Chapter 16:

Back in the Hall of Origin, Mewtwo and Dark Arceus continued their hotly contested battle. Mewtwo's Aura Sphere pushed against Dark Arceus's ball of Judgment, with neither attack budging the other an inch. Eventually, the two attacks exploded, creating a large cloud of smoke. The shockwave of the explosion pushed both Pokémon backwards and Mewtwo had to expend more energy to keep himself on top of the platform. Just as he had recovered, a massive claw engulfed in a purple field of energy came slashing through the smoke and towards the psychic Pokémon. He barely managed to teleport out of the way of the attack, causing it to cut through nothing but air. He appeared directly behind Dark Arceus and fired another Aura Sphere into the back of the dark Omega Pokémon. The sphere scored a direct hit and detonated in a massive cloud of smoke and energy. Mewtwo gave a satisfied smile as Dark Arceus stumbled forwards due to the attack's power and tripped. The evil Pokémon was not beaten yet, though. He quickly turned and unleashed a blast of Judgment upon Mewtwo, which made direct contact with the Pokémon, sending him sailing in the opposite direction, and nearly off the platform and down the steps that led back down to the Spear Pillar. There, Mewtwo sensed out of the corner of his mind, Cyrus drawing a pistol. The human pointed the pistol at Mewtwo's head and fired. Mewtwo was barely able to raise a weak shield to protect himself from the bullet.

He grimaced as he glanced back at Cyrus, who gave a difficult, but evil, grin. His uniform looked to have soot on it and a part of it looked to have been burned away, revealing a sheet of what looked to be blue armor underneath with a green line. Cyrus fired again, but Mewtwo's shield protected him from the Chairman's shots. With a telekinetic jerk, he yanked the pistol out of Cyrus's grasp, nearly taking off the human's arm in the process. The force of the pull brought Cyrus closer to Mewtwo and Dark Arceus as well. He stared up into the vortex that had appeared over Spear Pillar and the Hall of Origin and wondered if it led to the universe, that had been created two years ago by Dialga and Palkia, or if this was merely a portal to the Distortion World. He put the question out of his mind as he witnessed Mewtwo and Dark Arceus power up their attacks once more. Dark Arceus cried out, "Now it ends Mewtwo! You and all the others will now perish as decided by my Final Judgment!"

With that, Dark Arceus rose into the air, close to the entrance to the portal and powered one last Judgment attack. Mewtwo could sense that a great deal of energy was being pushed into this attack and he knew that he had to respond. The only problem, though, was the fact that the only attack that would be useful against a Dark type attack like that would be his Aura Sphere, which lacked the raw power of Dark Arceus's Judgment attack, and did not even grant him a Same Type Ability Bonus in its power, unlike Dark Arceus's Judgment. And from what he could tell, Dark Arceus's Judgment attack was even stronger than before. The only good thing was that the evil Pokémon had not launched the attack at him yet; the purple and black ball of energy was still forming in front of his mouth.

Mewtwo took this opportunity to use Calm Mind and power his Special Attack and Special Defense to its maximum. He knew that he would need all the energy he could muster, for he only had enough strength for a few more Aura Spheres. The one bit of good news here, though, was the fact that his Pressure ability forced Dark Arceus to use a great deal of energy, himself, when using his attacks. It had only been Dark Arceus's versatility in being able to use effective physical and special attacks that had kept him in the game when dealing with Mewtwo.

Once Mewtwo was fully powered up, he powered an Aura Sphere in his right hand. Within a second, it was fully charged. Dark Arceus was also ready with his Final Judgment and he proceeded to yell, "Here you go, Mewtwo! With this Final Judgment, you and all on this world will die to make way for a new universe!"

Cyrus beamed as he witnessed Dark Arceus launch his attack. He then charged towards Mewtwo so he could ram the psychic bipedal cat-like Pokémon and knock his Aura Sphere off course so Dark Arceus could finally unmake this flawed universe and replace it with one that was devoid of spirit or emotion. Mewtwo, however, had sensed his charge and almost immediately, Cyrus found himself practically glued to the ground, as if gravity had been increased by several times. With Cyrus's threat neutralized for the time being once more, he focused on Dark Arceus and launched his Aura Sphere.

