Nintendia - Book I: Year of Absolution

by e.a.zavinski

After the Nintendia galaxy's heroes came together to destroy the evil Tabuu and save the universe, they are met with further challenges as a united front seven years later. The old god has returned and so have other nemeses from the heroes' pasts. Can they band together and save the universe once again, especially when they only have one year to do it?

2. Chapter I: Adam's Mask

Parables of Power

Chapter I – Adam's Mask

The heroes were reliving their pasts and battling the present, faced with an ever uncertain future. In the first few months that followed the beginning of Countdown, relatively few mazes were dissolved in the focal point that was the center of the universe. Time was pressing our heroes return to their pasts under the leadership of Fox McCloud and the inspirational position of the prophet of the future, Silver the Hedgehog. This optimistic creature had joined forces with Nintendo a few years earlier and brought hope from a time which he could foresee was seemingly blessed with happiness.

His position in this time however was even more necessary than giving hope. By honing his psychokinetic and telepathic powers over the years with the help of his partner, Blaze the Cat, Silver had become one of the most powerful beings in the universe as a mere young adult. His strength was needed whenever The Greatest Maze became unstable and threatened its collapse which would theoretically cause a universal supernova, a cataclysm that would make all efforts to thwart Tabuu Soul of no use. As he was able to maintain his body and mind in the depths of space, Silver was the only one who could contain this cosmic leviathan of space-time.

And in the first month of Countdown, most heroes kept themselves busy as they were piloted and ushered into their past worlds. To begin everything, Solid Snake was ushered into his past of his father, the Big Boss, as the Naked Snake. His mission to avoid nuclear disaster, destroy the Shagohod and assassinate The Boss was successful. The triplets Solid, Liquid and Solidus were created from his blood once again. Privy to the old threats to the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario, Luigi and co. were forced to relive the repeated kidnappings of Princess Toadstool in the Mushroom Kingdom due to the later exploits of Bowser, his favorite son and the seven Koopalings. Link of the Era of Decline in Hyrule was successful yet again in preventing the resurrection of Ganon and in reviving Princess Zelda I. Samus Aran also prevailed in her mission to eradicate the Metroids in their homeworld, SR-388. Kirby and friends were also called upon to end King Dedede's greedy pursuits and Dark Matter's evil designs for Dreamland yet again on a few occasions. The humble beginnings of Pokémon trainers from all regions including Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos were heightened as the young men and women battled against the organized crime on their World of Pokémon. Ninten and his gang of heroes put an end to the first invasion of Giygas who had invaded Trinity with his mind-controlling band of aliens of another world in an attempt at revenge against the human race who had stolen the mystical powers of PSI. Even the unlikely Captain Olimar escaped from the Distant Planet once more after his Pikmin friends helped him defeat the dreaded Emperor Bulblax. Pit of Palutena's Royal Guard again navigated the depths of the Underworld to emerge, obtain the Three Sacred Treasures, defeat Medusa and save the Goddess of Light. In this time, some schemes of the relentless mad scientists Dr. Ivo Robotnik and Dr. Albert Wily were thwarted again by the blue blur and blue bomber. Some forces of good from all over the universe were also transported by Tabuu Soul unwillingly and unknowingly into these mazes for his amusement. Never, however, did these heroes return without dissolving an obstacle that was theirs in the center of the universe.

Meanwhile, chaos was everywhere; it could not be escaped. The year prior to Countdown was full of brimstone, but the anarchy caused by the acknowledgment of a doomed universe was plunging countless hearts into darkness. It was happening on Trinity, Corneria, Pop Star, Mobius, the World of Pokémon, this dimension's Earth and the Earth in the shadows. The lands of Hyrule, Lorule, Termina, Katina, Fichina, Aquas, Dreamland, Eagleland, the Fire Emblem continents, Norion, the Mushroom Kingdom, the land of Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong Country and the Underworlds among countless others all succumbed to a revolution. All of them were unlikely in affirming anything positive however. Rioting, killing and thieving became all the more prevalent among all creatures as hope diminished with time. Many creatures were none too optimistic about the plight they faced and had little hope for a heroic victory. All living things were resorting to what they had left and what they were made of, good or bad.

Of all living beings of all lands, the peoples of Hyrule were in the most peculiar of situations. Over the millennia of the epics fought amongst the spirit of the hero, the blood of the goddess and the hatred personified for the Gods, time grew to know no limits and three alternate realities existed as one in the same space on this continent on Trinity. Not much is known of the paradox except that it made possible for every reincarnation of the Hero of Time and Descendent of the Goddess to be at the ready for Nintendo's cause.

Originating from a different era completely, these strangers were welcomed into the fantastic fortress that was the Pillar. Even a replica of Hyrule Castle's interior walls was integrated into the new home for these heroes. Along with those clad in green and in whose veins ran the blood of the ancient Hylia, all nations' heroes rose together to tackle the challenge that was The Greatest Maze, ready to mobilize their full strength behind their undisputed leader, Fox McCloud.

As things were already running a little too slow, Fox was stressed beyond imagination about the immensity of the task on his shoulders. He loved his wife and son to death, but their attempts to ease the burden on his shoulders always proved futile. He would often look to the main parlor for inspiration…reassurance, anything really. There a picture of his father James McCloud set perfectly, nestled in between a portrait of Princess Ruto, the Sage who had lost her life in the execution of Ganondorf, and a chance shot of Galactic Federation commander Adam Malkovich who lost his life in an attempt to destroy Sector Zero, what was originally thought to be the final nesting place for the infernal Metroid creatures. (There were others who had been loved here by Nintendo but pictures oftentimes proved elusive or unobtainable as with Tippi's gallery residing at Fort Francis far away in the Bitlands or the lost opportunities incurred with the murder of Tails' parents so long before.)

Throughout his entire life, Fox had wondered about the fleeting mystery of his father's passing at the hands of Andross and his activities in the afterlife. After all, Fox could have sworn that his dad was always there for him when he needed him most; James McCloud led his son through a fiery base on the planet Venom, gave him advice during the assault on the Aparoids and fought alongside him mysteriously invisible to others in the Venom seas during the onslaught against the Anglar Empire. Fox surmised this meant that his father, a figment of his imagination or at least a ghost would come to him, but to Fox's disappointment and dismay, the precious days wore on and nothing came to him.

Unfortunately for Fox, there was a ghost that was coming to him, recurring often in his nightmares of the past. It was Andross. It was natural for Fox to dream of his first major exploit as a pilot for hire, but now it seemed as if his nemesis himself was forcing Fox to dream and to fail. Whenever Fox finally made it to Venom's core to face off with that maniacal ape, he was shot down. He never won, the terror of failing the Lylat System waking him up from his slumber every time.

And every time Krystal was there to comfort him, to hold her Fox in her arms, but she could not sit back any longer and watch her husband suffer. One night, after one week of the Countdown she proclaimed assuredly:

"Fox, I can't see you like this anymore. I love you and so does everyone else. You're obviously much too important to lose to something as petty as a bad dream…. This time I'm going with you, and this time we're going to win."

Fox was tired and sulking. He really did not understand his wife's words at all.

"What do you mean? I thought you could only read minds and sense emotion. Now you can follow me in my dreams too? How come I haven't been aware of this for the two decades we've been together?"

"Because I've just been recently experimenting on your mind for the past few nights now, and I think I can provide you with a little encouragement in your dream state. I hope you pardon my not asking."

"Of course, my mind has no privacy anyway," smirked McCloud. "But I haven't seen you the past few nights, in my dreams I mean; everything's just getting worse."

"Well, that's not how it works, silly."

Fox failed to see the humor in this situation.

"I can only speak to you telepathically through your brain while I get to see everything you see without appearing in your dream at all. Didn't you hear me calling to you last night?"

"Oh, so that was you screaming my name like an idiot when I was getting eaten by that monkey?"

"Yes…you know I don't have to help you after all," said Krystal as she pretended to shrug off her initial proposition.

"I'm only joking, Krystal, but that is the only thing that's felt different in my dream at all. If you think it will help, I definitely believe in your ability to pull me through. You've helped me through so much, really, and a lot worse than this. For that, Krystal, I'll be grateful forever."

"Oh, Fox. You know I would do anything for you. Now, get to sleep, so we can purge your mind of what's troubling you!"

"Alright," uttered Fox in his first glimpse of hope in days.

And with that, husband and wife fell into sleep's mercy only to face the most genius of minds, the Evil Mad Scientist, the self-proclaimed Emperor Andross. Fox navigated once again the depths of space as he and his teammates fought to resolve the Lylat Wars.

Inevitably, Fox found himself alone in the core of the planet Venom, facing his nemesis once more. Fox fought valiantly against the madman, the murderer of his parents and the ultimate terrorist of the Lylat System. The taunts of Andross haunted his mind, plaguing his entire being. Fox felt the forthcoming weight of failure again on his mind as he was entrapped by the myriad of tentacles underneath Andross's mighty cerebellum. The Arwing was being seared by the brain power that coursed within.

Krystal urged Fox not to give up, and with all the will he could muster and the remaining firepower the Arwing retained, Fox finished his foe. In the fiery explosion that inevitably followed, Fox could see his father nowhere, but Krystal's words where all he needed to find his way through the underground path that led Fox to victory and finally relief as he awoke. Fox thanked his wife, much to her modesty.

"Well, you definitely did all the hard work, Fox. I'm just glad that I could help you."

The partners embraced each other, now ready to start the next year off on a rock-solid foundation consecrated with their love and teamwork. These things remained constant throughout the heroes' adventures during Countdown, but many significant changes occurred on track to one of the most devastating cataclysms the inhabited universe had seen thus far: Majora's Perfect Chaos.

With all chaos comes hearts in torment, and the core that pumped Doom's blood throughout Shadow the Hedgehog was aching, empty and without a purpose. Ever since he regained the memories of his past, Shadow had lived the life of a recluse, living and breathing yes, but never feeling. He had thrown away his past long ago and fought for the humans and creatures alike that his friend Maria wanted so desperately to be happy. Otherwise, he forced himself never to think of her; he did not want to feel again.

It was a soul-selling arrangement, the kind you seal with blood. In this case, that was seriously true as Gerald Robotnik dealt with the devil in Black Doom, a demonic alien he had come into contact with while on his state-of-the-art space station, the first space colony orbiting the planet Mobius. At this fateful time over fifty years ago, Gerald was seeking to create the ultimate life form, also the ultimate ego-satisfying goal and experiment, at least that was what it appeared to the masses down below on the surface. His pursuit to create the ultimate life form was to find a cure, namely for Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the disease his granddaughter had contracted after she was born and raised aboard the space colony. He had recently begun work on the Biolizard, prototype of the ultimate life, but stumbling upon Doom's proposition, he found this opportunity much more promising.

For reasons privy to the ancients on his home planet of Mobius, Gerald had chosen the hedgehog as the model for this ultimate life. He did eventually fail with the much larger prototype: the Biolizard, an artificial version of a fabled chaotic being. This time Gerald thought simple and requested this alien's help, mainly its blood to superpower his new creation, Shadow, with the abilities to withstand insane amounts of pain and torrent to the point of being basically immortal and fathomably indestructible. Thus, Shadow the Hedgehog was born but at a price, for Gerald made a promise to Black Doom that he, himself, would never get the chance to repay.

Now in the only form he would ever know, Shadow was staring blankly into an unfeeling world, one that he did not understand nor would understand even after his birth. The Space Colony ARK was a lowly, lonely place for Shadow until he met the professor's granddaughter, Maria Robotnik. She was much different from the scientists and researchers in their pressed lab coats and sheen glasses. Maria had personality and a capacity to care for all creatures, eternally optimistic despite being knowledgeable of her terminal illness and inevitable demise.

Naturally, Shadow was drawn to this outgoing, young girl, and they became fast friends, the best of friends even. Shadow would often lead her in speedy tours around the ARK, she always struggling in laughter to keep up with the hedgehog who was also going nowhere near as fast as he knew he could. Shadow often felt like who could never reach his full potential if he was always stuck in this crammed space station. That was something they had undeniably in common too: the unrelenting desire to set foot on the beautiful mass of rock they could always see beneath their feet.

As such, Shadow often wondered too what was on the big, blue planet he saw beneath him through the transparent glass floors of the ARK's main viewing platform. One day, Maria told him about all the caring and lovely people who lived on that planet, people her grandfather had told her about when she was little. She would always tell Shadow that if he ever did make it to the surface like he wanted that he should also make an effort to make the human race happy, and do it for her too. With the purest of smiles and an unbreakable bond of friendship, Shadow promised Maria this.

Eventually, all peaceful relationships and ambitious experiments came to a staggering halt when the planet's military became increasingly suspicious of Gerald's work, so much so that, seeking to remedy any possible problems, they inserted themselves into all ARK-related operations, and it was not before long that GUN infiltrated the colony itself. A severe accident on Gerald's part was the catalyst for what was to come.

With corruption on both sides and after inspections of the facility and the nature of the experiments (especially the "demon hedgehog" as Shadow was referred to), GUN authorized the termination of anyone suspected to be contaminated with the experiments or anyone who tampered with the investigation of any ARK experiments, especially Project Shadow. In fact, the only human that would escape physically unharmed would be a young boy named Abraham Tower, a close friend of Maria's, son to a military family himself and witness to the barbaric creation of Shadow the Hedgehog. Witnessing that, coupled with the situation of evacuation on the ARK only solidified his young opinion that Dr. Robotnik was insane with his creations being pure evil if GUN had to resort to their actions on the fateful day Shadow's life, and the lives of all aboard the ARK, were changed forever.

Professor Robotnik had been escorted away from his research aboard the ARK before the day of execution due to the aforementioned accident. What was about to happen to his daughter he would have no knowledge off as the covert GUN forces infiltrated his facilities as he wallowed away at base research on Prison Island. Before the news of what was about to happen reached him, Gerald reminisced about his experimentations with his Gizoid Project Emerl since he was staring it right in the metal face: the project the government had confiscated, the accident that had caused Gerald to be removed from his research, and the same disaster that was to seal the ARK's fate.

Aboard the ARK, while Abraham was led from the room in which his parents would be slaughtered in, Shadow and Maria witnessed the execution of an ARK researcher at point blank range: he had refused to reveal the location of Project Shadow. Unbeknownst to the soldiers, their culprit was closer than they had thought. Scared for her best friend, Maria urged Shadow to escape, but he would not leave without Maria. And so like old times, Shadow went speeding ahead with his friend's hand in his, fast around the perimeter of the space colony.

However, Maria could not keep up, and she was also worried about the other researchers, especially those who had come to care for her while her grandfather had been away. This worry slowed her down immensely, and it was this worried look in her eyes and her gasping breath that persuaded Shadow to slow down, allowing the relentless GUN troops to catch up. Before he knew it, they were upon them, and Maria turned to face the troops. The soldier's cold, lifeless gaze was enough to silence her. She reached her child's hand out to Shadow while at the same instant she was shot once in the chest.

Immediately, the crazed words of the remaining, desperate scientists reached the soldiers' ears from across the hall and a few corridors. GUN left the dying girl as she fell into Shadow's strong arms and departed to take these men into custody, so that they could be escorted back to Mobius and tried properly with their example standing as horrific legend against any ambitious egomaniacs of the future who would dare return to the ARK. Otherwise, if they refused custody, they would be shot too.

Meanwhile, it was silent again between Shadow and Maria, possibly the only other still living souls on the ARK. Even with her dying breaths, Maria was now only worried about her best friend, Shadow. She knew that GUN would come back for him and try to capture or kill him. Maria still had Shadow's promise on her mind too, and to Shadow's shock, admiration and dismay, she led him to the main viewing deck once more. The plan was to jettison him via escape pod to Mobius below. Trying to comfort her but failing in spite of the trail of blood down her clothes and along the floor, Shadow was writhing in tears, distraught to the highest level at the impending death of his only friend.

As Shadow was caught by surprise at the escape pod that closed around him, he instantly realized that his only friend was saving his life with her dying breath…he was despondent, and at this, he slammed on the glass of his imprisonment to try in vain to reach out to touch the lovely hand that had given him so much: love, friendship, wisdom and purpose. The last image of her that he would ever see was a pale, dying face struggling to smile in spite of what had happened, all the chaos. As Shadow the Hedgehog was launched from the ARK, he was reminded of the promise he made to her. "Shadow, I beg of you, please do it for me... for a better future! For all the people who live on that planet... give them a chance to be happy... Let them live for their dreams. Shadow, I know you can do it. That's the reason why you were brought into this world. Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog." The hedgehog was jettisoned into space, leaving Maria to die alone in a cold and deserted space colony.

The plan did not go at all as planned however. Shadow's capsule was found and sealed away on Prison Island, the top secret military facility where Gerald was still being detained. The people who had died on the ARK, including Maria Robotnik and the family of Abraham Tower, were never memorialized and never mentioned again in the public eye. Gerald Robotnik fell into an infinite pit of insanity but still managed to record his thoughts and even send those remaining to his diary still aboard the ARK. He was allowed to continue research, but could barely function as his grief led his thoughts to be consumed with the idea of vengeance against humanity, the humans who had taken everything he loved away from him. He suddenly regretted his altruistic works to humanize Emerl with Maria's emotions and secretly sought to alter Shadow's genomic programming while the ultimate life was in its stasis tube. Maybe, his Shadow would forget about Maria's promise and exact Gerald's newfound lust for revenge if he were ever awakened.

With the foreboding image of Black Doom in the back of his mind along with thoughts of the future of his son, Shadow, Gerald wondered also what evil future Doom would have in store for the human race when the Black Comet would return. He did not want to wait that long though nor depend upon that for his revenge, so the mad professor successfully finished reprogramming his creation with a new promise: revenge. All he wanted was for Shadow to destroy the world now. GUN caught him in the finality of this act though and saw this as an unforgivable trespass to be tampering with Prison Island property, especially since that property was the supposed ultimate life form, found safe and sound under all legal means to confiscate. With Gerald's despairing execution, the ARK too was shut down, killing him twice. And it would be fifty long years before both the colony and the ultimate life would awaken once more by Gerald's other grandchild Ivo, both of Gerald's opuses ready to face the merciless heartstrings of fate and destiny.

The previous summer saw Angel Island engulfed in the fires of destruction yet again as Dr. Ivo Robotnik let a new Egg Robo loose on the ancient grounds. Responsible for the legendary Master Emerald, Knuckles the Echidna took it upon himself to transport the gem to the Pillar in a sanctuary he constructed, a replica of the original shrine of the Master Emerald. There, the seven chaos emeralds remained protected and in harmony. The denizens of Mobius believed that the chaos emeralds were finally in balance and out of evil's hands while Knuckles came to terms with the fact that the Master and its seven may never end up in their intended shrine ever again.

Strange things were happening now that the emotionally-charged emeralds resided in their new home. The master of them all especially affected Shadow because one night, Shadow actually dreamt in his sleep. And it was a pleasant dream too, like feeling everything was going to sort itself out. Waking up, Shadow could not get over the feeling that some sort of energy accompanied him and that it was living. It was calling out to him, asking to be his friend, something anyone visible had hardly ever asked him before.

This strange series of events happened repeatedly for the next few days as Shadow simultaneously struggled to understand what was happening but also enjoyed the most pleasant of sleeps he had had in his entire life.

Then one night, finally gaining the freedom from her tomb that was the Master Emerald, the ancient Tikal manifested herself once again into the physical plain. For it was her who was calling out to Shadow, the tortured soul, trying to relieve the pain that was suppressed within him. She had once done this on a monumental scale when taming the beast that was the mutated Chao-born Chaos. Now however, Chaos was at peace and Tikal, with her mystical powers of the ancient echidna race, chose to return in the natural beauty of her original form to gift the hedgehog with her presence.

Since what was assumed to be the beginning of time on the planet Mobius, the echidna race were the guardians of the sacred Master Emerald and its seven servers. They lived on the sacred Angel Island, a holy place that included the sacred shrine that housed the emeralds with the power to make wishes reality.

The original intention of the echidnas was to prevent the ill use of this awesome power and to also thwart any plots to obtain this power in any and all ill will. As time progressed however and generations moved on, the echidna tribes became increasingly less stringent to their original values until the tribe under the leadership of Chief Pachacamac became obsessed with the warring between themselves and the Nocturnus Clan, a neighboring and rebellious group of echidnas.

There were idealists that still remained however; ironically, among the elders who valued the old teachings of the echidna clans of the past, there was Tikal, daughter of the ignorant chief at the time. Tikal was a peace-loving creature above all, and this led her to be accepted one day without trouble into the Altar of the Emeralds. This was particularly curious to her when she realized that beings known as Chao actually inhabited the altar. Fortunately, they were adorable beyond belief, and Tikal was friendly to them all.

This unconditional friendship to these innocent creatures also earned the approval of Chaos, an entity that resided within the Master Emerald. Tikal was initially very surprised by this new creature's sudden appearance, but as with the Chao, she knew it was best to welcome with peace as to avoid any meaningless conflict. Her favorite pastime as a teenager quickly became her time spent with Chaos and his Chao at the Altar of the Emeralds.

As the male echidnas in her tribe, all of which overemphasized the values of brute force and strength, sought to suit the chief's lovely and gorgeous daughter, Tikal was unimpressed, reserving herself for someone that could possibly align with her peaceful dogma of life. She highly doubted that anyone in her own tribe would ever have the capacity for such love and peace as she did. Of course, she wished differently, but she was not about to use the power of the emeralds for something that was not meant to be.

However, this was not the case with her father who had had enough of the meddling Nocturnus Clan and the disputes over territorial claim of the Altar of the Emeralds and the remainder of the holy grounds. Chief Pachacamac decided to follow in his tribe's best interests and steal the emeralds and greedily use their power to cheat and end the conflict with the Nocturnus. The father did not consult with his daughter or any females of the tribe for advice; this was war, and war matters were left to the masculine entities to act upon. Pachacamac's mother was irresolute but could do nothing and hoped in her granddaughter in possibly changing the self-appointed war lord's mind.

Tikal was deeply saddened and challenged when she first heard about her father's decision to use the sacred powers they were supposed to protect from others against their own kind. She begged her father not to act upon the selfish and ignorant whims of the tribe, but Chief Pachacamac assured his daughter that what was going to happen was just as much if not more what he wanted than anything. Worse than a blade touching the heart, Tikal felt disowned by her father and was willing to sacrifice anything in order to stop the ensuing calamity.

Tikal foresaw that Chaos would not be at all pleased when his home would be infringed upon. Deep into that one fateful night, Tikal placed herself resolutely between the altar and the rest of the village. The tribe was momentarily stalled while the chief confronted his lost daughter before storming the altar. Despite the most desperate of pleadings from the pacifist echidna in the right, the chief's warriors were ordered to trample through his daughter and the innocent Chao. In the chaos, that altar was set ablaze from the night torches, and Angel Island's holy land became hell on earth.

Tikal, knocked to the ground, looked up from her pitiful state in horror as her people pillaged the gentle pools and gardens of the chao in order to obtain the emeralds. However, when the tribe's warriors reached the pinnacle, Chaos appeared enraged by all the greed, ignorance and selfishness around him. The horrific transformation took place. Absorbing this negative energy of the chaos emeralds, Perfect Chaos was born and wiped out all of the echidnas with ease and a storm of the winds and seas.

Tikal was still alive after a few moments of this brutal onslaught as she looked over to see the corpse of her foolish father and the fools who had followed him. She had no time to grieve for them; if Chaos was not stopped now, she was certain that its rage would sustain its monstrous form until all life in the world would be wiped from existence.

Remembering the peaceful teachings of her wise grandmother and the mantra that was passed onto her, Tikal struggled to get on her feet and approach the beast upon the altar. With the poem's words felt deeply in her soul, Tikal recited: "The servers are the seven Chaos, Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart, the controller is the one that unifies the Chaos." With this, Tikal paid the ultimate price for the ignorant greed and the violence of her people as she sacrificed her mortal life to spend several millennia calming the beast that was the unleashed Perfect Chaos, sealed away in the otherworldly stasis within the unifier, the Master Emerald.

This fateful day, Tikal opened the door to Shadow's room. He turned over his shoulder to see the burnt orange fur, slender figure and peculiar clothing of a demure echidna. His instantaneous surprise was overcome quickly though by a sense of infringement.

This guarded position led him to ask urgently, "Who the hell are you?"

Tikal simply continued smiling and was in no hurry to explain her presence. "My name is Tikal. I'm an echidna from a far passed time. You may have heard of me as the one who sealed away Chaos into the Master Emerald after the devastation of Station Square nearly ten years ago."

"Yes…come to think of that, I have heard of that story…but I thought you were sealed away along with that monster…weren't you?"

"I was, but now there are more important things for me to attend to…like you."

Without really realizing it, Tikal had advanced much closer to him. Shadow's heart was beating much faster now as she was almost on top of him. "I don't understand what you want from me," said Shadow in a heightened distancing. "Why would you come back from that supposed paradise in that emerald for me; I don't have anything to offer anyone except my power, something I don't think you would have any use for."

"You're certainly right: I don't want your power at all. Instead, I wish you wouldn't feel so alone. You have so many friends here that love you, you know…"

At hearing this, Shadow immediately responded, "Hmph," catching an innocent Tikal off her guard. "I don't need you here to tell me how others feel about me, and why would your opinion matter anyway? You don't know anything about me."

"Actually, I know everything about you, Shadow. Why do you think I came to you in the first place? I know you live a miserable life and that you're a tortured soul that has forgotten what happiness feels like because you can't forgive yourself for all the innocent lives you've taken and all the mistakes you've made. You hate yourself and honestly care for no one. You do what you do here in this place simply because you feel obligated to. You don't care for the people you save; they're just objects to a means of easing your guilty consciousness that you think you can achieve, but you won't be able to without forgiving yourself. Am I right?"

Shadow was stunned to hear what had spewed out this random echidna's mouth, and he felt righteous indignation at her speaking the truth of his life situation. This however, was quickly overcome by the first pang of sadness he had felt in a long time, simply because this echidna acknowledged blatantly his pitiful life. "You are completely right, Tikal," muttered an overcome Shadow. "If you know what I feel…then you know there's nothing anyone can do to ease what I feel inside. Please, leave me alone."

"I refuse to do that nor will I believe there's nothing that can be done to help you, Shadow. I have to confess: I've been watching you for months, trying to connect with you for the past several days, trying to shed a little light on your dreams."

"So you're the presence that's been calling out to me! Ever since you've been doing that, I've slept better than I ever have…"

"But I thought you said no one could help you," said Tikal as she pretended to shrug her offers of caring away. "Have you changed your mind then; will you let me help you?"

"But I don't even know what that means? How can you help me more than you already have?"

"Just let me sleep with you, and you'll see."

Extremely shocked and almost offended by this unusual request and Tikal's demure audacity, Shadow quickly denied.

"All I mean to do is to share your dreams with you. Is that too much to ask?"

And before they both knew it, they were asleep with their minds in a different world entirely and with Tikal's head resting softly upon Shadow's broken heart.

In his dream state, everything was at peace while Tikal sat beside Shadow in an endless expanse of white. Shadow unloaded all of his thoughts and hardships onto Tikal who begged for him to do so as she was sturdy enough to carry them all. Tears were shed as he recounted his past to an attentive Tikal who never judged but always encouraged for him to tell more.

Everything said was necessary as it seemed to go on forever, not in a bad way but not really in a good way either. This finally culminated when Tikal tried her best to express to him that she only cared so much about him individually as to escape the tomb of the Master Emerald because she was deeply in love with him rather than a sense of pity.

Still in the dream, Shadow could not comprehend what she was saying and refused to believe that she even wanted to be his friend let alone love him. The rest of the dream was spent in this denial, but when he woke up he knew in his soul that Tikal was telling the truth as her physical being looked deeply into his eyes and into his mending soul.

In the time of healing that followed, Shadow again learned to love himself and in turn love Tikal. It was like Maria all over again, with this time being much harder after a life of forgetting what she had taught him.

Tikal was gradually introduced to Nintendo, first to the Mobians that knew of her through legends or the incident at Station Square and then to the rest of the heroes. She began to feel at peace in her new home and with her soul mate, Shadow. No longer struggling to look past himself, Shadow inquired a lot about Tikal's life, which unfortunately for her included her age: she was technically centuries old since her life had, in a way, ended with the death of her people and the creation of Perfect Chaos. At hearing of her tragic story one day, Shadow could not help but shed a selfless tear, which was the first real one he had shed in years.

Tikal though, was touched beyond belief at Shadow's thoughtful reaction, something that deepened her love for him even more. The pair continued to share their lives and support each other, each coming from somewhat similar, somewhat different backgrounds of torture and tragedy. Now, they had both finally found solace in the arms of the other. And it was this relishing of their mutual love that conceived a completely unexpected child, a child who was not supposed to be born when considering his parents were both essentially immortal, one an experiment in eternal life birthed from the harbinger of doom and the other naturally preserved in that state as a prophet.

This mixture of eternal life was passed down to their son, Adam, who was named after the brave and dutiful Adam Malkovich who had passed a few years earlier. Adam grew up fast, and within a month of his birth, he had somehow already equaled the physical size of a normal Mobian creature at ten years of age and far surpassed that average intelligence level due to his unique mix of genes from his parents. Shadow and Tikal bonded even more over their beloved son. They were so proud of what he was becoming and this only made their love for each other bloom even more. The three of them made the happiest family, something Shadow the Hedgehog never would have imagined having.

Adam was also the spitting hybrid image of his parents. He was a deep burnt orange like his mother with her crystal blue eyes that could captivate anyone. Inherited from Shadow was his ruffle of white chest hair and crazily spiked quills; it was actually a lot messier and a lot less uniform than Shadow's quills, but his dad did not help as he often would run his hand through his son's hair in affection and wildly move it about back and forth.

Contrary to his protests, Adam loved nothing more than when his dad did this. Adam always felt like he was the luckiest kid in the universe, and he told that to his parents often, saying he could not love them more if he tried immediately after he reached the point at which he could comprehend true love, which was at a miraculously early point in his life.

Wanting to live in an environment more like paradise but still wanting to stay in touch in case if they were really needed, Shadow, Tikal and Adam were granted their request to live on Angel Island again with the Master Emerald and chaos emeralds in their original home. Knuckles' duty to protect them was suspended, but he felt that was okay as he found it rewarding (he could barely admit) to spend more time with his realized love interest, Rouge the Bat.

The birth of Adam was at the close of the universal calendar year as the final one began to tick down until the end of the August month. However, there were many other mazes and stories that occurred in the first four months of the Year of Countdown. These were stories that tried and tested the heroes that called the Pillar their home.

This did include Shadow too unfortunately. Even though Tikal had entered his life for good, sometimes he could not but help slipping back into slight depression. Sleep turned out not to be forever remedied as he had supposed even though Tikal stayed with him into every night.

The source of his new woes in this time of light for him was his dreams, mainly one he kept reliving. In the dream, he was fighting his nemesis, the Eggman as usual. Tikal would always manage to get herself in the crosshairs of the mad man's deadly weapons. Every time she would have her heart pierced on the cold metal of the Eggman's killing machine. This would lead to a sorrowful and enraged Shadow tearing into the good doctor and killing him after a long and tiring battle.

