| GCB Fanfics: The Fanfiction Project |
July 31st, 2003Preshow Lara tossed the yellow chaos emerald up and down, it really was a spectacular specimen, she could get in the hundred millions for a stone like this in her world. She figured when she did leave she would leave the stone in this world though, it seemed to belong here, and besides she had billions already. She inspected her gun's they were clean as always, there really wasn't much preperation to do, in fact she was kind of bored. She'd made a bunch of friends in this world, she had become pretty close with Ryu and Ken, Dante had been fairly nice, Vyse was a great guy, but have of them were gone. Her thoughts drifted back to her opponent, Zelda. She didn't like Zelda. And she didn't quite know why, maybe it was her blind devotion to Link, or maybe it was her princess like arrogance, or maybe it was because she held the Tri-Force of wisdom and therefore thought she was the smartest person there. Lara had spent her entire life studying the history of her planet, she had grown quite intelligent and that snooty attitude had really made her mad. No, it was her blind devotion to Link that made her angry. Link had clearly changed since the last tournament, she had been there, talked to him and he was pretty much the nicest guy there the previous year, but something had changed about him. Something had......corrupted his innocent mind, no matter, there was too much good in that boy's heart for the evil to overcome it. But why couldn't Zelda see that, if she really put the effort into it, she could probably change him back to the way he was. It didn't matter she wouldn't be seeing him for too much longer anyway. ---- Zelda paced around the locker room anxiously, she was worried, it was her nature. She recited her spells and incantations to her self, and then returned to pacing. Link looked on and began to chuckle. "Are you laughing at me?" Zelda shot at Link scowling. "Yes, I am." Link responded still laughing. Zelda looked kind of hurt by his comment. "No, I mean you're just so nervous, its funny." He reached over and took her hand with his. The two Tri-Forces began to resonate. He placed the backside of her palm in front of her face. "Do you see that? That is the Tri-Force of Wisdom, it shows that you are the wisest person in our world, this Croft girl doesn't stand a chance against you." Zelda looked at Link lovingly, although confused, that was a big speech for a small talker like Link. Oh well, it didn't matter she began to think about the people she had come here with. She thought about how much her friends had meant to her Link, Kaepora, and Tingle. Even though Tingle got a little annoying sometimes. Then her thoughts drifted back to her opponent Lara. She didn't like Lara. And she didn't quite know why, maybe it was the grudge she held against Link, or her pompous British attitude, or maybe it was because she was an archeology expert and thought that therefore she was the smartest person there. Zelda had been given the Tri-Force of Wisdom, for her knowledge and that snooty attitude really made her mad. No, it was her grudge against Link. Link had completely annihalated that monkey in the first round, and even Zelda knew that was not in Links nature. Hadn't she been here with him last year, couldn't she notice that something had changed about him, something had......corrupted his innocent mind. Oh well, there is no way Link will ever succumb to evil like Ganondorf thought Zelda. If it weren't for people like her, making it worse by shunning him, she could've helped Link through whatever stage he was going through by now. It didn't matter, she wouldn't be around for too much longer anyway. The Battle Lara slowly strolled out of the fighter's entranceway to the main floor. All around her the crowd was roaring in anticipation; the matches had been getting more and more exciting, and this promised to be no exception. Squinting, Lara peered across the battlefield to the opposite entranceway. Zelda gracefully emerged from her side of the stadium, bearing a look of stern serenity. She bore the Tri-force of Wisdom, and it had helped calm her nerves. Though she had been nervous before the battle, she realized that she would only have to allow the power of her Tri-force soothe and guide her. She was ready for this battle. She looks more like she's ready for a tea party than a fight, thought Lara. Indeed, Zelda was dressed in her ceremonial royal attire. Is she mocking me?... Before Lara could continue her thought the fighters were greeted with the blaring sound of the announcer over the intercom, announcing their fight. "All right! A chick fight!" Tommy blurted from the crowd, laughing vulgarly. "How about some shirts versus skins?" Lara was appalled and was about to reply, but she noticed that Zelda had apparently been oblivious to the whole comment. Zelda was staring straight at Lara, her dress fluttering in the breeze and her eyes boring a hole into Lara's soul. Something about that gaze made Lara decide that she better keep her mind on the battle. This might be harder than she first thought. Lara decided to make the first move. She un-holstered her dual pistols and began running towards Zelda, firing shot after shot. But to her amazement, Zelda didn't even try to avoid the bullets! They weren't hitting Zelda, but they weren't missing either. It was as if they just magically couldn't harm her. Zelda finally broke her stony stature as she waved her arms wildly towards