Shadow was finding this one battle to be rather interesting.

He once again dodged the dragons tail, as it attempted to swipe him off the side. Jumping over it was the easiest thing to do, then, he curled up in the air, spinning, and performed the homing attack, smacking Ridley right in the face, stunning the dragon momentarily.

But only momentarily, before Shadow found himself inches from the maw of the creature, as it attempted to bite at him. He landed on the ground, and decided to do a small Chaos Control teleport from one side of the platform to the other, behind Ridley, but as he reappeared, Ridley had already turned around, and unleashed several fireballs, hitting Shadow, knocking him back, nearly over the ledge.

'This space dragon had keen eyes and hearing alright,' Shadow thought to himself, as he managed to stop himself falling off, and jumped up into the air again, firing a small Chaos Beam at Ridley, who simply covered himself with his wings, letting them receive the blow of the beam. ' No wonder he was ranked as one of the heads of the space pirates.'

As Ridley moved his wings back, he was met with another blow to the face by the homing attack, it was painful and annoying. Shadow had jumped away before Ridley could react, and fired yet another Chaos Beam, this time hitting Ridley right in the chest, making him roar out in pain and stumble back.

Shadow didn't let up, he took to the air once again, aiming to do the homing attack. As he spun towards Ridley, Ridley opened one of his claws in Shadows direction, and tried to catch him. First time it failed, as Shadow simply rebounded off the claw, and tried again on the homing attack, still in the air, failed again, and Shadow tried again, aiming for Ridley's head…and this time, Ridley caught him. All three attempts stung like a bitch, but he had Shadow by his legs.

He wasted no time in swinging Shadow up, then slamming him down into the ground. Shadow grunted, feeling the hard ground connect to him roughly, before he was sent back up, and smacking down again. Then Ridley threw him up into the air, as Shadow was a little dazed by the attack, and as he flew back down, Ridley swung his tail, smacking Shadow right in the side, sending him off the edge of the platform.

Shadow found himself in pain, and falling…quickly getting his head together, he used Chaos Control, disappearing in a flash, and reappearing in front of Ridley, swinging his leg at the dragons face, knocking the space dragons head sidewards, before landing on the ground for a moment, and using the Chaos Beam, shooting at the dragons torso, making Ridley stumble again, this time falling to the floor for a moment, before getting on all fours, and roaring out at Shadow.

Shadow was panting. He cursed the fact Ridley was able to make him drop the Chaos Emerald. It allowed him unlimited Chaos energy to use at will, and right now he was limited, to the point, at this moment, he had used up all of his reserves now. If this battle is to continue, it's gotta be back to basics, and the bad news was Ridley didn't even seem exhausted at all.

Ridley noticed Shadow weakening, and said "What's wrong ultimate lifeform? Running out of juice?!"

Shadow soon forced himself to stop taking such large intakes of air, and tried to act cool and calm, yet his speech showed he was tired. "Humph, please, I'm just, getting warmed up. Soon you'll go down and I'll, be the victor!" he ran at Ridley once again.

Missiles swarmed at Omega E123, colliding with him, creating several explosions and smoke covering him, but soon after, a rain of energy bullets flew from his arms, raining down on the launcher of those missiles, Samus Aran, who was using the screw attack to cover herself in energy to deflect the shots, while jumping up towards the platform Omega was on.

Rock had received a kick right in the face from Rouge, as she dived down towards him, just avoiding his charged up energy shot, which had barely passed her. Once she landed, she laid herself flat on the floor, as another energy charged shot flew by her, made by Blues.

She jumped back up off the floor, just as Rock had recovered, and kicked him several times in the gut, before kicking him again in the face, making him fall back on the floor, groaning in pain. She turn towards Blues, as he fired several small energy shots at her, which she jumped in the air to dodge, and flew at him, ready to kick him, only for her foot to meet his fist, deflecting her attack. The moment she landed and turned to him, he gave her an uppercut knocking her away.

That hurt, a lot. A metal fist connecting to her jaw was extremely a painful experience, but she tried to ignore the pain, as she landed on the ground on her feet. Blues quickly charged up an energy shot, and fired it. As the blue energy ball flew at her, she quickly moved to the side of it, and then flew towards Blues, and performed a dropkick on his torso, sending him flying back thanks to her speed on impact, but as she landed on her feet once again another energy shot smacked into her, sending her sprawling to the floor hitting it roughly on her back, the shot had come from Rock as he had got himself back up.

Omega was seen smashing into the ground on the upper platform after Samus had deployed a power bomb to knock him back. He forced himself back up and locked onto Samus, as she unleashed more missiles at him, exploding on him but doing little to no damage to his armour plating. He changed one of his hands into the laser cannon mode, pointed it and fired at Samus a large purple laser. The shot flew out of the smoke, catching Samus by surprise and hitting her dead on, knocking her off the platform.

As she was heading back down to the platform where the fight between Rouge Blues and Rock was going on, she quickly fired her grapple beam, which connected to the edge of the platform she was fighting on and retracted it, sending her back up and being able to grab on the ledge. She looked up, and saw Omega standing there, with one of his arms pointing at her, formed into the minigun, and fired.

The hail of bullets rapidly hit Samus, and her energy shield according to her visor readings, was quickly depleting. She activated the super missiles, and pointing her arm cannon at Omega. "Suck it bitch!" and fired. The direct close range of this not only made Samus get blasted away off the ledge, hitting the ground below, but it indented, and damaged the torso armour of Omega E123, making him move back.

Shadow had dodged a claw swipe, and curled up before jumping up at the dragon, smacking Ridley in the head, jumped away, avoided the tail, and homed in again hitting Ridley once more. Shadow was getting in a few blows in his desperation but he was sure they weren't really doing anything but annoying Ridley.

He performed the homing attack , this time targeting Ridley's chest, and just kept rapidly hitting it, every moment he hit and rebounded he would do it again without giving Ridley a chance to strike at him. This seemed to work, as it was pushing Ridley back and his attempts to swipe at Shadow were failing.

That was, until he opened his mouth and unleashed a wave of fire, blasting Shadow away, who had used the very last ounce of Chaos energy to make a Chaos barrier, stopping most of the flames for but a few seconds, burning a few hairs on the mobian. Shadow hit the ground, and quickly tried to force himself up…only to find Ridley had already recovered, and was towering over him, and before he could act, he felt both claws of the space dragon around him, holding him in place, and lifting him up off the ground.

He was caught, and if Ridley gave him another dose of fire this close…that would be it. Ridley opened his mouth, and Shadow quickly looked around, and tried to squirm his way out of the tight grip, but to no avail. "uggg, ngghhh!" he couldn't move, and looked at the Dragon, expecting the blast of fire…but nothing came, as Ridley shut his mouth, looking at Shadow…..there was silence for a moment between them. Above, they heard the sounds of fighting, but between them, nothing….

…Ridley spoke. "I take it your finished now?"

Shadow didn't want to admit defeat, not like this. But with no way out, his Chaos energy at nothing, exhaustion taken him, there was little choice. "…Yes, yes I am. Finish me then."

Ridley seemed to think about this, and soon lowered his claws to the ground, and released Shadow from his grip, then taking a few steps back. "I don't see the point of taking down an enemy that knows they are defeated. Admitting it is a bold thing, especially for something that claims to be the ultimate lifeform."

Shadow was surprised. Ridley was letting him off? "Tch, but I could easily come back and fight you again Ridley."