However as his anger diminished with his death, Shadow would begin to feel much worse off after the fight. Every time he fell into a swirling torrent of despair and disbelief at the prospect of his only true love leaving him and the world he inhabited. Shadow no longer wanted to live and would escape into the distant wilderness, running so fast through trees and rocks that his body would be bruised, broken and bloodied by the time he reached the oceanside. Unexplainably, he would find himself staring into the storming waves that merged into the form of Perfect Chaos, the beast's infernal eyes looking directly back into his. Chaos always struck forward into the cliffside to avenge Tikal but was always too late as Shadow would throw himself into the raging seas in hopes of silencing his grief forever.

And every time Shadow woke up after this death with a mind-splitting headache and the feeling that his love was gone permanently even though she always proved to be sleeping too, with her head as always rested upon his chest, she waking too in worry because of the tearful look in her lover's face. Of course, Shadow's woes were not permanent, and Tikal continually renewed his spirit. So did Shadow's best friend as well; it was nice for him to think of his son as his best friend because in truth, Adam certainly was and understood his dad more than any outsider.

It was a dark and stormy autumn night in the Mushroom Kingdom, unlike most in which the sky is filled to the brim with stardust. The ominous drab left a state of loneliness in the Mushroom Castle, and Princess Peach had some quiet tea with her advisor, Toadsworth. The old man was at ease with his Princess being safe at once and for so long too because it had seemingly been ages since the last time the nefarious King Koopa captured Peach.

At this supposedly quaint tea time however, that was all Toadsworth would speak about to the Princess, making her feel uncomfortable and admittedly underwhelmed by her steward's lack of topics for conversation. Going for another sip of her mushroom tea, Peach was immediately startled by the sounds of cannon fire miles away from the castle, spilling the beverage all over herself.

Toadsworth, besides himself with cleaning, went to retrieve some towels from the pantry before the stains had the chance to set in too much in her wonderfully pink dress. Peach was hardly concerned with her attire as she looked out the nearest window to spot Bowser's airship armada approaching her castle.

Shocked at this (it had been years since King Bowser had made an advance on the Mushroom Kingdom), Peach sounded the alarm, notified all Toad soldiers and went to contact Nintendo since her heroes were not on the surface at the time. She ran to the phone but stumbled and was cut off by cannon fire to the castle. Peach got herself up as Toadsworth rushed back into the room, which now had a gaping hole the size of a Banzai Bill. The pair stared up frighteningly at the airship that was moving closer to them with the fiery eyes of Bowser looking into Peach's with the most unsettling glare.

Knowing that reaching out to her heroes in space was the only option, Peach attempted at floating across the gap in the floor to get to her phone, but she was not quick enough to avoid being grasped by Bowser. Toadsworth stood in horror until an annoyed Kamek shot him down the halls of the castle.

With a squeeze, Bowser demanded questioningly, "So Princess, are you ready to give up your kingdom now?"

"Never!" screamed Princess Toadstool at the top of her lungs as it would provide some opportunity for help.

"Well then, I guess it really isn't your choice anyway, is it? Why don't we start by demolishing this pathetic excuse for a castle?"

Bowser was about to command his forces and those of his son to attack further when the Princess saw a glare out of the corner of her eye as she quickly realized it was coming from space and incoming fast. It seemed for Princess Toadstool that a savior from space did in fact answer her call even though one was never made explicitly.

Coming into full view now in the Comet Observatory, Rosalina, defender of the cosmos, challenged King Bowser to let the Princess go. After a stern refusal, Rosalina caused the muscles in Bowser's right arm to constrict terribly, causing the evil king to let Peach go and focus on Rosalina instead.

Expecting much fighting to ensue, Peach looked on and worried about what the state of her Kingdom would be after such a brutal battle she thought inevitable. But to her surprise, Rosalina used her great magic to transport herself and Bowser's fleet away from the planet and into the depths of space where the two forces would be separated for a time. For now though, Bowser was light years away, but Peach would not be at ease regarding the state of affairs for a long time to come or at least until something changed about the repeating cycle of kidnappings and threats to her country.

Things were more peaceful aboard the Pillar. In the past few months, many changes had come to the infrastructure of the warriors' base. TEC, former X-Naut supercomputer, was moved from the ruined laboratory on the moon orbiting Trinity to Professor Frankly's study in Rogueport of the Mushroom Kingdom. Frankly immediately intended to give TEC away (TEC was much too technological for his traditional studies), and it was not until Goombella decided to join Nintendo that she told her professor exactly where to send the supercomputer.

TEC was very much at home in the Pillar as his networking influences were wired into the entirety of the structure by scientists Tails and Slippy. More powerful and knowledgeable than ever before, TEC aided the residents on whichever floor and whatever monitor they were working off of. TEC finally felt like his life was fulfilled again, as he had not felt that way since his time spent with Peach on the moon.

There were more Mushroom Kingdom denizens whose lives were drastically changed on the onslaught of Countdown. Many Yoshis had joined Nintendo's cause and lived now in a miniature paradise with a super happy tree aboard the Pillar. Green, leader of them all, gained a new friend through some unfortunate circumstances when visiting Peach's castle the previous summer.

After the events of the Sprixie Kingdom insertion years ago, a large Plessie tribe had come to call the Mushroom Falls near the kingdom's castle their home. Sadly, the tribe's alpha leadership were not too friendly, and Green usually kept his distance that summer, that is, until some masked meddler ruined the peaceful environment of the tribe. This man was no other than Il Piantissimo, a running man from a distant kingdom who had stumbled upon the Magic Paintbrush or Gaddbrush near Gelato Beach after the events of the pollution of Isle Delfino.

It took him years to master the techniques of the brush and its mysterious, goopy powers. When he did though, he became obsessed, leading him to practice everywhere and eventually reach the mainland again where he could color the Mushroom Kingdom.

Unfortunately for Plessie, a young, naïve Plessie creature, Il Piantissimo's painting and pollution of her habitat caused the alpha leadership to blame the innocent, young girl. Since Plessie has helped human creatures in their quest in the Sprixie Kingdom years ago, Plessie was always looked suspiciously upon, and this incident, without any shred of evidence of Plessie's involvement, was the last straw as her tribe banished her from the falls.

Green was having a wonderful time gathering fruit for Toad Town's food supplies and visiting the Toads of the castle. These things kept him busy, but he wondered about the Plessie tribe and how the recent pollution must have affected them all. One night, Green visited Peach in the castle during a small ball that was being held in the castle to commemorate the ridding of the pollution in the falls.

Green decided to crash for the night in the castle garden, which was closed off to visitors for the night due to renovations. If anything, the Yoshi did not expect to curl up against a moving bush, but then he realized that the bush was actually a Plessie, trying not to be noticed by anyone. Upon inquiring why she was in the garden, Plessie sobbingly admitted that she had no place to go and thought Peach's garden would be a good place to hide from her tribe. Green sympathized with her and offered for Plessie to come in the castle to get something to eat. She was touched by this, and, to her surprise, the gracious Princess offered the castle to the dinosaur.

No one had ever shown her such kindness as Yoshi and the Princess did. She could not help but love the little, green dino-dragon that offered her a place to stay and wanted to become good friends with him. The next morning, as it turned out, was the perfect chance to bond with Green as Il Piantissimo showed his masked mien once more, this time looking to spruce up the castle with some tasteful graffiti.

Honestly though, this was a terrible decision on the running man's part because although he was fast, Green was a lot faster and apprehended, or rather swallowed, the fiend, encasing him in an egg prison. Plessie also made quick work of washing the pollution by splashing the nearby river water onto the outside castle walls; they shined like never before, and Il Piantissimo was taken into custody by a Toad guard.

Before he was to be locked away and tried however, Green mentioned that Plessie should have the opportunity to show her tribe the polluting culprit in order for her to become one with her people once again. Plessie denied Green's kind offer though, telling him that she did not belong there anymore and instead wanted to spend her time with her new best Yoshi friend. Green was made super happy by this, and their friendship continued to grow exponentially.

It was to grow much sooner than expected too as another threat emerged to challenge the Mushroom Kingdom. Raphael the Raven along with his followers had migrated from Yoshi's Island to Lavalava Island now to Mt. Frustration within the boundaries of the kingdom. The raven minions had been stealing and hoarding food supplies, for a while, unbeknownst to the Yoshis and the rest of the kingdom. It was only when a fight broke out between a raven and Red the Yoshi did the kingdom learn of their selfish plans.

Green decided with urgency to face his old foe by himself and decided to gather some supplies from the castle in a knapsack. He could not leave without Plessie finding out about his plan. She pleaded to Green in order to come along, and Green of course said yes, being of a kindhearted nature.

Plessie proved to be an invaluable asset for Green though when they breached the snowy worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom. With her smooth belly and large stature, she slipped and slided down snow-covered hills and ice-screened lakes with Green on her back really enjoying himself. It was not long at all before Mt. Frustration could be seen in the distance, and Green and Plessie only spent one night in these chilling conditions.

Plessie, used to more tropical or even arid conditions, became very cold this night, but Green went on a little side hike to find a red Koopa Troopa. Holding it in a little too long for his liking, Green was doubly relieved to light a fire beside his new friend when he returned. Plessie was warmed physically and emotionally by this act of kindness, and she cuddled with her new friend until the morning sun rose magnificently over the pure white mountains.

It was nothing more than a skip and a hop, a slide and a flutter to reach the peak of Mt. Frustration where the pair of now best buddies faced Raphael in all of his giant glory. Plessie was not very useful in a fight (in fact she was pacifistic) and so Green took the raven head on with a barrage of eggs and a flurry of kicks. Raphael continually interrupted Green with mighty pounds to the ground that shook the ground beneath the dinosaurs' feet. This gave Plessie an idea to use her girth to her their advantage and shake the ground beneath the raven's feet when he landed. This turned into a vicious cycle, and it backfired.

An avalanche began to fall beneath the trio, and the peak on which they were fighting gradually began to thin. Raphael began to get the upper hand on the Yoshi who was out of his comfort zone, and this angered Plessie who decided to jump into the fray after all. She slammed her full force into the mighty raven, causing them to topple over the peak and down the mountainside. When the two disappeared, the avalanche stopped and there was silence, Green being left in the middle of it along with his dread on top of Mt. Frustration.

Green ran over to the edge to see the pair tumble down into a seemingly endless white shroud. Without hesitating, Green jumped off, fluttering down as he went to slow his descent. At the bottom of the mountain, Yoshi found the injured body of Raphael who had no doubt learned his lesson; the monstrosity had trouble getting himself up. Green was worried about Plessie though, his fears and pulse being heightened as he could not find her anywhere where the raven had landed.

As quickly as his fears were increased was as rapid as they went away since Plessie came sliding up beside Green with a big smile on her face and her heart full of meaning and love for her Yoshi friend. Having taught the raven leader a lesson and ensuring the security of the Mushroom Kingdom's food supplies with their teamwork, Yoshi and Plessie, giddy as could be, rushed off on their journey back to the castle, certain that their friendship could conquer anything in their way.

Another new face was introduced to a Nintendian legend around this time as well. However, it was one that Samus Aran was incredibly surprised to see. It was a face that was going to change her life forever.

The dreaded league of Space Pirates were still around at this time along with their hidden leader, Ridley, albeit them being nonexistent on a galactic scale after Samus's repeated meddling in their affairs. Pitifully, they had resorted to terrorizing smaller systems, gathering means for living again in hopes of strengthening their forces for another assault on the Galactic Federation. One of these systems had a small planetoid orbiting a somewhat dull star. At first landing, the space rock seemed uninhabited, but the pirates' curiosity urged them to discover the place further.

Chris of the Chozo knew of their landing, and he was deeply scared by it. Presumed by himself the last of his race and thought to be dead like the rest of his kin, Chris had colonized this lone planetoid in the name of the Chozo as he sought a different lot in life rather than spreading technological influence or experimenting on altered life as his brethren had done before him. These paths had only led his Chozo brothers and sister to lives of despair, early graves and, in some cases, tortured paranormal states.

Chris chose to study the environment around him and keep his ear to the cosmic ground of the universe as a devout scholar. He implemented a system of surveyors to detect any atmospheric disturbances, what triggered his discovery of the pirate landing. Having great technology at his disposal, Chris sent out a distress signal to anyone passing by that had the ability to heed his call. He then gathered the necessities and prepared to seek shelter in a secretly crafted chamber of his abode if the pirates were to arrive at his door. Little did Chris surmise however was how actually close a band of Space Pirates were to his small house.

Patrolling a sector of federation space, Samus received this distress call and, dutifully answering it as always, she logged in the coordinates from the signal and set out to a region of uncharted space.

The Space Pirates shot down the door and ransacked what they assumed was another Chozo ruin. Chris held his breath in suspense as the fiends continued to tear his place apart.

Samus, who was originally going to land on the exact terrestrial coordinates provided to her, saw the pirates' jetpacks and decided to land out of sight and rush to the building in which her nemeses were parked outside of.

No slouches, the pirates discovered a hatch in the floor by a very slim crack in the ground. Chris was hauled out of his hallowed out chamber and thrown onto the floor. Upon seeing his face, both pirates were shocked to see a member of the Chozo. The two aliens to this planet acknowledged each other and were about to take great pleasure in the torture and execution of the last Chozo. Ridley would not know and could not take away the satisfaction from these two pirates.

The Space Pirates simultaneously thrust their blades into Chris's abdomen when a shot from the Plasma Beam blew through the door to Chris's home. Taking their blades out in shock, the pirates turned to face their worst fear: bounty hunter Samus Aran. Shots were exchanged, and amidst the chaos the pirates fled to their jetpacks. Samus pursued and chased the Aerotroopers on foot and, with her speed booster, had no trouble keeping up long enough to shoot the menaces down. The last one crashed to the ground near Samus with a mighty explosion, but Samus dodged it, already on her way back to attend to the victim of the pirates' sinister ways.

Hurting and disoriented, Chris managed to stumble upon his feet just in time to see the visor of his savior approach through the dust that was settling after the shootout. Placing his hands on his bleeding side, he stumbled forward into Samus's arms. He stammered, "You're-re Samus…Samus Aran!" before he fainted into an abysmal state.

Samus, almost too shocked to do or say anything because she was actually holding a Chozo in her arms, hurried back to her ship with him in her arms. She immediately situated Chris and gave him proper medical attention. His wounds were very serious, but with the tools at her disposal, Samus was positive he would recover. The bleeding worsened however, and an unsure Samus utilized her plasma beam to cauterize the comatose Chozo's abdomen. Samus was glad Chris was not conscious enough to feel that pain and decided to stay on the planet in case any more pirates volunteered to be laid to waste by Samus Aran.

When Chris awoke from his dreamy state, he had a plethora of things to say to Samus but not the words, so he just let Samus do the talking.

"I sure am glad I found you when I did," said Samus.

"Me…me too," stuttered an overwhelmed Chris who was looking into the real-life eyes of the legendary warrior he had heard so many things about. Only second on his mind, he placed a careful hand on his stomach, worried about how he was going to hold up.

Samus answered this by saying, "You'll be fine, I promise. I fixed up your bleed and sutured your wound. You shouldn't have any trouble with it in only a few days. My name is Samus Aran, by the way. What's yours?"

"My name's Chris the Chozo. And I already knew you were Samus Aran; I'm sure you'd be recognized anywhere. You are the famous hero known throughout the galaxy, are you not?"

"I am, at least, some would say that."

"I'm honored to have met you, Samus. As such, you can't even begin to imagine how grateful I am that you were the one who answered my call."

"I've helped out some truly grateful beings in my day, Chris. Besides, the significance of your meeting me is nothing compared with the significance of me knowing of your very existence; I thought the Chozo were all extinct after all. All of the major systems they were known to inhabit are deserted now, and only ruins and ghosts remain. How are you even here?"

"I chose a different path than most of my brethren. You don't have to worry about shedding any bad news. I already know that what I surmise to be the rest of our species is well-gone by now. I chose the path of a lonely scholar and sought to enlighten myself without the biases of our culture's dogma and ideals, no matter how noble they were."

"Judging by first impressions, I'd say a phenom of their kind was preserved. As I'm sure you know through stories passed down by your people, your kind raised me and gifted me with all of the abilities I've retained and perfected today. Without the Chozo, I wouldn't even be. And I hate those damn Space Pirates just as much as you do, I'm certain."

"I'm sure you do, exactly why I'm lucky you're the one who answered the call and not some random traveler who might not have shared the same sympathies. We should probably wipe out the rest of them before we leave this planet."

"I was just about to ask you if you had detected anymore of those bastards. Point me in the right direction, and I'll take care of them!"

The pair salvaged what was left of Chris's possessions as Chris led Samus in the right direction to rid the planet of Space Pirates. That was short work for her. The two again boarded Samus's Gunship, ready to takeoff now that no loose ends remained on Chris's planet.

The trusty ship lifted off and into the great wonder of space.

"I thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart, Samus Aran. I will forever be in your debt."

"I was just doing my job. You don't have to thank me, and I'm glad I had the privilege of saving your life."

"Well, I'd be damned if didn't thank the greatest warrior the galaxy's ever known. I'm just not sure where I'm going to live now, let alone do my research."

"Actually, you don't need to worry about that at all, my friend. I know the perfect place for you…"

They were the Fallen Coalition: Dimentio, who had escaped from the throes of the Underwhere without the authorization of Queen Jaydes; Zant, who was not resurrected but rather abducted from his purgatorial state; Zazan, who was a fading reminder of an Anglar Empire long passed away; and Metallix, who was a forgotten creation of a mad doctor who failed to prove that copies surpassed the originals. Dimentio was the leader and gathered these fellow comrades in disgrace in order to pose a threat to Nintendo.

Each member wanted to exact some much desired vengeance against those heroes that ruined them. Metal Sonic desperately wanted to waste Sonic and his friends he cared so much for, Zazan despised Star Fox and the McCloud who single-handedly destroyed his master, Zant looked forward to hearing the screams of the young Link and that traitor Midna who had defeated him in battle, and Dimentio wanted nothing more than to permanently send the Mario Brothers and company to the depths of the Underwhere permanently.

The group shocked Nintendo with the news of their existence, all of whom the heroes thought were dead. Together still, they provided a few small annoyances for the warriors in the first months of Countdown as they would often flee to rework a better strategy every time a confrontation occurred. These were few and far between and happened in disclosed locations, so that not many Nintendo members fought against the coalition. The four meddlers still had not gotten their opportunities to exact their revenge. They thirsted more and more for it.

In a distant time, Link felt something missing in his life as he traveled the lands of Hyrule without a constant companion albeit his horse Epona. He missed Midna, the Twilight Princess, since she departed the world of light to restore her kingdom in her realm. He could never get over the shattering of the Mirror of Twilight. The worlds of light and dark were of the same coin, and his best friend had shattered that coin for what she thought was the best for both their peoples.

Even if that were true, Link did not want to believe it and desperately wanted to see his friend again. Upon the inconsistent paradox in the land of Hyrule and general disturbance in the space-time continuum of Trinity, it became possible for the Twilit Era's denizens to once again mend the bridge to the Twilight Realm.

Leaving Hyrule and the planet and constantly returning in a different time allowed Link to gather the Lens of Truth and Mirror of Truth. Once, when he returned in his own time again, he grasped at the possibility of a crazy plan working out for him. Revisiting the Arbiter's Grounds once more (trudging through the dungeon once again and sorely thus missing Midna's warping abilities), Link came upon the spot where the full Mirror of Twilight once stood. Using the Lens of Truth to reveal what should have been there and mirroring that image with the Mirror of Truth did unexpectedly really, create a new Mirror through which to travel through.

Link happy beyond belief, stepped into the familiar light and entered the Twilight Realm again, ready to search for his companion.

Midna saw the insignia of the Mirror of Twilight once more on the cold, dark ground before Link entered and had gone to investigate it. She was surprised to see Link appear from the portal, but to be fair, she would have been surprised to see anyone appear from it now. Link, now fully materialized in this realm, was pleasantly shocked to see that Midna had once again taken the form of an imp. After much catching up, he was pleased to find out that she actually had come to adore her cursed form and that her people did not mind living under a shorter leader.

They were fully aware of her power, and all twilit denizens detested the tribe's old dark magic and the works of Zant, the usurper king. One especially faithful twilit being was Twizar, who had become Midna's right-hand man in facilitating business in the palace. After much catching up and convincing, Link persuaded Midna to return to the world of light, at least for a while, to catch up with Princess Zelda and spend some time with them, her best friends still.

Midna was fully on board and needed no more persuasion from Link to leave her home. She bid a fond and temporary farewell to her people, leaving Twizar in charge of the governance of the palace and insurance of the security of her people. The Twilight Princess departed with the Hero of Time into the world of light.

The new Mirror of Twilight was doing its job exceptionally and as expected as the two reappeared on the other side. Link's feet were standing on the steps that Midna's soles were touching when she had said good-bye to him forever. Both remembering this and looking into each other's eyes awkwardly yet affectionately, Link's and Midna's deep feelings for each other were instantly rekindled and caused their faces to flush.

"So, what was it that you were trying to say to me when you left?" asked Link.

"I…love you…" was the reply.

Hyrule was not the only place for unexpected relationships to bloom. In a most inopportune time for the Kong family, one of their own was falling in love with a kremling soldier even after King K. Rool's forces had abducted her. She was returned however by none other than the same kremling scum that was ordered to torture her. As such, Tiny Kong and Kyle Kremling formed an interesting relationship, and their acknowledged friendship transformed into infatuation over time.

This was especially awkward for everyone else involved though as K. Rool had just started in seeking revenge against the Kong family with his reptilian hoards once more. Bold invasions or any more kidnappings were not going to work this time as K. Rool continued to try to hit the Kongs where it would hurt: their innocent and vulnerable animal friends of their third island. The first was permanently polluted by Kremkroc Industries, Inc. and the second, much smaller than their current island (and located near Banana Fairy Island) was serving as their vacation residence for the time being as the animal buddies had the roam of the place with the volcano.

To the Kongs, things had simply winded down after Kyle went rogue and fell in love (even though most of the family disapproved wholeheartedly with Kyle's presence), but in actuality, they were completely unaware of the atrocities happening at their main home while King K. Rool silently began building his forces again, readying to exact his revenge on the traitor and his furry new friends.

In a major crossroads, Meta Knight had to decide what he was going to do with his life. In the time that passed since the events of the Subspace Invasion, he along with his followers constructed a new, replica Halberd. It was these very followers that he now intended to abandon. Late to the cause, Meta Knight gradually warmed up to the idea of being a hero for Nintendo; over the years, his disregard for being portrayed in the public eye positively disappeared as he eventually decided that starting a new chapter in his life was the best way for him now. He bid farewell to all who had helped him in his causes, whether they were good or bad, throughout his life. Waddle Dee, Axe Knight, Mace Knight and Captain Vul all wished him well as Meta Knight finally joined Nintendo in a permanent position as a free-spirited resident just in time for the crises Tabuu's telepathic message were a catalyst for.

As lead science officer and strategist for Nintendo, Miles Prower was a busy fox and probably held the most responsibilities any teenager had in the universe. He was almost an adult now, his age showing in his exploits without his best friend, Sonic the Hedgehog. Tails also found love again, this time in the much older Lucy Hare, daughter of the current Cornerian general and former Star Fox member.

A year prior to the commencement of Countdown, Lucy lost the love of her life similarly to how Tails had seven years ago with Cosmo. Wolf O'Donnell had turned over a new leaf after his final run-in with Star Fox, and he and his partners, Leon Powalski and Panther Caruso, even decided to live in the Pillar and help out Nintendo, provided the bounties on their heads were removed. This business arrangement eventually evolved into much more, and Wolf and Lucy fell madly in love with each other much to the chagrin of her father.

However, Lucy was an adult, and there was to be no stopping the two of them from being together. Lucy's best friend, Krystal, even supported their relationship with Fox grudgingly deciding to not get into it in any capacity. Unfortunately though, their controversial love was not to be forever; an evil force deemed their bliss to die swiftly.

The Ghost of Andross was actually very present in the lives of the heroes ever since he was thought to be finally decimated absolutely. Through his previous experiments before he was turned into his gruesome bioweapon form, Andross had gained the abilities of mind-control and telepathy. Somehow these abilities went with him into the afterlife as he sought revenge by haunting those he despised, as with Fox's nightmare in the first week of this last year.

As such, his work had begun much earlier than that with the brainwashing of Wolf O'Donnell. Unknown to the heroes, Wolf had not simply slipped into insanity like what Lucy had thought when he attacked her inexplicably, leading to his banishment and the resignations of the bewildered remains of Star Wolf. Andross had taken control of his entire being from across the spectral plane, but unfortunately not even Krystal could sense past the evil force that Andross was wielding, a force that ruined Wolf's life and led to a deeply scarred Lucy.

Instead of seeking solace in the comforting arms of her father or her friends, Lucy berated herself for trusting former enemies to Star Fox and thought of her mother Vivian and how disappointed she must have been in her daughter. Lucy was stuck in her depressive cycle for the rest of two months until she gave birth to Wolf's daughter, Vivian Hare.

Peppy's granddaughter was a new light in her life even though she was obviously and constantly reminded of the loving times (now with a bitter aftertaste) that led to her daughter's birth. Something that got Wolf off her mind however was Miles Prower. In a daring new division of the Pillar's enterprise's, Tails and Lucy worked together in the science wing doing research on subjects whose experiments had been far too prolonged by the governments on the surface worlds that were supposed to be following through.

While reflective techniques of Simirrors and absorptive properties of Metroid hatchlings were interesting, Tails' initial attraction was sparked after seeing Lucy's extensive analytical and practical knowledge of climate control regarding Fichina's infrastructure. Lucy was likewise amazed by Tails' expertise in creating wavelengths on which could be traveled through a solid mode, just like a Chaos Emerald.

Their newborn relationship was fresh but suffered no problems. Tails had no problem with Lucy already having a child, and both of them were content with not being with their first loves. This new pair had collectively decided to move on together.

Finding new love was great for Tails, especially since his ideologies were truly testing his friendship with Sonic. The blue blur had saved his buddy's life a year earlier, or rather, resurrected it. On a final mission in an attempt to oust Dr. Eggman from his mechanical utopia on Mobius, the Freedom Fighters banded together once again. In this unsuccessful raid, justice was not seen and several disagreements left the group in shambles forever.

The good doctor was in no way content with his somewhat advantageous state of affairs; none of his forest animal nemeses were dead after all. In a surprise attack on Sonic and Tails as they were leaving the planet for home, Tails was shot in the heart by Eggman's robot before a shocked Sonic had the chance to obliterate it. Struggling to compose himself enough to ask if his best friend was able to speak, Sonic was met with no answer as he held his Tails lifeless in his arms.

Desperate and distraught, Sonic hurried home with a glimmer of hope that his friend would make it if a crazy plan worked magic, but the tears were speedily running down his cheeks at the thought of it not working, leaving his most important friend gone away from him forever.

All knew that the Chaos Emeralds were capable of turning a wisher's desires into power, and Sonic desired nothing more than to bring his friend back. In mere seconds, Tails was placed before the altar of the Master Emerald with Super Sonic bringing together the jewels in an attempt to resurrect Tails. The god's power was pure and strong enough; Tails, bewildered and dizzy, got up from his only temporary resting place and greeted his friend.

However, Sonic was not expecting a reaction from Tails that would eventually lead to the dismantling of their friendship. When Tails learned that Sonic had brought him back to life with divine power, Tails was disgusted at the prospect of tampering with the universe and its laws. Tails proclaimed, after grudgingly and customarily thanking Sonic, that if he died, there was no reason for him to be among the living anymore. Tails was consumed with the idea of his life being made more significant than other life in the universe because he had been brought back unnaturally.

Tails' moral conundrum had Sonic dumbfounded. He could not believe his best friend was not more grateful for getting a second chance at life and gracing the lives of himself and their other friends. This inability to understand led to a righteous indignation on Sonic's part and an obsessed Tails whose mind was boggled with the prospects of what this meant to his new life and the balance of the universe.

It was an unspoken distinction that Sonic never do this again. What was left to happen to their friendship followed through when Sonic repeated his misgivings by bringing back two more lives from the dead. A grown-up Cream had begun dating Charmy the Bee while Vector the Crocodile became a new dad for the rabbit as he was married to Vanilla, Cream's mother. On the commencement of Countdown, cancer left Vanilla bedridden, and a dangerous Chaotix investigation gave Charmy a terminal gunshot wound.

As their terminal clocks ticked simultaneously and rapidly at the same time, the new father-daughter pair was left outside a treatment room, sobbing with each other when a mother, wife, son and boyfriend all passed. Hearing this, Sonic could not believe it, and deliberately disregarding his friend Tails, he utilized his super form to bring Vanilla and Charmy back to life once again.

Once he heard of this, Tails was furious but kept it to himself until he could speak to Sonic alone. Leaving a conversation with Amy, Sonic could sense that the fox was approaching behind him. He turned around and, reacting to the angry, disappointed gaze in Tails' eyes, pushed him down to the floor. Sonic had had enough of his so-called friend.

"You're an ungrateful brat, Tails! Unlike you, I can't let my friends die when I have the power to prevent that from happening. Don't you understand? I love them just like I love you! That's why I saved you; I couldn't live without my best friend, the guy that's been there for me my entire life. If you were in my position, what would you have done?!"

"It doesn't matter what my answer would be, Sonic. What you've done is wrong and could ruin the balance of power or life in the universe."

"Forget your universe then. This is my world, and I'm going to make it better or at least have it stay good as long as I can. I never asked to be a god."

As Tails picked himself up, Sonic's last words were, "Stay away from me, Tails."

Amy, who had seen her boyfriend forget his best friend, helped Tails up but held no illusion of catching a mad Sonic on the run.

Sonic had ran to his room. If Amy or Tails had followed him and showed up, then he would speed past them in a flash to be alone. Sonic was alone now. Sonic sobbed over the loss of his best friend, Tails.

A few truly unexpected pilots knocked on Nintendo's door after these events. Star Wolf was allowed to enter but were swiftly taken into custody upon stepping foot inside. Considered to be lousy criminals fabricating fantasies to General Peppy, who took a deep personal interest in interrogating the scum before others including his daughter found out about their return, Wolf and his cronies desperately tried to explain the past year and, unfortunately for his defense, how O'Donnell did not remember any of it.

All that could be explained was that Leon and Panther eventually got too fed up with the brainwashed Wolf's demands as they had beat the possessed Wolf to a pulp after he killed a few of their henchmen in a recently reclaimed Sargasso hideout. When Wolf awoke from this submissive and unconscious state, he was free of the spirit of Andross who had exhausted his powers over the course of the past year, with beating being the last he could take.

Wolf desperately explained to his friends who had blindly followed an evil Wolf that there was no way for him to even defend himself; he could not even remember anything about the past year that he was told had passed. This was exactly how Wolf was pleading to General Peppy now as all he needed was to speak to the mother of his child. Much against his better judgment, Peppy could not deal with either the lies or insanity that screamed for a chance in front of him, and so he decided to call in his daughter.

Lucy's heart sank to her stomach when she was summoned by her somber-sounding father, and it skipped two beats when she saw her former lover and criminal to the Lylat System in front of her. Lucy was too shocked to say anything. Wolf did all the talking and sounded as incredibly earnest as any perfectly innocent creature could. Their lives were, again, changed forever. Lucy grabbed her Wolf by the arm and led him to his daughter, Vivian, for the very first time.

