A real quick note: Mantia is my creation and I hold rights to its use as well as Jake and Dan. Powell is up to you to use since I killed him off. Also, in case you were wondering, Mantia is pronounced man(as in man)-chuh (as in chug)
Freighter in Orbit of Zoness: Dan was on the comm. system with Katt Monroe.
"Thanks for the parts," said Katt.
"Hey, I'm the only supplier around," said Dan.
"If not, we would've lost that ocean cleaner for good," said Katt.
"Don't worry about it. Well, we've got to be off, too many clients and not enough time," said Dan.
"And those clients would be?" asked Katt hopefully.
"No one that concerns you. Or the Cornerian Special Police," said Dan signing off. Then Dan called the bridge.
"As soon as the last tug is on board, move on to our next destination. I'm getting some shuteye, so don't wake me up," said Dan. Dan slumped over his desk and snored away as he dreamed off one day being the only supplier for everyone in the Lylat System. He has just gotten to the part where he was counting his money when he was woken up by a technician holding a pad.
"I thought I said don't wake me," said Dan angrily.
"You did. But years ago you said that if this name was ever mentioned, you should be alerted immediately," said the technician handing him the pad. Dan looked at it and saw the note, which read: Should there be any mention of a large manta ray that flies and destroys cities and is named Mantia, tell me immediately. Dan gasped really hard and fell out of his chair.
"Sir?" asked the technician.
"When did you hear of this?" asked Dan. The technician grabbed a remote and pressed it on the nearby T.V.
"If you're just joining us, here's the latest news. Corneria City has been attacked by a large manta ray that flew in and destroyed the Army HQ building. The president has dubbed this creature 'Mantia' and that it be referred to this name from now on. Details are sketchy but it has been reported that this is was a bio-weapon that had been designed by Andross," said the reporter.
Meanwhile Mantia was in the research bay looking at the local newscasts.
"I can't scare them if they know nothing about me. I would have to start from scratch. Computer, how do you account for this discrepancy?" asked Mantia. On a computer screen it showed the three satellites in orbit.
"Everyone's memory was erased to stop the panic that followed after you were entrapped in that canyon," said the computer.
"Can the process be reversed?" asked Mantia.
"Affirmative. However, the satellites must be repositioned manually," said the computer.
"Can I survive in outer space?" asked Mantia.
"Affirmative," said the computer.
"Than I'm going to restore chaos to our chaotic society," said Mantia taking off to outer space.
Army HQ: Pepper had recovered and was sitting up in his bed watching the Great Fox being airlifted out of the city.
"How's it going General?" asked Peppy.
"Fine. Hard to believe Mantia's back," said Pepper.
"Yeah," responded Peppy. A commander ran into the room.
"Sir, the target has been spotted in orbit of Corneria," said the commander.
"So, now it can exist in outer space, what's next? What's it doing?" asked Pepper.
"It's repositioning three of our satellites. Here's the best photo we could get," said the commander. It showed an image of Mantia next to one of the satellites.
"What's it doing? Oh, no! It's going to restore everyone's memory of its initial attack. We have to stop it. Commander," started Pepper before Peppy cut him off mid sentence.
"It's for the best. If people know about, then they'll know how to prepare for it," said Peppy.
"All right," said Pepper resigned. In outer space Mantia had just repositioned the final satellite.
"Go for it," said Mantia into its comlink. A beam of energy zoomed up and was deflected from the three satellites and then returned to the planet and encompassed it. Five seconds later the beam stopped.
"Memories restored," said the computer.
And on the surface: "Like we said earlier. Mantia has returned to menace us once again and now I remember where I put my old T.V. remote," said the reporter bewildered at how she could have forgotten that the creature was Mantia.
Back on the freighter: Dan watched the current newscast and nodded his head.
"Looks like their memory has been restored," said Dan. A beeping was heard on the technician's headset.
"Sir, incoming message from Corneria. It's the Star Fox team," said the technician.
"I expected as much. Patch it through. You can leave now," said Dan. The technician nodded and left the room. Dan spun around and faced the monitor in his room. An image of Fox McCloud appeared.
"Greetings Star Fox team! I never met you in person so I'm wondering as to how you got my number," said Dan.
"Actually, Jake gave it to us. He said something about routing it so you would be charged for the bill and he would collect the money," said Fox.
"Not again," said Dan. He brought up a keypad and typed in: reverse charges.
Freighter in orbit of Venom: "Excellent," said Jake as he watched his bank account increase. Then it started to plummet. Jake instantly cut his part of the connection and left with one dollar from his scam.
