in color approaching.

"There it is! That's the Falcon Flyer!" CF pointed out.

Nitori's eyes 'sparkled' and widened with excitement as she said, "Wow! It looks so amazing! Are we really going to ride inside that thing?"

"Yes we are!" CF told her with a nod. He pressed another button on the device and this made the Falcon Flyer descend onto the ground, and then the roof of the Flyer opened up. CF got inside the Flyer through the opening on the roof and then pressed some buttons on the controller. "Good, this should do! The coordinates for Dark Million Organization's base has been set, so it will head to that place by itself." He got back out from the Falcon Flyer and said to the girls, "All right; you can go inside and take a seat. If there aren't enough seats, then you may have to stand. Just hold onto something and you won't be tumbling around the place when it flies."

"I can't wait to go inside!" Nitori said as she ran up the Flyer and then wasted no time in jumping inside.

"So all we have to do is sit still and do nothing, right?" Reimu asked CF.

"Yes," CF replied. "You do not have to anything. Just put on your seatbelts and enjoy the ride. You'll be at the base without every having to do anything!"

"Okay."

After that, the girls got into the Falcon Flyer one by one, and after they had all went inside, CF got into his Blue Falcon and then pressed another button on the device. This made the Falcon Flyer hover into the air and then fly above the Blue Falcon. The underside of the Falcon Flyer opened up and lowered a harness that caught the Blue Falcon by its sides, and then the F-Zero machine, along with its pilot, was taken inside the Flyer when the harness went back up.

Once inside the Falcon Flyer, CF pressed yet another button and said, "All right; activate the autopilot! Take off!"

The Falcon Flyer then turned to face the direction of the main gate and then took off a few seconds later through the air. Samurai Goroh, who was hiding behind the outer wall of the headquarters, saw the Falcon Flyer flying into the distance and said, "That girl is inside Captain Falcon's Falcon Flyer! I'm going to chase her down no matter where she is headed to!" And then he ran to his vehicle—the Fire Stingray—and got into it before going after the Falcon Flyer.

"There they go," Jody said as the Falcon Flyer went farther and farther into the distance. "I wish them a good luck!"

Sanae and Cirno were, obviously, still inside the force field, but the temperature inside the force field had returned to normal as Blood Falcon thought that they had suffered enough, so he turned off the heat. The blue energy string was still strapped around Sanae, preventing her from moving her arms. She struggled with the energy string as hard as she could, but she couldn't get it off no matter what. "Ugh! This thing won't come off at all!" she cried.

"You're such an idiot, Sanae," Cirno said to her. "You came here to rescue me, but you ended up getting imprisoned in here along with me! I can't think of something more idiotic than this!"

"I'm sorry..."

"But at least there's someone here to keep me company! Thanks for coming here anyway!"

"You're welcome! If only I was more helpful though..."

Meanwhile, the Falcon Flyer was speeding through the air and was getting closer and closer to Dark Million Organization's base. In fact, the base was actually visible in the distance already. "Is that the base?" Reimu, who was sitting at one of the two front seats, asked.

Nitori, who was sitting to the left of her, was looking at the controller with sparkling eyes. Reimu looked at her and said, "You better not touch anything! None of us here knows how to pilot this thing, so if you turned off the autopilot thing or whatever it's called, we're going mess up everything and possibly crash."

"Okay, I won't!" Nitori said, but her expressions seemed to be implying the opposite.

"But why do I still have a bad feeling about this...?"

Behind those two girls, there were four more seats that sat the other girls nicely, but as there were not enough seats, Youmu, Reisen, and Meiling had to stand next to the seats and hold onto them tightly.

Unknown to them, Black Shadow was using a large screen on the wall to watch the Falcon Flyer approaching. "So they're here! Have they found the Light Essence already?" he wondered. "Whatever the case is, I'm going to be a nice guy and let them come inside!" And then he pressed a blue button (red buttons are clichéd) on the controller in front of the large screen.

