Chapter 27: The twelve generals
Link sat in the boardroom, space so far had been empty and boring noting exciting was happening. Fox was drinking a cup of coffee across the room while trying to research something. Kirby and Pikachu had gone with Falco to do some simulation training, while Jigglypuff had been directed to a soundproof room where she was singing karaoke. Meanwhile Mario was relaxing in his room while mass panic had hit Luigi. He had been running around the cafeteria for most of the morning wondering out loud if they were ever going to get back home. Yoshi had disappeared a while ago, and DK was eating a banana that he had brought with him. Meanwhile the three siblings Rai, Sui, and Tei requested to be alone for a while.
Link was leaning back taking the occasional sip of water out of a glass cup. "Found it!" Fox shouted out, he surprised Link by his sudden outburst.
"Found what?" Link asked.
"The data on the Twelve Generals." Fox paused. "No I didn't find it I hacked into it, it was almost like no one wanted it to be found. The last historic evidence of the Great War."
"The Great War?" Link asked.
"It was a war that nearly destroyed everything!" The NES Sword replied. "It was to seal up a evil force, but it looked like everything was going to be destroyed as darkness was prevailing. Then when all hope seemed lost twelve great fighters came forwards to defend the last remaining worlds. Each of the wielding a Weapon of Heart."
"So far we only know 3 of them a Lance, a Chakram, and a Shield." Fox sighed.
Link's eyes opened wide shocked. "But those are the weapons that Pikachu, Mario, and Luigi can summon and use!"
"Yes," The NES sword replied. "It is more than just a coincidence and I'll look into it at once!" With that it was silent, only the faint scratching of a pencil on a piece of paper could be heard. Fox just stared blankly at the piece of paper in front of him; his hand on is chin indicating that he was in deep thought.
"How do you pass the time in this place?" Link asked. Fox looked up from the piece of paper.
"I never really think about it," He said. "You just get used to it, anytime I'm bored I do Sodoku or training."
"I'd like to train then," Fox looked at Link. "I feel that I should soon be able to unlock my Weapon of Heart, and with out it I fear that I might only be holding the others back."
"You are determined." Fox replied. "However you should know that training will be different here." Fox began to get up however a hologram of Samus popped out of the table.
"Fox I hear you are heading towards Mute City." Samus said.
"Yes we plan to meet up with you there. And then we need the location of Onett. Anyways do you know anyone who might be willing to help us?"
"Yes," She replied after a moment of deep thought. "An ex-bounty hunter by the name of Captain Falcon." Fox nodded.
"Remember stay hidden."
Samus just sighed. "You don't need to remind me Fox."
"Transmission end." Fox barked. The hologram disappeared and Fox walked to the door. "Follow me." He ordered Link.
They walked into the gray room. "This is the training room?" Link asked. Fox just nodded. "But there is nothing here!" As soon as those words left Link's mouth a forest appeared out of nowhere. Where the ceiling was, now was a clear blue sky.
"Welcome to the training room," Fox calmly said not at all surprised by the sudden changes, while Link just stared in awe. "It's a hologram based training room." Something suddenly rushed out at the two surprising them.
"I couldn't sense it!" Link said slightly shocked. "But ever since that battle with the paint monster my senses haven't been as sharp,"
Fox pulled out his gun and shot at the creature killing it in one shot. It landed on the ground and before either of them could identify it, it disintegrated. "Most likely an Aparoid," Fox sighed walking forwards. "The creatures you will encounter in here have no life force and you will be unable to sense them since they are a hologram. They won't do any fatal wounds on you but they can hurt."
"So they will essentially have no emotion behind their attack and won't be as predictable,"
"Exactly."
They walked through the forest until they came across several purple humanoid shapes. "Wait those were the things that we fought against" Link said shocked.
Fox just stood their nodding. "The ship's computer must have copied them down before incinerating them. Perhaps there is a slim chance that they aren't hostile." The moment the words left Fox's mouth each of the polygon fighters looked up looking hostile.
"You just had to say that." Link moaned, "Well hopefully they won't be as hard to beat as the ones on Kongo Bongo," Link's eyes widened in horror at what he just said. "Crap," he muttered softly to himself realizing that he just jinxed them.
The Polygon fighters rushed forwards, one slashed at Link using its geometric sword. Link was rather surprised by the speed and could only block with his sword. When the swords clashed Link felt an invisible force push him back.
"Simulation end!" Fox shouted. Immediately the hologram disappeared and they both appeared back in the white room.
"Is there something else I could do for training?" Link asked.
Fox paused for a moment. "Actually there is," He replied. "I'm going to load up a stage on it are 10 targets you have to destroy them all. Once that is complete another stage will load, in that one you have 10 platforms that you must land get on." Fox walked out of the room, "Are you ready?" he asked over the intercom.
"Yes" Link replied back.
