Dark Samus was alive again. She looked around at her new location. It was an office with a desk standing between Dark Samus and the one other entity in the room. Said other entity was a floating disembodied gloved right human hand. Then Dark Samus realized she couldn't sense any Phazon outside of her own body. In other words she had been mutilated, robbed of an entire sense. And the Phazon that was in her body seemed incapable of spreading.
"I bet you're wondering why I brought you back," the floating hand said. The source of its voice was beyond Dark Samus's detection. "I'm Master Hand, one of the organizers of an inter-dimensional tournament you're competing in now. I had to neuter some of your power to keep everyone safe but you're free to live in this mansion and travel to other worlds, this includes returning to your world. As long as you agree that while in this world you'll abstain from fighting others outside of pre-arranged matches." Dark Samus nodded in response to Master Hand's demands. She could speak but deemed the nod a more efficient method to convey her consent.
After that Dark Samus followed Master Hand out of the office and towards the room that had been designated as her resting place. She had no need for sleep but the room could serve other functions. She refused the offer to receive a tour of the entire mansion and placed herself in the middle of the dark empty room.
Dark Samus did not know what purpose her newly reacquired life had. The spread of Phazon throughout the entire universe was her function, now that was impossible. Unlike humans and other sentient life forms she had no desires to satiate. Therefore Dark Samus concluded she would merely fight when ordered and conserve energy for that sole usage. Then Ridley opened the door to her room.
The two of them silently stared at each other. Ridley betrayed himself with a few subtle indications of fear, his body readied for both fight and flight. There weren't any traces of Phazon in the dragon unfortunately. Still even before then Ridley had served as a functional tool much like the rest of the Space Pirates. That recollection led Dark Samus to her new purpose, and reasserting control over the Space Pirates would be useful for that. Ridley slowly bowed in subservience under the weight of Dark Samus's gaze.
"Two objectives: restoration of Phazon and elimination of Galactic Federation. Take me to subordinates," Dark Samus ordered. She was aware that the Space Pirates had worshipped her but had never bothered paying attention to her cult so Ridley's blatantly false declarations that he had been awaiting her return meant nothing to her. She waited for the groveling to end and had Ridley lead the way to the teleporter room. In hindsight turning down that tour was a poor decision.
Much to Dark Samus's annoyance someone walked right up to Ridley while they were on their way to the teleporter. "K. Rool now is not the time," Ridley said. K. Rool looked at Dark Samus. She paid him no mind.
"So that's the newcomer? What you hate Samus but her clone is fine?" K. Rool asked. In a flash Dark Samus had her arm cannon right in K. Rool's face. The kremling backed away slowly with his hands held up defensively.
"Well this one hasn't tried to kill me yet. If you come along you might enjoy what we're about to do," Ridley said. He looked to Dark Samus and got an approving nod in return. There was strength in numbers.
"Only if you keep that arm cannon out of my face," K. Rool said. Like with Ridley there was a hint of fear in his demeanor now. He probably realized what would have happened if Dark Samus had taken the shot. Thankfully the rest of the short walk to the teleporter room was uneventful. Once they arrived Dark Samus waited patiently on the teleporter platform as Ridley typed in the coordinates. A bright light clouded her vision of her surroundings.
When Dark Samus's vision cleared she was in the dimly lit command room of a Space Pirate mothership. The design felt oddly familiar with the large monitors on the walls and central table that took up most of the room, it was exactly like the one from the ship where she first took control of the Space Pirates. If she didn't deem the gesture pointless she would have groaned at the shocked gasps and groveling all of the present Space Pirates gave. K. Rool awkwardly watched the scene unfold as Ridley marched over to the intercom.
"Attention all Space Pirates, the Dark Hunter has returned to us. It is her will that we recreate the substance of the promised land and finally eliminate those who destroyed it. Now here's what our first little step towards that will be…"
It was common for complaints to be made about how cramped the boarding pods were. Dark Samus didn't even know about the concept of claustrophobia so she had no complaints. She was so still that if her feet were on the floor instead of hovering over it she could be mistaken for a statue. Dark Samus remembered some statues she had seen depicting herself, made by the Space Pirates obviously. It was a needless recollection she didn't understand.
