Chapter 7

Metroid: Frozen Heart

Being on a ship they knew little about, everyone wondered about, except for Mario and Sonic who stayed at the controls, looking out for any enemies. Link and D.K. walked down one of the hallways and came to a door. When they stepped near it, it automatically slid open. Inside, they saw several beds.

As they lied down on the beds, finding them quite comfortable, they heard Ash shout.

"Hey, guys, over here!" As they ran over to where they heard the voice coming from, they saw Ash standing in a room with several tables and chairs, and a wall with three circles on them. Ash stood there with a bowl of ramen in his hands.

"Hey, where'd you get that?" Kong asked.

"Well, I was just standing here looking at the wall when my stomach growled, and thought how nice it would be to have a bowl of ramen, then that circle on the wall opened and inside was sitting a hot bowl of it!" Ash immediately started gulping it down.

"Wait! That might be...." Link tried to stop him, but it was too late.

"Mmmmm! Just like mom makes it!" Link thought that food coming out of nowhere was too good to be true. If perhaps food was stored here ever since the ship was built, then it should be horribly rotten, yet Ash seemed just fine.

Donkey Kong then went up to the wall and thought of something, and when the panel opened up, a banana cream pie was sitting there.

"Hey, all right!" D.K. then began devouring it. It had been a while since any of them had a chance to eat, so Link decided to go with it. When Link thought of something to eat, the panel opened and a plate of Kakariko Fried Cucco sat there.

As they sat at the table eating, Zero walked in.

"Hey, you're the guy who saved us back at the desert, right? Thanks. Say, um, what's your name?" Ash asked.

"You don't know his name? You didn't know Sonic or D.K. at first, and now you don't know Zero? Where have you been?" Link asked.

"Huh? Oh, well, I guess I've been spending all my time doing Pokemon battles." Ash said, while trying to laugh away his embarrassment. Pikachu, who was eating on the table, looked at Ash and sighed. Link then got up from the table, wiped his mouth, and went to Zero.

"Sorry, things were a little hectic when you first came, and we didn't have a proper chance to talk. So, since you're here, I take it you've decided to come along with us and join our fight."

"Indeed. There were reports of large, circular ships attacking certain lands. When I saw one going towards the Sand Wilderness, I hitched a ride. While I was there, I received a communication from Zelda, informing me of the situation. I'm sure you could use my help."

"Of course, we're quite grateful." Their talk was cut short when Mario's voice was heard from speakers all over the ship."

"We spotted the mother ship! Everyone get back here!" Everyone came back to the control room where they took their seats. Up on the main screen, they could see that the Zox ship was no longer at warp, and they had done the same. Up ahead, there was a large asteroid field.

"Are they doing what I think they're doing?" Link questioned. Sure enough, the ship flew into the field of randomly floating rocks. Mario kept them going on the same path.

"You're not going in there, are you?" Zero asked.

"Of course I am." Mario said with determination.

"Do you know what the odds are of successfully navigating an asteroid field?"

"Never tell me the odds." They flew in, and all around them were flying rocks. The Zox ship was right in front of them, and they weren't going to loose sight.

"Zero!"

"I got it." Zero started taking aim at the ship, and fired several shots. They were both flying in erratic directions to avoid being hit by the asteroids, and thus it was difficult to hit the enemy. For some reason, it didn't retaliate, but merely evaded.

"Mario, asteroid, nine 'o clock!" Sonic shouted. He was in front of a monitor that showed everything that was around them for several miles, and he could spot large obstacles that came their way. Mario lowered the ship, just as an asteroid five times larger than the 64 flew over them. They continued following the Zox until it went behind a large rock, and when it did, two CDs flew out from the side.

"I lost track of the mother ship. It's as if it disappeared." Sonic said, confused at why he couldn't find it. The two CDs then came right towards them with lasers firing right at them. Mario turned to the right to avoid the shots, but as he did, he ran against a large asteroid. Everyone in the ship was pushed to the right from the impact, and scraped the right side of the ship. A loud screech sounded throughout the ship as they did.

Mario then sped up as one of the CDs came at them, and flew under it. Now, they were being chased by the one while the other was still in front. Taking advantage of the rocks, Mario flew past three of asteroids that were just about to collide with each other. As the CD followed it, it was caught in between the asteroids, and crushed.

The CD in front of them began shooting at them, and Zero returned fire. Their shots missed each other, but the lasers collided with the surrounding asteroids, blasting them to thousands of pieces. Poundings could be heard all over the ship as the smaller pieces hit them, like a heavy hailstorm.

Zero was about to make a clear shot, but a large asteroid came right in between them, and they had to pull up. The back of the ship scrapped the rock as they tried to pull away, and as they continued, they found their selves out of the field.

