One early morning, they got up, had their breakfast, let's say fruits, and then they continued their journey out of Juniper Jungle to Sky Mountain Pyramid. Once they've made it out they continued towards their destination. It was going to be a long walk though. And well, they were getting tired of it, except for Zircon cause she's used to hiking a lot. "Try to keep up guys, we've got a long walk ahead of us."
They didn't want to complain, but Paloma had to say something. "Um Zirc, no offense but as you know I'm getting tired of walking. There must be an easier way to get to the Pyramid."
"What are you suggesting?" asked Zircon, who notices Paloma's and the others exhaustion.
"How about a ride?" said Paloma, looking smart.
"There is no way I am carrying all of you to the Pyramid" Zircon would take that as a cruel advantage.
"No, not you" Paloma explained. "I was thinking more of the line of transportation invention."
"What?" they all said together, including Azalea, cause she doesn't understand science.
What indeed. What was this doctor up to?
"Zircon, didn't you say you want to know what's inside my backpack that is so importantly useful for this expedition."
"Yes"
"Well you're about find out" Paloma rummaged in her bag and took out to show them a small cube. The group looked at it with skeptical faces.
"Uh, what is that?" asked Zircon, looking disappointed. She was expecting something more... impressive.
Paloma was well aware of her look of disapproval, so she had to prove her wrong. "Do not underestimate it by its small appearance, for if you look closer there is a tiny red button here" she pointed out to them. Then she pressed the button and it transformed. It shifted into a horseless hovering stagecoach vehicle. The stagecoach was garnet red, and it was also powered by a garnet stone in its engine. Now Zircon, and the others were impressed. They dropped their jaws in astonishment, while Paloma folded her arms, smiling in satisfaction. "Well shall we go inside then?"
The stagecoach was enough for six of them, but Azalea preferred to ride it on top of it, outside with the ray of the sun beaming on her flowery hair, and the wind blowing on her epidermis face. Once inside Paloma took out a tablet device, its how she used to drive the vehicle.
Terra looked around inside the stagecoach, and it was pretty neat. Inside was strawberry red, and it even smelled like strawberries, must be that air freshener for vehicles. "So that tablet is how you control this stagecoach?" she asked Paloma.
"Yes, this is how I control the vehicle" Paloma explained. She showed Terra the screen "see these graphics, it's how I see and know where I'm going."
Terra was impressed. "Cool, like a video game."
Paloma looked puzzled. She does not know what a video game is?
Sapphire explained it for her. "A video game is an Earth entertainment device, a game console on their smartphones for relaxations and distractions."
"Oh, make sense now."
They rode on the stagecoach, enjoying the scenery, though Azalea enjoyed it more with the wind in her flowery hair. But unfortunately the joyride did not last long, the Ruthless Rogues planned to sabotage the stagecoach. They hid behind a huge rock, Rough was ready to take aim with a crossbow blaster. He aimed and fired directly at the engine in the back of the stagecoach with a laser arrow, causing it to explode. The stagecoach went out of control.
Sapphire, Red, Zircon, Terra, Paloma, and Azalea felt the slight explosion behind their backs. It drove uncontrollable by it self, the connections with the tablet was damaged, Paloma lost all controls of the vehicle. "Somethings wrong!" she yelled in a panic, but calm voice. "I've lost control of the vehicle!"
The stagecoach was running in unimaginable speed, it was turning in the wrong directions, bumping into obstacles, it was indeed out of control. Azalea was hanging for dear life. Maybe I should've stayed inside, she thought. Everyone inside were hanging tight to their seats from this rocky ride, trying to come up with a plan to stop the stagecoach.
Suddenly the stagecoach bumped hard into a rock which caused the door to break open and it threw Zircon and Azalea out. This is why we wear seatbelts people. They fell hard, but unharmed. But unfortunately the stagecoach is still utterly out of control, with their friends in there screaming and panicking, and with no plan at all. It was up to Zircon and Azalea to team up and save them. But how?
"What are we gonna do?" said Azalea. "How are we gonna stop that runaway stagecoach!?"
