"So you're the new Arwing Pilot?" Samus asked Krystal. The two were strolling along the festival amongst the crowds.
"Yes. When Peppy retired as a pilot, his Arwing was just sitting in the hanger, so Fox showed me how to pilot it. I've gotten pretty good at it. I'm even thinking about participating in the next Super Smash Bros. Tournament."
"Sounds great. Might be nice facing against you. Last I heard you were just someone who was tagging along with Starfox, now you're a full-fledged member."
"Heh, thanks." Suddenly, a Cheetah cornerian walked up towards Krystal.
"Hey foxy lady, how's it goin'?"
"Eh, please." Krystal brushed him off and just kept walking. When they were away from him, Krystal asked in an annoyed tone,
"Why do guys always have to use that lame pick-up line?"
"Well, you are a fox." Samus said straight out.
"Still."
"Hey you, human girl!" A dog cornerian shouted, who was running a strength tester. Samus became quite angry at his rudeness.
"What you say?" Samus said with an angry tone.
"Come here and try it out, free of charge!" He said mockingly. He found humans to be not that strong, and wanted to humiliate her by showing people how weak she would be. Samus walked over and glared him in the eyes, and then grabbed the large hammer from him. With a single swing, she hit the lever, making the weight shoot upward. Instead of the weight just hitting the bell at the top, which was far from what he expected, the weight crashed through the bell, and the weight kept flying upwards.
Samus handed back the hammer as the weight fell back down, crashing into the strength tester. She then looked him straight in the eyes again, saying,
"And my name isn't hey you human girl, it's Samus." The cornarian stood there dumbfounded as they walked away.
"Samus? Why does that name sound familiar...? Erk! S-S-Samus Aran, the b-bounty hunter? I just mocked the bounty h-hunter Samus A-Aran, and I'm still, and I'm still...." He didn't manage to finish talking, as he fainted, falling backwards onto the ground.
"...and we couldn't find our way out of the cave, so after making some adjustments to the tracker, we found our way out." Slippy said to Sonic. They were walking down the aisles looking for something interesting.
"Heh, you kind of remind me of Tails. He's always messing with technology and stuff. You two would probably get along great." As Sonic said that, he then remembered that Tails was still on Nintendo when it was attacked. He began to feel depressed as he wondered if he was alive or not, but Slippy broke his train of thought when he said,
"Ash? D.K?" They saw Ash and D.K. behind of a booth cooking up and serving dishes.
"Hey, what are you guys doing there?" Sonic asked.
"Eh, well, you see, we kind of ate some food without realizing we had to pay for it." Ash said embarrassingly. "So now, we have to pay it off by working. It's not bad really, this is actually kind of fun!"
"Speak for yourself! I hate cooking!"
"Oh, come on D.K, it's not that bad!"
"Hey, you two get back to work!"
"Well, I guess we better let you finish."
"Yeah, see you later."
As Link, Mario and Fox walked in the crowd, they came to a sign-up table. Just behind it was a field with a track and many obstacles.
"Hey guys, you want to participate in the events?" Fox asked.
"Event?"
"Yeah, during the festival, they hold different events, like the stone toss, mile run, and obstacle course."
"Sure, sounds interesting." Link said.
"Yeah, all right." They walked up to the sign-up table, where a lizard cornerian was writing some stuff on a notebook.
"We'd like to sign up" The man looked up and saw the three people.
"Well, it just happens that we have three spots left in the obstacle course. Want to join?"
"Sure."
"Okay, just give me your names, please."
"James."
"Mario."
"Link." He causally wrote the names down on the notebook, but then slowed down when he began to realize something.
"Wait, you wouldn't happen to be thee Mario and Link, would you?"
"Um, well, yes." Mario said, unsure of whether it was a good thing.
"Wow, that's awesome! It will be great to see you guys in action. Just go over there and get ready. The race starts in twenty minutes." As they headed in the direction he pointed, the man stopped them.
"Wait, hold on a moment. James, was it? You look familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before?"
"What? Oh, you must have me confused with someone else. Bye!" They went to a grass field that was just a few several feet from a racetrack. It was just a simple dirt track with white lines, but there were plenty of obstacles on the path. It went straight down for quite a few yards, and then sharply turned around, heading back in the same direction, where the course turned back around to the starting point. They figured this was the place as there were twelve other people standing there. Combined, they were the fifteen people who would compete in the obstacle course.
When it came time to start, several people had gathered on a bench to watch. There was a tall pole with a loudspeaker on top, and just below it a person on a tall stand. He spoke into the microphone and the loudspeaker amplified his voice.
"Everyone, welcome to the seventh New Year's festival obstacle course race!" Some applause was made from the audience. "Racers, take your positions." Everyone went to the beginning of the track, each on their own path marked by the parallel white lines.
