World 2-2: Overcoming the Nightmare
The natives of Camex III were a primitive yet resourceful race of reptilian humanoids who had only recently discovered how to grow and cultivate their own crops instead of relying on hunting and gathering for their food. They lived peaceful lives in tightly knit communities, caring for and supporting one another. The world they lived on was a hostile one but they would have overcome any obstacles that came their way and flourished into a mighty civilization.
Unfortunately for them, their planet was also a prime source of Bendezium.
The Alectys set down in the fields just outside of the largest Camexian settlement. Calling the place a village would have been a little too generous. The natives, of course, had seen the massive spaceship descend from the heavens and the more curious members of their tribe came out to investigate what this new thing was. They were startled when the bay doors opened, descending into a ramp. Some of the camexians fled, the smart ones, while the others stayed behind and watched as strange beings descended upon them.
Captain Ridley walked down to them, his lieutenant staying by his side while the other crew members followed with their weapons drawn. One particularly foolish native stepped forward to greet Ridley, holding up a large glowing crystal to him as a peace offering. Ridley took the gift gently, examined it closely then used it to bash the camexian's skull in. The other natives panicked and began to flee but were quickly mowed down by a volley of energy blasts. One camexian, the fastest runner of their people, managed to get out of range fast enough to avoid getting killed right away and headed for the settlement to warn the others. Ridley turned to his lieutenant and nodded.
Samus took off after the survivor, gun in hand. She didn't bother to use it, though, as she caught up to the alien on foot and tackled it to the ground. She imagined that it was probably begging for its life as it struggled to get out of her grip. Its survival was never an option, though, and Samus jammed the barrel of her energy gun into the pathetic creature's mouth before pulling the trigger. She remained silent as the resulting viscera splattered over her and she rose to her feet. Turning, she saw her captain and his crew catch up to her.
Ridley looked down at Samus' work and nodded in satisfaction before rubbing his hand against her cheek. Samus preened at the affection and leaned into her master's hand, letting out a soft purring sound before he pulled away from her and they turned to the settlement.
By the time the planet's second sun rose over the horizon, they had slaughtered every camexian around for miles and burned their settlement to the ground. By the time the excavation team arrived to dig up the precious minerals underneath, Ridley was sitting comfortably atop a pile of corpses and chewing on the remains of the first native he had killed. After a moment of consideration, he snapped off a leg and handed it down to his daughter nuzzled against his leg. Samus greedily took the offering and sank her teeth into the fresh meat.
A lifetime spent within the nightmare had utterly broken whatever was left of Samus Aran. All that was left of her was the feral Space Pirate that had been groomed in her place. Only a miracle could have snapped her out of it.
And a miracle, she received.
Samus looked up as she caught a flash of light out of the corner of her eye and dropped the bloody limb she'd been eating. Narrowing her eyes, she saw several humanoid figures approaching them. Turning to her father, she saw that Ridley had also noticed them and was bracing himself for a fight. Samus followed his lead and put the helmet of her pirate armor back on before pulling out her gun.
As the strangers approached, Samus caught a better look at them. One was clad in the dark navy armor of a Federation Marine but the other two had chozo armor. Strange, considering that they had already wiped the chozo into oblivion. Samus had been a part of the team that had led the extermination campaign against them on Zebes, or so her false memories told her.
Ridley roared the order to attack and rushed into battle alongside the other Space Pirates gathered. Samus moved to follow just behind him but was held back as a hand grabbed her shoulder. She spun around to strike whoever dared touch her, but hesitated.
Samus found herself staring into the deep blue eyes of a rugged-looking human man with short, sandy-brown hair. Beside him stood a fair-haired woman whose green eyes seemed to pierce through her very soul. The woman suddenly pulled Samus into a deep hug and she felt the fog over her mind clear at last as her real memories flooded back to replace the false nightmare.
"M-Mama?" Samus' eyes widened. "Papa? What are you doing here? How are you here? What's happening?"
Virginia Aran pulled away and shook her head. "I don't know, but we're here for you. We'll always be here for you."
