Greely's Sacrifice

Mia and Salsa glared at Greely, who guiltily looked down at his paws.
"Long ago, eroes of Jamaa, Sabre was in the position I am in right now. His heart turned to darkness, and this volcano - a haven for his fruitless search for Marco - was taken over by Apophis and nearly used to destroy all of Jamaa. Yet again, history is about to repeat itself - but I can change one thing. You get out alive." growled Greely, his eyes full of darkness - yet also full of grief and sadness.
The expression on Mia's face softened, although Salsa's face was still stiff and accusing. With a good-purposed elbow to the ribs, though, Salsa did the same.
"I was foolish to fall to the darkness... Yet, I have broken free! I will use my dying breath to save you!"
Salsa muttered something like "you've already died and been back" under her breath, but Mia was there to elbow her.
"Greely, no!"
But his paw was already enveloped with navy blue mist.
"This spell will consume most of my mana,I am vulnerable for the time being. Please... distract the Phantom King. Enter my chamber. Now, go!"
Mia already knew what spell Greely had in mind; for she read about it in most adventure books. In fact, with Frost's new Icirrus powers, it probably would be very easy for her. But for an Alpha who wasn't Harper, the Alpha gifted with ice powers...
She didn't think about it as the runoff of sewage tapered off, and the doorway to hell was looming a fox-length away from her.

Before that, Mia and Salsa had been called to the base of the volcano just a few hours after recapturing the Tower.
Cosmo appeared in a flurry of holographic leaves.
"Hello there, Salsa and Mia." he said.
Indiana appeared next to him in a similar flurry of leaves, except fainter.
"Indiana, my apprentice, will be here with me as we continue our mission to make sure the plants here are safely guarded. We've been putting wards around every single plant for hours now, tirelessly working. However, we need you two to go into the volcano, and stop the eruption before it destroys all of Jamaa." said Cosmo.
Mia nodded diplomatically while Salsa was looking up at the gunk spraying out of the volcano. Although a steady purple fire was coming out of the volcano and gunk coming out, it was soon to become a pillar of fire touching the skies and consuming the entirety of Jamaa in a conflagration of destruction... and then Apophis would sink it and use the power of Mira Feathers, Alpha Stones, the Elemental Feather proposed to be inside Frost (of course, once Apophis killed her), and blahblahblah. Seriously, how did Apophis make so many master plans for his own darkness?!
Unless Mia stopped him in his ugly tracks, of course, and sent him away to do the jitterbug.
Of course, that last part was kind of silly, but still.
"Mission accepted, Father Cosmo." she said.
Salsa, with her 10-karat gold "janglery" and various piercings was out of place in that dire situation, but any help was accepted help.
Cosmo smiled, as if Mia were about to reconnoiter information that was either going to kill her or change her forever.
"We usually don't accept meddlers in Alpha inner politics and matters, but since Zios himself issued a prophecy that you heroes would eventually save Jamaa, we let you 'help' out." said Cosmo. "And yet, I can't tell you all that's troubling about what happened to Greely..."
Mia facepalmed, and if she had a desk, would've face-desked.
"Really, the Jamaasian Heroes are teenagers up to young adults. We can handle this." she said. Her peppermint scarf, woven from fine cotton, red legend glove and poinsettia earrings jangled in the brisk breeze.
"Confidential information, on Liza's orders. I'll just tell you, though, that if I tell you what I can't tell you..."
Cosmo shuddered.
"Well, then, its like telling some normal Jammer about the Jamaasian Heroes cult. If we tell anybody, they'll not believe me at all, and your missions will be jeopardized anyway."
Mia sighed.
"Just let us go up the mountain."
Cosmo smiled faintly.
"Indiana and I couldn't bring Dakota or Orlando or anybody else, considering the danger in the situation, but we trust you. Graham is up the slope; rendezvous with him and gain further instruction."

