Answers await you.
A burst of lightning lit up the dense undergrowth of the forest for a brief instant, just long enough for her to correct the directions of her desperate running. Rain pour down and beat at her hair, face, and bare skin. Her usual outfit was missing; instead she was wearing athletic shorts and the shirt she wore underneath her suit.
Despite the drenching rain and the thickness of the muddy ground beneath her feet, she continued to run toward a destination she no long remembered. All she knew was where to go and how to get there; what she found at the end of her trail was a mystery.
She came across a swarm of scarab beetles over a fallen tree in her path. The scarabs were well known to her and she merely disregarded them as any kind of threat. Even if she wanted to do anything about the occasionally harmful insects she wouldn't be able to because her weapons were missing along with her standard outfit.
Suddenly, with another burst of lightning, she spotted a silhouette of a person. Without knowing who the person was or why she had to see him, she ran even more furiously towards it. The silhouette darted from the location she first saw it to several yards further back in the forest.
Moving faster than the figure, she was gradually catching up to it. Lightning flashed once and the figure stopped. She ignored it at kept running as her light source died once again. Lightning flashed a second time and the figure was gone. It was nowhere to be seen, either ahead, behind, up, down, left, or right. It had merely vanished without any trace of ever being there.
Determined to find the silhouette again, she ran even faster. After about two yards, however, the ground beneath her feet gave way and she plummeted into a dark chasm. She reached out for something to grab hold to, but nothing of the sort existed. There was no way to survive at this point. She had failed. She had not only failed herself, but her people, her family, her mentors. A tear began to form in her eyes at the thought of it ending like this. After everything she had done, after all her pain and suffering, it would just end like this.
Don't give up!
Samus Aran awoke in jolt, springing out of her bed. She looked around the dark room. Small particles of light illuminated from a chronometer near her head. It was late, but nothing unusual. Everything in her sleeping quarters seemed fine, but that didn't mean it applied for her entire ship. Samus slipped into her specialized power suit and then latched on her helmet before heading toward the bridge to observe the rest of her spaceship. Something wasn't quite right. she felt someone or something was waiting for her. If only she knew what. No, she thought, I was just startled by the dream. Everything's fine. But still, her instincts were rarely wrong and they were screaming at her to turn around and go to an escape pod. As if she'd ever run away like that. Before she hit the button to open the door to the bridge she heard faint voices. Someone was on her ship! She switched to her thermal vision and saw there were three small pirates inside, all with abnormal shapes. Disgusted by the intruders, yet fearing the worst of the space pirates, she quietly placed got closer to the door and increased the volume in her helmet. "Are you sure this ship is empty?" a male voice croaked. His voice was soft, yet surprisingly high-pitched.
"You're the mechanical expert, why don't you check?" Another voice squawked. He sounded more confident than the first and his voice was notably lower.
"Hurry up, Slippy. There's something about this place that gives me the creeps," a third voice noted. He sounded stronger and he talked in a mannerism that made him sound like a leader.
"I'm trying," Slippy struggled. "I've almost broken into the mainframe."
That was more than what Samus needed to hear. Nobody broke into her ship. These intruders were going to pay. She turned to her left hand where a large gun was in place instead of a glove. She switched to her ice beam; she wanted to know more about these pirates before she killed them.
Without hesitation she pressed the button and the door slid open. She jumped in the room and fired at the closest pirate. He was frozen inside a large block of ice with a stunned impression.
Looking at the rest of the pirates she was quite amazed at what she saw. The frozen one was a large blue bird with a manila jacket, red pants, and large white boots. The second pirate, the leader, was some sort of dog with green pants and a similar coat and boots. The mechanic was short, fat, green, and amphibious. He wore the same coat and boots but with blue pants.
Fortunately her outrage overturned her amazement and she released her grappling hook and grabbed the amphibian. He let out a yelp and before the toad knew it he was wrapped completely around by the hook and pulled in close to Samus. Seeing he was out of the way she then pointed her gun at the dog and realized a small laser pistol was being pointed at her in exchange.
"Let them go," he demanded.
"Get off my ship," she countered and held the toad between her and the dog and then pointed her gun at his head. "Tell me who you are and what you want or the frog gets it."
"My name is Fox McCloud," the fox answered, not moving his pistol an inch. "I am the captain of the Great Fox and these are two members of my crew. You froze Falco Lombardi over there, and your hostage is Slippy Toad. I am the leader of team Star Fox."
"Why have you illegally boarded my ship?" Samus asked with her voice filled with spite. She also remembered that her voice was distorted, so they probably assumed she was male. Idiots.
