Chapter 34: Fading Hope
When Link and Sonic stopped running, they were in a big, black abyss. It was a wonder how they were still breathing, but they did see one thing right in front of them. It was a floating chunk of space rock at least as big as the continent of Asia and at least as high as Mount Everest. Link stared, wide-eyed at the chunk of debris.
"Is that…" Link began, but he couldn't exactly finish his sentence.
"My best guess is…Yes. That's the Dragonoid Homeworld and it can't be anything else." Sonic answered as they continued to drift toward it.
"No wonder they're so cranky. They're living on a chunk of rock and nothing else." Mario said in slight realization.
Fox looked around and then asked, "Hey, Link, how did you find this place if we've never been here in our whole life?"
"Well, Tails gave us a device to track any Key Items. So, we decided to follow its signal and it lead us straight here." Link answered.
"Wow," Fox said in amazement, "You're becoming quite the technological guy, aren't you?"
"I figured he was a fast learner." Sonic said, proudly, "Now, let's give these Dragonoids a piece of our minds!"
Within minutes, they were in range of the rock and set foot on it. They saw a cave while they were drifting and decided to waltz through there. Link looked around the place. The cave they entered was as red as blood and felt rather warm like a fire had been lit for several hours. Then, they heard the noise they had been expecting: a bloodcurdling roar. The suddenness of the noise caused all four of them to flinch.
"AAH! D-d-don't worry, Mario. Everything is going to be A-OK…I hope." Mario said, recovering from the roar.
"They call you the 'hero of Mushroom Kingdom'? Sheesh. Get a decent backbone, will ya'?" Fox asked.
"Uh, heheh…Sorry." Mario stammered.
Link, Fox, Mario, and Sonic continued to wander through the labyrinth of caves, trying to find a place that a Dragonoid would call "home base". Suddenly, they heard distinct conversation and quickly ducked into a dark corner.
"The ritual is going as planned, Lord Ryu." The voice of Red Wyvern informed.
"Good job, general. Is the black hole ready?" Ryu asked, expecting one answer.
"Yes, my lord. It should be ready to suck in planets in less than an hour." Blue Firedrake answered.
"All the portals to wipe out any and all resistance have been opened. HEHEHEHE…" Green Salamander said, his maniacal tone still distinguishable.
"And our troops are easily outnumbering any pathetic attack forces these lower life forms are throwing at them." Yellow Drache informed.
"Excellent job. When the universe is ours, I'll make sure that you rule whatever universe you took a key item from." Ryu promised them as they walked past.
As soon as the distinct conversation faded into the depths of the caverns, Link and his friends made a run for it in the opposite direction as the demons that passed them.
"If what they said is true, then we'll have to find the Key Items in less than an hour!" Sonic said, urgently.
"Um, guys? What are these guys talking about black holes about?" Mario asked, easily as stumped as Fox.
"Vector gave us some special information. You see, these guys are going to suck every planet they stole a key item from into a black hole. After that, he'll spew the worlds back out, but it will be populated by nothing BUT DRAGONOIDS." Link answered.
"You mean…IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!" Mario screamed, but Sonic quickly covered his mouth.
"SHH!! The Dragonoids will hear you!" Sonic hissed.
"Sorry."
After several minutes, the four heroes found that the Dragonoid leaders came from a room that had ten pedestals, a crystal ball, and a throne of sorts. Link guessed that THIS was Ryu's throne room. His eyes searched the whole room until he saw what he was looking for. On the ten pedestals were none other than the key items from the Triforce to the Underwater Ruin.
"Well, at least we know where the Key Items went. Now, the trick is how to get them back…" Link said, spotting what Sonic was looking at.
"Why don't we try that crystal ball?" Sonic asked, pointing it out.
Fox went up to it, picked it up, and inspected it. After a little look-down, Fox suddenly realized that this was similar to the sphere that Concolor once used.
