When we last left our heroes, they had united their strengths to stop Eggman's raid and protect Kakariko Village. When it seemed that Eggman would get away with kidnapping Zelda, Knuckles and Gokudo intervened and saved her. Afterwards though, Sonic and Knuckles let their status as rivals get the better of them temporarily, and Maddy hypnotized Knuckles into becoming her slave when needed. What'll happen next? Find out now on "Medabots and Hylians- a New Generation of Heroes".

Credit to Nintendo for LOZ, Natsume for Medabots, Sega for Team Sonic, and me for Jedediah and Casey.

I am also happy to announce that this fic has breached over 400 views. I'm happy that my story is being enjoyed, and as I stated in the past- reviews reviews and reviews please.

Chapter 22- On the Way Back up Death Mountain

After everyone met back up in the square, Link suggested that they try to head back towards the hiking center and hope that they could move on. Unfortunately, the path was still blocked by the boulder. "Great," Sheik muttered, "How're we supposed to get up Death Mountain now?" Knuckles cracked his fists and approached the boulder. "Uh Knuckles?" Link asked, but got interrupted by Tails as he and Sonic moved everyone behind a nearby shop. "When Knuckles is about to break something," Tails explained, "It's best not to be anywhere near 'em." "Well based on what I can see," Midna retorted, "It looks like Knuckles will simply come back with broken fists." "You don't know our buddy Knux then." Sonic smirked as the others watch the teen take a deep breath. He let out a war cry as he punched the boulder, and then switched fists. Knuckles kept this up for about two minutes before Metabee got impatient. "Well?" he asked, "What's he doing?" "Just give 'em a minute," Tails answered, "You'll see." As they watched, small cracks in the boulder became more and more evident as they grew bigger. It wasn't much longer before the cracks entangled the giant rock like a web. Knuckles let out one more cry and he smashed the boulder one final time with a focused punch, causing it to shatter into pebbles moments later in a thunderous boom. Everyone's jaws dropped as Knuckles walked back to them like nothing happened. "The path's open when you're ready to move on." Knuckles simply spoke up. "Now I've seen it all." Metabee pondered. "You said it," Malon added, "And I thought Brown Bison was strong." "Just comes from my ancestry I guess." Knuckles mumbled. "Really?" Casey inquired, "What sort of ancestors do you have?" "Guardians." The red-dressed teenager answered, "My ancestors were guardians. And as such, my clan was far more developed in physical abilities than that of the average person." "Was?" Sheik repeated, "What do you mean?" Knuckles face turned firm again as he started for the mountain path. "He doesn't really like to talk about it," Tails started, "But reason being is because he's the only living member of his clan left." "The only one?" Link asked. "Yeah," Sonic added, "So because of that, Knux feels that he has a lot more responsibility than he actually does, like he's forced to hold fast to his ancestry and whatever." "Poor Knuckles." Navi mused quietly as everyone agreed to continue onto the mountain path, where Knuckles was waiting at the spot where they first met Maddy.

Once everyone was back together, they found themselves in a rut. There were three different paths up the mountain, and it looked like there was no easy way up. "Hmm," Link mused, "How're we going to figure this one out?" "Hey Link," Tails called as he pointed at the three possible routes, "There's ten of us, so that means we'll each go in groups of three or four and take a different path." "That's just great Tails," Metabee piped up, "But who's going to be on what team?" Link took a breath and eyed each path carefully. "Alright," The green-dressed teen began, with Navi bobbing over his head, "Groups of three or four it is. Sonic, Zelda and I are one team. Sheik, Midna, Knuckles and Maddy are another. And then Jed, Malon and Tails are one more." No one argued about their placement as Link's group, including Metabee, Rokusho, and Navi, started for the middle path until Knuckles stopped them. "There's a mountain village towards the left path that you should have a look at." He simply stated. Link nodded and started towards the left path, while Sheik's group took the middle path, and Jedediah's group taking the path to the right. Maddy was somewhat happy that Knuckles was paired with her group, in the case she need to use him as a puppet for some unknown reason. Jed and Malon were happy to be paired together, but were so-so with Tails joining them. Zelda was relieved that she didn't have to put up with Maddy fawning all over Link. "So Link," Navi started, "Any idea what we'll see at this mountain village Knuckles talked about?" "You got me Navi," Link replied, "But whatever is there, we need to be ready to lend a hand." "You said it Link," Metabee agreed, "But one question that's been bugging me, what does Ganondorf want on Death Mountain?" "Well," Navi started, "Back when I was with Link's ancestor, a ferocious dragon named Volvagia lived in the mountain crater. And Ganondorf threatened to feed the Gorons to the dragon as an example to show what happens to those that would defy him." "And I take it Link's ancestor showed that dragon who's boss?" Sonic chimed in. "That's right," The fairy continued, "He freed the captured Gorons and defeated Volvagia. And by doing so he freed Death Mountain from Ganondorf's grip." "Who do you think the next Sage is?" Link spoke up. "I don't know," Navi sighed, "But I know for a fact that he or she has to be a descendant of the original Sage of Fire."

