GALE THE HEDGEHOG: ADVENTURES OF THE DEAD SEA
Characters © Respective Owners
Chapter One: Dead Stone
Seven years have passed since Capt. Swift had invaded South Island. The pirate captain and his crew were ready to pillage the island of anything that was worth of value. His son, Gale, and his pirate crew member, Riolu, had snuck on the island on a different route and were confronted by Princess Aleena. While Gale tried to convince her that he meant no harm, Aleena took him out with a bottle of rum. Meanwhile, King Azreal had ordered an all-out kill on Capt. Swift and his crew. G.U.N. soldiers arrived and gunned down Capt. Swift and his entire crew. This shocked Gale and Riolu greatly, as they were also met by Zed the Chameleon, Aleena's guard in training. The two fought until Aleena came in to defend Gale. While Zed tried to get her out the way, Gale and Riolu had disappeared. Their whereabouts now are unknown.
- South Island -
The scene shifts towards the inside of the castle. In one of the hallways, we see Princess Aleena, whom grown up from the past seven years. Her hair grew longer, she wore a blue dress with a symbol of South Island on it. She still wore the same red and white shoes, however. She was wearing long blue gloves on her hand, and she still had the golden tiara band on her head.
Right now, Aleena was making her way through the hallways of the castle. The reason was because she did not like to stay in one place for too long. She looked at the pendant in her hand. This was the same pendant that she accidentally took from Gale seven years ago. Since that day, she had always kept it with her, but she did not show it to anyone. Not even her closest friends were able to see it.
"Greetings, Princess Aleena." A voice greeted from behind.
Quickly reacting, Aleena hid the pendant inside her chest area and turned to see Zed, whom was wearing a formal green guard uniform. The shirt also had a symbol that resembled South Island. From her reaction, she wasn't all that pleased to see him. "Oh, it's you again. What do you want, Zed?"
"I'm here by King Azreal's presence that he has found another suitor for you." Zed replied.
"ANOTHER one?" Aleena slapped her face in disbelief. "Doesn't my father know when to give up?"
"Ever since you turned eighteen a couple of weeks ago, you've been turning down suitors left and right. Each one of them your father had picked, you simply turned them down." Zed told her, as he turned around while continuing to explain. "You can't just keep turning down suitors, you know. King Azreal expects you to get married soon, and it is only a matter of time before he finds the right suitor for you. And for you Aleena, you will need to be courted if you are ever going to rule over South Island as the future queen." He turned around to talk to Aleena's face, but she was nowhere to be seen.
"Huh? Where did she go?" Zed looked around for her. From how things looked, she must've disappeared while he was talking. Zed growled angrily. "Damn it! I just HAD to turn my back."
Without wasting anytime, Zed ran off in search for Princess Aleena.
Near the beach of South Island, we see two cat fisherman busy fishing. One of them casted his reel out to sea after failing an attempt to get a fish.
"Do ya think we'll be able to catch anything, laddie?" Fisherman #1 asked.
"Never to be worried." Fisherman #2 replied with a grin. "A good fisherman knows never when to quit! That's our motto!"
"Your right, lad!" Fisherman #1 nodded with a grin of his own. "And a good fish only comes when you least expect it."
As the two fisherman constantly kept talking about good fish, one of the reels started to get a reaction. This caught the fisherman's attention.
"I caught something!" Fisherman #2 exclaimed.
"Reel it in, laddie!" Fisherman #1 told him.
Fisherman #2 nodded as he quickly reeled the rod in. But the reel did not move. The fisherman tried to pull it in with all his strength, but whatever had attached to the reel was something heavy. "This is a big one...help me pull it in!"
The other fisherman quickly set his reel to the side and helped pulled at the reel. With the two's combined strength, they were able to pull whatever they caught back towards the shore. The thing that the reel caught had risen from the surface, revealing it to be a barrel. The two fisherman pulled the barrel towards the sand and set it up straight.
"Why did I catch a barrel?" Fisherman #2 asked. "And what was it doing at sea?"
"I don't know, lad." Fisherman #1 shrugged. "But maybe there's a bucket load of fish in here."
"Oh, come now." Fisherman #2 laughed. "Why would there be fish inside of a barrel? Fish are smart enough to stay away from this."
"Are ya sure, lad? We don't know what's in there until we check it out." Fisherman #1 pointed out.
After thinking about this for a moment, he nodded in agreement. "All right. Let's take a look and see what's inside."
