Chapter 2

Oh, darn, I forgot that disclaimer. I do not own Star Wars. If I did, Disney would not have had an opportunity to make any of the trainwrecks that they have

The Hero of Spirits stood at the controls of the Spirit train, wind running through his hair, his small, eleven-year-old frame fitting easily inside the small locomotive. "That's one advantage in being short," he mused. "Still, I'd rather have a few inches more reach." Longer arms would definitely have come in handy, as, despite his young age, Link had already undertaken more adventures than almost everybody he'd ever meet. "What's that?" a voice hollered from the passenger car. "Just thinking out loud, Alfonzo," he shouted back. The man was building a train from scratch, and needed parts from the castle. Link had been in town, and volunteered to take him. Always looking for an opportunity to watch Link's increasingly famous skill at the helm, in addition to the legendary performance of the Spirit Train itself, Alfonzo gladly accepted. As a result, they were careening across New Hyrule, avoiding hitting anything entirely because of the engineer.

The ride was a mere four minutes on an ordinary train, much less on the fastest in all the land, and the tracks were unusually empty today. Before Alfonzo even had an opportunity to be concerned about the massive speed they were traveling at, Link had gotten them to the castle safely. "Do you need help with picking out the parts?" the lad asked, after they had pulled up to the station. Alfonzo shook his head. "I should have it, thank you though. Besides," he teased, "this gives you more time with Princess Zelda." Link went bright red as Alfonzo walked off, laughing loudly. The fact that he had already been planning to go there didn't help.

New Hyrule Castle Town Square was incredibly full, to the point where Link was hard-pressed to push his way through the crowds. There were an unusually large amount of guards, presumably because the odds of a pickpocket or spy were significantly larger. He struggled his way to one of the officers. "What's going on, Lieutenant ? Why are there so many people?" The captain sighed. "If you don't know, kid..." The officer shook his head. Then he recognized Link. "Oh, hello mister hero. I'd recommend you speak to Princess Zelda. She can explain much better than I can." The hero nodded slowly. "Thanks, Lieutenant. I hope I can help with whatever is wrong."

Link strolled confidently into the castle, nodding greetings to the guard captain and his second-in-command. The hero had posed as a recruit to the Hyrulian soldiers for a large part of his adventure, but Zelda had officially inducted him afterward, and, once the situation had been explained, any ruffled feathers were sufficiently smoothed. He had, after all, been extremely good at combat already. On closer inspection, the soldiers looked unusually tired. They had likely been working double shifts with the massive number of people in town, and that was before a possible sinister reason behind the crowds. Link shook his head. It must definitely not be a pleasant situation to be in. He exhaled heavily. Time to learn what was going on.

A few minutes later, he knocked on the door to Zelda's quarters. "Come in," she shouted through the door. Link pushed the door open, and carefully closed it behind him. He knew from experience that it was a particularly painful door to close on your foot. It clicked shut, and the hero looked up quickly. He gasped in horror at what he saw. Zelda looked horrible. There were massive bags under her eyes, and she was even more pale than normal. Still she managed a smile at the sight of him. "What happened?" Link blurted out. Zelda sighed. "There have been fairly heavy raids on the castle at least once a day. Somebody has united the monsters more than they have ever been. Even Malladus never managed to actually attack the castle."

The hero's eyes widened. "Attacks on the castle? How have I not heard of this?" The princess shook her head sadly. "They take out anybody who leaves, either on foot or by train. Steal anything valuable, and drag them away to an uncertain fate. If I had confirmation that they are still alive, I would be much more relaxed. They let absolutely anybody in to the castle, as you saw. The more people trapped inside, the easier it is for the monsters to do whatever they are planning." Link looked down at his boots thoughtfully. "I may be able to get you that information. How are the food supplies at the moment?" Zelda frowned. "Not great. We have provisions for three weeks. Why do you ask?" Link looked back up now, smiling slyly. "I figured I could tail one of their raiding parties back to base. There has to be somewhere that the monsters store all the resources and people that they take. It could be useful knowledge to have." Zelda looked interested for a few seconds, but eventually shook her head. "You'd possibly sacrifice a group of random people on a hunch? It's a good idea, but the circumstances required to convince people to participate..." The hero grimaced. "You're probably right, as usual." They both sank into unhappy thoughts. However, the hero and princess were violently shaken out of their depression at the sound of a massive explosion.

