CHAPTER FIVE

Revving the Engine of Chaos

February 21st, 2057

Cornerian Global Raceway

"This planet gets more advanced by the day, doesn't it?" Marcus said as he looked out at the redesigned track.

Three years ago, the raceway had been your standard track since the F-Zero Grand Prix had only recently begun coming to Corneria. Considering the possibility of it happening again, the track received a massive overhaul, and I do mean massive. There was now a sky-high ramp that dropped off into a floating half-pipe, as well as sudden 80-degree drops. Not only that, but there were speed boosters littered throughout the track, as well.

The weather, like Marcus had said before, wasn't as pleasing to the eye as the track was. The clouds were black and stormy-looking, almost as though they would begin pouring rain at any minute. Nonetheless, the bleachers were full to the bursting point just like they had been back then. Humans and Lylatians never looked so good next to each other.

Marcus' heart skipped a beat when a hand clapped down on his shoulder, but turned to find a smiling blond-haired human woman.

"There's the dastardly little fox I've been looking for!" Samus said heartily. "How are you, Mark?"

"Pretty good. You don't look too bad yourself if I'm obliged to say so. I guess alien guts are good for the complexion."

"More or less."

"Ah. Hello there, you two." said the tall human man that approached them now. "Good to see you're both coming back for another go at this."

"Falcon!" Marcus beamed.

Captain Douglas Jay Falcon. The runner-up from the race three years ago who just barely lost to Marcus, and had thankfully been a good sport about it. Not to mention he saved Marcus from getting severely injured during the last race. Here he was again, looking as friendly as ever and still with that red helmet casting a shadow over most of his face.

"Just warning you now, though: I'm not taking it easy on you this time." he said with a brief chuckle following this statement. "This is a sport, after all. You either win or you don't."

"Right. This time, I won't slow you down." Marcus replied with a huge smile. "It's gonna be fair game form here on out."

"Drivers, please proceed to your vehicles!" a computerized voice announced over the intercom.

"Looks like the games are about to begin." Samus said, lightly punching Marcus' on the shoulder. "Good luck out there, kid."

"Ditto."

All thirty-three of the drivers proceeded to the…

"Wait…thirty-THREE?" Marcus thought.

Marcus turned around and looked behind him. There was someone there wearing a ninja-style mask over their face, though from the person's body shape, he could tell it was a woman. That was about all he could make out, and all he could do was pray to the highest power that it wasn't Kursed.

Regardless of this, he shook the thoughts out and hopped inside his F-Zero machine, the Crystal Vixen. It had been a long time since he'd even seen this thing, let alone driven it. For a moment as he set foot inside, he was worried that all of the skills he had accumulated from it would be lost, but once he was seated comfortably inside, all the sense of familiarity came rushing back to him in satisfying heaps. Parked on his left was the Blue Falcon, and parked to his right was the Zebes Dagger, with Falcon and Samus piloting them respectively. Both of them gave Marcus a friendly thumbs-up, wishing him good luck. He returned the gesture, but looking in his rear view mirror, he could see the masked woman get into the vehicle behind him called the Cemetery Gate. The woman looked at him, seemed to smile, and gave him a sly wink. He didn't return the gesture. He just raised an eyebrow.

Meanwhile in the bleachers, all of Marcus' friends and family were there to cheer him on. Chase, Slippy, Amanda, Tyler, Anna, Bill, Lucy, Peter, Damalgo, Susan, Fox, and Krystal. The only one who hadn't shown up was Peppy, Anna's grandfather and the head general of the Cornerian Army. To paraphrase, he had said that he would most definitely be able to make it if nothing came up, obviously meaning that something had.

"What a shame. I think he'd really enjoy this."

"Drivers, start your engines!" the announcer said from somewhere else in the area.

Marcus smirked and flipped the ignition switch. The rocket thrusters sputtered to life and the vehicle rose a foot or so above the ground, as did the rest of the machines. Down came a video screen, and up came the numbers.

"Three!"

Marcus took hold of the steering console…

"Two!"

He rested his foot on the gas pedal…

"One!"

He gritted his teeth in an excited smirk, and…

"GO!

…as the kids would say, he shot off like a frickin' bullet.

