As they helplessly floated there, they saw that the flashes in the cave stopped, and it sounded like someone set something down. That's when they noticed a shadow of a person walking towards them. Around the corner stepped out a man with short blond hair. He was wearing a silver suit to protect him from the cold.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here? If it isn't the feared bounty hunter Samus Aran? More outlaws fear you than the famous Captain Falcon. Oh, and there's even four of the heroes from Nintendo?" Roco said. His voice showed great calmness, even a tone of superiority.

"Four?" Ash wondered. "Hey, wait a minute, what about me?"

"Oh, do I know you?"

"Argh! Forget it!" Ash was fed up of being the only one in the group who was not famous.

"Well, now that you've all found me, I guess I should be worried." Roco mocked.

"For killing seven million people, you better be!" Samus said furiously.

"What? You think numbers matter?" Roco said, chuckling. "The bomb I built was a new design, and if I wanted to see just what would happen if it were to detonate in a dense, populated area, there was only one way to do it."

"What? You actually disregard the value of life that much? Your heart is as cold as the ice around us!" Link said in anger.

"Ha ha ha. Let me give you a piece of advice: If you want to be able to accomplish your desires, you can't let such petty things like morals get in your way."

"Abandoning morals can only result in chaos!"

"Heh, I didn't think a hero would understand. Anyways, if I kill you all, I'll then be well known to outlaws."

"Why would you want to be known among low-lives?" D.K. asked.

"Because, my hairy friend, I'm an arms dealer. I create and sell my own technological masterpieces. If I'm well known, everyone will come to me for business! Well, it's been nice knowing you, but now you need to die."

"What? No! Ah, Pikachu, zap that machine!" Since Pikachu was able to move its head, it used its thundershock to zap the machine that held them. As the electricity bolt went flying, however, it scattered and went in all sorts of directions, missing its target.

"Oh, you didn't know that the field that holds you disrupts the flow of electricity?" Not knowing of a way out of their predicament, they could only float there and face their executioner.

Roco reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gun, and pointed it right at Samus first.

"Good bye!" Just as Roco said that, they heard a laser blade from behind them, and the machine broke. As they fell to the floor, they saw Zero standing behind them.

"How many times do I have to save you guys?" Zero said, smiling. As soon as Samus had her feet on the ground, she took aim at Roco, who then took a small remote from his pocket. Not sure of what it did, Samus shot a small laser at Roco, but once he pressed the button, he vanished in a flash of light, and the laser went right through where he once stood.

As Zero looked around, he heard a faint sound that only his robotic sound detectors could hear.

"Everyone, get out outside!" When they all ran out of the cave, the icy hill behind them broke apart as a ship came flying out of it. Roco was making a run for it, and if they didn't do something fast, he would get away. Samus tried firing at it, but from the height it was at, it was difficult for her to get a clear shot at the small, fast ship.

"D.K., throw me up there."

"What?"

"I said throw me up there!" Zero was obviously serious, so D.K. grabbed him by the feet, and began swinging him around in a circle. When he let go of him, Zero went flying head first towards the ship. As he got closer, he held his glowing blade with both hands. As the ship was making its ascent, Zero came up from behind. He placed his feet on the side of the ship, and held on by lodging his sword into the engine.

Electricity sparked around the sword, and the sound of the engine was dieing out. The ship had lost its power, and began falling back to the surface of Tallon IV. Zero removed his blade, and without it to hold on, pushed off the ship with his feet and fell down away from the ship.

"Zero! Is he nuts? How can he live from that fall?" Samus said.

"Charizard! I choose you!" Ash called out Charizard so that he could grab Zero, but nothing came out. "Huh? What's wrong?"

"Ash, we're several million miles from Nintendo. I don't think the transporter can reach you here." Link said.

"Ah! You mean I can't call me Pokemon?" They wanted to save Zero, but there wasn't anything they could do.

As Zero fell, he aimed for the frozen river. When got close, he charged and fired his blaster, melting and breaking apart the ice and revealing the water under it. Zero aimed for the hole, and fell into the water. At the same time, Roco's ship crashed over in the distance. While everyone ran to see if Zero was all right, Ash stood there, then turned around and walked in the opposite direction.

"I can't use my Pokemon? What good am I if I can't use my Pokemon? Without them, I'm just some boy. How can I help heroes like them?" Once Ash had walked some distance from them, he dropped to his knees, and sat in the snow. Pikachu hopped off his shoulder and faced Ash.

"Pika pi chu?" Ash smiled faintly.

"You're right, I still have you buddy. Still...." Ash looked up at the sky, thinking things over, when he saw something fall from the sky.

"What's that?" Ash stood up, and the fiery object crashed into the ground just a few feet in front of him. The crash impacted with the ground so hard it made a crater, and knocked Ash back. He got back up and looked to see what it was.

"What is this thing? It looks like it was a shooting star or something." Ash didn't know what it was, but he picked up the small object, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and wrapped it up in it. "It probably wouldn't hurt to keep this. Come on Pikachu, let's go back to the ship."

As they got to where Zero dived in, another charged laser blasted out from under the ice, and Zero jumped out.

