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CHAPTER 14 – Across the Sea
Three cruisers sped across the ocean towards the fairy glade. Rayman and Globox paired up on the “Anti-Reflux”, as Globox had named it. Rothus and Renk took a cruiser, with Rothus driving and Renk manning the turret, which he had modified for himself. Finally, two of Globox’s oldest children shared a cruiser that Renk had worked on to accommodate their stature (or lack of).
When they were about halfway to the coastline, they were joined by a small flying insect. “Hi Rayman”, Bzzzit said loudly so he could be heard over the cruisers’ engines.
“Bzzzit!” Rayman replied happily, “My other purple, flying friend! What brings you here?”
“Be careful around the coastline, the Pirates are protecting it with everything they’ve got, and they’ve got special anti-cruiser weapons.”
“So the hoodlums have been going over, have they? Alright, thanks!”
Bzzzit said his goodbyes and veered off, just as the image of a familiar face appeared in Rayman’s mind.
“Rayman, where are you?” Ly asked worriedly.
“I’m on my way now.” Rayman thought back. “Why?”
“The council is under attack from both enemies! The only thing keeping them away is the fact they keep fighting each other. But as soon as one side wins…”
“I’ll be there soon, don’t worry.” The image of Ly faded, and the telepathic link ended. Rayman then spoke aloud to the others. “We need to go faster! The council is under attack!”
A mischievous grin appeared on Renk’s face; apparently this was is exactly what he wanted. “Pour this into your fuel tanks,” he said, pulling three liquid-filled canisters out of his backpack. He then through one to Rayman and another to the Baby Globoxes, and proceeded to pour the can’s contents into his cruisers fuel tank. Rayman and one of the kids did the same as Renk and Rothus boosted forwards at extreme speeds. After a short delay, the other two cruisers sped off after them.
It wasn’t long before they were just a few hundred metres off the coast – and the boost ran out. Slowing down suddenly, the group had a chance to survey their new surroundings. Bzzzit had been right. A barrage of missiles was speeding towards the group. They resembled those fired by the Red Henchmen only they were thinner, and a lot faster. Acting on impulse, Rayman fired a quick fireball at one of the missiles. “If they’re anything like the Henchman’s missiles then_”
BANG! The missile exploded upon impact with the fireball. But the resultant explosion was relatively pathetic – obviously they’d replaced some of the power with extra speed and agility to better take out the cruisers.
“Shoot the missiles!” he ordered, grasping the handles of his turret. He, along with the children began firing sprays of bullets, taking out many missiles at a time. Renk, on the other hand, lifted the Heckler gun off Rothus’ shoulders and used that instead of his own turret, which caused Rayman to wonder why. But before the distraction cost him, he focused on the situation and fired another spray of shots.
Eventually, they had gotten out of range from whatever was firing the missiles, and the Fairy Council could be seen over the horizon – along with its besiegers. When they were close, they took in the scene. Both sides wanted to get in, but also didn’t want the other to get in. the Hoodlums wanted to capture the heart so that Andre could use its power, and the pirates just wanted to blow it up again.
Luckily, as well as stopping each other, the Council itself was holding them back. Both besieging armies hard attempted to do the same things before, and so the council had recently been heavily fortified. Large automatic turrets that operated on the basis of magic and machinery lined huge walls while teensies and fairies fired bolts of magic into the crowds below.
Marine-based hoodlum crafts fired cannonballs at both the pirates and the council walls. However, due to the magic of – well, magic, the walls regenerated quickly. This also helped against the walking shells, Molotov cocktails and everything else that was thrown at the fort. However, if there was much more firepower, the walls would not be able to regenerate fast enough, so it was fortunate that the besiegers were attacking each other as well.
Both evil forces recognized Rayman and his group as an enemy, but both also decided that they weren’t worth the time.
Both were wrong.
The cruisers had two basic weapons: the spray gun and the bombardier, which was operated by the driver. Also, Renk had upgraded both of these weapons on all the stolen cruisers, so that they were generally – awesome.
Ranks of hoodlums and pirates alike fell quickly, but were being reinforced just as quickly. Rayman looked at Renk. For some reason, although he had put Rothus’ gun back in place, Renk still wasn’t shooting. Hopefully, Rayman thought, he wasn’t out of ammo.
But the enemies quickly realized their mistake. A pirate Warship turned towards the Anti-Reflux and fired a barrage of cannonballs. Globox reacted quickly, however, and skillfully weaved between the barrage. Rayman held on tight as he began to notice a buzzing noise. It grew in pitch in amplitude until it almost made Rayman wince. Suddenly, with a loud ‘VHOOOOSH’ the buzzing stopped - along with the ‘lives’ of whoever was on the Warship.
A humongous green beam of energy had blown it to bits. Rayman’s eyes followed the trail of smoke until he discovered Renk, already powering another shot on his turret. But his attention was quickly drawn to something emerging from the water. Slowly, it revealed itself to be a Hoodlum amphibious tripod – a three legged machine that could travel slowly but easily over land and underwater.
The Tripod turned to face another Warship. Under its head, a laser cannon aimed at the flying boat and fire, carving a chunk from its target’s hull. But it wasn’t destroyed yet. While the laser cannon charged up again, the Tripod slowly stumbled towards the ship, while firing volleys of shots at the pirates on the ground. Finally, it approached its target, but rather taking another shot with the laser, it lifted one of its powerful legs and took a swipe at the ship, which fell apart on impact, crushing both pirates and hoodlums below it. But with a ‘VHOOOOSH-BANG!!!’, the tripod was blown to bits.
But it wasn’t over yet. Two more climbed their way out of the water one by one and pushed on towards the council, both aiming their lasers carefully. Then they fired, cutting a gaping hole in the wall and knocking several defenders flying. They continued walking as the wall slowly regenerated, and Rayman realized their plan – once they got close, the council was finished. Between those lasers and their powerful legs, the wall would crumble faster than it could recover.
Renk fired his laser cannon, but his target lifted one of its legs and absorbed the impact with something under their feet that seemed like it was added purely because of Renk’s cannon.
“Rayman! Globox!” it was Renk. “Line ‘em up. Hold the lead one back by whatever means possible. They can’t lift their feet up to defend their sides, so we need them next to each other!”
Globox understood, and drove around so as to be directly in front of the leading Tripod. Rayman pulled the trigger repeatedly, aiming at the Tripod, and the Baby Globoxes quickly followed suit while Globox called out to the teensies to command the turrets to fire at it as well. Before long, everything the good guys had was on the tripod. It was damaged by much, but was slowed down a little. Rayman did some rough calculations, and concluded that it would be…very close.
Then suddenly, Rayman wondered why Renk couldn’t just shoot them independently, but then looked at Renk and noticed that the gun was powering very slowly due to overuse.
Slowly, the Tripods made their way to the council, firing their lasers as they went, the walls barely coping. Finally, the first one was right at it and began lifting its leg. But before it could strike, the other finally caught up, and Renk fired the cannon.
The twin explosions were spectacular. Fragments went flying everywhere while two massive fireballs reached for the sky. Eventually, the flames died down, and thanks to the cruisers holding back the enemies, the wall recovered to full strength.
“Alright!” Renk cheered.
“I’ve gotta go in now.” Rayman stated simply. “You can stay and fight if you want.”
The Anti-Reflux and the Globox kids entered the council while Rothus and Renk remained behind to cause havoc. After finding a good place to land, they all got off. “Alright,” Rayman said, “let’s go find Ly and the others.”
End of Chapter
Question 12: Where were the Knaaren? Weren’t they meant to be helping?