The sun rose on the horizon, revealing the mountains bathed in green and the sky cloaked a ravenous violet fading into a bright blue. Mario was the first to get up, slipping from his shirtless, cyan boxers into his usual clothing, straightening up his cap. Slowly climbing out from his bed and walking from his room, he noticed most of the other fighters were already up, either getting ready for another battle at the arena or gossiping about something. Wait a minute...

Mario heard Zero Suit Samus talking with Fox, Captain Falcon, Zelda, and Peach. Starting to get worried about what the situation could be, the stout plumber ran over to the group immediately, trying to hear what it is they were talking about.

Zero Suit Samus, her voice sounding sassy but tough as well as gentle, resounded, "And there I was, just cleaning up my Power Suit, when all of a sudden I caught a glimpse of Snake taking Mario somewhere in this place. I followed them to one of the old stash rooms, where Red with his three 'Pocket Monsters', the Ice Climbers, Wolf O' Donnell, and Lucas were talking about some sort of ruins partially sticking out of the ocean, and they just left with one of the hovercars in the big garage missing."

Peach, looking rather suspicious, asked, "How do you know they left for some ancient ruins?"

Just then, Mario noticed the blond-haired bounty hunter in the skin-tight blue Zero Suit pulled out a small parchment with the morse code on it, having the translation on the bottom. "I have proof," she answered. Mario felt shocked when his secret was gossiped. Terrified, he ran towards Samus Aran and pulled her away from the conversation.

"How-a did you know this?" Mario lamented. "I thought we kept this a secret."

"Should have kept your skeleton in the cupboard better, pal," Zero Suit Samus responded, playing with the parchment in her hands. "Now everyone knows about the disappearance you kept from us." And that Mario did remember. It had only been a few days ever since Snake and the others left, and he had been keeping the fighters from knowing about their absence and what remained of the Subspace Army.

"But... you're not supposed to know about our friends disappearing." Mario objected.

"Well," Samus rebutted, "if you had really kept it under the rug better, maybe I wouldn't have known, but nope. Even I have feelings about this situation."

"Look," Mario interrupted. "I don't know why this is happening, but as long as everyone plays along, we should be fine, right?"

"Play along with what?" Before Mario could answer, Samus Aran walked off, throwing the parchment with the morse code and translation on the ground. When Mario picked it up, he deeply sighed and watched as Peach shook her head, heading on over to the central stage to participate in the next battle.

I was right… Mario pulled the cap over his face. We might be self-aware we're in a story. Snake and the others should have never gone off. Who knows what could happen?


Hundreds of miles from land to sea, Snake, Wolf, Pokémon Trainer, Charizard, Ivysaur, Squirtle, Ice Climbers, and Lucas were driving their hovercar towards to what appeared to be a set of islands, some scattered far apart and closer than others, surrounding the largest of them at the center.

When the other fighters saw their destination, Wolf said, "That's our Isle of the Ancients? That looks like nothing more than a buncha islands in the middle of nowhere."

"You wanna know why we're here?" Snake asked. "Two things. One: Take a look at the map. Try to figure out if they are like pieces of a puzzle long lost in history."

Pulling out the map, Snake gave it to the fighters behind him. When everyone took a glimpse of the old Isle of the Ancients, they quickly figured out there are some pieces of what remained, and the rubble that survived being sucked into Subspace now looked more luscious green and less of a civilization.

"Second," Snake then answered, "you see that glowing cross at the center?" When Snake pointed to the center island, the other fighters saw that it looked almost like a perfect circle, and there was a glowing area that shined like a cross, even though it was off-center.

"The brightest part is our destination," Snake lamented. "The area where the two light lines intersect."

When the fighters found a place to land their hovercar, they unpacked their stuff and set out for the glowing area in the center of the bright cross.

"I hope we'll be alright," Lucas whimpered.

"You were brave enough to fight against Tabuu, kid," Wolf resorted. "If you can manage fighting against the entire Subspace Army, then you can manage looking for a home powerful enough to rip a hole to another dimension."

When the group was walking through the uncharted territory, they noticed pieces of a city that seemed to belong to the Ancients. As they walked through ruins of a long-lost civilization, they came across what appeared to be a development nursery where more of R.O.B.'s kind was made. Nowadays, the place looked like a cemetery, metal corpses lying around with wires sticking out, and their bodies were rusted and covered with moss.

Lucas was mainly observing the Ancients with Charizard, looking over the few frozen stuck in the ground and disjointed. Slowly walking up to one of the unburied graves, Lucas held Charizard's paw while placing a small, white flower he found in the forest on the soft dirt.

"I'm sorry about what happened," Lucas said. "I wonder if there's anything we can do to avenge your kind." Walking off while still holding Charizard's hand, Lucas was just about ready to head back to the rest of the group before finding out the fighters already went off without them.

"Guys?" Lucas whimpered. "Snake? Wolf? Ice Climbers? Anyone? Why'd they go off without us?" When the blond-haired PSI boy hugged Charizard, he didn't know that the Fire-Type Pokémon was starting to pick up the Pokémon Trainer's scent, knowing that they were still walking off to the glowing area in the light cross's center. Once Lucas gathered his confidence, he saw that even if they were far separated from the group, he can still figure out where they're going and meet up with them there.

