Clash of the Smashers
Chapter Forty-Six: The Brain in Front of the Mastermind
Headquarters…
Mewtwo, Bowser and Ganondorf were standing around; the only sound that of the faint falcon punch coming from the other room. Bowser started to say something, but lost his train of thought and ended up mumbling nothing to himself.
The machinery by the screen started to make a ringing noise, but Ganondorf started talking as soon as it did, drowning it out.
"Based on the last report from M.C., they're about to attack Andross," Ganondorf said, "And I know I'm not speaking for just myself when I say that they are going to kill him."
"There's little doubt," Mewtwo said, "After everything they've gone through, Andross will be simple."
"So if we're sure of that, what are we going to do?" Bowser asked.
"We'll do what M.C. wants for now, we'll take his extra flunkies, we'll fight the Smashers, mess with them a bit...," Ganondorf said.
"Mess with them?" Mewtwo asked.
"Oh wait," Bowser said before Ganondorf could answer, "I remember you mentioning something about this…we tell one of them something, whether it's true or not that will confuse them…right?"
"Uh…yes," Ganondorf said, surprised by him actually remembering a conversation, "That's pretty much it. It was M.C.'s idea actually, he wants them to be off balance and not working together properly by the time he faces them."
"Already uncertain of the outcome?" Mewtwo asked.
"It appears he is. You must admit, the swathe of destruction they've carved through his forces is pretty intimidating," Ganondorf said.
"I'm scared of them," Bowser said.
Ganondorf and Mewtwo looked at Bowser with an amused look on their evil faces.
"I mean…not scared so much as…not afraid of them…because they're not scary," Bowser stuttered.
"Right," Mewtwo said, "But in all seriousness, are we ready for this?"
"I would say so. Remember, our goal is to fight them a bit, let them kill off whatever minions M.C. gives us, and then meet here, and see if we can watch them fight M.C.," Ganondorf said, nodding at the screen, "And then we'll jump in once one of them is finished, and beat the survivors."
"M.C. is going to lose," Mewtwo said, "He may be very powerful, but those nine…"
"But what about the Crystal?" Bowser asked, "Won't he try and use that if he starts to lose?"
"True," Ganondorf said, "But perhaps if we get there before he can use it…Bowser!"
"What?" Bowser said, startled by the excitement in Ganondorf's voice.
"If we get there…can you still use the Crystal?"
"What…oh! Oh! Yes! That would give us the edge!" Bowser said, overcome by excitement.
"Guys, I think we're going to be sitting high and mighty at the end of this whole thing," Ganondorf said gleefully.
"Perhaps we should station ourselves now, before M.C. suspects anything," Mewtwo said.
"Good idea," Ganondorf said, stepping towards the portal. He stopped when the machinery kept buzzing, and with a casual flick of his hand he fired off a bolt of dark magic at it, vaporizing the device M.C. used to communicate to them, "Shut up. We're going."
The Great Fox…
Raichu was shooting off small sparks of electricity while screaming. Falco's voice could be heard echoing back from where he had been sleeping and Mario shot up an instant later, shouting out as well and equally panicked sounding.
Diddy was trapped between two startling sounds and shot up as well, a look of surprise and fear on his face, and in just a few more seconds everybody else was up as well.
Twenty minutes later the nine Smashers and Krystal found themselves in the mess again, with both Raichu and Falco nervously drinking warm beverages while Mario stared blankly into space marked by an occasional shiver.
"What happened?" Bario asked, who had been the first in Falco's room.
"Nightmare…," Falco said.
"A three-way nightmare?" Link asked skeptically, "What was it?"
"Kidar…," Raichu and Falco muttered at the same time.
The word had a startling effect on the other six Smashers.
"What did you say?" Samus demanded.
"They said Kidar!" Diddy said, "I had a nightmare about that too!"
"As did I," Meta Knight said.
"I had one too, right before Nightmare," Bario said.
"That's when I had it," Samus said, and Kirby nodded, implying that his was at the same time.
"I had mine after we arrived at Kong Island," Meta said.
"Is that why you were acting so weird then?" Diddy asked.
Meta turned and gave Diddy a slow look.
"Yes," he said after a long pause.
"I had a nightmare about Kidar that night on the ship," Link said.