After that, Mia reminisced that they went up the mountainside, slashing phantoms to bits and using potent Boomseeds... until the Phantoms started to fall.
"Y'know, Salsa, this is the same volcano Marco diluted! It's been used for evil many times!" Mia had said after dodging a large, groaning phantom that immediately exploded.
"Then why do they keep it in Jamaa?" Salsa had replied as she chucked a boomseed at an unsuspecting phantom absorbing lava. It exploded, shrieking "NOOOOOO! MY MORNING COFFEE!"
"Tango could do that, using her earth powers, but since all this evil builded up in the Duat essence of the volcano, the effort would kill her. And none of the Alphas, not even crafty Amelia, has power over earth like Tango does. They can't risk their lives and sanity trying to rescue a deceased Alpha."
Salsa sighed as they jumped over a crevasse of lava, probably seeing how Mia felt every day.
"Oh well. Forget I asked."
They silently worked in unison, dodging falling phantoms and destroying all sentries, until they got to a boulder. Salsa tossed a Boomseed at it, and the usual happened, but this time Graham appeared from the fumes.
...Well, not born, but certainly not from the cave.
"Hey there, peeps, I was up here, as Liza asked of me, to receive you and give further direction, while exploring the volcano, blah blah blah. Proceed with caution, always keep your boomseeds stocked, blah blah blah. Here; have this cog, peeps, I set up Spotbrights, my new invention, in there to supply light for exploring - but apparently they're even more useful these days. The Phantom took most of the cogs out of the corresponding Spotbrights, but a good death blow should get those back. Bai."
Saying all that information and unsolicited advice in about, say, five breaths, Graham disappeared in a blue blur of holographic gears and monkey wrenches.

While inside the puzzling volcano, Mia dodged Phantom Watchers (dun dun dun insta-kill) and shut them off while Salsa cast a careful spell to summon the Orange Alpha Stones to the emblem, put reclaimed cogs into Spotbrights and rotated them and mirrors to solve puzzles, made phantoms go KA-BOOM (some screamed Taco-elemental spells that either made boomseeds into walking tacos or made themselves into tacos that Mia promptly ate), and plugged pipes that allowed access to secret passageways.
They went around the rim of the volcano, where Salsa spit into the volcano as soon as the sentries were clawed to pieces and the initial wave of phantoms dodged. However, there was an enchantment cast over the lava, because the spit spread out into invisible veins above the lava, and sizzled on the hot rock.
"Well, so much for th-"
Salsa averted her gaze to whatever Mia was gaping at, and gaped.
"Tacos, is that bad."
They saw the usual hubbub of Jamaa Township below, the normal citizens going about their normal trading, talking and idly standing business, while oblivious to the looming threat to Jamaa above them. They instantly both envied and pitied the normal Jammers below, proudly waving flags of Jamaa.
"We need to stop this thing!" said Salsa, but Mia had already vanished into the second part of the volcano.
After that, they destroyed Sprouters, clogged more pipes, solved more puzzles, blah blah blah... then they came to a part where an indestructible boulder sat aptly where the entrance to another part of the cavern should've been.
"Dangit!" cried Salsa.
At first they wandered around aimlessly, as bored as the patches of gunk on the lava probably were, until they found the passageway they clogged but couldn't locate.
"Oh, finally." sighed Salsa.
After that short delay, they kept on demolishing Pods, Sprouters and other monstrosities in their way, even nimbly leaping over the lava-filled cracked boulders floating aptly in the lava. Just before they reached the cavern where Greely awaited them, they found a path leading deeper into the cave.
"Curious..." muttered Salsa.
So they followed it.
It went on for a while, until they reached the mouth of a cave. They went in, and...
"Wow." said Salsa.
They were in a musty room, where Greely probably slept when he was away from the Alpha Hut. The soft drip of lava outside was like a lullaby, lulling anybody piled on top of his... pile of rags to sleep. His wardrobe, complicated blackboard and library where a phantom corpse and a few other oddities were displayed were shoved to the side of the natural alcove.
"We're trespassing, Salsa." muttered Mia after a minute of true, sheer amazement at how much love went into this flat, so much that it was palpable.
They proceeded back... and walked towards Greely, where the moment where they glared at him accusingly pounced.

