The main dining hall of Hyrule Castle was a suitable place to begin negotiations. Fox hadn't eaten in quite a while and the meal would help establish a better relationship. Princess Zelda had overlooked that fact with Samus and she did not intend to repeat such an error. After a grand lunch, both parties began serious talk. Fox activated a special ring he had. The images of the Star Fox team appeared on the center of the table in miniature holographic forms. No stranger to odd magic, Link marveled nonetheless at the bizarre sight. Even Zelda startled a little.
"Princess, allow me to introduce my fellow team members," began Fox. He was interrupted.
"How did you do that?" Asked Link suspiciously. Fox grinned and replied:
"I forget that you guys know very little about technology. Let me see if I can put this into terms… This ring I wear has a special, um, stone inside it that allows it to project images of certain people. But they have to be on the right channel… in the right area, in order for it to work. Right now my team members are aboard their Arwings, orbiting this planet. And the ring allows them to watch what is happening and to interact with us."
The canine pilot glanced at his two negotiators in hope that they could grasp what he meant even a little. Link looked like he had a million questions, but Zelda seemed to grasp the general concept. Fox continued.
"Let me introduce them to you." Fox indicated first the one with the beak and what looked like blue feathers. "He is my right hand hawk and good friend, Falco Lombardi. The best pilot you ever saw…"
"Stop it, Fox," replied Falco. "We're here for business."
Fox indicated the frog with the strange hat next. "This is our resident mechanic and caution extraordinaire, Slippy Toad."
"Nice to meet'cha," greeted Slippy, in his trademark cheeriness. Fox indicated the remaining member of the team.
"This furry fellow here is Peppy Hare. He is our eldest member and pretty much like a father to me."
"Hello," replied the aged rabbit. "Now, then, this must be pretty serious. The Cornerian Defense Forces won't usually send us to such a distant planet. Doubly serious in that the Galactic Federation requested it."
Princess Zelda began, "I don't know how much your military told you, so I will start at the beginning. Some time ago, an ancient legendary evil appeared in our land again. Named Ganondorf, he had access to a certain power source. A hero had always appeared to defeat him. My time was no different. We thought the Legendary Hero had finally killed him this time. To our shock and horror, Ganondorf reappeared, established a fortress in a dark world he created, and was most surely planning another invasion of Hyrule. But we didn't count on his reappearance so soon, or at such a bad time."
"What do you mean, 'bad?" Asked Fox.
"By eating some bad soup the hero had fallen ill to a disease that prevents strenuous activity, and for him to go out in combat would surely mean his death," stated Princess Zelda, somewhat nervously.
"So," said Link, "We hired a warrior from space with a great reputation. We hired Samus Aran come to stop Ganondorf. We thought she would return his, um, power source to us, but instead kept it for herself…"
"Wait, wait, waitaminute," demanded Falco. "What is this power source?"
Zelda and Link exchanged glances. Zelda spoke reluctantly. "It is called the Triforce of Power. There are three Triforces that balance Hyrule's physical and spiritual ecology. I have one. The Legendary Hero has one. But, so did Ganondorf."
"And now Samus Aran has it. Why is that bad?" Fox McCloud was reclining fairly casually in his chair.
"Well," replied Link, "First, because the Triforce of Power is no longer on this planet the ecology is throwing a great big temper tantrum and we don't know how much worse it will get."
"Second," added Zelda, "The Triforce of Power corrupts whomever touches it, unless that person bears another Triforce. We're pretty sure Samus doesn't."
"Wait a minute! Are you hiring us to go capture Samus?" Asked Slippy. Fox sat up with concern.
"We're hiring you to go retrieve the Triforce of Power. Link here will go with you." Replied Zelda somewhat flustered.
"Just whom is this Legendary Hero, anyway?" Asked Falco. "If Link's going with us, and you just said the Legendary Hero had one, and then that only someone with a Triforce thing could handle the Power Triforce..."