"And I had one when K. Rool knocked me out," Diddy said, still looking a little confused at Meta.
"Wait," Krystal said, "You've all had these nightmares about some guy called Kidar?"
"It would appear so," Meta said.
"I've had a lot of dreams about guys…but they weren't nightmares," Krystal said, grinning coyly.
"Not now Krystal," Falco said, "This is a big deal…that dream…"
"Fine," Krystal said, pouting and turning around to face the wall.
"Bario!" Link said, "What do you know about this Kidar?"
"What? Why are you asking me?"
"Don't play dumb…I bet you know something."
"Link!" Samus said.
"Seriously, you keep blaming him for everything," Diddy said, annoyed
"Diddy is correct. You are always quick to accuse Bario. Do you have any proof?" Meta asked.
"Proof of what?"
"That Bario would know anything more than you about this "Kidar."
"Well, they both seem to use a lot of purple," Link said.
"What?" Bario said.
"He's right," Falco said, surprise coming over his face, "All your magic stuff is purple, and that Kidar guy killed Andross with those purple tentacles…before…" Falco shuddered.
"And both of you want to kill off all the bad guys," Diddy said.
As more eyes turned towards Bario, he backed up and raised his hands.
"Whoa, whoa! I am not this Kidar guy! Remember, I had a nightmare too!"
"So you claim," Link said.
"Are you hiding something?" Samus asked, her tone guarded.
"No! I am who I am!" Bario said, a bit of desperation creeping into his voice.
"I say we tie him up and shove him in the airlock until we're sure he's not going to kill us in our sleep!" Link said, drawing his sword and stepping towards Bario.
"Stop," Meta Knight said, "Your evidence proves nothing."
"It gives us enough suspicion to think that Bario is Kidar though," Falco shot back.
"You have yet to prove Kidar has any negative desires towards you. So far all of us have had "nightmares" where Kidar has killed off our greatest enemies, which would seem to indicate he is on our side."
"Not all of our dreams were like that," Samus said quietly.
"Look, maybe I am Kidar," Bario said.
"What?" Raichu said, "But how…could you?"
"I don't mean I'm doing it on purpose…maybe my growing magical ability is spilling over into our subconscious, or something."
"And acting out your darkest desires!" Samus said, thinking of her own "Dark" Samus.
"That would be a logical conclusion. There is no advantage for Bario to try and affect our dreams," Meta said, and several of the others nodded in agreement.
"I'm sorry," Falco said, "Didn't mean to accuse you."
"Wait, what?" Link asked, confused, "How did we go from condemning him to apologizing?! He can't be trusted!"
"He's done nothing but help us from day one," Raichu said angrily, "And I for one believe him when he says he has nothing to do with those nightmares, at least not willingly."
Link started to say something, but he realized the general mood had shifted again towards Bario. Grumbling, he sheathed his sword.
Bario let out a sigh of relief, and then turned towards Samus.
"We can discuss this if you still want to, after we finish off this adventure. For now, I am ready to open the portal to get your ship. We should probably go to the hangar."
"Sounds good to me," Samus said.
She and Bario started to walk out of the mess, after everyone else, including Link, agreed they would follow their plan from yesterday. As Samus exited the room, she snatched a bread roll from the table, chewing on it as she vanished from sight down a corridor.
"I guess it's time for breakfast," Krystal said.
The other Smashers shrugged and dug through the food stores for whatever they could find. As they ate, Krystal and Falco gave them all instructions.
"Alright, I'm going to be piloting my Arwing, Kirby you help Rob with the ships heavy guns. The rest of you go with Krystal and operate the remaining weaponry on the ship."
"I definitely want Bario and Link to be working with me," Krystal said, flashing a devilish grin.
"Don't listen to her Link," Falco sighed, "She's…wait…where's Link?"
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Samus remembered the way to the hangar, and didn't have a hard time leading Bario to it. Once they got there he turned towards her, his hands already glowing purple.
"Okay, once I open the portal, you call your ship here, and it should arrive in a minute or two, depending on how close I can get the portal to be."
Samus nodded and pulled out a remote from her belt.
Bario frowned in concentration, and then after a few seconds he shot his hands forward, a large violet beam of energy shooting from them. It formed into a big circular portal in the center of the hangar, and Samus hit her remote, calling her ship to her.