So the two fisherman each went for the top of the lid and began to open it. But as soon as they touched it, the lid smashed right into their faces, immediately knocking them out cold. From inside the barrel, we could see the familiar forms of Gale the Hedgehog and Riolu slowly climbing out of the barrel.
Gale hadn't changed much since the past seven years. He grew up some, but he still had the same clothes on. Riolu was the same as well. He kept the same outfit on, even though he grew a little as well.
"Ah, nothing like seeing the open world again." Gale said happily. "Are you all right, Riolu?"
Riolu stretched his arms out for a second, trying to let loose after staying inside that barrel. "I'll be fine. I just wished we could've stayed in a cave instead of some barrel."
Gale looked around to notice the fisherman had been knocked out just a moment ago. "What do you think happened to these two?"
"Hm...maybe they had caught a really big fish and fainted the moment they saw it trying to attack them." Riolu thought.
"A big fish?" Gale hummed in thought. "Perhaps it was the Lochness Monster that took them by surprise."
"But the Lochness Monster isn't real..." Riolu pointed out slowly.
"You never know, Riolu. Things could honestly appear in front of you when you least expect it." Gale reminded him.
As soon as the two were able to get a glimpse around the island, Gale and Riolu looked around to see a village that wasn't far from the castle of South Island.
"It looks like there's a village nearby." Riolu noticed.
"Then this is a perfect time to be doing some looting." Gale grinned. "You ready?"
"Oh yeah." Riolu nodded with a smirk.
The two set off towards the village. The village itself looked peaceful enough. Many of the towns were consisting of either restaurants, food shacks, a supply shop that consisted of fishing gear, and many other things that you could use to set sail at sea.
Gale and Riolu soon approached the village. The two pirates looked around at everything they could see.
"You go for the food. I'll go for the supplies." Gale quickly told him.
"Right." Riolu nodded once.
With that already settled, Gale and Riolu splitted up from each other. Each one of them went their own separate ways to stack up on the supplies. We stick with Gale, as the blue hedgehog made his way towards the fishing supply shop. Gale looked at all of what the supply had to offer. Fishing rods, bait, a fishing kit, but the most noticeable thing was that there was a large net hanging there above the counter where customers could pay for what they wanted. However, it wasn't one of the items that was for sale.
"That net should do nicely." Gale thought. He looked to see that the person in charge of the shop was a female canary in charge of the supply shop. She was currently busy counting out the change she had received during her last payment. Thinking quickly, Gale jumped up and snatched from the side and swiftly skipped across the other side and snatched the other part of the net off. Luckily, the shop owner was distracted, so she did not notice Gale taking the net from her.
Once the net was nicely wrapped like a bag, Gale quickly set off before the shop owner could figure out what just happened.
Over with Riolu, we could see the blue dog-like creature looking at the nearest food shack. It consisted of mainly meat, fruit, and some bottles of rum.
"I know Gale is going to need that." Riolu thought to himself. He saw the shop owner, whom was also busy dealing with a customer at the moment. He looked down at the bag that he had 'borrowed' earlier. Thinking that it was big enough, he set his sights on the bottle of rum.
Over with the food owner, which consisted of a brown warthog, he had given the customer his change. The customer thanked the owner before leaving with his stuff. When he was gone, the warthog owner turned around, only to see that his rum had disappeared.
"What the?!" The warthog was confused by this. "What happened to the rum? I could've sworn it was right there."
Riolu watched from the shadows of an alley as he was the one who had the rum stuffed in his bag. He quickly hoisted the bag over his shoulder before scurrying off towards the next location.
Ten minutes had passed. Gale and Riolu had joined together near the docks after 'borrowing' everything they needed. Riolu had taken a lot of food while Gale took a lot of supplies that would help them while they were at sea.
"All right, now that we've gotten everything, we need to find a ship that will help us get out of here." Gale explained.
"That sounds like an idea." Riolu nodded. "Let's hurry and find one."
As the two set off towards the entry of the docks, three guards were there, guarding the docks from any thieves that would try and steal any ships. The guards noticed them coming as Gale and Riolu stopped themselves in front of the guards.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Guard #1 asked.
"We're here to take a ship out of here." Riolu replied.
"We can't let you pass without the king's permission." Guard #2 replied.
"And knowing his majesty, there's no way he would let anyone leave without a good reason." Guard #3 added.
For a moment, it looked like they weren't going to take a ship. But knowing Gale, he always had a way with words. "Say, would you like to hear some of my greatest tales?"