"Yes," stated Link, somewhat sheepishly.
"You mean, you screwed yourself by eating bad soup?" Replied Falco incredulously. Link looked away and the falcon pilot started laughing.
"Quit laughing! It isn't funny!" Demanded Link. "I thought the soup was going to be okay. I didn't know those dumb Gorons would cheat!"
"You mean," gasped Falco, "you ate bad soup over a bet?!" He broke into an even bigger fit of laughter. Even Peppy and Slippy were chuckling. Fox, out of courtesy, stifled his own laughter by clearing his throat. Link looked like he wanted to demolish Falco's image with his bare hands. Zelda calmed Link with a hand in his lap and assurance that she was not laughing, even though she secretly thought it hilarious.
"But we will have to go find Samus," stated Peppy bluntly. "We really don't want to tangle with her. No one else ever damaged the Space Pirates like she did."
"We're prepared to pay you fifty thousand gold pieces for your service. All you have to do is get Link in position to retrieve the Triforce. Oh, and make sure he doesn't die." Princess Zelda looked positively worried now.
Fox spoke up. "You don't understand. These Space Pirates have long been the scourge of our galaxy. Our Cornerian Defenses could barely make a dent in their attack. You're lucky they haven't come here; that they don't want anything you have. They would obliterate your Royal Military. Luckily for us the entire Pirate squadron was called back to their home planet Zebes to deal with a bounty hunter we later found out was Samus. We never heard from them again. She decimated them. Not once, not twice, but three times. And she destroyed Zebes."
"I reckon fifty thousand's not enough," stated Peppy.
"Okay, one hundred thousand gold pieces… You can't just walk away, can you?" Asked the distressed Hylian Princess.
"Let me start over," explained Fox. "You know how powerful Samus must be on her own, but now she's got that Triforce as well. It might be corrupting her thinking, but it's on her side. We've got to tangle with that too. And there will probably be combat involved…"
"Technically, we can refuse," said Slippy matter-of-factly. "It was a job opportunity from the defense forces. We're their best team."
"Considering the danger involved, I don't think we could do it for any less than one hundred fifty thousand gold pieces," said Fox flatly.
"Could you step outside for a moment?" Asked Princess Zelda. "Link and I need to discuss this privately." Fox nodded in affirmation, turned off his ring, and walked out to the hallway. After a few minutes spent studying nearby suits of armor, Link beckoned him back inside the dining room. Fox reactivated his ring and sat down.
"We've discussed it and we're prepared to pay two hundred thousand gold pieces for this mission," said Princess Zelda somewhat reluctantly, with a little nudging from her hero.
"We'll take it," stated Fox McCloud with a smile. He signed the paper contract right below the royal signature. The Hylian princess and the canine pilot shook hands.
"I've always wanted to get a look at Samus' piloting skills. She's got a killer reputation at everything else," said Falco coolly.
"Link's coming with us, right?" Asked Peppy. "And Link, you said you were suffering from some food poisoning? Just so happens that each Arwing comes equipped with a first aid kit that has medicine to treat food poisoning. It might help a little."
The Ordon swordsman watched Fox discreetly as the party rose from the dining table. Just like I thought, mercenaries. Nice mercenaries, but still…
(a/n: one gold piece is worth ten times a single rupee and about forty times a single credit)
…
Where am I? I don't recognize any of this, yet it seems somehow… familiar. Samus found herself in full combat armor in the middle of a temperate plateau. The dull green grass was threatened by ominous gray storm clouds overhead. To her left stood a series of clay red mountains, also bludgeoned dull by the clouds. On her right side a deep gorge made crossing to the distant forest impossible. A curtain of ever-burning flame surrounded the field. The hunter swore she saw a couple droplets fall onto her visor. In her distant periphery was some sort of a large marble palace. Surrounding thick fog made it impossible to tell for certain. A familiar screech cut through the clouds directly overhead. The hunter checked her missile supplies and found a full two hundred and fifty. She would need them.
