Chapter two: Walls that go whoosh...
A/N: Ok so this is the second chapter. Its longer cuz I didn't rigth it... lol.. but anyways.. enjoy! .\\\
The storm trooper janitor had disappeared, though his whistling could still be heard. Link, still being paranoid about his surroundings, flattened himself against one of the metal walls, in preparation of sneaking around the corner for a quick peek. The 'wall' behind him promptly whished open, making Link fall on his behind for the second time in the last 5 minutes.
Link just sat there with his eyes closed for a moment, rubbing his sore bum and grumbling. "Great. They have magic doors here. What next?" His rather stupid question was answered the instant he opened his eyes and looked up at the looming figure between who's legs the short elf had tumbled.
It was a tall, black-garbed man with a flowy black cape and weird black helmet. The whole outfit looked rather stifling and would have made most people think of a black robot, but of course Link had never seen a robot. The first thought that entered Link's head was, How does he breath in that thing?
The black guy stared down at Link for a few seconds, looking very foreboding. Finally, he grumbled and made a head gesture that somehow made it obvious that he was rolling his eyes (despite the fact that they weren't visible). "Great. More stowaways. How do these little aliens get on board? Now we've got midgets and bugs! Bah! I don't have time for this!" And with that, he stepped right over the elf and walked/stomped away, muttering to himself in high bad temper. Link and Navi stared after him for a moment as he rounded the corner, and a few seconds later, they heard him yell in his raspy voice, "You! Janitor Trooper 31! I spilled my soda back in my meditation room, and you'd better have it cleaned up by the time I get back or I'll throw you out the airlock!" More stomping. Then all was quiet.
The elf and pixie continued to stare. Then Navi piped up with, "Weird. What do you think, Link?" Suddenly her already-bright-face brightened even more as she realized something. "Hey! I just rhymed! Yay me!"
All Link said, mainly to himself, was, angrily, "He just called me a midget!"
Just then, the mop-bearing storm trooper janitor came back around the corner, now whistling 'When the Saints Come Marching In' while pulling a wheeled mop bucket behind him. He walked right past the still-seated Link, making only one passing comment: "You might want to move, or the automatic door will come down and squash you." Then he disappeared around another corner and was gone again. Link glanced upward nervously and then quickly scooted out of the doorframe. A moment later, it whooshed shut again, leaving Link staring at it with horrible, disturbing thoughts involving magic elf-squashing doors running through his head.
His horrible daydreams were interrupted as he became aware of an all-too-familiar noise that made his teeth grind together painfully:
"Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen! Li-!"
"WHAT, Navi!" Link finally screamed. He instantly regretted it as the yell echoed off of the surrounding metal walls, hurting his pointy ears. When it finally died away, the green-garbed Highland glared daggers at his annoying fairy guide, his teeth still grinding. "WHY do you always have to DO that?"
Navi instantly got huffy. "Well, ex-cuuuuse me! I was just trying to snap you out of it – whatever IT was - and that always seems to work."
Muttering death threats under his breath, Link stood to his feet, subtly edging away from the closed door as he did so. Straightening his jacket smartly in an attempt to look like he knew what he was doing (yeah, right), Link looked around, studying the surrounding area.
Well, they appeared to be in some kind of hall…which was lit by some sort of glowy light set in the ceiling and walls…and…Link's attention was suddenly drawn sharply to the walls themselves. A thought had occurred to him, and he walked closer to one of them, staring intently. "Hey, Navi?" he began slowly. "Are these wall made of what I THINK they're made of?"
Navi stared at him quizzically, then flitted over to the wall and laid a small hand on it. "If you think it is made of some sort of gray metal, then yes. I've never seen any architecture like it. Why do you ask?"
Link was staring space-ily at the walls in front of him and didn't answer. Curious, Navi flew over to him and looked him in the face. Her eyebrows shot up. "Link? Are you all right?"