And then Samus broke down crying. The hideous, almost demonic dark armor of a space pirate trooper fell away from her as she dropped to her knees, leaving behind her old blue Zero Suit. Both parents knelt down and embraced their daughter in a family reunion that shouldn't have been possible. After a moment that felt like an eternity, Samus finally found the strength to dry her tears and rise back to her feet.
"It looks like the others are going to need a hand," Rodney Aran said, pointing a finger over the battle raging on behind them.
Samus turned to see Ridley and his underlings facing off against the three armored figures and it suddenly clicked in her mind who they must have been.
"I'm sorry," Samus shook her head. "But I have to go."
"We understand." Virginia nodded, a sad look in her eyes.
"Go kick some butt." Rodney smiled and patted his daughter on the back. "Show those frakers who's boss."
"Honey, language!" Virginia snapped at her husband but Samus just laughed it off.
"I will, Papa." Samus brushed her hair back and took a confident step forward. An armored purple and white boot landed on the ground as her latest design Power Suit manifested around Samus in a flash. "I'll show them all what happened when you mess with an Aran!"
The Hunter reborn charged into the fight, striking down three pirates before she'd even reached them. One trooper tried to stab the marine officer in the back with an energy blade, only to find himself shoulder-checked at mach speed by Samus, tumbling along the ground before getting vaporized by a blast from her arm cannon.
"You sure kept us waiting, Lady," Commander Adam Malkovich grumbled before shooting another pirate in the base of its spine. "I trained you better than that."
"I know, I know." Samus whipped around and blasted two more pirates. "Good to see you, too."
"I'm glad to see you back on your feet," the shorter of the two chozo, Old Bird, said as he hurried over to them. "How are you doing?"
"Better than us, I would assume." Gray Voice muttered as he followed close behind.
"Hm, it looks like we're down to just the commander, now," Commander Malkovich said, turning his gun on Ridley, the last pirate standing. "Everyone, stay sharp!"
The mighty space dragon let out a furious roar, spreading his wings out in a display of intimidation. There was little left that he could do at this point, though. Samus aimed her arm cannon directly at his chest, charging up a blast as her chozo mentors and old commanding officer did the same. Four energy blasts fired at once, twisting around each other and convalescing into one. The nightmare Ridley let out one final howl of pain as he was torn apart at the molecular level, leaving nothing behind but an ashen stain on the ground.
The nightmare had ended and Samus was left with the five most important people from her past standing around her. For the first time in a very long time, she felt truly safe. Safe enough to let herself cry once again, as five comforting hands reached out.
If there was one thing that Luigi was good at, it was jumping. Ever since he was a kid, when he and Mario would occasionally shoot hoops with the other kids in the neighborhood, he was always the best jumper. As an adult, he'd only gotten better at it and his high jumps had proven an invaluable skill through most of his adventures with his brother. That skill hadn't been much use lately, though, since his recent adventures hadn't required it as much as usual. But at the moment, getting chased around an abandoned country village by a murderous vampire, he found himself parkouring his way from rooftop to rooftop. After a while, it seemed that Dracula had managed to lose track of him, so Luigi hopped back down to ground level and snuck into an old shop through a back door.
Maybe if he layed low for a while, Dracula would give up and leave? But with his luck, probably not. Still, at least now he had a chance to slow down, catch his breath and actually think. Just what was happening?
Luigi realized that he was in some sort of old kitchen. He'd apparently entered a restaurant of some kind. Looking around to make sure that the coast was clear, he poked his head out into the main dining room. To his surprise, it wasn't empty. A few patrons were scattered around, seated at several tables. Luigi knew that he couldn't just leave these people here without warning them of the nearby danger and walked out into the room.
Every head turned to face Luigi and he gulped. They weren't people at all but more zombies. Luigi immediately turned around and ran out of there before they had a chance to chase him. He stumbled along the back alley behind the building and without thinking about it, had walked back out onto the main street. Thankfully, Dracula didn't seem to be there. However, in his place were even more zombies, as well as walking skeletons, ghosts and other various monsters.
He had to get out of town, so Luigi ran along the street, dashing, swerving and jumping out of the way of all the undead monstrosities trying to hunt him down. Finally, he managed to reach the edge of town and made a break for the woods. However, a wall of dark flames suddenly burst out from the ground ahead of him and Luigi was barely able to react fast enough to slide to a halt before getting burned to a crisp.