From the outside, the girls could see a part of the base's wall opening. "Looks like they're welcoming us," Remilia said with her arms crossed.

"All right, let's go inside then!" Reimu said.

Nitori was still looking at the controller with sparkling eyes, and when she could no longer hold back herself, she shouted out loud, "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! I WANNA PRESS THIS RED BUTTON SO BADLY!" And then she pressed the red button on the controller.

"Hey! Nitori! I thought you said you won't touch anything!" Reimu said to her in shock.

The moment the button was pressed, a computerized voice said, "Autopilot deactivated."

Hearing this, a nervous look appeared on Marisa's face as she said, "Um... Does that mean... we have to control this thing by ourselves now-ze...?"

Everyone turned to give Nitori angry glares, and the kappa felt ashamed of herself and said, "I'm sorry... I really couldn't control myself... I'll fix it right away..." And then she pressed a grey button on the controller.

Immediately, the ceiling opened up and air started flowing out at a tremendous speed, causing the three girls who weren't sitting to fly up, but they quickly caught onto the seats to avoid flying out of the Falcon Flyer. "Yaaaaaa! What did you press?" Reisen cried.

"Close it quick!" Reimu shouted to Nitori.

"I'm sorry!" Nitori cried as she pulled down a lever.

Outside, the underside of the Falcon Flyer opened up and then the harness lowered, bringing out the Blue Falcon, but it was still strapped to the harness. "What the?" Captain Falcon said in shock. "Why am I outside? Did they pull the lever for controlling the harness or what?"

Back inside, Nitori grabbed the yoke and started tilting it left and right, causing the Falcon Flyer to move around the air in a wavy path. The Blue Falcon also shook left and right as a result. "Whoa! What are they doing?" CF cried.

Nitori pulled back the yoke as far as she could and made the Falcon Flyer flew upwards until it performed a u-turn and was upside-down. "YAAAAAAAA!" Youmu, Reisen, and Meiling screamed as they towards the open ceiling. Luckily, Reisen and Meiling held tightly onto the top of the Alice and Remilia's seats respectively, but Youmu failed to do so and thus fell out of the Falcon Flyer.

"YOUMU!" Reimu gasped.

Aya quickly undid her seatbelt and allowed herself to fall out of the Falcon Flyer before flying after Youmu to catch her. "I'll save you!" she shouted, and then she flew underneath Youmu and managed to catch her in her arms. "Phew, just in time!"

"Phew... Thanks..." Youmu said with a sigh of relief.

"HEY! SWORDSWOMAN! DO YOU HEAR ME?" shouted a really loud voice.

"Huh?" Both the girls heard the voice and so they looked down curiously to see Samurai Goroh standing down on the rocky ground, and he was waving at them.

Back in the air, the Falcon Flyer was still moving through the air crazily due to Nitori being incompetent at the controller, but she somehow managed to get the Falcon Flyer to flew right-side-up again as well as flying in the direction of Dark Million Organization's base.

"I don't know how to reactivate autopilot!" Nitori cried as she pressed random buttons on the controller rapidly.

"Then at least try to pilot it in the base's direction!" Reimu told her. "Head for that opening!"

"What are they doing...?" Black Shadow said with an odd-looking expression as he watched the Falcon Flyer flying 'drunkenly' through the air.

Nitori continued to mess around with the controller. Wanting to head into the base as fast as possible, she pulled back the yoke to make the Falcon Flyer fly upwards and towards the opening at the side of the base as the Flyer had dropped altitude somewhat during the 'drunken driving session'. "Try to close the ceiling first!" Reimu told Nitori. "At this rate, we're all going to fly out of this thing before we even reach the base!"

"Okay!" Nitori said, and then she looked at the buttons on the controller and said to herself, "Which one did I press that made this happen again?" As she had forgotten which button she originally pressed, she went ahead and pressed a black, square button.