"You could, and if you admit defeat again, I'll let you go again. Afterall, I like a good fight once in a while, and I haven't got into one for a very long time. Thanks for that."

Shadow found himself slightly uneasy with this, but Ridley just seemed to shrug it off. "Now Shadow, I take it you want to get back all the way up there to your pals hmm? Wanna lift?"

Shadow now was more uneasy. "…You're, unusual…but as I cannot teleport myself up, and with it being so far…" He slowly walked over to Ridley. "…Very well. I will accept your gesture of…good will."

Ridley flapped his wings, and flew over Shadow, grabbing him with one of his feet, and soon took off, flying back up to the platform where the fighting still goes on.

Rouge was seen standing there, looking battered, facing off with Blues and Rock still. Next to her was Omega, his miniguns locked onto both of the Light robots. Samus was seen near the robots, on one knee, panting. After the Super missile, Omega had moved faster the Samus, and came down to her level, and literally punished her with Laser fire, blasting her over and over, until Blues got in-between and fired a few charged shots to divert Omegas attention. Samus's visor was warning her the energy barrier was fully depleted, and now her Chozo armour was vulnerable to direct assault.

That's when Ridley appeared, flying over them all, showing that, in one of his feet claws, with Shadow, looking tired out, Omega pointed his guns at Ridley, but Rouge moved over to him, and put her hands on one of his arms, shaking her head quickly, noticing Shadow.

Ridley slowly flew down near the ground, close to Omega and Rouge, and dropped Shadow, letting him land neatly on his feet. Ridley then landed over where Blues, Samus and Rock were, turning his attention to Rouge and Omega. "Now then, where was you lot? Hope you don't mind if I join back in."

Rouge walked over to Shadow, worried. "Shadow? Are you okay? What happened?"

Shadow looked at her, and nodded to show he was fine. "That dragon spared me. I failed to beat him.."

Rouge put a hand gently on his shoulder. "It's fine, Shadow, I'm just glad you're not dead.." She noticed he was in a sorry state..infact, all three of them were pretty much, and their targets looked like they could go for more, and with Ridley in play as well…She had to conclude that maybe this was it for now. Their mission is a failure.

"Well, I suppose we'll have to throw in the towel to you heroes. We're not getting paid for this one, so there not much point fighting to the death."

Blues and Rock lowered their arm cannons. Rock had gone over to Samus, checking on her, while Blues watched Shadow, Rouge and Omega with Ridley, who had walked over to where Shadow dropped the Red Chaos emerald, walked back with it, and threw it over to Shadow, who just caught it. "Good move. Hopefully we won't bump into each other anytime soon."

Ridley then thought about what Rouge had said. "Hold on, you're not working in the Galactic Federation? You're a free range group?"

Rouge nodded. "Yeah, so?"

Ridley looked at Blues, who seemed baffled at where he was going with this. "Well…" He looked at them. "How about we hire you guys?"

Blues quickly glared at Ridley "You want to fucking hire the very people that wanted to take Darkmega and possibly kill us?!"

Rouge chuckled. "Oh? And what could you possibly tempt us with? Money isn't the thing we're after. It's something the precious GF don't want to part with…diamonds, crystals, jewels. Real items that I, I mean, we, can keep."

Ridley looked like he was deep in thought. "Ah, I see…."

Rouge waited for a moment, but when Ridley didn't say anything else. "Well then I suppose that means you have nothing on offer, come on Shadow, Omega, we're-"

"I know of quite a few rare gems on this very planet."

Rouge stopped dead in her tracks, and looked at Ridley. "…You…do?"

Ridley nodded. "Oh yes. In the lower sections of Zebes, in Norfair, there's the famous Crazian Diamonds, I take it you HAVE heard of them? Their worth is in the millions to the GF system. We pirates never bothered to collect them as we couldn't sell in this empire back in the days we had control here."

Rouge felt a tingle down her spine, the possible fact of having jewels again after so long, especially rare ones. She never heard of them but still, this feeling to see them, to HAVE them… "Well of COURSE I've heard of them. I'm a famous treasure hunter afterall. But if I recall, Norfair is impossible to survive in."

"Well yes, for you. But not for me. I can, once all this trouble with the GF is over, go down there and personally fetch you…oh, eight to ten of them? Large ones too. I know of a few areas which house them."

Rouge was taken. Hook, line and fricken' sinker. "Well…I can't pass up such a great reward for simply sticking around…alright then Mr Ridley. You have a deal. We help you guys until this GF issue is fully over and done with, then you get me TEN of those lovely jewels. Alright?"

Ridley nodded. "Alright."

The starship Enterprise was floating there, deep in space, with it several other starships. Including three Nebula Class vessels, two other Galaxy Class, and three Excelsior Class ships. They were awaiting at the border between the two sides, waiting for the confirm that a 'emergency' truce has been made. According to Starfleet, the High Ministers of the Galactic Federation have allowed it, much to their surprise, and once the complete confirmation is done, they will move into the GF, to assist with the Borg…and Unicron.

They were classed as the front team. Once they is a confirmation of what number their up against, more ships will be sent. Starfleet is very serious about what is going on with the giant planet eater.

Picard was seen in his office, sitting at his desk, waiting calmly, sipping at a cup of Earl Grey…The idea of working with the GF was one he'd rather not think about. Ever since the fall of SCI he always felt the reformed empire was nothing but trouble, and so far they've proven him quite right.

Soon, a call was being received on his personnel computer, and answered it, it was Admiral Forester. "Captain Picard. It's been fully signed. All border stations on the Galactic federation end have been noted, and have agreed to stand down….you're in charge of the frontline…Good luck out there."

Picard nodded. "Understood Admiral. Picard out.". he switched off his computer, and left his desk, heading to the bridge. He walked over to his chair, and sat down.

Riker was seen next to him. "So, Is it time?"

"Yes. Data, send the signal to all other vessels, then plot the coordinates for Gaia VII, warp 3. Nice and slow. We don't want to ruin our welcome. If any traces of Borg activity are found, I want the location and a change in course to intercept."

Data nodded. "Aye sir."

Riker gave a little sigh. "So…this is it then, the war with the Galactic Federation suddenly stopped because of this one thing. One thing we're all suppose to be afraid of."

Picard looked at him. "Perhaps we are meant to be, Perhaps we're not. Right now though we just need to stop it. Stop this Unicron."

Soon, the Enterprise, with the other ships in tow, engaged to warp 3, setting off into the once forbidden space of the mighty Galactic Federation…

Vile was pissed off. He and Flame Stag were right now a good distance into Brinstar, and no trace since the entrance of Brinstar of Shadow, Rouge or Omega have been found. He had finally ordered Flame Stag to stop looking, and both of them to rethink about this.

"This is fucking stupid, we should've picked up something by now! How the hell did they managed to get away without leaving a hint?!"

Flame Stag was just as confused. "I have no earthly idea. It doesn't add up at all. We can't just keep running around guessing though. Perhaps we should fall back and inform Grievous?"

Vile thought about this, then shook his head. "No. I got a better plan. Lets' chill out at the base and wait for them. They'll no doubt come back to it in order to inform Keaton or otherwise, and then we can certainly question them and their speedy getaway, how ever they done it. And if they have a few, shall we say, new allies such as Dark Megaman and those that escaped…heh, we can destroy them."

Flame Stag nodded in agreement, and both he and Vile set off back out of the jungles of Brinstar, back to the planet surface to return to the base.

