Katina
Lylat System
The journey through the sketchy space phenomenon was surprisingly smooth—a little turbulent, but almost as easy as stepping through one of Gadd's portals. When they came out, the constellations had all changed, but to most of them, that mattered little. Space was…space.
What did catch their attention was the looming planet below them. It was a dull, reddish-brown with dirty wisps of atmosphere swirling over its surface.
"Good thing DK isn't here," Red said, thinking of the Kong's aversion to excessive desert regions.
Yoshi turned to James. "How exactly do you know we need to come here, again?"
Rather than answer, the pilot directed his gaze to Kirby, who nodded.
"Katina," Kirby confirmed.
"Great," Luigi said, baffled as always by unexplained knowledge from the Universe. "Now there are a-two of them."
Legion directed the Normandy in a straight descent into Katina's flimsy atmosphere, expertly managing its navigation so that it never lost control due to speed or atmospheric changes. Still, it was always a bumpy ride when there was suddenly air resistance where there hadn't been before. Red's blimp-flying experience didn't quite acclimate him to astral reentries.
They slowed down and leveled out as they came within a thousand feet of the planet's surface, which was like a giant Kansas covered in red sand, the occasional sedimentary gust blowing by.
"Mind if I take the helm?" James McCloud asked Legion before anyone could ask how they would search an entire planet for Star Fox. Legion's red bulb blinked in acknowledgement, and it stood and abdicated the steering mechanisms. James took the seat and began steering it as easily as an Arwing, heading in a very specific direction at maximum speed.
As they passed across Katina, the only landmarks were small pyramids dotting the landscape here and there. James explained that they were remnants of an earlier race which no longer inhabited the planet. Andross had wiped out what was left of the indigenes during the Lylat Wars.
After an hour or so, they finally came upon something out of the ordinary. It was a large white vessel stationed in the middle of nowhere, its recognizable fins and red vulpine decal giving it away.
"The Great Fox!" Red said, recognizing the ship that had once saved him and other Smashers from one of Master Hand's attacks in Saffron City. "But…what's it doing down there?"
"We're about to find out," James said, and turned to Legion. "Open fire with your special laser."
Legion inclined its head ever so slightly, and caused the Normandy to remotely draw its modified twin lasers and eject several bursts of Totem Brew at the Great Fox. It shuddered from the impact, but absorbed the blast like a sponge.
It was a relief to the Smashers—particularly Yoshi, who had witnessed every single purging since Link had returned from Koholint Island—not to have to deal with a Heartless Star Fox team, as interesting as that might have been. Within a couple minutes, the Normandy was landing not far from the Great Fox, and Zelda, Luigi, Red, Sora, James, and even Yoshi were fitted with their custom-made space outfits, complete with fishbowl helmets and heavily insulated jumpsuits (Yoshi's had space for his tail, while Kirby could survive in foreign atmospheres already). Though the Heart Softener had surely done its work, they were apprehensive as they disembarked down the exit ramp, unsure what they would find.
Nothing about the Great Fox changed; no one came out, nor did the ship start its engines. So they were forced to approach it and wonder how they would get inside. Even James held back; he seemed rather stupefied by the sight of his old spacecraft, lost in memories of the original Star Fox Team, and perhaps even a bit hesitant to see his son after his long absence.
"I've a-got this," Luigi said, stepping up to the closed hatch at the front where the hangar would be. He turned the dial of his Omni-Tool until the orange projection on his wrist resembled a walkie-talkie.
"Uh…open the Great a-Fox for us."
Rather than relay that message to whomever was inside, the Omni-Tool took the liberty of cutting out the middle man and caused the Great Fox's system to respond directly. The hatch slid open, showing them into the brightly lit hangar with several sleek Arwings and a couple Landmaster tanks stored inside. The Great Fox itself was significantly larger than the Normandy, so wandering inside unannounced was a bit of an intimidating prospect for most of the Smashers.
As was occurring increasingly often, Kirby was the one to take the first step forward, his eyes wide as he admired the high-tech gadgetry of each ship and tank, as well as the…video cameras? A range of tripods and dolly-borne and wall-mounted cameras were arrayed throughout the hangar along with motion picture-caliber lighting booms and even a couple green screens, as if the entire place were a film set.
"Um, guys? Looks like we've got visitors."
The speaker was not any of the newcomers, but a pink anthropomorphic rabbit in a yellow jumpsuit who had just walked into the hangar. She was soon followed by a gray bulldog in a green Cornerian pilot's suit (also anthropomorphic), his eyes shaded by his helmet visor, but his demeanor very laid back.
