GALE THE HEDGEHOG: ADVENTURES OF THE DEAD SEA

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Chapter Four: Legend of Death

- Unknown Location -

The scene shifts towards a dark jail cell, where we could see Princess Aleena, whom was tapping her foot down on the ground, impatient as to how she was captured by the Black Mist Crew back from South Island. It didn't make sense to her as to why these guys would kidnap her in the first place. Was it because she was the princess? Or was it because these guys were bandits and wanted something out of her in order to get it? Whatever the reason, the main thing right now was her way to escape this place. However, she had no idea where she was, so I guess that was out of the question for the time being.

"Gosh, I'm bored." Aleena sighed. "There's just nothing to do here. I've been captured for no reason why, and the longer I stay here, the more I feel like banging my head against a wall." She groaned, not liking that idea.

Suddenly, she heard the door open from the other side of her cell, revealing it to be Craven: The leader of the Black Mist Crew. Aleena looked up to see the dark robed figure walking towards her cell with a plate of food in his hand. He opens the door and approaches Aleena.

"How is the princess doing?" Craven asked pleasantly.

"Well, I was fine, until you guys showed up, kidnapped me, and took me in as your prisoner." Aleena remarked sarcastically. "How do you think 'I'm doing'?"

"I am terribly sorry for my actions earlier." Craven apologized. "And to make up for my mistakes, I have brought you dinner."

Aleena looks at the food Craven was carrying. There was a bowl of soup, two bread sticks, and a glass of grape juice. She had to admit, all of this food made her stomach grumble with hunger. She had not eaten much since being kidnapped over a week ago and she was looking forward to getting something inside her stomach. However, something else was on her mind. "Why are you being nice to me?"

"It's only because we care about you." Craven replied. "What's the problem?"

"The problem is that the reason you captured me is because you want to put a bail for my father to release me so that you could take over South Island in the place of my father." Aleena replied.

"Is that so?" Craven chuckled. "My princess, I assure you that I am not after your father's throne."

Aleena raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I am after something more important. Something with more desire." Craven paused for a moment. "...The Death Stones."

"The Death Stones?" Aleena was confused. "What the heck is that?"

"It's very simple." Craven replied. "The seven Death Stones were known as a curse to all those that possessed them. And because of this curse, it was said to be locked away, never to be seen to anyone because of it's curse. How were they made? Well, shortly after this person created the Death Stones, he was killed by a group of assassins. And while they tried to destroy the Death Stones, the stones powers activated, killing them instantly. Since then, no one has even tried to find the Death Stones because of this curse." He paused for a moment. "Years passed, and seven people discovered the Death Stones."

"What kind of curse are you talking about?" Aleena questioned.

"Five of the seven people to receive this curse had their faces turned into something that is not even worth calling 'normal'. Out of those seven pirates, three of them turned out to be Capt. Swift, Zed's grandfather, and myself." Craven explained. "But for some reason, those two were not affected by this curse, and I was."

Aleena thought this whole thing sounded ludicrous and unreal. "How do I know you're telling me the truth? What if your just making this up in an attempt to scare me?"

"I assure you, Princess, I am not making this up." Craven said. Then pulled off his mask to reveal his true face. His eye balls were colored like blood, while his eye color was dark blue and very slowly melting. His nose was made out of dead cockroaches, his lower chin was made out of dark burnt layer skin, and there were blood veins that you would originally see popping out of a person's skin, but instead, we can actually see the blood veins across his eyes and across his face.

Aleena almost choked to see his face up close. "Oh, that's disgusting!"

"Now do you believe the story?" Craven asked as he put his mask back on his face. "It is not a pretty sight."

"For once. I believe you." Aleena replied. "And you know what else? I'm outta here!"

Before Craven could react, Aleena quickly dashed towards her open cell and exited it. She then opened the other door and shut it behind her, leaving Craven to watch her go.

Inside his mask, he smirked. "She actually plans on getting away? This will be interesting to see."

With Aleena, we see the Princess of South Island making her way down the dark hallways of the dungeon, trying to get away from this place, despite the fact that she had no idea where they had taken her.

"Now that I got away from that creep, I have to find my out of here." Aleena said to herself as she looked around while running. "...Wherever here is."

Deciding to think about where she was later, she soon saw a couple of the hooded soldiers up ahead. They looked like they were ready to capture Princess Aleena in their tracks. However, Aleena wasn't going to stop just because her way was blocked by a couple of hooded freaks. The violet hedgehog decided to take a chance and fight off these guys. When Aleena was close to them, she quickly speared one of them towards the ground. She turned around to see the other hooded soldier trying to grab her. This backfired as Aleena used her right foot to kick the soldier in the stomach, causing the solder to grasp it in pain. Aleena quickly finished it off with a roundhouse kick to the face, knocking the soldiers to the ground.

"Well, that wasn't so hard." Aleena thought to herself. "I may as well continue on before I get caught."

