GALE THE HEDGEHOG: ADVENTURES OF THE DEAD SEA

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Chapter Six: Proving Within, Part 1

The scene shifts towards Gale's path, where we see the cobalt hedgehog walking down the pathway. Riolu, Zed, and Vanilla all split up into different paths to see where each one lead to an unknown destination. Gale seemed to have notice that Craven had set this up as a test to see if they were worthy of getting past whatever was yet to come.

Even though Gale knew about Craven's tricks, he still had a different feeling on what kind of test he had set for the blue hedgehog. Gale approached a large area in which was filled with skulls scattered in rubble, two candle-like torches set on each side of the wall that were lightened with fire. And a small pond with water being poured from a nearby hole on the wall. Gale thought this to be a set up, seeing as how this area seemed like a trap.

"Well, this looks like to be a spot like any other." Gale thought. "Knowing Craven, he probably set this whole thing up himself. Or maybe he was just lazy and had his friends to do the dirty work for him."

He noticed the water hole that was nearby, so he decided to help himself. He made it towards the water and refilled it with a canteen that he had brought with him. He popped the lid opened and filled the canteen with water by putting it under the pouring liquid from the hole. The water filled up the canteen as Gale shut the lid back to it's original place.

As Gale was satisfied with this, he heard a slight rubble coming from the ground. He looked down to see the wooden floor slowly opening itself up. What Gale could see from the inside of the floor was a pool of lava splashing against the wall. But that wasn't the only thing he saw. There was also something else rising from the ground. It was a large muscular warrior, whom was a half foot taller than Gale, it had red arms the shape of sword blades, the blades were decorated with green lines that were connected from the arms to the body. The stomach was white with lines that curved from the waist towards the chest. It's eyes were glowing yellow. It's head had two red long horns that were shaped upwards. The warriors legs were large and had three yellow nails coming from it's feet. The strange warrior's blades were starting to spark up flames.

Gale raised an eyebrow at this person. "Now that's the strangest thing I've seen if I ever saw it."

The warrior turned it's head towards Gale. "You must be that puny hedgehog Craven talked about!"

Gale smirked. "Ah, you know Craven, don't you? So tell me, does he keep all of his weird monsters inside a pool of lava? Because to me, he must've hired you as his decorator."

"W-What? How dare you insult my master!" The warrior shouted in anger.

"Hey now, I'm not insulting him. You see there is a difference between insulting and complementing someone." Gale told him. "So, what exactly are you suppose to be anyway?"

"I am Pyronaut! I am one of the servants of Craven! And I'm gonna burn you into dust!" Pyronaut cackled as his connected his blade arms together, forming up more sparks.

"Are you sure about that? Because you don't look like someone who would serve someone who leads a group called the Black Mist Crew." Gale said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Pyronaut asked, puzzled. "He created me to destroy you."

"You see, there's a problem with that." Gale retorted. "If Craven had sent you to do his dirty work, then would that either mean that he has full trust in you, or maybe it's all just false hope."

"O-Of course he has full trust in me!" Pyronaut replied. "Why would he not?"

"Well, if you think about it, he created you not as a servant, but more as a lackey." Gale told him. "There's a difference between having full trust and little trust in someone. For example, if you wanted to abandoned a crew of former pirates behind you would strand them on an island and take off without having to notice them. That's like saying you wanted to name a monkey between Larry or Moe. And in the end, you would name him Caboose." The blue hedgehog sighed depressingly. "I tell ya, there's always a tough decision to make."

Pyronaut seemed confused at Gale's theory about what he thought. He then suddenly shook it off. "Forget it! I believe that my master has full faith in me to see you gone!"

Pyronaut clashed his sword arms together and got into a fighting stance and charged after Gale. Pyronaut quickly swinged his sword at Gale's head, however, Gale saw this coming as he rolled underneath the swing and dodged the attack. Gale springed back up to his feet and quickly kicked the back of Pyronaut several times before sending him forward with one forceful kick, sending the large creature towards the wall, making him crash into it. Pyronaut was able to shake himself off as he turned around and charged towards Gale once more. Gale jump dashed and used his knee to catch Pyronaut off guard. The knee connected, but it didn't really faze him. Pyronaut catches leg and flips him inside out until he lands front first towards the ground.