"Holy Fichina! It's the Smash Brothers…and that kid Sora everyone used to talk about."
Then two more came after—Peppy Hare and Fox McCloud. All four looked perplexed both by their recently opened hearts and their unexpected guests. But Fox was the first to react, rushing past his comrade, Bill Grey, and Peppy's astrophysicist daughter, Lucy, to greet the heroes.
"Guys; you made it! Whatever that stuff you shot us with was…it worked." He looked like he hadn't had a decent conversation with anyone outside the Great Fox in years, starved for social interaction. A million questions buzzed in his head. But the first to make its way out of his mouth was, "How did you find us?"
That was when the Smashers' newest party member chose to emerge from behind the rest, looking Fox straight in the eye.
Peppy had to remove his glasses, wipe them clean with his sleeve, and replace them on his wizened face. "Well, dad-gum…"
Fox, however, was unable to speak, having experienced one strange surprise too many. He was frozen.
"Hello, son," James said. It was a paralytic moment for both of them. "It's me."
Then Fox unexpectedly drew his blaster and aimed it at his father's head, a manic denial heating his eyes. "You're not him. I've been tricked before—those Boos in the Twilight Forest…the Aparoid Queen imitating his voice…You're dead. An apparition. Nothing I do or hope for can change that. So whatever you are, get lost."
"Please," James said, his creased brow pleading in place of his hidden eyes. "Let me explain."
Peppy stepped forward and put a hand on Fox's shoulder. "He's brought your friends this far, Fox," he said. "I say we give 'em a chance."
Fox said nothing for a long moment, then, slowly, nodded.
"You are right to be suspicious." James tilted his sunglasses down, peering at Fox through midnight blue eyes as they sat in the command center of the grounded Great Fox. They were alone except for Peppy, the rest of the Smashers touring the ship with Lucy and Bill. "By all accounts, I should be dead. On that fateful mission to Venom…when Pigma betrayed us and Peppy barely escaped…Andross took me captive. He tortured me; subjected me to his vile experiments for years. Until one day, he was full of wrath because you and your team had bested his forces on Macbeth and were heading for him, systematically dismantling both his armies and his plans for Lylat. So he…took his rage out on me, and in his anger, subjected me to a dark matter experiment that all but destroyed me.
"I was gone. Dead to the world. Nothing more than a smeared consciousness drifting through the universe, through the space between spaces. I wandered into all kinds of strange dimensions—some with people made of pixels, or of paper; some with giant vacuum monsters; even one with flying whales.
"But then I got a glimpse back into Lylat. You had just defeated Andross's core intelligence, his brain, and Venom's tunnel systems were collapsing around you. You were going to die. I was able to appear to you for just a short time, to guide you out to the surface, to safety.
"And yet, soon after, my immaterial body was sucked into other dimensions again, and so I went on for years, ever viewing strange dimensions, never able to stay in one place for more than a few minutes. It was a wearisome existence, and very nearly a pointless one, but I was no longer mortal. I couldn't have put an end to my life even if I'd wanted to.
"Then I saw you and your team face the Anglars. I managed to return to Lylat just long enough to help you take down their emperor, but was again lost to space before I could say more than a few words. I received random messages from the Universe, or the Hand of Fate, or whatever omniscient presence that was able to keep up with me wherever I went. I don't fully understand it; I just feel the truth of the information I receive. That's how I knew that the Smash Brothers needed to come here, to find you."
"So…how're you still here now, James?" Peppy asked.
James McCloud looked uncertain. "That I'm not sure about…but I suspect that it has something to do with the Great Convergence. I suspect when Xehanort came and ushered in the Heartless, he helped catalyze events which will lead to his 'Final Judgment' that he's so obsessed about. And one of the unintended results of these events seems to have anchored my essence to This World once again."
"Huh." Fox was still at a loss. His father's explanation made a strange kind of sense; it felt right, even. Somehow, he'd always felt deep down that his father wasn't truly gone; he'd just never considered that James McCloud had literally saved him twice rather than merely serving as a spiritual guide in his mind.
"I can't say I understand all of that real well," Peppy said, and his voice was almost choking with emotion. "But James, you're back now, and for real, and for me that's all that matters. Now tell us how we can help the Smash Brothers put an end to Xehanort's meddlin' once and for all."