Guard #1 raised an eyebrow. "Greatest tales? You mean like a fable?"
"A true fable." Gale corrected him. "One time, I had encountered the legendary Lochness Monster. It was a scary moment, I tell ya. So listen closely, because this story is VERY long." Gale took a deep breath before beginning. "So, it all began when I was just a young boy..."
Meanwhile, back up on the cliffside, we see Aleena standing there, overlooking South Island. She was in this same position seven years ago at the time Capt. Swift invaded South Island when she was eleven.
"Well, at least I'm away from Zed this time." Aleena sighed in relief. "Hopefully, he doesn't find me here like before."
"Unfortunately for you, I have found you." A familiar voice replied.
Aleena cringed to herself as she turned around to see Zed the Chameleon standing not too far away from her. "How did you find me here?"
"I know you wouldn't hang around town, so I figured you would be up here. And it looks like I was right." Zed answered.
"Damn it!" Aleena cursed to herself.
"You ran away from my explanation about why you should get married." Zed explained. "Aleena, you know that your going to have to get married to a suitor soon."
"I don't have to." Aleena huffed as she placed her hands on her hips. "My father can try all he wants, but I will never get married and settle down with anyone."
"You might not like it, but King Azreal believes that this is the best choice for you." Zed told her. "You're going to be Queen of South Island one day, and you need to learn to share the throne with your future husband."
"No, no, no, no!" Aleena shook her head repeatedly. "I will never get married! I don't care if this is what my father believes, this is not what I want!"
While Aleena was arguing over how she doesn't want to get married, we see the same mysterious figure from seven years hiding in the shadows of the forest. Seeing this as a perfect opportunity, the figure pulled out it's bow and arrow and aimed it at Aleena.
Back at the cliff side, Aleena was still arguing with Zed about how she doesn't want to get married. Zed tried to get her to come with her, but she refused. Then without warning, an arrow from out of nowhere shot Aleena in the chest. Aleena's eyes widened at what just happened to her.
"Aleena!" Zed exclaimed horrifically.
Back down near the docks, the guards were already starting to yawn as Gale was STILL talking about his fake tale about the Lochness Monster.
"So there I was, staring at the eyes of the Lochness Monster. We both had a staring contest to see who would not blink before the other did." Gale explained. "It was an intense moment, let me tell you. It felt like the world was on my shoulders. That monster had a good composure of keeping it's eyes from not blinking. I knew it was going to be tough, so I took out my rum and drank some of it down. I told the Lochness Monster that this rum would help you if it drank some of it. The Lochness Monster was reluctant to listen, so it took my bottle and drank the rest of it down. But after drinking it down, the Lochness Monster's eyes started to turn hazy until it couldn't keep it's eyes open any longer. So the Lochness Monster fell to it's death, making me the winner!" The blue hedgehog smirked while crossing his arms. "I tell you, that over-grown fish didn't stand a chance."
As the guards started to yawn loudly, one of them noticed something horrifing. "Princess Aleena! She's about to fall!"
The guards looked up to see Princess Aleena starting fall off of the cliff. Without wasting any time, the guards ran towards the cliff side to try and save Princess Aleena. Even Riolu and Gale were also worried about Aleena's safety.
"What do we do, Gale?" Riolu asked. "She could get really hurt!"
After thinking for a short moment, an idea popped into his head. "There's a shortcut I know that will get us there faster. Follow me." Gale suggested as he and Riolu ran in a different direction.
As they were running, Gale pulled out the net that he had 'borrowed' earlier from his bag. Riolu noticed this.
"What are we going to do with that?" Riolu wondered.
"Easy, Riolu." Gale smirked. "We're going to use this to save her from getting a painful headache."
After running for a short period of time, they were near the cliff side. Gale quickly rolled out the net. He told Riolu to tie each end to a nearby a tree while the blue hedgehog would wrap the other two ends to the cliff side. Unsurprisingly, it took them less than a minute until they were finished.
Back up at the cliff side, Aleena was already falling to her doom. She was unconscious, but luckily, she wasn't dead. The pendant that she kept in her chest area saved her, so that she wouldn't be killed. But that didn't mean that she was in danger of getting killed herself. Before she could hit the ground, the net that Gale and Riolu set up stopped Aleena just in time before she landed on the ground.
Gale and Riolu sighed in relief after seeing their plan was a success.
"That was close." Riolu said. "Remind me of a plan next time in case we have to save someone."
