Well, that airplane trip certainly didn't do any favors for my upload schedule. Anyway, the next chapter in the story is here, and it took a surprisingly short amount of time to complete this. I'm kind of surprised about the length of this chapter.

An explosion rocked the city. The pebbles on the street below tumbled across the blacktop, and the buildings that towered above trembled down to their foundations. Even miles away, walking down the sidewalk of an unfamiliar part of the capital, Samus could hear the deep thundering of the blast as it swept over the city Her head turned to the sky just in time to see the prison ship come crashing down into the city below, landing in a pit of flames as the skyscrapers around it crumbled.

Already, people scrambled past her in a frenzied panic, most of them eager to get as far away from the wreckage as possible. Samus liked to think she ran towards danger more than she ran away from it. Now she was beginning to doubt that, and considered losing herself to the crowd - at least, as easily as a woman in a hulking suit of armor could be lost in the crowd.

She considered going back to help, recalling the bout of paranoia she had earlier. As quickly as it had come, she brushed it off. The place would be crawling with security drones, anyway.

When Anthony had mentioned the drones to her, she was a bit skeptical-even more so when she glanced at their pink and yellow armor and wiry forms. They looked so frail and so small that even the lowest Space Pirate grunts could have taken them out. The demonstration she had borne witness to had changed her mind. She certainly didn't want to get caught in the crossfire, not when she knew there would be so many of those machines.

Anyway, if the drones couldn't handle whatever the Pirates threw at them, the Federation Police would show up, and she trusted them more than she did the drones.

When she saw tiny black pods fire out from the falling ship, like tiny seeds flung into the wind, then she started to get concerned. In the wreckage of the prison, the security drones could take care of any rebellious prisoners there. Spread said prisoners across the city, however, and the Federation's forces wouldn't be able to reach them quickly enough. She had to help. At least, help where she could.

One of the pods soared over her head and landed somewhere down an alley. Birds scattered to the sky from behind the building to her left, and thin trails of smoke rolled out a second later. Samus moved forward to begin her hunt, slipping her helmet over her head as her arm cannon hummed to life.

Only, she hadn't activated her cannon yet. When she looked down at it, her arm cannon was as still as always. So then where was that sound coming from?

An electric crackling reached her ears. The sound of crumbling rock, not long after that. Behind her green visor, Samus frowned. Federation blasters sounded much different from her weapons. As of yet, the only ones who had managed to replicate them were the Space Pirates.

Her boots clanged against the street as she sprinted down the empty alley, in an effort to catch up to the escaped Space Pirates before they caused too much damage. When she came upon the pod sitting in the rubble, she found the door flung open. To her surprise, the Pirates inside were already dead, red blood splattered on the floor. She turned over a limp, reptilian body with her foot, and saw a gaping hole on the other side.

Space Pirates were known for the harsh punishments they inflicted against their own kind, and this was just another example of it. Among the Pirate Commandos especially, acts of cowardice earned a shot in the back, and for this group, letting themselves get captured appeared to be considered cowardly to the Pirates.

This still meant that there were Space Pirates in the area. Albeit a bit more well-armed than she expected, but that shouldn't be a problem. Right?

Samus shook her head. Ridley was dead. Without him or Mother Brain, the Space Pirates were nothing more than a bunch of thugs.

Then the wall next to her blew apart. Her head rattled as she slammed into the bricks on the other side, and bits of the wall shaken loose from the explosion pelted her armor. From the rising dust, three reptilian creatures emerged, silver plating gleaming in what remained of the setting sun as they scanned the alley with beady eyes. They hissed, their scaly lips peeling back from their snout as their claws clicked against each other, shifting their grip on the blasters in their hands in anticipation.

The cloud of dust in the hole behind them finally parted, revealing one more Space Pirate. Unlike his three companions, the fourth Space Pirate held a smooth, spherical gemstone within its grasp instead of a weapon.

When they caught sight of each other, Samus immediately found herself staring down three glowing barrels. Her arm cannon shot out of the rubble, scattering bricks to the road as a fizzling beam of energy shot out and grappled onto a nearby ledge. By the time the blasts of blue energy tore up the wall across the street, Samus was pulling herself to safety.

As soon as her free hand grasped onto the roof of a building, she hauled herself over the top, swinging her cannon back around and fired at the Space Pirates. The four Space Pirates turned and fled, returning her fire with their own weapons.