It wasn't just the hangar that had been filled with film equipment; every part of the Great Fox was set up like a Star Trek episode. Everything from the hangar to the living quarters to the engine rooms and command center was perfectly in place. And Lucy and Bill seemed to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in explaining why.
"You fellas have no idea what Fox was like under the Heartless," Bill said, chuckling, as they began heading up to the command center to meet with Fox, James, and Peppy. "He's kind of an attention hog—he likes his limelight a little too much, to the point that he actually made Luce and Pep and I become his own personal film crew. We made a daily documentary of his reckless space adventures and broadcasted his show to the rest of Lylat."
"So…why's the Great Fox grounded here if he's been having all these crazy adventures?" Red asked.
Lucy smirked. "He hasn't; we've just been stuck here for years, pretending to be part of his ludicrous episodes so he could get lots of attention without doing any actual work. I had to play his nerdy love interest, while my dad was the cinematographer."
"And I was his goofy, less competent sidekick," Bill added.
"You both sound a little bitter about it," Yoshi said.
Bill laughed again. "Well, don't get me wrong; Fox is one of my best friends from the academy. I respect him a ton. So that makes it okay for me to talk about all his problems."
"Right," Sora passive-aggressively disagreed.
"We'd love to help y'all track down your friends and get the team back together," Peppy said as they met in the command center. "But, uh, there's a bit of a snag in that proposal. See, we're not gonna be much good to ya without our Arwings, and we'll need the Great Fox to fit 'em all; your little ship ain't big enough. But the thing is, the Great Fox hasn't been up and runnin' in years, so we'll need to get a mechanic to fix'er up before going anywhere."
"Slippy," Kirby concluded.
Zelda turned to James. "Then you will seek the knowledge to locate him for us?"
Fox laughed. "No need; I've known Slippy for a long time, and if he's not with Star Fox, there's only one place he could be. I've been to the island a couple times."
"Island?" Luigi said.
Zoness
Lylat System
Endless ocean—or nearly so. Zoness's vast waters were tinged with the yellow-green light of the sky, giving it a kind of toxic tranquility. It had been largely cleansed from the polluted waste Andross's forces had poured into its waters, but a small residue still remained—hence the strange sky color. As the Normandy zoomed across the seas with its two newest passengers in tow (Lucy and Bill had agreed to stay behind to watch the Great Fox), Fox couldn't help but reminisce about the adventures Team Star Fox had had here. The bonds they had shared; the enemies they had conquered; not to mention the terrifying giant mollusk creature he'd taken down in Star Fox's little-known deep-sea vessel, the Blue Marine. (Or had that been on Aquas? His memory was still rattled from both L.O.G. and the Heartless.) So much had changed since then as they had each gone their separate ways—Slippy, and Falco, and Krystal…
He looked again at his father, who was focused on the seascape before them. It was still hard for Fox to believe that James McCloud was alive, that his lifelong idol, his hero and role model, was back in his life. He supposed that was at least one good thing that had come out of all this Heartless business. It was like a missing fragment of his soul had been restored.
He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he nearly missed their stop amidst the occasional array of metal girders bearing industrial cranes, oil rigs, and other machines that were used to extract the planet's resources. A small cluster of islands shaped roughly like the footprint of a frog were nearly below them.
"That's it!" he said suddenly, startling even the steady-handed Legion. They braked, circled around, and descended toward the tiny land masses, which were covered in sand and palm trees and little else.
Yoshi was about to ask how they would know which island they needed to land on when he spotted, with the rest, the simple island cabana and the two frogs lying out in the sun on beach chairs—one amphibian pudgy and green-skinned, the other slender and hot pink.
"Lazy frogs at four-o'-clock," Fox said, as if he were speaking in code. But in this case, his report was quite literal.
"Shall I give them the treatment?" Legion asked.
"Give them the treatment," James said with a grin.
Down below, Slippy frowned and removed his sunglasses as the silhouette of the Normandy eclipsed the greenish sun. His girlfriend, Amanda, was asleep beside him.
"What the…"
Five minutes later, Slippy was grumbling on the Normandy's command bridge, his idle lifestyle ruined by the restored knowledge of his situation. James McCloud's miraculous survival hadn't even registered in his mind yet. Amanda's glum expression beside him seemed to indicate similar feelings.
"You guys could've at least given us some time to get some snacks from the shack before abducting us."
Fox shook his head, trying very hard to suppress a grin. "No time, Slippy; the other Smashers are in big trouble, and we need you to fix up the Great Fox so we can all get them back."
