The Return of Geno (Story)

PROLOGUE
Thousands of years ago, people would pray for wants or needs to the stars...
As this tradition continued, wishes actually started to come true. People of the world were awed as they discovered the source of their wish-granting. It was the miracle spring of the stars: Star Hill.
It's almost as if the stars built this Star Hill to create a sanctuary for needy or hopeless folk: it helps develop such lacking spirit for all kinds of people. The navy blue hill was preserved like a sacred temple for generation after generation, and it remained for the same reason: fulfilling wishes and giving people hope for life and the world.

Until...

During a fateful day thousands of years since the hill appeared, the power of Star Hill started to fade. Wishes were seldom answered and spirit amongst all countries of the world became confused and saddened to the fact that, as far as they knew, their wishes and needs from the stars were limited. But matters only became worse...

With the company might of maliscious and cruel leaders like Bowser, Wolf, and Ganondorf, the invading Subspace Army seemed to suddenly consume the world in evil; one spot at a time. During this attack on the good world, Star Hill seemed to be dying. Not only were its powers fading, but the hue of the hill became darker and the Star tablets located all around it disintegrated one at a time.

Presently, the world is now in a awkward state of peace and uncertainty. Although Star Hill was still there, it was never tested for its old power. The once beautiful hill stood dead.

But little did the people of the world know that the passing away of Star Hill's power foreshadowed a planetary threat that could indeed wipe out existance as it stood.​

And it started with a simple shooting star...​

Every New Year in Mushroom Kingdom, all the citizens celebrate with a traditional and exciting parade. The parade counts down to New Year, and it celebrates the peace of the world along with the heroes that helped grant that peace... well... at least some.​

As the clock showed two minutes until midnight, the final float of the parade rolled through Mushroom Square. On it stood none other than Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi. They all were waving to the cheering crowd, who were awed at the heroic presence of the four Super Smash Bros.​

The float came to a stop, and the four heroes disembarked. They all walked a specially designed walkway to front seats of the star-lit sky, where fireworks would be going off to celebrate the New Year.​

"Oh, Mario, this is so exciting! I can't wait for the fireworks: the planners never disappoint!" Princess Peach whispered to Mario as they approached the seats. Mario smiled and nodded to Peach eagerly. On the sides of them, Yoshi and Luigi continued to embrace the crowd's admiration by high fiving and waving to the nearby crowd. Behind the four heroes, the crowd seemed to collapse in as everyone eagerly waited for the fireworks. One minute until midnight.​

Mario and his friends sat down and watched the Mushroom Kingdom clock, Big Boo, count down to midnight.​

"Oh boy, another year... it's been quite a life since the Subspace invasion, hasn't it Mario?" Princess Peach sighed as she recalled the past few years. Mario sighed with her and nodded, sadly remembering the goodbyes he had to the other Super Smash Bros.​

"I wonder how everyone is doing?" Peach thought aloud. By this time, everyone was counting down from sixty to the new year.​

"60!! 59!! 58!! 57!!..."​

Thousands of miles away, a single star rushed towards the parade.​

"42!! 41!! 40!! 39!!" the Toads and Goombas and Koopas and Piantas all cried with joy.​

The shooting star began to pick up speed.​

"29!! 28!! 27!!"​

"O look, Mario! A shooting star!" Peach cried excitedly. "Let's make a wish!"​

The shooting star was spotted quickly by Peach as it came into view.​

Mario smiled with her and closed his eyes.​

"20!! 19!! 18!!"​

"Did you make a wish, Mario?"​

Mario said "O yeah," like he used to, and nodded happily. Peach laughed, but looked up to see something strange. The star was still there... in the same spot, but much, much larger.​

"13!! 12!! 11!!"​

"Um... Mario, don't shooting stars disappear almost a split second after you see them?"
Mario's face cringed in confusement. Peach gasped as she realized that the shooting star wasn't shooting across space, it was shooting straight for the planet.​

"7!! 6!! 5!!" All other people, except for Mario and Peach, did not notice the oncoming star.​

"O, Mario! We have to get out of he..."​

But before they knew it, the star closed in at light speed and whisped right over the parade. People started to panic when it came so close, but it didn't harm anything or anyone. It just passed closely over Mushroom Kingdom, like an oncoming space ship.
Mario, Peach, Luigi, and Yoshi were all exhasperated. The people of Mushroom Kingdom were slightly confused and in a mob of noise.​

Then a firework launched in the distance. And right when it went off...​

CRASH!!!!!​

Everyone was thrown a foot into the air as an enormous crash behind everyone happened. Mario was trying to help Yoshi and Peach up off the ground when Luigi looked behind to see an enormous explosion growing from the distant ground.​

"Gah! Mario! What is that?" Luigi cried.​

But Mario couldn't hear him. The streets were in panic and chaos. Toads and other types of folk were running in circles of panic, cries of peril were draining out all sound, and the explosion in the back seemed to be inching towards Mushroom Kingdom. Death by fire seemed inevidable.​

As if everything wasn't bad enough, the heroes and the crowd heard yet another explosion in the distance, and it was coming from Peach's castle! One of the towers suddenly collapsed: rubble and smoke spat out from the ground beneath it!​

"Mario!" Peach cried, "What is going on? What was that explosion!?"​

In a miraculous sprint through the crowd and towards the four befuddled heroes, a Toad guard from Peach's castle ran in a panic.​

"Princess! The dungeon... it... it... there was an explosion, and all of Bowser's Koopa Troopa's! They're gone! All their cells were blown to bits... the castle is damaged... and we don't know what to do!"​

His voice was so exhausted from running that Peach barely managed to hear the toad, but when she heard, she covered her mouth in shock. She then figured something out.​

"Mario! Yoshi! Luigi!" she cried as she turned around. She seemed angry. "This is Bowser's doing! Something's going on!"​

"But..." Luigi muttered awkwardly, not trying to argue the Pricess, "I thought that Samus had Bowser safely imprisoned on her home planet..."​

"Well... we can only assume that he's done something. His troops are gone, Mushroom Kingdom is under attack..." Peach reasoned.​

"But the star didn't land here, it landed outside the town! It almost hit us, but it didn't..." Luigi said.​

Yoshi started to cry out in panic, and he pointed towards the castle to see Koopas escaping out of the castle, just like the Toad has said.​

"Well... whatever has happened, we have to do SOMETHING. Mario, lead the way!" Peach cried after a moment of thought. Mario nodded but looked serious. He started a dead sprtint, aimed for the castle.​

And in all of the chaos of the crowded streets of Mushroom Square, no one seemed to calm down. But because they saw their heroes in action, the people made way for Mario and his friends as they sprinted towards Peach's damaged castle.​

In the distance, the explosion faded.​

Chapter 2: Ashes from Space​

"What's going on out there?" Ike asked as he left the castle's resting room. Marth looked over his shoulder from the viewing platform to see Ike coming, and he looked back towards the scenic view of Mushroom Kingdom.​

"Mushroom Kingdom is having that parade again," Marth replied. Ike leaned against the ledge and acknowledged with a nod. They both stared silently at the flashy city of Toads.​

"Were we invited?" Ike asked out of the silence. Marth thought for a moment.​

"I don't remember getting a letter. Do you?" he asked.​

"No. It seems like ever since the group disbanded that all communication seemed to shrink to within our own countries."​

"True. But we never seem to need one another, do we?"​

"No... we don't. Ever since the Subspace Army, the world has been safe."​

Silence again. The cries of the Toads could be heard clearly from a distance, however:​

"60!! 59!! 58!!"​

In the corner of Marth's eye, he picked up an especially large star in the sky. He looked up to see that the glow was slowly but surely growing.​

"Do you see that?" Marth asked. Ike looked over.​

"Huh?"​

"That star. It looks especially bright."​

"O yeah."​

"And it's getting bigger..." Ike was hardly paying attention, though. He had spotted something strange himself. When he looked over to the abandoned Star Hill, he noticed that the stars that decorated it were glowing on and off, very brightly and noticably. But he said nothing.​

"Ike! Look!" Marth cried. Ike focused on what Marth was pointing his finger to, the star which was growing at suddenly alarming rates. It seemed to be picking up speed, and it didn't look like it was going anywhere except for straight for the planet.​

"Oh my..." Ike started to whisper. Marth didn't hear what he had to say, he was already sprinting down the castle's staircase to the main entrance. He ordered the guard to lower the gate. Confused, the guard did so and Marth sprinted outside of the castle to stare the star down. It was enormous.​

All of the sudden, the star became the size of a space ship and it whizzed over Mushroom Kingdom. Before Marth could react to this petrifying phenominon, the sun-like sphere had already crashed into Star Hill and created a massive explosion.​

Marth quickly ran into the castle to see that the guards were all panicking, so he disregarded them and tried to find Ike. As Marth fled up the staircase, he caught a glimpse of what was happening outside through a window: the star had created a massive explosion that was growing, surely but steadily, and it was coming straight for the castle.​

"Ike!" Marth screamed. "Ike!"​

Marth finally reached the same balcony he was on before to see Ike trembling in fear as he watched the explosion come closer and closer.​

"Ike!" Ike turned around. Marth waved his hand towards himself. "Come on!"​

Ike turned to run back to Marth and they both fled into the castle's dungeon, along with a large amount of guards.​

Within the dungeon, the two warriors listened to the explosion, which grew louder and louder, until it finally took a sudden stop. Everything stopped shaking and rumbling, and silence controlled the world once more.​

Marth and Ike stood up and told everyone to stay down, they were gonna go look to see if the front side of the castle was damaged or not.​

When they stepped into the main hall of the castle, they were relieved to see that the wall was still up and the gate was untouched. Apparently, the explosion never reached the castle.​

They stepped outside and looked around. To their disbelief, almost every inch of the ground in front of the castle was disleveled, cracked, burned, and torn. All structures built in front of the castle were now dust, any little plants were burning to a crisp. The ground was charcoal black, and smoke was raising from little crevices throughout the land.​

"Wh-what... what was that thing?" Ike asked. Marth didn't answer. He continued to observe his semi-wrecked kingdom.​

"Let's just be grateful that it didn't harm the castle or any of the guards or people," Marth said calmly, "but I think we should look into this. I saw the meteor hit Star Hill in the distance."​

"Star Hill? Really?" Ike asked excitedly. Marth looked over.​

"Yeah... why? Is that a shock to you?"​

"Well, no, but, when you saw the meteor coming towards us in the first place, I saw Star Hill begin to glow brightly."​

"Is that so?"​

"Yeah. It was so strange, because all of the scholars claimed that Star Hill was dead... that the prayers that people give to that hill are never answered anymore. if that's so..."​

"Then why was it glowing..." Marth uttered. Ike nodded.​

Silence, then Marth said "Let's go."​

They both drew their swords and dashed for Star Hill.​

When they got within a mile of Star Hill, they immediately knew that Star Hill was completely gone. The meteor had destroyed it. But instead of seeing any sign of the meteor or Star Hill, they found a mile wide crater. They continued to travel to within yards of the crater when they stopped to observe the place.​

Ike looked around, as he had a suspiscious feeling that something was there with them. But he found nothing. Marth crouched to the ground to find something he did not expect: blue ash, the remnants of Star Hill. And within it, a tiny, pint-sized star that was glowing with incredible force. Marth could feel the star's power emitting the minute he touched it, and despite its small size, it was incredibly heavy.​

"Ike... this is strange. The meteor wiped the hill out, but the stars from it still glow..."​

Ike did not reply.​

"Ike?"​

He stood up and turned around to see Ike ready for combat.​

"Ike, what's wro-"​

Slowly, out of the ashes of the ground, tiny ball sized creatures collected together from the lack ash and rose into the air. They seemed like little black balls at first, but as soon as they rose, a bare, unblinking eye cracked open. After the eye opened, the "body" sprouted short arms and legs, and they fell to the ground.​

There were millions of these little ball creatures, and they all surrounded to crater. When they all forged into their final form, they immediately turned to Ike and Marth.​

Marth drew his sword.​

"Marth," Ike whispered.​

"What?"​

"Do you remember that little pink guy we fought with? Against the Subspace Army?"​

"Ah, I think I do. Kirby was his name, I believe."​

"Yes! Kirby! Well, him and Meta Knight... they looked just like these guys... Little and round, small limbs..."​

"What are you thinking, then?"​

"... I don't know. Let's clean up this mess first and see what we find."​

"I agree."​

Marth began to cry out and dashed into the crowd of the small balls. Before they could move, he swept his sword left and right, instantly destroying any that he touched.
When his sword struck the first ball, though, every single ball within the endless wasteland started to move slowly in to Marth and Ike. It was an endless field of black imps.
As they closed in, Ike threw his sword up into great heights, cried "Aether!" and executed his smash down into the ground, destroying about 20 nearbies.​

When Marth returned from his sprint, he was out of breath and fending off mindless black pugs. He found himself back to back with Ike, trying to fend off the black pugs.​

Then Ike realized something terrible.​

"Marth!"​

"What is it!?" Marth replied in agony.​

"Look at the shadows of these things!"​

Marth looked down to a nearby one that leapt up to his face. Marth swiped down, killing the black pug. But his eyes opened up in amazement as he saw what Ike was saying: the little shadow that the pug produced was coming to life.​

"Oh my..."​

"There's no stop to this!" Ike cried, "We're going to be fighting these guys forever..."​

"And there's no escape!" Marth replied. "We have to think of something before we're swallowed in shadow!"​

They both relentlessly defended themselves, swinging their blades left and right, killing dozens of pugs at a time. Then Ike thought of something.​

"Marth! Jump!" Before even asking why, Marth leapt up, swinging his blade. Ike brought his sword above his head and slammed down, creating a small a fiery area bomb, which killed hundreds of pugs. The fire burned around Ike and Marth, creating a temporary shield.
"Come with me!" Ike cried. Marth landed and followed Ike into the field of pugs, and they both defended with their swords as they ran. Before Marth knew where he was going, he followed Ike in a jump into the crater.​

The dark pit swallowed the two warriors, along with thousands of the pugs that followed them.​

Chapter 3: Outflown​

As the Mushroom Kingdom readied for its countdown to New Years' down on planet earth, Fox and his crew (Falco, Slippy, and Peppy) sat in space in the Mothership for the Star Fox team. They sat quietly to watch the Mushroom Kingdom's fireworks from space. They had never witnessed it before, but because they have never had a chance to see them from space before, they settled on a quiet evening to watch the sky be set ablaze.​

"We're wasting good time, Fox," Falco complained as he stared blindly out a window into space.​

Fox turned from his chair and pshed Falco's repeated complaint. He apparently couldn't satisfy his annoying co-pilot.​

"What would you rather be doing, Falco? There's nothing to be done, and I actually enjoy taking a day off from space exploration," Fox said. Falco turned to him.​

"Oh? You enjoy watching the petty fireworks from thousands of miles away?" Falco snapped, "If you really wanted to see them, we could've landed a long time ago and went and saw them up front."​

Fox had nothing to say. He turned, stretched and cooled off, and relaxed once more to kick back and watch the fireworks. But they haven't started yet.​

"What time is it, Slippy?" he asked.​

"Uh, it's about 11:54, Fox."​

"Thanks."​

Falco left the room when Fox didn't say anything to him. He went to his room for the night.​

"Say, Fox, were we invited to the fireworks?" asked Peppy.​

"I don't think Her Majesty invited anyone outside her kingdom. I'm not surprised though. We were never really friends, and I could care less."​

"Yeah but, isn't the world like united and stuff?" Peppy asked again.​

"Yeah, sure, but the Super Smash Bros. weren't really a "team". They were a last-minute convinient band of cards like me and Falco, who happened to be on that planet at the time that the Subspace Army invaded."​

"Oh." Peppy turned around and was silent.​

Slippy blinked his eyes repeatedly, not knowing what to say, and turned to his computer. Much to his dismay, he saw something on his radar.​

"Hey, Fox, we've got something here," he said. He turned the sound on his radar up to hear an alarming beeping noise. Fox stood up, surprised.​

"Here? Near that planet? What is it?"​

"Well, uh... I don't know. It's like, moving really fast though and it's coming straight for the planet..."​

Fox quickly jumped down to Slippy's station.​

"You're kidding..." His eyes widened. On the screen was Mothership's tiny little dot, and below it was a graph of the planet. Coming both their ways was an enormous red, beeping star-shaped object.​

"What the...? Slippy! Peppy! Stay here! Move this ship OUT OF THE WAY of that thing!" he cried. Peppy was awoken by Fox's outcry but buckled in and started to pilot the ship away anyways. Slippy was in a panic as well.​

"But, uh, well? Fox! What're you gonna do?" He looked at Fox, who was already on his way out.​

"I'm granting Falco's wish for action," he replied.​

Fox entered Falco's room to see him laying down, attempting to fall asleep.​

"Hey what gives-"​

"Falco, there's something enormous and fast heading this direction. Peppy and Slippy are moving the mothership. Me and you are going to fly via Arwings to find out what this thing is."​

"What?"​

"Just follow me."​

"Fox, I was sleeping!"​

"Oh yeah, and I bet you don't wanna fly and try to destroy a meteor that's headed straight for land too, huh?" Falco was silent, but he smirked.​

"You're a smart one, aren't you?" They both sprinted for their Arwing landing ports and took off out of the Mothership.​

"Slippy? Come in. This is Fox. Over."​

Slippy's transmitter buzzed in and his squeaky, childish voice came in.
"Slippy here, Fox. What's going on out there?"​

"Well, we can't even see this thing yet. It's not within view from even a spot from behind Mothership. I'm assuming it's huge though because if it's that far away and the radar picked it up, it's gotta be big."​

"What's the radar look like?" Falco dropped in.​

"The big star thing is coming closer, but... this thing's not giving me a good reading."​

"Well, Slippy, you and Peppy gotta fly Mothership out of here, now. Falco and I will follow this thing into orbit."​

Silence, with little queasy moans from Slippy.​

"Slippy?" Falco called in.​

"Copy. Fine. But Fox, once you see it, you better start going, because this thing is only gaining speed."​

"Copy that, Slippy. Fox out."​

"Falco out."​

"Slippy out."​

When Peppy flew the Mothership away, Falco and Fox sat anxiously in their ships and awaited the oncoming meteor.​

"How big is this thing?" Falco asked.​

"About twenty times the size of Mothership. Do you wanna take a risk of inspecting its size yourself?"​

"Heh, Fox, don't even try me with that. You know I would."​

They both waited until finally, a small yellow speck appeared ahead of them.​

"This has to be it. What's its trajectory? Where's it headed?" Fox asked.​

Falco calculated on his computer. "It... it's going straight for the planet."​

"Ugh... where's it gonna hit?"​

"I-I don't know. It's not a sphere, it's a star, so it's landing is pretty unpredictable."​

"Argh! Falco, we've gotta try to take this thing down before it destroys Mushroom Kingdom! Or anywhere else... Hyrule, Crimea, Onett, all of our allies are in dangers!"​

"Copy, Fox. Let's go for it."​

They both took off a light speed, slowly coming up on the meteor. But before they knew it, the meteor was only a couple hundred miles from them.​

"Reverse!" Fox cried. Their Arwings flew up and spun, and then took off for the planet.​

"How fast is this thing?! Can we keep up with it?!" Falco cried.​

The meteor flew between the unexpecting pilots.​

"GO!!" Fox screamed. They began to fire rapidly: lasers, rockets, bombs, everything their little ships held. But, much to their dismay, nothing seemed to even affect the star. No debris came off of it, nothing.​

"Fox!"​

"Fall back!" Fox called.​

When the ships turned around, Fox turned his radar on. The meteor had already crashed into the planet.​

"Fox! What happened? Do you see it?" Falco cried into his transmitter.​

"Yeah... it-it's landed on the planet..."​

"Where?"​

"In the plain south of Mushroom Kingdom... west of Crimea, Marth's Kingdom."​

"Did it hit any kind of civilization?"​

"I seriously doubt it... it's in the middle of nowhere. Ah! I know that spot now! That's Star Hill!"​

"Star Hill?"​

"Yeah... my father told me about it. He said that Star Hill is where ancient folk would pray, and the stars would respond through that Hill..."​

"Sounds like a modern myth to me."​

"Well, whatever Star Hill is, that thing probably destroyed it... Let's go down and see what we can find."​

"Fine. We'll land at Peach's castle. Falco out."​

"Fox out."​

When Fox and Falco approached the planet, Fox let Slippy know what was going on. Slippy and Peppy were in a different galaxy by then, so they settled on letting Fox and Falco investigate the planet for damage and to discover what that meteor was.
As Mushroom Kingdom came into Fox's view, he was relieved to see the city undamaged. However, he did see that the town was in chaos... the fireworks had stopped, the streets were crowded with confused and panicked Toads and citizens.​