"Link! I think I know the truth now! Ganon didn't give Concolor the orb! It was…" Fox began, but Mario finished it.
"You're saying it was this Ryu clown? I can see your reason…Wait. Are you saying he had something to do with Allos and the Yoshi incident?" Mario asked.
"Knowing him, yes. He probably wanted Allos to release Ganon so he could get all three pieces of the Triforce just by killing the evil king." Sonic answered.
Link suddenly took the orb from Fox and began to concentrate. He wanted to send these back to wherever they came from. Then, to everyone's utter amazement, a red portal opened up. Even Link was slightly amazed at how he did this.
"Get the Key Items and throw them in there! I've created the portal so that it will take them back to their proper home. However, I don't have much time. DO IT NOW!" Link commanded.
"Right away." Fox said, dashing off and seizing the Krazoa Sword.
Sonic and Mario helped and threw as many as the Key Items as they could into the portal. When the tenth one vanished, Link couldn't hold the portal any longer and it ended up shrinking to the size of a fingernail and vanished into thin air. It was all over now.
"ALRIGHT! WE WON!" Sonic cheered, unable to control himself anymore.
The little cheer was short-lived however. The minute Sonic finished his sentence, the whole place seemed to shake and rock shook loose of the walls and the ceiling. Mario virtually tackled Sonic to the ground avoiding a large rock that would have crushed him and Fox quickly hit the dirt as well as Link. When the shaking ended, they started to get back up. But in less than a second, all four of them were knocked off their feet again. When they tried to get up, there was a bone-rattling explosion. When the explosion stopped, all four of them got up, to find that the entire room was gone and there were five people standing at least thirty yards away from them: Ryu, Red Wyvern, Blue Firedrake, Green Salamander, and Yellow Drache. Strangely, Ryu was laughing and so were his generals.
"Did I miss a joke, lizard boy?" Mario asked, trying to taunt his enemy.
"You're too late, you pathetic life forms. The black hole is self sustaining. In a matter of minutes, all you fought for will become the new home for the Dragonoids!" Ryu pointed out.
Link was completely surprised at this. If the black hole could stay alive by itself, they were running out of time now. Then, Link got an idea. Every magic had a source and Link had a pretty good idea of who the black hole's magic source was.
"It's self-sustaining now, huh? Well then, I guess the only way to kill it is to KILL YOU." Link said, pointing his finger at Ryu.
"Correct." Ryu said as though it was pointless.
Sonic grinned as a quizzical look crossed the black dragon's face. Then, the dragon lord clicked his tongue and put his arm forward, palm facing straight up.
"If you're even thinking about taking me on, THAT is your biggest mistake ever." Ryu said as something strange happened.
Red Wyvern suddenly turned into an orb of red light and flew over to Ryu's hand that began to circle it. Shortly after came Blue Firedrake, Green Salamander, and Yellow Drache. When the process was finished, there were four orbs of light circling Ryu's hand; each one the same color as the general. Then, the orbs fused with Ryu's hand and the dark dragon king grinned as a large lightning bolt rained down from the heavens and struck him. A blinding white light shone so bright that it caused all four heroes to shield their eyes. When the light cleared, there was a big, black dragon. It had the same horned back and tail, and the same head. However, the body was no longer humanoid; it looked more like a kind of dinosaur's. The neck was now long and serpentine and Ryu's eyes were red and soulless. However, THAT was nothing.
Out of Ryu's right shoulder came two heads and Link suddenly realized that the one on Ryu's immediate right was the head of Red Wyvern. On Wyvern's right was the head of Green Salamander, whose insane smile was still visible even with those soulless eyes. Then, two heads appeared on his left: Blue Firedrake's and Yellow Drache's. Ryu also grew from twenty feet to sixty feet and his wingspan spread a colossal two-hundred and forty feet. All four heroes were struck dumb and they stared at the massive, five-headed dragon before them. Then, Ryu's head, which was right in the middle, spoke in the exact same tone as the Dragonoid king's only sounding more booming.