He didn't cheer at the top of his lungs like he did the last time. Back then, this was brand new to him and the adrenaline rush had taken over right away. Since he had a sense of familiarity, the adrenaline was going to take a minute or two to kick in. That didn't make him any less of a threat to the other drivers. Chase and Slippy had shown up a few days earlier to help work on the Crystal Vixen in hopes of upgrading its accelerator.

Thankfully, it looked like it was working, because he was zipping right by quite a few of the machines as the track's map showed up on his monitor. Right as they were about to make the first turn, the Zebes Dagger zipped by him. Marcus just barely managed to catch a glimpse of Samus' smirking face. Marcus replied with his own smirk.

"So that's how she wants this to go down…"

Marcus drifted to the right as the machine called the Wild Goose went barreling towards him, forcing the latter to smash into the guardrail before rebounding back at him.

"Sweet! Handball! …or is that F-Zero Ball…ah, the hell with it."

Marcus spun the steering control around, causing the Crystal Vixen to pull off an incredible spin attack, launching the Wild Goose off the track. Marcus slammed down on the gas pedal again, to launch further forward, and as he neared 10th place, he looked to his left and saw that he was neck-and-neck with the Blue Falcon. Captain Falcon himself looked over at him with a grin.

"Looks like someone's already having fun." he chuckled.

"It's gonna get better. Just you wait."

"I'm counting on it. See you up ahead."

Falcon swerved out of the way of another machine, the Fire Stingray. Marcus smirked. Three years ago he had saved Samus from getting demolished by this same machine, and he honestly couldn't blame the driver for wanting revenge as he came swerving towards him. Marcus slammed on the brakes, forcing the Crystal Vixen to shoot backwards and getting the Fire Stingray to simply smash into the guardrail and rebound back onto the track.

The vehicles zipped through a large jump over water, and as Marcus was descending, he caught a glimpse of the Cemetery Gate right next to him. When they landed, this vehicle's driver looked over at him again and seemed to laugh. Marcus scowled at swerved towards her. He wasn't normally the offensive type for this kind of sport, but something about this girl was unnerving him.

It turned out that he wasn't the only one good at dodging: the Cemetery Gate moved every which way imaginable to avoid his attacks. Finally, Marcus gave up and slammed on the boost pedal, trying to get as far away from this person as he could, when she suddenly rammed him from behind. Shaken slightly, Marcus growled at her. She simply made the giggling expression again before zipping away.

"Sheesh. The nerve of some people. Alright, what place are we in…oh, for cryin' out loud, you again?!"

Them being the Death Anchor, a familiar machine that had severely harassed him the last time he had raced. The last time, Marcus had completely trashed it, but here it was looking good as new and more durable than before. Not to mention it was barrelling right towards him. Marcus gritted his teeth with a cocky smirk stretching across his face.

"You wanna play rough?! Okay! Then come at me, bro! …yeah, no 'say hello to my little friend' this time."

The second the Death Anchor came close enough, Marcus swerved out of the way. The vehicle dove at him again. He performed a spin attack, pushing it away from him. The vehicle looked like it was about to dive at him again, and Marcus unfortunately fell for it, swerving backwards before realizing that the driver had tricked him. The next thing he knew, he was being scraped against the guardrail and sending sparks shooting everywhere.

"Okay, I'll admit it…he's playin' rough, and it's taking its toll on me."

It was then Marcus realized what the driver of the Death Anchor was doing: he was keeping Marcus fastened against the guard rail in the hopes that the sudden turn coming up would send our hero careening into the water below. In an effort to get him off, Marcus jammed the steering console in the opposite direction that he was being pushed. This at least got his vehicle's side off of the guardrail, but it didn't move him far enough to get him out of harm's way.

"C'mon, you piece of crap, get off me!" he growled.

Just when it looked like he had no time left, up came the Zebes Dagger ramming into the back of the Death Anchor and sending it flying away, hitting the guardrail in front of them and going flipping over the edge.

"Just be sure to help me further up if I need it, okay?" Samus asked.

"After having that little event play out, I'd say you deserve it."

Off the vehicles went, accelerating to nearly impossible speeds upon landing on the speed boosters littered throughout the track before beginning their ascent up the sky-high ramp.

"This one's gonna be a doozy."