But Tails was there, taking care of the now one-year-old kid who shared so many striking features similar to Wolf's at such an early age. Tails, too, became speechless and walked out of the room before anything could be said from Wolf or Lucy. No could think of what to say. Too entranced to care about the fox boy, Wolf was completely taken by his daughter's piercing eyes and playful, infantile laugh.

Little Vivian's laughter coincided with Tails' tears now stories above in his own room. At this point, Tails knew he could not lose both his lover and best friend. He considered making amends with Sonic, but the fact still remained, judging from the way Lucy was looking at Wolf O'Donnell, that Tails was not meant to be with Lucy Hare. Crying turned to sobbing and inescapable inadequacy and loneliness as Tails could not comprehend his thoughts or desires.

Unexplainably yet perfectly, Tails' most life-defining moment occurred before his blurred eyes. Seven years to the date after Tails was forced to kill her to save the galaxy from the Metarex, Cosmo, Tails' first love of a far-off planet, bloomed into existence from the sprout before him, in an even fuller glory than he had remembered. He had saved that sprout all these years; Tails had never really let go of her memory. Not a single act of cognition computed in Tails' oversized brain. He was much too shocked until Cosmo spoke something simple for him: "Hi, Tails…I didn't forget you…"

This was too much for poor Tails. He ran to the docking bay to set out on a starry tour of the surrounding space to try to get this day in his life straight in his mind. It was mere moments before the Tornado X took off, leaving Cosmo in the pilot's room alone but patient. After all, Tails was forced to wait seven long years for her to return to him.

"I see you love that fox boy now…I guess. It's best that I leave now, and we can figure out a schedule for me to come back and see my daughter later, so you can tell the fox that me being here means nothing now. Again, I'm incredibly sorry for what I did to your life and our daughter's…or…what Andross did to all of us. You can contact me whenever is convenient for you of cou-," said Wolf with his daughter in his arms as he was cut off.

Chiming in before he continued to get the wrong idea, Lucy said, "Wolf, there's no reason for you to leave…ever…I do love Tails…a lot, much of it due to how he made me forget about a version of you that wasn't even yours to begin with…. I can't punish you now. I only miss you, Wolf, and now you're miraculously back in my life and Vivian's…."

Lucy began to cry, out of both grief for time lost and happiness for the future.

"Lucy…I don't know what to say other than…I still love you, and that never really changed. It just appeared as though it did…"

Stifling sniffles, "Right before you were possessed…you were talking to me about getting married…I wanted to be with you forever then! Please propose to me now. Nothing else matters except for how we feel about each other! You're back…"

"I can stay with you if that's what you want, but under the suspicions and circumstances, there's no way I'm going to throw you in an unfavorable light with your dad, friends, colleagues or even the public eye by asking you to be my wife. When the galaxy learns of Star Wolf's return, we'll be referred to as the worst of all scum, and…I still don't deserve you, Lucy. Nothing was ever going to change that."

"In other words, I'll just have to convince you that all doesn't matter over time because there's no way I'm ever going to be without you again…my Wolf."

"We'll be fighting to keep something the same when everything else is changing around us. Are you sure you want that challenge in your life?"

"Yes, there's no challenge that we can't match and surpass. And Wolf, I'll never fear you again; the real you would never hurt me or our child. I'm the one who's sorry for not believing in that, for not going out to find you and turn you back in time for the birth of…her…."

Wolf answered her final tears for a while by assuring, "I have plenty of time to catch up now even though I'll have two beautiful hares to attend to now. I love you."

After his short flight, Tails realized the pit of his selfishness, returned home and began to think about the problems of others. He thought there must be a reason for Lucy to have brought Wolf back to this daughter and, effectively, home. The majority of his thoughts now were focused on Cosmo as he skipped, ran and flew upstairs to his room. To his bottomless delight, Cosmo was still there, beautiful and radiant as she had always been.

Thinking of the perfect solution as he finally he reached his floor, Tails realized that Lucy may want to reunite with Wolf who, just maybe, was misunderstood or something like that. This thought freed him, and Tails burst through his room and hugged the lost love of his life, picked her up, spun her around in the air, tails twirling, and looked lovingly and gratefully into her eyes.

Cosmo had anticipated this as she heard Tails' trampling feet rush through the floor to his room to greet her more appropriately this time. Cosmo was happy to be alive and brimming with good feeling since she was in her love's arms, the same fox, now much more grown, that kept a potted plant that just would not grow in his room for seven long years. Cosmo was speechless at this faith, and gestures and smiles became much more effective and easier than words.

Everything was worked out amongst the two new couples and true first loves were continued from where they began. Wolf, Lucy, Tails and Cosmo all acknowledged that the wills of evil entities were what caused the perfect things in their lives to be disrupted. With their eternal hearts in mind, both couples vowed to not let evil get in the way of their love ever again. Nothing was as important as that.

Two months in, it was Halloween, at least as it was celebrated in the town of Nintendo (named after the famed hero group) in Animal Crossing, a section of islands on trinity that was home to many delightfully boring humans and friendly anthropomorphic animals. Jack's tricks and treats abounded throughout the town and city under the leadership of Mayor Eric and his secretary Isabelle while Nintendo the Heroes dealt with real terror in the skies and space above.

As much as Tabuu Soul's telepathic call initiated the Year of Absolution, so too did the Horror of the Moons catalyze the evil that Nintendo would have to deal with in the ten months ahead. Whether it was coincidence or not did not matter to the heroes when many of their old nemeses returned and banded together in awesome power. The immensity of the crisis would have been far too much for them to handle individually, but together they dispelled all enemies albeit only temporarily as the Horror of the Moons would haunt them for far longer than the three days in which it lasted.

Dark Matter was rising exponentially in the universe and seeped into the purgatory of the Hero of Time, rebirthing Majora's Moon and a demonic mask in the present time due to the nature of Hyrule's shifting time paradox (which was also heightened there, in Eagleland and the Fire Emblem nations due to Sonic's universe-melting final blow that had defeated Tabuu seven years earlier). The Mushroom Moon birthed a following of X-Nauts from Poshley Heights on Trinity too as Sir Grodus and Lord Crump emerged from hiding beneath the moon's surface. The Dark Moon's mysterious influence was also enhanced by Dark Matter's presence as Boos under their leader, the King Boo, became stronger and more daring in their hauntings.

The moon of Mobius became structurally unstable, leading to Eggman's repairs breaking and revealing hidden demon spawn in the form of a Black Arm army reborn under the resurrected leadership of Black Doom. Zero Two, influenced again by Dark Matter, returned in a gargantuan, monstrous state as it loomed over Trinity, giving it a third moon with its white body. Where the battle was to take place, Zero Two somehow communicated with those Black Arms from afar, Shroobs, Aparoids and Space Pirates as they all congregated in orbit of the planet to do battle with the Nintendo Heroes. Meanwhile, Tails and Cosmo resisted the advances against the team from the Fallen Coalition on the smaller of the two moons that had previously orbited Planet Zebes, now a stark field of debris.

Amidst this terrible chaos and the resulting attraction of the alien force known as Giygas, two redeemed antiheroes emerged victorious in the temporary slaying of Zero Two: Wolf O'Donnell and Shadow the Hedgehog. With Wolfen laser fire and chaos spear, an even worse crisis was averted for the majority of those involved. Shadow and Wolf however had crucial decisions to make in the wake of Devil Doom's acquisition of the chaos emeralds and impressive chaos control that gave Link the power to clawshot Termina's moon and transported both Central City and Corneria City into the depths of space where they were protected by Silver's telekinesis and eventually returned to their respective planets. A special kind of hell awaited Shadow and Wolf upon the clearing out of the rest of the villains while a taken Pokey Minch observed Giygas's attacks and escape from the surface below. After these events, Vector the Crocodile recorded it all in a diary on TEC's service board. It would not be read until months later.

In the beginning, three golden goddesses were sent to create a world before time even began, before space even existed. These goddesses: Din, Nayru and Farore traveled until they came upon what would become the planet Trinity and its holy land of Hyrule. Din sculpted the mass of rock that was to become the core structure of the planet. Nayru gifted the world with law and order so that Farore could create the originators of life.

Time passed and the planet evolved, allowing forces of light and dark to grow. One dark tribe was sent to live in the world of light in a land named Termina. Those of the light did not respond with hostility; it was against their nature. However, the dark tribe only wanted to disgrace the gods who had made them. They wanted to show how unlikely and unholy they must be by building an immense Stone Tower in the Ikana Canyon region.

These of the dark tribe also worshipped a great deity, a female one named Majora, instead of honoring the three golden goddesses. Once they reached the top of their tower, they were met with the wrath of the goddesses as they deemed the land of Termina unworthy. Ikana was flipped on its axis and their Majora deity, created from blind faith and corrupt magic, was met with a Fierce Deity of the gods who defeated the evil creature.

Majora was not truly defeated, but rather, was banished from the lands of Ikana in a horrid beast form, leaving the dark tribe of Ikana alone and without religion. That tribe would eventually find itself in the land of Hyrule, its descendants left to be led down a path to banishment in another realm in the far-reaching future.

In the land of Termina, roughly ten million years before the events of Termina's crashing moon, the aforementioned beast lived alone, preying on travelers that would find it their misfortune to come across the terrible beast. One day, one wandering hero came across the beast. Instead of falling victim to the rumors of wish-granting and persuasive power of the beast, the hero was wise and sympathized with the monster.

Bringing out a lone drum and beginning to play it, the beast became enthused and began to dance at dawn. The beast, dancing madly, shook the earth for three days and three nights. On the fourth morning, its breathing stopped and nothing but its armor remained. The hero, wishing the monster to be able to sleep forever, memorialized it by carving a mask out of the beast's armor. He let the mask lay dormant after his carving, and it was not until epochs later that Majora's Mask was finally found by another human. An extraordinarily happy man, a salesman procured the mask for his business, setting in place a chain of events he could have never anticipated.

The Horror of the Moons had brought the Happy Mask Salesman to judgment before Link, the Hero of Time and Fierce Deity reborn, seeking vengeful justice for the torment of his alternate self in the land of Termina. Through Dark Matter's manipulation, a revived and fully powered Majora's Mask that was in the man's possession was sent across the breadth of the planet upon the Salesman's execution by the Deity's blade.

The town of Nintendo was enjoying financial prosperity, an awesome sense of community and many reasons to celebrate including the recent marriages of Tom Nook and Sable Able on Toy Day and Mayor Eric and Isabelle on the first day of the New Year. All was well and happy in Animal Crossing until on the third night of the New Year when Tommy and Timmy Nook found Majora's Mask in a trash can in the alley behind their uncle's shop, the T&T Emporium.

Taking a liking to the fashionable yet outlandish design, Tom Nook unknowingly put in motion a chain of terrible events when he opted to sell Majora's Mask as a fortune cookie prize in his shop. On the dawn of the following morning, Mayor Eric, making his normal shopping rounds, purchased a cookie and ended up winning the mask. Eric loved the look of Majora's Mask and wore it constantly, constantly visiting his friends and neighbors Kyle and Purrl or night fishing with it on.

Isabelle, worrisome as she may be, began to get frantic one day at work when Mayor Eric refused to take the mask off while at his desk. He had begun acting strangely as if he was not himself anymore.

Isabelle inquired, "Mayor Eric, please just take that mask off for one second!"

Upon hearing these words, the mask became violent, silencing the real Eric from speaking for once. Majora wildly beat its mug against the walls of town hall, dragging with it the seemingly lifeless corpse of the mayor. Unsure of what to do, Isabelle went to get help from Main Street, specifically Tom Nook. Naturally, the tanooki had no clue what was going on, his nephews not having the faintest idea either. Isabelle's panicked commotion did garner the attention of the other residents of this commercial district as they all hurried back to town hall upon her desperate requests.

Meanwhile, Majora was uncomfortable controlling a vessel she found unworthy of her power. Mayor Eric was in no means distressed like the Skull Kid she had once controlled and demented. More importantly though was that Eric had no potential for devastating power; as a normal human, his inner strength and potential for evil possession were largely insignificant for the mask. Majora's Mask began thinking it better to find a more powerful vessel.

Kicks the Skunk was first to make it to town hall where he found the mask and its captive hovering in the air, nearly motionless, as if it were contemplating something.

Unable to resist his chance at comedy, Dr. Shrunk said, "Well, at least Eric seems to be hanging in there for the moment."

Among the groans and general disgust directed towards his comment in as dire straits as they were in, Majora's Mask detached itself from the mayor. The crowd of animals had little time to rejoice before the demonic force crashed through the roof of the hall, leaving a bewildered group among the rubble in its wake.

Isabelle went over to check on her husband who was okay. Many of the animals in the group actually thanked Dr. Shrunk, assuming his bad joke was enough to release Eric from the monster they saw. The shrimp blushed, and the town was happy again to have their mayor back to normal and functioning as any normal villager should.

Little did these innocent creatures know that Majora's Mask was on its way to cause unimaginable havoc, searching the galaxy for untapped potential, the most awesome power it could find.

Nintendo the heroes also found it suitable to marry couples on the onset of the New Year as well, looking to boost group morale in the second third of the steadily moving Countdown. Longtime lovers and partners in the sky, Falco Lombardi and Katt Monroe were finally united in their admittedly middle age while Silver the Hedgehog married Blaze the Cat, a newer relationship in which the two of them had just recently acknowledged their deep feelings for each other.

It was roughly three weeks past New Year's Day now, and many of Nintendo's heroes were training on Sandbag in one of the Rec Rooms on the thirty-third floor. Little Mac wailed on the happy-to-help dummy as other characters practices their abilities nearby. Mega Man was as excited to have recently upgraded his Mega Buster just as the Ice Climbers were enjoying new specially crafted mallets from the likes of King Dedede's manufacturer. These characters were relieved from their exercise as Head Chef Zess T. had ordered Chef Kawasaki to prepare a meal and serve it with Malon, who all grown now, left her life in Lon Lon Ranch to pursue serving milk on a much larger scale and to much more personable folk.

In a more intensive training area, Blaze was teaching Fox McCloud a new ability in which he summoned flames in an aerial assault. Grateful, Fox called this move the Firefox! He returned the favor by tutoring Blaze in tactical firearm use, and even though Blaze knew she could rampage through any situation without needing it, she listened intently to her leader. Trading off, Krystal was successfully teaching advanced telepathy to a very mentally adept Silver. Although Krystal ended up not having the capacity for real psychokinesis, Silver gladly sabotaged her training with it much to Krystal's urge to train on her toes more.

While all of this was going on, Ness was enjoying watching the hero trainers from the regions of the World of Pokémon practice moves with their pocket monsters as they were jokingly called by some in the Pillar. Popplio performed tricks on water bubble. Fennekin shot out flames with a yawn. Many waiting starter Pokémon were actually entranced by Stone Kirby nearby. He was practicing his different maneuvers when Ness also became intrigued by the number and variety of transformations Stone Kirby could put on display. Kirby moved from Thwomp to a 100-ton weight and more sculptures. One transformation turned Kirby golden and depicted a dog incubating a few eggs which was seen as particularly odd. Done practicing for the day, Kirby transformed one last time, yielding a sheen, golden replica of Earth's Mt. Fuji and the surrounding town, a beautiful sight to behold even in model form. Ridding himself of the ability, Mt. Fuji disappeared and Kirby with his friends went about their daily business as usual.

The heroes had no idea this was a foreshadowing of what was to come.

Three weeks had passed since the commencement of the New Year, and Majora's Mask had just now found its intended target.

Out of breath, Adam slumped to the ground on the grasses where he and his parents had been calling home for the past few weeks. Shadow was teaching his son how to run and although he certainly did not look it presently, Adam was a natural athlete and quite good at keeping up with his dad who wanted to push him hard while having fun too. Angel Island was really great for the three of them, and peace had reigned on the Island with the Master Emerald in its home again.

"Wow, that was a lot of fun. Thanks for showing me the island dad," gasped Adam.

"It was fun for me too. I really enjoy running for sport for once…and with my best friend no less," remarked Shadow.

"But you're my dad! How can I be your son and best friend too? Don't you hang out with Sonic and his other friends?"

"Well…yes, but I get tired after hanging out with most of them for too long, ha. So far, that hasn't even come close to happening with you."

As he said this, he pulled his son close, hugged him, and ruffled his already disorganized head quills as Tikal smiled and walked over to join Adam in playful protest of the act.

Finally, a happy state for Shadow and Tikal.

It was now when Majora's Mask struck, piercing the happiness.

Seemingly out of thin air, the demonic deity zoomed in and clasped onto Adam's face, turning blissful happiness into states of shock and dismay. Immediately, Shadow went to pull the thing off his son's face, but he was repulsed by a dark energy wave that left him and his wife on the ground to witness the scene that followed: Adam lost his identity and, controlled entirely by the mask, rose into the sky with a screeching cry of Majora's feminine rage. Adam's body levitated further and contorted as his orange fur became covered in the twisted tribal patterns of the mask, leaving his bodily shape the only recognizable aspect; his entire young body was like a continuation of the mask now, and nothing of his innocent personality remained.

Shadow and Tikal watched in helpless horror as their son was taken to the altar of the Master Emerald. Using the surrounding Chaos Emeralds, Majora powered up its new vessel with the wish-granting jewels. Adam and the mask that possessed his life glowed with an effervescent energy, but the Chaos Emeralds' true power was latent and was about to be developed over a course of destruction. Absorbing all of the negative energy the emeralds had to offer, Majora rejoiced as she no longer had any use for enhancements to her power. With a divisive push of dark energy, the now wasted Chaos Emeralds were shot from Mobius and spread millions of miles across the galaxy, endangering the balance of the floating isle and ruining any hopes of finding the gems for a positive counterattack against the monster. Now, the beast and Majora, finally realizing a proper vessel with Adam's blood and the immense power of the emeralds, flew with incredible speed into space, leaving two desperate parents behind on the grasses of their home.

Majora's Perfect Chaos descended onto the planet Earth and proceeded to decimate the city of Mt. Fuji. The deity, possessing the son of the ultimate life form, started small and walked amongst men as it used lightning quick attacks and dark magic to subdue frightened citizens and destroy skyscrapers from the inside out, causing dangerous flaming explosions that had no need for the volcano in the city's wake.

It was then, however, that the beast began to grow, muscles pulsating with unbridled rage and desire for destruction, much more effectively so as when Majora's Wrath faced off against the Hero of Time's Fierce Deity. The seismic activity from the growing beast activated the long thought dormant volcano, and Mt. Fuji was laid to waste. All the while, Adam was unaware of his possessed being's actions, in a state of trance under the evil Majora.

Majora's Perfect Chaos was hundreds of feet tall now but was still undergoing transformation among the skyscrapers the beast now dwarfed. A circular pattern began to appear on the massive abdomen of Adam, and the pure energy from the fully realized negativity of the Chaos Emeralds collected there. Before the remaining citizens had any time to react, Majora's Perfect Chaos emitted an awful laser beam from its stomach, a pure white light that, while disintegrating nearby building tops, actually obliterated the volcano in Majora's unfocused power in hatred. Frustrated and leaving only a quarter of Mt. Fuji's inhabitants alive for hopes of survival, Adam and Majora rocked off elsewhere in the galaxy to inflict more concentrated pain and misery.

As quickly as their son had destroyed the lives of millions already, Shadow with Tikal used chaos control to warp to the Pillar. They were in dire need of a way to find their boy and to stop the destruction they assumed he and the monster would be causing.

Televised news of the destruction of Mt. Fuji was reaching the Nintendo heroes as the hedgehog and echidna arrived, and the team was already making plans to stop the beast they viewed from the eyes of interglobal reporter, Kelly Atlas.

Shadow stumbled upon Sonic who quickly spread the word through the base to the heroes that would no doubt be called to action by Fox McCloud, whom Tikal went to directly with the details of the unfortunate incident and origin of the monster he saw. From another timeline, the older Hero of Time consulted with his paradoxical younger self as details were soon confirmed about the emerged presence of Majora once more. The group of heroes, noting that it took the transformation of Link into a god to destroy the mask alone coupled with the fact that only the positive energy of the Chaos Emeralds could counteract the negative, were stuck into a hard spot with only one solution: locate and find the Chaos Emeralds to defeat the beast to have any chance of stopping the destruction and saving the newest and most innocent member of them all.

Having not the faintest idea of where to look first, the team debated about whether to sit and calculate where the emeralds might have gone or simply not waste time and start looking. Fox, usually the adept leader, could not reign in the conversation of scores of his followers and consulted many for advice on the situation. Still, the large debate was not getting anywhere.

Scholar Goombella, late to the meeting, was urgently studying the incarcerated Crystal Stars as they were glowing absurdly for some reason. Trying to forget after musing about it for minutes, she decided to head off to the meeting but paused once more as she remembered about the mystical map. What she found in the nearest drawer was unnerving and exciting; Goombella had observed the news about the impossible creature and overheard talk amongst her teammates of its nature outside her study, so she now had a hunch about what it all meant regarding the Crystal Stars and the search for the Chaos Emeralds.

Her short stature a challenge, Goombella rushed to find Fox in the midst of arguing and frustrated heroes. What eventually Fox heard through all this chaos was very promising, and with the help of the loyal Donkey Kong, everyone quieted down quick for their leader.

"It seems as if hope is still on our side, everyone! By no means will it be easy, but somehow I think we've found our solution."

Nintendo gathered around the mystical treasure map of years ago to see its contents changed drastically from before in the Mushroom Kingdom. With the power of the Crystal Stars nearby, the map glowed with illustrations of what looked to be the locations of each Chaos Emerald throughout the galaxy but on this one map. Before them lied the snowy peaks of the first DK Island, the underground labyrinth of Mobius's United Federation capital Central City, the arid western sands of Hyrule's Gerudo, the haunting perpetual land of darkness near creepy steeple (an area unremoved), the bustling "Big Banana" of Eagleland's very own Fourside, the outlandishly wild foliage of Norion under the Galactic Federation, and the stark, hollowed-out surface of the Lylat System's Macbeth that were unmistakably recognized by Fox and his team.

Judging by the new locations on the map and the original correlations of where approximately the Crystal Stars were found, a plan was formulated. With a hoard of battleships at their disposal including the Great Fox and Meta Knight's Halberd, reinforcements of heroes decided to stay on board those ships traveling throughout the galaxy as they dropped off small squadrons at each location to find the Chaos Emeralds and, with prayer enhanced by the nature of the Crystal Stars, return the jewels to their former state.

Plan in hand, the heroes took off without any hesitation and ventured into the abyss of space in which the Chaos Emeralds were scattered.

Majora's Perfect Chaos continued its rampage in the meantime, relishing in the hopping back and forth and back again amongst several different planets. After having invaded one of Earth's major cities, the beast warped with the power of chaos control to the peaceful Aquas. The citizens there were prepared for quick evacuation into the seas, but they could not be saved from the devastation of Adam's laser that pierced the waves with full force as the deity waded into the Aquas oceans.

Tiring of underwater assaults and wanting to get a better glimpse of the harm she was causing, Majora proceeded to Pop Star, a planet whose Yogurt Yard and Cookie Country inhabitants had no chance of avoiding the powerful attacks of a monster they did not expect.

The wildlife too, of Tallon IV, was not safe, and many feral creatures and dormant plants and fungi perished upon the visit of Majora's Adam.

The Fire Emblem countryside of Khadein was also devastated, and the peoples there had no warning and no way to fathom the consistent attacks on their lives and their villages.

In the cruelest of destinies, Majora's Perfect Chaos laid waste to Station Square as if the poor population of survivors there had not enough pain the first go-around with the original Perfect Chaos. This time, at least, the deaths were swifter; there was no drowning in the vaporizing heat of Majora's laser or underneath the might of Adam's giant soles.

It was decided that the Halberd would conduct the tour of Trinity as presumably four of the Chaos Emeralds resided there while the Great Fox partook in the real leg work, heading to, at first, Mobius, followed by Norion and Macbeth.

The first stop for the team and the Knight's ship was the original Donkey Kong Island, a search for the cyan emerald with the diamond star in possession. The dark wings of the battleship rippled the waves and increased the tide near the old treehouse as the Halberd soared to the top of the mountain. No time for landing, the first squadron of heroes descended a rope ladder into the white blizzard that awaited them below.

Once on the summit of Gorilla Glacier, animal guides Donkey and Diddy Kong led Sonic, Amy and Mewtwo through to where the emerald was thought to be frozen. For each group, Peach with the map in hand aboard the Halberd, guided her comrades through communication via earpiece, but Mewtwo's telepathy here was enough to maintain communication. It was a game of getting warmer in the freezing cold to find the emerald, but the Kongs were doing well in the slippery terrain of Snow Barrel Blast Canyon.

It was when the group of five came upon the ice cave that they were first accosted by what they assumed where enemies' silhouettes. Mewtwo prepared to do some serious mental harm when they fully appeared, but Sonic immediately sprang into action. The vacationing Kong family of Candy, Cranky, Funky, Kiddie, Chunky and Lanky did not expect to see the flash of blue streak toward them through the white. Heck, they were only investigating a long since abandoned island because of the evil-looking ship they had seen earlier.

The Great Fox reached its first stop at Central City in the heart of the United Federation and the lands of Mobius occupied by the humans. Slippy's father, Beltino Toad, notified Peach of their arrival from the mothership. Peach's earpiece communication with Rouge led the bat's boyfriend to a familiar manhole on Route 101. The couple along with followers Vivian the Shadow Siren, Hammer the Hammer Brother, Lucario and Solid Snake, contracted for this assignment from his extensive rest in the Pillar, entered the sewers of Central City, the Aquatic Mine. None of them, not even Snake or Rouge, knew of the spies following behind them.

Vivian, even in the midst of all the terrible circumstances around her, could not help but enjoy finally working on a mission with her boyfriend, Hammer, of thirteen months now and to be led through it by her old friend, the Princess. Lucario was actually also quite glad to see the old man whose aura he sensed pure all those years ago be working with them on a mission once more as well. Obviously smitten more than they ever have been, Knuckles and Rouge made short work of swimming and lowering the water levels for the rest of the group to continue as the sextet made short work of the higher levels and delved deeper into the mines before them, with an emerald star in hand searching for an also green chaos emerald.

"I can't even believe any of this is happening," said a despondent Tikal, holding back tears, as the Halberd reached its second destination, the Gerudo Desert, this time in the Era of Twilight Sonic's time-altering actions in Subspace brought to the surface every now and again in Hyrule. Shadow tried to comfort her, but he knew he could not; he was feeling just as terrible, the only difference being that much of the emotion he felt was centered on vengeance. Both parents were a little relieved to finally be of use in the effort to save their son.

Holding the gold star in his hand rather than the yellow emerald they were now searching for was something Shadow never would have imagined he would be doing, and the surprise did not stop coming when he learned of how they were getting off. This third squadron including Shadow, Tikal, Kirby, Yoshi and the heroes from Hyrule leaped from the ship on board the loyal Plessie.
The landing was surprisingly smooth as Plessie's belly skirted along the arid sands with the legendary Chosen Hero, Hero of Time, Hero of Winds, Hero of Legend, Hero of Hyrule, Hero of the Minish, Hero of the Four Sword, Hero of Light, Hero of a New Hyrule, and simply The Hero, as they were known in their respective times, atop her back. After disembarking, those clad in green led the rest of the heroes into a villainous camp of marauders on the horizon of the desert all while a mysterious group of four onlookers witnessed everything from the western tower of Lake Hylia.

As these heroes were sprinting the sands of the western Gerudo, the Halberd happened upon its third stop: Twilight Town of the Mushroom Kingdom. Armed with the ruby star, Goombella was prepared to make easy work of familiar territory. Joining her was her boyfriend Ludwig Von Koopa, the Hero of Twilight, the Twilight Princess and Star Wolf pilots Leon and Panther. Princess Toadstool sent the three couples out into the residential area, fortunately pig-free but hiding a familiar menace in its woods.

Goombella had high hopes that obtaining the bright red chaos emerald would be much quicker than and not quite as difficult as it had been years ago in Mario's party finding another red gem. This inkling was backed up in many ways by the support of Ludwig, someone who she had heard stories of and, considering her prior conflicts with his father, was initially disposed to dislike. However, when his musical career (conducting the Koopa King's Orchestra) brought him to Goom University in Rogueport, her opinion changed drastically as the young archeologist fell in love.

Feelings were reciprocated by this apple that fell far from the Koopa tree, and the pair were happier than ever, even though Kamella's dastardly plan to use the Koopalings' magic power for evil, brainwashing them through their magic wands that for the majority of the siblings they had not used for years. Before Goombella broke his wand, breaking the curse, a giant monster of a Ludwig not under his own control stormed through the Rogueport sewers and did a lot of damage just as his brothers and sister had done elsewhere. The new couple also helped in the restoring of Ludwig's siblings' original sense, which for Iggy in particular, was not that stable to begin with.

It was around this time that poser Panther Caroso stopped being a lady's man and came out, true to himself finally, partners with Leon Powalski. Needless to say, that was a shock for the remainder of their squadron being just Wolf, but he and others around them gradually began to accept their new relationship. Steadfast as well was the fated love of the Twilight Princess and the Hero of said realm as Midna steered her wolf partner through the woods upon the Twilight Trail. With ruby star in hand, the group of six rushed ahead to the Creepy Steeple. Unbeknownst to them, the entire Glitz Pit was also heading in that direction.

The final area for departure of the Halberd's crew was on the opposite side of the planet from DK Island, the metropolis Fourside of Eagleland. The King Dedede led his new type of royal entourage with the sapphire star in their possession to retrieve the deep blue chaos emerald. In his band were the psychic heroes Ness and Lucas, now nearly adults, the Mario Brothers, the Princess Zelda of the Era of the Hero of Time disguised as her Sheikah alter ego and the fiery Pokémon Blaziken.

Landing in the nearby desert of Dusty Dunes to avoid being noticed, the group touched ground without a hitch. Now the Halberd was off, leaving Trinity behind to catch up with the Great Fox across the galaxy currently heading for the planet Norion. Fox anticipated needing all the air support they could get on their final stop of Macbeth.

Sheik led the group through the desert sands, but when they reached the highway, Ness took the lead as he was still quite familiar with the mostly unchanged cityscape of Fourside. The crystal star was leading them all into the heart of the city, quite the different setting compared to where the other chaos emeralds landed. It led them to the main tower, the Monotoli Building, smack in the heart of the city.

Ness knew from experience how hard it was to get in without special permission, even if Enrich Flavor was now in charge, so he nonchalantly walked to the nearby drug store to think things over and ask around for information on the current Fourside politics. He needed to find out how stringent or lax the restrictions to admittance had become. On his errand, the others' desire not to be noticed was not panning out as some group of five spotted the young man and his group.

While everyone else save the King went to follow Ness and struggle to blend into the obviously uncomfortable for some urban setting, Dedede approached the valet in front of the tower. A fat stack of gold in his coat and the announcement of his royalty from a far-off land was enough to persuade a mayoral visit for him and his friends. Dedede waddled quickly to get his group back to the tower, any amount of undercover work now unnecessary due to the King's generosity. The rest of the group was honestly taken a bit aback by the King's financial sacrifice, especially Sheik, but what awaited the gang when they entered the foyer was even more unexpected.

