All of the Smashers were gathered in the performance room. The air was tense since Master Hand had gathered them for the reveal of the next Smasher with a reminder of the rules against fighting. That only happened if Master Hand thought there was a risk of a fight breaking out. Those who had been around for the longest still remembered the destructive battle that had happened when Ganondorf made his debut and Link rushed the stage. Samus was retelling the story to the newest Smashers when Master Hand teleported onto the stage, the sound of the newcomer being teleported in from behind the curtain could also be heard.
"Attention everyone, I would like to introduce all of you to our newest Smasher," Master Hand said. For a floating disembodied hand his body language was easy to read after a while. No motion in the thumb meant he was expecting outrage over his choice. "From the same world as Samus Aran-" every Smasher moved away from the bounty hunter "-we have the powerful Space Pirate, Ridley."
From behind the curtain a large dragon like creature with dark purple skin walked onto the stage. Ridley had bent down to fit into the mansion better but was still taller than the other Smashers. He proved that it did nothing to inhibit his movement by sidestepping a fully charged power shot from his nemesis.
"Ridley?! You made a mistake Master Hand!" Samus leapt at Ridley and he charged to meet her. Arm cannon and claw clashed at the edge of the stage. Samus sent Ridley up in the air with a powerful uppercut. Ridley spread his wings and flew around just below the ceiling, dodging the power shots and missiles while retaliating with fireballs. The other Smashers either watched the fight, left the room, or in the case of Ace pulled out their phone to record the battle. Falco passed a bag of popcorn to Bowser Junior.
"Samus calm down-" Master Hand was shot into the wall with a flurry of Super Missiles before he could finish speaking. He was knocked out cold against the wall, which had also happened when he tried to stop Link from attacking Ganondorf. Pikachu utilized Quick Attack to jump onto the stage. He grabbed Samus's leg, when she looked down he shook his head and tapped her leg. That was enough to make Samus stop firing.
"What's wrong, out of ammo or did you just remember that you're not really Chozo?" Ridley mockingly asked. Instantly Samus's rage returned and the barrage of projectiles resumed with even greater strength. Which resulted in Ridley getting hit by some of them. Pikachu exchanged a look with Mewtwo before firing a blast of electricity at Ridley that knocked him into the wall and sent him slowly falling down against it. At the same time Mewtwo teleported in front of Samus and stunned her with Disable before knocking her out with his tail.
"I'll be in the clinic. You guys can handle dragging the bastard in," Doctor Mario said.
"And I'll take Samus back to her room for rest. Do you want a guard in the event Samus tries to hunt Ridley down?" Mewtwo asked.
"I can handle her," Doctor Mario answered. The other Mario sighed as yet another part of the disaster that was Ganondorf's first day as a Smasher repeated itself. Ganondorf grabbed Ridley's legs while Bowser grabbed his shoulders and they carried him out of the room.
Ridley was used to waking up somewhere unusual after fighting Samus. This time the bed was large enough to hold Ridley's full wingspan and the ceiling was white, with lights so bright his eyes hurt. "Finally up. Took you long enough for all the trouble you just caused," Doctor Mario said as he filled out some paperwork on a clipboard. Ridley tried to move but there were restraints on all of his limbs, even his tail. And thanks to a gag over his mouth he couldn't demand his release either. It didn't stop him from trying and turning his head to glare at the doctor. "Did you really think I was letting you wake up and breathe fire on me? Dumbass."
Doctor Mario walked over and removed the gag. "How dare you-" Ridley got hit with the clipboard for his remark.
"Those restraints come off when I feel like it. Don't make that after your death," Doctor Mario threatened. Ridley was too outraged to say anything kind and just barely restrained himself from saying anything at all. Even the aftermath of the K-2L raid hadn't been as humiliating as his current situation, at the mercy of a human doctor with a sadistic look on their face. Still there had to be a way out. "Samus already told us everything so don't play the victim, we all saw you provoke her. You're not going to have any fights to the death here, understand? Any tricks with wording or word play and I'm surgically removing your wings."
"Yes," Ridley said, swallowing his pride. Doctor Mario tapped his foot expectantly. "Yes I won't fight anyone to the death as long as I'm in this realm and will follow all the rules." For Ridley it hurt on an almost physical level to say that to an inferior life form. The restraints were removed and he got out of the bed as quickly as he could.