Chad was annoyed as fuck right now. There he was in bed, having a lovely snooze, then he finds himself, sitting in one of the prison transport ships of the GF, he hands cuffed, sitting on a metal bench, next to him, Knuckles, Megaman, Zhao Yun, Gutsman and Lan. On the other side of the ship, there was Anna, Shademan, Quickman, Zhang Fei, Guan Yu and Liu Bei.

The Prison designed ships arrived shortly after Keaton ordered the arrest of them, and they had begun collecting up the people of the base, putting them in the ships and to await a second nearby warship of the GF to arrive and collect them, one with a larger prison hold then Keaton's vessel, including an area designed for giant beings such as the transformers.

The Transformers, led by Optimus Prime and Megatron, of the Autobots and Decepticons respectively, were a little resistant to the arrest, but once Dr Light calmed them down, they had shut themselves down reluctantly.

Optimas Prime of Cybertron, a nearby planet of Earth II. His one of the much, much larger residents of the hero base. He is a kind and just machine, who can transform into a cab over red semi-truck. His a leader of a band of robots called Autobots, who had, several years ago, been mostly hired into the GF, along with their once sworn enemies, the Decepticons. Optimas Prime, Along with Ironhide and bumblebee, moved to the hero base due to Optimas's connection to Dr Light.

Keaton had purposely denied Optimas and his two allies to work for him, and told them they should stay on their planet and guard it, along with another three that Keaton purposely denied, Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream.

Keaton felt that, with these six following their comrades about, they would never be truly loyal to the GF, so, he made sure the six robots stayed put, while the rest were sent off to the frontlines mainly, to handle the fighting. Soon, Optimas Prime and Megatron realized that this had occurred, and tried to contact their allies, but got no response, meaning that either they were destroyed, or Keaton had changed their communication codes.

The two Cybertron leaders knew they had been played, and felt no need to stay on their planet anymore, and soon, once Optimas Prime had spoken to Dr light about his situation, Dr Light understood, and told Optimas Prime about the hero base, and wondered if he and the 5 others wanted to help on building it. In return, Optimas Prime and the others would be allowed to stay and work with others from around the universe.

There was one person that wouldn't get arrested, and he was already on Keaton's back.

"You DARE tell me that you have committed this arrest without asking us, the High Ministers!? I demand you release them all at once! Or I swear to Blind Lo Keaton, you will find yourself scrubbing the floors of the Shinra Tower!"

Keaton quickly bowed in Yuan Shao's presence. He knew this was coming, and had the perfect idea to deal with it. "My apologies Minister Yuan Shao, but we must arrest them under the universal protection act."

Yuan Shao was infuriated. "Universal Protection Act!? They're no threat to the universe! Are you stupid!? Pah what am I saying, of course you are!"

Keaton bit his lip a little, he couldn't say anything of any insult back at Yuan Shao, lest he wanted it noted to the other High Ministers. "I cannot let them go. You may go with them to the prison they will be escorted to, then speak to the other High Ministers. That is all I can offer you, sir."

Yuan Shao looked away from him in utter disgust. "Humph! Very well! But mark my words, I'll make sure that you don't forget this!"

Inside the ship once again, Chad sat there, sighing. "I come back from two years, fight a baddie, baby-sit the bastard, then find myself arrested for most likely looking after him. This just isn't my day…"

Anna smiled weakly at him. "Hey, at least we're okay still right? And if they can't get their hands on Darkmega, we can go home free as birds."

Chad nodded. "Yeah I guess your right on that one Anna, as long as they don't find Darkmega…"

"God, I forgot what it was like going this far down….HEY ZHANG LIAO! Keep going! I'm not stopping in the middle you know!"

"I'm moving! I'm moving! Sun Jian, don't look down for Blind Lo's sake! If you're so worried, just look up at me and Samus!"

"This is nuts this is nuts this is nuts…"

"Ridley! RIDLEY! We need a pick up! Sun Jians yet stopped again! I don't think we'll make it down with him like this! You'll have to just take him down to the bottom with you!"

"Jeez, after this large fucking robot thing Medi?…ugh christ…"

There, in a line down one of the many red walls of Brinstar depths, clinging onto the rock sides and red vines, from the top to bottom, was Samus, Zhang Liao, Sun Jian, Medi, Rouge, Rock, Darkmega, Blues and Shadow.

Above them, the platform they had to climb off was long since gone in the darkness, far, far above them…and below, the ground floor, couldn't be seen. All what was emitting a glow to show them where they were, was a large pink formation of crystals, which glowed now and then, a whole pillar of them, which went all of the way back up to where they came from, and beyond.

This was the way down, into the true Brinstar depths.

Ridley had used his gift of flight to take E123 Omega down to the ground floor, due to the machine having difficultly holding onto the safer parts of the wall while going down, and right at the start, nearly fell, if it weren't for Ridley's speed.

Shadow would've got them all down there with Chaos Control, but this strange pink pillar of crystal was effecting the Emerald, much to his annoyance. Ridley just said Chaos Energy has never been touched here, so of course they never knew of the effects the crystal could do. It even effected battlechips, to Medi's surprise, when she wanted to see if a rapid use of Area Steal might get them down, but instead nothing happened.

Shadow was cursing his luck, as they all waited for Ridley. "Of all the people they dragged along, they got one that hates climbing.."

Soon, the dragon had flown up, and gently prized Sun Jian off the side, and took him down to the bottom. "Alright guys! I got him!"

Samus shouted down. " Well good! Alright everyone! Mush! Mush! I've never liked hanging around! Come on move!"

They continued their descent down, and after a good 30 minutes of Samus complaining about their speed, or lack of, they all finally rejoin Sun Jian and E123 Omega at the bottom of the long shaft, with two doors leading out.

Shadow looked around, while the others were catching their breath. "Where's the space dragon got to?"

E123 Omega walked up to him. "Ridley has taken the west door, wishing to 'check something out.' he advises we are to take the east door into the depths in order to hide."

Samus looked a tad confused. "The west door if I recall doesn't lead to much. Used to lead to an upgrade before I raided the place. And that upgrade was my improved X-ray scanner…for getting more upgrades."

"He must've went that way for a reason, maybe we should wait for him." Medi said.

"Nah, he'll be fine. I can take us from here. He'll catch up." Samus said, looking at the east door, and walking over to it, opening it up with a button on the side. "Come on, lets see if we can find anything while hiding. I might've missed something last time I could use."

As she walked off, the others begun to follow, all but Shadow. Rouge stopped for a moment and looked at him. "Shadow?"

He looked at the west door for a moment, then at her. "I'm going to track Ridley. Just to make sure."

Rouge nodded. "Alright, you be careful." and left with the others, while Shadow went through the western door.

The corridor he entered was rather dark. The only way he saw inside, was by little fly like creatures, with glowing rear ends, flying around. He walked around, avoiding the odd spiked floor between platforms, and then found himself at a huge gap between two. One the next on along, was a door, between, spikes, at least a miles worth, and no way for him to cross, not without help.

He pulled out the Red Chaos Emerald, and felt it's power flow into him. Thankfully it was readily available now, that he was away from those crystals.

"CHAOS…CONTROL!" he vanished, and then found himself right next to the door. After going through, he noticed something. The room must've been different earlier, because there was fresh rubble, and just little remnants of floating particles of dust…this room suffered a cave in of some sort. Thankfully the platform he was on was above where the rubble went, no doubt covering up whatever was below, no doubt more traps by the pirates.

