Chapter 1: Pilot
Chapter Text
Hello! And welcome to the all-new, redone and re-written Smash: Emissary. For those unaware (as the old chapters will be gone when this goes up), this story has been in a limbo for me for a long time, due to both lack of motivation and a bad story on my part. However, I have overhauled the story completely and am much happier with how this version of it will turn out.
I'm sure this is news for my Ao3 and Wattpad readers, as I never put those updates on those platforms. So, surprise!
Those who have read the original before the posting of this new version will find that certain story ideas or character threads have carried over to this new version. I had good ideas before, but poor execution, and I didn't want the good ideas I had to go to waste. But there are also big changes from the initial story as well, ones I hope make it all the better. This story as a whole will be on the shorter side compared to my other stories, currently sitting at around 10-12 chapters potential, but I'm wanting to make those chapters count. I hope that across its run, this story is both entertaining and enjoyable. Thank you for supporting what I do, and enjoy the Pilot chapter of the all new, Smash: Emissary.
Smash: Emissary
Chapter 1: Pilot
When Princess Peach Toadstool wanted to prepare for the banquet and meeting she had planned, she wasn't expecting to face as many complications as she was here. The kitchens of her castle had been a chaotic, hectic scramble last she checked, and time was running out before the princess of Sarasaland arrived at the castle.
The event in question was a meeting Peach deemed as one of the most important in her royal tenure: negotiations to form a multi-kingdom alliance against those who would threaten their kingdoms. Primarily, the ever-looming and ever-consistent threat of the Koopa King Bowser, who has proven time and again to be an enemy of the people of almost every other kingdom in the land, especially her own Mushroom Kingdom. So her and Princess Daisy of Sarasaland had decided enough was enough, and they would be the beginning of a united front against Bowser. Previously, the lands have had to rely on the heroics of the Mario Brothers.
Brothers who had run late with a special gift that would be presented as a token of friendship and unity not just between the mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland, but for any kingdom that would join their fold. And with the clock ticking until Daisy arrived, Peach began to become more and more stressed. As her subjects, the Toads, sprinted back and forth in order to finish prepping, she stopped one of them along the way and pulled them aside.
"Have you heard from the Captain yet? Daisy is due soon and the Brothers are transporting the gift!" She asked.
"No, princess," The Toad shook his head. "We haven't heard from Captain Toad since they crossed the kingdom's borders."
Peach sighed. "Thank you," The princess said gratefully. The Toad nodded and continued on his own business. Peach sighed and shook her head. Where are you, Mario?
"Princess, princess!" One of the other Toads began hopping frantically down the hall towards her. "They're here! They're here!" Peach perked up, and rushed through her castle's halls until she reached the front gate. The massive front doors swung open, held open by more of her loyal Toads, and a massive wooden crate five times her own size was hauled through the doorway, carried from below by none other than the Mario brothers: the shorter but elder Mario and the taller yet younger Luigi. Both seemed to have a stable hold on what they were carrying but they also seemed tired, having presumably carried it quite the long way.
"C'mon, Luigi, just a bit further…!" Mario strained.
"It's been… miles already…" Luigi sighed.
Peach shook her head with a small smile. "Toads, get that weight off the boys' shoulders," She commanded. A large group of Toads approached and took the massive, and clearly heavy, crate out of the brothers' hands. The two let out sighs of relief, and Luigi even plopped right down in the middle of the entryway.
"I gotta… catch my breath…" He said. Mario stayed on his feet, though, merely taking a few deep breaths before steadying himself. He then stood tall as Peach approached them, then bowed. Luigi quickly stood up and did the same.
"Princess," Mario greeted.
"Mario," Peach greeted simply. "It's good to see you both."
"You as well, Princess," Mario replied with a warm smile. Peach returned it, albeit lacking in some of the warmth Mario had provided. Her eyes darted to the side momentarily.
"Your help is appreciated. You're welcome to stay for the negotiations if you like. I'm sure you'll want to hear what I have planned."
"Yes, I'm sure we will," Mario said, slightly hurt by his lack of emotional reception, but not letting it show.
"Daisy will be here before long. I'm sure you remember where the conference hall is. I have some more preparations to see to. I'll meet the both of you there." Peach then turned on her heel and quickly left the brothers behind. Mario let out a disappointed sigh after she was gone.
"Still in the doghouse, huh?" Luigi asked.
"Yeah… I thought she'd be over what happened by now," Mario admitted.
"Maybe trying to one-up Bowser in marriage proposal's right after she was kidnapped for that exact reason wasn't the best idea," Luigi pointed out.
"Yeah, I know it was dumb now," Mario said. "Like they say, hindsight is twenty/twenty."
"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll get over it soon enough. You've saved the kingdom too many times to count. And look at the bright side: she doesn't hate you. Things are just awkward."
"Things could be worse, I guess. Just they could also be better," Mario said, then sighed. "C'mon, let's go."
The meeting hall, despite being a rather large room, was left mainly empty save for a small group: Mario, Peach, Luigi, Princess Daisy, and a handful of Toad guards standing at attention at the exits of the room. In the center of the room was a large round wooden table highlighted with gold. Molded in gold in the center of the table was the emblem for the Mushroom Kingdom. Seated at opposite ends of the table were Peach and Daisy, while each of the brothers stood a few feet behind each royalty's chair on guard, with Mario behind Peach's and Luigi behind Daisy's.
"Thank you for coming, Daisy," Peach said gratefully.
"Hey, anything for old friends, Peach," Daisy smiled.
"This is something I think we need. Bowser has threatened both of our kingdoms and more unchecked for years. Well no more of it," Peach declared. "This will be just the start of something new for the world, and it starts with us. Right here, right now."
"Y'know, I don't think I've ever seen you so serious about something before," Daisy remarked. "I mean, the bros have saved the day time and time again. Why the sudden change in attitude?"
"While, yes, Mario and Luigi have saved not just our kingdoms but us countless times, and I am grateful for that…" Peach glanced at Mario behind her as if to give him a reassuring glance, which eased the tension just a little, allowing the hero to smile a bit. "... this isn't just about saving the day. It's about ensuring that the day doesn't have to be saved in the first place. The Koopa Kingdom is the most powerful singular kingdom in the land. But it won't be stronger than every other kingdom united together. If we can create an alliance of kingdoms united to stand against Bowser next time he strikes, we can make sure he won't pose a threat to us again."
"You've really thought about this, haven't you?" Daisy asked.
Peach nodded. "It's time for something different, something new, something that ensures a future for everyone."
"Well, then I'm sold," Daisy replied.
Peach was stunned momentarily. She clearly wasn't expecting an answer so quickly. "Y-you are?"
"C'mon, Peach, how long have we known each other? 'Course I'll join ya! I'm just as sick of that stupid turtle as the rest of you!"
Peach let out a sigh of relief. "Good." She then stood from her chair and reached across the table. Daisy smiled and stood as well, leaning across the table to shake Peach's hand. "Then let this alliance formerly be recognized as the start of a new era for-"
BOOM!
An explosion rocked the entire castle to its very foundation. Everyone stumbled for a few moments before regaining their balance. "What was that?!" Daisy exclaimed. Before an answer could be hazarded, another explosion sounded right above them, and suddenly the ceiling above them caved in, with a massive amount of rubble threatening to drop down on their heads. The Mario Brothers acted quickly, each of them quickly grabbing hold of a princess and diving out of the way just before the table became buried under extreme amounts of scorched stone masonry. Daisy groaned as she looked up while being in Luigi's arms. "My hero," She said with a wink. Luigi's face flushed red, then he quickly helped her up to her feet. Mario did the same for Peach, then the four looked upward as none other than King Bowser himself came down in a floating white pod with a turbine at its base.
"Guess who's back!" The King Koopa howled. His pod descended until it was just above the other four.
"You think we said his name too many times?" Luigi remarked. He and his older brother quickly put the princesses behind them and stood before Bowser, ready for the oncoming battle.
"You just really want your shell kicked in, don't ya, big guy?" Mario smirked confidently.
"As much as I'd like to tear you apart, plumber, you aren't my biggest concern," Bowser snarled.
"What's wrong? Scared?"
"Yes. But not of you," Bowser said. The koopa snapped his fingers, and suddenly an entire platoon of robots came down from above as well. The robots were boxy in form, with rectangular heads with twin lens-like eyes behind plated glass, with a metal rod as their necks and spines. They had platforms instead of feet and claw-like pincer hands, and their bodies were plated with white metal.
"Uh, those aren't Koopa Troopas," Luigi said.
"No kidding," Mario replied. "But they'll be just as easy to beat!" Mario leapt forward and reeled his fist back to strike the first of the machines within reach, but the robot slid out of Mario's direct path and clamped it's claw hand onto his wrist, then began to spin violently before letting go, throwing Mario right into the rubble pile where the conference table used to be.
Bowser chuckled and hopped out of the flying pod, making the earth shake with the impact as he landed. In his hands was a large high-tech firearm just as bulky as Bowser himself, sleek black metal with glowing purple angular highlights stretching along the weapons barrel. Luigi wavered at first, but quickly leapt forward on top of one of the robot's heads and jumped from robot to robot, making his way to Bowser quickly. Luigi leapt off the final robot's head and lunged right for Bowser, but the massive King Koopa swatted him to the side. As Luigi hit the ground and tumbled, Bowser took aim with the weapon right at the green-clad plumber.
"I guess you'll be the first to find out what this does," Bowser smirked. He held the trigger of the firearm down, and purple energy began to fill up at the tip of the weapons barrel. Mario recovered from his initial tossing, and saw as Bowser aimed the strange weapon at his brother.
"Luigi!" He cried out. Before he could launch himself forward, though, three of the robots closed in on him, while the rest of the small army was dealing with the Toad guards around the room, seemingly almost effortlessly. Mario leapt upwards just before they snagged him in their pincers, then dropped down on one of their heads, smashing it into scrap, then jumped backwards to avoid being grabbed. He took the chance to glance back towards Bowser and his brother. The weapon's buildup of energy had reached its peak, and finally it fired a full, powerful energy blast that collided with the still-stunned Luigi head on. In a flash of harsh purple light, the energy subsided, and Luigi's form had taken that of a shining bronze metal, frozen in place like a statue, blankly looking forward. "No!" Mario exclaimed, only to then be hit in the gut by one of the robot's claws, then he was flattened out as another connected with his jaw. Quickly, two of the robots restrained Daisy and Peach as well.
"Hey, let go of me, you rusty tin can!" Daisy growled, squirming and kicking to get free, only hurting herself against its metal body. Peach was squirming just as much, to no avail. Bowser stomped over as two robots grabbed the frozen Luigi and blasted off into the air with him. Bowser aimed the strange weapon again, after only a few moments, Daisy was turned into a statue just as Luigi was. The robot holding her launched into the air just the same. Peach kept squirming, and wore an expression of fright as Bowser turned the weapon her way next.
"Mario!" Peach screamed, crying for her hero. Mario scrambled to his feet and rolled out of the way as one of the robots swung at him again.
"Peach!" Mario called and sprinted forward, narrowly avoiding being snagged by two more of the deadly machines. But just before he reached Peach and Bowser, he felt a searing white hot pain in his shoulder and collapsed onto the ground. He gritted his teeth tightly and held his injury, smelling the burnt part of his flesh. He glanced back and now saw the still-glowing bulb of a laser weapon placed under one of the robot's box heads, then noticed the same, albeit dull black, bulb on them all. Small and unnoticeable, but clearly dangerous. He looked at his wound and saw the laser had burned right through his arm. A small and nonlethal injury, but it burned badly. It felt like his nerves were set on fire, and it hurt to move that part of his body at all now. Quickly, a small group of the robots surrounded him, lighting up their now-revealed laser weapons on standby, as if simply waiting for the command.
He glanced up at his princess, still cradling his shoulder painfully. If Peach wasn't terrified before, she was now. Bowser let out a low, rumbly laugh, and then in a flash of purple light and energy, Peach was just as the others had become: a bronze-like statue. And before Mario knew it, the robot holding her blasted off into the sky. "Peach!" He cried again.
Bowser bellowed as the last of Mario's friends was taken away. "How simple this was. How easy! After all this time, I've finally beat you."
"It's… rrg, not over yet…" Mario groaned.
Bowser chuckled lowly. "I think it is. Goodbye, plumber. After we're gone, kill him." Bowser then turned around, climbed back into his pod, and flew off into the sky, out of sight. Mario furrowed his brow, and looked up at the robots surrounding him, gazing down at him with their primed lasers ready to tear right through him.
"Uh… don't suppose I could convince you guys to let me go?" Mario asked them. Their lasers began to fully charge, and Mario panicked, but then an idea struck him. He waited until the lasers reached their peak charge, then quickly got his feet back under him and leapt straight up just as the weapons fired. The robots' heads followed him, making them use their lasers on each other instead. Mario landed on his feet as the robots shot each other, leaving them no more than smoldering piles of metal. He wiped his hands clean, then suddenly gritted his teeth as his still-in-pain laser wound spiked in burning pain.
"Wonderful job, there," A voice suddenly said, "But it appears I'm too late." Mario snapped around as a figure wrapped in a green and purple cloak with a pointed green hat with peering yellow eyes hidden in darkness appeared before him.
"Who are you?!" Mario questioned.
"My apologies. You may call me the Ancient Minister. I was on my way to help prevent that attack that I clearly arrived at too late," the Ancient Minister replied. "You aren't the first attacked by these forces, and I've no doubt you won't be the last."
"Bowser's attacking more people?" Mario questioned.
"No. I'm afraid this is larger than just your Mushroom Kingdom. Much larger," The Minister said.
"So you know where they took my friends?" Mario asked.
"I'll explain everything to you. But first, I have one more place to visit."
The invading machines would be cut down one by one. They were deadly, and resilient, but even their metal forms were not strong enough against the power of the Master Sword in Link's hand. They had come from the sky, bearing down on Hateno Village without mercy, destroying anything in their path. Most of the residents of the village took the best shelter they could, barricading their homes in the hopes the machines couldn't get inside. Some had quickly fled the village. They turned out to be the safest, as the machines showed no interest in leaving the borders of Hateno Village, which meant they were here for a reason. A reason of which Link had yet to figure out.
As he cut down another full squad of the machines, the stress on his body began to sink in. He didn't know how long he'd been fighting these things for, but it was wearing him down, and the amount of the deadly robots didn't seem to stop.
"Link!" He heard a woman call. He glanced up as a woman took his side: Princess Zelda herself. "Everyone has taken shelter. They are safe."
"Why aren't you secure with them?" Link asked.
"I couldn't leave you out here alone. There are too many, even for you! Come take shelter with us until reinforcements arrive from the Goron!" Zelda insisted.
Link seemed hesitant at first, but nodded and rose back to his full height. Zelda began to lead him back the way she came, then suddenly robots still remaining in the village began to surround them. Link quickly grabbed Zelda by the arm and pulled her close, then raised his shield and sword high, ready to defend her. The machines closed in further. Link thrust his blade forward right through one of their heads, putting it out of commission, but right after he made the movement, one of the robots cut in between him and Zelda and struck them both in the back, pushing them both to the ground.
Link quickly rolled back over with his shield in front of him just before their metal claws struck, sending their hits sparking off the shield. He quickly popped up onto one knee, and holding his blade tightly, quickly spun around in a whirlwind fashion with his weapon outwards, bisecting every machine around him in one rapid movement. Their top halves slid off and hit the dirt while their platform bases stayed rooted to the spot.
Zelda wasn't so lucky. As the machines clawed at her, she squirmed and kicked at them to stay free, having no weapon of her own despite the circumstances. Eventually, though, their pincers snagged her limbs and hauled her up. "Link!" She cried. Link snapped up and then lunged at one of the robots holding her, ready to cleave it in two, when another robot zoomed into him, colliding with his torso and blasting through a wall into the abandoned inn across the path. They crashed into the front counter, smashing it into a thousand tiny splinters. Link choked to get air back into his lungs, hacking up from the harsh impact, but didn't have much time to recover, as the machine narrowed its lens-like eyes at the Hylian, then primed a strike with its pincer hand. Link scrambled for his shield and held it close to his chest just in time to protect himself from the blow. Link quickly pulled both feet inwards, then kicked out with both simultaneously to send the robot's own platform base out from under it. As it fell forward, Link swiped his shield upwards, connecting with its boxy head. The robot hit the floor with a clang! Link quickly took advantage of the moment by jumping up, then bringing the bottom point down onto the machines neck, decapitating it instantly.
Link took a passing moment to breathe, then recovered the Master Sword from the wreckage before sprinting back outside. When he returned to the outside village however, a flash of purple light came from the remaining group of machines, and Link saw Zelda's form as now a bronze-like statue, still and unmoving. His eyes rounded and he sprinted as fast as he could. It wasn't fast enough, however. The machines all grabbed hold of Zelda's new metal form and blasted off into the sky with the Hylian Princess.
"Zelda!" Link exclaimed. He watched as the machines flew off into the sky, and then with another flash of white light, were gone entirely.
Link panted heavily, his fatigue quickly catching up with him. He dropped to one knee, driving his sword into the ground and gripping tightly with what strength he had to keep from collapsing into the dirt. Sweat poured down his head, while a trickle of blood ran down his temple.
"It seems I'm late again. He really does have them working quickly, doesn't he?" Link glanced over his shoulder to see a short figure dressed in a purple an black cloak and green pointed hat. "I apologize I couldn't help. I am the Ancient Minister, and your aid is required, Link of Hyrule."
"What… happened here?" Link questioned between heavy breaths.
"Come with me, and I shall tell you," The Minister replied. Suddenly a rift opened in front of Link, like a doorway in space itself. "You are not the only one affected by these forces of darkness."
Link glanced up at the Minister, and reluctantly nodded. He forced himself to his feet and sheathes his blade, before slowly walking through the rift. He came through on the other side to a mostly destroyed meeting room. Smaller miles of rocks and dust signified where larger mounds of rubble used to be. As he entered, he saw a short pudgy man with a mustache in overalls and red cap with the letter M on it, and two other rifts open as well. Through one rift came a small being that was round and pink with bright blue eyes and stubby arms. Through the second rift came an anthropomorphic creature of some kind with blue fur and quills and emerald-green eyes, wearing only red and white shoes with golden buckles.
Needless to say, Link was left confused more than ever.
As the blue creature came through, he spotted the pudgy man and quickly wore a smile. "Well I'll be, didn't think I'd ever see you again, Mario!"
"Sonic the Hedgehog," Mario returned the smile, and the two shared a fist bump together. "Still rolling around, I see."
"At the speed of sound, as I do," Sonic replied.
"Poyo!" The two turned and looked down at the pink gumball of a being that had joined them as well.
"Who's this guy?" Sonic asked Mario, who just shrugged and shook his head.
"I believe it is time to answer all of your questions," The Minister said as he floated up into the air above the four of them. The four stood alongside each other and glanced up at the Minister. "You've all been introduced to me, now you must know each other. Mario Mario, savior of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sonic the Hedgehog, speedster of Mobius. Kirby, protector of Dreamland. Link, Hero of Hyrule. Your four worlds, as well as many others, are in grave danger. Mario and Link have experienced this firsthand."
"Yeah, what were those things?" Mario asked.
"The mechanical forces you faced are designated as ROBs. They were once a peaceful, even revolutionary people. Until a day came where their world was conquered by a force of power far stronger than anything you four have ever faced. This force, this conqueror is known by one name… Tabuu. He enslaved the ROBs to do his bidding once before, until he and his forces were sealed away in a dimension between dimensions, called Subspace. He's been trapped there for millennia. However, recently, his prison has somehow been breached. While it hasn't been broken enough for Tabuu himself to escape, you've already seen his forces in action, no doubt acting on their master's bidding."
"So why does this involve us?" Sonic asked.
"Conquest is his goal. But his methods have altered since before his imprisonment. I do not know why he kidnapped your friends, and due to the fact he cannot leave Subspace, he has employed the aid of many evildoers to lead his army and further his conquest, such as the Koopa King Bowser, as you have seen," The Minister answered. "I would hope that his full motive can be uncovered before his plans can unfold. That is why I have brought you four together. I believe that together, we can stop Tabuu's forces before Tabuu himself escapes Subspace and wreaks havoc upon every reality, as well as save your friends from his grasp."
"No one takes my friends and gets away with it," Mario said.
"Stop a bad guy from destroying the world? That's just another Tuesday for us," Sonic remarked. "I'm in."
Link didn't say anything, but after a few moments gave a firm nod to the Minister. He was in as well.
"Poyo!" Kirby beamed.
"Sounds like we got a team, Minister," Mario smirked.
"Indeed it does. I hope you four are ready for what is ahead of us," The Minister said.
The four heroes mentally prepared themselves. They had seen firsthand what kind of threat this Tabuu and his army posed. They knew from the next step forward, their lives, their worlds, whether for better or worse, were about to change forever.
Chapter 2: Isle of the Ancients
Chapter Text
Mario: Previously, on Smash Emissary...
"They're here! They're here!" Peach perked up
"C'mon, Luigi, just a bit further…!" Mario strained.
"It's been… miles already…" Luigi sighed.
Peach shook her head with a small smile. "Toads, get that weight off the boys' shoulders," She commanded. A large group of Toads approached and took the massive, and clearly heavy, crate out of the brothers' hands. The two let out sighs of relief, and Luigi even plopped right down in the middle of the entryway.
"Mario," Peach greeted simply. "It's good to see you both."
"You as well, Princess," Mario replied with a warm smile. Peach returned it, albeit lacking in some of the warmth Mario had provided.
"Still in the doghouse, huh?" Luigi asked.
"Yeah… I thought she'd be over what happened by now," Mario admitted.
"Maybe trying to one-up Bowser in marriage proposal's right after she was kidnapped for that exact reason wasn't the best idea.
"This isn't just about saving the day. It's about ensuring that the day doesn't have to be saved in the first place.
"You've really thought about this, haven't you?" Daisy asked.
An explosion rocked the entire castle to its very foundation. Everyone stumbled for a few moments before regaining their balance. "What was that?!" Daisy exclaimed.
"As much as I'd like to tear you apart, plumber, you aren't my biggest concern," Bowser snarled.
"What's wrong? Scared?"
"Yes. But not of you," Bowser said.
He glanced up at his princess, still cradling his shoulder painfully. If Peach wasn't terrified before, she was now. Bowser let out a low, rumbly laugh, and then in a flash of purple light and energy, Peach was just as the others had become: a bronze-like statue. And before Mario knew it, the robot holding her blasted off into the sky. "Peach!"
a flash of purple light came from the remaining group of machines, and Link saw Zelda's form as now a bronze-like statue, still and unmoving. His eyes rounded and he sprinted as fast as he could. It wasn't fast enough, however. The machines all grabbed hold of Zelda's new metal form and blasted off into the sky with the Hylian Princess.
"Zelda!" Link exclaimed.
I apologize I couldn't help. I am the Ancient Minister, and your aid is required, Link of Hyrule."
"What… happened here?" Link questioned between heavy breaths.
"Come with me, and I shall tell you," The Minister replied.
"Well I'll be, didn't think I'd ever see you again, Mario!"