"Let's see what you can do, heroes." Ryu said, challengingly.
"It doesn't matter if you fight or not. Lord Ryu shall prevail." Wyvern's head told them.
"According to my calculations, your chances of victory are slim to none!" Firedrake pointed out.
"Sure, it may be four against five, but the size is much more than you can handle." Drache said as he grinned.
"I'm afraid you're no match for power against this, wouldn't you say? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Green Salamander cackled.
Sonic smirked and Mario and Fox were pretty stumped as to why. But when Sonic explained something to the Dragonoids, they understood.
"Tough luck. Now that you don't have the Master Emerald to negate the Chaos Emeralds, I'll take you on easily!" Sonic said.
Sonic put his arms apart as seven brightly-colored gems began to slowly form a circle around him. Sonic then began to walk toward them, but Link stopped him.
"Oh no you don't, Sonic. We've been through too much and there's NO WAY you're going in alone." Link reminded.
Sonic got a good look at Fox and Mario, both of which were determined to win this fight at all costs. Sonic smiled as he saw his friends at his side and turned to face the five-headed Dragonoid.
"Alright. If it's a team effort you want, it's a team effort you'll get!" Sonic said as he put his hand forward.
As Sonic concentrated on the almost-boundless energy of the Chaos Emeralds, Link put his gauntlet-clad hand on top of Sonic's. Mario put his hand on Link's and finally, Fox put his on top of Mario's. The glowing circle of Chaos Emeralds began to slowly spin around them, but the speed began to increase and when it was at top speed, Sonic crossed his arms in front of him and suddenly flung them apart. In less than a second, Sonic's eyes were bright red and his fur seemed to be made of pure gold. Link snapped his eyes open and they were exactly the same color as Sonic's, his hair had turned from yellow to silver, and his tunic was now the color of pure gold. Mario's overalls turned fiery orange and his shirt and hat turned the color of a pearl. Fox's fur turned the color of platinum while his suit seemed pretty normal. Link had never felt this much power flowing through him since the Fierce Deity Mask. However, the Chaos Emeralds' power didn't try to possess him. He was gaining strength from the good in his heart and the Chaos Emeralds focused this power into his body.
"Now, how about a REAL fight, lizard-breath?" Link said, glaring at the five-headed behemoth.
"Heh. Bring it on then, weaklings." Ryu challenged.
"Sure thing, lizard lord. Have a taste of the power of TEAMWORK!" Sonic said as he hovered into the air, closely followed by his friends.
Sonic began charging energy in his palms until a huge sphere of energy formed. He threw his hands apart and a huge ball of pure gold energy was unleashed. Link raised his now-golden Master Sword, which was now enfused with the power of the emeralds, and brought it down in a vertical slash that unleashed a disc of energy the same color as Farore's Wind. Mario put his hands together to form a "golden" flame and put his hands forward to unleash a blast of fire the color of the sun. Fox spun his staff around as several energy rings came out with every full rotation. These four attacks would have killed anything they made contact with, but Ryu simply snorted.
"ATTACK!" Ryu barked.
Suddenly, Red Wyvern's mouth opened up and shot a blast of red flame. At the same time, Blue Firedrake unleashed a blast of blue fire. Green Salamander belched green flames and Yellow Drache shot yellow flames. Finally, Ryu unleashed flames the color of amethyst and all five attacks met the heroes' assault head-on. There was a massive explosion of blood-red light and when the blast cleared, the five-headed dragon was unharmed.
"WHAT THE?!" Sonic shouted in surprise.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Did you honestly think you would beat us THAT easily? You're bigger fools than we thought!" Ryu taunted before continuing his laugh.
THIS was bad. If attacks at THAT power weren't enough, then the universe was doomed. However, hope would come in the most unlikely way.
UH-OH! They can't touch Ryu even with the Chaos Emeralds on their sides! What'll they do?!