The two attacks headed straight towards each other, with Dark Arceus making no attempt to break his Final Judgment off into meteors to get around Mewtwo's Aura Sphere and Mewtwo's Aura Sphere on a direct course for the Final Judgment. The attacks then collided in midair and there they remained, suspended for an instant until the balls began to flatten out. The two then pushed more energy into each of their attacks. The ground began to shake as Mewtwo felt the entire world begin to tremble underneath the awesome power of their battle. Looking at the two attacks flattening, he knew that if they detonated here, that they could theoretically destroy the world, if not the galaxy or the universe.

With all of his remaining strength, Mewtwo took control of his Aura Sphere and then positioned it a little bit beneath the ball of Final Judgment. He then forced his Aura Sphere to push against the ball of Final Judgment in order to push it through the swirling vortex. Eventually, he was able to muster the strength to do so and began pushing the balls towards the portal. Dark Arceus quickly became wise to Mewtwo's plan, though, and cried, "No you don't!"

He dive down towards Mewtwo and proceeded to try to slash at him, but Mewtwo was still faster than him and ducked beneath his Shadow Claw swipe. Mewtwo then grabbed two of Dark Arceus's legs and tackled him to the ground. Glancing back at the two attacks, he used most of his remaining strength to push them into the portal, where they disappeared. After a few seconds, the vortex convulsed and looked to be destabilizing. Just then, there was a massive rush of air towards the vortex and Mewtwo realized that something similar to a black hole seemed to have formed inside the vortex, likely when the two attacks had detonated. Knowing that he would have to use his remaining energy to close the portal, and not wanting to keep something as powerful as Dark Arceus on the Earth, Mewtwo rocketed towards the vortex with the dark Omega Pokémon in tow. Cyrus, suddenly feeling himself able to move, charged after Mewtwo and grabbed him just as he was rising from the ground. Cyrus's grab did nothing to slow down Mewtwo and he continued on his way to the portal. After a couple seconds, he and Dark Arceus, with Cyrus in tow, entered the vortex and it began to pulse and destabilize even more. A few seconds after they had entered the vortex, the swirling vortex closed and vanished and all was calm on the Spear Pillar. As the vortex vanished, the Hall of Origin also began to fade away, along with the stairway that led to the hall. After a few seconds, the stairs and the hall had vanished, leaving no trace that they had ever existed.

Back on the top of Spear Pillar, during Mewtwo's battle with Dark Arceus, Samus had her own fight to contend with as the two armored figures approached her, along with several other soldiers. This fight, which would have already have been difficult with her Omega Fusion Suit, was now even tougher since her Zero Laser had destroyed her suit, its scraps littering the ground around her, leaving her with nothing but her white sleeveless neo Zero Suit with a emergency energy pistol and plasma whip and a personal shield projector on her left wrist. Even worse was the fact that the components of the suit were completely burned out and utterly useless, even for scrap. The only component that looked to still be partially functional was her arm cannon and that looked to only have one Plasma Beam burst of energy left. Things were certainly looking bleak at the moment. And they were only going to get worse.

Not too far away, she saw several hovercars approach her location. Inside the hovercars were Watchman troopers. These troopers wore golden armor, indicating that they were soldiers, rather than merely secret police officers. As they approached her, they called back to the armored figures and other soldiers, yelling, "That's her! She's the one who murdered the Chairman of the Galactic Federation!"

Samus's eyes went wide in surprise. "Are you joking? Elric let the Magic Lords try to use some song that would have killed all of humanity throughout the galaxy!" she called back in response. "And besides, it was the Magic Lords that eventually killed him."

"That still does not absolve her of her attempt to kill Cyrus!" one of the Watchmen cried in response towards the alien soldiers. "As N'Kren soldiers, you have a duty to carry out all orders and to assist your allies in times of need." Samus's eyes flashed. So these were N'Kren soldiers. Things just got a lot worse for her. "We need your help now," the Watchman exhorted the N'Kren soldiers. "Help us bring justice to a known murderer!" he cried.