While the Halberd was just departing Trinity, the Great Fox was breaching the Norion atmosphere. The ship's inhabitants were poised for a fight since cooperating Galactic Federation scouts had informed McCloud of the space pirate invasion. Word spread quickly about an all-powerful jewel, and the rivals of the cosmic police force were not going to let the Federation have it, even if the aliens were lacking leadership and were relatively unprepared compared to their standings in previous conquests.

Infused with the only known remaining Metroid DNA and still wanted as a fugitive from the Galactic Federation, Samus had seemingly foolishly volunteered for this part of the mission. She did so because of two reasons: she was informed of her old friend Anthony Higgs being on the GF strike team on Norion, and she felt protected from the law with her Nintendian brothers and sisters at her side. She knew true friends would neither incarcerate her nor let that happen. These friends and team members included Silver and Blaze, Emblem heroes Marth and Ike, and Falco and Katt Monroe in the air.

When they leaped from the end of the docking bay, the group knew the purple chaos emerald was somewhere in the midst of the jungles of the planet that were now shrouded in sleek-armored soldiers and destruction published by the space pirates. Ike had the garnet star in his possession, ready to give power back to the emerald they were searching for. Silver attempted at reading the vile thoughts of the terrorists, but all he could discern through the emotions beneath the foreign vernacular was that they were at a disadvantage to Nintendo, having no idea of the location of the emerald. The heroes had their crystal star and each other, and they began to tear through the hordes and varieties of space pirates.

Making the trip through half the galaxy at the speed of light, the Great Fox arrived with the remaining heroes and spaceships in tow in orbit above the former mining planet and supply depot, Macbeth. Through the resource exhaustion caused by the rest of the Lylat System and the military utilization of the planet by Venom in the Lylat Wars, the planet became a sight for extreme natural geological and meteorological disasters due to the hollowed out core of this third planet of the Lylat System.

On this seventh and final stop of the mission, Fox tired of giving orders and needed to jump into the fray. Even decades after the demise of Andross and the end of Venom's ill-meaning relations with Corneria and the other democratic planets, Andross's dream lived on still in his nephew and the brigands leftover from an older age albeit them being much less sophisticated about their rebellion than the evil, mad scientist was. It was unknown of whether or not the grandson Dash Bowman condoned the behavior of these brigands, but unless the Venomian ruler wanted to disperse aid, the Cornerian military and Fox's mercenary team did not care. These Venomian brigands swarmed the barren planet of Macbeth, their main base, and team Star Fox was about to head right into the thick of their ranks on the surface.

More akin to mixing his personal life with his work in his older age, Fox brought along his wife and his friendly rival Wolf to fly the skies with him and Lucy and her newly upgraded Wolfen machine. On the ground, the Great Fox deployed Captain Falcon in his Blue Falcon to sweep the surface while he could also control his legendary Falcon Flyer by remote. Tails also joined in the air with his Blue Tornado, ready to transform it to a ground craft at moment's notice. The assault began, and Meta Knight's Halberd, unknowingly being followed, came into view of the rest of the team right in time. It was time to finish the search for the seven Chaos Emeralds with an effort to find the white gem with the crystal star.

Majora's Perfect Chaos continued to cause more carnage. It warped across the galaxy, tearing through the fabrics of space and time, to lay down more crazed judgment upon the souls of innocents. Slaughters took place in Dalaam, Eladard, Gusty Gulch, the Kingdom of Isaach of Jugdral and Angelopolis of Mandrill IV. The unstable deity and her brainwashed child would surely reach more destinations fated for obliteration by the time the heroes' plan would prove successful.

Back in the Northern Hemispheres, Sonic and company were apologizing to the band of primates who they mistook for enemies. Sonic had not time to slow down completely, so extra good grace was asked for from Candy Kong who was knocked into a pile of snow and ice. For some reason, she seemed more upset with her boyfriend DK than anyone else.

"Thanks for letting this little animal rush me like that, DK!"

Donkey's disability to understand his girlfriend's sarcastic tone could not even be translated before the indignant Sonic burst out, "Hey, lady! I'm not little, and I'm not just any animal; I'm the fastest thing alive on this planet or any other!"

"It's true," chimed in Amy. "And if I were you, I wouldn't pick any fights with any of us. We're on a very important mission, and besides, you all just sneaked up on us in the blizzard. What reaction did you expect?!"

"And who are you?!" asked Candy as she completely ignored the question.

"I'm HIS boyfriend," answered Amy motioning towards Sonic with her hefty Piko Piko Hammer in hand.

In the meanwhile during the argument between Candy and Amy and the failed efforts of their boyfriends to calm them down, Diddy caught up with his family members that he had not seen in a while like Uncle Funky and an even larger, grown up Kiddy Kong. He was even bigger than his older brother Chunky now.

"This is enough!" rang Mewtwo's telepathic voice in the heads of all present. "We still have a job to do. If we don't find that emerald soon, that boy could die! For those of you who just showed, you can either join us in finding what we're looking for or leave the way you came."

Putting their bickering and catching up aside for now, the Kong family unanimously decided to join Nintendo's quest and followed the gang into the area nicknamed by the Kongs "Slipslide Ride." And once inside, it was not hard for the other non-simian heroes to get that meaning. Sonic, who had initially tried running through to find the emerald as quick as possible, slipped, slid, fell and landed hard on his tail. Many of the others did as well, even the more experienced DK and his nephew.

This was a problem in the cave filled with Neckies and Klaptraps until Mewtwo thought of something. Using his psychokinesis but neglecting his telekinesis to warn every one of their impending levitation, Mewtwo lifted everyone else off their feet, so that they could all soar through the crystals together and fast.

It was not long now before they came upon the epicenter of Gorilla Glacier, and as expected, they found the blackened chaos emerald nested within a shroud of crystals on the other side of the chamber. The diamond star was reverberating in Amy's hand, and she along with the rest of the group desperately wanted to turn the other gem back to its cyan hue. Once they got closer however, a long-forgotten monster appeared from the side: Army Dillo still without his iron shell. Donkey Kong wished he had brought his coconut gun, but he was not too worried as he seemed harmless without any weapons. Before any of the group went to move past the creature though, Army Dillo waddled to the center of the chamber, allowing his new home to bestow upon him a new shell with side cannons made of ice. Nintendo found out immediately that they could fire ammunition as well. The Army Dillo had seemingly made this old island his new home for a long while, rearmed after his defeats in Jungle Japes and the Crystal Caves at the hands of DK. The Kongs and their friends prepared for a rematch, ready to fight for the chaos emerald.

Knuckles and Rouge may have lowered the water levels for the rest of the group to proceed, but that did not mean that no one else had to get their feet wet. In fact, Snake and Lucario looked equally as soggy as the treasure hunter duo did as swimming dozens of feet underwater was a necessity to delve deeper to where the green emerald lay.

Hammer and Vivian on the other hand were completely dry. The water-shy boyfriend had asked the Shadow Siren to take him down instantly to solid ground level when descending the sewers into the shadowy disappearance at the bottom of each pool. This veil tactic worked allowing both Hammer and herself to pop out of her always grounded shadow at the exit of each waterway.

It was not long before the six heroes, evenly split amongst stealth and fighting styles and corresponding personas, made it to the very bottom, perceived that way at least, of the Aquatic Mine. They were readying their respective tactics when they alarmingly turned around, noticing more bubbles coming up from the bottom of the water. All were surprised to see Guardian Units of Nations (GUN) troops rise from the depths, guns aiming right at them.

The obvious leader spoke quickly, "Put down your weapons. These are friendlies."

After the leader took his helmet off, Rouge got an extra dose of surprise as the captain of the GUN troop turned out to be the former president of the United Federation, the same one who came to herald Gerald Robotnik as a hero, had his limousine broken into by Sonic and Tails, and still had his picture of Shadow and Sonic on his desk.

"Mr. President! It's great to see you!" said Rouge.

"Likewise."

"Pardon my asking, but could you tell us why you were following us and why you're even commanding forces? I would've assumed you retired."

"When my presidency ended, I wanted to be an inspiration still, so I returned to GUN as a platoon commander. Since I'm not considered an old man yet, they accepted me again. And addressing the point of following you, Rouge, I'm sure you can understand our suspicions when we received a call regarding a camouflaged man and a few forest animals climbing into the sewers."

"Well, that person has a keen eye, but as you can see, we're not posing any trouble, only searching for something to help our friend."

"I see. Well, I hope the rest of your friends at the Pillar are more concerned with ridding our planets of that cancer that's been terrorizing the galaxy. Station Square has again been decimated by a monster…"

Knuckles chimed in, "Our quest actually concerns that very matter, but it's too long of a tale and explanation to bother with that right now. And I'm pleased to meet you Mr. President. I'm one of the only of Sonic's acquaintances who hasn't met you in person."

"Pleased to meet you too, Knuckles the Echidna," said the former president reaching out to meet Knuckles' outstretched hand in courtesy, shaking it vigorously. "Of course I've heard of your heroic efforts over the years just the same nonetheless."

During this talk, Hammer and Lucario took the emerald star a little bit further into the maze of tunnels and were excited to see it react with a pulsating shine and vibrations. They hurriedly returned to the rest of the group, ready to finish the mission.

Rouge kept the commander busy with a myriad of topics while Knuckles, Snake and Vivian went back to the suspected tunnel. No one could see the emerald, so Knuckles began digging wherever he could.

"I think we'll just stay here until you find what you're looking for. Who knows? You might be able to use our assistance," said the commander to Rouge.

Meanwhile, no one could help a frustrated Knuckles who had been digging to no avail for several minutes. Hammer noticed that according to the emerald star's vibrations, the chaos emerald seemed to keep moving underground constantly. A grimy and sweaty Knuckles continued to dig for longer, his chest heaving more and more with the rage he was exhibiting on the dirt. He did so until Rouge came in and volunteered to take over for him. She had Vivian go keep the GUN soldiers busy by introducing herself while Knuckles swallowed his pride, took a breather and let his better half go to work.

Giving him little time to rest easy, Snake asked Knuckles, "How come you appeared so disgruntled when those GUN officers showed up? I noticed you seemed put off at first."

"Let's just say GUN hasn't always been the most ethical of police forces. Their semi-corrupt military has mistakenly accused Sonic and the many of us of crimes we never committed. Sure, they've helped us in the past too, but only after trying to gun us down."

"Gun. Was that a pun, Knuckles?" asked Hammer.

"No," was the simple answer put.

Lucario spoke up: "Of course I can't speak for their entire military organization, but I can sense this troop's auras. They all seem pure to me."

"And I believe you," responded Knuckles.

Digging with her feet instead of her hands, Rouge's boot bumped into something soft, squishy and…unusual-feeling while underground. When she resurfaced, she at first saw the slightly agape mouths and surprised faces of her cohorts. Turning around, she saw it too: the floating chaos emerald.

At this, she shot her boyfriend a teasing smile and a sensual wink; it took her practically no time at all compared to Knuckles' failed attempts at searching. His response was an intense and quiet stare, a look a mixture of frustration and pouting. Sometimes he hated her.

"Oh, come on, big guy! It doesn't necessarily mean I'm better than you," said Rouge as she physically pushed Knuckles around. "There can be luck involved in a find, and I'm just luckier."

For some reason, her continued teasing softened Knuckles up a bit, and he joined in on the playful act. "Just shut up," he said.

Breaking the mood, Snake said, "Uh, guys…we can't catch the emerald. It won't stop flying all over the place…"

As if on cue, the spectral being that was carrying the dead emerald solidified, revealing himself to be the King Boom Boo in all his laughing splendor. The multicolored tongue stared old rival Knuckles right in the face.

"Him again…you have got to be kidding me…"

But it was not a joke, and the Shadow Siren led a willing GUN patrol into battle with an unbeatable ghost who mocked with his possession of the chaos emerald.

Shadow's immense sadness was turning into impatient, ever-burning fury as he skated across the sands now far ahead of the rest of his gang. He would have wanted to stay with and console his wife Tikal, but he was more taken with the certainty that every second now would count for his poor son. In only moments, Shadow ran past all the thieves and reached the entrance to the Arbiter's Grounds. Once inside, any obstacle or puzzle that stood in his way was swiftly obliterated with a chaos blast or spear. The gold star was leading him to the top of this desert tower.

In an effort to make themselves feel useful, the rest of the heroes dealt with the marauders familiar to the Gerudo Desert. They could at least make Shadow's return trip a little smoother. Scout Kirby spotted the first encampment while floating in the air above the desert mesa assorted with sandy fault lines that the rest of the group was careful to avoid and go around. Yoshi, on the other hand, would flutter jump over them. Needless to say, they were all off Plessie now as a fast-moving, heavy plesiosaur would spell disaster in this unstable environment. She was having trouble navigating her bulk around the faults as it was on her own anyway. Link, the Hero of Time, was pleased to guide her to safety. He had made it through the Haunted Wasteland of the past after all.

On their way to the encampment, the group admired how quiet they all were. Tikal was despondent, the infantile Kirby could not speak more than greetings unsuitable for this situation, Yoshi and Plessie did not converse with each other, sensing the somber mood of their partner, and the heroes of Hyrule were never ones for public speaking anyway, even if it was among comrades.

Even though the camp of Bulblins saw the heroes coming through the heat distortion of the desert, the Links and company made very fast work of them with bows from afar and parallel Master Swords up close. Tikal even managed to tame the Bullbos, so they would not attack. Now, Link would not have to slay the boar-like beasts either. It was fortunate that they did not mind Yoshi, little known to be an omnivore, and Kirby eating one of their cousins from the cooking spikes as well. The meaty carcass was devoured by these characters as the rest of the squadron decided to wait in the former thieves' encampment for Shadow to return.

Out of nowhere, The Resistance showed up through a magic portal that appeared to be summoned from the Ancient Sky Book in Shad's hands. The group of the scholar, Rusl, Auru and Ashei introduced themselves to the strangers and worked to settle down any upset heartbeats. With all these green tunic-clad heroes present, The Resistance had hoped to see the Link of their era. When they were told he was off in another part of the globe, they could not help but think it was their luck. They explained how they had wanted to help the heroes get rid of the Bulblin tribe, but it turned out that it did not really matter that Shad could not get his new spell to work right the first few times.

The Resistance joined Nintendo in waiting for Shadow to come back with the yellow emerald in tow. Once everybody got comfortable however, Shadow burst out through the roof of the Arbiter's Tower, landing a little hurt in the sand near the encampment. Tikal and the rest rushed over to help him up, but Shadow was not worried about himself.

Instead, he urged, "Get ready to fight! I have a feeling this thing's not going to go down easily."

The magically infused Twilit Fossil Stallord broke through his confining tower and dragged his way through the sands of the Gerudo, slowly approaching the encampment. He was more powerful than he was centuries ago, and the Fallen Coalition must have added a little dash of Dimentio magic to Zant's evil blade that gave Stallord its power. Everyone gasped or stared at the monster dumbstruck but only for a moment. Learning to accept the unexpected, the Nintendian heroes and their newfound supporters readied themselves for a tough bout with resurrected history.

The loadstone of the Glitz Pit was calibrated, and the swarms of fighters and fans began to descend on their floating settlement into the Twilight Woods.

Meanwhile, the sextet had reached the Creepy Steeple gate entrance. Wolf Link dug underneath the steel bars, and Midna used her dark magic to cut away the lock on the other side to let everyone else in. The premises were empty; they were even lacking any ghosts or ghoulish spirits of Koopa bone.

Panther remarked, "It's incredibly quiet. What use are all six of us right now? There's nothing to fight."

"Yes. Sending all of us 'badasses' is seeming to have been quite unnecessary," added the cynic Leon.

"Don't feel too certain, you too. Our mission isn't over yet, and Goombella says this place can be deceiving," said Ludwig in rebuttal. Goombella, usually one to stand up for her own ideas, never minded if Ludwig did it. Much against her tough persona, she blushed at him half-admittedly. To reestablish her self-concept, she moved in front to lead the way through familiar territory.

The move up the chambers and stairs of the Creepy Steeple went uneventfully. The same moving staircase and broken balconies were present, and they posed no challenge to the heroes. Before they entered the door that led to the spiral stairwell, something a little eerie happened to Panther. For a tough pilot ready to fight, he jumped quite a lot into the air when something invisible tapped his right shoulder.

The entity mewed and showed itself as a lone Boo, seemingly lost from the rest of his pack or pretending to be that way at the least. It cried, "Does anyone want to play?!"

Something within Midna immediately softened when the little guy appeared, and she asked if he was lost and where his family was. The Boo said he was and that he did not know and went to go pet Link who was half appreciative and half annoyed of being pet by the ghost. Goombella warned of getting too attached to it and was wary of some trick it might pull.

Midna, who had also taken a liking to her spunky partner, said, "We'll be fine. How about you four go get that emerald while we keep this little fella busy down here."

They were unanimous in thinking that a fine idea. It had been so quiet for the whole mission until this point anyway, so the quartet entered the next chamber and proceeded up the spiral staircase.

In the twilight air, Jolene lost control of the Glitz Pit loadstone, and the entire plaza came off-course, crashing arena first into the top of the Creepy Steeple where the four heroes had just entered.

The colossal crash beckoned Link and Midna, and the Boo also followed them quickly up the stairwell.

Here only to investigate, the Glitz Pit and its residents were considered to be threats by everyone except Goombella because of the accidental attack. However, it was a threatened resident that was the most unhappy to have his home invaded by two parties. He was by far the most disgruntled. He thought his Creepy Steeple was invaded probably for the pretty, black gem that had fallen into his lap earlier. Goombella, of course, recognized this being as Doopliss, the copycat trickster who had now returned to his home and was about to return to his dastardly tricks.

The dead, black chaos emerald sat on a pedestal in front of the heroes in Fourside. It was the main piece for auction at the seventh annual Flavorful Gala. And the wealthy patrons and entrepreneurs of Eagleland were lining up to place their initial offers in the silent bid. King Dedede thought it be best if he won this auction in order to avoid any conflict or explanation. He went up to wait in line while the rest of the heroes stood behind grateful and impressed.

"Since when has that penguin king become so generous with his wealth? I thought that, where he came from, he was known as a corrupt and greedy ruler," Sheik whispered to Ness and Luigi. Mario, Lucas and Blaziken were looking out for any suspicious activity in the meantime.

"He used to be like that, I guess, but I always knew him as a caring leader and friend…he began his new leaf a long time ago, and even his old nemesis is great friends with him now. He's matured, and even if he hadn't, we should still be grateful. Whatever he's sacrificing in money is making our mission a lot less complicated and saving Adam's life one gold piece at a time," answered Ness. With a thick accent, Luigi heartily agreed.

"Hmm, maybe I had misjudged him. As a royal who's defaced her kingdom with her mistakes, I have no right to bestow judgment on anyone, let alone creatures from other worlds…."

The event transitioned into the live auction now, and the bidding became hectic. The jewel was not shining, but its perfect form and subtle glow of energy inside was beckoning the other mystified moguls. By the end of it, the King won, but his overzealous bid cost him plenty and in various currencies. This was so much the case that Dedede was forced to call on Bandana Dee, the surrogate king whenever the Big Dee was away, for a transaction from Dreamland of much of his gold and stuff he had collected from other places: coins from the Mushroom Kingdom, rupees of Hyrule, Galactic Federation and Lylatian Credits, Ylissean bullion, exports of golden bananas and crystal coconuts, rings from Mobius and even enough bells to pay off a neighborhood of expensive houses. All the money went into that emerald, and the King was officially broke. He would never have his friends know that though, and he just turned to them with an awkward smile when the deal was complete.

Once the glass was lifted from the emerald's pedestal, the seven heroes were ever so eager to take it with them, their short excursion to this tourist's attraction over with. But then, he struck. Pokey (Porky) Minch had returned! In his own personally built spider-mech this time, the spoiled brat burst through the Monotoli Building of old, the same one his parents had tried to exert their influence on over nearly a decade before. This was the first time Ness had seen his childhood nemesis in years, but the wounds of the far future seemed all too fresh for Lucas. And the kicker was that the menacing pig boy, who still looked as young as before in his mech to Ness, picked on poor Lucas again for him, but Porky relished in his teasing for the first time in what is time's stagnant history, one that disregards the divine time travel of the Master Hand.

The mechanized tendrils tore apart the parlor while the heroes tried to lead Porky to the outside streets where the battle would continue to take place. The Runaway Five jumped in to distract the villain with an amusing and heckling performance. It was a show for all of Fourside to marvel in terror and awe at.

More confident and sure of himself than he had ever been, Silver the Hedgehog fought alongside the love of his life and soulmate Blaze the Cat. Empowered by his feelings for her as well, the series of events that led them to be together through recent admissions of love and tales of tragedy blinked before them in their minds as they laid waste to space pirate scum on Norion.

"Arrrgh! It's no USE!"

Silver was incredibly frustrated. Not only did he continually lose to Blaze in their sparring bouts, but the hedgehog was also feeling like he was not getting any better in terms of his fighting prowess and psychic abilities.

"Oh, stifle it, Silver. You're getting better all the time, just like me. That's why we do this. Maybe if you're not seeing the point in it, we should stop."

Upset but not stupid, Silver replied harshly, "Of course we can't stop. And I guess I'm just impatient. The universe was just given a year to live, and we'll have to have the power of gods to stop that sentence from being delivered…maybe if we practiced even more, we'd be further along…"

"I understand. And I'm definitely looking forward to kicking your butt even more," said Blaze with half seriousness and half playful teasing.

"Yeah, well…maybe I just go easy on you because I don't want you to get hurt…"

"Ha! Don't insult me, Silver. Nor yourself."

"I'm just saying if we used the optimum potential of our pyro- and psychokinetic powers, I might win for once."

"Possibly…but you know what we have to conserve those for."

"You're right. I guess it's that time again…we'd better go fix the city up some more."

Blaze and Silver were on their way to flame-engulfed Crisis City, sealed away in a pocket of space-time Time Eater left on the world of Mobius before its defeat at the hands of the Sonics years ago. Neither cat nor hedgehog knew of the Time Eater's origin as Solaris in the time that was reset in Eggman's attacks on Soleanna that never happened. The visions of the future allowed Silver to glimpse into the past the one time he confronted the Time Eater and found the portal to another dimension in which the city stood in flames, flames him and Blaze would have known had Solaris been born. Time Eater had all the possible outcomes of any future in his will to create, and this led Silver and Blaze through destiny unchanged by the time continuum to be the saviors of a city ablaze in another dimension. None of their other friends knew of this place, but Silver had felt comfortable acknowledging the existence of Crisis City to his best friend and dimension-hopping princess Blaze.

Every time they traveled through the Mobian portal to an apocalyptic Soleanna, they were discouraged ever slightly. They accomplished much of the purging of the area every day, but it seemed like the monsters replenished the storms of lava as fast as they dispelled them. Blaze used her body as a vessel to harness the fires of the city and purify them through smoke and ash that burned through her body and emitted from her fur, uncharred.

Sometimes Silver, while erecting again toppled buildings and bridges, caught the chance to look over at his partner doing her part of the work. He would admire everything about her: the determination, the poise, the form and her inspiring strength in compassion. She was fixing a world that he had found for the people of another dimension to live again in Crisis City. As if Blaze was not already doing enough for him by training and honing his powers for the end of the world Silver thought, she was also helping him rebuild a world he felt tied to his own fate, not hers. Silver always had a deep affection for Blaze, but now his feelings for her were becoming unbearable in their intensity and at the thought of them not being reciprocated. At best, Silver had always thought that she saw him as a friend or a brother.

This particular cleansing of the city, more was fixed up than ever before, and Silver thanked Blaze the Cat incessantly for her help, just like he did every time.

"Silver…ugh, I seriously want you to quit thanking me. You have sweet intentions, but you're starting to tick me off a bit more every time."

"I'm sorry…I just want you to know how grateful I am, I guess. I never want you to feel obligated to do this for me."

"I KNOW you're grateful, Silver, but I'm not performing a service for you. We're friends and partners; your actions in that hellhole are just as noble and selfless as mine are. So thank you as well."

"You're welcome, Blaze…I'm glad you've always been such a good friend. I guess I won't thank you for that, though…haha."

"Oh shut up," replied Blaze, cheerfully pushing him around before Chaos Control took them back home.

Weeks began to pass in the Year of Absolution, and their training continued. One day, a messenger arrived at the Pillar with urgent news from the Sol dimension, Blaze's birth home. He was led up to the fireproof training room. He informed Blaze mid-training of her official banishment from her kingdom, the renouncement of her title as princess and familial disowning all courtesy of her estranged father. Blaze had left her home with the Sol emeralds long ago as she knew the Chaos dimension needed them and her more. That decision to leave had led to these announcements from the king, her father, and while Blaze was livid deep down, she accepted and had expected the news. Once the messenger left to return to Sol, Silver approached a conflicted Blaze in the wake of her disillusionment as perceived by the naïve hedgehog.

"Blaze…I'm so, so sorry. Part of this has to be my fault. I never…"

"Stop, Silver! My past is of no value to me, no matter who's in it. I've always been alone in my pursuits. This news just solidifies that. I was born to protect people and protect the Sol Emeralds. Now that protection has extended to this dimension. My only purpose is to fight for those who can't. What others do to me is irrelevant."

Silver was caught off-guard by the cold response. He knew Blaze was not keen on showing her emotions, but what she just said suggested she did not have any.

"I…I don't know what to say…Blaze. I never knew the people around you were nothing to you but objects to be saved and preserved only because you have an insane obligation you have always placed on yourself."

"You're not nothing to me…you're the only one who's ever cared about me more than you really should. I didn't mean to come off so heartless. But I do have a responsibility, and that burden has often and repeatedly desensitized me to the good I do and who I do it for…"

"I can't even imagine everything you must feel…you don't have much yet you give everything that's there out of the burden on your shoulders…I…it makes me sad for you…"

"Don't say anymore, Silver. I want to finish our fighting. That will make me happier…more than anything."

Silver fought harder than he had ever done in training. He wanted Blaze to appreciate that at least and get her mind off all the stress in her mostly lonely life. Their kinetic powers subconsciously came into more use, and flames and psychic waves shot around the room everywhere. Sometimes, both of them got dangerously close to hurting each other.

Blaze was feeling exhilarated and struggled to keep up with Silver who was not holding back anymore. Jabs were dodged, energy was shot, and the two fighters only began to tire after hours of this intensity.

Finally, Blaze was caught off-guard by Silver's endurance. He had conserved more of his energy and shot blast after blast of concentrated psychic force at Blaze, his wall of it shielding him from the remainder of her fires. Silver backed her up to the wall, readying his right hand with the other placed against the cold steel, trapping an exhausted Blaze in his apparent victory. What would have been a decisive blow against a real enemy ended their training as Blaze shot Silver a smile as she was still pinned to the wall by his winning gaze.

She wanted to say something about how he finally won a match, and he wanted to say something regarding that beautiful smile. He was happy she regained some joy for herself. But, instead, they said nothing out of lack of breath and awe of each other. Not backed up against the wall anymore, Blaze still inched closer to Silver even after just getting out of close encounters with him. Their noses nearly touching, the pair's heartrates were not going down at all. Silver thought to himself of his disbelief of what was happening.

Before he could reciprocate the small steps taken closer, Blaze committed and kissed him with great might and release. Shocked, Silver knew little of what he should do, so he put his arms romantically around her, hands on her back.

The kiss was over, and the two of them still said nothing this time out of lack of words and shock at each other's actions. Blaze, after feeling bliss in the arms of her friend, suddenly felt her guard completely down after all the hardships of her life and now this uncertain bond with her partner. She looked into the confused and golden-hued eyes of Silver the Hedgehog. What happened next no one wanted.

Blaze pushed Silver away with a wall of flame that hammered him into the cold steel on the other side of the room. Once he got up, there were still no words. Mouth agape in shock, Silver was physically stable. He could not bother to feel the singed furs of his body anyway as all his mind could focus on was the feeling of being betrayed. Did she fake wanting to kiss him to win? Or was she really heartless and angry at him with the rest? Very quickly the sudden hopes of being with the creature of his dreams were obliterated and destroyed by her fire. Silver was on the verge of tears and thought he lost a real friend at her trick. Silver's thoughts became obsessed with Blaze not caring for him.

Frozen still after moments of shock at herself and what she had done, Blaze's feelings could not be further from what Silver thought they were at the moment with her hands still in mid-air filled with the emotionally potent and damaging heat. She had screwed up and was now suffering along with Silver. She asked herself how this happened, but she had no good answer. Finally not afraid to show her feelings for Silver, she had pushed him away out of insecurity and hurt him in the process. She knew Silver would never forget this, and she would never forgive her stupidity. After what seemed like an eternity staring at each other in disbelief and hurt, Silver departed the room. Blaze was relieved; no one had ever seen her cry, and now Silver would not either…at least for now. The usually stoic cat broke down to her knees on the floor and mentally beat herself up for what happened.

Hours later, Silver was still in his room with the outlook of space in front of him. Despite what she had done, he still wanted Blaze more than anything amongst all the stars, he thought to himself. His tears had just begun to dry when the object of his thoughts and desire entered his room. He was in love still however he wondered at the audacity of Blaze to see him so soon.

"Normally we go fix up the city after training…I think it'll be good for the both of us if we just do that," said Blaze with somewhat emotionless conviction.

"Yeah," was all Silver could utter.

Crisis City was cleaned up in one sitting more than ever due to the silent exertion of all their built up anxiety and unresolved stress. Silver repaired the tallest skyscrapers while Blaze had little regard for her well-being as she soaked up rivers of magma in the streets. Once they were about to leave, a plume of volcanic fury shot up in front of the portal leading back home. Already spent, Blaze barely managed to harness it all and purge it through the dimension's skies, and she collapsed into the abyss off a building top after her last selfless act for the city that day. Amazed at her work and worried immensely for her, Silver used his psychic energy to catch and carry her home. She still had a stable pulse and breath.

Silver thought she was going to be fine, so he carried her in his arms now up to her room. Going in, he was surprised to see a journal spread on her bed with the words "I think I love him" written in big print at the top of a page, the beginning of an entry of Blaze's confessions for him. Had she left it there on purpose? Silver thought it be discourteous of him to read anymore, so he closed the diary and replaced the space with Blaze's sleeping body. He wanted to make sure she was okay. He stayed sitting at her bedside until she awoke hours later.

Groggy after an unintended slumber, Blaze woke up slowly with Silver's soft gaze and easy smile the first things she saw. Almost like nothing had happened between them was how Silver reacted with great relief to her activity. His smile grew wider as she began to speak.

"Silver…how long was I out? Were you hurt by that spouting of lava?"

"No, I'm fine Blaze, probably only thanks to you. It's been a few hours since you collapsed exhausted. You needed and deserved a rest."

"Rest gets us nowhere, right? It's unfortunate that we all need it…"

"Maybe if you're you, you'd feel that pressured, but most others welcome a good rest. You should too. You're no good to anyone if you're killing yourself."

"You care so much about me…even after what I did to you today…I didn't want to hurt you, I swear!"

Blaze began to sniffle and have tears well up inside her at her frustration with herself. Silver was touched by everything.

"Of course. I know that now…I was just hurt and shocked because…well, I've always imagined kissing you, and in my mind, it never really played out that way."

"And it shouldn't have! If there's any animosity you have for me, I'd understand because I created it. I just didn't know how to handle showing you a vulnerable side to me."

