"We haven't heard from Ganon lately, have we?" Link, the greatest warrior of the kingdom of Hyrule, asked.
"Not since that mess with Koume and Kotake and the Oracles, no," replied Princess Zelda. "Why?"
They were walking down a hall of North Castle, where the royal family of Hyrule lived. On either end, sunlight streamed through ancient stained glass windows, creating dazzling patterns of color on the grey stone walls.
"Well, I was thinking that since we've worked so hard training that new legion of soldiers, maybe we could take the afternoon off...go have a picnic or something down by the lake."
"I don't know..." the princess said hesitantly.
"If any of Ganon's minions attack, Spryte can come warn us in less than five minutes. And this would be a perfect opportunity for you to show me that 'Sheik' spell of yours." She had recently rediscovered a magic spell used by her ancestor (also named Zelda) to help his ancestor (also named Link) fight Ganon (then known as Ganondorf). However, she hadn't told him yet what it did, teasing him with the knowledge.
"Well, alright. I suppose a day off wouldn't hurt--" She stopped suddenly. "Link? Is it just me, or is some of the stained glass different?"
The two walked to one of the windows. Some stained glass that represented the sun was gone, and in its place was crimson glass in the shape of a circle, split in four.
"Odd..." said Zelda. She tapped it with a finger, and vanished.
Muttering under his breath about another opportunity to kiss her gone, Link touched the circle as well, and disappeared.
***
The small planetoid, known only by its Galactic Federation ID tag of SR388, had once contained many odd lifeforms, not least of which were the life energy draining creatures known as Metroids. The Metroids had been used by the wicked Space Pirates of Zebes in several attempts to destroy the Galactic Federation.
Now, though, the many lifeforms of SR388 had all been wiped out. All exterminated by one woman. One woman who had just returned to it.
Samus Aran was undoubtedly the best bounty hunter in the galaxy; the only other bounty hunter with a 100% efficiency rate, Big-Time Brannigan, was assumed dead after his botched attempt on her life. She was able to set her own prices, and she set them high.
But Metroid extermination was a job she'd do for free. She'd returned to SR388 to make sure she hadn't missed any. Setting her high-tech armor to scan for lifeforms, she entered one of the many subterranean tunnels that combed the planetoid.
And stopped in her tracks.
In front of her was a statue of a Chozo. The Chozo were an ancient race of avian-humanoids; they had constructed Samus's armor suit and the many weapons it could use, as well as infusing Samus with some of their own blood. This had given her strength and durability greater than that of other humans.
On both Zebes and SR388, Chozo statues held add-ons to her armor. But this statue held an odd insigna; a red circle, quartered by two lines.
Samus was not one to pass up a free upgrade. She reached out and grabbed the mysterious symbol, and vanished, leaving SR388 lifeless once more.
***
In Goldenrod City, on the island of Johto, a Pokemon of the species Pikachu darted into an alleyway. It was playing hide-and-seek with its master, Ash. It just hoped it didn't run into those nutty Team Rocket members Jessie, James, and Meowth again...
"Pika?"
On one of the brick walls, there was what appeared to be human graffiti in the shape of a red circle cut in four pieces. Most Pokemon are naturally curious, and this one was no exception. It pressed its forepaws against the graffiti, and promptly disappeared.
***
Captain Falcon eased his Falcon Flyer into the docking bay and sighed. It had been a hard day. He and his archrival, Samurai Goroh, had gotten into a brawl over the bounty on some cheating accountant from the Enronia system. Even worse, the numbers-cruncher had managed to escape in the confusion. All he'd earned were several bruises. Instead of returning to one of his many supply bases to rest, he'd decided just to spend the night in the nearest city.
He exited his spacecraft, hoping that the hotel he'd reserved had a decent shower.
As he left the docking bay, he noticed the door had some kind of odd red-circular-quartered design on it. He pushed on it to open the door, and a moment later, the Falcon Flyer had the docking bay all to itself.
***
Fox McCloud, leader of the Star Fox mercenary team and best pilot in the Lylat System (though Wolf O'Donnell would disagree), yawned heartily and attempted to get out of bed. He wasn't too successful, though, as he tripped over a pile of books and promptly fell flat on his face.
He could already tell this would be a bad fur day. As if it wasn't bad enough that his girlfriend, Fara Phoenix, was visiting some friends on Katina...
He took a quick shower, then checked for any messages that he might have missed while he was asleep. He had two, both from General Pepper, the top-ranking officer in the Cornerian military. The first concerned some trouble on a world at the edge of the system, Dinosaur Planet; there was no crisis there, not at the moment, but Pepper had some forebodings and wanted to give Fox the heads-up. The second message was about some new experimental weapons the military wanted Fox to test for them.
Fox noted the address where he could pick up the equipment, then drove there and received it. It consisted of a few small devices that the pilot donned. The military scientist that gave it to him left the room; soon he'd be giving instructions to Fox over a PA system.