"Cyrus made a deal with an evil creature that was about to destroy the world, if not the galaxy, or even the universe, had it not been for the actions of Mewtwo," Samus countered.

"All we have is your word," one of the N'Kren soldiers called over to her. "The word of a bounty hunter and mercenary soldier," he seethed. It was clear that he did not think highly of bounty hunters and mercenaries, even those who only fought for just causes like Samus. "And on the other side, we have soldiers of the Galactic Federation."

"Those aren't Galactic Federation soldiers," Samus countered. "They're secret police and have already been shown to have had questionable dealings and committed questionable acts under the orders of Elric. They're nothing more than legalized thugs."

"That is of little importance," the N'Kren soldier retorted. "We made a deal with Elric to help the Federation in its time of need. That time is now."

"Then help them by finding out what is going on, sir," a muffled female voice responded.

Samus looked around to see where the voice had come from and soon found that it had come from one of the armored soldiers, the one wearing silver armor and was equipped with shoulder-mounted plasma cannons. She also suspected that the silver soldier had other energy weapons as well.

"Don't forget your place, Blaster!" the soldier snapped.

"She hasn't," came a response from a masculine voice that Samus suspected was the golden armored warrior. "Perhaps you should not forget your promise. Just because Elric was the leader of the Galactic Federation does not make him a hero. The same can be said about Cyrus. We don't know what the circumstances of this battle were. You ordered us to attack that cat-like creature, but as we fought him, I could not help but notice that he did not act like the villain. Our survival is evidence enough of that. He could have easily killed us, with his telepathy, or telekinesis, but he didn't."

The N'Kren soldier would hear nothing of what the armored soldiers were saying. "You have your orders soldiers. Execute them!"

The two armored soldiers then turned back towards Samus and for a moment, they seemed to hesitate. Eventually, though, they assumed a fighter's stance and proceeded to charge towards Samus. As they came towards her, though, several missiles fell upon them from their left and detonated. The missiles did not inflict any damage, but the force of the impacts did knock them off course a bit and cause them to turn towards the direction of their attackers. Another volley of missiles and energy fire was sprayed into the ranks of the other N'Kren soldiers, forcing them to find cover, or be annihilated by the enemy fire. Samus looked up and to the right and saw what looked to be a Federation Assault Shuttle descending onto the battlefield. The shuttle came close to touching the ground and a hatch opened. Jumping out of the hatch were Kreatz, along with two other figures, a human in a flight suit with a helmet and visor that Samus recognized as fellow bounty hunter Captain Douglas Jay Falcon, or Captain Falcon as he is better known around the galaxy, and a large ape. Kreatz landed near Samus and directed the others, saying, "Donkey Kong, you and Captain Falcon take on those two armored soldiers. I'll cover Samus and keep her safe until Mauk can land and we can get her onboard." He then activated a comm unit in his trench coat and said, "Mauk, create a perimeter around Samus and the others. We have to isolate the armored soldiers since Samus doesn't have her armor and they look pretty powerful. Also, after you land, you'll have to provide cover from the alien soldiers."

"Got it, Kreatz," Mauk crackled in over the comm.

Meanwhile, Donkey Kong and Captain Falcon made their way over to the two armored soldiers and prepared to attack. Captain Falcon drew back his right hand as he headed towards the silver solder, Blaster, and yelled, "Falcon Punch!" He thrust his fist forward and an explosion of fire in the shape of a falcon emerged from his hand and struck the armored soldier. However, Blaster was not even fazed by the punch, which seemed to hurt Captain Falcon's hand as he recoiled and massaged his hand. A casual backfist from the armored soldier sent the captain flying through the air and to the ground twenty meters away. Falcon hit the ground and eventually skidded to a halt, groaning but still alive.

As for Donkey Kong, he did not fare much better against the golden armored warrior. He charged the soldier and spun his right hand as he approached. Once he was within melee range, he unleashed a massive Giant Fist on the soldier. He struck the soldier in the head, which caused the armored soldier to recoil and take a few steps backwards, but other than that, he was virtually unhurt. The same could not be said about Donkey Kong's fist as he was blowing on his hand and massaging it. The fist was also already showing signs of bruising.

