Pt #1: Sauria's Secret
Heroes in an Unknown World
A short man frowned, as he wandered through the large city. Hover cars zoomed all around him, and people walked all around him. Literally, all around him. On each story, a long sidewalk extended from one building to another, creating several different walkways. Thus, people were both above the man and beneath him.
How strange, the man thought, before straightening his red hat and placing his hands into the pockets of his blue overalls. What a bizarre place. What kind of people live here, and… how in the world did I end up here?
Suddenly, a cry reached his ears, and he turned to see a large hare running from a bunch of robots. The hare ran instead of hopping, and was dressed in a shirt, and in pants. He was also wearing glasses. Pausing only for a second to reflect on the strange scene, the man grabbed onto a flower and pulled it out of his pocket. He stuffed it in his mouth, and his red clothes instantly changed to white. Then he charged at the robots.
A strange red beam flew out of their arms, and the man threw himself to the ground, barely avoiding one that was aimed at his head. Mamma Mia! He muttered, before turning and shoving out his hand. A large fireball flew from it and hit one of the robots, causing it to go up in flame. Instantly, all of the guns were pointed at him. Time to die, he thought to himself.
Suddenly, a Star Fox dropped down from one of the roofs, firing a blaster. Before he had even touched the ground, all of the robots had been destroyed. Then he turned to the man, who was actually smaller than this Star Fox, and said, "Who are you, and what are you doing on Corneria?"
The man looked the Star Fox up and down, studying him. He was perhaps five foot tall, and had a magnifying glass type thing over his eye. He wore a white dress shirt with a vest above it, and long brown pants. This world is so weird! The man thought to himself. Then he said, "I'm Mario, from The Mushroom Kingdom."
"Never heard of it," the Star Fox replied, "but that really doesn't surprise me much. I'm Star Fox, and I suppose I owe you some thanks. You see, you just saved a good friend of mine by the name of Peppy. I don't know what we would do without him. Come, meet the others…"
"Others?" Mario asked with a look of confusion. "You said 'we' earlier, so I'm just wondering. Who are these others?"
"Well, I'm part of a mercenary group," Star Fox replied, before quickly adding, "though that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. They're out taking their vacations at the moment, as me and Peppy were doing here. I'm not going to go into who the other people are I'm talking about; I'll have them do that when we get there. You're not the first strange new presence here." So, curious, Mario followed Star Fox down the streets of Corneria.
It took about ten minutes, Star Fox having hailed a taxi, to reach the small building in the outskirts of town. Before opening the door, he turned to Mario and said, "Do you have any idea where you are?"
"No," Mario replied. "The only things here I've ever seen before are those beams, and I've never seen them fired from whatever those were."
"Robots," Star Fox replied, "and you'll be seeing a lot of those before you return home. I just want to make sure you understand about this world before you talk to the others. I've already explained it all to them, and don't want to waste their time doing it again."
So for the next twenty minutes, Star Fox filled Mario in on what laser guns, spaceships, stunners, and all of the other strange things of this new world were. When he was finally finished, Star Fox and Mario turned their attention once again to the door. Leaning down, Star Fox wiped at an old scanner which appeared to be broken. It instantly glowed for a second, examining Star Fox's hand, before the door slipped open. "Come," Star Fox said, walking in.
Mario stepped into the room warily, not at all sure what to expect. If these people seemed strange to Star Fox, whom Mario considered strange, how much more would these people seem strange to him?
Three people…well, technically only two of them were human, sat around a table. One was dressed in a green tunic with a strange hat. The other one was dressed in a strange white shirt and a brown belt. At his side hung what looked to Mario like some kind of strange device. Its purpose, however, he couldn't even figure out. The other "person" looked to Mario like a pink ball about half his size, with red shoes and a face with a huge mouth.
"Mario," Star Fox said, "I wish to introduce you to Link," motioning to the man in the green tunic, "Luke Skywalker," the other human, "and Kirby," the strange ball. "They all ended up here and brought attention to themselves with their strange actions, same as you did. As of yet, nobody can explain why they ended up here."
"I can't remember either," Mario admitted. Then, after thinking hard for a couple of seconds, he said, "I must have fallen through a green tube."
"That is the weirdest one yet!" Star Fox said, putting his hand to his head. "Kirby said he probably rode a star, Link said it was a probably mess-up in Nayru's Wind, whatever that means, and Luke said it was probably some unseeable force he knows how to control. Now you say you came through a green tube!"
Link stood to his feet, his hand on his bow. "We're wasting time!" he said, his frustration showing. "Ganondorf has returned, and I can't waste time sitting here! I need to get back to Hyrule!"
"I bet Meta-Knight has attacked Green Greens while I was here," Kirby said worryingly. "I need to find a star and get back!"
"Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach again," Mario said, his voice adding to those of the other complainers. "I need to get her out of his hands before it is too late. Disappearing will not be a good thing at the moment!"
"Patience," Luke said, standing to his feet. "Arguing won't get us anywhere…"
"You're one to talk," Link said, turning to Luke with a frown. "You're the only one who doesn't have a planet to protect!"
"I have an entire galaxy to protect," Luke replied, and all eyes instantly turned to him, "and I want to get back as much as you guys do. If I don't return soon, who knows what could happen… The fact is, though, none of us will achieve anything by arguing. We need to come up with some kind of plan. We need to know why we are here."
"Yeah," Link replied, "but unless something changes, sitting around waiting will not help us! I think we should go somewhere."
"Right," Kirby said, relaxing again. "I just don't want to sit here and waste my time. We've been here two months now…"
"Two months!!!" Mario exclaimed, his eyes widening. "I can't be here two months!"
"That's exactly what I said," Link said, turning to Mario and looking him up and down. "I hate to think about what must be happening in Hyrule right now. The last time a Link disappeared, though, it was for seven entire years. He was able to repair the world, but not completely."
"That didn't help," Mario replied. "The woman I love has been captured by an evil koopa, and I can't even rescue her because I'm stuck here!"
"Then it's agreed," Luke said, turning to Star Fox. "I'll take these people and see if we can uncover anything. I need to go because I am the only one who can fly a spaceship, and I don't think any of the others will stay behind with you."
"With me?" Star Fox asked, taken aback for a second. "Why would any of you stay with me?"
"Because the reason we have all been called together has something to do with you. It must. Otherwise, why would we be in your dimension?" Luke replied.
"If you believe that," Star Fox asked, "why have you decided I am staying here?"
"Somebody has to," Luke replied, "and it would probably be better you than me. I don't know this galaxy well enough to be able to explain anything to anybody. Nobody else is going to stay."
"Ok," Star Fox said, before looking at them again. "Are you expecting anybody else?"
"I don't know," Luke replied.
Obviously, Mario thought to himself, these others think of Luke as the leader. Otherwise, why aren't they talking to Star Fox as well?
"I expected to be alone, then Link arrived five days later. He expected one more, three because that is the same number as people of the triforce…or something like that. Then Kirby came about three days later and insisted there would be one more, because of the fact that there were four Kirbys. Now, after sitting around for about two months, Mario arrives. I have no idea what to expect."
"Very well," Star Fox said. "I'll wait, but if nothing happens in the next two weeks, I'm going out after you."
"Agreed," Luke said, before turning to the other three people. "Mario, Link, Kirby, come on. It's time to figure out what our purpose here is."