"Sonic the Hedgehog," Mario returned the smile, and the two shared a fist bump together. "Still rolling around, I see."
"At the speed of sound, as I do," Sonic replied.
Mario Mario, savior of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sonic the Hedgehog, speedster of Mobius. Kirby, protector of Dreamland. Link, Hero of Hyrule. Your four worlds, as well as many others, are in grave danger. Mario and Link have experienced this firsthand."
The mechanical forces you faced are designated as ROBs. They were once a peaceful, even revolutionary people. Until a day came where their world was conquered by a force of power far stronger than anything you four have ever faced. This force, this conqueror is known by one name… Tabuu."
"Sounds like we got a team, Minister," Mario smirked.
Smash: Emissary
Chapter 2: Isle of the Ancients
As the four heroes dropped down out of the portal and onto foreign soil that slightly gave beneath their feet, old trees swaying back and forth with the slight breeze coming by, a chime came from the new ear-bound comlink devices given to them by the Ancient Minister. Kirby was without one, having no ears to speak of, but Link, Sonic and Mario all got an earful of the Minister's voice as the comm signal snapped to life.
"Hello? I do hope you've landed alright. Multiversal travel can be a bit nauseating for someone's first time," The Minister said.
"We're all good," Mario reported back. "A little dizzy, but good. Where exactly are we?"
"My home. It was called The Isle of the Ancients. It is much, much older than your worlds, and I had hoped it would be here long after. It is also where the last war with Tabuu ended. If there's anywhere to look to uncover his plans, it is here. I have no doubt that this would be his ideal staging ground to begin his conquest anew."
"So what exactly is the plan here?" Sonic asked.
"Ahead you will find the abandoned battleground, and past that should be what remains of what used to be a social hub for my people, an abandoned monastery lost to time. Who knows what's come of the building now…?" The Minister then trailed off, and the four heroes traded glances as the tone of the conversation suddenly became uncomfortable. "Anyways, once you reach the perimeter of the estate, report what you see, and we can develop a plan from there." The transmission cut out, leaving the four to themselves.
"Well, sounds like a start at least," Mario said. "Let's go." The plumber waved forward and led on, the others following behind him through the trees. "So, how'd you guys get pulled into this?"
"I imagine similar to you: those machines invaded my home and took someone dear to me," Link answered.
"Sounds like you guys were caught in the thick of it," Sonic remarked. "I'm just here 'cause the Ancient Minister found me and said a bunch of worlds, including Mobius, were in danger."
"He sought you out in particular?" Link raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. I thought it was shifty at first, but once I saw Mario here, I knew it was legit," Sonic said.
"That's right. When we were gathered, you two recognized each other. You've met before?" Link asked.
"Yeah, a couple times actually," Mario answered. "So this ain't our first team-up."
"Hm… and what about… that?" Link asked, gesturing to Kirby hopping along behind them. The pink ball glanced up at the Hylian incredulously.
"Not sure. I don't understand him," Sonic said. "But the Minister said you and Mario's worlds were the ones attacked, so he must've gone to Kirby specifically like he did for me."
"Which begs the question, if your worlds weren't being invaded, why did he go to you?" Link posed.
"Well… it seems like he's super old, and that he's been watching a long time. He could know who we are and know we can help stop this whole thing," Mario suggested. "Once he knew this was happening, he came to us."
"Hm… I don't trust him," Link said. "It all just seems… convenient."
"Well, nothing to do about it right now. We have worlds to save," Mario said. "Right, Sonic?" Mario glanced to the saide to find the Mobian Hedgehog missing, then looked ahead to see leaves kicked up from the ground, still floating back down to the ancient grass beneath their very feet. "Always on the move," Marios sighed before running ahead, Link and Kirby tailing him.
They came out of the forest into an open field, and the beautiful nature of the forest morphed into a dark history immediately clear to the eye. There was clear sign of conflict here; scorched earth, overgrowth formed in unnatural ways, burying what lay beneath in the brownish-green vegetation. Most haunting, though, were the countless deactivated or destroyed bodies of ROB's, laying still as if they were corpses frozen in time, vines and overgrowth coiling around their rusted metal chassis'. There were dozens still visible, which meant there could be countless below ground by this point. It was like a graveyard.
Sonic was inspecting one of the visible machines as the others rejoined him. They then began to take in the feeling around them, the cold dread they felt as soon as the history of the place hit them. It sent a chill down their spines, as if the spirits of the fallen were still present on this hallowed ground.
"What is this place…?" Mario wondered aloud
"The Minister did say the last war ended here," Link said. "This must've been where they made their last stand."
"And that must be the monastery," Sonic said, pointing uphill to a large, ancient-looking building up the hill, far enough away to not see its exterior in detail, which spoke to the building's scale. "I'll scout it out, find us a way in." Before there was a chance for protest, Sonic had blasted off again, speeding faster than the eye could track right for the monastery.
"Does he do that often?" Link questioned.
"You get used to it," Mario shrugged before running after their ally.
The group reached the forest perimeter around the monastery, hiding among the green just out of sight. Mario peeked around the tree he was using as cover. They had found themselves just outside an entrance to the temple. A massive stairway led up into a set of twin gates guarded by an entire squad of ROBs patrolling the entrance. The boxy machines were all either standing still as a statue at attention or rolling back and forth in regimented, calculated patterns.
"That's a lotta robots," Mario remarked.
"We should find a stealthier way inside," Link suggested. "We wouldn't want to-"
Suddenly, a blue blur sped up the stairs, tearing through every ROB in its way. In mere moments, every machine was left as nothing but scrap metal on the entryway. After he reached the top of the stairs, Sonic the Hedgehog stopped and turned back at his allies. "All clear!" he smirked.
"... alert them…" Link finished in a deadpan tone.
"Eh, we'll be fine!" Sonic wave Link's worries off. "I smash robots to bits every other day! Besides, there aren't any other ways inside. I checked. We would've had to come through here anyway." Link let out a muted sigh, but then silently ascended the stairs. Mario, meanwhile, tapped the comm in his ear.
"Hey, Minister, we're at the monastery, and it's definitely occupied," he reported.
"I feared as much. If the ROB's are present, then that means the old systems will be in use once again. You must find the main data bank and learn all you can from it. If we can learn their next moves, we can cut off their attacks before any worlds are lost," The Minister said.
"Any idea where to start looking for this data bank?" Mario asked.
"Unfortunately, no. It has been much time since I have revisited the Isle, and even then with the current occupation, there would be no guarantee it would be in the same place. I'm afraid you'll have to search on your own. Good luck." The transmission cut out.
"Well, you heard the man. Let's go," Mario waved them on. He, Sonic and Kirby ran ahead and entered the monastery. Link joined them, but his mind wandered back to the Minister. He knew the mystery man was keeping something from the four of them. He couldn't imagine what, but that meant he didn't trust him. Regardless, Zelda needed him. He would do as asked for now for the sake of getting his princess back. He kept those thoughts to himself, though, as he and the others entered the winding halls of the ancient monastery.
Within the monastery, two ROB's stood outside a room with a laser gate barring the doorway. One stood at attention silently. The other, however, was fiddling with something in its pincer grips, inspecting it curiously. The attentive ROB slowly turned its head to its partner.
"What are you doing?" It asked.
"Inspecting the prisoner's trinket," The second ROB replied.
"You're playing with the prisoner's trinket?" The first ROB repeated.
"Correction: inspecting." Not once did the distracted machine look up at his cohort.
"That is not a simple trinket. It is a weapon," The first ROB pointed out. Indeed, the second robot was holding a pistol-like firearm in his hand. "I would be more careful if I were you. You could inflict self-damage."
"Unlikely," The second responded.
"'Unlikely'? It is a weapon. How is self-damage unlikely?" The first machine questioned.
"Because it is pointed in your general direction." The first ROB glanced down again at the pistol's barrel, seeing the business end of the firearm was indeed pointed away from the one inspecting it, and instead at the machine simply trying to do his job. The first ROB looked up.
"Still unwise, now for a different reason."
"Not how I see it. I am in no danger if it is pointed at you," The second ROB said dismissively. The first ROB narrowed its lens eyes at his cohort in an annoyed fashion. The other looked up for the first time, noticing the not-so-happy expression his partner wore, and then simply shrugged before continuing what he was doing. The first ROB looked to the floor and face palmed with its claw hand.
Then suddenly, the building shook, as if disturbed at it's very base. The first ROB glanced around. "What was that?"
"What was what?"
"Disturbance. You did not notice?"
The second ROB shook its head. "You are losing your circuits." Then the building shook again, the second machine finally taking notice.
"You were saying?" The first deadpanned. The two failed to notice that the lasers barring the room behind them had begun to spit out sparks before deactivating entirely.
"Simple tremor," The second replied.
"On a floating island in the sky? Unlikely," The first said. The two then heard sounds of movement behind them. "What was that?'
The two turned, and suddenly the first ROB was on the receiving end of a kick to the head, sending it toppling over to the ground. Before the second could even register what was happening, a female figure spun around him, swiftly prying the weapon from his grip, and shot him through the head. She then quickly took aim and finished off the robot on the ground. She let out a sigh and threw her blonde ponytail back behind her head. She had made quick work of the machines. Samus Aran was nothing if not skilled, as becomes an intergalactic bounty hunter such as herself. She took a few glances around, seeing no incoming machines, then took off down the hall.
Last she remembered, she was aboard her gunship on her way to her next bounty, when her ship had begun to malfunction, and before she knew it, she had suddenly crash landed outside this very facility. When she emerged from the crash site, she was quickly overwhelmed by a force of the robotic soldiers who then held her captive. She had been imprisoned in that cell until now, stripped of her weapons and armor, left only on her skin-tight blue bodysuit, however now armed with her pistol, dubbed the Paralyzer, ideal for use against machines like the ones she seemed to be facing now.
In the halls as she ran about, lost in the maze that comprised the monastery, she came across another pair of the robots guarding yet another room, this one with a large metal door barring the way instead of the laser gate from her cell. As she snuck up at the hall's corner, she peeked around and listened as the two robots discussed.
"There are intruders in the monastery," one of them said. "Our orders are to protect this room at all costs."
The second machine glanced at the door behind them. "What is inside of the room?"
"Classified," The first simply responded.
"We are protecting a room in which we are unaware of the contents?" The second asked.
"Correct. And you will continue to do so," The first answered.
Sounds important, Samus thought to herself. She quickly rolled out into the open and fired her weapon, destroying the first robot instantly.
"Intruder!" The second exclaimed, only to join its ally as scrap on the ground a few seconds later. Samus approached the door, and after glancing at its control panel, blasted the panel apart. The door slid open, and Samus stepped inside. It was largely empty, save for the massive containment machine against the back wall. It was a glass cylinder locked into a larger metal base connected to dozens of massive cables pulsing with yellow energy. Contained within the glass cylinder, visibly weakened, was a small creature. It had mainly yellow fur and a rounded head with bright red cheeks, topped by two large triangular pointed ears tipped with black fur, and a zig-zag tail covered entirely in black fur. At the base of its neck was a collar of black fur as well.
Samus paused as soon as she saw the tiny animal inside. This wouldn't be the first time she's seen some kind of alien species being held captive for ulterior motives, but something this small? What use could it possibly have?
The small little mouse-like creature weakly opened its eyes, staring up at its new arrival. "Pi…chu…?" Suddenly, the machine began to whir to life. Samus glanced back and forth as the cables began to light brightly, then suddenly the cylinder filled with electricity, and the creature's high-pitched screams of pain were barely muffled by its own prison. Samus noticed, however, that the electricity was being taken from the creature and being sent up the cables elsewhere, rather than the creature being electrocuted. Regardless, it was time to set it free. Samus shot each cable one by one, quickly deactivating the energy drain-effect the machine was having. The creature's screams stopped, and it was left lying inside its containment dazed, but seemingly otherwise unharmed. She then blasted the glass cylinder open wide, and quickly approached the now-destroyed machine.
The animal let out low moans of pain. Samus slowly reached down and gently stroked the top of its head with her fingertip. Its head was barely the size of her hand. "I'm getting you out of here…" She said to it. That was when deafening alarms filled the room, making Samus's ears pound, and more of the warrior robots quickly flooded the room. She snapped around and fired off a shot quickly, instantly downing one of them, but she wasn't able to fire off a second before she was swarmed. She was quickly brought down by a mass of metal pincers, striking her until she was on the floor, then her limbs were pinned down and her weapon struck from her hand. She looked up as one of the machines glared down at her, its camera lens eyes making the shape as if it was furrowing its brow.
"This one must have escaped during the intruders' attack," it said. "Her current imprisonment is ineffective. Bring her upstairs. General Duon will arrive shortly. He will know what to do with her."
"I don't think so, pal," another, non-robotic voice said. Suddenly, the ROBs one by one were being pulled away by some sort of air current. Before long, every robot, including the leader was sucked up into the gaping maw of a round pink being. Once every robot was consumed, its mouth shrunk down to what had to be its normal size. Before Samus stood the aforementioned pink ball of a being with bright blue eyes that had just eaten an entire room of robots, and next to it was a short, pudgy man with a mustache wearing overalls and a red cap.
"Hey, sorry about that," Mario said as he rushed in and quickly helped Samus to her feet. "You alright, miss?" Once on her feet, Samus walked over and retrieved her weapon from the ground.
"I'm fine," She simply replied, once again approaching the small yellow-furred creature, still resting in its shattered cylinder, and carefully scooped it up in her arms.
"What is that thing?" Mario asked.
"I'm not sure, but they were torturing the thing," Samus replied. "So, who do I have to thank for the help?" Samus turned, now seeing as two more figures joined: a young man with blond hair and pointed ears wielding a sword and shield, and a yae-tall blue humanoid creature in red shoes.
"I'm Mario. That's Kirby, Link and Sonic," Mario introduced.
"Samus," She nodded back at him.
"Pi…chu..?" The small creature squeaked as it began to move around in Samus's hold. Its small round had glanced back and forth between Samus and their saviors.
"Sounds as good a name as any. 'Pichu' it is," Mario smiled. "What are you doing here?"
"My ship crashed here, and I was taken hostage by these robots. Seems like they're no friends of yours," Samus said.
"Nope," Mario shook his head. "We're here to take this place down actually."
"But first, we need to find the main control room so we can find out where else they're trying to hit," Sonic added.
"If we're blowing this place, I need my armor and my ship," Samus said.
"'We'?" Mario repeated.
"Well I'm sure not staying here, pipsqueak."
"I'll help you retrieve your possessions," Link offered.
"Appreciated."
"Here, I'll take the little guy. I'm good with little animals," Sonic said. Samus nodded and carefully handed the "Pichu" off to Sonic.
"Once I have my ship, I'll pull around to pick you guys up," Samus said.
"Pichu!" The little creature hopped out of Sonic's arms and crawled up Samus quickly, perching itself on her shoulder.
"Guess the little guy already likes ya," Sonic said.
"I suppose so," Samus agreed, patting Pichu's head.
"We should be on our way before more machines arrive," Link said. Samus nodded, and the group split up, with Mario, Sonic and Kirby going one way, and Samus, Link and Pichu going the other.
The Central Control Room of the ancient monastery was abuzz. Words of intruders had spread quickly, and many of the ROB units had already spread around the complex, hunting down the enemy. This left only a relatively small group within the room itself. Which meant when the door to the room was sent flying out of it's frame, zooming across the room and flattening one of the few remaining ROBs against the wall, the rest of them quickly went on high alert, snapping around to find Kirby at the head of the trio with a massive wooden mallet in hand, clearly the instrument that had destroyed the entryway. Before the machines could make a move, however, a blue blur blasted through and tore through three of them in an instant, before the Mobian stopped at the back of the room with a hand on his hip.
"Man, and I thought fighting Egghead's badniks was easy. But you guys are just on another level," Sonic said confidently. Every ROB turned back quickly and primed their lasers, but Sonic was already on the move as they fired, quickly but albeit only narrowly dodging their blasts. But just as he does best, he was a distraction as Mario and Kirby attacked from behind. Mario leapt up and smashed the soles of his boots down onto the head of one of the robots, while Kirby did the same with his mallet, swinging it downward right on top of the next enemy, flattening it down into a circle of scrap. Mario leapt off the remains of his first defeated enemy, spinning forward through the air, and grabbed onto the boxy head of the next ROB, using his momentum and strength to yank it from the ground and throw its body forward, colliding with its next kin over, sending both to the ground. Sonic leapt up into the air and zoomed down onto them, smashing the downed robots into scrap.
The three heroes then turned to the final remaining ROB in the room, which seemed hesitant to continue the battle at first. Ultimately, it began to prepare to fire its laser, only for Kirby's hammer to fly through the air and smash its head into the wall, destroying it.
"We definitely made quick work of that," Mario said.
"Do we know any other way?" Sonic smirked. He and Mario fist-bumped. Kirby hopped up and stuck his stubby arm out, and Sonic obliged him with a fist bump as well. "Nice work, little buddy."
Mario put his finger to the comlink in his ear. "Minister, we're in the control room. What now?"
"Access the main terminal and find any information you can about their plans. We must be read-... fo-... -ack…" The transmission quickly began to cut out, until the Minister's voice became nothing but static on the line.
"I think we just lost connection to the minister," Mario said.
Sonic approached the main terminal. "Tech is normally Tails' thing, but let's see what I can do…" he tried to acclimate himself to the technology, seemingly more advanced for a civilization mean to be hundreds of years old, but the hedgehog had learned firsthand that ancient didn't mean barbaric. "Okay, I think I got this…" Mario and Kirby took his sides and looked up at the large monitor screen before them as Sonic managed to pull up data stored in the terminal. "I can't get into most of this, but it looks like they're moving fast. Seems like they're next two targets are another spot in Hyrule, and somewhere called Abel City."
"If they already stole Link's princess, what else could they want from his world?" Mario questioned. "Is there anything else?"
Sonic shook his head. "Nada. Either they haven't planned it yet, or I can't get into it. I'm no computer genius. I don't think we'll be getting any more battle plans outta this." His eyebrows then shot up as he was browsing and found something else. He tapped his own ear-bound comm. "Hey, Samus, I think I found where they're storing your stuff."
The metal door slid open, allowing Samus, Pichu and Link to enter a massive, open room half as wide across as a colosseum, and placed dead center in a tall glass cylindrical containment unit was a set of red and gold armor with a green visor in the helmet, with large spherical pauldrons and an arm cannon on the right arm.
"Your armor?" Link asked.
Samus nodded. "I used to have it bonded to me through my DNA, but after an… incident with a parasite, it had to be taken out. Having it bonded would be more convenient about now, though," She said.
"Hm," Link simply replied. Neither of them continued forward, though. Something felt off to both of them. Link tightly gripped the hilt of his sheathed Master Sword, ready to draw the blade at a moments notice, while Samus kept a firm grip on her firearm. Pichu curiously looked between the two, unsure of what was setting them off.
"See anything?" Samus asked. Link mutely shook his head. "Me neither. But this is too easy. Keep your guard up." The two then slowly stepped forward into the room, towards the contained suit.
The room was dead silent, the sounds of their footsteps echoing off the walls. Nothing came at them, but they never dropped their guard even for a second. They crossed most of the room, being only a few yards from the armor when suddenly a mass of shadowy black orbs suddenly began to wrap itself around the armor, enveloping it completely. Samus and Link stopped suddenly, the former aiming her firearm forward and the latter unsheathing his blade. The shadowy matter fully covered the suit and then began to peel away in two opposite directions, beginning to create two separate forms. Eventually, the matter fully split and the two split halves began to fully form into two identical figures: physical copies of Samus's armor, fleshing out into recreations of the armor itself, but instead of the orange and gold color scheme taking on an almost fleshy black with blue veins and visors, almost like dark mirrors of Samus.
"Not this again…" Samus remarked to herself. The two Dark Samus' began to step towards them, clearly ready for a fight. "I'll go right, you go left," Samus told her Hylian ally. Link nodded and quickly rushed his designated shadow clone. It quickly began putting its arm cannon to use, firing a burst of energy blasts his way. He held his shield in front of him, ducking behind it in his sprint, the energy bouncing right off its surface. Once within range, Link leapt upwards above the clone, twirling a full three-sixty before slashing his blade downwards. The clone dove out of the way, the Master Sword whooshing by its head through the air. As soon as it was on its feet again, it spin-kicked around at Link, who blocked the strike just in time.
Samus quickly shot a burst from her pistol to put her dark clone on the move, and kept doing the same as launched herself forward. She needed to close the distance before the Dark Samus could take advantage of it. Each pull of the trigger sent a small bolt of energy at her target, putting her off-track with each shot just enough to prevent counter-attack. Once up close, Samus kicked high, cracking the clone's blue visor with a single strike from her foot. In the same instant the sole of her foot made contact with the ground again, she shot her other leg outwards into the clone's left shin, sending its leg out from under it and bringing it down to one knee. She began to bring her gun upwards, planning to go straight for the head, but the clone swatted the weapon from her grip halfway through the movement and aimed her own weapon up. Samus moved her head to the side just before an energy blast shot from her opponent's arm cannon. She felt the heat radiating from the projectile as it narrowly missed her head.
Samus frowned and snapped forward to grab hold of the Dark Samus's arm cannon, pushing it to the side before it could fire again, then delivered an elbow to the clone's visor, cracking it further. She then yanked hard on the arm cannon, attempting to tear it off entirely. The first pull didn't do it, though, and Samus felt the harsh impact of the shadow's armored knee against her ribs, forcing a pained yell from her lungs. The Dark Samus then bashed its helmeted head against the left side of her head, filling her ear with a harsh ringing and sending her head spinning, her vision temporarily blurring. She lost her grip on her opponent's arm and was quickly flattened onto the ground. The Dark Samus stomped down onto Samus's chest, pinning her down, and aimed its weapon down at her head, energy charging up in its barrel. The shadow of Samus's own armor applied enough pressure to keep Samus from breathing. Samus attempted to push back, but her head was still ringing harshly, her strength not coming to her. She gasped for air as the energy in the enemy's weapon reached its peak.
Suddenly, a blast of electricity struck the Dark Samus in the back, sending it stumbling forward and missing its shot. It snapped its head around to see Pichu, yellow electrical currents sparking off and running up and down its small body, and an angered frown on its face. "Piii…chuuuu!" The tiny creature suddenly launched forward, surrounded by a field of electricity, and struck the Dark Samus dead center with its own body, pushing it off of Samus. Samus gratefully took in a few deep breaths, then lunged for her paralyzer on the ground.
The Dark Samus swatted Pichu off its torso, the hard strike making the creature's head spin. It let out a pained moan and glanced back up at the Dark Samus, which was already back on its feet and aiming its arm cannon downwards. Before it could fire, though, an energy blast shot through its head, fully shattering the already damaged visor and leaving a smoldering hole in its cranium. The Dark Samus fell to the side, before its body evaporated entirely. Samus held the smoking gun in front of her, before letting her arm fall to the side.
"Let's hope I never have to do that a third time," Samus panted while holding her side. She then walked toward and kneeled in front of Pichu, then gently pet his head, earning a happy squeak from it. "Seems you're a special little guy." She stood back up to her full height and eyed her armor in its containment unit.