A siren began wailing as the door out of the boarding pod closed. It shot out of the ship like a bullet. When she felt the impact and heard the sound of the pod drilling through its target she aimed her arm cannon towards the exit. It opened up to the inside of a Galactic Federation ship.
Dark Samus threw herself out of the pod and scanned the area. For some reason it was empty. And barriers had been lowered on either side of the hall as though they knew an intruder would appear there. Something struck Dark Samus from behind and sent her into the air. Dark Samus turned around and landed on her feet, arm cannon pointed at her attacker.
"You're the newcomer who was just recruited aren't you? I guess Samus was right to be suspicious," Shulk said. Dark Samus took a few seconds to piece together what he meant. She was fighting another Smasher. Dark Samus began charging up a shot. Shulk seemed distracted during the charge. Then he refocused just in time to dodge the shot. "They're going to blow up the engines, someone stop them," Shulk shouted into a communicator.
Dark Samus didn't know or care how Shulk knew that. The important thing was that he revealed part of the plan and needed to be killed. Shulk sidestepped the grapple beam and closed the distance between him and Dark Samus. She got into morph ball form and rolled past him, dropping a bomb right between his legs. Shulk jumped away from it and nearly hit Dark Samus with the Monado.
"Samus look out Ridley is trying to ambush you. I'm currently fighting Dark Samus," Shulk said into his communicator. That wasn't even information Dark Samus had. Samus's possible presence on the ship was considered unlikely and with what had happened already Shulk could ruin all of the contingencies for that.
"Smasher present. Knows our movements. Requesting aid for his elimination," Dark Samus uttered through her comm link. She leapt over Shulk and fired a missile down at him, he rolled out of the way. The fight continued with neither of them being able to land a hit. Sometimes Shulk seemed to know what Dark Samus was doing before she did but with quick adjustments she had avoided the counterattacks. Their dance of dodging was disrupted by a green ball of energy that Shulk blocked by summoning a yellow forcefield around himself. The disruption had come from an air vent, a dark green cyborg crawled out of it. Dark Samus recognized him. It was Weavel, the Space Pirate Bounty Hunter who had fought Samus over the 'Ultimate Power' in the Alimbic Cluster.
"Leave him to me," Weavel said. Dark Samus nodded and blasted open a hole in one of the barriers. Before Shulk could stop her Weavel jumped between them and his scythe clashed with the Monado.
"Samus look out Dark Samus is heading your way. Samus come in!" Shulk shouted into his communicator. That was a sign at least something had gone to plan, the Galactic Federation's comms network on the ship was down. Meaning Dark Samus could ambush Samus and remove her from the equation.
"Die quickly will you, I've been waiting for another chance to kill Samus for ages," Weavel said. Shulk responded with a determined glare and slash of the Monado. Dark Samus left the duel behind her as she sped through the ship. The halls were filled with the bodies of Galactic Federation soldiers and Space Pirates. Barriers had been lowered around all of the impact points for the boarding pods but holes had been blown through all of them. Foresight only helped so much.
Gradually Dark Samus drew closer to the sounds of Samus and Ridley fighting again. Some soldiers for the Galactic Federation tried to stand in Dark Samus's way but her missiles made short work of them. With nobody else standing in her way Dark Samus was free to enter the research center where Ridley and Samus were currently fighting.
It was a wide rectangular room with rows of computers lined up against all four walls. Above them were sets of walkways and ladders for easier access regardless of what floor of the ship someone was on. Dark Samus couldn't make out any corpses but a good number of the computers had been destroyed by collateral damage from Ridley and Samus's ongoing fight. They were so busy fighting each other they didn't notice Dark Samus entering and surveying the room.
Dark Samus had an impulse to immediately attack Samus but she held back. She walked over to one of the computer terminals on the opposite side of the room from where Samus was punching Ridley in the face repeatedly, and downloaded some important data about the PED suits onto a storage device. Dark Samus placed it somewhere safe and charged up a shot before firing it directly at Samus. The hit connected and knocked her down. Ridley seized the chance and jumped on top of Samus, slashing her with his claws and letting fireballs fall out of his mouth. Dark Samus doubted she needed to do anything more to see Samus finally killed.
"Falcon Kick!" Dark Samus looked up just in time to see Captain Falcon leap down from a higher floor and somehow cover his feet with fire right before they made contact with Ridley. Ridley stumbled and Samus fired a missile right at him. Dark Samus fired missiles of her own at Captain Falcon as he landed but he ran right past them and brought his knee up to her chest. The impact sent pain throughout Dark Samus's body.
