"You know, not that it wasn't for nothing, but… I actually did miss this place." David said.
"As did I. Going off on adventures is nice, but there is nothing better than heading back home. Even if it's a little worse for wear." Revali said.
"Still, you may as well answer us this. Now that you have attained the Warmaster class, what is left? You have no reason to wield our bracelet anymore." Claude said.
"Or any Emblem for that matter. You are capable of using any weapon we could provide." Soren said.
"Maybe so… But even if I have no reason to, I still want to utilize the Emblems so that I can get to know you all better. I don't see Emblems as mere trinkets. It has been clear that you all have your own lives too. And I am sure the others feel the same way." David said.
"You have a most kind heart, David. If only we had someone like you in Fodlan. Perhaps things between our nations may have turned out differently." Dimitri said.
"...Maybe so." David said with a deep and sorrowful sigh.
"(Well ain't that the truth, David.)" Zi-O thought.
"Hey, does anybody know how far we've been walking down here?" Scorpia asked.
"Who knows? I've been trying to map how big this underground area is." Entrapta said. "The Depths are probably as big as Hyrule's entire region."
"Speaking of maps…" Starlight turned to Link. "Do you still have that Sheikah Slate?"
"Not anymore. After the Calamity ended, the ancient technology such as the guardians and towers were taken apart and repurposed. Although, a new device was developed." Link said, taking out a new device that looked like the Sheikah Slate, but was more advanced. "Purah and Robbie worked together to make this. It's called the Purah Pad. It has all the features of the Sheikah Slate, but it's a more advanced design."
"Does it also have Cryonis and the others?" Geiz asked.
"Unfortunately no. The Purah pad doesn't have any abilities that the Sheikah Slate possessed." Link said.
"But Link does have new abilities tied to the arm Rauru gave him." Entrapta said. "They're called Ultra Hand, Fuse and Ascend."
"And Recall." Miu said.
"All in all, that's four abilities. I recall the Sheikah Slate having five." Ichiro said.
"I see." Zi-O noted. "I kinda miss seeing Link use ice or magnetism thanks to that Sheikah Slate. Those new abilities however, never saw them yet."
"We kind of saw him using Recall, though." David said. "He saw a vision of Zelda with it."
"Yes…although I'm still not sure what it means." Link said as they approached a depository of sorts. "What is this place?"
"Must be some kind of Zonai storage space." Yaoyorozu said.
"Hey…I think I see someone!" Theo said as they saw a figure murmuring at the hand symbol that blocked them from entering.
"Dang it…how is anyone supposed to use this thing?" they said.
"Excuse us…but…" Entrapta said.
"Buzz off. I am in the middle of a grand scheme to please the Demon King. So don't you…" they said turning around as the group and the figure looked in shock at one another. "Ah! The Dimensional Heroes, Hope Squad and Brave Adventurers?!"
"Kohga?!" the group said.
"Didn't we see you get crushed by a boulder? How did you survive?" David asked.
"Hahahaha. As you can see…I survived our previous encounter in our hideout and have since then ended up in this vast underground land which is now my land. My boys have kept me up to date about the Demon King's revival..and so…I shall do all I can to keep in his good graces. And why do I do this? Cause I am the one and only master of the Yiga Clan…the powerful Master Kohga!" he said as he posed.
"Yeah… Still not intimidated…or impressed." David said.
"What a weirdo." Klonoa sweatdropped with dotted eyes.
"I can think of several ninjas who are better than this idiot." Laura rolled her eye.
"Hahahaha! Even now…you all fear us. But no worries…we'll give you something to be even more fearful of." Kohga said as he disappeared before he reappeared in the clearing before he made a large vehicle manifest. A massive armored car with spikes in front.
"Okay, wackiness aside, that was badass." David admitted.
"Isn't it? Since you cast us down here, we had ample time to figure out the ways of Zonai tech and create weapons of mass destruction and death. Which is exactly what will happen. I will kill you all…to death!" Kohga said.
"You can try. But things will end the same just as our last encounter." Sakura said.
Master Kohga then started up his vehicle and gunned the engine, charging right towards them as everyone evaded.
"Hahahaha! I am a master of…the Mega Death Tank…of Death!" Kohga said.
