Chapter 1

A Dangerous Deal

-

-

The small, blue planet Rindall in dimension Z90 rotated peacefully amidst the stars, with three Zox patrol ships in orbit. Within one of them, two Zox officers spoke to each other. They were restless, having sat in orbit for nearly 12 hours doing nothing, and it was starting to get on one of the Zox's nerves. His fingers tapped the armrest of his chair over and over.

"I can't believe this! I was once the commanding officer of the 31st CD fleet, and now I've been reduced to a single scout ship, patrolling what was once a planet under our control!" The agitated Zox replied. The other officer was not in full agreement.

"I don't know, I find it amazing that some people have actually been willing to forgive us for everything we've done to them. I think the new Republic can become even stronger with peacefully trading with others instead of taking everything by force." There was a small smile on the optimistic officer as he thought about the future. The agitated Zox narrowed his eyes and looked straight at the officer.

"If I were in command, I would knock you right into…" He wasn't able to finish his sentence as the alarm sounded. He looked at the main screen and saw a dimensional portal opening.

"Two unidentified portals opening at three o' clock!" Another Zox shouted.

"Who's coming through?"

"I'm scanning. It's..." The other Zox's eyes widened as his screen displayed what was coming though. "It's five Echna speeders!"

"What? Tell the other ships to get here immediately!" The agitated Zox took hold of the flight controls, and the officer went to his weapons station.

The small scout ship was only about three times the size of an Arwing, with two main laser canons. It was not built for a major battle, but now they had no choice. Their orders were to protect the planet, and they would be in trouble from the council if they turned tail and ran.

The scout ship got out of orbit, while the other two came rushing towards its side. The Zox flew them towards the opening portal, but before they came within firing range, the five speeders came through. They looked somewhat like the M-rates, except longer and thinner, with several stems pointing out from the back, with a ghostly blue aura surrounding it. One headed down towards the planet, while the others targeted the Zox.



"Officer, aim for its nose!" The scout ship and one of the speeders headed straight for each other, and the Zox opened fire. The lasers flew towards the Echna, but the blue aura around the ship reached out in front, and once the lasers hit, they seemed to just disappear. The speeder responded by shooting a blue sphere from its aura, which collided with the scout ship. The hum of its engines began to die down.

"We've lost propulsion!" Seeing that they were still alive, the speeder tossed another blue sphere at the Zox. The attacks knocked the ship back, and the lights inside turned off.

"We've lost power!"

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious." The Zox said under his breath. "Can you get enough power to reach central command?"

--

Within the command center of what was once the Empire's castle was the Republic's central command. Several Zox sat at communication consoles keeping in contact with countless people. One of the screens on the consoles turned on with a distress call. The picture was blurred by static, but it showed an injured Zox.

"Mayday, request back-up! Patrol sh…25 at Rin…under attac…Echna speed…Request imme…ack-up."

"I read you. What is your condition?" Just then, the distress call of the other two scouters were being displayed on his screen, both in the same condition. The communications officer was about to contact a patrol nearby, but then one of the video screens showed only the dreaded words, 'No signal.' Then the other followed suit, and then the last. The officer then opened a channel to a communications center on the surface of the planet Rindall, but it showed nothing but static.

"Rindall, come in! Rindall, can you hear me?" There was no response. The screen went blank, and the Zox bowed his head in defeat.

"Not again." He said in remorse. A hand then rested on his shoulder, and he looked to see the face of Shin.

"Jack, send a message to gather the council."

"What for?" Jack said. Shin's face was stern, and very serious.

"We need to inform Nintendo about this."

--

On a small, murky planet, a stone tower rose high above the ground. From the top of the tower, all that could be seen was a layer of thick fog below it, hiding whatever was on the surface. Another layer of clouds, high above the tower kept out much of the sun's light, keeping the planet in perpetual twilight. The tower itself was made of large stone blocks, with twelve verandas coming from the side atop the flat, circular roof of the tower. On top of verandas where one could stand was a circle, with foreign writing drawn on it.

