Chapter 19: Hunted
Sonic and Link continued to plow through the undergrowth with Link hacking the plants like those explorers you see on TV.
"I feel like I'm in a greenhouse." Link said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
"That's easy for you to say. Why don't you try being blue and furry like me? It's at least twice as bad as what you're feeling like." Sonic said, somewhat annoyed.
Just then, something rustled in the bushes and Sonic froze. He slowly looked to his right and saw something protruding from the plant life. It was long, blood red, and charging energy. The hedgehog had seen something similar to it and that thing was a laser cannon.
"GET DOWN!" Sonic said, tackling Link to the floor.
A long red bolt of energy shot from this new thing and grazed Sonic's left ear. Link shot back to his feet, took out his bow, and shot an arrow at the thing. The arrow buried itself in the alien being's abdomen and it let out a loud screech. The thing that was attached to it was an alien that had red everywhere. It had a soul red eye on its needle-like head and its limbs seemed to be spikes and nothing more.
"Well, pinhead, I hope you came here to surrender, because you'll be begging for it!" Link said as he drew his sword.
Link had just swung his sword in a vertical slash when an android thing leapt out and raised a kind of energy dagger attached to its right arm, blocking his sword. It was covered in jade-green armor and its hands were a kind of black metal. It had a visor that was orangish-yellow, but the thing behind it was more…human.
"Don't you dare think about trying to annihilate Trace!" The android said as he pushed Link aside.
"Hey, metalhead! Pick on someone your own speed." Sonic said as he curled into his ball and charged again.
Then, out of nowhere, Spire the rock man arrived and hit Sonic's spin attack at an angle that caused Sonic to tip over onto his side. Sonic tumbled, but quickly rolled to his feet when something resembling a large caterpillar charged out of the forest. It missed Sonic, but it stopped, turned to face Sonic, and changed to take the form of a man. Even though this thing was human, it was somewhat insectoid in appearance and acid-green.
Link had recovered from his experience with the android and charged past the robotic warrior to try and impale either Spire or the caterpillar man when something shot at him and he ducked, missing the blast by inches. Two figures had just emerged from the forest with both blasters out. One was deep blue with a kind of green line going from its scalp and spreading throughout its body. This one had fired a kind of green laser that fried a nearby plant that Link was just about to step on. The other one was an electric blue creature that seemed to glow like a neon lamp. It also had fired a blue blast that hit the ground just behind Link. When Link turned around, he saw that the blue laser had frozen the ground and hated to think about what would have happened if he had been one second too slow.
"Oh, great. Rocky's got friends." Sonic said as he looked at both of his opponents.
"I see you've found my new henchmen." A mechanical voice said, inquisitively.
"Oh no…" Link said as he looked up.
A familiar metal dragon landed with its large wings flapping like a pterodactyl and its metal teeth clinking together. When it landed, it was much taller than Link remembered; a good seven and a half feet tall.
"Allow me to introduce these new bounty hunters." Ridley said as he pointed at each one, saying its name.
"I give you Spire," He pointed to the rock man, "Trace," he pointed to the red alien, "Weavel," He pointed at the android that was now pointing its energy dagger at Link's back, " and Kanden," He pointed at the caterpillar guy, who was now emitting a kind of growl. "But we can't forget Sylux," He pointed at the guy with the green stripe, "And Noxus." He gestured to the electric blue thing.
"Now, let's get down to the point." Weavel said, inching his blade closer to Link, "Where is Samus?"
"Right here." A familiar female voice said.
Those two words were enough to draw the attention of even the mindless Kanden. Suddenly, all of them focused their guns on some part of the jungle. But they forgot that they turned their backs on their hostages.
"Take THIS!" Link shouted.
Without warning, Link shoved his sword into Weavel's back. Electricity sparked from his body and the android screeched in pain as he whirled around and backhanded Link. Link flew backward and took the sword with him.
"You've got a lot of guts. Let's see what they look like." Weavel said as he raised his energy dagger.
"Weavel!" Sylux shouted.
Without warning, Sonic had evaded both Kanden and Spire and bombarded the android in the back. Weavel fell forward and Ridley growled in rage. He took a large step forward and his iron talons actually left deep gashes on Weavel's metal armor.
"CRUSH THEM!" Ridley shouted as he shook his fists, like he was holding both of their necks in them.
Just then, a blast of energy hit Kanden in the face. Kanden hissed madly and pointed a kind of arm cannon at nowhere in particular. He shot a kind of acid-green bolt of electricity into the jungle, but he didn't really hit anything except some foliage and a rock or two and he got his answer when another blast of energy hit him in the chest. Suddenly, Kanden reached forward, wrapped his hands around something, and threw it forward to reveal Samus. Samus barely got to her feet just in time to kick Kanden in the chin, if he had one. Kanden staggered backward and took a swipe at Samus with his hand. Samus simply ducked to the right and shot Kanden right in the face. When Kanden finished shaking the cobwebs from his head, Samus was gone.