"Zero! You're all right! That was some pretty cool stuff back there." Sonic said. Zero then turned his attention to the left.

"Don't thank me just yet." They looked over to where Zero was looking, and up on a small hill stood Roco in a silver metallic, full-body suit.

"What? How could you possibly be...."

"Alive? Come now Samus, do you think someone with my intelligence would die by a simple crash?" Samus ran towards Roco. "What? Do you really think you can kill me?"

"Do you really think I won't try?" Samus jumped towards Roco and fired a missile, and Roco did a back flip to avoid the missile's blast.

"This suit doesn't just protect me with it's shiny armor, it also enhances my speed and strength."

"Even so, you don't have much strength to speak of."

"It's more than enough to stand against you." Mario and the others ran to help Samus, but she shouted at them saying,

"Stay back! This guy is mine!"

"Yes, stay here and fight. You're the one I really want to kill anyways." Roco reached for his back and pulled out a rifle. He fired at Samus, and Samus ran to the side to avoid it. It was an open area, and hard to avoid the lasers, so she rolled into a ball, and became buried in the snow. Roco looked around to see where Samus went, but then something exploded from under his feet, and Roco was sent flying backwards. Samus came out of her ball form near where she laid her bomb, and immediately began firing at him.

While Roco was being shot at, he threw a small ball at Samus. The small ball exploded and knocked Samus back. She then quickly stood back up and fired a missile at him, but Roco just stood there.

As the missile came towards him, he put his hands out in front of him, and some sort of sound waves began pulsating from his hands. The sound waves knocked the missile from its course, and it shot straight up. It then started turning around and going in all sorts of direction, until it finally came back towards Samus. She managed to avoid being hit directly, but the explosion itself hit her.

Just as she got back up, Roco threw another small ball at her, but this time when it hit, it erupted in a flash of light, and Samus became stuck in a foamy gunk. Samus tried to get out, but she was stuck waist up in the goop.

"Ha ha ha ha! Stuck, Samus Aran? How about I give you a hand?" Roco grabbed Samus by the shoulders, and a surge of electricity came out of his hands and into Aran. Every part of her body was shaking with the volts surging through her. Her suit was protecting her somewhat, but she was still receiving a good deal of it. She could feel that her skin was beginning to char from electricity.

Link and Zero readied their blades, and Mario, D.K. and Sonic were ready to jump in.

"I said...I got...this!" Samus shouted, and finding the strength to save herself, broke her right arm free, and blasted Roco right in the chest. With Roco stunned with surprise for a moment, Samus used her blaster to break free of the gunk.

Roco had stepped back from Samus, so she ran towards him. She ran into Roco, pushing him back more and more, and kept on running. Once she gained enough speed, her suit flashed with different colors as she ran with amazing speed. Samus was delivering lightning fast punches with such force that Roco was flying in the air, continually being pushed back as Samus punched him again and again with her amazing speed.

Once she figured he had enough, she stopped, and let Roco finally land on the ground, skidding and tearing up the ground as he did. Dents were all over his armor, and Samus doubted he could possibly live after that assault. With his helmet on, however, there was no telling if he was dead or unconscious. While he laid there, the sky suddenly went dark, but returned to normal after a minute. Samus didn't pay much attention, but Mario and Sonic were all too familiar with what happened.

Then, to Aran's surprise, Roco coughed, and then weakly stood up.

"Eh, heh heh, is that all you got? Come on, I'm ready for you." Roco weakly walked backwards up the hill, taunting Samus, though she could clearly see he wasn't in any shape to fight now.

"You've lost Roco, now turn yourself over so you don't get killed." Samus walked towards Roco.

"Lost? Never." Once Samus was on top of the hill, she froze in terror at what she saw. There was a clear view for miles on top of the hill, and an army was marching across it, right for them. Hundreds of thousands of Zox marched with laser rifles in hand, all with an expression of hatred in their face. One look at them would send fear into anyone's heart.

Roco was confused at why Samus was suddenly struck with fear, and honestly asked what the matter was.

"What?" Samus turned around and ran down the hill as countless lasers flew towards them. Roco was caught in the onslaught, and was hit until the lasers struck through his armor. The lasers continued to hit him until his body was horribly mutilated, and was without a single doubt dead.

Samus joined the group, safe behind the hill.

"So, is that the Zox?"

"Yep." Samus quickly thought about the possibility of helping them. The bounty she was chasing was now dead, so she couldn't collect the money on him. She preferred to work alone, but it looked like there was a lot of these Zox. Besides, she didn't have anything else to do at the moment. She then sighed and said,

"Why not?" Samus then ran off.

"Hey, where are you going?" Mario shouted at Samus, who was already some distance away.

"Two ships are better than one!" She shouted back. Everyone ran back inside the 64. Mario ran into the control room and saw Ash sitting inside.

"Hey, I wondered where you were. Why did you go in here?"

"Oh, well, I thought that...."

"Look, it's all right, just grab a seat because this could get bumpy." As they lifted off, several lasers were pounding against the ship. Luckily, they weren't that powerful, and they were able to get out of range quickly. Once they got into the upper atmosphere, they saw that the Zox were storming the planet. The screen then changed to a view of Samus in the pilot's seat of her ship. Samus was now flying beside the 64.