The massive chunk of the roof had fallen, and by the looks of it, a fresh hole in the hole, must've been by a large explosion, could've caused the weakness in the structure, making it collapse. In the hole, as he saw, was Ridley, looking at something inside. Shadow crossed over the rubble, being careful as he went, and arrived at where Ridley was. "Ridley, what happened here? Whats-" he stopped.

He saw what Ridley was looking at. It was beneath them, inside this…ancient room of some sort that's been uncovered. It was filled with Chozo pictures, embedded into the stone walls, but that wasn't all, far below, seen by the blue stones around the massive hall like room, which gave the lighting, was a skeleton. Of a massive, serpent like creature.

It was huge, for a, perhaps extinct species of Zebes. From what seemed to be the head to the tailbone, it had to be at least 200 meters long.

"…Ridley, did you blast the wall down to this?"

Ridley shook his head. "No. I thought I heard an explosion, and just came to check it out…and found it like this…"

Shadow looked at it again. "…What was it?"

"I don't know. It doesn't look like a species that I've seen before on Zebes…the nearest thing I would say is the species called Botwoon, but they live in water, and only stay in Maridia. And they're alot smaller than this."

He jumped off the platform, and landed near the skeleton. Shadow jumped off, spinning, and landed next to him. Shadow couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine, like this isn't the best place to be right now. As Ridley looked at the skeleton again, examining it, Shadow looked at the pictures on the wall.

He saw one of a man, a…pepper pot looking thing, and between them, a giant serpent. Above them, was four different sun dials, each with a shadow. The next one along showed an army of humans, from the shape of them, and marching towards the serpent, who had unleashed some sort of fiery breath, burning the men. The next one showed the serpent looking the other way, with an army of those pepper pots, also being burned from its fiery breath.

After that, there was Chozo writing, which he failed to understand. He wasn't one to bother with learning this stuff, hell, on Mobius, there was hardly any hints to the Chozo being present. "Ridley, come look at this."

Ridley walked over to where Shadow was and looked at the writing. "You know what it says?" Shadow asked.

Ridley nodded. He knew his Chozo language well. The pirate lords needed to know it, so they could take whatever hidden treasures these bird beings might've hid and use it, back in the day, that is.

"It reads about a giant creature of abilities that allowed it to flow through space and time. It had control over it's actions, but felt a lack of meaning. It had battled others that had the shared gift of travelling through what makes the passing of time, and divides each Universe. It felt no regret, no fear. By the hand of humanoids with the gift, and Chozo, after many battles they had lured it to a chamber and sealed it away, where the walls were grafted with spells and energy that isolated it's power, where it could not escape."

"After thirty cycles, the Chozo opened the chamber, and found the being dead, starved of food and life. It had perished. They disabled the power that sealed it and had written this down to remember the creature that the humanoids called Serris."

Shadow looked at the pictures after the writing, and indeed, they showed the creature entering this chamber, where some of the men and the Chozo were, then the next one showed them outside it, with the creature in, with what appeared to be an aura around it, that was unable to escape the walls. And the final picture on this wall showed it was on the ground, dead, as the Chozo entered once again.

Shadow then looked at the skeleton. "So this was Serris huh? A time travelling serpent…and something opened up this chamber?"

Ridley nodded. "Seems like it. As I said, I heard an explosion. And whatever caused it has either gone into hiding, or disappeared before I got here."

Ridley heard the click of a gun, and quickly moved from one side of the room to the other, as a wave of heated energy bullets fired towards him from the platform they came from. "Whoa! The hell!?"

Then he and Shadow overheard, two, very similar, and also familiar, voices.

"Calm down! That's not the Ridley either of us know remember!?"

"You should know as well as anyone what the bastards are like!"

Ridley and Shadow both looked up, and spotted something….quite unusual.

There was Samus, in her full Chozo gear, arguing with…Samus, as the voice clearly gave away, who held an energy rifle, and wore a more slicker, human designed Chozo power armor suit. It had the same colourings of the Chozo suit plus Varia modification, like the one Samus was wearing, but it certainly wasn't the same bulky appearance.

It appears the one who held the rifle was the one that fired. "I would rather spare Mother Brain then this goddamn abomination!"

The one in the normal gear stepped closer to her counterpart, leaning towards her. "This ISN'T your universe! Stand, down!"

"Samus, the Samus of my universe I mean, listen to her. We need to be careful with what we do around here." It was a male voice, behind the two women, so it sounded like. Then he walked into view, placing a hand on the angry Samus's shoulder. Ridley knew right away what he was, a species known in the Farside called Turians.

This one appeared to wear dark blue armor all over bar his head, showing his grey hardened skin, a visible scar on his face, and was wearing an eye piece over one of his eyes, that glowed, showing data of some sort.

The one with the rifle glared at her proper armoured self, then looked down at Ridley and Shadow, both were giving perplexed looks at what was going on.

She soon lowered her rifle down. "Fine. But if that thing gives even a hint of aggression, I'm gunning it down."

Then, a new male voice was heard. "Well, glad that's sorted! If you both can excuse me…" Then, another figure appeared in view, moving past the two Samus's, and the Turian, looking down at Ridley and Shadow. He was human, with short brown hair, striped black jacket and trousers, and had a long brown trench coat on. "Ah! Another Shadow too! It appears you're not the only one who hanged around with a Ridley!"

Then, well, Shadow, appeared on the platform, with the strange folk.

Ridley looked at Shadow over there, and at the Shadow that was on the same level as himself. The man in the trench coat quickly spoke up, in a rather, relaxed, and eased voice. "It's alright. Nothing will happen if both interact with eachother."

Ridley looked at him oddly. "That's not the point, why is there two of them? The hell's going o-wait did you say not the only one who hanged around me?"

Shadow, who now went over near Ridley, was just as stunned. Who the hell were these guys? And why was, he, there with them?

The man in the coat spoke again. "Yeah I did. Now it's best that after here you guys don't talk about this because according to your Samus, this is never mentioned to anyone in the base."

Ridley just stood there, baffled as hell. "…Look whatever. Who are you? What's with Samus working with…that Samus, and why are you here?"

"Well we can explain in a moment. Shadow, get all five of us done there. Subaru, you can come out of hiding now, along with Misora."

Ridley then noticed, in front of him and Shadow, beneath where the platform was, fazing into view were two humanoid youngsters.

One was a boy, looking like Megaman in some ways, but with brown spiked up hair just behind the helmet he wore, which was blue with a red visor on the front, with a blue wolf head on his left hand, with glowing green energy around it and red eyes.

The other was a girl, blond haired, wearing a dome like pink helmet, with two white metal circular parts coming out of it, a black underlay suit, pink and white stripy arm clothes, ending at pink gloves, a pink mini dress, with a heart symbol on the front, a metal looking pink footwear going up to her knees. To top it off, she had an extremely long white scarf coming from the back of her dress, and had a blue guitar, heart shaped where the strings were, and a face, with yellow eyes was seen at the head of it.

Then, appearing in front of the two in a flash of red, were the two Samus's, the Turian, the doctor and Shadow.

The man smiled. "Well, let's get the introductions done, shall we? Call me the Doctor, I'm from Universe 2. The Samus in the normal known Chozo armor is from Universe 1. This is Subaru-"

The kid named Subaru waved at Shadow and Ridley as the Doctor motioned at him. "Hi!"