With Jedediah's group, they were making good time on their path. Reason being was that the path in particular was fairly straightforward and had few obstacles that required more than a couple pairs of hands to overcome. After a minute though, they found a large, dark cavern looming ahead of them. It was pitch black on the inside, so no one had any way of telling what could be lurking inside the cave. "Well," Jedediah started, "I reckon the only way now is forward." "In that cave?" Malon asked, trembling slightly, "Are you sure there isn't another way around? I mean, maybe we can go back and take another path." Malon continued her fearful rant until the Texan laid his hand on her shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. "It's alright Mal," He smiled, "I'm here and I won't let anything happen to you." That did the trick as the country girl calmed down. "Now the question is," Tails pondered, "How're we going to see where we're going in there?" "Leave that to me!" Casey proudly stated as he turned on his headlight, "There isn't anything that I can't see with this baby on." The teens and tween smiled as they started their trek into the cavern, unknown as to what they'll find. Luckily, Casey's headlight made it easy to see where they were going, but as they got farther and farther away from the entrance, Malon got more and more tense; as did Tails. "It sure is dark in here," Tails quivered, as he looked around in the darkness for anything out of the ordinary, "I wish we had more light." "Sorry Tails," Casey shrugged as he kept looking forward, "What light we have now is it." Tails stopped short, "Hang on a second." He dug into his pockets and pulled out another multi-tool, which luckily had a small flashlight on it. "It's not a lot of extra light," Tails finished, "But it should help." Jedediah and Malon smiled as they continued on, with Casey keeping his headlight forward to see the path ahead of them and Tails scanning the walls with his flashlight. After a minute, Brown Bison glimpsed something out of the corner of his optical shield and grunted to get everyone's attention. "What is it Brown Bison?" Malon asked, as the buffalo type pointed to the black wall behind him. "I don't get it," Tails wondered, "What is he trying to point out?" Brown Bison snorted again as he marched over to Casey and turned his head to face the wall. A small opening was revealed in the light that led deeper into the cave. "You found a tunnel?" Tails thought. "Well I reckon it's the only way to go now." Jedediah piped up. "Why?" Malon asked. "I see what you mean," Casey added as he faced in the direction of his medafighter, "We're at a dead end."

Unfortunately for Sheik's group, their path was blocked by a boulder about every ten feet. Thankfully Knuckles and Gokudo were able to break the ones that were in the way with little trouble. And much to the other's surprise Knuckles was able to lift a couple small boulders clear off the ground and toss it elsewhere with little difficulty. After about twenty minutes, they found themselves at the very bottom of a flat rock face about thirty feet high. "Well know what?" Maddy asked, looking around for any possible paths to take. Nin-Ninja glimpsed at a bed of soft clay that scaled the rock wall to their left, and luckily led about half-way up to where they needed to be. "There," The ninja type spoke up as he pointed at the clay, "We may still have a suitable way up the mountain." Gokudo caught on to what Nin-Ninja was saying. "Hey Knux," Gokudo started, "You think you can scale that clay bed to the top and leave indentions for the others to follow?" "That's exactly what I was thinking," Knuckles replied, "But in order for that to work, we'll need a way to harden the indentions I make. Otherwise our weight will only pull us back down. "I have a fire-based attack medapart I can have Nin-Ninja equip if it'll help." Sheik piped up. "Then equip it." Knuckles smirked. Sheik transported the part, which belonged to a Phoenix model, and had the ninja type wait for the order. Knuckles sunk his left fist into the clay at eye level, dug his left foot into the clay about a foot off the ground and hoisted himself up the clay bed, making good holes for others to grab for when the clay hardened. After a couple minutes, Knuckles was successfully at the top and hollered at Nin-Ninja to start hardening the clay. The ninja type released the flames of the medapart at the clay bed, causing it to harden and become usable. Nin-Ninja was about to run out of range for his flamethrower, until Gokudo hoisted him up onto his shoulders and used his stretch arm ability to raise Nin-Ninja higher up. Finally, all the clay was hardened and cool enough to handle after a couple minutes as Sheik swapped parts for the ninja type's original arm medapart. Sheik started up first, saying that he was going to test it, and recommended that they go up one at a time. After about five more minutes, Midna and Maddy followed as did the medabots, resulting in everyone being successfully about halfway to where they needed to be.