"What in New Hyrule south of the Tower of Spirits was that?" Link shouted. They both ran to the nearest window and looked out. A large party of monsters were milling around a large hole in the castle wall that hadn't existed a few minutes before. He looked around frantically, searching for a way to get down from the tower quickly. The hero saw nothing helpful in the room, so he rummaged frantically around in his bag, looking around outside the window for something. He nodded quickly as he saw it, and pulled out the Spirit Flute and whip. Zelda looked at him quizzically as he jumped up on to the windowsill, and began playing the instrument at a ferocious rate. A large bird swooped down. Turning around to salute the princess, Link jumped backwards out the window, grabbing the bird's talons with the whip as he did so. The birds had been able to carry Link's full body weight a year before, but he had grown quite a bit in that time. As a result, his avian ally was descending, instead of flying level, but at a manageable rate. After about fifteen seconds of this, Link pulled the whip off the bird and hit the ground rolling, completely free of injury. The townspeople were all fleeing toward him, so going the opposite direction of the stream seemed like a safe bet to get to combat. The Hero of Spirit set off as fast as his short legs would carry him, towards the sound of battle.

The ugly racket of sword on sword and shield grated painfully on his ears, even at a distance, and the metallic smell of blood filled the air. A few smaller explosions rang out occasionally, likely an individual soldier throwing bombs. As he drew closer, the cacophony grew louder and louder, until it seemed there was nothing in the entire kingdom other than burning houses, blood-drenched bodies, and the colossal noise of battle. Link tripped on a... to be honest, he wasn't sure what it was. He landed heavily on the cobblestone road, his left shoulder taking most of his body weight. Link grunted in pain. It seemed to the hero that nothing was broken, but it would stiffen in a few hours, significantly hindering his sword arm. He stood up and continued running, suddenly bursting into the town square. He'd found the battle. The volume at this short distance was the loudest thing he had ever heard, almost deafening. Link paused for a few seconds, then threw himself into the brawl.

There was no defined front line, just a shoving mass of bodies, in a series of one-on-one duels. There was also almost no skill at this point. You were either stronger or faster than your opponent, and took advantage, or you were dead. The Hyrulean Knights were doing an admirable job holding, but sheer weight of numbers was beginning to prevail. Link's first target was a massive Stalfos Warrior brandishing two swords, each almost as tall as Link himself. Their gazes met at almost exactly the same time, and immediately one of the swords came whistling down at a terrifying speed. Link calmly sidestepped the blow, and swung the Lokomo Sword at the skeleton's left elbow, shearing the forearm clean off. The Stalfos shrieked painfully at that, and swung the other sword horizontally. However, it was used to fighting fully grown adults, not eleven year old kids, and the sword was too high. Link ducked easily under the stroke, swinging his whip at the hilt of the blade. The whip missed the sword, and wrapped around the wrist of the Stalfos instead. Dropping the Lokomo Sword for a moment, the hero grabbed the whip in both hands and pulled with every ounce of strength in his body. After a few seconds struggle, the hand detached from the forearm, leaving the monster unable to wield a blade. An even more horrible shriek followed that. Link shuddered, and swung his weapon at the Stalfos's skull. The razor-sharp blade punched straight through the tough bone, and the Stalfos fell to the ground, in pieces, before exploding into purple smoke.

Link straightened from his crouch, and quickly looked around for his next target. But something was already moving towards him. He turned, and saw a familiar foe. A large blue pig-like creature, floating above the brawl, with massive, bat-like ears, and alarmingly short legs. The creature had painted a circle around its eyes, one side blue, the other red. As he watched, it swelled to a massive size, and then deflated. Link's eyes narrowed. It could only be one thing. Frazz, master of icy fire. Somehow it had been resurrected. He shot the monster a few times with his bow, just to annoy it, and then sprinted away. Frazz's magic could decimate the remaining soldiers if they were too close to the fight. He eventually turned around in a larger courtyard, and was not disappointed to see the monster in hot (or was it cold? Or both?) pursuit. "You know how this ends, you demonic blue pig," Link growled, drawing his boomerang. "Now let's dance."

