Chapter 23: The Beast's Fangs
As a pillar of smoke wafted up into the sky, Link and company definitely knew that something was amiss in the city of San Francisco. For Ken Masters, this was especially concerning to him as the direction the smoke and fire were coming from was near his home.
"We gotta get to my house fast, I need to make sure my family is ok!" exclaimed Ken.
"I understand your concern Ken, and I agree, something's definitely not right here and we should check it out," commented Link.
"Seeing how congested traffic here usually is, it would be faster just to run," stated Alex.
"Then what are we waiting for, let's get moving now!" shouted Ken as he began to take off towards his home, the others followed him as they ran down the streets of San Francisco all the while making sure everyone around them was ok.
"What the hell is going on, that was some crazy explosion that went on over there," commented one of the tourists.
"I sure hope no one got hurt," said another nearby person.
At that moment, a fire blast descended down at the heroes and they all jumped back to avoid getting singed. As they looked up to see where the attack came from and saw a group of Wizzrobes cackling at them.
"Damn it, not these guys again," groaned Chun-Li.
"We can't just leave them to attack the townsfolk here either," added Zelda.
Ryu and Ken leapt off of the buildings and into the air knocking many of the Wizzrobes down with an airborne Tatsumakisenpuukyaku. As the others teleported away, the six warriors kept running towards the Masters Mansion keeping their eyes peeled for any other monsters that might have been waiting to ambush them. Off in the distance a flaming arrow whizzed by the heroes barely missing Link's head. As Link looked in the direction where the arrow came from, he saw a group of Bulblins riding on Bullbos charging towards them along with some Goriyas.
"More of these meathead monsters, lovely," groaned Alex.
As the Bullbos charged at the heroes, Link threw down a Deku Nut blinding the wild boars and sending them crashing into light poles knocking the Goriyas and Bulblins off of them. The beasts quickly sprang back to their feet and a volley of boomerangs and arrows went flying towards the heroes, who all dove down to avoid the projectile wave. Link took out a bomb at rolled it at the mob of Bulblins and Goriyas making them scatter to avoid the blast. Link and company then rushed towards the disarrayed mob and began to pick them off one by one.
"Hey I just thought of something," called out Ken.
"Really, what is it?" asked Ryu.
"Why don't ride these Bullbos to my area, it might save us some time and energy if we do that," suggested Ken.
"Now that's a good idea," replied Chun-Li.
"Agreed, everyone get on a Bullbo!" exclaimed Link as him and Zelda quickly scrambled onto one. Within a minute, the Bullbos dashed towards Ken's mansion as fast as they could. Surprisingly, no other monsters were attacking them as they made their way to their destination. Soon, Link and company found themselves at the gates of the Masters Mansion, which had been blown open making everyone gasp in concern.
"Something's definitely not right here," said Zelda.
"Well that's a no brainer! I gotta make sure my family is ok!" exclaimed Ken.
With that, the Bullbos the heroes were on rushed into the mansion. As they ran through, they saw small fires littered about as well as many of the staff running for fear of their lives.
"What's going on around here, where are Eliza and Mel?" asked Ken.
"These two men came along and are causing havoc around the mansion, your son and Sean fought off many of the monsters that attacked us, I'm afraid they're still engaged in combat," answered one of the butlers.
"Ganondorf and Urien are here, but why?" asked Link.
"That doesn't matter right now, I gotta go save my family!" yelled Ken
"I'm right behind you Ken!" exclaimed Chun-Li. Ryu and Alex also gave a nod indicating they were up to fighting.
"Very well then, let's go!" called out Link as they dismounted the Bullbos and ran towards the mansion. Eventually, the sounds of monster roaring and martial arts yells became audible to Link and company and they ran in that direction. They saw Sean and Mel protecting Eliza from a mob of armored creatures with large swords and shields.
"Darknuts," gasped Link.
"I don't see Urien or Ganondorf anywhere," added Zelda.
"True, but we can't leave Sean and Mel to fight these guys by themselves, let's get over there and help them," replied Ryu.
Without hesitance, the six warriors rushed into battle and the Darknuts took notice as a few of them lumbered over towards them.
"All right, the cavalry is here!" shouted Sean as he breathed a sigh of relief at seeing Link and company.