Bario watched the portal, a thin tendril of energy connecting him to it. Soon they saw Samus's orange Gunship coming through, slowly and gently.
"You must have opened it close to the ship, that was quick," Samus said excitedly as the two moved out of the way of the ship, letting it land. Once it was fully there, Bario released the energy and the portal vanished.
Her Gunship was large, and it was easily three times the size of the Arwings…if it was much bigger it wouldn't fit inside the Great Fox.
"Why are you so excited?" Bario asked, noticing that Samus was almost trembling with excitement.
"I'm getting my suit back," she said.
Eagerly Samus hit another button on the remote, opening up the door. Almost squealing with glee she ran up into her ship.
Bario shook his head, grinning. His smile quickly faded when he heard the sound of metal scraping against leather. He turned around, slowly…and found Link standing there, with his sword point an inch from Bario's throat.
"Whoa!" Bario said, raising his hands up and taking a step back.
"I don't care what anyone else says," Link snarled, stepping forward, again putting his sword at Bario's throat, "You're a threat!"
"No! I'm not!" Bario said, a frightened look in his eyes.
"You and Kidar are the same, and you know it!"
"Maybe we are! I didn't mean to hurt anyone if we are! Please, Link!"
"No!" Link said, "I've had a bad feeling about you all this time, and now…now too many things fit together. I'm not going to let you stay here with us, and poison the group with your lies!"
With a cry of rage Link shot his sword forward. Bario swung his body to the side and the point of the blade skimmed across his cheek, eliciting a hiss of pain. Link tried to recover his balance from the missed blow, but a sharp blow from Bario into his wrist caused him to drop the sword, and a kick to the knee knocked Link down.
"How dare you?" Link yelled.
"Link please! I respect you as a warrior and a person, but if you keep this up, one of us will die!"
"Yes! You! You dark magic user!"
"What? Dark magic?" Bario said, turning noticeably pale.
"You think I don't recognize it? That color is the same color Ganondorf uses…violet mixed with black!"
"Link just because it's dark doesn't mean it's evil," Bario said, trying to remain calm.
"So you admit you use dark magic?" Link asked, surprised.
"Yes," Bario said, "But that doesn't mean I'm evil…it's just the kind of magic I'm best at."
Link looked confused and a little angry, but judging how quickly Bario dodged that attack he wouldn't be someone who would be taken out in a second…and Link honestly wasn't really sure if Bario deserved to die.
"Link," Bario said, "I promise you, all I want to do is to help you and the rest finish off Andross, and all the other bad guys. After that, if you want to talk about me or accuse me of being "evil" then go for it…but until then, let's just do our jobs."
Link stared at Bario for a second, unsure of what exactly to say, and kind of surprised that he wasn't angrier over Link trying to kill him. Before either could say anything, a clanking noise echoed from the Gunship, and turning towards it they saw a fully suited Samus stepping out.
"Link!" Samus said, surprised to see him, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm uh…I came…uh," Link stammered.
"He came to see you off in your ship," Bario said, turning away.
"You did? Well…uh…thanks," Samus said.
"What?" Link said, turning towards Bario, but he was already out the hangar, a faint purple glow on his cheek was all Link saw before Bario turned the corner.
"Link…could you come inside…I want to ask you something," Samus said.
"Sure…," Link said, following Samus as she clanked back into her ship, and regretting that she got her suit back…
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Bario walked in as the others finished eating. Falco flashed him a grin and stood up.
"Perfect timing! Krystal is going to take you and the others to the weapons room. I'm taking Kirby to the control room with Rob, and then going to the hangar to get my Arwing ready."
"I'm with Krystal?" Bario said.
"Oh yes you are," she said, sidling up to him.
"Just take them to the guns Krystal," Falco told her.
"Fine," Krystal said, grabbing Bario by the arm and half-dragging him out the door.
"Hey! I'm going, I'm going!" He sputtered.
"Do we have to go with her?" Diddy asked.
"Yes. She may be…different, but she knows what she's doing…and she probably won't try to kill you," Falco said.
"Fine," Raichu said, "Let's go."