"Falco, this doesn't look good..."​

No response.​

"Falco?"​

"FOX!!" Falco screamed, "We've got company?"​

"What!?"​

"Watch out!"​

Fox's Arwing was blasted before Fox could hear Falco say out, and Fox lost control immediately.​

"Fox!" Falco cried.​

"Falco! Land! Go on without me, I can't land here without killing someone! I'll drag this guy away, you find Mario and see what's going on!"​

"Okay, Fox, but you don't die, you hear!?" Falco said. He ended the transmission.​

Fox turned his systems, guns, and radar on to see Falco dropping back with another ship following Fox.
Fox spun and spun and spun but no matter how much he maneuvered, this other ship kept on his trail. Fox was also surprised to see that the ship hadn't shot his ship's body, but the weapons. Fox was unarmed, and he was spinning helplessly across the planet's surface.
Fox only could think of one thing: escape. He pressed the "Emergency Eject" button and the "Self-Destruct" buttons on his computer and prepared for launch.​

His seat sprung him into the air and he free fell into the planet, armed with his blaster, reflector, and parachute. He looked up to see that his ship was still flying via autopilot with the clueless ship behind him... but wait... that was... Captain Falcon's ship, was it not? No, it couldn't be... Fox knew that Captain Falcon would never attack Fox like that... but he did! And he followed Fox into the wild instead of Falco into the city... And despite the fact that Fox abandoned ship, Captain's ship kept following his Arwing...​

Fox was so confused. But all he saw in the distance was his Arwing exploding. In the explosion, he lost sight of Captain's ship and he pulled his parachute. He landed safely into a forest.​

Chapter 4: Splitting the Grounds​

Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi finally escaped the corrupt streets of Mushroom Kingdom and made their way to the castle's path. As they neared, they could see even clearer: dozens of Bowser's minions filing out of the destroyed dungeon walls.​

"O, Mario! What are we going to do! They're much to far for us to catch up to them!" Peach said despairingly.​

"Well, maybe we should check out the dungeon..." Luigi suggested. Mario nodded at Luigi and led the crew down to the left side of Peach's castle. The last evil Goomba trucked it out of the dungeon, but Mario's friends let him go: they were more focused on finding out just what let the criminals go.​

When they reached the hole in the wall, there was still smoke inside of the castle where the wall was blown up.​

"Who could've done this?" Peach asked. Mario walked into the cell, fists raised for battle, and searched around for signs of Toad guards or any remaining criminals. When the smoke cleared up, nothing was to be found but rubble. All the Toad guards had fled.​

"Oh dear..." Luigi muttered. All four scattered across the dungeon and searched for anything or anyone that would give away what who did this. Mario and Peach eventually gave up and met with each other for a moment.​

"Mario... I checked that cell with the wall again and realized something... despite the fact that there was rubble was on the inside of the castle, there was a lot more rubble on the outside. Most of the dust was out there, too... do you think that someone blew out that wall from the inside?"​

Before Mario could answer, Yoshi started to jump up and down and call for attention. Mario dashed over to his green friend to see Yoshi staring down another hole in a wall. This hole, however, led deeper into Peach's castle.​

"Is this the second dungeon room?" Luigi asked.​

"I believe so... but we've never had to use it." They all walks in steadily, trying not to trip on the rubble. Yoshi led them inside, looking alert for anything that would give a clue.
But nothing moved, nothing jumped out, and nothing was going on. It was just another empty dungeon.​

"Well, Mario, I think that we can assume that this area is cleared... the tower above is knocked over, though, so we should check that out..." Peach said. Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi agreed.​

But when they turned around, they were petrified by the sight of a small army of magikoopas, goombas, and dry bones, ready to greet them with a battle. Behind all of them was none other than Baby Bowser.​

"Heh heh heh!" the demon turle chuckled. "We have you now!"​

Mario grunted. This was probably the end for them, for they had nowhere to go and were outnumbered by at least a couple hundred... the lines of Bowser's men crowded the cells they had just checked.​

"Where did you come from?" Peach asked bravely.​

"You expect me to spoil my plot before we take you, right? Well, wrong! I'm no stupid enemy..."​

"O, is that so?!" A voice cried out.​

Mario and his friends all gasped at the sight of Falco, who lept in and shot Baby Bowser in the back of his shell. Baby Bowser cried in pain, but was able to cry out at the last second,
"Get them!!"​

The army of Bowser wildly attacks Mario's small group and tried to take out Falco, but he was too swift! After he shot Baby Bowser, he sheathed his blaster and jumped away from all the action, trying to draw enemies out of the dungeon. Being the stupid minions they are, half of the minions followed Falco by himself out of the castle. The other half was left to deal with Mario and his friends.
Mario lept up and sent rapid fireballs out into the crowd. This dealt with Dry Bones easily, but didn't phase the Goombas or Magikoopas much. Luigi leapt right into the action and wildly flailed his fists around, getting weak but distorting punches in to numerous enemies. Peach and Yoshi flew in with Mario, and together fought off the impeding forces of the surrounding monsters.
Falco, however, had a different strategy. Once he drew the forces out of the castle, he drew his blaster and started to pick off as many as he could as they tried to charge him. Once they got too close, he fled at a perpendicular angle and tried to confuse his enemies with his Falco illusion technique. After having scattered the enemies, Falco jumped into the middle of the battlefield and charged towards Mario to help him: while charging he rapidly swung his feathered arms back and forth and turned his reflector on.
At Mario's side of the field, they were doing even better. Despite the fact that they were outnumbered, Falco's distraction gave them the upperhand and confidence to defeat all the foes that surrounded them. The biggest problem, though, were the Magikoopas. They were cowards, who would use Goomba walls and then send magic spell after magic spell after Mario.
One Magikoopa seemed to be the biggest problem, though. It was mounted on a broomstick, and always targeted Mario: it was almost like Mario was its main priority.
Although most of its spells were dodged, Mario became tired after fending himself for a long while. It hit him with the final spell: transporting a bob-omb to Mario's hand. Before Mario could throw it, it exploded and knocked Mario out cold. Peach and Yoshi were hurt, too, but Mario felt the full force.
Yoshi propped Mario onto his back and discarded him safely near the back of the dungeon, where Mario tried to rest. Yoshi then stocked up on egg bombs and cleared the area around Mario by jumping up and hurling himself to the ground, only to follow up with an egg toss.
With the number of Bowser's army cut down to less than 100, the minions began to flee. The heroes stopped their fighting, but kept their guard up. After the battle ended, Falco had reached the second dungeon room and the five heroes were together without a threat. The only one damaged was Mario.
Peach ran over to Mario and put her hand on his shoulder.​

"Mario?"​

He fell unconscious. Peach sighed and let Yoshi tend to him. Luigi and Peach turned to see Falco approaching them.​

"Where's Baby Bowser?" asked Falco.​

"He fled when you came," said Peach.​

"Heh, wasn't expecting me, was he?"​

"We weren't either, though, but thank you."​

"Yeah."​

"Why are you even here, though?" Peach asked.​

"It's a long story... but I guess I should tell you."​

Falco told Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi everything he knew about the meteor, where it landed, and where Fox went. He told them why he ever came to their aid.​

"So finding us cornered was a coincidence?" Peach asked.​

"Exactly. I would've followed Fox but I knew that he would never let me fly on his crew again if I disobeyed him... again," Falco explained.​

"And... that ship... was Captain Falcon's?" Luigi asked.​

"Unfortunately, that's what I saw. I swear on my father's grave."​

"You don't have to convince us. We believe you. We're a team, right?"​

"Sure. We'll say that." There was a silence as Falco looked out the hole in the wall, then looked at Mario.​

"What's going to happen to him?"​

"Well... he's in no condition to go anywhere... we can get him to rest upstairs in the Royal Bedroom," Peach said, "and me, you, and Luigi should all go and find that Star Hill you said was destroyed."​

"You mean what's left of Star Hill," Falco explained.​

Yoshi mounted Mario and Luigi on his back and they all started to jog out of the dungeon.​

"What happened to your parade?" Falco curiously and randomly asked.​

"Well, after that meteor landed our people panicked. No one was hurt... but then that explosion that broke all the prisoners free, along with our collapsed tower, made everyone think we were under attack...," Peach explained.​

They made their way up to Peach's bedroom.​

"Yoshi, you stay here and watch Mario. Falco, Luigi and I are going to find the meteor... okay?"​

Yoshi grinned awkwardly and nodded. He laid Mario to bed and sat down next to him.​

"Shall we go?" Peach asked.​

Ordon sat still, and it was nighttime. The Hylians were up north celebrating the New Year with a small ceremony, but the farmers of Ordon always celebrate each new year with a festival of their own, celebrating the life and peace they have to cherish because of the Super Smash Bros. Of those Bros. is Link, their own talented rancher. Although mostly oblivious to Link's past adventures and dangerous quests, the villagers still consider him a hero.​

Link and Colin traded wooden sword parries, but Link had Colin beat every time.
He pinned Colin against a tree with a grin on his face.​

"Aw, Link, you beat me again!" Colin laughed. Link chuckled. He lowered his guard and Colin punched him playfully. Colin ran off from the Faron woods and returned to Ordon Village, and said goodbye to Link as he departed for his own little tree home.​

Colin walked inside to see his mother playing with little dolls with his new baby brother, Todd. Colin rolled his eyes as his mother playfully teased the small child.​

Back at Link's treehouse, Link was busy preparing for midnight himself. He had his wooden clock counting counting down to midnight by itself, and Link was slowly lulled to sleep by the rythmetic sound of the ticking...​

"Link!" a woman cried. Link awoke with a fright. He lit his lantern and looked around cautiously, looking for the woman who called him. But he realized that the woman wasn't in his room... she was in his head!​

"Link... this is Zelda..." Link gasped. Zelda? He hadn't seen her since the Subspace Army invaded the world...​

"Link... I can't talk much now... they have me captivated again... but you must go... into the Faron woods and... find... Fox... again... go..."​

Link nodded to himself, and Zelda somehow knew he did. She stopped talking. Link quickly got up and went to his basement... his old tunic and boots were hanging on the wall, along with his green cap. The Ordon Sword was hanging in its sheathe across the wall, as well. Link dressed himself, and grabbed his other tools that were stored in his chest... bow, bomb bag, clawshot, and his gale boomerang.​

As Link went outside, he realized that he had to stay quiet to keep the festival calm. Any movement of him anymore was news to the ranchers, so he quietly snuck out of the view of the village and sprinted into the Faron woods.​

Link had forgotten to check the time... He assumed it was barely past midnight, since the festival was still up and roaring with activity. As Link ran, he kept a close eye out for beasts. The woods weren't infested but at night, they came out quiet commonly.
Just as Link started to cross the great bridge that connected Ordon to Hyrule, he heard an enormous explosion to the north! It threw him off his balance, shook the bridge violently, and shook the earth itself! Link was thrown yards off of the bridge, but he reacted in time to sheathe his weapons and shoot the clawshot and latch onto the bridge in time. He pulled closer and flipped back onto the bridge, when he suddenly realized that in the chaos of the distant explosion, beasts had come out of their hiding spots, and were now surrounding him on the bridge...​

Seven orcs lined one side of the bridge, and a great flock of large birds hovered over him. Blocking his exit to Hyrule's field was a very large, horned orc. When Link saw these beasts he realized that the combined weight would eventually collapse the bridge, so he had to act fast...
He stood up quietly, and waited to see if the beasts were going to strike... but they stood, watching him from all angles. The orcs were creeping forwards, but not quickly enough to catch Link...​

So Link quickly drew a bomb and threw it upwards, exploding across the flock of birds above him and sending some plummeting into the great canyon grave that sat beneath the bridge. Link then threw him gale boomerang towards the orcs, who had began to charge him after he threw the bomb. This knocked the leader off the bridge and pushed the rest of the orcs back; it also dazed them in the tornado that the gale boomerang had created. Link knew that the troll-like beast was coming on his back end, for he could hear its large steps and grunts. Link crouched, waited, and then backflipped over the enormous troll. Stupefied, the troll stopped in its tracks, and looked around for Link. Link drew his Ordon Sword and stabbed the beast in the back. But Link immediately realized the error of his ways... he had killed the beast, but he failed to throw the weight off of the bridge. He turned around and took off in a dead sprint for the end of the bridge. The troll took a short time only to fall over heavy and snap the rope on the Ordon side of the bridge. When the bridge snapped, all the remaining orcs either fled, jumped off, or were still too dazed to do anything, so they came down with the bridge. As the troll died, it also tried to grab for dear life: this dear life was the leg of one of the hovering birds, which went down with the orcs, troll, and bridge itself. As the bridge quickly fell it almost gave in beneath Link but Link was able to jump and then spin himself up to the ledge, grabbing it to save his life.
Link pulled himself out, and in his last attempt to save his life, he sniped out the rest of the remaining birds or beasts with his bow and arrow. He looked back over the gap where the bridge once sat to see Colin and the rest of the Ordon villagers coming to see what had just happened.​

Link shook his head to them, motioning them to go back home. Colin stood bravely, realizing that it was Link's duty to find out what had disturbed the peace of the planet.
Link put away his weapons and ran off deeper into the Faron woods, searching for Fox.​

Back at Colin's home, Todd was sound asleep as his mother laid him to sleep when the villagers left to see what had happened during the explosion and to find Link...
Todd's dolls laid on the floor against the wall, neatly organized like his mother had placed them.​

They sat in order: dolls of a Hylian Knight, a goron, a zora, a lizardmen, and Colin's old personal favorite, the fictional hero... Geno.
But then suddenly, as the house lay still and quietly, a pint sized star descended quietly into the house and floated silently. It looked like it was puzzled for a second. It then rotated, and slowly observed the house. It stopped lastly at the dolls... it stopped over each and every one, as if testing them for worthiness. It stopped at the Geno doll and when the star hovered, it began to spin around the doll slowly but surely, and it created a beam of light from the stars themselves...
The doll began to grow and grow and grow until it was human sized...​

Chapter 6: Interuption​

The crowd cheered and clapped and roared to the brightening of the nightlights upon the stadium. People of all races, kingdoms, ages and sizes and skill jump out and into their seats as they wait upon the next match, the long awaited matchup between the undefeated Leo Dyme, and the newcomer, the unnamed Pokemon Trainer.​

"Allllright boys and girls, men and women, Toads and Zoras, are you ready for the next matchup? The FINAL POKEMON MATCH BEFORE MIDNIGHT!?" the announcer exclaimed across the pokemon stadium. The cheers and roars peaked in volume and the floor shook in excitement.​

"Then heeeeere we gooo!" he cried.​

The microphone for the referee at the dead center point of the stadium was turned on and he announced the rules.​

"You are allowed to enter three Pokemon into the match. You can only dispose one into battle while the others wait behind you. The first trainer to defeat the other three becomes the new champion. Are there any questions of previously announced basic rules and limits?" The Pokemon Trainer and Dyme shook their head.​

"Shake hands." They did.
"Go to your stations and draw out one Pokeball." They did.
The crowd slowly fell silent as the Pokemon Trainer charged their arm for the fastest reflex of a throw...
"Battle!" the referee cried.​

Both Dyme and the Pokemon Trainer flailed their arms, flinging the Pokeball to the near center of the stadium.​

"Go! Machop!" Dyme cried.
"Go! Ivysaur!" Pokemon Trainer responded.​

The crowd went crazy. The clock above the stadium read 11:49.​

"Uh-oh, folks! Look like Dyme has a slight disadvantage! And you know the rules, you can't take back the first pokemon you call until the three minute mark occurs!" the announcer proclaimed proudly, as if he had the rules memorized.​

The battle commenced.​

"Ivysaur! Tackle him!" Pokemon Trainer cried.​

Ivysaur cried its name out and charged forward to Machop, but Machop was able to dodge the strike and karate chop Ivysaur's back. Ivysaur flinched but he didn't fall. He then heeded his trainer's call and quickly whipped out his vine whip attack and smacked Machop across the face, sending him flying across the stage! Machop fell down hard but easily got back on his feet again. He was met, however, by the ever-scarring Razor Leaf blow and he collapsed onto his right knee. He was not beat but he was deffinately weakened. Dyme was frustrated.
As Machop waited for the right moment to strike, Ivysaur already knew what to do next. Being one of the only three pokemon that his master has, he's used to his order of techniques and moves. Ivysaur lept up into the air and attempted to slam Machop into the ground. Knowing that Machop would try to hit his stomach, Ivysaur flipped 180 degrees onto his back and spat hoards of seeds into Machop's surprised face. Ivysaur followed up by spinning and kicking Machop's distorted position far away from Ivysaur, and Machop was out.
"Gah! Machop! Come back!" Dyme cried. The three minute mark just occurred, but he had to withdraw despite the time because Machop was gone anyways.
"Good job, Ivysaur! Take a break!" Pokemon Trainer called. Both pokemon were withdrawn at one time, and the scoreboard at the peak of the stadium flashed in a bubble for Pokemon Trainer's score.​

In the crowd, Pokemon Trainer's old friend Lucas sat and cheered along with the crowd. Although he hadn't seen Pokemon Trainer since the Subspace Army invaded the planet, he still remembers how he aided him against Porky and the team led by Bowser and Ganondorf...
Lucas suddenly felt something disturbing within him... it wasn't a physical pain but it was a feeling of concern. Lucas got this same feeling the day he was wandering the abandoned zoo...​

But he tried to ignore this and enjoy the match. Before he could realize it, Pokemon Trainer's Squirtle was in an intense match against Dyme's Torchic! Another horrible mismatch and a good read of strategy by Pokemon Trainer!​

As the match continued, Squirtle had the immediate upperhand because of his water advantage, but Torchic was quick and avoided many water-related moves. This resulted in a more physical fight.
When Torchic bashed Squirtle's head with its own, Squirtle felt distorted. But Torchic couldn't finish Squirtle off with a good finishing move, because all of his strong moves were fire! While Squirtle was still dazed, Dyme withdrew Torchic and unleashed his best Pokemon, the one that won most of his matches that same day: Steelix! Although steel type, he lacked the ground type and Squirtle had no certain advantage!
Steelix quickly burrowed underground the stadium and when Squirtle became conscious, he was confused. But Pokemon Trainer had faith in Squirtle, and instead of cowarding and letting Steelix wait, he relied on Squirtle to listen and feel for Steelix and he left him out.
As Steelix neared Squirtle for the dreaded dig attack, Squirtle withdrew the second before Steelix came up and he dashed away from the spot! Steelix came up confused and inaccurate, leaving him wide open for an attack. Squirtle found this oppurtunity to surprise Steelix's back end with a Withdrawn strike! This did no physical damage to Steelix but it threw him off guard and he found himself trying to balance his body.
"Good job, Squirtle! Go, Charizard!" Pokemon Trainer cried as the crowd went wild: and the clock read 11:59.​

Lucas' urge couldn't take it any longer. He stopped cheering suddenly and stood up, trying to find what was triggering his sense for danger. And then he saw it... the bright light in the sky that was flying into the planet due east.
Right when he saw it, many people began to see it. Attention was very slowly dragged away from the battle and the crowd cheered for the oncoming star, believing it was part of the midnight show. Even the pokemon and their trainers took a short break to look at it. But the show was short lived.​

As soon as it struck the earth, a huge earthquake shut down the stadium's power and people screamed loudly and in harmony to create probably the worst case scenario for the outcome of a tournament.
Lucas glared into the explosion as it grew out of the ground as people ran in panic around him.
Dyme was calling back his Pokemon and fleeing, but Pokemon Trainer called Charizard over to help get him into the air. He mounted the dragon and flew high up above the stadium. He knew that something was obviously wrong and that he had to find out what.​

When Lucas saw Pokemon Trainer fly into the air aboard his Charizard, he knew what he was thinking: I have to act. Lucas admired this, but had no time to admire... he had to follow Pokemon Trainer to find what had just happened! That meteor was so enormous and random that something must be up... but what?​

Lucas found himself running amongst an enormous, fleeing crowd. He had to find out how to get to where that Meteor had landed... he's far from home and help from Ness, but he recognized that valley that the meteor crashed in... he recalls Mushroom Kingdom being near it. But this was no time to think! he reminded himself once more, this is time to act, like a real hero! He snarled and dashed out of the stadium.​

