The Fairy Glades... (continued)

Fear was flowing through Ly's body. She was infinitely worried...what if Globox had failed to rescue Rayman from the pirates' ship?...And even if Rayman had escaped, what if he'd get killed by pirates?... Would Rayman survive? Would he free her? These questions flooded the mind of Ly, who was tired of sitting in the pirates' dungeons, being trapped by a white forcefield, and forced to eat stale bread and Squab soup that the pirates gave her...If Rayman wasn't coming to free her, Ly would be feeling sad and hopeless right now, and she'd probably be spending an eternity at the bottom of the dungeons...but she knew that Rayman made good use of the powers he had, and that he tried his hardest to free everyone from the metal clutches of Razorbeard...
And Ly hoped Rayman would succeed.

Rayman was now behind the doorway that had been blocked by the blue lasers earlier. Murfy was still following Rayman. There was just one more hallway between him and the Prisoners' Dungeons. This hallway had three red moving lasers on the floor, which Rayman jumped over. No problem.
Going past the lasers and through this doorway, Rayman set foot on a wooden bridge which was high over a very, very dark room. A deep, black pit was below the bridge...and Rayman was standing on a bridge which was high up above this pit. Across the bridge he was standing on, there was a doorway which seemed to lead outside the dark room. The bridge was broken. He was unable to get over the broken bridge and to the exit doorway on the other side. He tried gliding over this broken bridge, using his hair as a helicopter...but he could not glide that far. (He could only glide a bit-- not completely fly--with his helicopter hair.) But of course, he couldn't exit the dungeon area yet anyway. He still had to free Ly and the two Baby Globoxes, who were probably being held captive somewhere around here...
Rayman fell down, through the black pit, below the bridge.
When he fell down through the pit, he landed on a stone floor at the bottom of the pit. He saw that this was the dungeon area of the hideout, where several prison cells were. Rayman was standing outside the prison cells. Here, he looked around--and immediately noticed that in the center of this area, there was Ly, the fairy! Ly wasn't inside a prison cell, but instead there was a strong, white forcefield surrounding Ly, trapping her.

