Ch. 51: Frozen In Fear
A massive headache suddenly came upon both of Dark Gaia's generals. Then, their eyes slid shut, and they dropped to the ground. Ironically, on top of each other.
The Dark Phoenix awoke in a place that looked dark at first, but when she looked down, she spotted what looked like a giant, glowing volcano, riddled with caves. A short distance away from it, there was a beautiful, green-and-blue, snow-tipped mountain.
Then, she heard someone cry out to her.
The great bird turned her head in surprise to see the Dark Wyvern, er, floating towards her. "Where are we?" he asked in surprise.
She frowned. "I don't know. Last thing I remember, I was trying to read your mind to find out how you felt about me, then I blacked out and - wait. Did I just tell you I was trying to read your mind?"
The dragonoid beast nodded, then attempted to reassure her. "Try not to feel bad, I was doing the same thing,
The Dark Phoenix raised an eyebrow. "Really? So how so you feel about me?"
The Dark Wyvern looked skittish, and sheepish. "Well, I, uh, don't have to answer that unless you tell me how you feel about me,"
Now the Dark Phoenix looked sheepish. "Well, uh, fine. I like you," she sighed, waiting for rejection yet hoping this might turn out to be a good thing.
The male general looked surprised. "Really? Because, er, I, eh, like you too," he rushed, jumbling the words in his haste to get it over with. Luckily, the message managed to convey itself to his crush.
"Wow, I, uh, wow," the Dark Phoenix stuttered.
Afterwards, neither of them were quite sure what happened. Just, next thing they knew, they had awoken back in reality, and were snuggling with their wings wrapped around each other.
"Whoa!" the Dark Wyvern gasped. "How did this happen?" the Phoenix added.
Then they both registered the unbeatable pleasure and insatiable craving for more that they were both feeling.
The phoenix winked seductively at the other mutant. "So, shall we take this somewhere more, private?" she requested, suggestively.
A hint of the old Burn breaking through the Wyvern's shell, he was about to decline, thinking himself not ready, but then the immense joy communicated itself back to his brain. "I don't see why not. Let's go,"
Chill thrust her javelin at Roller Brawl's armour. Roller Brawl caught the tip in her obsidian claws, and took advantage of the double edge to push it back towards Chill. The rear point of the javelin glanced off Chill's snowflake-themed shoulder armour and spun out of her grip. It clattered to the floor of the racecourse, where it was instantly crushed under the heavy rear wheels of the Beep Beep.
Smirking, Chill reached for another javelin, but frowned when her fingers grasped nought but empty air. Glancing at her holster, she realised she had run out. Roller Brawl had disarmed her too many times.
"And with that, I have claimed victory! Oh yeah!" Roller Brawl shrieked.
"Victory being the operat've word," Chill replied, as in one fluid moment she turned on her heel, reached down for her shield and, holding it up to deflect any blows Roller Brawl threw at her, reached out with her back foot and kicked her Arctic Roller's steering wheel. The car swung around, and due to the magical chain connection, swung Roller Brawl's Beep Beep around and Chill cut the connection, causing the Beep Beep to skid sideways across the icy track. The ice warrior watched in hope as the Beep Beep teetered towards the edge.
Then Shoomboom and the Shoemerang crashed into the Beep Beep, stopping both of the cars in their tracks.
Chill cursed, then climbed back into the cockpit of her car and drove off, hoping to get back in the race. "Lousy self-important cocky undead bitch," she cursed.
"Man, you two hate each other, don't you?" Shroomboom commented. "Naah, it's all good-natured. We're best friends. We just have a healthy rivalry," Roller Brawl shrugged it off.
Spyro crashed through the final Marshmallow Nightmare. "I think that's the last of them,"
"Good. Now we just need to take down the Dark Moray, right?" Cynder questioned.