"That won't do," the golden armored soldier stated in a dark tone. "You need to put more power into your attacks if you wish to either penetrate the armor of a Techno Lord or injure the person inside the armor." He said it in a way that was only partially patronizing, though. It seemed to Samus and the others as if he was actually hoping that they had the power to defeat him.

Samus then stepped forward and called to everyone, "Get back everyone. I'll handle this!"

"What?" Kreatz blurted. "Are you crazy Samus? Your suit has been destroyed! All you've got is your dinky energy pistol with plasma whip and a personal shield. They'll slaughter you! You're lucky we picked up what was going on here and turned back in time to help."

"Do it!" Samus commanded. "These soldiers are too powerful for you. If you face them, you will likely die."

"Samus?" the golden Techno Lord stammered as he heard the Star Elf call out the name of the suitless bounty hunter that was standing before him. He looked deep into her eyes as soon as she had finished exhorting Kreatz and the others to stay back and let her take care of this and soon thought that his opponent looked familiar, too familiar to be a coincidence.

"What are you doing Blade?" one of the N'Kren soldiers asked. "Why aren't you attacking?"

"What's going on Rodney?" Blaster then asked, coming over to the golden armored Techno Lord.

"That bounty hunter," Blade answered, pointing towards Samus. "She looks like you, and the Star Elf called her Samus. Do you think…?"

"Stop dallying and attack!" the N'Kren leader bellowed indignantly. "She's the enemy. Take her!"

"We'll have to fight her, but not to the death," Blaster told the golden armored soldier.

"I'll go first," Blade told the other soldier. "I have multiple bladed weapons that can give her a shot should she manage to acquire one of them," he told her. "Stay back and cover the others."

"Understood," Blaster responded as she flew back towards the approaching N'Kren soldiers.

Blade then approached Samus and drew out two cylinders. After pressing two buttons on the cylinders, two blue energy blades sprang forth from each cylinder. "Defend yourself, Samus Aran!" Blade cried as he charged her.

Samus could not help but recognize Blade's voice as he charged her, especially since she had heard the female Techno Lord, Blaster, refer to him as Rodney, the name of her father. She stood her ground and waited for the opportune moment to sidestep his attack and hopefully disarm him and allow her a chance to go on the attack. He quickly arrived at Samus and took a single swipe with the beam sword in his left hand. Samus dodged to the right and struck his wrist, trying to knock the sword out of his hand. Much to her surprise, she was able to knock it out, causing the beam sword to disappear. She bent down and picked it up the hilt and pressed the button, igniting the blade. She then raised the blade and managed to block Blade's downward swipe. She then took the opportunity to perform a side slash at the Techno Lord. He moved his blade to intercept hers, but Samus quickly reversed her move and performed a reverse strike. This strike took Blade off guard and she managed to score a hit on him. She swept the blade across his torso and managed to inflict physical damage to his armor. Electricity began to spark where the armor was breached and he staggered backwards. Samus did not have anything that resembled a Scan Visor, but she could tell that he was not fatally injured. Heck, it seemed as if the armor had suffered what should have amounted to a minor cut. Still, Blade fell to one knee, something that did not please his N'Kren commander one bit.

"What the hell are you doing? That hit wasn't enough to stagger a Techno Lord like you!" he roared.

Blade did not turn at all, and merely stepped back. "I cannot continue this fight, Hi'Gor. We don't know the full story of this fight. For all we know, we could be helping out the Elvanheim by fighting these people."

"That does not concern us now! We swore an oath to the Galactic Federation and we will carry it out! Elric, the controversial leader is dead. The bounty hunter tried to kill Cyrus. We have no recourse. We must take her into custody. If she resists, kill her!"