Not knowing of Lucas' situation, the Pokemon Trainer continued to fly at high speed towards the explosion, which had faded about a minute ago. He was still miles from it, but a picture of a completely blackened field wasn't very assuring of safety.
But then out of nowhere, a small black, floating ball landed right in front of Pokemon Trainer on Charizard's back! Charizard screeched as it drill kicked into him, and Charizard shook miserably. Pokemon Trainer tried to smack the black pug off, but it was too quick! And before he knew it, a dozen black pugs were raining onto him and his pokemon, trying to throw them off course!
After a long, painful struggle, Charizard was nearly knocked out when a sudden attack on the Trainer himself threw him off his loyal, flying pokemon! He was falling straight into the land, and he had no way to save himself without sacrificing his pokemon! It seems as if he were to die, right there and then.
But suddenly, as if he were in a dream, an angel shot down from the star lit sky, grabbed Pokemon Trainer's hand, and began to fight swiftly and fiercely with his double bladed against the black attackers!​

The Pokemon Trainer then saved Charizard by withdrawing him into his pokeball... but the trainer slowly slipped into unconsciousness...​

It was a friendly, competitive race to the top of this worn and torn mountain between Popo and Nana.
It's always fun at night, this really tests their skills as to accuracy and judgement of how far or high to jump. The rickety platforms they had built going up Snowy Peak were slowly but surely giving out, and the Ice Climbers' New Year's goal was to fix them all, because this was their favorite old spot to race up. However, there are still many mountains to find on this planet.​

As Nana finished on top of Popo by one foot, they laughed playfully and sat down to rest. They put their hammers down and sat peacefully, admiring the star-lit sky above them. The air was so foggy that night on the mountain that they couldn't see anything that was 100 meters or more ahead of them, so they were content with staring at the glow-infested night sky. But something interesting caught Popo's eye.​

"Oh!" he squealed in delight, tapping Nana's shoulder and pointing into the sky. They giggled and watched it closely... but to their surprise, the beautiful little dot in the sky became something much more something worth worrying about.​

The star picked up speed before the Ice Climbers were prepared to see it grow, and as it grew, they stood up and began to tremble in fear. What if this thing came straight for them!? They would be the last people to ever climb this forsaken mountain...
But, to their luck, the oncoming glow was not growing larger into their direction... it was heading straight into the valley that lay in front of the icy mountains...
Nana and Popo looked extremely worried and they were shaking slightly in fear... they grabbed one another's hand and waited for the obvious: this thing was going to crash into the planet.
When it did, it came down before Nana and Popo could even expect it!​

CRASH!!!​

Nana and Popo were sent yards into the air from the sudden shake of the planet, and they could hear the mountain become upset. They saw it coming before it happened: an avalanche.
The Ice Climbers grunted as they lept into the air and landed right where they wanted to: the ice slide they had smoothed out days before. Popo led and Nana was behind. As much as this could be fun, they were on a slide for their lives, and the tons of snow and ice and rock behind them was gaining speed and fast!
After the first couple hundred meters, the fog disappeared and Popo and Nana could see the snow below the mountain. Nana turned around to see an oncoming flood of deadly snow! They were inches from it, as both the sliding people and avalanche were at dead equal speeds!
When they reached the cliff at the end of the slide, Popo and Nana knew they were safe. They flew off the icy route smoothyl and landed on their feet in deep snow while the avalanche came off the cliff like a waterfall, far behind the Ice Climbers. They jumped around in joy to see that they were safe..! But their climbing route up the mountain was destroyed...​

As they waited for the avalanche to drop its last ounce of snow off the cliff, the Ice Climbers began to venture out of the snowy country and into the plains that preceded it.
I wonder what time it is? Nana thought to herself.
The night was silent after that avalanche. But, as if out of nowhere, two ships came flying across the sky! They were far into the plain by now, but they recognized both the ships: Fox and Captain Falcon! They remember them from when they helped put an end to the siege by the Subspace Army!​

"Heyyy!" the Ice Climbers called. They jumped and waved and danced and try to catch the attention of the pilots before they flew by: but it didn't work.​

Before they could start to chase them by foot, the two space ships flew out of sight into the night. But shortly following their disappearance, the Ice Climbers heard an explosion from that same direction! Someone was hit! But... what took them down? The Ice Climbers couldn't contain their eagerness, they raced into the plain further and further away from the mountain to find what had happened to Fox and Captain Falcon!​

After more than a mile of running, the Ice Climbers were quickly running out of energy. They saw that to their left was the massive forest that bordered Hyrule, and to their right was the ocean. They were now miles and miles from their home mountain...
But they finally found the cause of the explosion! As they kept running, Popo spotted one of Fox's Arwing's wings, lying on the ground, cracked and dented and nearly destroyed. They stopped to rest and observe this.
But as they observed the scrap of metal, they also looked around to see anything else they could find. And what better new clue to find that a smokey pit of fire coming from a crashed spacecraft in the distance!
They raced to it, hoping that nobody was hurt...​

It was Captain Falcon's ship, and it was engulfed in raging flames from the inside! Captain Falcon sat inside, incinerating hopelessly. The Ice Climbers gasped from shock but acted quickly: they both shot their hands at the fire and began to blow freezing cold air into the spacecraft! Within half a minute, the fire was distinguished...
Captain Falcon sat unconscious. The Ice Climbers pulled him out slowly and checked for breathing... and he was alive!​

They laid him on his back and while Nana checked for his pulse and for wounds, Popo was trying to wake him up by tapping him on the face and knocking his chin up a little bit.
For what seemed like endless hours but was actually only a few minutes, the Ice Climbers continued to try to awaken Captain Falcon... and he finally awoke... to their misfortune.
As soon as he woke up, Captain grabbed Popo by the neck and attempted to choke him. Gasping for dear life, Popo had let go of his hammer and was kicking for defense! He didn't even know what hit him, but Nana was already coming to try to help her partner in life! She was beating Captain's chest and stomach, yelling and begging for mercy to her friend!
Captain Falcon shot up to a stand and loosened his grip on the now unconscious Popo. He spun kicked into Nana's direction, but she was able to dodge! He followed up quickly with a uppercut, though, and he caught her just in time and threw her into the air. Captain Falcon did not let go of Popo's coat, though.
He chased Nana's tired and beat up body and again kicked her. She was gasping for air as she was overwhelmed by betrayal and pain...​

Captain Falcon seized this oppurtunity and finished off Nana by sending her flying with Falcon Punch. Nana was launched miles into the air and further back into the plain. Captain Falcon chuckled as he saw his victory and his prey in his hand. He turned around and started to walk towards the ocean.​

Chapter 8: Disturbance in the Sky​

"Pit... come forth," Palutena whispered into the air. Pit immediately was awake from his tender sleep. He flapped his wings excitedly and took off for his goddess' chamber.
As he entered, he saw what he expected: Palutena sitting peacefully in her golden chamber, lit silently by numerous candles. The room smelled of a fantastic burning sensation, giving it serenity.​

"Pit... another threat has come to that planet where the Subspace Army once was."
Pit landed smoothly and knelt before his goddess, and she dismissed his humble action.​

"We haven't much time... I have been informed by the stars that a terrible misfortune is to happen at midnight, tonight." Pit raised his body and looked at Palutena.​

"If I may ask, m'lady, of whom does this threat concern? How is going to affect this planet?"​

"The stars are unclear... but a universal disturbance is inevidable. The stars have requested that I send a warrior to help the planetary citizens, and I ask that of you, Pit... go, help your old friends defend this galaxy." Pit was excited of the mission but grateful as well. He bowed and equipped himself with his bow. Raising his bow into the air with pride, he cried,​

"I will not fail you, Palutena!" She smiled.​

"I have great faith in you, Pit. Go! The threat has already affected the planet... go to the spot where the star has landed... you will know where to go. Go, Pit! Go!"​

Pit nodded quickly and leapt into the air, spinning his weapon.
"For Palutena!"
At light speed, Pit was flying out of the Skyworld Heavens and descending towards the planet.​

As he gained distance, the planet came into clear view very quickly. He slowed and hovered a couple of miles above the surface, observing what the planet looked like and what was going on... he gasped!
An enormous black crater, centered between Mushroom Kingdom, Crimea, Hyrule, the ocean, and Snowy Peak stuck out and caught Pit's attention immediately! He knew where to go.
As he began to descend once more, the view of the planet became much clearer. He could see Pokemon Stadium as well now, which was near the ocean but still close to the crater... and he could suddenly hear the overwhelming panic of the people of that stadium.​

"They're in trouble..! I must help them..." Pit announced to himself. He angled his wings and curved into a straight path for the Pokemon Stadium.​

As he continued to descend, he slowed dearly so that he didn't suddenly crash. He was only a couple hundred feet above the stadium when he stopped descending, and he hovered, trying to look for trouble. He was disappointed to find though, that the people were not under attack: they were running from where the star crashed. They must have heard or saw it! Pit knew now that he had to go to the crater.
As he looked over to the crater and started to fly, he saw that a very familiar young lad was riding atop his Charizard out of the stadium... but he was not fleeing the crater, he was going to it! This must be the same brave Pokemon Trainer that helped Pit and the Super Smash Bros. defeat the Subspace Army!​

"I must assist him! We could be going to the same place!" Pit cried.​

He took off at amazing speeds, trying to catch his ally before he lost him.
Although Pit was basically right over the Pokemon Trainer, he was not close to him vertically. But then he saw such a horrifying sight! Suddenly, out of the air, small black pugs appeared out of small warpholes and began to bombard Charizard and Pokemon Trainer!​

"This must be that threat..! Hold on, friend! I'm coming!" Pit screamed. But Charizards' screech drained out his voice.​

Before Pit could even start to descend though, he was suddenly kicked in the stomach by one of his own pug problems! It seemd to come out of nowhere, and its blank red eye stared him down cruelly.​

"Argh!" Pit cried as he came to a violent halt. He flapped his wings forward, shooting him back into his path and he quickly pulled out his magic bow. He fired instantaneously. The sacred blue arrow found the black pug immediately, and it destroyed it!​

"Yes!" Pit cried. But he celebrated too early. As if that spread the disease, a dozen black pugs suddenly popped up around Pit. Before he began to fight, he looked down to see Pokemon Trainer falling off his Charizard!​

Now Pit had to do something for him. He tricked the floating black pugs and dove down swiftly, throwing them off guard. But as Pit raced down to catch Pokemon Trainer, more and more of these black pugs popped out of nowhere and continued to attack Pit.
Pit swung his twin blades (which was also his bow) around in circles, creating an offensive shield around him and destroying any pug that tried to hit his head. Any black pug that was behind Pit couldn't fall at his speed either, so he had the upperhand.
Seeing Pokemon Trainer's helpless foot just below him, Pit extended his hand and grabbed it! He saw the trainer call back its Charizard but he felt the body go limp on him. Pit struggled to balance the Pokemon Trainer's body and defend himself as well... he was suddenly ambushed by hundreds of black pugs on his body!​

"ARGH!" Pit screamed and he helplessly swung his twin blades left and right. He decreased speed had caused the black pugs to jump aboard his airborne body, and they were wrecklessly beating him!​

Pit was slowly slipping in unconsciousness... but he would not let go of his friend..!
Pit then realized that he was not falling anymore: the mass of the black pugs were keeping him aloft hundreds of feet above the ground, without him even trying to float! This was pure torture, and just 10 minutes ago Pit was resting peacefull in his golden embodied bed...
But then, as if a miracle had happened, a bright green flash consumed the air around Pit... it exploded in a great area, and sent the hundreds and thousands of black pugs into the air, hopelessly disintegrating...​

He looked down for the last time before he fell unconscious and helplessly let go of his friend, Pokemon Trainer...​

The black mass was gone, the ground was visible... and there was Ness and Donkey Kong, waiting to catch them..!​

Chapter 9: Wandering​

The dizzy doll looked around the room, trying to figure out where he was... it was deffinately not the same place he awoke last time as this same body. But, whatever, he had to move, so he did. He wobbled around a little bit to get used to his legs and tumbled and stumbled here and there, but he managed to keep his ground. He eventually made his way to the door.​

When he peaked out the window in the door, he saw that there were decorations and lamps and banners all around the small village he put himself in... but there was no one in sight. Good, he though, nobody will be surprised to see me walking around...
He steadily made his way out of the small house and looked around for an exit from the village. When he spotted the way out, he walked casually out of the abandoned town.
Geno continued to follow the pathway out of the village until he heard people coming from the forest!​

"Uh-oh..." Geno sputtered aloud. "Hide, hide, I must hide... no, wait, they can spot me easily! I don't look like a Hylian, I'm a fully grown doll... um, I must flee! Off the path, yes, that's what I shall do..." Geno acted as he spoke his thoughts, and darted off the pathway from Ordon to Hyrule and clumsily found his way into the thick brush of the Faron Woods. As he scrambled, he heard the crowd get louder and louder. He halted his movements to save the risk of the mob of villagers thinking he was an orc...​

When they passed and their movement's noise faded into the distance, Geno kept walking further and further into the Faron woods. But after a short walk, he was quickly disappointed to find an extremely large gap of a canyon. He followed to ledge until he found two wooden posts: much to his unfortunate position, the bridge he wished to cross was unlinked from his side. The rope was out.
Oh, boy... how will I ever get across this, now? Geno thought. He looked around for resources that would help him get across the gap, but nothing seemed to be able to help. He thought heavily...​

"Ah! Hopefully this doll's wand is still usable... He looks closely at his wooden arm and tinkered with it a little bit... and eventually, the hand collapsed in to reveal a thin black rod!
"Ah! Here we go..." He lined himself with the other side of the bridge and aimed the rod in that direction. "Ahem..." he whispered as he coughed, and he pointed his arm out, "Geno Beam!"​

As he called out his spell, a small light collected at the end of the wand. It charged for a split second and spat out a wide, thin beam of pure energy, and it connected with the other part of the canyon! Geno let his wand detach from the mystical bridge, and he stepped onto it casually. He nodded his head and re-equipped his fist.
Geno walked over the bridge and let it disappear behind him. Geno looked around and found himself on another guiding trail.​

As he continued to walk, he knew that he was being followed by a small group of orcs. But he didn't feel like stalling his mission by fighting petty carnivores... but eventually, he had no choice.
As he approached a small cave that the trail led him too, Geno stopped in his tracks as a small green orc jumped down from the top of the cave to in front of Geno, and it armed itself with a bow and fire-lit arrow. Geno sighed. He also heard about twelve other orcs surround him from all directions: they were trying to ambush him.
He turned around to see a hoard of orcs, all drooling and clubbing their weapons as if they intimidated him. Geno cocked his head back and laughed.​

"I haven't fought within this incarnation in years... what makes you think I'll hold back, though?"
The orcs only continued to close in and snarl.
"If you insist..." Geno brought his hand down beneath his blue cape and equipped his wand.​

He acted before the orcs could even begin to think of how to strike first: he pointed his wand at the original cave-jumping archer and shot a small bullet at the orc's bow, stripping him of his arrow. The orc was stupefied by the sudden attack but didn't hesitate to pull out another arrow and light it on fire.
When Geno shot the first bullet, the surrounding orcs screamed harmonically and collapsed in on Geno quickly. But Geno had predicted this. He quickly turned around, cocked his elbow back and let out small rounds of mini-cannon balls, knocking the teeth and consciousness out of many of the oncoming fiends. He then leapt into the air over the collapsing line of orcs, leaving them tackling each other with full force. Geno turned around and saw them scrambling to get back into the motion of charging him.
He straightened his arm and then charged his wand again: "Geno Beam!" he cried. A rush of energy projected from his wand and immediately destroyed a large line of orcs that were trying to come Geno's way. He pulled back his wand and prepared to fight off the remaining orcs. There were only a handful left, and some of them were fleeing. Geno then aimed both his arms at two of the oncoming orcs and "loaded" his forearm, as if he was launching a rocket... but he was! His forearms blasted off in separate directions and punched the daylights out of the orcs, leaving only but a few orcs left for him to deal with. When his arms regenerated, Geno knelt on one knee and brought his left hand into his cape...
"Geno Whirl!" he called. He then launched a razor-sharp energy disc that went right through the nearest orc, and it exploded on the cave wall. Once the remaining two orcs saw what damage Geno had done, they discarded their weapons and fled into the Faron Woods.
Geno stood up and lifted his arms into his cape and nodded, celebrating his victory like he used to.​

He then continued in and out of the cave, and his sense of supposed danger around him was gone. It's as if when he decimated that group of orcs, he decimated any threat left in Hyrule.​

He waddled out of the cave to find himself in even thicker woods. He sighed.​

"Uh... of all the places to choose to reincarnate... I should have simply gone to Mario first. I don't even think I'm close to Star Hill... or at least what's left of it..." But Geno stopped complaining aloud and proceeded through the forest.​

Geno continued to wander around blindly, not knowing which path was taking him where.
"These folks could have least inserted directional signs," he joked. After many twists and turns, Geno realized that he wasn't making much progress. He remembers seeing many of the same landmarks in the forest over and over again. "I cannot be making circles... I have to think sharp! Think, Geno, which is a way you've never taken before..?" He looked around.
As bold as Geno was, he realized that he had been taking very similar paths. So with a conscious effort, he made his way down a split-off road that seemed to throw him deeper within the forest. As he made his way down, a gaseous odor arose to his attention.​

"Ugh... what is that smell?" he snapped. He tried to waft it away, but the smell wasn't an unpleasant or temporary odor: it was the gas coming from a wasting swamp.
"Oh dear... I don't think this is Star Hill." Geno sat and thought and tried to ignore the smell.
"I'm lost. I don't know where I am... I need to do SOMETHING." But then Geno thought of something simple but genious. He looked up to the sky at the stars, and closed his eyes.
"Give me guidance... you sent me here, help me do something about this planet..."
After a minute or two, a tiny little star grew amazingly bright. "Oh...?" Geno was pleased to see something come from his prayer.​

The new bright star seemed to twinkle and spin, as if it was telling Geno something.
"What? Where do I go?" Geno asked it. But then Geno saw that not only was this star twinkling, so was a great line of stars around it. It was giving him a map.
"Is that it? You want me to follow you..." Geno got up and followed the enormous stars that lit the sky.​

When Geno finally left the swamp, he found himself on a star-lit trail that led him outside of Faron Woods and outside of Hyrule Kingdom. He was in the plain now, and he watched the large stars shrink again, as his path ended here.​

"Thank you. Now... to find Star Hill..." he muttered.​

Unbeknownst to Geno, he was trailing behind another fellow hero only a mile behind. This fellow hero, Link, was on his way out too... if Geno had spent less time coordinating himself into circles in the Faron woods, he would have found a worth guide.​

But just before Link began to enter the cave where Geno would soon obliterate the orcs at, he looked up into the sky. What better time to get a sudden feeling that his fate would lie with the stars: his primary mission, to find Fox McCloud, was floating down from the sky under the guidance and peaceful descent of a parachute. Link dashed away from the cave and towards Fox general falling area.​

Link whipped his sword left and right, cutting brush and sticks and small plants out of his running path. He dodged an occassional tree as he ran off the trails that were laid by the Ordon and Hylian people. It took him only a few minutes to find Fox hanging from his parachute, which was latched and tangled into a tall tree's branches. Fox was struggling and squirming but he was also entangled within his backpack.​

Link slowed down when he saw Fox. He found, with gratitude, a small opening of treeless land at the foot of Fox's fool tree. He approached him and put away his sword and shield.
When Fox gave up struggling, trying to think of what to do, he looked down to the ground to see Link coming out of the woods. He smiled, happy to see an old friend coming in the nick of time.​

"Link! It's me, Fox!" Link nodded, acknowledging his trapped ally.
"I'm stuck, as you can see... do you think you can get me out of here?" Fox pleaded. Link nodded and looked around, trying to find something that would help him get his friend out of the tree. But all he needed was within his back pocket.​

Link found that he only needed his clawshot and sword. Aiming for a branch near Fox, he shot it and latched on, pulling him to within feet of Fox's parachute ropes. He drew his sword and looked to Fox, motioning that he was going to cut him loose. When Fox saw Link, he nodded, showing that he was prepared to fall. Link swung once, hard and accurately, at the very tip top of Fox's head: it cut the weight of Fox off the parachute and he plummeted to the ground. Fox didn't panic from his eighty foot free fall: he quickly acted. Curving towards the same tree that trapped him with a quick spin, Fox kicked off the tree horizontally to line up with the ground. He then fell to the soft ground. It was a painful landing, considering how high it was, but his wall kick probably saved the burden of Link having to carry an unconscious Fox around.​

Link let his clawshot lower him down to the ground. When he lost his chain length, Link dropped a couple feet and put his weapons away.
Fox got up, coughed the grass from his mouth, and wiped the dirt off his pants. He made sure his blaster and reflector were still at hand and tried to turn his transmitter on... but it had malfunctioned during the ejection from his Arwing. He turned to the approaching swordsman.​