"It appears that they are trying to take over the planet. They'll realize that they've wasted their time with bringing out that many soldiers once they find out that there are no intelligent beings there." The main screen then switched to a view of outer space as Sonic spotted the Zox mother ship.

"The ship is escaping again!"

"I get it now." Link said. "The reason the ship disappeared from are sensors is not because it was hidden on the planet's surface, but because it was never there in the first place! It went back to its dimension to call in back up."

"Darn, just going after the mother ship is hard enough." Mario started after the mother ship, but six CDs came up from the planet, and stood in their way. They immediately started firing at the ship, and in their present form, they couldn't put up much of a fight.

"Hey Samus, can you keep those guys off of us for a few seconds?"

"Sure thing." Samus flew right in between the swarm of CDs flying around the 64 while firing off a few shots at them. Since Samus was the one who was retaliating against the Zox, they chased after her.

Samus was able to maneuver a little better because of her ship's smaller size, though she didn't have a whole lot of firepower. As she flew around, constantly changing her direction to avoid fire, she was able to buy enough time for the 64 to transform without them getting hit in the process.

Now in their robot form, the 64 blasted off towards the CDs. The pilot of one of the CDs saw that one of their enemies was coming from behind, so he turned around. The CD fired rapidly at the approaching ship, but their lasers didn't seem to do much harm. As they came up to the CD, Mario thrust the arm right into it. They punched right through it, smashing it to bits as it exploded.

The signal from CD 78538-86 was lost, so the rest of the CDs turned around and went after the large, black ship. Lasers flew towards them everywhere, and the 64 was shaking from the impact, but their shielding was still good according to Link's monitor.

Mario flew between the CDs and grabbed hold of one of them, separating it from the group. The CD was about half the height of the 64 in its robot form, but they still managed to hold it. Turning back to the group, they threw the CD they held back at the others like a giant Frisbee. It crashed into one of them, exploding them both. Now, they were down to three.

Four lasers impacted the head of the 64 at the same time, and it shook the ship so hard, that the lights above them broke, and the only thing lighting the room was the light from the computers. Suddenly, a small door on the ceiling opened up, and large, robotic spider scrambled out.

"Ahh! What is that thing?" Ash yelled. Link drew his sword, but the bot continued crawling on the ceiling, and went to the broken light. It moved its arms around the light so fast that its movements were blurred, and then the light came on, perfectly fixed. It then moved on to the next light.

"It seems that this ship has robots all over that repairs things. That would explain the absence of damage on the outside." Link said as he put his sword back in its sheath.

"A ship that repairs itself? Man, this thing gets better and better!" Sonic said.

"Are you finished? We're still fighting here!" Mario said, frustrated. He was having trouble fighting the ships when the lights went out.

They flew backwards while still facing the CDs, and Zero began firing at them. Several lasers came out of the tips of the 64's hands, and they managed to take down two more. They aimed for the next one, but it flew behind them, and fired at their back. They took several hits, but then a warp star suddenly crashed through the CD, ripping it apart.

As they turned around, they saw Kirby riding the warp star. He smiled and waved at them, so they waved back at them with the 64. Kirby then zoomed off back to his home.

"You know, Kirby kind of reminds me of Smartball. They're both small and round, with big mouths." Mario said.

"Who?" Link asked.

"Ah, never mind. I'm just glad he was able to help."

"But how did he know we were here?"

"Hey Samus, do you have any idea how he found us?" A communication link was opened as Mario asked the question.

"What? Oh, well, I might have sent out a message or two."

"All right, let's get moving then." Since they would probably encounter more danger, they stayed in robot form, and blasted off to where the mother ship went.

They only traveled for a few minutes until they caught up with the mother ship. At first it looked like it was just sitting there, but then they noticed a swirling black vortex behind it growing larger.

"Mario, they're opening a dimensional portal! I'm not sure what dimension it leads to, but if we don't follow them we may never find them again!" Sonic said.

"Or we could be walking right into a trap." Link said.

"What do you say Mario? You're the one piloting this ship." D.K. said.

"It might be a trap, but that's a risk we're going to have to take." The portal had reached the size it needed to be for the mother ship to go through. The ship entered the portal, and disappeared from sight.

"Everyone ready? We're going in." Only Sonic had actually traveled between dimensions, so the rest of them had no idea what to expect, but they were amazed at what they saw.

As they entered, strange, green lines surrounded them, and everything went dark. They could however see the mother ship right ahead of them. The way that the green lines were positioned gave the appearance that they were in a tunnel. A layer of blue then surrounded them, and then they began to pick up speed. Balls of lights then rushed past them and the walls of the tunnel began to glow with different colors. The ship rumbled a bit as they seemed to travel at amazing speeds through this tunnel of brilliant lights.

The ship shook harder for a moment as the tunnel changed colors again, this time a bright white. The light was almost blinding, but as the ship calmed down, the strangest thing yet happened. Below them was a planet, and above them was an upside-down image of the same thing, both curving inward to form a tunnel.