Mario looked at the competition and saw that they were mostly average built cornerians, all of different races. One, however, stood out from the rest. He was a short little guy ) with blue and white clothing. The only apparent skin was seen on his face, but yet the only things on his face were his eyes. He had small, round pink balls for hands and feet, as well as one on the antenna on top of his head.
"The racers will run across this track and get through the many obstacles you see ahead. The first person to complete one lap is the victor, so without anymore, let the race begin."
"Good luck, Mario."
"Three...."
"You too, Link."
"Two...."
"You as well, Fox." Link said.
"One...."
"Thanks, but it's you who's going to need it." Fox said as he grinned.
"Go!" The audience cheered and the racers bolted off.
Mario was a good runner, but Link was faster, and Fox even faster than Link. It was clear from the start that they were the fastest, as they left everyone else in the dust. This would be a race between them.
The first obstacle they came to was a pit of sand. Running in that would decrease their speed, so they jumped over it. Fox and Link jumped, but they landed a few feet short. Mario, however, was able to jump clear across the sand. Mario was now ahead, but Link and Fox were catching up.
The next obstacle was a wooden wall, with ropes on it for people to climb up. Again, Mario had the advantage, being able to jump right over it. Link managed to get ahead of Fox at this point, and was running after Mario.
They then came to a long stretch of wire close to the ground. The way to get past this would be to lie on the ground and crawl. Mario was ahead, but Link proved to be better at crawling than Mario. In this obstacle, Link was able to get ahead of Mario, with Fox close behind.
Next, Link came to a part where the track was covered in some sort of gunk. Link continued running, but once he stepped on the gunk, he slipped and fell flat on his face. This gunk was very slippery and could not be simply run on.
Mario saw what happened to Link, so Mario did a small jump and let his feet slide across the gunk like ice. Link did a back flip on to the clear ground, and then did the same as Mario.
Fox was catching up quite fast, and when he got to the slippery gunk, he did the same, but he gained much more momentum than did Mario or Link.
They had reached the halfway point, as the course turned around and went back in the other direction. People were cheering throughout the race, and the person at the loudspeaker was telling the positions of the racers. Fox was now ahead, and they came up to a part where there was more gunk on the track, but this time a row of ropes were hung across it for people to hold on to. Fox grabbed hold of the rope and used his hands to get across.
As Mario came up to it, he jumped on to it to slide across, but this time, his feet just stuck to it. Link saw Mario's error, so he too grabbed hold of the rope. The gunk was hard to get out of, but he managed to jump out and grab the rope.
Fox was ahead with Link in second and Mario in third. Now, they came to the final and most challenging obstacle: a maze. There were wooden boards set up, making the walls nine feet tall, encompassing a good deal of the track. Each person's row lead into it's own entrance, so they all went in alone.
As Link went in, he took the straight path, ignoring two adjacent paths he past on his left and right. Link had experience with places like these, and ran in and out of passages. He could hear the footsteps of Mario and Fox, but to how close they were to the exit he couldn't tell.
After almost a minute, Link found his way out of the maze, and to his surprise, Mario was already ahead, and Fox came out not too long after link.
"James has exited the maze, and now it's a straight-out run between these three amazing people. James is picking up speed and Link is catching up to Mario. They're turning around the corner now, and boy will this be close!"
As they turned around the corner, Fox managed to get ahead of Link. Mario was in the lead, but he could hear Fox quickly coming up from behind. He could see the finish line just ahead, but now he was starting to hear the footsteps of Link.
The finish line was just seconds away, but now Fox was right to the right of him. If he continued running, Fox would pass him up, so instead he put his jumping power to use. Leaning his body forward, Mario pushed off with his legs, rocketing forward.
Fox was putting all his effort into his legs, and could merely watch as Mario jumped ahead of him, crossing the finish line. Mario put his hands out as he fell towards the floor, pushing himself off the floor with his hands and front flipping forward, safely putting his feet on to the ground. Fox crossed the finish line a fraction of a second after Mario, and Link dashed across a second later.
The three stopped in their tracks and caught their breath, heavily panting. Everyone cheered as the man at the loudspeaker shouted the winner's name.
"Ha ha...well done...Mario."
"Thanks Fox."
"Heh, that was...a good race." Link said. It had been a while since they had fun. Their thoughts had been towards the Zox ever since they became involved in the battle, but none of them thought of that now. For the time being, they were happy, enjoying life.
As the rest of the racers crossed the finish line, a beeping sound came from Fox's communicator. Fox pulled out the communicator from his pocket, put it up to his ear and pressed a button.
"Zox mother ship approaching your location." ROB said in his monotone voice.
"What? Now? Mario, the Zox are coming!" Mario and Link's faces turned back to their serious expressions, and then bolted back to the 64. As they ran, Mario pulled out the radio Zero gave them back on Tallon IV.
"Everyone, the Zox are coming, get back to the 64!" As they left the track, Mario heard the announcer say something about coming back and getting his prize, but there was no time.