"Before we begin I should warn you that you only have 2 minutes to do the task at hand. The simulation was made in order to improve speed. Good luck"
In front of Link the hologram materialized and a mechanical voice shouted out "GO!" Link immediately surveyed the area for any targets. However giant stonewalls was blocking the view of all the targets from where Link was standing. Quickly Link turned around and was slightly shocked when floating in the air behind him was a red and white target with one swift move he cut through the target and a sound rang through the air. Link then jumped onto a ledge to get a better view there he saw another target down below.
"Too easy," Link smiled reaching for his bow, however he couldn't find it. Taking a few seconds he decided to use a bomb instead and threw it at the target. It hit making another loud sound. Link then looked up above and far off in the distance he could see another target. Link jumped onto the next ledge and then tried to jump to the next however failed. He began to spin around in the air giving him a bit of height and sending him backwards he landed on another platform and his sword cut a target. He looked up and thought about how he was going to get the next one. Link decided on pulling out another bomb and standing directly beneath the target after a jump he threw the bomb and it exploded on contact destroying the target.
Beneath Link was a narrow shaft. He fell down it and slashed the two targets that were there. "One minute left," Fox's voice shouted over the intercom. Link ran forwards and tripped letting go of his sword it strangely went partway through the wall and a chime sounded indicating a destroyed target. He pulled the sword out of the wall and jumped onto a platform above him and then onto another. He cut another target and jumped onto the last platform containing the ninth target. With one slash he destroyed the target and faced the last one.
It was a life or death jump. He had to put all of his faith into it and trust that he would destroy the target and not fall to his death. "Fifteen seconds," Fox's voice announced. He had no other options and jumped towards the target. But he couldn't make it, Link just stretched out his arm trying to reach for the target but it was futile. In his right hand a white light appeared and in one desperate attempt to destroy the last target he slashed at the target. To his surprise the target was destroyed but Link was still falling.
He landed on the soft ground it strangely felt like Jello. Above him materializing were four platforms varying in size blinking red. "GO!" a voice shouted out. With that Link jumped up onto the first, second, third and fourth. Above him was 4 solid other platforms rotating counter clockwise around a blinking platform. He jumped onto a rotating platform and onto the center platform. In front of him was another platform that was blinking red. He jumped towards it however narrowly missed.
He landed on another part and noticed arrows on the walls pointing to a small alcove beneath him. Link jumped down and into the alcove where a platform was waiting. He jumped on it and watched as it lit up. "One minute left," Fox announced. With that Link got out of the alcove and made his way back up to the platform he missed. He jumped onto it and then noticed another platform across from him. He jumped towards it and landed on it.
"Only 2 more platforms left," Link told himself. He noticed more arrows pointing downwards and followed them. He noticed another little alcove and jumped for it however he learned that there was no ground, luckily Link landed on a platform that was moving around slowly. "One more," Link looked down and saw it, if he missed he would land in a giant abyss. He jumped off of the platform and slid down the slanted walls until he jumped off and onto the final platform. Everything dissolved around him.
"Very good" Fox clapped. "For a few moments there I thought you weren't going to make it!"
Link didn't hear a word that Fox said; instead his eyes were fixated on the Sword in his hand. "This must be my Weapon of Heart," Link said holding out the sword. "It feels strong."
Fox realized that he was just ignored and waited patiently however he slowly began to get annoyed. "Are you done gawking at your weapon?"
"Yes," Link replied as the sword disappeared. "Now then ready for round two against those weird creatures?"
Fox smiled as a hologram appeared around them. "Thought you would never ask!"
They were all in the cafeteria of the Great Fox. Each of them was sitting at a chair at a rather large table. In the center of it was The NES Sword.
"I have done my research," The NES Sword proclaimed. "The twelve great Generals, I believe in your veins flows their blood. It is only natural that you have inherited their weapons of heart, although nowhere near the quality that theirs were but I can see that you have the potential to surpass the twelve great generals! But I'm getting off track. Please bring out your Weapons of Heart" In Mario's hands appeared the Chakram, while Luigi held out his Shield, Pikachu had the Electric Lance in his mouth, and Link was holding his Sword. "Your Weapon of Heart grows stronger and evolves depending on how you use it. The Weapons are Chakram, a Shield, the Electric Lance, and the Heart Sword. Those are the ones you are familiar with; as for the others there is a Hammer, a Giant Axe, Chaos Beam Cannon, Heart Guns, Heart Bat, Egg Bazooka, Star Rod, Demon Launcher, and a Marker."
"But that adds up to thirteen different weapons!" Jigglypuff said having been keeping count.
"Yes the leader of the Twelve and the strongest member had the ability to call upon two Weapons of Heart. Now then anyone can call upon a Weapon of Heart, however it won't be as easy as calling forth the Weapons of Heart from the twelve. Mainly because their heart has to craft the weapon itself. In fact you can also create a Weapon of Heart since you are using the Twelve's weapons however it is bound to leave you fatigued. Also the twelve's weapons will ultimately be weaker than the ones you will create since they are bound to particular limitations."
"Such as?" Pikachu asked.