"Oh, well," said Jake.
Freighter: "That was fun. But Mantia on the other hand is no laughing matter," said Dan.
"You know of Mantia?" asked Peppy.
"Yes, I lived with my foster parents in Coastal City, which was where Mantia first began his attack," said Dan.
"So weren't you affected when the satellites erased everyone's memory?" asked Slippy.
"Actually no. I am unlike anything that has ever been seen on your planet. I don't know where I came from, but I was resistant to the mind erasure program, so I retained my memory of the events," said Dan.
"Look, we need your help," said Falco.
"I'll do anything I can. I know how terrible Mantia is and if I don't help you defeat this creature, we're all going to be doomed. I'll be coming to Corneria as soon as possible. I'll loan your team some newly 'acquired' Wolfen class fighters while your Arwings are being repaired. We can't repair your dreadnought, but that won't be necessary at the moment since Mantia seems to be able to deflect your bolts. I'll be by in about three days. Until then, sit tight," said Dan.
"Will do," said Fox signing off.
"What do you think Mantia' doing now?" asked Slippy.
"Probably planning a way to defeat us," said Falco.
Research base: "Excellent, it's done," said Mantia. In front of him were some small creatures were on the ground. They included: a scorpion, a lobster, a crab, and a snake. Mantia gathered the creatures in its mouth and flew off.
Makeshift army base: "General, you shouldn't be up. With people's memory restored you aren't needed as much. I'm not saying that to be rude, but you need to rest," said Fox.
"Nonsense, I'm the only active general left who was around when Mantia first attacked. Plus, the creature has been gone for awhile now, and since we're mostly blind due to the inability to access most of our sensors, that means that the creature could be anywhere," said Pepper. A technician ran up to them.
"Sir, instant communiqué from Bill Grey," said the technician.
"Let's have it," said Pepper.
"Due to our limited communication capabilities, and the fact that we don't want anyone else to know that we don't know where the creature is, it's audio only," said the technician who handed Pepper a radio.
"Go ahead commander," said Pepper.
"General, Mantia landed on our planet a few moments ago and took off again," said Bill.
"What? Are you sure?" asked Pepper.
"I don't think it's possible to confuse a large manta ray with something else sir," said Bill.
"Yeah, but still, it's odd that it would have left Corneria," said Pepper. On the radio he could hear a commotion in the background and a rhythmic thumping.
"Bill?" asked Pepper.
"The heck is that?" asked someone on Bill's line.
"It looks like a giant scorpion," said someone else. Instantly, several laser blasts were heard and alarms rang in the background on the radio.
"Bill!" yelled Pepper into the radio.
"We have to sign off. We're under attack by a giant scorpion with a laser cannon where the tip of its tail would be," said Bill. Instantly the radio went dead.
"What's happening up there?" Fox asked.
Katina: A large scorpion had just appeared from behind the crashed mothership that had crashed a few years ago. The scorpion had started firing its laser against the base, which had created huge burn marks on the outside.
"Launch our fighters," said Bill. A pair of doors opened on one side of the base and several fighters emerged. The fighters immediately spun around and opened fire on the scorpion.
"Deploy the tanks," said Bill. A few feet away, a portion of the ground disappeared as a wave of tanks emerged from a secret underground exit and rolled in front of the approaching scorpion. They opened fire as well, which further battered the scorpion. Then the tail blaster came into play as it opened fire on the fighters. The blast connected with three fighters, subsequently blasting them out of the sky. The scorpion then reached forward with one its claws and grabbed a hold of one of the tanks. The scorpion applied pressure and the tank exploded. The scorpion roared out, issuing a challenge to all that opposed it.
"Deploy the master cannon," said Bill. On the top of the building a large cannon emerged and started firing as well.
"Keep it up. It should fall," said Bill. The scorpion kept on fighting resiliently against the overwhelming odds. However, its legs were soon shot out from under it.
"We got it," said Bill. However, as the tanks and fighters approached it, the scorpion exploded sending out a wall of energy that blew the fighters and tanks away. The wall of energy was quickly approaching the base.
"Brace for impact," said Bill. The energy wall passed through the base damaging the whole building. Smoke soon filled the room and several alarms went off all over the base. Fire soon broke out in the control room but thankfully the fire suppression system was working and doused the fires. Eventually the alarms went off.
"Damage," said Bill. A schematic of the outside of the building was shown. The top three levels were gone and the whole outside of the building had been burned away.
"We're still alive, but we lost three tanks, and fifteen fighters, as well as several personnel. That's odd though, I would have thought it was going to kill us all," said a technician.