"I'll lead you to your room," Doctor Mario said. He lead the way out of his office, after walking to and ascending a flight of stairs Ridley's room was just a short walk down the hallway. The room had extremely dim lighting and covers over the windows, the one form of 'decoration' was a large touch screen on the right wall. Ridley shut the door and flew up towards the top of the room, digging his talons into the ceiling so he could hang from it. He didn't feel a need to add anything else to the room. "You're welcome. Ungrateful bastard," Doctor Mario said from the other side of the door. Ridley carefully listened to the sounds of the doctor's footsteps to confirm that he was being left alone.
Now that Ridley was in a better position he could make a plan. He had only agreed to be a Smasher to get stronger and finally kill Samus to secure the victory of the Space Pirates. Samus also being a Smasher threw a wrench into every plan Ridley had. After some thinking Ridley opened himself up to the possibility that some of the other species present could be among the elite that deserved to rule their universe. He dropped down to the floor feet first and raised a claw to turn on the touch screen, pulling up the roster and the profile it gave for each Smasher.
Humans and any human like species such as the Hylians and Inklings were immediately crossed off of the list, alongside the mutt and duck. After reading through the data on them he decided that the Manakete could at least be tolerated. Robots could be useful but only as tools, Mega Man would be another obstacle but R.O.B could be a decent weapon. The Pokemon varied, that yellow rat was obviously inferior but some of the others held promise. However it appeared that most of them had a misplaced loyalty to the clearly inferior humans, still Mewtwo and Greninja could possibly be recruited even if the loyalties of the two Charizard were a vast disappointment. The Lylat system seemed to be inhabited entirely by inferior beings, as did the world of that Sonic creature.
The Koopa would require more investigating, those two apes and the Yoshi were an instant no. Judging from appearances alone he would have dismissed the two puffballs, but reading up on their accomplishments made him deduce the small appearance was merely another weapon in their vast arsenal. The one called Kirby was almost like a Metroid with its use of other life forms' energy.
A knock on the door interrupted Ridley's plotting. He looked through the peephole, Bowser Junior was on the other side. He didn't seem to have any weapons on him so Ridley opened the door. "What do you want?" Ridley asked.
"I just wanted to say that I think you're really cool. Can I come in?" Junior asked. Ridley thought of all the different ways he could have just killed Junior if he wasn't bound by the rules of the mansion. Of course last time he had been in a position like that the end result was Samus Aran becoming a menace to the Space Pirates.
"You can enter," Ridley said. He stepped back and Junior walked into the dimly lit room closing the door behind him. Ridley found the naivety pitiful, anywhere else closing that door would have been a fatal mistake. Regardless Junior could offer valuable insight into how Smash Mansion operated despite his lack of overall intelligence. It hadn't been difficult to realize that Master Hand wasn't the true leader, he handled recruitment and made the rules but the Smashers all seemed to answer to someone else. However Ridley questioned if someone as naïve as Junior would know who that was.
It looked like Junior wanted to say something from how he kept on mumbling and stopping himself right as he started to talk. Whatever information it was Ridley figured it was worth getting out of him. Except he wasn't sure how to make people tell him things when torture wasn't an option. "So after that rough introduction to everyone I could use some friends. Can I meet some of yours?" Ridley asked.
"Oh yeah, follow me," Junior threw open the door and ran out. Ridley hurried behind him, slamming the door shut on his way out. Dealing with Junior was definitely going to be a headache. When they got to the stairs Ridley opted to jump down to the second floor instead of walking. Junior cheered while Ridley held back the urge to yell at him to be quiet. Their destination was the first door on the right, which turned out to lead into the library.
Despite all the noise cooperating with Junior had already paid off. The library had tall and wide shelves filled with books, plus an assortment of chairs and tables with a few computers. Just from glancing at the different titles Ridley could tell it contained books from all of the different worlds. He would be making good use of the information they contained. Junior scampered over to Corrin, who was sitting in one of the chairs reading a book. Ridley had been hoping Junior would lead him to someone else on his list.
Corrin put the book down and stood up as Ridley walked over to him. "This is Corrin, he's a prince like me and he can turn into a dragon and he has a cool chainsaw sword," Junior introduced.
"Hello," Corrin said. "Have you recovered from that fight with Samus?"
"She's done worse," Ridley said. Corrin was clearly uncomfortable and didn't seem confident in his own words. Usually Ridley saw that kind of behavior when a subordinate had failed him. He had no idea why Corrin was behaving that way. Ridley had to remind himself that both Junior and Corrin must have been powerful enough to make up for their mental weakness to become Smashers. "What are you the prince of, Corrin?" Ridley asked. For some reason the profile on him had lacked that information.
