Dark Dawn Chapter 2: War
The battle could be heard for miles. A chorus of explosions ripped the ground apart beneath their feet, but the creatures just kept coming. They were hunched near the ground, black claws nearly dragging their bodies closer to the target. Heads hanging low, as if to hide from the setting sun; silver gray saliva falling from their snapping jaws. But worst of all, they had no eyes.
The three ships returned from their bombing run, none worse for the wear. The two smaller ships were blue and white, winged, with their cockpits exposed, revealing a brown fox like creature and a blue bird in control. They swooped low to deliver more bombs while the larger ship, an orange, somewhat rounded shape, descended and began to land. A hatch opened once it touched the ground and a golden armored figure emerged. A helmet concealed its face, an emotionless green visor staring forward; the large cannon that served as a right hand pointed in the same direction.
"Samus, what are you doing?" asked the fox pilot through his COM system.
"My ship is out of missiles and I can do more damage on the ground," the figure responded. Though its voice was distorted, it was obviously female.
"And what will you do if you're engaged in melee?" the bird cut in.
"Fight"
The fox chuckled. "Fine, but before you dive in there, give me a report on our allies."
Samus sighed before scanning the battlefield. The sun was setting and it was difficult to make out details, but she reported what she saw. "All right, Link and Ganondorf are holding their own, and Zelda is blowing the crap out of those…things," she said as a green clothed swordsman and a tall, dark skinned man that glowed with purple fire, slashed and smashed their way through the ranks. A royal looking woman stood behind them, launching fireballs from her hands that detonated on impact with the creatures.
"Mario, Luigi, and Bowser are doing pretty well, too," Samus continued, watching two men in red and green overalls stomping anything in their path, occasionally throwing a fireball of their respective colors. A bit to the right of them was a giant bipedal turtle with a spiked shell, slashing anything that came close with wicked claws, once spewing fire from its mouth when the creatures attempted to overwhelm him with their numbers.
A flash of green and blue caught Samus's eye and when she looked, it faded, revealing four children fighting off the creatures with all they had. Two of them wore matching parkas, despite the weather, and fired off chunks of blue ice with their giant wooden mallets in perfect harmony. The third, a young boy in a striped shirt and baseball cap, shouted something indistinct, and then the group of creatures in front of him simply exploded in a green flash; evidently, they hadn't learned from the previous explosion. The final child could have been the green swordsman, Link, if not for his size. He shot flaming arrows into the creature's faces, slashing them with his sword if they got too close.
"Did you see those flashes?" asked Samus. "That was the kids, they're fine," she said after a moment. "Everyone's doing great. We'll have- Oh no…" Samus trailed off.
"What? What is it!?" the fox nearly screamed.
"It's bad, Fox," Samus said. "It's Roy. I'm going in"
The red headed swordsman, Roy, was nearly at his limit. Claw marks riddled hid body. Every time he cut one down, two more charged him from behind; he was surrounded. The Sword of Seals flashed again, ending three more dark creatures, before it fell from his hand. Now that the sun was down, they seemed to be getting stronger. Two creatures leapt toward him at the same moment, but Roy wouldn't go down easily. He slammed his fist into the first one, then rolled towards his sword, ducking under the second before he sliced it in half. As soon as he rose, another creature lunged at him, and its claws slashed across him face; he dropped the sword again. The creature lifted its claw a final time, preparing to finish him off, when its head suddenly exploded.
Its lifeless body fell on top of him as Samus appeared, arm cannon smoking, and fired again. Two more creatures' heads were lost as another swordsman appeared behind them. He wore royal attire, and had a tiara atop his blue hair, his expression one of quiet rage.
"Damn it all," Samus cursed, "the sun is down. Where the hell is Peppy with our ride!?" She glanced at Roy. "Is he dead?"
"Marth," Roy managed to rasp weakly before falling unconscious, under the protection of his friends. Marth took one look at Roy and seemed to catch fire, a visible aura of power radiating from him. He bent down and picked up Roy's sword, and then dashed off at top speed, a sword in each hand. Marth tore through the enemy, still glowing as he cut down anything near Roy's unconscious body. He hadn't noticed that the creatures stopped moving.
The others did, however, and immediately ceased attacking in favor of discussion.
"What's going on?" asked the kid in the baseball cap.
"No idea," responded one of the twin Parkas.
"Hey! You kids alright?" called a thickly accented voice. The group of children turned to face the man in the red cap and overalls coming toward them, his green counterpart following close behind.
