Chapter 21: Covering Old Ground
As Link found himself outside the Palace of Darkness, Kiki the monkey leapt down from his perch and right in front of the Hylian hero.
"Uki, you're alive! Did you get anything cool in there uki?" inquired Kiki.
"I got something I need to save my friends. I'd hate to be rude but they need this antidote fast. Once again thank you for opening the palace for me," answered Link to the little blue haired simian.
"Not a problem at all uki! Good luck on the rest of your journey uki!" exclaimed Kiki.
Link gave a nod to Kiki before reaching into his pouch and pulling out the Teleport Orb that Rose had given him a while back.
"To Kakariko Village and step on it!" yelled Link.
The orb emitted a pale blue light and Link disappeared in a ball of light and flew off. Within a few seconds, Link found himself standing right outside of Renado's house indicating that he had made it back to the village.
"Renado, I have the antidote!" yelled Link.
At that moment, Renado, Luda, Barnes, and Elena ran outside along with a couple of Gorons and saw Link holding out the bottle of antidote for all to see.
"Give that to me quickly and I will administer the antidote to your friends!" called out Renado.
Link handed the bottle to Renado and followed the shaman back inside his house to see his friends lying down on blankets along the floor still unconscious and breathing laboriously. Luda took turns propping up the heads of Link's allies as Renado started to administer the antidote to Zelda, Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Alex. After Renado, Link and the others waited silently to as the antidote ran its course through the heroes' bodies. Eventually their eyes flew open and they all sat up rather groggily. Even so, Link let loose a sigh of relief upon seeing the antidote work.
"What just happened to us, I feel like I just woke up from a long nightmare," spoke Alex.
"Last thing I remember, we were attacked by a large group of Ganondorf's minions," said Zelda.
"You were poisoned by his minions, Link was able to obtain the antidote from the Palace of Darkness to save you all," informed Renado.
"Oh wow, thank you Link for going through that just for all of us," said Chun-Li.
"I also wound up getting a Secret Text while I was in there too," stated Link.
"Ah man, that sucks that we had to miss out on the action because of what happened," commented Ken.
"Even so, at least Link was able to overcome the hurdle thrown before him," added Ryu.
"Whew, it's a relief to see you guys awake again, I was hoping you wouldn't die," said Elena.
"Agreed, we don't need our defenders going to the gods just yet," added Barnes.
"Even so, I suggest you guys rest here for the night and resume your journey in the morning just to make sure the antidote completely runs its course," suggested Renado.
"I agree, even though I feel much better, I'm not at a hundred percent yet," said Zelda.
"Very well, we will rest for the night then start fresh tomorrow," stated Link as he smiled at his friends happy to see them alive and well.
Soon the sun went down and shortly afterwards, the heroes found themselves nodding off to sleep to recuperate for their journey.
"You know guys, I've been thinking," said Alex as he woke up in the middle of the night.
"About what?" inquired Ryu a bit groggily.
"I think we should go back and retrace our steps in places we've been to already. You never if we might have overlooked something when we were all trying to come together," answered Alex.
"You've got a point there man, besides, you may be right in the aspect that we might find something that will lead us to where we have to go next," chimed in Ken.
"Do you really think that would be prudent though to backtrack?" asked Zelda.
"You know, sometimes you do have to go back in order to go forward sometimes," spoke Chun-Li.
"That wouldn't be a bad idea to be honest, instead of wandering about aimlessly, we might as well cover old ground and search it over again," chimed in Link.
"At any rate, we should go back to sleep, we're going to need all we can get," said Zelda.
The others nodded in agreement and with that, they all drifted off to sleep yet again. As the rays of the sun peered into the window cracks and beamed down on Link and company to signify the dawn of new day. Link and the other sprang awake and gathered their supplies to set out on their adventure again.
"Hmm, I see you're heading out again Link," piped up Renado.
"Yes, we must resume in our quest now that we're all well again. Once again I thank you for everything including looking after my allies while they were poisoned," answered Link.
"We thank you as well for looking out for us in our incapacitated state," added Zelda.
"Anytime. If you ever need my assistance again, you know where to find me," replied Renado.
"I'm also gonna head back home myself, anyways I wish you luck on the remainder of your adventure," added Elena.
"Thank you Elena, and we wish all of you well too. Until we meet again, take care," commented Link as him and others waved goodbye to Renado and company before departing Kakariko Village.
"I wonder where we should revisit first," chimed in Ryu.
"I say we go back to where our adventure to find you guys first started. The place where we met Alex," suggested Link.
"You mean Manhattan, New York? I suppose so, I'd like to see what's going on at home too," said Alex.
"Then I guess that will be our next destination," remarked Ken.
Link pulled out the Teleport Orb yet again and raised it up into the air.
"To Manhattan, New York!" exclaimed Link.
Once again the Teleport Orb shone with its pale blue light and the six heroes found themselves disappearing in a flash of light. A few seconds later, the three found themselves in an abandoned alley and saw pigeons flying about all over the place.
"Are we here?" asked Chun-Li.
Alex stepped out from the alley and surveyed the area, a big smile crossed his face after a while as he saw the area around him.
"Yes we are, we finally back to NYC baby! Oh how it's good to be home!" exclaimed Alex.