Diddy, Raichu and Meta finished their bits of breakfast and left the room, although as Raichu passed by the door he shivered. Diddy started to turn towards him, but Raichu nudged him on.
After they left Falco turned to Kirby, who had some cake crumbs on the side of his mouth.
"Heh…you ready?"
"Poyo!" Kirby said excitedly.
"I'll take that as a yes."
Falco and Kirby left, taking a different path than the others. They walked to the control room, saying nothing although Falco was licking the inside of his mouth to make sure he had all of the food in his stomach.
The room was open, and once in Rob rolled over excitedly. He looked at Kirby, then at Falco and then back at Kirby. Enthusiastically he pushed Kirby towards some buttons. Kirby looked at Falco in confusion, but Rob made a shooing motion. Shrugging helplessly Falco left.
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Krystal soon pushed her companions into a large room with multiple consoles and switches, and she made sure to give Bario a nice long stroke-push before stepping in herself.
"What do we do here?" Raichu asked.
"Just sit yourself at one of the stations, and I'll tell you." Krystal said, strolling confidently towards the center of the room.
The Smashers started to sit, some succeeding rather easily, like Mario and Bario, both of whom had bodies well designed for sitting. Raichu and Diddy struggled to sit while keeping their tails from being shoved into the chairs…which was a rather odd problem, since several members of the Star Fox team had tails, so the fact that they designed non-tail designed chairs was…confusing. Eventually they saw Meta Knight just standing at his station and they followed suit.
"Okay, there are eight secondary guns stationed around the front of the Great Fox, besides the large two by the hangar. Those ones are controlled where Rob is, but we get the other ones. There are only six of us, so we'll leave two guns off," Krystal said.
"Can't you make them AI controlled?" Meta asked.
"We could, but the AI is so bad that they would likely target Falco and your friend Samus," Krystal said in a way that seemed like she didn't think that would be too awful.
"Ah," Meta said.
Diddy was only half-listening as he was kind of unsure what the controls meant. There was a large monitor with a cross in the center. The monitor was showing white dots and a glint of gray in the right corner. There was a large joystick on the left of the monitor and a big red button on the side, and he had no idea what any of it did.
"Uh what does this-" Diddy started to say, before Krystal started talking again.
"The controls are simple. The monitors are from cameras attached to one of the guns, so you're seeing space and part of the Great Fox. Don't shoot that," Krystal commanded, her tone darkening slightly, "The joystick lets you move the aiming reticule, and the button fires a laser."
After saying that she walked over and gleefully plopped herself down in a seat next to Bario, who was looking rather unsure of himself. She carefully picked up his hands and started to guide them to the joystick, but he jumped when she touched him.
"Sorry," he said, "I don't like being touched."
Krystal started to develop that pouty lip, but before she could start whining at him Raichu asked a question.
"Is that it?"
"What?" Krystal snarled, before abruptly switching tone and answering in her normal voice, "Oh…yes."
"What do we do now then?" Diddy asked.
"Wait for Rob to take us to Corneria," Krystal answered simply, "That's where Andross is waiting.
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"So what do you want?" Link asked, unsure of what answer he was expecting.
"Well…I was hoping you could help me…," Samus said, thanking her suit for hiding the embarrassing blush.
'Geez' she berated herself, 'I saved my galaxy from destruction, and here I am, red in front of this…swordsman, who already has a girl. Get a hold of yourself!'
"Help you what?" Link asked again, struggling to keep his voice from cracking.
'Oh man…Zelda would be so mad if I ever did anything with Samus…but we never outright said we were together…it's not her decision…what should I do about Samus…what should I do with Samus…AGH! Don't think about that!'
"Help me with my ship," Samus said, hurriedly moving over to her controls.
"Oh," Link said, not sure if he was relieved or disappointed.
He followed her over to her chair where she sat down. Seeing Link look around awkwardly she hit a switch and a second, smaller chair appeared by some other controls. Link sat down, and Samus explained that these were the guns, giving him a slightly more in-depth tutorial than the last time they were in her ship.
As she was going over it with them, the Great Fox gave a slight lurch and they looked out the cockpit to see stars moving around, as the ship sped towards Corneria. It wasn't very far away, so this would be a pretty quick trip.