The moment the button was pressed, the harness around the Blue Falcon released the vehicle, making it fall through the air. "Whoa!" CF cried from inside the Blue Falcon. "I'm falling! Quick, Boost Fire!" He pulled back a lever and the F-Zero machine started glowing with a combination of blue and orange light before shooting through the air like a jet and in the direction of the opening at the side of the base. "I have to make it inside before the Blue Falcon starts descending!"

Thankfully, the speed boost managed to send the Blue Falcon far enough into the air to get up close to the base. Just as the F-Zero machine was starting to drop altitude; it flew into the opening and landed onto the metallic floor roughly before coming to a stop.

Captain Falcon quickly got out the remote control for the Falcon Flyer and then ran up to the opening on the wall to look at the Falcon Flyer which was still moving around in a 'drunken' manner outside. "I better bring it in here," he thought as he began pressing the buttons on it, but there was no response. "Oh yeah, this remote will not work if someone is touching the controller! How do I contact them and tell them to stop touching the controller?"

"What are you doing, Nitori?" Reimu shouted at Nitori. "Head for the base now!"

"I'm trying!" Nitori said. "I'm still looking for the button that will close the ceiling!" She then pressed a button that had the word 'eject' written on it. The moment the button was pressed, the four seats behind Nitori and Reimu shot out of the Falcon Flyer and into the air. Obviously, Remilia, Alice, and Marisa were taken by the seats into the air, but Meiling and Reisen also went along with them because they were holding onto the top of the seats.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" they all screamed, except for Remilia and Alice, who had shocked look on her face.

"NITORI! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Reimu shouted when she looked back and saw happened.

"I'M SORRY!" the kappa cried.

"That does it! I'll handle this myself!" Reimu shouted as she leaned over to Nitori and took hold of the yoke. However, Reimu couldn't move the yoke around properly due to her leaning position. "Ugh! This thing is harder than I thought to control! I should be sitting in your seat instead!" She quickly took off her seatbelt and then went over to Nitori seat. "Move it, Nitori! I'll take care of things myself!"

As the Falcon Flyer was flying diagonally upwards slightly, Reimu tried to grab onto something to prevent tumbling backwards, but unfortunately, she grabbed onto a lever on the controller.

"Dropping altitude," a computerized voice said.

"Uh oh..." Reimu said nervously when she heard this, and suddenly, the Falcon Flyer flew diagonally downward at a really fast speed. "YAAAAAAAAA!"

"REIMU! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Nitori cried.

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Reimu yelled back. She quickly threw herself onto Nitori's lap and grabbed the yoke, pulling it as far as back possible.

The Falcon Flyer slowly tilted upwards, but due to its moving speed, it was unable to rise back into the air in time. The Falcon Flyer crashed onto the street really hard and then zoomed into a cave.

Meanwhile, the other girls were flying in the air. "Phew... It's a good thing that we've gotten back our ability to fly-ze!" Marisa said while wiping her forehead.

"Yeah, it seems to come back when we really need it," Reisen said with a nod. "Can this be coincidence?"

"Or maybe it's the work of fate," Remilia said. "Anyway, we can fly to the base by ourselves now that we can fly."

"What about Reimu and Nitori?" Alice asked.

"I'm sure they'll be all right," Marisa said. "No matter what happens to them, they can always make it out with no problem in the end-ze!"

"Right, do not underestimate the shrine maiden, though I'm not too sure about the kappa," Remilia said.

After saying all these, the girls flew in the direction of the base and flew into the opening at the side to meet up with Captain Falcon. "It seems like that you have regained your ability to fly!" CF said to them. "Good for you!"

"Yeah, and it sure came back at such a great time-ze!" Marisa said.

CF looked at the Falcon Flyer's remote control and pressed some of the buttons on it. "It seems that the Falcon Flyer is damaged after it crashed onto the street... I can't summon it to this place..."

"Don't worry about Reimu and Nitori. They'll be all right for sure-ze!"

"Yeah, but the place that they crashed into is the Underworld, and that's where Deathborn lived when he was still alive..."

"But he's already dead, right?" Alice asked.