"Look! There she is!" buzzed Murfy.
"Ly!" yelled Rayman. "So this is where the Robo-Pirates have taken you!"
"Please free me!" she cried. "Find the horrible machine that's creating this forcefield around me, and destroy that machine!"
"We will, don't worry," said Murfy, grinning.
However, before freeing Ly, Rayman noticed that on the walls around him, there were the doors to several prison cells--and the two Baby Globoxes were being held captive in one of these rooms! Rayman broke down the door of the room, with the energy from his fists, to free them. All the other caged rooms were empty (except for a few Yellow Lums, which Rayman picked up), and Globox was nowhere to be seen...just the two Baby Globoxes.
"Yay, Rayman!" said the first Baby Globox.
"Thanks for freeing us!" said the second one.
"And now to free Ly," said Rayman, "by destroying the machine somewhere that's creating the forcefield around her..."
Then Murfy said to Rayman, "C'mon, let's follow that red pipe that's ly-ing on the floor; it probably is connected to the machine!"
They followed the pipe, which led into another hallway nearby, and into another room. The two Baby Globoxes came with them. Rayman, Murfy, and the two Baby Globoxes entered the "Machine Room", which had a stone grey floor. It was a lot like the basement of the pirates' hideout, which he had gone through earlier. At the bottom of this cave, there was a giant pool of green slime, and there was a grey, metal bridge so Rayman could cross over to the other side, where the giant machine stood in front of them at the end of this room!
There were three white patches on different parts of this machine.
"If we had a few gunpowder kegs with us, we could throw one at each of these three patches, to make them burst open," Murfy thought. "That might destroy the machine."
"Hey," said the first Baby Globox. "I just remembered, there ARE a few gunpowder kegs lying around in that prison room that we had been trapped in..." The Baby Globox ran back to the caged room that he had previosuly been held captive in, and he got a gunpowder keg from that room. He then came back to where Rayman was, and handed the keg over to him. Rayman thought the keg was very heavy. He carried it over the metal bridge, and up to the machine, to destroy the first patch.
Suddenly, part of the giant machine started firing a cannonball at Rayman! It headed towards him at a high speed, as he was trying to cross the bridge with his keg. Rayman could probably shoot some energy (from his fists) back at this cannonball to destroy it before it hit him. However, his hands were full, so he couldn't shoot energy from his fists. And he couldn't throw his keg at this cannonball, either, because he needed the keg to destroy the patch on the machine!
"Help!" he yelled. "The cannonball is coming towards me, and I can't avoid it!"
The cannonball inevitably collided into Rayman, and Rayman got hurt, fell over, and dropped his gunpowder keg.
Luckily, Rayman recovered after a few seconds. "I guess I'll have to try again..." he thought. The Baby Globoxes handed Rayman a new gunpowder keg, which was in the prison cell they had been in. Rayman picked it up, and started crossing the bridge to the machine again. He knew that the machine would fire another cannonball at him, though, and he didn't know how to avoid it...maybe he just had to try harder.
Murfy was watching Rayman's actions, and decided to give Rayman some advice! So he flew up to Rayman and whispered something in his ear.
Then Rayman replied, "Of course! I should have thought of that!"
When the cannonball was coming towards Rayman, he tossed his keg into the air, then shot balls of energy at the cannonball. This destroyed the cannonball, before it hit him. Then, the keg Rayman had tossed in the air came falling back down, and Rayman caught it. He carried it the rest of the way to the machine, and threw his keg at one of the white patches on the machine.
A loud KA-BOOOOOM! echoed throughout the dark cave, as the gunpowder keg hit the patch on the machine.
One of the Baby Globoxes then ran back to get another keg from one of the prison cells, and gave it to Rayman, who repeated the same process again--toss, shoot, catch, carry, throw. He hit the second patch on the machine, with his keg. Then, they did it one more time, to the third patch. Toss, shoot, catch, carry, throw. KA-BOOOOOM! All the patches had now been hit. The machine was now destroyed!!!!!
"All right! YAHOOO!!!" Rayman screamed!
Rayman then ran out of the cave (with Murfy and the two Baby Globoxes still following him), and back to the yard where Ly was. The white forcefield around her had now faded away.
"Ly! Are you okay?" Rayman asked her.
"Oh, Rayman at last," said Ly. She hadn't seen Rayman for a long time since he had been on the prison ship earlier. "I was afraid that Globox had failed to rescue you when you were on the prison ship..."
"He gave me that Silver Lum," explained Rayman, "but we then got separated. I need to find him, and get rid of the pirates! But, to do that, I'll need all of my powers back!"
"Yeah!" buzzed Murfy, grinning. "Can you give 'em back?"
"I am too weak to give you back all your powers," sighed Ly. "The Robo-Pirates broke the primordial energy core of 1,000 Lums...and combining the energy has become very difficult."
"Oh," sighed Rayman, hopelessly.
"But, wait," continued Ly. "There might be another solution to stopping the pirates. Have you ever heard of Polokus?"
"Ummm...no," Rayman admitted.
"Well, then, I'll tell you the story of Polokus..." said Ly.
"Okay," said Murfy, "but don't make it too long and boring!"
"Well, he is the spirit of this world," began Ly. "Long, long ago, before this world was created, the universe was just a few small Yellow Lums floating around in space...but one day, the Lums focused their energy into thought, and gave birth to the magnifiecent spirit Polokus. Polokus then used his imagination to create this world we live in, and also everyone who lives in it, from the fairies to the Teensies to the Globoxes, and even you, Rayman. Polokus' powers are so immense that his smallest dreams can become reality. He could help you get rid of all the horrible Robo-Pirates that invaded this world...but unfortunately, after creating this world, Polokus has secluded himself from it for many years...but it is said that he could be awakened again and can come back to this world. If you reunite the four masks..."