"Ah, there you are."
Luigi turned, to see the large and imposing figure of Dracula approaching him. The vampire wasn't running so much as gliding along the ground. With nothing left to do but fight, Luigi pulled himself back to his feet and held his fists out in an old boxing pose. His form was terrible, of course, but he tried his hardest not to look scared.
"Hm, perhaps the Belmont blood does run through your veins, after all," Dracula scoffed as he slowed to a halt. "Most men would be cowering in fear before me. Not that it matters. You're just a pale imitation of your brother, unworthy of trying to live up to his legacy."
"And what would you-a know about my brother?" Luigi tightened his stance and gritted his teeth. "Mario doesn't have-a anything to do with this!"
"Oh, doesn't he?" Dracula scoffed and flared out his cape, which fell back down to reveal Zombie Mario standing beside him. "And what, exactly, do you think 'this' is? We're in your nightmare, after all."
That was right! The Cave of Nightmares! This was all just an illusion conjured up to keep them away from the Star Rod, none of it was real.
"Real or not, it doesn't matter," Dracula said as if responding directly to Luigi's thoughts, distracting him from a flash of light in the distance. "You're never getting out of here aliv- OW!"
A metallic clang rang through the air as Dracula stumbled forward. He'd just been smacked across the back of the head by a frying pan of all things, clutched firmly in the hands of a familiar tanned princess.
"Don't you ever threaten my Luigi, you… whatever you are!" Princess Daisy smashed her heel into the vampire's back before storming off to stand beside her fiancee. "It's okay, honey, I've got your back. Now, what exactly are we doing?"
"I'm-a not entirely sure but I-a think we're-a fighting my nightmares," Luigi replied. "I-a love you."
"Love you, too, dear." Daisy readied her frying pan.
Dracula rose to his feet with a groan, scowling at the couple with his intense red eyes. "Really? The sheer audacity! King Boo, to me!"
A giant crowned ghost suddenly appeared at the vampire's side, opposite Zombie Mario. Behind them, Luigi could see the rest of the undead horde closing in. The plumber closed his eyes for a second and let out a sigh.
"Run!" he shouted to Daisy. "I'll-a hold them off!"
"What, no!" Daisy turned to him. "I'm not leaving you here, alone!"
"He's not alone, but you're right that you shouldn't leave."
Suddenly, a dark-haired woman in a white and blue dress materialized at Luigi's other side.
"Huh, who are you?" Daisy asked the new arrival.
"Sara?" Luigi recognized the spirit of Leon Belmont's lover. "What are you doing here?"
"Wait, you mean the whip you've been carrying around lately?" Daisy asked. "This is her?"
"That's right." Sara Trountoul nodded, before holding her hand out to Luigi. "Grab on!"
Luigi did so without hesitation and the woman before him disappeared, replaced with the familiar black leather whip with a green gemstone embedded in its hilt.
"We're definitely having a long talk when we get home." Daisy shrugged and turned back to the monsters, raising her frying pan.
"When we-a get home, we're-a getting married," Luigi replied seriously. "I-a don't even care when the wedding's-a scheduled, we're-a having it as-a soon as we-a wake up!"
"You got that right!"
Dracula sighed, raising a hand to his temple. "Are you two lovebirds actually going to fight or are you going to just keep standing there and ignore us? Actually, you know what, I don't care. Get them!"
Zombie Mario suddenly lunged forward, gnashing its teeth and clawing the air. Before the monster could reach them, however, it was struck hard by a giant yellow fist and sent flying into the air until it was nothing but a twinkling star on the horizon.
"I've been wanting to do that for years." Bowser huffed proudly as he pumped his fist overhead, nearly knocking over the blonde woman in a pink dress sitting on his shoulder in the process. "Whoops! Sorry, Peaches."
"I'm alright." Princess Peach patted him on the head gently, then jumped down to the ground.
"Where are you people coming from?" Dracula roared furiously, before unclipping his cape and tossing it aside.
"It doesn't matter!" King Boo replied, floating overhead. "We've still got the advantage!"