"That's actually kind of a complicated question, it's a long story," Corrin responded. After a few seconds spent glancing at the chainsaw sword Junior had mentioned Corrin spoke. "Sorry, I should tell the story anyway. It's the polite thing to do. My twin sister and I were born in the kingdom of Hoshido but were kidnapped as infants and raised by the noble family of Nohr. Of course neither of us knew about that until recently when we ended up meeting my birth family. Things escalated and both of us decided the best thing to do was go here."
"In other words you were hostages," Ridley said.
"No," Corrin yelled. He looked embarrassed and made sure to lower his tone. "Father- the King of Nohr I mean, he and my Nohrian siblings treated us well. I suspect he recently used us for something horrible but I still trust my siblings. I'm not sure I could break their hearts by opposing Nohr. However when I finally met my Hoshidan family they were so overjoyed to have finally found me that I can't tolerate the thought of taking arms against them either. Kamui, my twin, she feels the same way. So we refused to fight and came here instead," Corrin said.
"Sounds like you're just using this place to run from your problems," Ridley said. Actually saying that was clearly a mistake but it was what Ridley thought and he wasn't used to diplomacy. Usually he could just force people to do what he wanted. Corrin put his hands together.
"That was true at first but we've started working on a plan. I can't say anything else about it," Corrin said. "Anyway what brought you here? You must have had your own reason for signing up."
"I joined to be with my dad," Junior added. He had spent most of the conversation tapping his foot in boredom.
"I joined to strengthen myself and the Space Pirates. It's hard to conquer the universe when you keep losing to the same bounty hunter. At this point I may as well just use my forces as snacks for all their worth," Ridley said with a chuckle. Corrin nervously laughed with him. Ridley crossed jokes off of his mental list of ways to talk with potential allies. "Perhaps we could help each other, I force your bickering relatives to get along at gun point and you help me fight my enemies." Ridley slashed the air with his right claw.
"You can't just force people to get along, and I'd like to know who I'd be fighting before accepting a deal like that. I do appreciate the offer, I'll need all the help I can get," Corrin said. Officially it was against the rules to meddle with the other worlds, Master Hand been rather clear about that. Fortunately Corrin's response made it clear that the rule was more of a suggestion. Mowing down humans from a world with primitive technology would be an easy low risk high reward mission.
"Can I help too?" Junior asked.
"If your father lets you I'd be honored to have you as an ally," Corrin said.
"Oh, speaking of allies my dad said he wants to work with you mister Ridley," Junior said. He pulled a document out from under his shell and put it on the table. The terms were simple: they would defend each other from invasion and trade resources. Although Ridley loathed to admit it the Space Pirates had always failed to repel anyone who actually made it into one of their home planets. He would have preferred assistance with invasions but wondered if it was worth pushing for.
"Tell him to meet me in my room at twenty hundred hours," Ridley said. "I like this but there are other leaders of the Space Pirates and beating them into agreeing with me is just boring at this point." Corrin gave a nervous laugh assuming it was a joke, it wasn't. There was an awkward silence between them. Junior put the document back in his shell, Ridley wondered what else was in there. That was when he remembered a certain vital piece of information he lacked. "Master Hand's just a figure hand, who's the real leader here? The one you actually listen to."
"Who we actually listen to?" Corrin muttered to himself. His face lit up like he had made an important break through. "Peach, she organizes almost everything in this mansion. She's even been able to organize stuff with other worlds, like a family visit day. If you want something done you should go to her first."
"I'll make contact with her soon then," Ridley said.
"I think she should be out by the lake. Anyway I have to go see Kamui now, something you said just gave me an idea," Corrin said. He picked up his book from the table and left the library. Junior ran off to find his father and waved goodbye as he hurried to the door.
Now that he was by himself Ridley went over his list of likely allies again: the ones he still needed to contact were Kirby, Meta Knight, Mewtwo, Greninja, and now Peach. He hated the idea of interacting with a human in a way that didn't involve killing them but if Peach was the leader of the Smashers than he had to speak with her at some point.
Ridley made his way down to the first floor and walked to the backdoor. He crossed paths with some of the other Smashers but ignored any and all attempts to start a conversation. When he got outside he extended his wings and ascended up into the sky. There wasn't much to obstruct Ridley's vision from the air, he could see a forest but thankfully it was far away from the mansion. The nearby town was small and probably wasn't worth raiding even if he was allowed to. He flew towards the lake and could make out Peach standing near it, he slowly descended to the ground so he wouldn't be seen as a threat.