While he waited, he noted a design painted onto one wall of the metallic shed that acted as the testing area. Bored, he lazily traced a finger around it: copied the design of a crimson circle, split into four pieces. Then he ran his hand over it, and vanished from Corneria.
***
He'd saved the world from a universal cosmic destroyer named Giygas, and yet he had a bedtime. Somethings, Ness thought, just weren't fair.
He remembered that grand adventure fondly. He'd left his hometown of Onett, journeyed throughout much of Eagleland and beyond, gained psychic powers, and changed the course of history. Not bad for someone still in school.
He wanted to stay up later, but there was no arguing with his parents. He rummaged around for his pajamas, but before he could put them on, something caught his eye. A weird pattern had appeared on his mirror.
It was a circle, split in four pieces and colored scarlet. Puzzled, he reached out and touched it, and disappeared from Onett.
***
Kirby, the hero of the planet Pop Star, strolled through the forest that bordered his house in the Green Greens region of Dream Land. Mischevious and malevolent creatures liked to try and ambush him at his home, so he'd decided to be more proactive.
A few minutes into his patrol, he saw something he'd never seen in Green Greens before. Leaning against a tree was an odd object. It was a circular disk, broken into four pieces and red. Always eager to learn new adaptations he could make to himself, he inhaled the disk with his mightly lungs.
And promptly vanished.
***
"Is it just me, or is it a bit warmer today?" asked Popo.
"It's just you," replied his partner and girlfriend Nana. "Look--Nitpicker, two o'clock."
The couple, who jointly referred to themselves as the Ice Climbers, were making yet another excursion onto Icicle Mountain, part of the so-called Infinite Glacier. A mysterious condor was littering the mountain with seemingly innumerable, equally mysterious vegetables, and the duo was making a killing collecting them and reselling them.
Of course, the job did have its hazards.
Popo and Nana quickly leapt to a higher ledge, so as to avoid the predatory bird of the species Nitpicker. It quickly swept up to them, but they smacked it with their ice-breaking mallets and caused it to plummet into the depths. They high-fived one another, then saw that there was a strange item on the ledge with them, one they'd missed before.
"What's that?" Nana wondered.
"Doesn't look like any vegetable I've ever seen," Popo said. In fact, it was a circle split into four pieces, and blood-red.
The duo began to pick it up. However, they disappeared, leaving the wildlife of Icicle Mountain alone again.
"Not since that mess with Koume and Kotake and the Oracles, no," replied Princess Zelda. "Why?"
They were walking down a hall of North Castle, where the royal family of Hyrule lived. On either end, sunlight streamed through ancient stained glass windows, creating dazzling patterns of color on the grey stone walls.
"Well, I was thinking that since we've worked so hard training that new legion of soldiers, maybe we could take the afternoon off...go have a picnic or something down by the lake."
"I don't know..." the princess said hesitantly.
"If any of Ganon's minions attack, Spryte can come warn us in less than five minutes. And this would be a perfect opportunity for you to show me that 'Sheik' spell of yours." She had recently rediscovered a magic spell used by her ancestor (also named Zelda) to help his ancestor (also named Link) fight Ganon (then known as Ganondorf). However, she hadn't told him yet what it did, teasing him with the knowledge.
"Well, alright. I suppose a day off wouldn't hurt--" She stopped suddenly. "Link? Is it just me, or is some of the stained glass different?"
The two walked to one of the windows. Some stained glass that represented the sun was gone, and in its place was crimson glass in the shape of a circle, split in four.
"Odd..." said Zelda. She tapped it with a finger, and vanished.
Muttering under his breath about another opportunity to kiss her gone, Link touched the circle as well, and disappeared.
***
The small planetoid, known only by its Galactic Federation ID tag of SR388, had once contained many odd lifeforms, not least of which were the life energy draining creatures known as Metroids. The Metroids had been used by the wicked Space Pirates of Zebes in several attempts to destroy the Galactic Federation.
Now, though, the many lifeforms of SR388 had all been wiped out. All exterminated by one woman. One woman who had just returned to it.
Samus Aran was undoubtedly the best bounty hunter in the galaxy; the only other bounty hunter with a 100% efficiency rate, Big-Time Brannigan, was assumed dead after his botched attempt on her life. She was able to set her own prices, and she set them high.
But Metroid extermination was a job she'd do for free. She'd returned to SR388 to make sure she hadn't missed any. Setting her high-tech armor to scan for lifeforms, she entered one of the many subterranean tunnels that combed the planetoid.
And stopped in her tracks.
In front of her was a statue of a Chozo. The Chozo were an ancient race of avian-humanoids; they had constructed Samus's armor suit and the many weapons it could use, as well as infusing Samus with some of their own blood. This had given her strength and durability greater than that of other humans.