"Wait, Fox." James put a hand on his son's shoulder. Fox didn't react, not at all used to paternal affection. "We must still gather the rest of your team. Where is Falco? And Krystal? I have felt they will all be needed to take on the next Vassal."
"Krystal?" Fox frowned. "She ran off on her own after breaking up with me. Maybe to Sauria, but that place is loaded with more Heartless dinos than a chicken cordon bleu."
"Does that analogy even make sense?" Red asked.
"And as for Falco," Fox continued, "you know how much of a loner he is. He could literally be anywhere."
"Z," Kirby said succinctly.
Fox, Peppy, Slippy, and James all glanced at Kirby in surprise, then back at each other. Fox shrugged.
"He's been right so far."
Sector Z
Lylat System
Sector Z was a nebula of bright red stardust, also featuring metal girders, except they were floating in space and looked more like the torn-up skeleton of a skyscraper's scaffolding than industrial docks. Their rusted metal segments and crudely torn edges hinted at the violent history of the space battles that had taken place here during the Lylat Wars—not to mention the armada of missiles that Fox and his friends had had to fend off from making the Great Fox into another of the nebula's dismal decorations.
"Fox, standing by," Fox reported from his Arwing.
"Slippy here!"
"James, standing by."
The two extra Arwings, which they had retrieved from Katina before heading the relatively short distance to Sector Z, flew in a triangle formation together with James's, surrounding the Normandy and scouring the floating wreckage for their feathered friend.
"This place is almost as ugly as Sector X now," James remarked.
"Don't remind me of that place," Slippy said darkly—which, in his high voice, really didn't sound all that dark.
"Seems pretty deserted to me," Peppy said over the communicators from within the Normandy. "Are you sure that pink puffball's—"
The twin blasters—coming from two separate ships—rocked the Normandy like a roller coaster simulator. Falco Lombardi's Sky Claw and Katt Monroe's pink Catspaw crossed overhead as they flipped around for another attack.
"Dagnabbit!" Peppy cried, one hand steadying himself against the control panel, the other reaching for his bad back. "Fox—do something!"
"On it!" Fox switched his communicator to broadcast publicly so their ambushers could hear. "Gosh, Falco; I haven't seen an ambush that cowardly since Andrew Oikonny."
Within the Sky Claw, the Heartless Falco narrowed his eyes. "You shouldn't have come here, McCloud. Now you'll pay—for all the glory you've stolen from me. And for that ridiculous sitcom of yours."
"Me-ow," Katt cooed, reminding some of the Smashers uncomfortably of Samus's behavior when they'd first found her on Shadow Moses Island with Snake. Katt was a loner like Falco who had helped Star Fox on occasion—mostly for the chance to fly near him. "I like the way you talk, Falkie—and the way you—"
But they never did hear what other behavior Katt admired in Falco (nor did they want to), for while Falco and Katt had been focused on Fox, Slippy and James had snuck around and fired their modified blasters, striking and purging both ships.
There was a long silence as they all drifted slowly through Sector Z.
"Falco?" Fox said finally. "You all right?"
"Frick, man," was his only response.
Sargasso Hideout
Lylat System
"You really think this'll help us find Krystal?"
Slippy was not the only one with doubts as the Normandy and the Great Fox approached Lylat's most notorious den of thieves—the outlying space station known as Sargasso Hideout.
Falco folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. "You've gotta remember that Krystal's more than just sweetness and sparkles. On the inside, she's got a core of diamond—and some darkness that we got just a taste of during the Anglar Blitz. If the Heartless really do bring out the worst in each of us, I'd bet my primary feathers that she's had run-ins with the less savory sort." He cast a sly, sideways glance at Fox. "How did you two end up calling it off, anyway?"
Fox didn't really want to answer, but he could tell that the rest of his team in the Great Fox—plus Bill, Lucy, Amanda, and Katt—wouldn't let him get away with silence. He sighed.
"You've gotta remember we'd just had our hearts darkened. Even after I turned Dash Bowman down when he asked to join the team, Krystal still felt left out, and I guess we had an argument about her involvement in our missions and she flew away."
"Speaking of missions," Peppy said, "the Smash Brothers seem mighty keen on finding the Vassal in these parts. Do you reckon…"
Fox nodded grimly. "Dash—or the Heir of Lylat, as he's calling himself these days. Only reason he's left me alone is because Xehanort told him to…and my show hasn't exactly been a threat to his exploits."
