Falco's Journey

A mysterious adversary roams the Antarctic continent, performing mysterious tasks and targeting certain individuals. After Falco becomes a target of one of these attacks, he loses his powers over the element of fire. Struggling to cope with the absence of his powers, **Falco's Journey** follows Falco's dangerous, obstacle-ridden quest as a regular ninja to track down this mysterious individual before they can take control of the Pectosphere, and in turn, the whole world.

## Prologue

Large, dark storm clouds obscured the night sky. Every few seconds, bright flashes of lightning streaked across the clouds, followed by the low rumbling of thunder. The whistle of powerful winds could be heard as snow and debris circled around the Dojo Courtyard as the entrance's lanterns flapped wildly and the wooden doors shuddered.

Sensei sat with his flippers together, a look of great concern on his face. The dojo was devoid of any light, with the only light source being the glow from the magical pot beside Sensei's cushion. Its contents continued to transition between colours as the entrance doors shuddered from the wind and the windows creaked.

Suddenly, the wooden doors flung open, slamming against the walls of the dojo with a loud bang, followed by the sound of rushing winds and rumbling thunder. Leaves and snow swooped in from the open doors, surrounding the dark, shadowy figure of a penguin standing in the doorway. The penguin donned a cape and a hood. The winds quietened slightly as the penguin waddled forwards a couple steps.

Sensei's expression hardened.

????: Greetings, Sensei. Your dojo seems a little empty tonight.

Sensei: The elements foretold your arrival. Your very presence here is disrupting the natural balance of the Pectosphere.

????: Oh, I assure you, I'll leave you and this island in peace...once I get what I came for.

Sensei: I know what you want. I'm afraid you cannot have it.

The winds began to pick up again, increasing in intensity. The leaves scattered across the entrance began to float, swirling around the figure in a whirlwind.

????: I wasn't going to ask for your permission!

The penguin raised his flippers. The winds resumed to howling and small clouds began to rapidly rotate around the penguin, forming into a miniature tornado.

Just as quickly, Sensei drew a blue card, seemingly out of nowhere, and slammed it down, facing upwards. The card was surrounded by its own glowing aura of green. It shimmered, and suddenly the sound of low rumbling could be heard as an avalanche of snow appeared around the entrance, flattening the penguin.

After a moment or two, the penguin burst out from the snow pile, floating in mid air for a few seconds before dropping to the ground. Sensei swiftly drew several more cards and flicked a fire card at the penguin. The penguin swiped one of his flippers to the side. The card stopped travelling in mid-air for a second, then turned on its back and began spinning in Sensei's direction. He just had enough time to draw a water card and summon a wall of water as the fire card exploded into flames.

The penguin did another motion with his flippers, summoning a violent gust of wind. Sensei struggled against its force, staggering backwards. Just as it looked like he would be lifted into the air and thrown backwards against the wall, he drew another card and placed it down, creating a shield of ice.

????: You can't keep this up forever!

The penguin did another motion. The winds seemed to change direction, and were now coming from the other direction, hitting Sensei from behind, where he was exposed. He was suddenly lifted several feet into the air, spinning around with no control over what was happening. Sensei tried to use his deck of cards, but they were sucked out of his flippers by the dojo and expelled across the dojo floor.

????: Now, where were was it hidden...?

The penguin thrust one of his flippers forwards. Sensei's green cushion, the glowing pot and all of the card jitsu mats levitated upwards. The penguin casually waddled around as the several objects remained suspended in mid air, inspecting the areas where the objects had been.

After a moment or two, he stopped mid-search in the center of the dojo. The floorboards under his feet creaked.

????: How interesting. Sounds hollow. Mind if I take *this*?

Sensei, who was still helplessly suspended in the air, tried to escape as one of his cards flew from the floor towards the hooded penguin.

The hooded penguin placed the card on the creaky floorboard. On the card was a picture of a jackhammer. Seconds later, a cloud of smoke appeared, and the exact same jackhammer materialized on the spot and began to strike the ground repeatedly, drilling into the wooden floor. Suddenly, the spot where he drilled broke open, spraying bits of wood and splinters everywhere.

