And so, the entire team of Star Fox returned to Cornelia to discuss what is happening. Once in the meeting room, Peppy began the conversation by saying, "What are you doing here, Mario?" Peppy knew he was speaking for the entire Star Fox team with that question.
Mario told the crew the whole story. Mario told them at the end of his long story, "I just want to get back home, but a little bit of help wouldn't hurt." The crew asked Mario if he could give them to think about it. Mario agreed and explored some of Cornelia's main base. He watched as they were making an arwing for a new captain who hasn't arrived at the main base yet.
After about an hour of looking around the base, a large spacecraft landed near the base. Out came some woman who must be the new captain. She looked familiar to Mario. He knew he saw her somewhere. It wasn't in one of his adventures, but Mario knew he'd seen her before. One of the guards on duty went up to the woman and said, "Oh yes, would you be the new space captain? I'm sorry to say that none of the officers in your fleet are coming. You'll have to join the fleet known as Star Fox and won't receive the honor of captain. Is that okay, Miss Aran?" When Mario heard the surname "Aran", he figured out who this woman was. It was Samus! She looked a lot different without her spacesuit on.
Samus walked up to Mario and instantly recognized him. "Well if it isn't the nerdy plumber." She said. "Let me guess, Nintendo is already programming us into the new "Super Smash Brothers" game and they want us to be taken to Nintendo headquarters, right?"
Mario answered, "Actually, no. I'm just here on a journey saving Princess Peach again. I would be back in the Mushroom Kingdom, but Master Hand and Crazy Hand have returned." Samus gasped in disbelief. She couldn't believe they were back.
"But, I thought they weren't going to be released until the next "Super Smash Brothers" game was released! Something smells fishy around here and I want to get to the bottom of this." Samus said to Mario. Mario nodded his head and they decided to join forces again, only this time Nintendo isn't planning what's going to happen.
Mario and Samus went to the meeting room to see if Star Fox had made their decision. Mario knocked on the door. It opened and inside was Peppy Hare. Mario and Samus sat down. Fox was sitting at the end of the table. After a long silence, Fox announced, "Mario, we have decided to lend you a hand but there's one problem. We're on another mission to defeat Andross. We too, need some help Mario so tell you what: If you help us defeat Andross, we'll help you afterwards in your quest. So as they say on that reality show, deal or no deal?"
Mario thought for a moment. He doesn't have much time before something even worse happens to Peach. Mario at last answered, "Fox McCloud, you've got yourself a deal. Samus Aran, will you come with us?" Samus accepted and walked out of the room. The crew was about to leave when Mario asked, "How long do you think this will take?"
Fox looked at Mario and said to him, "I can't give you a straight answer Mario, but it could take a long time." Mario felt a little disappointed by the answer, but he still accepted and their plan was arranged. They would continue the quest for victory over Andross tomorrow.
Mario decided to go to sleep early that night, but he was awakened by the thick smell of smoke. When he awoke, he looked at the digital clock next to him. It said 2:41 on it. Mario got out of bed and started crawling on the floor to inhale as little of the black fumes he could. He had to find what was the cause of this smoke. He smelled another familiar odor once he approached the kitchen. He couldn't think of what it was! Moments later, it hit him. It was the smell of burning flesh just as he had remembered from his childhood days when Wario was visiting and he pushed a koopa into the magma inside Mt. Lavalava! Mario pushed open the door and was horrified when he saw a masked man with robes drenched with blood holding the head of Peppy Hare in one hand and an axe in the other. Mario backed off slowly and soon ran out of the room and evacuated the building. When he stepped outside, he saw Samus and Slippy who looked exhausted. Just seconds later, Falco ran out of the building holding Fox's unconscious body.
They called the fire department and Mario told them about the masked man and Peppy. The chief of the fire department contacted the police once the flames were put out. Mario told the investigators everything that he had witnessed. They suspected that one of Peppy's enemies may have broken into the station, chopped the hare into bits with an axe and then burned the separated body parts. Falco told them that Peppy arch-nemesis was named Pigma Danner and he was part of Star Wolf. Falco told the officer that he and Peppy used to be buddies until Pigma double-crossed him and James McCloud (Fox's dad) who was killed by Andross. Just as the police were going to leave for Star Wolf's headquarters, the chief of Cornelia base arrived and asked, "What happened?" When the police told them that there was a fire and that Fox was injured and Peppy was murdered by a masked man who is suspected to be one of his enemies, the Chief immediately contradicted their story. He told them, "There's one problem with your story. As a retired detective, I know that the killer is Mario, Fox, Falco, Slippy, or Samus. You see, our base has security that doesn't let anyone come in or out of the building from midnight to five in the morning unless one of the alarms is activated in the house and let me tell you, we have a lot of alarms. But you see, if you check the data for those six hours you'll see that the only alarm that went off was the smoke alarm."
The detective thought for a moment and then asked, "But what about the possibility of the intruder staying in the building since midnight?"
The Chief then answered, "You can check the security tapes of every nook and cranny of the base. You see…"
At that moment, Falco interrupted and asked the Chief, "Do you even have camera in the bathroom? Because if you do, I'd like to see the tapes filmed at 12:34 AM!"
"What's so big about 12:34 AM? Wait a second, that was when I went to the bathroom you pervert!" Samus exclaimed. Falco turned red and decided not to say anything. The police checked the tapes of every room in the house except for the restroom when it was occupied. They found no sign of intruders and arrested their five suspects. One of them was a cold-hearted murderer. It looks like they'll have to delay their mission to defeat Andross because right now justice must be served.