Before they turned their attention back to the instructions they saw Falco climbing into his Arwing. He gave them a thumbs up, which they hesitantly returned. He then started flipping switches and checking things.
Samus finished her instructions and looked at Link expectedly. He looked back, rather awkwardly considering her helmet obscured her face. After a minute he cleared his throat.
"I uh…I get it. Thanks."
"Great! So you'll be able to handle the weaponry while I fly?" Samus said.
"Yeah. Yes I will."
With a shuddering lurch, the ship came to an abrupt stop…and a booming voice echoed throughout the ship.
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After Falco dropped Kirby off, he moved pretty quickly to the hangar, knowing that it wouldn't take long for them to reach Corneria, where Rob had apparently found Andross. He didn't know if that was really true, considering they were just at Corneria and Andross never attacked…but hey, once one of the Rob's set their mind on something, you weren't changing it.
Falco moved down the gentle slope that started at the control room, or "head" of the Great Fox and led into the main body. He passed several rooms, and as he jogged past one he heard Krystal giving the others directions on how to use to the guns. He was really glad he didn't have to be stuck with her…she may seem sultry and whatnot…but she's really a tease.
She'd chase after the most attractive male she could find, and once she got him completely smitten with her, she'd toss him aside and find someone else. Poor Fox was completely head over heels, and she couldn't care less. If she wasn't so good at her ship duties, Falco would be a lot more vocal about getting rid of her.
He took a step in the hangar and gave a start when he saw the Gunship. Bario was getting really good at the whole portal thing. He started to walk past it when the floor jerked beneath his feet and he stumbled.
Grumbling at the poor quality of the Great Fox's gravity dampening things, he regained his footing and jumped onto his Arwing, flashing an embarrassed thumbs up at Link and Samus, who he could see through the Gunship's wide cockpit, and he hoped they didn't see him almost plant his face in the floor.
Falco then busied himself checking the Arwing and making sure everything worked. Apparently Rob was doing a good job of keeping everything in good condition as his Arwing appeared to be working perfectly, and it turned on quite smoothly.
The ship stopped suddenly and Falco's face flew forward, cracking his beak rather sharply on the console. Moaning, he pulled back, making sure he didn't break anything…and a terrifyingly familiar voice echoed in his ears.
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Rob had shown Kirby how to operate the main guns. They weren't that complicated, considering they couldn't move around. Technically Rob could easily handle them by himself, but Kirby suspected that the robot wanted some company, albeit silent company, but company nonetheless.
Rob pushed a lever and the Great Fox sped towards a bright dot that Kirby figured was Corneria. He didn't have long to get ready though, because just before the dot became big enough to recognizable as a planet, a massive shape appeared in front of the ship so fast that Rob was barely able to stop it before crashing into it.
The size was difficult to determine, since it was in space, but if Kirby had to guess he would have said it was about as big as the Great Fox.
"So this is the group that has been laying waste to M.C.'s forces?" The thing boomed, "I am not impressed."
"M.C.?" Link said over the radio, but no one had a response.
The first thing that came to mind looking at it was "statue." It had a vaguely humanoid face, with a series of cylindrical protrusions on either side of its face. The being was entirely gray, with the exception of glowing white eyes and a glowing diamond on its forehead. Nothing on the face moved, and it looked like a mask, or well…a statue.
However the maniacal laughter seemed to be coming from the statue head, so Kirby figured it was Andross. Hey, he's seen weirder.
Rob flipped a switch, releasing the hangars force field. Instantly Samus's Gunship came flying out, closely followed by Falco's Arwing. They separated instantly, spreading out to the right and left of the Great Fox as Rob centered the ship, placing the maximum amount of firepower aimed at Andross.
The huge face slowly floated, its lack of expression implying that it cared not at all for the group organized against it.
"Alright guys," Falco said, his voice coming in over the ships radio, "I'll lead a bombing run on Andross. Aim for the eyes and the diamond!"
Rob beeped a negative at Falco, and made a gesture at Kirby.
"What? Don't tell me what to do!" Falco responded angrily.
He started to fly forward but Kirby pushed his button and a pair of massive beams of energy shot out from the Great Fox's main guns, slamming into Andross's right eye hard enough to spin him halfway around, shattering the eye and scarring the gray stone-like material around it.