"Real original name." Sectonia said with a hint of sarcasm.
"It's a miracle a group of heroes can care and suck so much at the same time." Kohga said.
"Is that so?" a voice asked.
"Huh?" Kohga turned around to see Kiana Kaslana waving… and then kicked the ninja out of the vehicle with her Neko Charm.
"Word of advice: always have a back door locked." Kiana smirked. "Also, add some windshields while you're at it."
"I was wondering where you were, Kaslana!" Zi-O smirked.
"More of you?! You're kidding me! I call shenanigans!" Kohga said.
"You're such a hypocrite. As you can see, no one here is taking you seriously. So, can we just fast forward to the part where we knock you on your ass again?" David asked.
"Allow me." Kiana replied, taking control of Kohga's vehicle and drove straight towards him. "Seriously, I've seen better contraptions than this one."
"Don't judge us! This is the best we can do until we find the power that the Zonai used to create them!" Kohga said defensively as he ducked out of the way of the vehicle. "Now get out of my Super Mega Death Tank of Death!"
"He just changed the name again!" Rimuru said.
"He's an idiot. Don't even bother taking him seriously." Ramona said.
"...You know what? I don't need this anymore." Kiana leaped out of the vehicle, fused her two handguns into one large gun and unleashed Gungnir Fire as the laser obliterated the vehicle.
"Oh come on!" Kohga said. "You guys are jerks, you know that?"
"Shut it." David said.
"Whatever…we Yiga have found a whole bunch of ruins down here and next time…I shall have my revenge!" Kohga said as he created a small flying machine and got on it. "So don't follow me!" he said as it took off.
David couldn't help but sigh. "Guy's a broken record."
"Don't follow him, he says." Geiz facepalmed.
"(How that guy managed to take out Siege's friend, we'll never know.)" Scarlet thought to himself.
"Well, now that he's gone, let's see what he was trying to claim for himself." Raphael said.
The group then approached and saw a glyph in front of a mechanical being of some sort.
"The glyph looks similar to the ones we saw in the temples." X said.
"Here…" the machine said to Link as a new power was given to the arm.
"I see…so it's a building power. I can build objects from blueprints and my memory." Link said as he tested it by creating his own flier.
"That'll come in handy." Miu said.
"Better than that tank, I bet." Kiana said. "By the way, good to see you guys again."
"Great to see you too, Kiana. Is it just you down here?" Hilda asked.
"No. Hibiki-chan, Mei, Aile and Grey are also here to investigate the underground area. Purah also mentioned about Zonai tech and ores which interested Einstein, which is why we're here." Kiana said.
"But, when you heard the commotion between us and Kohga, you ran straight over here and left your team behind." Ichiro summarized.
"Don't worry, they're not alone." Kiana assured. "Besides, they're guiding a group of Pokémon explorers at the moment. Ginhana Sky, they're called?"
"Oh! We know them!" Perfuma said. "They're a Pokémon guild we've worked together with several times in the past."
"Yeah…I think when I tried to call them, they said they were in the middle of a job but they didn't tell me what it…" Jexi said as they heard metal clanging further in the ruins.
"What the hell was that?" Simon asked.
"Something fun." Theo said as they went in deeper as they saw a small pink creature as it worked with some scrap metal and focused around something metal.
"What is that?" Glacius asked.
"It looks just like that pink Pokémon Rutega had with her… only smaller and with a tinier hammer." Mermista noticed.
"Allow me. Bzzt! Tinkatink, the Metalsmith Pokémon! A Fairy and Steel type! This Pokémon pounds iron scraps together to make a hammer. It will remake the hammer again and again until it's satisfied with the result." Rotomphone said.
"Wait…" Kiana took a closer look. "Hey Zi-O, isn't this Pokémon from the Paldea region?!"
"Yep, no doubt about it." Zi-O confirmed. "But how the heck did it get in here?"
"It must be a member of Ginhana Sky. They must be down here because their job involves excavating Zonaite." Mirror Match said.
"She's also from that guild? Huh, I never noticed." Kiana commented.
"It seems like new members get added to their guild almost every month…likely a result of how much work their rescuing and exploration does." Jexi said.
"Yeah…it's kind of hard to keep track, actually." Eddy added.