"My dad came at just the right time," replied Mel as he rolled out of the way of a sword slash from a Darknut.
Alex darted at one of the knight monsters with a Slash Elbow which barely made the armored foe stagger back and retaliate with an elbow to the face.
"Their armor makes them impervious to most attacks," called out Zelda.
"Then I guess we're gonna have to find a way to strip it off of them," replied Chun-Li.
Two of the Darknuts slashed angrily at the two women who leapt back to avoid the attack only to be struck across the back by another, Alex grabbed the Darknut and promptly used his Power Bomb to temporarily floor the monster which dented that Darknut's armor.
"I have no time to mess with you," said Ken as he rolled under a slash from a Darknut and delivered a Shoryuken to the back of the Darknut which popped the chest plate off of the monster. As the Darknut roared angrily, Chun-Li spun at him with a Spinning Bird Kick knocking the Darknut back to the ground.
Another Darknut knocked Ryu away from him with the blunt end of his sword and as the knight monster leapt at Ryu and delivered a downward slash in attempt to strike down the Japanese fighter, Ryu flipped away from the strike and leapt into the air kicking the helmet off of the Darknut's head angering the monster even more. At that moment, Sean tackled the Darknut down to the ground and delivered a few punches to the monster's face before leaping off of it.
Link found himself surrounded by a couple of Darknuts and as the two swung their large swords at the Hylian, he dove down to avoid getting hit by the blades. As he stood back up, one of the Darknuts pushed him into the other with his shield and as the second Darknut prepared to swing, a Hadoken flew by knocking the sword out of the Darknut's hand as Link saw Mel fire another Hadoken towards the knight making the Darknut flinch. As the Darknut turned to face Mel, Link pulled out his Clawshot and ripped off the knight's chest armor as Zelda followed it up with a Din's Fire.
"How many of these guys are there?" asked Alex.
"Don't worry about counting them, let's just concern ourselves with beating them," answered Ken.
"You got that right," replied Link as he fired a Bomb Arrow at a Darknut blowing its shield away.
"That reminds me, where were those big ugly guys that were leading those monsters?" pondered Sean.
"I sure hope they made their leave already," chimed in Eliza.
"I hope so too Mom," added Mel.
At that moment, a purple colored electrically charged orb hurtled in from out of nowhere and struck Link in the back sending an electric shock through his body and dropping him to a knee as a Darknut turned to strike Link down, Ken hit the knight from behind with a Shoryuken knocking him away from the Hylian.
"Where did that come from?" asked Chun-Li.
Two maniacal laughs became audible and a series of energy beams came hurtling at the heroes who all dove out of the way to avoid getting hit and even the Darknuts fell back upon seeing this. Link and the others all gasped as they saw where the blasts came from and who fired the beams at them, one was a fire red haired man clothed in all black armor with a long flowing cape, the other a brown skinned white haired male wearing only a white Speedo like garment.
"Ganondorf!" gasped Link and Zelda.
"Urien!" added Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Alex.
"Well Ganondorf, our plan to lure the heroes to us worked out magnificently," said Urien with a snicker.
"That it did, now to take those Secret Texts from you and make this fused world bow before us like it rightfully should," commented Ganondorf.
"Eliza, Mel, Sean, get out of here, I don't want you guys getting hurt or killed here!" ordered Ken.
"No one's going anywhere except into the afterlife!" roared Urien.
"You heard Ken, go! We'll take care of business here!" commented Ryu.
Link and the others rushed at Ganondorf and Urien in an effort to hold them back. Ganondorf unsheathed his sword and deflected a strike from Link, Zelda threw out a Din's Fire at Ganondorf and he leapt away from the spell and rushed over to Zelda smacking her aside, Ryu ran up behind Ganondorf and spun towards him with a Tatsumakisenpuukyaku. Ganondorf blocked Ryu's attack and grabbed the martial artist by the neck and threw him at Link sending the two crashing to the ground.
"It's been so long since I've been fearful in a fight," said Ryu.
"Cast it aside though friend, we must stop them from what they aim to do!" replied Link as he scrambled back to his feet and saw Ganondorf attack Zelda, the princess quickly used Nayru's Love to repel an attack Ganondorf and Link quickly followed through with a slash to the King of Evil's chest making him stagger back and growl in annoyance.