"What luck, finding you here... what are you doing here?"​

Link came close to Fox and pointed in a certain direction, implying that he was headed for...​

"Mushroom Kingdom? Are you going to the parade?" Link shook his head and pointed to the sky.​

"Oh! The meteor!" Link smiled and shook his head excitedly, surprised that Fox understood him so quickly.​

"How strange... that's what brought me here, too... but something strange happened while tracking it to this planet." Link's eyebrows raised, courious to hear Fox's story. So he explained everything to Link: from the beginning, Falco's complaint, to just recently, when Captain Falcon's F-Zero raceship attacked him.​

Link and Fox were sitting down on adjacent flat-topped rocks in the middle of the opening, and Link was rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Fox was waiting for a reply to his story. But Link couldn't think of anything to say to Fox's story. He was just as perturbed and lost as Fox was on the whole thing.​

"What should we do?" Fox asked. Link turned back to Fox and drew his sword, and then valiantly pointed towards the sky.​

"Ah! I see. We should go see where that thing landed..." Link nodded.​

"Okay, Link, let's..." Fox's eyes widened. "Watch ou-!" he cried. It was too late. Before Link could heed Fox's warning, a small blast blew both of the heroes away from each other. Link landed face down, but Fox was able to recover with a midair jump. He armed himself with his blaster and raided the area, using his computer monitor radar on his left eye to search for heated lifebodies around him. He found nothing... until he turned around and saw another sphere coming straight for him.​

"Ah!" Fox cried, and he dashed left to avoid the second blast. It was a floating orb of fire and power, and it disappeared before Fox's eyes.​

"What the..?" he pondered. Link was already getting up, searching for what had just hit him. He got his sword and shield ready for combat and quickly jogged to Fox's side. They were back to back, silently circling around and searching the area for enemies...
And then out of nowhere, a massive boulder hurled out of the woods and came flying for the heroes! Link was looking straight at it when it came out, and he grabbed Fox and dashed away from the rock, saving both of their lives. Link dragged Fox to the ground with him and they laid there, silently.​

"What's going on?" Fox whispered. Link shook his head. He kicked his legs into the air and flipped onto his feet, quickly followed by Fox. Fox raided the area once more... and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small arm in the woods!​

"Ha!" he cried as he quickly shot his blaster at the arm. His shot was dead on, but when he thought it would hit his enemy, it was reflected and came flying back to Fox before he could move! It struck him straight in the face and burned some of his fur and he collapsed to the ground, dazed by what just hit him. Link gasped and unarmed himself, collapsing to the ground to see what happened to his companion.​

The forest was still. Link didn't know what to do: the attacks had stopped.​

"..Link!"​

Link recognized Zelda's voice right away, and turned his head to see Zelda appear out of her Farore's Wind teleportation portal. He stood up, carefully letting Fox's body lay. But Link thought to himself... I thought that Zelda had already told me that she was imprisoned..?​

"Link, I escaped the evil ones!" she said, as if answering Link's thoughts. Link grunted and nodded, not doubting her reason for being here suddenly.​

"I sense danger still is around us... you go into the forest and search the culprit out, I will stay here and tend to Fox..." Zelda whispered to Link.​

Before questioning Zelda at all, despite the fact that she looked slightly different to Link, he was running into the thick forestry and drawing his sword and shield.​

When Link turned his back and ran, Zelda looked down to Fox with an evil grin...​

"Fool..." she mocked. Her voice was deep and croaky, but handsome. Her eyes suddenly faded to pitch black, and black scar-like markings appeared out of her skin... She knelt down before Fox's shoulder and chuckled as she lowered her hand to his chest... she delicately moved her fingertips from his neck to his wrist, as if feeling for a soft spot on her prey... As if she suddenly changed her sense of gentle nature, Zelda waved her arm into the air and went in to stab into Fox's chest with her bare hand! She succeeded, and her hand through his body like a shadow. Fox wasn't able to scream as he woke up to this excruciating pain, but he grunted and whined and moaned like he has never before. He couldn't move any part of his body but his eyes, and all he saw was Zelda's scarred face grinning with her forearm lodged into his chest...​

But he was not bleeding. No. Instead of blood coming out of Fox's body, darkness was seemingly streaming into his heart from Zelda's, and he was slowly but surely slipping into Zelda's phase: completely controlled by an evil force.
As Link searched the small area outside of the opening, he was smart enough to check back to see if Fox was okay. He looked back to see Zelda torturing her patient of care!
Link was torn... he was confused! Was Fox the evil one in all of this, trying to attack Zelda after making up that entire story he told Link, or was Zelda actually the fiend who appeared right after the attacks stopped...​

After closing in enough to see the pain that was inflicting Fox's inner body, and the pleasure on Zelda's face of torturing her victim, Link had no choice but to quickly arm his bow with an arrow and...​

FWIP!​

Into Zelda's chest went Link's precise arrow, and she screamed, withdrawing her arm from Fox's poisoned chest. She fell back after standing in agony for a while, and as she watched Link come in, she knew that she was caught. She waddled away from her drained victim, and let Link approach Fox without defense. But even though she was in pain, Zelda looked at Link and laugh loud and clearly... She even stood up straight, despite the arrow being right through her stomach, and raised her arms in glory.​

"Fool! You cannot harm me... I will let you go now... but as long as this girl is of my control, you cannot stop me! Ha ha ha ha!" the manly voice escaped Zelda's lips and shocked Link... this was not Zelda, it was a parasite! Inside of Zelda, it was trying to confuse Link and poison Fox!​

Zelda dissolved into a black gas of poison, and the only thing that she left behind her was the arrow that Link shot into her... it lay, blackened from her poisonous blood, for a split second, then dissolved into the ground, forevermore disappearing.​

Link was shocked at this, but he had no time to think of what happened to Zelda... or whatever was controlling her body... he instead knelt next to the wide-eyed but unconscious Fox and looked at the black wound that Zelda had inflicted in him. Fox was still breathing, but he had trouble doing it. Link noticed that there were ugly black and purple veins sticking out at random parts of his body, too...​

Since Link had no idea how to attempt to heal Fox, he put his weapons away and hoisted Fox's limp body onto his shoulder. He sprinted out into the plain, hoping to find aid before Fox slipped into death from the poison that the demon had inflicted him with...​

Outside the F-Zero Grand Prix in the Nebula system, two old time friends sat in a crowded bar and pleasured themselves with casual conversation and a tasty soda.​

The man, Captain Falcon, had just got back from losing the race at the Grand Prix to a no name... seriously, he never even entered his name. He didn't take the prize or the money or anything. He simply said that he was a visiting racing enthusiast. The woman, Jody Summer, was a long time of Captain's who found that despite the fact that they were both in low spirits of losing the recent race, they've been able to lift the night with friendly chat.​

As they induldged themselves in such activity, though, they didn't see the robed stranger approach them from the back. He was shorter, but from certain angles it looked like he was crouching over.
Captain Falcon felt a cold, slightly sharpened finger tap his shoulder. He didn't feel like signing anything or dealing with idiot drug dealers, so he waved the hand off of him and ignored the plead for attention. But the concealed man continued to annoy Captain Falcon's shoulder with short and gentle taps. After a little while, Captain Falcon excused himself from his and Jody's conversation and turned around, expecting to see a small child with a pen and paper. But he looked down to see the lower half of the black robe of the man who was tapping his shoulder.​

Captain looked up with a grimace. "What do you want, buddy?" The robed man said nothing. He pointed his finger to the exit. Captain shook his head. "Nuh-uh, I don't know you, bub, so I suggest you get out of my face." Captain turned back around and picked up his drink. Jody had a look of concern on her face. Despite Captain's let down, the robed man continued to stand there, pointing his finger to the exit. After Captain realized that Jody was disturbed by this guy's presence, he decided to go out with him just to shut him up.​

"I'll give you five minutes, whoever you are," Captain grumbled, "Jody, I'll be back in a minute."​

The robed man backed away and let Captain Falcon angrily lead him out of the bar.
When they got outside into the streets, Captain crossed his arms and tapped his feet impatiently.​

"What is it so important that I needed to disrupt my harmless little conversation?" he asked, annoyed. He stared down the robed figure that was indeed shorter than him. The only thing he could make of this guy's body was that he had a dog-like white snout hindered beneath the shade of his hood.​

"Captain Falcon. F-Zero Racer, leads a double-life as a bounty hunter," the man whispered. He voice was hard to describe: it was whispy, like he was an old man, but it was almost a phony accent of English.​

"Yeah," Captain replied suspisciously.​

"I've got a job for you. And what you'll make from me is double what you would've won today at the race." Captain's eyes widened with pleasure.​

"Oh, is that so?" he chuckled, " Continue,"​

"You should know this guy... his name is Wolf. Wolf O'Donnell. And he's been on a recent killing streak even since he escaped from the prison in the nearby system."​

Wolf O'Donnell... Captain Falcon thought. That's the guy who fought with the Subspace Army against him and the Super Smash Bros. so long ago... wow. Time must have flown since then, but Captain Falcon never really thought of the Super Smash Bros. much.​

"Wolf, huh?" Captain said out of the awkward silence of his thoughts. "Give me more details."​

"I don't care if you subdue or kill him, and I don't care how. But I do know of where his next kill spot is... well, considering that he's become a multi-named bounty hunter, and it's within the city's limits. And don't worry... this double pay is right in my pocket." The cloaked man brought out a small sack of golden currency for Captain's galactic homesystem. Captain was then subdued with interest.​

"I'll do it," Captain said eagerly. "But I only demand one thing: that you pay me right now. I don't like to say I don't trust you yet, but I don't." The cloaked man actually laughed a little bit and tossed the sack at Captain's chest.​

"Take it. Just take care of Wolf. Meet me in the gutter behind the small intersection of Sphorical and Zeconic... they're on the outskirts, if you don't know where they are."​

"Yeah yeah yeah I know where you're headed... 11, huh? That only gives me an hour to get ready."​

"Considering how unexpecting Wolf will be, you probably don't have to prepare. I'll meet you there, though, so don't be late."​

Captain nodded and extended his hand to shake his new boss' hand, but the man was turning around and walking away from the bar and the crowds of the streets around him.​

"Weird," Captain announced, "but I guess I can't say no... I just got enough money to take a three month vacation..."​

The city clock struck its own bell eleven times, signlaing Captain Falcon that his fight was soon to come...
He awaited anxiously in the dark ally, staying every alert for Wolf to show up. He cracked his knuckles and stretched his muscles. And as 11:01 showed over the city of speed, Captain saw the hooded man approaching.​

"Thank you for coming, Captain," the hooded man said. Captain Falcon laughed.​

"Ha. Don't thank me. I'd like to thank you. That was a hefty reward you gave me..." Captain said gratefully. The robed man said nothing.​

"So how do you know that Wolf is coming?" Captain asked as he turned his back to the man.​

"Do you remember how I said that Wolf had transformed into a bounty hunter himself?" he muttered. Captain nodded in acknowledgement.​

"Well, I tricked him. I assigned him the mission of catching a small time criminal in here. But little does he know that I set up a date for you to manhandle him..."​

Captain Falcon laughed, admiring the cunning nature of this man's lies.​

"Where is he going to be coming from?" he asked. The cloaked man pointed east, and Captain Falcon turned.​

"I'm ready..." he whispered for encouragement.​

Ar-uh-gah-de-arrrrgggghhhh!!!!" Captain screamed. The robed man had clutched his neck with his black and white claw, but it wasn't his grip that was electrocuting Captain to death: it was a small device strapped to his palm.​

After minutes of watching Captain Falcon slip into torture and pain, the traitor let go and let Falcon's limp body collapse to the ground: it twitched and sneered, but no noise came from his mouth and many parts of his clothes were burnt from the sheer agony of the electric surge.​

The cloaked man flipped his hood up, laughing, to reveal Wolf O'Donnell's grinning face. He stripped his robe from his body and wrapped it around Captain's body, bagging him within. He pressed the button on his wrist to call down his Arwing to the streets, and he threw the bag in as he climbed in and flew away casually.​

Deep within the galaxy's heart, a young beautiful girl breathed out as she left the capsule that now contained her unequipped power suit. She let the exhaust fumes evanesce, typing in a code of a nearby computer to lock the capsule containing her arsenal suit.
She let the doors close behind her as she left the armory chamber and made her way down a long and narrow corridor to the stairways, which led to the dungeons. Samus Aran walked with ease down her own Sector R Spaceport of her home, Zebes.​

When she entered the dungeon chambers, she saw that everything was in order: two winged guards guarding the doors, three guarding the prison, and two guarding the computer systems. Also in order was the slumbering beast of evil, Bowser, laying quietly within his spherical cell. Bowser woke up when Samus entered via noisy automatic door, and he growled at the sight of her.​

"Hush, puppy," Samus said sarcastically to the upset monster. He grunted and looked away. He would've jumped up in rage and attempted to tackle his cell down, but scars of electrical shocks and plasmatic rays show that the slow-moving and oversized turtle knew what was coming if he acted out of place. Samus went over to the computer surrounding Bowser and entered in a code. She waited for a green screen from the computer that said "All Systems Secure" and she said goodnight to the guards. She left for her slumber chambers.​

Samus found her way through an enormous maze of elevators, doors, corridors and stairways to eventually make her way up to the main Landing Strip. She made sure everything was running smoothly, then turned into her room for the night.
As Samus prepared her bed, she received a sudden call from the Landing Strip's Foot Entrance maintenance crew.​

"Samus," the creature said in an alien language, "there's a tall man here in armor saying that he wishes to see you." Samus wasn't concerned really, she had all sorts of freakishly demonic looking aliens visit her all day, but the shakiness of the guard's voice was certainly unusual. Samus clicked in on the transmitter and replied,​

"What does he want?"​

"He-he says that he's here on a woman named Zelda's behalf..."​

Zelda? Samus hadn't seen that heroic girl since she joined forces with her on that one planet... o what was it called? O well. But she did remember clearly the accidental team of Super Smash Bros. that formed to counter the threat of the invading Subspace Army, and she remembers especially sneaking onto Meta Knight's captive ship to rescue her stolen Power Suit. She didn't know whether to act to Zelda's messanger excitedly or ignorantly... but she couldn't take any security chances.​

"Send me a shot of his face," Samus ordered, "I'm not sure if I can trust him without knowing his name or home planet or means of being here."​

Samus waited a minute, assuming that the guard was questioning the guest and taking his/her picture. But after five minutes, Samus called in again.​

"LSFEG7? (Code for Landing Strip Foot entrance guard #7) Are you letting him in?"
No answer again. Samus then became irritated: nobody ignored her orders like that unless they were of higher ranking than her in the Zebes Protection System.​

"LSFEG7! Please respond..." No answer. She then turned on the visual communicator device on the telecom. A hologram popped up and scanned her face, okaying her authority. She then was greeted by a screen shot of the guard's face... but his mouth was open and his head was still.​

"LSFEG7? What's going on done there?"​

"So this is the best security you alien freaks have enlisted for your jail?" a dark and familiar voice said.​

The lifeless guard's head was tossed aside... behind it was Ganondorf's smirking face, laughing at Samus' poor effort to find out who was trying to get in. Samus' face cringed in amazement! How had Ganondorf escaped the prison deep within the outskirts of space..?​

"Heh heh, surprised to see me, eh Samus?"​

Samus dropped her comm and sprinted out of her room, grabbing her weapons and she went out. To her horrific prediction, she walked out to a completely silent graveyard of alandstrip: all the personel that was out and about before she entered her chambers were dead, brutally beaten and tossed aside like scrap or junk. Ganondorf had been through here... and he left his mark.​

Samus knew exactly where he was headed, too... to free Bowser. She darted down the hallways, following the trail of the corpses of the guards that Ganondorf annihilated...​

Halfway down the stairway, however, she was met by an unexpected foe. While sprinting down a long narrow corridor that linked the room preceeding the prison stairway and the maze of rooms, Samus stopped in her tracks: she heard a tiny little footstep around her.
The corridor wasn't more than a foot above her head, and it was extremely long... probably about 100 meters in itself. She looked back and forth and scanned the ceiling well, but she found nothing. She continued on, cautiously arming herself with her blaster.​

But as she turned her back to her destination, a rock hard smack to the back sent Samus flying away! She was distorted but handsprung her way back to balance, and turned around to see a large, armored Lizardman, wielding a bone helmet and shield and a razor sharp axe, screeching at her, mocking her at her easy defeat. But the Lizardman was far from winning the battle.
Samus had to defeat this thing for good and quick... she couldn't let Ganondorf reach the prisoner chamber! Knowing how slow the warlock was, she decided that a quick kill on this Lizard would probably cancel out Ganondorf's efforts to corrupt the Zebes system.
Samus yelled and charged, and was matched with the Lizardman sprinting towards her with his axe spinning and his shield guarding his throat.
As they came to within a foot of each other, Samus ducked to the ground, dodging a swift and powerful swing of the reptile's axe, and she tried to trip him by spinning her leg. The beast dodged this easily by whacking back with his tail, and her effort was futile. Finding an oppurtunity to behead the bounty hunter, the Lizardman swung down with both of his hands on Samus' ground. Samus saw this coming, though, and back flipped off the Lizardman's open chest spot and landed safely feet away.
Apparently, the Lizard physically overpowered Samus... but Samus had weapons and intelligence on her side. She had to think quickly and try to outwit this bonehead.
So, Samus armed herself with her whip and threw it forward. The Lizard thought he was smart by blocking it with his axe and wrapping the whip around... but this was his fatal mistake, for this is what Samus aimed for. She pulled the Lizard towards her with great force, throwing it off balance and upsetting its strategy. The Lizard let go of its axe before it reached Samus, though, so Samus ended up discarding the axe behind her. She then threw the whip back at him to try to hit him while he was dazed, but she missed. The Lizardman then took a last effort to strike Samus and leapt up into the air, coming for her faster than she could expect. He screeched and brought his claw back to swipe at her face, but she countered his attack by drawing her gun and blasting the Lizardman's throat. It went right through him. The beast landed before Samus' feet, eyes blank with death and lungs deprived of oxygen. Samus stepped over the beast and sprinted down the corridor.
As well as Samus thought that had went, her efforts to stop Ganondorf were soon put to waste...​

As she approached Bowser's prison cell, Samus carefully creeped forward, expecting all sorts of ambush attacks. She spun her head around in circles until she finally reached the door... but it was smashed in. A great hole, the edges marked with Ganondorf's evil scent, was left in the door and Samus avoided being seen through this obvious sighthole. She instead ducked to the left of the hole, trying to peak in through reflections on the equipment on the computers. But, to her surprise, there was nobody in there... she couldn't see Bowser's cage, but she didn't think he had moved, she could hear him breathing from outside the cell.​

Samus let go of her guard for a minute and stood up. She aimed her blaster and took one step in the prison.​

"Ha!" laughed Ganondorf. Samus turned quickly and was halfway pulling her trigger when Bowser fell from out of the ceiling and completely crushed her into the ground, leaving her unconscious and seriously wounded.​

Ganondorf released his grip on Bowser and the two laughed at their newest victim.
Bowser got up off his butt and picked up Samus by her arm, roughly handling her lame body.​

"Be careful with her, beast, we still have to use her," Ganondorf ordered. Bowser grunted and turned away.​

"I don't see your prize anywhere," Bowser retorted. Ganondorf laughed and snapped his fingers. An unconscious Zelda, wrapped in shadow blankets, appeared next to him, floating with ease. He threw the body to Bowser.​

"Put those two in the androidition, we have work to do."​

Bowser waddled over to the torture chamber that was locked away in the back of the room. He smashed the door open with his head and the light switches turned on.
The room was completely empty except for four objects: a master console computer and three strange, circular machines. The machines were all identical in appearance and size, and extended from the "corners" of the circular machines were four cylinders. The machines were thick with metal and wires, but they seemed expensive and valuable.​

"How do these things work?" Bowser asked.​

"Don't worry about it," Ganondorf snapped. "Wolf will take care of it."​

"Where is that guy, anyways?" Bowser asked. Soon as he said it, Wolf walked in with a large black bag slung across his back.​

"Here and accounted for," he laughed. He threw the bag to Bowser, and out of it came Captain Falcon. Bowser grunted at the attitude Wolf and Ganondorf seemed to have over him: superiority. Wolf didn't notice his dirty look, he was too busy walking to Ganondorf to counsel. Bowser cotinued to organize the knocked out victims.​

"Now all we need are Snake and that little chimp... where is that fat guy? Didn't the guy in charge assign him those guys?" Wolf asked.​

Speak of the devil once more, Wario appeared through a teleportation pod near the entrance of the prison cell. He laughed and rubbed his belly. Wario was holding a huge crate of steel, and he was struggling to carry it over to Bowser to drop it in the new morgue of unconscious victims.​