"Should we ask what it's doing?" Bow asked.
"Well, the Hylian guard topside mentioned something about Ginhana Sky making a giant hammer. Maybe it's making the thing for when it eventually becomes a Tinkaton?" Vashryon guessed.
"At least it's not Corviknight." Geiz said.
"Hey! Guys!" a voice called out as the group saw a number of Pokémon approaching. Four more figures are also with the group which Kiana recognized.
"Been awhile." Riolu said.
"Riolu! Guys!" Hope said.
"Ah, Mei, Hibiki-chan, Aile, Grey! Good timing." Kiana greeted.
"We got here as fast as we could, Kiana-chan." Hibiki said.
"The Pokémon was heading somewhere else, so we decided to follow it." Mei said.
"Well duh. We are on a job and have to check on our client." Meowth said.
"So you must be the Hero Alliance. Vent and Ashe told me and Grey about you guys." The figure wearing a blue armor similar to Vent and X spoke. "I'm Aile, Vent's twin sibling. And over here is Grey, a reploid."
"Nice to meet you." Grey bowed, wearing a similar armor Ashe wore, minus the ponytail and having a pair of cables on his back.
"A pleasure to meet more robots like the ones we got with us." Kazuma said.
"Reploids, not robots. There's a difference." Leviathan said.
"Not much of one." Kazuma murmured. "They both can have free will, Reploids just get it earlier…"
"They also look more human." Leviathan said.
"You both make good points, but we really should move on." Double D pointed out.
"Yeah…like your member there and your client." Hope said, pointing to Tinkatink.
"And they wonder why you're slow. That is our client." Meowth said.
"You were just… exploring underneath Hyrule looking for materials to help a Tinkatink craft the perfect hammer?" Bow asked.
"No, its….okay, yeah. Pretty much that." Oshawott said.
"See, that Tinkatink wants to achieve its dream of making the ultimate hammer and battle something huge with it. That's why it made a request to us. We've been down here gathering stuff for it to craft with." GS Pikachu said.
"So you've been mining Zonatite down here so it could forge its hammer."
"Zonaite? That useless crud? No. Scrap metal." Meowth said.
"Right, Tinkatinks love building their hammers out of the stuff. Any luck finding enough to help her out?" Glimmer asked.
"It's a slow process. I was thinkin' of askin blondie here if we could take parts of her armor of to see if it'll be useful-" Meowth started, referring to Hibiki.
"I'm gonna stop you right there, Meowth." Connor said. "Don't try taking Hibiki's armor off, she'll send you flying with one punch across the face."
"Please don't do that." Hibiki sweatdropped. "My Lucario might not like it."
"Well, what if we helped you guys look for the stuff Tinkatink needs?" Scorpia asked.
"Hmm…fine. But you aren't getting the reward." Meowth said.
"We weren't asking for it." Lysithea said.
"Good." Meowth said. "But it doesn't have to be a priority. We have loads of time to craft the hammer."
"Especially since some groups forget we're supposed to be rising up to give a report to Purah eventually." Jexi said.
"Right…got a little excited there…" Hope said.
"I just have one question… getting down here was easy, but how are we supposed to find our way back up?" Rayleigh asked.
"That won't be as hard as you might think." Link said as they stood under one of the light roots. "Grab onto me and don't let go." he said as they all huddled close together. "Ascend!" Link said as they were pulled right through the root before emerging on the surface.
"Woo-hoo! Goin' up!" Eddy laughed.
"And that is how you leave the underground in style." Rainbow said.
"Yep. That was actually quite fun, not gonna lie." David said.
"Now that the gang is all back together, we should return to the Lookout and figure out…where we exactly go from here." Jexi said.
"Well, may as well get moving, then." Revali said.
Everyone nodded as they returned to the Lookout.
Once there, they all held a meeting in the area below.
"So…Ginhana Sky…anything you can tell us about the last few days?" Rimuru asked.
"Actually, we do have some reports." Riolu said. "Since the Upheaval of Hyrule Castle, there have been a number of strange phenomena. First would be the Zelda sightings being reported all over Hyrule. That's for very obvious reasons. We also sent teams of four to scout out the Rito, Goron, Zora and Gerudo cities."