As they stepped out of the alleyway, indeed they saw the normal hustle and bustle of New York. Many people were walking about either to get to work or do whatever other tasks they had set out to do for the day.
"Wow, what a busy city, I never really noticed it before," gasped Zelda.
"They do call it the city that never sleeps for a reason," responded Alex.
"Since we're not here to do sightseeing, and since this is your hometown, you lead the way Alex," commented Link.
Alex nodded to affirm he understood what Link was saying and started to lead the rest of the heroes down the streets of Manhattan.
"Any idea where we're headed?" inquired Chun-Li.
"I'm gonna see if I can find Tom and Pat, as I want to make sure that everything is ok with them," answered Alex.
"That makes sense, gotta see if our friends and loved ones are alive and well amidst all this chaos," chimed in Ken.
"Yeah, Tom's gym shouldn't be too far from here, I just hope we don't run across any trouble on the way there," replied Alex.
"You know I've noticed something, the minions have gotten a lot smarter as of late. I noticed that during our last fight, they seemed a lot more organized," piped up Ryu.
"Indeed, Urien and Ganondorf know they cannot take us lightly. I can only that our adventure will be a lot more arduous from here on out," affirmed Zelda.
The six heroes continued to walk down the streets. To their surprise, nothing out of the ordinary was occurring in the city. They saw no monsters milling about and aside from a few Hylians surveying their new surroundings, nothing seemed different. After a few minutes of walking, the heroes came across a rather small gymnasium and Alex promptly entered it while the others quickly followed him inside. Upon entering the gym, in addition to a small smattering of men and women doing a few workouts. They saw a man with a dark brown buzz cut and neatly trimmed beard dressed in a tan colored shirt and khaki pants look at them upon entering in addition to a younger teenage girl with strawberry blonde hair dressed in a blue v-neck shirt, capri pants, and white flats. When she saw Alex, she immediately ran up to the buff blonde fighter and gave him a hug.
"Alex, glad to see you're safe!" exclaimed the girl.
"Hey Pat, how has everything been with you and your dad?" asked Alex.
"Eh, we've been ok, a few monsters here and there, but nothing too bad," replied Tom as he walked towards Alex and gave him a hearty handshake.
"You've made some new friends I see too," said Pat.
"Yes, I know you guys know who Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li are. But I must introduce you to Link and Zelda, they're from the other world that fused with ours," said Alex.
"So you two have been keeping good old Alex safe on his journies huh," piped up Tom.
"Yes, he has been a valuable ally in our quest," answered Link.
"What kind of a quest are you on?" asked Tom.
"Gill's brother teamed up with a villain from Link's world and so us six have been on a journey to retrieve these texts before they do and basically keep them from taking over this fused world," answered Alex.
"Yeah, he pretty much explained it all there," replied Chun-Li.
"Wow, that's quite a responisibility you've shouldered," gasped Pat.
"True, but we're all watching each other's backs so it hasn't been so bad," chimed in Ken.
"We decided that since we haven't been here since recruiting Alex to our cause that we'd go and visit places we haven't been to in a while and see if anything of interest has occurred in those areas," added Zelda.
"It's been pretty quiet here although I did have a dream where some gypsy woman told me to give you something," answered Tom.
"Really, that must be Rose, what did she want to give us?" asked Link.
"Can't show you here, don't want to draw attention, come to my office," said Tom.
Tom motioned the others to where his office was. Link and the others all followed the bearded man into the small office and Tom quickly shut the door behind him once everyone was inside.
"When I had this dream last night, I thought I was delusional until I found these lying on my nightstand. I was told by Rose to give these to you Alex, I guess it's supposed to make you stronger or something," commented Tom opening his drawer and handing Alex a pair of golden colored gloves with a green jewel in the center of it.
"Shiny aren't they," remarked Alex.
"She called them the Titan's Gloves, from the sounds of what she said you will need them for your adventure, so take them with you," replied Tom.
"Thank you Tom, I'll definitely take good care of these. I'm sure Rose knows what she's talking about," said Alex.
"I'd hate to be rude, but I don't think we should dawdle here too long, there's other locales that we should revisit," suggested Ryu.
"You're right, I suggest we keep moving," added Link.
"Very well then, I wish you well on your journey, and feel free to come back here whenever," answered Tom.
"Be safe out there you guys," called out Pat.
"Don't worry, we'll be just fine," said Alex as he hugged both Tom and Pat.
With that, the six heroes waved good bye to Tom and Pat before exiting the gym with the Titan's Gloes now in their possession.
"Hey, at least we got something cool out of this, but where should we head to now?" asked Ken.
"I'd say China, didn't you guys get me after Alex, so I'd say that it would be wise to revisit there, I wanna see how my students are doing," answered Chun-Li.
"Good idea, let's get moving," ordered Link
Link then raised the Teleport Orb into the air and in another flash of light, the six heroes vanished and were off to scour China once again to see what changes may have occurred during the course of their adventure.
Author's Note: Yeah I know not much going on here. Next chapter I'll try and slowly get back to the action but like I said before, I don't want them plowing through the adventure too easily. At any rate, I'm off to go work on the next chapter, but until then, please read and review.