Link was on the defensive, making good use of his shield to prevent his opponent's strikes from connecting. The Dark Samus was fast enough, however, to prevent Link from putting in attacks of his own. He had to create an opening. His opponent brought their leg up high and swung downwards. Instead of simply blocking the attack, Link swiped upwards with his shield, parrying the kick as well as putting the Dark Samus off balance, then thrust his blade forward, aiming to impale it swiftly. The Dark Samus flipped backwards, however, using the momentum Link gave it to avoid the attempted impalement. Midair, it charged up its arm cannon and aimed right at Link, whose shield was at his side because of his attack. Before it could fire, its torso was blasted open and it slammed onto the ground limply, dead before it even made impact, then faded away. Link took the chance to catch his breath, then snapped to the side to see Samus in her own suit of armor, her own arm cannon still wafting smoke.
Link sighed in relief and gave a grateful nod before sheathing his weapon. Before Samus could reply with even a simple nod, the entire monastery shook violently around them, rocking the ancient structure to the very foundation upon which it stood. It subsided after a few moments, but something told the two of them it was a bad sign.
"Time to go," Samus said as Pichu climbed up her suit and perched on her shoulder.
As the monastery rumbled around them, Mario grew more weary. "Something tells me that's a sign we should get outta here. And fast."
"Way ahead of ya, pal!' Sonic said. The mobian grabbed Mario by his arm and Kirby by his tiny little stub of a limb. "Hold on tight!" Sonic then blasted out of the room, gripping onto his companions firmly so they wouldn't fly back behind him. Within mere moments, the trio were back outside of the monastery. Sonic was unfazed, but as he let go of Mario and Kirby, he realized the two were left dazed and dizzy, with Kirby plopping down onto the ground as he regained his bearings.
"Next time… a little warning," Mario heaved.
"Ah, well, live and learn," Sonic shrugged. The ground below them rumbled, and the trio turned back around to see the monastery begin to break apart and crumble down into nothing but rubble, torn apart piece by piece until the ancient site became nothing but rock and memory. "Something tells me this wasn't a natural disaster."
"Threats discovered." A massive machine, far different from the ROBs, descended from above and dropped onto the ground before the heroes, shaking the ground again upon impact. The robot was two separate armored upper bodies attached to a single wheel with the yin-yang symbol on both sides, and the name DUON plastered along the rim. One upper body was painted pink with a cannon-barrel-like opening atop its head, with its arms having similar attachments instead of hands. The other upper body opposite the pink side was painted blue, and instead had two sharp ornate blades for hands and a similarly-designed blade atop it's head like a horn.
"That's a big robot…" Mario muttered.
"Intruders recognized. Variants logged. Beginning termination." The robot, Duon, then spun around so that its blue blade side faced them directly. Its wheel began to rev up, picking up speed while never actually moving forward. After building up enough, the robot then blasted forward and began swinging its blades quickly. Sonic simply ran out of the way, while Mario and Kirby leapt high over the attacks, barely getting over Duon itself. Before they could land, its pink side fired its cannons and hit both of them midair with energy blasts. The two tumbled to the ground wafting smoke. Sonic launched upward and primed a downward kick to strike at Duon, but the mechanized menace quickly began to spin in place at rapid speeds rivaling Sonic's own, creating gusts of wind. Sonic's eyes widened as he saw Duon's blades amongst the swirling storm of movement, realizing he was about to become mincemeat.
However, another vacuum of air began to pull Sonic away from the threat of being shred to death. Sonic looked back and saw Kirby inhaling, doing so with enough power to pull Sonic back towards him and Mario. Kirby released the pull once Sonic was out of harm's way. Mario was quickly back on his feet as well. "That didn't go very well," the plumber remarked while wiping himself off..
"Think this is that general the ROBs were talking about before?" Sonic questioned.
"Probably," Mario said. "Looks like the usual 'jump on his head' plan ain't gonna work here. Ideas?"
As they thought for a moment, Duon ceased his cyclone and turned its pink firing side towards them. Kirby noticed this, and an idea popped in his little head. He began hopping up and down. "Pahn! Pahn!"
"What are you saying, little buddy?" Mario asked.
"I think he's saying he's got a plan," Sonic attempted to translate. Kirby gave them both an affirmative nod. The three took notice of Duon charging its cannons for another firing barrage. "Here's your warning! Move!" Sonic once again grabbed his companions and sped out of the way just before energy blasts vaporized where they were standing in seconds. Sonic took them into the natural cover of the forest surrounding the monastery. The three crouched down even further out of sight, peeking out of the foliage as Duon began to use its blue side to cut down the forest, felling several trees at once with each swipe
"What's your plan, kid?" Mario asked. Kirby gestured to Duon out in the open, then used his two stub arms to gesture to the two opposite sides of Duon's being, ragefully laying waste to what remained of the ancient island. Kirby then turned and counted the three of them one by one. Mario tried to understand what Kirby was trying to convey, and upon another glance at Duon, it clicked. "Ah, I get it. If we keep both sides of him distracted at once, one of us can get him down the middle. He can't fight three of us if he's occupied in two directions already."
"Sounds like a good plan," Sonic said. "I'll take the ranged side."
Kirby reached into the seemingly endless storage of his body and pulled out a large sword from his gullet, and rose it high.
"Guess I'll be the one to take the middle then," Mario said.
Duon kept hacking away tree by tree, dead set on finding his quarry. Its guard wasn't lowered, though. It noticed as Kirby leapt up from the trees with his comically large sword and primed a downward swing. It swiftly attacked high to meet Kirby's weapon. Sonic then appeared in front of its back pink side wearing a confident smirk and crossing his arms. "Hey, buddy! Don't you want me too? You can't let him have all the fun!" The pink side narrowed its eyes and quickly began to fire more lasers the Mobian's way. Sonic quickly dodged every shot, though, keeping the robot's attention his way. "Come on, aren't machines supposed to be better than us living things in every way?" Sonic continued to mock.
As the blue blades swung at Kirby, the pink ball parried every attack and met with equal, if not greater, strength. The blue half of Duon had enough of the swinging back and forth and primed a thrusting drive with its right-hand blade. Kirby sidestepped the attempted impalement and sliced the blade-hand clean off the rest of the arm. Duon let out a howl as it then stared at its dismembered mechanical limb. It then swiped its remaining arm at Kirby, who cleaved that weapon off at the elbow, leaving the machine with no reach. At this point, the pink side stopped firing at Sonic.
"What's wrong? Get tired already?" Sonic mouthed off. That was when several missiles shot out of the barrel atop the pink half's head, the projectiles shooting up into the air before turning on a dime and blasting right for Sonic. "Wuh oh!" Sonic revved up and sprinted away in a second, the missiles chasing after him into the forest. Once the pink side was unoccupied, the blue side bent over and pointed its head-blade forward, then surged forward like a rhino, once again aiming to impale Kirby. The Dreamland hero slashed his weapon upward, connecting with Duon's ornament weapon, and then shattering it into a thousand metal shards.
Duon's wheel slowed as it passed Kirby. The pink side now faced Kirby and leaned forward to show its control, then aimed its cannon's forward again. Kirby wasn't worried, though. "Ma roh!" Kirby called out Mario's name as best he could, then tossed his sword high up into the air, even above Duon's heads. As he did, Mario leapt up from a nearby treetop, having been waiting for the right moment, and caught the sword midair, holding it above his head in both hands as he eyed his target: the gap between Duon's twin upper bodies. As Mario fell, he slashed the large blade downwards, bisecting Duon at the base and separating the two upper halves. The two halves split apart and rolled forward as far as they could with each half of their shared wheel before toppling forward.
"Now that's what I call two birds with one stone," Mario quipped, then tossed the sword back to Kirby, who simply swallowed the weapon, absorbing it back into wherever it came from. Explosions sounded from the direction Sonic fled in, and before long, Sonic broke through the treeline with only a single missile remaining tailing him. Kirby and Mario leapt away as Sonic ran straight for the pink half of Duon, left defenseless on the ground. Just before he would've collided with the collapsed robot, Sonic instead dropped and slid under it, sliding away as the final missile tagged the half of Doon instead, blowing it up into nothing but hot shrapnel. Sonic returned to his feet and admired his handiwork, and the other two heroes returned to his side.
"Great job all around, everybody," Sonic said, Mario giving him a fist bump.
"Impossible," the remaining blue half of Duon said. The trio turned to face the crippled machine. "Trillions died before you. Your methods were logged. Variation equations ran. Failure is not possible."
"Doesn't seem that way, pal. Guess you're not so smart after all," Mario said. "Where has Tabuu taken our friends?"
Duon ignored him, however. "Failure is impossible. Corruption is impossible. Failure… is not an option." Duon's chest opened to reveal a different, far more advanced-looking device filling a hollow space within the cavity. It was a silver orb with a red X painted on it, which then split in half to reveal an orb of chaotic, unstable purple energy within, and a timer appeared at the bottom of the device, starting at one minute and counting down. "Subspace absorption protocol activated."
"Why is it always a bomb?" Sonic questioned. From above, they heard the roar of engines, and an airship with red and orange paint job and a large green viewport descended from stopped just short of landing and a loading ramp lowered toward them, with Link waiting at the top of it, waving them on. The other three quickly leapt onto the ramp and entered the ship.
"We gotta get outta here fast! There's a bomb about to go off, and something tells me it's gonna be a really big boom!" Mario exclaimed as they entered and ran towards the large cockpit, where Samus was at the controls with Pichu perched on the edge of the main control terminal.
"On it," Samus replied before acting quickly on the controls, closing the control ramp and pulling the ship back up into the air, blasting off away from the Isle of the Ancients.
"Minister, can you hear us?" Mario asked into his ear-bound comm.
"Yes! I can! There seemed to be some interference with our communications for a moment there," The Minister said.
"No kidding. We're on our way out, can you open a rift to us?" Mario asked.
"Indeed, my friend. One moment." As the ship blasted off, Samus pulled up a holographic screen of the island behind them. As they blasted off, the Isle of the Ancients quickly became consumed by purple energy, a massive spherical blast quickly spreading and building up, until the isle in the sky was gone. The energy dissipated, and the ancient site was left as nothing more than history.
Upon return to Peach's Castle, Samus had landed the ship just outside. The group reunited with the Minister in the conference room, which had been cleaned up and repaired while the initial foursome had been gone. Now the group of six stood together with the Minister at the conference table, the latter of whom was clearly disturbed.
"A subspace bomb," The minister said. "I had thought them all destroyed in the last war. But it seems Tabuu spent those mellenia preparing for his return."
"What kind of weapons are these?" Samus asked.
"A subspace bomb is a device capable of absorbing entire cities in seconds in Subspace energy, creating a bubble of contained reality which then transports the location into Subspace."
"Why would Tabuu want to take locations to Subspace?" Mario questioned.
"Before, it was to take away our homes one by one. If there was no battlefield left, there would be no war to be fought," The Minister explained. "Although, as I mentioned before, his methods have changed somewhat, and I do not have an explanation as to why. What data were you able to recover before the Isle was taken?"
"We got his next two hits: somewhere back in Link's homeworld, and a place called Abel City," Sonic answered.
"Then it is those places we shall go," the Minister said. "I had hoped my old home would serve as a home base, but it seems the Mushroom Kingdom will have to do. Rest, heroes. For there is much work to be done."
New Challengers Approach!
Samus Aran
Pichu
Duon
Chapter 3: Ready and Abel
Chapter Text
Samus: Previously, on Smash: Emissary...
The mechanical forces you faced are designated as ROBs. They were once a peaceful, even revolutionary people. Until a day came where their world was conquered by a force of power far stronger than anything you four have ever faced. This force, this conqueror is known by one name… Tabuu."
"Sounds like we got a team, Minister," Mario smirked.
"I'm Mario. That's Kirby, Link and Sonic," Mario introduced.
"Samus," She nodded back at him.
"What is that thing?" Mario asked.
"I'm not sure, but they were torturing the thing," Samus replied.
"Pi…chu..?" The small creature squeaked.
"Sounds as good a name as any. 'Pichu' it is," Mario smiled. "What are you doing here?"
"My ship crashed here, and I was taken hostage by these robots. Seems like they're no friends of yours," Samus said.
Pichu!" The little creature hopped out of Sonic's arms and crawled up Samus quickly, perching itself on her shoulder.
"Guess the little guy already likes ya," Sonic said.
"Failure is impossible. Corruption is impossible. Failure… is not an option." Duon's chest opened to reveal a different, far more advanced-looking device filling a hollow space within the cavity. It was a silver orb with a red X painted on it, which then split in half to reveal an orb of chaotic, unstable purple energy within, and a timer appeared at the bottom of the device, starting at one minute and counting down. "Subspace absorption protocol activated."
As they blasted off, the Isle of the Ancients quickly became consumed by purple energy, a massive spherical blast quickly spreading and building up, until the isle in the sky was gone. The energy dissipated, and the ancient site was left as nothing more than history.
"A subspace bomb," The minister said. "I had thought them all destroyed in the last war. But it seems Tabuu spent those mellenia preparing for his return."
"We got his next two hits: somewhere back in Link's homeworld, and a place called Abel City," Sonic answered.
"Then it is those places we shall go," the Minister said.
Smash: Emissary
Chapter 3: Ready and Abel
He had hoped it would be peaceful today, that there wouldn't be a criminal or Maverick in sight, that his home of Abel City could just live for a day.
That's when they came. The sky itself opened and an army of machines rained down from above, quickly filling the city with a hostile force. X, the Maverick Hunter, had acted quickly to meet it. However, as soon as he met these forces head-on, their attention was on him singularly. Anyone else would've been overwhelmed, but X wasn't just anyone else. He held his own against the army, holding out longer than many would have any right to. Around him, littering the street the was now a battleground, was piling amounts of metal scraps and destroyed shells of the invaders, all felled by his own hands. Not to say he wasn't touched; his metal body, plated with both light and dark blue metal, was scratched and scorched sparsely, but it was mostly superficial. It would take more than that to put down the successor to Mega Man.
After creating a moment of breath, X let out a sigh of relief. "Alia, what's the situation?"
A digital chime sounded in his ear, and a female voice familiar to him replied, "I'm watching their troop movements. You were right, they're coming for you. All the units in the entire city went from fanning movements spread apart to sudden directional shifts as soon as you engaged them. You're their target."
"An entire city wide invasion just to get me?" X wondered.
"I don't think so. I think their primary objective is something else, but they see you as a major threat to whatever it is they're doing here," Alia said.
"Think Sigma's running a new scheme?" X asked.
"No. If it were, they'd be attacking humans. I'm seeing these things, and they're not reploids, not even close. Their technology is so different, but I can't recognize it."
"So not Sigma, got it. That makes these things new," X said.
"That makes them dangerous," Alia corrected. X spotted as three more of the robots zoomed around the corner, their flat platforms at their base shooting them through the air like missles, then shooting right for X. X quickly acted, bringing his arm up as it shifted into a cannon-like weapon, his X-Buster, and fired energy blasts from it, hitting two of the robotic trio midair, seeing them explode into shrapnel, but the third avoided his shots and collided with X dead on, gripping onto him tightly before taking him into the air with it. X quickly tore one of the robot's arms off his torso and got free of its grip, then threw it to his left. The robot spiraled out of control and connected with the side of a building before exploding like its comrades had.
X had begun to plummet as well, but he quickly activated his own thrusters, housed inside the soles of his armored feet, and his plummet slowed and reversed. He had regained control of his own body from gravity.
"You don't say…" X sighed again. "Zero chose quite the day to be out of town."
"How are those new foot jets treating you?" Alia asked.
"Coming in handy."
"You've got more coming your way. But be careful. I don't think it's just the robots this time," Alia warned. X landed on the ground and readied his Buster instantly.
"Which direction?" X questioned. As he posed it, the machines flew in from above and encircled him from every direction, locking their gazes on him as he quickly became surrounded by a small army of them, some landing on the ground with him, others staying in the air above, ensuring he had nowhere to go.
"Everywhere," Alia communicated. X steeled himself, the reality dawning on him that this might end up being more difficult than he thought. He quickly aimed his weapon upwards and blasted one out of the sky, and before its flaming body had even begun to plummet had snapped around and did the same to one on ground. Before he could fire on a third, the entire group of machines simultaneously fired burning red lasers onto him from small bulbs atop their boxy heads, like a hundred beams of light tracking him at once. He shot a few more out of the sky, but it wasn't quick enough to make a difference. The lasers began to heat up his metal body, steam wafting off of him as he felt his body begin to burn all over. He had to get out of this trap, and fast. He began to overcharge his Buster, and at its peak, he aimed upwards and fired, firing a much larger blast than before, tearing right through a larger amount of the machines directly above him, creating an opening in the mob of ROBs.
Without waiting a single second, he fired his thrusters and sent himself blasting upwards, too fast for his enemies to stop him. He was back out in the open air. But just as X took note of his newfound freedom, a new silhouette appeared in front of him, shadowed in the sunlight. He quickly halted his ascent and aimed his weapon forward, but a blow to his midsection sent him spiraling back down to the ground. X hit the ground harshly, but he had already flipped himself back onto his feet by the time his opponent had landed.
Before X stood a brawny man in peak physical shape. He wore a collared dark blue jumpsuit with white highlights and golden buttons, yellow boots and gloves adorned with golden armor bracers bearing designs of birds spreading their wings, a yellow scarf wrapped around his neck and draping down his chest, a silver pauldron on his right shoulder, and a red helmet with a black visor covering his eyes and a golden bird spreading its wings across the brow of the helmet, like a falcon taking flight. On the black visor were two triangular white eyes staring back at X. Aside from his appearance, something else about him was off putting to X; the man was radiating a dark purple aura whisping off of him like smoke.
"Alia… what am I looking at?" X whispered to the coordinator, keeping his gaze focused on the man in front of him.
"Scanning… he's a human man, but I can't identify him otherwise. He isn't in our database," Alia replied.
"If he's from the same place as these robots, I wouldn't expect him to be. What about that energy coming off of him?"
"I don't know. But this must have been who else I detected."
X frowned and kept his Buster at the ready. "I don't know who you are-" X called out to the man before him, "-but this attack on Abel City is going to stop, one way or another. I don't want to fight you, but I will defend my home. Leave before I'm forced to do something we'll both regret."
X was banking on appealing to this person's morals to come to a peaceful solution before more destruction was caused. Doing so to the robots would have been pointless: programming would determine their course of action. But this was a human, a person, a mind of his own. He waited for long seconds, but no response came. The man didn't even seem present, like he was possessed by something not himself, leaving him distant from X's pleas.
Instead, the man's right fist quickly became consumed by flame, and he launched himself forward in the blink of an eye. X quickly sidestepped a flaming punch, feeling the searing heat radiate off the attack, and took advantage of the opening to send his knee upwards into his opponent's stomach, taking him off his feet. X used the opportunity to grab hold of his opponent's torso and blast them forward with his foot jets, using the man as a human shield as he collided with several of the enemy robots from before, either knocking them out of the way or tearing right through them.
The man wasn't helpless, though. Amidst their flight. He grabbed one of the other robots by its rod-like neck and smashed its entire body against X, throwing their trajectory out of the mob of machines, then raised both fists above his head together. They quickly sparked up into raging flames. The man swung both his fists downward with extreme force, more than X expected a human to have. X's body bent from the attack, loosening his grip on his opponent, but a knee to the jaw ensured he lost it completely. In his stunned state, X was helpless as the man spun midair and brought his heel down onto X's neck with the same force, sending him plummeting back down to earth. He cratered into the ground with a resounding BOOM!
X let out a groan and opened his eyes just in time to see the man falling right towards with his fist aflame and primed to strike. X's eyes rounded and he put all power into his boosters to shoot him out of the crater he made just before the man reached him. The man struck the ground like a bomb going off, sounding off a sonic boom in a show of fire and force as well as both deepening and widening the initial crater. X covered his eyes from the initial flash of flame, but when he looked up, the man was once again standing straight, smoke silhouetting his form. His helmet's bright eyes shone through the smoke, staring right back at X.
X gritted his teeth, still feeling the burns on his chassis from all of his opponent's previous attacks. There's no way this guy is human. He's way too strong. And I've never met a human who could control flame like that. But he's not a reploid either. What are you…?
While X was focused on the man in front of him, the enemy machines from earlier had all flown in and surrounded the two of them, keen on keeping X locked in this fight. X glared at his numerous enemies, and frowned.
"X, what's happening?" Alia questioned.
"This guy isn't a normal human," X whispered. "He's strong, and tough., and I don't think he's in control of his own body. It's like he's possessed by something. I need to win the fight, but I need to do it without killing him or driving the battle towards the people. And the way I'm boxed in here, I'm running out of options."
"All of the other available Maverick Hunters are preoccupied, and I still can't raise Zero. Reinforcements aren't coming. That may only leave you with one option…" Alia said hesitantly.
"I'm not killing a human! That goes against everything Dr. Cain stood for!"
"I'm not saying this lightly, but if you don't, and this keeps up, he's going to kill you," Alia warned.
X growled. He wouldn't have it. He needed another solution. Ideas ran through his head, but with this army of machines at his heel at every turn of the fight, his options were indeed limited. Before he could consider any alternatives, the man pounced forward, his fist once again consumed by flame. X reacted quickly, sending a strike forward to meet him. Their arms clashed with the shrieking sound of metal on metal, which was quickly drowned out as their clash created a shockwave that shattered the very ground below them. They met equal in power, and pushed against each other's strength viciously.
The man met X's eyes with his own, and kept pushing, but X gave no ground. Before another strike could be thrown, the two heard a rumbling farther off, and it was beginning to get closer. The two looked upwards as an airship of some kind, painted red and orange with a bright green viewport, flew over just above them, then threw a harsh one-eighty as it hit the end of the street. Twin turrets on either side of the ship spun into position and opened fire with green energy bolts onto their position, but not at X himself; Rather, the small army of enemy machines began to be destroyed one by one, exploding into flame and shrapnel less than a second after the last.
Before long, X was no longer surrounded, the enemy robots quickly scattering less they be turned to scrap. The gunship overhead gave chase to them, bent on hunting them down. X smirked and, realizing he had an unknown ally, moved to finish his opponent quickly. He bashed his metal skull against the man's, sending him staggering back,then yanked him by his jacket collar back towards himself. X's knee blew all the air from the man's stomach, then X threw the man upwards high into the air. He put all of his power into his thrusters and shot up like a rocket right towards the man. He shot his arm out straight to his side and clotheslined him midair, then stopped his flight on a dime and grabbed the man by his color. He spun around and threw him back towards the ground, and instantly took aim with his Buster once again, charging the blast to max in just seconds, then fired. The energy blast connected dead center with the man's torso, and shot the man into the street like a bullet.
X took a breath and dropped to the ground, then rushed to the spot where the man had crashed down, keeping his weapon aimed up just in case. The smoke cleared, and X saw the man completely flattened out, letting out low groans. The shadowy, smoke-like purple aura was billowing off of him, before it suddenly shot out of his body with the sound like a shrieking, dying creature. All of the substance shot out into the air, then dissipated. X was left confused as to what had happened, but before he could process it, the gunship from before had come back around, and descended a few yards away from X and the collapsed man. X saw as it landed, and a ramp dropped at the back of the ship. Walking down from it was a figure in red and orange armor with a green visor, much matching the aesthetic of the ship. From the suit of armor came a woman's voice.
