A loud crash filled a cavern, deep underground. It was a loosened stalactite, dropped from its high perch by an earthquake that came from a place far, far deeper. As it fell onto the sandy floor, it tipped over, coming to rest on the chest of an orange Yoshi, called Lich. That orange Yoshi woke with a start.
"By Undine, what happened?" he said to the pitch-black air.
It was a stalactite crashing to the ground, said a voice in his head, none other than the Spirit of Mana itself. Now, it is resting on your chest.
"Well, I'd like to be able to see, you know."
You know a spell well that should help you.
Lich had the feeling that he would be reprimanded in times to come by the essence of essence itself. Most likely, it would become a teacher for him.
He closed his eyes, and rubbed them with his two thumbs, before he opened them again.
Although it was still dark, he was now able to see the black shape of the stalactite resting across his torso. It was a newly developed spell of Fa'Diel, Lich being one of the first to learn it, Eagle Eyes. It would sharpen his vision considerably, allowing him to see far off into the distance and, in darkness, at least be able to see figures. However, there was a price in the form of his Mana Energy draining as he used it.
He heaved it off his chest and stood up. Suddenly, the ground rumbled beneath his feet, and he watched as another stalactite fell, missing his face by inches.
"What's causing this?"
Someone is draining the Mana from the planet.
"Who could do such a thing…" Lich thought aloud.
You think about it, then.
He mentally listed all the people he had come across on this planet. There was that forest girl, Artemis…she didn't look the sort who could do such a thing. Then there was Multex…he didn't have the power.
Power. That's where it lay. Who had power enough to do it…
"Dear, Elementals…not Markior…if he starts wielding his powers, things like this can happen. Mana?"
Nothing issued from his head, except for silence.
He knew his friend well. He had to put a stop to it. But where was he, and how to do it?
Lich decided that the first course of action was to get out of the cave. As started walking, he felt strangely weak. He rubbed the back of his head with his hand, his spikes scratching it, and found a trail of congealed blood weaving between them.
Casting a spell would take too long, and the planet needed as much Mana as possible. He resorted to his back up plan, and delved into his Mana Storage, retrieving a lolly wrapped in pink and white striped paper. He pulled the frills at either end and the lolly twirled open, exposing a light brown Round Drop. He put it in his mouth and started sucking the sweet, the energy returning to his body and his wound healing.
He then got on his stomach, gasping and gritting his teeth as the icy cold water in the stream washed around his chest, and slid out beneath the overhang. He returned to the tunnel where the stream wound its way to the river, stood up and started to run down it. He ignored the coldness of the water, he had just one thing in mind, to find Markior.
His feet slid out from under him, and he fell forward. The rocks were slippery, and his jaw made friends with the one beneath it. He pulled himself up, and started running again, taking more care this time.
Lich entered the chamber where the stream met the river. Guided by the light of the hole above him, he was able to see up and down it. He walked a little upstream and saw a bend, and as he listened intently, he could hear a waterfall coming from it. He then turned downstream, and decided to pick this one as the bank followed beside it as far as he could see down the straight tunnel. He started to run again, his feet making impressions on the soft sand.
However, he came to a place where the sand was too soft, and he sank up to his knees in it, and was still sinking. He looked around him hurriedly, and saw the outline of a rock jutting out from the wall. He shot his tongue and wrapped it around the rock, pulling himself out of the quagmire. He then let go and stood on more solid ground, gagging as he tried to remove the taste of the rock.
Well, I don't want to go through any more of that. I guess I'll have to use the river.
He sucked in a breath before he dived into the frigid water, and started to swim downstream. His body was screaming at him as the icyness surrounded him.
Although he was a warm-blooded Yoshi, his race could not deny its cold-blooded ancestry, and he knew that he was slowing as he grew tired. If he kept it up, he would sink.
He stopped stroking, and started to float, letting the water take him where it wanted. Besides, only part of him would be in the water now, he'd have a better chance of survival.
After a short while, he saw evidence of the river turning, and light suddenly filled the tunnel from in front of him. Soon, the entrance was over him, and the sun filled his sharper eyes, sending spears of pain up his optic nerves. He winced and put his thumbs over his eyes, and soon his vision was at normal levels again. The water was already starting to grow warmer, and his body was picking itself back up again.