"-and this is Misora-"

Misora gave a small wave.

"And this is Shadow. From universe 2, where Subaru and Misora also come from. Finally this is Garrus Vakarian-"

"Hey, how's it going?"

"And this is Samus. From universe 4, where Garrus is also from."

The battle rifle holding Samus just kept an eye on Ridley.

"-and we're all here thanks to my ship called the Tardis. We also have a few others, but they've chosen to remain in said Tardis. We got dragged here after the ship picked up this is where the rift effect anomaly started." The Doctor finished with.

The Shadow with Ridley looked baffled at the Shadow from universe 2, who explained. "The Tardis is a time travelling blue box, so to speak. We came from universe 4 after looking around its version of Unicron. It hinted that the rift it's creating, the source of it, came from here."

The Doctor continued " And as we approached, the Cloister Bell went off, meaning something is wrong. Only very serious problems cause it to trigger…" He looked at the skeletal remains of Serris, his voice turning serious and concerned. "…But I never expected it would be about this…" he stepped over towards the remains. "…Could it be though? Why would it sound when this thing is already dead…"

Subaru spoke up. "What is it, Doctor?"

The Doctor was staring at the skull of the creature, as he talked. "Serris. It's a part of a group of creatures called Leviathans. Chaotic, destructive, those are the few words that come into my head right now. It was one of the worst nightmares that existed before a lot of things…he wasn't all powerful, or as deadly as alot of other beings that exist, it was even just a one off creature, it had no siblings or other like it…but it would come and go before you could stop it…causing misery in its wake."

He walked towards the skull, with Ridley and Shadow watching him, as he soon stopped near it, looking right into the numerous eye sockets it had."Travellers like me had to be careful. Normally if it enters the same time waves as you, you wouldn't survive. It would devour ships that crossed it…it's eaten it's fair share of time lords…"

Ridley was still trying to get his head all round this. "Hold on, What's this about a Unicron? What rift?"

Shadow of Universe 2 tried to explain. "Their version of Unicron is dead. It's a husk, an empty machine shell. But it's suddenly been brought to life, and started to tear a hole in space and time. Thing is Unicron is only part of the problem, something else is helping in the creation of the rift and if we don't find out what, that rift will expand, and it connects to what is called 'dark space'…and there's large menacing machines looking for just such a shortcut."

Samus, the universe 1 version, then continued. "Better still, if that rift keeps growing, it'll connect to other universes…and those machines will get access to them too."

The space dragon just stared for a minute, then, shook his head. "Yeah, okay sure. It's…yeah. Sure."

The Doctor looked around the chamber carefully. "Serris set off the Cloister Bell for a reason…either his ghost is haunting the Tardis…or his not dead anymore…"

Ridley stepped over towards the skull of Serris, and knocked on it a little with his fist, making a hard thudding sound. "Looks dead to me."

The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks, and looked over to Ridley, almost horrified. "Ridley…do that again…"

Ridley knocked on it again. "What?"

"…That's, worrying…"

Shadow of universe 2 looked at him a little confused. "Whats wrong Doctor?"

"It's the sound…Serris's bones were made of pure metal, metal bones…and yet that made the sound of normal bones…like as if someone made fake ones…Replaced the real deal…"

"Oh, that's not good…" Garrus looked at his universe Samus whilst saying this, before they all heard a distinctive roar, high pitch and ear piercing echo throughout the area.

Above them, as if phasing into existence, as several colours, rapidly changing over and over, until it had fully phased in, looking down at them, was the giant serpent Serris.

Serris, was at least now 250 meters long, with a dark green underbelly, which look like it was made of stone, it's upper half was covered in giant metal blue scales, with an outer rib cage from it's neck to the rest of it's body covering most of it's underbelly. It had five golden eyes, and a massive maw, filled with metal claded fangs, designed to rip warships into nothing. On top of it's head, was a see through skull, which showed it's fleshy brain, glowing with an eerie yellow aura. It bellowed out once again.

The Doctor noticed the second it stopped roaring, it's eyes had looked down, and were looking right at him. "S…S…Serris…it's…it's been…" it was like staring death in the face, as it begun to open it's mouth…

He was suddenly grabbed and moved, by the universe 2 Shadow, As Garrus pulled out a Sniper rifle that fired powerful blue energy shots, his Samus using her rifle, the other Samus firing Plasma Beam shots at the creature.

The attacks seem to just bounce off Serris's hardened scales, as he dived down towards where The Doctor was previously standing, both the Doctor and Shadow before it's maw, as it just…simply phased through the ground in it's multi coloured state, disappearing. Seemingly having gone through them.

Ridley was stunned. "The hell!? Where'd it go!?"

Subaru looked around frantically, then, a voice came from the wolf head on his hand. "Subaru! It's brief energy signature's gone! It must've vanished!"

After universe 2 Shadow quickly checked if the Doctor was okay, the man looked over to where Serris last was. "It's going to go through time! It knows it can escape! We need to chase after it! Come on! Shadow, Chaos Control us back to the Tardis, Quickly!"

The universe 2 Shadow nodded, and just before he did, he looked at his 3 counterpart and Ridley for a moment. "…Take care of yourselves, Shadow…" He seemed to go silent, looking at Ridley for a while more…something in his eyes showed regret, almost, sadness. "…Ridley….CHAOS CONTROL!"

And with that, the seven people from a different times and places, vanished, leaving Ridley and Shadow standing there, in silence.

"…..What the fuck, man, I mean seriously, what the fuck…" Ridley just blurted out.

Shadow shook his head, looking around at the walls, before looking up at the platform they came from. "We just need to take it as it comes Ridley."

Ridley just nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I suppose so. We may as well try and get back to the others. Here, get on my back. I'll fly us to them." he bent down, and Shadow jumped on, a little surprised.

"You know, I can easily just run."

As Ridley took off, flapping his wings, Shadow held on. "Yeah you could, but I know this planet like the back of my claw. I know the quickest routes and shortcuts, and I can easily guess which directions they went. I'd rather not have to slightly slow down just for you."

Shadow just responded with a huff, as they left the Chozo area, and soon enough, past the hall where the huge pink crystal pillar was, flying past waterways and several platforms…then, they both heard an almighty roar, from somewhere by the sounds of it, ahead, but still far away.

Shadow raised an eyebrow slightly. "…What was that?"

Ridley seemed to think about for a moment…then his eyes widened. "Oh man…it can't be…please, please, in the name of my ancestral spirits, tell me Samus has NOT just led them to…"

Kraid.

The monstrous lizard was before them all, roaring out in fury at their arrival into its lair, which Samus was REALLY sure would be vacant, until Darkmega pointed out the fat, green belly with three holes in at the other end of the room, which then up close to the ceiling, three red eyes appeared, glaring down…Samus cursed in both Chozo and Human.

She had already started to fire missiles at its head, smacking the eyes, and shooting a few into its mouth, making it screech in pain, before stomping around, trying to crush her and the rest. Along with that, it was also firing large green spikes out of its three hole within its stomach, along with it swinging it's claws, firing out the tips like bullets, which regrew on its fingers in mere moments.

Omega E123 was firing it's Lasers at the body, which was doing nothing, with the help of Medi and Darkmega using cannon battle chips, along with Rock and Blue as well, firing charged shots, trying to make it get back, but it was hardly even noticing them.

Sun Jian and Zhang Liao had both triggered their musou, and ran right up at Kraid and attempted to repeatedly stab it's stomach with their weapons…which only rebounded off, not even scratching the skin. They had to then quickly avoid it's feet, as it tried to crush them.