"Wow, Fox." Falco sniffed. "You really did screw everything up, didn't you?"
"We can point fingers later, Falkie," Katt said, pointing out the windshield of the command center.
"Katt's right, fellas," Bill said, watching as the Normandy accompanied them in their slow approach toward the hideout. "We've got more important things to worry about than past mistakes. Let's find Krystal so we can help these Smashers take down Lylat's latest dictator."
The hideout, floating in the midst of a few stray asteroids, looked like it had once been an enormous brick-red sphere, but three-quarters of it had been torn away, leaving bare gray innards interspersed with veins of that same dark red. The bottom had four enormous thimble-like engines tilted toward the base, which made for questionable practicality. The shapeless tendrils of orange nebula in the background gave the station an aura of rebelliousness, of renegades and rogues and outcasts.
Over in the Normandy, Luigi was having doubts as well.
"Why are we a-coming with Star Fox to find their missing a-members, again?"
"It does seem tangential," Zelda said. "And we could have stayed on Katina or gone our own way; but then we might have lost contact with their team, and if James McCloud's words are true, we'll need as much of Lylat's help as we can get for whatever's coming."
Luigi didn't argue the point, even though part of him wanted to. Mario was out there somewhere, and every sign seemed to indicate he was in trouble.
Their plan, of course, was not to barge straight into the den of thieves uninvited. Falco and Katt, who had been there most recently, had advised them that even though the rusty battleships which had once patrolled the base had not been replaced since the Aparoid Invasion, the heroes would do well to come in small groups. So only a few from each ship would actually infiltrate the hideout, and they would do so under the cover of the Sky Claw and Catspaw while the rest waited on the backs of inconspicuous asteroids.
"Good luck, Fox," James said as Fox climbed into the Sky Claw with Falco and Sora. Both the Normandy and the Great Fox had landed on the back of a large chunk of space rock, and the Sky Claw and Catspaw were awaiting departure.
Fox nodded. "We'll find her."
The Catspaw, meanwhile, was being boarded by Katt, Kirby, and Zelda. Peppy was there to wish them safe travels, but nearby, Lucy and Amanda appeared to be gossiping about the complexities of the "Foxtal" and "Falkatt" pairings. Bill tried to join the excited chatter, but was soundly rejected by the girls.
And with that, they were off—one lightly modified Arwing and one heavily modified Invader-class fighter from Andross's old fleet. Falco and Katt made their approach appear as natural as possible—even with two extra passengers stuffed behind each of them. The base, though not as heavily monitored as it used to be, was still not a place where you would want to appear, well, out of place.
There was little time (and oxygen) to speak on the journey over, so both cockpits were rather quiet as they slipped into an entrance shaped like an SD-card slot.
The inside of Sargasso Hideout was saturated with steel, and faint red lights, and bright neon blue elevators and pathways. It was composed of a mostly hollow core of several levels, similar to one of the sinkhole cities of Utapau but on a smaller scale. The place was crawling with all kinds of hybrid (and probably stolen) ships and nasty-looking individuals. Wandering up and down its several levels were exiled Anglar pilots; old Lylat War veterans who had sided with Andross but had somehow escaped justice; thieving, bounty-hunting, conniving anthropomorphous beings of nearly every kind, slender and thick, whiny and bass-voiced, ugly and refined. On some of the levels were bars and pubs, useful for the diverse patrons who appeared to be there for shady business, or hiding from the law, or some other unknowable reason, chatting or skulking or throwing each other threatening stares.
"Well," Fox said, "I can see of all the places in the Smash Universe that've been changed a lot by the Heartless, this isn't one of them. There's only so much the Heartless can do, I guess."
"How are we gonna find your friend?" Sora asked.
Katt raised a paw with claws extended and smiled. "With persuasion."
Kirby just beamed with innocent curiosity. As always.
They began wandering around, on the hunt for anyone who looked like they might have some kind of connection with Krystal—perhaps one of General Scales's surviving SharpClaw warriors, for instance. But most of the hideout's resident lowlives were too drunk, or too oblivious, or too disposed to shoot anyone who so much as breathed in their direction, to be helpful. At the same time, the group of six drew many suspicious stares from the rest, what with a goofy-shoed human, a puffball, and a ninja accompanying the Lylat natives (Zelda had transformed into Sheik for added effect). They shouldered their way past several grimacing anthropomorphic piranhas and boarded one of the neon blue elevators, which carried them all the way to the highest floor so they could have a good view of the hideout's occupants. Falco in particular used his keen falcon eyesight to scan the crowds. After a while of wandering around the top floor, he snapped his fingers/wings.