"Heh heh, here's your Snake," Wario laughed. Bowser growled at him.​

"Late," he growled. Wario shrugged it off.​

"This guy was a tough one," he showed off, "I wasted an entire army of Pirhanas and Bob-Ombs on him. It took forever, and I haven't even gotten that little chimp ye-"​

"WHAT!?" Ganondorf exploded with anger. He turned around and sprinted to Wario, grasping the back of his head and applying pressure.​

"Gah! Ah ah ah ah! Watch it!" Wario screamed.​

"We're already about to miss the mark. You better get your blubbered body over to DK Isle and rob those primates of their little pal... make it quick too!"​

Ganondorf was relentlessly gripping Wario's skull, but Wario was able to squeak out last whimpers of accepting his must-be-speedy mission. Once Ganondorf let go, Wario pathetically jogged to the teleportation device, saluted his allies, and was gone in an instant.​

Ganondorf cooled off and wiped the sweat off his face. He became so angry so fast, thought Bowser, why was this mission to vitally important that we had to time it so perfectly?​

"What are we supposed to do with those guys, now?" Wolf asked Ganondorf.​

"I don't even know for sure what those machines do, but the guy that hired us seemed to know what he was talking about... he knows that planet, Zebes, Mute City, and everything else about this galaxy memorized." Ganondorf took a long time to finish his answer, though, he was too busy trying to hack into the computer systems. Wolf noticed how much trouble he was having.​

"Did you even know what a computer was until you came here?" Wolf mocked. Ganondorf snorted, but didn't answer. After a long while the computer opened up a screen that read: Enter Password to Securely Open "Machine XO-B" Operations Table
A seventeen character row of stars appeared, baffling Ganondorf.​

"Aha."​

"You don't know the password do you?"​

"No."​

"Well how are we going to do this?"​

"The guy that hired us... he's going to be here soon."​

"O, is that so? Have you seen him before this?"​

"No. He sounded like he had a plan though."​

"That's what the Subspace Minister said," Wolf reminded. Ganondorf laughed.​

"The Subspace Army had no strategy: it was attack, capture, hopefully destro and dominate. With plenty of interuptions and distractions and downfalls, the Super Smash Bros. were able to top us no problem. But this guy? No. He has a plan. We're striking from all aspects of the planet, taking key role players prisoner in one spot, and throwing the Super Smash Bros. off guard before they even get together... if they can."​

Wolf had nothing to say. It seemed logical to him. He began to walk away, but finished off his conversation with another question:​

"What does this Master Planner call himself?" Ganondorf stood up and looked at the approaching Bowser and Wolf, and tried to remember.​

"Nova Knight."​

Chapter 13: Peace for Short​

Viridian City sat completely still. Not still like, an occasional baby crying or an occasional Growlithe barking. It was completely still. The only things that didn't seem still was an occassional house on the side of the street, where a crippled old man or a handicapped child sat and watched their television with great interest. The Annual New Year's Tournament that was happening, and nobody wanted to miss it.​

That's probably what would explain the empty city: about 99 percent of the population had dashed for the always-exciting tournament, and only the few that couldn't attend were watching it from their homes.​

Even most of the pokemon of the city had been brought by their trainers to the stadium, which holds near one million people. This was to make up for the fact that Viridian residences weren't the only ones that attended: Hylians, Toads, Onett townsfolk, they all went too... just not nearly as many as Viridian folk.​

However, one pokemon decided to avoid the rush of the tournament to rest during this beautiful New Year's eve. A small yellow mouse, a particular Pikachu, walked silently down Main Street of Viridian City. It had no directions, intentions, or goals, it just wanted to walk peacefully. Maybe it would go to the park? Or the beach? Or to a random back alley where it could nap and hear the nearby residences count down to midnight.​

But wherever it was going, Pikachu enjoyed its decision to take the night off. All the hustle and bustle of this tournament AGAIN was too much to bear for someone who was recognized as a hero since the Subspace Army captured him, used him as a battery, and then foolishly let him escape with Samus...​

Pikachu was a one of a kind Pikachu. There were dozens within the city, they were a favorite of many people. But this Pikachu was very distinct in this: it had no marks on it or clothing, unlike all the other Pikachus that were forcefully decorated with hats and scarves and badges by their owners.​

Pikachu found itself walking towards the pier over the ocean, and it sat on the railing that divided the water and the cliff. It admired the sky... but to find something of most interest.
A very bright star, one of the brightest that Pikachu had ever seen, was growing slightly by the second... it wasn't getting huge very fast, but Pikachu knew that it was growing. So he stood up and wagged his tail anxiously, to see if it would continue to get bigger... and it did.
Before Pikachu could bet on how big it would get, the star flung itself straight towards the planet!​

Pikachu was shocked, but before it could jump down from the railing and chase after the meteor, it was flung off the rail and into the ocean!​

"Pikaaaaa!!" it cried in despair.​

It balanced itself outin midair to look down. Pikachu was scared stiff as it saw a small group of razor sharp rocks pointed up, waiting for him to be speared into their sharp tops! The water was upset from the explosion: the tide was strong and the water was constantly moving, waves crashed along the side of cliff repeatedly, giving loud crashing noises. Pikachu couldn't hear much other than the wind rushing through his long and sharp ears, for it was falling hundreds of meters to certain death...​

But Pikachu knew how to prevent this easily. Just before it hit the tallest rock, he commited to its Quick Attack technique and zipped away from the spike, then zipped away again deeper into the ocean.​

Pikachu hit water and sunk smoothly, but the water was moving so fast that it was finding it hard to surface again. Once it had surfaced, it looked around for land to sit on to rest from the fall.
It jumped out of the water and smoothly landed on a rather large rock that stuck out of the water quite a bit. Pikachu shook the water from its fur and tested its cheeks to see if it would still make electricity... once he was reassured by a quick thundershock attack into the rock, Pikachu took time to think of what to do...​

He was very far below Viridian City and the pier he was sitting on, so he figured that the best way to find its way to land would be to swim alongside the cliff and seek a beach to rest at.
Pikachu prepared itself to jump into the water, but took a quick note of his surroundings to see how he would swim. He dove into the water, fighting the tide, and let it carry him to the rocky bottom of the cliff. He clasped his tiny fingers around a rock on the cliff and then leapt forward and continued to swim away from his landing spot.
Halfway through his swimming trip, Pikachu became very sore from swimming so much. He was lucky to be a good swimmer at all, really, but he had experience from the Subspace invasion.
Pikachu was then relieved: in the distance, what better to satisfy his weakened body that the sight of a beach!​

"Pika!" he cried, and picked up his pace.​

As Pikachu came to shore, he was panting loudly and rapidly, tired from his long swim in the raging ocean shore. He crawled onto the beach and collapsed, ready to kiss the sandy ground in gratitude.
But Pikachu's rest was short lived.​

As Pikachu rested, he heard a massive cluster of noise coming from the direction of the Pokemon Stadium... he must still be within the Kanto Country, but he wasn't sure exactly how far he is from where he actually wanted to go: wherever that meteor landed.
But as Pikachu plotted and thought and rested, a low rumbling came from beneath him... it didn't notice it at first, but after his body started to tremble, Pikachu's eyes shot open to see the sand around slowly sinking beneath the ground..! Pikachu shot up and jumped out of the way towards the ocean, arms perked and his cheeks giving off little warning bursts of elecrtric surges.
The sand collapsed deeper and deeper, created a circle of depressed ground. The sand fell in deeper and deeper, until finally, the violent shaking stopped and the ground stopped giving in. Pikachu did not move... it waited for whatever was coming out.
The beach sat still. Only the tiny little "zips" of Pikachu's cheeks could be heard. And then... whoosh! An enormous dinosuar-like creature leapt out of the massive hole, and it landed before Pikachu. Pikachu jumped to avoid the unbalance that it would suffer from the crash of the beast...​

Rhyperior, the rock and ground evolved form of Rhydon, weighing over 700 pounds and standing over 7 feet tall, sat before Pikachu, disgruntled and annoyed of the recent crash. From the looks of Rhyperior's face, it seemed to think that whatever it saw first on the surface was the one that disturbed his peaceful subterrainian slumber. In this case, it was little and tired Pikachu.​

Pikachu was probably beat before the battle: he was electric type, which rock and ground was immune to, and Pikachu's small strength and weight made it a total mismatch against this giant beast. Pikachu was also exhausted from swimming more than a mile: this boulder had been sleeping since who knows when.
But Pikachu had no other choice... blocking most of his path out of the beach, he had to silence this beast, otherwise it would follow him angrily into the Kanto's fields and paths and city...​

Pikachu made the first move: he strategically dashed left and right, but slowly approached the Rhyperior. Being the slowpoke it is, Rhyperior sat and watched dizzily the dashing Pikachu as it moved left and right. It swung its large and bulky arms at Pikachu occassionally, but Pikachu dodged them pretty easily.
When Pikachu reached Rhyperior's body, it stopped dead in its tracks and didn't know how to hit this thing.
Then it noticed something most peculiar.... the horn on the top of Rhyperior's head was severely broken: it was snapped in half. Pikachu realized that in order to even make this thing flinch at all, it had to hit its weak spot... not being able to think otherwise because of the oncoming tail whip at it, Pikachu leapt up to Rhyperior's stomach then jumped again in midair to reach its face. It was going in to slam the beast's top horn... but it was too late. Rhyperior had already begun spinning its nose speedily, giving Pikachu a brutal wake up call with its Horn Drill ability.
Pikachu squealed in pain and flew away from the deadly move. The Rhyperior then followed up by slamming his foot into the ground, sending a shockwave of raised ground towards Pikachu. Pikachu was sent tumbling to the ground from the horn drill, and when the shockwave came it was too difficult for Pikachu to even stand up... so it took the hit hard, which sent it further back into the depths of the beach and nearer to the ocean, where Pikachu at this point would almost deffinately drown from exhaustion and pain.
Pikachu didn't know what to do... it was drained of most of its energy. It had nothing left in its cheeks, its legs were too weak to move, and it needed rest so much that it couldn't even stand. It was defeated... it was bound to end here.
As Rhyperior realized that he won the battle, it cried out in victory and started to walk sluggishly towards it victim.​

Each step scared Pikachu even more than the last, and it could foresee itself being crushed by Rhyperior's massive boulder-sized tail... it feared and trembled and cried, but it knew that it had to take the hit. Otherwise it would collapse from agonizing pain...
Rhyperior seemd to come at astonishingly slow speeds, and as it began to close in on Pikachu, a miracle took place. As if out of nowhere, a beam of light shot from the fields surrounding the beach and it penetrated Rhyperior's skin, going right through its stomach!
Rhyperior screamed and roared in harrowing pain. Its eyes widened, its limbs itched to move, but it didn't seem to be able to move! The light of beam not only pierced its entire body, it also paralyzed him!
After a minute of watching the miracle occur, Pikachu's ears perked up in excitement. Someone, or something, had saved him!​

As the Rhyperior grabbed the hole in its stomach and sunk into the ground once more, Pikachu peered past the fiend and used its last ounce of energy to spot what had nearly killed the hardy pokemon and saved Pikachu's life... a small man, dressed in a blue cape, was holding a wand in his right hand and slowly approaching Pikachu... but then Pikachu's vision faded into unconsciousness...​

The coconut splattered across Funky's face from a deadly aerial smash over the net: Donkey and Diddy were coconut ball champs!
The Kong family surrounding the court went wild, for the Annual Kong Coconut Tournament was finished! Donkey and Diddy could celebrate the New Year's knowing that they were champions!​

To relieve the glory that Donkey suddenly felt, he whipped out his bongos and started to play dancing music for the whole family to dance to: and they did. They danced and danced until the sky around them was pitch black with millions of stars to shine onto the Kong family's beach. Decorated lamps and candles lined the beach, but nothing lit the beach like the stars themselves. Fruit stands all around fed the primates, and the day and night was full of fun and family reunion.​

After a tiring dance-off, the Kongs were exhausted. They decided to take an hour long break before midnight to get ready for the big New Year's celebration.
Diddy jumped on Donkey's back and they ventured into the jungle to their treehouses. After Diddy got off and Donkey climbed into his room, he took a big breath of relaxation. He suddenly thought a sad thought: why couldn't the kong family do these kinds of things every week or month? Not just once a year, before New Year's.​

Cranky, Wrinkly, Candy, Funky, Dixie, Kiddy, Lanky, Chunky, Tiny, Swanky, and last but not least Diddy Kong... they were all here! Celebrating the New Years and their family together: why did it only happen once a year?​

But Donkey stopped complaining to himself and laid down on his bed and fell into a peaceful sleep... but sleep was easily interupted.​

"Donkey! Donkey!" Dixie screeched, jumping up and down next to his bedside. Donkey awoke with a frught, shook his head left and right as if in danger. His heart pumped a million miles an hour as he saw little Dixie sitting beside him, jumping frantically with tears rolling down her eyes. "Donkey! Diddy... he-he's gone! Someone took him!" she cried. Donkey's eyes widened in anger. He jumped out of bed and pulled Dixie onto his back, and he drove himself out of the treehouse, leapt down to the soft jungle ground, and dashed off for Diddy's treehouse.​

"When did he disappear? And who took him?" Donkey asked as he sprinted through the thick wild.​

"I-I'm not sure... the guy was dressed real funny, and he had stuck something into Diddy's mouth that knocked him unonscious... hurry, Donkey!"​

Donkey yelled in spirit and continued to make his way to Diddy's house... but when he got there, all that was there was... tire tracks! From a motorcycle!​

"Wario..." Donkey Kong sputtered. He stopped and took Dixie off his back.​

"Dixie, you go get Funky and Chunky and anyone else that wants to fight... we have to stop Wario before he gets away with my nephew!" Dixie didn't argue, but nodded and ran away towards the other treehouses. Donkey watched her leave and then dashed away, following the bike's tread marks into the beach.​

When DK finally made his way out of the jungle, everything was in clear sight... including a fat and bluff man riding a motorcycle, with a small chimp named Diddy under his armpit.​

"Wario!" DK screamed in anger. But all Wario heard was the angry roar of a gorilla far behind him. He turned and laughed, waving to DK provocatively. He pressed the gas pedal harder, escaping to who knows where, and he continued to laugh malisciously.​

DK had no time to think of what to do, so he continued to chase down Wario and Diddy. But he was making no progress: the bike was much faster than him. But DK had one advantage over Wario: he knew this island left and right.​

As Wario pulled more than a mile away from the halted monkey, he wiped the sweat off his head in relief. He was in the clear! Ganondorf would be pleased to the time he made in capturing this easy prize.​

But his celebration was much too soon. Right as Wario started to slow and stop on his bike, who better to leap out of the nearby jungle off a vine than Donkey Kong! Wario was baffled at the distance DK had made up in such little time, but he had no time to deal with him. Wario got off his bike and kicked it away.
What's he doing? DK asked himself. Why isn't he running from me..?​

"Heh heh," Wario giggled. Out of his pocket he whipped out a small box like remote, and on it of course was a small red button.​

When he pressed the red button... ZAP!​

Wario and Diddy were nowhere to be seen.
Just as Wario vanished, Donkey Kong was going in for the Giant Punch, but he whiffed miserably, of course. He fell to the ground, confused and upset.​

What do I do...? I don't even know where Wario vanished to! he screamed in his head.
But just as Donkey Kong became lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice that behind him, an army of small black pugs were coming out of a similar portal that Wario vanished into... one by one, stacking up into piles surrounding DK. They moved silently and quickly, capturing the moping DK within a small circle.
But DK finally realized what was happening... though he didn't know what they were.
He waited for them to do something to him, for he knew that Wario had sent these guys. It's not like little black pugs decided to invade DK Isle randomly on New Year's Eve.
Wait a minute... these little black pugs were oddly similar to the way that Kirby and Meta Knight looked... they had almost the exact same size, shape and build... only these guys were completely blackened, and taking up almost their whole front side were large, unblinking red eyes...​

Donkey Kong didn't think anymore, though: he was bitter with anger from losing his nephew. He swiped the front row of black pugs in front of him, instantly destroying them, and he roared with anger! The roar shook the ground, but the pugs insantly reacted and swarmed DK's body, pummeling him as they grasped his hair all around. It was very painful, of course, since he was covered in hair, but DK easily overpowered the hoardes of these pugs by simply swinging his arm: he either laid them out with a punch or flung them off his arm and they died on impact from the landing.
Donkey Kong continued to angrily flail his arms around, roaring and gritting his teeth, but he eventually learned that despite the fact that he destroyed dozens of these pugs in seconds, they only multiplied faster... there were more than he could handle within minutes, but he continued to struggle against the impossible force of hundreds of little black balls beating his body.
But then aid came at no better time! Exploding around him were familiar orange and pineapple bombs! The black pugs disintegrated in small groups, eventually evaportating into nothing. DK looked past to his help: Funky and Chunky Kong, who was actually trembling from such a long distance, were launching rounds of fruit bombs to his aid!
Donkey Kong cried in relief and shook his body around harder, and the combined efforts of the three Kongs finally rid the island of the alien invaders.
As Donkey Kong made his way out of the spot to Funky and Chunky, he was out of breath and miserably bruised.​

"Funky... I need to find Diddy. Wario, that guy who used to play sports with Mario and everyone... he captured him!" Donkey summarized. Funky scratched his chin thoughtfully. He waved DK and Chunky on and they retreated back to the Kong Treehouses.
Within Funky's treehouse, he brought out two large posters: one was a map of the planet and the continent east of DK Isle where most of the Super Smash Bros. now lived, and the second poster was the blueprint of Funky's new barrel jetpack.​

"Alright, dude, listen here..." Funky explained, with a small ounce of pride in his voice, "You are here..." He pointed to the DK Isle, which was on the most southwestern point on the map... "and Wario..?" he moved his finger far from DK Isle to the most northeastern part of map, "is probably sitting on his butt in Warioware Industries... everyone thought that his place shut down after he was imprisoned for making friends with the Subspace Army, but... apparently he's back and hungry for more. So, I suggest that you take my handy dandy little barrel-jet backpack and make your way here...," Funky pointed to the middle of the plain, south of Mushroom Kingdom. "If you land here it should be a good running distance to Mushroom Kingdom, but they can get you a boat to Wario's island..."
DK nodded eagerly. Funky casually strolled to the back of his storage and came back with a large, two-barrel jetpack.
"Are you ready to rock?" he asked jokingly.​

Funky, Cranky, Dixie, and all the other Kongs watched DK take off on a mission. It was more sad than routine this time, though, to go out and save each other, because this particular interuption ended their Kong fest...​

DK sped through the sky at alarming rates.
Wow, this one actually goes fast without imploding, DK thought to himself. I guess Funky was saving this one for an emergency...
But, why was Wario even interested in capturing Diddy? Nothing seemed to fit... They didn't even do anything to provoke Wario, he was in jail for Cranky's sake! And he went after Diddy... not Dixie or Candy, could-be-damsels-in-distress, or Cranky, Donkey father... no, they took Diddy. Maybe he remembered Diddy from when the Subspace Army invaded and he escaped Bowser's clutches in the jungle... ah who knows? Whatever it was, DK was gonna hand it to Wario...​

DK finally spotted the continent's shore, and just above the shore was New Pork City...
Hm, DK thought, isn't that where Lucas lives? Or is it Ness... well, one of those two...
But then, as if DK saw it coming, the rocket-barrell jet pack began to give out. DK facepalmed himself in misery and waited as his only way of getting to Warioware by dawn was dying on him...
Hey! DK though optimistically, what if Lucas or Ness or whoever would help him fix his jetpack...? There's bound to be help down there...
DK angled himself and like a spit of lightning, was zooming towards land right over New Pork City, into the now-visible small town of Onett.
DK then pulled the emergency string attached to his jetpack, shooting out a parachute and immediately lifting the momentum from him, causing him to slowly descend to the grounds of Onett.​

When he landed, nobody was around, and he was in the middle of the streets.
This probably looks swell, he thought, a naked-except-for-a-tie gorilla with a jetpack on his back just landed in the middle of the sweet little peaceful town of Onett... hopefully nobody would randomly mob attack him.
Just as DK started to put away his parachute, he saw a large amount of villagers peeking out their windows to the giant ape.​

Inside one of these little houses was world-known hero Ness, the silent, psychic boy from Onett. He sat inside lazily, watching the live coverage of Mushroom Kingdom's parade on Toad Network Television.
I wonder why no one was invited? Ness thought to himself, except for Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi... last year, the whole Super Smash team was there...
Ness remembered that day well and missed it, sitting on the float dedicated to him, Lucas, and Pokemon Trainer... waving to the thousands of collected citizens who wished to celebrate the heroes who silenced the threat proposed by the Subspace Army.​