Lara, sending a wave of multicoloured sparks in her direction. Lara saw the barrage coming her way and quickly fell to a roll to dodge the magic as it flew overhead. She dismounted from her roll and quickly twisted around to fire off a volley at where Zelda was standing... ...except Zelda was no longer standing there! In what had seemed like an instant Zelda was now standing at the opposite end of the arena. OF COURSE Lara thought quickly She can teleport! That's why I wasn't able to shoot her! Lara frowned. This would be difficult. Zelda did not let her attack stop there. She raised her arms above her head and called forth a freezing projectile. She whipped it around and sent it careening on a collision course with her opponent, who was still rising from her previous attack. Lara was not so lucky this time as the frosty attack collided with her just as she had gotten up. Zelda began to approach her adversary as she was covered from head to toe in an enormous ice block. The ice covered Lara's head as Zelda stopped right in front of her. Suddenly Zelda was taken aback as she felt a stir within her mind. What was that? she thought,and in this moment of confusion a hunting knife thrust out of the ice block. Lara had freed her arm and was swiping her knife at Zelda as she struggled to free herself from her icy prison. As the blade arced down it caught Zelda across the shoulder; it was a small cut, but a cut nonetheless. Without thinking Zelda instantly teleported across the arena, cradling her arm. She could not afford such a lapse in judgment. She was smarter than that. She had the Tri-force of Wisdom! Zelda looked up in time to see Lara lunging through the air, both guns blazing. Zelda arched back blasting Lara far up into the air. Lara managed to turn in the air and right herself just before she hit the ground, landing on her feet beside Zelda. Again Zelda felt a surge within her, this time far more powerful than before. The closer Lara was to her, the larger the surge. Lara again noticed Zelda's hesitation and took advantage of the situation. She began to fire volley after volley at Zelda. I can't kill her, but I've GOT to take her down NOW! Lara thought, advancing on her opponent. She was careful to only fire wounding shots. An arm, a leg. But Zelda seemed oblivious to her wounds. Why is Lara giving off such power! It's overwhelming! I can't stand it! What does she have?! "What do you have?!?" Zelda shouted as she let forth a blast of energy greater than any she had produced during the battle. Lara was forced back head over heals. Her backpack ripped scattering its contents over the playing field. Among them was the Chaos Emerald she had acquired earlier. Upon seeing the Chaos Emerald, Zelda immediately was aware of the source of the power Lara was giving off. "Do you not know what this is?" Zelda said in disbelief, picking up the Chaos Emerald. "This isn't just some trinket you found. What am I saying. Of course you can't see this for what it truly is; you do not possess the Tri-force of Wisdom." Lara got up and stood her ground as Zelda mumbled an incantation under her breath. The Golden Chaos Emerald left Zelda's hands and floated up above her head. Zelda raised her arms toward it and a golden triangle began to materialize above her right hand. It was the Tri-force of Wisdom! A golden aura began to envelop Zelda and the artifacts. The wind in the stadium quickened and the lights overhead flickered. The ground began to rumble below Zelda's feet… In the crowd Ganondorf flew to full attention. The Tri-force of Power had begun to resonate within him as soon as the Tri-force of Wisdom left Zelda's body. The power present in the arena was growing immense. He could feel it inside as Zelda's power grew. It was almost tangible. Link, too, could feel his Tri-force resonate. Zelda had never before exhibited such potential! "Red! What's going on!" Sonic yelled at the top of his lungs. The wind emanating from Zelda had grown so loud that no one in the audience could hear anything else. "This is very bad." Knuckles replied, though he knew Sonic could not hear him. He had worked with the Emeralds all his life. He thought he knew everything about their power. Knuckles had never seen anything like this. Lara was struggling to stay on her feet as she bore into the wind. She had expected to fight a mere princess, not a god! She covered her eyes, along with the rest of the crowd, as the light Zelda was emitting grew too bright to bear. Zelda looked up, serenely calm amidst the madness. Finally above her the Chaos Emerald and the Tri-force of Wisdom met in a flash of blinding energy, and they were gone. She had completely internalized both of the artifacts along with all their power. Suddenly, the wind, the light, the rumbling... everything died down. If the crowd had not just witnessed the spectacle no one would have believed it really happened. From the outside, everything was as before. But within Zelda's mind, everything changed. The power of Chaos had served to amplify the powers of her Tri-force. She could feel her wisdom growing. Her mind swam in thought as her knowledge expanded exponentially! What the ****! blurted Tommy, or so Zelda thought. Wait! He didn't say that! He thought it! I can hear his thoughts! Zelda realized as her mind continued to expand. Within her brain, pathways began to open she never knew existed. She began to hear more thoughts as she looked around the stadium. What's going on?!? thought Lara, and Zelda