"You're living, so it's understandable that you're not as tough deep down as you play yourself off to be. And never think I'd ever have animosity towards you Blaze…I…I want you to know that all I have is love for you…"

"You…you love me…still?" asked Blaze as a single tear strolled down her cheek.

Silver levitating the tear away from her face and letting it hover between them before dropping it to the floor announced, said, "I've always loved you, Blaze. I see the future, and I know I always will."

Blaze was about to lose it. However irrational it was, she did not want him to know she felt just as strong about him. In reality, she had everything to gain in a confession and nothing to lose to a sympathetic admirer. She still got up from her bed and began to walk towards her door. But before she could escape, Silver stood in his tall stature and refused to let her pass him.

"I can't let you push me away again."

This statement of Silver's was not said aloud, but rather it came from his mind to hers through telepathy, the first time he had ever disregarded her privacy and guarded persona. Blaze lost all her restraint at this and collapsed into Silver's arms. Once he put her back on her feet, the tears now streaming down her face, she embraced him fully and kissed him once more. Her love was so intense and her control so gone that she was set ablaze. Silver, with his psychic power, shielded his body from the scorching embers of her form while also taming the flames within a force field that contained them both. Making love that night was the pinnacle of everything they had ever been through together. It was filled with all the breakouts of emotions, release of their physical lust, and most of all complete dependence on each other's care, compassion and deep love. They felt perfect and complete, and finally they were truly together.

Both of them barely fit, lying inside Blaze's bed. They began to talk after the monumental change of pace in their day.

"So…" said Silver, "you love me more than anything, more than you ever thought you could love someone?"

"Those are the exact words…Silver! Who gives you the right to read my thoughts now?"

"Sorry, Blaze. It's just that I confessed how much I loved you, but you never said the same for yourself…at least verbally. I was starting to get worried."

"Well, now you never have to wonder because I love you more than anything, more than I would ever consider loving myself even."

"That makes me so happy, Blaze…how long have you felt this way? I've always dreamed of being with you, but I always felt like you saw me as just a friend or a little brother…"

"To be honest, it's taken until now for me to acknowledge any feeling of love fully. In truth, to me you were always my everything: best friend, greatest supporter, and object of all my spare thoughts. But if the way I truly felt about you crept inside my mind, I pushed it stupidly away like I did you today."

"It pains me to hear you felt like you had to do that, Blaze. But why? If you felt so strongly, why did you never say so?"

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I felt like I was on the wrong end of unrequited love. I never believed you'd want to be with me, but I always naively hoped. Did you feel that same way?"

"No…I could always tell how you felt about me. And I was always touched by it…the fact that you admired and cared for me so much was great to be the recipient of, especially since I always thought you were so much stronger, kinder and heroic than I."

"Oh, wow…Blaze…I…don't know what to say to that. Still, the question remains why you never told me all of this."

"I can't tell you…Silver, why can't we just be together now and forget about the past?"

At this, Silver rolled over and propped himself up right above her. Blaze was a little shaken by this sudden move, and Silver explained while looking into her eyes, "Please, if you can't tell me aloud, just let me inside your mind, so I can know! You know I'd never think of you in a different light no matter what you thought or felt. I know you're my soulmate now Blaze, and I want our minds, from now on, to always be connected as one. I'll never judge you, only listen and understand."

"And comfort? Can you add that to the list, Silver?"

"I promise I'll always be here to comfort you. You'll be my top priority forever. Just let me in completely, won't you?"

She did, and Silver was always welcome in the mind of his lover from then on. He learned that night that she had considered herself before of never deserving love. Silver made it his mission to change that state of mind, and Blaze immediately could not deny how right it felt to be with him. She even felt deserving of his love because Silver never made a mistake in how he treated her. In Blaze's mind, he was perfect. Of course, Silver knew how she felt, and he often wished she had his same power, so she could read the exact same innermost thought of his thinking her the only flawless thing in his entire life.

Weeks passed in the fall of the Year of Absolution, and Silver and Blaze visited Crisis City for its final purging. The last objective was the capital tower as he held it steady while Blaze made her way through the interior clearing away the final flames. After it was all done, Silver flew up to meet his love at the top of the tower. Nothing was said for a little while. Now they relished in that sort of silence. They always looked deep into the other's eyes, seeing the future in them. Silver was the first one to break the silence this time.

"To celebrate our achievement Blaze, I have something to give you."

"Oh, Silver, that's not fair! I hadn't even thought of that!"

"Don't yell at me yet, not until you see what it is."

Suddenly, Blaze saw a small box rise up incredibly quick from the street. Silver let it float nearer until it stopped in the palm of his strong hand. He got down on one knee.

Revealing the petite, silver ring with what looked like the golden emerald encrusted in it, Silver asked, "Blaze, will you continue to make me the happiest soul with feeling in the universe? Will you marry me, please?"

Shocked but still prepared to handle the situation, Blaze took the route of humor: "I don't know…the old me would push you off this building and then set you on fire. But since you've made me a giant softie, yes, I absolutely will marry you, Silver!"

Their happiness knew no bounds, and Silver took flight with Blaze in his arms above the resurrected city. They accomplished a miracle together and promised their eternal love. It was a big day for them to say the least. Before they left their opus, Blaze asserted they should rename the city Silver City. Not wanting to take the credit, even Silver had to admit he liked the sound of it. Everything was right between them.

However, there was still much that tested them as a couple before they were married at the onset of the New Year for the galaxy's calendar. Silver's family and many other Mobian residents moved into the new and promising Silver City after reconstruction finished in a dimension now safe, different yet a bit familiar. A week after their engagement, a suspicious force beckoned Silver and Blaze back to the Mobian plains where the portal to Crisis City was located. Upon going, Tails, who had come along to investigate the anomaly, discovered an evil foe that was trying to break through the gap between dimensions to reach Silver and Blaze, the ones who had unknowingly fixed the damage this incomprehensible being had done. Tails figured this due to the strange activity resonating within the Chaos Emerald they had brought for quick travel. Silver and Blaze decided they were going to return to see if they could remedy this anomaly in case, unchecked, it would disturb the fabric of space and time and possibly jeopardize the other dimension by closing the portal forever to Silver City.

Back again that night, the trio with Shadow in tow gathered all seven emeralds in the same spot on the vast plain of green. This opened another portal, this one leading to a vast waste of blurred blue space. Immediately, Silver felt it: the voice of Solaris. Its call was only penetrating the mind of Silver, beckoning him to come and finish the Time Eater who had retroactively dissolved back into its true form. He knew he did not, but Silver could not help but feeling like he had met this foe before. Silver told the others what he had to do.

"I have to go in there alone. There's no ground for you two to stand on."

Blaze tried to assert, "But we all have super forms, Silver! You don't know what you're going up against. At least let Shadow and I come with you to face whatever's in there."

"No, Blaze. This isn't just about me worrying about you. If my super form runs out, then at least I'll still be able to fly. Neither of you would be able to do that, so I'd feel best if I took this on myself."

Blaze was still stubborn but now in her silence.

Shadow spoke up, "If you feel like you can take this by yourself, Silver, then we'll stay behind and back you up if necessary."

"Thanks to both of you," said Silver as he used the emeralds to transform into Super Silver. As he looked back at a worried Blaze, he departed with: "I'll be right back."

In the gap, Silver began searching quickly for Solaris. On the other side, Shadow was gathering up the emeralds.

"Thankfully he left these here," said Shadow. "If he gets himself lost and killed, we would have needed these."

Blaze was offended by the cold remark from Shadow, without his soon to be born son, not yet completely softened by Tikal. He gave the impression that he did not care.

"It would not have mattered because Silver's coming back, Shadow. Honestly, are you trying to fuel my fire? I think it'd be smart of you to shut your mouth."

Meanwhile in the gap between dimensions, Silver had found Solaris. Psychic warfare was waged for the duration of Silver's super form until both were weakened enough to be taken out by a mortal. With a last ditch attack, Solaris began sucking up the life force of Silver the Hedgehog. Knowing he had not much time left, Silver used all of his strength to rip open Solaris from the inside. The colossal explosion destroyed the remnant of Solaris and left Silver gravely wounded. He slowly hovered to the entrance, the life completely sapped out of him when his body of dead weight fell through onto Mobius grass again.

Blaze's heart sank. She was never so afraid seeing Silver unmoving on the ground. Rushing over to him, she felt his dead lack of pulse and glossy eyes. Rapidly and frantically, she began at trying to resuscitate him. Minutes passed while Shadow was silent. After these minutes, Silver still lay lifeless. She struggled to keep from fainting into oblivion as she gripped Silver's chest to hold herself up. The tears flowed.

"What a fool," whispered Shadow to himself. He had not meant Blaze to hear it.

"WHAT?!" screamed Blaze as her tears evaporated into the flames. At the same time, she rose to her feet and rushed Shadow with a fury and force unmatched.

Shadow remained on the ground, wary of being seriously hurt by Blaze. He also felt pretty bad about his inappropriate remark.

"He just saved us and who knows what else from going up against a terrible monster! And you are so bold to deface his name by calling him a 'fool!' How DARE you! Now he's gone FOREVER…Argh!"

Shadow caught her arm in his grip before she could strike him with fire.

"Blaze…I'm sorry, and I'm not even going to try to express how much. Let's just stay calm and get his body to bring back home…"

Back at the Pillar, all the lights were turned off in the spacescraper for the mourning of Silver. The usually bright red walls and floors of the interior now looked a somber blue. Espio and Cream among others now viewed Silver's body on an altar slab. Blaze could not bear to look at what she lost anymore. It was decided to leave Silver there for twenty-four hours in respect and Nintendo tradition they all hoped not to implement ever again. The blue hues of the soft glow of magic flame without industrial lights would also become tragic tradition.

That night Blaze lay alone in her bed as she grieved and tormented herself to sleep with only memories of the love of her life. This torture slipped her into a deep sleep filled with nightmares of Silver shrouded in darkness slipping away into abysses into which his smiles always faded with the rest of him. In the dream world as well as the real, Blaze cried out his name. Seeing a light suddenly appear in her dream, she jolted up and awoke, staring now into the spectral face of none other than Silver.

"What?! Silver, is that you? It can't be…"

"It is, Blaze! Apparently my otherworldly powers also transition into the supernatural. It only took me dying to figure that out."

"I…I don't understand. If you could do this, why didn't you show that you were somehow still with us on Mobius? I've just experienced the worst pain of my life for hours!"

Her swats at him just passed right through his ghost form. Silver had to seriously restrain himself from laughing at that.

"I couldn't figure out how to harness this power, or way of travel rather, at first. I came to you as fast as I could, Blaze. I hope you're not mad at me."

"Mad?! Are you kidding me? I just got the greatest second chance to cherish you, and even though you're just a ghost now, I can still be with you again. I love you, Silver."

"I love you too! But I'm pretty sure I can return to my old body again if you do me a favor. We just need the emeralds."

"Well, that should be easy! We have them all, so what do you think we should do?"

"Hmmm, I just recommend you turning into Super Blaze and touching my corpse while I jump back in."

"Okay…sounds good. And my super form has been dubbed by yours truly Burning Blaze. You have to call it that."

"I'll try to keep that in mind, Burning Hot Blaze."

"Not quite, but you might get it someday haha."

The resurrection of Silver was successful much to the joy and celebration of everyone. All were relieved, and what Sonic saw would be the inspiration for him to save anyone who he would have the chance of saving in the future. These forest animals had access to godlike powers.

In Silver City, Silver's mother, aunt and two cousins lived in an apartment complex in comfort thanks to the efforts of the heroes to restore the now bustling metropolis. What followed the majority who were peace-loving creatures into the dimension's capital were Mobian terrorists disguised as immigrants searching for an adventurous life like most else. They brought with them chemical warfare as well as plots for attacks more grand. They were the leftovers of the Dark Egg Legion. Led by previous foot soldiers without noteworthy distinction, the group sought sociopolitical propaganda in the form of innocents' deaths. They viewed the hypocrisy of natural creatures using technology at their own leisure instead of welcoming and becoming one with it physically through cybernetic enhancements as blasphemous to the old religion of the Mobian technological supremacists. Dark Egg Legion wanted to prove their point of assimilation for all, even after they had mostly disbanded. These few animals left started off fresh with new identities by smoking out homes in Silver City through the sewers. Victims who inhaled the poison never made it, and Silver's entire family fell this way.

When Silver heard of the brutal and cowardly attack, he was distraught and wanted something he had never saw himself wanting in his life: revenge. Although he had started on his own at a very young age, he loved his mother dearly. She and the rest of his family were not going to be forgotten, and Silver and Blaze went to Silver City in hopes of ousting the gang for good. A few days' stay there gave them the opportunities to attend a funeral and incarcerate many of the lower-level terrorists.

One day saw the interdimensional summit of representatives to address the acknowledgment of this new dimension left by the Time Eater. Leaders' ambassadors from the Chaos and Sol dimensions and even Anti-Mobius convened in the capital tower of Silver City, meeting to establish a governance over this new recognized dimension. They also talked over banquet about the exploration of this new type of land.

The portal that hung above Silver City hung ominously in the sunset sky. This night was when an Egg Fleet carrier piloted by suicide Legion pilots passed through that portal and crashed into the capital tower, engulfing it in flames and killing the representative council. The main city was evacuated to the plains and the port all the while Silver and Blaze slept through the chaos. Silver had gone to bed out of his sulking grief and Blaze joining him to comfort, and when they awoke they were slammed into reality, obligated to help with the evacuation. After Silver learned of what caused the attack, huge guilt rooted deep within him; he knew he could have stopped the airship with his power if he would have been awake.

Blaze was feeling especially guilty herself. Even after being banished, she still felt a responsibility towards her people, a collection of species she had just let down again by letting the murders of some of their highest respected governing members take place. Revenge as an ideal was beginning to seem fitting for Blaze now too.

Finishing the last of the citizen security measures while the tower crumbled to its rubble, Blaze and Silver went away where they could be alone to assess what happened. This devolved into emotional behavior from the both of them.

"Well, I am just not worthy of hailing from the Sol Dimension. I let down my people again, Silver. Why can't I be more, so I can protect them all?"

"Well, my power is more, and look what I let happen to so many innocent lives. So many slaughtered because my worthless mind can't handle being awake in a world where I already let my family be murdered."

"Silver…I…I shouldn't be complaining about how I feel ashamed…oh…"

Blaze had never seen Silver break down into tears like this before. Sure, he may have shed one or two at the funeral, but holding his emotions in had caught up to him in a powerful way. She leaned down towards him, who was kneeling on the grass, and offered her hand to pick him up. Silver took it but held it only and did not use it to return to his feet. Now, it was her turn to comfort him.

"What happened was terrible and was not your fault at all, Silver. You have to know that in order to move on and bring the rest of these scum to justice…don't forget how noble you are…had the attack happened in the middle of the night, we would've been asleep all the same. In the big picture, that's not what makes the difference. It was those who did evil, their decision to spread destruction out of hate. Why don't we go purge this city again, this time also avenging the people who lived in it?"

"Blaze…thanks…don't ever think you need me more than I need you…I don't know what I'd do without you…you're all I have anymore."

Their campaign to find and oust the villains of Silver City took them through much reconnaissance work and eventually into the sewers of the metropolis. They did not find anything until they stumbled upon the secluded one-room hideout. Not trying to be particularly stealthy about it, they still were not spotted by the leadership and other remainders of the Dark Egg Legion. Outside evil's headquarters and in a dark place mentally, Silver made a dramatic and unprecedented decision.

The ceiling of that room began to shake, almost immediately after began to crack, and the whole of it was rubble on the floor spread overtop the dead bodies of the murderers and terrorists. The mission was done.

Unphased by Silver's actions, Blaze shot a fireball onto the mix for good measure. Apparently Silver's attack had left one straggler left buried alive, and the couple stood in witness of the terrified screams of the bandit, the leader Bogden, being burned alive.

"We're no better than them, after all. Murderers. All of us."

It took a lot of persuasion on Blaze's part as they walked out of the city towards the plains after the solemn victory to convince him of the difference between those they had just killed and themselves. Finding solace in each other's love, they enjoyed physical release where they would not set anything on fire. They then went home, but it would be a while before Silver came to terms with what he had done.

Silver now lived in Blaze's room, and she was happy to have him completely. However, it did take her being around him constantly to brighten his mood permanently from what happened in Silver City. One day though after she had thought he had gotten better, Silver asked to shower alone. Blaze's shower did not have warm water since she could heat it up herself, so she was a bit skeptical of Silver going in there by himself. After about an hour with the shower still running and Blaze listening the whole time, she went in to find Silver sitting in the bathtub, legs outstretched with feet pressed up against the freezing surface of the shower wall. He had a blank look on his face as he looked directly into the streams of steady water coming down to pelt his face and body.

"Um…Silver, are you okay. Isn't the water really cold?"

"I'm gonna go out and do something, Blaze. I'll be back tonight," was the unrelated reply. He turned off the water and got ready and left.

Blaze was mystified by his odd behavior. Before now, she had never really wanted his power of mind reading. Still, it did not take long for her to figure out where he had gone.

At the crest of a hill where his mom's grave resided, Silver sat and stared. He cried silently as time ebbed away the few memories he had of her. Blaze came up behind him, sat and actually caught Silver by surprise. Her touch comforted him, and a sad Silver laid his head in her hands for a long while. When night fell, Silver made sure to mention that Blaze could leave anytime but that he wanted to stay for longer.

"I'll stay as long as you need to, Silver. I remember when you said you needed me. I wish I wasn't all you had in the physical world anymore, and I may not be enough, but either way I'm here for you. My love for you keeps me strong, so it's my duty to help you through this. As long as I ever have anything to say about it, you'll never be alone."

Silver let her know of his deepest appreciation for her "unwavering and unparalleled compassion." The two of them spent the rest of the night through keeping vigil at his mom's grave. In the morning, Silver, after the long visit, finally felt ready to leave his mother behind. He woke up Blaze who had eventually fallen asleep in his lap. The lovers returned home, and things between them cemented themselves in complete love, trust and honesty while the challenges they faced became less personal for a while in the future.

The wedding was a joyous way to ring in the New Year. It saw a dapper Silver and an enchanting Blaze pledge eternal love to each other. It was a passionate night for them as were all nights. They still continued to live, eat, sleep, fight and train together. They truly never got tired of each other.

One day found Blaze purring incessantly as Silver stroked her lavender fur. She was enjoying it until she saw Silver giggling to himself.

"You think it's funny that you just found my sweet spot after months of being together? I'm a cat! Seriously, what do you expect?"

"I don't know. I guess I just assumed you never purred. I guess I also must have been doing this all wrong until now too! Will it make you feel better if I try purring too? Maybe I can give it a go…"

Blaze laughed aloud as Silver failed very much so at purring. Of course, she expected the barrage of other normal cat noises that followed.

"In some different way all the time, you just never let up, Silver. At least you make me laugh though."

This was the day of the birth of Majora's Perfect Chaos, and the alarm that sounded in this couple's room sounded throughout the entire Pillar to bring together the Nintendo heroes for a monumental rescue mission with a secondary objective to avert galaxy-wide apocalypse.

Blaze and Silver worked well together on all fronts, and wiping out hordes of enemies was one of their strongest, collaborative ventures. Scores of pirates were also no match for the Heroes of the Emblem, new friends Prince Marth and Radiant Hero of Legend Ike who Nintendo had just met months ago due to the workings of Sonic's time-altering paradox. Falco and Katt had their usual banter in the air while taking on all they could handle.

"Are you sure you've got everything taken care of, over there, Katt?" said a cocky Lombardi who was making quick work of the dropships in his sector within boundaries he had decided.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Falco! You seem to be bored…maybe we should switch flight paths. I swear the majority of these damn ships are over where I'm at! Why don't you come help out?"

"Sure, only if you can't handle it," said Falco with a smirk back.

"Man, I married such a jerk…let's work together before I start aiming at you…"

"All right, I'm coming over…just don't shoot me. You're a good shot."

"Okay, now you're just sending mixed signals. I thought you said I wasn't doing the greatest over here."

"Are you kidding? You're a masterful pilot and tactician! You just need to learn how to work faster as well as still be deliberate."

"So, for once, you're actually providing some constructive criticism?! That's unlike you, Falco. Why don't you come over here and speed me up a bit?"

"Sure thing, babe. Together, we're unstoppable! Believe it or not, I'm trying to be a nicer guy in my old age."

"I can tell, gramps. You used to be an edgy, cocky bastard. I don't think I'm going to miss that old you though hahaha!"

"NICE! Three bogies in one shot, Katt! Maybe you should also invest in a multi-lock like I have. Maybe then you could pose me a challenge…"

"And now we're back to Falco the asshole…I'm gonna take out more of these scum already right now. Just watch this!"

Competitors and lovers waged war on the space pirates who were no match for the fierce skill of the pilots in the skies. Katt shot through lines of enemies with her plasma, and Falco danced around the marauders leaving them in their own debris.

On the surface, Marth and Ike fought against Kihunters that swarmed the air around them. The aliens tried in vain to dodge the wrath of Aether and dolphin slashes from the legendary blade of Falchion. Samus joined the men in her offensive against an Elite Pirate Commander, his wrist bayonet no match for the Varia armor and plasma beam of the mercenary. Through the battle, the Galactic Federation helped the Nintendo heroes with their valiant efforts, and Samus kept finding herself in proximity and conversation with her friend, Anthony Higgs.

"Hey, Princess! How're you doing? How've you been? It's been too long since we've found each other in a situation like this!" said Higgs as his charged plasma gun blew off in spurts of highly concentrated and highly lethal energy. It always took a while to charge up, so Anthony treated shooting the breeze like it was part of his job.

"Princess…and I'm quite a dainty one at that, aren't I?" said Samus gruffly as she dodged out of the way of a kamikaze explosion courtesy of an Advanced Aerotrooper. "I'm doing fine actually; I have plenty of friends on my side now. And I think you know why I haven't seen you in such a long time."

"Being on the run is no reason not to write," said Anthony jokingly.

Jokes flew right over Samus though; she could not focus on shooting Anthony's lame comments down and fight at her best at the same time. Nonetheless, she enjoyed his company and the aid of the rest of this Galactic Federation platoon.

As the fight continued to wage, this group of Nintendo heroes on the Norion ground gathered together in a tight circle facing their enemies at all angles. Ike's garnet star was resonating with energy more than before, and Silver could feel the emerald's presence as well as unseen enemies' thoughts. He just could not see them…but then under the weight of battle, the ground collapsed beneath them all, and the group, save Falco and Katt in the air, plummeted into the underground catacombs of Norion crust.

With the Falchion in hand, Marth cut into the crystals to slow his sliding descent as Samus did a screw attack into the soil below. Ike tumbled without grace into the rocks earning himself some bruises while Silver caught himself, Blaze and Anthony with his psychic power of levitation. Before them all was the purple chaos emerald…and a beast most of them had never seen before…an Omega Pirate ready to defend his kin's new cache from the hated heroes.

"Sorry the drop-offs took so long, Fox. I know I'm a little behind schedule," said Meta Knight as he and his Halberd soared into the Macbeth atmosphere.

"Don't sweat anything. We're glad for your help. Without your ship, this mission would have been impossible to pull off."

"And I'm glad TO help of course. Now, I can finally get my hands dirty…and my blade even messier. After all that docking, I'm itching for combat like crazy…"

"I know the feeling. Well, get ready for your chance now: Andross's remnants, I swear, will never disappear."

"His followers worshipped him like a religion, Fox," chimed in Wolf. "And even if these brigands aren't believers in the doctrine of Emperor Andross, they could still be fighting due to a little problem I had run into."

"Brainwashing, of course. I had never thought of that…" replied Krystal.

"I know. When he told me when we were forming our strike team, I almost shied away from joining in. I can't think about shooting these apes down if they're actually mental hostages like Wolf was…" Lucy said quite worried.

Fox helped reassure, if it could be considered that, "I know that the enemies we may be about to fight could be false, but if we don't fight through them to find this chaos emerald, the Majora monster will kill millions more innocent lives than we will take today. Okay? I never thought of us as heroes but rather mercenaries for the greater good; we have to do whatever it takes to preserve what we can in this universe."

"Huh, well said, Fox, but…" Wolf started, "It's odd: Falco isn't here to spout of some smartass and sarcastic comment, heheh. He never lets anything sink in with a nice bit of silence."

"Well…fuck, Wolf," replied Fox half-jokingly and half-peeved, "Congratulations on taking his place and ruining that. I put some serious thought into these motivational speeches here…"

"I'm glad to help maintain the illusion of constancy in this crazy universe for you, pup!" said Wolf smartly but with less of an accent than Falco would have.

"Thanks…and I'm 38 years old; I'd say I'm at least full-grown at this point."

The few laughs that this remark garnered from each of the pilots in the Star Fox team served as the comic buffer they all needed for the immensity of their mission that was about to fall swiftly upon them. Captain Falcon and Tails, who had gone ahead in the land mech of his blue Tornado, returned from the industrial sector of the planet with news that the Venomian units were on their way. The battle of Majora's Macbeth was to commence.

While the heroes became busy with the hordes of soaring fighters, an old enemy steadily chugged along the planet's surface. Dimitri prepared to confront Star Fox and would unknowingly complicate the union of the white emerald and crystal star.

Majora's Perfect Chaos laid waste to the continent Shamar of Mobius. Learning the ability to warp through space-time from the chaos emeralds, now realizing the last amount of potential of the stolen gems' energy, the beast with the boy traveled back in time to the Caves of the Past right before the PSI heroes had gone back years and then more years ago. The future Bianco Hills a couple months from now was terrorized but not obliterated in the frenzy of the mad incarnation that became wilder, losing its own mind but never losing hold of Adam's, and leaped sporadically from gaps in time to settings never before touched by evil.

More casualties arose from places throughout the galaxy. The purple beam of melting energy that pulsated from Adam's still growing abdomen wiped out creatures from peaceful, unsuspecting settlements: Ikana Canyon with the already dead living within the house of the original Majora hex, Toad Town with its suburbs of horrified and putridly slain fungi, the planet Silence with its strange, senseless aliens whose screams could not be heard, a castle of dark reapers too petrified to act, the jungles with their natives on Neo Star, and an unlucky military base on planet Katina. Nothing stood able or brave enough to stand up or think fast enough in Majora's rampaging wake.

The snarling Army Dillo was intending to make a wreck out of this smaller DK Island, but he first had to steamroll over eight Kongs, two hedgehogs and some kind of psychic catlike creature first. The ground rumbled beneath the heroes, knocking them down to their knees or feet except for Mewtwo who kept light on his slender paws as always and then psychically flipped the armadillo over on its side.

Army had enough sense and strength to maintain an upright position though, and he continued his rampage by shooting fireballs around the icy arena, melting crystals and singeing some fur.

Amy had had enough now as she readied her mighty hammer and whacked the steal coating of the animal hard. A nasty shock reverberated throughout her body though; there was no penetrating Army's armor without a more powerful move like Mewtwo's psystrike which he knew could not be done in such an enclosed space. It would put everyone else in danger.

The extended Kong family was a mess in trying to counteract Army's two main advances of rolling and shooting, and the gaggle of monkeys were representative of the disorganized fight the heroes were putting up. They all realized this soon enough however, and with the help of Mewtwo's telepathy, they mentally congregated to create a solid plan of attack.

Candy, Cranky and Kiddie were not of much use in a physical battle with the four-legged steel machine, so they posed a distraction. Cranky jabbed the whippersnapper with his cane all over as he moved quite spry for an old ape. Candy apparently turned out to be so attractive that this species of reptile was very interested in the curvy ape. Army was about to wise up to the act when she started to remove her shirt which kept the creature's googly eyes on her while an able-bodied yet inexperienced Kiddie Kong shook its steel shell back and forth, rocking it unsteady.

The other Kongs saw their chance: Lanky, Funky, Chunky and Diddy all aimed their fruity or nutty ammo reticles into the gaping slots where the fireballs where coming from. Peanuts, coconuts, grapes and pineapples gummed up the works well enough that Army was stripped of his projectile capabilities. Still being rocked dizzy by the one and a half ton Kiddie Kong, DK prepared his massive hands for some friction burn as he slammed the coarse ground with his flat palms. The animalistic force shook the caverns more than Army Dillo had done, and before the enemy could do anything about it, he was upside down, sitting on his metal carcass and soon-to-be grave with his soft underbelly a large, exposed weak point facing up to the ceiling.

A hedgehog couple provided the finishing blow with no hesitation as Sonic rolled up into a spin dash and allowed himself to be shot by Amy's swing of her Piko Hammer. He spun through the crystals, bounded up into the air as only a blue blur and came back down hard and at several revolutions of his spiky, round shape per second to drill Army Dillo's soft weak point to death.

After all the commotion of victory and defeat had settled, their longtime island foe vanquished for good, Sonic was the first to walk up to the cyan emerald and notice the weird effects it gave off when seemingly reacting to the diamond star in his left hand. The mostly lifeless jewel still had a slight cyan color deep inside, but there were intricacies apparent, assumed different properties by Sonic, that stuck the hedgehog as odd. Suitably, the others had no clue what to make of the cool vapor it was giving off and the electric-like, erratic glow it gave off as the two relics got closer together. Sonic went to touch it but realized to his shock that, despite the cool aura around it, the emerald was exceedingly hot to the touch.

"What do you think is wrong with it?" asked Amy.

"Uh, I don't know if anything is wrong with it, Amy. I've just never seen anything like this before. It's too hot to pick up."

"It has been through hardships that were forced upon it. The Majora creature, such a different evil, was never supposed to interfere with those emeralds. Whatever is happening to it, I am sure that it may work itself out in due time," chimed in Mewtwo. "I will carry the gems with my mind for now."

And Mewtwo did so, but when the cyan emerald and diamond star accidentally touched for the first time, a vision appeared before the group. They were all too distracted by this to find at first that the mutual power of the diamond star had given color and life back to the cyan emerald. One of seven had been restored.

Sonic, Amy and Mewtwo looked confusedly at the blurry image of a yellow temple shrouded by thick jungle. They had no idea what they were looking at, but the entire Kong family recognized it as the Golden Temple from their newest home.

"That's where uncle DK and I went after defeating that Tiki head monster we were telling you about days ago," explained Diddy.

The rest of the group understood that much, but for now, they failed to understand the reasoning the newly revived union of crystal star and chaos emerald had for showing them this sacred spot. Sonic's chaos control ability had improved in the years past upon the onset of his adulthood (he had been mindful to practice every now and again), but instead of trying to planet-hop for now, the gang decided to move to the more tropical coast of the island and wait for their pickup there. Mewtwo's telepathic call could at least be sensed by the others on Trinity; their friends were glad to hear of their first team victory of many for the day.

"Blwarrgh!"

Knuckles did not appreciate his old nemesis returning to haunt him again. The taunting of King Boom Boo followed the apparition into the wall of the sewers as he held the green emerald inside his body. The gang needed to find a way to oust the phantom from hiding if they wanted to reach their goal.

"What is that thing, Knux?" asked Rouge.

"Really? I'm surprised you never had the pleasure of meeting that thing in the Death Chamber. That's where I met and beat it. It's annoying to say the least…"

Lucario had closed his eyes and began to feel the presence of spirits around him. King Boom's energy signature was particularly strong and sensitive to the Pokémon's abilities, and upon touching the stone, he felt just how close the beast was.

