A/N: After a long hiatus, I decided to come back and fix up this story. And, seriously? This... this needed some serious, serious overhaul. I apologize to everyone that lost interest in this, or that was disappointed and wanted me to continue. I had to go through some... pretty hard stuff last year, and well, it didn't clear up until the start of this summer. Anyway, that's no real excuse, but I'm trying, and I'll try to finish this story. It shouldn't be too much longer, anyway, after I'm done updating/uploading all the new replacement chapters.
Warning: This is a CYBERPUNK AU (Alternate Universe), heavily inspired by Ocarina of Time, but not a parody/mirror/whatever. By cyberpunk, I am including dark themes, suggestive material (including but not limited to: drug use, horny teenagers, unorthodox violence, excessive cursing, and addiction/dependency). If this bothers you, if you are under-aged, there is a button at the top of your screen that stands for BACK. I suggest you use it.
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit, amateur effort not intended to infringe on the rights of any copyright holder. Characters belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 6 - Ballad of the Windfish
"Are you sure this is safe?"
Link continued his hurried pace into the decrepit tunnel entrance, ignoring Zelda's question. As he stepped over a fallen pillar into the inky black darkness, he raised his left hand and aimed the navigator forward.
"Light please, Navi."
A beam of light washed out in a cone away from him, shedding a soft pale glow on the path Link already knew by heart. Of course, there was no way he would admit that the action was solely for her benefit—though if she tripped and fell and died, he did not want to be the one to clean that up. Every step echoed in the high ceilinged tunnel, and he listened to the sounds of running water inside the walls. Behind him, he heard her pick up the pace and eventually join his side. From the corner of his eye, he noticed her fists clenched tight.
"Nervous?" Link asked, not sparing her a glance.
"Impatient," she replied in her soft voice.
A series of irritated replies came to mind—if she was impatient, then what the hell was he? He owed Saria more than his life and look what happened—but he let it go and shrugged instead. They settled into an awkward silence. The end of the tunnel approached just around the next bend when she stopped, a hand on his arm to draw his attention.
"I tried to kill you, why are you listening to me?"
And there was the question he didn't want to answer. So, the teen flashed Zelda an incredulous look, shrugged off her hand, and kept walking.
"What choice do I have?" he asked, more to himself than to her.
Before she could catch up with him, Link turned the corner and exited the tunnel. He breathed and nimbly worked his way up the front gates, carefully maneuvering over the top and jumping down onto black asphalt. His boots clicked in the gloomy poorly-lit area, echoing hollowly in the stale air. Massive metal structures rose out of the shadows as he neared and swept Navi's light over the grounds.
"Goddess…" Zelda breathed beside him. He frowned as he realized, to his utter dismay, that he didn't hear her jump the gate. Damn Sheikah, he thought, as she asked: "Where are we?"
"Windfish Amusement Park. Officially shut down twenty years ago," he replied. "I took out the main circuitry responsible for the security system, then destroyed the individual wiring connecting all the cameras."
Navi's beam rose up slowly, and shed light over an abandoned carousel, several seats still intact though many more lay broken. Rust tainted every inch, covering the exposed metals underneath a dry, dirty red layer. Nothing actually worked anymore, he knew, but nevertheless it was his idea of safe.
"Isn't this park labeled a red zone?"
"Rumors." He shrugged. "As long as you know the layout and don't do anything… stupid, then it's safe." They walked further down, careful of avoiding certain obstacles—like the faded blue bench he nearly cracked his hip into, lying on its side blocking half the road.
"How did you find this place?" she questioned a little too eagerly as they passed the starting gate to a large roller coaster whose rails were left, mostly, in one piece.
Link fought the urge to tell her the story of how he escaped and fled to the shadows of the park, hid and bled and suffered for months before a particularly cute green haired green eyed seventy-five-percent-machine girl patched him up and saved him from losing himself. Oh, he wanted to blurt it all out, all right.
"Stroke of luck. Or genius." He said instead. "Or both."
At her silence, he chanced a quick glance in her direction and saw that she was busy examining the ground.
He frowned. "I thought you were impatient."
"I was…" she murmured. "Shine some light here." Confused, he did as she asked and swung Navi around to focus the beam at the floor. Once done, however, he immediately recognized the fresh black marks on the ground before Zelda did.
"Link, what—?"
The teen cut her off as he grabbed her hand and then raced off down the road. In the distance, his sensitive hearing picked up on the rumbling and thunderous roar of numerous, fast approaching engines. And though Zelda kept up with him, there was no way in hell they could outrun the owners of that sound.
Link turned sharply to the right, swinging his companion around and ushered her up a nearby chain-linked fence that bordered the roller coaster's immediate area. "If we can get high enough, there's a connector from the employee platform to the second level," he grunted as he climbed up after her. She said nothing as she practically flew up the fifty feet of fence to the aforementioned platform. Damn Sheikah, he mentally cursed as he climbed as fast as his hands could manage. Below, the sounds grew louder and more deafening as the high-beam lights of motorbikes tore through the darkness.
The park was pretty damn huge and the high ceilings, along with the thick walls, did a hell of a job blocking out noise. Link silently cursed his luck and inattentiveness as he accepted Zelda's offered hand and heaved up over the edge. The two took off down the path. The light from Navi fleetingly passed over rusted clown statues and childish cartoon images horridly disfigured from disuse and age.
Disturbing wasn't strong enough a word, he decided.
They turned a corner, hooking around an old food stand, and nearly collided with a pile of fallen rubble from a collapsed arcade. Link did all but throw Zelda over it, then followed suit. As soon as his feet hit the ground, however, the entire place began to rumble. For a split second, the word earthquake crossed his mind, but after looking up, he realized it was much worse.
Working on instinct, he grabbed Zelda by the shoulders and threw them to the side, out of the way. As soon as they hit the ground a massive boulder fell from above and crashed on the spot where they were just standing, leaving a huge crater in its wake. Dust and pebbles rained over them as Link got to his feet and hauled her up.
The ground rumbled again. Link shoved Zelda to the side as he watched the ten foot tall boulder unravel into a huge rock-creature-thing, with gangling limbs and a smiling face. He faintly recognized it as a Goron, an old race of people who appeared to be made of stone, consumed stone, and originated from within the mountains. While they refused to accept the advancing technologies of plastic prosthetics, holograms, and new tech, they were masters in the works and moldings of iron and old tech, known officially as Steam Tech.
Fuck, he thought.
Zelda, who was twenty feet away by then, stopped to call back to him: "Come on!"
Slowly he moved back as the Goron's beady eyes bore into him, focused with an intent he could not decipher. Link turned and tried to run, but another boulder crash landed between him and Zelda. Although smaller, this one had half its body embedded with iron machinery, the joints screeching as the Goron unfolded and stood tall at over seven feet. Steam and oil dripped from between the thick metal plates, casting a hot blast of acrid smoke into the air. Then another fell, landing to its right.
"Run!" he heard Zelda call as he leapt backwards and maneuvered around the third ten foot tall monstrosity. But the creature wasn't about to let him get away, and its giant fist slammed down into the concrete. He tried to move, tried to get away, but he knew there was no avoiding this.
"LINK!"
Cracks exploded throughout the asphalt and concrete all around him. Through his boots he felt the ground give way, and then he was falling, falling.
