They came from everywhere. Large, black orbs emerge from the top of the grandstands, and float over towards the track. They look squishy and opaque, like large balls of black slime. Back on the top of the grandstands are dozens of Black Shadow's cronies, each with their own miniature horns and masks, guiding the balls towards the unsuspecting racers. The ones who don't have the gloves on that control the balls are rowdily cheering on the others, excited to see their plans finally going into motion.

The racers have seen Black Shadow do all kinds of nefarious deeds, but these balls floating toward them leave them all confused. The ever-curious Goroh looks at one of them while scratching his head. "What nonsense are you on about now, Shadow? I think Falcon beating you so much left your brain scrambled", he says with a hearty laugh as one of the orbs starts to get close to him. His samurai senses kick in and he jumps back to slice it in half. The orb cleaves in two cleanly, but then simply fuses back together as though nothing happened. Goroh is put off by the bizarre ball, and slices and dices it like a wild man. Goroh gets several dead-on swings on the ball, cutting it into about a dozen cross-sections, but after he finishes, the pieces just reform into a perfect sphere again, and now Goroh is panicking.

The ball moves closer to him, and he tries to run, but someone grabs his legs and trips him. A few dozen of Shadow's goons have flown over to the track in wingsuits, and a couple of them restrain Goroh as the orb comes closer. Goroh can only try to scurry away, but it envelops his entire head. All he can see is inky blackness. He tries to fight it off, but once it covers his head, it becomes as hard as diamonds. He struggles for a second, but then his arms go limp, and he freezes in place. A hush falls over the stadium as everyone wonders what is happening to Goroh. He steps forward, and starts walking like a zombie over toward Black Shadow.

"Yes, yes, come to me, my new slave…"

The stands erupt into panic as no one in the crowd wants to be Shadow's next brainless pawn. A lot of the security is in the crowd, so as to protect them in the event of a crash or something. The security is able to help the civilians, but not much thought was given to the drivers. Common sense would dictate though that Super Arrow would protect the drivers in such a scenario, and indeed, he springs into action to fight off the blobs and attack his goons. However, Shadow knows that he's the toughest to take down, so several of the blobs go in his direction. He fights off several of the henchmen, and does his best to telekinesis-push away some of the blobs. However, several swarm on him at once, and once one of them manages to wrap around his head, it's lights-out. He fights it off longer than Goroh was able to, but suddenly the amazing Super Arrow starts to walk in tandem with Goroh toward Black Shadow.

Now the drivers are running for cover as well, seeing as not even Super Arrow was immune from these mysterious mind control bubbles. However, F-Zero tracks aren't the best place to try and make a get-away. They're suspended several hundred feet in the air using drones and air blades, and there're only a couple of access roads that lead from the garage to the track. Several of the goons land there and block the way out for the other racers. Bio Rex and Billy don't take kindly to being trapped like wild animals, and they attack in a wild fury. Several of the goons go flying when the reanimated dinosaur and the lab-grown monkey attack, with a few even falling over the side of the track. However, this Rampage is stopped quickly as several bubbles are immediately sent over to the access road to keep anyone from thinking of escaping through there, and the wild dinosaur and monkey are swiftly captured.

There aren't a lot of options left for the other racers, and they mostly just try to put as much distance as they can between themselves and this maniacal supervillain. Some pilots get the bright idea to just hop in their machines, and drive to the other side of the miles-long track, but that's when Shadow presses the button on a little remote, and causes a huge section of the track to explode away and fall down to the ground. This causes almost all of the drivers with that idea to stop just short of the missing track, with one exception. James McCloud launches his Little Wyvern over the edge of the destroyed track, and while in mid-air, switches his vehicle back into its base-form fighter jet and takes off from the track. The jet hits the boosters and flies off into the atmosphere, leaving Shadow fuming. "We'll get to him later, just get the others. NOW!"