"Come on, Charizard!" Lucas cried when he ran off to the destination. "We can still catch up!" And just like that, Charizard flew towards Lucas and headed to their location.

Meanwhile, Snake and the others figured out that few of their teammates were left behind while wandering through the deepest part of the overgrown forest.

"Don't you think we should wait up for them, Snake?" Red asked.

"It's fine," Snake replied while brushing away the thick bushes. "I'm sure either they can follow to our location or wait for us to get back."

When Snake cleared a path for the group, the fighters saw they were on the edge of a small plain that seemed to curve in on itself somewhat like a crater, with the last Subspace Bomb in the center, dull-colored and scratched while plants surrounded its surface and dug into the center timer. But, since it was abandoned for years, the detonating wires fell off and several species of tiny insects were living underneath the rubber coverage.

"Well," Snake replied, "there it is. The last Subspace Bomb."

"We gonna be taking it home?" Wolf asked.

"Sure thing," Snake answered. "From what I heard, we have to take it back to the base and study it further, maybe even learn a little something about our enemy…"

Lucas and Charizard were still away from a distance when they saw the rest of their group attempting to dig up the Subspace Bomb and analyze it further. The blond-haired PSI was about to call out for them when they suddenly heard a strange noise.

"What was that?" Popo and Nana stammered while hugging each other.

"I don't know," Red said, Ivysaur and Squirtle at his side, "but whatever it is, we're ready."

Just when the noise was quieting down, a big gush of air rushed above the trees, above Lucas and Charizard. Observing from a distance, the group saw that out of the blue appeared a powerful war plane that looked and behaved much like a dragon. The artificial monster had metallic scales, and its heavy wings were carried by fast jets strong enough to break the sound barrier. The spines on its back were so sharp they looked like they would cut through steel, and their eyes glowed an unholy flame. When the machine caught its eye on the group, it flew down with a mighty roar, and its mouth opened to reveal fire in the back of its throat. Once it was on a low levitation from the ground, it shot a great ball that seemed to burn half as bright as the sun, scorching the tall grass in its path.

"Everyone, get out of the way!" Snake exclaimed. When Snake and the group jumped away, the fireball hit some of the trees, resulting in a powerful blast that left a large crater after the explosion. After the group got up, they saw the machine flew back for more, firing more blasts at the group, all while everyone was dodging the explosions, figuring out a plan on how to get that thing on the ground.

"What the heck is that thing!?" Red asked, hiding in the tall grass.

"I don't think we know, but for the sake of this fight, we'll just call it... a Winged Firestorm," Snake answered, ducking once the creature flew overhead.

Once Snake was at a clear spot, he readied a missile with his RPG, firing at the monster's base of its neck. The moment the machine saw Snake with the weapon in his hand, it dashed right towards him, but not while Wolf started to jump on the beast and claw through its steel skin. The marks that were exposed revealed a weak spot underneath the metal. Once the exposure was shown, Wolf jumped off and landed next to Snake.

"Nice work, Wolf," Snake replied.

"It's nothing," Wolf responded.

The Ice Climbers were jumping onto its back, using ice to crack open the weak spot and make it wider, hanging onto each other while the beast was trying to shake them off. Lucas and Charizard were going on over to help their buddies, but they were stopped by the fireballs blasted from the machine. Once the weak spot was revealed, Red turned the cap on his head behind him, and turned to Squirtle.

"Alright, buddy," Red replied. "Squirtle, use Hydro Blast!"

Once Squirtle got perfect aim, the young Pokémon fired a powerful blast of water, drenching the fire spreading on the ground and cutting through the metal skin on the machine. When the monster felt the water shearing its neck, it let out a weak roar before it crashed into the ground and died, right next to the last Subspace Bomb.

"Way to go, guys!" Snake said.

"That dragon was no match for our teamwork!" Nana peeped.

When Red saw Lucas and Charizard waving at them, he remarked, "Come on, guys. We forgot Lucas and Charizard. They were trying to get to us all this time. The least we can do is reunite with them."

"Good point," Snake answered. "Well, then. Let's grab the bomb and get out of here. Huh?"

When the group looked up at the sky, they saw more of those Winged Forestorms, and the one they defeated was leaking out a few Shadow Bugs, the primary enemies of the Subspace Army, even though there was only a tiny portion of it. As the black-and-purple mist poured out onto the ground, creatures known as Primids rose up, with scars on their faces this time and sporting claws on their hands, and their eyes were more red, downcast, and dull, each one having three or more eyes on their faces, one, or a very rare addition of two. Once the fighters noticed the Primids shuffling like zombies behind them, the dragons spewed out more Shadow Bugs from their bellies, the latches opening and, like bombs, slowly floated to the ground, creating all the past minor enemies of the Subspace Army.

"Shadow Bugs?" Red said. "What are they doing here? I thought we sealed the gateway to Subspace forever!"

"Well, they probably somehow found a way back into our world," Snake answered. "Now, just stay together and let's fight our way out of here."