Zircon thought calmly for a moment, then she had an idea. An idea she did not like. "I have an idea, but we're going to have to work together" she sighed.
"I'm all ears" Azalea respond with excitement. "Well actually I don't have any ears but I do have vibration-sensing receptors and so, at some level, could well be responding to sound, I hear good enough. Anyway what's the plan?"
Zircon explained her plan. "I'll transform into a quaraffa. A fast animal with a long neck. You'll ride me, then when we get close enough I'll stretch out my long neck so you can get back on that stagecoach and shut down that engine powering it."
"Well that's a crazy idea" said Azalea with a serious look, but really... "Let's do it!" She is so in this plan. Just like Zircon feared.
"Okay but please don't take this 'riding on me' an opportunity for your mischief, because clearly this isn't the time for fun and games."
"Our friends are in danger, of course this isn't the time for fun and games."
"Our friends? You mean my friends and your friend Paloma?"
"I mean they're all my friends, including you. We're friends now right?"
"Uh, yeah. I guess we are. Anyway let's go!" Zircon transformed into quaraffa. A mixed creature of zebra and giraffe, only its stripes are yellow and red. Azalea climbed on her back and rode on her. They raced against that stagecoach. While they race, Sapphire, instead of screaming with the others, was thinking of a plan to get out of this rapid road trip. She turned on her control panel, from her necklace. "According to my control panel the engine has been hit by a laser arrow, and it's badly damaged."
"Can we fix it!?" asked Terra.
"We can't, but they can" Sapphire pointed out the window. Azalea and Zircon were working together.
"It's Azalea and... who's the animal?" said Red.
"Red, that's Zircon in the transformation of a quaraffa" Sapphire explained it for him.
Red was embarrassed, once again he is glad no one can see him turning red. "Right. I knew that... please don't tell Zirc" he begged.
"Don't worry I won't."
Zircon and Azalea were closing in. Zirc stretched out her long neck, just like she said she would, for Azi to tightrope walk for a closer jump, just like Zircon planned. Azalea managed to jump on the stagecoach. "I made it!" she said triumphantly. "Now to pull this arrow out and shut down the-"
"Wait!" Before Azi could touch the laser arrow, Sapphire stopped her. "If you pull that arrow out it could cause a massive explosion that could kill us all!"
"What do you suggest we do?" asked Paloma.
Sapphire had an idea. "Paloma do you have a water canteen in that bag of yours?" she asked her.
"Always" Paloma handed her the water. "How will that help though?"
"You'll see" Sapphire gave the water canteen to Azalea, then she told her her instructions. "Azi listen carefully, I need you to pour water on the garnet gem while slowly pulling out the arrow, in that way the gem of the engine will cool off without causing much damage."
"On it!" Azalea did what she was told. She pour water on the gem while slowly pulling out the arrow, and it's working. Sapphire's plan is working, they're making progress, nothing could go wrong now, they thought. Well they thought wrong, cause Terra saw something ahead of the road. "Uh, guys, sorry to ruin the moment but what's that up ahead?" she pointed outside.
They saw what she was pointing at and it was not good at all. They saw the road coming to an end, they were about to crash into a canyon!
"I'm afraid that's Mineral Canyon!" Sapphire answered Terra's question, in panic.
They were all starting to panic again.
"We're gonna crash!" Red screamed. "We're gonna die and I didn't even get to tell Zircon that I actually liked her."
Terra heard that, but the others didn't, they were too busy trying not to crash. She looked at Red puzzled.
"We gotta turn this vehicle around!" Sapphire shouted in fear, for that is her only back up plan right now.
"We can't, because the tablet that controls the vehicle is broken, and it's beyond repair!" Paloma explained it to her.
Red snatched the tablet from Paloma to see if he can fix it, but unfortunately Lo was right. "She's right, it's totally busted" he said, while showing them the broken tablet, that has already broken in two by itself due to damaged fried electrical circuit.
Azalea was trying to cool and stop the engine as fast as she can, but there was no time. "I won't be able to stop the engine in time!" she yelled in fear. "What are we gonna do!?"