"The Great Fox has been damaged by a league of space pirates. Fortunately the damaged can be repaired easily, but still we just managed to escape. We're out of fuel and supplies. We tried to contact you but got no response, so we boarded under the belief it was empty," Fox explained.
"You're not welcome aboard this vessel," Samus started, "but I am willing to give you some assistance." She sighed, thinking of the compassion she learned while raised under the Chozo. These animals needed her help, and it might as well be murder if she turned them aside.
"We are eternally grateful. Now, do you mind releasing my crew?" Fox asked kindly. Samus nodded and released her grip on the toad. He fell to the ground and gasped for breath. She then switched to her plasma beam and melted the ice around the bird.
"Peppy, we're good to go," Fox said in a portable communicator. "The captain of this vessel has agreed to assist us."
"That's wonderful news!" The voice said on the other side. Samus was in no hurry to see what kind of strange creature owned that voice.
Samus walked over to the computer Slippy was at and typed in various codes. Then she gave directions to Fox on where to locate some necessary supplies. "Get your contact on the Great Fox to open his fuel tank and I'll transfer enough to get you to the nearest spaceport. After that you're on your own, understand?" Fox nodded in acknowledgement.
The transfer went off without a hitch, but somehow there was still something about all this she didn't like. Perhaps she was just stressed from the recent lack of sleep. Whatever it was team Star Fox was out of her hair and on the way again. Still, there was a nagging feeling she couldn't quite put her finger on-
Blaring sirens broke her concentration. She ran over to look out the view port and saw another spaceship break into real space. This was no pirate's ship she knew; this was another bounty hunter's ship.
"Unidentified spaceship, please respond with your intentions," Samus called out.
"This is Douglas Jay Falcon, Captain of the Falcon Flyer," the ship responded. "I request permission to come aboard."
"Under what cause?" Samus demanded.
"Medical attention," he responded.
"Permission granted." The transmission clicked off and Samus sighed. She was uncomfortable having this many people on her ship as it was, and she certainly didn't want some hotshot bounty hunter trying anything.
A few minutes later there was an incoming transmission from a planet called N'A-S. She sighed again and answered. "Samus Aran speaking," she said dully.
"You are invited to join a tournament." There was no hologram, just that voice that was deep and echoing.
"Who are you?"
"I am M-H. I am inviting you, Samus Aran, to a tournament on my planet."
"Why should I travel halfway across the galaxy just to go to some stupid tournament?"
"The winner of the tournament shall receive was he or she has always sought and always dreamt of," the dark voice replied.
"You can't give me that," Samus argued. No one could give her what she wanted. No one could give her back her parents, her people, her Chozo mentors. They were all gone.
"I can give you all of that, Samus Aran."
"How?"
"Follow the silhouette and see." Then the transmission clicked off. The silhouette? How could he know? That path may lead to answers, but it always leads to that deep eternal pit of despair. What was he getting at?
Before she could ponder the thought any longer Captain Falcon came aboard with a young female in his arms. She had long brown hair and was wearing a light purple jumpsuit. Her left arm and leg were bleeding viciously.
"Who's that?" Samus pointed at the bloodied woman.
"Jody Summer. Please, just give her some medical attention," Falcon pleaded. Samus took Jody down to her medical room and began to do everything she could. The Chozo taught her a lot about the medical advances they made and how to efficiently stop bleeding and have a nice speedy recovery from any type of injury.
After a few hours the unconscious woman had been treated every way Samus knew how, so she turned to the captain and began to question him.
"What happened to her?" Samus began. She had never heard of the bounty hunter and was intrigued to find out as much as she could.
"She was working on her racer, the White Cat, while we were on our way to another race. However, someone planted a small bomb on it and it exploded. Luckily the racer muffled the blast, but she was still injured."
"Who would have sabotaged her racer?"
"Who else? Samurai Goroh, of course. He wants us both dead."
"Where's the race at?"
"It's on the planet N'A-S. But that doesn't really mat-"
"Wait, is it a race or a tournament?" Samus asked, now more interested than ever in what he had to say.
"Well, a tournament. But I don't think Jody will be able to attend with me. How is she, by the way?"
"She'll be fine, she just needs rest. Rest that she can get on the Falcon Flyer." Samus noted. Falcon took the hint and carried Jody back to his ship.
"Good bye, friend. Perhaps we'll meet again someday."
Samus nodded. Perhaps sooner than you think. Once her was gone she set a course for N'A-S.