"Looks like we came in the nick of time," Samus greeted. X gave her a nod and looked back down at the man before him, who was starting to come too, still letting out pained groans.
"Ugh… everything hurts… why does everything hurt…?" he groaned. He then looked up at X directly, who was still aiming his weapon down at him. "Uh… what did I miss?"
Samus situated herself back into the pilot seat of her gunship and clicked a switch on the dashboard of the front of the ship. A pale blue hologram of the Minister flickered into life from the far left side of the terminal, and Samus spun the pilot's chair to face him. "Minister, we've landed in Abel City, and we've driven off the ROBs for the time being."
"Wonderful news! What exactly happened?" The Minister asked.
"The ROBs weren't invading like we thought, at least not yet," Samus informed him
"Instead, they were looking for me," X said as he stood at Samus's right side. The helmeted man from before, who revealed his name to be Captain Falcon, stood at Samus's left. Pichu also came up from under the console and hopped up into Samus's lap.
The Minister took quick glances at the other two, his head swiveling back and forth. "I see you've found new allies. So, you say you were targeted?"
X nods. "It seems they were searching for me, but we think it was just to take me out as a prelude to their actual plan. What it could be, we're not sure."
"Mmm…" The Minister tilts his head thoughtfully for a few moments. "It's possible they did this as a scouting mission, to truly understand what they are dealing with. Which means they will return, and soon. Remain on standby for the second wave. It will take the four of you working together to keep Abel City safe," The Minister advised.
"Yeah, about that, chief-" Falcon interjected, "You mind giving us a rundown on what's going on? I just got kidnapped by a bunch of life-size action figures and forced into a fight that isn't mine."
"Oh! Did Samus not inform you?" The Minister asked.
"We got the gist of it, but that still doesn't explain why we're being targeted and taken."
"You're not the first to be taken. In fact, Captain, you would be the fifth that we know of. Though you are the first we've seen to be possessed in such a way. Unfortunately, I do not have an answer for how you would be put in such a state. Tabuu's methods are becoming increasingly foreign to me."
X's comm rang, and he stepped aside to answer the call. Meanwhile, Falcon and Samus continued the conversation with the Minister. "What about my ride? I got taken in the middle of the race, and last I remember they were digging into it."
"That's what you're worried about?" Samus question.
"Hey, the Blue Falcon is no ordinary racer, sister," Falcon said defensively.
X stepped outside of the cockpit of Samus's gunship and the door slid shut behind him. Once out in the hall, he accepted the call on his line. "How does it look, Alia?"
"No signs of those machines left in the entire city. Mission accomplished," Alia reported.
"Mmm, I think the mission's just getting started. Word is they'll be back. Keep an eye out."
"And this word is coming from who?" Alia questioned.
"New allies. I have a lot to catch you up on," X said. He quickly filled Alia in on what Samus had told him and Falcon: about Tabuu, his sudden attacks on multiple worlds, and the defensive force being formed to end his threat for good. Needless to say, Alia was unsure of what to say next. "You alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, it's just… a lot," Alia replied. "I don't even know where to begin…"
"Right now, we just ensure they don't take Abel City, then go from there. Solve the problem at hand first."
"This is very out there, X, like nothing we've faced before. If it's really as bad as they say-" Alia began worryingly.
"We'll be alright, Alia. We've made it through tough spots before," X assured.
"There used to be more of us to make it through with. Gate, Axl, Doctor Cain-"
"I-I know, I know. And we really could use Doctor Cain's guidance about now. But we're still here, and I don't intend on going anytime soon. Alright? We've got this," X assured Alia. "Okay?"
A few moments of silence passed by before Alia responded with an unconvinced, "Alright. I'll keep you updated if I see any signs of those robots again." The line then cut, leaving X somewhat worried. He mentally noted to talk with Alia once this had blown over. He turned and re-entered the cockpit, where Samus and Falcon were finishing their call with the Minister.
"... complicated as is. I've yet to hear from the other team, so I would simply suggest standing on guard for when the inevitable next wave arrives. Good luck, Miss Aran, and I'll be back in contact soon." The Minister uttered those last words before the hologram fizzed out. Samus spun her seat around to face X as he entered.
"Guess we're just waiting for the hammer to drop then," Falcon remarked, then glanced towards Samus. "So, how'd you get dragged into all this?"
"Same as you. I got kidnapped after I crash landed on a floating island in the sky. Though I didn't get my brain scrambled like you. But I got out and ran into the others, and this little thing," Samus said, petting Pichu lightly as she finished the last part of that sentence.
"So what did you do before getting caught up in this situation?" X asked.
"I'm a bounty hunter. I hunt down the things no one else can. Dangerous things," Samus answered. "I usually work alone. This whole team thing isn't something I usually do."
"No kidding? Same here," Falcon smirked.
"I thought you said you were some kind of racer," X said.
"A man can have two talents. When I'm not on the F-Zero track, I'm hunting down wanted galactic criminals. The most dangerous in my universe. Man, that feels weird to say; 'my universe'..."
"What about you?" Samus asked X.
"Well, I'm certainly no bounty hunter. I protect Abel City from any threat, but primarily Mavericks," X answered.
"And a Maverick is…?" Falcon questioned.
"Right, guess I should explain more… this world is filled with both humans and robotic people called Reploids. However, whenever a Reploid goes rogue and causes panic, whether due to a virus or individual choice, I and others like me stop them. That's why we're classified as Maverick Hunters." X explained.
"So you're one of these Reploids too?" Samus asked.
X shook his head. "Technically, no. The Reploids were actually based off of me. I was originally constructed over a century ago by the greatest scientist of his age, Doctor Light. However, he put me into cryosleep for when the world truly needed me. That was when the late Dr Cain found me, and created an entire race of people from my design. He redefined society as we know it now by reverse-engineering me. So while I led to their creation, I am not a reploid myself."
"Sooo… you're basically reploid Jesus," Falcon remarked. Samus glared at him, but X smirked and chuckled a bit, seemingly amused by the comparison.
"I guess that's one way to look at it. What about the little guy?" X gestured to Pichu.
Samus shrugged. "I'm not sure where he's from. He was being held in the same place I was. It seems he has the ability to create electricity, and they were using him as a living battery. I freed him during my escape."
"Seems like he's taken a liking to you," Falcon said.
"It's not the first unique creature to do so," Samus said as if recalling something.
"Definitely sounds like you have a reputation. And I can relate to the whole 'not a team player thing'. I don't need someone else in the line of fire on my count. Besides, the one person you can trust most is yourself," Falcon said.
"That's a bit on the pessimistic side of thinking, don't you think?" X raised an eyebrow.
"He's not wrong. I've seen what kind of trouble being part of a team brings. I'd much rather get this over with as soon as possible," Samus agreed.
"Good comes from working with others too. There are some things that can't be done alone. Besides, it pays off to have friends by your side," X persisted.
"Friends don't come often in our particular line of work, kid. And when they do, it's really not for very long. It's not a big deal. Sometimes, you just gotta go it alone. Though, admittedly, this is not one of those times," Falcon said. "It's nothing personal, kid."
X questioned, "Isn't that kind of life lonely?"
"Very," Samus said. "But that's the job."
"And hey," Falcon added, "I'm all for a professional team-up every now and again, but not everyone's built for a unit. The term 'lone wolf' exists for a reason."
"I suppose I am used to working alongside others. I've never really been alone before…" X admitted. Alia's worries came back to the front of his mind. There really were so few of them left compared to when X was first discovered by Dr. Cain. Some lost to time, others to battle. He understood Samus and Falcon's point of view a little bit; if you confront threats alone, there may be no one to watch your back, but at the same time there's no one there to risk losing. He was sure that for them, that made their jobs easier. They were bounty hunters with simpler aspirations than X himself, who served as a hero on a larger scale, representing something pure for an entire city, an entire world even, but he's always had that support front he likes of Alia, Cain and others. He's a symbol to be sure, but he's also just part of what he represents. Maybe that's why he can't cope with the idea of having no one, because his entire purpose is to be surrounded by and protect people he cares for.
X frowned and shook his head. "But I don't see the value in cutting myself off from those who would stand by me."
Falcon chuckled. "It's not as simple as choosing to. Things happen, and sometimes that's just the way things are. Having others around you isn't a bad thing, and if you can make it all work out, that's great for you, kid; I get what you're saying, it just ain't for everybody."
"To change the subject," Samus interjected suddenly, cutting the conversation off midway, "Do you have any idea what the ROBs could have been here for? Any massive weapons?"
X shakes his head. "We're trying for an age of peace. Those kinds of things wouldn't exactly help that."
"Well, they were here for something, and knew you had to be out of the way to get it," Samus replied.
"They could've been trying to take him down to take his mind, like they did to me," Falcon suggested.
"Maybe," Samus said.
X's comm rang again, and he quickly answered. "Alia, what's up?"
"I just got massive energy readings! Another rift has opened! They're back!" Alia cried.
"We're on it," X confirmed, then turned to the others. "We're up." Pichu hopped out of Samus's lap, and Samus quickly stood to he full height and placed her off hand on her arm cannon. The group quickly exited Samus's ship, which was still parked at the first battle site. X readied his buster as well. "Alia, can you tell us how many?"
"..." Alia was quiet, but clearly on the line.
"Alia!" X repeated.
"I don't understand… there's only one. And it's big. Very big…" Alia said.
"How big?" Falcon asked. Suddenly, the sun was blotted out by a massive figure in the sky with a thin, bony body structure. It was a creature with an angular head and a massive wingspan, and a long tail with a sharp point at the end. It was also massive, X's quick scan of it telling him from head to toe it was over twelve feet tall. "Oh… that big…" Falcon said. "But it's not a problem, right?" Falcon glanced at the other two. X nodded and kept his buster at the ready, but when Falcon saw Samus, she was different. She was staring up at the creature intently, her whole body frozen in place. Falcon noticed her hand was slightly shaking.
"That… that's not possible…" She muttered.
"You know what this thing is?" X asked her. An ear piercing screech filled the air and it suddenly dove for the ground, just near their position.
"Move!" Samus commanded. The three of them leapt away just before the creature landed on the ground with a boom! It was huddled down, wrapped up in its blue-gray veined wings. It stood up to its full height and spread its wings out, baring a long snout with razor sharp teeth and harsh yellow eyes. Its spindly fingers curled out, baring its blade-like claws. It then let out a bellowing ear-shredding shriek from its lungs, then chuckled.
"So the scared little girl shows her face again," it hissed, then cackled.
"Ridley…"
"In the flesh, which I'm sure is a surprise to you," Ridley smirked. "Perks of being a general for basically a god."
"Tabuu recruited you?" Samus questioned.
"He knew there'd be roadblocks to his plan. He needed someone to break those roadblocks. And we both know how I enjoy breaking things. Like your family's skulls," Ridley snarled. Samus quickly aimed her weapon and fired a burst of energy shots into Ridley's face, to little effect. Ridley chuckled darkly. "My turn." Ridley launched himself forward and boosted himself with his wings and ensnared both Samus and Falcon in his claws while X launched himself over the space pirate. Ridley slammed both Falcon and Samus into the ground and carved up the street with their bodies, creating long trenches along the road, then threw them both forward forcefully, sending them hurtling down the street.
Just as Ridley slowed himself down, he was blasted in the eye with a ball of electricity. He let out a pained cry and snapped his vision downwards to see Pichu, electrical charges sparking out from his red cheeks. Ridley snarls and darts for Pichu, opening his deadly maw to swallow Pichu whole, only for X to kick his head aside and send him crashing into the wall of a nearby building. X landed on his feet and immediately let loose a barrage of blasts from his Buster. The blasts simply dispersed over Ridley's scales. Ridley snapped back around and opened his reptilian jaws and blasted a wide solid beam of purple-red energy from within, hitting X directly and sending him into a parked vehicle on the street, which then exploded into flame and shrapnel.
From behind the dragon, Falcon leapt up into the and spun in a cartwheel fashion, his right boot sparking flame then fully igniting. Falcon brought the kick down towards Ridley's head, but the pirate's blade-like tail shot upwards and parried the attack, throwing Falcon into an out of control spiral. Ridley snagged him midair in his claws, then widened his carnivorous maw, readying another beam of energy. Samus suddenly slid under the two with her arm cannon aimed upwards. From it she fired a missile that zoomed upwards and blasted apart next to one of Ridley's eyes, blinding and stunning him for a moment. Falcon smirked confidently and took the chance to get free, blasting flame from his hands to push himself out of Ridley's loosened grip and backflip safely onto the ground. His feet once again ignited only to blast him forward. Falcon once again aimed a flaming kick, but this time for Ridley's leg. The attack connected and swept Ridley off his feet. The pirate slammed onto the ground, and Falcon blasted himself backwards and upwards into the air above Ridley in a fluid movement, his fist becoming consumed by a raging fire. Falcon reeled back his fist, preparing an attack as the flame around his arm grew.
"Falcoooon…!" Ridley's tail shot upwards, aiming to impale Falcon. His eyes widened and he acted quick enough to put his pauldron between the blade himself, countering the lethal strikes at the cost of losing his flaming attack. Ridley shot upwards and swatted Falcon midair with his class, sending him flying into the side of a building, then watching him drop back down to the street. Ridley cackled before another rocket hit him in the head, and his vision locked onto Samus.
"I'll kill you right here, right now," Samus hissed.
Ridley chuckled in amusement. "You can try!"
X groaned as he pulled himself out of the flaming wreckage of the car, burn marks scoring his metal body. He rubbed his head, but leapt up onto his feet ready to continue the battle. Then Alia's voice shrieked in his ear.
"X! We have a problem!" It was a scream, like she was in a panic.
"What? What's going on?!" X quickly questioned.
"Those robots from before, they're breaking into the lab! There's too many to-!" The line suddenly broke into scrambled static, followed by the sounds of buster shots, then the line cut off completely.
"Alia!" X cried. Without another instant passing, X blasted up into the sky and zoomed off towards the lab.
Falcon began to recover from Ridley's last hit as Pichu rushed up to him. "Pichu! Pichu!"
"Don't worry little buddy, I'm alright," Falcon chuckled then coughed as he got to his feet. "Maybe a little sore…" Falcon looked on at the battle between Ridley and Samus. Samus was keeping just out of Ridley's reach doing damage little by very little, but that wouldn't last forever. He also saw X take off into the sky and fly away without warning, meaning it was just him and Pichu now. He glanced back at Ridley and frowned. "He's too fast, and so strong. How do we nail this guy?"
"Pichu!" The small mouse cried, trying to get Falcon's attention.
"Hold on a second, little guy, I'm thinking!" Falcon frowned. Pichu scowled and shocked Falcon's leg for an instant just to get his attention. "Ow! What was that for?!"
Pichu, now with Falcon's attention, gestured to Samus's Gunship, still landed just down the road. "Ah, I get ya. Should be enough power on that thing to send that thing back where it came from. C'mon, let's go." Falcon and Pichu both bolted for the gunship.
Samus was barely keeping out of reach of Ridley's claws, only managing to get single shots off before having to move. Eventually though, Ridley gained too much ground on her. She tried to leap away from a clawed strike only for Ridley's tail to swipe her feet under her and then slam her down into the ground. Before she could even recover, Ridley stomped his foot down onto her, blasting all the air from her lungs and cracking the street below her. He continually added pressure down onto her torso, making it harder for her to breathe. She aimed her weapon up, but Ridley pinned her arm down with his tail. He lowered his pointed snout down towards her. "I will tear you apart and devour you, but first I want to hear you scream…" He growled, bringing one of his razor-sharp claws down toward her visor. "Scream for me.." Samus struggled and squirmed, but he couldn't escape the monster's grip.
Just as Ridley's claw touched her, he was suddenly struck by massive blasts of energy that sent him flying, forcing him to let Samus go. Samus quickly took harsh deep breaths to fill her lungs, then glanced up to see her gunship flying above them, weapons still smoking. They fired again as Ridley was recovering, blasting the pirate into the side of a building. While Ridley was indisposed, the ship lowered down and the back ramp lowered to reveal Pichu waving Samus on. Samus, still trying to recover her breath, glanced at the stunned Ridley, and after a moment of consideration, went for the ramp. She leapt upwards and grabbed onto the side of the doorway to pull herself in. The ramp closed behind her and Pichu, and she rushed to the cockpit, finding Falcon in the pilot's seat.
"Out of the chair!" Samus exclaimed. Falcon quickly turned and moved out of it. As soon as Falcon left the pilot seat, Samus leapt in and readied even more of her ship's weapons. She wanted to end Ridley, here and now. Ridley pulled himself out of the impact hole in the building, and snarled at the gunship. Samus began to charge the ship's weapons again, but Ridley didn't attack. He turned his head to look deeper into the city, then slowly faced them again and smirked, letting out a harsh cackle. He flapped his large wings and shot upwards into the air. A rift in space opened just above the rooftops. Ridley performed a loop in the air then shot straight into the rift, which snapped closed behind.
"That's not good, it's never good when they laugh," Falcon remarked. Then, they felt the city shaking around them, even within the gunship. On the horizon, they spotted a dome of purple energy, blasting out. And its radius was growing quickly. "What is that?"
"Where is X?" Samus questioned.
Alia hid behind a turned over table in their lab, hiding as a full sixsquad of ROBs fired their lasers down on her, the table giving her just enough cover. She wiped her golden-blonde locks out of her blue eyes, then popped up and shot another one in its boxy head, sending it toppling over. In the same instant, though, one of the other ROBs shot her shoulder, sending her backwards onto her back. She quickly scrambled behind the table again and held her shoulder. The laser didn't burn through the metal of her body, but it had scorched that part of her red armor black. She took a few quick breaths, then readied her buster again. She turned around, braced herself, then put all of her strength into a kick that sent the table flying, hitting two of the ROBs and pinning them down. She leapt to the side as the lasers of the remaining three fired on her position. She managed to blast two of them apart midair, but the third was quicker, and tagged her leg with the laser. She let out a pained cry and slammed onto the ground ungracefully. She held her leg while wincing, then a shadow fell over her. She looked up as the final free ROB stood over her, the laser bulb atop its head lighting up again. She gasped and raised her buster arm upwards, but before either one of them could fire, the ceiling broke open and X crashed downwards onto the ROB, destroying it instantly.
"X!" She cried out in relief. X gave her a smile and helped her up.
"You okay?" X asked worryingly.
"Could be worse," Alia sighed. The two heard the table be thrown back, and X snapped around and shot the remaining two enemies that had gotten themselves free.
"X! X, are you there?!" Samus's voice filled X's ear, and he quickly replied.
"Samus, I'm alright. What's going on?"
"You need to get out of there! NOW!" She exclaimed. X's eyes rounded, and he quickly turned to Alia.
"Hold on!" X pulled Alia against him and Alia wrapped her arms around him and held on as X blasted back up through the hole in the ceiling he created.
"What's going on?!" Alia questioned. They shot out of the building into the open sky outside.
"I think we're about to find… out…" X looked around and his eyes rounded as the horizon was quickly being filled with a dark purple energy, and it was racing towards them, eating up entire districts of the city in seconds.
"X, go! GO!" Alia cried. X put all of his power into his jets and shot away like a rocket, with Alia holding on with all her strength. As they flew off, the energy was racing forward behind them , gradually catching up. Alia looked behind X and saw the distance between them and the blast shrink further and further. "It's catching up!" X pushed his thrusters to the limit, flying above the tallest buildings in Abel City in an attempt to outrace the energy behind them.
Alia looked to their side as Samus's gunship began to approach, also outracing the blast. After a few moments, the gunship was just ahead of them, and the bottom ramp opened with Falcon hanging on and waving them inside. "C'mon! Let's go, get inside!" X was already at his speed limit, but still he pushed on.
"I can't go faster!" X exclaimed.
Falcon frowned and called back into the cabin. "Ease on the throttle for just a second!"
"Are you crazy?!" Samus replied.
"We need to get them in!" Falcon said.
"Rrrg… come take the controls!" Samus ordered. Falcon grimaced and rushed back inside and up to the main cockpit. In a single instant, Samus left the seat and Falcon took her place, keeping the ship's engines going. Samus rushed to the back of the ship where Falcon was, seeing X flying in the air as the massive blast was catching up. Samus aimed her arm cannon towards them, but instead of a projectile, a grappling hook shot from it and latched onto X's arm. The line reeled in quickly, pulling both X and Alia into the ship. As soon as they were inside, Samus closed the ramp and rushed back to the cockpit. "Out of the chair!"
"Getting out of the chair!" Falcon replied. Samus regained the controls and put all of the ship's power into the engines, shooting them forward. The blast that had been catching up was soon falling away. X and Alia caught up with them and entered the cockpit.
"What was that?!" Alia exclaimed.
"Fly now, talk later," Falcon said. Samus kept the gunship going and going. After a few more strenuous seconds, the blast quickly shrunk in and imploded, the danger gone. Samus let out a breath and eased up the engines.
"That was close…" Alia sighed.
"Take us back down. Now," X said. Samus did so, pulling the ship back around and descending from the sky back down to ground level. As soon as the ship landed, X and Alai raced to the back of the ship and re-lowered the ramp, racing out onto the earth as soon as they could. The scrambled and ran out, only to stop dead at the sight before them.
Abel City was gone, only a deep crater carved out in its place. Their home, the palace they considered their entire world, was gone.
Their eyes rounded and Alia dropped to her knees. "Abel City… it's… it's gone…" She muttered, not finding the strength to speak louder. X brought himself down next to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder to try to comfort her, but his own eyes were still on the crater as well. He couldn't begin to process the sight in front of him. Alia's head dropped, and she began to let out small sobs. X pulled her close and hugged her, an action she returned with a tight grip, using X to anchor herself to this moment.
Samus, Falcon and Pichu caught up with them after a few moments, taking in the sight as well. Samus paused for a moment, then saw Alia and X together on the ground. She sighed and removed her helmet, letting her tied back blond hair out. Falcon was surprised; this was the first time he was seeing her face. He wasn't even sure she was human. But now that he saw her, he understood a little why. She was a fairly beautiful young woman, but her eyes and expression seemed almost distant. He recognized that kind of look, the one that comes with having seen horrible things time and again. And he imagined some of those things had to do with Ridley, but now wasn't the time for him to ask her.
Samus approached the robotic duo and kneeled down on X's other side. "I'm… sorry, X…" She said softly.
"What… what was that?" X asked.
"A subspace bomb. It takes places out of their realities and traps them in a world between worlds. That is where we'll find Tabuu," she answered. She looked back up at where Abel City once stood, the gravity of what exactly kind of power they were facing against finally setting in.
Chapter 4: Guardian Graveyard
Chapter Text
Sonic: Previously, on Smash Emissary...
"Mario!" Peach screamed.
"Peach!"
Peach was just as the others had become: a bronze-like statue. And before Mario knew it, the robot holding her blasted off into the sky. "Peach!" He cried again.
Link saw Zelda's form as now a bronze-like statue.
"Zelda!" Link exclaimed. He watched as the machines flew off into the sky, and then with another flash of white light, were gone entirely.