"It's in here," said Lucario simply, gruffly and telepathically.

Vivian proceeded to merge into the spot Lucario touched to find the ghost and pull him back out. It took a few moments of searching on her behalf to bring it out, and it screamed and yelped trying to instill fear in the others when it was caught.

GUN hesitated none in attacking as the soldiers' spread of bullets did no harm to the boss, causing major annoyance at best to it as well as Knuckles and the rest who had known better not to attack so directly.

"What are you guys doing?!" Rouge shouted. "It's a ghost. What do you expect that to do? Call your men off, sir."

"Sorry," replied the past president. "Maybe we can best help out if we create a perimeter and place this sewer on lockdown."

"Thank you, sir. We'll take care of it from here! This won't take long."

While the GUN soldiers dispersed and checked for any signs of the ghost, the remaining six gathered to create a plan.

"As far as I see it, we can either dig it out or blow it out," pondered Snake.

"And then once he's out, we attack it right?" asked Hammer.

"Not exactly," answered Knuckles. "We need to shine a light on it to weaken it somehow, but this far underground, I'm afraid we have none of that."

"My aura might work, Knuckles. A pure concentration of my energy may be enough to weaken it for us to defeat it," said Lucario.

"Unconventional. I like it," chimed in Rouge.

"I had never thought of something like that," mused Knuckles. "Let's try this!"

"I'll go in and find him first, so we can go from there," volunteered Vivian.

Vivian was successful again in finding King Boom Boo deep within the mortar and cement of the sewer catacombs, but this time she treaded silently as she saw the ghost tired out and waiting in one place past the heroes' vision. She appeared again out of the wall to tell her friends of the monster's location, and they double checked for the emerald's wavelength by touching the emerald star up against the point where King Boom Boo was underneath.

Snake then prepared an encasement of C4 and planted it on the sewer wall. The resulting explosion knocked the king out of his hiding place so that Lucario had his change to enlighten the ghost with his Aura beam. The tactic worked as the ghost screamed in pain and cowered in fear against the bright blue and righteous flame. King Boom Boo shrunk down to their size now with the emerald still stuck inside him.

Hammer saw his chance to possibly help out, so he let loose one of his trusty hammers into the ectoplasmic body of their foe. He was quite shocked to see the unexpected result of his hammer replacing the spot inside the ghost where the emerald had been. Upon plunging into the boss, the emerald had popped out in its ethereal glow. Knuckles and Rouge still wanted to finish off their opponent though and assaulted the boss with fists and feet. The swift punches and kicks from the hunters was enough to subdue King Boom Boo once more. Being a ghost, he of course did not die; it retreated into the depths of the planet as its essence grew thin and weak.

This emerald too had the same trifecta of properties the one Sonic had picked up back in the high altitudes of Donkey Kong's island. It gave off cold, was hot to the touch and filled with an unstable, suppressed energy. Knuckles looked at it perplexed, but after Lucario brought the emerald star to it, the positive energy was reawakened, and their mission was complete. Their vision: back home for Knux. They saw Angel Island, and they wondered what it could mean. The GUN agents having done their duty as well approached the group and apologized for infringing on whatever importance their patrol was sent out to disturb.

"It's quite all right, Mr. President," said Rouge.

"Where do you go next?" he asked.

"Wherever that place is, we'll wait to be picked up first. Let's go back to the surface."

The desert of the Gerudo was in chaos. Stallord tore apart the encampments of the desert marauders as the heroes struggled to find ways to stall the beast. Shadow felt the presence of the gold emerald close by, maybe underneath the sands of this place, and if they could obtain it, the group could possibly forgo fighting this entire boss.

Tikal tried to look for the gem with gold star in hand as a couple of the legendary heroes protected her from any attacks. Stallord was summoning leagues of the undead to protect his spinal column and attack for him. They stood no chance though as the Links took them out with a flurry of spin attacks every time they respawned, reanimated by Stallord's dark magic. Kirby with his awesome gut was able to suck in dozens of the skeletons at a time. More and more of the fossil's pawns floated in the emptiness that was the parallel dimension connected to Kirby's maw and stomach. Once Kirby had too much of the dry, dusty taste of bones on his tongue, he spit a horde of them back out at Stallord that stunned the great beast.

The Resistance also supplied powerful blows to the skeletal monster. Auru and Shad aimed at the skull with their bazooka and invented explosives. Ashei took on swarms of the undead herself, and Rusl, being the natural with animals as he was, took reign of Plessie. Controlling the loyal plesiosaur was easy compared to taming a Golden Cucco, and the duo rode their way up the sands of the Arbiter's Grounds that were now covered in a slope of the stuff.

Projectiles rang heavy on Stallord's weak spot with Shadow's chaos spear and Links' arrows staying true until they penetrated their target. All Links, even the Hero of Winds, were mainly silent in the duties and accomplishments of the battle that day, and the solemnity from grieving parents Shadow and Tikal singled out the retrieval mission of this third emerald as the one where its heroes did not enjoy a little witty banter through all the action.

Kirby's and Yoshi's mouths were too full to talk either as bundles of enemies, and some encased in eggs, flew into the face of Stallord's frustrated mug. All the distractions gave Tikal the chance to find the gold emerald in its peculiar state tossed amongst the sand. She picked it up of course, and the reaction between chaos emerald and crystal star happened before the foe guarding it was even defeated. Whereas Tikal did not have the heart to leave Hyrule in turmoil thanks to the fossil Stallord, Shadow let his concern for his son persuade him towards leaving the desert now. Only when Tikal spoke to him did Shadow realize his selfishness in irrational, grieving motives.

"You know The Resistance could not handle an enemy of that size on their own in this wasteland, Shadow," Tikal said. "It would be wrong to leave them no matter how quickly we want to save our son and the lands Majora is destroying."

"Fine…you're right, but we need to take care of this quick. Who knows if our emerald is the last one being waited on by the team?"

As if in response to the parents' worries and heartfelt intentions, Rusl and Plessie slid down the sands of the ruins with incredible speed and used jumps in the dry air to increase velocity towards Stallord. The mass of the great dinosaur smashed into Stallord's spinal cord as it shattered into millions of bony fragments. The pain of the creature distracted it so much that it no longer held the mind power to control armies of undead soldiers.

The Chosen Hero from Skyloft's era ran over and slammed his Master Sword deep into the throbbing skull of his future incarnation's former fourth giant enemy slain. That title now also belonged to Link and all the other heroes of the land that day who had worked together to bring about the destruction of Stallord once more.

Its eyes no longer shining red, Stallord's magical life returned to him faded out again just as soon. With all the pent up rage inside of him, Shadow went over to the fossilized remains, cleared out the area and unleashed a chaos blast that vaporized the monster into particulate. The dust of the dead provided a nice dessert to the scores of skeletons Kirby had digested in the midday meal of his.

With the threat to Hyrule gone for good and the third emerald recovered on Nintendo's massive mission, all parties involved in the Gerudo fight were eager to move on to their next goals. The Resistance had repairs to do to the sacred grounds, and Shadow, Tikal and the rest saw their next destination in a vision of the Temple of Time as shown by the gold star and emerald. Fast yet earnest thanks were given all around, and hope and appreciation was spread throughout the large group. While most were going to wait for the Halberd's pickup, Shadow and Tikal decided to scope out the prayer site of the Hylian temple coexisting among times to see what the miracle relics were trying to tell them. They would not realize for a few hours more, and the couple returned to Gerudo, frustrated at the wait, ready to rebuild Gerudo to keep busy.

The Creepy Steeple stood among the trees of Twilight Forest. And right above it floated the Glitz Pit, the sensationalized fighting arena whose warriors had heeded a call to help the Nintendo heroes. Jolene just did not know her fighters were meant to help, but they soon realized what was going on through Goombella's rant and Doopliss's possession of the chaos emerald.

Young jester, trickster and fiend back to his old childish tricks, Doopliss challenged the heroes while knowing just how he was going to hurt them all. Goombella, having dealt with the menace before, was not amused by the ghost's maliciously playful words. Ludwig was impressed with his girlfriend's spunk.

"We DON'T have the time to mess with you, brat, and whatever antics you have cooked up in that delinquent mind of yours. You'll mess up so much more than us if you fight or pull tricks now, so just be a good little boy, and give us that emerald now!"

"NO! Goomba girl and friends seem a little too hasty to leave, and you've only just arrived to play! Why don't you stick around and have some fun first?!" replied Doopliss.

With that mean-spirited question and thereafter answering his own question for himself, Doopliss magically summoned barriers around his play room and copied the presences of all Nintendo heroes in attendance for the impromptu party. His eyes flashed red, and copies of Rawk Hawk and the other denizens of the planet appeared from thin air.

Panther and Leon managed to avoid the strategy, but the little beast in their way called upon his spectral pets: the Boo clan of Creepy Steeple. The gullible creatures formed the Atomic Boo which rushed the pilots and caused them to crash outside the stained glass window and into the forest below. Jolene and her fighters joined forces with the other two Nintendo couples to replace the other lovers.

Meanwhile, Panther and Leon shot at the playful and deadly beast in front of them with no avail. It was not shy at all, and the pair soon realized blasters were not doing the job.

"Ahh, if only we could just erase this monster from existence with the firepower of the living," said Leon menacingly against the collective spirits of the children. "What do we do know, Caroso?"

"It's always killing with you isn't it, you sick, cold-blooded beast? For your species' sake, I hope you're not representative of them. Why can't we just dodge this thing and play its little game, Leon? It's not like it can honestly take US on, argh," growled Panther with a sensual playfulness at his partner.

Leon was aroused and enlightened by his better half. They did not have to fight the big Boo after all, and they played its game of tag, making sure not to become "it" while the real fight became a war of attrition in the creepy tower.

Every time wolf Link lashed its fangs or Midna groped out for an attack with her muscular third hand, the damage done on Doopliss was somehow magically reciprocated tenfold against the attackers. The same was said for Goombella's headbonks and Ludwig's special brand of Koopa magic. They were going to need a distraction to defeat the kid or at least obtain the elusive jewel, but not even the Glitz Pit warriors were making any headway.

Rawk Hawk decided to be noble in his personal path to become a better bird. He wanted to take the brunt of Doopliss's attacks. To do that, he needed to make the ghost mad.

"Hey, trick or treater! Did your mom dress you in that sheet as a joke or did your parrot furnish it with bird droppings on your own time?!"

"Wh-what?" Doopliss had obviously become flustered and lowered his focus to attempt at coming up with a lame response.

"I-I dressed myself…who-who did your hair? Was it your clucking chicken mommy?"

The ghost boy had lost it at one remark, and he focused all of his clones to copy the moves and appearance of the Rawk. The other heroes chipped away at the young monster as Rawk Hawk righteously suffered every multiplied attack and brutal dose of pain.

Goombella was the first one to realize what the jacked bird was doing, but when she did acknowledge his sacrifice, the young goomba decided not to make that knowledge public. She was aware that Rawk was making a sacrifice that he wanted to make. Perhaps, he was trying to atone for cheating against The Great Gonzales all those years ago. It did not matter now though; the reasoning for the heroic actions at Creepy Steeple that day were just shadows of the lives the Rawk saved by shortening the kid ghost's foolish stalling.

Couples almost toyed around now, safe in the opening that Rawk had given them. He was hurting bad, but the others felt good in trying to end the battle quickly. Leon and Panther had returned from their scuffle with the Atomic Boo below the bigger fight, the playful creatures having realized the gravity of the situation and their lack of interest in the red chaos emerald.

"Rip that thing to shreds, Link!" yelled a feisty Midna who was a little too enthused with the position of wolf rider again. The blue-eyed beast did tear up Doopliss's clean, white sheet though, and the stupid kid finally stopped accosting the heroes, finally relinquishing his magical and terrible hold on the Rawk Hawk of the Glitz Pit. The other fighters who had come down from the skies to help gathered around their champion who needed some serious medical attention after bearing the brunt of all the attacks in the battle.

Only Ludwig wasted some time looking over the pathetic, mewling body of Doopliss. He was still mostly fine and only suffered some bruises, tears and scratches that had put him into submission. Doopliss played many mean tricks, but he turned out to really not be that tough.

Panther, Midna and Goombella rekindled the connection between the two miracle gems: ruby star and red emerald as Leon and Wolf Link awkwardly accepted thanks from Jolene on behalf of the denizens of the western Mushroom Kingdom who had been, for years, bullied by the likes of Doopliss. Ludwig was quick to say that they all owed Rawk Hawk a deep debt of gratitude and thanked them all for dropping in at just the right time.

Meanwhile, the vision created by the two jewels showed the heroes the shrine of the thousand-year door. Once the Halberd would return to make a pickup in the Twilight Forest, they would go there, their prayers and wishes already being focused there as the rest of the heroes fulfilled their parts of the mission across space.

King Dedede, the first who had bartered for the chaos emerald, was also the first to strike Porky's mech and protect his friends in doing so. His mighty hammer smashed into the reinforced cockpit. Normal glass would have shattered into the villain inside, but the resistance of the material and its refusal to break reverberated throughout Dedede's arms. They were left a little weaker from the heavy blow.

Mario and Luigi put some traditional Bros. moves to work as they leaped upon each other's caps to gain momentum. They hammered each other into the menace that was frantically trying to cause as much damage as possible to the city. Porky knew he was outmatched, so now he just wanted to leave his mark before an escape.

Blaziken, Sheik, Ness and Lucas were all not about to let that happen, and the odds were slim that Porky would get away with the emerald. In this time of stress, the sapphire star from Sheik's satchel was drawn almost magnetically toward the emerald. It caused a hitch in Porky's escape plan and provided a means for the heroes to assault the trouble-maker with a surge of psychic ice, fiery fists and Sheikah smoke. The heroine let loose needles that hit critical pressure points on the heavy machinery, and it went down momentarily. Porky's mech bore the assault of all seven of the heroes who were very much in their element now. Gone were all the political proceedings and arbitrary flair of Fourside's culture. All that remained was Porky's savage attack and Nintendo's answer to it.

"Stop it! Let me go! I swear I'll self-destruct with this emerald with me!" Porky yelled.

This made Dedede stop from delivering his jet-powered hammer into the kid villain. He was unaware of the emerald's indestructible nature, and so to help out his brethren, he made a quick deal with the brat to let him go if he relinquished the once blue emerald. None of the others in Fourside knew this deal would be the wrong decision for the heroes. There were no denizens of Mobius on this mission to tell Dedede that the deal would not pan out in their organization's favor. Ness and Lucas were wary of letting Porky go, but his mech was at least destroyed. The destruction had stopped in Fourside.

"I don't know if that was the best idea to let him go…" muttered Ness to the group.

Lucas shivered from the PSI ice energy still flowing through him and sensed there would be consequences for what they had just decided to do.

"Yeah, that was probably bad, harhar…" laughed Dedede nervously. "I only wanted to make sure that the chaos emerald was retrieved in the best condition unharmed. That monster we're all facing right now is more dangerous than that kid anyway. I mean, we all gave him quite a spanking, am I right?!"

Dedede's attempt to lighten the mood was much appreciated. The others were starting to form a very reformed opinion of the Dreamland king. Many had known him to be the villain or trouble-maker through old stories from the stars. Now, they were all relieved to be proven wrong or at least to be privy to Dedede's new leaf. Sheik was impressed the most and wanted to get to know the eccentric character more. Touched by his charity, selfishness and willingness to put himself in harm's way for others, Sheik spoke next.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say we couldn't have completed this mission without you. I'm certain of that, brave king."

"Aww, it was nothing too special," remarked the good-natured King Dedede.

The Mario Bros., still out of breath from their fun attacks, went over to grab and reunite the miracle gems. The sapphire star brought new life into the deep blue emerald, and the vision that appeared before this group of heroes was a little, quirky village that was not too far off.

It would be a quick walk over to Mr. Saturn's village for the successful heroes.

Silver and Blaze were the first to test the power of the Omega Pirate that awakened before them. The colossal Phazon-fueled enemy broke through Silver's psychic shield in its rage and charged into the heroes of the Emblem, mostly unflinchingly so against Blaze's fiery attacks. Samus had of course fought one of these before in the Phazon caverns of Tallon IV, but this monstrosity was much bigger, presumably powered by the pinnacle of Phazon research before the destruction of Phaaze had halted the space pirates' nefarious research.

No sooner had a screw attack from the likeness of the bounty hunter bounced off the goliath when Falco and Katt flew down to investigate the crash. Carefully aimed laser blasts knocked the creature back but did no physical damage as the heroes on the ground escaped out of the pit.

"That sucker sure is big," said Falco in his matter-of-fact tone of voice. "We could just get that emerald and get out of here, ya know. Leave that thing to work itself out."

"No!" announced Samus harshly via headset. "I've dealt with a monster like this before, alone. We can't on good conscience leave it here to cause destruction. We just need to think of something."

Katt wasted the majority of the space pirates on the ground while swords slashed through their fair share as well. "We've already eliminated a significant threat here. Our job was to find that gem as quick as possible, not kill every enemy in sight. Remember, we can't let a much bigger monster cause more destruction on worlds more inhabited than this one."

"You're right!" yelled Ike. "But we should at least try to take this thing down. Let's work together."

Silver addressed the whole team as Blaze talked with Samus aside. "Quickly, we should concentrate all our power on that thing's head. There's no excuse for not being able to take it out in minutes."

"We're with you, Samus," said Blaze to the worried bounty hunter. "This planet won't be ravaged anymore if we have something to say about."

"Damn straight!" boomed Anthony. "I'm fully charged and ready to blast that thing. It's slow and stupid, so fooling it should be no problem. It might be strong, but it's not smart enough to have allies. Just look!"

The Omega Pirate was trying to swipe at the ships of the Star Fox pilots, but it actually caught a few of the pirates' battleships instead. They were controlled by mercenaries of significantly less skill. Those came burning down as the Omega Pirate's massive talons and rancid Phazon-laden breath wiped out many of its genetically unaltered kind.

While most of the heroes got together for a plan, Marth sped along the vegetation at the Omega Pirate's feet and then leaped onto its body, finding momentary foothold after another to eventually inflict some pain at its neck. Then, with a scream, Marth was flung off the beast's shoulder and into the charred remains of aliens. His bargain was not about to pay off until it did after all, and the plan swung into motion before Marth could be crushed by his enemy.

Anthony's plasma pack shot into the abdomen of the Omega Pirate, and Blaze controlled Ike's blue flame around the beast to hold it steady. Marth shielded himself from the raging fires as Katt blasted the monster from above. Without hesitation, Falco launched a smart bomb from the air while Samus charged a barrage of super missiles at the pirate's vulnerable head. Perfectly timed, Silver encased the explosives just about ready to connect with the target inside a carefully prepared shield, containing the blast to a specific point and disintegrating the head of the Omega Pirate behemoth. For extra measure, Ike unleashed Great Aether into the gaping hole where the beast's head once was a moment before. It was split down the middle, and Aran rushed into it with speed booster, jumping at the right time to fully tear the weapon in half.

Other heroes who left the complete destruction of the Omega Pirate to their partners landed and retrieved the purple emerald finally. The siege on Norion was, for all intents and purposes, now over as the remaining space pirates found no reason to keep on fighting, especially when they had just witnessed the teamwork against one of their proudest scientific marvels. As they walked over to the gem with the garnet star in hand and color returned, Anthony flashed a smile at Samus who was too happy to reject friendly advances this time.

"Finally," said Silver. "Sonic, Shadow and the others will be glad to hear of this success. Gah!" The emerald's power began to fully return, reacting with its magical brother. A portal suddenly showed the way to a Chozo shrine on Elysia.

It was a good thing Samus was there to identify the place because they all felt an urge to go there with the crystal star they had. All the heroes were being drawn to these spiritual points in the galaxy, but they did not know why yet. When Meta Knight finally came to pick up the emerald, they were about to.

Dimitri, the Forever Train Engineer, always had an affinity for the machines, even before he became a conductor in league with Andross. Hauling weaponry and other cargo for that army was just a side project in his mind back in the Lylat Wars. Traveling the surface of a mostly unknown world via his favorite mode of transportation: that was what kept him going back in the day. The rails never led him astray, even when he developed an interest in fighting. That interest was demolished by Team Star Fox as his glorious train had run its course headfirst into a supply depot. Hell, he was lucky to barely get out alive back then. But now, on some whim, he wanted to get back at Star Fox and their friends, as fate was to have it that he just happened to hear of their landing from Andross's worshippers and that he was, by some sick or promising happenstance, right in the same region that had excited him and nearly killed him so many years ago in the thick of all-out war.

"Step on the gas," he grunted to himself as he charged into battle territory. He put a lot of money into new sets of rails that he could switch to instantly. He found himself being pulled in by a chance to battle with Star Fox once again.

Meta Knight's laser firepower from his Halberd got in a couple clean shots that wiped out a few dozen fighters each time before the Knight called it quits, electing to park his ship away from the battle seeing as its obliteration would fail the entire mission. The maneuver ended up distracting some of the enemy units towards that position, but Tails and the Captain were successful in the ship's defense.

"Great work, kid!" hollered the Captain. "I can see you never give up."

"Thanks," said an appreciated and enthusiastic young fox. "I've got someone to thank for that attitude." He was forced to remember his old friend Sonic and how he had shaped his life. He would never tell anybody, but he fought off enemies while thinking of his friend.

Free from his warship, Meta Knight now glided freely into Macbeth airspace and tore down several brainwashed monkeys from their perch in the sky. The Star Fox pilots were obviously impressed and could not suppress their excitement.

"You kick a lot of ass without having a ship there, Meta," mused Wolf. A silent nod was all the warrior gave time for. Fox was also equally surprised.

"Remind me to team up with you more often…" Fox said as he rolled out of the way to cause the collision of two enemy fighters. "…so I can see your expert work all the time."

Krystal commented on Meta's skill silently in his mind, and Meta actually blushed a little under the mask of his. Lucy, who struggled to get it out of her mind that she was shooting copies of her boyfriend down, was the only one too distracted to adorn Meta's ego with compliments.

A silence went quick among the group as they felt an ominous presence arise after the destruction of the brigand fleet. Fox and Krystal decided to land and investigate an abandoned warehouse. At the same time, Wolf's sharp ears heard a consistent chugging sound.

"Hey, guys? Do you hear that?"

The vulpines both turned around as the Wolfen nudged to the sky behind them all. The Forever Train came roaring in as Dimitri shouted. His lungs could not restrain his newfound thrill after so much time. His machine was much faster now but also more manageable. The bullet screeched to a halt upon the nearest track as the crazy engineer assessed the situation. He let go of his Forever Train Mech to damage the parked Arwings and cowardly spurred off again, hoping he would get them all to chase them.

"I never would have expected to see this ape again," muttered Fox as he jumped back into his Arwing alongside Krystal who just barely managed to dodge the nail attack from the unattached AI-controlled mech. The lovers' dogfight with the boss was intense. Dimitri got his wish though, and Wolf and Lucy flew off in pursuit, trying to figure out how to damage this thing. Tails reformed the Tornado back into a plane and joined the Blue Falcon, obviously restraining itself by keeping pace with the Forever Train.

Guns shot out from the speeding bullet now, so it was not going to be easy on the heroes' side of things trying to get shots in. Wolf and Lucy struggled to get a lock on to even take out the added turrets in the situation. Captain Falcon burst out of his vehicle after leaving it on autopilot. Upon landing on the roof of the train, he ran like the fastest human alive and punched out as many guns as he could.

Meta Knight was loving the rush of power he was getting. It was second nature to contribute to Fox and Krystal's offensive against the Forever Train Mech. He grappled onto its back upon soaring into the harsh winds of the upper atmosphere. His friends were startled by his ability to get up there alone and were even more so when the Knight of Galaxia took it down with him, sword lodged in its mechanical skull. They all flew back down to the surface to meet the wreckage.

"Spectacular job yet again!" yelled Fox. Krystal destroyed the wreckage with plasma blasts and got out of her Arwing to celebrate with the two guys.

"Oh, my rampage isn't done yet," was Meta Knight's only answer to his superior. He sped away with wind fully in his wings and a further bloodlust to satisfy. He had seen the Forever Train, and he had a weapon equipped to take it out. Leaving Meta to his heroic business, Fox and Krystal went into the building dripping with darkness.

The Captain was launched by gunfire onto Tails' wing. He was injured and by no means fine. A lesser man with less armor would have been killed. His part in the battle was over now, but he thanked Tails for the save nonetheless. Not being useful, the Captain thought to himself, was not something that was going to bring him down. At least the remote-controlled Falcon Flyer would be a distraction for Dimitri as it rushed alongside the speeding bullet train. It was to be that even Wolf and Lucy's attempts to blow up the train would be rendered useless. The Halberd had sped by and turned abruptly into view while looking straight into the eyes of Dimitri about a mile along the rail away. The distance was closed just a little bit before a fully charged laser tore a perfect chasm all along the Forever Train's cars. Dimitri was ejected from the seat, and he sat in the rubble of his dreams, ignoring how lucky he was to have survived again.

The rest of the teammates were shocked, but celebration slowly replaced that feeling. On the right side of the demolished train, Wolf and Lucy saw the despondent engineer who was frustrated in the foiling of his thrill, this time by seemingly even more unfair means. He kicked a chunk of burning metal as Meta landed simultaneously with the couple Wolfens.

Wolf was going to be the first to confront the saddened ape, but he instead responded with a blaster to the leg as Dimitri pulled out a pistol against him. Meta stepped over quickly, and Lucy was the only one to be sickened by what came next.

"You tried to kill my friend?" said the knight in a questioning tone as if he did not already know the answer. "And you wanted all of us to die, didn't you?"

Dimitri, already immobilized by Wolf's blaster, could barely get out a noise as he laid slumped over against his broken train before he was slashed swiftly in the chest by Meta's heavy blade. The monkey died instantly. Meta stood and stared at the diagonal wound across his helpless victim's chest. "Go," he said silently, his lust for fighting quenched. Lucy had let out a mostly inaudible whimper, still not accustomed to her husband's brutal sense of justice. Apparently, he was not the only one to have that sense.

While the rest of the team made their way back to the former battleground, Fox and Krystal happened upon something startling. It was a large vial, and it held the naked body of the original Andross. Or maybe it was a clone of sorts. Looking in at the green liquid surrounding his nemesis through, it did not matter for Fox. He was instantly traumatized by some sort of psychic force that was scratching his brain from the inside. Krystal tried to connect with the mind of whatever was really in the tube, but once she did, a self-destruct program was initiated. A minute on the clock was all they had to evacuate. They could not wonder now what exactly that was. It was Andross in form, sure, but did it really have the potential for anything in the future? Especially in this remote area of the system? After all, why would something like this be here?

Krystal thought these notions to herself later but now got her husband to his feet as they ran away from the warehouse. On the way out, they noticed the crystal star's resonating power. Krystal looked back once while Fox continued to cover his sensitive ears and keep the villain's influential voice out of his head. Krystal strained to see a pillar of light inside the emptiness. 5. The slanting stream of light outlined something on the floor. 4. It was the black outline of the final chaos emerald. 3. What were the chances? 2. It had to survive the explosion. 1. Krystal picked up Fox as they leaped from the building, leaving the inferno in their wake.

The silver emerald was safe after all. It had flown away and was caught by the Captain on Tails' wing. Mostly unscathed, Fox and Krystal looked back at the blast and the billowing smoke and fire that leapt from its source. Fox swore he saw the ghost of Andross fly out of the destruction. Krystal, judging by Fox's look of horror on his sweet face, believed him. But with more pressing matters to worry about, they both got up and brushed themselves off to greet their battle-worn friends.

The crystal star and silver emerald met with each other at last, and light was returned to the wish-granting gem. Prayers from the crystal star showed the way to the surface of the Lylat star. The six were to fly there immediately, somehow knowing the location would be important in the battle of gods to come. Meta Knight took the emerald and left the star with his friends. They were friends who he had trusted to see his power. He just hoped that he would still have them, and on a deeper level, after this fight. His Halberd set off into space as he visited old worlds and gathered the emeralds on Trinity.

After a long time spent gathering the most powerful heroes, Majora's Perfect Chaos had already savaged dozens of worlds and hundreds of millions of lives. Nothing in any of the heroes' histories of fighting evil had had such a tragic impact before, and without the uncontrollable lust of the secret mask of Termina and the kin of two immortal forest animals, the Nintendia galaxy would be at peace now. That not meant to be, Meta Knight and his Halberd's final stop was at the destroyed Station Square on Mobius where Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Tikal and Silver were called, as they now surrounded the mystical treasure map of the Mushroom Kingdom that now showed the new homes of the Crystal Stars. It was to be through these spiritual vantage points that the other heroes' prayers would combine through the miracle connection of the Crystal Stars to the newly powered wish-granting Chaos Emeralds to strengthen three fated hedgehogs. The group here did not know this exactly of course…but they felt it after a moment.

"So…why exactly did the rest of us spread out to the far corners the galaxy? I mean, I know why we came here, but still?" asked Sonic.

The hedgehogs and echidnas traveled to Mobius to bring relief to the most devastated area once the beast was defeated, but more importantly, to be poised on the closest planet to the center of the galaxy. Adam could chaos control at will and warp light years away, so launching from Mobius would be their best bet at beating Nintendo's favorite son.

"I talked with all of them, well, most of them. They said…" coughed Meta as he paused in his disbelief in the overwhelmingly spiritual ties he had seen expressed in his comrades, "that they felt tied to the places where the Crystal Stars were showing them to. These shrines of sorts were all recognized by at least one person in each group, and we all already knew that only you three could battle…that thing…your son, I mean…in space, so I let them go. And I'd also be lying to you all if I said I didn't feel strange either…I don't know how else to explain it…"

Knuckles began: "Well, now that we know the Chaos Emeralds are tied to much more than just our homeworld, Sonic, we can deduce that high points of religious energy are conduits for the wishes of the Chaos Emeralds. The partner gems, the Crystal Stars, channel energy from a purer form of wishes. Those are prayers. And here we have our foe's mother and father who wish more than anything to get their son back and try to right the wrongs Majora has wrought on the galaxy. This whole universe is probably connected by these fourteen gems…and all of us, even our ancestors and the very peoples we come from, we didn't know it until now."

"Yes…" muttered Shadow. "But now that we've figured all our damn cosmic connection with the gods or whatever you want to believe, can we just do this! Every word we speak, my son is being forced to kill more innocent people out there…he may not be completely like me, but I can only imagine how he's going to take that once we make him come back to us…"

"We can only do as much as we can…on all sides of this suffering…" said Tikal meekly, sharing in the parental grief that Shadow could not hold back anymore.

"Well, since we don't know exactly how to get started," said Silver, "let's have Tikal call upon the prayers of emeralds and stars while we try to super transform. Maybe with the help of all our friends, we'll be more powerful than ever. It could even be unlimited, and that'd guarantee us a victory! We'll be able to bring Adam back!" shouted Silver enthusiastically.

Instead, it was decided that Knuckles call upon the miracle gems. Besides, Tikal had not communicated with them in a millennium, and in her grieving state, she did not feel the best-suited for the job of messenger.

"Servers of chaos and prosperity…" Knuckles began as they surrounded the Chaos Emeralds with the echidna and map in the middle.

"We CAN do this!" yelled Sonic prematurely but in a kind tone of voice.