The room was silent. "They all ready have a power level that can't be exceeded unless an unknown condition is met."
Ganondorf was sitting at the end of the table just smiling. "Amusing, now then how does one make a weapon of heart?"
"The process is mainly unknown, and only a very select few in a specific clan actually know how to create such weapons however they are sworn to secrecy and more than likely died off a while ago."
Everyone was silent once again. "There is only one other person I can think of who might remotely know how to make a Weapon of Heart. But I doubt that he would tell us."
"Yes," The NES Sword replied. "If anyone was bound to know it would be The Master."
Everything was once again silent Fox decided to stand up. "We should be arriving at Mute City in about twelve hours," he announced. "Do whatever you want during that time."
Everyone decided to train and fought against the Polygon's. At first it seemed like they were having great difficulty against them however as time went on they were able to learn how the Polygons attacked and began to fight them better.
Twelve hours had passed and everyone was waiting patiently in the boardroom.
"Fox, we are approaching Mute City!" Rob64's voice came over the intercom. "Awaiting for confirmation to land!"
"All right," Fox replied, he then looked at Slippy. "I think we will be there for a while, I want the ship repaired and given a better job than what those idiots at the Mushroom Kingdom did!" he turned his attention to the others. "Meanwhile, we will be tracking down an ex-bounty hunter that Samus referred us to, we only have a name and he goes by Captain Falcon."
Suddenly the ship shook rather violently. "Damn it Rob, what the hell is going on out there?"
"A dog fight has begun and most likely we will be caught in the crossfire." The mechanical voice replied back. Fox gritted his teeth. "Currently activating shield."
"Find out who they are!" Fox barked.
There was a brief pause while lasers firing could be heard from outside despite the fact that there is no sound in space. "Confirmed, the leaders of the groups are Samurai Goroh and Blood Falcon."
"Shoot them down," Fox coldly ordered.
"Sir I would like you to reconsider, both of them have a relatively high bounty that can help repair the ship." Rob 64's voice pleaded. "I could also get that much needed upgrade to the ROB 128 model"
"Didn't we just upgrade you from the ROB 8 model?" Fox asked. "And we are still paying off those payments to Tom Nook!"
"I'm sure all you will be debt free if you take there bounty sir,"
"Fine shoot their lackeys out of the sky, hopefully they will charge in on us at which point you will put up the shield trapping them inside. Then we capture them."
"Sir doesn't all natural logic state that if you are being fired at by a giant ship that just knocked out everyone else in your fleet you sort of retreat?"
"I didn't buy you so that you could point out the obvious flaws in my plans!" Fox barked.
"of course you did, what ever are you talking about?"
"That's it, you're being turned into scrap metal! Or at least for your 128 upgrade you are getting your free will chip removed!" Everyone was silent only Fox broke the silence. "Fire the cannons now!"
The cannons could be heared being charged up in the ship. "But why do you think that they would attack the Great Fox?" Falco asked.
A devilish smirk appeared across Fox's face. "I'm pretty sure that they would know their ships and know that this model is outdated a bit. After firing the cannons take at least 15 minutes to recharge. Then they would fire at the ship in an attempt to destroy it using their 15 minutes well, however the moment we put up the shield and they are trapped inside they will be unable to attack since the explosion would kill them aswell." Fox pressed a button on his seat and out of the table came the hologram of what was going on outside. "Fire!" Fox shouted. The great fox shot several lazars at the ships blowing most of them up until only two were left. They instantly stopped fighting each other and stared at the Great Fox. "Fire a warning shot using the rest of the power, be sure to miss."
Another shot fired this time it was a constant stream and it narrowly missed the two ships in such a fasion you would be unable to tell that they weren't actually aiming at them. It took them a few seconds to register what just happened. The bait had been set and they took it flying towards the Great Fox.
"Show shield range," Fox ordered. In the hologram a transparent sphere appeared once both of the ships were within the spere Fox pressed a button and a green barrier appeared around the Great Fox traping the two ships inside. A smile crossed Fox's face and it looked like he was about to congratulate himself for a job well done. "Its not over yet," He sighed. "ROB prepare capturing them."
Everyone watched as the two ships entered the Great Fox. It was only a few moments before ROB said "Capture complete!"
"Flawless," Fox smiled. "Now contact the city and ask for their bounty in cash, Slippy you will take care of that and then get the ship repaired while we find Captain Falcon. Now land!"
The shield dissapeared and the ship slowly began to land. Nearly everyone had begun to look out the windows. The only ones who weren't looking through the windows were Fox, Falco, Slippy, Link, Sui, and Tei. "The sky," Rai said confused. "It's purple!"
"The air has been polluted." Fox sighed. "And the government is doing there best to try and filter out the toxins. It might be best if we get the job done and get out of here quickly."
To be continued…
Notes:
ROB 8 model: A bit of a jab at the Gyromite robot.
Tom Nook: The guy in animal crossing that you spend the game in debt to…