CHAPTER FIVE

SSSensational!

"Saya, dear. Time to wake up."

Saya's eyes fluttered open in response to her name being called. She felt horribly weak and every part of her body was aching, not helped by the fact that she was…suspended upside-down?

"Wha…what's going on?!" she yelled. "Let me out of here right now!"

"Oh, but then you'd miss out on all the fun."

Saya fearfully looked all about the room until she spotted a shadow in the corner. Her fear grew to the bursting point when she saw this figure step out of the shadows. It was a tall and curvaceous woman with long emerald hair flowing from her scalp and a skin-tight black and purple suit wrapping up her body. The two things that surprised Saya the most were the bat-like wings jutting from the woman's lower back and head, as well as the unnervingly salacious look on her face.

The woman spread her arms in what seemed like welcome.

"Welcome to my castle, Saya Kusanagi. I am Morrigan Aensland." she said softly, never taking her big green eyes off of Saya for even a moment.

"…what do you want with me?"

"Come now, is that really what you want to say to your rescuer? You were being chased through the forest and I just couldn't help but pull you out of there."

"Umm…thank you, but why am I hanging upside-down?"

"That way you won't resist when I claim my reward. That really seems to be a problem I'm running into lately. People just seem to be so afraid of simple physical pleasure."

"Wha….oh, God, not you, too! Why does everyone suddenly want to kill me?!"

"Kill you? No, no, sweetheart. I'm not going to hurt you. Not like that boy probably does. Shame on him for wanting to hurt such a precious young thing. What's his name?"

"D-Dante..."
"Dante? …well, that can't be right."

"Why not?"

"I know the real Dante and that wasn't him."

"Uhh…great. So I guess the real one's not a homicidal maniac, right?"

"Certainly not…well, not to humans, at least."

Morrigan reached out and stroked Saya's cheek, prompting the poor girl to buck about in hopes of getting free.

"Come now, darling. There's no need to tremble like that."
"What are you?!"

"What do I look like?"

"A…a demon."

"Good, Saya. I am indeed a demon. A succubus, to be specific."

"Am I in Hell right now?!"

"Oh, goodness no. You're in Makai. I rule this world, but that's no reason to be afraid of me. I have a reputation for being rather humble when it comes to my social status."

Royalty or not, the look that Morrigan was giving Saya wasn't helping matters at all and she was quick to voice her opinion on it.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on! You're really pretty, but…"

"Aww, thank you, sweetie! You're really pretty yourself."

"But, I…I'm not into girls!"

"Really? What a shame. I should fix that."

"T-thanks a lot, but…but that's okay!"

"Oh, come on, darling. You'll think I'm an angel by the time we're finished."

"But I'm only thirteen years old!"

"The younger, the better."

Morrigan gently placed her hands on Saya's cheek, the warmth making the young girl tremble. As she looked into the succubus' violet eyes, however, she began to feel a strange comfort. She couldn't look away for even a second. She felt every single worry lift off of her and felt no nervousness when Morrigan came closer…close enough that Saya could feel her breath on her lips…

Morrigan kept her grip on Saya, but looked away when she heard a small metallic bang from another room.

"Another visitor? Well, the more, the merrier as they say."

Morrigan released Saya's face, though not before salaciously smiling at her one more time.

"Don't you go anywhere. I'll be right back, darling."

Once Morrigan left the room, Saya regained her frightened state of mind. How did she get here, and…Ness, Lucas and Ammy! Dante might have gotten to them!

"Oh, God…I hope they're okay…" she muttered.

She snapped to attention when she heard footsteps coming down the hall. She spotted a steadily growing shadow on the wall and saw that the shape of a sword in its left hand.

"Oh, no…how did he follow me?!"

She was about to squeeze her eyes shut and prepare for the worst when the figure that the shadow belonged to rounded the corner. It wasn't Dante, but a blonde-haired teenage boy who gave off a far less intimidating vibe. He wore a green tunic, white pants, brown leather gloves and a floppy green hat. Numerous things stood out about him, such as the large metal shield on his back and his pointy elf-like ears. There were also three glowing triangles on the back of his hand, but most importantly, there was a magnificent sword in his left hand with a long gleaming blade and a blue handle with a yellow jewel in the center.

Saya unfortunately had seen enough to decide that a boy with a sword near her meant trouble, so she began thrashing all about to get free yet again as the boy came closer.

"Get away from me!" she cried.

"Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you, Saya."