"GRAGH!" Andross shrieked, his mouth sliding down like a slab of granite.
"EVASIVE!" Falco shouted, his voice competing with Andross, who somehow could access the ship to ship channels.
Immediately after a huge stream of purple ring-shaped energy erupted from his mouth, skimming past the Great Fox's neck as Rob frantically brought the ship down in a steep dive. The force from the near miss was still enough to cause the ship to shudder.
Andross however didn't seem to care about the Great Fox as he curved the beam so it targeted the rapidly spinning Arwing. Samus's gunship slipped past the beam and Link fired off the ships orange missiles. They slammed into Andross's other eye, shattering it as well.
Andross continued tracking Falco, his beam inching closer and Samus was forced to pull up before Link could continue the assault. The Smashers in the lower part of the Great Fox started firing the secondary guns, the lasers about the strength of Falco's, and they were like needles stinging a boulder.
However they seemed to be irritating the boulder as the beam fizzled out, allowing Falco a chance to get away. Andross then released several missiles trailing yellowish-green gas as they flew towards the Great Fox and the other two ships.
The Smashers used the secondary guns to shoot them down as Rob re-centered the ship, and Samus and Falco easily avoided the missiles after them.
Falco skimmed past Andross's head, firing his lasers at the diamond, and just before pulling up he fired off a red bomb that exploded in a huge blast that destroyed the diamond and cracked Andross some more.
He just laughed again, and his mouth started to drop down again. Rob made a gesture at Kirby again and he punched his button, firing off the massive lasers again. They slammed into the center of Andross's face…and it shattered.
In the secondary weapons room, a central screen showed what the people in the cockpit were seeing, and between that and their individual screens, they actually had a better view of the situation than Rob and Kirby did.
They were trying to keep relatively quiet to allow them to focus on their aim, although Andross's mention of M.C. caused a few surprised mumbling. Once he started attacking though they fell silent.
Several of the missiles came dangerously close, and Mario was forced to shoot down one that Diddy missed, but the battle didn't get really intense until after Andross's face shattered.
Massive chunks of stone or whatever it was made out of exploded outwards, and Samus and Falco put on quite an impressive show of flying ability to avoid those, while the Smashers did their best to shoot the chunks down, but several still got through, leaving small pock-marks in the Great Fox.
Once the storm of rock had faded, they saw that the mask-like thing…actually was a mask, as the actual Andross was considerably scarier.
His large clawed hands were folded over his face, but as he lowered them his leathery face was revealed, and his poisonous eyes showed an incredible intelligence that's sole purpose was controlling and dominating every single thing in his path.
He laughed again and shot his left hand out in a brutal slap. The hand was about as big as Samus's Gunship and the attack sent said ship rolling as Samus struggled to regain control.
Falco fired some shots and at Krystal's direction, the Smashers aimed their shots at Andross's hands, which were clearly the most dangerous things out there.
A punch skimmed past Falco, and cackling something about only Fox being able to defeat him, Andross jabbed his right hand fingers forward, creating a trio of lightning bolts that shot out at his three adversaries.
Falco managed to avoid it entirely, but Samus was still recovering slightly and part of the attack hit her ship, leaving it apparently dead in space, while the third slammed head on into the Great Fox.
The ship listed greatly, and as Andross raised his hand again, Rob spun the ship rapidly…allowing Kirby to fire the guns once more, obliterating Andross's right hand.
The great monster let out a shriek more of rage than pain and stretched his left hand as from his body as it could get…and slam the main guns on the Great Fox, ignoring the minor stings of the secondary guns and Falco. They bent down terribly with a great wrenching noise, and it spoke of the sturdiness of their construction in that they didn't just snap off.
Raising the hand again he started to fire off those purple ring beams from it again…when several missiles from Samus's seemingly dead ship shot off and destroyed the weakened hand.
Growling Andross opened his mouth wide, clearly not ready to surrender, and with a furious bellow dozens of small asteroids came shooting out of his mouth.
The Smashers did their best to avoid them, Falco and Samus dodging around like crazy, while the six gunners shot tons down…but several managed to get through, and at the end of the attack the Great Fox was smoking from a dozen wounds, and Falco's ship was listing badly. Samus's was missing an engine; one of the three had been completely destroyed by the shrapnel.