"Yeah, so there should be any problem for them to go in there. Anyway, we have to go and rescue Cirno at once!"

Suddenly, Aya flew into the base from the opening to join them. "Sorry to keep you waiting!" she said.

"Aya! Where's Youmu?" Reisen asked.

"Well..."

FLASHBACK

Aya carried Youmu to the ground and allowed the half-phantom to set foot there. Samurai Goroh approached Youmu with a katana blade in his hand and said to her, "I've been following you all the way from Mute City! Did you forget that we made a deal about having a match yesterday?"

"I still remember that," Youmu said with a nod, "but this isn't the time. Two of my friends have been captured, so I must go and rescue them."

"Are you not keeping your words? Don't tell me that you are a coward who is too scared to fight me! It is not right for swordsmen and swordswomen to turn down challenges! You should know that very well!"

Youmu remained silent for a short while after hearing this, and then she unsheathed the Roukanken and said to him, "All right; I will accept your challenge!"

"Are you sure about this, Youmu?" Aya asked her.

"Don't worry; Aya. As a swordswoman, I have to accept his challenge. You go on ahead to the base first. I will go there after defeating him. This is assuming that I have regained my ability to fly by then..."

"All right; good luck with your fight!"

END OF FLASHBACK

"And that's what happened," Aya said, concluding the story.

"I didn't know that Samurai Goroh would want to fight her," CF said, rubbing his chin. "Youmu is a swordswoman, right? Goroh is a swordsman, so I think that it would only make sense for him to want to fight another sword user. Anyway, let us go and rescue Cirno and Sanae at once!"

As they were about to leave, a TV monitor came down from the ceiling and Black Shadow's face was on it. "Greetings, everyone!" he said. "So you did come here after all!"

"Black Shadow!" CF said loudly to him. "Where are the girls that you've kidnapped? Free them at once!"

"For you record, I've only kidnapped one. The other one came here unintentionally, but I still imprisoned her anyway. Do you still remember our deal? Hand over the Light Essence and then both the girls are free to go!"

"Sorry, but we didn't bring the Light Essence-ze!" Marisa said.

"Right, we would never hand over such an important thing to you!" CF said to BS. "We came here for the sole purpose of rescuing our friends!"

"Tsk! Why is it that I'm not surprised to hear this? I figured that something like this would happen... Very well, you can go on ahead and try to rescue your little friends, but do not blame me if misfortune befalls you! Don't think that you're all going to get out of here alive! Hahahahahahaha!"

After that, the screen turned off and the monitor returned into the ceiling.

"Let's go, everyone!" CF said to the girls. "Be careful; there might be traps set up around the place, so move carefully!"

Black Shadow pounded the controller and angrily said, "Things didn't go as planned at all! I should've known that Falcon wouldn't play along with me obediently!"

"Is this the result of your so-called brilliant plan?" said the voice of Deathborn from behind him. BS trembled in fear as he turned around to face Deathborn.

"Um... Master Deathborn... I have never said anything about my plan being brilliant... In fact, I had a feeling that this would happen..."

Deathborn suddenly grabbed his neck and lifted him into the air, saying, "Then why did you think that this plan was good idea in the first place? Do you have anything else to say about this?"

"Calm down, Master Deathborn... At least we can get rid of them and then look for the Light Essence by ourselves afterwards!"

Deathborn flung BS at the controller and said, "Very well! I want you to get rid of Captain Falcon and anyone who sides with him! I'm going back to the Underworld for a moment. When Captain Falcon's ship went downwards, it went into the Underworld. I do not want any trash in my Underworld, so I'm going to go and destroy it!" With that, Deathborn spread out his arms and formed a purplish sphere around his body before disappearing into thin air.

"Phew... He's gone..." BS said with a sigh of relief. "All right; let's show Captain Falcon and those girls that they should've followed my plan obediently in the first place!"

Captain Falcon and the girls were running down the hallway as fast as they could. A group of Dark Soldiers armed with guns came running down from the other end of the hallway to atack them, but before they had the chance to do anything, Aya charged at them and knocked them all out. "Domination Dash!" she shouted as she plowed through the small group of Dark Soldiers.