The giant ghost dove down, only to flinch as he took a lash across the face from Luigi's Vampire Killer, followed by another. King Boo backed away out of reach, only to find himself getting dragged back with a wave of a magic wand. Rosalina hovered over from behind Luigi as he twirled the Vampire Killer overhead. The whip ignited through the magic imbued in the green gemstone and struck King Boo one last time. The ghost burst into nothingness before their eyes.
"Well, this is different," the aloof cosmic sorceress muttered as she fell into line with the others.
Dracula growled, clenching his fists. "Fine, it seems that if I want anything done around here, I'll have to do it myself. Have at ye- Hrk!"
The vampire stumbled forward as a thin blade pierced through his shoulder from behind, then yanked it back out and jumped to the side. A white-haired figure in black slashed his sword through the air, turning to face the image of his father.
"Alucard!" Luigi cried out hopefully, not expecting to have ever seen the dhampir again.
"Do I know you?" Alucard asked inquisitively.
"I… I-a guess not." Luigi shook his head, realizing that this was not the one he knew from his time in the Grimoire but somehow the real Adrian Tepes. "It's a long story."
"One which I am assuming has something to do with how you got that whip," Alucard replied.
"Hey, are we going to stand around talking all day, or are we going to kick some monster hiney?" Daisy asked.
"Yeah, I'm here to kick butt and take names," Bowser agreed. "And I don't actually care about anyone's names."
"A bit crass but I'll stand by that sentiment," Rosalina swished her wand through the air.
Luigi sighed but smiled. "Alright, then. We can-a talk later. For now, let's-a go!"
The assembled party then proceeded to decimate the undead horde of Luigi's nightmare until only Dracula remained. The Dark Lord stumbled back, weakened throughout the fight.
"Begone, Father." Alucard commanded as he lowered his blade against the nightmare Dracula's chest. "You don't belong in this world. Return to the memory from whence you came."
"I will…" the vampire stared up at his enemies defiantly, spitting up a bit of blood, "...never be a memory."
Alucard thrust his sword through Dracula's stomach, Luigi struck his whip across his chest and Bowser slammed his foot down on his head. The nightmare was no more.
"Now, would someone please explain what's going on?" Princess Peach asked once the fighting was over and everything was finally able to relax. "One moment, I'm at my best friend's bachelorette party, the next I'm locked up in a cage by Shy Guys and then suddenly I'm here."
"Yeah, same here," Daisy said as Rosalina nodded in agreement.
"I think they had pretty much the whole Mushroom Kingdom in there," Bowser said. "But those weren't my Shy Guys, I can tell you that much."
"Wait, you were-a all locked up?" Luigi asked. "Ridley, Roshi, Samus and I ended up in a field somewhere. I thought we were the only ones."
"I was filing paperwork in my office when I ended up here." Alucard shook his head and reached into his breast pocket to pull out a small white card that he held out to Luigi. "I'm not sure what's going on but I feel like we'll need to have a very long talk after all of this is done. Contact me whenever you get the chance."
Luigi took the business card, which he noticed was printed in both Japanese and English, with the name 'Genya Arikado'. He thought that was strange but chose to simply tuck the card away in his front pocket for the time being.
"Alright," Luigi looked around at everyone gathered around him, "All I-a know is that-a we're in some kind of-a dream world. We were-a tasked by someone called-a King Wart to find an artifact called the Star Rod. He's-a probably the one holding everyone prisoner but I-a have no idea why."
"Well, we better go give this so-called king a taste of his own medicine." Daisy slammed her fist into her hand.
"It would probably be best to ere on the side of caution for now," Rosalina argued. "At least until we can learn more of the situation. There's no telling what could be waiting for us if we charge in recklessly."
"We should probably find the others, first," Princess Peach pointed out.
"Agreed." Luigi nodded his head. "Now, let's-a get out of here."
The Mushroom Kingdom lay in ruins. Pools of radiant blue phazon were everywhere, from which glowing vines spread out to cover the land. Every living thing had been either eliminated or infected. And Ridley has been forced to watch as he had done most of it himself.