Blade was about to argue the point when several of the N'Kren soldiers opened fire on Samus and the others. Blade and Blaster did not join in the fighting, but stepped back and let their N'Kren leaders take point. Samus managed to evade the first volley of pulsating energy pulses that streaked her way from the energy weapons of the armored N'Kren soldiers. She quickly went over to try to cover Kreatz, drawing her energy pistol and returning fire to try to gauge the effectiveness of her weaponry, though she suspected that her pitiful energy pistol and plasma whip would be next to useless against the N'Kren. And she was proven correct. Her attacks did not even seem to be registered by the N'Kren soldiers, whose armor seemed to be quite tough, though not necessarily as tough as the armor worn by the Techno Lords. That was of little comfort to her, though, since she had a feeling that Kreatz's laser whips would be of limited utility. Nevertheless, he drew out the energy whips and prepared to fight. He tossed some energy rifles over to Captain Falcon and Donkey Kong and said, "I hope you know how to use these."

Captain Falcon gave a grin and took aim at the approaching soldiers. Donkey Kong also seemed to have no issues figuring out how to work the weapon. His only issue was that it was not suited to his larger hands so it was a little unwieldy for him. Still, it was better than nothing since the N'Kren were being very careful to stay out of close combat range, where the odds were a little more even. Still, the N'Kren soldiers outnumbered Samus and the others, and if Blaster and Blade entered the fray, any hope that they had of victory would be crushed. As the N'Kren soldiers approached, their leader stepped out and proclaimed, "I am Hi'Gor, leader of the N'Kren armed forces. Soldiers and ranking officers in the military have declared you traitors and have ordered your capture or execution. You are to surrender now and relinquish all of your weapons and equipment to us and to the Federation fleet in orbit now or we will be authorized to use deadly force. I give you one minute to decide."

The others then huddled together to discuss their options. "We've still got Mauk in the assault shuttle," Kreatz suggested. "That might take care of the N'Kren."

"But what about those armored warriors?" Captain Falcon asked. "So far, they're not joining their commanders, but if things get out of hand, who knows if that will change."

"We can't just surrender," Samus told them. "When I arrived here, I was fighting two adolescent Magic Lords that seemed to be pulling the strings behind Elric."

"Magic Lords?" Kreatz gasped. "On Earth?"

"With Elric," Samus corrected. "They used Elric to launch an attack on Earth. They were planning on using the Radio Tower to broadcast a song across the galaxy that would wipe out all of humanity."

"Why target the humans?" Donkey Kong asked.

"I don't know," Samus answered. "But they definitely seem to think that humanity has the potential to become dangerous enemy of theirs in the future, if it isn't already."

"Most of the Magic Lords were fused to form an entity known as the Dark Dragon," Kreatz explained. "The Dark Dragon was said to have been sealed on a far away world matching the description of Earth centuries ago, but seemingly disappeared without a trace in Earth's mid-twenty-first century. That was a huge loss to them. Chances are that they are planning something."

"And that dark Pokémon's attack would have destroyed them," Samus seemingly finished.

"Dark Pokemon?" the others asked, puzzled as to what she was talking about.

"A Pokémon that Cyrus seemed to have called to the Earth. From what I have read about Team Galactic, it was designed to try to create a new universe without emotion or pain. My guess is that this was Cyrus's goal and that the means to achieve this goal would have destroyed this one and that the Pokémon summoned by Cyrus would have initiated the destruction of the universe. Another Pokémon, Mewtwo, fought him and took him through the portal. Cyrus was also taken with them as well."

As they were still discussing what had happened and how they would face this latest dilemma, Hi'Gor's voice echoed over the pillar, "Your time is up! Surrender now or face execution!"

Samus looked back at the others and they each shook their heads harshly, indicating that they would not surrender. She smiled and they nodded. She knew that they would have her back. She then stepped forward and answered, "We won't surrender. Elric and Cyrus's treachery is too great and even though they have been dealt with, many of their subordinates are still in positions of power. The corruption that has plagued the Federation since the death of former Chairman Keaton has not yet been weeded out. We will not rest until it is!"

"Then you choose death," Hi'Gor said with a bit of regret in his voice.

"We do not choose death; for we don't plan on dying here, today," Samus answered defiantly.

