As per usual, too long of a time between chapters, but life keeps me busy as always. But like I said before, I WILL finish this story. I've already planned out all the story beats.

Chapter 11: Volcano

Zion wasn't sure how Sushie was doing it. She looked completely fine in the middle of this sweltering heat. Even though his suit was doing its best to cool itself and him, he still felt himself sweating buckets.

"Note to self, see about improving the temperature regulation of the suit."

Note Created

"I was trying to be funny, not create- ah whatever."

Sushie laughed at his antics, "I've been in here before, and it was actually hotter back then. The Lava Piranha was stirring things up, making them worse."

"Sounds wonderful," he replied sarcastically. He took a look around the section of the volcano they were in. It was practically a giant pit with lava at the bottom. "Knowing how dragons and luck works, my guess is the item we're looking for is in the dragon's treasure horde. Hopefully we can sneak in, grab it, and get out, but I'm ready in case it turns into a brawl. Personally, I'd rather avoid fighting a dragon without weapons."

Sushie nodded in agreement, "So, that tunnel halfway down the pit is the one we need to go through to get further down the volcano."

"Alright, I'll keep carrying you through so we can travel as quickly as possible." With that, Sushie jumped into his awaiting arms, and he flew down to the tunnel. Zion was amused at the ziplines that had somehow been installed in the volcano. 'Whoever installed these things in here must have been crazy.' Once they entered the tunnel, he was greeted with the sight of another zipline. 'Yup, definitely crazy.' They flew over the gap, and continued onward.

They encountered very few enemies on the way down. Most of them had more than likely fled due to the new occupant. Thankfully, the two of them make a good pair. Any Lava Bubbles were swiftly dealt with by Sushie and her bursts of water, while anything with a shell or spikes were flipped and disposed of by Zion. Eventually, they nearly reached the end of the volcano.

"Down there is where we fought the boss of the volcano, the Lava Piranha, but the dead end up ahead might be a good spot for the dragon to make its hoard." Sushie explained.

Zion agreed, "Yeah, let's take it nice and slow moving forward. If there's an opening up ahead, stick to the walls so we can peak in. We don't want to go in guns blazing." Sushie grunted in agreement. Slowly moving forward, they saw a large opening in the wall up ahead, and something further in the distance shining brightly. Zion motioned to the wall, Sushie nodded silently, and they both made their way just to the side of the opening.

Peeking inside, they could easily confirm they found the dragon's hoard. Gold coins, statues made of valuable metals, and jewels of various kinds were piled into the end of the room.

"Holy shit," Zion whispered, stunned at the sight "That's a lot of loot."

Sushie was just as astounded as Zion, her eyes wide as she stared at the piled riches. "Not to be a pessimist, but do you even know what the treasure you need looks like? How do you plan to find it in this mountain of stuff?"

Zion pressed a button on the side of his helmet, "Don't worry, I have a plan. It may not be foolproof, but it should give us a leg up."

…

He looked towards Sushie and saw the look she was giving him.

"Oh come on, that pun was NOT intentional and you know it."

Sushie chuckled as his reaction.

Zion shook his head and focused on the task at hand.

"Let's see if this works," he made a couple hand gestures to control some options in his suit.

Analyzing surroundings

Collecting base analysis

…

…

Analysis complete, performing in-depth scan.

Zion faced the mountain of treasure, and continued to manipulate the scanner of his suit.

"I'm having my suit scan the treasure for anything unusual. Only thing is I have to manually control what I'm NOT looking for. So I'm telling it to ignore things like the gold coins and jewels, but even things that are slightly different come up as two different objects. It's not the quickest process, but given a minute or two, we might find something." Zion explained.

"Ok, I'll leave you to it. I'm not well versed in technology, so I'll just stand guard for the moment." Sushie acknowledged.

"Thanks, hopefully this won't take too long."

Five Minutes Later

Time had passed in relative silence, the only sounds being the gurgling of the volcano around them. However, not everything had gone according to plan.

"You gotta be kidding me," Zion said looking at his suits screen.

No anomalies detected

"What the hell happened? It should have at least picked up something. Is there really nothing here?" He shook his head, trying to think of his next move.

"Hey Zion, I may not be sure how your armor works, but something you said has been bothering me."

Zion looked in her direction, "What's that?"

She put a fin to where her chin would be, "Did you say something about ignoring gold coins?"

"Yeah, I did. There's so many of them that it would be a waste of time to manually sort through that many coins," he answered.

"See, that's what's bugging me," Sushie began, "Despite their look, the coins aren't gold, not entirely anyway. I don't remember the specifics, but I do know that much."

Zion quickly pulled a coin out of his own supply, he wasn't about to walk over to the hoard to grab one, and quickly scanned it. When he inputted the order ignore the coins, he had specifically set it to 'ignore gold'.

"Damn, how'd I overlook something so simple. Thanks, Sushie." Sushie beamed at the praise. "Ok, let's try this again."

Scanning…

…

Anomaly detected

A spherical object was highlighted in Zions visor, buried within the pile of coins.

"That worked, I'm picking up something. That said, I'm scanning for nearby lifeforms. No way am I risking running into the dragon" He stated.

Scanning…

…

…

One lifesign detected

Aquatic in nature

'My suit is picking up Sushie,' he thought.

"Alright, let's go. We'll do it quickly, but quietly."

"Right behind you," Sushie was ready for anything.

They ran over to the mountain of treasure, Zion knowing which area to search. He began to quickly, but quietly, move large amounts of coins and treasures out of the way.