And it certainly was. The 31 remaining F-Zero machines went shooting off the ramp, gliding several hundred yards before landing in the floating half-pipe, swerving up its walls to avoid hitting the others. There were several speed boosters on this section of the track as well, and Marcus unfortunately skidded over one trying to straighten out. This sent his side smashing into the back of the Golden Fox which unfortunately for him went surging off the course.

"Uhh…sorry…I know it's too late because you're already off the track, but…sorry."

The half-pipe then began to rapidly descend until the machines launched out of the end and into the massive tunnel leading underwater. The scent of familiarity came back in spades now that Marcus had entered this particular area. Last time, he had broken off the path into a shortcut under maintenance and was attacked by Kursed, resulting in him having to be saved by Captain Falcon. Since Kursed was slightly more active than she had been three years ago (if he was right, that is), taking the shortcut might not have been the greatest idea, but…it didn't matter. The shortcut seemed to have been removed from the track.

"Just as well. Shortcuts are frowned upon, anyway…not illegal, just frowned upon."

Marcus slammed down on the boost pedal and shot ahead into sixth place. He looked back at the trailing competition for a moment and smirked.

"Jeez, could ya go any slower…I totally just went and jinxed it, didn't I?"

Yes. Yes, you did. Right out of the blue (Ah! See what I did there? …'cause Marcus' fur is blue? …shit.) came the slim yet sturdy Sonic Phantom, crashing right into the back of the Crystal Vixen and lurching it forward. Marcus returned the favour by performing a spin attack, causing one of the wings to bump into the Sonic Phantom's hood and send it hurtling backward. Not enough to force into any severe damage, but enough to get it away from him.

It was then that Marcus noticed a shadow hovering directly above him. He had the right mind not to look, but his instinct quickly overcame that, and he saw something that he was hoping he wouldn't see at that particular moment: a vehicle called the Black Bull was magnetically attached to the ceiling and Marcus could see the vehicle's driver was smiling evilly down at him.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me."

Marcus slammed on the brakes the second the Black Bull released from the ceiling. The latter smashed against the ground upside-down, giving Marcus enough time to maneuver his way around it and speed away before it could try and catch up with him. After a few nosedives and sharp turns, the vehicles rocketed up out of the pipe, over an newly added loop, and across the line for the second lap.

"You got this in the bag, Mark!" Peter cheered. "Keep it up, mate!"
"Go for it, sis!" Scott yelled.

"Who, who, hold up…what's Scott doing here? And what does he mean 'sis'?"

As Marcus pondered these thoughts, the Cemetery Gate pulled up beside him and the driver was smiling at him again. It didn't take long for Marcus to put two-and-two together, and when he did, a big smile stretched across his face.

"No freakin' way, man!" he laughed.

The girl took off the mask, and just as he thought…

"Hey, Mark!" Coyote chirped.

"So if you can't beat me in a dogfight or a fist fight, you figured you could beat me in an F-Zero race?"
"Yeah. That would be why I'm doing it."

"We'll see about that."

"Indeed we will."

They split off from one another and Coyote managed to zip over a speed booster to get ahead. That was when Samus pulled up beside Marcus.

"She a friend of yours?" he asked.

"My girlfriend, actually. She's a little stubborn sometimes, but then again, so am I."

"You gonna to take it easy on her?"

"I'm not sure. Morally it would be the best thing to do, but competitively it would be the absolute worst."

"If you ask me, I think that you should just go with your HOLY SHIT!"

Right as Samus had been about to finish her sentence, the pavement in front of them splintered and reared up, halting the Crystal Vixen and the Zebes Dagger and sending them tilting backward until they crashed upside-down.

Dazed and completely unsure of what exactly had hit them, Marcus and Samus kicked their cockpits open and crawled out after a few moments of just lying there and trying to get the aching feeling out.

"What in the name of…Coyote? You okay?"

"Over here…ow…"

Coyote stumbled toward the two of them with her own F-Zero machine completely trashed. She seemed to have been flung from her vehicle judging from the badly skinned knee and the numerous scratches along her arms and face.

"Did anyone see what hit us?" Samus asked.

"Not a damn thing." Coyote replied. "I bet one of the other racers is being a cheating bastard."

"Wouldn't be too surprising with all the shady folks that entire these kinds of events."

Marcus groaned and shook out anymore nauseous feelings he might have had.