Now, Mia was inside the cavern, where a floe of rock floated in the middle of lava.
Apophis was curled around a large spire of rock connected to the lava and ceiling, his misty body covered with apparent gashes, and the hieroglyphics Is'Fet scrawled on his chest. His tongue flicked in and out monotonously, and his deep, yellow eyes were overflowing with darkness.
"You." said Mia.
The laugh of Apophis was like his voicebox was made of chalkboard, with sharpened knives scrabbling in annoying ways inside, yet mixed with a nefarious, low and deep cackle.
"My dear Mia." he growled. "I have many, many servants being made constantly, made by bad thoughts and nature's power. Both potent fuel I embrace and grasp. I have countless roboticization machines I could easily throw you two in. Why would you consider trying to defeat the embodiment of Chaos, the most powerful element of them all?"
"For Jamaa!" Mia and Salsa shouted, and ran towards Apophis, his rattle-spike rattling.
"Oh, so no Frost-style quip? How disappointing." Apophis purred.
And all Zios broke out.

Let's just try to leave it at that the spells cast were... weird.
To start off with, there was an appetizer of superhero pandas, poisoned rings, lettuce heads, normal elemental spells, and bean burritos.
Then - oh boy! - the entree of flying computers and grumpy balls hit both sides hard and steady,
And for dessert - my favorite! - runaway wombats and rubber rats.
Despite his remark that Mia didn't quip at all, Apophis receded into the lava without a single word.
"HA! Taste of your own medicine!" shouted Salsa.
Suddenly, debris started to fall from the ceiling, and they were teleported in front of Greely.
"Go! It may be too late to save Jamaa... but I can try. Escape the volcano!" he commanded. "Just listen to me... please."
"Bu..." stammered Salsa, but Mia elbowed her.
"No..."
Not about to disobey an Alpha, whether dark or not, Salsa and Mia ran to their left where a fallen pipe provided a bridge to get to an exit, falling phantoms around them screaming "BLOOD! HOT CHOCOLATE! BLOOD! TEDDY BEARS!"
Just as they broke for it outside, the mountain exploded in a pillar of flame. Lava started to be blasted towards the residential areas of Jamaa... then it all froze into shards, and fell back down into the funnel.
A sickening crash of shattering ice followed the cataclysmic event... and then, all was silent.
"Greely... No..." muttered Mia. "You.. couldn't."
"EVERYTHING HAPPENED SO QUICKLY THAT I WANT TO SING THE TACO SONG!" cried a recorded voice.
Salsa jumped.
"Who's there?"
Graham, Cosmo and Liza appeared suddenly, a generic monkey bobblehead with a caricature head and weird Egyptian pose on Graham's palm.
Pressing a button, Graham made it say:
"EVERYTHING HAPPENED SO QUICKLY THAT I WANT TO SING THE TACO SONG!!! NANNANA!" it said.
"Cheap, tacky and AWESOMELY EPICLY WEIRD!!!" shouted Salsa.
Cosmo put a damp cloth on Mia's head and Salsa's head, his face furrowed with stress and concern. Unfortunately, mostly stress.
Mia collapsed, out cold from exhaustion.
"Greely was a true hero..." muttered Cosmo. "If only he were here to receive our praise..."
"He sure did save Jamaa..." murmured Liza. "I would give him a Mira Peace Prize and a lot more recognition, if he were here..."
"He was brave, and valiantly saved Jamaa." sighed Graham. "He was today's salvatore..."
"HEY! STOP TALKING ABOUT GRUMPYPANTS IN THE PAST TENSE!" shouted a familiar voice.
"Peck!" said the Alphas in unison.
Peck came out of the trees, looking slightly older since she probably needed to get back to Tunnel Town to run it, yet she seemed as sly as usual.
"I know that he endured a lot of sticky situations, but this time he probably couldn't have gotten out, yadda yadda, but let's be PEPPY!" said Peck.
Everyone stared at her in stunned silence as she spread her arms and smiled.
"Well... what?"
They laughed at her antics, and in moments, she was laughing too, in a dark moment too many.