Frazz began flying around at a ferocious rate, swelling to ten times its usual size, and turning bright red. It spat three massive fireballs at Link, and then began to turn blue. As soon as the color change was complete, Link threw his boomerang at the flames burning on the cobblestone. The weapon caught of fire slightly, and he had lined it up perfectly so that it slammed into Frazz almost the instant the monster changed to blue. The clashing elements caused the demonic pig to shrink significantly from the hilariously bloated size that Frazz had previously been. A bizarre squeak emitted from the monster, and Link got a few respectable hits in before Frazz started levitating again. This time, it turned blue, but the massive swelling returned. It proceeded to belch a wave of icy magic all over the ground, missing Link by a good eight feet. He proceeded to do exactly the same thing that had damaged the pig thirty seconds prior; wait until it changes color, then get the boomerang covered in the cold energy, and hit the now fire enchanted monster, followed by a flurry of strikes with the Lokomo Sword. Link rolled his eyes. Why did these creatures never learn from what had just injured them? He'd hardly had that thought when Frazz split into two. Normal enough, the hero thought. It did that last time too. But then, the two split into two each, and then the resulting four split in half again. Link's eyes widened. "It didn't do that last time!" he shouted. By this point, however, a hurricane of ice and flame projectiles shrieked towards him.

Link dived behind the minimal protection of the fountain. It was painfully low to the ground, so he had to lie completely prone to avoid the maelstrom of magic. He looked around frantically for better cover, but the nearest was a good twenty feet away, and it was highly unlikely he would get half that distance. Octo-Frazz was clearly savoring this moment of power, as all of the monsters were taking their sweet time to get closer to him. Link grimaced. He'd have to risk making a break for it. He shot an arrow at the middle one, just to distract it for a second or two, then took off at a full sprint. Elemental energy whizzed past his ears, and he abruptly rolled to the right, making what would likely have been a painful hit smash into the road. Link rolled again, this time to the right, throwing off Octo-Frazz's aim further. I can't pull that off again, they're on to it, Link thought. And then he was at the overturned wagon that was the only available cover. His opponents were merely floating off, about fifteen yards away, pelting the wagon with projectiles. The sound of all that energy hitting the wood was not unlike rain on a tin roof. A mass of ice landed on the top of the cart loudly. The hero quickly used the residue to pick off a fire-based iteration of the pig off to the left. A quick squeak (or was it a hiss?) emitted from the monster, and suddenly, there were only seven left. However, at that, the remaining seven began growling remarkably loudly, and advanced slowly on him. Link quickly stuck his head out, and, even more quickly, nailed another of his foes, but now the magic was coming in too fast for even that little time exposed to be prudent. He grimaced. Things could get unpleasant awfully quickly if he didn't do something. The many iterations of Frazz were getting steadily closer, and there was little he could do about it.

Suddenly, a gold flash caught his eye, followed by rapid movement behind his blue, overweight nemesis. A glowing projectile slammed into the pig farthest from him, almost instantly disintegrating it. That caught their attention. Suddenly unwatched, Link darted out, and nailed another. Abruptly at half-strength, the masters of icy fire hurriedly retreated to cover, only exposing themselves for a second at most to sling energy at Link and his unknown benefactor. "You looked like you were in a bad spot there, Link," a voice behind him announced. He turned around quickly. There stood Princess Zelda, brandishing the Bow of Light. Link grinned ruefully. "I think I had them on my own, but thanks anyway." Zelda rolled her eyes, but changed the subject to the much more pressing matter at hand. "What are we going to do about them?" she asked, gesturing at the four monsters hiding out in a nearby building. By this point, they were so nervous of Link's boomerang and Zelda's bow, they weren't even staying out of cover long enough to aim, meaning that none of the magic was landing anywhere near the duo. Link shrugged. "I figure that there's a good chance those things are leading this attack, so if we deal with them, the monster army may retreat." Zelda thought for a moment, then nodded. "Let's deal with them, then." They proceeded to charge the building.

Unfortunately, the clones of Frazz were much smarter than the hero and princess gave them credit for. First of all, the pigs realized that Zelda couldn't fire accurately on the run, and if she stopped, they had enough time to duck down before getting nailed. Second, they realized Link couldn't harm them unless they fired at him first, and even then, only ice could damage the fire monsters, and vice versa. By sheer bad luck, the duo had eliminated three ice monsters, and only one fire, so as long as the remaining ice stayed in cover and didn't shoot, Link was not a threat. As a result, Zelda was the more important target. Third, they realized that if all three fire magicians lobbed their projectiles simultaneously, and put the shots in a V shaped pattern in front of Zelda, she would be very hard-pressed to dodge, given that she was at a full sprint, and probably couldn't stop on a dime. Fourth, they were technically still the same entity, so coordinating such a plan was remarkably easy. Link and Zelda hadn't seen any intelligent behavior, the only strategy so far just chuck so much energy that the target was overwhelmed, so neither expected a concise plan at this point. As a result, they got a nasty shock when the three monsters suddenly put the strategy into action.

