Chapter 21: The Iron Mountains
"Welcome to the Council Chamber of the Teensies!" the (temporary) king of the Teensies greeted Rayman again. "Splendid! You have collected enough lums to pass through." The Teensie took off his crown and gave it to the one behind him in queue. "Prepare yourself to discover a new world!" The second Teensie said, and all four of them gestured towards a large door behind them.
Rayman walked up to the door and hesitated to open it. After the last three sanctuaries, the fourth and final mask must surely be the hardest one to find now, isn't it?
"Come on! Don't be shy!" the Teensies urged him on.
Oh well. Only one way to find out! And Rayman pushed open the door.
He emerged in a rainy area. A long bridge was in front of him and there were purple lums floating everywhere in the air. Rayman swung from them and collected the yellow lums. He then crossed the wooden bridge and into a pirate-made machine. Ah, shelter at last.
Rayman climbed up some nettings and swung from another purple lum and jumped onto a large rotating hexagonal platform. There was a large red laser cutting right through the platform and several blue lasers blocking access to the hole in the center of the platform. Rayman hit two switches and blue lasers were turned off. He dropped down the hole and landed in a swampy, grassy area.
He fought off two pirates (the second one could throw flaming barrels at him!) and picked up a Golden Fist. Then in a very large clearing he fought off two more (and dodged more shots and flaming barrels). He then climbed up some boxes onto a wooden bridge high above ground and destroyed his 78th cage hanging from it.
He went on past the bridge, hit a switch and a gate opened. He defeated his fifth pirate of the level and climbed up some nettings. He found himself before a very swift waterfall.
Rayman held the mask up high, and he found himself before Polokus again. He defeated another pirate and broke a cage suspended on a platform above the water. Then he hopped and helicoptered from box to box in the water (he could not fly with his helicopter in this level) to get downstream, and he landed in a hot air balloon waiting just for him near the end of the waterfall.
The hot air balloon took him to another grassy clearing with a pirate-made building and some menhirs on the ground at the front. An enormous robot with two legs was jumping about on the outside. Every time it jumped and hit the ground, the menhirs and a big wooden box on the ground would lift off the ground upon impact, too. Rayman climbed up the box and waited for the robot to jump. When it hit the ground, the box jumped, too, making it high enough for Rayman to jump and grab onto the hole in the wall of the structure and slide in.
Inside, Rayman outsmarted another Robo-Gorilla standing in the way. The gorilla fell off the bridge and into the dirty, murky water beneath. Rayman saw a sign and walked closer to read it. It said "Reformatory Centre for disturbing children." Children?! Could young creatures like Globox's frog children be captured by the pirates and trapped in here? Hmm. Better look around, just in case.
Rayman climbed up some stairs and broke cage number 80, the last cage of the game (YIPPEE!). He felt his energy bar extend to its maximum length. Any pirate that comes his way will find it very hard to defeat him, it will!
Rayman jumped up a box and shot at a spot in the wall marked 'X'. Some of Globox's children came running out. They have been set free! They bounced out of the hole with glee. Rayman was astounded. How could those pirates capture innocent, possibly frightened children, label them as "disturbing", and lock them up in a building built just for them?! Rayman looked inside the hole and made sure there were no more children. Satisfied, he continued on his journey.
Rayman jumped up into another big hole in the wall from the box he was standing on (after waiting for the box to leap off the ground on impact from the robot outside). He slid down the hole and hopped onto a shell. It neighed and set off into the outside of the building. And from there it was a gravity-defying ride to collect all the lums on the roof of the building AND to run into some switches to open a big door and set more children free! The poor children! They were being shot with some gun attached to a wall! Run, children, run! Be safe from this menacing monster of a "reformatory" and reunite with your parents!
As the kids escaped out the door, Rayman steered his shell to the front of the building with the giant robot watching him. The robot chased him, trampling over everything in its path. When it trampled over the menhirs, Rayman rode around and collected the yellow lums underneath them. Rayman then rode away from the centre, and he jumped onto a metal grill some distance off. He then let go of the shell and continued the rest of the level on foot.
Rayman appeared in a dark area with murky water all over. A plum tree was growing plums and the plums were just dropping onto a box in the water and then dropping into the water and disintegrating. Strange how they can take one across lava but they can't survive a little murky water.
Rayman jumped onto the box and caught himself a plum. He threw the plum onto some land nearby and went and stood on it. He shot forward, facing the water, so that the plum would move backwards, away from the water, and he jumped up when he was close enough to collect a big yellow lum that was otherwise too high to collect without standing on a lum. He then waved the plum goodbye as it bounced off land and disintegrated into the water.