"Kikoken!" shouted Chun-Li.
"Hadoken!" yelled Ken.
The two projectiles shot forth and were aimed directly at Urien who parried both projectiles and rushed at the two shoulder first in an attempt to hit them with his Chariot Tackle. Chun-Li and Ken dove out of the way of the tackle as Alex charged forward and elbowed Urien in the face, Urien retaliated by hitting Alex with a sweep knocking him to the ground. Ken kicked Urien in the back sending him stumbling forward into Chun-Li who began to riddle Urien with her Hyakuretsu attack. Urien then leapt into the air and descended with his Violence Knee Drop driving Chun-Li right into the ground. Ken leapt at Urien and kicked him across the face and chained it into a punch to the gut into a Shoryuken sending Urien flying back.
"Enough fooling around, you meet your end now!" shouted Ganondorf. As he struck the ground with a mighty force immobilizing all the heroes with the might of a powerful shock wave. Urien then stepped in and cackled evilly.
"Tyrant Slaughter!" shouted Urien as he charged foward ridding each of the heroes with numerous Chariot Tackles before clotheslining them all to the ground.
"Get ready to die!" said Urien as he stood over the six.
"Dragon Smash!" yelled Sean's voice as Urien felt himself being nailed by a double fisted uppercut and then slammed to the ground with another punch while Sean was still airborne.
"I couldn't just leave you here, let's get outta here fast!" exclaimed Sean.
Ganondorf charged forward and merely swatted Sean aside sending him crashing to the ground face first.
"Hey boss, look what we found," said a Darknut as he lumbered over carrying Eliza and Mel with him.
"Hmm, well then, we'll kill them first then dispose of these meddlesome do gooders," replied Ganondorf as the Darknut tossed Eliza and Mel towards him. Ganondorf focused his gaze on the blonde woman and her son who looked on fear as Ganondorf smirked at them.
"A pity you shall die so young, child," said Ganondorf as he prepared to drive his sword into Mel.
"We gotta do something quick!" gasped Ken.
Thinking instinctively, Link pulled out his Clawshot and the chain shot forward towards Mel. The claw latched on to the adolescent and yanked him back towards the heroes pulling him towards safety. Eliza turned around and proceeded to run towards the heroes however Urien stood in her path and as the heroes stood up to go to her aid a group of Darknuts tackled Link and company to the ground and pinned them.
"Damn it, get the hell off!" growled Ken as he and the others struggled to break free from the Darknuts.
"There will be no escape for you!" proclaimed Urien as he shoved Eliza towards Ganondorf who grabbed her by the throat.
"Ken...Mel..." she uttered as the King of Evil clamped down on her neck.
"Do not fret, they shall be joining you soon," said Ganondorf as his fist glowed in purple flame and he launched his fist forward into Eliza's chest, her body dissipated into dust as the others looked on in horror.
"You bastard! You'll pay for this!" yelled Ken and Mel in unison.
"You're in no position to talk, your quest ends here!" retorted Ganondorf.
"No Ganondorf, you will not extinguish these heroes lives!" boomed an omnipotent sounding voice.
"Who said that?" asked Sean in a puzzled tone.
With that, a blinding flash of light emitted as Ganondorf and Urien turned to cover their eyes. When the light died down, the six heroes along with Sean and Mel were gone from sight as Ganondorf and Urien merely growled in annoyance.
"Those damn sages got in our way again!" yelled Urien.
"No matter, we'll cross paths with them again soon, and believe me the outcome will be different next time," said Ganondorf.
With that, Urien and Ganondorf departed the mansion. Elsewhere, in a large forested area, Link and the others gazed about their surroundings wondering who or what could have saved them from certain doom.
"Where are we?" asked Ryu.
"This place looks familiar to me. I think we're in..." spoke Link before he was cut off.
"That's right, you are in the Sacred Grove!" boomed the omnipotent voice again.
Author's Note: And I'm gonna end the chapter here. Didn't expect Urien and Ganondorf to rear their heads did you. Well next chapter the adventure continues, how will Ken cope with his wife being killed by Ganondorf? You'll find out next chapter, but until then, please read and review.