"Well, I guess we lose. Let's…wait a minute…"

Marcus' ears pricked up as his ESP kicked in. Whatever was approaching was coming fast. He hadn't a clue what it was or what it wanted, but it was huge and it was starting to make his head ache. Not to mention he could hear a noise unlike anything he had ever heard before…and it was directing him back towards the bleachers where the audience was watching.

"No…she wouldn't…"

Before Samus or Coyote had any time to stop him, Marcus started running back to the crowd as fast as he could. Everyone was confused why he seemed to be in such a panicked state, but as soon as he got back to the starting line and screamed "EVERYBODY GET OUT OF HERE NOW!", the confusion got even worse.

It was at this time that Samus and Coyote had managed to catch up with him, but now everybody could hear the same sound Marcus had heard. Then, out from the stormy clouds came an incredibly large and menacing flagship. No one was sure what it was until several smaller pods deployed from the flagship and began flying down towards the pavement.

That was when Samus grew panicked.

"PIRATES!"

Indeed, the creatures that jumped down from the pods once they had reached the ground were the hideous Space Pirates. A gang of alien menaces that had been the subject of a number of Samus' grievances throughout her life. Not only had many of her friends from the Galactic Federation been killed off by them, but they were responsible for the destruction of her home planet K-2L. One in particular had murdered her parents in front of her when she was a child, but she was better off not thinking about that.

Everyone in the arena screamed and ran for the exits as quickly as they could. Samus tampered with her wrist communicator as the Zebes Dagger morphed back into her familiar gunship and landed in front of her.

"Time to suit up."

She tampered with a few more buttons and spread her limbs apart before closing her eyes. In a brilliant flash of light, the particles of the legendary Chozo Varia amour began forming over her body, encasing her in warm-coloured armour, along with a green arm cannon and a red helmet with a green visor.

"You're not just taking them on alone." Marcus insisted. "We're helping you."

"You're better off not getting in my way, Mark." Samus said with a sudden cold tone that was completely new to the young McCloud. "These guys aren't like the thugs you normally deal with."

"Hey, they may be your bad guys, but it's our planet they're attacking. Like it or not, we're helping you. You're a bounty hunter, not a superhero."

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Marcus nodded and spoke into his communicator.

"Star Fox assemble! We've got a planetary raid on our hands!"

The team was overhead in the Arwings in no time flat.

"Al, let's have you on the ground with me and Coyote. The rest of you take to the skies."

The Bonesetter landed on the ground and out jumped Damalgo, but what got to both Marcus and Coyote was just how different he looked from when they had last seen him. Clearly Duke Nukem Forever had an impact on him, because he was now wearing a very flashy belt, a pair of sunglasses, and a red muscle shirt.

And as if that wasn't enough, he whipped out a shotgun and said the line.

"It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum…and I'm all outta gum."

"You know I met Duke Nukem once?" Samus replied.

"Wait, how is that possible? Isn't he just a fictional character?"

"He commissioned a gang of companies to make games based on his adventures, and let me tell you that not all of them are completely accurate."

"Huh. What was he like?"

"He tried to put the moves on me and got really pissed off when he saw it wasn't impressing me at all. Sorry, guys, but if you're gonna get with me, being a tough guy and trying to get me to bend over right after you've met me isn't the way to do it."

And let that be a lesson to you.

"No sense arguing about whether or not the guy's a good role model!" Chase shouted. "Here they come!"

"Activate Power Beam. Shoot to kill!" Samus barked before a loud beep came from her helmet and the grooves on her cannon turned a bright gold hue.

The pirates nearly immediately noticed Samus, drawing energy shields and attaching their own arm cannons before running towards our foot soldiering heroes. Marcus whipped out his staff and deflected the first fired blast, lunging at the closest pirate and impaling him with the spear end.

"Engage the enemy!" he ordered. "No holding back!"

Anna, Chase and Peter dove into the area, firing at whatever ships came too close to the ground for the others to fight properly.

"Oi, Coyote!" Peter said from above. "Got a little present for ya!"

He swooped down low enough and dropped a metal box out of his cargo hold. Coyote dashed over to it, opened it up, and cheered when the items inside automatically attached themselves to her hands.

"Hell yeah! Repulsor Gauntlets!"

"What's a Repulsor Gauntlet?" asked Samus.

"You know Iron Man?" Peter replied.

"Sure."

"Picture him mixed in a blender with Freddy Krueger, and check it out."