Rouge flew up to near it's face and attempted to kick it as Samus stopped firing for a moment, but all the kick did was make the thing focus on her and swings it's claws, firing it's razor sharp nails at her. Thankfully she dodged them and flew back, looking down at Samus, wondering why she seemed to stop.

There was a reason alright, and Samus was cursing it. Her missiles had just run out. "Fuck fuck FUCK!" she changed to the super missiles and opened fire, but of them she only had 9 left after her encounter with Omega. She fired them in quick succession, most of them just hitting the face, and only two getting in Kraid's vulnerable maw, making it roar out in agony, and take a few steps back, but soon it was moving forward again, determined to crush them all.

Samus looked over at Omega, as he was still attempting to shoot at it's stomach. "Hey tinhead! Fire at it's goddamn head and mouth! No wait even better! Everyone! Fire at it's fricken head!"

Omega, Blues, Rock, Medi and Darkmega did as they were told, all aiming and firing up at the giant lizard's face. The rush of weaponry shots to it seemed to make it open it's mouth once again, and getting a mouthful of pain, but instead of going backwards, Kraid did the smart thing. Start moving forwards, TOWARDS them instead of away. In their previous encounter, Samus managed to topple Kraid without so much trouble. This time though he seemed more determined and stronger…two things that she certainly didn't need right now.

As Kraid moved forwards, everyone moved backwards, slowly back towards the door, which out of convenience, was locked. Samus hated the fact that some of these doors had auto locking settings to trap her and force her to face whatever was beyond them. She wished the pirates would shut off things before leaving.

It was then, they heard the door unlock, and running in, was Shadow, quickly followed by Ridley flying in. Shadow run over to the others, who stopped firing for a moment, as Ridley flew up towards Kraid, who glared at him.

Ridley flew right up to his face, and spoke in a unique language. "Tia shin in'shipa Kraiken! Tia shin in'shipa!"

Kraid looked confused at him, and just stood there.

Ridley spoke again. "Goed xidgi. Jid quain fu du." then, he flew off behind Kraid, and landed near the room Kraid was resting near, the one that Kraid guarded the last time Samus was here. He entered that room, leaving the others standing there, looking at the towering behemoth, which was looking down at them, but not moving.

"Samus…what did Ridley just tell that thing?" Medi asked worriedly.

"Well, from my knowledge of their language, space pirate universal I mean, it sounded like at first, 'cease this attack Kraid, cease this attack.' then 'hold friend. I'll fetch it now' ….I think?"

Then they saw Ridley return, flying back up to Kraid's face, carrying four…purple coloured human head sized mushroom. Kraid opened his mouth, and Ridley threw them in. Kraid stood there afterwards, as if waiting, then, slowly, he begun to shrink.

Smaller and smaller, seemingly calm at the situation. Ridley flew down and landed near the others. "You lot okay? That is our Samus you're with isn't it?"

Samus just looked completely baffled at that statement, while Blues just answered "Yeah, we're fine, what did you mean with 'our Samus', and what's happening to…"

"Don't worry about the Samus thing. As for Kraid, You guys wait here, I'll talk to him when his ready." He walked over to Kraid, who was still going smaller, now twice the height of Ridley….then one and half, then just matching Ridley's full height, then a little bit more, then, he stopped shrinking.

He seemed to just blink a few times, then looked at Ridley and actually spoke to him in a deep male voice. "Ridlik! Gof gtien ndo zier!" (Samus translator: Ridley! How have you been!)

Ridley smiled at him. " Fues zier a ehou, guiesti fu Kraikin?" ( It's been a while, hasn't it Kraid?)

Kraid nodded, then looked behind Ridley, at the others. Ridley looked as well, as Kraid said " Ndoer xidgies beng she hurniter du? Sug, gof duoges ao meing…" ( You're friends with the hunter now? My, how things do change…)

Ridley looked at Kraid again, leaving the others but Samus looking confused. " Veek, shat aoesnt detenr. Lajk wak ndo aodig gist? Ndo, begenv quest beng she spiral blodew…" ( Look, that doesn't matter. What are you doing here? You, should've left with the Space Pirates…)

"Yaian carac gist, Ridlik." (They're still here, Ridley.)

Ridley looked stunned at him. "…Lajk?" (…What?)

Kraid nodded. "Yaian carac gist. Ke para yai gotou seg jerejay inas uri orobos ek, yenten tik feg lee lajke buiden ek." (They're still here. No doubt they heard me earlier and are already on, their way to see what's going on.)

Ridley just appeared dumbstruck for a moment. Then, the door was heard opening, and entering, were several Space Pirates…all which stopped dead in their tracks seeing the people, especially Ridley and Samus.

There was an eerie silence, before Ridley walked away from Kraid, over to the space pirates, who still looked shocked, and soon, he said to them. "Lajke mi zoos?" (What's up boys?)

Space Pirates. Scourge of the universe as they've been known in the old days. Now they're just seen as another problem to a list.

They were believed to have been driven out of the GF territory after their severe defeat on Zebes, along with their armada being crushed straight after, the several ships that remained fled. Of course now it seems, not all of them had left.

One group of them had stayed in Tourian, or what's left of it to be precise, as they were only living in the few corridors that remained after Samus's and Mother brains fight in the lower areas.

Tourian was near the centre of the planet, the main base of the Space Pirates here. All rather a mess after what Samus had done, but the pirates chose to call it home just to keep their spirits up.

They had led the group, along with Kraid, to their hideout, and explained everything to Ridley, as Samus tried to keep up with what they were saying so she could tell the others.

The pirates explained they were going to flee with the rest, but the surprise attack from the GF forces and their assault on any grounded pirate transport ships rendered them without a way to get home, and with all the damaged equipment, there was no way in contacting their allies. Kraid was due to be transported with them to one of the warships, known as Al'forate.

Since then they've been simply surviving, and kept Kraid in his lair until there was a chance that the pirate forces would come back and collect them over the years. Kraid said that it was them that helped him recover from his wounds against his last encounter against Samus, before the one just recently.

Obviously that has not happened. Ridley explained what had happened to him after his duel with Samus in Norfair before the fall of Tourian and the base. Once the assault occurred, his warship was the first to flee the scene, and he admitted he saw the Al'forate get destroyed, believing Kraid was killed. After that, once the Space Pirates reformed and explained Mother Brain and her blueprints had fallen into GF hands, and they needed a new leader, he chose this as the best time to hand in his notice.

Mother Brain, in his eyes, had led his pirate brethren to new heights, and helped them build a formidable force against the GF. With her death and his partner in crime and his true friend in the ranks of the pirates, Kraid, gone too, he didn't want any more part in it, choosing to look for his own path once again.

He found himself wondering the planets, inside GF territory, now at first, were dangerously uneasy with him, which caused him a lot of trouble on planets. He soon found a home though, when he visited Earth X and saw the Hero Base while it was being built. He bumped into Dr Wily and Dr Light, who seemed very happy to meet him in person, which threw him off a little, until they explained what their project was.

He said to the pirates it's given him a new direction in his career. They asked him what he was doing, and he told them…they just stared in disbelief, and Kraid roared with laughter, Ridley just crossed his arms, glaring at them.