"You sure made a quick work out of them!" CF commented.

"And that's why they call me the fastest in all of Gensokyo!" Aya proudly said.

"And you better believe how annoying it is for her to live up to that title..." Reisen told CF.

Suddenly, a knife whizzed past in front of Reisen's face and struck the wall next to her. "Yikes!" Reisen was freaked out by the sudden appearance of this knife and then turned to look at another passage next to her and saw Pico standing at the other end of that passage. "It's that guy again!"

Without saying anything, Pico took out a gun and then fired at Reisen, but she ducked down to avoid the bullets. After that, Pico touched his hand against a certain part of the wall to press a hidden button. When the button was pressed, walls came down from both sides of Reisen and blocked the way forward and backward as well as separating her from her comrades.

"What the?" Reisen looked at the walls on both sides of her and then looked at Pico who was standing in front of her.

"There's no escape for you now!" Pico said as he pointed his gun at Reisen. He fired at Reisen and she quickly ducked down to avoid the bullet and then moved to the left to avoid another one.

After that, Reisen fired an energy bullet from her finger at Pico, but he stepped aside to avoid the energy bullet and then continued firing at her. Despite the lack of space, Reisen managed to avoid the bullets completely and then she jumped into the air and towards Pico while shooting back at him.

From behind the wall to the left of Reisen, Captain Falcon pounded against the wall and shouted, "Reisen! Can you hear me?" Marisa, Alice, and Aya were also with him. He placed his ears against the wall and could hear the sound of gunfire. "Reisen's in danger! We must do something!"

"That green guy seems to be skilled with the gun, right?" Marisa asked.

"Right, Pico is an assassination expert and is skilled with all sorts of guns as well as knives."

"Then you don't really have to worry about Reisen. She's an expert in shooting as well, so she should be settles things by herself."

"If you say so..." CF said as he walked away from the wall. "All right; let us move and hope that she will be all right." And so, Captain and the three girls continued on their way.

As for Remilia and Meiling, they were behind the wall to the right of Reisen. "Well, we seem to be separated from each other," Remilia said. "This seems to happen all the time, doesn't it?"

"Do you want me to punch down the wall?" Meiling asked Remilia.

"Go ahead."

"Okay!" Meiling walked up to the wall and inspected it for a while before punching it hard.

BANG!

"Ouch!" Meiling cried as she grabbed her fist in pain.

"I think not... Oh well, we might as well head back and look for other paths. We came across several other passages, didn't we?"

"Yeah, maybe we should try out those passages to see if they will reunite us with the others again."

And so, Remilia and Meiling backtracked down the hallway to look for the other passages.

Behind the wall, Reisen was still trading shots with Pico. "He's really good!" Reisen thought as she avoided another bullet. "Within a space like this, he shouldn't be able to dodge an attack that covers a large amount of space... Ripple Vision!" She shot out several red energy rings while firing bullets using both hands at the same time.

When Pico saw the projectiles, he quickly turned around to escape from the incoming bullets. Luckily for him, there was a passage not too far away and thus he jumped into the passage at the left to avoid the getting hit by the projectiles. Reisen ran up to where he was but instantly ducked down to avoid a bullet that was fired at her, and then she hopped backwards into the passage behind her before turning around to run down it, and Pico gave chase while continuing to fire from his gun.

Captain Falcon, Marisa, Alice, and Aya came into a large circular room and found themselves standing on top of a narrow road that was like a bridge suspending over a large pit, though the floor was still visible far down below. There was another 'bridge' that came out from another part of the room, and it intersected with the road that they were standing on in the center of the room, forming a cross.

"What is this place...?" Aya asked.

Suddenly, a pair of objects zipped past them really fast. Captain Falcon looked up at the air and saw Baba standing on a flying board and The Skull riding a flying coffin-shaped machine. "Hahahahaha! Are you ready for some fun?" Baba asked. "We're going to make sure that you enjoy your stay here!"

