Chapter 30: The pieces come together…
Link and Sonic stopped their running to arrive in front of a blue house with a black roof. Link almost looked around for familiar signs, but the answer came when he came face-to-face with a bear with shorts and a backpack. The bear looked like he had just seen a ghost.
"Link?" The bear asked.
"Oh, hey, Banjo." Link said, shaking the stunned bear's hand.
"Uh, Link? Where the heck are we?" Sonic asked, desperately wanting attention.
Link was about to answer when something appeared in the sky. It was a kind of portal and Link had far too many experiences with portals in the sky.
"Everyone inside!" Link said, seizing Banjo by the hand with Sonic and the bird close behind.
When they were inside, Link said, very quickly, "Sonic, this is Banjo the bear and Kazooie the bird."
"Oh, thanks for the introduction, earring boy. Whatcha shove us in here for?" Kazooie asked in her usual loud-mouthed fashion.
"There are creatures after us: the Dragonoids. These creatures are VERY dangerous, seeing as they wiped out many things that took me hours to beat." Link explained.
Banjo's eyes widened and Kazooie's got even wider. They stayed as low as they could get and then something struck Sonic.
"Hey, I've got an idea. Listen…" Sonic said before whispering into Link's ear.
Vector and his crew landed their ship in a clearing near a spiral-shaped mountain. They had definitely seen Link and Sonic in this world and had seen them run off somewhere.
"You sure this is where they are, Vector?" Espio asked.
"I'm as positive as an atom. Of course they're here!" Vector answered, his chest puffed out.
"Are you SURE this isn't one of your little 'get-beat-up-quick' plans?" Charmy asked, one eyebrow cocked.
"This is NOT one of those plans. Now I'll go out, find Link and Sonic, and I'll tell them the news." Vector said as he made for the exit.
Vector went up to the door and opened it. However, it was as dark as a cave and he couldn't see a thing. It was also so quiet that he could hear a leaf crunch in it.
"Wow. Sure is dark in here. Is anyone in here?" Vector said.
He barely had time to react when several pairs of hands seized him and drug him in. You couldn't see what was happening in there, but it did involve Vector getting the snot pounded out of him.
A few minutes later, Espio and Charmy were waiting for Vector to return. They heard the doors open and saw a clobbered Vector fall onto the ground.
"Vector! Are you alright?!" Espio asked urgently.
"No. They pounded me into next year for some odd, unknown, mysterious reason. I don't think I've been so humiliated in all my life." Vector answered.
"Sure you have, Vector. What about the time the principal called you an idiot over the PA system?" Espio asked.
"Or the time you thought Link and the others were holding Fox and Sonic captive?" Charmy added.
"Or the time you wrote fake love letters because you thought Link was in love with Malon?" Espio asked.
"Or the time you wrecked Link and Fox's spaceship because you thought it was Eggman's?" Charmy asked.
"Or…" Espio began, but Vector cut him off.
"OKAY! OKAY! I exaggerated!" Vector shouted.
"Vector, you better leave this to a master of stealth…like me." Espio said.
Espio took a ninja-like stance and then turned invisible in a flash of rainbow-colored light. He walked out the door and it seemed to open without an apparent reason.
"This oughta be easy…" Espio said as he walked up to the house.
"Man! These guys sure can wreck the place. I need to paint over everything." Kazooie complained as she painted the walls.
Just then, something seemed to walk through the door and she accidentally fell over, causing her brush to fall on something and paint something invisible. Kazooie's confused look spread across her face as she painted a little more of this thing. Then, an invisible eyelid opened up with paint still on it. Link walked into the room and then his eyes widened. It was actually Espio.
"INVISIBLE DRAGONOID! GET HIM!" Link roared as he teamed up with Sonic and Banjo to attack it.
A few minutes later, Espio returned, still invisible and turned back in front of everyone, paint still on his face. Espio had quite a few bruises and an X-shaped bandage on his forehead.
"It's times like this I wish I could disappear." Espio said, ashamed of himself.
"Don't worry, guys. I'll find a sure-fire way to negotiate with these guys." Charmy said as he buzzed off to get something.
He came back with all kinds of pots and pans as well as some kind of felt-like substance. The smile he bore almost split his cheeks and he was sure this plan would work.
"I'll use a disguise to show that I'm not an enemy. Wish me luck!" Charmy said as he flew out the door.
For a few minutes, Vector and Espio stayed in their ship playing video games. Espio was on a winning streak when Vector asked something.
"Espio? What was that disguise that Charmy was talking about?"
Espio shrugged and answered, "A dinosaur suit I think…"
For one second, there was silence and even the game froze. Then, both Vector's and Espio's eyes widened as they realized the error of that disguise.
"OH NO!" They both shouted.
Link and Sonic were helping clean up the house after they had attacked the "invisible Dragonoid". They were about halfway done when something walked through the door. It was supposed to be Charmy, but he was wearing a dinosaur suit and a few pots and pans for armor.
(We regret that this scene is too violent for young readers. But it does involve Charmy getting the crud beat out of him.)
Charmy went back in, his armor dented and his costume torn up like a piece of paper. He had looked like he had stepped on a land mine.
"Okay…Disguise: bad." Charmy said before collapsing.
"If none of that worked, I guess there's only one thing that will." Vector said, sighing.
"You better got it, because every time you got it, I get it." Espio said, shaking his head.
Link, Sonic, Banjo, and Kazooie were about done with their stuff when something tapped on the window. Link went over to it and then saw something that made him feel a little ashamed of what he did before.
"Uhh…Sonic?" Link asked, uneasily.
"What?" Sonic asked, walking over to Link.
"I think we beat up the wrong 'Dragonoids'. Look." Link said, pointing outside.
Outside were three very beat-up Chaotix crewmembers with Vector waving a white flag and Charmy was holding up a sign that read "We come in piece". (He's only six, you know, a bad speller.)
"Hey, Link, did we beat up THOSE guys?" Banjo asked nervously.
"I think so." Link admitted.
Kazooie poked her head outside and got a good look at these three. Then she noticed that these three bore resemblance to someone…
"C'mon, Three Stooges. You can come in, bozos." Kazooie called, beckoning them in.
The Chaotix crew walked in, but then Vector asked, "Did she say 'Three Stooges' and 'Bozos'? I'm going to pluck her for this!"
"Save your breath, Vector. What are you doing here?" Link asked, shrugging.
"We've been travelling the dimensions, trying to find you. However, finding you was the hard part, seeing as you kept moving!" Vector shouted.
Espio decided to get back on subject and said, "What he's saying is 'We have information for you'!"