"What about the bomb we were supposed to bring back?" Wolf asked.

"The bomb is not that important right now," Snake responded. "We'll have to come back another day."

The sky was darkening with a black-red cloud above the Ruins of the Ancients, and the Primids' eyes glared brighter in a blood shade, signs of mouths dripping and slobbering violet their stained, jagged teeth (which they didn't have before), and sprouted demonic wings that were never actually used for flying and instead only used for intimidation. There were a few Primids in the classical style from ten years ago, which tensed up the atmosphere waiting to arise.

The Primids started running rather fast and began attacking the fighters. Snake grabbed his grenades, pulling the triggers with his mouth and rolling them beside the Primids' feet, which exploded in place. Wolf grabbed his blaster, firing the enemies in the air while Red got Ivysaur and Squirtle to fire their poison seeds and water blasts on the ground. Meanwhile, the metal dragons circled around them in the air, burning a circle in the grass and dropping out more Shadow Bugs, trapping Lucas and Charizard outside when they were just running in to help their buddies.

"We can't just stand around doing nothing," Lucas cried. "We've got to go in! Fly us over that wall of fire!"

After Lucas got on Charizard's back, the PSI boy kicked with his heel, light enough to get the Pokémon going. Once Charizard spread his wings, he flew over the tall flames, his body covering the last speck of sunlight that was hidden from the black-red cloud. When the two fighters got on over, they saw Snake, the Ice Climbers, Wolf, and Red with Ivysaur and Squirtle attacking the Generators spawned by the metal dragons, which created Mites in small groups that teamed up with the minor Subspace Army members.

Snake was still blasting many of the metal dragons out of the sky with his Nikita, those either crashing into the sky or in the sea, Wolf and the Ice Climbers grabbed their weapons and attacked the Buckots that were just about to pour hot, liquid iron on their heads while avoiding the drops that spilled out and disintegrated the ground below them. The Pokémon Trainer was in a safe spot, giving orders to Ivysaur to spew poison mist, intoxicating the incoming Primids and forcing them to collapse and die, while Squirtle used his shell attack and, like a Koopa, whacked himself against the other enemies, leaving a Shadow Bug mess like soft gore where some of the Subspace Army minor members should be.

"Red!" Lucas cried out. When the Pokémon Trainer saw Lucas with Charizard, he tried running towards them, but all of a sudden, the largest of the metal dragons, tainted blue with golden scar-like stripes, landed next to the last Subspace Bomb where the Primids, Mites, Buckots, and all the other dragons and minor Subspace Army allies gathered around. There, the lead dragon opened up its stomach to lower down a floating platform, and there were six strange figures. Because of the unholy smoke staining the fighters' eyes, they couldn't figure out what they really looked like, but they could add the details of the silhouettes against the fire. Three of them looked almost identical to each other, short, human-like bodies but not quite, each one of them holding different weapons of choice – fists, sword, and arm cannon; two of them seemed to be psychic as they were levitating a few inches off the ground, and one seemed to have long, silky hair, a thin sword multiple times as big as the wielder himself, and one wing sprouting out from his right shoulder. Once the wildfire was spreading, the minor Subspace Army members were closing in around the fighters, their bloodshed eyes glowing brighter than ever.

Knowing that not all of them will survive the Subspace Army's new recruits, Red ran towards Lucas and Charizard, hugging them tight and saying, "Lucas, take Charizard with you. Fly back home and tell everyone… the Subspace Army has returned, and this time they have new recruits. Whatever you do, don't look back."

"What?" Lucas exclaimed. "Are you crazy?"
"Trust me," Red replied. "We'll find our way back to you."

Just when Lucas got on Charizard's back again, the Pokémon started growling sadly, and the Trainer answered, "No, Charizard. This is the last order I'm going to give you for now. Promise you'll come back for me when this is over."

When Charizard and Lucas took off into the skies, they were blasting all sorts of flying enemies from the sky, even a few of the metal dragons with PK Fires and Flare Blitzes. After they saw an opening in the black-red cloud, they flew out against the broad daylight, heading out to the mainland and leaving the rest of their friends behind.

Meanwhile, the Pokémon Trainer, Ivysaur, Squirtle, the Ice Climbers, Wolf, and Snake were eventually beaten up and unconscious, while the Primids gathered two pairs of arms from the Ancient corpses. Two of the strange figures cast some sort of magic on them, granting the limbs sentience. The Primids placed the enchanted robot arms in the trigger holes and started the countdown. The last Subspace Bomb was activated and began the countdown to 10 seconds.

"It wouldn't be long now," one of the strange figures whispered, still hiding in the shadows against the fire. "Soon, we'll find more resources to create the perfect world, and no one will be around to witness it. Take the trophies we got prisoner. We'll follow those that escaped to the rest of their friends."

When the last Subspace Bomb finished the countdown, a large explosion ripped through the air, filling the air with a hole leading to the depths of space, and the black-red cloud started expanding faster. The metal dragons escaped the explosion, few flying into the portal to ready the defenses while most of them went into the mainland, the leader heading in Lucas' and Charizard's direction.