A strong breeze began to blow by, followed by a lightning bolt which struck the center of the tower. Where the lightning struck now stood a creature hunched over with age. He stood about four and a half feet tall, five if he could stand up straight. A cloak covered his body, and all that could be seen were the claws that came out from the sleeves, a twisted wooden staff in his right hand, and glowing red eyes.

The old creature raised his staff, and tapped the floor four times. A pale, blue light then crawled along the floor in four directions, emanating from the staff. The light went to the direction of four of the circles atop the verandas, and once it came in contact, the circles lit up, and a beam of light shot up into the air. Silhouettes of other characters then came out from the ground, rising in the beam of light, and resting atop the surface of the tower. The lights faded, and four other creatures now stood on top the tower, shaded by the darkness of the planet. The robed figure then began to speak. His voice showed his age, but it was twisted from years of malice.

"Listen up and listen well. I have released you from your prison cells because we have a mission for each of you. If you accept it, you will receive your freedom. But if you decline, you'll go right back to your cells. Now, what say ye?"

"Heh heh. I accept, gladly." One man said boldly. His dark countenance showed a wicked grin, with thoughts of resuming old plans. The others nodded in agreement.

"Then this is your task: you will each be sent to different locations, as shown by these maps." The old creature said as he held at his left hand, letting go of four clear, marble-sized crystals. The crystals then floated in the air towards the prisoners. "It will lead to a guarded object that you must retrieve for us. Now go, and bring me the relics!" The old one then raised his staff into the air, and lightning struck down beside each of the prisoners. A dimensional portal opened to the side of the tower for each of them, and without hesitancy, they jumped in.

As the portals closed, the robed creature remained, grinning.

"Soon, the power of the Nintendo 64 will be yours, my Lord."

--

The grand castle of Hyrule was the central power of the kingdom, with royal dignitaries and trained military roaming about. The sun shined on the beautiful structure at high-noon, but despite this, the sky grew dim for a moment, and a small portal opened just outside the castle.



A large figure dropped from the portal and into some bushes, hiding from the guards. The portal then closed, and light returned to the sky, leaving the residents confused, but unalarmed.

"Ow, I forgot how rough dimensional travel can be without a ship." The prisoner said as he stood up, rubbing his head. He was humanoid in shape, but his appearance was more that of a turtle. He wore a pair of goggles which were resting on his forehead, with a large jetpack strapped to the back of his shell. There was also a belt that hung from his left shoulder down to his right hip, having many pockets.

The turtle reached into one of the pockets, and removed the marble-sized crystal that was given to him. As he held it in the palm of his hand, a holographic map of the castle appeared just above it, which directed him exactly where he needed to go.

"Hmm, doesn't look too hard. According to this map, there aren't even a lot of guards!" Despite the turtle's large appearance, his voice was a little high-pitched.

With one of the castle's windows right in front of the humanoid-turtle, he simply stepped up to it, pulled from one of his pockets a small pen, and held it up to the window. Luckily for him it was large, as most of the other ones were too small for him to fit through. Once he pressed a button on the pen, it emitted a red laser that quickly cut through the glass. The cut-out leaned towards the turtle, which he carefully grabbed and set it aside, not making a sound. He climbed in and began his search.

He found himself in a hallway at a T-section, with a red carpet laid on the floor. Several tapestries hung from the walls, many of which displayed three golden triangles that formed into one triangle. The turtle didn't care about the interior design, however, so he only glanced at his surroundings for a second.

He ran down the hall where he came to another T-section, but this time he heard the sound of clanking metal. He stopped before entering the adjacent hallway, where he saw two soldiers walking towards each other. As soon as he saw them, the soldiers saw him as well.

"What the? You, hold it right there!" One of the soldiers said, pointing his spear at the intruder.

"Uh oh." The turtle then reached for one of the pockets on his belt, and pulled out a metal sphere. He threw it towards the two guards, and the guards then raised their shields to block it, but they didn't expect what would happened next. Three metal arms burst from both sides of the ball and wrapped around the guards. The arms then contracted, binding the Hylians and knocking them to the floor.

"Ack! Help!"