"Ness..." his mother suddenly said. Ness turned his head past his little, comfy chair to see his mom peaking out her window into the streets... "Come and have a look at this, sweety. There's a monkey in the town!" she yipped.​

Ness jumped up and walked over to his easily-amused mother, waiting for some little hokey chimp to be dancing to a drifting accordian musician, waving an empty coffee cup around eagerly for donations to their journey for world peace.​

But he was shocked and pleased altogether to see his old companion, big ol' Donkey Kong, in the flesh, standing in the middle of the streets looking around at the suspiscious residences. He rushed outside without saying a word to his mom, sprinting to his old friend.
Donkey Kong looked aside to see Ness coming towards him, and a big wave of relief rushed over him. So Ness did live here! he thought happily. But Ness suddenly wasn't alone. Running from directions, as if heeding to Ness' call, were three other small children... a small boy in a strange green suit and tie with glasses, a small bald boy with a strange black pony tail in a karate outfit, and a sweet little girl in a pink dress with a teddy bear...
They all surrounded DK...​

"What is this, Ness?" the small green boy asked, "You called us out here to see a released animal from the zoo?" DK growled at this remark, making the small, mocking boy flinch and back away in fear. Ness pointed to DK and started to re-enact a crazy little stunt, which apparently was enough communication for the little girl.​

"Jeff, don't be so blunt. This is Donkey Kong, another one of the Super Smash Bros.!" the little girl explained to the little green boy named Jeff. She curtsied to the giant ape. "I'm Paula Polestar... pleased to meet you!" she squealed. DK smiled and banged his chest, roaring... he noticed that villagers were coming out of their homes. Apparently, Ness and his three little friends were the security around here. So if they trusted Ness, they trusted anyone affiliated with him.​

"And this here is Poo," Paula explained kindly, pointing to the small boy in white karate clothes. Poo bowed to DK, and DK nodded to him. Ness began to communicate with Paula again, and Paula interpreted him.​

"So, DK... what brings you to our small village?" she asked. DK sighed and showed them his wasted jetpack.​

"Oh my! It seems he was on a trip and in midflight, his vehicle gave out... Jeff, can you fix this thing?" Paula asked. Jeff pushed his glasses to his face.​

"Erm, uh, yeah sure, I can fix anything... Here, I'll take that!" Jeff told DK. DK tossed it to him, showing that he did not like Jeff's first impression. The jetpack was small to DK but huge and heavy to Jeff, and the sudden weght in his arms threw him was off balance. Paula giggled.​

"Poo, can you help Jeff carry that?" Poo went over and lifted the jetpack with his hands no problem.​

"You need to stop sitting on your laptop and work out every once in a while," he snapped. Jeff "hmmphed!" and walked with Poo towards what DK assumed was his house/lab/garage.​

"So... why were you flying on that thing during New Year's? We've only got twenty-five minutes you know, why aren't you with your family?"​

DK sighed, realizing that as much as he wanted to explain, it would be hard. He can communicate but his words are yips and roars to humans. He scratched his head thoughtfully, composing a plan to tell them. Ah! he thought. I'll just act it out for them.
He looked around to see that not only had the villagers come out of their homes, they had surrounding DK, Ness, and his friends. As DK looked around people squatted in fear, trembled, thinking that he was going to gobble them up at any second.
Only to worsen this fear unintentionally, DK started to randomly pick up people and bring them in front of Ness. One was short, stocky and had a crazy moustache, one was small child with a red shirt, and one was a cocky little teenager with glasses and a skateboard. The crowd of people oohed and ahhed fearfully as DK manhandled his little action figures in front of Ness. Here's how his skit went:
The small boy and the guy with glasses and DK were all holding hands and jumping around, having a good time. Then he scattered them, laying them down, showing that they were sleeping. The moustached man then crept up (DK was doing this quite perfectly by moving them with his fingers, by the way) and swiped the small red boy out of his sleep! He ran and ran and ran with DK on his trail, and when he caught him, he disappeared! The guy with the glasses then gave DK a piece of paper and, from what Ness could understand, the jetpack, and DK took off to find the moustached man and DK's friend...
When DK was finished, he was tired from moving the people all around and they fled from DK when they knew he was done. Ness and Paula were rubbing their chins. DK shrugged his shoulders, asking for a sign that they knew what he was talking about...​

"Ah!" Ness cried. He looked at Paula, pointing to the red child. After a minute, Paula understood.​

"So... this fat guy... Wario? Is it? He took... Diddy?" Donkey Kong clapped and cheered and jumped, shaking the ground from his healed attitude.​

Ness smiled and nodded his head.​

"Okay!" he said. Donkey Kong nodded his head. Ness and DK were a team again!​

Chapter 15: Awakening Amongst the Abyss​

"Ugh..." the spiky haired, blue warrior stood up slowly, holding his arm from bleeding. His sword was cast feet away from him, his cape was blackened with ash, and his head was sore from a tough landing.​

Ike looked around for something... but he couldn't see five feet in front of him. It was pitch black. He looked to ground to find the ground he had landed on: hard, black, compact ash. He then remembered what brought him to this blackened stage...
"Marth!" he whispered. He looked around. Marth wasn't anywhere in sight! Ike dashed to his sword and picked it up. "Marth?" As if Ike would get an answer, there was nothing around him... not even those little black pugs. They were all gone! They must've died on impact from the fall they took... the fall!​

Ike shot his head up to look up and up and up to see that he had fell at least a couple hundred meters into this pit...​

"Sheesh... what hit this planet?" he asked, surprised at the size of the crater. He lit a flame at the top of his sword, creating a large match-like torch. Light immediately surrounded him, giving him better vision. "Marth?" he asked again. He couldn't help but to feel that he was still in danger despite the fact that the pugs he had ran from before were nowhere to be seen... heard... or felt. He kept his voice to a quiet hush. "Marth!"
Nothing.​

"Ugh... this is gonna be a long search in this black hole," he muttered almost mutely to himself. He emitted greater energy into his sword, increasing the strength and He walked slowly, but kept his eyes out for any sort of exit or clue of Marth. Despite the fact that the sky above the crater was lit brightly with stars, the blackness of the pit overpowered the tiny flickers of the stars... giving it a look of complete abyss. This gave Ike a sense of insecurity: would he randomly fall through a hole to his death? Find another gross amount of pugs to fight off tirelessly? Or would he simply be stuck in this hole, forever, without finding even a trace of Marth..?
The sickening thoughts swirled in his head like a deadly cycle, but it ended just in time: while walking to the edge of the crater, he found an exit.
An enormous cave, the size of the meteor that had crashed into the planet, was going down deeper into the ground, on a slight slope, and Ike couldn't see five feet into it, even with his light. He turned around.​

"Marth!?" he screamed. He couldn't possibly wait around... he had to act! Maybe the black pugs reformed and captured Marth! Or... maybe he is gone... Ike changed his mind. He sprinted to the other end of the crater, searching aimlessly for his friend. He dashed in z's, x's, o's, and l's, but he could not find his blue caped friend. When he finally gave up, having decided that he had searched every square inch of the ****ed crater, Ike sighed and said a silent prayer to his friend...​

"Marth... you better be alive. If I don't find you..." He couldn't finish. His hands were trembling, his eyes were glowing with anger.​

"I fight... for my friends," and dashed into the unknown cave. He lit his sword even brighter, but it was slowly draining his energy. And the cave that he was running into only seemed to get longer and steeper and more unpredictable. He tired, and after a mile run he stopped, put his hands on his knees, and tried to catch his breath.​

But the air was thick with smoke. The meteor had not stopped giving off the unpleasant gas since it crashed, Ike assumed.
As he rested, Ike thought aloud,
"How could Marth have diappeared so randomly...? It's not like..." His thoughts were interupted.
A short growl was heard behind Ike. He held his breath. He could hear a little drop of slobber drop onto the filthy ground behind him. The growl became louder. Ike slowly turned his head to the side.
A large, stone snout was inches behind Ike. A black and barely noticable eye blinked at his turn around, and it growled again even louder.
Ike gripped his sword, ready to strike. And he did.​

Bonetail, the legendary dragon of Mushroom Kingdom, screeched as its snout was chipped from Ike's wild smash to her face. She flinched her head back, roaring in anger. It slammed its right claw to Ike, but Ike was able to dodge it. He rolled out of the way and brought his sword up one-handed, slamming it down and cutting the nail off the beastly skeleton in one swipe. The dragon screeched again and tried to flinch in pain, but its entire body had almost no room to move in the cave.​

"Oh no... that thing has been buried for years! It won't mind collapsing this cave onto me and Marth... wherever he is!" Ike cried. "I have to kill... er, re-kill it before it can destroy this cave! I must know what that meteor was!" he screamed. "AAAAAHHHH!!!" Ike cried as he hoisted himself up into the air with his greatest move, Aether. He did not swing down with force, though, he simply did this cut up Bonetail's forehead with his sword then jump up to get on top of it.​

What do undead enemies despise the most? Ike riddled in his head. Fire!
Ike charged up his sword above the creatures skull, then impaled into it with a great explosion! It cracked the bone greatly, but more importantly melted the landing zone of the sword. Bonetail screeched loudly and painfully! Ike was momentarily paralyzed from the shockwave of crying, and he had to grasp his ears and dicard his sword. This was foolish, though. The sword fell to Bonetail's rounded head and it slid off the creature to the ground below it! Bonetail saw this out of the corner of its eyes, and then after screeching, it banged its head into the ceiling!​

Ike was not crushed, though, but put into a great state of shock and pain. Seeing the creature raise its head into the ceiling, Ike was able to duck and level himself out, so instead of crushing his head, he only was bruised by the rock hard ceiling.​

"Urgh..!" Ike cried. His body slipped right of the dragon's head and fell right on top of his sword. The creature roared in victory, realizing that its time to strike was now. It raised its left, untouched claw and prepared to slam it into Ike's fallen body. But Ike, being the devilish warrior he is, was able to recover his sword and spike it straight up into the air, impaling the oncoming claw! The claw slowed and Ike was able to slow it with his immense strength!​

As the sword went through the dragon's fist of bone, it roared more. It was a typical routine for it to cry and roar in pain, but Ike knew that the damage he had done was nowhere near stopping this thing, and he was exhausted... When he finished his move, Ike felt a sudden surge of pain go through his arm.​

"Argh!" It seemed as though his right arm was broken, as it was completely torn and loose from the rest of his arm. It went limp to his side and he was left with only his right arm to carry his burdensome sword.​

Bonetail recovered quickly, and shifted its face to face Ike once more. It inhaled deeply, slightly sucking Ike in... but it wasn't trying to sweep Ike up with its breath: Ike could see a source of fire deep within the bone throat.
Ike collapsed, realizing that despite his best efforts, he was defeated... If only Marth was there! If only he had more space to work with... If only he was able to act quicker.​

A small vegetable the size of Ike's head hit the dragon in the side of the face. The dragon didn't even move, but was intrigued by the feeble attempt to slow him down. He grunted a confused hum, then turned its head away from Ike, saving its fire, to see more little people rushing down the caveway...​

"Ike! Hold on!" Peach cried, "We're here!"​

Chapter 16: Mute Inhabitants​

Hmph.
Geno flicked the last leaf out of his blue cap, rubbed the dirt off his sore joints and sat down to relief his worn legs. The long, boring trip out of the Faron Woods was over: but he was diappointed to see miles ahead of him to be nothing but plains. Grass, grass, flowers, an occasional tree, and stars up in the sky lighting the night. Geno had no idea where he had to go to find his Star Hill.​

"How strange... it seemed easier to find last time I visited," he muttered. But he had no time to spare. He lifted himself to a stand and continued to walk his way into the plains.
He had no instinct or guidance to do anything else but walk straight out of the woods into a single direction: if he walked blindly, he'd be walking in circles like he was doing in the forest beforehand. So, Geno thought, I'll either hit the coast to follow, a civilized town, or by a stroke of luck, he would reach his mountain of hope and successfully put an end to this threat that the stars had sent him down to silence.​

Geno walked and walked and walked until he finally saw someone, walking in a similar direction of his! Geno was excited, thinking that this fellow inhabitant could probably help him find Star Hill!
He jogged faster towards the stranger. The shape of the creature slowly came into Geno's view: a tall, well built man, clothed in purple with golden and red gauntlets and helmet. He was walking slowly, with a small blue... coat, thing... an animal? Something... beneath the grip of his left arm. Geno couldn't see his face, he was looking away.​

"Hello," Geno said cheerfully as he caught pace with the stranger. The stranger did not respond. His face was covered with a black strip, only his chin was revealed and he looked very... angry, focused, as if determined to win the war. Geno was taken aback from the stranger's expression and attitude.​

"Um, could you help me, sir? I'm looking for a star hill..?" The stranger grunted, but still didn't even acknowledge Geno. Geno sprinted in front of the man and stood still, blocking his path. But the stranger was not amused by this effort to catch his attention.​

"I don't want any trouble, sir... all I want is-" And that's when Geno noticed something horrifyingly familiar within this creature... The man looked perfectly normal and everything, body and face and all... but his eyes, his eyes were suddenly blackened when Geno jumped in front of him. The glowed darkness.​

The man grinned mischevously, as if he were to crack a joke at any given second. But no joke occurred: he instead wound up for a solid punch to Geno's face. Geno quickly dodged the blow and dodge rolled to the right, keeping his balance and ready to strike back. But he refrained from doing anything he would regret: he knew that something was wrong with this man. He's seen the glowing black eyes before.
The man kept his fists clenched and ready to fight, but stared down Geno until he knew that he would not fight back. He continued on his journey. When the man passed him, Geno also saw that under his grip was not an animal, but a small child-like male in a blue coat.​

Geno let the man walk about twenty meters when Geno decided to act:​

"Geno Beam!" he cried. The man didn't even turn to see his death coming for him: a plasmatic beam shooting right for his chest.​

"Gggrrraaaaaaggggghhhhh!!!" the man screamed. His limbs cocked straight, his head snapped back, his grip released on the poor boy, and he was lifted into the air from Geno's spell. The beam immediately penetrated his body and was flowing through easily, but it did not come out the other end like all of the other victims to Geno...​

After seconds of torture, the man's scream shifted to a piercing, shrill cry of a beast. The body slowly blackened and shrunk... until all that was left was an enormous, spider-like creature with red eyes all over its back, and it was facing Geno. Then Geno's light-ray made its finishing touch: the spider evaporated into black dust from tips to center, and the creature was no more... the man that is was impersonating was no more.
Geno ran over to the small boy... Popo... though he didn't know the name. He turned him onto his back, checking for pulse and such.​

"This poor child... he must have been captured by that beast..." Geno said. But then, by a stroke of luck, the boy's eyes opened wide, and his face became animated.​

"Ah! What luck," Geno cried. The boy palmed its forehead, as if easing a headache. He blinked his eyes to focus, and saw Geno hovering over him carefully.​

"Are you alright?" Geno asked. The child nodded. It slowly stood onto its feet, and Geno followed him. The boy suddenly gasped, then looked around excitedly.​

"W-what?" Geno inquired, "what is it?" The boy turned around and ran a short distance from Geno, looked around, and did the same thing in all directions... he was looking for something, or someone.​

"What are you looking for?" Geno asked. Popo scratched his head, trying to remember where his lost something was... then a lightbulb popped over his head, his finger went up in realization, and he looked at Geno with a grin on his face. He went over to Geno and began to jump and down and pointed in the perpendicular direction of where Geno was going to travel, in a similar direction to the Faron Woods.​

"Can you not speak, child?" Geno asked, annoyed at not knowing what the boy was trying to say. Geno hmphed and looked at what Popo was pointing at: the plains.​

"No... no, I'm not looking for what you're looking for. Do you know what Star Hill is?" Popo stopped jumped and scratched his head. "Do you remember anything other than what you're looking for?" Popo shook his head but still had a stupid grin on his face.​

"I don't have time for this. I must go!" Geno said as he began to continue his quest towards where he thought help would come. The boy stood still, rotating his head from Geno to where he wanted to go: to find his lost partner, Nana.
Popo ran towards Geno and grabbed his cape, pulling on it eagerly, still pointing towards his destination.​

Geno shook the motion off. "I'm sorry, little boy, but I have to go! I can't help you, I'm looking for something of utmost importance... I wish you well, though."
And Geno was gone. Popo watched him walk off into the plain, aggravated that this man was not willing to help him. He turned around, saddened, and slowly made his way towards where he hoped his friend would be.​

Geno walked and walked and walked some more, but found nothing but plains. He had probably walked more than a mile when he suddenly became annoyed.
"Is this planet really that confusing? I need something, a creature that can talk or a place or something!"
Geno walked and then saw ahead of him, probably about a mile, was none other than the ocean!
"Oh... yes... now I can follow the coast and find a port of some sort," he sighed.
He continued to walk.​

As he made his way towards the beach, something very peculiar stuck out in his eyesight: a small yellow... thing... in the middle of the beach, laying down, as if it were resting.
"Ah! A guide, perhaps?" Geno asked out loud, hopeful. He picked up his pace and ambled on to the sandy shore. But then the ground started to rumble, the grass around him was trembling, and Geno was surprised to see, out of nowhere, a large crater being formed in front of the small yellow thing! Out of this hole rose an enormous dinosaur like thing...
He ran sideways to see if this new beast was threat of some sort, and his thought was confirmed when he witnessed the small yellow creature get tossed aside like a worthless piece of trash by the beast, and it was stomping towards it slowly, but with power.
"I have to help this thing..!" Geno decided. He whipped his wand out for yet another...​

"Geno Beam!" but his cry was not heard in the beach. The only thing that was heard was the whiz of his beam into the creature's back, and it was roaring in pain.
Geno withdrew his attack, refusing to kill the beast, though he had put a hole in its back: and it fled into the ground.​

"Yes!" Geno said. He calmly collected himself and walked towards the beach.
The small yellow creature was unconscious when Geno reached him.. her.. it. But Geno couldn't give up... this thing was his only hope of reaching his destination on time, as of now.
"C'mon, little guy, I need your help!" Geno whispered. He waited out the unconscious state of the little guy, and it paid off. Slowly, the small black eyes of the creature opened and it was awake.​

"Ah! Here you are..."​

The creature's tall, sharp ears perked and its oddly shaped tail wagged, and it smiled.
"Pika!"​

Huh? Geno thought. Was it talking to him?
The creature flipped onto its feet with great energy, then raised its hand up and waved it.​

"Pikachu!" it cried. Geno looked around, looking for what it was waving at.​

"I-I'm sorry?" he asked. Pikachu rolled its eyes. He pointed to itself with its tiny fingers.​

"Pi-ka-chu. Pi-ka-chu!" it cried. Geno understood.​

"Ah! So... you're Pikachu?" Pikachu clapped and yipped, happy to see that its savior knew its name!​

"Ah hah... well, Pikachu, can you tell me where Star Hill is?"​

"Pi... pi ka?" it said, stupefied by the random question.​

"Can you say anything other than you name?" Geno asked, losing patience again. Pikachu sat with its head cocked.​

"Gah! This is hopeless... this planet is completely filled with mute inhabitants! I will never find Star Hill or the meteor that crashed here..." Geno muttered miserably. He sat, depressed and frustrated. Pikachu stared and him and thought... meteor...? This somehow rung a bell in Pikachu's head, but he couldn't... o, yes!​

Pikachu jumped up and down, danced all around Geno, then grabbed his cape, asking for attention. Geno looked up to see Pikachu pointing to the stars with his small hand... then he re-enacted something falling from the sky then when it touched the ground it exclaimed,
"Pika!"​

"Ah! Yes, the meteor! You saw it?" Geno asked, stoked. Pikachu nodded.​

"Do you remember where it landed?" he asked. Pikachu scratched its head then quickly nodded its head again.​

"I'm not going to force you, but can I ask you to take me to where it landed..?" Geno requested.​

"Pika!" it cried.​

"Oh, thank goodness!" Pikachu dashed off with Geno close behind him.​

Chapter 17: Hypogeal Leeches​

The steel framed doors slid open slowly. Ganondorf, Bowser, and Wolf all stood up straight and stared out to see none other than the man that organized the master plan.​

A small, ball shaped knight walked through the doors. His skin was gray but brilliant, he wore a blank white mask that concealed his eyes under pitch black and the bottom of his mask was shaped like the jaw of a broken skull. He wore a black belt with black, iron shoes, but he walked with ease. On his back was a small sheathe that contained his single-sided axe with a great shield, which was taller and slightly skinnier than his body. The shield was greatly decorated with stars and color, showing battle wears and tears. His axe was razor sharp. Nova Knight approached his apprentices with great nobility but power shining from his body.​