The closest pirate received a blast of energy from the palm of the silver gloves that Coyote now had on her hands, sending it flying over the guardrail of the track.

"And when they get too close..." she continued.

She clenched her fists and flexed her fingers. Much to Samus' surprise, long blades sprouted from the tips of the gloves' fingers.

"And I thought I got crazy weapons."

Marcus flipped over the first pirate to come at him and back-kicked him to the ground before impaling another one, followed up by an uppercut and a roundhouse kick to put down a third before ripping the gun off his arm.

"Now THIS is one weird-ass gun if I've ever seen one."

"Hold on to that, mate!" Peter instructed. "I could probably run a few tests and make somethin' real good out of it."

"Can I use it now?"

"Why're you askin' me? I didn't build it!"

Samus shoved her arm cannon down the throat of one of the pirates, charging up her Power Beam and releasing it full blast to rupture his insides. Another pirate came up behind her, to which she responded with the use of her Grapple Beam from the cannon mounted on the underside of her left arm to lasso him towards her and hurl him away. Yanking her cannon out, she blasted the closest one to her away with a missile and curled up into her Morph Ball mode to dodge the blasts coming from the nearby rooftops were pirate snipers had positioned themselves, all of whom were cleared off with charged shots from Chase and Anna. Across from Samus was Damalgo, shooting one pirate point-blank in the face and then knocking another unconscious by beating him with the butt of his gun. Another close pirate attempted a cheap shot to Damalgo's groin, only to start hopping up and down on one foot while clutching the other after he hit a metal plate that the Sharpclaw wore in case anyone ever tried that.

"Don't you know, pal? I've got balls of steel." he laughed before blasting the alien thug in the chest.

Oh, come on, you knew he had to say that at some point.

Coyote's method of fighting off the pirates could be described as nothing less than ninja-like. She flipped over one, landed on his back, and ran a finger-blade across his throat to slit it. Following that, she hopped off of him and tossed a repulsor blast, launching another pirate away from her before performing a Liu Kang style bicycle kick to a third and a flip kick to a fourth. As a fifth closed in on her and opened his mouth to let out a battle cry, he found himself choking on Marcus' staff as it stabbed through the back of his throat.

"Bit off a violent way to finish off a goon, don't you think?" Coyote said with a smirk.

"Just making sure this romp gets that M rating."

"Right, as if us saying fuck six times isn't enough to do that…seven if you count now."

Trust me; it's only gonna get worse.

"Heads up, guys!" Damalgo yelled. "We've got some armoured ones headed our way!"

"Switching to Plasma Beam." Samus responded. "Maximum heat output."

The grooves on her cannon switched from gold to reddish-orange as a group of pirates covered in armour made up of some unknown material approached them, one or two holding what appeared to be miniguns.

"May I?" Damalgo asked.

"Sure." Marcus smirked.

"Sweet!"

The Sharpclaw turned to the pirates.

"We're not gonna fight you…we're gonna kick your ass!"

Off went the miniguns, revving up and firing off at 10,000 rounds per minute (which is how many per second, Heavy?). Thankfully, an extreme rise in firepower meant an extreme drop in speed, making these two far less of a threat than anticipated and giving the four foot soldiers time to get close enough to attack, albeit with Coyote having to flip over the onslaught of bullets as it came just a hair too close. A blast from Damalgo's shotgun and a shot from Marcus' staff's Fire Blaster eliminated some of the smaller cronies, while the two bigger ones were able to swing their guns like siege weapons. Upon getting close enough to fire, they realized that their weapons had little to no effect on these monstrosities. The least they could do was get them to fidget slightly.

"Heads up, Mark!" Coyote yelled as she jumped out of the way of one such siege attack.

Marcus had just enough time to catch the barrel of the gun telepathically. Right as the pirate saw that he wouldn't be able to shove the gun any closer, he started revving up the barrel to fire.

"Pardon me," Samus started as she leaped into the air. "But would you mind if I inspected your gun?"

She shifted into Morph Ball mode and dropped into the gun's barrel. Before the pirate could do anything about it, a small bomb dropped out and detonated, throwing him off-balance and falling to the ground as Samus dropped out and shifted back.

"Yep. I'd say everything checks out. I'd just like to see your license and registration…what, don't have one?"