A burst of lightning lit up the dense undergrowth of the forest for a brief instant, just long enough for her to correct the directions of her desperate running. Rain pour down and beat at her hair, face, and bare skin. Her usual outfit was missing; instead she was wearing athletic shorts and the shirt she wore underneath her suit.
Despite the drenching rain and the thickness of the muddy ground beneath her feet, she continued to run toward a destination she no long remembered. All she knew was where to go and how to get there; what she found at the end of her trail was a mystery.
She came across a swarm of scarab beetles over a fallen tree in her path. The scarabs were well known to her and she merely disregarded them as any kind of threat. Even if she wanted to do anything about the occasionally harmful insects she wouldn't be able to because her weapons were missing along with her standard outfit.
Suddenly, with another burst of lightning, she spotted a silhouette of a person. Without knowing who the person was or why she had to see him, she ran even more furiously towards it. The silhouette darted from the location she first saw it to several yards further back in the forest.
Moving faster than the figure, she was gradually catching up to it. Lightning flashed once and the figure stopped. She ignored it at kept running as her light source died once again. Lightning flashed a second time and the figure was gone. It was nowhere to be seen, either ahead, behind, up, down, left, or right. It had merely vanished without any trace of ever being there.
Determined to find the silhouette again, she ran even faster. After about two yards, however, the ground beneath her feet gave way and she plummeted into a dark chasm. She reached out for something to grab hold to, but nothing of the sort existed. There was no way to survive at this point. She had failed. She had not only failed herself, but her people, her family, her mentors. A tear began to form in her eyes at the thought of it ending like this. After everything she had done, after all her pain and suffering, it would just end like this.
Don't give up!
Samus Aran awoke in jolt, springing out of her bed. She looked around the dark room. Small particles of light illuminated from a chronometer near her head. It was late, but nothing unusual. Everything in her sleeping quarters seemed fine, but that didn't mean it applied for her entire ship. Samus slipped into her specialized power suit and then latched on her helmet before heading toward the bridge to observe the rest of her spaceship. Something wasn't quite right. she felt someone or something was waiting for her. If only she knew what. No, she thought, I was just startled by the dream. Everything's fine. But still, her instincts were rarely wrong and they were screaming at her to turn around and go to an escape pod. As if she'd ever run away like that. Before she hit the button to open the door to the bridge she heard faint voices. Someone was on her ship! She switched to her thermal vision and saw there were three small pirates inside, all with abnormal shapes. Disgusted by the intruders, yet fearing the worst of the space pirates, she quietly placed got closer to the door and increased the volume in her helmet. "Are you sure this ship is empty?" a male voice croaked. His voice was soft, yet surprisingly high-pitched.
"You're the mechanical expert, why don't you check?" Another voice squawked. He sounded more confident than the first and his voice was notably lower.
"Hurry up, Slippy. There's something about this place that gives me the creeps," a third voice noted. He sounded stronger and he talked in a mannerism that made him sound like a leader.
"I'm trying," Slippy struggled. "I've almost broken into the mainframe."
That was more than what Samus needed to hear. Nobody broke into her ship. These intruders were going to pay. She turned to her left hand where a large gun was in place instead of a glove. She switched to her ice beam; she wanted to know more about these pirates before she killed them.
Without hesitation she pressed the button and the door slid open. She jumped in the room and fired at the closest pirate. He was frozen inside a large block of ice with a stunned impression.
Looking at the rest of the pirates she was quite amazed at what she saw. The frozen one was a large blue bird with a manila jacket, red pants, and large white boots. The second pirate, the leader, was some sort of dog with green pants and a similar coat and boots. The mechanic was short, fat, green, and amphibious. He wore the same coat and boots but with blue pants.
Fortunately her outrage overturned her amazement and she released her grappling hook and grabbed the amphibian. He let out a yelp and before the toad knew it he was wrapped completely around by the hook and pulled in close to Samus. Seeing he was out of the way she then pointed her gun at the dog and realized a small laser pistol was being pointed at her in exchange.
"Let them go," he demanded.
"Get off my ship," she countered and held the toad between her and the dog and then pointed her gun at his head. "Tell me who you are and what you want or the frog gets it."
"My name is Fox McCloud," the fox answered, not moving his pistol an inch. "I am the captain of the Great Fox and these are two members of my crew. You froze Falco Lombardi over there, and your hostage is Slippy Toad. I am the leader of team Star Fox."
"Why have you illegally boarded my ship?" Samus asked with her voice filled with spite. She also remembered that her voice was distorted, so they probably assumed she was male. Idiots.