With nowhere left to run, several of the racers come to the conclusion that their only way out is to fight Black Shadow and make him relinquish the other racers. The more athletic of the remaining racers all charge at the destroyed stage with Black Shadow on it. This includes Baba, Mr. EAD, Beastman, and Leon. A Tarzan-esque wildman, a super-advanced android, a wild animal hunter, and an uber-athletic wolfman seem pretty capable on paper, until you consider that Shadow already has Super Arrow, Samurai Goroh, Billy, and Bio Rex on his side. The racers clash with their enslaved counterparts, but even if some of them are stronger than their opponents, throw in the goons getting little pot-shots, and suddenly the racers are overwhelmed, bubbled, and converted.

By this point, hope seems pretty grim, as now only about half of the remaining racers haven't been taken yet. But then, a welcome sight appears, Captain Falcon emerges from the wreckage of his Blue Falcon. He looks hurt, but he's not going to let Black Shadow continue to impose his will on the other pilots. His vehicle came to a rest fairly close to where Shadow was controlling his army, so he quickly jumps up on the stage and tries to fight the bull-horned menace, and while normally, this would be an even fight, his punches aren't landing as powerfully as they might normally would, and Shadow takes advantage. He grabs Falcon by the throat, and carries him to the edge of the track, dangling him over the edge, taunting him with certain death.

"Do you know how long I've waited for this moment? How long I've dreamt of the day when I'd finally have you right where I want you? This… is my euphoria…", he says with a deep breath.

"Just do it…", Falcon says, weakly. "Drop me…"

"HA! You think I'm a fool? You think I'll let you be saved by your little Falcon Flyer? Oh no, Captain. I have much bigger plans for you", he says as he summons a bubble and places it around Falcon's head. He struggles, and struggles, and struggles before finally going limp. Shadow tosses Falcon to the track. "Stand up, Falcon", Shadow orders the beaten hero to his feet, and at that point, all hope seems lost.

The rest of the racers don't stand a chance, and are rounded up like cattle. Gomar is captured before Shioh is, forcing the lanky Furikakian to watch as Gomar seemingly abandons him until Shioh is bubbled as well. The Skull tries to at least partially escape from captivity by detaching his head before he can be captured, but after his head's been converted, the goons grab his body, and force it back on. Then they re-bubble him, this time getting the entire being. Both Dr. Stewart and Michael Chain try to go in peace, but for different reasons. Stewart is not a fighter by any measure, and offers to willingly be captured so as not to lose his sentience. Chain, on the other hand, wants to join with Shadow and help him rule the galaxy together. Doesn't matter, they're both bubbled.

Eventually, all of the other racers are rounded up and loaded into Shadow's Bull Loader 1, a massive ship that can be used to transport his ship and any number of passengers, willing or otherwise. He turns to his right-hand man, Blood Falcon, a perfect clone of Captain Falcon down to the cells. "Status report", Shadow barks out to his disciple.

"We've taken command of all the event staff on the track, as well as 18 of the other racers, not counting you and I, of course, and several pitiful law enforcement officers. We know one has escaped, while the others were wrecked during the race, and need to be scavenged."

Shadow thinks about the racers who are still at large. "Those missing racers are some of the only beings out there who are either capable enough or crazy enough to mess with our operation. We need to find them and convert them as soon as possible. Top priority is getting James McCloud, he's the only one of them with a working ship, and any rescue mission would likely start with him. I'll pursue him, while you stay here, and round up the remaining pilots", he says as he climbs aboard the Bull Loader 1.

"Of course sir, we'll get them right away", replies Blood Falcon as the bulking ship takes off with most of the F-Zero roster. "Alright goons, let's take these abandoned crafts, and start picking up the other racers", he barks out to the other followers. Blood Falcon hops in his Blood Hawk, while the rest of the crew fill up the other vehicles. The perfect plan, until Blood Falcon realizes that very few of them can drive an advanced F-Zero craft. They'll be here for a bit.

Black Shadow and his newly expanded crew take off and fly in the direction of where James flew off to. Unfortunately for them, James used his ship's cloaking device to give them the slip; he never left Mute City, and the rescue mission is already underway.