"Hello Ridley I don't think we've properly met yet, my name's Peach," she said. "Here to enjoy the view?" Peach's voice had such a soft quality to it Ridley wondered if she was really the boss. The lake was clear and the sunlight made it shine but Ridley didn't have an eye for beauty and thus had no appreciation of the sight. So he didn't look long enough to realize who was under the water. He did take notice of several creatures that he assumed were Pokemon. He considered challenging Peach to forcibly take her authority, he was sure he could win.
"Just felt that I should introduce myself to the true leader of Smash Mansion," Ridley said. Peach frowned.
"That's one way of putting it I suppose. You're here because you want something, right? Like recruits for the Space Pirates," Peach said. Her voice had suddenly gained a sharper edge, which made it clear she already knew she was right. Ridley's mind raced to figure out why she was so confident in that. She must have had something or someone in the library that reported to her.
"Spying on me already I see," Ridley said. He stood straight up and looked down at Peach, opening his mouth to show off his sharp fangs. Peach's expression didn't change at all.
"Oh I used something else to learn about your plans, it won't be used in the future hopefully. Anyway since you're so concerned with how things are run you should know that you can consider Mewtwo my right hand man, he may keep to himself but he cares deeply about everyone's safety," Peach said. Was she implying Mewtwo had done something? The file on him did state that he had mind reading powers but was only permitted to use them when needed. Like when a new Smasher was considered a possible threat and had taken part in a fight within the mansion. So Mewtwo using his mind reading powers on Ridley made sense.
"If I wanted to I could just kill you here," Ridley said. Before he could react something had knocked him back. As he landed on the ground a turnip slammed into his face with intense force. Peach put her foot on top of Ridley's chest and pushed down. Despite her appearance it had enough force to keep him down. Greninja was standing right next to her holding a shuriken made out of water between his hands, a shuriken that was also aimed at Ridley's neck. It only took a few seconds for Ridley to realize that Greninja had been hiding in the lake the whole time. The whole thing had been a trap.
"I don't want to be enemies. As long as you keep the fighting outside the mansion you can use your position here to help the Space Pirates. Which is also why Fox has a contract lined up with the Galactic Federation, it's only fair you both get help from other worlds. I don't like being mean so I'll forgive you this time," Peach said. She was smiling like they were having a meaningless conversation.
"I understand," Ridley said. Peach and Greninja stepped off of him. Ridley pulled himself up from the ground and flapped his wings to ascend into the air. Then he flew back to Smash Mansion in retreat. He was never going to forgive those two.
After taking the time to explore Smash Mansion Ridley returned to his room. The encounter with Peach weighed on his mind so heavily he hadn't bothered looking for the other possible allies. He had been outmatched by Peach completely. It was clear he had to use entirely new tactics if he wanted to see any long term success as a Smasher. So he had asked some of the other Smashers about how Peach had become the head of Smash Mansion.
None of the answers he got were what he had expected. Her rise to power had been built on doing favors for others and earning their trust. She was the leader because she had been unofficially elected to the position. None of the people he asked had talked about her cruel side. It baffled him how someone could be considered a leader without any threats of death hanging over their followers.
In other words Smash Mansion operated in a way that was nothing like what Ridley was used to. Previously he had no need of trust when fear was so easily acquired. Now that he was amongst people who could all supposedly beat him in a fight that was no longer an option. Even if the thought of doing something for someone else for no stated reward made him want to throw up it seemed to be how alliances were formed in Smash Mansion. No not alliances they all talked about friendships, a word that brought back uncomfortable memories of the little girl on K-2L.
After much thought and internal debate Ridley had settled on a new plan: spend time with Junior. It sounded hopelessly stupid yet it matched the methods Peach had used to gain her authority. To be powerful in Smash Mansion he needed to have people who would willingly do things for him, and Junior had called him 'cool' so that implied some measure of respect. Ridley would help him when he needed help and hope that Junior would do the same for him. That was how Smash Mansion worked so he would play along and when he returned to his world he planned on returning to the methods that worked there.
There was a knock on the door. Bowser had arrived to negotiate their alliance. Ridley reminded himself of the guidelines he had made up for appearing nice as he opened the door. Now that he understood the rules of Smash he was going to succeed even if it meant behaving in an entirely new way. So he shook Bowser's hand and let him into the room. With any luck the alliance would also become the start of a new friendship.