Weavel got up and charged Link with his energy dagger out as Link dodged a blast from Noxus. However, Weavel let out an angered roar, alerting Link to his presence, and then began to hack madly at the Hylian, who parried with his Master Sword. Link was thankful for the Master Sword, whose holy blade couldn't be shattered by mere force or energy, and pressed his attack. He then pushed Weavel backward and ducked so that Sylux, who was right behind him, blasted his comrade, leaving a sizeable crater in the android's armor. Weavel stumbled backward, leaving an open spot for Link, and ended up with his legs being severed just below the knee. Link ran after Noxus, not knowing that the severed legs didn't slow Weavel down. Weavel continued to race after Link, using his arms like legs. He then spun around on his arm and used the stumps of his legs to kick Link in the back and send the Hylian skidding.
Ridley was furious that his new henchmen were being made jokes out of. Now he wasn't so worried about winning the fight, but of surviving it. His plan had started out somewhat clunky, but now it was beginning to take place.
Back in the battlefield, Trace raced at Sonic with his sniper rifle out and shot another beam at the hedgehog. Sonic simply avoided it and kicked the "pinhead" in the eye. Trace stumbled, but landed on his arms and flipped back on his stilt-like feet. Sonic was about to charge when Trace leapt away and Spire turned into the rock with spikes on it. He rolled at Sonic like a bowling ball and Sonic simply smirked.
"So, you want a rematch, huh?" Sonic asked.
Sonic was about to turn into the spinball when Noxus charged his cannon and out came a blast of blue energy. It bombarded the place Sonic was going and it froze the ground, causing Sonic to slip and to lose balance. The blue alien was about to do it again when Samus shifted gears in her gun and fired a missile. It hit Noxus in the back and the blue alien stumbled five steps before changing his attention to Samus. Noxus fired a blast at Samus only to see it miss by a mile and watched in horror as his blast caught Kanden in the back. Kanden screeched madly as he turned around, pointed his cannon at Samus and fired, but Samus fired some kind of grappling beam from her cannon and swung away, causing Kanden's blast to hit Noxus in the chest with green plasma. Noxus shook this off and the two continued to chase off after the bounty hunter, who was now back on the ground.
Ridley watched with great amazement as the three were faring well against their opponents and slowly began to stalk toward them. He saw Weavel sort of "weld" his legs back together with his energy dagger and then continue to fight Link. The two began a series of complex sword maneuvers, but the exchange barely lasted ten or twelve seconds when Link severed an arm and a leg. Weavel still hopped after Link on his remaining foot and continued to wield his dagger all the while screeching some threat that involved his dagger and Link's innards. That is until Link severed his arm, but Weavel still continued after him on one foot and managed one last kick until Link severed his last leg and ran his sword right through the android's chest, causing him to go limp.
Spire had turned into his spike-ball and was rolling right for Link, so the hero started running backward away from the rock man. He then changed direction, causing Spire to crash into a rock then Link took his sword and sunk it into one of the spikes on the ball. The rock stopped rolling and Spire emerged, sprawled out on his back. Just then, Sylux pointed a gun and fired just when Link raised his shield. It didn't hit Link, but it did force him backward a step or two until Sonic sprinted in and spun into the blue bounty hunter.
"You're not roasting my buddy anytime soon." Sonic said as he leapt away to avoid a red laser blast from Trace.
Kanden turned into his caterpillar mode and began to crawl after them with his jaws clacking like boltcutters. Sonic quickly leapt away and landed right on top of the big worm. He then placed his hands over Kanden's single eye and the caterpillar started to crawl out of control until it crashed into a nearby tree. When it did, Sonic leapt off just in time for Samus to fire a charge shot she had been saving for such an occasion. When she fired, a huge orb of energy the size of a wrecking ball erupted from the barrel of her cannon and blasted Kanden. When it sunk in deep, Kanden exploded into green slime.
As the trio battled the bounty hunters, the bounty hunters started to gather them in a circle when Ridley opened his mouth to reveal a machine gun. He started firing rapid-fire blasts and all three of them were able to deflect them in some way. Samus turned into the Morph Ball and rolled away in retreat, Link deflected them with his shield, and Sonic simply evaded them with his speed. Then, Ridley got in close and wrapped his claw-like fingers around Link's neck. He reached with his free arm and wrapped his claws around Samus' head, and his taloned foot reached and seized Sonic, who was racing past. Then, his tail reached forward and put it close to Samus' throat while his claws around Sonic and Link simply tightened.
"Hahahahahahahahahaha…You were doomed from the start. Today will be known as the day when I finally killed Samus." Ridley snarled with apparent satisfaction.
"Ridley, there's something else out there and it's more powerful than you can imagine." Link warned.
Ridley scoffed.
"And WHAT could be THAT powerful?" He asked, as if it was some cruel sick joke.
"Those huge guys right behind you." Sonic said as he pointed behind Ridley.
Ridley's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he slowly turned around and those narrowed eyes snapped open real wide when he saw what was there. There, in all their hideous glory, were five Dragonoids; Red Wyvern, Blue Firedrake, Green Salamander, Yellow Drache, and White Amphis; all with toothy smiles on their faces. All the bounty hunters' eyes would have widened if they had any and Samus' did too, though you couldn't see them.
"Nice little troops, metalhead." Wyvern said, sarcastically.
"Mind if we annihilate them and take your key item?" Firedrake added.
Ridley just stood there, flabbergasted at what happened and then the new creatures charged with their claws and teeth bared.