"Not sure I deserved that." Gale muttered to himself. Trying to shake his head from the fuzziness as he got back to his feet.

"If you thought that was bad, get a load of this!" Pyronaut laughed insanely as he clashed his sword arms together, creating a wave of fire and sending it towards Gale's direction.

Gale's eyes snapped open at the incoming fire. Thinking quickly, Gale dropped towards the ground as the fire shot over him. The fire soon died down as Gale looked up and sighed in relief. "That was close. That was almost like blowing out holes in my dad's ship at one time. Only it wasn't fire. It was cannonballs." Gale shuddered about those things for a moment. He wasn't really afraid of them. He just didn't want to be reminded on how a former crew mate almost messed with the cannonballs they originally had and thought it was a game of soccer.

Pyronaut, thinking that Gale was distracted, decided go in for the attack by charging at him with his sword-arms.

Gale was still in thought about cannonballs that he didn't even see Pyronaut coming towards him. As Pyronaut was just about to hit his target, Gale only used his foot to trip the monster, making him stagger forwards until he fell face-first towards the ground.

"Oh, my head..." Pyronaut moaned, obviously didn't see that coming. As how he was about to get back up to his feet, something stepped on his back, pinning him down. "W-What the?"

Gale was still in thought as he kept his foot on Pyronaut's back. "Maybe I should've been easier on those cannonballs. Good I did leave those guys behind. Or who knows what might've happened to my father's ship."

Pyronaut was confused. Why was Gale talking to himself? "Hey! I'm down here! Have you forgotten about me or something?"

"Hm?" Gale looked down at him. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you down there. Is there something you wanted to ask me?"

"Get off of me, you fool!" Pyronaut yelled at him.

"Well, why didn't you say something? I'll do just that." Gale said. "Right after I give you a little makeover." The blue hedgehog pulled out his canteen and popped open the lid.

"W-What are you doing?" Pyronaut demanded, not liking where this was going.

"Just so you know that this is the day that you'll always remember the name: Gale the Hedgehog." With that said, Gale poured the water from the canteen onto Pyronaut. The liquid splashed on the fire based creature, and which some strange effects were taking place on Pyronaut.

Pyronaut tried using his blades to get Gale off of him, but he saw that his blades were already melting from his arms. He then suddenly noticed that his entire body was starting to melt into a big puddle from his own flesh.

"N-No...this can't happen to me...I am suppose to serve Craven...and take...down this...cur..." Pyronaut muttered before his face started to turn to deform and melt within the ground until he was no more. Gale stepped away from the puddle to see it had sunken into the ground.

"Aye, now that's the strangest thing I've ever seen if I saw it." Gale thought with a shrug. "But then again, I've seen stranger stuff. Like the time I left my bottle of rum back on the ship when we landed here. "Just remembering it almost made him slap his head.

"Gale the Hedgehog..." A voice echoed, catching the blue hedgehog's attention.

"Who's there?" Gale asked, looking around the area. "Look, if your trying to throw me a surprise party, I'm afraid it won't work. The last time I got thrown into a surprise party...well, let's just say that it didn't turn out like anyone would expect."

The voice chuckled. "Your humor never changes, Gale."

"Wait..." Gale said, recognizing the voice. "Is that you, Craven?"

"It took you that long to figure me out?" Craven's voice questioned.

"Well, to be honest, I thought you sounded like my long lost cousin." Gale replied. "Wait..." Gale turned his head, remembering that he didn't really have a long lost cousin."

"Hm. Regardless of that, I take it your here to rescue Princess Aleena?" Craven's voice asked.

Gale shrugged. "I guess so. That, plus I came here to see if we can settle the issue with the Dead Stones."

"Ah yes, the Dead Stones. I almost forgot about them." Craven's voice replied, as if he remembered something.

"Look, why don't we just get this over with now. You release the Princess and we can settle our issue much easier. What do you say?" Gale suggested, waiting for answer.