Within minutes of rounding a bend on the mountain path, the small mountain village came into view. But horror filled the teens and medabot's eyes as the village was in ruin and most of the structures were left to slowly burn into nothing. "That must be the village Knuckles talked about." Navi exclaimed. "No doubt about it," Link added, "But it looks like we need to be ready to help any survivors." "No kidding." Metabee finished as they sprinted for the village and began searching. "None over here." Sonic called from the far side of the village. "And none over here either." Zelda added as she walked out of a hut that was still barely standing. "Or over here." Rokusho piped up from Link's right side. "This can't be good," Link thought, "Did Ganondorf beat us here and do this before we arrived?" "Hey, Link!" Metabee called, "There's someone over here!" The others rushed over to find the village chief trapped under some rubble. With some work, Sonic and the medabots helped remove the rubble as Link and Zelda pulled him out. The elder coughed as he was helped to a sitting position and rested on a small gate. "Dude," Metabee started, "What happened here?" "The ancient dragon," The Village leader coughed, "Volvagia. He had been revived. He attacked our village mercilessly, and then retreated to Death Mountain Crater. My son, Darunia, left to confront the dragon." He coughed hard as a native of the village carefully walked back and tended to his leader from behind a nearby boulder. "Please," He finished, "Help my son." "You can count on it." Link replied respectfully. "Darunia," The village leader continued, "He always had a strong spirit, and cared for the ones he loved most. Please don't let him fight alone." He closed his eyes as his hand dropped, causing the teens to gasp. "He is still breathing," The native reassured, "He is simply in far too much stress at the moment." He pointed for the summit. "You will find a tunnel to the crater on the summit." The native explained, "Take the path over there for a shorter trip. It will take you straight to the summit." "Thank you." Link finished as he and the others dashed towards the Death Mountain summit. "Darunia," Navi pondered out loud, "That's right; he was the original Sage of Fire." "So does that mean that our Darunia is the next Sage?" Zelda asked. "Yup, that's exactly what it means." Navi approved, "But now we need to find him before Volvagia does."

True to the native's word, the path led right up to the summit. But what greeted them was a large ring of fire surrounding the mouth of the volcano. "That can't be good." Sonic stated, rubbing his chin. "No, it can't," Rokusho replied, "But the question now is what do we do from here?" "Hey!" Sheik called as his group met Link's. "Good to see you made it." Midna began. "Same to you." Sonic answered, "Have you seen Jed's group yet?" "Not yet," Maddy answered. She was about to continue, but everyone heard a loud roar from inside the crater and all attention was drawn to it. "That has to be Volvagia," Link warned, grabbing his sword and shield, "We better get going." He and Metabee started off for the crater until Zelda called out to them. "Shouldn't we wait for Jed's group?" She asked, "It might be better to go in as a whole group instead of just going in without them." "You have a point Zelda," Nin-Ninja piped up, "But if we do not do something about Volvagia now, we may be too late to be able to do anything at all." "Besides," Sonic added, "I know he'll take care of his group. But if it'll make you feel better, then I'll speed down the mountain and look for them." "I'll go," Knuckles cut in, "I'm more suited to climb and get around on this sort of terrain than Sonic would." "You said it Knux," Gokudo agreed, "Let's go." With hesitation, Link agreed to let Knuckles and Gokudo search as the others continued into the crater. "Phew," Metabee sighed a couple minutes after they entered the crater, "It's hot in here." "Well it's a volcano Metabee," Navi snorted, "What do you expect?" There wasn't a green thing to be found in the crater, save for Link's shirt. As well as lava everywhere down below and large, spire-like rocks reaching for the charcoal black skies over head. Bubbles of lave made themselves known for only a moment before they burst their contents back into the lava pool. There were two stone bridges that were constructed to cross the chasms to the other parts of land suitable for walking. "Who would travel into a volcano anyway?" Metabee sarcastically remarked, "And how could anyone stand this heat to begin with?" "Well back then," Navi explained, "The Gorons were able to tolerate extreme heat, so it made little difference to them. On top of that, not many people came up onto Death Mountain; let alone go inside it." However, Link found Darunia lying unconscious next to a stone platform, as well as his medabot close by. They all rushed over to see if he was alright, and Link hoped that he wasn't too late to save him.

Now we find that Darunia apparently had a run-in with Volvagia first. Will he survive? The only way to find out is to read on…

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