"Unless it wasn't supposed to," said Bill silently as he realized the implications of this statement.
"I need to get in contact with General Pepper immediately," said Bill.
Zoness: "The heck," said a flight leader. His squadron was responded to the disappearance of an automated ocean cleaner. The officer had expected the transmitter to be offline but instead he found a large lobster attacking the cleaner.
"What's up?" asked Katt Monroe from the army field office.
You're not going to believe this, but a large lobster is attacking the cleaner," said the officer. In the background Mantia leaving the planet.
"I think I know how it got here, the large creature that had attacked Corneria City is just leaving," said the officer.
"Well, that explains a few things," said Katt. The lobster had noticed them and reached up with its claws and attempted to grab one of the fighters.
"Evasive maneuvers," said the officer. The fighters scattered, but one of them accidentally rammed into the ocean cleaner causing it and the cleaner to explode.
"Great," said the officer. The lobster dipped under the toxic water and swam away.
"It's underwater. We can't track it," said the officer.
"Scout the area, our underwater subs will get it," said Katt. Under the water the lobster was headed off towards one of the populated islands. Behind it, three subs approached it undetected.
"Lock on," said the sub admiral.
"Locking on," said the gunner.
"Fire!" yelled the admiral. All three subs opened fire on the lobster as it swam away. The lobster noticed the torpedoes and swam away even faster. Then the lobster noticed the remains of the large battleboat that the Star Fox team had destroyed. (The boss at the end of Zoness, with the pirate lieutenant) The lobster swam around the wreckage of the battleboat and the torpedoes compensated only to wind up destroying more of the battleboat. A large cloud of dust billowed around the explosion.
"Hold position," said the admiral. Suddenly the dust was thrust aside as the lobster headed right at them. It destroyed two of the subs immediately and was holding onto the admiral's sub with its claw.
"It's attempting to crush us!" yelled the deck officer. All around them creaking was heard because of the outside shell cracking. In front of the sub loomed the lobster.
"We have only one choice. Fire torpedoes!" yelled the admiral. The gunner looked at him and then simply nodded his head.
"You've been the best crew that I've ever had and you've followed my orders to the end. Thank you. Launch flight recorder and fire torpedoes," said the admiral. The torpedoes were launched at the lobster and they exploded taking the sub with it. The lobster floated a few feet from the blast before it exploded as well. Above the surface a huge plume of water emerged and then settled down. The fighters above saw the plume and knew what had happened.
"The subs are gone, but so it seems is the lobster. We have been saved," said the officer.
"In the meantime, we have no subs left," said Katt.
"Let's just remember their sacrifice," said the officer.
"Agreed, return to base," said Katt.
"In a moment, we're detecting the admiral's ship recorder," said the officer.
Corneria: "So in my mind, the new bio-weapons are suicide drones. They either reach their target and explode or else, they can't go any farther and explode thus causing the planet to still be able to operate but its military force considerably weakened," said Bill.
"Sir, we've just received a message from Zoness. They were attacked by a giant lobster," said another commander.
"And what happened to it?" asked Pepper.
"The thing took out two subs, and a third sacrificed itself to destroy the lobster which subsequently exploded well out of reach of its target," said the commander.
"What's its path?" asked Pepper. A line was shown going from Corneria to Katina and then Zoness.
"It looks like it's making around trip and is hitting the populated planets. It's next stop looks to be Macbeth!" exclaimed Fox.
"The number one supplier of weapons, ships, and anything technologically related," said Pepper.
"You'd better alert Macbeth," said Fox. All of a sudden a large shadow loomed over their heads.
"Not Mantia," said Falco. Thankfully, the shadow over them was caused by a landing craft from Dan's company not a large manta ray. The landing craft then landed a few feet away. One of the doors opened and out came Dan.
"Star Fox team, let's go," said Dan. The team ran for the craft and entered into it.
"Let's go," said Falco. Dan was looking at Pepper.
"Just a moment," said Dan. He ran out to Pepper.
"It's been a long time," said Dan.
"Indeed it has," said Pepper.
"I can't stay, but I'll be back. Goodbye uncle," said Dan. He ran off to the landing craft, which took off back to his freighter.
"Good luck, Dan," said Pepper looking at the retreating craft. Pepper then turned to divert his attention to warning Macbeth.
On board the landing craft: "What did you have to tell Pepper?" asked Falco.
"Nothing," responded Dan. The landing craft entered the freighter and the five members walked out.
"Next stop, Macbeth," said Dan. The freighter entered warp and sped off.