"Bingo. Canine bozo at ten-o'-clock."
They soon came to a large, almost empty table with a single occupant. He was a tall, muscular wolf with rugged silver fur and an eyepatch covering one eye. His claws were wrapped around an enormous jug of some kind of green alcoholic drink, and as the small party approached, he took a long swig and slammed the jug violently on the table, glaring at them with his single pale green eye.
In spite of the high likelihood of finding this particular individual here, Fox was quite surprised—more by the pilot's sunken demeanor than anything else.
"…Wolf?"
"Go away, you mutt!" Wolf O' Donnell snarled, eyeing the rest. "And take your wretched friends with you."
Fox glanced at Zelda. "I think he needs a dose."
Zelda nodded and drew one of the blasters loaded with Totem Brew. But before she could fire, Wolf whipped out his own weapon and blasted it out of her hands.
"I don't need your damn Heart Softeners!" he said. "Don't you get it? The Heartless haven't had anything to do with me…because I'm already at my worst. Their work was finished before it began. Just as it'll soon be with all of you."
"No need to snap at us, Wolfy," Katt said, taking a seat without permission. The others followed suit. "For once, we're only here to help."
Wolf's voice grew dangerously soft. "Help? You think you can help restore the wreckage that's become of me, of Lylat, of everything I know? Tell me, Smashers…" He latched his eye onto Sheik. "Can your 'healing magic' bring back my dead team? First Panther, consumed by those Aparoids in the War of the Hands…then Leon, slaughtered by that infernal bounty hunter during the Space Pirate War…Oikonny and Dengar don't really count, seeing as they were already treacherous maggots. But still…all of them have left me as the last pathetic shred of Team Star Wolf. I'm a lone wolf with nothing to live for. Can all your beliefs in love and good triumphing over evil fix that?"
Wolf's bitter speech had caught everyone off guard. What was just as unexpected was that Sora would be the one to answer him. The boy leaned forward with his hands spread across the table, a fierce look in his eye.
"You think you know about loss?" he said. "Try having your entire universe erased from existence. Try having everyone you ever cared for made extinct—just like that—because you weren't strong enough to save your kingdom's heart. At least This World is still here at all…and if you'll listen to what we're trying to tell you, at least you still have a chance of saving it."
Wolf was silent.
"Listen, Fangface," Falco said. "If you're looking for someone's shoulder to cry on, or for a therapist to blabber all your life problems to, you're out of luck. But here are the facts: One—Leon and Panther are gone, and yeah, you're right, there's nothing we can do about it. Two—Lylat's being ruled by Andross's twisted psychopath of a grandson all because he didn't get into the cool club. Three—Xehanort's gonna bring This World to a real end in the not-too-distant-future unless we stop him. And four—"
"We need your help finding Krystal in order to do it," Fox finished, determined to end on a positive note.
Wolf was astounded by the boldness of these audacious newcomers. But a sharp-toothed smirk came over his face as he glanced over their shoulders. "All I can say to that," he said, "is be careful what you wish for."
A laser from behind caught Katt in the back, sending her to the ground with a cry.
"Katt!" Falco yelled, then turned with the rest to view the attacker.
She wore a blood-red jumpsuit of a remarkably similar shade to Zelda's Heartless-inspired dress. A black helmet covered most of her head, with bright violet bangs visible through her blue visor. In one hand she wielded the culpable gun, and in the other she held her long, magical Saurian staff.
"Krystal!" Fox yelled, leaping to his feet and drawing his blaster. Others stood with their weapons as well—except for Wolf, who just watched the interchange, amused.
"Krystal is dead," the female vixen spat. "Only Kursed, the greatest bounty hunter in all of Lylat, remains. And I am here for you, Fox McCloud." She jabbed a finger toward him accusingly. "My employer wishes to dismember you personally, and I am to deliver you to him. An old friend of yours—Dash Bowman, the Heir of Lylat. The great leader who now controls every inch of this System, from Corneria to Titania."
Fox wanted to talk, but he knew the only way he could get to Krystal would be to purge her. He was in the very act of pulling the trigger when Kursed swung her staff, sending a pulse of magic that pushed Falco, Sheik, Sora, and Kirby some twenty feet across the room, and wrenched the purifying gun out of Fox's hands. Fox's eyes widened as Kursed turned her gun on him.