She stopped thrashing about. His voice was so soft, and his large blue eyes had a gentle look to them. Much to her relief, he used the blade to cut through whatever was suspending her from the ceiling and was quick to catch her in his strong arms as she fell.

"Thank you…but why is it that you and a bajillion other people I've never met know my name?"

"I've travelled a long way to find you."

"But…why?"

"Simple: to protect you."

"So you know why everyone is going nuts over me?"

"It's because they know your secret, and so do I."

Saya froze and let those words run through her mind for several moments. That was enough to send chills running up her spine, but knowing that this boy (whoever he was) had come to protect her helped her calm down. He looked more than prepared to deal with any threat.

"Who are you?"

The boy smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"My name is Link. I can't really explain how I came all this way to find you just yet."

"Why not?"
"Two good reasons. One: you won't believe me just yet, and two…"

He furrowed his brow as he looked up and shifted his shield into his right hand.

"We've got company."

Morrigan stopped in her tracks once she saw that Saya had gotten loose, but quickly smiled upon seeing Link.
"Oh! What have we here?"

"I'm getting Saya out of this place. Stand aside."

"Sorry, but I have a little something planned for her."

"Alright, then. If you'll be so persistent, let's have at it."

Morrigan chuckled.

"Come on. You really think you can beat me?"

"I know. Quite frankly, you're not even practice to me."

"Let's fix that, shall we?"

Morrigan made the first strike, bending her knees and extending her hand forward.

"SOUL FIST!" she shouted.

A large mass of energy shot from her hand and surged toward Link, who promptly blocked it with his shield and jumped toward Morrigan with a loud battle cry, his sword raised high in the air. The succubus jumped out of the way, morphing her wings into several sharp ropes that began whipping at her target. Link rolled to the side, confusing Morrigan when she saw a large blueberry-like object in his hand. She didn't realize what it was until Link threw it at her feet and it began to throw sparks from one hand.

"My goodness!" she cried before jumping away just as the bomb detonated. "You trying to damage my pretty face?"

"Isn't that the whole point of a fight, lady?" Link shot back.

"When your life is on the line, sure. I wouldn't dare kill a handsome fellow like you."

"A fight is a fight. Losing isn't fun, and letting yourself lose is poor sportsmanship."

"You won't let yourself lose to me? Even if I promise not to hurt you too badly? Don't be so prudish."

"I don't even know the meaning of the word."

Here he paused and lean over to Saya, forcing her to lightly laugh when he said "Really. I don't."

Morrigan's wings lifted her into the air, where she began launching spheres of energy down toward Link, who either jumped away from them or blocked them with his shield. Then came a shocking moment for both Saya and Morrigan: Link slashed at one of the spheres at just the right time to strike it and knock it back at its firer. Morrigan quickly morphed her wing into an axe-like blade and swung, striking the sphere back at Link.

"Joke's on you." Link yelled cockily. "I'm the king of dead man's volley!"

And indeed he was. He suddenly spun in a circle as he held his blade out in front of him, knocking the sphere back with such force that Morrigan had no time to put her defenses up before it collided with her. She was thrown back into a nearby pillar, even brutally hitting the back of her head against it. She drifted back down to the ground and sat groaning and clutching at her head.

Saya thought Link would have taken that time to rush forward and finish the job, but that was far from what happened. He sheathed his sword and held out his hand, inviting Morrigan to take it. She dizzily took it…before leaping upward and clamping her thighs onto his head.

"Bad luck, little elf boy." she giggled.

"Hmmlmmhn."

"Eh?"

She loosened her grip enough to let Link speak.

"Hylian. Little HYLIAN boy."

"Hylian, elf, what's it matter?"

She squeezed again, beginning to crush Link's throat as she seductively began to inch her lips closer to him. He started thrashing about, tossing his shield aside and reaching upward to try and pull her off, but she was simply too strong.

"All boys like you are sure to get my undivided attention."

"Hey, succubus!"

Morrigan turned just in time to see Saya running toward her with Link's shield in her hands.

"SUCK ON THIS!" she yelled before swinging with all her might at Morrigan's head.

The single metallic clank that rang through the air as Morrigan fell uselessly off Link and onto the ground where she lay unconscious. Link himself rubbed at his neck for a brief moment before smiling at Saya.

"Thanks. Man, that's what I get for being too friendly for my own good."

"Yeah…um…here."

Link took the shield back and knelt down to feel at Morrigan's neck. Thankfully, he got a pulse.