"But you cannot possibly defeat us," Hi'Gor countered. "We outnumber you and greatly outclass you. You have no…ahhh!" A brief shout cut short Hi'Gor's speech as en energy pulse landed in the midst of the N'Kren and the others. A ring of energy then spread out from the epicenter of the attack and encompassed the whole N'Kren party save for the two Techno Lords, Blaster and Blade.

All conscious personnel looked up and saw another alien transport descending. It was not much larger than an Anhur-class transport that was used by the Galactic Federation, but looked much more artistic and beautiful. However, that beauty undoubtedly hid great power. "A Luminoth ship?" Blaster spoke in a hushed, questioning tone. "On Earth?"

"Did she say Luminoth?" Kreatz asked.

His question was answered as a side hatch opened on the ship and a large bipedal moth-like creature descended. Samus recognized the creature as U-Mos, the Sentinel of the whole Luminoth people. He was young by their standards, but was a powerful warrior and psychic. He landed between the two parties and projected his voice towards Hi'Gor, who was already recovering from the attack as he cried out to the others, "You have launched an attack against citizens of Earth in support of an illegitimate regime issuing and carrying out illegal orders. In addition, this regime has also committed war crimes. Fortunately, their plans were halted by Samus and others. Elric is dead and Cyrus is missing. Both are criminals. And with the death of the Speaker of the Council in the attack on Daiban, Councilman Colin Williams of Earth is the ranking Federation official and commands the Federation in their absence. And as such, he has commanded that the Federation fleet and its allies committing these illegal actions withdraw from Earth immediately or face severe consequences. Your attack here is illegal. Retreat now or risk open conflict!"

Hi'Gor gave a chuckle. "It has? Then why did the Federation fleet commander in orbit beg us to assist him in the assault?"

"Because he was desperate," Kreatz answered for U-Mos. "Elric is dead, Cyrus is doing his own thing, and he realized that the evidence against his commander could come back to hurt him as well. Elric is why the Federation capital, Daiban, was destroyed, or did you not get that report?"

"The report is still unconfirmed," Hi'Gor countered.

"It certainly seems legitimate to me," U-Mos commented.

Hi'Gor motioned for Blaster and Blade to engage U-Mos and told them, "Engage him, but don't use deadly force, yet. We still need to take them into custody until everything is settled."

The two Techno Lords had no issues engaging U-Mos, though that may have been because as soon as they approached, they froze in their tracks as U-Mos used his psychic abilities to immobilize them. Two tracking devices that Samus had on her belt then left her belt and rocketed over to the Techno Lords. There, they stuck to the sides of the armor. The two soldiers did not seem to notice the tracking devices, or if they did, they did not care about them. The devices were also sensors, though, and data readouts were coming up on Kreatz's datapad. When he got the readings, his eyes went wide. Noticing his reaction, Samus asked him, "What is it?"

"Samus, those Techno Lords are human," he answered.

"What?" she blurted. The others were just as shocked as she was. "Are you sure?" came Mauk's voice over his comm.

Kreatz nodded. "Yeah."

The floating computer storage device that held Adam Malkovich also came over and a mechanical version of his voice also confirmed the scans, saying, "My scans also indicate that at the very least, Blade is human. Chances are that Blaster is as well since they seem to behave as if they are married."

Looking over at the Techno Lords, they soon saw the unconscious N'Kren soldiers begin to awaken. As they were awakening, the sounds of more ships began to fill the air. Looking up into the sky, several Anhur and Aries-class transports began to descend onto the battlefield. Soon, a voice echoed from one of the transports, declaring, "This is the Earth air-and-space force. You have violated Earth airspace. As representatives of both Earth and the Galactic Federation, we order you to withdraw from this planet immediately, or we will be authorized to use deadly force against you."