As Aleena began to run again, she saw several more hooded soldiers heading towards her position. Smirking to herself, Aleena ran towards the hooded soldiers to meet them head-on. As the three soldiers prepared to take out their bows, Aleena, like before, speared one of them towards the ground. Once it was down, Aleena took the bow from it's hand and instead of using it like how a bow should work, she uses it to swing at the other soldiers weapons to knock it out of their hands. This proved to be successful as both of the weapons fell to the ground. She then used it again to smack one of the soldier's in the face, knocking it off it's feet.

Aleena turned to see that the other soldier leaned down to pick up it's weapon, but she wasn't going to allow this, as she used her foot again to hit the soldier in the face, making it grasp it's head in pain. As it was trying to recover, Aleena did a swinging kick with her foot, connecting to the soldier's stomach. The blow was more than enough to send the soldier flying backwards, making it crash it's back against the wall before slowly slipping towards the ground.

The other hooded soldier from before got back to it's feet and prepared to jump at Aleena again. However, Aleena saw the hooded soldier, so she punched the soldier in the chest area repeatedly before following with a high kick to the face, sending the soldier flying a few feet in the air before landing back on the ground on it's back, where the soldier laid there, not moving.

As Aleena surveyed the damage she had done, she noticed that the soldier that she had speared earlier got back to it's feet and was going to jump at her again. However, Aleena was fast on her feet (no pun intended) as she quickly used her left foot to kick the hooded soldier in the face. But to her surprise, the hooded figure was fast enough to catch her foot with it's hands.

Aleena's eyes widened a bit by this sudden take back, but then narrowed her eyes at the hooded soldier. "You probably shouldn't have done that. You never know when a lady has her limits."

On that note, Aleena did an enziguri kick with her other foot to the hooded soldier's face, making it drop to it's knees before falling face-first towards the ground.

Aleena got back to her feet and sighed in relief to know that she had taken out the last of the surrounding soldiers. "Well, that wasn't so though, I guess."

She then decided to not waste anymore time and move on before any more soldiers would arrive to stop her. But unfortunately for her, she saw more soldiers ahead when she ran away from the carnage she had caused a little while back.

"Oh great, more of these hooded weirdos." Aleena cringed slightly.

And as if the numbers couldn't be worse, this time, there were four hooded soldiers blocking the path in front of her. Aleena's confidence seemed to decrease a bit this time, as she tried to think of a way out of this situation. Gears were turning in her head, trying to find a strategy on how to pass these soldiers, unharmed. Usually, it would take about a short time, but with more soldiers, it took longer than she thought.

"I guess I could just charge at these and hopefully go for a strike." Aleena thought.

As Aleena prepared to go bowling against these guys, she didn't realize that the hooded figures from behind her were already back up to their feet. And before she had time to notice this, one of the hooded figures attacked the back of her head. Aleena's eyes snapped open wide for a second before she fell to the ground, unconsious by the blow from the hooded soldiers.

The hooded solders saw the downed form of Aleena. Seeing as how she was knocked out, one of the soldiers picked up Aleena's body over it's shoulder and carried her back to her prison cell.

Aleena slowly opened her eyes to the familiar ceiling she once saw when she first appeared here. She slowly sat up to see the bars across from her. Sadly, this wasn't a good thing for her.

"I guess those hooded guys got to me first." Aleena said, as she rubbed the back of her head. "Stupid pain. How the hell did I not see it coming?"

"It was because you were careless, my princess." A familiar voice replied.

Aleena's eyes snapped open and turned her head to see Craven standing there. She then sighed. "You never learn to let a girl have her privacy?"

"My apologies, Princess Aleena. However, I had to wait until you were all right." Craven answered with a smile inside his mask.

Aleena shook her head before looking through her cell again. "How long was I out?"

"You were out for at least two hours." Craven responded.

"Two hours?" Aleena wondered. "I was out for that long?"

"That is what you get for trying to escape, Princess Aleena." Craven told her smoothly. "Don't worry. I knew you were going to attempt escaping, anyway. And I have to say, you were pretty good at holding your own against my crew with your own body."

"It's not like I had anything else to defend myself from your group of thugs." Aleena narrowed her eyes at him. "Why am I here, anyway? If I don't have anything to do with the Death Stones, then why keep me here?"

"I cannot say." Craven answered. "However, I can assure that you that your capture will lure Zed right to us."

"Zed?" Aleena's eyes sparked at hearing his name.

"You will learn soon enough, Princess." Craven told her. "For now, you should enjoy your dinner. I don't want you to starve on an empty stomach."

Aleena watched as Craven opened the cell and closed it behind him before leaving her room, leaving her to herself. She felt a mixture of feelings inside her. On one hand, she was hoping that Zed would come and save her. But then again, this is what Craven wants. But why?

There is more to the Death Stones than meets the eye. Why is the Black Mist Crew keeping Aleena hostage? Is Aleena's theory right about her father? And sinister plan does Craven have in store for Zed? Find out on the next Gale the Hedgehog: Adventures of the Dead Sea!

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