"You got it," Tails replied. "If we follow the track, we should find him eventually,"
After about fifteen minutes, they finally reached the end of the track. Tails, Spyro and Cynder were in the lead, Chill was moving to catch up with the three of them, and Dan and Loni were lagging behind the four of them. Roller Brawl and Shroomboom were tagging together, Zap and Riley in their respective matching Chuck Ice and Blue Cornet were behind, keeping an eye on Trigger Happy. Fryno had originally been in a purple and green wooden barrel cart, known at the Dragster Snout, but it had been torn up. Not by any external force, but by Fryno's own reckless driving. So now he was racing on his own emberformed motorbike. Stealth Elf and the Sty GT, and Whirlwind in the Tub-Copter were accompanying him, and making sure he didn't do anything stupid. Countdown and the Big Bang, Wham-Shell and a wooden frame with a fuel tank on the front, a ridiculously large ornate backrest with a treasure chest named the Royal Rumbler, and Bash in the Snow Shoo trailed further behind. Finally, at the very back, Jade was in the Green Baron, a metal car with small wheels that resembled a Nazi plane from World War II, and Camo in the Shred Sled, a wooden toboggan-like assembly with purple cushioning, gold highlights and another oversized backrest. Gill Grunt and Sunburn were the only others who had been in the race, and they had both been eliminated from the competition. No one else had made it onto the track.
"What the heck is that?" Cynder asked in disbelief.
"A Ball of Death?" Tails questioned.
"A what?" Spyro joined in.
"Oh, right, you don't have those in Skylands. They're massive see-through wire orbs that people get in on motorbikes like Fryno's and Hot Head's and do all sorts of tricks and stunts. And it appears that the Dark Moray's somehow found out that we're in racecars, and created a battlefield to match. I'd bet he's inside that thing, waiting for us to show up," Tails explained.
"Should we accept the invitation?" Cynder questioned, frowning at Spyro way up in the Trash Thrasher's cockpit.
"I don't see why not. We have the cars. Though I'd be surprised if he didn't create his own car-minions or something, so tell everyone to be on guard,"
Cynder dropped back and relayed the message to all of the other Skylanders.
"A BALL OF DEATH! I HATE BALLS! AND DEATH! AND I REALLY HATE OF!" Fryno screamed, revving his motorbike and screeching ahead of the others. "That was inevitable, wasn't it?" Whirlwind remarked to Stealth Elf. "Probably," she replied, then added, "Might as well go get him," So the two sped after the maniac on a motorbike.
Camo and Jade watched them go. "Hey, how come they get to speed ahead?" Jade complained. Camo, however, had his signature sky grin on his face. "Let's get 'em," he winked at Jade. She smiled back, and they rushed off towards them.
Bash gasped as first Whirlwind, who had lagged behind enough for the rock dragon to have overtaken her, then Camo, and mere milliseconds later Jade, rushed past him. "What is wrong with you people?" he asked, incredulous.
"They're having fun," Countdown dryly pointed out. "Well, it looks dangerous to me," Bash shivered, slowing his kart down. "You have no life," Countdown harshly told him, not realising that his whiny vocal pitch made him difficult to take seriously, before flooring the accelerator and following behind the other three. Bash watched him go, realised he was now at the back of the race, and then, looking at the speeds the others were going at, decided he could live with that.
No one was very surprised that Fryno was the first to charge into the frozen sphere. Dan and Spyro were close on his heels, and one by one, all of the other Skylanders in the race followed suit.
"If only we hadn't lost the Air Guitar, some music right about now would be great," Tails sighed, regretfully.
"WHAT AIR GUITAR?! I HATE AIR!" Fryno raged, having totally lost track of the conversation.
Then, the moment that all of the racers were in the giant ball of death, which actually took a while due to the slow speed Bash and the Snow Shoo were travelling at, the entranceway froze over, leaving them trapped.
Camo frowned, worried. "Was this a dead end, designed to trap us?"
Then, as a massive roar reverberated through the chasm, everyone could instantly tell that was not the case.
The head of the Dark Moray smashed through the base of the sphere, about a hundred and fifty metres' worth of its body followed and it bent it's body just behind it's head back, looking for all the world like the head and neck of some kind of monstrous, dragonoid horse. It's beady, little red eyes focused on the slowest-moving kart, which, no surprise, was Bash and the Snow Shoo.
