Ari --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE LEGEND OF ZERENA Disclaimers: All mandatory disclaimers apply to Naoko Taeuchi for Sai- lor Moon and Nintendo of America's Shigeru Miyamoto for The Legend of Zelda. =====CHAPTER 6: THE WATERGATE DUNGEON===== With the hammer in hand, and Sailor Uranus rescued, Tuxedo Mask headed south to hit the rest of his dungeons. On the way, he disco- vered that a few shots with the hammer would easily dispatch one of the giant bomb-throwing cyclopses. A small bridge spanned the banks of a murky river, but the path was blocked with a number of pegs that were spaced too close to walk through. So he grabbed the hammer, and drove the stakes in. Now that the path was clear, he made a right at the clearing, and saw a house sitting up on a small hill. A little tired from trek- king through the Palace of Darkness, he ascended the hill and entered the house. Inside, he saw a small man, with the head of an elephant, standing in the back of the one-room house. "Hi! Can I help you?" the elephant-man asked. "Um..." Tuxedo Mask stammered. "Uh, what is this place?" "This is my bomb shop, sir!" He pointed over to a shelf full of blue bombs, and a red bomb, which looked like it was still being worked on. "One hundred rupees for thirty bombs! Thrity bombs for one hundred rupees! Please buy, sir!" Tuxedo Mask looked inside his hat, and pulled out his bomb bag. It was empty, except for one lone bomb. He checked his wallet, and fi- gured, why the hell not? "Okay," he said, handing the merchant a hundred rupees and o- pening his bomb bag wide. "Fill 'er up." With a full load of bombs, Tuxedo Mask headed south to the Wa- tergate Dungeon. He came to a clearing, and found several stone fi- gures standing around a center statue. Although, as he discovered, the statues didn't do anything important, he noticed a crack in the cliff- side a few yards away. He took out a bomb, lit the fuse, and threw it at the crack. A moment after it hit the wall, it exploded, revealing a cave. What he saw when he stepped in took his breath away. Hovering over a small spring was a beautiful fairy, almost the size of Darien. "Welcome, Darien," the fairy said. "Come on in." He walked wearily slowly into the spring. The water was knee-high on him. When he was settled in, the fairy spoke again. "I will soothe your wounds and comfort your weariness. Close your eyes and relax...." Tuxedo Mask did so, and he felt himself engulfed in a warm light. Within mo- ments, he felt completely healed and perky. But when he opened his eyes, the fairy was gone.... When he left the cave, he headed further south, and found an entrance to a...temple? in the middle of a marsh. But upon entering, and walking down the first flight of steps, he had no way to get to the broken ladder hanging off the high edge on the other side. Yes there was. A flight of steps off to the side of the broken ladder...only, there was a wall, with an odd-looking, large tile in the wall. When he touched it, he could hear Serena's voice. "Darien..." her voice called out. "Can you hear me? It's me, Serena. I'm locked away in Turtle Rock, on Death mountain. I know you're doing your best, but please hurry!" "Serena!" Tuxedo Mask shouted. "I haven't much time. One more thing...everything in this world has a counterpart in our world. Something that effects an object in one world will alter the shape of its twin...." Then, her voice faded away. Back home, Sammy emerged from the back door of the house, and went out to the pool for a swim. He was waiting for Mika - she said she'd be right over - and decided to check the water while he was wai- ting. It was warm enough, but the level, Sammy noted, was kinda low. It was just below the tile level. "Hmmm," Sammy thought aloud. "Could use some water...." He went over to the hose hanging next to the grill, unravled it, and threw the end into the water. Then, he turned on the spicket.... As Tuxedo Mask wandered around the dried up basin, he heard a loud clank, turned and saw water flowing from the other end. The tide quickly filled up the basin, to the point where he could grab onto the broken ladder and pull himself up on the opposite ledge. From there, he made his way down to the next basement. From there, he made his way down a narrow corridor to a wall that had a huge crack in it. Remembering what he did outside with the fairy cave, he lit a bomb, laid it next to the crack, and ran out of the narrow corridor. After the bomb exploded, it opened the path to a small room with a lever sticking out of the wall. He also noticed ano- ther dried out man-made river, and a skull with its mouth hanging over in the wall above it. "What's this do?" Tuxedo Mask thought aloud. He grabbed the end of it, and pulled down on it with all his might. A loud click. Then, water started to pour from the skull. Then he dove in, and let the water take him to another area. When he got up, he found himself standing in ankle-high water. Around him, there were several platforms gathered around a larger, cen- tral platform. He climbed up one of the smaller patforms, and found a lone treasure chest sitting there. Only, when he opened the chest, he was sprayed with a cold mist and was frozen in solid ice for a moment. After a few moments, he broke free, but was quite cold. When he was attacked by several young octopi, he merely fended them off with his cane. Then, there was the larger platform. And on the top, sat a very large treasure chest...the same size as the one that contained the Hammer back in the Palace of Darkness. After what just happened a moment ago, he proped opent the lid of the chest with his cane. He turned away quickly, to make sure he didn't get hit by anything. Nothing happened. Still paranoid, though, he reached his cane in and poked around with his cane. Only this time, a long chain, with a sharp point on the end, coiled out, wrapped around the cane, and glowed with a bright light. When the light stopped, the point was on the bottom of his cane. A button formed on the end. When he pressed the button, the point flew from the cane, drag- ging the chain with it. It latched onto a door, and the chain retrac- ted, taking Tuxedo Mask right in front of the door. Only one more room remained before Tuxedo Mask and the last room of the dungeon. After that, he entered the last room. The only other thing in the room full of knee-deep water was a giant octopus, surrounded by a number of orange puff balls. "Ahhhhhhhh," the octopus said. "Arrghus!" Tuxedo Mask shouted. "Long time, no see. How goes the rescue mission?" "Give me back Sailor Mercury!" "Make me!" Arrghus hovered above the water, the orange puff- balls orbiting him. Then, remembering the battle in which Link helped try to destroy Arrghus, he fired the hookshot at the octopus. As they left their orbits, they turned blue and fell to a caneshot by Tuxedo Mask. It wasn't long before all the puff balls were destroyed. "All right," Arrghus shouted. "It's time to get serious!" Arrghus jumped high, almost to the ceiling. He tried to crush Tuxedo Mask, but he in- stead fired the hookshot into the soft underbelly of Arrghus. He died before he hit the water. Then, the crystal cocoon fell from the ceiling, and the image of Sailor Mercury appeared in it. ~Tuxedo Mask, because of you, I can escape the clutches of the evil monsters,~ Sailor Mercury told him. ~Thank you.~ "Are you alright?" Tuxedo Mask said. ~Link's past is as colorful as ours. He comes from a long line of the Knights of Hyrule, a line that was nearly wiped out defending a- gainst Ganon's armies. It is ironic that he - and the Earth Prince, you - would have the potential to destroy Ganon. I am sure that you can do it!~ "Where should I go now?" ~Go to the Ice Palace in the frozen lake. Sailor Neptune is waiting for you.~ Then, the crystal faded away. ~Good luck, Tuxedo Mask. And may the way of the hero lead you to the Triforce....~ =====TO BE CONTINUED=====