The N'Kren stared into the sky for a few seconds and soon, they saw a squadron of starfighters coming to assist the transports as well. They knew that while they had a chance of victory, that if they fought the humans, the battle would be exceedingly bloody on both sides; and that they were not guaranteed to win, especially since they knew that Blaster and Blade would not fire on their own people, and may actually fire on them instead. As such, Hi'Gor replied in a loud voice, "Very well. As per your request as representatives of both Earth and the Galactic Federation, we will take our leave…for now. Know this, though, if you assist any of our enemies, or leave the protection of the Galactic Federation, then you will become our enemy once more. And that is something you wish to avoid at all costs." Once Hi'Gor was finished, he, the rest of the N'Kren, and the two Techno Lords vanished into thin air, the rush of air filling in the spaces that they had occupied producing claps. Now, they were alone with the Federation transports above them. After the N'Kren had left, the transports left the area, apparently going to other areas of the world, likely in an attempt to bring order and security to the planet.

Once they had left, U-Mos turned back to Samus and the others and approached them. He towered over the humanoids and looked down at Samus as she holstered her weapon and let out a sigh of relief. Seeing the scattered pieces of Samus's suit on the ground, he said, "This battle seems to have taken its toll on you." He then took out a scanner and scanned Samus and the others to make sure that they were not suffering from any other injuries, and he then added, "More than it would appear." Looking at Samus, he continued. "There appear to be some instabilities in your DNA, along with dangerous DNA strands as well. You must come with me. We must cure you and stabilize your DNA."

U-Mos offered Samus his hand. "You saved us before," he told her. "Now it's time for us to return the favor. Besides, there's someone who has been waiting quite a while to see you once more."

"Who?"

U-Mos gave a kind smile to Samus. "You'll find out when you get there. I don't want to spoil the surprise."

Samus then accepted his hand and they proceeded to make their way to his transport. Kreatz, however, followed and blurted, "Hey, where are you taking her?"

"To Aether," the Luminoth Sentinel responded. "Samus is in need of medical attention: medical attention that the Galactic Federation currently does not have the ability to provide. She has human, Chozo, Metroid, and even X-Parasite DNA inside of her. We must remove the X-Parasite DNA safely and reintegrate the Metroid DNA inside of her safely so she will not suffer the any of the Metroids' vulnerabilities like the ones that she is experiencing now. You are welcome to come with us, if you want. In fact, I recommend that you follow us, for you know a great deal about what has happened here on Earth; and we will need to know everything that has happened before we commit to any course of action."

Kreatz thought about U-Mos's offer for a moment before Mauk came in over the comm and said, "Do it. I'm going to go if allowed."

Eventually, Kreatz then told U-Mos, "Okay. After all, Samus will need to have someone she knows."

Samus smiled as Kreatz went over to the shuttle to board it so it could follow them to Aether. Adam then floated a little behind her as she made her way over to the Luminoth transport. As they were leaving, Captain Falcon went over to Donkey Kong and told him, "Looks like it's just us now. I'll call over my ship and take you back to…Donkey Kong Isle is it?"

"Yeah," the muscular ape replied. The two then waited for Captain Falcon's ship to arrive. As they waited, they watched as Samus boarded the Luminoth transport. After boarding the transport, the ship began to rise. As soon as it was out of sight, the two heroes glanced over at each other and Captain Falcon said, "Before we go home, we have to talk about this Chosen Hero thing that we overheard on the shuttle. Samus was one of them, and chances are that whoever was fighting the enemy in the sky was also a Chosen Hero."

Donkey Kong nodded. While he would not admit it, he was greatly concerned about the recent events that had transpired. The first thing he would do when he got back to Donkey Kong Island would be to inform his friends and family over what had just happened and that they should be careful. He knew that whatever was going on up in space was not over yet, and the outcome of the conflict would have tremendous ramifications.

In a realm outside of the normal Nintendo Universe, the Magic Lords gazed into a massive crystal ball and witnessed the battle between Mewtwo and Dark Arceus, including the disappearance of both enemies into the swirling vortex, as well as the disappearance of the frozen Aglara and Aramon. One of them, a strong middle-aged male with blond hair, growled, "Grr, Aglara and Aramon have revealed themselves and have been lost."

"It is not as bad as it may look," another male, one with dark hair, that stood at over seven feet in height, replied. "One of the strongest of the Chosen Heroes has been taken into the vortex as well. Without him, the Heroes will have difficulty against us."