'Let's show them a little taste of my power, shall we?" The Dark Moray hissed, smirking. Those puny little insects in their horrible, noisy machinawhatevers. He was going to crush all of them, then bring their corpses back to Dark Gaia and finally, he, the Moray, he would get the recognition he deserved. Back on the planet Dark Gaia, his mistress, had been obsessed with taking control of and causing an eternal night, he had always been the scorned one, the one who failed, the one that could never do anything right. It was often thought that it had only ever been Dark Gaia and the three of them. No.
There had been more, many more people who had been so consumed by negative emotions that Dark Gaia had reached out to them, offered them places at her side. The Dark Monstrosity, The Dark Hydra, The Dark Jaguar, all had happened. And more. They had hardly been plentiful, there was rarely more than a dozen at a time, but there were a few. And the servants of Light Gaia had attacked and killed them all. He particularly missed the Dark Hydra. The great snake would never admit it, but he might have had a crush on her.
The Dark Moray looked down and suddenly realised that he had put himself in a repeat of the situation when Sonic had defeated him, not so long ago. He had left part of his body trapped, unmoving, in a place that it would be easily attacked. Looking back, the ball of ice might not have been such a great idea. But if he freed up the rest of his body now, then he would be cramped, constricted, unable to move efficiently. Whereas the small, agile Skylanders would destroy him with ease. The encasement of ice the sphere was formed from was too thick for him to dismantle quickly enough to escape, and what else could he do? He couldn't form any kind of armour without fatally restricting his ability for movement.
In that second, the Dark Moray realised that today would be the day that he died. The serpent had manoeuvred himself into a hopeless situation. Sure, his essence could never be destroyed without the power of Light Gaia, which none of these fools possessed, and thus eventually he would reform as long as Dark Gaia herself still existed, but that did not guarantee he would still be, well, him. There was a high chance that he would change, both mentally and physically. There was simply no way he could win in this situation.
But he was sure as heck still gonna try. He was the Dark Moray, the living embodiment of fear itself! And when he died, at least he would see his many-headed sweetheart again.
Bash was slowly and carefully circling the bottom of the orb, trying not to take any risks. It was safer that way - or so he thought.
Looking up, he was stunned to see the Dark Moray's massive, powerful jaws close in on him, so slowly it was almost mesmerising. Bash barely even whimpered as the massive monster swallowed him and the cart whole. The other Skylanders watched with bated breath for the flash of light that signified Bash's magical escape.
There was no flash.
Countdown gasped. Then he gritted his teeth, and aimed the Big Bang straight towards the Dark Moray. But, acting upon a plan he had come up with mere seconds ago, he slowed to a half as he approached the Dark Moray, and, shouting, "Oh, Eon! I'm out of gas!" attempted to trick the dark Moray into believing he and his kart had run out of fuel.
As the ticking time bomb had hoped, the Dark Moray bent over and opened it's jaws, hoping to consume the Tech Skylander too. The snake's slitted eyes didn't notice that the bomb with facial features that made up Countdown's head was starting to glow red, or that his hand-like missiles had grown, and were both preparing to fire a massively destructive rocket. Countdown had deactivated the siren that usually accompanied such charge-ups beforehand, as that would have given it away.
The Dark Moray snapped his jaws shut over Countdown, and, as he raised his head again and began to eye up the other Skylanders, Countdown simultaneously released all three of his supercharged attacks.
The fiery infernos of hell burst loose within the dark confines of the giant eel's mouth, as pent-up fire flared from the monster's mouth, nose and even some from his eyeballs. He collapsed to the ground, smoking as Countdown's headless, handless body, which was luckily fireproof, wandered out, blind, until Camo swooped by and snatched him up onto the Dragster Snout.
Fryno, angered by the fact that a fiery inferno greater than any he had ever created had come into existence, and not even due to a Fire Skylander, shouted out, "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE!" and revved up his motorbike, charging towards the open mouth of the Dark Moray.
Moments later, Fryno charged back out, still on his motorbike. "THERE IS STUFF IN THERE I DO NOT WANNA SEE! I HATE SRUFF I DO NOT WANNA SEE! HEY, YOU! GET OFF MY MOTORBIKE!" This last comment was aimed at a scorched and singed Bash, who was clinging to the back of the two-wheeled drag racer.