"I do not know why he kidnapped your friends, and due to the fact he cannot leave Subspace, he has employed the aid of many evildoers to lead his army and further his conquest, such as the Koopa King Bowser, as you have seen."
"We got his next two hits: somewhere back in Link's homeworld, and a place called Abel City," Sonic answered.
Before X stood a brawny man in peak physical shape. Aside from his appearance, something else about him was off putting to X; the man was radiating a dark purple aura whisping off of him like smoke.
The shadowy, smoke-like purple aura was billowing off of him, before it suddenly shot out of his body with the sound like a shrieking, dying creature.
"Ugh… everything hurts… why does everything hurt…?" he groaned. He then looked up at X directly, who was still aiming his weapon down at him. "Uh… what did I miss?"
"You're not the first to be taken. In fact, Captain, you would be the fifth that we know of. Though you are the first we've seen to be possessed in such a way."
"So the scared little girl shows her face again," it hissed, then cackled.
"Ridley…"
"What's going on?!" Alia questioned. They shot out of the building into the open sky outside.
"I think we're about to find… out…" X looked around and his eyes rounded as the horizon was quickly being filled with a dark purple energy, and it was racing towards them, eating up entire districts of the city in seconds.
"Abel City… it's… it's gone…"
Smash: Emissary
Chapter 4: Guardian Graveyard
Link was the first out of the rift onto the ground, with Mario, Sonic and Kirby immediately behind him. The four of them found themselves just outside what had to be at least a full acre of scrap, metal and disabled machines, dirty and forgotten, lifeless. The rest of the world around them was such a contrast: bright green fields and vibrant trees. But the scrapyard emanated a sort of haunting warning.
Link furrowed his brow. It would make sense for the enemy to come here. There was plenty here to use for an army of machines.
"What is this place?" Mario asked.
Link answered without taking his eyes off the scrapheap. "After the Calamity ended, all of the ancient technology we had access to shut down permanently. It was all gathered here for study. Then after the Upheaval, an excess of Zonai technology was discovered, much of it was brought here as well."
"It feels almost like a graveyard," Sonic said.
"In a way, it almost is," The Minister chimed in over their comms. "This is a testament to Hyrule's passage of time. So much accomplished, so much achieved, and yet those old civilizations faded away all the same. It makes you wonder what could change after your lifetime. Or perhaps, even during it. What could make a world change?"
As the Minister kept wondering aloud, Link continued on, leading the way into the scrapyard. The others followed closely behind.
"It's kind of like the ancients back on Mobius. No matter how advanced you are, there's always something too big and too dangerous for advanced technology alone," Sonic said.
"Any sign of the bad guys, Minister?" Mario asked.
"After I sent you through, I detected multiple energy sources within the scrapyard. I fear our enemy has arrived just before we have. From what I can tell, the same is true in Abel City as well. Samus has already engaged them. I would anticipate heavy resistance within the scrapyard," The Minister reported. "And if I were you, I would follow Link's lead. I'm positive he'd know best how to approach the situation. Now, I will be on standby. Good luck, heroes." The Minister's transmission fizzled out, leaving the four others alone. Link looked back at them and waved them forward before taking the lead into the scrapyard.
It was like a maze, piles of metal and dead machines creating impassable walls the team had to circumvent. It almost felt like hallowed ground, as if the spirits of the technology itself, Zonai and Guardian alike, still remained. Link now thought of the abandoned battlefield back on the Isle of the Ancients. It had a similar feel, if not more seeped into the very ground there.
Link couldn't pretend to understand the technology that now lay dormant here. Even the best researchers in Hyrule had only begun to scratch the surface. There was so much to their own world they didn't yet understand, and yet he found himself in a situation on a far grander scale. To be honest, it made Link feel even further out of his depth. That's why he kept his mind on something simpler: save Princess Zelda. That did always seem to be his mission. He chose it. He swore loyalty to her, swore to protect her. So far, he'd done that, through the Calamity and the Upheaval. Despite time itself keeping them apart in one way or another, he found her.
This would be no different. He would overcome the trials in his way, and save her, just as before. He was confident in that. Time could split them apart, but fate would bring them together again. And yet…
He took a silent breath before refocusing himself at the task at hand: inspecting the scrapyard.
It had been a few minutes of nothing but silence. Link would normally prefer that, but if the Minister was right, there were foes to be found here among the metal. Link couldn't be at ease.
The painful silence was broken by Mario. "Hey, Link, out of curiosity, you keep mentioning these things: the Calamity and the Upheaval. What exactly happened?"
Link didn't feel like living in the past right now. He needed to be in the moment, be ready. But there were four of them here, four who were very capable. So he figured talking wouldn't hinder his ability to stay on guard.
"Over a century ago, when Hyrule was at its peak, and we had first discovered the ancient's technology, a beast called Calamity Ganon emerged and plunged our kingdom into darkness. It took control of our Divine Beasts and killed the champions of our world… my friends. I would've joined them had the princess not taken me to a sacred place, where I would heal for a hundred years while she single-handedly held Ganon back. During that time, Hyrule was in a state of chaos. When I awoke from my slumber, I went to work regaining control of the Divine Beasts and finally defeating Calamity Ganon. That was the Calamity, now seven years in our past," Link informed.
"Wait, so you're over a hundred years old?" Sonic questioned.
"It's… complicated. While I was being healed, I didn't physically age. Neither did the princess. Her stalemate with Calamity Ganon left them both in suspended animation. But the world around us still moved forward. Friends once peers became our elders. We found ourselves in a Hyrule almost foreign to us. After the Calamity was over, we spent the next six years growing accustomed to it." Link frowned a bit. He'd never actually talked about this. The "after". What it was like outside of these conflicts. How he dealt with it. He just dealt with it.
No, that's wrong. They dealt with it. He and his princess. Together. But even then, he never spoke of it. Not how they dealt with losing the lifetime of experiences with their friends, not about trying to help rebuild a kingdom a century in ruin, not about how out of place Link himself felt at times. Hyrule was home, but the one he found upon reawakening wasn't the one he knew. Even now, seven years later, he still hasn't felt like he was quite adjusted to what Hyrule is over what it was.
That's where Zelda would come in. She was so ready to keep moving forward, Link didn't have the chance to dwell. The kingdom needed her, needed them. That's what mattered. That's what still matters. This exact train of thought is why Link didn't want to dwell in the first place. It slowed him down, made him unfocused. They had a job to do here, an important one at that.
"We should get moving," Link simply said before picking his walk up into a brisk jog to get ahead. The others took up his faster pace, though Sonic and Mario traded an offside glance with one another.
The four would continue through the scrapyard until they picked up voices nearby. Link signaled silently for them to stop, then gripped the hilt of the Master Sword above his right shoulder in preparation. He crouched down and motioned them forward, and the group quietly moved onward around a corner and behind a shorter, but still thick, wall of metal. The four peeked out of their cover to spot a fairly large clearing in the scrapyard that seemed to be fairly populated.
Within the clearing was a woman with white hair put up in a thick bun with red-framed glasses and a pair of golden spectacle-like goggles atop her head. Link recognized her as Purah, effectively the royal scientist for Hyrule. She seemed to be being interrogated by a robust man in a spherical floating pod. The man wore a red flight jacket with white highlights, blue-lensed glasses over his eyes and goggles atop his head. On the ground behind the man was a robot strikingly-similar to Sonic, with sleek metal blue plating covering most of its body with intimidating digital red eyes. Filling the robot's chest cavity was a full turbine. Around the rest of the clearing were a full squad of ROBs.
"Guess we found the bad guys," Mario remarked. "With a mad scientist at the head."
"You know the man?" Link asked.
"Yeah, Dr. Eggman. Evil scientist, inventor, wants to rule the world, the whole shebang," Sonic whispered. "I'm sure he'd love to figure out how to get some of this old stuff working."
"How do I get this stuff working?!" They heard Eggman exclaim.
"Told ya," Sonic said.
"That is the entire purpose of my time here, to find out exactly that. Or at least it was before you showed up and took me hostage," Purah spat back.
"Then I'll take whatever data you have so far. I'm interested in the technology of your ancients and Zonai. I could put it to good use on my 'rodent' problem," Eggman snickered.
"I won't be giving you anything," Purah said, standing her ground with the mad scientist.
"Stubborn with your research, eh? Gotta admit, I respect it, as a fellow scientist. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to chat for too long, so perhaps some motivation is in order," Eggman smirked. He snapped his fingers, and two ROBs at the back of the clearing split apart from one another and made way for two more figures who joined them.
It was Peach and Zelda, however the princesses did not seem themselves. They stared ahead blankly, their eyes glowing an unnatural gold rather than their normal sky blue and emerald green respectively. Their bodies also let off a thick dark glow, a blackish-purple smoky-like aura wafting off of them in thin wisp trails. They joined Eggman's side like they themselves were machines.
"That's Peach…" Mario muttered.
And Zelda… Link thought. The stakes here just got higher. They needed to find a way to save both princesses.
Once Purah recognized her monarch, her eyes rounded. "Zelda?!"
"Ah yes, this one is your despot, isn't she?" Eggman sneered, lowering his pod down to place a hand on Zelda's shoulder. "She won't hear you. If she can, there's nothing you can do. She's a puppet now, being moved by a force greater than you or I. And you will become the same if you do not give me that data. So I advise you to give up what you have of your own free will while you still have one."
"This doesn't sound good. We need a plan," Mario said. "Sonic, how about-" The heroic plumber turned to his left, expecting to see the Mobian Hedgehog crouched at his side, only for the space to be vacant. "Sonic? Oh no…" He, Link and Kirby all looked back forward to the clearing.
"I won't be giving you anything," Purah spat with venom towards Eggman.
"Unfortunate. Then perhaps your own princess would be able to persuade you," Eggman snickered. The mindless Zelda approached Purah, pulling a small dagger from her belt and gripping the hilt tightly, her eyes blank of any emotion behind the golden glow. Purah backed away, only for two ROB's to boost behind her and block her escape.
Zelda readied the small blade in her hand, only for it to be suddenly gone in a blue blur. "C'mon, Egghead, is this really what you're down to now? Hunting around for scraps?" Eggman's pod snapped around to see Sonic standing atop one of the massive mounds of scrap, twirling the dagger between his fingers before tossing it aside. "Seriously, this is a new low."
"Ah, Sonic! I knew it would only be a matter of time until you showed your blue furry face," Eggman grimaced.
"Wherever you stir up trouble, I'll always follow," Sonic said confidently with a wide smirk.
Eggman chuckled. "That's what I'm counting on, rodent."
"Well, no choice but to get in there now," Mario said before standing up, with Kirby ready at his side as well. Link started to stand up to his full height, only for his sense for danger to spike. He noticed a shadow moving quickly on the ground, a figure behind them. Link quickly spun on the spot and lunged forward with his Hylian Shield in front of him, only for more metal to meet it and send him through the air. He went over the mound of scrap they were sheltering behind and landed on his back in the clearing, skidding and kicking up dirt into a small cloud before he stopped. He groaned, although Kirby and Mario quickly landed harshly and joined him in the dirt.
Eggman glanced over at Sonic's allies, and cackled. "Your new friends, I presume?" Sonic frowned and blasted forward for Eggman, only for the robotic Sonic to quickly meet him and spin-kick his form midair. Sonic flipped backwards from the impact and landed on his feet on the ground.
"Rrrg, I didn't miss you either, Metal…" Sonic groaned while holding his stomach. Metal Sonic bared his sharp fingertips, but didn't attack further.
"Luckily, I've made some friends of my own," Eggman smiled devilishly. Link, Mario and Kirby's attacker came from around the mound of scrap, revealing himself. He was a broad moan with brownish-green skin and flaming red short hair and matching beard. He was tall and muscle bound, strapped in a brown armor Link recognized as Gerudo design and carrying a wide bronze sword. But it wasn't just the armor he recognized, but the man as well.
An Evil King had returned.
"Sonic - and friends - meet Ganondorf. Although I believe one of you is already familiar," Eggman snickered.
Link scowled and was on his feet and launching forward in seconds, Master Sword drawn in less than an instant and aimed right for Ganondorf's neck. The Gerudo's own weapon clashed with it quickly. Their fighting speed was even, even when wielding such a large weapon. Link wouldn't be deterred. In the same moment the swords clashed, Link swung his shield down onto his broader opponent. No way was given, and Ganon's knee suddenly and harshly dug into Link's torso, sending the Hylian Hero backwards. Link stumbled upon landing, and Ganon moved quickly. After a brief rush that closed the distance between them, Ganon's bronze blade began an upward swing that Link barely moved his shield in time to block. The force still sent Link further back, catapulting him further away attacker. Link dug his own sword into the ground and carved a streak into the earth to slow himself down. Once Link stopped himself, he dropped down to one knee, still holding onto the Master Sword's hilt. The attacks were sudden and unexpected. Even the opponent himself was unexpected. By all means, Ganondorf should be dead and gone, slain in their previous encounter.
Ganondorf let out a hearty chuckle filled with malice. "Surprised to see me, boy? I knew you would be."
"Tch…" Link grunted as he returned to his feet and pulled the Master Sword from the ground. Mario, Kirby and Sonic took his back, gazing around as ROB's encircled the clearing, but did not move in, simply creating a perimeter around the others. Metal Sonic lifted off the ground and floated in the air beside Eggman's pod.
"You 'heroes' can't be the only ones who get to team up," Eggman said. "We all have debts to collect."
"And this time, none of you will stand in our way," Ganondorf added.
"Yeah, we'll see about that, tough guy," Mario said confidently.
"We've beaten you guys before. We can do it again no problem," Sonic smirked.
"Poyo!" Kirby chimed in agreement.
Link did not share the confident optimism. He hadn't taken his eyes off of Ganon. This man, this monster that he had felled had come back, and come back with a vengeance it seemed. Ganon noticed it, and laughed.
"I can see it in your eyes, swordsman. The anger, the venom. You want to kill me. To run me through with that holy sword of yours," Ganon deduced. "Oh, I know you hate me for all I've done to this pathetic world of yours. And for what I could still do." Link's grip tightened on the Master Sword. Link was angry. Ganon was right, he'd like nothing more than to cut him down himself. But as Link eyed both Purah and the possessed Zelda, he took a breath. He reminded himself of the bigger goal here, but also assured himself the Gerudo would meet his end eventually.
Mario whispered to Sonic, "We need to get the princesses and that scientist lady out of here. And fast."
Sonic glares at his robotic counterpart next to Eggman, who was staring daggers through him. "I won't be able to get to anyone with Metal right there," Sonic whispered back. "The second I move, he'll be on me. That's not counting the other bots surrounding us."
"But if Metal's distracted, you might have a chance?" Mario questioned.
"A few seconds is all I need," Sonic replied. Mario nodded, then glanced down at the pink ball at their feet.
"Kirby, think you can do that?" The plumber asked. Kirby nodded.
Link listened as they planned. He couldn't argue with it, it was a good plan. And it offered them a chance to save their friends and get them out of harm's way. He tightened his grip on the Master Sword, priming for the moment they were ready to move.
"Any last words, vermin?" Ganon smirked.
"Yeah, I got one, tough guy," Mario smirked back. "Now."
The same instant Mario spoke the word, Sonic blasted from his spot, making it over to Purah in an instant and quickly taking her off her feet to carry her in his arms. "Hold on tight!" He blasted out of sight again with the Sheikah scientist held firmly in his grip, returning the way the group came to exit the scrapyard. Metal's turbine kicked up just as quickly, but in the moment the robot began to follow, his flight was brought to a dead halt midair. He glanced back to see Kirby pulling him back with his cyclonic breath. Metal wasn't being sucked towards Kirby's maw, but he wasn't escaping its pull either. Metal looked forward as the blue blur disappeared into mounds of scrap with Purah, now out of reach. With his primary target now gone, Metal glanced back at Kirby, who was still in the process of trying to suck Metal into his black hole of a mouth.
Metal would not be deterred by something so insignificant. He boosted his flight power and quickly broke free of the gust's strength, and zoomed himself back around behind Kirby, wheeling around and slamming his heel into the pink ball to send him flying into a mound of scrap.
As soon as the action kicked off, Link rushed towards Zelda, but Ganon was quick to cut him off. Link brought his shield up just in time to block the first strike. Ganon's large blade kicked up sparks on contact with the shield, and nearly sent Link off his feet with the first blow. Link braced himself with his back foot, then quickly slashed at his opponent with a downward swing. Ganon blocked with the flat side of his broadsword, then kicked his leg out, connecting the sole of his foot harshly with Link's stomach, sending the Hylian stumbling backwards. As Link was staggered, Ganon grabbed him by his golden locks of hair and smashed his face into his armored knee.
Link became dazed for a few moments, blood trickling from his nose, but his sight cleared in time for him to see Ganon holding his blade above his head with both hands, priming a powerful downward slash. Link's eyes rounded and reacted just quick enough to put his shield between his body and the blade. He wasn't prepared for the force, however; Even though he blocked the blade, ensuring he survived the attack, he was still sent off his feet and back-first onto the ground. He wasn't stunned for much longer, and his senses returned as he saw Ganon leap into the air with the tip of his blade pointed downwards at him. Link quickly rolled out of the way and up into a crouched position to avoid being impaled. Ganon landed and drove the sword deep into the earth. Link, still crouched with his back to the Gerudo, twisted around and swiped his blade backwards. Ganon was still his match. He stopped the blade in his own left hand, catching it and holding it tight. It wasn't a clean grab, though. Ganon's blood dripped into the dirt quickly from his hand. The Master Sword began to glow a bright blue hue, and steam began to waft from Ganon's gripping hand as the weapon itself began to burn him and make his skin sear. Link took the chance to apply pressure, forcing a cry of pain from Ganon's lips.
After the push, Link pulled his weapon from Ganon's grip quickly, slicing further into his hand, then swung again for the neck. Link's blade was caught in Ganon's other hand, which once again began to sear his skin. Ganon powered through it, and slowly pushed back against Link. Link met him with all his strength, but Ganon returned to his full height and started to twist Link's blade arm back, opening his guard inch by inch. Ganon shifted and quickly forced Link's arm out, then backhanded the Hylian harshly, tearing the Master Sword out of Link's grip and sending him flying back. Link felt the air blow out of his lungs upon landing. His face stung and his jaw ached. He still had his shield in his off hand.
Ganon tossed the Master Sword aside, his hands still dripping steaming droplets of blood. "Not so powerful without the aid of Rauru or the Sages, are you, boy?"
Link let out a strained groan as he started to recover. He looked up to see Mario fighting off both the troop of ROBs and Eggman, even using the ROBs themselves as projectiles to throw at Eggman's pod. At least he was faring better.
A shadow cast over Link, and he looked up to see Zelda staring down at him, her golden-glow eyes blankly looking forward. "Zelda…?" Link groaned. Zelda revealed she still had the dagger and hand, and raised it above her head. Link's eyes rounded and he rolled out of the way just before the knife was plunged into the dirt where he had laid. Link got his feet under him and raised his shield. Zelda pulled the knife from the ground and turned to face him.
Mario dispatched the last of the remaining ROBs, feeling the weight of his body. Fighting them wasn't easy, but now they were dealt with, and only Doctor Eggman remained, sitting in his floating pod with the possessed Peach standing behind him.
"You lost your entourage, Doctor. It's just you and me," Mario smirked.
"It has been some time, plumber. Can't say I missed you," Eggman grumbled.
"Surprised Bowser isn't at your hip. You two got along like best buds last time," Mario said.
"We are still allies in this conflict."
"What did this Tabuu guy do to convince you to join him anyway? Aside from Bowser, I thought you hated being a team player," Mario questioned.
"It is an unwilling alliance, I assure you. But I have not been given a choice in the matter. And unfortunately for you, I have your Princess under my control. She can't hear you past the corruption clouding her mind!" Eggman exclaimed, putting on a superior bravado. Mario seemed unfazed. He even crossed his arms and seemed impatient as he listened. "Even if you get past me, she is not the same Peach you remember! She will do nothing but attack you as if she was… was…" Eggman stopped as he saw Mario be unfazed and just stand there with a small smirk. "Why are you just standing there? The woman you care about's been taken from you and is being used as an evil puppet, why are you not angrier?" Mario nodded forward, gesturing behind Eggman. Eggman spun his pod around to find Peach missing. "What?!" He snapped his pod back around to see the blur of Sonic leaving again, having nabbed Peach and zoomed off again. He sighs and facepalms. "I can only blame myself for this…"
Mario leapt up and kicked the pod out of the air, sending it swerving out of control and crashing through a mountain of scrap. Mario landed and wiped his hands clean of dirt and metal scraps from his battle with a proud smirk.
Kirby had started to pull himself out of the mound of scrap he had been thrown into when Metal collided with his body, blasting into him like a supersonic rocket. Metal's claws kept a strong grip on Kirby's body as the machine basically used him as a shield to break through countless piles of scrap, eventually stopping when Metal plowed through a mountain of scrap with him and slammed him against the deactivated form of a Guardian, it's cylindrical white body caked in dirt and rust. The impact from Metal slamming Kirby into its chassis spread cracks throughout the entire shell.
"You are weak," Metal taunted before punching Kirby hard enough to send him straight through the Guardian, shattering the dead ancient machine and kicking up a thick fog of dirt and dust. Metal slowly lifted up into the air and turned to fly away, aiming to return to his creator.
Then he was taken out of the air by the Guardian's body slamming into his and dropping on top of him, cratering the ground. Kirby pointed and laughed at the buried Metal Sonic.
It was only a momentary setback. The Guardian's body exploded out into shrapnel, and Metal stood atop what was left. Metal looked up to see Kirby midair with a massive hammer in hand above his body, priming to swing it downwards. Metal put his hand out and created a diamond of dark energy around himself. Kirby's hammer swung downwards. Metal was confident th barrier would hold, and that he'd be able to counterattack. No one had ever broken the barrier before-
The hammer strike cracked his energy field with a single strike, surprising the robot. Kirby landed and started an upward swing immediately. Metal put all of his power into reinforcing the barrier, but it wasn't enough. The second strike shattered the barrier and the head of the massive mallet connected with Metal's body with extreme force. Metal's chassis screamed in resistance before he was sent blasting off into the sky, far out of sight of Kirby's own eyes. Kirby laughed again before hopping along back to rejoin his comrades.
Sonic was on his way back to the exit of the scrapyard with Peach being carried along in his arms, zooming through the maze of deactivated machines and torn apart metal. "Don't worry, Peach, we'll get you out of here safe and sound!" Sonic assured her. Peach, however, glared at him with her possessed golden eyes, and before Sonic could react, he was struck in the head, sending them both tumbling down to the ground. Sonic lost his grip on Peach, and lost her in the ungraceful crashout. He groaned when he finally came to a stop and started to get his feet back under him. He glanced up to see the possessed Peach do the same, recovering from her own rough tumble.
"Ugh, right. Mind controlled by the new evil force of the week," Sonic remarked with a groan. "Minister, we've got a problem."
"What seems to be the issue?" The Minister responded.
"We found Peach and Zelda. Or maybe 'found' isn't the right word, but- Anyways, they seem almost possessed, mindless. Y'know, the usual fair of scary dark aura and glowy eyes?" Sonic explained. Peach rushed him and took a swing, but Sonic quickly sidestepped her, then zoomed around her and further back down the path from which they came.