Not letting up Andross started to suck the ships towards his mouth, not a normal or even a seemingly possible, since there is no air in space…but Andross was clearly not normal or even seemingly possible.
Falco fired one of his two remaining bombs. It landed and exploded by one of his hate-filled eyes, but it did nothing to deter Andross from drawing the Smashers towards him.
The gunners poured fire at him, and Link even managed to shoot another missile at him, but they all seemed to account for nothing as they were still drawn closer. Even the Great Fox was powerless, the damaged ship unable to apply the necessary power to escape.
Andross looked about ready to release another asteroid attack, and with the ships this close and already damaged it looked unlikely that they would be able to survive it…but before he could three bombs slammed into Andross, one slipping in his mouth.
The resulting explosions seemed to tear the angry ape apart and his head was lost in the resulting debris.
"What the heck?" Falco said.
"Looks like you're no Fox," a familiar voice said over the radio.
"Wolf?" Falco said in shock, "I thought you ran off!"
"Clearly he didn't bird, you should be thankful," Leon responded.
"Wasn't expecting these guys to show up," Samus said, surprise evident in her voice as well, as the three flew nearby in their Wolfen's.
"Tell me Falco, is that lovely Krystal still on the Great Fox?" Panther purred.
"Panther!" Wolf reprimanded, "Stay focused."
"I'm here," Krystal said excitedly.
"Krystal!" Falco reprimanded, "Don't…do…be…don't do what you are planning on doing!"
Wolf chuckled at Falco's attempt to control Krystal, which quickly caused Falco's relief to see them turn towards irritation.
"Why'd you come back?" Falco asked.
"I figured if I didn't save you and Fox's girl he'd never forgive me. Might even cry, and I can't have that. Won't be any fun to beat a whiny fox," Wolf said, his self-satisfied smirk could be heard even over the radio.
"I don't need you to save me," Falco grumbled.
"Yes you do," Bario said over the radio, "Now let's pay attention…Andross is not dead."
"What?" Several voices cried out at once.
A menacing laughter echoed again.
"I see now why M.C. is so interested in you swordsman…you truly are an interesting foe…but no matter. Now you will all see why I am the true ruler of the Lylat System!"
With startling violence a massive pink object shot out of the debris left over from what had appeared to be what was left of Andross.
A cry of disgust echoed over the radio as they realized what it was. A massive brain. Two round objects, that appeared to be what was left of the eyes were located near the lower part of the pale wrinkled object, and dozens of tentacles draped beneath it.
Suddenly the eyes shot off, disgustingly attached to the brain by a long stem of tissue. They chased after Leon and Panther, firing minor laser bolts, but Falco nudged his battered ship forward, trying to help Wolf remove the pests from his teammates tail.
The Smashers started to fire at the eyes, but the swirling ships and tiny targets made them stop, fearful of hitting an ally. So they did what Samus was doing…they fired at the brain itself.
The eyes turned out to be rather weak, and the Star Wolf team had no trouble destroying them, but as soon as they were gone Andross started flying around very quickly, trying to ram into the ships, its tentacles whipping around and sending three members of the Star Wolf team tumbling.
The three new ships seemed to be its target, as it ignored the others, and it pressed on despite six more bombs being flung at it from Star Wolf. Blackened and smoking, Andross seemed determined to annihilate all of his opponents, starting with his traitorous assistant.
"You have nothing to fight for Wolf; I destroyed your base and all of your men!" Andross shouted, a tentacle brushing aside Samus's ship as she tried to keep up.
"What? Why?" Wolf demanded, furiously avoiding the brain.
"I suspected you would betray me…it was a cautionary measure. I am the smartest being in the universe after all."
Falco was all but ignored in his tiny beaten craft…but he still had one bomb left, and seeing a tiny discolored lobe on the back of Andross he was determined to make it count.
While Andross babbled on about how smart he was, Falco managed to position himself. Wolf spotted him, and flew near him. Andross continued pursuit, putting what Falco hoped was his weak spot in a perfect position...and he fired his last bomb.
It hit dead-on, vaporizing the lobe. Andross was only able to let out a pained shriek before exploding in a fashion that made the previous ones look pathetic…and the blast radius was shooting towards the fighters…