She aimed her cannon at the seam in the armour that had exposed itself after the pirate had fallen.

"In that case, you're off to the big house in Hell!"

The plasma wasted no time eating through the armour and melting everything underneath. The pirate lay dead after a few brief moments of convulsing in agony. While Samus had been at that, Damalgo and Coyote had taken to the other pirate, with the former blasting the pirate once on each foot and kicked the barrel of his gun to topple his balance, followed by the latter using a repulsor blast to knock him off his feet and jumping on his chest to finish the job.

"Welcome to prime time, bitch!" she yelled before burying the finger-blades into the pirate's head.

As Chase cleared more pirates off of the rooftops and downed some more of the fighter ships with the help of Anna and Peter, he noticed a point on his radar. Whatever it was, it was coming fast and giving off a familiar signal.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up, guys! There's a huge energy reading coming from the south!"

"More fighters?" asked Marcus.

"No…it's similar to that reading we got from the orb a few days ago! The boss is inbound!"

"Boss?"

"Y'know how in some games you have to take down a huge number of cronies before you fight a huge monster that rewards you with something if you beat it?"

"Oh…odd terminology, but alright. Can we get a visual on it?"

"Already on it, mate." Peter replied, slamming on his boost pedal and jetting off in the direction that Chase had pointed out.

He had gotten quite a distance away from the track without seeing a thing, when suddenly something flew over him faster than he could see for a moment.

"What in bloody…I've got a visual…I think."

"What is it?" Coyote asked.

"I can't believe I'm sayin' this, but…I think I just saw a dragon."

Upon hearing the word 'dragon' come from Coyote's communicator, Samus' expression went from concerned to panicked.

"Wait…did he just say 'dragon'?!"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Oh, no…"

You know what music to put on now, right?

"EVERYBODY HIT THE DECK!" Samus screamed.

Without any sort of reluctance or questioning, the four foot soldiers dove to the ground right as the massive creature Peter had seen flew over top of them, unleashing a loud roar that filled the air with dread. Samus gritted her teeth, looked up, and saw exactly who she was expecting to see.

"Ridley, you bastard!"

Indeed, the monster flying in front of them was the gigantic violet-skinned Ridley, who seemed to smirk at Samus before flying off towards the city.

"Get back here!" Samus yelled before tapping a few buttons on her arm cannon to remotely contact her ship.

The Star Fox foot soldiers did the same, calling the Arwings down to them.

"New target, team!" Marcus ordered. "After that dragon!"

The team and Samus launched after Ridley, who had taken flight above the city and was beginning to rain flames down on it, sending anyone on the streets running in terror and even smashing his extremely long tail through several buildings that Marcus had to telepathically struggle safely to the ground to keep anyone inside from getting hurt.

"Everybody!" Samus barked. "His weak point is his head!"

"You seem to know quite a bit about this thing, Samus." Anna replied.

"More than I'd want to…the fucker killed my parents in cold blood."

"Oh…wow. Sorry."

"You can be sorry by helping me put this monster in his place."

By the time the team had caught up to Ridley, he was out over the ocean and steadily climbing back up into the sky.

"Wait just a cotton picking minute…" Chase started. "He's not…no way!"

"What?"

"He's heading for the Beltino Orbital Gate!"

"Is that bad?" asked Samus.

"Bad?! He'll knock out our communications to the rest of the galaxy if he gets there!"

"Then let's speed it up!" Marcus instructed. "He can't outrun all of us!"

Despite an Arwing being lighter than an average spacecraft and being very aerodynamic, Ridley was still able keep speeding on ahead, even as he turned his head backward and spat fire at his pursuers. They swerved out of the way and began firing ruthlessly in a somewhat futile attempt to hit him. Ridley either swerved away somewhat gracefully, deflected them with flames, or batted them away with his wings, not to mention using his whip-like tail to smash Anna's ship.

"He knows how to play rough, doesn't he?" Anna sighed.

"For cryin' out loud, just hold still, you dragon dinosaur…umm….thing" Peter said. "...what exactly is this guy, anyway."

"It's no use, guys." said Samus. "The only way to get any damage in on him is to get up close and personal."

"So what do you suggest?"

Samus gritted her teeth.

"It's gonna be risky, but…Mark! Let's you and me fly over and drop down on him! We'll have to hit him from point-blank range!"