"Where did the CD go?"

"I don't know, I lost track of it. Eh, there's too much interference with all these asteroids. Wait, it's right behind us!" Sonic said. The ship began firing multiple lasers at them, and they were hitting every one. It looked like they were in for a good beating, but all of the sudden, something crashed right through the CD, too fast for them to see what it was.

"What was that?" Mario wondered. As he said that, the screen went from a view of showing the destroyed CD to a picture of large blocks in odd shapes.

"Those look like...Tetris blocks?" Mario said.

"Hmm, I've heard that there are occasional Tetris blocks that brake loose from their squares, and then freely float through space." Link said. Just then, the words 'free-floating Tetris blocks' appeared on the screen next to the blocks.

"Hey, did you see that?" Sonic shouted.

"Instead of that funky language, it's now in English." D.K. said.

"Hmmm. Mario, you're growing more accustomed to the controls, right?" Zero asked.

"Yes."

"It could be that the ship is actually becoming more accustomed to us. I think this ship is designed to observe its users, and adapt to it."

"You mean, the ship is watching us right now? Learning from us?" Ash asked.

"Exactly."

"Hey, I spotted the mother ship! It's heading to the planet forty-five degrees to the right of us. It says the planet is called Tallon IV." Sonic said.

"All right, let's head to Tallon IV then."

They once again lost track of the Zox ship somehow, but last they saw, it landed somewhere in an area called Phendrana Drifts. They flew over the area to find the ship, but they stopped when they found a familiar spacecraft. Everyone got out to inspect the craft, except for Zero, who stayed to watch the ship.

"Woah! Oh man, it's freezing out here!" Ash said as he stepped outside.

"Seesh, it's not that bad." D.K. said.

"Easy for you to say; you've got fur."

"There's no wind, no clouds, and it's sunny. This is the best it's going to be, so be grateful." Link said. They then walked towards the spacecraft, and sure enough, it was the one that belonged to Samus Aran.

"So where do you think she is?"

"No idea. She might have an idea where the Zox are, so we should probably try to find her. Though they set out to find Samus, it was actually Samus who found them. Soon after they left her ship, she jumped out from behind a pillar of ice with her arm gun pointed right at them. Samus stood in front of them, confused at the sight.

"What? What are you people doing here?" Samus said, still pointing her gun at them.

"Woah! Hey, calm down, it's me, Mario."

"For what reason could you and everyone else possibly be here?"

"Come on, you act as if you didn't know me!"

"I've met many creatures before, ones who could easily disguise their selves, and you appearing now is too much of a coincidence."

"If I'm not really Mario, then would I know that, you hate mushroom pasta, but acted as if you liked it? It was when you came to the Mushroom Kingdom for the first time on a delivery mission and we invited you to dinner. You didn't want to offend Peach, so you told her you liked it, but it was obvious you couldn't stand it." Samus then lowered her arm gun.

"Heh, you're right, I never could stand mushrooms. Sorry I doubted you; I can never be too cautious. I got a signal that several life forms were circling my ship, so I came to make sure it was safe. You really are Mario, and Link, Sonic, and D.K."

"And Zero."

"He's here too?"

"Yeah, he's in our ship."

"Hey, what about me?" Ash said, feeling left out.

"Oh, do I know you?"

"I'm Ash, from Pallet Town!"

"Why do you say what town you're from when introducing yourself? I mean, what's the point?" D.K. asked.

"Huh?" Ash said.

"Hey Samus, what's with the new look?" Mario asked.

"What?" Aran then realized that she had not seen any of them since her fusion with the metroid DNA.

"Ah, it's a long story, but what are you all doing here? Just for one of you to be here is strange."

"Aran, have you heard of the Zox?" Link asked. Samus could tell from his tone that there was something dangerous about the Zox.

"No, I haven't. What's going on?"

"The Zox come from an alternate dimension, and they've invaded Nintendo. We used an ancient ship to try to stop them, but, we failed. Last we saw Nintendo, it was covered in massive explosions."

"What? Oh man, Nintendo? The kind of power needed to take down that size of a planet would be incredible."

"We've been chasing the mother ship, and it landed somewhere around here. Have you seen it?"

"I'm sorry, but I haven't seen anything like that."

"What did you mean earlier by and you appearing now is too much of a coincidence?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, well you see, I'm currently tracking down a bounty named Roco. He's wanted for the destruction of colony 146 of planet Zelos, and the deaths of seven million people."

"Sounds like a dangerous criminal."

"Yes, and that's why I have to find him and bring him in. The Zelos government wants him alive. I've been searching for him for two weeks now, and my latest lead takes me here. When I saw you all here, I thought you might be some sort of trap set up by Roco, so that's what I meant that it would be a coincidence."