"…I ask of you to bring forth prayers and thought, wishes and dreams…"

"I know we can," affirmed Silver in his resolute, stoic manner.

"…and make them all one to preserve this universe and aid our heroes…"

"Right," said Shadow with as much calmness as he could muster.

"…for they are our protectors of peace and freedom. Now, give them power and let them wipe out the tyrannical darkness of our worlds, so they can bring home the light!"

With those words: a new challenge given to Knuckles from the emeralds and stars together, Super Sonic, Super Shadow and Super Silver all glistened their familiar golden glows and shot into the atmosphere and space together, in the formation of a triangle, now ready to omit Majora's Perfect Chaos from the universe and bring home Adam, who had been a perfect son. In the seven spiritual epicenters of Nintendia, the heroes were praying, wishing with all their power to save the land and their own. Meanwhile, Meta Knight had watched the whole spectacle with his shielded, worried eyes as they glanced over at Tikal. The warrior and the prophet stood close to each other, and Meta felt that his strength was still needed…in this different way…to help his friend. She knelt down and embraced the swordsman who tried not to cry…even though he had a mask.

In space amidst the stars, everything was calm and beautiful and for the three hedgehogs, even safe. They could not feel their energy draining as the energy of their family was an endless wellspring for their unlimited powers. Still, nothing was going to be accomplished if they could not find Adam and Majora, so they flew at incredible speeds to find the amalgam of power.

In the Golden Banana Temple of New DK Island, the Kong family gathered around the diamond star inside to send their well-intentioned thoughts even though most of them had not met Adam yet. They still burned with a desire to spare needless casualties and make the galaxy safe and predictable again. Diddy and Donkey Kong's thoughts moved past just wanting a world where they could vacation with others without worry; their extensive work with Sonic had inspired them, and they wanted more than anything for him to be all right through this. Amy held similar feelings, just incredibly stronger of course. Her love for Sonic but also heartfelt friendship with Shadow and Silver was being sent to the trio in space so far away. Mewtwo actually had his thoughts on Adam. He knew too well how it was like to be a creation of something ill-willed into this world, and he could not bear to think of the little, kind boy he had met days ago being killed due to the demonic designs of some ancient civilization. That had almost happened to him with a modern people. How evil must those of the undeveloped past had been?

Mewtwo's silent, telepathic call into the diamond rendered: "Adam, you innocent child, you have to be all right, not just for us so that we can see you again…but also for yourself…because you deserve a life that you want to live, one that's controlled by you and not what others or fate has planned for you. Please come back to us…"

Sonic, Shadow and Silver finally found Majora's Perfect Chaos in the far corner of the Lylat System near Sauria. Dinosaur Planet was the smallest in the system, and the gargantuan beast was pushing Adam to his limits by growing bigger than the entire planet it was about to decimate. The three hedgehogs dashed in to intercept, and Shadow was understandably the last of the trio to strike his son. It did not seem like the Majora part could feel pain at all; if it did, maybe the demon relished in it to become angrier. Maybe they were just hurting Shadow's son under the surface, wondered Sonic and Silver as the latter could read the god's thoughts.

The others were preoccupying Adam and Majora with head-on blows and asteroids flown out of the gravitational pull of Sauria, so Shadow circled around faster than lightning, cunning enough to deliver a super-powered chaos spear that was potent enough to send Majora's Perfect Chaos flying out of Lylat. With this blow, the hedgehogs lost sight again, but they continued to pursue in the direction the enraged monster was flown.

Rouge was filing her report with GUN while the others were making their prayers known at Angel Island floating in the sky. She was constantly thinking of her love Knuckles while she did it though. Rouge knew very well he had an important duty to carry out, much like she had a responsibility to inform the free worlds, regardless of how insignificant that obligation felt to her right now. After all, Knuckles was the catalyst for these miracle gems to work in the first place, and her best friend's son was in the middle of being tortured and forced to commit genocide across the entire galaxy.

On the floating island in the sky over Mobius, Hammer, Snake and Lucario looked into the emerald star with an air of melancholy. Even they were weighed down by the enormity of the task that stood against them and the hedgehogs. Vivian, with her hopeful eyes covered by her wavy hair, inched closer and rose up to meet the star head-on to give her prayers.

"Please, emeralds, return our heroes safely. And most of all, make sure that boy is okay too…he never did anything wrong…he doesn't deserve this. He needs to have a chance to be happy after all of this…" whispered Vivian, her heart burning forth as its righteous beating was heard by the heroes. Its wishes were endless energy upon which Sonic, Shadow and Silver could draw from.

Inertia was having its way with the gigantic demon form of the child as it took him through a hazy nebula where the Bottle Ship once was. The blast from his father's chaos spear inadvertently created another monster for the future as the purple, red, blue and green tattoos of Majora's Perfect Chaos absorbed a Desbrachian with its cocoon unraveling and its sharp scythes and teeth flailing upon its demise floating in space.

Before chaos control was activated on evil's part, Sonic and his friends kept up the assault by ramming into the beast with their mighty light energy. The pattern kept on repeating: Silver, Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Sonic and Shadow until the hulk warped away from the strikes and appeared behind Sonic to slap him away from the fray. The meaty demon boy hand pulsated with sickly ooze as the tip of a finger was bigger than Sonic's body. Adam was done growing for now, but his other surprises managed to keep the hedgehogs on their toes. The abdomen laser charged instantly now and shot waves of madness from the core of the creature without warning, consistently catching the fastest creatures alive off their guard. Silver tried to predict where the assaults would land; his mind would call to his golden comrades as they flew out of the way just in time. Shadow went charging into the origin point of the laser, hoping to knock the demon Majora out of his son permanently.

Hyrule's time was still a fluctuating mess to those with a foreign reality, so the Links stood in what was the Temple of Hylia, Sealed Temple, Temple of Time and future Sacred Grove all at once. They gathered around the pedestal of time as the timelines flashed around them. The gold star was the one constant they could focus on at least. Yoshi, Plessie, Kirby and the Resistance all joined in praying.

More expressive than his descendants, the first Chosen Hero spoke to the gold star with sincerity, sharing his courage with the heroes so far away. "The most important thing is to believe you can accomplish what seems impossible. If we all say that the wrongs of what happened here today will be remedied, if we want so deeply for Adam, an innocent child, to be okay, then we can make it happen with our power together."

The whitish purple laser erupted from the boy's pulsating gut just before the father was about to strike. Shadow deflected some of the energy away from him, but he still took a heavy blow in the skirmish. So next, Silver rolled Sonic into a spin dash and set him on a track of the stars into Adam, knocking into the mask's mouthpiece. The groan from the beast was encouraging as it stumbled into further attacks and tried to obliterate the trio with lasers that were much too far from the mark for beings faster than light.

All of a sudden, something unexpected happened as the enemy shrunk back down to twice the heroes' size with its build still extremely girthy and proportionately as musclebound. The cosmic beast grasped all the heroes in its massive hands and warped into another sector with the heroes uncertain of where they were going.

The Thousand-Year Door was still cracked from the invasion into the ancient lands ten years ago. Now Nintendo knew the Crystal Stars were more than just the key to that lair's entry. In fact, they had existed long before a millennium ago. Their involvement in the Shadow Queen's rise and destruction was just an example of their power.

Now Jolene and her entertainers of the Glitz Pit all stood around the door, gathered around the ruby star as the heroes who defeated Doopliss also spoke their prayers into the gem. Thoughts were also with Rawk Hawk who was being cared for in the Rogueport infirmary. Link was stretching back into his human form again while Midna hung off of his shoulder. Leon and Panther were also hanging off each other, thinking about the more innocent members of their new merry band as they called out, and they wished Adam and the other heroes would be okay. Goombella, who would usually be raptured with her surroundings in this historic place, could only think of Adam: the kid she had meant only once. He had been so kind and cheery. It made her think of Yoshi Jr. and the rest of her nostalgic time spent with old friends. They were the best friends. Ludwig was the newest member of those she held in high esteem.

The Koopaling was having a moment in the safety of his mind. Asking for forgiveness of the sins of himself, his siblings and his father, Ludwig wondered if praying for this boy was enough to save his soul from the gods who, he had not thought about this until now, obviously held dominion over these worlds, a dominion his family had disgraced to no end he believed now. Perhaps it was selfish to be thinking of such a thing at this time.

"I know it might not be much coming from me…" Ludwig began. "But I want the entirety of my new family to make it through all of this…safely."

Majora's Perfect Chaos threw the heroes outside of the warp and into the moon over Trinity that was just above the Mushroom Kingdom now in its rotation. Adam's massive heal crushed the hedgehogs into the moon, causing the nearby craters to implode with the dust of the surface. Shadow shocked his son with a chaos blast that blew away more of the cosmic rock. Sonic and Silver managed to get out of the hold and attacked on either sides as the beast grew again. But through it all, its wrath was suffering and pain was written on the grotesque face of Adam and Majora.

"Stop it!" Shadow yelled, talking to the creature who was holding his son captive.

The hedgehog with the red streaks in his golden mane struggled to reach out to the hidden spirit of his son beneath the madness of the terminal demon. The other two joined with Shadow to bombard the beast's pressure points with attacks at the highest velocities they had ever mustered.

The streaks of yellow that glistened across the stars in the void looked amazing and numbered more than three when civilians glanced up from their planetary homes. The hedgehogs' speed was that incredible. Majora was having trouble keeping up its mighty swings against them. If the monster did swing, it failed to strike. Now on the defensive completely, Majora forced Adam to grow to its ultimate height. The hybrid of good and evil dominated by the shadow now towered bigger than small planets.

Awestruck, the three legendary hedgehogs made sure they were caught up in the same chaos control that took them all where Majora's Perfect Chaos intended on inflicting mass destruction next.

Only the Mario brothers along with Ness remained in Fourside for the rebuilding efforts there after Porky's surprise attack. Blaziken and Lucas were nearby in Mr. Saturn Village and praying to the sapphire star to reach the super forms that were fighting the evil they were all indirectly facing. The boy meditated and, forcing how much he still missed his nuclear family after seven years apart out of his mind for now, forced the focus of his hopes for the team, a new family, through to the chaos emerald that helped power the trio in space now. None of them knew that if the beast were still here, it would be large enough to destroy Trinity in one blow.

King Dedede and Sheik were in the village too but receiving medical attention, both sorry that they could not contribute to the cause more at the moment. Sheik was almost smitten with the motives and feelings of the Dreamland king, and he questioned her about what her life was like before Nintendo and where she came from. Without revealing her emotional baggage, mostly her empathy for the future land of Hyrule that she allowed to be destroyed, Sheik answered the king's questions and was obviously glad to. Needless to say, the king was shocked when Sheik finally transformed into her true form of a beautiful princess.

Lucas was holding his hands clasped with fingers interlocked in front of his face. The tender soul spoke aloud into the star: "Please keep everybody safe. They deserve to make it out of this. And please take care of the people who are gone already. Make them welcome in whatever heaven they're in, please…"

Sonic was frustrated with the constant cowardice in the monster's warping. He ricocheted back and forth against the incantation, never losing his rate of acceleration despite the constant changing in direction to build up momentum. Lost in their attacks as well, Shadow and Silver were unaware of what the beast was really doing. It just wanted to kill as much as it could before it was defeated now. They all bounced relentlessly off the creature while it quickly destroyed the planet of Rock Star with one hand swipe.

The volcanoes and crystal-filled caverns of the planetoid were utterly obliterated, and their lives of millions of monsters and species were snuffed out at once. Silver levitated the remnants of the planet and its life in space, hurling his newfound ammunition against the deplorable leviathan. He was angry now too. He had not seen this tragedy coming in his mind. The future was uncertain now as he and his friends struggled to win the battle against Adam and the mask that had taken hold of him.

Atop a floating Elysian city, Blaze was thinking of her lover, and she knew deep in her heart that he could accomplish anything. He had cheated death and saved so many others from it before after all. The Chozo shrine and its statues enshrouded the garnet star in this heavenly sanctuary sheltered from all the winds that eroded Elysia's ancient, floating architecture. Samus and Anthony knew all too well the former bounty hunter's struggle, and Adam had it worse not having a choice in the matter of being a fugitive from the Galactic Federation. Higgs' colleagues were probably trying to contain the damage, but Aran knew from experience that the universe was going to sort itself out the way it wanted to. The challenge of the hedgehogs and miracles gems was just part of all that destiny.

Marth and Ike, both legends to each other in their own outrealms of which they came from, were learning more about each other's cultures and journeys. That friendship and understanding manifested itself into well wishes into the shining garnet. Well wishes from the royalty of Akaneia and honor of the Greil shot out of the purple emerald in the super-powered souls of the hedgehogs.

Wanting a kid of their own someday soon (something Falco never would have believed he would be thinking), Falco and Katt felt some serious empathy for Shadow and Tikal. This was a feeling they tried to send their way as positively as they could, and it helped in the fight that was nearing its end now. Samus was the one speaking now. They all listened with a spiritual connection they felt with the star-shaped gem before them.

"You guys are all so strong. I know you can defeat our enemy. And I feel like you too, Adam, can destroy what's holding you back. The real you…that's what we need in this universe. Kindness. Youthful innocence. Enthusiasm. Optimism. We all need more of that. We need you to come back to make everything better…"

Chaos control. The hedgehogs could beat him, but they could not stop that from happening. They were in a faraway section of the galaxy now. Majora's Perfect Chaos shoved its fist into the planet Jatsuk before the animals could do anything about it. They knew they just had to continue to attack as ferociously and as fast as possible to end this with the least amount of casualties possible. The brown furry creatures, with the capability of a community making machinery that Samus had meant once, all screamed out. One strike was all it took for the rest of the planet to collapse on itself, leaving a ruptured mantle and scattered crust in its wake.

"That's enough. This has to end now!" yelled Sonic as Silver prepared something huge.

The telekinetic hedgehog tried to form a force field large enough to contain Adam, but it broke free without much trouble. The attempt of creating a planet-sized shield left Silver tired and nearly running out of energy to contain himself.

"Ugh…Guys, don't worry about me…If I lose my super form, I can still breathe in space if I keep a shield up around myself…argh…" uttered Silver.

"We're not worried about that, you fool! Focus your effort on attacks that make sense next time!" argued Shadow.

"Sorry…"

"And that time is now," said Sonic. "We'll never take him out without your help, Silver. There's three of us for a reason."

With rejuvenated resolve, Silver knew Sonic and Shadow spoke the truth and joined them in a final assault. With how fast they all moved, the light was almost completely shrouding the demonic colossus. Majora was shunned by the light and frightened at its impending death. The laser shot out one last time, and it managed to escape barely. One last use of chaos control was all the wrath had left. The hedgehogs shot through space and time to stay with it for good.

Fox, Wolf, Krystal, Lucy, Captain Falcon and Tails were all hovering in their starships around the crystal star, outlined by the light of the Lylat star. From their vantage point, they could see the space-time rift appear in Sector Z, tearing the nebula apart momentarily as the fight against pure evil continued on.

"I can only see flashes of light really…other than that thing they're fighting. It's grown to cosmic proportions. That can't be real!" shouted Lucy.

"I can sense their thought patterns. They're winning!" Krystal reported.

"Or at least they think they are," replied Wolf. "Maybe we should keep our focus on sending good vibes their way. Again, I don't really believe in that stuff, but…"

"Oh, come off it, hairy guy!" yelled the Captain with some righteous encouragement. "We all have to believe in something. I mean, look at the fight they're putting up! I'd say believing in those guys and this star are as good things as any to trust in right now. Let's go Sonic! Come on, Silver and Shadow! Show that monster what true speed is!"

"I agree. I'm wishing my absolute hardest. I know we've all been doing the same, so let's not stop now." Tails secretly wished for Sonic's good fortune. He felt like a bad friend, but nothing like that mattered right now.

Fox McCloud summed everything up so well. As Nintendo's leader, he always did.

"We have just as much power on our side as that creature they're fighting does. They each have the drive to win too. But we have the support of those we love. All that thing loves his destruction. Therefore…I'm not even holding my breath. I'm not worried if we'll win…because in a sense, we already have. Now we just have to show the rest of the universe that we've done it. We're going to rebuild the worlds after this is over, and this galaxy will have hope in its grasp once again."

The plasma of Sector Z floated around the heroes and their villain. Victory was certain for Silver, Sonic and Shadow, and the latter's mind was only on saving his son. Sonic climbed around the massive body of Adam's corrupted form. Super Sonic struck at every inch as it covered the tattooed surface of the creature. Super Silver shot lasers from his hands that blasted the beast into oblivion. Super Shadow stopped time when these attacks became a success and Majora's Perfect Chaos screamed out into the silence of space.

The godlike hedgehog, redeemed through his love for Tikal and his son and indebted to the stars, emeralds and friends that made that possible, reached out towards his son. Sonic was floating back away from the beast as it shrunk through time. The lasers dissipated from Silver's palms, and Adam's muscles were shrinking back to their normal size. Adam was smaller than his father again, just still covered in the purple and red Majora had painted over his tiny body.

With tears in his eyes and the effect of chaos control's slowing of time still allowing for his melancholy, Shadow cradled his son in his arms, fully ready to know his fate. He forced his left ear down to his son's mouth that was, indeed, still breathing beneath the infernal mask. As the intense colors faded from his body to reveal soft orange again, Adam squirmed around, moving for himself in the first time in a while. His dad ripped the mask off immediately when he could and threw it away to drift in space.

Chaos control faded away, and neither side was going to use it again that day. Adam opened his eyes as Sonic and Silver went quickly down to see him too. The boy was too tired to do or say anything, but he smiled as he drifted off to sleep. He was alive. That was the most important thing to Shadow, having finished the battle against the Majora creature who had wanted nothing but a powerful complement to its rage. It was also the most important thing to Tikal, who so far away on Mobius, somehow knew her family was all right. The miracle gems had done their job as predicted by their divine creators, and they were finally reunited too.

Silver had put a force field around Adam to give him oxygen. Sonic had grabbed up the evil mask, so they could destroy it for good later. They all warped straight to the Pillar. Shadow's trajectory was never off its mark anymore. The doctors and nurses were overjoyed to hear of the mission's success, especially after having heard of all the doom and despair on the news. They took Adam to a room to check if he was truly okay. Everything was checking out. The seven Crystal Stars told the praying heroes that their jobs were done too. There was a lot of service to be done for the people and places Majora ruined or left completely destroyed in its furious wake, but, for now, everyone was too overcome with the thought of seeing their favorite new member of Nintendo, even he was still asleep.

And when he did finally wake up, the entire crew was going to be there to welcome him back home. Pit, Palutena and Viridi, who had all just defeated Hades and Medusa again in the depths of the Underworld (and were also ready to take on the plot of time-space Tabuu had so kindly set aside for them for the near future) were about to return too. It was going to be a full ensemble to see the shining blue eyes of Adam's face greet them. For a moment in this countdown of absolution, all the members of Nintendo were going to be at peace.

Adam shuffled around in his sleep as if his inner self could feel the pressure around him: all the nice people waiting for him to wake up. But he still had to keep them waiting; he was having a fluid nightmare anyway. Majora's creepy incarnation loomed above, below, in front and behind him, and if often consumed him. Sometimes it just ran right into him, leaving the innocent boy screaming every time. It hurt a lot, and the pain just compounded in the absolute darkness. Before he woke up, Adam thought he heard the mask say: "Your fate…is to always stay with me!"

He jerked awake at first in the hospital bed but then quickly shrank back into the pillows and sheets, not ready for the blinding light hitting his retinas or the swarm of people around him. Shadow had probably insisted, he thought, that only the doctor, Tikal and him be there. But then his mom had probably said to let some in: the ones who could respect his boundaries at least. That would be a good compromise, Adam thought. After the initial shock of waking, he was actually glad that so many of his friends were there to see him.

The little guy loosened the hold of his squinting eyelids, and his eyes were met with anxious, shining ones of some of his favorite people from home. His parents knew him so well after only a month of life. Of course, Adam never thought it weird that he had grown so rapidly. The others had never really seen anything like it though, not even in worlds of magic and the futuristic extents of some worlds' present-day technology. He looked the build of a ten-year-old boy but, in reality, was only less than a year old. His mind was on the level of the average older teenager, and his connection with others was unparalleled by most. But still, if you knew him well enough, he would still let you know he was a kid through his innocent nature of cheerfulness, something that made everyone around him very happy to see. The people in the room were happy to see a faint glimmer of it now. He was obviously still hurting though too.

Shadow and Tikal were on either side of their son, both caressing Adam's face now and kissing him, making him blush in front of the rest. Sonic and Silver were also there, fitting that the other two of his ultimate saviors were also huge fans of his. Adam saw Mr. McCloud (the leader insisted he be called Fox though), Koopaling Larry, Lucario and Malon amongst the others. They all gave him time to speak. Any questions of what happened were quickly dismissed by the crowd around Adam. The boy could remember blackness and an intense heat for the longest time, and anything before that was spent with his parents on Angel Island. He had no idea what had happened to him.

After heartfelt pleasantries with some of his best friends and the Koopaling who he had barely met before this moment, Adam felt himself drifting off into sleep again. He so desperately wanted answers to what had happened to him while he was out, but that could not keep him awake any longer. The vessel of Majora slowly sank back into the abyss of nightmares again, and only Shadow and Tikal remained to watch over him while he slept.

The gang looked at the tank of fluids before them. In it was Majora's Mask. It stared back at them creepily. Fox wondered if it knew that they were talking about its destruction. It did need to be destroyed completely and absolutely. He was surrounded with what he thought were the most competent of Nintendo warriors and strategists. If the brash mercenary had an advisory board, this was it. The committee consisted of Silver, Krystal, Samus, Palutena, Lucario, Jeff and Groose funnily enough.

"I've figured that we need a weapon to destroy this thing…" Fox began. "Because obviously, if one of us tries to destroy it, the thing may just latch onto you for your power. Then we'd be in this mess all over again."

"But how do we know if we can destroy this thing for good?" asked Krystal, knowing the worried thoughts of others too. "Even if it disintegrates into nothingness, could it still survive through magic somehow?"

"Indeed," chimed in Palutena. "This mask was used in the rituals of a tribe of old. There is certainly some divine power within this mask. But it's also like its own living entity. I'm not sure whether it's best to destroy it…or keep it locked up."

"But then we're just waiting to be destroyed again if we keep hanging onto it for the future," said Samus. "If we kill it, we may at least be free of it for some time…and forever potentially."

Jeff questioned, "Is there even a weapon out there that could completely obliterate it? A weapon that's not contingent on the power of a person? I've never been able to make something that destructive…not when compared to this thing."

"Perhaps a beam of the most potent energy could rip right through this demon…but neither Silver nor I should risk shooting it, as per Fox's advice. Where do we find this laser?"

"So just your typical explosion wouldn't be direct enough?" mused the engineer Groose. "I guess that makes sense."

"We need the best chance possible to eliminate it," said Fox.

"The Space Colony ARK," Silver muttered softly but loud enough to be heard within the closed-off room. He started again, a little louder now: "The eclipse cannon…after all it's gone through…is still operational…"

Through the rest of the meeting, nothing seemed like a more surefire success than the Eclipse Cannon. Fox decided at the meeting's adjournment that a group of some of the best warriors among them would take the mask and see to its necessary destruction. Everyone needed to rest first, but after a good night's sleep and a well-fed morning of waking heroes, the mission to finally destroy Majora's Mask would commence.

When Adam woke, his parents were gone. They had gone out quickly to get something to eat themselves and also bring back some food, definitely reheatable, for whenever their son was going to wake up hungry. Honestly, Adam felt it was sort of nice to wake up alone right now. His first moments as himself again were excessively smothered in the love of not only his family but his entire extended family in the ranks of all the people he admired here. The feeling of taking a deep breath after a long sleep here in his home and sanctuary felt so good again. He felt nothing could make that feeling dissipate. Nothing did until moments later when the boy turned on the TV set above and in front of his bed, and there the news was on to tell him everything he had done when the real him had not been around.

Adam went through a strange process of grieving right then. The headlines of "hundreds of millions dead across the galaxy" and "unfathomable monster ravages peaceful worlds" shocked him now and would stick with him forever. The images of destruction, graphic displays of the horror on countless worlds and emotional testimonials elicited by teary-eyed reporters made his heart sink into his stomach, causing a chain reaction to send tears welling up through his head and out and down across his face almost instantly. More detailed reports at news desks as he flicked through all channels that showed the same devastation really made it sink in. He knew he had not done any of this, but something had controlled his body to make it all possible. The distraught boy ran his fingers crazily through his hair as he could barely understand or believe what was happening. All of this was in a couple minutes before Shadow and Tikal could come back to reach their son in time and think about telling him a watered down version of what had happened to him and the worlds. The parents of the powerful, immortal child were caught off-guard completely by the sight of their child in shambles on the medical bed.

"Adam…" said his mother as she instantly knelt down to hug him. She was already painfully aware that her boy knew the truth.

Shadow's gut reaction was to throw a chaos spear into the TV. It was slightly faster than grasping for the remote at Adam's bedside. Then again, Shadow realized destroying the set was probably a good thing if his son's natural curiosity got the better of him again.

The three critters were a wreck. Two of them tried to console the one crying so heavily, deeply and uncontrollably that his body was shaking with tears and cries. Hope was completely gone on the parents' side of trying to ease their boy into this grim, unfortunate reality for the galaxy. Adam could not help but focus on the fact that his self was the core of all this tragedy he had just learned about only moments before. It is all he focused on. And that is why he kept sobbing, his mind racing about what he must have done, all through that night. But that is also why Shadow and Tikal never left their son's bedside, with either of their arms wrapped around Adam at all times.

"We figured we'd want you along for the ride," said Silver jokingly to his wife.

"Haha…" came the sarcastic reply. "There's more than just I who could be fit for this mission, Silver. Admit it: you just want me on the mission, so we can spend even more time with each other."

"You don't have to hold a gun to my head to get me to admit that, Blaze! We work so well together…it would feel like a part of me was missing if I wasn't fighting, flying or infiltrating something without you, heh."

Blaze was touched but also struggled to get over how cheesy what her husband just said was. "Yeah, I know. So who else is coming with us to the ARK?"

"Let's see, um, it's you, me, Fox and Krystal, Samus, Ike and that Lucas boy, I believe. Sir McCloud likes to vary things up a bit…also, as long as his squeeze is there with him too!"

"I get it, Silver. Being able to fight evil with your spouse is quite the bonding experience that most couples don't get to have. With your optimism, there's got to be some way we can be happy about the end of the world we're in too!" exclaimed Blaze.

"Perhaps it's bringing us closer as a team, now that you say something about it. As heroes, it's our job to make the best of terrible situations!"

"Not arrogant calling yourself a hero, are you?"

"True," muttered Silver. "But to be fair, others have called us that first. Also, I do think we're all heroes if we truly believe we are and act on those honest beliefs."

"Maybe after this year is over, you can finally focus on being an inspirational speaker!" came another sarcastic, joking reply from the fiery cat. Bickering was essentially this couple's foreplay, and making the worlds better places seemed to fit that bill too.

The anthropomorphic couple first met up with Fox and Krystal, and the pack continued into the Pillar's main hangar where Samus, Ike and Lucas were already waiting. Even the psychic boy did not seem worried this time. They were all ready for their mission, and now Morton Koopa Jr. towed the vat in which Majora's Mask was being held, ready for its chance at escape and the others ready to destroy it for good. The seven warriors were ready to board their ship with precious evil cargo inside. They had decided to use a stolen Space Pirate craft just in case the mission grew violent and they could not return home the way they came. A random frigate would not draw attention, and hopefully the stealth features would protect against detection if GUN were roaming nearby space. The spacecraft blasted out of the bay. Its fated destination was the Space Colony ARK.

GUN was actually preoccupied with another aspect of the travesty that had befallen its world and others; they were not patrolling the space colony. They did not recognize that as a top GUN priority anymore. The Commander was on his way to the Pillar to hopefully find out more of what happened. Nintendo had yet to give an official report to the United Governments of Nintendia, and GUN on behalf of their country was the first union to grow restless. Part of that was the Commander's personal restlessness.

A young journalist from Corneria was on her way to the Pillar too. After the McClouds had denied so many from her industry from interviewing their heroes before, preferring only official reports out of courtesy to the United Governments since they lived in space outside of anyone's jurisdiction, most reporters gave up on ever getting the scoop directly from Nintendo headquarters. The vixen Kelly Atlas was not like most reporters.

Meanwhile, Adam found that he was so dehydrated that he literally had no more tears to cry. If it was not for his parents forcing him to eat and drink, he probably would not have. He was still having trouble trying to find reasons to care about himself after he knew what he did. Majora did it, he thought. That is what he kept trying to tell himself, but he knew, or rather felt, that he would never forgive himself for being an instrument of destruction.

Shadow now struggled to sleep beside his boy in a chair next to his bedside. In his dreamy state, he could not help but wonder if he passed on his ability to always be too hard on himself down to his son. Tikal had crawled into the tiny bed with her son, much to his unsuccessful protest.

Adam should have been asleep as well. He felt exhausted in every sense of the word after all. But…he just could not sleep. He decided to take a walk around. He managed to get out of bed without waking either of his parents. The soft pads of his big feet fit for a much taller version of himself made very little noise in his room as he left. Walking around again was a simple pleasure he had not recognized how grateful he was for it until now. Lights in the main hallways were all turned off. The Pillar had its own clock, and for the most part, the people living there abided by it in terms of work and sleep. Then again, there were some heroes that barely had time for sleep. Adam had always admired them the most.

Seeing the intricate majesty of what he thought must be the coolest, most comfortable place in the whole universe helped get his mind off his depression and self-depreciation a little. His demonic form and actions, always imprinted in his head by what he had seen on the news, still nagged at him in the back of his head. So, he tried to focus on the good deeds of those around him. He reminded himself of each of his role model's successes as he passed by each of their rooms. Perhaps, he thought, he needed to learn more about their failures in order to accept what happened to him. Adam needed to hear some reassurance from more than just his parents (who he knew were wonderful but would also be acting so loving if Adam had consciously done these bad things) who would help him come to grips with what had happened and the future potential his wise, fledgling mind wanted to see.

First, he wanted to talk to Pit whose chambers were close by. He nervously knocked at the door and was instantly let in by an enthusiastic yet yawning Pit. Adam apologized for waking him, but Pit was hearing none of it. He leaped back upon his bed made of magical clouds which simulated his old home in Skyworld. His right sandal propped upon his other knee and his hands an extra pillow behind his head, Pit eagerly asked what was wrong. Adam was so touched by Pit's kindness and honest curiosity, despite being woken at such an hour and at a time, unknowingly to Adam, when the angel needed his rest.

The boy explained how he was feeling and how he had always admired the tales of him beating up Underworld baddies and slaying both Medusa and Hades. He had banished so many evil creatures from the mortal holy world of Trinity that Adam, the growing, naïve echidhog, wondered if Pit ever failed.

"Well, little guy," started Pit excitedly, weirdly so to Adam as the angel was about to talk about a deep personal regret, "there was actually something that happened to me a few years back that, like you now, I had no control over at the time. Yet, like you too, I beat myself up about it constantly, even after having righted the wrongs that came from it. In the middle of this huge war, I was sealed inside this stupid, little ring…for three years! For three long years, I wasn't around to help humans or gods. Even the heavens were disgraced because I wasn't there to protect them. It…well, actually wasn't until recently that I just stopped thinking about it."