"Don't do this," he said. "Whatever I've done to you, you're better than this."
The corner of Kursed's mouth lifted slightly. "No I'm not."
The gun fired its laser—which reflected off of Fox and back at her and seared her chest, knocking her to the ground unconscious.
Fox switched off his Reflector which he'd activated at the last second, knowing that she hadn't planned on killing him since she'd been here to collect his bounty. He knelt beside Kursed and cradled her head in his arms.
"Krystal…what has This World done to you?"
Lor Starcutter
Popstar
Magolor had simply landed on the roof of Castle Lololo, appearing quite comfortable with a more Santa Claus-inspired approach than the traditional front door knocking. The lavender clouds and dark sky—illuminated far above by Popstar's golden atmosphere like a celestial aurora borealis—made for a beautiful, if quaint, backdrop. The air was cold, but with a faint warmth coming from above like distant sunlight. The castle roof was eerily comparable to that of Master Hand's Fortress, which Mario supposed made sense considering Nightmare originated from Kirby's world. Architectural trends and all that.
"We'll get his minions to take care of unloading the cargo," Magolor said as they descended a stone staircase which wound down the outside of the tower to a small blue door embedded in the wall like a blueberry pancake. Mario and the other Smashers had little to say as they followed him; it was hard to decide how they felt in this place. Popstar, the Illusion Islands, Castle Lololo—it was all so foreign to them that they couldn't tell whether its vibes were good or bad. And maybe that was the point: Dreams, after all, were the canvas of comforts and nightmares alike.
Magolor let himself in through the blue door as well, which struck the Smashers as strange since according to him, most people on Popstar weren't too fond of him. And as soon as he opened the door and led them inside, their confusion was compounded.
The room was odd mostly in the sense that it was split exactly down the middle, one half the same bright blue of the door, the other half a rosy pink, with a like-colored door on the opposite end. In the middle was a statue of two Dreamlandians which most closely resembled Paint Roller, whom the Smashers had encountered at the Fountain of Dreams. Only, these two creatures bore neither baseball cap nor paintbrush, and their hands and feet were directly connected to their spherical bodies without any limbs to speak of. The two were in the act of clasping hands and dancing around each other, their large eyes almost twinkling with joy.
And sitting in a cushy chair in front of the statue, resting his feed on a couple Waddle Dees while others waited on him with food and drink, was King Dedede.
"You?" DK said. "You're Magolor's client?"
Dedede cast Magolor and the Smashers a lazy look, mildly perplexed. "Is my next shipment o' goodies here already? Well, I'll be! You, you, and you." He gestured toward a few of the Waddle Dees. "Go help 'em bring it in. I've had a cravin' for some candy for some time, and my blood sugar could use a good spike with all the calories I've been burnin'."
"I thought you're supposed to keep a-watch over Dreamland," Mario said, ignoring the unlikelihood that the fat penguin had been burning any calories at all.
Dedede yawned. "Oh yeah; that little ol' chore. Well, that place is more boring than a honeydew fruit salad. I've been poppin' over to Popstar every now and again; I've figured there ain't no harm in takin' a vacation here so long as Xehanort's none the wiser."
"Yeah…let's make this easier for everyone," Samus said, pulling out her Time Flute—the second to last one besides the one in Mario's trousers. She tossed it to Pikachu.
"Wait—" Magolor protested.
But it was too late. Pikachu's cheeks sparked as he blew into the woodwind instrument, causing a daze to come over Dedede and his Waddle Dees as their hearts were rid of the Heartless.
Dedede groaned, and the rest were silent as he blinked rapidly, trying to take in the scene before him. He fixed his gaze on the first Smasher he recognized, which for some reason was Ness.
"Hey, kiddo…what in tarnation's goin' on here? Where's Kirby? And why am I…" He noticed the food littered around him and shrugged. "Well, I s'pose that's normal, actually."
"We should go," Magolor said hurriedly. "I tried to warn you, but Marx has an uncanny ability to sense whenever a heart's purged in his domain. He could be here any minute."
"Marx?" Dedede looked even more confused, then comprehension dawned on his face as he recognized Magolor. "Say, Smashers…what're y'all doin' with this here Voyager?"
Mario, DK, Samus, Ness, and Pikachu immediately backed as far away from Magolor as they could, shocked by Dedede's slip of the tongue, and yet at the same time, not.