On both Zebes and SR388, Chozo statues held add-ons to her armor. But this statue held an odd insigna; a red circle, quartered by two lines.
Samus was not one to pass up a free upgrade. She reached out and grabbed the mysterious symbol, and vanished, leaving SR388 lifeless once more.
***
In Goldenrod City, on the island of Johto, a Pokemon of the species Pikachu darted into an alleyway. It was playing hide-and-seek with its master, Ash. It just hoped it didn't run into those nutty Team Rocket members Jessie, James, and Meowth again...
"Pika?"
On one of the brick walls, there was what appeared to be human graffiti in the shape of a red circle cut in four pieces. Most Pokemon are naturally curious, and this one was no exception. It pressed its forepaws against the graffiti, and promptly disappeared.
***
Captain Falcon eased his Falcon Flyer into the docking bay and sighed. It had been a hard day. He and his archrival, Samurai Goroh, had gotten into a brawl over the bounty on some cheating accountant from the Enronia system. Even worse, the numbers-cruncher had managed to escape in the confusion. All he'd earned were several bruises. Instead of returning to one of his many supply bases to rest, he'd decided just to spend the night in the nearest city.
He exited his spacecraft, hoping that the hotel he'd reserved had a decent shower.
As he left the docking bay, he noticed the door had some kind of odd red-circular-quartered design on it. He pushed on it to open the door, and a moment later, the Falcon Flyer had the docking bay all to itself.
***
Fox McCloud, leader of the Star Fox mercenary team and best pilot in the Lylat System (though Wolf O'Donnell would disagree), yawned heartily and attempted to get out of bed. He wasn't too successful, though, as he tripped over a pile of books and promptly fell flat on his face.
He could already tell this would be a bad fur day. As if it wasn't bad enough that his girlfriend, Fara Phoenix, was visiting some friends on Katina...
He took a quick shower, then checked for any messages that he might have missed while he was asleep. He had two, both from General Pepper, the top-ranking officer in the Cornerian military. The first concerned some trouble on a world at the edge of the system, Dinosaur Planet; there was no crisis there, not at the moment, but Pepper had some forebodings and wanted to give Fox the heads-up. The second message was about some new experimental weapons the military wanted Fox to test for them.
Fox noted the address where he could pick up the equipment, then drove there and received it. It consisted of a few small devices that the pilot donned. The military scientist that gave it to him left the room; soon he'd be giving instructions to Fox over a PA system.
While he waited, he noted a design painted onto one wall of the metallic shed that acted as the testing area. Bored, he lazily traced a finger around it: copied the design of a crimson circle, split into four pieces. Then he ran his hand over it, and vanished from Corneria.
***
He'd saved the world from a universal cosmic destroyer named Giygas, and yet he had a bedtime. Somethings, Ness thought, just weren't fair.
He remembered that grand adventure fondly. He'd left his hometown of Onett, journeyed throughout much of Eagleland and beyond, gained psychic powers, and changed the course of history. Not bad for someone still in school.
He wanted to stay up later, but there was no arguing with his parents. He rummaged around for his pajamas, but before he could put them on, something caught his eye. A weird pattern had appeared on his mirror.
It was a circle, split in four pieces and colored scarlet. Puzzled, he reached out and touched it, and disappeared from Onett.
***
Kirby, the hero of the planet Pop Star, strolled through the forest that bordered his house in the Green Greens region of Dream Land. Mischevious and malevolent creatures liked to try and ambush him at his home, so he'd decided to be more proactive.
A few minutes into his patrol, he saw something he'd never seen in Green Greens before. Leaning against a tree was an odd object. It was a circular disk, broken into four pieces and red. Always eager to learn new adaptations he could make to himself, he inhaled the disk with his mightly lungs.
And promptly vanished.
***
"Is it just me, or is it a bit warmer today?" asked Popo.
"It's just you," replied his partner and girlfriend Nana. "Look--Nitpicker, two o'clock."
The couple, who jointly referred to themselves as the Ice Climbers, were making yet another excursion onto Icicle Mountain, part of the so-called Infinite Glacier. A mysterious condor was littering the mountain with seemingly innumerable, equally mysterious vegetables, and the duo was making a killing collecting them and reselling them.
Of course, the job did have its hazards.
Popo and Nana quickly leapt to a higher ledge, so as to avoid the predatory bird of the species Nitpicker. It quickly swept up to them, but they smacked it with their ice-breaking mallets and caused it to plummet into the depths. They high-fived one another, then saw that there was a strange item on the ledge with them, one they'd missed before.
"What's that?" Nana wondered.
"Doesn't look like any vegetable I've ever seen," Popo said. In fact, it was a circle split into four pieces, and blood-red.
The duo began to pick it up. However, they disappeared, leaving the wildlife of Icicle Mountain alone again.