Omega Ridley flew circles around the towering form of a Leviathan, which rested just outside what had once been Princess Peach's castle. The Dark Hunter was inside, networked to the rest of the planet's corruption and overseeing SMB-985's conversion into a new planet Phaaz.
Ridley had long since given up trying to resist. He had been forced to watch himself slaughter and kill his way through everyone that he knew and cared for. Luigi? Speared through the chest by his tail. Daisy? Melted by plasma breath. Peach? Torn apart by a corrupted Bowser. Roshi? Head bitten off. And so the list went on.
No matter how hard he had tried to take back control of his body, he hadn't been able to so much as flex a finger under his own will. Eventually, he'd simply broken under the stress. Now, he was barely even conscious as his cyborg body glided through the air. All he could think about was the horror of what he'd seen himself do and the guilt of how good it had felt to do it. He had forgotten what kind of monster he was but the monster had not forgotten him.
There was a flash of light and Omega Ridley turned to face it. Ridley stirred back to alertness as he watched something descend from outside of the atmosphere. Some kind of meteor? Perhaps a spaceship? Ridley didn't know and Omega Ridley didn't care. He flew out to intercept and destroy the invasive object despite the irony of that statement. Ridley hoped that it was Samus, come to rid this planet of phazon and finally finish him off once and for all. Or Bailey? She was supposed to have the Hunter's memories and abilities. Rosalina? He didn't care who, so long as someone was able to stop him.
Once it was in range, Omega Ridley activated his missile launchers and bombarded the unidentified falling object with a barrage of high-powered explosives. Ridley's hopes were dashed as the ruined remains of whatever it was scattered and burned. Omega Ridley turned to resume his post. Ridley should have known better than to get his hopes up.
Then something hit Omega Ridley with enough force to nearly knock him out of the sky. The cyborg space dragon whirled around in the air to face his attacker just in time to get kicked in the jaw. He hadn't even gotten a good look at whatever it was, just a blur. He managed to reorient himself as his enemy hovered in the air in front of him with its- her wings.
She was mostly humanoid in appearance, dressed in an oddly casual outfit of a red and yellow jacket over a blue shirt with a four-painted star on it and plain jeans, as well as sturdy brown boots and a pair of white gloves. Despite the mundanity of her clothes, though, the woman herself resembled what ancient humans would label a demon. Purple skin, draconic wings and a spear-tipped tail that swayed from side to side. At the same time, she also resembled what the humans would call an angel, with her sharp features framed by long golden hair that matched her intense, piercing eyes. It was her smell that gave away who, or rather, what, she was. But that was impossible for more reasons than one.
"Is that all you've got, old man?" the woman taunted. "I don't remember you being this weak!"
Omega Ridley let out a fierce howl before charging through the air. The woman ducked under his outstretched claws and circled around to his back before striking him with an ax kick. The cyborg let out a mechanical roar before spinning around and firing a blast of plasma breath at her. She responded by shielding herself with her own wings, completely unfazed, before diving down and catching his neck in the crook of her arm. The two hurtled towards the ground.
A crater was formed where Omega Ridley slammed into the earth, while his attacker was able to pull up just in time to avoid making impact before landing softly in the ground. Omega Ridley pulled himself up, staring down the unexpected arrival before his chest panels opened up to fire two more missiles. Her eyes widened as if caught offguard by this attack but she was able to expertly jump over them. However, these missiles were designed with target tracking capabilities and they turned around in the air behind her. Ridley thought for a moment that the stranger hadn't noticed this but then she ducked beneath them before they could reach her. Instead, they hurtled straight into Omega Ridley.
The resulting explosion was strong enough to knock him flat onto his back and the purple-skinned woman followed up by immediately tackling him and pounding him with her fists and spear tail. To Ridley's surprise, she packed enough force to start physically denting Omega Ridley's armored plating. It seemed this mystery woman had what it took to defeat him after all.
"Come on, I know you can do better than this!" she yelled furiously as she continued whaling on him. "Put up a fight, old man! And I'm not talking to this bucket of bolts!"
That caught Ridley's attention. Was she really trying to get him to resist the phazon's control? But he had struggled as hard as he could against it to no avail.