The river had come out into a forest, and as he floated along, he recognised the trees to be of the same sort around the Protoss city. He then closed his eyes, concentrated, and started to feel for the lump on the Field that would be created by the shields around the buildings and the pylons that powered them. He found it to the south-east, where the river was seemingly taking him. He flipped around so his head faced downstream and started a quick, but lazy paddle using his arms like a rowboat, and occasionally kicking his feet. The river then flowed into the small lake, and he continued to make his away across it, towards the now-visible city on its shores. Before long, the large spherical crystal of the Fleet Beacon was overhead, and the water was shallow enough to wade in.
He put his feet down onto the sand, stood up, turned, and started a jog that was slowed down by the water's resistance. He was soon out of it, and he began to run through the base, past the Templar Archives, the Observatory, the Cybernetics Core, and was soon before the Nexus. He knew that inside the computers would be able to tell him where Markior was.
Lich ran into the building, and crashed into a warm, living barrier, before falling on his backside. As he looked up to see what the obstruction was, the face of a water dragon looked down into his own, and a gruff voice came out of the PLT around his neck.
"Lich?" it said, its head drawing back in surprise.
"Levi?" Lich addressed his Gyarados. "Good Sylphid, it's you!"
"I thought you were coming back with the others."
"Let's just say I had a deviation. Now, where are the others?"
"Inside," Leviathan said, pointing with his tail.
Lich ran past him, and leapt onto the elevator, pressing the up button. It rose, and soon he was in the control centre of the Nexus.
"Computer, I hope you understand Yoshian," Lich said to the air.
"Yes, I can," a male, robotic voice replied. "My languages include Protoss, Terran, Yoshian and Zerg."
"Good. Locate Markior Archonius Xel'Naga, Executor of this base."
"Clearance granted by Executor to do so."
Good, Markior's used forethought.
A screen suddenly rose out of the desk on the other side of the room, and Lich strode over to it, sitting down in the chair. As he looked at the screen, he wondered why Markior would need a chair if he was nothing more than gas. Presented to him was a three-dimensional map of the area, with a compass and information on the side of the screen written, conveniently, in Protoss so he couldn't read it. He ignored it, and found a blue, pulsating blob to the north-east.
"What are the statistics on the current location of the Executor?"
"63 miles at 56 degrees, 14 minutes, 32 seconds, 6278 feet above ground."
"Give current observer picture of that location."
Far above him, an observer robot moved its flower-like front, and beamed pictures of Markior in his Xel'Naga form, drunk with power and emitting a beam heading straight down to the ground.
Something touched him on the shoulder, and he jumped in the seat. He quickly got up and turned, ready to fight. However, it was nothing more than his most trusted Pokémon, Nessie the Dragonite.
"Lich!" he crowed.
"Nessie, glad to see you."
Nessie looked up and down his master, and turned his head to one side as he asked, "Where's the Boomerang?"
"No time for explaining, we've got work to do," he said, pressing the screen with his finger. Nessie peered at it, and nodded.
"Need a flight, I take it?"
"The sooner, the better. You've been here a while, is there anyway I can get out of this without wasting time on the lift?"
"Over there," the Dragonite pointed at a door leading onto a balcony.
"Come on, then."
The two of them hurried out of the control centre, leaving the screen up, showing Markior still destroying Zolott. Soon, the screen changed to show the fleet coming in towards the base, and a blue figure flying around outside the flagship.
"What's this burn mark here?" Lich asked, pointing at a black patch on the balcony railing.
"Markior told Shappy to burn a few of those Zerg things," Nessie replied bluntly. "He took us under his care, treated us well."
Lich nodded, clambered onto the neck of the Dragonite and held his antennae like reins.
"Go," he commanded, and Nessie started to beat his wings, rising into the air. With a pull from Lich, he started to fly forwards, until a pull on his left told him to turn that way. Soon they were flying off towards the north-east, towards Markior. He pulled back and they started to climb. The forest streaked by below him, and soon it gave way to a grassy plain. He looked forward, and could see a trail of smoke rising from the ground in the distance, and as he approached, he realised it was a volcano being newly formed. Soon, a thin, fluorescent pink line could be seen rising from its centre, and as he followed it up, he saw a small, grey dot.