There was no other choice, Zircon had only one idea left for them. "There's no choice, they're going to have to jump out!"
"Anyone could have think of that Zircon!" said Sapphire, in anger.
But they all agreed. They were going to have to jump.
Azi had an idea. "Okay, I'll create a strong tree on the angle near the edge of the cliff, when the moment is right you jump out of the stagecoach and onto the tree, got it!"
"YES!" They said together.
Azi jumped back onto Zircon's animal form back, and started to plant the tree. She threw a seed, the size of an acorn, and it landed on the ledge hole on the cliff. Azalea began to grow it with her powers, she made it grow as fast as she could.
Time was running out, the stagecoach was getting closer to the cliff. Azi was in so much pressure, she was accelerating the growth so hard that she was having a headache. They were all scared, either waiting to jump or waiting for their doom. And so...
The stagecoach fell, and the others, without thinking, jumped out of the vehicle. Zircon stopped, transformed back into herself, and Azi fainted from all that power pressure, she'd rather not wake up to find out what had happened to them. Zircon was by her side holding her head up. Soon they heard the stagecoach crashed and explode into the canyon, they can hear it burned into a million pieces. They know what that sound means. It means they did not make it. They were heartbroken, their friends gone. They couldn't believe their friends are gone. As they were sobbing together, they heard a sudden voice...
"Hey!" It sounded like Red's voice.
"A little help here!" and that sounded like Paloma's voice.
"They're okay! Our friends are okay!" They cheered together. As they ran closer to the edge to check, they saw them clinging to the strong branches of the tree Azi grew. They grabbed the tree branch just in time. They were saved.
Once they've climbed back up, Sapphire showed them the laser arrow that damaged the engine, she must've grabbed it in time before the explosion. "I managed to pull out this arrow just in time, and look there's a small mark engraved to it" she pointed at the small mark on the arrow. "Does this symbol look familiar to you two?" she asked Paloma and Azalea if they recognized that symbol, because Sapphire has never seen it before.
When they got a closer look at it they can see it's not a symbol at all, it's an initial of a letter, the letter 'R'. Lo and Azi has seen that initial before. There's only one unique letter 'R' in this galaxy and that's The Ruthless Rogues.
"It's the Ruthless Rogues!" said Paloma.
"They're here! On the Jungle Planet!" added Azalea.
"On my secret jungle planet!?" Zircon exclaimed. "How did they even find my planet?"
Paloma knows who. "Pollux! I should've known! He must've used that old map he stole from Azalea! He must be after the Malawild as well!"
"I don't know who this Pollux is or the Ruthless Rogues, but I don't like the sound of them!" said Zircon, while angrily grinning her teeth. She feels more determined than ever to protect her planet from fouling hunters.
"Then it looks like we have a competition" said Sapphire, looking serious.
It looked liked their expedition was about to become a competition for the Malawild.
Still Terra was clueless about all this, cause she has no idea who these people are? "Uh, guys. I know these people sound like trouble, but I have no idea who they are, and why they came here, and what for?"
"We'll tell you about them on the way" said Paloma. "Right now we've got to beat them to the Malawild, how much further till we get to Sky Mountain Pyramid?" she asked Zircon.
"After that sudden setback took us off track, I'd say we're far behind schedule" answered Zircon. Then she had an idea, an idea she should've done before instead of using a vehicle. "Well desperate times call for desperate measures, I should've done this before." Zircon took a deep breath, for her animal transformation will be something big. Zircon shapeshift into an Eleo, an elephant like creature with big shape like bird wings for flying. These creatures are heavy, tough, and rare, that's why Zirc didn't want to turn into that animal because it will wear her energy out. But their desperate so... yeah.
The others were amazed by that mighty beast.
"Wow, a flying elephant!" Terra said amazed. "I think I saw a movie about it somewhen..."
"No time for flashback Terra" said Sapphire. "We've got an expedition to finish."
"Then let's climb aboard the Eleo" said Azalea. "Come on!"
They all climbed aboard and got ready for take off. Not a total take off, since it was heavy and all, just close enough to get to the pyramid.