Omega Ridley grabbed the woman and flung her to the side before rolling onto his feet. She tumbled along the fractured ground before rolling to a stop and pushing herself back up. The two stared each other down for a moment, fierce determination burning in the challenger's eyes before they both charged.
"Astral!" A radiant golden light engulfed the woman's fist as she drew it back. "Punch!"
Omega Ridley was sent crashing back into the dirt by a downward strike straight into the middle of his head. Whatever energy she had charged that attack with seemed to seep into him and wreak havoc on his systems.
The cyborg pushed himself back up onto his feet as the purple woman stepped back from him, readying herself for another round. Omega Ridley leaned forward and bared his claws while letting out a garbled roar. Then it tried to take a step forward but couldn't. Ridley held himself back, finally able to regain some level of control over his body.
"There you are." The woman planted her hands on her smiled and smiled confidently. "Now show that faker who's boss."
Ridley and Omega Ridley fought for control of their body, jerking and shifting as both tried to override the other's actions. Eventually, Ridley managed to get the upper hand and raised both hands back over his shoulders, firmly grabbing the two cybernetic wings. Then he pulled, as hard as he could, until at last he managed to tear the artificial limbs out, trails of robotic viscera streaming behind them as he tossed the wings aside. That was the final straw for Omega Ridley's domination over his body as Ridley systematically ripped every last chunk of metal from his flesh. To say that it was painful was the understatement of the century. Every single nerve felt like it was on fire as his flesh knit itself back together. But eventually, he was whole again.
Well, mostly whole. He was in more or less the same shape that he had been before entering this literal nightmare. With that done, he turned his focus back to his mysterious savior, who was rifling through one of the inside pockets of her jacket.
"Think fast!" She pulled something out and tossed it to Ridley. He caught the object and turned it over to find that it was a familiar red hat with an 'R' on the front.
"I have a lot of questions," Ridley told her as he put the cap on his head, finding that it was exactly the right size.
"What, no 'thank you'?" She smirked.
"Alright, fine. Thank you." Ridley groaned. "Now, who are you and, more importantly, how are you?"
"My name's Astra and I'm doing fine," she said. "Bit of an odd experience for me, though."
Ridley just glared at her. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."
The strange woman apparently named Astra just laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But you should probably be more specific."
Ridley closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm assuming that you got that winning personality from me?"
"I prefer to think of myself as being my own person." Astra shrugged.
"So, my nose isn't lying to me, then?" Ridley asked. "But how? Your existence should be impossible and I'm pretty sure that I would know if I had… a daughter."
"Magic?" the living anomaly suggested. "Look, I don't think any kids really that interested in how their parents… you know… Also, I think I'd be from the future, from your perspective. Or maybe just one possible future, I'm not really sure how that stuff works out. But just in case, promise me that you'll hook up with my mom, so that I can be born. Please?"
"No," Ridley said flatly. "That's not happening."
"Eh, you'll come around." Astra waved her hand dismissively before looking around. "Let's see… this would be when you were trapped in the Dream World, right?"
Ridley nodded.
"Okay, neat." Astra then paused. "So, whose butt are we kicking?"
"My nightmare, apparently." Ridley turned to the Leviathan and broke out into a run, Astra gliding along above him.
"That's not very specific but I'll go with it."
It didn't take them long to reach the phazon structure. Ridley had to climb up the side of the planetary parasite to reach an opening while his supposed future daughter flew in after him. The two navigated the twisting, pulsing corridors leading into the central chamber where the Dark Hunter would be waiting.
"Hey, since we're in the dream world, should we try summoning our personas?" Astra asked as they approached the door-like membrane leading further in.
"Summon what now?"
"Oh, wait, nevermind." She shook her head. "Way too early for that. Forget I said anything."
Deciding to ignore that entire exchange, Ridley tore open the membrane and dropped down into the central chamber where Dark Samus hovered, waiting for them.
The dark silver and blue figure rose from the ground, drawing in the ambient phazon scattered about the area. Ridley wasn't in the mood for a proper boss fight, though, and charged the nightmare before it had a chance to finish its charge up. He hacked and slashed at it with his claws, scraping and denting the Dark Hunter's armor.