They all stood and stared at him. Ganondorf had met Nova before, but Wolf and Bowser were baffled, almost hysterical, about his size and shape. They didn't know what to say... Ganondorf made Nova sound like a nonstoppable warrior before... he didn't appear much more powerful than they were.
The room was silent as he made his way over to Ganondorf.​

"Is all going according to plan?" he asked. His voice was scratchy and coarse, but it was strong and handsome.​

Ganondorf bowed to his master, grinning.
"Yes, Sir Nova. The only thing that is not appropriate at this moment is the belated capture of Diddy Kong... Wario went out just a few moments ago to get him, and I assume that he will be here soon..."​

Nova Knight said nothing. He looked away from Ganondorf and looked to Wolf and Bowser, who bowed awkwardly, following Ganondorf's actions, but Nova was not looking to them. He was looking past them to the hidden dungeon, where Samus, Zelda, Captain Falcon, and Snake all rested in the machines that Nova ordered to be used.​

"...But everyone else is ready?" Nova asked quietly. Ganondorf laughed,
"Yes, Sir Nova, everyone else is accounted for." Nova nodded and walked over towards the unconscious Super Smash Bros. He surveyed them closely, as if looking for flaws in his trophies. He turned around and walked out of the room but left the door open.​

Bowser, Wolf, and Ganondorf stood still, confuse of why he left so randomly. But they were answered quickly. Nova walked back in within minutes, carrying a large container that was loarger than him over his head. He seemed to be carrying it with ease, too.​

"There are three more outside. Get them," he ordered. Wolf and Bowser immediately walked outside. Wolf carried one in with great struggle, and Bowser ambled on in with two in his hands. They followed him into the room with Samus and the others.​

"What are in these containers?" Wolf asked when they dropped them off. They were extremely large capsules, encased in steel skin, and there was something moving within it. The capsule was about the size of Wolf himself.​

Before Nova could look at Wolf, Wario zapped into vision from the teleporter that was near Ganondorf. Diddy Kong, the small chimp, was unconscious under his armpit.​

"Heh heh, I'm here," he cheered. Ganondorf snorted at him.​

"Late." Wario looked at him with a sneer.​

"Eh, that giant ape gave me a run for my money... but I still got him," Wario showed off. Ganondorf pointed to Nova Knight.​

"This is our leader, Sir Nova. Bring Diddy over to the machines and hook him up."
Wario took a minute to study his new boss from the back. In his mind he laughed at his size, but somehow he knew not to mock him. If Ganondorf was willing to follow this guy, so was Wario. Wario walked into the chamber and he found the last empty machine, next to Snake, and he captured Diddy's limbs within the cylinders and walked away.​

"What do these machines do, anyways?" Wario asked loudly. Wolf looked over to him.​

"These are reploidicans... they make clones of whatever is in the machine." Wario looked confused.​

"Well... why would we want to make clones of the good guys? Couldn't we just like, copy ourselves multiple times then send a vast army out?" Nobody answered him. "Well... what's in the containers?" he asked, not knowing that he asked the same question that Wolf asked minutes before.​

"You will all see. Now shut up and move out of my way, I have work to do," Nova Knight snapped. Bowser, Wolf, Ganondorf, and Wario immediately did so. All that was left in the chamber were Nova Knight, the capsules, and his victims. The four foes watched from the prison cell instead.​

Nova Knight slowly went from machine to machine, activating each one as he went. A slow and quiet rumble came from each machine as he activated them. A glow came from the gun-like top on each of them, but they remained in their state of humming and preparing for cloning.​

After each machine was activated, Nova turned to Ganondorf.​

"Turn it on."​

Ganondorf nodded and jogged over to the machine, pressed "Activate" and watched the fireworks.​

Each machine suddenly stopped humming and a green screen the size of the machines consumed the hosts, as if it were scanning its picture. Data came up on the computer screen:​

Samus Aran... Female... Weight.... Height... Age... Homeplanet...​

Diddy Kong... Male... Weight... Height... Age... Homeplanet...​

For all of them. Snake, Captain Falcon, and Zelda too. Each one was being scanned by the machines. The computer then read "Clone?" Ganondorf confirmed the action.
The ray guns above the machines shot out a green beam right before Nova Knight. Wolf and the others flinched, but Nova Knight stood emotionless, watching his creations come to life.​

Before his feet stood Diddy Kong, Snake, Zelda, Samus, and Captain Falcon, all in the exact state of their original copies: unconscious. They stood, but showed signs of waking up.
"Uh-oh!" Wario gasped. Nova Knight continued to look at them, looking for flaws in the clones. He then pointed to Wolf.​

"Hand me each capsule," he ordered. Wolf walked each capsule to Nova, one by one.
As Nova opened each capsule, huge, black, greasy, spider-like aliens flew out of the capsule and landed on each of the clones. The spider bit into the skull of the host, injected visible poison through the bodies. Though unconscious, each clone began to scream in agonizing pain. Each spider was biting harder and harder, frequently snapping the head. After injecting its poison, the spider sat upon its paralyzed and poisoned host. It then threw its jaws into the chest of the host and crawled into the body.​

Wario vomitted. Bowser laughed. Ganondorf grinned. Wolf rubbed his hands anxiously. But Nova Knight sat still, watching his master plan commence.​

After a minute of resting from the attacks, the clones began to stand up. They looked exactly the same except for one thing: the eyes of the new clones were black. They emitted shadows from their eyes.
Nova Knight snapped his fingers and the clones stood still. He then paced in front of them, his hands behind his back, as if he were a drill sergeant in a boot camp. He continued to study them.​

He turned to his other minions: they were still in awe from the awesome new allies.
Nova Knight walked over to Ganondorf and stood in front of the other three.​

"Here's what going to happen," he began. Bowser, Wolf, Ganondorf, and Wario all stood up straight and listening obediantly, eager to listen to the next part of this genious' plan.​

Chapter 18: A Man and His Men​

Beep.​

Boop.​

Pssshhht. The intercom came on over the small spaceport.​

"Attention. Captain Olimar and crew. Will you please report to the President of Hocotate Freight's office for your next mission's rundown."​

Olimar turned around from fueling his rocket and proceeded away into the President's room. The space port was empty except for himself, and a couple dozen Pikmin Onions.
As Olimar walked into his boss' office, the President's chair quickly flipped around, concealing the President's face. He halted Olimar.​

"Captain Olimar. Another exploration mission has been requested by the Research Faciility of Hocotate. The same planet where you found your Pikmin and helped defeat the Subspace Army is of much interest to our top scientists. They want you to go down and get mineral and plant specimans to study and record in our archives. Take your spaceship and land near the spot checked off on the map on the front of my desk. You should be okay from there."​

Olimar looked down after absorbing the info, and looked down to a map of the planet: near the center of the plains, just east of Pokemon Stadium, was an X.​

"On that X," the President continued, assuming that Olimar was looking at it, "has been pinpointed as a great Pikmin location. We're looking for in-depth research this time, Captain. We want different Pikmin coming back. Different colors, genders, abilities, anything. It's these little Pikmin that helped get us out of that debt and save out corporation, I want you to dig deeper into the planet and find anything else you can about them. You are dismissed."​

Without questioning or even wondering, Olimar grabbed the map off the table and left for his ship.
Olimar looked at the numerous Onions that were parked near his space ship.
Which ones to take? Olimar thought to himself. There was only one logical choice: bring ten random Pikmin from each onion to bring a balanced bunch to the planet to help do his research. And so he did.​

Olimar's spacecraft took off into the galaxy with enormous speeds, and the Pikmin around him anxiously floated around in zero-gravity, eager to help their master with his new mission. Olimar said nothing. Another mission was such a simple matter to him. He hasn't really felt much excitement since he helped the Super Smash Bros. defeat the Subspace Army.​

As the planet came into view, gravity began to come back. The Pikmin became piles in Olimar's cramped ship, and they hummed and sang joyfully as they descended to the planet.
But their boring, peppy mission was not long lasting... Out of the corner of Olimar's eye, coming from a different direction, was a star-like meteor, headed straight for the planet!
Olimar reacted quickly! He couldn't land the ship... him and his Pikmin's lives were in danger! He quickly shifted gears and turns the brakes on, cocking the steering wheel up and canceling the descending to the planet.​

Olimar's ship stated afloat within space, just above the planet's atmosphere. He watched with awe as the meteor crashed into the planet. A distant explosion was heard, but as the meteor vanished into the clouds of the atmosphere, so did its apparent existance.
Olimar was stunned. Nothing like this was predicted or has ever happened before. But, Olimar thought, I'm still on a mission to explore! And I won't fail the President...
Olimar switched back to Manual Pilot and shot down to the planet.​

He landed his spaceship smoothly and calmly into the middle of the plains, and he figured that he was near the X because he had just seen the Pokemon Stadium during midflight...
Oh... but Olimar couldn't get the thoughts of concern out of his head as he thought more and more about the meteor. He did not look for where it crashed, because he was concerned more about landing near the X... but...​

Olimar departed his ship with all 50 of his Pikmin, and he looked at his map. He looked around for clues of where to go, and then spotted the icy mountains in the distance.
If I head in that direction for a while and then head dead west, I should hit the Pikmin's nest...
So Olimar journeyed, into the land of, what the Hocotate Scientists thought, the Pikmin now resided.
But Olimar's exploration was cut short. After a couple miles of walking, Olimar caught sight of a Pikmin's leaf, popping out of the ground.​

Oh! he thought, this is exactly what I'm looking for! He plucked the new, red Pikmin and it immediately joined his crew of 50. Olimar proceeded to find more and more Pikmin among the trail until he was near about 80.
But as Olimar neared the coast and the mountains, he looked to the south to see a familiar person running up to him... someone from the Super Smash Bros. team. Lucas! He was running in Olimar's direction... but he didn't look like he was looking for Olimar in particular. But he did stop for Olimar.​

Olimar ordered his Pikmin to follow him as they ran to Lucas, who was nearly out of breath.
Neither Olimar nor Lucas talked much, so they found themselves miming what they were doing and what was going on.
Olimar showed Lucas his map and explained to him that he was here on a mission to find Pikmin and study them. Lucas nodded his head but suddenly showed great concern. He explained to Olimar that he was running after trouble: a meteor had just crashed into the planet!​

Though Olimar knew what Lucas was talking about, he was still torn between going with Lucas to find the meteor or what was left of it and going through with his mission to study.
But before Lucas and Olimar could decide what to do, Olimar felt a rumbling beneath his feet. His Pikmin suddenly became extremely upset and began to run around randomly, screaming and panicking.​

Olimar, Lucas, and a few of the loyal and calm Pikmin retreated from the small area of shaking ground. Olimar blew his whistle and the Pikmin ran over to him obediantly. What better to suddenly break out of the cracking ground than an enormous, hungry, disturbed-from-sleep Bulborb?​

Lucas and Olimar looked at each other, nodded, and began to battle.
Olimar started the battle by throwing numerous Pikmin at the Bulborb. Though they didn't knock him over or throw him off guard, the Pikmin crawled all over him and beat him with their little fists and different abilities: the red Pikmin burned him, the yellow shocked him, the white tried to poison him, and the purple and blue stuck to physical fighting.
Lucas took the diversion to his advantage and ran under the Bulborb. He made sure that the Bulborb didn't see him: when he was right under his belly, he cried,
"PK Freeze!" A large, glowing crystalice came out of Lucas' body and hovered over the Bulborb for a minute. After charging, the crystal exploded, capturing the Bulborb in a giant glacier!
The few Pikmin that Olimar threw at the Bulborb had already retreated, leaving everyone unharmed and Olimar and Lucas with the advantage. Lucas then charged up and released a barrage of PK energy into the frozen bug, sending it flying away!
Olimar chased down Lucas and high fived him... but their victory was short lived.
From the loud noise, hundreds of Bulborbs beneath the ground awoke... they all slowly rose of the ground. Similar to the single previous Bulborb, the earthquakes were loud and scared the Pikmin... but there were dozens going on at the same time! Olimar and Lucas prepared themselves for battle. When the ground stopped shaking, the two heroes were surrounded by hundreds of Bulborbs, all hungry and angry. Olimar blew his whistle to call back his panicked Pikmin...​

Chapter 19: Hospitality​

"Ugh..." Fox McCloud opened his eyes slowly, rubbed the after-nap crust from the lids of them. He blinked a couple of times, letting his vision find its focus. He was staring straight up into a wooden ceiling.​

"What the-?" As he spoke, he sat up, wondering where he was. He was in a slightly uncomfortable and simple cot, amongst many others, in what appeared to be a country tavern, or inn, or whatever.​

He couldn't remember much, but he took his time to think of what had brought him here...
Zelda! That wretched woman! She had tried to poison him in the forest that he wound up in after Captain Falcon attacked him... it was all coming back to him now!​

"Link!" he gasped. Where was his friend? Was he in a prison..? Or who had saved him?
He stood up and armed himself, scoping the area for enemies. But instead of monsters or a twisted Zelda, three people walked through the door into his room. A little girl, who was holding Link's hand and pulling him along, and a very large, dark-skinned man.
Fox was startled by their entrance and pointed towards the door, and the little girl gasped, thinking that he was threatening her. But once Link walked in, Fox understood that there was no danger.​

Link chuckled and comforted the little girl, letting her know that Fox meant no harm. She wiped her tears and let go of Link's hand, who went over to Fox and put his hands on his shoulders. He grinned.​

Fox nodded and grinned back.​

"Thank you Link... I can't assume anything less than thinking that you brought me here... but... what is here? And what happened to me...?" Link turned to the tall, dark man. He had long black hair, beautifully hand-woven robes and large lips.​

"You must be Fox," his deep voice said, "Link told us about you. One of the Super Smash Bros."​

"Um... yeah," Fox replied meekly. The man looked around the room. Link backed away from Fox and folded his arms, waiting for the man to explain to Fox what was going on. The man lifted his arms, as if praising the room.​

"This is Kakariko Village... it's a dry, welcoming village east of Hyrule Town and North of Ordon... but you don't know where either of those are, do you?" he explained. Fox frowned and shook his head.​

"Excuse me for being so blunt, but I'm not very familiar with this planet's territory... especially Hyrule," Fox grumbled. The man laughed.​

"That is of no matter. Oh! Excuse me for not telling you before... I am Renado. And this..." he extended his hand back and the little girl awkwardly grabbed it. "...is my daughter, Luda. I am the Chief of Kakariko. Link brought you back here from the Faron Woods."
Fox's eyes widened.​

"He carried me on his back?" he asked. The man laughed.​

"Why no, Fox. Link carried you for probably a short distance until he reached Hyrule Field... his horse, Epona, quickly brought you and Link to our hospital. It was about a mile from where you were... where Zelda poisoned you," he explained. Fox nodded, but looked at Link's disgruntled face.​

"Speaking of her, Link..." he started, "Why did Zelda attack me like that?" Link shook his head and turned once more to Renado for interpretation. Renado sighed.​

"Link told us that the woman who attacked you... was Zelda. But it wasn't," he said. Fox folded his arms and his ears perked up curiously. He let Renado continue. "Link told us that he looked back to see Zelda impale her arm into you and poison your already-unconscious body... He was torn between who to trust. But he knew that Zelda wouldn't do something like that so... unpredictably, without telling Link why. Link shot an arrow into her chest... and she screamed like a demon. Shadow-filled air escaped her body, she grinned, and then disappeared into a mist of black." Fox nodded as the explaination went on, and was suddenly grateful that Link had trusted him over Zelda in such a situation.​

"Do you have any idea what she... or it... was, then? Was it an imposter or... a parasitic host, consuming Zelda?"​

Renado shrugged.
"We are just as troubled as you are... but whatever it is, we suggest that you follow Link. He's headed for where the meteor you told him about crashed... he thinks it may have something to do with what happened to Zelda."​

Link looked to Fox and nodded. He nodded back.
"So... where are we headed to?" Fox asked. Link pulled out of his back pocket a large, crumpled piece of paper. He walked over to Fox and revealed a map drawn upon the paper. He pointed to the Village that they were in. West of them was a small mountain range and then the plains, and north of there was Mushroom Kingdom and Star Hill.
Fox nodded.​

"Will Epona be able to bring us through the mountains, though?" Fox questioned. Link smiled and nodded.​

"There is a small pass through those mountains just south of the village... it was recently shaped for traveling merchants. I'm sure Epona will have no trouble bringing you to the plains," Renado explained.​

Fox nodded and looked to Link, who put away the map and nodded. They left together.
When Fox stepped outside the inn, he took an overview look to Kakariko Village. It was a simple little village, built of steel, wood, and rock at the bottom of a small canyon. It was a long narrow strip of a canyon, and surrounding it were dry, rocky mountains. The village was lit not by firelight or electricty either in the night: the millions of stars overhead were sparkling brilliantly. Fox looked over to Link, who was going over to pick some strange, brown grass... Link held it to his mouth, then blew a soothing tune over the village... the echo went on for miles.
From the distance, Fox heard a noble cry from a horse. Coming from the south side of the village past the spring was a beautiful, brown and white haired horse with a large sitting pad on its back. It's hooves were strong, it looked healthy, and Fox was not disappointed by his ride. Though he's used to light-speed Arwing flight, this horse would beat running through a path anyday. Link mounted his horse and Fox followed up, jumping on behind Link and hugging his back.
Link looked back one last time, to Renado and Luda and a few other villagers (one being a very strange, rock-made and enormous humanoid), and waved goodbye to them. He snapped Epona's collar and they were off. Link lit Epona's view with a lantern that he gave to Fox.​

Once they left the canyon of Kakariko village, Fox saw for the first time Hyrule Field. It was a vast plain, but it was not flat and was decorated with beautiful flowers, trees, and rivines. He didn't get to appreciate it long though. From behind him, a shrill shriek of a strange-looking wyvern flew upon the rear end of Epona and was waiting to strike! Fox reflexed quickly, drawing his blaster and pummeling the bird with short, painful blasts of his laser. The wyvern crashed after he took it off, but Link hardly seemed to notice. He kept driving Epona, who was headed west of the village.
Link suddenly drew his sword.​

"What is it?" Fox asked as he peaked around Link ahead of him. As if they were waiting for them, an enormous encampment of orcs and goblins surrounded the entrance of the mountain pass... they were all armed, some with fire-lit bows and arrows.
"Watch out, Link!" Fox cried. But Link ignored him. "You're going right into those or- Oh," Fox said. He realized that Link was intending on blowing through the encampment. Fox armed his blaster once more.
"You enjoy horseback battles, don't you?" Fox joked. Link smirked. Before reaching a hundred yards in front of them, the fiery arrows began to fly towards the two heroes and their steed. But Fox took his role here: he sniped out the oncoming arrows to avoid letting Link or Epona getting hit. He missed a few, but only the ones that he thought were not even going to hit them: and for the most part, he was right.​

As Epona apprached the camp, the orcs and goblins slowly began to charge towards them at miserable speeds. When they finally reached them, Fox realized that there were actually hundreds of them! But they still beat them with ease.
Epona herself took out many with her powerful momentum and hooves. Link swung left and right, still with control of the horse, and stabbed and sliced many up, knocking them out of the way. Fox kept his blaster alive, still rapidly firing upon the encampment. At one point, two orcs from different sides of the horse took a strategic turn: they both leapt up to avoid Link's swords and attempted to land on board with him and Fox. Fox countered their strategy by using his reflector, and they were tossed aside. Epona escaped into the mountain pass with hundreds of orcs and goblins still hopelessly trailing behind.
Fox laughed and mocked them as they made their way into the pass.​

It was a dark pass, but Link's lantern and the stars were enough guidance for Epona to make her way through with good timing.
But the peaceful jog through the park was disrupted. Out of nowhere, with no signs, two large skeletal warriors popped up out of the ground in front of Epona! She nayed (spelling?) and flinched, throwing Link and Fox unexpectedly off her back. Epona fled to the side but still did not abandon her master. She was in a state of shock and stood back. Link and Fox were dirty and hit hard from the sudden throw, but they knew what was coming. The two undead knights laughed cruelly at their fall, and slowly began to approach the warriors.
Link drew his sword again and lowered his shield. Fox danced in place but did not draw his blaster. They were matched up 1 vs. 1.
The skeleton warrior who was facing Link quickly jumped towards him, slamming his sword into the ground, attempting to take Link with one blow. But Link barrel rolled out of the way, standing his ground when he was done. The skeleton recovered quickly, taking away Link's oppurtunity for counter. They danced around each other, waiting for the other to strike. But nothing seemed to happen. Then Link suddenly threw the Gale Boomerang at the fiend, who lowered his large shield and blocked it easily. This was not an attack, but a distraction. When he raised his head from guard, he saw Link barrell rolling around all the way to his back. Before he could even turn, Link rose from the ground, spinning his sword around.​