"Okay, good. You didn't kill her."

"Wouldn't it be a good thing if I did that?" asked Saya. "She's a demon."

"It's not what she is that you should judge. It's what she does."

"And she tried to do things to me that I didn't want her to do…which is bad."

"She's a succubus. It's in her nature. I'm sure she's not really such a bad person. Besides, it would be a shame to let a pretty face like hers go to waste."

Saya grimaced at Morrigan, but couldn't deny that she was indeed insanely beautiful, and she may have acted suggestively but that didn't really make her evil. It would indeed be a shame to kill her for that reason.

"Anyway, what do you say we get out of this place?" said Link.

"You took the words right out of my mouth. Lead the way."

Link nodded, and Saya followed him as he ran down the hallway past several rooms and windows. There was very little to see outside other than a dark evening sky, but the contents of one of the rooms caught Saya's interest. Inside was a large bed with a very handsome young man lying in it. She hadn't stopped running to examine him properly, but she managed to see that he had spiky white hair. Lying on the floor next to him had been a sheathed katana and a blue trench coat. She couldn't be sure, but judging from the way his eyelids were twitching, he seemed to having a nightmare.

As they ran into what seemed like a kind of throne room, however, a voice rang from nowhere.

"Oh, man, there you are, kid! I've been looking all over for you!"

"Oh, no…how did he find me?!"

Indeed, Dante had somehow managed to follow her, and as he jogged up to her, Saya raised her fists nervously.

"Stay away, you maniac!"

Dante groaned in disgust.

"Again with the freakin' serial killer crap. Do you just believe everything you hear, kid?"

"Who's this guy?" asked Link.

"He's a serial killer! He killed a whole bunch of people in Japan and now he's come after me!" Saya cried.

Link furrowed his brow and drew his sword and shield.

"In that case, I'm afraid I can't let you come any closer."

Normally, a civilized individual would try to calm the instigator of a fight down and give them a large number of reasons why violence is never the answer. Thus, the instigator and the pacifist would become close allies with the pacifist constantly showing the instigator right from wrong.

Of course as we all know, Dante was not one of those individuals. He smirked and drew his own sword which was about a foot longer than Link's.

"Okay, then. Let's fight."

Link made the first move this time, his downward slash blocked by Dante who followed up with a kick to Link's stomach before slamming his fist into his head. He skidded backwards a little bit and shook off the dizzy feeling right as Dante reached toward his belt.

"LOOK OUT!" Saya cried. "HE'S GOT A GUN!"

Not quite. Dante whipped out not one, but two machine pistols and began firing them at Link, who simply whipped out his shield and deflected them, running full force at his opponent and performing a powerful uppercut. Dante flipped out of the way in time and then blasted forward again with a stab of his sword, Link raising his shield just in time to block the dozens of stabs that shot out a supernatural speed. At the last second, Link shoved his shield forward and managed to throw Dante off-balance long enough to kick him in the stomach and send him sprawling backward, though he still managed to land on his feet in a crouched position.

"Not bad." he said with a smirk. "Looks like I gotta turn it up a notch."

He raised his sword behind him, and with a loud shout of "OVERDRIVE!" he slashed at the air, sending three large shockwaves shooting at Link that ruptured the ground as they flew over it. Link somersaulted out of the way and pulled a bow from out of his tunic, immediately loading up an arrow and firing straight at Dante, who simply slashed it apart in mid-air.

"Like I said, not bad, but you can do much better."

"Yeah. I can, actually. Check it out."

He dug several bombs from his satchel and mounted them onto a few arrows before firing all of them at once. Dante vaulted himself out of the way before a blue light emanated from his sword and it lengthened into a shining scythe, which he threw headlong at Link. The young "Hylian" as he had called himself rolled out of the way before whipping something out of his pocket that made Dante stifle a laugh.

"Dude…is that a boomerang?"

"Yes."
"Okay, you're gonna use a kid's toy to fight me. Are you serious? That's almost as stupid as that hat!"

"Hey! This is an awesome hat! Can you think of anybody else that could pull off a look like this?"

"Not really. That's why it's stupid!"

"It's not stupid! It matches my outfit, it's nice and long so it blows in the wind…it's just…epic! I mean, what other word can you use for it?"

"Stupid. Which I've used twice already."

Link gritted his teeth, but exhaled and tensed his grip on his boomerang.

"In regards to my 'kid's toy' here, there's a catch to it."