"I see. Samus has reported a similar instance in Abel City. From what I gather, enough concussive force will free their minds and bodies, albeit leave them in a weakened state. I'm afraid you'll have to knock Miss Toadstool silly for a moment to free her," The Minister informed.
"That's what I was afraid of. Thanks, Minister," Sonic said before cutting the line. He saw Peach approach him with pure malice, no sign of the kind princess he knew her to be previously. "I don't wanna hurt you, Peach, but I don't really have a choice here. So, y'know, don't hold this against me." Peach took another swing for Sonic once she got close, but Sonic ducked the swipe before leaping up into a spin and connecting his heel with Peach's head, sending her twirling through the air and landing harshly on her side in the middle of the path. That didn't seem to break her free, much to Sonic's chagrin. He frowned. "Okay, really don't hold this against me…" Sonic crouched down and began to rev up his legs like tires on a race car priming to blast forward. Once he built up enough momentum, he shot forward faster than a bullet, and rolled his body up into a spiked quilly ball that was rushing right for Peach's now crouched form. Just as Peach was getting to her feet, Sonic's projectile body slammed into her torso in a powerful homing attack that sent the princess flying through the air until she crashed down onto a pile of scrap. Sonic returned to his full height with a slight frown.
"Sorry Peach. I know that hurt…" The smoke-like purple aura bled off Peach into the air in small wispy trails, before suddenly and violently all blasting out at once, letting out a shriek like a dying banshee before dissipating in the air above. "... but at least you're free." Sonic approached her. She let out weak groans, but her eyelids remained shut. Sonic must have hit her harder than he thought. He gently picked her up off of the metal scraps, then raced her out to the exit of the scrapyard.
Mario hopped over the scrap to find Eggman crawling out of his wrecked pod and wiping dirt off himself. "Blasted plumber…" Eggman grumbled.
"Y'know, I could let you off easy, Doc, on one condition," Mario said. "Tell us what Tabuu is trying to do. What does he want with our friends? With us? Our worlds?"
Eggman growled and quickly pulled a small firearm from his coat and aimed for the red-clad plumber. Mario dove out of the way just before Eggman fired a bolt of energy that narrowly missed Mario and hit the wall of scrap behind him, the connecting blast creating an explosion that sent scraps flying everywhere. "We all have plans of our own at the end of the day, don't we? Like how you and the Hylian want to save your little princesses. And I won't let you stand in my way."
"C'mon, Egghead, you're gonna have to try harder than that!" Sonic appeared on the opposite side of Eggman, leaving the mad scientist boxed in. "I mean come on, is Tabuu not giving you enough motivation? This is tame for you."
"Oh, there is plenty of motivation, Sonic. More than enough to make me do this whether I like teams or not," Eggman replied with hate.
"What could he possibly have on you? Aren't you normally the guy with the master plan?" Sonic questioned.
Eggman sighed. "He has taken Sage from me and imprisoned her."
Sonic's eyes rounded, his cocky demeanor falling away for a moment. "Sage… is alive?"
"Don't pretend to care, rodent!" Eggman snapped, aiming his laser weapon at the Mobian. "After The End was destroyed, you left the Starfall Islands without a second thought! While I was left to pick up the pieces and scavenge for any sign of Sage! And I found her, tucked away in the far corner of what was left of the Cyberspace data. But before I could recover her, he appeared and ripped her away from me!" Eggman was rabid with anger, veins pulsing from his head. He took a few breaths to regain his composure, but kept his weapon aimed forward, also keeping an eye on the plumber behind him. "You're right, I do have a plan, a plan to get Sage back, and it starts with this."
"We could help you, help you get Sage back!" Sonic insisted.
"We all have a part to play, Sonic. And this is yours!" Eggman fired the weapon again, forcing Sonic to quickly dodge out of the way. Both Sonic and Mario rushed for Eggman, but before either could reach him, the mad doctor warped away in a flash of light, now far out of their reach. "Dangit!"
"We almost had him!" Mario frowned. He then glanced at Sonic, who seemed a bit spaced out and distracted, far from the in-the-moment Sonic he knew. "Sonic…?"
"It's nothing," Sonic quickly replied. "Where's Link?"
Link could still feel the trickle of blood from his nose. The Master Sword still sat far out of his reach in the dirt behind Ganondorf, who just stood and watched idly by as the possessed Zelda bore down on him with a dagger in hand, slashing at Link every chance she got. Link blocked each attack with his shield, but he didn't want to hurt Zelda, so he stayed on the defensive, blocking her dagger strikes and just letting the small blade kick up sparks off the shield.
"What's wrong, hero? Defend yourself! Fight back against your enemy!" Ganon taunted from the sideline. Link gritted his teeth. He wanted so desperately to attack Ganon, but with his own royalty at his throat, he was given no opportunity.
Ganon watched with an entertained look, until a blur of movement in his peripheral caught his eye. He moved quickly and put his hand out just in time to catch Sonic's balled-up form attempting to strike him from the air. Ganon slammed him into the ground with the force to crack the very earth below them. Sonic's body unfurled and bounced back up for the briefest second, which was long enough for Ganon to kick him away. Mario attempted to leap out and strike Ganon from behind, but the Gerudo sidestepped him and backhanded him away with little effort. Finally, Kirby joined the fray from above, priming a downward slam with his oversized mallet. The weapon stopped dead against Ganon's palm, though the pure strength behind the blow forced Ganon down to one knee. He was surprised by the pink ball's sheer amount of power, but it wouldn't be enough against him. Ganon gripped the head of the mallet harder, then crunched it into nothing but splinters. Kirby's eyes widened in momentary panic before a harsh blow from Ganon's other hand sent him flying once again into a scrap pile.
"It seems our business here is done," Ganon grimaced before turning back to Zelda and Link. Ganon stretched his hand out, and it gave off a magical glow. Zelda was suddenly yanked through the air and brought to Ganon's side. Link bolted for Ganon and Zelda, but Ganon simply smirked and chuckled lowly, and then the two were gone in a flash of light. Link skid to stop, panting heavily.
Zelda was gone, and so was an adversary more dangerous than any other. Link was frozen there, breathing heavily for a moment, and then dropped to one knee, supporting himself on his shield.
"Ugh… my head hurts…" Sonic groaned.
"Owww…" Kirby also whined.
"Minister… we need a pickup…" Mario said.
Upon returning to Peach's Castle, Peach herself was still unconscious, and was taken by Toads to be tended to. The returning heroes brough Purah with them as well, with the Minister assuring she would be safer in the same place with them for the time being. Currently, the entire team was united in the still somewhat wrecked conference room, as well as Purah and the Minister.
"The results of the two missions are as follows:" The Minster began to recap. "Forces of ROBs attacked Abel City, it seemed for the express purpose of pulling it into Subspace. The army as well as Ridley the Space Pirate was used mostly as a distraction force while a Subspace Bomb was triggered deeper in the city. Now, Abel City currently resides with Tabuu's domain of Subspace, although X and Alia are safe."
Alia looked away with somber eyes, while X remained more composed. "We're willing to help all we can to get Abel City back where it belongs, and end this threat for good."
"Secondly, the scrapyard in Hyrule. A more covert operation was discovered with Dr. Ivo Robotnik and the Gerudo tyrant Ganandorf attempting to discover a way to re-activate either Guardian and Zonai technology, for purposes we can only guess," The Minister continued.
"What exactly were they trying to get from you?" Samus asked Purah.
"Yeah, you were keeping things pretty close to your chest back there," Mario remarked.
Purah seemed unsure if she was going to answer at first, still reeling from the whole experience. She glanced over to Link, who seemed distant from the conversation as whole for a moment, but when he noticed her looking for any guidance from him, he gave her a simple nod, trying to tell her it was alright. Purah took a quick breath. "I was researching the possibilities of being able to merge ancient and Zonai technology in an effort to reawaken the Guardians and create a new defensive force for Hyrule, so that something like the Calamity or the Upheaval would never happen again. Or at the very least, we would be better equipped to fight it," She answered.
"Then perhaps Tabuu thought similar to you, and wanted to claim the Guardians as a new addition to his army. But now, with no way to reactivate them, we have limited his options," The Minister said. "And finally, we have discovered Tabuu's use of corrupted figures from other worlds as well, particularly the cases of Captain Falcon and our host, Princess Peach."
"Yeah, I still have a headache from all that," Falcon said.
"Thankfully, the corruption is easy to purge. Simply defeating the figures in question will free them from Tabuu's control. We also now have the identities of what must be Tabuu's currently leading generals: Bowser, Ridley, Robotnik and Ganondorf."
"Yeah, but Egghead isn't being given a choice. Tabuu has Sage," Sonic said.
"Indeed," The Minister nodded. "We must assume that Tabuu has these four villains working for him either under promise of power or possession of leverage."
"Ridley only cares about power and murder. I'm sure convincing that monster wasn't hard," Samus remarked.
"Ganondorf is supposed to be dead," Link said. "But if he's really alive and her, he'll be searching for power. If anyone can promise him that, it's Tabuu."
The Minister nodded, then regarded the team as a whole. "Either way, these four are some of, if not the most dangerous beings from your universes. Tabuu has chosen his new generals well. This just means we have incredible challenges ahead in order to cut Tabuu's conquest at its head. But after today, I think you've all earned some rest and recuperation. Take this opportunity to meet your new teammates and take a breath. I will be watching for any other sign of Tabuu's movements. Rest well." The Minister then floated away out of the conference room, leaving the ever growing group of heroes alone with one another after quite the day.
Chapter 5: Take a Breath
Chapter Text
Smash: Emissary
Chapter 5: Take a Breath
Mario sat in a chair beside Peach's bed, where she was resting peacefully, still not having awoken after being freed from her dark possession. Mario was concerned greatly, and had rarely left her side since they returned from Hyrule. The Minister had assured it would only be a matter of time before Peach came to, and that it would be best to let her rest, but Mario couldn't pull himself away. He watched over her, always her protecting hero.
Link saw movement in the corner of his eye, then turned to spot Link in the doorway, seemingly coming in to check up on both him and Peach. "Hey, Link," Mario said with a faint smile. Link fully entered and went to Mario's side, then glanced at the resting Peach.
"How is she?" He asked.
"She's alright. She just needs to rest. I'm sure she'll be up and around soon enough," Mario said, half-trying to convince himself. He was sure Peach would recover fine, but he had a lingering, aching concern gnawing at him from within.
"So… she's your princess?" Link asked.
Mario nodded. "Yeah… and I'm glad to have her back. Sorry that we couldn't save yours," He said.
Link glanced away, trying to hide any emotion on his face, though inside he was feeling a similar desperate worry to what Mario was. "It isn't your fault. Ganondorf is…powerful. I'm left to wonder how he's alive, but what matters more is stopping him as well as the others and ending this madness."
"And don't worry, we will. We're the best heroes around, and we've all beaten these chumps before," Mario said confidently. "We'll do it again."
"Hm." Link glanced up at the resting Peach, studying her sleeping features for a moment. He couldn't get Zelda off the forefront of his mind. Seeing Peach really didn't help. "Could I… confide something in you?"
"Sure, pal," Mario replied.
Link was slow to respond at first. How was he going to phrase this? "I… can't help but wonder… if perhaps we both could have saved our royalty had Sonic not rushed in like that *(1). We might have had an element of surprise to ensure we got everyone out. But he just… rushed in."
"Yeah, he tends to do that. That's his style. Run in fast, beat the bad guys fast, save the day fast. He's just gotta go fast," Mario chuckled.
Link wasn't amused, though again, he kept a neutral outer expression. "Therein lies the issue. He doesn't stop to think about what could possibly go wrong by running straight into the problem."
"It's worked out for him so far," Mario pointed out.
"And it's not just him with something to lose now. His actions cost us a possible chance at saving Princess Zelda. No matter how his world works, it isn't that simple anymore. We are dealing with a force incomprehensible to us with impossibly high stakes. I worry his headstrong approach will do us all more harm than good."
"Look, I get it. Trust me, I do. I know Sonic's not the easiest to get used to or deal with. I get he might not think or act how you'd want him to, but hedoesunderstand what's at stake. He's a hero like us, and he wants to do everything in his power to help. He just has his own way of doing it."
Link quietly sighed. Then he looked at Peach once more. Images of Zelda flashed in his head, particularly of her possessed form back in the scrapyard, aiming to drive that dagger through his chest, and suddenly he didn't want to stay in the room anymore. He went to leave the room. "I'll leave you with her." Link closed the door behind him and kept walking for nowhere in particular. Perhaps he was being too harsh to Sonic, but there was this anxiety growing in Link's stomach he couldn't explain. He had saved Zelda from impossible odds before, but that was when it was in his hands, in his own world. What he found himself in the middle of now was so far removed from that, it might as well be foreign to him. He kept a neutral, almost stoic expression before the others, but deep within, he was confronting his own doubts and fears.
If all of this was so far taken out of his own hands, what really could he do? And what does that mean for himself and the people he is responsible for? His resolve, for the first time in years, felt shaken. Link suddenly decided he didn't want to be within the walls of the castle, and stepped faster to find the quickest way outside.
Samus sat in the pilot's chair of her gunship, running diagnostics to ensure her spacecraft was still in peak condition. She barely had a chance to fully inspect it between her capture at the Isle of the Ancients, then getting free only to go straight to Abel City to ward off the invasion there. She was finally given the chance to breathe and anchor herself into something more calming. Calming to her at least. Pichu lay curled up at the far side of the console, resting peacefully with his eyes closed. Samus glanced over at him from time to time. She still wasn't used to having the small creature at her heel all the time, but she really didn't mind too much by now.
She reached over and gently pet his tiny furred head with two of her fingers. Pichu leaned his head into her touch. He let out a small happy squeak when she did, causing her to chuckle lightly.
"Seems like he's settling in well." Samus turned her chair around to see Falcon leaning against the doorway, arms crossed. "But you still seem wound tight. Didn't the Minister tell us to relax?"
"I am relaxing," Samus said neutrally before turning her chair back around and going back to work on her ship. "And forgive me if I don't heed the Minister."
"You don't trust him?"
"I don't trust anybody… but no."
"I think he means well… just maybe could let on a little more," Falcon said.
"Is there a reason you're on my ship, Captain?" Samus asked bluntly.
"Yeah… you doing alright?" Falcon asked.
"I'm doing just fine." Samus was still working as she spoke, giving few words in response to the Captain's. "Why?"
"Well, first of all, it's common kindness, you're welcome," Falcon said snarkily. "And second, you didn't seem so okay back in Abel City, especially once that dragon guy showed up*(2)."
"That's not your business," Samus said quickly.
"Look, I'm not looking to pry into your history. We all have a history. I'm just checking to make sure you've got your head on straight. When that thing came down, you lost your cool. You would've gotten yourself killed if I hadn't stepped in."
Samus frowned under her helmet, but couldn't say anything. Falcon was right. Ridley would have killed her, all because she lost her cool when she saw him. She hadn't expected to ever see that scaly face again. As far as she was concerned, that was a demon long buried, now coming back to haunt her. She sighed. "Alright, fine. I lost it. I admit it. But I won't let it happen again."
"I'm not coming after you for it. Like I said, everyone has a history. Just don't let yourself become history too," Falcon said.
"I'll keep it in mind."
"If you're looking for a way to burn that stress up, how about a friendly sparring match? Take the edge off a little?"
"You consider that relaxation?" Samus questioned.
Falcon scoffed. "Not really. But it'll help us sharpen our edges, maybe even learn a thing or two about each other. We're teammates for the time being, after all. So, what do you say?"
Pichu glanced lazily between Pichu and Falcon and yawned before dozing back asleep.
Samus, meanwhile, hid a small smirk under her helmet.
Purah let out a frustrated sigh at her temporary working space. The Minister and the Toads had attempted to set Purah up with as much of a makeshift lab/workspace they could, but given how limited their offering was, the Sheikah scientist wasn't left with much to work with.
"Ugh, this is almost nothing!" She whined.
"Not to worry. I can personally hop back over to Hyrule for a few of your belongings if you like," The Minister offered. "To help you stay comfortable while you stay in the Mushroom Kingdom."
Purah shook her head. "Nah, I'll make due. I wouldn't want to have to move it all back to my lab afterwards anyways."
X and Alia were also present alongside the Minister as they tried to help Purah settle in. "So, you're a scientist back home?" X asked.
"Something like it. I lean more on the inventing side of things, but I know lots more. I'm the closest thing to a scientist Zelda and Linky have at least," Purah said with a sense of pride.
"So do you think you could come up with a way to help fight Tabuu?" Alia asked.
"Probably not with what we have on hand. I wouldn't even know where to start. I would like to get my hands on one of those shiny robots, though. Figure out what makes them tick," Purah said.
Alia thought for a moment. "Minister, the ROB's are an entirely mechanical race, correct?"
The Minister nods. "Indeed. Every ROB is a machine through and through, not unlike you Reploids."
"Well, if they're an advanced cyber-race, wouldn't there be a connected communication network between them all?" She asked.
"True. However, that network has been empty and dormant for trillions of years. Any way of accessing the network has been long lost to time, even to me."
"Even if that's true, every ROB unit should still have a receiver built-in connected to that shared network. If we can get our hands on one, we can patch in and intercept any orders that are given across that network. We could keep up with them every step of the way."
"Hmm… a sound plan," The Minister said. "However, a receiver would have to be extracted from an intact ROB. We cannot simply lift it from any destroyed unit. On the next mission, we'll need to recover an entire ROB for the receiver."
Alia nodded. "I'll be sure to let the team know."
"No need. I will inform the others before the next mission begins. For now, I suggest you all take rest while you can. Opportunities for that may be scarce before long. Now, I must go check up on the others. Get comfortable, you three." The Minister then floated out of the room and out of sight. X's gaze followed him until he was all the way out of the doorway. He was left with a lingering feeling that didn't sit well with him.
"X? Is something wrong?" Alia asked.
"I'm not sure… just, a strange feeling," X replied.
"Good or bad?"
X shook his head and turned back. "I'm not sure. It's probably nothing…" Alia nodded slightly and turned back to Purah, but X's concern still lingered.
Alia continued the conversation with Purah. "So, you're from Hyrule as well. Are you a friend of Link's?"
Purah chuckled. "Oh yeah. Linky and Zelda and I go way back. Back before they were how they are now. I still remember, over a hundred years ago, when Link was first assigned as Zelda's knight. She did not like him at all."
"Why not?" Alia asked.
"She didn't like the idea of having some protector around her at all times, following her wherever she went. She was very unhappy, and she didn't make things easy on ol' Linky at the start."
"What changed her mind?" Alia asked.
"A day when having him around was a gift. He saved her from monsters out in the Gerudo desert, monsters she ran into while running away from him. She didn't understand why he would do such a thing after she treated him so poorly. I think after that day, she finally understood him a bit better. From there, there was no going back for them. They were joined at the hip from that point on. Inseparable." Purah giggled a little. "Adorable."
"Sounds like it," Alia said. "Well, I believe we'll be leaving you to it. Just call if you ever decide you want some help. I'm something of a scientist myself."
"I may just take you up on that," Purah said with a smile. "Be seeing you around."
Alia and X both left Purah's temporary workspace out into the hall and continued on. As they walked, Alia noticed X's attention seemed elsewhere, as if he was pondering something. "X? Are you alright?" She asked.
"Just still thinking… you?" X replied.
Alia sighed deeply. "The same… I can't stop thinking about Abel City…."
"If what the Minister said is true, they should be alright. Those Subspace bombs just transport whatever they take into Subspace. That should mean everyone is safe, just…trapped."
"Right…" Alia muttered, still clearly dealing with the weight of their entire home being taken from them. X stopped and firmly held her shoulder.
"Hey, we'll get Abel City back where it belongs. We always find a way to put things right," X assured her.
"This doesn't feel the same, X. It feels so much…bigger. So much worse."
X shook his head. "Doesn't matter. We can do it, especially with all of the others fighting with us now. We'll stop Tabuu and save Abel City. I promise."
Alia's expression didn't lighten. She just looked up at him downtrodden, before sighing. "Promise me something else."
"What is it?"
"Promise…" She hesitates a moment, as if she's having difficulty getting the words out. "Promise that after everything, you won't be gone too."
"What?" X was surprised by the request. Alia never asked for promises or wishes or anything of the like. She was a realist and objectivist, not banking on abstract ideas or beliefs to see them through the day, which X imagined was why she felt so overwhelmed with the multiversal scale of the threat ahead of them. It was objectively more dangerous and more threatening than anything they had faced before. It spoke volumes that Alia was resorting to asking for empty promises now.
"It's just us, X… Zero is god-knows-where half the time, and everyone else is gone. For once, I'm having trouble seeing the logic, the facts in every part of what's going on. The only thing I'm banking on is your history of overcoming overwhelming odds, and I can only assume that our new allies have done the same. So please, promise me…" She grips his wrist gently. "... that you'll keep your record consistent."
X understood. It was Alia's way of asking him to make sure he returns to their home after it's saved. She was scared, even if she wouldn't admit it. X smiles and gently holds her wrist as well.
"I promise."
Mario had left Peach's room for a short time just to get his thoughts straight, and just let Peach keep resting for a short while. He felt distracted since he got his princess back, wound tight. He hadn't really stopped to relax since they'd returned from Hyrule, or even eat. His rumbling stomach had told him he should take care of himself as much as he should Peach, and so he was on his way for food when Sonic suddenly appeared next to him in his usual blue blur fashion, holding a chili dog in each of his gloved hands.
"Heya, pal!" he greeted. Mario was startled by the Mobian's sudden appearance, but quickly recovered.
"Heya, Sonic. Where've you been? I haven't seen ya since we got back," Mario asked.
"Felt the ol' cravings kicking in, and I had to go a couple kingdoms over to get a good chili dog without mushrooms in it," He answered. "I do not have taste for 'em."
"Hey, I didn't at first either, but you get used to it," Mario chuckled.
Sonic waved him off. "No thank you. I'll settle for my regular chili dogs. Speaking of which, it looks like you could use one." Sonic held one of them towards Mario as he chomped into the other. It wasn't quite what Mario had in mind, but he wasn't going to refuse. He gratefully took it and quickly bit into it himself, feeling a kick of spice as he swallowed.
"Oh, that is good. Got a bit of a kick, though."
"If it ain't at least a little spicy, it ain't a good chili dog," Sonic smirked. "So, how's Peach doing?"
"Still out of it, but she seems like she's alright. I'm just glad she's safe. Thanks for helping me bring her home," Mario said.
"Anytime, pal. What else are friends for?"
"Here's just hoping once this all blows over, she and I can talk out our other issues," Mario said.
"What's the matter? You guys seemed perfectly fine last time I was around," Sonic said with chili still in his mouth.
"Eh, just a misunderstanding. It's a long story," Mario said nervously.
"Hey, we got nothing but time right now. C'mon, lay it on me."
Mario sighed. "Alright. So, last time Bowser and I went at it, we both tried to propose to Peach-"
"You popped the question? Awesome, man!"