The jackhammer disappeared as the penguin reached into the hole and pulled out a rectangular block of wood. The block had a triangular shape carved on it. Inside the shape were the three symbols of Fire, Water, and Snow.

????: Well, it looks like I'm going to need another thing from you. I would be sorry...but unfortunately, I'm not!

Sensei struggled even more to try and break free of the vortex as the penguin created another controlled rush of wind, lifting Sensei's amulet off of his head and bringing it to his flippers.

For a second, Sensei thought he could see the penguin smile as he placed the amulet onto the triangular shape on the wooden block. It fit perfectly. A glowing pink line appeared around the block. The block separated itself along the pink line, revealing itself to be a wooden box.

Crimson opened the lid and took out a dark red circular object with a white symbol on it.

????: Yes! Exactly what I need!

Sensei continued to struggle.

Sensei: What you are doing will only lead you down a dangerous path. You will find nothing but darkness there, as many others have while walking down your path.

????: SHUT IT! I'll show you...I'll show ALL of you! I will—**OUCH!**

The penguin was suddenly pelted in the head with a water balloon. It appeared to have loosened his control over all the other objects, as they ceased floating and dropped to the floor, clattering and banging. Sensei was released from his wind prison and had just enough time to jump across and catch the glowing pot before it hit the floor. He settled it down carefully and turned back towards the hooded penguin, who was staring at the entrance.

Three ninjas stood at the entrance, brandishing cards, hot sauce bottles and water balloons. The hooded penguin growled, and pushed his flippers forwards, causing the wind to howl loudly. All three were thrown backwards as the hooded penguin ran past them and jumped down the mountain, disappearing amongst the snow and trees. The ninjas got up, looked around and then rushed to Sensei.

Speeddasher: Toshi! What was that? And who was that!?

Pop Cat: Should we warn the other ninjas, Sensei?

Sensei: No, do not. It would be best not to. Especially not after what he stole.

Speed: But...who...?

Sensei: I do not know. Whatever powers that they possess upset the elemental balance. This cannot be good.

Sensei waddled over to get his cane. He stared at it for a few moments and sighed.

Sensei: The path that they take is a dangerous one. Like the darkness of an unexplored cave, one can fall to the depths of the dark if they cannot see clearly. Their judgement is clouded.

He turned around to face them.

Sensei: Be on watch. He may return, he may not. But If my suspicions are correct, he will eventually return.

## Chapter 1: Eight Years Later

Two ninjas stood at the edge of the Fire Dojo's large volcanic lava lake. One of the ninjas was fully suited and donned a maroon ninja mask and a flame-patterned ninja suit. The other was also fully suited, but had blond hair visible over the top of his head.

Several other Fire Ninjas stood around the two in a circle. One of them held up a chalkboard and was scribbling something onto it.

Ninja O'Dark: But that's impossible! It's still not fair! I should have won that!

Falco: But that's the rules! Technically, I did win fair and square.

Spider880: That's 17 overall games won by Falco and 17 overall games won by Ninja O' Dark! IT'S A TIE, EVERYONE!

Ninja O'Dark: WHAT?!?

Falco: Well, I guess neither of us are better than the other then.

Ninja O'Dark: NO! I demand a rematch!

Black DJ: Oh, come on guys! You both won an equal amount of games, fair and square.

Ninja O'Dark: Fair!? How!? I had a strong enough card!

Falco: Yeah, but I still had a higher value card than yours!

Aelios: Hah! You should've used fire!

Ninja O'Dark: Again, I demand a *rematch*!

Falco's flippers burst into flame. Ninja O'Dark was just as quick to react, whipping out what seemed to be two ordinary bottles of hot sauce. He then squeezed both of them, and the burning liquid of both bottles oozed out and conjoined to form a link, creating a nunchaku. He held it up and spun it rapidly, creating fire. A lot of the ninjas looked uneasy, but some were starting to chant.