"Okay, then. Let's see it."

Link threw the boomerang straight at Dante, and as it began to spin, Dante saw what the catch was: a tornado-like gale formed underneath it, tearing up ground below.

"Ah…so it's kinda badass."

Dante nevertheless flipped away from it, and lunged forward again, locking swords with Link. They both seemed to be of equal strength as they pushed against each other, their blades tossing out sparks. Each one gritted their teeth harder and harder until Link finally pulled back and swung. Dante blocked, and the two engaged in a series of blocks and counterattacks. Soon enough, Link shoved his shield forward and Dante was attacking and knocked him backward. In response, Dante simply smirked.

"Not bad." he panted. "You're actually giving me quite a workout."

Link half-smiled in return.

"Same to you."

"Let's mix things up a little now."

A red chain suddenly dropping from his right sleeve before he cast it at a pillar behind Link and gave it a strong pull. The bottom section of the pillar broke away, and it began tumbling down toward Link…until Saya suddenly shoved him out of the way.

"Saya, no!" Link shouted.

"Oh, shit!' Dante growled.

The pillar landed firmly in Saya's hands and her knees buckled, shocking the two of them for a brief moment at her phenomenal strength, but not keeping them shocked long enough for them not to act.

Why in the world had she done this? She felt good about getting Link out of danger, but the strain of the pillar's weight was slowly starting to make her panic, especially when Dante's fists suddenly changed into large, red, and glowing gauntlets. He cracked his knuckles and Saya was about to scream when he lunged forward with his fist outstretched. When he made contact, however, it wasn't with any part of her body, but the pillar, relieving her pain when it split apart as Dante struck it as hard as he could.

"You okay?" he asked.

Saya stepped away and Link pointed his sword at the back of Dante's neck. Dante himself groaned in disgust, and Saya yelped when a voice suddenly came from behind her.

"Dante, you think you wanna get the point across before Saya runs off again?" said Kat. "Y'know…like you probably should have done before picking a fight with this guy?"

"Yep. Guess the big calamity was my fault…again."

What was strange about Kat was that she wasn't solidified like Saya and the others were. Instead, she was translucent and wavering, almost like a ghost.

"How…what's going on with you?" she asked.

"I'm in an astral form." Kat replied. "It's the only way I can communicate with you guys while you're in Limbo."

"Limbo?"

Dante stepped forward.

"Yeah. That's where we are right now. Limbo is a dimension that exists between the real world and the afterlife, and was you can probably tell, demons are capable of running amok here. Don't worry, though: you're not in Hell. This particular area of it is kinda weird, though."

"Weird how?"

"Weird as in it's stable. Y'know, the walls and floor aren't crumbling away, there aren't any disembodied voices, big white words on the wall like 'INFECT' or "DIE" or my personal favourite, 'WHORE'S GONNA DIE'…yeah, stuff like that. This joint doesn't have it."

"But…why am I here?"

"That succubus dragged you in. Kat conjured up a gate for me to get in and save you."

Kat turned to Link with a raised eyebrow.

"Though that honestly begs the question of how you got in. You don't look like a nephilim."

"A what?" asked Link.

"A cross between an angel and a demon. That's what Dante is."

"Hm. That explains the serial killings, then."

Dante rolled his eyes and started digging around in his pocket.

"Okay, Saya." he said. "You know those people I killed…which, yes, I admit to killing them, but you saw that they looked like normal people, right?"

"Um…s-sure."

"Here's what they really look like."

The items he dug out were a couple of photographs, and Saya was shocked at their subjects. The corpses looked nothing like they had before. They all had blackened eyes, disfigured faces, sharp claws, and a generally unpleasant look to them.

"What in the world are those things?!"

"Demons." Dante replied, putting the pictures back in his pocket before placing a hand on her shoulder. "We kill demons, not people. And it's come to our attention that there are indeed a few demons after you."

"Yeah, I noticed…"

"So, 'Link', as it turns out, we're all on the same side here."

"That's why we've been looking for you, Saya." said Kat. "We want to protect you."

Saya's heart skipped a beat and she stood in a state of thoughtlessness before giving a response.

"Can you…please tell me what's going on?"

"We'd be more than happy to." Dante started, before hearing footsteps and turning toward the source, scowling as he did so. "But it looks like the queen bee's woken up."

Indeed, Morrigan had woken up and was smiling at her "guests". Now Saya could see that she had barely done any damage to the succubus, leaving only a small bruise on her head.