Samus gave chase, raining blasts of energy down to the street. She leapt from building to building, using her grappling beam to cross the wider gaps as the Space Pirates sprinted down the alley, the one with the gemstone leading the way.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a tiny figure in the distance, crossing over rooftops like she was doing right now. At first, she dismissed it, turning back to pursue the Space Pirates. Then an electronic burst rang out, and the ledge below her crumbled. Something tackled her off the roof, and a silver coat of fur-covered her sight just before she slammed into the pavement.

The moment she hit the ground, she felt a weight lift off her body. There were cracks around where she had landed, leaving a nasty scar in the pavement. She clutched her head, taking a second to steady herself as adrenaline pumped through her. While she had been downed, the four Space Pirates had surrounded her, three of them pointing their weapons at her, while the remaining one had an energy scythe out over his free hand. Despite the four-to-one odds she faced, she could probably beat them all if it weren't for the newcomer at the head of the pack.

This new arrival was covered in grey fur, with white fur over his muzzle and a shiny blue eyepiece over his left eye. His chest was strapped over with a rugged jacket, spikes over his shoulder and knee pads, while claws tipped his gloves, his face set in a snarl made him look like a wolf.

"And who's this lady here?" the wolf said, arms across his chest. From the ground, Samus racked her memory for any bounty hunter or mercenary that matched him, and a name came to her a second later: Wolf O'Donnel.

The Space Pirates spoke in an animalistic series of snarls and hissing that would sound like garbled nonsense that resembled a rock being tossed through a wood chipper if it weren't for the translator in her helmet.

*This is Samus,*/I the Space Pirate with the gem said, I*the troublesome bounty hunter we told you about.*/I

"Samus eh?" Wolf said, turning to look at her. "You really think you can take on all of us here?"

Samus replied by aiming her cannon at one of the Space Pirates and firing a missile at him. The Pirate leapt to the side, and flames burst from the ground as the rest of the Space Pirates open fired. The air became alive with burning hot bolts of energy, and Samus found herself ducking and side-stepping the frenzied attacks.

She closed the gap between her and two of the Space Pirates in a single bound. With one hand she twisted the blaster out of the hands of the Space Pirate on her left, while she fired a blast into the arm of the other, forcing him to drop his weapon. Before they could react, she kicked both of them in the face, sending them stumbling back.

A third Pirate started firing at her as she landed behind the lot of them. She whirled around and launched a grapple beam at him, and in one swift motion, yanked him over to her before slamming him into the ground. As soon as her grapple beam retreated back into her cannon, both of the Space Pirates she had knocked down rushed back towards her, their blasters replaced with a pair of energy scythes.

A blur of orange energy went past her face as she twisted away, and when the other Space Pirate swung across her mid-section she took a step back. In reply, she swung an armored boot at the closest Pirate, snapping his face to the other direction with startling speed. His companion attempted to jump her, but she quickly spun around and planted her foot into its chest. Both stumbled back, one clutching the side of his face, the other gasping at the newly formed dent in its armor. Samus stood, panting heavily as she brought her foot down, scanning the area for the last Space Pirate. It wasn't until she felt claws scrape across her back that she remembered Wolf.

Wolf clambered over her helmet, a tornado of slashes and snarling as he cut across her face, beside her visor, and down her neck. Pain erupted from all around her, and she flailed around, trying to knock him off her. Metal clanging was all she received for her efforts, as the slippery Wolf wove around her strikes. In a last-ditch effort, she aimed her cannon over her head and set off a blast right outside the muzzle. She heard a yelp, and the wolf landed in front of her on his feet. When he turned to face her, the fur on the side of his face was singed, much to her satisfaction.

Blue bolts of energy flew over her shoulders before she could feel good about herself. Apparently, the Space Pirates she had downed were not out of the fight just yet. Something knocked against her stomach, and she stepped back again. Her suit's energy slipped down a notch. One of the Pirates had re-armed themselves, forcing her to retreat. His two companions thought different and decided to charge at her with their scythes drawn.

A slash came at her from the side, effortlessly cutting through the air where she had been standing moments ago. The second Pirate jumped up to bring down the blade on her, but he raised his arms so high up it left him wide open, a mistake she quickly took advantage of by ramming her knee into his chest. He crumbled to the ground as another shot glanced her shoulder, draining more of her suit's energy pool. Tiring of the constant annoyance, she fired a missile at him. The Pirate leapt away, but the resulting blast still knocked him over.

The fourth Pirate, the one with the gemstone, ran in to take the place of his comrade as he fell to the floor. He raised his scythe, but Samus caught his arm mid-strike. Any normal human would have collapsed under the reptilian's brute strength. Samus overpowered him with ease.

