The Day the Universes Collided
Chapter Ten
Lake Hylia
Hyrule Kingdom
Time: 1430 hours
Link watched the others walk into the area and cocked his head in confusion. Dark Link was glaring at his twin. Allstar looked disgruntled. Waker was hugging a book and smiling happily. Elfin was chewing on his toothpick still and Maverick was eyeing them all as if unable to decide which one he would shoot first.
"What took you guys so long?" Link asked in confusion. Dark Link jerked his thumb at his brother.
"Mr. Legend of Zelda, here, tried to get some loose change by busting up pots in Hyrule Market." he replied flatly.
"They always had rupees in the game! I don't understand why they don't have rupees in them here!" Allstar grumbled. Waker packed his book into his delivery bag and held up the IDG capsule.
"Well, let's go to the next world!" he declared and the heroes gathered around to place a hand on him and each other. Dark Link placed a hand on his car. "Zero! Send us to Gallera!" Waker declared and in a burst of light, the group was gone, startling the lake professor who had gone out to greet Link.
****
3rd Street
Gallera
Time: 1500 hours
"Ah, home, sweet home!" Elfin declared as he stretched his arms out to the sky and gazed at the city. A gunshot went off somewhere in the distance and police sirens sounded soon after.
"Yep, real homey." Allstar muttered, "You wouldn't happen to have a bulletproof tunic around, do ya?" Elfin only glared at him and began walking forward.
"Let's get to the Outer Inn. We'll need to plan something out from there while Zero locates the next figurine for us." he remarked as he led the way. The others followed while Dark Link got in the car.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just drive there instead of walk?" he asked with a smug grin. Elfin rolled his eyes and headed back.
"Fine, but move over. I'm driving." he declared and, once everyone was squeezed in, headed off to the hotel.
Their grand entrance didn't go by as they had thought. Elfin opened the door to the hotel and had the group step inside. They stood for only a few seconds when a scream sounded and a small boy with blonde hair and a green tunic ran by, holding a CD player over his head and laughing maniacally.
"Lerou! Gimme back my Walkman!" a girl screamed and chased after him, running by in the same tunic style the Links wore, "Hand it over, you brat! Don't make me sing the Song of Storms and wash you out!"
"Ha, ha! You wouldn't dare!" Lerou taunted from another room as they vanished into the dining room. Elfin sighed and shook his head. Link only looked startled.
"Who are they?!" he exclaimed, peering into the room to watch the standoff.
"My kids." Elfin grumbled and went in to stop them, followed by the others, "Where's Leslie? I thought she'd be here."
"Can't get me!" Lerou went on as he stood on one side of the room. Linda Elfin turned red and pouted. She took up a stance and took a deep breath.
"Go around! Go around! Go around, around, around! See the storm clouds go around, go around!" she sang, "Thunder rolling, thunder roaring! Lightning crashing, dashing, flashing! As the storm clouds spin around, spin around!" Storm clouds began forming over their heads, rumbling and flashing as raindrops began to fall.
"No fair!" Lerou whined and grinned. He whistled a small tune, the same three notes over and over. Sunlight burst in from the windows and cleared up the rain clouds. Elfin frowned and stood with his arms folded on his chest.
"NO MAGIC SONGS IN THE HOUSE!" he bellowed and the two jumped in shock, "Look at this mess! Get the mops and clean it up! Linda, you're grounded for a week! Lerou! Give back the Walkman and you're grounded for a week and a half!" he barked out.
"Daddy?!" the two kids exclaimed as they looked at him in surprise, "We thought that you were still missing in action!" Elfin blinked.
"Chief Roku kept trying to contact you in Skulltula Mansion but you never answered." Linda explained as she grabbed a mop and started cleaning, "Mom thought something had happened to you and went in to find you. She never came back either."
"How long was I declared MIA?" Elfin asked, confused. Lerou looked at him strangely as helped his sister.
"Dad...you were missing for three days." he replied, "Uh, who're the other guys that look like you?"
"Friends of mine from other worlds." Elfin rattled off, "I've been missing for three days? But I've only been gone for one day! And Leslie's been gone for the same time? Who was running the hotel?!"
"We were. Duh." Linda replied, arching an eyebrow. "Well, we were planning on closing up today and going in the mansion after you and Mom. That's why we have our tunics on."
"Change of plans, kids." Elfin told them as the SPC beeped again and Maverick whipped it out. "You two are going to stay right here and finish cleaning. Me and the guys are gonna go and get your mom." The kids groaned. "Don't act that way with me. You're not going into that house!"
"We've got bad news and worse news." Maverick muttered. Allstar looked at him, pained.
"Why not 'good news, bad news'?" he asked. Maverick glared at him and flipped the SPC closed, shoving it back into his pouch.
"Because I no longer believe in good news. The last time Nintendo had 'good news', Dark Link was possessed by X Spirit and nearly killed off the whole Nintendo army." he growled.
"I wasn't ever...never mind. Different world, different past." Dark Link sighed and shrugged. "So what's the news?"
"The figurine is in the top floor of the Skulltula Mansion." Maverick replied. "That's the bad news."
"And the worse news?" Waker asked, still confused by the skyscrapers and cars that passed him on the way to the hotel.
"We only have tonight to destroy it. After that, Leslie dies, causing this Link to go insane and kill himself after killing his kids, thus destroying this world forever." Maverick replied simply. The group stared at him in silence for a few moments.
"You won't make it as a guidance counselor with that attitude." Allstar remarked flatly. "I can see the headlines now. 'Death is the best way out. Mav's philosophy cuts population growth in half!' Maybe you need help."
"Maybe you need to remember that I still know all of Nintendo's paralysis codes." Maverick shot back and left the hotel.
"Let's go! I'm not letting those spiders eat my wife!" Elfin declared and raced upstairs, "Let me grab my equipment first, and then we'll head out."