"Yeah, but it didn't go so well. Peach didn't take kindly to me trying to one-up Bowser like that. I guess it upset her, and we've been kinda on the outs since. I wanted to give her some distance, y'know, not seem pushy or anything. I thought I'd finally given enough time to try and talk to her, figure this out, but before I ever got a good opportunity, this all happened."
"Hey, nothing brings people closer together like world-ending threats!" Sonic smirked.
Mario chuckled a bit. "Yeah, here's hoping. Just… I can't help but feel so dumb about what happened. Like they say, hindsight's twenty/twenty."
"Don't feel guilty for following your heart in the moment," Sonic said. "Following your heart means you're just being the real you. You can't kick yourself for doing what you think is right at the time."
"Y'know, impulse decisions aren't exactly the best decisions," Mario countered.
"Maybe not," Sonic admitted, "But they're stillyourdecisions, and the most honest ones you can make. It's not always about doing the smart things. That's life. If you worry about every step you take, you'll be going nowhere fast. If you have time to worry, thenrun."
"Easy for you to say, Sonic. That's your whole deal."
"And I'm living my best life because of it. At the end of the day, you can say you still had the guts to propose at all. That's more than a lot of people can say."
"Is that why you haven't been real with Amy yet?" Mario smirked.
Sonic glanced away with a twitch in his brow. "No comment…"
The plumber laughed and playfully slugged Sonic's shoulder. "I get what ya mean though. If she's up and around soon enough, maybe I'll take the chance to talk with her soon."
"See? Now that's the kinda spirit I'm talking about!" Sonic quickly finishes his chili dog and wipes gloves clean. "I'm gonna go burn this off. Back in a flash!" Sonic then quickly zoomed away, gone before Mario could even say a single word. He smiled and chuckled.
Some things never change,he thought. He then took another bite of his own chili dog, coughing a bit as the chili hit his tongue. "Agh, still spicy…"
Pichu and Kirby sat silently along the sideline next to each other, watching in an entertained fashion as Samus and Captain Falcon met each other blow for blow in their hand-to-hand sparring session in the middle of a separated courtyard outside the castle. A handful of Toads had even stood by as spectators of the practice fight
The two had been at it for the better part of a half-hour, testing each other's skill. Samus had opted to fight out of her armor, stripped down to her essential zero-suit.
They had surprised each other. Neither honestly expected the other to be as skilled as they were. It almost made it fun for the two of them. They were currently trading and blocking fast jabs and strikes. Their speed was just as comparable as their skill. Their precise and fast attacks were blocked and countered by the other, trading who was being offensive or defensive every few moments.
This dance was broken as Falcon dashed backwards to avoid a downward strike from Samus. The attack whiffed through the air, but Samus wasn't going to let up.
"C'mon! Show me your moves!" Falcon taunted.
She grimaced, then acrobatically flipped forward and kicked downwards towards Falcon again. He crossed his arms into a guard to stop the strike, then forced Samus backwards onto the ground. As soon as she hit the dirt, Samus sent her other leg sweeping out to take Falcon's feet from under him, but the Captain leapt up to avoid it entirely, only for her first leg to connect with his stomach in the same instant. He grunted and dropped his guard, giving Samus the briefest window to jab his jaw with that same heel, which pushed his body higher into the air. He was stunned momentarily, but then grinned.
He put his right palm out behind him, and a jet of flame burst out from his hand that blasted him back downward. Samus rolled out of the way just before his fire-propelled fist was driven into the ground, cracking the earth where she had just been laying. She flipped back onto her feet into a crouched position and met Falcon's gaze. He kept that same cocky smirk as their eyes met. They were both feeling the rush of adrenaline pumping through their bodies. This had reached farther than a simple spar. They were gauging each other's true ability. Neither had shown the other what they were fully capable of, and neither wanted to. It was as much a learning experience as it was a battle.
There was a momentary pause, and then they both launched forward at each other, spinning around as their arms winded up for backhanded attacks. Their forearms met in a harsh clash that sent jolts of strain into their nerves. Their bodies froze as their arms shook violently against one another, their strength surged into their clashing arms. They stared intently at one another, then Samus finally smirked as well. Their arms pulled away from one another, their clash, as well as their sparring session, now over. Sweat dripped down their faces profusely, but that bothered neither of them.
"You've got some nice moves," Falcon complimented.
"So do you," Samus replied in kind. "Maybe you really are a good bounty hunter after all."
"You doubted me?" Falcon questioned.
"Actions speak louder than words," Samus said. Two Toads approached, offering small towels to the two hunters. Each took them gratefully. Samus wiped the sweat that drenched her forehead and dripped from her golden hair quickly, while Falcon threw his towel over his shoulder, keeping his helmet on as he eyed the falling sun and the golden hue of the sky. Samus noted his reluctance to remove his helmet, but said nothing.
"Seems like it's getting late. Think we should turn in before too long, considering first thing tomorrow we could be thrown right back into the thick of it," Falcon suggested.
"Not a bad idea," Samus replied. She quickly tilted her head, gesturing for Pichu to come to her. She kneeled down so the electric mouse creature could scurry up to her shoulder.
"Pichu!" He happily squeaked from his new perch. Samus giggled a little and patted his head. She then started for her gunship parked out front of the castle.
"See you tomorrow, Cap," She said as she left.
Falcon looked after her moment before finally using the towel to wipe sweat from the lower part of his face. He then noticed Kirby at his feet, reaching upwards for him. He was confused at first. "What is it, little guy?" Kirby then pointed to the leaving Samus and Pichu, then at himself and his own shoulder. "Oh, you want to ride on my shoulder too?" Falcon chuckled, but obliged, picking up Kirby and holding him in place, though Kirby was larger than Pichu would've been, so he didn't exactly fit comfortably. Falcon didn't mind too much, though, and started for the entrance to the castle. "C'mon, let's go get some chow."
"Chow!" Kirby repeated gleefully.
Link stood alone under the starry night sky atop the roof of the castle, silently watching the stars shine in the dark. He'd mostly stayed alone the past day. Ever since his conversation with Mario, he just kept to himself. He had nothing against his new allies, he just kept his focus on what he saw as important: ending the threat, saving Zelda. He was sure he would sound like a broken record to any of the others, but that's just what mattered to him right now. It was his duty. He can't help it if that was his mindset.
It was… frustrating. And he didn't know why. Even in the worst situations before, he had kept composed and strong to see his mission through. He didn't let himself falter. And yet… he felt himself cracking. He felt doubt and fear in a way he hadn't felt in a long time. He hid it well from the others, but he couldn't lie to himself. Losing Zelda again was the first thing. Seeing Ganondorf again was what sent him teetering near that edge now.
His mind flashed to the mere moments before the Upheaval.
Zelda falling into the abyss below the castle. The Master Sword shattering.
The slit eyes of the near-corpse that would be Ganondorf.
You, who carries that fragile sword… are Link…
A flash of red takes Link's vision and he winces, reality coming back to him. He shudders a moment, before taking a quick breath.
It's not over… until he's gone for good…Link thought to himself.
"Couldn't sleep?" Link turns around to see the Minister exiting onto the roof behind him. "Not to worry. I don't either."
Link nodded. "Though I think I'll be heading in to try again. Good night, Minister," Link said as he walked by the floating mystery man towards the door. As he reached for it's handle, the Minister spoke again.
"I can understand what you feel right now." Link hesitated, and glanced back over his shoulder. "The return of the evil king Ganondorf is a sign of grimm tidings. Though I understand your inner conflict, I do not envy your struggle. I have seen many lose their way in my long life. But if it's any consolation, Link… I believe you have the strength to win, despite your own doubts."
"Hm…" Link didn't say anything beyond that as he re-entered the castle.
The Minister sighed and looked up at the stars as well. And I'd rather not see you fall in vain again.
Most of them were up bright and early the next morning, getting active and around without complaint. Mario was quick to make his way towards Peach's bedroom first thing to check on her. He slowly opened the door to her chamber, to find his princess sitting up in bed with her slightly messing hair being brushed and combed by one of her loyal Toad subjects, while another set a tray of food before her and another was in her closet digging for a fresh dress.
Mario's eyes rounded and he rushed in. "Peach!" Peach looks up and gives him a small smile, then holds her head woozily. He rushed to her bedside quickly. "Peach, are you alright?"
She winces and while she pats his arm, she also pushes him away a bit. "I-I'm fine, just… need some space for a moment…" She replied. Mario nodded and backed away. "What happened…?"
"It's, uh, kind of a long story. To keep it short, you were under some sorta mind control, but we got ya free from it."
"Bowser, I take it?" Peach asked.
Mario shook his head. "Something bigger. And it's not just Bowser."
"But I believe that can wait until you are back on your feet," The Minister said as he entered. "Greetings, Princess. I am the Ancient Minister, and I hope you pardon our intrusion. Your castle has served as a home for our little group of do-gooders for the time being in our time of need."
Peach looked blankly at the Minister before turning to Mario. "I have a few questions…"
Mario chuckled nervously. "Let's get you up and around. I think you have some people to meet."
*(1): See last chapter
*(2): See Chapter 3: Ready and Abel
Chapter 6: Frigate Orpheon
Chapter Text
Smash Emissary
Chapter 6: Frigate Orpheon
Mario and one of the Toads helped guide Peach through the halls of the castle, the princess's balance still uneven as she still felt overall weak and groggy. She hadn't been in control of herself for a substantial time, and considering Sonic had to literally beat the sense into her to free her, she still ached all over. Mario and the Toad led her into the meeting room, where everyone else was gathered and waiting. The Minister perked up and floated over to the monarch of the Mushroom Kingdom.
"Glad to see you moving around, your majesty. And just in time, too. Meet our little group of do-gooders, some of whom helped save you from that nasty mind control you were under," He said. Peach awkwardly looked around the room at the other heroes, and gave a nervous wave.
"H-Hello, everyone," She stammered. "It sounds like this could all be under better circumstances."
"That's one way to put it," Falcon remarked.
Peach then noticed the blue-furred Mobian among the faces, and a small smile came to her face. "Sonic, how wonderful to see you again."
"Heya, Peach! Long time no see!" Sonic replied with a thumbs-up.
"Things must be serious if you're here as well."
"I'm sure we could all get proper introductions underway another time. For now, I believe we have our next mission. Alia, if you may?" The Minister said. Alia nodded and placed a small technological disc down on the half-broken table in the center of the room, and from it projected a hologram of a large metal vessel.
"The Minister and I were able to track down another cell of ROBs at work, and they're not alone. A troop of ROBs as well as a substantial number of mercenaries have reconstructed a space-faring ship called the Frigate Orpheon," Alia informed.
Samus, who stood in her armor with her helmet at her side, continued the report. "The mercs are Ridley's crew of space pirates. Dull, but dangerous. Last time the Orpheon was crewed, it was being used to study the most dangerous creatures in my universe. If they're working on anything like that again, it's bad news."
Alia took back over. "Samus will lead a team aboard the Orpheon with two objectives in mind-" The hologram changed to display the forms of both a ROB and a space pirate. The pirate was a bipedal half-cybernetic reptilian creature with three large fingers on each hand, harsh yellow eyes and raptor-like feet. "Firstly, we must recover a ROB unit intact so we can extract a signal receiver from its body. With it, we can patch directly into their shared network and intercept their orders in real-time. We won't be playing catch-up anymore. Secondly, we have to learn what the Orpheon is being used for, and put an end to it." The hologram flickered out of existence, and Alia retrieved the disk.
"Samus's gunship has been retrofitted with a rift generator, so now you may travel worlds without my aid. Alia will remain on comms to act as your operator and respondent. Good luck," The Minister said.
Samus put her helmet back on her head and clicked it into place. Immediately, Pichu scurried up her arm and perched on her shoulder. "Captain, X, you're with me," She said before heading for the exit. Falcon and X followed her out, with Alia giving a small concerned look to X as he left, but quickly replacing it with a neutral one as she pocketed the hologram disc.
"The rest of you, enjoy the rest, but remain at the ready. Tabuu is not going to take things step by step. I can only imagine what else he is preparing simultaneously with the Orpheon. I will continue my search for any leads, and will return if anything turns up," The Minister said before opening a small rift and floating quickly through it. It snapped shut behind him, and the others quickly split apart and headed for the room's exit as well.
"Welp, I'm feeling a little cooped up, so I'm going on a run. Later!" Sonic said before zooming off out of sight. A quick glance out the window earned Mario the sight of a blue blur zooming out of the castle's bounds, blasting right for the kingdom's borders. Mario shook his head with a smirk and light chuckle, before turning to his side to address Peach, only for her to be missing entirely. He looked around briefly, then thought she must've left the others. She had moved quickly for someone supposedly still so weak. He needed to talk to her, so he quickly left as well to find his princess.
Hopefully she hasn't already found her way to another castle, He thought to himself.
Samus sat herself in the pilot's seat of the gunship, and Pichu hopped off her shoulder and sat comfortably on the corner of the console. X and Falcon took seats behind Samus, and the ship began to start up around them, the vibrations of the engines felt underneath their feet.
"Let's give this new 'rift generator' a test drive," Samus said as the ship slowly left the ground, the landing gear folding up into the ship's chassis. They rose three stories above the ground before Samus hit a new switch on her dashboard, which the Minister had told her would activate the generator. The ship shuddered for a few moments, a new flow of energy being shocked through its system, before a rift slowly opened in the space before them, reality tearing open like tissue paper. Samus takes the controls firmly, and the ship lurches forward and flies right through the rift.
A flash of light blinded the crew for a few moments after they passed through, like a thousand stars blinking into existence simultaneously right in front of them, then suddenly it was gone, and the ship was now in the void of outer space. The lights had turned into the blinking stars dotting the otherwise black emptiness of space, and out there in the void was a large spaceship, the Frigate Orpheon, alone among those stars.
"There it is. The Orpheon. Never thought I'd see that wreck again," Samus said.
"Look on the bright side, you get to blow it up again," Falcon said.
"I didn't last time. It was taken down by one of the most dangerous creatures in my world: a Metroid Prime," Samus corrected.
"Well, then you get to blow it up for the first time," Falcon said.
Samus's gaze lingered on the Orpheon, awaiting them out there. "If it's being used for the same purpose as before, Tabuu could have unstoppable war beasts stronger than any of us. They could tear through entire planets."
"Sounds like we need to get to work then," Falcon smirked as he stood from his seat.
"No, not you, Captain," Samus said.
"What? Why?"
"I need you to stay here with the ship. We need to get inside undetected, and flying right up to them and blasting a hole in the hull isn't the way to do that."
"So how are we going to get inside?" X asked.
Samus stood up and turned to him. "You and I are going to jettison ourselves right towards the ship."
"You're sending yourselves shooting through space?!" Falcon questioned.
"He's mechanical and I have a fully sealed armor suit. We'll be fine. You keep the ship out of range until we can disable their sensors and clear a hangar for you to land in," Samus said. She then started for the ship's airlock. X followed close behind. She opened the door to the airlock and let X step through. She glanced back at Falcon. "Stay on comms. We'll let you know once we have a hangar cleared. And not a scratch on my ship, Captain."
"What am I supposed to do in the meantime?" Falcon asked.
"Keep Pichu company," Samus replied before shutting the door between the cabin and the airlock. Falcon glanced over at Pichu, still curled up on the main console. The electric mouse gave a side glare to the F-Zero racer, before turning over and returning to his slumber.
Samus approached the controls for the exterior airlock door. "You ready?" She asked X.
"We're not getting on that ship any faster," X remarked. Samus gave a light chuckle, then quickly hit the switch. The metal airlock doors snapped open, and the two were quickly, violently, sucked out into space, yanked out by the vacuum. Samus spun out of control for a few dizzying moments, but before she could correct herself, the arms of X grabbed her and steadied her. She saw that he had already activated his foot jets to control his own movement.
She gave him a nod in recognition, then looked toward the Orpheon once again. She quickly activated her comms to communicate with X. "I looked at the old schematics I had for the ship. If it's anything like the Orpheon I was on before, there should be an airlock at this position." She sent the blueprints to X's HUD and pinged the part of the ship was referencing: a small airlock, meant for crew transfer between vessels, embedded atop the ship. X nodded and hooked his arm with hers.
"Hold on tight," he said before his jets kickstarted and they began to fly right towards the ship.
"Bring us close, but decelerate before we get too close, or we might come up on their scanners," Samus warned. X acknowledged the command, and kept their velocity until they were about a few miles from the ship. From there, he killed his thrusters and let the momentum take them both towards the massive cruiser. As they approached, Samus almost expected for the Orpheon's weapons to turn on them and open fire. But they slipped right by, in the clear. X used his thrusters just barely to ensure that they stopped at the airlock. He gripped onto the frame of the doors and held on, before pulling Samus forward so she could do the same.
Samus held onto the frame tight, then gestured X toward the door. He nodded, and crawled toward the center slit where the twin doors for the airlock met. He gripped the metal and slowly forced it open inch by inch, just enough so Samus could slip through. He himself crawled through before pulling them shut again. Samus landed on the floor of the airlock and hit the switch to depressurize the room. Oxygen filled the room and sound finally returned to Samus's ears as they left the muteness of space behind. The door to the ship's interior opened, and she chimed her comms again.
"Alia, we're aboard the Orpheon. Beginning mission."
Peach took it step by uneasy step through the halls of her castle as she worked to keep her balance. She was recovering rather quickly, with her body just working to return to full strength. A place to really relax for the time being, that's what she needed. She hadn't been awake for very long, after all. Once she was rested up, she'd be right as rain.
"Princess! Princess!" Mario's voice echoed down the hall. Peach paused, and let out a small sigh.
Please don't let this be what I think it is… not now… Peach turned as Mario quickly approached, sliding to a stop before her.
"Hey, sorry. You disappeared quick back there, I had to catch up."
"What is it, Mario?" Peach asked half-heartedly.
"I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I know you're still workin' on getting your bearings again," Mario replied.
Peach nodded slightly. "I'm alright, just getting my feet back under me as it were. I appreciate the concern."
"I, uh… was also hoping to talk about something else, if you have the chance."
Peach mentally sighed. She saw this coming a mile away. As if he hadn't already shown how poor his judgement of timing was. "I know where this is going, and I assure you, now is not the time to discuss this."
"Please, Peach, just gimme a chance," Mario begged. "It's been months now and we haven't talked this out."
"There's not much to talk about. Even if there was, this isn't something you can fix simply by discussing it. It was hurtful, Mario. Personal. In a moment where I was happy to be free from Bowser's advances, you stood there next to him competing for my hand like some sort of prize to be won!"
"C-C'mon, Peach, you know that's not what I meant by that. You know me," Mario pleaded.
"Exactly. The man who had protected our kingdom for years, who had more than earned my trust and love many times over, and yet you still felt like you had to compete for my love when there was no competition at all! You were the one I'd chosen time and again!"
"Yeah, I know, it was dumb, really dumb, all on me. That's why I'm trying to make things right," Mario said.
"It isn't that simple. You and I have had a deep rooted trust in each other for years, a connection unlike any other. However, after that day, that connection has felt… loosened. I still trust you as a hero, and as a friend, and everything you've done for this kingdom all these years isn't forgotten or unappreciated. But our bond isn't the same at the moment, and amidst the work of a princess, then the alliance planning, and then.. all of this… I haven't yet had time to think as hard as I'd like about what to do. I'll give some time to this when there is time to spare. But as I see it, we're all on a ticking clock right now. There are more important things going on, so our problems will have to wait longer, and when I have had time to ponder it, we will discuss then."
Peach turned on her heel and continued forward, but Mario was left standing there. "I would prefer to have some time to myself, so please, don't follow." Mario watched Peach leave, then hung his head low and let out a small sigh.
"I'm such a screw-up…"
The first thing Samus and X did as soon as they were aboard the Orpheon was find a map terminal, allowing Samus to upload schematics of the ship right to her suit, which she was then able to relay to X, giving them both the full layout of the cruiser. First order of business was locating a hangar for Falcon to land the gunship in, guaranteeing them an escape route. Luckily they found one, and now peered into it from the doorway to the hall. Within was a fairly large troop of space pirates, patrolling the hangar as well as unloading supplies from two small ships landed there.
"Looks like they're still moving in," X noted quietly.
"Hm," Samus nodded, but frowned under her helmet. She wasn't expecting so many pirates. If there were this many in a single hangar, how many could possibly be aboard the ship? She didn't like to think of the answer. She scanned the hangar over until she saw a control panel by the energy barrier separating the hangar from the vacuum of space. "See the panel at the far end?" X followed her eye line, then nodded. "If I can get to that side of the hangar undetected, I can turn the barrier off and let the vacuum take every single pirate in the hangar."
"And if you get caught?"
"Then I'll need you to get them off me so I can still vent the hangar, and make sure they don't get a call out to alert the rest of the ship," Samus replied.
"And how exactly are you going to get across the hangar without being seen?" X questioned. Samus, without a word, kneeled down and her suit began to morph and change around her body as she curled down into a ball, until her armor actually shifted into a ball: a bronze-looking metal orb with a glowing blue groove circling its center curve. "How… how does that work? More importantly, how does your body fit in that?"
"X. Focus. Keep an eye out, and if things get dicey, jump in."
"Right." X refocused himself on the task at hand. Samus rolled herself forward into the hangar and behind a stack of large metal storage crates that easily hid her form. The hangar was a disorganized mess, with such crates or other large containers scattered around the place. This gave Samus many places to hide, but it also complicated actually reaching the other side of the hangar, creating a disjointed maze to navigate all while avoiding the attention of any pirate strolling the hangar. However, she managed.
Samus stopped behind the closest set of crates from the terminal and morphed back to her normal size, still crouched behind the crate. She peered around and eyed the panel. No pirates were guarding it, still occupied with unloading those crates. She took her chance and quickly but silently ran for the panel. She reached it and started to shut down the shield, only to catch a plasma round in her shoulder. In an instant, she already spun around and had her cannon arm up and fired, her own shot burning right through the pirate that had shot her. Stealth was out the window now. She saw all of the other pirates in the hangar start to turn her way and draw their weapons. They didn't have time to spare. She snapped back and finished deactivating the energy field, and everything was quickly sucked up into a vacuum. The pirates, the crates, their ships, all of it was sucked out almost instantaneously.
X held onto the doorframe of the hangar's entrance, and when that wasn't enough and he began to be pulled in, he ignited his foot jets to keep him from being pulled even more. Samus wasn't as lucky. Being right next to the hangar opening, she was quickly pulled towards the void of space. She managed to fire out a grappling hook from her cannon arm as it latched onto the wall, anchoring her even as the vacuum pulled violently at her.
"Samus!" X exclaimed. She couldn't hear his voice directly, not with the vacuum in her ears. The comms were another story.
"I'm… rrg… reeling myself in!" Samus began to pull herself in, her grappling line slowly pulling her back towards the control panel.
The metal panel of the wall she was hooked to wrenched and tore free from the wall under the vacuum's force. X's eyes rounded, and he let go of his own anchor immediately, flying straight for Samus. Samus had barely even registered that he had moved at all before suddenly the robot's arms were around her waist. X had managed to close the hangar's distance and snag Samus before she even made it past the hangar bay exit, then quickly reversed his thirst and shot back into the hangar, his force exceeding the vacuum's. He flew down to the panel again, and Samus reactivated the energy barrier without hesitation. The barrier flickered back to life, the vacuum was cut, and the force X was using in his foot jets to fight it quickly sent them shooting into the closest wall. X's chassis dented the wall inwards, and the two fell and collapsed atop one another on the floor of the hangar.