Link was nearly at the building when it happened. He had enough time to wonder when the monsters had become to coordinated before they fired. Zelda fired back, but by this point, they were back in cover. It seemed to play out in slow motion. The extra time granted by this allowed Link plenty of time to realize that none of the magical flames were directed at him. His heart sank when he noticed that the three shots were led perfectly.

Zelda was at a full sprint when the three popped over the windowsill. She hurriedly pulled out an arrow, knowing it would probably miss, but hoping it might scare the Frazz clones back into cover. That's how it had worked a few times now. But not this one. They fired a volley of burning energy in her direction. The arrow was in flight at this point, but they were back behind the wall just too quickly. Just like it had for Link, time seemed to slow, giving her an opportunity to assess the situation. Three shots, one on a direct collision course, the other two to the left and right of the first, so she couldn't jump to the side. Sliding to the ground would avoid the projectiles, but on this brutally rough stone, a slide might do more damage than the magic. However, the center pig had messed up the angle slightly, and the shot was set to collide with her legs, slightly above the knee, as opposed to the other two, which were higher. Attempting to jump over it was looking like the only option. She threw herself into the air, and then...

Link's eyes widened as he saw Zelda leap as high as she could. He felt a surge of excitement. She was going to clear it! And then the small fireball jerked upward about six inches. Somehow, their opponents could adjust projectiles in midair. Thankfully, it didn't lodge itself in her abdomen, that would have taken a few more inches. But it smashed into her left foot on the way by.

The sheer force of the impact took Zelda's breath away. It felt like Link's train had hit her foot at full speed. In addition to the immediate searing pain in that area, she actually began to spin in the air thanks to the power behind that projectile.

Link's stomach churned. She was actually rotating in the air from the impact. The landing was going to be unpleasant, or even fatal if she landed on her head.

Roughly the same thoughts were running through Zelda's head. Thankfully, the downward momentum from the impact was being countered by the irresistible force of gravity, but she had spun almost ninety degrees forward.

She hit the ground very hard. Time slowed even further for Link, almost to a stop entirely, then suddenly returned to normal speed. Zelda had landed on her right shoulder, head coming down almost last. Link breathed a sigh of relief. Given the horrible circumstances, that was almost best-case scenario. A squeak from the building shook him back to the present. She was either unconscious, or worse, so it was his job to eliminate the magicians responsible. Link saw red. Those pigs would pay for this. He scooped up the Bow of Light, and charged the house. The door was shut and probably locked, but he was determined to eliminate the monsters who hurt his closest friend. At the last second, right before hitting the door, he threw himself into the air, curling up into a ball as he did so. At this point, he was essentially a human cannonball. The building itself was extremely old, and had not been lived in for almost thirty years, so the soft wooden door, fragile in the first place, was in bad shape. He smashed straight through the dilapidated timber. His already bruised left shoulder had led the way, and was now quite painful, but he'd worry about that later. He looked up, his murderous glare met by four pairs of eyes. His voice was a guttural growl when he spoke. "Hello. I am the Hero of Spirit. You may have killed my friend. Prepare to die."

The Bow of Light was in his hands almost before he had the thought to put it there, and an arrow on the string even faster. He drew, aimed, and released in less time than it takes to say it. One of the three fire-based opponents suddenly ceased exist. He fired again and wiped another off the face of the earth. By now though, the element of surprise from his insane entry was gone, and the other two, one ice, one fire, were prepared. However, now it was just the fight from Link's adventure in the Snow Temple. The two circled him, moving erratically enough to make a bow hit just about impossible. They were refusing to take shots at him, however. Link took several deep breaths. I need to calm down and get my head back in this fight, he thought. He shook his head violently to clear it. That's better. Now I just need to hit these things. They were still in the confined space of the house, so that was an advantage in Link's favor. Suddenly, he had an idea. He pulled an arrow put of his quiver, and nocked it. The monsters looked noticeably wary at this, and moved slightly closer to make a bow shot harder. However, this was just what the hero was counting on. He suddenly leaped into the air, and, arrow still on the string, brought the bow down on an incarnation of Frazz's skull. The arrow, powered up by the Bow of Light, melted that particular opponent. There was just one left now. The pig finally decided to start chucking magic, ice in this case, at Link, and in such a tight space, it was quite dangerous. He shook his head. If he stayed in this small house, the odds he'd die were quite respectable. On the other hand, if he led it out into the square outside, Zelda would inevitably get hit by the monster, be it intentional or otherwise. As long as there was a chance she was unconscious, not dead, he'd have to risk staying inside. A heavy impact to Link's right arm shook him out of his thoughts, knocking the hero to the ground. A wave of pain swept through his body. He inhaled sharply. "That hurt a lot more than it did last time," he groaned through gritted teeth. He stood unsteady, and immediately had to leap to the side to avoid another blast. The landing furthered the contusion on his left shoulder. Link could barely move that arm at all by this point. Frazz suddenly flew forward terrifyingly quickly, and crashed into the hero, sending him painfully to the hard wood floor again, his head hitting the hardest this time.