The large, bony, spade-like tail poked through the murk. More and more of it gave way, revealing two ostrich-like hind limbs adorned with razor sharp claws and a snakelike back. It glimmered beet red in the light of the flame. Samus felt her heart leap in excitement of momentary combat. The creature finished its descent and landed right on the field in front of her, huge leathery wings folding over most of its form. Only its pterodactylian head and long snout remained visible. I thought I barbecued you on Zebes, Ridley… Well, I'll finish the job now.
"You will not hurt the innocents," hissed Ridley with vigor. "The power doesn't belong to you."
Samus' helmet hid the puzzled expression on her face. Isn't that usually my line? What power – kill the insolent. He has crossed us too many times. His forces have caused too much pain. Samus felt a tremendous urge to launch herself without remorse toward her kneeling adversary. The flames along the perimeter crackled to life, as the ominous clouds released a torrent on the two combatants. Ridley took to the air. Samus glimpsed a glowing triangle on the back of Ridley's left fore paw.
"You must die for the greater good, Sssssamus," snarled Ridley with menace. The dragon's left claws began to mutate and change, melting together in the shape of a longsword. "You are sssstill weak… you don't have the medallions…"
For some odd reason Samus could not explain, she felt her blood boil at this statement. I'm tired of you, Ridley. Death and destruction follow you wherever you go. Samus felt the back of her right hand throb, and suddenly remembered her special power. But now I can end your existence permanently… for the galaxy. The giant space dragon took to the air, weaving in and out of the clouds, occasionally swooping down to try to swipe Samus with its mutant paw. The Bounty Hunter kept a careful watch on the skies as she armed her Wave Beam and prepared to fire it at the Space Pirate General. But her alien energy source transformed it into a Wavebuster attack. Ridley was unprepared and could not dodge the weapon. The dragon crashed to the ground in front of Samus, producing a fountain of grass and dirt. Electricity continued zapping into Ridley's chest and the dragon screeched as it felt its wings burn away. Heavy rain continued to assault the two warriors.
Samus armed and fired a Super Missile at the stunned space dragon only to receive an assault of cannon malfunction alerts on her visor. She glanced down at her arm cannon and could only watch stupidly as the super missile expanded and flattened, merging with the cannon. She watched it take the shape of a broadsword. Grinning like a maniac, she marched over to Ridley in its divot. She swung right at its head, but was forced to parry when Ridley's mutant paw met her mutant cannon. Echoes of clashing steel reverberated off the distant mountains and the nearby canyon. Back and forth, they went at it. Both seemed to know exactly how to brandish these "swords" though Samus was pretty sure neither of them had a lesson in their lives. Fatigue forced both Ridley and Samus to back off from each other. All of a sudden five glowing orbs appeared above the dragon's head. The medallions! It has the medallions! Samus felt great fear overtake her nerves as she watched these five "medallions" channel a different colored energy – green, red, blue, violet, and orange – into Ridley's mutant arm.
Samus felt herself unable to move as Ridley struck with lightning speed. She felt its sword-paw stab through armor, flesh, and bone. All she could do was stare at the righteous fury in the dragon's eyes. The throbbing on her right hand ceased immediately. The bounty hunter heard the familiar klaxon of the low energy warning. Oh my god, I'm dying! THE MEDALLIONS!!!
Samus sat straight up in bed, eyes wide. She felt her blankets and pajamas damp of perspiration. "Lady, is everything all right? You were screaming. Shall I put out a distress signal?" Adam's voice was a welcome sound after the surreal nightmare Samus had just experienced.
"No, Adam. I had a bad dream. It was just a bad dream, that's all."
She checked her watch. Four hours had passed. Deciding that she wouldn't get back to sleep, Samus opted for her ship's shower pod and then a replicated cup of black coffee. "Adam, set a course for the Lylat System." No sense delaying any longer.