turned directly towards her. "What's going on?" Zelda stated. She was still glowing a deep yellow, and Lara was now more confused than ever. "Prepare to..." Zelda continued, but suddenly she was cut off as she was crushed under a barrage of thoughts. In all her thinking, in all her wisdom, she never realized her crucial mistake. No matter how wise she was, her brain was still the brain of a normal Hylian. She was never meant to have godlike omnipotence. She was not ready to perceive the world from every angle at once. She collapsed under the weight of the collective fears, hopes, and dreams of everyone in the stadium. In pain, Zelda let out an immense scream, and with it a wave of psychic energy of such force that the maelstrom of just moments before seemed but an overture to a symphony of power. The wind blew, and light shown forth as everything faded to white… ---- "Zero... are they all... dead?" Mega Man whispered to the other robot. Everyone in the entire stadium was slumped over in their seats. The sound and the fury of before were replaced by a dead silence. Lara had been thrown through the wall of the arena into the crowd. Nothing moved. Zelda was sitting in the center of the stadium, clutching her knees to her face and shuddering silently. Before Zero could respond, the robots were met with an answer. "Negative." KOS-MOS said in a dull monotone. "They are all unconscious. I calculate full recovery within two hours. However since we were unaffected there is a 78% chance that this was classified as a 'psychic' phenomenon." Mega Man and Zero hopped the wall into the arena and walked over to Zelda, who was still shaking in the center. "Are you okay Zelda?" Mega Man inquired, bending down to pat Zelda on the shoulder. "CAUTION!" KOS-MOS said, in as alarming a tone as she could have. "There is a 99% chance that Zelda is experiencing complete insanity!" But her warning came too late. As Zelda stood up, knocking the robots across the arena through the wall. "Zelda? Who is Zelda? I am Sheik. Pray that you do not cross my path again." Zelda (or should I say Sheik!) exclaimed and then ran quickly from the stadium. Aftermath As soon as Zelda/Sheik had left the arena, the crowd gradually began to regain their senses. Knuckles felt as though he had been hit by a sledgehammer... but he couldn't feel anything, physically. This is not good, he thought. Sonic and Shadow were looking alert as well, although most of the crowd and most of the fighters seemed to be still shaking off the effects. Probably because of our chaos emeralds... Knuckles thought. Although there was another individual who didn't seem as affected by the blast... But there was no time. Knuckles leaped up into the air and grabbed Sonic. "Woooahh, where are we going?" Sonic yelled. Knuckles began running with him in Shadow's direction. "We have to find her. She doesn't know what she's getting into." Idle chat gradually began to resume among the audience. It was apparent that Zelda had won, although how she had done it was still a little fuzzy in everyone's minds. Lara was slinking off. Knuckles and Sonic caught up with Shadow, who was slinking towards the exit. "Bad bla.... I mean, shadow!" Sonic called to him. "You've gotta come with us!" Shadow looked at him disdainfully. "I have no reason to help you." "Wake up Shadow!" Knuckles snapped at him. "She has a chaos emerald. This concerns you too. You know what could go wrong there." Shadow looked like he was about to complain, but hesitated. Sonic was still carrying his emerald, and Knuckles bore both of his at the moment. Looking slyly at them, he responded slowly. "All right, we can check the crazy girl out. Don't expect me to let you keep the emerald though." "Arrgh. Just come along." Knuckles ran off outside the arena and Shadow had to strain to keep up. The girl was moving fast, but she was leaving a pretty clear trail, running recklessly. They had to catch up with her. ---- Sheik raced through the forest, feeling like she was more soaring than moving. Such incredible power was at her fingertips... power like she had never experienced. Well, that may not have been quite true... she had been on the receiving end of impossibly powerful forces before... but this time, the power was all hers. A tree dared to block her way as she ran with reckless abandon. Sheik raised one hand up and incinerated the tree. She flew through the ashes. It felt good to be in control... she never knew such freedom was possible. But there was a dark cloud on the horizon. Literally. There was a black blur racing in front of her, trying to cut her off. Sheik leapt into the air with her dagger. The dark shape whirled out of the way and kicked up grass and dirt into her face. Sheik began to see red. Literally. A red ball crashed into her from one side, while a blue shape blocked her from behind as she prepared to leap back and engage her target from a safer distance. The black figure did a 180 and faced her. He was some kind of an animal, with black fur. The three figures formed a triangle around her. Like the triforce... Sheik thought. She frowned. Tri-what? "Hello Zelda." The red shape was talking to somebody. She realized it was looking straight at her. "It's me, Knuckles. Don't worry, I don't know you, and you don't know me. I'm not your friend, but I'm not your enemy." Sheik looked into his eyes. She no longer saw him as a possible threat... he looked weak enough. He seemed to be wanting to talk to her for some reason, however. "What