"Got it. The rest of you stay back and be ready to cover us."

Samus and Marcus flew over the massive reptile and ejected from their ships to land on his back. Ridley looked backward and saw that little girl that he had been unfortunate to leave alive that day on K-2L, all decked out in her Varia Suit and trying to look tough. He opened his mouth and let loose.

"Heads up!" Marcus yelled, tackling Samus out of the way.

"Hold on! He's angling himself higher!"

The two grabbed on to Ridley's rigid back as best as they could as he turned himself higher up towards the sky in an effort to shake them off. The gale blowing through Marcus' fur was nearly enough to make him loose his grip, as did Samus being that she was wearing a heavy metal suit, but they clung on for dear life. This thing had to be taken down one way or another.

Once the two had solidified their grip, the climb began. Steadily they pulled themselves higher and higher up Ridley's back, dangling slightly when they reached his quickly beating wings. Ridley himself became aware of how high up they were and started shaking himself about to try and buck them off, but to no avail. Steadily they went higher and higher and…

"Samus Aran. What an honour to meet you."

Samus looked all around, trying to find out where the cold female voice had come from.

"Who said that?" she said aloud.

Then she appeared, defying gravity and standing just in front of the two of them.

"I did."

Marcus scowled up at her before reaching behind him and stabbing at her with his staff. She effortlessly stepped back away from it and chuckled.

"Gimme a second, Marky. I want to meet your friend here."

Kursed crouched down and looked straight through Samus' visor, peering evilly into the bounty hunter's eyes.

"Tell me, Samus: what was it like to watch your mother and father die right in front of you?"

All the horrible memories came rushing back to her…the monster she clung to burning her city down along with all the other Space Pirates he had brought with him…and still she came up to him and asked him if the two could be friends. He paused for a moment, seemingly unsure of what she was talking about, but then he attacked…and the blow was taken by another.

"Mother…" Samus said, a light tear slipping out of her eye.

"Aww, how sad." Kursed mocked. "If you like, I might be able to help you bring them back."

"W-what?...you can?"

"Yes…perhaps even Adam and Rundas, too."

"No, Samus!" Marcus yelled. "She's lying!"

Samus paid no attention to Marcus. Kursed offered her hand down to her, and the bounty hunter reached out to take it…

"ACTIVATE SUPER MISSILE!"

Kursed disappeared right as it fired, and luckily it passed by and hit Ridley on the back of the head, forcing him to roar in agony and level out.

"Phew…for a second, I thought you were falling for it." Marcus sighed.

"I almost did, but I guess it's just a life lesson: the past is written in stone, but the future is a blank page waiting to be written."

"Words to live by. Now let's finish this creep."

The two stood and started dashing for Ridley's head, when suddenly…

"Oh, Samus…so unwise."

As quickly as Samus had arrived at Ridley's head and was prepared to blast it, Kursed jumped out of nowhere and kicked her off, sending her screaming and falling to the ground miles below.

"You bitch!" Marcus yelled.

"I try." Kursed smirked. "Now how about you?"

Marcus readied his staff, and it appeared he was ready to fight, when he dove off after Samus. Ridley could wait.

He quickly caught up with Samus and seized her right as she looked behind them.

"Look out!"

Ridley was divebombing after them spewing flames to go along with it. Marcus quickly tapped a few buttons on his wrist communicator, causing the Arwing III to swoop up underneath them as they landed safely inside. Right as they did, Marcus shut the cockpit and jetted back towards the ground with Ridley still chasing them. The other team members were following, trying their hardest to get the reptilian monster away from their leader.

"Shit. He's too fast…oh, no!" Coyote stammered. "MARK, BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

Right as she said that, Ridley opened his jaws and snapped them down on one of the Arwing III's wings, forcing it to go hurtling towards the ground and crashing against the racetrack in a fiery mess. Marcus wearily pulled himself out, dragging Samus along with him who was just barely able to assist him with it.

"Are you okay?"

Samus' helmet faded away, revealing her beaten and scarred face from the crash.

"Mark…I can't…feel my legs…I think I'm paralyzed."

Marcus got to his feet and heaved Samus onto his back.

"Come on. We've gotta get you to the paramedics."

"But what about Ridley?"

Marcus gritted his teeth as Ridley began flying back towards the Orbital Gate in the sky.