There you are, Markior. Let's put an end to this foolish behaviour.

The Xel'Naga was too involved in creating the beam to notice Lich approach him on his winged beast, who was taken aback by his powerful form, five times the size of his.
"Markior!" Lich shouted, with no response. "Listen to me!
"You're sucking away the Mana Field in this planet! Do you realise what that means? No-one will be able to cast spells, for one thing! Also, the pylons in your base will stop working, which means that the buildings will stop working and be unprotected! And, then, the planet will blow up! And all those down there will die! Multex…Vector…Dragon…"
Lich's rage undertook a crescendo, and its forte was the calling upon Sylphid, the Wind Elemental, to zap Markior with a bolt of lightning.
He stopped producing the beam towards the spitting volcano, and as Lich was starting to think that it was all over, two red eyes were staring into his, transfixing him. He brought his hands up and the light was drawn towards his palms, turning pink in the process. When enough was gathered, the beam was shot out towards the paralysed Lich.
Nessie took over and swerved to the left, cutting the gaze. The beam missed them by only an inch; Lich feeling the air heat as it passed him.
"Thanks," Lich muttered. He then looked at Markior, who was surprised by his miss of Lich and the strike of a distant Observer, a small explosion in the distance its sign.
"You want to play?!" Lich shouted. "Right then, play time it is!"
He drew his hands above him, calling Shade, the elemental of Darkness. With a grey light as his reply, Lich brought his hands together, clasping them, before violently ripping them apart.
Small, black balls of anti-matter, contained within an orbiting gold protector, started to rush towards the Xel'Naga, passing into his body and resting without inflicting any pain. When about fifty had gathered, they exploded in dark, violet clouds.
As they subsided, Lich saw that no effect had occurred, save the increase in fury.
Great…he's going for the Grey…
Markior started to bring his hands towards him once more, and bent over, creating a tight ball. Suddenly, a sphere of grey energy started to billow outwards from him. It sheared through Lich and Nessie; the Dragonite faltering in his flapping and falling, with his master dislodged and falling, too, beside him, towards the magma of the new volcano.
Nessie, with his wings, dived beneath Lich and caught him on his back, not far from the volcano's smoke, before soaring back up towards their opponent.
Why am I doing this…? Lich thought. I'm fighting one of my best friends…
He directed Nessie over towards Markior's face, and stared deep into the red eyes, his arms brought up in a surrender symbol.
"Markior…why do you fight? Why do you destroy?"
A voice suddenly permeated the depths of his consciousness, Because I am Markior.
"And what about your friends down there? What about me? Are you going to destroy us too?"
The only noise that filled the air for some time was the flapping of Nessie's wings, otherwise, all was silent.
Markior clenched his fists and started to shrink, changing into his black, Yoshi form. His eyes were downcast and reflective as he said, "I have been foolish…"
"Yes, now, let's go back down to the surface and talk things over."
As Lich looked down, he could see the base nearby, and the Gantrithor II coming into it.
"The fleet's arrived," Lich said.
Markior looked towards his city, and nodded, before his pupilless eyes flashed.
"Something's not right…" he muttered.
Sure enough, they could see the small, aqua blob that was the Gantrithor slam down towards the ground. Markior winced as he felt the fluctuation of the damaged Nexus on the Field.
"It crashed!" he yelled.
A small glint could be seen shooting off from it, towards the north. Lich immediately brought his thumb and forefinger over his closed eyes, and as he opened them, he looked at it, his improved vision sharpening the glint which was no other than…
"Dragon!" Lich shouted. Yet something was not right with his love as he looked harder. Her form was mutated as she flew, screaming across the countryside.
"Lich, go after her, I'll take care of the base!" Markior shouted, before he cried, "Recall!", and disappeared in a flash of light. Lich stopped the Eagle Eyes spell, and said, "Nessie, I need you to create the fastest dive that you have ever done towards Dragon."
The Dragonite's head bobbed up and down, indicating a nod, before the PLT translated, "Hold on tight, Lich."
Lich ducked his body down, wrapping his arms around Nessie's thick neck. The Dragonite spread his wings in a glide, before tilting forwards, bringing his wings back in, then becoming an orange blur through the air, his master fighting waves of queasiness as they shot towards the Darikuri.