"Hey, since we're both looking for someone here, how about we work together?" Ash asked.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I work alone. I've already spent too much time here, so bye." Samus jumped over the icy river near them and ran off.

"Hey wait!" Mario tried to stop her, but it was already too late.

"Ah, forget her, we can take care of this our self. Hey, how about you guys search the area from the ship, and I'll scout the area on ground." Sonic said.

"Sounds like a plan, but let's go back to the ship first; Zero said he wanted to show us something later when we left." Link said. As they walked to the platform that led into the ship, Link stopped and grabbed Mario's shoulder as he noticed something.

"Hey, Mario, look at that."

"Huh? What is it?"

"Back in that asteroid field, we scrapped the ship against a large asteroid, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then why are there no marks of it?" Mario looked at the ship, and noticed too that there was no damage on it.

"Wow, you're right! Could the ship be that strong?"

"I don't think so. The whole ship shook and we could hear the screech as we hit it. And look at the back, we got hit several times by that CD's lasers. There's no damage there either. Surely there should be something."

"I don't know. I guess we should just consider ourselves lucky. There's still stuff we don't know about this ship, you know."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." As they went to see Zero, they found him tinkering with something in the control room.

"So what did you want to show us?"

"These." In his hands, Zero held five hand-held radios. "We can keep in touch with these. Plus, they have a tracking signal so we can locate each other."

"What about you Zero?" Ash asked. Zero looked at him with a faint smirk.

"I already have a radio inside my head."

"Oh."

"All right, when I find something, I'll let you know!" Sonic then rushed back out into the snowy land to scout the area. As soon as he walked out, the door behind him closed, and the ship began to lift off. Sonic then looked for the highest mountain in the vicinity and ran to the top.

Sonic was able to see the whole area from on top of the mountain. As he looked at the snow-covered land around him, he didn't see any Zox ship, but there were many hills and crevasses that it could hide in.

"Heh, this place reminds me off Ice Cap. I had some good times back there." The sense of adventure began to fill in Sonic, and he decided to go with it. He ran down the hill, kicking up piles of snow as he ran by. As he came down to the bottom, he was coming towards an icy river. There were chunks of ice floating in it, so he jumped on one of them, and with the great momentum he had, he began surfing on the chunk of ice.

Sonic always loved a good thrill, and his own speed gave him the ability to do so. He always sought out new and exciting things, and the faster he went, the more exciting it was. As he came to the other end of the river, he jumped off just before the ice slammed and broke apart against the shore. Sonic continued running and went inside a cave. As he ran through, he could see that there was once water running through, as there was a consistent layer of ice on the ground. It was difficult to run on it, so instead he steadied his feet and slid on it.

Sonic slid around like a skateboarder going down a half-pipe, sliding up and down the walls. As he went further in, the path began to be much steeper. Soon, he was practically falling straight down, and ahead the cave twisted into a spiral. Sonic slid down the cave like a spiraling slide, and when it straightened and became less steep, he could see light at the end.

The closer Sonic got to the end of the cave, the more he could see that there wasn't any ground. As Sonic leapt out of the cave, he saw that the ground was several hundred feet below him, and behind him was a giant pillar of ice, where a waterfall once was. Most people would be terrified, but Sonic smiled all the way down. Below him was a frozen river where the water once flowed into, and positioning his body just right, and falling at the right angle, he landed on the ice without harm, and continued to slide.

As Sonic slid around, he saw a cave to the right of him, and noticed that there were flashes of light coming from inside. Suddenly remembering why he was there in the first place, Sonic quietly approached the cave. He stood by the entrance, and could hear noises coming from inside. Sonic turned on the radio and whispered.

"Hey, guys, I think I found something."

"Good. We'll be there in a sec."

They landed the ship a good distance from the cave so they wouldn't be seen, and met up with Sonic.

"Do you think that's them?"

"I don't know. It's too small for the Zox ship to be hiding in."

"What are you guys doing here?" Everyone was surprised as they heard the angry voice behind them. As they turned around, they saw that it was Samus.

"What are we doing? We're looking for the Zox, what do you think?"

"This is the hiding place of Roco! Now get out of here before you mess something up!"

"Come on, it's just one guy, right? We outnumber him!" Ash said. He then ran inside the cave with Pikachu ready to strike.

"No wait! Stop!" Samus shouted. She ran after him to stop him, and the others followed. All of the sudden, a panel on both sides of the wall opened and a glowing bar came out. Electricity-looking energy came out from them, and they began to float off the ground, and became frozen in place from the head down.

"Argh! You see? This is why I work alone!"

"Uh...sorry."