Then he said all about what was doing on right now, why they were down here. Shadow told him about the fact their friends were being arrested, as he overheard while they were leaving to find them, and no doubt taken away. The pirates expressed their sincere apologies to Ridley for his new allies being in trouble, and Kraid even said if there was anything they could do to help an old friend, they'll do it.

Ridley looked at them…and smiled, as if an idea just popped up. He looked at Rouge. "…I take it mister Keaton would no less leave a few troopers waiting for you to report back right? Along with some transport ships waiting?"

Rouge nodded. "Of course he would have. He doesn't trust our kind with anything. No doubt several guards inside that base of yours and outside on the surface where they landed…"

Ridley nodded, happy with that information. He looked at Kraid and the pirates. " Xidgies, omepan te cet vewe hotewener…" (Friends, perhaps we can help eachother…)

Keaton was aboard his vessel once again, looking out of the command bridge windows, as they slowly left orbit of Planet Zebes, the second warship, carrying his prisoners had already departed. He had ordered five groups of GF troopers to wait for the return of Vile, Flame Stag, those mobians and that robot, with an extra transport ship should they manage to capture Darkmega and anyone that was with him.

He had ordered Master Chief, Snake and Colonel to go with the prisoner ship while he would have Grievous stay with him. The cyborg was right now looking at a computer after one of the officers asked him to come over quickly and check.

Keaton closed his eyes for a moment, relaxed and eased that sooner or later, those annoying idiots will be dealt with, if they don't find Darkmega, then making False evidence will be a piece of piss anyway. He then heard the metal footsteps of Grievous walking over to him. "Grand Commander, it seems that the High Ministers have sent you a message."

Keaton opened his eyes. "Put it on hologram display in front of me." Grievous nodded, and looked over to the officer at the computer, who understood and typed in something. The next moment, a green screen appeared in front of Keaton with the message.

….That eased feeling had suddenly died.

Anger built up, and his left hand was shaking as he clenched it. He finally got to the end of the message. "…Terminate the screen!" the officer done so quickly.

There was silence, as Grievous looked ahead, out at the stars, along with Keaton. "….It would seem, Grand Commander, the High Ministers have taken dealings with our enemies into their own hands now."

Keaton just stood there. "…So, it, would seem…"

"A truce between the three great empires, all for this Unicron…and they want you to deal with him personally. In exchange, they will grant you-"

"Be silent Grievous!" Keaton snapped. "I've always deserved that seat from the very beginning! They're just rubbing it into my face! My pride!" He forced himself to calm down a little, looking back outside. His left hand came up to his chest, still clenched tightly and shaking. "But…that's fine. I'll remove this goddamn planet machine myself! Then they can no longer deny me this! I'll finally gain my right, and I'll make sure they are all punished!"

Keaton panted, trying to make himself keep his cool. He was just maddened by this. "Grievous, inform all ready and able warships to track, and form up nearby the planet eater. Once I arrive…we attack, and destroy it. Get to it!"

Grievous nodded, and left him alone, ordering the officers on the bridge about. Keaton just stood there, watching the stars…once he had that seat of power, there will be alot of changes, especially to the High Ministers, he'll have new ones, ones that fear him, respect him. He'll get rid of those five heads of outsiders, and FORCE them to bow down to the might of the Galactic Federation.

In the vast, deep realms of space. Unicron waited. To everyone else, it looked like he was adrift, but right now, he was simply sleeping, to keep his energy levels high. Soon, coming into view, were not only the two Borg cubes that carried the Zerg, but four others, all coming near each other and heading towards Unicron. Four of the six looked battered and heavily damaged. It had been a struggle to get this far, this deep into enemy territory.

Unicron awoke slowly, while energy coming out of his mouth, to signal his awakening. "So, you have arrived at last. Well done."

One of the Borg ships hailed him. "We have come with your allies as wished. We will transport them over to you now."

Richard, and the Zerg, were teleported over without any trouble to Unicron. They had appeared inside of him, inside one of his vast halls, all looking around cautiously. Unicron spoke to Richard. "Excellent. I see you are well. We will begin your training shortly. But first…"

His voice now reached out to the Borg. "You wish to have perfection. I, am the embodiment of it."

"We wish only for perfection. You have formed an alliance with us. In exchange, you will grant us the technology to become closer to perfection."

"Indeed, I did say I would grant you the technology, but sadly, as far as I can see, our alliance, is terminated. You have completed the task I sent you for, to collect my forces. Now…"

His mouth slowly opened up, it's metal fangs like fragments moving up and back, to show the hole leading into Unicron, the white light had faded from it. And then, a blood red light, flowing out and flickering, covering the Borg cubes, had appeared. "Proceed, on your way to oblivion."

The light was actually billions of particles of raw energy…burning the hulls of the Borg cubes, crushing them, ripping them open. The cyborgs inside were shaking, feeling the energy flowing around them, many of them actually screaming in pain, some of them just ripping into pieces, the machines pieces falling off the flesh, killing the hosts. A few of the cubes attempted to fight back, firing their phasers and photon torpedoes, but it did nothing to Unicron. It only made him laugh as they weakly tried to resist. One of the Borg cubes made a break for it, managing to escape the energy, and warping out of the area, with it's outer hull mostly destroyed, just barely managing to collect itself together.

The other cubes weren't so lucky. They were slowly being torn up, and eventually, one by one, they exploded, their energy cores unable to hold up against such power. All what was left of the cubes, was slowly, as the energy went from red to bright green, was being pulled into Unicron's mouth. This was his tractor beam, the same thing he used on countless space stations and warships that have come to pass. All of the pieces went inside, to feed the Planet machine. Scrap or not, it was a meal.

Unicron soon shut off the energy, and his mouth closed, as he begun to move slowly once again. His destination was not to the capital of the Galactic Federation, but a nearby planet…one that seemed very familiar…his memory, of a life he had, flooded in for a moment, the planet was known as Hylian, which has a main capital called Hyrule, which by blood rights, will eventually go to Zelda once her father passes.

He looked to the planet…and inside his memories, he saw himself there once, a warrior of light, of truth and justice…millions of years ago…his mind soon focused on the now though, and after such small snacks, his hunger could no longer wait for Gaia VII. He knew he would hunger again soon enough, but right now, The planet nearby was filled with life, class M, nice and ripe, to be engulfed by him…

Back on Zebes, it was all silent inside the Hero base, waiting in the main room of it, which was all shut down, was Flame Stag and Vile. Outside, on the surface, the troops waited for them to report of anything…

One of the troopers decided to stray away from his group, looking at the landscape in slight awe…then, he thought he saw, over at a cluster of trees…a, purple tail…he wasn't sure though, and just regarded it as just local wildlife.

His group captain was seen with the others. Looking around and sighing. "Sigh, where is private Ryan?"

"I dunno sir, he was with us a moment ago. Maybe his just relaxing and having a look around like he normally does."

"I swear if he keeps doing this I'll need to report his sorry ass for leaving the gro-"

They all heard a scream of terror, then a terrifying roar…then silence…all of the other groups of troopers went still, looking around cautiously.

The captain knew that scream. "…That, was private Ryan wasn't it?"

Then, before they knew, uncloaking near them, were several Space Pirates, and roaring overhead and landing near them, making all the troopers move back in terror, was Ridley. Then coming up with him and the pirates, was Kraid, Samus, Shadow, Omega E123, Zhang Liao and Sun Jian.

The troopers knew the pirates alright, especially the two lords of them, and even felt more frightened that Samus was with them. Ridley pointed at them and shouted. " QUTS COP FU EEEK NDO! EIG ADRIAN!" (LET'S GET TO FIGHTING! GAME ON!)