"The Great Fox has been damaged by a league of space pirates. Fortunately the damaged can be repaired easily, but still we just managed to escape. We're out of fuel and supplies. We tried to contact you but got no response, so we boarded under the belief it was empty," Fox explained.
"You're not welcome aboard this vessel," Samus started, "but I am willing to give you some assistance." She sighed, thinking of the compassion she learned while raised under the Chozo. These animals needed her help, and it might as well be murder if she turned them aside.
"We are eternally grateful. Now, do you mind releasing my crew?" Fox asked kindly. Samus nodded and released her grip on the toad. He fell to the ground and gasped for breath. She then switched to her plasma beam and melted the ice around the bird.
"Peppy, we're good to go," Fox said in a portable communicator. "The captain of this vessel has agreed to assist us."
"That's wonderful news!" The voice said on the other side. Samus was in no hurry to see what kind of strange creature owned that voice.
Samus walked over to the computer Slippy was at and typed in various codes. Then she gave directions to Fox on where to locate some necessary supplies. "Get your contact on the Great Fox to open his fuel tank and I'll transfer enough to get you to the nearest spaceport. After that you're on your own, understand?" Fox nodded in acknowledgement.
The transfer went off without a hitch, but somehow there was still something about all this she didn't like. Perhaps she was just stressed from the recent lack of sleep. Whatever it was team Star Fox was out of her hair and on the way again. Still, there was a nagging feeling she couldn't quite put her finger on-
Blaring sirens broke her concentration. She ran over to look out the view port and saw another spaceship break into real space. This was no pirate's ship she knew; this was another bounty hunter's ship.
"Unidentified spaceship, please respond with your intentions," Samus called out.
"This is Douglas Jay Falcon, Captain of the Falcon Flyer," the ship responded. "I request permission to come aboard."
"Under what cause?" Samus demanded.
"Medical attention," he responded.
"Permission granted." The transmission clicked off and Samus sighed. She was uncomfortable having this many people on her ship as it was, and she certainly didn't want some hotshot bounty hunter trying anything.
A few minutes later there was an incoming transmission from a planet called N'A-S. She sighed again and answered. "Samus Aran speaking," she said dully.
"You are invited to join a tournament." There was no hologram, just that voice that was deep and echoing.
"Who are you?"
"I am M-H. I am inviting you, Samus Aran, to a tournament on my planet."
"Why should I travel halfway across the galaxy just to go to some stupid tournament?"
"The winner of the tournament shall receive was he or she has always sought and always dreamt of," the dark voice replied.
"You can't give me that," Samus argued. No one could give her what she wanted. No one could give her back her parents, her people, her Chozo mentors. They were all gone.
"I can give you all of that, Samus Aran."
"How?"
"Follow the silhouette and see." Then the transmission clicked off. The silhouette? How could he know? That path may lead to answers, but it always leads to that deep eternal pit of despair. What was he getting at?
Before she could ponder the thought any longer Captain Falcon came aboard with a young female in his arms. She had long brown hair and was wearing a light purple jumpsuit. Her left arm and leg were bleeding viciously.
"Who's that?" Samus pointed at the bloodied woman.
"Jody Summer. Please, just give her some medical attention," Falcon pleaded. Samus took Jody down to her medical room and began to do everything she could. The Chozo taught her a lot about the medical advances they made and how to efficiently stop bleeding and have a nice speedy recovery from any type of injury.
After a few hours the unconscious woman had been treated every way Samus knew how, so she turned to the captain and began to question him.
"What happened to her?" Samus began. She had never heard of the bounty hunter and was intrigued to find out as much as she could.
"She was working on her racer, the White Cat, while we were on our way to another race. However, someone planted a small bomb on it and it exploded. Luckily the racer muffled the blast, but she was still injured."
"Who would have sabotaged her racer?"
"Who else? Samurai Goroh, of course. He wants us both dead."
"Where's the race at?"
"It's on the planet N'A-S. But that doesn't really mat-"
"Wait, is it a race or a tournament?" Samus asked, now more interested than ever in what he had to say.
"Well, a tournament. But I don't think Jody will be able to attend with me. How is she, by the way?"
"She'll be fine, she just needs rest. Rest that she can get on the Falcon Flyer." Samus noted. Falcon took the hint and carried Jody back to his ship.
"Good bye, friend. Perhaps we'll meet again someday."
Samus nodded. Perhaps sooner than you think. Once her was gone she set a course for N'A-S.