"Why did you stop?" asked the small boy.

"I realized, better late than never I guess, that beating myself up about something I couldn't have controlled or prevented wasn't accomplishing anything. It was just making myself feel worse. And then, I thought, if it made me feel worse, well then I would probably be a pretty lousy angel in all respects right now. So I finally stopped dwelling on it. I know what happened to you is terrible, but you have to know that it wasn't your fault. It's also no use wondering how things could've gone differently. If you can't change it now, Adam, try to focus on the future and what will help you and other people that are still alive."

"That does help, Pit. Thank you so much."

"I'm just glad I could make you feel a little better, buddy. I know I haven't had a real good chance to get to know you yet. But, I hear everyone say how kind and special you are! You don't deserve to beat yourself up. Judging by the looks of you now compared to when you came in, it looks like you were pretty good at it."

This made Adam laugh a little. Pit was so nice.

"We all love you here, Adam. Know that for sure! We are all here to get you through this. Heh, speaking of, I guess I should tell you I won't actually be here for you in the next however long I'll be gone. At least not physically; I'll be here in spirit!"

"Where are you going?" asked the boy.

"Well, if you can believe it – wait, I know you can because you're smart and your dad's probably talked about the maze enough already – anyway, I'm actually going to redo all those heroic exploits and crippling failures all over again haha!"

"That's right…" remembered Adam. "I imagine that will be weird."

"Yep, everything with that ring, Hades, Medusa, the Aurum, Wish Seed, Lightning Chariot, all of that. It has to be redone for some reason! That Tabuu guy must be the biggest jerk in the universe, I tell ya! I mean, I sorta knew that because I fought him before, but this is on a whole 'nother level of evil!"

"True. If anything is worse than that Majora creature that took over my body, it's Tabuu. Especially since he promises the end of the world, and Mrs. McCloud knows he's not bluffing."

"Oh, really? Well, I guess I better take this mission extra serious. I didn't know she was so good at reading minds that she could make her telepathic way through all that noise to read that blue, shiny guy's bald noggin. He may look goofy, but I ASSUME he's a god…"

"Yeah…well, good luck out there Pit. I hope everything works out, and you and Palutena come back even safer than when you left!"

"Thanks, buddy! It will be weird doing all of this again, but from the talk of those who went in their mazes early, apparently upon entering you revert to the age you were at that time and your memory is temporarily wiped as if you were fighting evil the exact same as before. It's really just all over again, but we don't know it when we're inside. Yeesh, I'm sure remembering doing it for a second time when we finish will give us major headaches when we finally return to well-deserved naps."

"I can't imagine how that must feel," muttered Adam. "I'm sure you'll kick butt again though! Good thing time moves much faster to us while you're in that maze. Hopefully, that will make that three-yearlong sleep in that ring faster for you."

"I hope so, bud. Take care, Adam. Now! It is time for my mightiest sleep ever! It is time to prepare to relive the past by sleeping the real world away!" joked Pit.

Adam's conversation with the angel had helped put things into perspective. He did not really feel like he needed the consoling of others anymore, but he bumped into Midna floating in her imp form with a variety of snacks in her colossal hair hand on the way back to his room.

"Oh, sorry," started Adam before Midna dominated the meeting.

"Adam! I'm so glad you're all right. You had more people here worried than we've ever been worried about anyone, eee hee!"

"That's so kind of you guys…I'm not that important though…"

"Yes, you are! You're the cutest kid around and almost the cutest thing too if I weren't here, eee hee hee!" exclaimed Midna with a wink.

This made Adam laugh, and Midna was glad it did. Still preferring the power of her 'monstrous' form compared to her true one, Midna offered Adam to come over and meet Link and some others.

Celebrating after the epic mission to save the boy, Midna, Link, Say'ri, Katt, Anthony and Lakilester were gathered around some kind of card game and the delicious bounty Midna had brought back with her. No one had expected her to bring the sweetest kid they had all worked so hard to save the day prior, so they erupted in happy greetings that made Adam feel so fuzzy inside that the hard, jagged core of what had happened was softened completely in the moment.

"Thank you all for working so hard to save me and…" Adam was going to say the galaxy, but he stopped to remember that his possession caused the deaths of millions. Millions that could have been saved if this had not happened in the first place.

Others in the group did not recognize the pause in Adam's speech as a sign of his guilt though. For all they knew, Adam did not yet know about what had happened. They rejoiced in fellowship and sweets for an hour or so until everyone retired except for the Twilight Princess who barely had to sleep to keep functioning. It was a good thing too because running a kingdom in another realm entirely from a base in space above the other world it was a parallel of was exhausting work for the woman.

Adam's memory of his guilt was starting to flood back in his mind, so he thought of asking a question. "Does doing so much ever get tiring or too tough, Midna? Have you ever failed like I did yesterday?"

Midna had a quick wit. She had not known until then that Adam was aware of what he had done in possessed form, but now Midna immediately thought of something to say that would assuage Adam's internal nightmarish struggle.

"I've failed plenty, Adam. And never like you because my failures are worse. It's because I was consciously making choices that, in the end, were to devastate my people. You were being controlled. That mask wasn't you. I should now because I'm familiar with its type of magic."

"I hope most people think you're right, but not everyone has as much faith in a random kid like you all do."

"Well…you're anything but a random kid to us. We love you; we're family. I'm glad we can call ourselves that. If we couldn't, this would be an empty existence floating up here in such dark space. I like darkness, but up here is ridiculous, eee hee."

"Thank you so much." Adam didn't know what else to say for a moment. "I love everyone here too. It's such a great feeling…"

"Oh, and about others not believing your story if you want to tell the galaxy you were controlled by that demon – it ultimately doesn't matter if they all believe you. Your happiness cannot depend on the thoughts of others. I did that for the longest time, and it's not healthy."

"What was that exactly?" questioned Adam after he continued his repetitious and heartfelt thanks.

"When I was the ruler of my people in the Twilight Realm, I was only ever happy when almost all of the Twili were happy. People, though, can be so different, so you can imagine even before Zant usurped the throne, I wasn't happy much of the time. Being friends…" Midna hesitated at telling someone so young the rest. "…and more with Link has taught me to accept life as it is and focus on yourself first. Hone your values and then strive to make the galaxy a better place."

"That IS amazing advice," muttered Adam.

"Yes, it is. I'm going to go thank my hero again, eee hee. You should know too, Adam, that in a lot of ways you're a hero to people here too. I was talking with the others before, and when we prayed into those Crystal Stars, everyone talked about how we couldn't lose someone so kind, innocent and hopeful from our family."

The interactions with Midna and her friends was uplifting too. The boy still wondered if the adjective "innocent" could describe him that well anymore. Even if nothing could have prevented his possession and the destruction of worlds and their people, it was still his body involved. That could not mean he was a completely innocent kid anymore.

Going down a few floors to return to his hospital room, Adam ran into another older mentor. Wolf O'Donnell was grinning ear to pointy ear to see the cute, little runt. If others were around, they would have been quick to remark that that was not an expression they were used to seeing on the bounty hunter. Of course, most would say this for the dual benefit of making Adam feel special but also for the sake of poking fun at a ruthless mercenary gone soft in the big hero tower in space.

The leader of Star Wolf offered to talk with Adam at his place, and at this point since Adam was having so much personal success talking with his heroes, he was not going to pass up another opportunity to learn and grow.

"I want you to know that you shouldn't feel bad about yourself," started Wolf when they got to O'Donnell's minimalistic bunker of a bedroom.

Adam was surprised. Did he already know about his own knowledge of what he had done? He did not even have to ask about Wolf's thoughts and failures.

"Sorry, I'm blunt, but I think you know that," said Wolf as he answered Adam's blank stare. "By the look on your face, I could tell you already knew about…you know, the dead and the news jumping to conclusions of the apocalypse and everything."

"Yeah…yeah, I know," said Adam uneasily, almost ready to cry at his thoughts then.

"But hey, kid, instead of getting down on yourself for no good reason, you should get angry at the evil that did that to you and want to do something about similar evils in the future. Hell, it's not like you failed on purpose. Something controlled you and made you do its bidding."

"I know, thanks," came Adam's usual reply. "A lot of you guys have been telling me that, reassuring me and I do appreciate it…really."

"Good," said Wolf's stern voice. "Then believe it because it's true. If I can get over purposely being an agent of evil for Andross, trying to kill Fox and stoke the flames of interplanetary war years ago, then you can get over being brainwashed by an evil god."

Adam really thought about that statement. He compared Wolf's dark past with Pit's and Midna's accidental lapses in their duty. Actively fighting heroes was not like being locked inside a ring or having your throne stolen away from you without your say in those matters. And still, Wolf was here having forgiven himself for wrongs he knew were wrong. Those were wrongs he had actually wanted to commit too and did. While the consequences of Adam's possession were much more terrible, he had not ever wanted it and was just a tool for a demonic god as Wolf had said. Berating himself did not seem like something that would do any good at all anymore. In fact, Adam thought now that it would not even feel right.

The young boy thanked Wolf for his advice and honesty. He was surrounded by heroes and was happy to finally go back and tell two more, his parents, about how he was feeling better now. Not perfect. That might be impossible. But at least he could breathe without sighing or drowning in his own tears. He was right near his hospital room door when a soft, little voice from behind slightly startled him.

"H-hi!" said Lemmy the Koopaling.

Adam turned around and was immediately pleased to see such a happy face. The smile was unsure and his posture nervous, but the boy found the youngest of Bowser's Koopalings cute and approachable.

"Hi!" said Adam back. He had not made friends with anyone his age (or at least those who appeared and acted the way he did) mostly because the Pillar was full of adults. "What are you doing up so late?"

"Actually, I was just exploring this place. I'm still sorta new here with my brothers and sister having felt the need recently to turn over this new leaf thing. So, um, yeah, and I just happened to see you. I've always wanted to meet you…"

Lemmy was lying about the coincidence of meeting him here. He desperately wanted to get to know Adam. From afar, he seemed so cool and nice and…unexpected. Lemmy wanted this friend who was like him but obviously more awesome and amazing.

"I still love doing that too!" responded Adam. "We should do it together some time soon. What's your name?"

"L-Lemmy," stammered the young Koopa. "And yeah, that would be fun. Thanks for wanting to, Adam."

"Well, thank you for something to look forward to, Lemmy. I can't wait to hang out soon. But for now, I think I should go back to bed."

"Yep, of course! I hope you feel as go-ood as possible. I'm so glad you're back and safe with us again…"

"That means so much, Lemmy," said Adam honestly. "Thanks for caring and meeting me tonight."

Soon-to-be best friends went separate ways that night. Both felt a flock of Butterfree in their stomachs. They were excited to have a new friend. Now, it made sense why a different Koopaling had shown up to see if Adam was okay before. Lemmy was too adorably shy to meet his idol so soon.

The Space Colony ARK raid was easier than expected at first. Upon reaching its vicinity, Silver opened up the back hatch of the ship and used a force field to protect the group from the vacuum of space. Lucas created a PSI magnet around the vat that housed Majora and flung it into the path of the defunct Eclipse Cannon. Fox and his gang were not planning on having that weapon out of commission for long. Samus piloted the ship and docked it expertly. They all rushed into the corridors and made their way to the central control.

Only Silver had stayed behind with the ship. When Fox had reached the cannon control with the Chaos Emeralds in tow, he was going to have Krystal call to the hedgehog to hold Majora's Mask in place, so that it would be obliterated by the ARK's laser. The plan was changing it seemed. Silver glanced over at the meteors and upside down towers surrounding the vat the mask was in. It was an oddly picturesque sight for sure, but Silver also noticed the mask moving around again. He flew out their quickly and held the beast telepathically between his hands as the mask writhed, finally breaking out of the tube that encased her. Even worse, Silver had no way of using his radio out in the cold, dark vacuum of space.

Majora had sensed what the heroes were planning to do and decided to try everything to stop them. Mirages of Majora popped throughout the hallways the gang was running through. These demon-like apparitions struck out with their tentacles. Ike, Lucas and Samus hung back to take on the monsters, distracting them from their true target: Fox and the Chaos Emeralds. Old technology was starting to sprout again from the remains of the space station. Artificial Chaos tried to wrap its intruders in their grasp, but Fox, Krystal and Blaze were much too fast to get caught by the experiments.

Silver was starting to panic. He knew he was insanely powerful compared to most of his comrades, but most of his comrades could not transform like the demon he was holding. Majora's Mask altered itself into Majora's Incantation with its sickly limbs bobbling about, trying to kick at and swat its restrainer. The hedgehog was worrying how much powerful it could become and how long it would take his friends to reach the cannon. Hopefully the Eclipse Cannon would work once the emeralds were in….

Samus was shooting at the beasts that enveloped them. Ike slashed his blade in the direction of the pawns that were trying to make their way to Fox and Krystal. Lucas froze the beasts who would have been on Fox's and Krystal's tails. The trio was holding their own, and the other three had made it into the dark void that was the once pulsating control room for the Eclipse Cannon.

"I'll hold them off!" yelled Blaze as Majora's ghosts and Gerald's monsters flooded to the doorway. "Fire up that cannon! I'm sure Silver's there already and wanting to get this over with already!"

A wall of flame erupted from her being, and Krystal kept tabs on the others with her mind. Everyone was all right for now. Fox scrambled to get the Chaos Emeralds in their slots. Krystal began to fire up the cannon's mainframe. She thanked the gods it was actually working after all this time alone in the ARK.

Silver's hold on Majora was beginning to slip at this point. His groans became increasingly loud, and his muscles strained along with his mind as he could barely hold on to Majora who was growing stronger and larger. Majora's Wrath became her realized self; Silver's migraine only grew worse. He knew it could not be much longer for his friends to get the Eclipse Cannon running again….

As if providence was on the heroes' side after killing so many innocents at the hands of the demon they were trying to finally destroy, the green field of neon energy sparkled within the cannon's fragments. Those fragments grew wider now, so Silver was sure and quick to get out of the way, floating and still holding Majora's Wrath within his grasp. The green beam of light erupted from the Space Colony ARK for the first time in years, and Majora was utterly destroyed as it screamed into the energy that consumed her. Completely disintegrated by the blinding light that knew no evil nor good, Majora faded completely out of existence. Fox's mission was successful. Silver's mission was successful. The idea had worked.

While the apparitions of Majora were dispersing and the heroic gang were making their way from the ARK (its experiments now practice fodder for the heroes to play with), Adam crawled back into bed while morning in the Pillar broke. It was just him and his parents. Everything was supposed to be fine now (well, at least calm: Adam would never fully get over what had happened), and it was until something powerful awoke the entire family.

This transformation was going to be different. It was smaller but more frightening for the host of the parasites inside him; Adam was conscious and awake for this one. The latent energy that had been destroyed in the physicality of the mask had been passed on to Adam, the potential power source it was ultimately drawn to, but now weaker, it could only alter the body of the young boy and not his mind or soul.

Adam's growth was painful and sporadically fast. His parents awoke first, startled by the boy engorged with magic and new muscle as he slept. Shadow and Tikal shook their son awake too. To his horror, the nightmare had not calmed down any. Adam shrieked with surprise and fear at what he was becoming again. His hands were massive in front of his face, and his feet were huge splayed against the wall in front of his medical bed. A hulking form was emerging through the once small frame of the innocent boy. His abdomen was wrapped with enough muscle to encircle the largest hilltop trees. His legs were as thick as most of the trunks. Adam struggled to keep his arms close to his body, so they would not be released out of his control to hit his parents. They were on top of him, trying to calm their son, maybe possibly figure something out.

The new transformation was not yet over as Adam's clear blue eyes reverted back to the sickly yellow of Majora's. The Desbrachian that Adam had absorbed earlier in the fight with the hedgehog gods, his friends and father, had changed things too; the parasite's ingestion on Majora's twisted behalf sprouted sharp sickles that curved out of the furry quills on Adam's calves and forearms.

Nearly busting out of the room, Adam stopped growing, filled with Majora's wrath and energy and the parasite's weird and dangerous amenities that curved backward, threatening to pierce the massive thighs and biceps of the poor child. But after all of this and through it all too, Adam remained Adam, and since Majora was officially dead from the world, the boy kept sovereignty and control of his own body after the unfortunate transformation was complete. It was the first of many to come.

Shadow and Tikal were squeezed against the walls, trying to comfort their son and rationalize the situation. Adam could only lay in his sprawl, a massive hulk, crying like the few month-old infant that he truly was.

Kelly Atlas wanted the story. She needed to know the root of the tragedies that befell the galaxy, and being a reporter who always followed her gut, Atlas was determined to get a statement from Nintendo directly if not also go to extreme investigative lengths to uncover what really went wrong. In truth, she admired the heroes who gathered here, and rising up through the floors of the floating space station was an exhilarating thrill, one she managed to keep to herself while Hylians, Goombas and Galactic Federation retirees thought nothing of her presence.

While the rest of her industry (and most of her homeworld of Corneria) was preoccupied with relief efforts, Kelly thought it her place to get the story of the millennium. It just so happened to be that way. At such a high point in her career already, she rarely cared for brand image, ego or even the glass ceiling anymore. She desperately wanted the truth for herself and everyone, and that was nothing but an honest need.

She never found exactly who she was looking for, but Atlas stumbled upon the next best thing: the leader's wife.

"I'm sorry, but my husband is on Corneria providing support to the cities that were decimated," Krystal said to the reporter who could easily pass off for her twin. The burnt red fox had been practically twitching with anticipation to finally interview the Fox McCloud, but Krystal was pretty cool too. And knowledgeable. Kelly only hoped the vixen before her was not reading her mind.

"Don't worry, hon. I'm not reading your mind or anything like that." Krystal placed some emphasis and the bulk of her foreign accent on the word 'anything.' She also realized 'hon' was her picking up on Katt's slang for literally all people.

"Oh, I didn't mean anything…wait, how did you know what I was thinking?"

"Haha hm, I saw the look on your face. It's obvious when people know I'm a telepath."

"Oh, yeah, of course. So now that you know I'm a journalist…should I expect to be promptly kicked out?"

"No, I'm not as coarse as my husband," said Krystal as she smiled and laughed, trying to incite some of the same in the vixen reporter. "We tend to follow our official policy when dealing with the media now, but you seem respectable enough and no one has even bothered to get in before you. I can guess what you want to know about too."

"The galactic slaughters. Yes. I just wanted to know more, so I can tell people everywhere what really happened…and I'm assuming you guys didn't start this anyway. You only saved everything as fast as you could, I'm sure."

Kelly believed what she said, but in case she was wrong, networking with Krystal and appearing almost biased would probably work in her favor, she thought.

"So that's what they're calling them…well, galactic accidents and demonic misfortunes would be a more apt headline, but I'm sure we both understand sensationalism in the modern, interplanetary media. It is a long and complicated story, Ms. Atlas, but if you would like to get comfortable here for the next few hours, hopefully we can give you all the information you need. And hopefully get an honest reporter on our side too."

Kelly was thrilled. Not only was she about to get the story, but she could also enjoy the company of idolized heroes (and maybe the fabled cuisine too) while she was on assignment. It would be a bit longer than anticipated before she was able to talk with Adam and his family (who were understandably preoccupied at the moment with something big) along with a board of Nintendo superiors who could check the report would be handled responsibly.

In her down time, Kelly ran into Commander Tower who was doing some snooping on his own but without the permission of one of the superiors. Not willing to stand for the man's secrecy in a café where most of the heroes there had no clue to his somewhat infamous identity, Kelly confronted the man whom she had always heard so much about from the Mobius Chronicles after the Black Comet incident.

"Like me, you should just come out and talk to someone in charge here, Commander. You can reach Krystal McCloud over the comm link."

"You have no right to tell me how to do my job, young fox lady. Now get out of my way. I have the office of the president to serve."

The Commander tried to move past her, but Kelly became more firm. She pushed her hand into his chest, physically stopping him. She was trained in nine different martial arts from different planets, and he was pretty old after all, she thought…

"Well, firstly, Commander, I am a Cornerian vulpine, not a 'young fox lady.' I didn't call you stiff, white-haired man, did I?" Kelly was indignant. "And you may have a job to do, but it seems you are confused about what your work pertains. You have no jurisdiction here in the Pillar. Sorry to disillusion you, sir."

Kelly bitterly managed to add the 'sir' to cover all her bases. Sometimes respect was the most difficult one to cover.

The Commander did not have any good, well-oiled GUN answers left, and when Shadow saw him thirty minutes later, he was sternly dismissed with held-back threats that had not been felt in years. The Commander would have to harass other reporters in the future if he wanted to launch an investigation.

Lucario had seen Kelly tell off the Commander on behalf of Nintendo and general fairness, so being the humble yet now outspoken Pokémon he was, he thanked the journalist in great earnest.

Kelly had always wanted to meet a Lucario. Sometimes she had fantasies of training one on another planet, battling through one of the many Pokémon gym leagues and reigning as the champion. Being honest with herself and only herself, sometimes she had had other fantasies about that particular creature. She blamed the tomes and legends of old days gone far by….

"It was my pleasure and duty to stand up for you all. Heh, not to sound like too much of a fangirl, but I've always wanted to see a Lucario in person. Your species are even more beautiful and majestic up close!" Kelly was, indeed, fangirling, and the conversation had only begun.

"Um…" was all Lucario managed to push out through his mind to her as he blushed, the red of his hot blood showing bright beneath his soft, blue fur. He embarrassed easily.

"Oh!" Kelly always realized a little too late when she was being too upfront. "I mean…sorry, I didn't mean to offend or startle you. I'm a hard-hitting journalist; being overbearing is just in my personality. Heh…"

"No, it's fine. It's just…" Lucario paused. He had not imagined the conversation with this (he now just realized how attractive she really was) vixen going this poorly. And that was on him. "I'm flattered you think that way of my kind." Lucario blurted it out.

"Yeah…well, hopefully we can see each other some more while I'm here. I'd love to learn more about you, and there is no better source than you to do that!"

"Of course, I'll be around after you have that conference…" Lucario was now really looking forward to something today. "And I hope that goes well for you!"

And with awkward thanks and good-byes, Kelly went enthusiastically to get her story. She had no clue how complex it really was. And she also had no idea how her life that day was about to change forever.

Adam had only remorse in his speech of what he had done. But he also had no trouble with Kelly's questions and demeanor. He actually grew to like her very quickly (as he did with most people). Kelly's questions were naturally curious but inquisitive in her nature so far as to learn the truth and express a desire to want to inform people of what happened. Shadow and Tikal were there to help their son with reports for the good journalist on what the heroes had done to save Adam and the galaxy.

Fatigued from the interview and the tribulations he had gone through both consciously and possessed, Adam and his family decided to go on a vacation. Chaos control was a perfect mode of transportation, and in a pinch, the magic could set the family down in a wide, open space to let Adam unwillingly transform. The Pillar's medical staff had yet to deduce exactly what catalyzed the transformation (it seemed random) and why it was even happening rather than tearing the young boy apart.

Like the kind words of mentors had done before, Adam's parents' smiles and insisting to have fun took his mind off of his traumatic past more so than anything else could have done. It was still tough not to think about the past though. Between rafting aboard Plessie in Mushroom Kingdom waters and racing among the rooftops of Spagonia with his father, Adam admittedly had a lot of fun. Professor Pickles had arranged to keep the family in secret in one of his private villas. What really brought it all back to Adam in full force was, of course, how much bigger and scarier he became in his mind with each terrifying, unsettling transformation.

Lucario was shy and skeptical even while Kelly was away. He had not imagined he would become so (unbelievably) infatuated with someone at first meeting. In a way he wished that she would not be able to find him after her work was done. She did. And it happened faster than he had thought.

"Hi, again," said Kelly, excited to meet and learn more from the fascinating creature she had so long idolized. She was staying around for a few more days to hear testimonies from Nintendo's other members. That was the only way she was going to get the full scoop for her independent report. She knew putting such a weighted story in the hands of any one planet's media would have caused a frenzy in her industry. Perhaps she would lose her job on Corneria because of that….

Lucario interrupted her thoughts with an inquiry he thought too intrusive after he said, "Pardon me for reading your aura, but you seem noticeably anxious. I hope that isn't me."

"Oh, no! It has nothing to do with meeting back up with you, Lucario." She blushed. "In fact, I might be nervous around you for other reasons. My mind's just preoccupied with losing my job…but that's none of your concern."

"Why would you lose your job?" asked Lucario. He was as concerned as he would be with any stranger. And he liked Kelly already; he needed to know immediately in case he could help in any way.

"This story I'm working on with you guys…I don't want to give it to my paper at home. It would stoke rivalries and competition in my profession past repair, and I'm afraid all media wouldn't be as focused on aiding reconstruction as they should. I want to release it independently, so no one else interferes with what I know is true."

"Isn't that assuming we're all telling the truth or completely understand what happened?"

"Well, first off, I believe in all of you more so than any corporation I've screwed or colleagues I've worked with over the years. There's something instantly attractive about all of you together, checking each other and making sure you always do the right thing."

"Consider us all flattered."

"And also you don't yet know how good of a writer I am." Kelly smiled her sly reporter grin. It was Lucario's turn to blush in the face of excellence. "I don't intend on being speculative at all. I'm here to report what you all say happened on your mission…and uncover the truth behind Adam's unfortunate circumstances."

"Well…" Lucario thought. "With those ideals and ethics, you could become our personal journalist. You could let the universe know about what we do. We have nothing to hide, and while I don't know Fox too well, I think we've found someone we could all trust to build an even more positive and open relationship with the galaxy."

Kelly knew a Lucario was a beautiful creature, but she had no idea one could be so eloquently spoken. And she could barely wrap her mind around his proposition to boot. That would be a dream come true for her. And she would be close to him all the time.

"That…that would be amazing" was all Kelly could stutter before she fainted into Lucario's quick arms. It had been too much for her at once, and in retrospect, Lucario thought he should have sensed her emotional fatigue earlier.

The Cornerian vixen who had always envisioned working with the truest heroes in the universe lay in the palms of her Lucario. Those mitts were throbbing with nerves and aura energy. She would be fine, he thought. He would take care of her.

"Hurry up, Slowpoke!" yelled Adam's father to his son from a few rooftops away. The Spagonia capital still was not aware speedy hedgehogs called its buildings a suitable playground.

"I'm coming!" giggled Adam as he tripped on a small chimney and sprang back up off of an awning. Maybe his bare feet were tripping him up, but he preferred it that way. Besides, if he were to transform right that moment, he at least not have to worry about busting through another pair of shoes.

Father and son continued their romp through the city until there was little left undiscovered by the pair. As cliché as it sounded, especially considering who he surrounded himself with, Adam felt an indescribable freedom while running. And while he was by no means competing with the fastest lifeforms in the galaxy, he enjoyed it just the same. He was about to thank his father for that when another proposition for a field trip was brought up by his dad.

"There are far cooler, more open spaces to run in than this, son. I think your growing too big for civilized places can be a great excuse to go explore the world. Want me to take you there?"

Adam had no clue where 'there' was, but he was always willing to try something new.

"Yeah, of course!" he yelled, enthused. The boy wanted nothing more than to spend time running with his dad. If being controlled to kill millions was the absolute worst of it, then pushing his limits with Shadow was the best.

"Chaos control!"

Shadow took his son to the shimmering, white beauty of the ice caps of Holoska. And it was cold. They had better get running.

The way the sun gleamed off the soft ice mesh beneath their feet as they passed along was incredibly mesmerizing to Adam. He was young and had still so much more of the natural wonders to experience.

In actuality, he and his father were separated by sixty-some odd years. Not only in their running, but in everything they did together, they felt like kindred spirits, father and son, who could not be closer together in any sense of the word.

The soft pads of Adam's feet had not yet been ravaged by harsher transformations and the tough terrain of his future; the glistening ice was like a caress from his planet, making up for the terrible tragedy that had come to him from another.

Now, his dad was slowing down to run behind him in the cool winds. To encourage him, perhaps? No. Once Adam realized what was happening, he was beyond thrilled. Shadow came up behind his son in a boost of speed and fun-inspired energy for once. He grabbed Adam along and bounded up and through the natural ice loop in front of them. Gravity faded away, and Adam's excited cheering was snuffed out by the air that took his breath away as he left his mouth open too long in these temperatures and at the intense speed they were going. Shadow and Adam ran together, side by side, coming off the steep ramp. Worries and tragedies were forgotten then as father and son continued to bound through the ice caverns and alcoves for the day. They had deserved it.

Back in Spagonia, Adam was enthusiastically telling his mother all the cool things he had done with dad. Tikal could not be happier at the change of pace in their lives, however brief that change was going to be.

This influential family was not going to escape the night without a reminder of their son's problem. It was going to be their biggest reminder yet too. Without warning, Adam began to grow and doubled in size in seconds. He fell forward and flipped a table into the air. His parents were quick enough to react, warping themselves into a far-off desert to avoid further damage.

In the arid sands and air of Shamar, Adam could stand again. All the while, Shadow and Tikal looked up to their son as the latent evil transformed a small child into a possible weapon. Adam was getting more used to this new form, he had to admit but did not want to. Every time culminating with this moment though, he became bigger and bigger. He felt like he would eventually be able to control his size, but now was not that time.

Unwilling lifeform he was, Adam felt Majora's ghost and the ravage infection of the Desbrachian that had awoken after the man he was named after had died surge within him. Stories taller than the highest peaks of Empire City, Adam did not move in his shock. His feet were broad enough to flatten acres of plantation, and his hands were so large they could hold entire colonies of people and the earth below inside, stocked with supplies for a living for years.

Crying was awkward too as he knew he was producing a flood below him. The startled, gentle and innocent boy could not even see his parents until they were right in front of him, standing on the tip of his long, black nose. Shadow and Tikal looked at their boy, so sad and mistreated in a world that barely knew him yet. And still, with those two immortal beings standing hand in hand ready to comfort their goliath of a creation, they could not help but simultaneously wonder what positive impact Adam would have on the universe.

In terms of a pure heart, Shadow now thought his son to be the ultimate lifeform. It was a thought that raced through his mind quickly before it was pushed aside by Adam's immense and comforting voice.

"Thanks for staying with me," he said with pitiful resignation. A giant who was more powerful than anyone on his planet held more sorrow in his young heart than most did in their whole lives.

Shadow and Tikal answered with unconditional love. They were, of course, too small to be heard by the leviathan with the perfect soul before them.

"I love you both," Adam said. "I promise I won't let this be a burden. It is my duty to the galaxy to guide these transformations in me to help all the worlds and lives that Majora ruined. I'm just glad that I have the support of you and the greatest heroes in the universe to help me be strong to do that."

And with that, unexpected wisdom of the highest order poured forth from the giant Adam. The universe would soon know the promise that was made that day in the unforgiving sands that inspired a new god.

Meanwhile, Nintendo had seven months of merciful time left from Tabuu to repeat the past and make possible the future where gods were replaced a reality.

And the freshest past mission was still on the minds of heroes too when Fox McCloud returned from the desolation of Corneria only to find further crises ahead. The astral plain had spilt over with its outrealms onto the continents of Trinity, and vengeful evils were plotting schemes that the heroes were not yet ready to handle. The tests for the heroes from the heavens became harder yet. They would need to summon all of their power to get through it.