He swung from a purple lum and collected the last big lum of the game — the last yellow lum that made up the heart of the world. WOOHOO! Rayman then continued on his way until he saw Uglette, Globox's wife, crying by a pirate ship. Rayman went up to her and comforted her by holding her hand.
"It's horrible, Rayman," Uglette weeped. "The pirates have taken all my babies."
"To where?" Rayman asked.
"They've imprisoned them in cages inside the mines." Uglette sniffed. "My darling Globox tried to stop them, but the pirates have captured him, too! And they've taken him to their prison ship."
Globox's children were captured and Globox, even though he had to do something, allowed himself to be captured again? Oh, no.
Rayman was touched by his friend's bravery. He was determined to save the frog couple's children and make Uglette feel better. He saw the pirate ship parked nearby. "Hmm. With this, I can rescue the kids in the mines." Rayman hopped onto the ship. He wasn't sure how to pilot it, but he'll figure it out. "Don't cry, Uglette! I'll bring your babies back." And that's a promise. And a promise is a promise in Rayman's world.
Rayman started the flying ship and began navigating above the murky water. He first went to the South Mines, the mines nearest to him, and parked in front of it. About 100 to 200 of Globox's children came out. They must have broken out of their cages and were waiting for someone to save them. Good. For such small children they were very strong. Rayman hoped that in the other mines, the rest of the children have broken their chains, too, and were ready to be picked up by flying ship.
Rayman made his way through the labyrinth of pipes, toxic waste water and pirate structures very slowly, as he didn't really know how to pilot that flying vehicle and didn't want to run into anything. Some of the structures even had pirates on them shooting at his ship as he flew by. Hit things or get shot too many times and he and the ship and all the children he had picked up go down. Uglette and Globox wouldn't like that. So he flew very carefully.
He reached the West, North and East mines, in that order, and picked up the rest of the unchained children. Then he very carefully flew back to Uglette and reunited her with her children.
One of the babies jumped out of the ship and approached its mommy. Uglette opened her tearful eyes, saw her baby, and let out a cry of joy. "My baby!" She hugged it tight and it hugged her back.
"Look, Uglette. Here are the others," Rayman gestured to the ship and one by one the hundreds of children hopped off the ship and gathered around their mother. Some of them began dancing around their family. Some began singing and some began clapping their hands.
"Oh, Rayman. Thank you!" Uglette whispered from the heart. She was really grateful to Rayman. And now she and her children can all go home.
"Take this ship and go home. I'll go and rescue Globox, too. You've told me where he's taken," Rayman promised. He hoped that he did not damage the ship too much when rescuing the children so that the frogs can go back to their pond safely.
"Wait, one more thing!" the first baby that stepped off the ship spoke up. "Look what found in the mines." It stepped towards Rayman and pulled out a mask from its mouth. It was the fourth mask! Rayman was nearly in tears of joy himself.
The little frog put the mask on. "Look what I found in the mines!" He repeated. "You saved us. Rayman can have it." He gave it to Rayman. The whole family piled into the pirate ship and got ready to take off. "Good luck, Rayman," Uglette wished the hero.
"Goodbye!" Rayman waved back. He held the mask up high, and he found himself before Polokus again.
"At last, the fourth mask. Bravo, Rayman! You have brought me back."
Rayman beamed. Polokus put the fourth mask into the stone he was sitting on.
"The pirates won't last long," he said. "I will use my powers to destroy their fort and rid the world of the robots that infest it."
"Great!" Rayman cried.
"But alas, my powers have limits."
"Oh?"
On Earth, the lums make me invincible. But in the air, I am as vulnerable as a new-born. It's you who will have to fight on the prison ship."
"Mm-hmm," Rayman nodded.
"I am going to give you maximum energy." Polokus gave Rayman some power and healed all of his wounds. Then he and the top part of the stone he was sitting on floated into the air. The rest of the stone, a mask on each surface, started rotating faster and faster until a magical portal appeared.
"Now, go and find Razorbeard! Go quickly, and have no fear!"
Rayman stuck an inch of his nose inside the portal, then walked his whole body into it. And he disappeared, far from the Earth, and high up into the air...
*
Such cute little froggies. Rosalynn wondered how many children in total does Globox have. Hundreds? Thousands? And how did one of them find the mask in the first place? It was mentioned that he, she or it found it in the mines. Where? Looks like this is one part of the adventure Rayman won't get to solve or experience.Now, it's time to fight the pirates!