The Legacy of Dixie©: Darkened Mirror

Chapter VII: An Active Hunt

~In the Present Time, in a deep lagoon - Yomi~

“I have to find those medallion shards if it's the last thing I do! I have to do it for Mary's sake. Alright, let's begin this mission!”, I said to myself to get me in the full spirit of the hunt. I swam through the lagoon as I could innately sense the shards using my unrivaled treasure sense. I saw turtles bigger than anything I have ever seen in my life; I made a mental note to bring Mary here to swim some time. As I dove down into the waters of the lagoon, I saw more and more amazing things; starfish the size of small cars and massive jellyfish that looked like they could crush buses with little effort. My treasure sense started going haywire the moment I returned to dry land; I found 3 of the shards unguarded, all in the same place!

“This is as easy as taking candy from a baby! At this rate, that little pipsqueak won't have a medallion to guard!”, I said, confidently to myself. “Don't worry my dear Mary, I'll be done with this soon and then we can have an easier life...”

~The skies above the northwestern seas, Miles~

“I can't believe Master Dixie and Master Banjo were locked up on such bogus charges! Don't they know that they are the heroes that have saved their asses more times than they can count?!? Man those stupid military pigs! Lord Akiro should just have them all fired already...” Yamanako grumbled as we headed, by plane, to Lockdown Alley.

“Believe me, I know how you feel Yamanako.... that's my older brother and best friend they locked up! Banjo wouldn't kill anyone for no reason; hell, he hates killing period! Dixie has too kind a heart to ever kill anyone the way the news reports say she did! I know that something foul is going on... Do you think it could be Akitoki again?”, I said, trying to figure this mess out.

“It's a possibility... you can never rule out him or his flunky Hana. They both have a tendency to not die when we want them to...”

“Whatever the reason, we have to rescue them! We can't let innocent people rot in the Alley; that's not those innocent lost souls would want. Let's just focus on what's ahead and...”

Out of nowhere, a man wearing a hood appeared in front of us, stopping our progress. I could tell that Yamanako wanted to yell at him, but I prevented him from doing so.

“Who are you, and why did you stop us?”, I asked. “We are on a very important mission to rescue family members who are very dear to us and you are impeding our progress, so could you kindly move out of our way?”

“You're looking to break Banjo Onikawa and Dixie Shiryu out of Lockdown Alley, aren't you?”, the man correctly deduced. “I hope you both know, it's called Lockdown Alley for a reason; once you are in the system on the inside, there is no getting out.”

“Do you know who we are old man? We are members of the Onikawa's elite fighting force! We can shoot energy beams and fly and lift things that are thousands of times our own size!”, Yamanako went on.

“I will help you save them. Banjo and Dixie were both gravely injured and are in desperate need of medical attention.”

I felt a sharp pain in my chest when the man told me this news. For the first time possibly ever, I felt feelings of rage at the way the military was treating my family. I felt new found resolve as I swore to save my brother and best friend. I immediately accepted the man's offer to help, but before we left, I had to know why he was willing to help us.

“All I can say is that I have a strong vested interest in the both of them. Those kids are the future of two ailing clans and I want to be there to see them make the changes needed to protect the clans from massive collapse.”

All I could do was take his word for it and continued on forward. Just hold on big brother, I'll save you if its the last thing I do!

~2 days earlier, in the Gouki Desert, Akitoki~

“Oh boy, looks like the Onikawa Military is on our ass again. Akihito, we need to shake them or else we can't go home....”, Hana whined as she was still on my back, heavily bandaged up from her feet up to her midsection. Both of our bandaged needed to be replaced with fresh ones, but that wasn't the main reason we were headed back home; I had to investigate why Shadow and Tressa wanted us to meet them aboard the Sigma with the power of the 8 Phases. The look on Tressa's face was equally intriguing; she looked like she was holding some kind of juicy secret. I wanted to know everything about what the two of them were planning.

“They want to follow us all the way into Akitoki Space, huh? Well, it will be the last thing they do alive!”, I declared; I had no time to play around with anyone.

~On an island in the northwestern seas, Miles~

"I do not mean to sound rude Mister, but why did we stop on this little island again?", Yamanako asked the hooded man in an obviously annoyed tone. We had landed on this small island about 200 miles south of Lockdown Alley at the request of the man; he said that there was something important here that he just had to see for himself. 

"Do not worry young one", the man said as he guided us deeper into the island. "What I am going to show you, believe me, it will be worth your while. Just continue following me in the meantime please."

"If this is some kind of elabortate trap old man, I promise you, I will kill you in a heartbeat...", Yamanako coldly said.

"Calm down Yamanako. He has no ill intentions, I can see it in his actions, his speech patterns. Trust him like you would trust me", I said in an attempt to calm him down.

"Alright Master Miles, but the second he turns on us, he's worm food!"

We continued to walk as I looked around at the environment; rare and gorgeous plant life streached out as far as the eye could see. Endangered animals and insects were everywhere! My scientific mind was exploding with ideas and hypothesises about how these creatures survived so long and how they had become so plentiful on this island instead of the mainlands, but I had to save them for another time. Ahead of us was a clearing where all the plants and bushes were removed; we entered this area and the man suddenly stopped.

"We're at the destination, you may stop and rest now", the man told us. Yamanako sat on a log and I sat on the3 flattened grass as the man continued to speak. "The real reason I brought you both here is because I know who you both are. I have lived here for 14 years and helped rejuvinate life here on this island, but even this far away from the mainland, the tales of a group of heores opposing the Akitoki Clan have reached out here." 

"I never thought the stories of the Revolution and our battle against Akitoki's forces a couple weeks ago would spread all across the world like this", I said, suprised that he even knew that much about us.

"Of course. You are one of Hojo's 8 Phases, The Prophet, Miles Onikawa if I am correct? And you young boy, are The Avenger, Yamanako Onikawa no?"

We looked at each other in amazement as we slowly nodded our heads in agreement. How did this strange man know so much about us?

"I know about your powers as well; Miles, you are a psychic with the power to predict the future, but it isn't 100% perfected yet. Your mind still needs more fine tuning before it reaches its full potential. Yamanako, your powers revolve around your emotions; the stronger you become. You are too young to realize your powers yet. Both of you are held back by these limitations, but I can get rid of them. I will push you both past these limits in the short amount of time we have."

"Umm, exactly how do you plan on doing that old man? We have to get to Lockdown Alley and save our friends! We can't just rot here and toil away in pointless training!"

"Yamanako... we are staying here. My curiocity has been aroused by his offer... How do you plan on giving us years of training in just a small amount of time?"

"Don't worry Miles the Prophet, I have all the answers your scintific mind thirsts for. I will condense a liftime of training into just 3 days. Are the both of you ready? I must warn you, I am quite unforgiving in my training."

"We can handle it old man! I mean, Lord Akiro and Lady Kanu can be quite the slave drivers themsleves!"

"I'm in. I truly want to see how will pull this impossible feat off. Besides, I want to become strong enough to save Big Brother Blue and help Big Brother Luigi become an adult again..."

"That is the resolve I like to see out the warriors who brought peace back to the world after the Revolution ended. I hope you are ready, for this will be the most difficult 3 days of your lives..."