Chapter 22: Attack of the Fire Birds and the Rise of the Fire Rabbit!
Link and Cloud stand at the side of the road, ready to confront each other. "So you said you're going to gain the upper hand this time, right?" says Link. "What makes you so sure of yourself?"

"Just because," says Cloud simply.

"That's an odd reason… But I hope we have fun this time!"

"I'm not playing with you; I'm serious."

"Whatever way you want, as long as we have a good fight. If you're so serious, then I'll allow you take the first hit."

Without saying a thing, Cloud rushes at Link in a blinding speed and swings his sword at him. Link quickly uses his own sword and shield to block it.

CLANG!

Cloud then reels back a bit and jumps into the sky and performs a midair downward slash, but Link once again blocks it with his shield. Link quickly uses his sword to hit against Cloud's sword and knocks him to the side. Cloud is able to land on his feet a few yards away from Link.

Once again, Cloud charges at Link and swings his sword, and then Link quickly parries it and then performs a Whirling Blade Technique, in which he spins rapidly with his sword extended outwards. Cloud quickly uses his sword as a shield to block it, but the force sent him flying backwards.

Then they charge at each other and begin a furious swordfight of various sword clashing.

CLANG!

CLASH!

CLANK!

CLANK!

They end the fight by clashing both weapons against each other with such a strong force that they are sent flying in opposite directions. "Phew… That was fun!" says Link.

"I'm not going to waste time playing with you," says Cloud. "I'm going to end this."

-

Meanwhile, Cid and Bowser are having their own competition. "Die!" yells Bowser as he rams his car into the side of the Highwind Runner.

BANG!

"Ow! Take this!" says Cid as he rams his own car into the Green Beast.

BANG!

"Ha! Your car won't do anything to my Green Beast!" laughs Bowser. "It's armor and spikes makes it invulnerable to attacks!"

"Oh yeah? Then try this for something big!" Cid makes his car fly into the air above Bowser.

"Whoa! You're flying!"

"Bombs away!" Cid pulls a lever and the bottom of the Highwind Runner opens, dropping down several bombs.

Bowser quickly steers around madly to avoid the falling bombs. "Yeow! This is crazy! It's like raining cats and dogs!" Bowser looks up and takes a deep breath, and then shoots out a large stream of fire at Cid.

"What the!" Cid quickly flies to the side just in time for the fire to go pass him safely. "That was close!"

The stream of fire keeps on traveling and hits a fire bird nest on the side of a cliff.

BANG!

The cliff shatters and the nest is ruined, and the fire bird who was nesting there gives an angry glare at Bowser.

"What have I done!" gasps Bowser.

The fire bird lets out a loud piercing cry, and then several more fire birds pop out from behind the cliff!

"Oh no… I'm in for it…" Bowser quickly steps on the pedal and zooms off very fast, but the fire birds all give chase.

"Hahahahaha! That serves you right!" laughs Cid, but then he notices that he is also chased by fire birds. "Hey! What are you fowls doing! I have nothing to do with this!" A fire bird pecks him hard on the head. "YEOUCH! Go away!"

-

At the theater…

"Go Cid! Do not let little birds stop you!" shouts Yuffie excitedly.

"Yuffie… Please quiet down…" Aerith tells her.

"That Bowsa… Always getting into trouble…" says Mario with a sigh.

"I hope he's all right," says Pit. "I really should've help…"

"Nah, Bowser doesn't need any help," Ness tells him. "He can handle things by himself."

-

Bowser is still on the run from the fire birds. "Go away!" he shouts. "Go away! I'm sorry about that, okay?" But the fire birds are still after him and pecking him on the head. "Argh! I have enough!" Bowser breathes out a stream of fire and burns the fire birds, but being fire in nature, the fire birds are unharmed by the fire. "Dang! Fire won't work against fire!" Then he sees Cid flying pass from him from above, and he, too, is being chased by fire birds.

"----ing birds! Go away!" yells Cid while trying to shield himself from the angry birds. He takes out a wrench and flails it around him, trying to knock them away. But these only made the birds angrier and they attack him even more.

Just at this moment, an eerie sound bursts into the scene, singing, "Drive, drive, drive your car, merrily down the street!"

Bowser closes his ears at hearing this, "ARGH! Just what I needed when all these birds are annoying me! The song of Barney!"

Sure enough, Barney is catching up from behind in his Lego Car. "I love driving! I love driving! I can honk my trumpet all day!" he sings awfully while pressing the trumpet. The sound of the trumpet itself is as awful, as it lets out an insane laughing sound rather than a usual honk. Even Cid has to close his ears to avoid hearing such cacophony!

"ARGH! SOMEBODY SHUT THAT ----ING ASS UP!" he screams in pain.

These awful sounds also hurt the fire birds badly. They cannot bear to hear this any longer, so they put their wings over their ears, but because they are no longer flapping their wings, they all fall to the ground and are ran over by both Bowser and Barney. Some of the fire birds lost control of their flight and crash into rocks on the sides.

"Mary has a little truck! Little truck! Little truck! Mary has a little truck, it's as white as snow!" sings Barney.

"SHUT UP!" they both shout at him.

"Oh sorry!" says Barney. "I will sing softer next time."

"NO!"

Bowser slows down his car to allow Barney to catch up, and then he rams his Lego Car and breaks it into pieces.

BANG!

"Ha! That serves you right!" laughs Bowser.

The broken pieces of the car drops onto the road and Barney falls on his butt. "Ooooo! You're such a meanie!" says Barney. Then the pieces of Lego blocks start moving by themselves and get together to form a car again! "But I'm still happy and active!" He hops back onto his newly reformed car and continues driving.