"Hey, quiet! I want to get this over with quickly!" The humanoid turtle said while kicking the guards in the head. It must have knocked them unconscious, because they didn't say anything after that. The turtle then sighed.

"I wish the Echnas would have left more of my gear with me; this might be difficult." He then looked down the hallway. "Ug, what now?" Another guard could be heard coming, but this one was running, no doubt having heard the call for help.

Elsewhere in the castle, the princess of the kingdom was walking down a set of stairs at a hurried pace.

"Something's wrong, something's very wrong." She said quietly to herself. Once she reached the bottom, she motioned to the two guards that stood by the stairs.

"You two, come with me."

"Is there something wrong, your highness?"

"I'm not sure, but something's not right."

--

"So…have you seen Link lately?" One guard asked another.

"Yeah, saw him doing some training yesterday. His skills have improved. I still think there isn't a person alive that could match him." The two guards spoke a lot to each other to pass the time, as their particular station was quite boring. They stood in the lowest level of the basement, guarding a simple wooden door. The brick was almost a blackish color, and only a few torches provided light. It was an unfriendly, boring place.

"I actually heard he'll be giving some lessons next week. If I wasn't on duty at that time I'd…wait, do you hear that?" The guard then stood still. The other Hylian listened intently, and then he heard something. He heard what sounded like something hitting the floor somewhere upstairs.

"Should we go check it out?"

"No, we have a strict duty to fulfill." A few seconds later, they could hear footsteps coming down the stairs from across the hall. It was dark, but they could see the silhouette of something big. It stopped as it reached the bottom of the steps, and the intruder was breathing heavily.

"This place is off-limits, identify yourself!" The guard shouted. No verbal response was given, but instead a burst of fire appeared where the figure stood, lighting the room and revealing the character to be some sort of monster. With the sound of a loud roar, the monster flew towards them at an incredible speed. They readied their spears in defense, but it was hopeless. As soon as the green monster was near them, the fire behind it stopped, and the creature flipped around, landing his feet right into their chests.

The turtle's momentum drove his feet deep into the Hylians, bending their breast plates inward and breaking all of their ribs. He pushed off from them once momentum no longer carried him forward, and quickly stood on his feet. The guards fell to the ground and didn't get back up. He wasn't sure if he killed them or not, but he didn't care either way.

Finally reaching his destination, he reached for the knob of the door and opened it, but he was stunned when all he saw was a wall.

"What's the meaning of this?" The turtle shouted in his high-pitched voice. He reached towards the wall, but stopped his hand just an inch from it.

"Aw, it's a magic seal, isn't it? Now I see why they chose me to do this." He then placed the palms of both of his hands against the wall. About two seconds past before the wall started to bend, like a still pond bends when a drop of water falls on it. He pushed harder against the wall, and its bending became more severe as he continued to press. He started to push harder, and the wall began to twist and bend wildly.

"Man, this is a strong one! This must be something pretty important." Before long though, it started to fade away, vanishing from sight. "Heh, stupid magic ain't got nothin on me!"

Once it disappeared, however, air was now able to enter it, and the vacuum effect threw him inside. As air rushed past him, it sucked him inside, tumbling along the floor. He came to a crashing stop once his head hit a round, stone pedestal. He stood up after he recovered from the hit, rubbing his head and feeling a small bump.

"Man, how was I supposed to know it was air tight? Oh, is this what he wanted?" The turtle looked at the pedestal, seeing an odd, three pronged object with a rod pointing in the opposite direction of the prongs.

"What's so important about this?" He wondered as he grabbed the object, inspecting it with his three-fingered hands. He started flicking a small, short rod that had a flat, round top in the middle of the object.

He didn't look at it long before he heard the sound of a dimensional portal opening behind him. Here turned and faced it.

"Well here it is, have fun with whatever it's for." He tossed the object into the portal, and the portal then slowly closed. "Ha ha ha, at last, I can enjoy my freedom!" As soon as the portal fully closed though, he could see a road block in his freedom. About twenty guards were blocking the exit and a woman in a dress was standing in front of them, and she didn't look happy.