"Team, is there any way you can collide paths with him?"

"No, Mark…" Chase said in sorrow. "He's just too fast."

Then came the voice that saved the day.

"Then leave it to me."

Dashing by Marcus and Samus went the Blue Falcon, racing up the sky-high ramp at top speed after Ridley.

"Falcon, what are you doing?!" Marcus yelled.

"A good captain goes down with his ship, Marcus. You should know that."

"Are you out of your mind?! You're willing to throw your life away just to save someone else's world."

"I want you to remember something, Marcus. A true hero will give up everything to save anything. I'm doing the right thing. All I ask is that you don't let it be in vain."

"Cap…don't do it."

The Blue Falcon surged off of the ramp and out over the open ocean, flying high above Ridley's head. Captain Falcon smiled up at the sky.

"Yes…this is what it means to be a hero. I have no regrets."

He slammed a button, sending himself jetting out of his ship and soaring down towards Ridley, who had almost no time to react. Right as Captain Falcon was about to reach the monster, his helmet went flying off of his head to reveal his triumphant and determined face as he bellowed the two famous words.

"FALCON PUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!"

Flames spurted from his gloves as he slammed down into Ridley and took the both of them plummeting down towards the water in a fiery meteor, sending cloud upon cloud of steam into the air as they sent up a splash nearly as high as building, and then…nothing.

"No…how could he…wait…"

Marcus could just barely make out Falcon drifting on the water. A glint of hope in his heart, he yelled into his wrist communicator.

"Someone get down there and fish him out!"

The Punk Rock-It and the Iron Maiden were the first to make it as Anna and Coyote hopped out and dove down into the water after Falcon as he began to sink. They surfaced not three seconds later, with Coyote cradling Falcon and Anna holding what everyone had expected to see: an orb similar to the one they had found before.

"Heartbeat's irregular, but life signs undeniable!" Coyote barked.

"Get him back here quick!' Marcus ordered. "We need to get these two to the hospital!"

NOT TWO MINUTES LATER…

There had been no decisive victor of the race, but judging from what had just happened, that was the least of anyone's concerns. People were lined up and down the street as Falcon and Samus were loaded into an ambulance, the latter clutching Marcus' hand.

"Thanks….for everything. The universe needs people like you to carry out the good fight."

"Don't worry about that. You need to rest easy. That's an order."

"Hey, buddy, I'm a bounty hunter. I take my own orders."

"At least take this one…don't die, okay?"

"Okay…take care of yourself, Mark."

They were driven away in nearly an instant, leaving the team alone on the track.

"It's all for me…she'll hurt anybody just to get to me."

Chase approached him after carefully inspecting the orb.

"Alright, Mark. Let's see what happens this time."

Marcus looked at the orb for a brief moment, unsure of whether or not he was prepared to face whatever may happen. Nevertheless, he nodded and reluctantly placed his hand on the orb. Instead of a vision, what happened was Kursed's cold and slithery voice echoing throughout the city, sending chills up everyone's spines as they stood and listened.

"People of Corneria, I am Kursed. Perhaps you remember me, perhaps not. It doesn't matter. What does is that one of you poses a very significant threat to me. When one person of a select group opposes me, then it shall be everyone he loves and cares about that suffers. This planet is useless, responsible for every problem that the Lylat System has ever had. To deny that is lying to yourselves. Let it be known that I will not rest, and neither will you…but that's what I'm counting on. Let this be a warning: you are all potential victims, and you're all as good as dead."

Marcus' fury welled up even more inside of him. This was no longer just a small family fued. He sucked in a breath and let it out.

"Then it's war, Kursed…God help us all."

Indeed. Just a quick warning that I'm going to have about two more chapters of this story up before Christmas, and then I'm going back to doing the Darkstalkers story. Don't confuse that for cancelling this one...and that's it. 'kay, bye.

SOUNDTRACK SO FAR

Krystal's nightmare - "Parabola" by Mer (originally by Tool)

Marcus versus Coyote (friendly) - "Name of the Game" by the Crystal Method

F-Zero race - "F-Zero Medley" by Entertainment System

Space Pirate attack - Space Pirate theme from Metroid Prime

Ridley- Ridley's theme from Metroid: Other M (Hey, I like that game! Screw you!)

Falcon takes down Ridley - "The Meaning of Truth" by Hiro-X