Logically there was no reason to continue the battle. Despite that Dark Samus used her grapple beam to grab Captain Falcon and pulled him right into an uppercut. Meanwhile Ridley found himself stuck to the floor thanks to a direct hit from Samus's ice beam. Both of his feet were encased in ice and the flood of power beam shots left with him no opening to melt them with a fireball. Captain Falcon recovered from Dark Samus's uppercut while still in the air and pulled out a gun. A small shot of energy burst out from it and struck Ridley. The draconic Space Pirate fell to the ground paralyzed.
Undeterred Dark Samus kept firing her power beam. Unfortunately for her Samus and Captain Falcon spread out as they approached and forced her to chose which one to aim at. The best she could do was keep them away while dodging their projectiles until one of her own landed. Then a sword slashed Dark Samus in the back.
"Sorry I'm so late," Shulk said. He was covered in a dark blue aura. Dark Samus retaliated with a missile. Shulk ducked and the missile made contact with an unsuspecting Weavel, who ran right into it. Samus charged up her power beam while Captain Falcon cracked his knuckles.
"Self destruct initiated. Two minutes remaining until self destruct," a robotic voice called out throughout the ship. Seeing an opening Dark Samus aimed her grapple beam at a higher level and pulled her up there. Samus fired shots at her that just barely missed.
"We don't have the time Samus we need to get out of here," Captain Falcon said. With that the trio of heroic Smashers made their exit. Right as they left King K. Rool ran in on the floor Dark Samus had fled to. He looked down and saw the fallen Ridley and Weavel.
"I'll grab him," K. Rool said. He jumped down and picked up Ridley.
"He failed. Weavel did better. Why rescue him?" Dark Samus questioned.
"He's way more useful than all of those other grunts but I'll grab that cyborg too if it makes you shut up," K. Rool responded as he broke the ice around Ridley's feet. Dark Samus didn't bother staying around to confirm K. Rool's rescue of the two elite Space Pirates. To her escaping efficiently with the stolen data was the most important thing. Despite completing the objective it still felt like a failure.
After handing off the stolen data Dark Samus returned to Smash Mansion ahead of Ridley and King K. Rool. She didn't care about the specifics of the plans or what exactly they learned from the stolen data. She cared only for the results. Right as Dark Samus left the teleporter room she came face to face with Shulk. Remembering the rule about not fighting in the mansion was the only reason she didn't immediately attack him. Shulk had a firm grip on the Monado. They glared at each other for a few seconds before continuing on their respective ways. It wasn't as though they could do anything to each other in the mansion.
Dark Samus returned to her room and settled in the exact center. She waited patiently and after some time had passed Ridley and K. Rool entered. "Why the hell did you just run off before anyone could even blink?" K. Rool asked.
"Nobody can attack in Mansion, safest place," Dark Samus said. K. Rool's left eye twitched.
"Anyway Shulk and Captain Falcon are going to be a problem if they keep helping out Samus. We should attack their worlds as well," Ridley suggested. Dark Samus nodded in approval. Phazon didn't make plans, it spread. She also noted the names and deduced who they referred to from the shout of 'Falcon Kick' during the battle.
"We'll be on our own then since the teleporter just doesn't work if you try to take non-Smashers anywhere but here or their own world," K. Rool said.
"What, scarred without having some of your own minions backing you up," Ridley said.
"No. I ain't fighting a losing battle. And if you have any 'witty' response to that just remember that both of you have been killed and I haven't," K. Rool retaliated.
"He's right," Dark Samus said.
"I'm working on finding another way to travel through worlds. But until then the three of us are more than enough to do some damage," Ridley said. Dark Samus noticed the abrupt change of subject.
"Well when you put it that way I've been meaning to visit Falcon's world for a while now," K. Rool said.
"Save some for me you glutton. I still need to heal from that last battle since not all of us got to pick on small fry. But I think it's time I had a chat with Wolf," Ridley said. The two of them had sinister grins spread across their faces. Dark Samus watched silently as they left to carry out their respective tasks.