"That freak won't give up!" says Bowser.

-

Meanwhile, the annoying Tim Win is currently in lead, with nobody besides him, but perhaps not any longer, as Roy is catching up from behind on his orange motorbike. "TIM!" Roy yells.

"Ah, so the idiot has caught up," says Tim sternly. "But an idiot is an idiot; there is no way you can surpass me."

"I will show you who is the idiot!" Roy shouts angrily.

-

Meanwhile…

Wario and Tifa stare at each other quietly for a while. Without saying anything, Wario suddenly charges at Tifa very suddenly. He throws a punch at her, but she grabs his fist with her hand. Wario then lifts his leg to kick her, but she uses her other hand to grab it. Having grabbed both the limbs, Tifa hurls Wario to the side, but he is able to land on his feet.

They both charge at each other and throw a strong kick. Both their foot clashes with each other and stop, and then they swing their arms at each other and both hit at the same time and stop too. Then they throw at each other a powerful punch. Both their fists hit with each other with such a strong force they that they are sent flying back to their positions.

After getting back into position, Wario charges at Tifa again. She quickly gets into defensive stance as Wario gets near her. Unexpectedly though, Wario grabs her by the collar, and using his other hand, he grabs her by the left arm. Then using all his strength, he lifts Tifa up from the ground and forcefully hurls her aside towards a large rock.

Tifa gets thrown towards the rock, but she slams her feet against it and launches herself at Wario and throws a powerful punch at him. This caught Wario by surprise and the fist lands in his abdomen hard and he is punched backwards several feet and he hits a pile of rocks, and then the entire pile falls on him.

CRASH!

Tifa lands on the ground and pants for some air after performing such intense actions. Suddenly, the pile of rocks bursts open and Wario comes running out. This caught Tifa by surprise and she is hit by the all-powerful Shoulder Bash. She flew back from the powerful impact, but is able to land on her feet.

Wario charges at her and throws several furious punches, but she keeps on moving from side to side swiftly to avoid them. She then ducks under a punch from Wario and then counters it with an uppercut into his chin. This sent Wario flying into the sky.

However, Wario is not defeated yet. He drops back down with maximum velocity and tries to crush her with his butt. Tifa quickly gets out of the way before Wario hits the ground, creating a large crater after landing onto it.

Tifa runs near Wario and performs a jumping roundhouse kick. However, Wario ducks under it swiftly and gets behind her. Then he grabs her by the waist and then jumps into the sky and flips her upside down. "PILEDRIVER!" he shouts at he begins to drop back down. Wario slams Tifa headfirst into the ground hard.

SLAM!

One would say that an impact on the head means instant death, but this did not happen though. Wario backs off from Tifa and sees that she has softened he blow by raising her hand pass the head, and so she lands on her hand instead. She flips into the air and lands on her feet again.

"Argh! You're such a resistant wench!" growls Wario angrily.

"I told you I'm not the one to fall easily!" says Tifa.

Wario lowers his head and charges at her really fast. Tifa rushes forward and swings her leg at him. Both their attacks clash with each other very hard.

POW!

-

Talko is up in the sky riding his mini-plane while broadcasting the race below. "The race is very intense at the moment. Tim and Roy are trying to fight for the first place while Cid and Bowser are a bit behind!" Just then, the radar on his plane lets out a sound. "Uh? Danger is approaching?" He checks the radar carefully, and then he is shocked. "Oh no… The fire rabbit… But how come?"

-

Meanwhile…

CLANG!

Link's sword flies off from his hand and then Cloud knocks him onto the ground and pins him there by placing the tip of his sword against Link's throat. "I win this time," says Cloud.

"Darn it!" curses Link. "I let my guard down!"

"Time to finish this."

Now there is a pool of lava behind them. A large figure slowly rises from the lava. Because Cloud has his back turned towards it, he did not notice anything appearing, but Link did. Link watches in horror as a gigantic indescribable monster rising from the lava. The monster has a bright, orange skin that is dripping with lava. It has a menacing face with sharp teeth sticking out from the sides, and it has a pair of long rabbit-like ears. Link trembles in fear upon seeing it.

"So you're scared, uh?" says Cloud, not knowing what Link saw.

"Be… be… hind… you…" says Link.

"I'm not going to fall for anything. Your end has come."

The large monster lifts itself out from the lava pool and approaches them, and then it lowers it head towards them.

At this moment, Talko appears in the sky above them and shouts, "RUN! A FIRE RABBIT HAS APPEARED! IT'S BEHIND YOU!"

"What?" says Cloud, and then he turns around in time just to see the fire rabbit opening its mouth. But it's too late…

The rabbit lunges forward and closes its mouth around Cloud! Link and Talko watches in horror at this terrifying sight!

-

The audiences are equally shocked as well at seeing this on the monitor. "WAAAAA! CLOUD'S BEEN EATEN!" screams Yuffie.

Aerith is shocked the most. "Cloud! Cloud… Clo…" And then she passes out.

"Aerith! Are you all right?" Peach asks her while trying to shake her up.

"She's too shocked at the sight of Cloud getting eaten!" says Yuffie.

"Mamamia! That's-a was scary!" says Mario.

Luigi is trembling violently. "That… that… monster… was the same one… in my dream…! And he's eaten… Cloud…!"


TO BE CONTINUED…

Oh, the horror! The fire rabbit has devoured Cloud! What will become of him? And how about the fight between Tifa and Wario? Do you like it? Let's look forward to the next chapter and hope that Roy beats Tim Win!