"Not again," DK groaned.
"Marx isn't the Vassal of Dreamland, is he?" Samus cocked her arm cannon. "You are."
Remarkably, Magolor looked hurt, if anything. "You've gotta admit, though, I had you all going for a while."
"Not a-really," Mario said.
"Maybe a little bit," Ness admitted.
The friendliness in the Halcandran's eyes finally vanished. "Fine; if you don't wanna talk about this, then I guess it's time to wrap things up." He gestured toward the statue of Lololo and Lalala, and in just a few horrible seconds, the two figures became morphing masses of black energy, then swelled and solidified into perhaps the most intimidating Heartless the Smashers had yet seen.
They were almost exact likenesses of Master and Crazy Hand, except on each fingertip was a pair of empty yellow eyes, and stringy black tendrils hung from the palms and thumbs like strips of loose flesh. The palms themselves were distinguished with gaping heart-shaped holes, which were filled with pulsing scarlet energy.
"It was a lot of work to get you guys all the way out here," Magolor said. "Master Xehanort gave me a nice power boost with those Kingdom Hearts, but he wouldn't even let me use them to kill anyone. Unfair, right? So I had to bring you far enough away that even Xehanort wouldn't feel your deaths. So, um, good luck. I would join the brawl myself, but seeing as Sora's kind of far away, I won't waste either of our time. I've got important business to attend to, anyway. Happy dying!"
Magolor simply floated out the blue door and back up to the Lor Starcutter without another word.
Mario watched the two Heartless Hands and ignited his fists. The Heartless seemed to be waiting for them to make the first move. "This isn't so a-bad. We can take them!"
Both of the Hands snapped their fingers, and in one instant, Mario's fiery fists were extinguished; Samus's Power Suit powered down; Pikachu's electricity was negated like a reasonable Congress bill; and Ness's offensive PSI energy flew the coop, figuratively speaking.
Samus struggled to lift her arms and step forward without the suit's support. Now she was just covered in a thick metal layer of dead weight. "Maybe not."
No one had noticed King Dedede, who had now planted himself squarely between the Smashers and the Heartless Hands. He turned to Ness as both of the Heartless appeared to be taking a moment to recharge from their power-nullifying attack.
"Get yourselves outta here, kid; you can use that big psychic brain of yours to teleport stuff, right?"
Ness closed his eyes. Any offensive capabilities had been dampened by the Heartless, but he could still feel enough PSI energy to maybe manage a short Teleport. He nodded.
"Pika?" Pikachu asked, which to paraphrase, meant, "But…what about Dedede?"
The penguin king's normally self-indulgent expression had been replaced with a firmness never before seen. He clutched his hammer shakily and glanced at the Hands, which almost seemed to be listening in on the conversation as they recharged.
"All I've ever been to the Smash Brothers is a coward. Even when I tried to do what's right, it was because I was dead afraid of the consequences if I didn't. For once in my doggone life, let me do somethin' for the right reason. I can't leave Popstar with ya anyways—not unless you're goin' back to Dreamland." He turned to face the Hands and smirked over his shoulder. "Y'all will be just fine; the Smash Universe is in good Hands. Now git."
There was no time to argue, or to thank King Dedede for giving them this chance to escape. Mario, DK, Pikachu, and Samus all gathered around Ness (Samus with considerable difficulty). As the boy focused his mind and cast PK Teleport, the last thing he saw was Dedede jumping and swinging his hammer at the Hands as the two Heartless projected thick beams of energy which crossed with obliterating power, the explosion nearly consuming the Smashers as well before they were twinkled to safety.
? ? ? ? ? ? ?
A small figure had just penetrated the outer atmosphere of Smash Planet. It rocketed through the airless void using its jet-propelled feet, able to survive in the vast, oxygen-free frigidity by virtue of its nonmortal body. Its wooden limbs. Its mechanical organs. Its ticking heart.
Geno was locked onto his target like a war machine, heading toward the greatest concentration of purged Smash Brothers: Lylat. His directions were infallibly precise, for they had been given to him by Master Xehanort himself, along with the touch of Kingdom Hearts which granted him powers far beyond anything he'd possessed as a humble star, wish-granter, and companion of Mario. His black eyes blinked emotionlessly as he rocketed through space at an incredible speed like a lethal puppet missile. Because that was now a thing.
And Mario, Sora, and all the rest…once he was done with them, the Twelve would never make it back to the Nintendo World. Not in time for the End.