"This is the place that you will be in before you go to the netherworld!" The Skull said. "Realize the lessons that you should've learned in life after you have died!"

"Oh really? I've been to the netherworld and back, so I'm not afraid of going to that place again-ze!" Marisa said as she got into fighting stance.

Remilia and Meiling came into a large room after beating up several Dark Soldiers. Remilia looked at the room that was filled with glass cylingers containing strange plant life and asked, "What's with this room? I don't think Yuka is going to like the sight of this..."

"Yahahahahaha! Welcome to my room!" laughed a maniacal voice, and then Zoda stepped out from behind one of the glass cylinders. "Do you like my flowers? They sure are growing healthily inside these glass cylinders! I really can't wait to show the public these beautiful flowers... THAT KILL PEOPLE!"

Meiling got into fighting stance and said, "I'll handle him, Mistress Remilia."

"No," Remilia said to her. "You go on ahead and look for Cirno and Sanae. I'll deal with him myself."

"But..."

"Weren't you feeling guilty about not being able to protect Cirno? Go ahead and make up for your carelessness then."

Hearing this, a smile appeared on Meiling's face as she nodded and said, "Okay, Mistress Remilia! I'll go and rescue Cirno and Sanae right this moment!"

"You're not getting out of here!" Zoda said as he took out a machine gun and fired at the both of them. Both Meiling and Remilia leaped to the aside to avoid getting shot and then Remilia flew at Zoda really fast and knocked his machine gun out of his hand with a swipe of her claws.

As for Meiling, she headed for the door at the end of the room. "Take care of yourself, Mistress Remilia!" she said before leaving the room.

"Tsk! She got away!" Zoda grumbled. "But that doesn't matter! There is no way she can rescue her friends anyway!"

"Sure, Meiling may not be very competent in doing most things, but at a time like this, I have no choice but to trust her," Remilia said, and then a malicious grin appeared on her face. "All right; how about the both of us continue our fight? I wonder how long you can last against me. Heheh!"

Black Shadow stepped into the room where Cirno and Sanae were imprisoned in, and he was surprised to see that the underside of the force field was coated with a thick layer of ice and snow. "What happened?" he asked.

"Well, that little girl dressed in blue said that she was going to use her most powerful attack called Perfect Freeze or something to destroy the force field," Blood Falcon, who was in the room the whole time, replied. "Of course, the force field is too powerful to be destroyed, so it didn't work at all! Though the interior ended up getting coated by a layer of ice and snow like that..."

Inside the force field, Cirno puffed up her cheek in frustration while tapping her foot against the floor. "Man! Even Perfect Freeze can't destroy this force field!" she grumbled. "At least it's much colder in here now, and I like it!"

Behind the ice fairy, Sanae was pretty much frozen in a block of ice as well as being covered in snow. "It's... freezing... in... here..." the mostly frozen shrine maiden said weakly.

TO BE CONTINUED

Okay, some of the fights have been set up, so look for forward to them in the next chapter!

Next chapter: Millions of Dark Battles

GAME2002 EXTRA SHOW

Once again, I'm going to talk about more of my favorite songs in the Touhou series! Stay tuned for more after this one!

Beloved Tomboyish Girl/Adventure of Lovestruck Tomboy: Both these songs are really the same, just slightly remixed. All I have to say about this song is that Cirno's theme song sure gives people the impression that she is indeed the strongest in Gensokoyo!

Satori Maiden ~ 3rd Eye: The more I listen to this song, the more addicting I find it to be! It sounds a bit creepy at first, but you really have to admit there is something about this song that makes it dramatic and enjoyable to listen to!

Necrofantasia: This song is pure amazing... Way too amazing to be put in words... This song totally screams 'EPIC FINAL BATTLE' in every manner possible, even though Yukari isn't really the final boss of any game in the series, unless being the boss of the phantasm stage in Touhou 7: Perfect Cherry Blossom is considered being a final boss...