"Saaaaaayyyyyggg!" he cried. The warrior was knocked away, losing some of its bones as it flew. Link followed up by drawing a lit bomb from his pocket and throwing it. It landed near the distorted fiend, and exploded: the skeleton was no more.
While this was happening, Fox was battling his own battle aggressively. He tried to strike a number of times, but each one failed with an easy block from the steel shield. He grunted in frustration, then began to think. If bones burn, why not give it a taste of fire? Fox grinned, but the skeleton warrior did nothing. It swung its sword playfully, trying to think of how to strike. But Fox had already begun illusioning his way around the foe, who was thrown off guard. He found himself spinning around, surrounded by blue waves of Fox's immense speed. A low rumble then came from one of the blue waves...
"FIRE!" Fox cried. He blasted into the skeleton's back, incinerating the fiend in a minute.
Fox and Link fled to the now-calm Epona and took off into the plains, which was just a mile away.​

When they finally hit the grass of the plains, Link slowed Epona, taking a look of his surroundings.
To the south were more forestation, probably linking all the way down to Faron Woods. To the north was plains, bordered by the Hylian mountains, and dead west from them were more plains.
He drew out his map and let Fox rest on his horse.
He decided to head deeper into the plains. Towards Mushroom Kingdom would be best: Mario and his friends could probably help more than anyone else...
Link kicked Epona's sides and they were off again.
It wasn't more than a couple hundred meters when Fox suddenly grabbed Link's shoulder.​

"Link! Stop Epona! Look over there!" he screamed. Link suddenly jerked Epona to a halt. The horse stopped but was upset, galloping in place. Link looked over his shoulder to see Fox pointing south to a small, pink, furry... thing, laying on the ground. Near it was a wooden hammer...​

Nana! Link thought. Nana, the girl of the pair of Ice Climbers, was laying there, unconscious.
Link and Fox departed Epona, sprinting over to Nana. Fox got down to her side and turned her over to feel nothing but a limp body and closed eyes. Link stood around, looking for the cause of the fall of his past ally.​

"She's burnt a little in her coat... who could've done this? And where's Popo..?" Fox questioned. Link shrugged. But then, Nana began to breath in and out! Her eyes were sluggishly beginning to open...
"Link! She's waking up, I think," Fox said excitedly. Link ran over and knelt down next to her on the other side of Fox.​

Nana awoke to the sight of Link and Fox's face hovering over her. But she felt safe, for some reason, even though she hadn't seen these two friends since the Subspace Army invaded...​

"..Uhh?" she mumbled. Fox nodded.​

"Welcome back, Nana... what happened?" Nana rubbed her head and tried to remember. She stood up next to the two others and looked around. Fox and Link stood up.​

"Where's Popo?" asked Fox, concerned. Nana then remembered with a look of fear on her face. She stood in front of Link and Fox and began a little skit...
She showed her sliding down something, a mountain probably, then imitated the meteor coming down to the earth and crashing... An avalanche chased her and Popo down to the plains! Then, she saw Captain Falcon and Fox's Arwing racing towards Hyrule, so Popo and Nana chased them down. When they had found Captain Falcon's crashed ship, he awoke and...​

"Falco Punch!" Nana immitated with a cute tone.​

"No way... Captain Falcon did this to you?" Fox asked. He looked over to Link who was shaking his head with a concerned looked on his face. All three stood silently.​

"Well... we have to move. Nana, where is Popo?" Fox asked. Nana shook her head then looked around... She then pointed south, away from Hyrule but into the plains. More southwest, if you would.​

Fox looked to Link who nodded.
Link, Fox, and Nana boarded Epona and dashed off into the south...​

And it wasn't before long before they found a wandering Popo, who was headed in their direction!​

Nana jumped off Epona and hugged Popo, relieved and angry and happy all the same, and danced around with him. Link and Fox were relieved to find Popo, who was wandering probably about a mile south of where Nana was, but were suddenly confused... where was Captain Falcon? But they had no time to think... Captain Falcon was apparently a traitor, and they couldn't waste precious time searching for him.
All four got on Epona, who still had no trouble carrying them around, and they dashed off for the north once more...​

Chapter 20: Joining the Ranks​

A great gorilla, with a small boy mounted on his back, sped through the last city in the country of Kanto into the plains of the continent. The gorilla, Donkey Kong, was wearing a back-mounted, fully repaired barrell jetpack booster, and it shot him through the air at amazing speeds. The small boy, Ness, had his friend Jeff from him fix the barrell jetpack from its previously damaged state.​

Donkey Kong thought harder and harder about how he was going to cripple Wario: would he impale him into the ground day after day? Juggle him around in his hands like a delicious orange? Or just plain take a big punch to the gut from him, sending the message: never rob me of my family ever again.​

Warioware Industries was still way far North, past Hyrule and Crimea and even over a small amount of the ocean... but he had to go through the plains to get the ocean, and that's what he intended to do.​

As Ness clung to DK, something very abnormal caught his eye. In the sky, at a great distance, a star appeared larger and brighter than any other one. Ness tapped DK's head and pointed, directing DK to stare in a new direction.
The star grew and crashed faster than they could even react.​

CRASH!!!​

In the distance of the plain, the meteor crashed into the planet and Ness and DK were so shocked that they crashed into the ground... Ness flew off DK but the ape simply slid and didn't damage his jetpack.
Ness and DK stared into the distance, viewing the horrific sight of a blue orb of explosion that consumed the land around the crash-landing zone of the meteor. They didn't think that it hit any major cities or villages, though... they presumed that it was still in plains, for it was straight north but not TOO far north...
Ness was still distraught but DK almost didn't seem to care about the meteor. He still had his mind on Diddy, whom Wario had captured. He started the jetpack again and snagged Ness and threw him onto his back.​

Just to the west now was Pokemon Stadium, and Ness could hear the screams of the scared and distressed crowd coming their way... they were running from the meteor in panic. But the meteor hadn't landed near them... maybe they just presumed they were under attack. Whatever had happened, Ness was suddenly consumed in concern about something that could be a greater deal than Diddy Kong at all: another planetary threat.​

DK continued to stare ahead at the grassy path laid in front of him, but Ness looked around for more clues to what just happened. He had a strange sense of danger tingling in his head, like he should be looking for something... And his threat was confirmed in seconds.
Little black specks appeared above DK and Ness as they neared the center of the plain, and when they appeared, they fell. When they fell, they came into better view to be little pitch black... pug, things. They were shaped oddly similar to Kirby and Meta Knight, and they had large red eyes that covered the front side of the body.​

They started to land, one by one, all around DK's zooming body. He finally took his eyes off of the miles of plains that laid in front of him, and saw that these things were appearing randomly and landing all around him... and they were trying to take him down.
A couple had already landed on top of him, but Ness had fended them off with his bat and yo-yo by smacking them right off DK's back. He tried especially to defend the jetpack so that they wouldn't suddenly be crashed into a pit of these pugs, who apparently meant harm.​

As Ness looked up again to see just where these things were coming from, he saw none other than Charizard, with who he suspected was Pokemon Trainer, flying right over them!​

"Heyyy!" Ness cried, but the noise of the jetpack, Charizard's wings, and the rumbling of the black pugs all around drowned out his call of distress. He told DK to land. DK looked up in a panic, refusing, insisting that he kept going... but then he also saw Pokemon Trainer, and he had fallen off Charizard and was falling right for them at amazing speeds! But he was so far in the air that Ness and DK had time to stop and defend themselves.​

When DK landed, he discarded the jetpack to his side and started spinning with his hands extended, doing his Spinning Kong move! He whacked away dozens of oncoming pugs at a time, destroying them on impact. After spinning, he waved his limbs around visciously, punching and slapping and kicking accurately and powerfully, when he realized something...
These pugs were the same that came to the aid of Wario when he escaped DK Isle. Does that mean that Wario sent these...? Or the meteor...? Or was it even Wario? Was it someone who hired Wario?​

The revelation hit DK like a ton of bricks, and he turned to Ness to try to tell him what just hit him. But he had to keep fighting: hundreds of these black things were trying to pummel him to death! He turned back around and began slapping the ground, shaking the ground and destroying dozens at a time.​

On Ness' side of the battlefield, he was trying to devise a safety net for himself. He started the fight by simply grappling the enemies, grabbing and throwing and punching them. But there were too many! Ness cleared the area with a quick area-raid of PK Fires, starting a temporary shield of fire. The black pugs waited this shield out, but Ness was smarter than to just wait. With his left hand, he armed himself with his yo-yo and spun it around quickly, creating another area shield! When the fire died, the pugs found themselves charging into another barrage of yo-yo smacks! And Ness wasn't just defending hismelf. As the pugs tried to penetrate his yo-yo, Ness was sending out quick bursts of shocks with his PK Thunder. Not only did the shocks destroy a pug, it spread the electrocution to small groups of them!​

With DK and Ness' stable strategiez, they actually found themselves fighting only a couple hundred. Some were actually fleeing, and by the time they looked up and saw Pokemon Trainer falling more, they had enough room to try to save him!​

But their attempt was quickly covered by a snag from an angel... Pit! Ness recognized his spiky-headed friend from Sky World, and was relieved to see Pit trying to save Pokemon Trainer... but his glorified saving was short lived. Pit found himself bombarded by even more pugs, and Ness could only think of one thing to do... he had to save his friends by a risky move!​

Ness motioned DK to come near and defend him, and when he did, Ness focused...
"PK FLash!" he cried. Green orbs of power escaped Ness' glowing body, and they rose into the air at steady speeds... when he released his focus, the green orbs exploded, ridding Pit and Pokemon Trainer's mobbed bodies of pugs!​

Yes! Ness thought. He tugged on DK's arm, who turned around and saw Pit and Pokemon Trainer closer than ever. DK leapt up and caught them both, one in each arm, with ease, but with a disappointing fact: they were both unconscious.
He fell back to the ground with them collapsed over his shoulders, but he held onto them fiercely, not letting any new pugs touch them.​

NOW they were in a predicament... DK and Ness were surrounded by more pugs than they could imagine, and they had two unconscious allies and were running out of energy...
Okay... this is for all the marbles... Ness thought. He looked up to the sky, closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and thought hard and long as DK danced around him frantically with flailing legs and occupied arms.​

"PK STARSTORM!" Ness freakishly screamed. As he unleashed his energy, he fell unconsciouis: DK panicked at first but immediately understood Ness' sacrifice: coming from the heavens above were barrages of meteors! They fell all around, consuming the plains in great light and energy. They didn't affect DK or the others for some reason... maybe it was a pure-hearted attack of some sort.​

But when the starstorm faded, DK sat, exhausted, with three unconscious friends all around him.
What was going on? he wondered. This is such a horrible time for all of this to come together...
And he still hadn't forgotten about Diddy.​

He looked up to the sky... and wondered why things had become so distressed so fast.​

Chapter 1: Star Fall​

"Are you sure this is the place..? It doesn't even look active," Snake coldly whispered to his communicator as his auto-pilotted helicopter floated silently over a strange, four piped factory.​

"I'm sure, Snake," Otacon replied, "you think I would send you on a mission to pursue a non-existing threat?"​

"You've screwed up before," Snake playfully mocked. Otacon chuckled.​

"Just jump down to the roof. I'll direct you to the terrorists from there."​

Snake mounted his parachute on and looked down onto the small island: a large, gray factory on the north side, completely surrounded by forestry. Around the acres and acres of trees was water: it was a small island. But Snake had never been here before, for some reason.​

He dove out of the chopper into the air, quickly picking up speed as he descended to the top of the factory. Playing the wind, he pulled the activation string and floated hundreds of yards down to the hard steel roof of the factory. Snake turned his comm back on as he discarded his parachute pack.​

"Alright, Otacon. Now before I go in, I demand some details... this has been a blind mission since you assigned me it. I haven't even gotten a word from the Colonel yet..."
Otacon sighed.​

"All right, Snake... here's the real problem. This factory seems abandoned. But it's actually the home to hundreds of fleeing terrorists... And they've captured the Colonel."​

"What!?" Snake screamed angrily. "Why didn't you tell me this before?" he demanded.​

"That. I knew you would explode. I didn't know if you'd be too angry to jump out of the chopper." Snake was baffled.​

"What's the matter with you? This is the Colonel! I have to get to him fast... now give me some directions you idiot," he ordered. Otacon sighed.​

"You're right, Snake, I'm sorry... now, look around you. You should see four inactive smokestack pipes."​

Snake swiveled his head left to right and confirmed the surrounding to Otacon.​

"Alright. Use your compass to go Northeast. On the top of that smokestack, there is a hole that leads into the old productions room... that is where we think Colonel is being held."​

"Alright... give me a minute," Snake grumbled. He shut his comm off and joged over to the northeast pipe, according to his compass. He reached the smokestack and was suddenly awed by the height of it.​

"This thing looks a lot shorter from the chopper..." Snake complained. He reached into his utility belt and grabbed a grapple gun, which Otacon had given him before. He had rarely had to use this tool, but now seemed the most appropriate time.​

Snake aimed for the sky and shot the grapple, which tightened the string and pulled him up swiftly across the skin of the smokestack. When he made it to the top, he put the gun away and balanced himself so that he would not fall in. He looked down into pitch black. He turned his comm back on.​

"Otacon... are you sure this is what leads to the production room? There's no light coming from the bottom."​

"I'm sure, Snake! Do you really think the terrorists would turn their lights on?" Snake chuckled.​

"You always were hilarious, Otacon."​

"Just latch yourself to the top and climb down the pipe," Otacon snapped.​

Snake did so and by wire, he lowered himself hundreds of yards into the blackness of the smokestack pipe. At first he was extremely crunched in, but he found that as he descended, the pipe widened and he found himself comfortably relaxed as he lowered to the ground.​

Otacon tuned in to Snake just as Snake began to feel the air become thicker.​

"Snake, I must warn you... When you first get to the room, almost nothing will be visible. Equip yourself with your night googles and search the room for any threats, then immediately dispatch them. Colonel should be near the pipe that you're coming out of," he explained.​

"What sources are telling you that Colonel is even in this room?" Snake questioned. Otacon didn't answer for a second.​

"A few hours ago, when I first got you for this mission, an inside source from the terrorist group was paid to explain where the Colonel was... he gave us pretty good detail."​

"And why are you sending me to put Colonel in a dangerous escape situation?"​

"We've got an army of... well, the army, coming as you speak. Don't ask, Snake, just do. Isn't that one of your mottos?"​

"No."​

"Well just keep going. You do the action, I'll do the research."​

This was suddenly striking Snake as an odd and out-of-place situation. Otacon usually is open to Snake, revealing sources and information as Snake pleased. Maybe this was actually a top top secret mission, and... well no, Otacon still tells Snake stuff that he wants to know in those sorts of situations.​

Oh well.
Just as Snake's train of thought collapsed, he noticed that the circular area around him had disappeared: he was in the room. Snake grasped his wire and searched his pockets for his night vision goggles.
When he put them on, he found himself looked around into what appeared to be empty space... no conveyer belts, boxes, scrap metal, levers, switches, machinery... nothing. Not only were not items that seemed appropriate for production rooms present, but the room was just dead. There was no life, no anything.
Snake tapped his comm.​

"Otacon... what are you trying to pull here?" he whispered, but angrily. "There's nothing in here! That pipe you put me in put me in an enormous Godforsaken steel-walled room... I've searched it thoroughly and Colonel is nowhere in-"​

A light shot on in the distance. It shown on a small circle of ground. Snake was paralyzed by the sudden light, and he removed his goggles. He fell to the ground, balanced, and stared out into the room.​

"Otacon?" Snake asked. No answer. "Otacon!"​

Nothing. Not only was Snake in an awkward situation with no destination or purpose, he lost his only source of information on what was going on.​

"I shouldn't even be here," Snake whispered. He could be out in New York City, drinking and enjoying his New Year's Eve with his friends, but he was stuck on this rotten island in a desolate factory with a dead mission.​

"Otacon!" Snake called. He refrained from whispering, because nothing was around him to hear him.​

Snake approached the light with relaxed steps, but he knew that something was up here. When his foot stepped into the light, Otacon tapped into the comm!​

"Snake! ... bzz...bbzzzzzztt.... bzz..Snebbzzztt... Are you there?"​

"Otacon?" Snake snapped and grasped his earpierce anxiously. "Otacon, what's going on? There's nothing here but a stupid light!"​

"Snake! bbzzzzt...bzztt... turn... a...bzzt..round..."​

Snake suddenly felt a small ounce of fear in his heart. He's not scared of much, but Otacon doesn't act like this a lot.
Snake turned his head slowly to see two small orange feet in the distance... and on top of those two orange feet was a strange black orb, but Snake couldn't make out any details for it was so dark that he could hardly tell.
He turned off his comm and readied his battle position.
When the little figure stepped into the light, Snake recognized it right away and could hear it ticking...​

"A Bob-omb from the Subspace Army..! What the hell are these things doing here!?" Snaked cried. He saw the fuse on the back of Bob Omb silently wasting away into the Bob-omb's fuel storage.​

BOB-OOOOOOOM!!!!​

A large blast of fiery clouds exploded into Snake's surprised face, throwing him hundreds of feet back into the empty, enormous hall. When the explosion hit him, he closed his eyes, not noticing that the whole room had lit up brightly. When his eyes opened, he was drooling and slightly wounded but alright to move. The sudden light nearly blinded him but he stood up alert...
To find thousands of bob-ombs, strange looking vultures, and weird plant-like creatures with sharp fangs, charging him down!​

"Otacon!"
No response.​

"Fine!" Snake cried, "This one's up to me, but when I get a hold of you Otacon..." he armed himself with a grenade, "it's your ***."​

He did a backflip away from the charging army and chucked the grenade into the crowd, and it exploded on contact, creating a small explosion of fire that cosumed the monsters. This set off more Bob-ombs, and the change reaction of explosions cleared an enormous circle of downed fiends.
Snake stood in an offensive stance and awaited the charging plants with fangs, and suddenly whipped out his nikita and launched three missiles in a row! Snakes remote controlled the missiles to separate and blast the ground in front of him just as the monsters approached. This stopped the monsters in their tracks, giving Snake time to leap up into the air and plunge down into the fray!​

He landed on top of a plant and kicks into its throat, suffocating the beast. He grabbed a charging, lit bob-omb and launched it away from him and he heard it kill more beasts, as he heard the sharp shrill screeches of them from afar. But he couldn't focus like this! He was surrounded by bombarding fangs, explosions, talons, beaks, and sword-sharp leaves!
He did a 360 spin kick to clear the area around him then thought of a good escape plan.
He ducked down below the blow of a vulture, throwing it off guard, and he grabbed its feet tightly. He planted a small bomb beneath him and as the vulture took off with him attached to it, the bomb exploded, leaving the beasts blasted and confused of his escape!
Snake's tactical fighting methods, unfortunately, went to waste very quickly. When he turned his head, he saw that the vulture was smarter than it seemed: it was flying back towards the group of enemies. It struggled greatly, trying to get Snake to let go of it!
Snake eventually gave in to the torturing cuts on his hands and plunged forty yards down... but something caught him by the foot!​

THWIP!!​

A tight rope collapsed around his ankle, violently jerking him in an upside down hanged position. Snake was baffled and waved his limbs around angrily, trying to break loose. But he was too battle-worn to move an inch... he was finally defeated. He continued to struggle, though.
He looked down to the ground to see the monster army staring up at him with giant grins on their faces, but some of them were moving around in the back. Someone was approaching... perhaps the terrorists?
Snake was lowered to the ground as he hung from the rope and he was finally stopped when his head was inches from the ground. He stared angrily into the crowd of beasts, and finally, the mastermind made his way into the small circle around him...​

"Heh heh, welcome to my factory, Snake," Wario laughed. Snake was astonished. This fat, slow, idiotic lard of burden outsmarted him? But... how?​

Before Snake could open his mouth to question Wario's methods, Wario held up a cartoonish walkie talkie and put his hand over his mouth and spoke into it...
Snake's comm turned on.​

"How do you like my Otacon impersonation?" Wario muttered into the comm. Snake screamed.​

"You criminal! Where's Otacon!?"​

Wario laughed and held his fat gut in from exploding.​

"I have no idea! You know, I really don't. I never captured him. I just figured that your loyalty to that sap would help me lure you here."​

"But why do you want me-"​

Wario took a second to wave around his fist then knocked Snake out cold.​