Samus groaned and pushed X off of her before returning to her feet, then helped X up himself. "That could've gone worse," X remarked.
"Could've gone better," Samus said, but then connected to their comm line. "Captain, pull the ship into hangar twelve on the aft side of the ship. X and I are heading to the bridge to gain control of the ship and find out what they're doing here."
"Copy that," Falcon replied.
Peach needed somewhere to think for herself, at least for a short time. She still felt overwhelmed. She needed somewhere to properly decompress, breathe; and usually the place for that had been the garden. However, when she stepped outside into the garden, she found she wasn't alone. Standing there at the edge of the patches of greenery was Link, silently gazing out at the blooms alone. She pauses in the entryway, and not wanting to disturb him, as well as wishing for a place all to herself, begins to turn around.
"You don't have to leave," Link said. Peach paused again and looked back. Link was looking up at her now, but he quickly looked back out at the flowers before him. "I'm quiet. I won't disturb you. I could also leave, if you wish."
Peach considered it for a moment, but she thought it would be rather rude to force him to leave. He was a guest, after all. She gave the Hylian a small smile. "No. This place is for all. I am more than happy to share it," She replied gently. Her heels clicked against the stone of the steps, and she took her own place in the garden, but gave Link his own personal space. The two stood there for a long while in awkward silence, at least awkward from Peach's point of view. It felt like she could cut the stress in the air with a knife. She took a deep breath, then glanced over at Link.
"I.. don't believe we've been properly introduced," She said. Link shakes his head. Peach put her hand out to him. "Peach Toadstool." Link eyed her hand briefly before hesitantly gripping it and shaking.
"Link," He responded.
"I hope my castle has been a comfortable place for you and the others. I only wish we were meeting under different circumstances," Peach said.
"Hm." Link nodded again in recognition and agreement. Peach tilted her head in curiosity.
"You don't talk much, do you?"
"...no."
"Why not, if I may ask?" Peach questioned.
"It's… for personal reasons," Link replied hesitantly.
Peach took a step closer. "I don't mean to pry, but you do seem rather troubled. If anything helps ease weight off one's shoulders, I believe it to be sharing those burdens with someone else. If you so wish." Peach kept a gentle, kind expression as she spoke, one that immediately cracked Link's guard. He couldn't explain what it was, but it felt like Peach had a way of making a place feel comfortable, safe, warm, as if her mere presence and smile was all the comfort needed. It somewhat unnerved Link, but it also worked. His head turned back towards the flowers before them, and he took a silent breath.
"My princess… Zelda… she would enjoy a place like this. The blooms, the life; something new and interesting, but also beautiful and serene."
"She sounds like a wonderful person. This Zelda… was she taken as I was?" Peach asked. Link slowly nodded. "I am sorry. But I have faith that you'll free her, and be with each other again, especially with so many to call your allies."
"Hm." Link brought himself down to one knee before the blooms. "... I am the assigned protector of Princess Zelda, guardian of the future of Hyrule. That responsibility comes with an expectation. To obtain the mantle requires bravery, courage and skill. To maintain it requires commitment, dedication and strength. I have to show the world every day I still possess those qualities, project my inner strength. The best way to do that is to bear those burdens silently, even if it costs me the luxury of expressing myself. I am what I need to be. Nothing more, nothing less."
"While I admire your dedication, I don't think that's how you should treat yourself. You have value just as much as anyone else; not as a protector, but as a person. You shouldn't stifle that simply because you feel like you have to," Peach replied with a slight frown. "It is true you have a mantle of responsibility, and that many will see you alongside Zelda. It's precisely why you must not suffocate who you are. It isn't a machine that should be seen doing what you do, but a person just like the rest of them. Much like they must with Zelda, your people will see themselves in you, and for a united people, that is most important. Don't sell who you are short, when it's what makes you… you."
Link didn't really listen to her at first. After all, he'd been this way for years now, and it had seemed like the right thing to do. But it didn't take long for her words to really sink in. His closest friends like Zelda and Purah knew him for who he was, knew that his stoic silence was just a shield, but the people of Hyrule didn't know that. They knew his actions to be sure, and they spoke volumes of his dedication and courage as their hero. They trusted him, and were grateful to him. But did they truly see him as one of them, or something else entirely? Do they see someone who simply wanted to do good who once was no different than any of them, or do they see something greater that they could never hope to attain?
"Take Mario for example," Peach continued. "He is still the hero of our kingdom, but he is also outgoing, lively, always showing those around him kindness with a broad smile accompanied by that mustache of his. He presents such a positive image to look up to not just by being a savior, but by being a friend to all."
Link mulled her words over a while longer, then returned to his full height. "If you don't mind me asking… if you have so many positive things to say about Mario, then what is the conflict between the two of you?"
Peach wasn't expecting the questions to suddenly be sent her way, especially that one. Though, it was at the forefront of her mind. "I apologize if I've crossed a boundary by asking."
Peach shook her head. "No, it's… quite alright. It's a… complicated subject."
"You asked to bear some of my burdens. Perhaps I could do the same for you in return," Link suggested, albeit hesitantly. But he really couldn't explain what made him inherently trust Peach. He knew he could - she wasn't an enemy of any kind. But something made him want to. "If you wish," he adjusted himself.
Peach weakly chuckled a bit and shifted on her feet. "I suppose you're right. Some time ago, Mario saved me yet again from the clutches of our greatest enemy, King Bowser, who has been trying to force me into marriage for years. His latest plot had been foiled, and I was just ready to return home. However, Mario decided that was the moment for his own marriage proposal, when I was still in the dress forced on me by the Koopa King, still standing amongst the ruins of another thwarted plot. That was the moment he chose. It felt…" Peach sighed, failing to find the right words.
"Wrong?" Link guessed.
Peach nodded. "He was so concerned at the idea of losing a competition that didn't exist, he chose an extreme action. What hurts worse is… had he asked any other time… I might've said yes. I'm not… wholly angry with him, but I'm certainly not happy either. I… I don't know what to feel, and it's left our entire relationship feeling… strained. Difficult. He understands his mistake, we are still good friends, and I feel no ill will, but… it feels like there was a part of our trust that was taken for granted."
Link listened intently as she spoke, showing her the same courtesy she had shown him. And when she was done, he mulled it over for a few moments to give his response. "I can't say I perfectly understand. I'm no expert on romantic matters. But I do know how hard true trust is hard to come by, and the value of it, especially with someone you care about."
Peach smiles a little. "Regardless, it… does feel nice to vent some of this. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to me."
"Same to you, Princess," Link nodded. Peach smiled a bit wider and she looked back out at the blooms with Link. "However, if I hazard a guess… as unwise as Mario's actions might have been in the moment, it's clear he cares a great deal about you. If he's anything like me, his princess means the world to him. It could've been less about ensuring he won you… and more about ensuring he doesn't lose you."
Peach didn't know how to take that at first. She decided to process it, as well as their whole conversation. So there they stood in silence from there, looking out at the blooms thriving in the garden.
The final pirate on the Orpheon's bridge dropped to the deck with a smoldering blast mark in his torso, courtesy of Samus. The captain of the deck hadn't even made it out of his command chair. Samus moved towards that chair, while X gazed at the dead pirates around them.
"Doesn't this feel like a bit much to you?" He asked.
"This isn't enough for them," Samus said before pushing the captain's corpse from the chair, watching it thump limply on the deck. She then began accessing the deck's computer, keying away as she inspected the logs. "Now let's see what you're up to…"
While Samus scoured their database, X looked around them, then back down the hall through the door to the bridge. He heard no other crew members coming. They were still in the clear for now.
"Oh my god…" He heard Samus mutter. He turned around and went to her side.
"What is it?" He questioned.
"This ship… is a bomber vessel," Samus said. "Their cargo bays are filled to the brim with Subspace Bombs, with hundreds of worlds as their targets." She displayed a list of targeted worlds marked for Subspace absorption. "Hyrule-29, Bionis-610, Earth-1313, Corneria-93, Remnant-02… I can't even count how many are marked."
"He's going to absorb worlds faster than we can ever hope to stop them…"
"We're taking this cruiser down now," Samus said before shutting down the terminal. "Only way to make sure of that is to go down to the reactor and set it to overload. The entire ship will go off like a supernova, taking all those bombs with it."
Falcon sat impatiently within the gunship, wishing he could be out there doing something more than just guarding the ship in the meantime. He had landed it within the hangar Samus specified, and had done little since. He glanced over at Pichu, who still lay curled up on the console, snoozing away. Falcon sighed, and glanced out the viewport, only to see a small troop of pirates accompanied by another troop of ROBs entering the bay. He smirked and hopped up. "Finally."
The door to the reactor split open with metal mechanical whirs and clanks. Before the two halves of the door had even receded into the doorway, Samus and X had already begun blasting the pirates down one by one with their arm-cannons, barely even giving them a chance to retaliate. When the remaining pirates did finally return fire, Samus and X were both quick enough to dodge their blasts and return with their own, which always found their intended target. Before long, they had cleared the entire reactor room of pirates, and before them, hooked into cables five times as wide as Samus or X themselves and reaching into the ceiling like spindly metallic arms, was the reactor core.
"This is it. Cover me while I set the overload," Samus said. X nodded and spun his buster around to watch their backs in case more pirates entered the reactor while Samus rushed for the control panel. As soon as she reached it, a blast of energy struck it and sent sparks and metal shards flying. Samus shielded her eyes from the flash, then both she and X snapped their gazes up to one of the higher catwalks to spot a new figure, neither pirate or ROB.
It was an anthropomorphic mammal figure, with the orange and white fur and tail of a fox dressed in a green jumpsuit with a white jacket white boots with metal tips and highlights, and a black belt with a golden buckle and empty pistol holster. The firearm was in one of its gloved hands, the open fingers showing a claw still at the trigger. Around its body was the same dark aura that had been around Peach and Zelda at the scrapyard, as well as the golden glowing eyes staring back at Samus and X.
"He's possessed, just like the princess was," X said.
"Find a way to start the meltdown. I'll deal with him," Samus said before grappling up to the fox's catwalk and acrobatically flipping behind the anthropomorphic assailant. She spun back and kicked high the moment she landed, but before her heel ever connected with the fox, her foot was not only stopped, but repelled by a sudden barrier of energy that formed between her and her opponent, throwing her off balance and nearly sending her off the catwalk. She managed to catch herself and regain her balance. Her opponent blasted forward with a burst of flame, connecting dead center with Samus, making her entire torso feel like it was burning up on impact, and it had been if she didn't have her armor. They rocketed off the higher catwalk and fell through the air until they landed on a lower one, below the main platform with the reactor. Samus shifted midair to put the fox toward the platform first, slamming onto him upon landing and quickly rolling off of him to recover. She palmed her armor's torso, still feeling the residual heat from the flaming attack, and noticing the slight black scorch marks now present on its chassis.
X examined the terminal, but it was no use: it had been completely blasted apart. He searched frantically for another set of controls nearby, but found none. "Tch," He uttered before calling out to Samus. "It's no use! The panels fried! We can't start a countdown for the reactor to blow!"
"Well, we have to figure something out!" Samus replied as she narrowly avoided strikes from her opponent, who had quickly decided to engage her in close combat. Whoever this was, he was trained and trained well, different from anyone she had fought during this so far. She felt bad for their state, possessed as Peach had been, but that didn't mean she could hold back. She needed to hit hard enough to knock him out of it. She leapt backwards to put even a little bit of distance between her and the fox, and began to charge her arm cannon, energy building up in the head of the barrel. The fox frowned and he leaned forward, sparks kicking up around him again. "X, I could use a few seconds to spare!" The fox blasted forward yet again and zoomed straight for Samus, and with it being a straight walkway, she had nowhere to evade it to. Luckily, just before their bodies once again connected violently, X had flown in quickly an dwindled up a rocket-propelled kick that connected with the fox's jaw harshly, not just stopping his momentum dead, but reversing it just as harshly and sending him flying and slamming into the wall, before dropping down with a slam back onto the catwalk.
The anthropomorphic fox groaned and started to get back up, but Samus's arm cannon chimed with a full charge, and she quickly took aim and fired, the blast bursting from her cannon in harsh fashion before finding home with the fox, dispersing on impact but leaving a steaming black mark on his torso and throwing him into the wall again. He dropped again, this time falling unconscious. Purple-black wisps of shadowy energy wafted off of him, before violently bursting out into the air all at once, then dispersing and dying out within moments. Samus let out a sigh of relief, then glanced back up towards the reactor, and eyed the annihilated control panel. "Damn…"
"I might have an idea," X said, "But you're not gonna like it."
"Probably not… but let's hear it," Samus said.
"I could set off the reactor manually," X suggested.
"You'd be at ground zero, you'll be vaporized," Samus replied.
"Maybe not. I've survived worse. I at least have a chance. You don't. This is the only chance we have to stop this ship before it starts bombing universes. We can't afford to wait. I can do this, but you'll need to get the gunship to a safe distance, and fast."
"There's no guarantee you're going to survive! You'll be at ground zero of a nuclear blast equivalent to a small supernova!" Samus replied.
"We don't have time to debate this. This ship could take entire worlds by the dozens at least. We can't let it drop its payload anywhere. This is our chance to stop it right here, right now. Just trust me," X insisted.
Samus wanted to argue further, but time was running short. It wouldn't be long before the reactor was once again flooding with more pirates or any of the ROBs on board. This wasn't a risk she wanted to take, putting X on the line like this, but there was also the risk of letting this frigate go free to enact its mission. "You better be right. I don't want to be the one to tell that Alia girl you're not coming back."
X grimaced. "Go, now." Samus turned from X and started to stir the fox awake.
"C'mon, furball. We gotta get going!"
"Rrrg…" The fox groaned as he stirred awake, coming to as Samus pulled him to his feet. "What… what's going on?"
"Long story, one that's gonna have to wait. Can you move?"
"I'll… be fine," he groaned.
"Good. Cause we've got to haul it across this cruiser back to my gunship."
"I have my own ship," The fox said.
"You're a pilot?" Samus asked.
"One of the best. Fox McCloud."
"Samus. X. The meet cute will have to wait." Samus hauled him up, then X grabbed them both before flying back up to the main catwalk with the two hanging from his arms. He set them down and dropped with a metallic clank onto the catwalk. "You know where your ship is?"
"I can find it," Fox replied.
"I hope that's true, because in a couple minutes this place is only going to be wreckage," X said. "Move fast, and ping me when you're clear." Samus and Fox quickly bolted from the reactor room, while X turned back to the reactor and readied his buster cannon.
If this doesn't kill me, I know Alia will, he thought to himself.
Around Falcon were the forms of either unconscious pirates or devastated ROBs. He hadn't found the opportunity to snag one and deactivate it without damaging it. More of the machines entered the hangar with pirates at a steady rate. Nothing he couldn't handle, but that made simply restraining one impossible.
Falcon dodged fire from the pirates' energy weapons enough to close the distance and floor two of them instantly with a flaming kick, then twirled with a backward strike that tore through the chassis of a ROB with ease, then cursed under his breath. But he was immediately put on the defensive as more opponents closed in. He moved evasively and struck each opponent once with harsh force, making his way through the force one by one.
Pichu yawned as he stepped to the open doorway and gazed down the lowered ramp outside and the battle outside. He saw Falcon battling the pirates and ROBs expertly, then noticed one ROB orbiting outside the fight, flying slowly higher and higher above. It glared down at Falcon at the center of the mob, then the bulb atop its heads began to glow brightly, its laser warming up with the Captain as its target. Pichu frowned and bent itself down, before leaping upward and grabbing onto the base of the ROBs body. He was so light and small, he went unnoticed.
Pichu scurried up the ROB's metallic body until he was atop its flat boxy head, then bolts of electricity began to spark from his red cheeks. "Piiii…chuuuuu!" The electricity quickly and violently struck outwards and conducted through the ROB's entire body, making it jolt and move erratically. The machine's rocket cut out and its body swerved before dropping out of the sky limp and slamming into the ground, with Pichu still atop it.
Falcon flattened out another pirate, but still he remained surrounded. This was getting old, and fast. He gritted his teeth and charged a torrent of flame that spread up his entire forearm, then reeled his fist back and struck the ground as hard as he could, sending out a blast of pure force and flame that erupted like a bomb. Every remaining pirate and ROB was not only taken off their feet by a force they literally couldn't stand against, but the flame scorched their bodies and melted their metal. Pichu covered his eyes as the harsh light of the blast blinded him, and when it receded, Falcon stood victorious over a heft pile of crumpled and burned robots and aliens.
The captain let out a sigh of relief, and the flame on his arm snuffed out. He had his eyes closed as he took a few breaths, letting the rush of the battle leave him. "Pichu!" He looked back up and saw the little creature perched atop the ROB he had deactivated. A ROB that, while short-circuited, was intact. Falcon smirked. "Nice job, little dude! You got exactly what we needed!" Falcon stepped over and pet Pichu's head, who, albeit begrudgingly, accepted the praise and pets.
The door to the hangar reopened and Samus sprinted in at a breakneck pace. "Captain, on board, now!"
"What's the rush? What's going on? Where's the robot kid?"
"X is going to send this ship to hell, and we have to get out of the blast range before he does! Get that thing on board and get strapped in!" Samus ordered as she ran up the ramp toward the cockpit of the gunship, with Pichu hot on her heels. Falcon sighed and began to haul the deactivated ROB up the ramp as well.
"Yeah, great, Cap's got this. Rrg, not like it's a human-sized mass of metal, nope. Super light." He managed to get it up the ramp and into the cargo hold in just a few, albeit strained, moments, then hit the switch that closed the ramp and sealed the ship tight. "We're good!"
Samus took hold of the controls and blasted the gunship from the hangar. The metal walls quickly changed into a field of stars dotting the blackness. As soon as they were a decent range away, she hailed X on the comms. "X, we're a ways out. Light it up."
"Right. Here's hoping this works," X replied. He aimed his buster up and began to charge the blast. If he was human, his anxiety would be choking him right now. He'd have to take the shot and move fast. Faster than he ever has.
The shot was charged, and after a beat, he fired, and without waiting another instant, heel turned and blasted off with his foot jets right out of the reactor room. He made the snap turn and shot down the hall before the blast ignited, shaking the entire ship with a deafening blast that erupted violently. X was already far away from the reactor and even he felt the shockwaves, which meant the blast itself wasn't far behind. Sure enough, even though he was flying at his fastest, flame and heat began to fill the halls behind him, and were catching up rapidly.
Taking the ship's halls to exit was slowing him down, slowing him enough where the blast was going to swallow him up in no time. Forget navigating the ship. He had to go through it. He braced himself and pushed his jets to their highest possible power before he burst the immediate wall, then another, then another, tearing through the ship level by level as he created his own exit, like he himself was a rocket blasting through the vessel. While he escaped the stretch of the blast initially, the flame burst through the openings he made and would continue to follow him.
Come on, almost there! He grit his teeth as he felt the nuclear heat on his tail. The metal walls tore in his wake, then melted further as the blast continued pursuit. He knew he had to be close to the hull now. He struck the final layer of metal between him and freedom, and then the flame caught up. The blast consumed him and burst forward, then before he knew it, he was forced through what remained of the hull and hurtled into the void of space violently. The unbearable heat of the blast quickly died out and was replaced by the absolute cold of space, cooling his chassis instantly, leaving only scorch marks on his blue metal. He spun out of control as he tried to kick his jets back on to right himself. Once they sparked to life, he reversed his spin until he was stabilized, and regained his bearings.
He saw the Frigate Orpheon be torn apart. It churned and gave across all decks, obliterating itself from the inside out, before suddenly exploding at its heart and immediately separating into two larger chunks and countless fragments of what used to be halls, rooms, and labs. And one of those rooms used to hold countless Subspace Bombs, now left as nothing but shrapnel and ashes in the void of space. X smirked, glad to have that potential danger taken care of.
"X? X, do you read me? X!" Samus's voice filled his comms. He quickly picked up the line.
"I'm alright, Samus. Mission accomplished," X said. X thought he heard a small sigh of relief, but didn't bring it up. "I'm ready for pickup. Pinging my coordinates now."
"We have a problem," He heard Falcon in the background. "A rift just opened on the far side of the wreckage. And it's not ours." X's guard immediately raised and he quickly began to scan the space around the wreckage to spot the perpetrator. At first, he couldn't spot them, but then he saw the reptilian wings and sharp snout of Ridley weaving through the wreckage, navigating it at breakneck pace right for X.
"It's Ridley!" X reported.
"X, you need to get out of there, right now!" Samus exclaimed. X didn't argue, and kicked his jets back into overdrive to get away from the wreckage as fast as possible.
"ETA on that pickup?" X questioned.
"Tracking coordinates now, just hold on!" Samus replied. X looked back behind him, and Ridley was gaining fast. Outflying him wasn't going to be an option. So he began to charge his buster, using the pursuit to buy himself time. Once charged, he let himself deccelerate, just enough to let Ridley catch up. The dragon pirate primed a strike with his claws, but just before the found home in X, he dropped below Ridley and aimed his buster upwards as Ridley overshot him, and fired. The charge blast struck dead center into Ridley's torso. It burned the purple-gray scales on Ridley's chest, but in instant retaliation, Ridley's bladed tail whipped out towards X. He reacted in time to avoid being impaled, but the tip of the tail still cut into his upper-right forearm like a hot knife through butter. X's eyes rounded, and he quickly realized that this is a fight he wouldn't win in this state. So he kicked his jets up again before Ridley could deal out another strike. Ridley quickly gave chase again.
"Anytime now, Samus!" X exclaimed.
"We have you! Wait, there's something else en route-" As Ridley caught up to X, a sudden blast of energy hit him dead on and sent him hurtling the other way. X spotted a single-man space fighter with an angular design with a silver chassis and blue and yellow highlights zooming in from the other side of the wreckage, which quickly released another volley of energy blasts from its twin front cannons, most of which connected with Ridley again.
"Seems like you could use some help," Fox's voice joined the comms.
"Heh, just in time," X replied gratefully. Ridley recovered from the energy volley, and howled into the void of space His maw opened as a buildup of red energy formed at the back of his mouth. Before he could fire, Samus's gunship plowed right into him, ramming him at full speed and sending hurtling toward the Orpheon's wreckage yet again.
"Now, X, get in!" The airlock to the gunship opened, and X quickly took the chance to fly inside. He landed in the small airlock room and slammed the switch to seal it up.
"I'm in! Go! Go!" X exclaimed. Samus didn't even wait a single beat before activating the rift generator. The all-too-familiar now tear in space opened, and Samus punched the engines at full speed to go through. Fox's fighter swung around and zoomed right through to follow them, the rift snapping shut behind him.
Ridley recovered from the attack and snarled at his escaped prey, before leaving the wreckage of his frigate in his own rift.
AltheaSirius on Chapter 1 Thu 29 Feb 2024 10:52PM UTC
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