"Yeah, we're fine, Mario!" shouted the other Parka twin, this one female. The small child in green simply nodded.
"But Roy's not! Look!" yelled the child in the baseball cap, pointing.
Link stepped forward, carrying Roy, Zelda and Samus right behind him. He placed the fallen warrior down slowly, and then drew a bottle filled with red liquid from his pack. He lowered the bottle to Roy's lips and poured the liquid down his throat, carefully supporting his head. When he finished, Link replaced stopper and sat down to wait. It didn't take long. Roy coughed himself awake, made a sound of disgust, and looked towards Link.
"What the hell was that?" he coughed, a red mist seeping from his mouth. Link chuckled.
"Potion," he said simply, before turning his gaze to the unmoving creatures. Zelda noticed what he was looking at, and asked, "What do you think they're doing?"
"It looks like they're listening for something," Luigi suggested.
"Or they stopped receiving orders," Ganondorf growled, approaching the group. "I've seen this before." He reached forward and plunged a purple coated fist into one of the creature's chests, lifting it off the ground. He grunted a moment later and the creature simply melted from his grip. "Magical constructs," he said. "Someone cut them off from their leader."
"But who could do that?" asked Mario.
A loud explosion suddenly ripped through the night, shooting purple light upward several hundred miles away; near the coast.
"I'd say," Samus said. "Whoever's on that island"
There was a burst of static, "Hey, you guys know what that was?" came Fox's voice through Samus's radio.
"We're pretty sure it's what made those creatures stop," She responded. "There's an island out there, too; any idea what's on it?"
"Yeah," said the blue bird. "Says here that's Cinnabar Island, but there's nothing there but an abandoned cloning lab."
"Thanks, Falco," said Samus. "Cinnabar Island; isn't that's where Mewtwo went after the second tournament?"
Ganondorf laughed. "Mewtwo, huh? If that was him, he'll make a fine ally yet."
"Mewtwo will never be like you, Ganondorf," Zelda said bluntly.
"Now what makes you say that, princess?" Ganondorf asked. He reached for Zelda, only to stop when Link's sword pressed against his neck. He grunted and backed off.
"You're not the first Hero, you know," he said. "And you won't be the last"
Roy decided to speak up, "Well, what now?"
"First thing's first," Samus began, "you need medical attention. Then, we go pick up Mewtwo. Fox, you listening?
"I hear you"
"Good. Do you think you can pick up Roy?"
"I can walk," Roy said, "that potion did the trick. I feel great.
"Okay, never mind," Samus said. "Let's go."
"Wait! What about them?" asked one of the kids, pointing towards Marth and Bowser, who were still fighting the nonmoving creatures.
"I guess we can't leave them," Samus admitted. "Alright, Ness, you and Young Link go get Marth."
The boy in the baseball cap, Ness, dashed off toward his target while the green clothed boy, Young Link, followed at a more relaxed pace. Samus turned to the other two children, "Popo, Nana, you two can go cool Bowser off"
The two children high-fived, and a flash of ice appeared between them, before they ran off.
They returned a moment later, their exhausted quarry struggling to keep up.
"Hey, you two!" called Ganondorf mockingly, "Attacking helpless creatures, what happened to your sense of honor?"
Bowser laughed at the jeer, but Marth' anger sharpened.
"They are heartless, unnatural aberrations," he replied, "they deserve less honor than is bestowed by my blade."
Ganonondorf's retort was swallowed by the sound of a jet engine. Everyone looked up to see a large ship descending towards them. It was white; vaguely bird shaped, and had four wings forming an "X" along its sides. THE GREAT FOX was plastered on its side. It landed and a hatch opened, revealing an aged looking hare standing near the door.
"Sorry we're late," he called, "Pikachu saw something on the way and wouldn't let us leave. Little mouse nearly shut down the whole ship."
A yellow mouse, a little larger than a Pichu, jumped up next to the hare and began waving its small arms wildly.
"What'd he see, Peppy?" asked Samus.
"We believe it was another pokemon, looked pretty banged up, too," Peppy responded. "He's in the regeneration chamber now, but to be honest, I'm not sure he'll make it."
Pikachu seemed to disagree with that statement. Strongly.
"Do you know which pokemon it was?" asked Mario, suddenly curious.
"It wasn't in our database, but when we put Pikachu on the translator, he said it was called 'Two-something', I think. Mewtwo?"
Author's note: Gah! This was much easier to write when there were 3 characters instead of 14. Everybody needs a chance in the spotlight, though, so expect still more characters (sigh).
Also, I might take a few suggestions for characters to be included.