Ninjas: *REMATCH! REMATCH! REMATCH! REMATCH!*

Fire Sensei, who looked especially troubled, stood up and addressed the crowd.

Fire Sensei: NINJAS, PLEASE!

The chanting ceased and all eyes focused on him.

Fire Sensei: Ninja O'Dark and Falco, that is enough. You both have played from dawn till dusk and both won the same amount of points. The game is over, it ended in a tie. The sun is setting, I suggest you leave it there.

Falco and Ninja O'Dark both exchanged scowls.

Ninja O'Dark: Fine!

Ninja O'Dark retracted his fire nunchaku and stored it back in his inventory. Falco's flames extinguished themselves, vanishing in puffs of smoke. The entire group of ninjas melded into a large crowd and left the dojo together. The few ninjas anticipating a rematch looked disappointed and disappeared in the crowd of ninjas.

Falco: Jeez, what was his problem?

Falco was waddling his way down the dojo's steps towards the Plaza. The sky, which was fairly cloudless that day, was tinted red by the setting sun.

Falco: I guess a tie victory wasn't enough for him...

Just as the Mine Shack was in sight over the treetops of the nearby forest, Falco heard a slight shuffling. His ninja senses went on high alert. As he listened intently, he could hear the faintest sound of nearby footsteps. Despite that, nobody else was within sight.

Falco: Is somebody there?

The moment he asked that question, the footsteps ceased. Now it was obvious something wasn't right. Falco's senses spiked once again. The footsteps had returned, but this time, they were behind him. He whirled around.

Standing behind him was indeed a penguin, and a suspicious looking one at that. The penguin's arms were hidden behind a cape, which appeared to morph from black to maroon, though it was possibly only the sunlight. Most of his head, including his face, was cleverly hidden under a dark hood. Strangest of all, the penguin was starting directly at Falco.

Falco could've sworn that penguin was nowhere near him a moment ago.

Falco: I'm sorry, is there something I can help you with?

The penguin said nothing. He seemed to be studying Falco. Deciding he'd better leave, Falco started to back away and continue back to the Plaza until the penguin suddenly spoke.

????: Yes...yes...as a matter of fact, there is!

Falco turned back to face the mysterious stranger, but before he could say anything more, the penguin touched an amulet attached to his cloak. It had some sort of glyph that looked like a white lightning bolt.

Falco felt a chillingly cold, uncomfortable sensation wash over him. He looked at the penguin and saw that the amulet was glowing.

Falco: HEY! What're you doing to me? What's happening here!?

He looked around, then at himself and froze. Bright, ghastly flames, a mixture of fiery orange and bright yellow surrounded his entire body like he were the center of a candle. As far as Falco was aware, he was not willingly creating any fire. The flames all seemed to be drawn to the glowing amulet on the penguin's cloak, like a powerful vacuum.

A second or so later, the aura of fire vanished as the last few flames were pulled into the amulet. The cloaked penguin touched the amulet, which was still glowing.

????: Heh heh heh heh. Another one down.

At that point, Falco was just about done wasting time with some random stranger wondering what in burnt waffles was going on.

He put his flippers together and willed them to summon flames. An entire moment passed until Falco became aware that he couldn't do it. He tried readjusting his flippers, trying other positions, and concentrating hard on the power of heat but not even a spark appeared in his palms.

Falco: I...I-I just—what just—how—?

Falco realized he suddenly felt abnormally cold. Though the weather was quite pleasant and the chilling sensation had passed, it felt like he was freezing. To make even matters worse, he felt a wave of nausea wash over him.

????: I'm only doing what's necessary. You'll see in the end. *All* of you will!

Falco staggered backwards and grabbed the trunk of a tree for support. He tried to muster the strength to fight, but he was too dizzy to focus properly. He thought he saw the penguin raise his flippers and vanish in a cloud of smoke before his vision started to go hazy while an aqua blue penguin ran over to him from the distance.