"I've also sent some of my teammates to the cities as well, as well as some members from Teyvat." Zi-O added. "You guys haven't met the latter yet, but soon."
"The Rito…how do they fair?" Revali asked.
"Hmm…well…for that, we sent Altaria, Froslass, Aurorus and Jynx. It seems a blizzard has started up and freezing the whole of the Hebra region." Riolu said.
"And Houki just sent a photo of the place." Starlight added, showing the picture of the snowy village on her Zikan Phone. "And I thought Dragonspine was a blizzard."
"What?! And it's been raging since we have vanished?!" Revali said.
"I know how you feel, Revali. But please. Calm down for a minute." David said. "This is Teba we're talking about. If Tulin is properly trained, they can hold their own until we get there."
"Right. Please…continue." Revali said.
"Then comes our team from Death Mountain. Charmander, Fuecoco, Teddiursa and Machoke were sent there. It seems the Goron have been acting strangely since the discovering of some strange new taste sensation." Riolu said.
"Here, Charlotte showed a photo of it during her scouting." Geiz relieved the photo on his Zikan Phone, a dark glowing rock.
"Uh… I'm no expert on Rock Roasts, but they aren't supposed to be that red before you cook them, aren't they?" Subaru asked.
"According to Charl, oh heck no." Zi-O answered.
"Hopefully Yunobo is alright." Al said.
"Uh…funny you mention him…he's the one who discovered those new Rock Roasts." Riolu said. "In fact, his company has been distributing them."
"Wait, Yunobo's got his own company now?" Jessica asked.
"Yeah, you haven't heard about it? He calls it YunoboCo. He established it to make Goron Mining Operations more profitable after Death Mountain went dormant." Riolu said.
"Cool! We should swing by soon and see how he's doing." Mahiru said.
"Uh…could we move on?" Ajna asked.
"Right. We'll go to the Zora next. There's been an epidemic of some strange sludge covering the whole of Zora's Domain. The current King has gone missing and Sidon is doing all he can to keep the city clean. Squirtle, Mudkip, Piplup and Sobble were the ones who reported this fact." Riolu said.
"That's terrible! Poor Sidon, he must be working himself to the gills." Thorani said.
"Good thing Mona and Cecilia are there to do damage control. Look at this." Starlight showed the photo of the Zora Domain covered in goop. "Why am I reminded of Delfino Plaza for some reason?"
"And what about the situation in the Gerudo Desert? Are Riju and the rest of the Gerudo tribe okay?" Connor asked.
"That one we can't really answer. We sent in Flygon, Heliolisk, Luxray and Trapinch to investigate but a fierce sandstorm is brewing and they can't get any intel." Riolu said.
"GV was able to take a pic outside of the sandstorm though." Zi-O showed the pic of said sandstorm in Gerudo Desert before the XDR founders put away their phones.
"To think this could happen in just four days in Hyrule…" Hibiki said with worry.
"Indeed, Hibiki, it is concerning." Urbosa said. "No doubt all of these incidents are connected to Ganondorf's revival."
"Yeah…they all started around the same time, unfortunately." GS Pikachu said.
"We need that Master Sword. Any chance it…" Twilight asked.
"We already sent Bulbasaur, Accelgor, Treecko and Rowlet to check out the Lost Woods but it's very difficult to penetrate ever since the Upheaval but they'll keep trying." Riolu said.
"Good thing Fu Hua is with them to assist." Kiana said.
"Sheesh, we have a laundry list of things to do here. Ganondorf sure knows how to keep people on their toes." Glacius said.
"Indeed." Spade said.
"Our first priority should be to investigate the incidents happening over Hyrule and see what we can do to stop them." Mirror Match said.
"We should head to Rito Village first." Ace suggested.
"Yes! Completely agree! 100%!" Revali said quickly.
"Well, I guess we gotta start somewhere. Plus, admittedly, I am a bit worried about Teba and Tulin." David said.
"Yes, I as well. We should head off as soon as possible." Revali said, giving a smile as a sign of thanks for trusting him.
"Then it's settled…next stop…Rito Village!" Jexi said.
"(Teba, Tulin… Hang on… We're coming…!)" Revali thought in his head as they headed off.