***
Skulltula Mansion
Gallera
Time: 1525 hours
The heroes stared up at the ten-story house and blinked. It was old, creepy, and covered in webs. It looked like your run of the mill horror house. It looked like it should be condemned and torn down. It looked like the kind of thing kids would say is haunted and full of monsters.
It had Elfin's wife inside.
"Stop gawking at it and let's get this done." Maverick growled, prodding Elfin's backside with the tip of one of the Master Swords. They shook themselves out of the sudden chill they had felt and headed inside.
"It's kinda dark in here." Allstar murmured as Glitter flew out from under Elfin's hat and hovered around him. "Nintendo always made sure I had some light in the temples and dungeons so I could see. This doesn't have that. Except the fairy, of course."
"I know the layout of the house already. You can just follow me." Elfin remarked and began heading up some stairs. The others followed, swords drawn to attack any spiders that may try to ambush them. Link gripped the Gilded Sword tightly and looked over at Waker, who held the Hero's Sword in one hand and the Ocarina of Time in another.
"Where did you get that? It can't be mine, it's still in my pouch." Link whispered to him. Waker glanced up at him and looked a little sad.
"Hero gave it to me as a birthday present just before he gave me his soul so I could live through a poison that hit me when I was younger." he replied. "I have it just in case we need to use it for switches and stuff."
The group hadn't gone too far when Elfin suddenly paused and cocked his head. He seemed to be searching for something and the others waited. Finally he spoke aloud.
"I don't like this. We've reached the third floor and nothing's attacked us yet." he declared.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Allstar answered, scanning the walls with Master Sword in hand. Maverick had both Master Swords in his hands, frowning. He shook his head and sniffed the air.
"I smell a trap." he growled and the heroes jumped as a dozen Big Skulltulas dropped down from overhead in an ambush, "Ambush! Prepare for battle!" The spiders chattered and hissed as they closed in on the Links, leaving no way out.
"Come on! Let's get them! The worst they can do is try to cocoon us like they did to me the first time!" Elfin declared as Waker narrowed his eyes. Link glanced at him and looked surprised. For the briefest moment, he had thought he had seen a mirror image of himself overlapping the future Hylian.
"Screet skera skeee...." Waker murmured, sounding just like a Skulltula. He blinked in horror. "No! Don't get near them! Run!" he screamed and turned on his heels, slashing past the spiders behind them to get to the stairs. The others jumped out of his way.
"What?! Why?!" Dark Link yelled, his copy of the Master Sword, the Mirror Sword, already stained with the blood of one Big Skulltula.
"They spit acid!" Waker shrieked and ran up a flight of stairs to the fourth floor. The other Links looked confused as the Skulltulas screeched and all spit a green liquid at Elfin and the gang. The officer leaped back and stared in shock as the acid hit the wood where he had been standing and ate right through it.
"They didn't used to do that!" he exclaimed. Glitter bobbed about insanely as the spiders scurried quickly after them. The Links ran, dodging incoming shots of acid and webbing. Maverick sheathed one Master Sword and pulled out his gun, firing over his shoulder in attempts to keep the spiders at bay.
They reached the fourth floor and raced for the end of the hallway. Waker already halfway across. Maverick looked around and then looked ahead. The floor just up ahead of them looked decayed and there was burnt wood everywhere. He bit his lip and ran faster, shoving aside the other Links as he moved.
"Hey! Watch it!" Allstar yelled angrily, "We all want to live through this, Mav!"
"Waker! STOP!!" Maverick screamed out and dove at the Hero of Winds just as he ran over a section of the hallway. Waker blinked and screamed as Maverick collided into him, shoving him over the floor and further up ahead in the hallway.
"What the hell?!" Elfin cried and the heroes all shouted as Maverick crashed onto the floor and the wood paneling collapsed beneath him.
"Hyaaaaah!" Maverick screamed out as he disappeared into the darkness down below. Link and Allstar ran up to the hole in the floor and looked down into it frantically.
"Maverick! Maverick! Can you hear us!" they called down as Elfin whirled around and began firing madly at the oncoming Skulltulas. Waker scrambled to his feet and stared at the open space in horror.
"It was a setup! They used that acid to weaken the floor here and tried to herd us into their little pitfall!" Elfin yelled as he continued firing, "I'm almost out of ammunition! We've got to get out of here and think of something else!"
"How?!" Link cried, still kneeling at the edge of the hole, "I don't have any warp songs for this place!"
"We can't leave Maverick here!" Allstar added as Waker ran and leaped over the hole, rolling to a stop beside the group.
"We don't have a choice! If we stay any longer, we'll all die!" Dark Link snapped and started pulling the Links together, "Get together! I have an idea!" Allstar looked at him as if he were insane.
"You don't mean to tell me that you're...." he started as Dark Link held up his hand. He nodded.
"It's shadow time." he replied with a dry grin, "Shadow Links! Come to me!" He snapped his fingers and five Shadow Links suddenly materialized into the room, each one a mere black silhouette of a Link with glowing red eyes. "Shadow Links! Grab one of each and warp them outside!" Dark Link ordered and watched as each shadow grabbed a Link and dematerialized, vanishing between dimensions to escape. Dark Link sighed and melted into a shadow himself, skimming up the sides of the building to find a way out for himself. The spiders reached the empty hallway and waved their legs, hissing furiously before scattering to resume their invasion plans.
Down below in the basement of the mansion, Maverick lay limply on a pile of skeletal remains, the leftovers of people captured by the spiders when they wandered too near the old manor. A huge shadow crept over his body as a dozen glowing eyes studied him coldly over a dripping maw.
"This flesh creature of the outside...skreeee...shall prove most useful...." a disembodied voice hissed from the darkness.