Yelping in fear, he scrambled off, and wandered aimlessly, looking for someone to hitch a ride with, before Spyro swept by, lifting him up into the Trash Thrasher.
Coughing and spluttering, the Dark Moray began frantically opening and closing his mouth in an attempt to beat out the flames. Loni noticed, and, realising she was closest and the only one who could do anything about it, turned the convertible go-kart around.
Her eyes alighted on the soda bottles her machine was inexplicably using for power. Didn't soda explode when it was set on fire?
The violet-scaled dragon's featured took on a hard, steely glare at the thought of what the monster had tried to do to Bash, and she revved her car's accelerator.
The Dark Moray's head, resigned to his fate, flopped to the ground, closing his mouth and yet rampant flames still burst from his nostrils every time he exhaled.
Weakly, his one eye that hadn't been blinded by the flames ravaging the inside of his skull focused on the go-kart that was being driven towards him, with obvious intent to kill.
Pleading, as much as he could in his current state, he turned his yellow eyes on her, knowing he looked absolutely pitiful, yet hoping it might just keep him alive, he collapsed, motionless.
Loni slowed, seeing the look in the monster's eyes. Sighing in resignation, she knew that she couldn't bring herself to deliver the final blow, that would destroy this creature. Perhaps he wasn't so evil, after all. Just a lost soul, perhaps heartbroken or in some other kind of emotional turmoil, who had fallen in with the wrong crowd and made a massive mistake. The dragoness slowed her car to a halt, and began to reverse. And it could have been her imagination, but maybe that final twitch of the beast's head in her direction before it died was a nod of gratitude?
The great globe of ice melted in mere seconds, as every one of the go-karts fell down to earth on the Skyland. Most of them fell the right-way-up.
"Why is my kart the only one that landed up-side-down?" Camo whined. "Karma for all of your pranks?" Zap suggested. Camo just groaned
"So, how are we going to get home?" Jade asked, a little concerned.
"We'll think of something," Tails smiled. "Besides, I brought the Maxus Gaia traps!" he added, pulling out the six crimson-and-burnished-gold toy-like objects.
A few hours later . . . . . . .
A hooded figure stood, gazing up at the seemingly lifeless body of the Dark Moray. Unbeknownst to all, the Dark Moray was still alive, but in a form of dream-state purgatory, like a sort of recuperative hibernation.
The hooded figure shook his head. A black robe covered his entire body, revealing nothing about him but his silhouette, except the twin red glints of his eyes. And his misshapen, unusual body. He seemed to have protruding, ornate, shoulder armour, and a head that protruded very far back. The protrusion ran down his neck, but abruptly stopped a little below his shoulder blades. There were similar protrusions beneath each of his arms and down his shoulder blades, leading to them. Nothing could be told about his lower body, the cape flawlessly covered it all.
"He isn't worth my time and efforts," The hooded figure spoke to himself. "I require truly powerful beasts. If this mutant was able to be defeated so easily, I highly doubt he will be of much use to me in Project Fusion. Hopefully the others shall be more, ahem, able. Nonetheless, he may still be useful, merely in a less, eh, active role. His hibernative state is fascinating, and could be very useful. Lapclerp!"
A humongous figure entered the wreckage of the Dark Moray's sphere of ice. "Take him back to base," the shadowy figure ordered. "And be careful. I need him as undamaged as possible,"
Heh. I did say, about thirty chapters or something ago, that I was going to make the Dark Moray swallow the Soda Pop Sedan. Full props to anyone who remembered!
"You got no ideas on what to say, do you?"
Not really, Riley, no. Except for one thing; NONE OF YOU NINCOMPOOPS MANAGED TO GUESS WHERE 'BOOM BOOM' CAME FROM LAST CHAPTER! If you must know, it was the catchphrase of Explosivo, one of Izzy from Total Drama's three alter egos, the other two being Esquire and E-Scope, short for Kaleidoscope. And yeah, I've been looking for a good ramble all day.
'Well, I'm getting sick of it,'
You're just bitter because no one ever mentions you in the reviews. You poor monstrous fire bird. Please, give Gaiphe a mention in your reviews! Anyway, I've just been trying to write this for ages and want it uploaded. So, eh, peace!