"Dully noted." Gale replied as he unhooked the net pieces, letting the net drop to the ground along with Aleena. Gale went over to the unconscious hedgehog's body and slowly pulled the arrow out from her chest. He looked closer at her chest to see what it was that saved Aleena from getting killed. That's when he saw something that took him by surprise. "What in the?"
"Gale? What is it?" Riolu asked.
"It's...my pendant." Gale replied slowly as he reached down and grabbed his pendant from Aleena. But I wonder how it got with her all those years?"
Riolu thought about it until something striked his mind. "Wait a minute! I think I know!"
"You do?" Gale asked.
Riolu nodded. "Seven years ago, we encountered Princess Aleena. You told her that we meant no harm, but she didn't believe you and knocked you out with a bottle of rum. She tried to save you from falling into a hole by grabbing onto your pendant, but it snapped off and you fell into the hole."
"Why didn't you try to get it back?" Gale questioned him.
"I was worried about you. I didn't think to go after her, so I went to help you instead." Riolu lowered his eyes a bit. "I hope you understand. I honestly didn't think about it."
Gale shook his head and smirked. "It's all right. I got my pendant back, so we can forget about what happened to it before." The blue hedgehog said as he wrapped the blue pendant back around his neck.
Riolu smiled for a moment before looking over at the unconscious body of Aleena. "Is she going to be OK?"
"Let me check." Gale said as he got on top of Aleena and examined her chest. "Hmm...no blood. It must've been my pendant that protected her from getting really hurt."
"Hey!" A voice shouted.
Gale and Riolu looked up to see that Zed had reunited with the guards from the docks. Zed noticed Gale and recognized him easily.
"It's you!" Zed exclaimed. "You're that pirate of Capt. Swift!"
"The son, to be precise." Gale corrected him with a smirk as he got up from Aleena's unconscious body and eyed Zed. "And I remember you. You were that pansy I faced seven years ago."
"You ran off and your face was never seen again." Zed reminded him. "Now that you'be shown your ugly mug here, I'm going to finish what I started and kill you by my own hands." The red chameleon pulled out his sword and pointed it at Gale.
Gale only chuckled. "Oh come now, you expect to fight me with that sword again?"
"I'm now Captain of the South Island guards. And trust me, I have gotten better." Zed noted. "Now let's get this fight started."
"Suit yourself." Gale shrugged before getting into a fighting stance.
Zed immediately charged after Gale and swinged his sword at him. But Gale was fast as usual as he jumped backwards from the blade swings of Zed. Gale retaliated by using his legs to attack his arms, but Zed himself had also gotten better, as he defended himself with his sword. Zed fought back by trying to stab Gale in the face, but Gale dodged to the side before kicking Zed in the stomach by doing a missile dropkick to the stomach, making him stagger backwards a few steps, but still maintaining a standing position.
Gale got back to his feet as he charged after the stunned Zed. The red chameleon looked up to see Gale preparing to strike at him again. Thinking quickly, Zed rolled to the side as Gale missed him, but did kick a nearby tree with full force. Gale was able to recover himself before turning to Zed again. But before he could do anything else, an unknown coconut striked him in the head hard. Gale rolled his eyes as he lowered his stance while remaining in a dizzy stance.
"That wasn't very nice..." Gale slowly said before falling to the ground on his back, where he laid there, unconscious.
Zed lowered his stance as he sheathed his sword and walked over towards the knocked out blue hedgehog. The guards surrounded Gale as well.
"What would you like us to do, sir?" Guard #1 asked.
"Take him away." Zed ordered. "I'll carry Aleena and make sure she's all right."
"But sir, what about that other pirate? The one who's with that blue hedgehog?" Guard #2 asked.
"You mean, he got away?" Zed questioned him.
"We think he might've escaped during the fight." Guard #2 thought.
Zed sighed for a moment before turning towards the castle. "Let's forget him. We got one of them, and that's good enough by me. Let's get back to the castle."
The guards hoisted Gale's body, while Zed picked up Aleena and set her on his back. Once they were set, they all headed towards the castle.
The final scene shifts towards an unknown male figure that we could not see, as it watched Zed and the guards heading back to the castle. The only thing we could see that he was wearing a pendant, similar to what Aleena and Zed wear, only it was purple.
"Those crystals...those must be the Dead Stones." He thought to himself.
After a seven year passing, Gale has been captured and Riolu is nowhere to be seen. What will happen to Gale? Where did Riolu disappear too? And what does this man mention about these Dead Stones? Find out on the next Gale the Hedgehog: Adventures of the Dead Sea!
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