"Perhaps," the first male answered. "But the others are now aware of our existence as well and will talk to our enemies, such as the Chozo and the Luminoth."

"Perhaps. But without strong heroes like Mewtwo and the Chosen Four, they will be hard-pressed to defeat us, especially if we are discrete in our actions."

The other Magic Lord nodded. They then went back to looking into their crystal ball, and formulating their plans for the future. Right now, though, they were content to merely watch, and wait.

Meanwhile, inside the realm of the swirling vortex, Mewtwo looked around and found himself in a zone with a single pipe that was easily large enough to hold someone his size seemingly in the center of the realm that looked to be a hundred yards away or so. He had a feeling that it was much farther away, though. He also felt a refreshing sensation wash over him as he realized that he had been fully rejuvenated. He then looked ahead and saw the glowing eyes of Dark Arceus. Dark Arceus grinned and he floated towards Mewtwo. "Heh, heh, heh," he laughed. "I've been fully rejuvenated, Mewtwo. Now, you're gonna die."

"No," Mewtwo answered confidently. "If you continue this battle again, it will be you who will die."

"Me? Are you nuts?" Dark Arceus blurted. "You were barely able to stalemate me back on Earth. I was easily holding my own against you and you used up more energy against me than I used against you!"

Mewtwo then gave a dark smile. "Yes, but that was when I was on Earth and having to focus my energy tightly so that I would not risk damaging the planet. Here, I have no such restrictions." He then smiled once more as his eyes began to glow a deep blue. Dark Arceus then began to look worried as a blue aura surrounded Mewtwo. He floated back a few feet and he began to sweat. "Let's end this," Mewtwo declared. "Once and for all!" With that, Mewtwo used Calm Mind to increase his already incredible strength, and prepared to launch a full powered Psystrike against Dark Arceus. Only now, did Dark Arceus suddenly realize just how powerful Mewtwo really was.

On the outskirts of Federation Space, on a colony world designated Z-2O, a human governor was making his way back to the office after a long day. The colony was set up to mine the valuable mineral, Afloraltite. However, the recent yields had been less than what he, or the Federation, had been hoping for. He had received word about Elric's treachery and had scarcely believed what he had heard. The miners, upon hearing the report, were infuriated, especially since some of them had been refugees from Daiban. Even though the governor was not an appointee of Elric, he felt as if there was about to be a huge change in the Council, and on the local scene as well.

He did not dwell on those thoughts, though, as he went back to his office in order to clock out and then drive home. He was close to the door when he saw a light emanating from his office. At first, he was apprehensive, for his office light had been turned off at the time. He approached the door with trepidation as he drew his defensive side arm. He then thrust open the door and, much to his surprise, he found the Chairman of the Galactic Federation, Cyrus, standing there in front of him. He gasped at the sight of Cyrus, who was reported to have been dead, as he looked no worse for the wear. Cyrus was not in a celebratory mood, though, as he said coldly, "Bring me a ship. I need to get to Federation One as soon as possible. There is much work that needs to be done and I don't have a lot of time to do it."

"Yes sir," the governor said as he rushed outside so as to get the Chairman of the Galactic Federation Council a starship. After he left, Cyrus grimaced. He was far away from Earth and he knew that the planet was almost certainly going to fortify its defenses and that taking the planet would be difficult.

As he was about to follow the Chairman, a purple vortex appeared before him. Coming from the vortex was a figurine of the Alpha Pokémon, Arceus. This Arceus, however, had the normal white fur, and was standing on a trophy stand. It was only about a third of the size of the Pokémon in real life. A mysterious voice soon echoed from the vortex as the figure appeared and said, "This is a trophy of Arceus. Bring it to life by tapping its base. Use it when you retake Earth to fulfill your wishes."

After the voice had spoken, the rift closed. Cyrus collected the trophy, which shrunk in his hand until it was small enough to carry in his pocket. After placing the figurine in his pocket, he grinned. He had another chance to fulfill his dreams. Now all he had to do was conquer Earth, and he had the perfect weapon necessary for doing so: the Galactic Federation.