Before she could follow up, a powerful blast hit her from the side. The suit's lights flickered, and her energy took a dive. A pained hiss escaped her, and she turned around just in time to see another purple bullet hit armored plates. In her momentary falter, the Space Pirate she had been struggling with struck her, and she finally buckled.

She hit the street with a clang, shaking her vision as pain rang out through her head. As the fog over her came into sharp focus, she became aware of a searing heat pressed close to her neck.

"Shouldn't have turned away," Wolf said from somewhere out of her peripheral. "Tough luck, partner."

I*We should execute her now,*/I the Space Pirate standing over her said. I*She will only work to hinder our plans if we keep her alive.*/I

"Fine by me," the wolf replied.

Then a third voice joined in. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Wolf."

Four seconds. Four shots went off. From her place on the floor, she saw the Space Pirate fall to the floor, smoke wafting up from several holes in his chest, and the gemstone he was holding fell to the ground. In an instant, Samus was on her feet, swinging blindly and catching the two Pirates standing around her unprepared.

Wolf let out a snarl as he and the remaining three Space Pirates backed away, leveling their weapons at Samus. One of them bent down to pick up the fallen gemstone.

She looked over her shoulder to see who had saved her and caught sight of someone covered with bright orange fur. He had an eyepiece over his right eye, and a blaster in his hands. He was wearing a white jacket, and a stripe of white fur ran down his head, stopping just before his muzzle. The two pointy ears atop his head and the bushy tail swishing behind him told her he was a fox.

I*We still hold the superior numbers,*/I a Space Pirate said.

"Only by two," Wolf said. "We're going to have to take the gem and head back to Popstar."

Although he looked disgusted by it, Wolf turned heel and fled into the alley. The Space Pirates exchanged a glance, before they followed shortly after.

"Are you alright?" the fox said once they were alone. "I came as soon as I received word that the capital prison ship was going down."

Samus didn't respond, immersed in her thoughts.

i"The Space Pirates were just a bunch of terrorists before Mother Brain arrived. They attacked ships, slaughtered the crew, looted everything there and left."/I

"Who am I kidding. It's a man in a suit of armor. I'm sure he'll live."

I"But this time they just left with only a single gemstone in their possession. Even if its value was incredibly high, I doubt they would have been satisfied with just taking such a measly object. Something is going on. If that gemstone had some sort of strange, mythical power to it, without their leaders, I doubt the Space Pirates would have the intelligence to organize an effective way to use whatever powers it may hold. That is, unless-"/I

"Andross I behind this. I'm sure of it."

Reality finally caught up with Samus, much to her annoyance. She blinked as she focused herself back on the task at hand, and found the fox kneeling over the Space Pirate corpse, running a hand over the glowing energy scythe in its hand.

"Sorry," she said, snapping out of her daze, "who?"

The fox turned to give her a confused look. "You're a woman?" he said at last.

Samus's hands went to her hips. "Problem?"

"No, not at all."

Samus rolled her eyes. "Good. Now, who is this Andross?"

"How do you not know who Andross is?" The condescending look the fox gave her almost made her regret asking. "He's a galaxy-conquering megalomaniac with an obsession with bioweapons. Who else would be unhinged enough to give these freaky lizard things guns?"

Samus could name a few. She just didn't want uncomfortable memories to resurface.

"Looks like I'll have to head to Popstar to investigate," she muttered to herself as she walked away. "Don't want to give them time to prepare their defenses for my arrival."

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?"

With a disinterested glare, Samus spun back around. "Popstar," she said. "To follow the Space Pirates."

"I don't want you getting the rest of the Federation involved in this, officer," the fox replied. "This is my fight."

"And the Space Pirates are my responsibility. You don't know who you're dealing with."

"Now you're just making things up."

"How-"

Then she remembered who this person was. This particular fox, called Fox McCloud, just so happened to hang out in the Lylat System-one of the few systems the Space Pirates avoided.

"You'll want to stand aside, Fox," she said. "This is bigger than you."

"Like the devil I will. Fox McCloud stands aside for no one."

A scowl crossed her face. "I'm heading to Popstar. Don't get in my way."

And with that, she headed off, shoulders set in anger. Fox watched her leave, and a sigh pushed through his teeth.

"I guess I'll have to tag along to make sure she doesn't get herself killed," he said as he set off after her.

Review review: (cos I actually have a review to review here)

SmashBrosOdyssey: Half the cast has had some form of space-faring adventures, so don't expect the space travel stuff to let up any time soon. And we're just getting started with the story!