Inside the base, Vile had motioned Flame Stag to come near him, as they saw Rouge walk into the main room. Vile was heard chuckling. "Well now, what do we have here? You by yourself? Heh, did your allies die? Pity really. Did you find Dark Megaman?"

Rouge smiled at them. "Why yes, I did. His in a safe place right now if you wanted to know."

Flame Stag shook his head in disappointment. "Tsk tsk, you decided to change sides then have you? And you decided to come back to us? Quite stupid if you ask me, we'll have to make you pay for this."

"If I didn't you would've come looking anyway in time."

Vile nodded. "Of course. And we would've wormed you out in time. So…quick, or slowly miss Rouge?"

Rouge looked at them, and smirked, as Blues, Medi, Darkmega and Rock came up behind her. "How about not at all, and I ask you the same question back hmm?"

Vile just chuckled once again. "What? With just them you think you've turned the tables? Please…you know who we are right? What we were once?"

He aimed his shoulder cannon, laughing. "Idiots! You're all against proud members of 666!" he fired a fully charged energy shot from it, not even needing to charge anything up. His weapon was designed for maximum firepower…and it delivered as Blues tries to use his shield to block the attack, only to find himself being sent flying back by the impact.

Rock charges up his own weapon and fires it, but Vile easily avoids it, firing another round, hitting Rock and sending him the same direction as his brother. Rouge quickly starts running towards him, only to find Flame Stag suddenly getting in the way, kicking her right in the stomach, stunning her and making her fall to her knees, before she felt his metal elbow smash into the back of her head, knocking her out cold.

Medi used the minibomb battlechip and threw one at Flame Stag, who easily shot forward, with blasting speed, and rammed into her, head butting her right in the face, making her scream in pain, as she skidding across the floor. Darkmega quickly came to her aid, forming a dark cyber sword, and swung it in Flame Stag's direction. He easily dodged to the side, then dodged another swing, and another, before jumping at Darkmega and hitting him in the face with his knee, knocking back the Navi, before he quickly grabbed Darkmega while he was stumbling, and made him look him right in the eyes, before he head butted Darkmega, not once, not twice, but three times, cracking the front of the Navi's helmet, before letting him go, and letting him hit the floor, in agony, just barely keeping awake.

Vile noticed Medi getting up, and another charged shot sorted that out, knocking her down again. What he forgot for a moment was Blues and Rock, who both had fired charged shots at him, he saw the energy balls coming at him, and quickly triggered a life aura battlechip, which was a powerful yellow energy barrier, stopping both attacks, as he then return fire, laughing as they both failed to avoid his shots, knocking them down again.

"Please, you're all unable to stand up to us! We've been especially trained to handle the odds!"

Flame Stag walked back over to Vile, as Rock and Blues forced themselves to stand up, while Medi was still trying to. "In all honesty, you may as well rolled over and waited for us to end it."

Vile nodded at him. "Yep, they should've. Now, lets' blast those two robots first, then-" a device was beeping on him wrist, flashing red.

Flame Stag looked surprised, then realized. "That's the emergency signal! Something's happening above!" he shot off up the pathway leading to the main door. Vile stood there for a moment, looking at the fallen before him, then huffs, and follows his comrade.

When they got the main door open…they saw what the problem was.

Their entire force was dead. All on the ground, some in halves, some with huge holes in them, some just…by the looks of it here, there and everywhere. And they noticed what had caused it, as they were near the main door, looking at them. The group, of Space Pirates and remnants of the base…not one of them killed in this little fight.

Vile was not impressed with this. " Typical. I knew this fodder couldn't handle anything!"

Flame Stag was not a happy machine either. "Alright you fools! Prepare to die!"

Shadow smirked. "You want to fight us? With us, and all the Space Pirates that will be arriving shortly?"

"Hah! Yeah right!"

Ridley shook his head. "You think there isn't gonna be? Look right now, we have a little group, a, scout team, before the main force. Now I've heard stories about a unit called 666...powerful, tough, but can they really handle a whole invading force, wanting this planet back?"

Flame Stag glared at him. "Ridley, one of the four lords of the Space Pirates…or was, and now is again, by the sounds of it. Why would the pirates come back? They fell along with Mother Brain!"

"Determination is a powerful thing. Do you really want to be here when they come? I offer you a choice. Stay and get killed. Or take a ship and run."

Vile looked at each and every one of them. They could well be bluffing, but without any real support, and with no way to call for backup should the pirates really arrive. He had to conclude that leaving would be the better choice. Afterall, they can easily inform Grievous and Keaton and get a counter force prepared. "….Your lucky I feel like taking a break."

Soon, Vile and Flame Stag jumped on one of the transport ships, and took off, rather quickly. Leaving the others to stand there, watching them leave. Then coming out of the base, was Rock, helping Darkmega by putting his shoulder over his, and keeping him on his feet, while Blues was carrying Rouge. Medi was following them, looking hurt.

Blues looked over at Ridley and the others. "So, it worked?"

Samus chuckled. "Like a charm. The idiots fell for it. Glad E123 detected them on the way back to the base and said they were members of the 666 Unit, otherwise we would've gotten our asses kicked…..most likely."

Ridley nodded. "Yeah. Most likely." He turned to Kraid and the Space Pirates, and bowed a little. And right after they bowed back, the Pirates with Kraid, moved to one of the four remaining transport ships, all getting into it. This was the idea proposed by Ridley. If they helped them deal with whatever GF there was, they could take one of the ships to go home with. If they make it or not is another matter, but it's better then nothing. Soon they had taken off, and flown away.

Blues then said. "Alright, now I think we should get on the ships and prepare to mount a rescue, don't you?"

Sun Jian looked at him like he was an idiot. "A rescue? When they are bound to be on a warship heavily guarded by Keaton's goons?"

Blues shrugged "Gotta try. We can't just sit around and hope for the best. And we'll get to them easily. No doubt these ships are meant for whatever warship they went on, so if we trigger the auto pilot, vola."

Ridley agreed. "Alright let's do it. Me, Samus, Shadow, Rouge, E123 and Zhang Liao will get on one ship. Blues, you, Rock, Medi, Darkmega and Sun Jian take the other, okay? Give me Rouge…" Blues gently passed her over to Ridley. "…She okay?"

"I think she's just out for the count after a blow to the head, she should recover, hopefully."

E123 spoke up. "Scan already completed. Rouge has suffered blow to the back of the skull and a blow to the stomach. She will recover."

Ridley smiled. "Good. Alright people lets get moving!"

Both groups soon got on their designated ships, and soon, both took off, leaving the atmosphere, heading out of orbit. Samus had set the auto pilot, then sat down next to Ridley on the ship. "….Ridley, those…objects you fed to Kraid earlier. I didn't want to say in front of him incase I blurted out the fact it's retarded but…weren't they…"

"Poison Mushrooms off Mario's world? Yep. We pirates put those and the Super Mushrooms on the black market very often, always sell well, and Kraid likes the taste."

"…You feed him the drugs that Mario used to abuse?…You Space Pirates are fucked up, you know that?"

Notes:

1. Unicrons energy attack is from the movie, yet it's never shown what it can do…so I pepped it up a little.

2. Space Pirate language. Yes it is random.

is from Metroid Fusion. 4th sector boss, and a bastard to boot.

-Dragonridley