"The four masks?" Rayman said.
"These masks," Ly told him, "are magical and very powerful. They are hidden in secret and mysterious places. Before Polokus had left this world, he had told us fairies that reuniting the four magic masks would be all it would take to bring him back. Find them, Rayman! It's our only hope!"
"Right," said Murfy the fly. "We won't fail! Will we, Rayman?"
"But be careful," said Ly. "Since Polokus didn't want to be called back by just anyone, he also created some fierce, tough guardians to protect the masks. They'll try to stop anyone who tries to get them..."
"Eek! That sounds scary!" gasped Rayman.
"...but Polokus gave each of these guards hidden weaknesses that only a true warrior could discover. You'll see when you get there..."
"Oh," said Rayman. "That makes it sound less scary."
"I'll help you get there," said Ly, "by giving you all the energy that I've gathered..." A special Silver Lum then appeared in her hands! It gave off a beautiful, bright silver glow, illuminating the very dark dungeon area. She handed this Silver Lum over to Rayman.
"YAAAAAHOOOOO!!!!!" yelled Rayman, picking it up! Remember, Silver Lums enabled Rayman to gain a new power!
"Good luck, Rayman!" Ly the fairy said. "Now, you can grab onto the round, purple flying targets that are in the air!"
A purple, O-shaped target appeared over the broken wooden bridge that was at the top of the room.
Ly then disappeared.
Rayman was still standing at the bottom of the dungeon area, on the stone floor. There was a very tall ladder on the wall, leading back up to where the high-up broken bridge was. Rayman and the two Baby Globoxes climbed back up to where the broken bridge was. Now standing on the bridge above the room again, they saw the purple target which was now flying in mid-air, over the broken part of the bridge.
Ly appeared in Rayman's mind and instructed, "If you shoot energy at these purple targets, it will create a magic rope that you can swing across!"
So, Rayman shot a silver ball of energy at this target. Sure enough, a long, stringy, silver rope appeared! Rayman could use this to swing across the gap and over the broken bridge!
"Whoa!" screamed Rayman, swinging across it!
He swung over to the other side of the gap and then jumped off the rope, onto the other side of the broken bridge! On the other side of this bridge, there was the entrance to another hallway.
However, the two Baby Globoxes didn't come with Rayman anymore. They turned around, ran out of the pirates' hideout back the way they had come from, and went home.
"Hey! Where are you going?" said Murfy. "To the bathroom?"
"No...we're just getting outta here! Sorry, we don't wanna come any further!" spoke the first son.
"You're not coming with us anymore?" frowned Murfy, disappointedly.
"No...these areas are too dangerous!" said the Baby Globoxes. "We're going home! We're worried we might get caught by Robo-Pirates again if we go any further. We don't want to risk that! But good luck in the rest of your quest, Rayman!" The two Baby Globoxes turned around and headed out of the hideout and went back home.
"Wusses," muttered Murfy.
On the other side of the broken bridge, there was the entrance to another hallway. This probably led out of the hideout. Rayman walked through it. There were a few Yellow Lums lying around here, too. He now had 40 from this area. At the far end of the room, there were two walls very close together, which Rayman climbed up by standing between them and then jumping between them repeatedly. At the top, there was a doorway leading to a very long, grassy tunnel, which seemed to lead outside the cave. It did.
The sun was now starting to rise. Rayman could finally see light again. He ran outside excitedly, and found himself in the bottom of a deep canyon. The ground at the bottom of this canyon was grassy and had some flowers growing here. Some colourful butterflies were fluttering through the air. Birds were chirping. Even though the sun was shining brightly, there was also a lot of wind, which was being created by some air currents in the canyon. There were several of them.
"You see these air currents, Rayman?" buzzed Murfy. "Activate your helicopter hair while standing in one of them, and you'll fly upwards!"
So, Rayman did this. The wind in the air current blew Rayman up, up, up through the sky. It felt cold and windy. When he got to the top of it, he glided over to the next air current, which was higher up. Up, up, up, he flew, while in the second air current. From up there, he could reach the next air current. He kept flying up to the next air currents, which were higher up, until he reached the top of the canyon. Up here, floating in mid-air, there was another purple flying target, which Rayman swung across, to reach a high-up ledge on the cliff walls. On this ledge, there was a small, wooden shack, containing a closed portal inside, and nearby, another pirate cage.
"Help! ...Help!" cried a teensie-tiny voice from inside this cage.
"Don't worry!" said Rayman, "I'll free you!" He then shot two balls of energy at this pirate cage, and it broke open.
"Thanks," said a Teensie, who came out of this cage. "I'll open up the entrance to the Marshlands! You might find more Yellow Lums there!"
The Teensie then walked up to the closed portal. He did a magic dance, which activated the portal.
Rayman heard Murfy saying, "I hope I've been very helpful to you in your trip so far. I'll talk to you again soon, when you need me! Bye for now! I have to go water my plants..."
"That's what the Teensies always say, too, whenever they have to leave," said Rayman.
Murfy then flew away.
Rayman waved good-bye to Murfy, and then hopped into the swirly magic portal which was the gateway to the Marshlands. He now had a total of 55 out of 1,000 Yellow Lums. Would he ever get all 1,000?

Meanwhile, back at the pirates' hideout, two of the pirate henchmen noticed that the two Baby Globoxes weren't there, anymore! Ly wasn't there, either!
"Arrgh! That's two less slaves for us!" groaned the first henchman.

"Well, soon we'll capture ALL of the Baby Globoxes!" screamed the second henchman. "BWA, HA, HA!"

TO BE CONTINUED..... and don't worry, the rest of the story will be more original! I have thought of some new ideas to add that are more original; I just can't use them until I get to the later chapters in the story!