"What have you done? Where did the controller go? Who are you?" The woman demanded. The turtle creature simply smirked.

"The name's TurtleTech! And the Controller? If that's what you call that thing, then it's in the hands of the Echnas now. But nothing here matters, anyways; I'm sure they've got this planet targeted for extraction." TurtleTech then positioned his goggles over his eyes. "Which is why I'm outta here!" A clear, cone shaped helmet came out from the jetpack and over his head with a quiet, mechanical whir. His jetpack then roared to life, the heat and propulsion creating a strong breeze, and sending him straight towards the woman.

The princess waved her hand, creating an invisible, magic barrier in front of her. She was confident that he would crash into it, so she merely stood there. Once TurtleTech hit it though, it became visible in its light, pink hue as it simply bent around him like a thin piece of gum. The princess was completely taken by surprise, and only had a split second to get out of the way. She managed to leap to the side, though she was hit by his shoulder and knocked into one of the soldiers.

TurtleTech continued blasting forward, knocking down the other soldiers like bowling pins. He zoomed up along the stairs, down the hallway, and then right through a beautiful, stained glass window depicting three golden triangles. TurtleTech took to the air, leaving behind Hyrule, a trail of steam and smoke left in his path.

Zelda gathered herself together and looked to see if the other soldiers were okay, and only hoped the two guards that she had ordered taken to the doctor would live. She looked back at the room that once held one of the four keys to the Nintendo 64, and could only shake her head in worry.

"This is bad; very, very bad."

--

Inside the control room in the base of the Resistance, a young, blond-haired woman typed on a keyboard. A large monitor in front of her displayed a list of numbers and letters, as she was going through some new data they had collected.

Both humans and reploids worked and lived at the base, each going about their own business. With the destruction of both Neo Arcadia and Dr. Weil, things had been rather peaceful. It seemed like the peace among humans and reploids that X and Zero had fought so valiantly for had finally come. Though there was still plenty of work to do, the blond-haired woman was very pleased with the peace they were having. At least, until an alarm sounded.

"Ciel, some sort of monster just appeared in the storage room! It came out of a black portal, and it's attacking us!" A voice said through a transmission from her computer.

"Get squadron seven down there!"

"Our weapons aren't even phasing it! It seems to just agh…!"

"Zeta? Come in, Zeta!" Ciel, the blond-haird woman, shouted, but no response was given. Ciel accessed the security cameras to see what was going on. All she could see were lasers being fired into an open door, so she accessed a camera inside the storage room. As she did though, she only caught a glimpse of a black figure before the camera was hit by a laser.

"Argh! No good! Just what was that anyways? Another Maverick?" She then brought up another screen that showed a map of the base, displaying a red dot as the intruder. It was in the hallway now, and it wasn't moving very fast, but it was heading straight towards the end of the hall. As she thought about what was in that area of the base, realization of what was going on hit her hard; the intruder coming through a black portal, and the secured room that it was heading towards could only mean one thing. She quickly pressed some buttons on her computer.

"Colonel!"

"Yes Ciel?" The Colonel replied over the transmission line.

"The intruder is heading towards the controller safe! Stop it! Stop it at all costs!"

"On it!" The woman then looked at the computer screen, and saw that it was already near the door to the safe.

"I just hope the security lock will hold it off." She thought to herself. She tried accessing another security camera in the metal hallway, this time getting a view of the three soldiers, and the back of the intruder.

She hadn't seen anything like it before; its body seemed more like the absence of one, like looking at the frame of a body, but within that frame was like looking at the night sky. It was humanoid in shape, but large, with long claws, and thick, spiked dreadlocks that hung from his head. Every bit of its body was black as night, except for small dots of light that would come and go within its body, like growing and fading stars.

Ciel could now see what he meant by their weapons not having any effect. Any laser that hit it just simply vanished within its body, with a dot of light appearing on its body where it hit, and then fading away.