"You two owe Samus an explanation for this," Peach said. A meeting had been called in Master Hand's office, he and Crazy Hand floated next to each other while Peach and Samus sat in chairs on the opposite side of the desk. Mewtwo stood at the side with his back against the wall. Master Hand sighed.
"You know that this isn't just a mere tournament but a way to call upon warriors to face grave threats that threaten all worlds. I can't turn down a powerful fighter just because of their morals," Master Hand said.
"It's actually because there's a really crazy, not like me, powerful bad guy who might do stuff soon. There might even be two. Oh what if it was three, three is a fun number, as long as it's five or less so we can count them ourselves it'll be fine. You know I don't-"
"Enough Crazy," Master Hand said, his voice filled with irritation.
"So you're so scared of this new threat that you started recruiting even Space Pirates?" Samus asked. She crossed her arms and kept her glare focused on Master Hand. Master Hand sighed again.
"Yes. We don't know much about them but they're dangerous. So we've had to do all of our observations from a distance too great to make out anything important. But there is a trail of destruction going through multiple worlds that proves something is there. Whatever this new enemy is they can clearly travel through worlds relatively freely," Master Hand said.
"Hey why do they always say 'free as a bird' when birds have so many commitments with migration and stuff. Wouldn't sloths fit better since they just laze around all day…" Crazy Hand continued with his ignored tangent.
"Is there anything we can do to help? We can't just sit by while entire worlds are destroyed, it might even target one of our worlds," Peach said.
"Don't worry I have all of your worlds concealed from creatures like that. The only thing we can do is observe until we know enough to attack. If we reveal ourselves to whatever this enemy is before we're ready it would spell ruin for every world," Master Hand said.
"I'm not too petty to see the bigger picture but the Space Pirates genuinely can't be trusted. You're endangering other worlds already by letting the Space Pirates know about them."
"But if Master does too much then we lose our balance and Master Core comes out again. Chaos is fun Sammy, live on the risky side for a bit," Crazy Hand said. Samus gave him a thumbs down.
"Don't worry Samus. Crazy has a point but just because they can't do anything doesn't mean we can't. Mewtwo can you contact some people?" Peach asked.
"I already went ahead and did that. Greninja and Snake have received a telepathic message from me asking for their assistance. Give them time to respond. Actually both just gave their agreement to help surveil Dark Samus and her followers."
"Thank you. Come on Samus, let's go talk to DK and Diddy. They need to know that the Kremlings might be backed up by the Space Pirates now," Peach said. She stood up and took Samus's hand.
"Are you sure you're fine with this Peach? You've been so proud of being a peacekeeper here. I can talk to the Kongs myself. You don't need to do all of this for me," Samus said as she remained seated.
"Don't worry I'm not giving that up. But sometimes in order to keep the peace you have to start a fight. I hope I can make peace with Dark Samus and the others eventually but I know that if I extend an olive branch now they'll burn it. Besides you haven't been feeling well ever since Ridley arrived so if an anti-Space Pirate alliance is what it takes to make you feel better then I'll form one," Peach explained.
"Thank you Peach," Samus said after a short silence. She stood up and walked out of the room with Peach. Mewtwo teleported himself out of the room with no further comment.
"Things just keep on getting more and more complicated. I think I'll need some help keeping track of everything," Master Hand said to himself. He began writing a letter as Crazy Hand teleported out to recruit the next newcomer.
End of Chapter
A/N: And with that we have the debut of what I refer to as the Brute Trio, though they have some notable allies of their own to call on both from the Smash roster and their own games. When I first started writing this I wasn't expecting it to develop any sort of overarching plot but with Ridley's chapter things started falling into place, and the long hiatus allowed me to think ahead in regards to certain characters and other story elements. Also a quick shout out to OmniFandomGhost, who was the one that gave me the idea for using Shulk here, which is good since he's the only veteran in this chapter I haven't used already for some reason. Sadly I couldn't show him off too much in this chapter since Dark Samus doesn't lend herself well to dialogue heavy scenes but I hope I gave his fighting abilities a good showing. Even giving Dark Samus the ability to talk in the first place has no direct basis in canon but there had to be someway she communicated her orders to the Space Pirates in Prime 3.
Lastly as of this writing Hero is finally coming out tonight/next morning depending on your region and potential server crashes, I hope everyone has fun with him. He looks almost as hard to play as his chapter will probably be to write.