Link was drooling, and his eyes were as big as saucers. This lasted a few more seconds before he finally said in awe (after swallowing the pool of liquid in his mouth), "Do you realize how many swords could be made out of all of this awesome metal! And they're wasting it on WALLS!" A very comical-looking outraged expression shrouded his face as he shouted this.
Navi stared at him for a minute. He stared back. Then, finally, the pixie sighed heavily and covered her face with her hand, shaking it despairingly. "Link…you REALLY need help. Your sword fetish is getting out of hand."
Link became indignant at this. "Hey, I do NOT have a sword fetish!"
"Riiight."
Before their argument could continue, a very loud, blaring alarm began screaming through the hall. Link jumped about a foot in the air in surprise, then began looking around desperately for a hiding place. Dashing down the hall, they rounded the corner, and instantly whirled back around and ran for their lives when they were met by more storm troopers; unlike the janitor trooper, however, these ones carried blasters, with which they were firing at the elf and pixie. Spying a ventilation shaft on the side of the hall near the floor, Link dove for it. Thankfully it was loose enough to pull away quickly, and he slipped easily in. (Being small is very convenient at times.) Once safely inside, he leaned against the vent wall, panting hard.
The storm troopers came running up, and slowed to a stop near the vent. The alarm was still blaring, but they yelled over it loudly enough for Link and Navi to overhear their conversation. "You dunderheads!" one of them yelled angrily. "We're supposed to be looking for the humans!"
"What WAS that thing?" another white-armored trooper hollered, confused. "It was too short to be one of the intruders, and it looked GREEN! And it had some sort of glowing bug with it!"
"Which you just WASTED FIRE ON!" the first storm trooper, who was apparently the leader, yelled in response. "Probably just some wild animals that snuck on board."
"Again?" A third trooper piped up in a whiny voice. "How do they get on here! We're in the middle of space! Next thing ya know, the commander's going to have us spraying for pests!"
"DO NOT TALK BACK TO ME, PRIVATE!" The leader trooper bellowed. "And tell the Headroom to turn off that dad-blamed alarm! We already know we're supposed to be on the alert!"
Link wasn't able to hear anything they said after this, but sure enough, the deafening alarm cut off a few seconds later. There was a group audible sigh of relief from all in the area. One of the storm troopers glanced quizzically at the ventilation shaft. "Did that hole just sigh with relief?"
"Johnson, get your head out of the clouds!" the leader hollered military-style again.
"Don't you mean the ventilation shafts?"
If he weren't wearing a helmet, Navi pondered, I'm almost positive there'd be a big vein on his forehead right now. She tittered quietly to herself at the thought.
"FINE! Get your head out of the ventilation shaft! Whatever! Now, let's move out! And no more shooting at everything that comes around the corners! Next thing you know, we'll be shooting those little black rolling droids, whatever they're called!" Another storm trooper was about to tell him the name, but thought better of it when the trooper leader's gun hand began to spasmodically twitch. The whole lot moved off, and Link and Navi held their breath as the last few passed by. One in the rear said to his companion, "George really needs to lighten up. I don't think anyone takes their job as stressfully seriously as he does."
His partner shrugged. "Can't say I blame him, with this gig. I think the janitors have more exciting jobs than we do! It's just march, march, drill, eat, sleep, march, drill, shoot at trespassers when we're lucky, march, eat…" his voice faded out of hearing as the troop continued down the hall. Finally, Link and Navi exhaled. This was a good thing, since Link was starting to turn blue.
Crawling back out of the shaft, Link glanced up at his pixie healer, and asked, "So, what do think we should do now?" The pixie could only shrug in return. Link sighed and looked around, trying to decide which way they should go first. Seeing as the guys with the scary black things that shoot fire had just headed down the hall that way, the freaky black guy had gone down the hall the other way, and Link was still leery of the magic door…there weren't many options left.
Resigned to his rather annoying fate, Link spun on his heel and crawled back into the ventilation system, Navi flitting along behind.
A/N: My friend riverfox237 helped me write this. She's no longer on here... too bad... good author.