Ciel's fists were clenched and her mouth held tight as it approached the door to the safe. The monster stopped for a moment, then spun around to face the soldiers that were firing at it. A pair of white, menacing eyes that glowed from the creature's featureless face stared down at the reploids. It stretched its hands towards the reploids, even though they were a good thirty feet away from it. Its claws then seemed to instantly stretch out like needles, piercing the Resistance soldiers. Ciel gasped as her friends were skewered, witnessing the painful look on their faces. The soldiers then fell to the floor lifeless as the monster retracted its claws.

The freak of nature then faced the end of the hallway again, and walked towards it. At the end of the hall was an unlabeled metal door, with a keypad on the side. As it approached the door, however, it continued to walk, slipping right through it like a ghost.

Time seemed to stand still as Ciel watched the computer screen. The blaring alarm continued to sound, casting flashes of red light on the walls, with three reploids on the ground motionless. The intruder had entered the controller safe, and there was nothing she could do about it.

A new group a soldiers then came running down the hall, three of which came to the aid of the wounded. The others lined up in front of the door to the safe, all aiming their rifles towards it. Another soldier ran to the door and stood aside as it entered an access code on the keypad. The door 

slowly opened, and fingers were ready on the trigger, but when the door opened, there was only an empty room. No monster, and no controller. Ciel dropped to her knees, and her head hung low.

"Zero…if only you were still here." She began to sob, and she put her hands over her face, as a tear dropped to the floor.

--

It was mid-afternoon in the Mushroom Kingdom, and the scenery outside of the castle was bright and green as ever. Inside a nearby tree, however, laid a small spider, eyeing the surroundings carefully. It watched as a small person with a mushroom for a head walked out of the castle door, and off to the town. Seeing that this person had access to the castle, the spider grew, and within a second, morphed into the exact image of the toadstool person that just walked by. It then opened its hand, holding a small, clear crystal in its hand, which displayed a holographic map above it.

"This doesn't look too hard." The morphing creature said in the voice of the toadstool. It hopped out of the tree and walked up to the castle door, opened it, and walked inside. Inside was a lobby, with stairs in front and on the side of the room, and several doors. The map showed that he had to go downstairs, so he started for the door to the side of the front stairs.

"Toad?" A woman's voice sounded. "Toad? Toad, do you hear me?" The voice was starting to be agitated. Realizing that this comment was directed towards him, he looked to his right, and saw a woman in a pink dress, wearing a crown.

"Uh…yeah?"

"Why didn't you answer me? Didn't you hear me?"

"Uh…no, I've got an ear ache; hearing is a little bad." The disguised creature said in a quick response. The princess tilted her head, wondering why Toad was acting so strange.

"I think you should see the doctor."

"Uh…okay." He then continued towards the door.

"Toad, have you lost your way now? The doctor's office is upstairs."

"Uh…right! Just slipped my mind!" The creature then walked towards the stairs in a hurried pace. The princess was worried, as she had never seen Toad act that way.

The Toad copy opened the door to the doctor's office, and another toadstool person warmly greeted him. His mushroom head had brown spots, and a matching white beard and white coat.

"So, how can I help you Toad?"

"Um…ear ache."

"Okay, hope on the table and let's have a look." The doctor took an instrument with a magnifying lens and looked into Toad's ear, trying to find anything abnormal.

"Hmm, looks good to me." He stopped looking in his ear, and then noticed that Toad was holding a shiny crystal. "My, where did you find that?"

"Outside." The copy said distantly. The doctor held the crystal himself, but jumped as he saw the transparent map appear above it.

"Astounding! Why, this is a map of the castle! Wait…this leads to the…." The doctor didn't finish his sentence before the creature knocked him out cold. The copy's face was emotionless as he looked at the doctor on the floor, but he quickly grabbed the doctor and dragged him under a desk. Hopefully no one would find him there until he got what he came for.

Not wanting to take any more chances, the creature ran out and hurried down to the basement. As he entered the lobby again, he passed a short man wearing blue overalls and a red shirt.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" The man asked with a smile. Not wanting to get in more trouble, he simply said,

"Busy." The Toad copy then headed towards the basement, and ran down a dark hall until he came to a maze-like area of the basement. He rounded a corner, and saw some water on the lower parts of the floor, and a large painting of a fireball with a face on the wall up ahead. He took a quick look at the map again, and then ran up to the painting. He lifted the bottom of the frame, and pressed firmly on a specific brick. The brick receded into the wall, and the water on the floor then receded as a secret door opened.