"You play so rough, Saya dear." she giggled. "I like it."

"Look, lady." Dante growled as he whipped out his guns again. "Why don't you hightail that skinbag you call an ass out of here before I pump it full of lead?"

"Oh, don't tell me. You're 'Dante', right?"

"Yeah…and why the air quotes around my name?"

"Because you're not the real Dante."

"It may be an uncommon name, but I prefer to be addressed by Dante the Demon Killer. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"No, actually. I don't. The real Dante's a lot better-looking than you and isn't this big of an emo douche."

"Hey, who are you calling an emo douche?!"

"You."

Morrigan smiled and began stepping toward the group, putting as much hip movement into her strides as she could.

"That said, you're still quite a good-looking boy, even if you don't look nearly as good as the real Dante. Your blonde-haired companion, on the other hand…my goodness, dear, you're so feisty. What's your name?"

Link looked all around in moderate confusion before answering.

"Link."

"Link…hm. Sounds kind of familiar."

"It's not that uncommon of a name, either. Quite a few of my ancestors were also named Link."

"I know. There's so many…oh, damn, you sneaky little devils, you!"

Kat had used her spray can to quickly whip up a portal underneath the group's feet while Link had Morrigan distracted, and they were gone in mere seconds. Morrigan bit her lip and chuckled to herself. She knew that she couldn't go out the same way and tracking Saya down would be quite a daunting task with Dante and Link both protecting her like that, but that was what made it fun for her.

"Oh, Saya…I won't let you get away that easy."

Saya was more than pleased to see the sky once again. She didn't know how long she'd been away from it, but it didn't really matter. As she looked around, however, she saw the last thing she was expecting to see: she and her three companions were surrounded by police officers, all of them pointing guns at Dante.

"Whoa…who called in the cavalry?" Dante grumbled. "Not cool, man."

A brown-haired Chinese woman in a blue-and-gold uniform stepped forward. Saya was quick to notice spiked bands around her wrists as well as tall white boots on her feet.

"Don't move, Dante. There's nowhere for you to run."

"Actually, there's quite a lot of places for me to run, but I don't feel like it right now. Who might you be, gorgeous?" Dante asked, seeming to try and break the ice.

"Keep your flattery to yourself. My name is Xiang Chun-Li. I'm with Interpol."

Link raised an eyebrow.

"Interpol?"

"International police force, pretty much." Dante replied, before looking back at Chun-Li with a grimace at what that probably meant. "Soooo…"

Chun-Li rolled her eyes before forcibly tuning Dante around and pinning his arms behind his back, finishing off by handcuffing them.

"Yeah. You're going to jail for a long time, smartass."

"Aaaaah, shit…"

That brought about a heavy amount of confusion for all three of Dante's comrades. He was a nephilim and could therefore over power Chun-Li and her fellow officers in seconds, so why wasn't he? Saya continued to ponder this without realizing that Link and Kat were now looking at her as they came to a revelation. Dante had done it for her because when he fought back, he killed, and he knew that Saya was scared enough without someone winding up dead in front of her.

That was the one thing that Saya felt now more than ever. Fear. She was scared for her friends that she'd been with before getting sucked into Limbo. She was scared of Juri, and now she was also scared of Morrigan. She was scared that there was something about Link and Dante that would come back and haunt not only them but her as well. But most of all, she was scared of the future. Of what might happen when she least expected it.

For now, she didn't really have time to worry about all of that and chose to be scared for Dante because in Japan, there was only one fate that awaited convicted serial killers.

Naming the dog Ammy made it way too obvious, didn't it?

So that's Earthbound/Mother, Fire Emblem, Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Final Fight, Okami, Devil May Cry, Pokémon, Kirby, Mega Man, and now Legend of Zelda down...and only Mario, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, Sin and Punishment, No More Heroes...wait a minute, "No More Heroes"?

So who's next to make an appearance? Starts with a K and is from a series I've written about three times now.

SOUNDTRACK SO FAR

Saya, Ness, and Lucas- "Pollyanna" from Earthbound (SSBM)

Marth to the rescue- "Together We Ride" from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (SSBM)

X and Zero versus Kirby and Meta Knight- "Meta Knight's Revenge" from Kirby Super Star (SSBB) - If the other one meant use the Melee version, you probably know what this means.

Link versus Morrigan- Morrigan's theme from Marvel versus Capcom 3

Link versus Dante- "Never Surrender" from DmC: Devil May Cry