'Come on, come on, come on. Where is this damn thing?' He thought, frustrated. 'I don't want to be in here any longer than necessary.'

After moving another pile of coins, something fell to the ground and rolled towards Sushie. It was a large ball capsule of sorts. Red on the bottom half, transparent on the top half. They both looked into the capsule which was as big as a baseball.

"Is this it?" Asked Zion as he scanned it with his visor.

Scanning…

High yield energy detected.

Amount unknown.

"Looks like this is it Sushie."

Sushie looked unsure. "I don't know Zion, I think I've seen an item like this before. Pretty sure it's called a Gold Flower. They DO run out eventually."

Zion turned to her with a look of disbelief, then back to the capsule. The flower appeared like the others he had seen, but the rim was golden instead of red or blue.

"Are you sure? I never read about a gold flower before, so I only have your word to go on," He asked.

Sushie put a fin to her cheek, "I think so? I'm not completely sure, but I heard about it from one of Mario's friends. That said, you should take it anyway it might come in handy."

Zion stared at the capsule before sighing, "Well might as well take it. Otherwise this-"

Whatever he was planning to say was forgotten as the nearby lava flow began to churn and bubble. Moments later, their worst fear came to be as a purple, serpentine dragon emerged from the depths of the lava. It's full length was obstructed as it remained in the Lava, but from what could be seen, it was already 50 yards in length. Not a second passed before the dragon's gaze met the two of them.

No one moved a muscle before the dragon spoke, "I knew thieves would make their way to steal my treasures," it's voice was low and booming, "to think it would happen so soon. At least I know what I'm having for dinner!" It gave out a loud roar.

"Fuck that!" Zion pocketed the capsule, grabbed Sushie and began flying back the way they came at full speed. The dragon charged at them at that very moment, swiping at the ground where they had just been a second ago.

"Shit shit shit shit SHIT!" Zion was clearly stressed as he focused on flying out of the volcano. All of a sudden, he was surprised as what seemed like a bolt of lightning passed from behind him. He took a quick glance behind him and saw lightning forming in between the dragon's horns.

"Oh you've gotta be SHITING me!" His senses went into overdrive. Between reading the warning from his suit, navigating out of the volcano, and dodging, anyone would have a tough time keeping their cool. While Zion was definitely NOT calm and collected, his training ensured that he could focus and think while under intense pressure.

They made it to the large chasm and Zion began flying upwards. As he began doing so, the dragon was right behind them.

"You're not escaping me!" Intense heat began forming in its mouth, and it blew forth a burst of fire.

Zion was about to make a desperate maneuver to avoid the flames, but was surprised when a power jet of water met and pushed against the flames. It took Zion a second to realize that it was Sushie, who was still in his arms, that released the water. The panic caused by the situation had made him forget she could do that.

"Keep flying! I'll take care of the flames, just avoid the lightning, I can't stop that!" She shouted.

Zion grunted an affirmative response. Turning sharply, he pushed forward down the final tunnel that would lead them outside. That said…

'Even if we make it outside, this guy may not back off. God, PLEASE don't make us have to fight this thing!' He thought in desperation.

"There's the exit!" Sushie shouted.

Another bolt of lightning came hurling towards them, just narrowly missing Zion. However, it did hit some of the rock walls near them. One such rock broke off the wall with great force, hitting Zion in the side.

"SHIT!" He yelled loudly. The damage was minimal, but the impact messed with his flight path. They flew out the entrance to the volcano, but they were heading straight for the lava below.

"GO!" Zion screamed, and threw Sushie towards the ground ahead of them, trying to get her to safety.

His aim was true, but the landing was anything but pleasant. Sushie landed on the hard ground with a thud, causing her to gasp from the pain. Zion was less fortunate, and landed right in the lava.

Pain. That was the only thing going through his head. The suit was sounding off all sorts of alarms, but he paid them little attention. He was panicked, trying to think of a way to escape a fiery death.

Something grabbed him and pulled him from the lava. He was in the air for only a few seconds before he too landed with a thud.

"You're lucky I've been keeping an eye on the entrance. Your game would have most certainly been over had I not been here." Said a deep voice.

Taking a moment to reset his thoughts and vision, Zion looked up to see a very large black raven above him.

"I certainly burnt my claws saving you, but I dare say it was worth it." The bird said

"Who are-" before Zion could finish asking his question, the entrance to the volcano burst open wider, the dragon emerging with a roar.

"I'm Raphael the Raven, but maybe we should talk later. This guy doesn't look like he's gonna back down."

Zion got back to his feet and got into a position where he was ready to take flight. The dragon stared them down.

"You two believe you have the strength to take me down?" It asked.

"There's three of us!" Shouted Sushie as she rejoined Zion. "And we will be the ones to end your reign of terror!" She was enjoying her moment of making a heroic speech.

Zion took the free seconds to check his suit.

WARNING!

Suit integrity damaged

Internal cooling system failure

Heat resistance significantly reduced to 10%

Avoiding heat highly recommended

Avoiding combat highly recommended

'Just my luck' he thought.

The dragon was not amused. "You fools! You face Leventhan, the Lord of Lightning, and you shall all meet your end!"

Zion clenched his fists. Regardless of his armor's condition, it was time to fight.

So now we have a heroic trio vs a dragon. I admittedly struggled with some points of this chapter, but I'm glad with how it came out. Hopefully you all enjoy it as well!