An opening in the floor was now visible, with a ladder that led further down. The creature grabbed hold of the ladder and continued his desired path, going about three levels before he reached the floor. Below was a small room, only about a quarter of the size of the lobby, with a metal door at the end.

The Toad copy smiled, seeing his freedom within grasp as he walked to the door. His hand reached out to the door as he neared it, beginning to think of what he could do with his freedom.

"Toad! What on Nintendo are you doing?" A voice shouted from behind him. The creature cringed in surprise. He then turned around to see the same man he saw earlier, except now he was with a taller man in similar clothes, except his shirt was green.

"I hope you have a good explanation for this." The green one said. The copy narrowed his eyes, and his voice showed anger.

"You're not making this easy." In seconds, the Toad they saw before them grew, and morphed into a large, purple snake. Its body was as wide as a human, and about a hundred feet long, filing up most of the room. Its tail rattled furiously, and its head, with mouth wide open, launched at the two brothers.

The two brothers jumped to the side in opposite directions, and because they were close to the wall, the snake rammed its head right into it. It was stunned for a second, but he quickly shook it off. The snake was about to look at where the two humans were, but that was when he felt something on top of him. He looked behind him, and saw that the two brothers were on its back, attempting to hold him down.

"Get off!" The shape-shifter shook about furiously, but they hung on tight. Trying a different approach, he threw his back against the wall, but the two humans jumped off in time. He then reached towards the green-shirted one, and twisted his body around him. He grabbed hold of him and twisted hard, trying to squeeze whatever he could out of the human.

"Mario, help!" The man said while gasping for air. While keeping hold of him, the snake turned to the other human, but was quickly met with the man's fist, right to his chin. The red-shirted one quickly threw another punch, smacking him in the nose, and was about to throw another but the snake moved away from him. The shape-shifter then swung his tail at the man, and threw him flying right into the wall.

Dazed, the man got back to his feet. His brother was starting to turn blue, and he himself was having a bit of blurred vision from that last hit.

"Mario, catch!" It was the voice of the princess, who was now hanging on the ladder, just a few feet from the floor. In her hand was a large cube with a question mark on it, which she tossed towards Mario. The giant snake didn't want to take any chances, so he quickly used his tail to throw the mysterious cube aside. As soon as he had hit it, however, a yellow object in the shape of a star, with eyes, came out of the cube, which fell towards the human. Once he grabbed the star, his body shined and sparkled, while different colors of light flashed from.

"Uh oh." The human began spinning around in circles with his fists straight out. He spun, increasing speed, until he was only a blur. That blur then headed for the snake's head, which was pummeled by innumerous punches from the spinning human. He continued in this fashion, moving down the snake's body, until it was completely covered in bumps and bruises.

This added strength from the star did not last long, but it was long enough to do the job. The snake fell limp, releasing his brother.

"Luigi, are you okay?"

"I…think…so." The man said through heavy breaths. "But just…who is…this guy?" The red-shirted man turned around to face the snake, but he noticed that it was starting to lose its form. Its body was shrinking, turning yellow and supple, almost melting as it were, until it was a small puddle of florescent, yellow goo on the floor. The man walked up to it, inspecting it.

"I've never seen anything like this, and if it was after the controller, then it might not even be from this planet." He then bent down to get a closer look, but it then started to move. The man stepped on it to stop it, but it was like trying to hold on to an egg white. It simply stretched out towards the middle of the floor where a small drain was. The creature slipped out from under him and went down the drain. He leapt head first trying to grab it, but it was too late.

"Mario, I have a bad feeling about this." The princess said. She was walking towards the two brothers, her face showing worry. "I think we better warn the others guarding the other keys." The two brothers and the princess went back up the stairs, not knowing that the worst was yet to come.

-

-


Disclaimer: All characters from the Zelda and Super Mario games are property of Nintendo, and all characters from the Megaman Zero games are property of Capcom.