do you want from me?" The red animal sighed. Knuckles raised a red jewel to her face. "Does this bring back any memories?" Sheik's eyes lit up, and reached for it... but pulled back frightened. The jewel had some strange power... a power she now felt inside of her. "Who are you..." she whispered. She looked around at the other animals. They were saying nothing, blocking her escape. "Who am I..." "I'm Knuckles, protector of the Master Emerald, among others. You're Princess Zelda. You have some triangle thing on your hand, you just beat up a grave robber, your boyfriend won a tournament last year, and you're currently sapping off the power of a chaos emerald." Sheik looked at him in disbelief, preparing to leap into the air. "Think about this one." Knuckles spoke calmly. "Don't act, just think. Why are you here?" Sheik tried to trace back through her memory what had happened. There was an elf boy... a warlock... a giant pig monster... memories flooded back to her. She gasped and lay on the ground. What was she doing? She was a princess, she shouldn't be trying to fight like a ninja. The last thing she could remember was thinking about Link before her fight, and how he would never succumb to evil. And what of me... Zelda looked the hedgehogs, trying to place them in her memory. ---- Knuckles was watching her go through her mental changes. "Good, just don't flip out on us again," He muttered, mostly for the benefit of Sonic and Shadow. He sighed, trying to piece together what had happened. "Apparently in your fight you obtained a chaos emerald, and were infused with its power somehow." Zelda blinked at him, shaking her head. "What does that mean?" Knuckles sighed again. "I don't know. What I do know is that it's really not a good thing. The chaos emeralds are all meant to be used together. They balance each other out, and complement each other's powers. They are all different somehow, and neutralize each other's ill effects. I don't full understand it myself." Knuckles continued, trying to keep his voice free from worry. "The point is, that the chaos emeralds by themselves, are, well, chaotic. Its energy is too unstable, and could have too many ill effects unless it is used apart from the others. It would be best if you gave up the emerald." Sonic nodded, and spoke up. "Look, it's just not safe, ok? I take a lot of chances, but that's too reckless even for me." Even Shadow was nodding his head. Knuckles had to wonder at that slightly, as Shadow himself had been known to make use of an individual emerald's power... but there was no time to worry about consistency. Besides, Shadow hadn't gone nearly as far as Zelda in tapping the power of the gem. Zelda looked at them sadly. She seemed so delicate and scared in comparison to the fierce warrior they had seen only moments before. "I'm not sure I know how..." Shadow spoke up. "Oh, I think you'll just have to learn. You can't keep it. End of story." Zelda looked like she was fighting back tears. "You don't know what it's like... being helpless..." she whispered. "Being powerless to prevent the fall of your people... powerless to protect yourself... I finally have what I wanted, the ability to do whatever I want, to defend my people. You don't know what it feels like, the power I have..." Shadow snapped at her before Knuckles could speak. "Listen to yourself, you're losing it. It's only going to get harder the longer you keep it, so just give it up now." Knuckles tried to smooth things over. "Please..." Sonic interrupted him. "Listen, the emeralds want to be together. You shouldn't try to mess things up." He held up his blue emerald and showed it to her. Zelda's eyes began to gleam as she gazed at the emerald. "Well, that can certainly be fixed." Her voice changed subtly as she began to focus on the gems. "You're all afraid that you'll lose next round, aren't you? You don't know how to use these silly stones you have. How nice of you to bring them to me... four more of these stones... with only two more to find." The Sonic team began to back down from their protective formation. "Zelda..." Knuckles pleaded. "I AM SHEIK!" Sheik/Zelda dived at Knuckles and attempted to seize the gems. Sonic leaped at her and attempted to force her back. Shadow stood still, resting his hands on his gem. "CHAOS CONTROL!" he yelled. Sheik appeared at the top of a tree, and Knuckles scrambled to his feet. Sheik lept off the top and dove for the ground, unconcerned with safety. She landed in front of Knuckles and smiled, extending a hand, and beckoning for the emeralds. Knuckles looked down at his emeralds. They had suddenly turned a darker shade, along with his hands. It was a shadow...but not Shadow's shadow. He looked behind him... and Link was standing there, a worried expression on his face. "Zelda... what are you doing? What's the matter?" Sheik's composure began to crumble. Zelda spoke up. "Oh Link... I'm sorry.... I found this emerald... you don't understand... the power..." "Yes, Zelda, I know what happened." Link interrupted her angrily. "I've been listening. That thing isn't safe, you need to get rid of it somehow. You know you can't keep something like that for yourself." Zelda shrieked and dove at Link. Link blocked her clumsy attack with her sword. "Zelda..." "I AM SHEIK!" she screamed. She threw some kind of projectile at the ground, and all of their eyes were temporarily blinded. When they looked again, Zelda/Sheik was gone. Great, Knuckles thought. That went well. Next Entry Back |