"As much as I would like that, I think it would be better to see if you and your friends get passed my tests, first." Craven replied. "And only if you succeed in this, then you may grant your path to get to me."

"Sounds easy. I mean, I just already beat your lackey, and he didn't prove to be much of challenge at all. I guess it was bad luck, or something." Gale thought. "So, can I pass?"

"What? You mean to tell me you want passage just because you defeated someone I had little faith in?" Craven asked.

"Yeah. Pretty much." Gale nodded.

"Sure. But first, I would like to test you once more. Then, will I allow the pathway in front of you to be opened." Craven told him.

"Sounds fair. So, what do I do? Put on a funny hat or something? Have a drinking contest with another monster?" Gale asked.

Craven chuckled darkly. "I'm afraid it won't be that simple. For you see, I have the solution on how to scramble your mind."

Gale raised an eyebrow, wondering what the heck Craven was talking about. Suddenly, a flash of red magic blinded Gale for a moment, causing the blue hedgehog to cover his eyes. The light was there for a moment until it finally died down. Gale looked ahead to see what was in front of him. His eyes widened in surprise.

There was a monster. But this monster looked a lot like Capt. Swift: Gale's father, only with a few minor changes. His head was deformed like Craven's, his eyes were made up of green swampy water, his eyebrows were made up of dead earthworms, the nose was made out of a stone, and the chin was made out of dead bugs.

Gale was surprised and confused at the same time. "Is that you, Dad?"

The monstrous form of Capt. Swift stared at him. "What's wrong, son? You don't recognize your own father?" He asked with a weird monster like growl.

Gale had to remember that this was the power of the Black Mist Crew. Craven was trying to get Gale to give in to Craven's will and surrender, trying to make him not fight his 'father'. "Sorry pops, but I'm not going to be tricked that easily."

"Come on, son. There is no need to fight me, is there?" He asked. "What will fighting your own father prove? That you are a better pirate than I am? To reclaim my former glory all as your own?"

Gale seemed somewhat intimidated by his words. "I...No, I'm not believing you."

"But Gale, there is no point in continuing on. Revenge obviously won't get you anywhere, and your own selfish pride will only get in the way. Why don't you just give it all up?"

Gale could instantly tell that those are words that his real father would never tell him. Craven obviously knew that he was testing him. So there had to been a way to persuade this fake Capt. Swift without actually trying to fight him. "Listen, I don't thinking you heard me the first time. I'm not going to fight you and because of that, there isn't going to be anything you say that will change my mind."

The monstrous form of Capt. Swift stared at him for a long moment. "Then tell me, son. Why do you come here?"

"I come here...because I want to avenge you. I want to learn the secrets of the Dead Stone and hopefully get back at King Azreal for killing you seven years ago. I'm going to be the greatest pirate that ever sailed the seas, and with me and my crew at sea, nothing will be able to stop us." Gale told him.

The montrous form of Capt. Swift took in Gale's words, thinking about what he said for a long moment. When he came up with a reply, he spoke and somewhat smiled crookedly. "Well done, son. Your passion drives you towards your goal. And as long as you believe in yourself and your crew, then there is nothing that you can't do."

Before Gale could say anything back, a bright flash of red blinded Gale again as the monstrous form of Capt. Swift started to melt into rubble. When the light finally died down, so did Capt. Swift's monstrous body.

When he was gone, Gale sighed in relief, knowing that part was finally out of the way. In front of him, the stone door in front of him opened, revealing it to be a pathway towards his destination.

"Well, that was an ugly sight. Hopefully, I don't run into something like that again. But then again, knowing me, I've always seen a lot of strange stuff. Kinda like that one time when one of my dad's crew mates looked like an alien." Gale shrugged, as he continued forward towards his destination.

Fighting isn't always the way to go where you want to go, it comes from your desire and passion. Will Gale be able to confront Craven? Can our heroes be able to pass their other tests and save Priness Aleena? And what do the other tests await for Gale's crew mates? Find out on the next Gale the Hedgehog: Adventures of the Dead Sea!

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