Frazz began cackling increasingly loudly as the hero lay on the ground. Link forced his eyes open. A jolt of panic shot through him as he thought he saw two of the monster again. He tried to sit up, but a massive flare of pain behind his eyes, accompanied by a wave of nausea, stopped that effort quickly. Formal schooling in Adoba Village had been minimal, but he'd learned quite a bit about common injuries as a soldier-in-training, and all the symptoms he was experiencing pointed to a nasty concusshine. Wait, concusshine? That didn't seem right. Whatever the actual name was, it consisted of a heavy blow to the head, causing the brain to stop behaving normally. He couldn't remember any more details than that. The two monsters were moving identically, so Link's pounded brain was able to discern that he was probably seeing double. Eventually, they merged back into one, removing the nagging fear he was seeing correctly, and there were two. He groaned. This headache was agonizing. Was Frazz moving closer? He wasn't sure. Everything was incredibly blurry, and his depth perception was almost nonexistent. However, Link felt the monster's breath of his forehead, so it was probably close? He tried to swing his fist at his opponent, but could only manage a feeble twitch. His hand brushed something wood, and vaguely round. Was that a hint of warmth? He forced his head to the side. Was it... The Bow of Light! It was off to his left, and, between the contusion (or worse), and the head injury, grabbing the weapon would be extremely difficult and painful. Link gritted his teeth, and moved as quickly and smoothly as he could. His fingers met the wood once again, and managed to close around it. Frazz didn't look concerned, he thought. No, the monster looked... amused? Happy? Neither emotion made sense, given its greatest foe had grabbed the only weapon capable of destroying it. It even smiled? That thing was even capable of such an action? Suddenly, it swooped down, and planted its foot in Link's already shredded left shoulder. He cried out in pain. That had almost certainly dislocated it. The pig seemed pleased by the response, cackling maniacally. It was a horrible, metallic sound, grating on the hero's nerves. The painful noice was probably meant to make his last moments a bit harder before the monster finished him off, and it began moving closer menacingly for that purpose. However the exact opposite happened. Something in Link just snapped. He rolled over incredibly quickly, ignoring the crushing pain as his shredded limb took his full body weight. His right hand seized the weapon in a fierce grip, and he shot to his feet. Pure rage alone kept him up, as the worst pain he'd ever felt shot through his forehead like a spearpoint that had spend three hours in a bonfire. Link's vision began to go dark, and, with a final, superhuman effort, he drove the arrow, still nocked on the bow, into Frazz's abdomen. The monster let out an unearthly shriek, half surprised and half terrified, before melting away into nothing, and the hero was unconscious before he hit the ground.

Author's note: Ok, first of all, this chapter was supposed to go completely differently. The whole battle scene was completely unplanned, and then, I suddenly had a 2,700 word boss battle. The plan was for much more plot progression, but I couldn't turn down the whole thing once it got started. Wow. I always wondered what authors meant when they say a chapter writes itself. Also, did anybody catch the reference I hid in there? I changed the wording a lot, because I refused to outright announce if Zelda died or not (in all seriousness, I haven't decided yet), but hopefully, it's not TOO unnoticeable. On another note, "What in New Hyrule south of the Tower of Spirit" has no particular meaning, it's just intended to be a hilarious exclamation. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, but any idea at all seems better in your head than it actually is. I'll likely go back through and rewrite chapter one now. Before you lose your minds, I plan on adding a ton of story, not just changing the wording. Hopefully, it won't take as long as this one did... sorry about that by the way. But it's here. See you next mission!