Dark Samus aimed her arm cannon straight at Ridley's head and he jumped back in time to avoid taking the blast. Now that he was off of it, the creature hovered off the ground, preparing again to get ready for battle. Astra was the one to attack it this time, ramming into the Dark Hunter from behind with a shoulder tackle before grabbing its arms and wrapping her tail around its waist.
"Hah, take this, faker!" she yelled.
The Dark Hunter struggled to break free of the future girl's grip but Ridley joined in on the assault by locking his elbow around its neck and squeezing as hard as he could while pulling up. While this strategy likely wouldn't have worked on the real thing, the artistic liberties provided by the dream logic meant that together they were able to pop the Dark Hunter's head clean off with enough force. Father and daughter both backed away from the gooey corpse they had just made together, sickly blue phazon leaking out of the thing's neck hole.
"That was so much easier than it should have been," Ridley commented.
"That's the power of teamwork!" Astra said cheerily. "And being totally fraking awesome!"
"Language," the alien being that would eventually be her father snapped, prompting a chuckle from her.
"Since when do you care about that?"
"I don't know," Ridley admitted. "It just kind of came over me."
Astra smiled and flew over to him, tackling Ridley into a hug. Ridley recoiled at first but after a moment, returned the embrace. Eventually, they pulled away again.
"Hey, make sure that you hook up with my mom, okay?" Astra looked up at him. "Preferably sooner than later, okay? I'm pretty sure that all of my friends' parents should be together already by this point and it would be kind of awkward to be left out."
Ridley just glared at her. "If your mother is who I think she is, that definitely won't be happening. You do realize that we're barely on speaking terms, right? I'm not sure that you could even call us friends. I'm really not sure how you could have happened in any timeline, even if I was physically capable of procreation."
His heir apparent flapped her wings to rise overhead and gave him an angry pout. Then she dropped back down and gave him a face that he was pretty sure was generally known as 'puppy dog eyes'.
"Oh, come on! Please?"
Ridley stared into those glossy golden eyes, doing his best to keep a hardened expression. Eventually, he was forced to relent and let out a sigh.
"Okay, fine." He turned away. "We'll see how things go but don't expect much. We go together like oil and water."
"Eh, I'm sure it will work out. You two were meant for each other. But just in case, you should learn to play the drums. It'll help," Astra said with a smile before going in for another hug, resting her head on his shoulder. "Love you, Dad."
"I'm afraid that I can't really say the same, yet." Ridley hesitantly patted her back. "But you do seem to be growing on me, so there's that."
"Well, that's about all I could hope for at this point, I guess." Astra pulled away from him. "See you later, old man."
"Yeah, whatever, runt." Ridley's dismissive attitude was betrayed by the smile curling on his lips. "I'm sure you're going to be a handful."
"At least two," Astra smirked. "Oh, and never forget who and what you are. That'll be important soon."
Author's Notes: It feels weird to have finally written this chapter. I've been looking forward to it for years. In fact, it's the main reason I wanted to do this storyline in the first place. Otherwise, I probably would have skipped straight to what's going to be Super Ridley Bros. 3: Mushroom Civil War. But for now, let's break this chapter down.
Space Pirate Samus was an idea that's been floating around in my head for years but wasn't supposed to have been a part of this storyline. I was thinking about having her be part of a Mirror Universe, inspired by the one from Star Trek, and she likely would have been a secondary antagonist in SRB4. But as I've further developed my plans for this series, I realized that probably isn't going to fit as well as I originally hoped. Meanwhile, my initial draft for this chapter's opening scene wasn't really clicking with me and was overall just plain weird, but then I realized that using Space Pirate Samus for this would work well. I still may end up using the Mirror Universe idea for a later storyline but that version of the character will be pretty different from this one. Anyway, I had Samus be saved by people from her past to thematically show how much the past weighs on her and who she is. Plus, her present allies have already gotten plenty of time to shine, so it wouldn't have been as interesting.
I already talked about Luigi's nightmare in the last chapter's notes so I won't go into that again here. He gets saved by his present allies, symbolizing his connections to the expanded cast and the overall influence he has on the world around him. More importantly, though, was that if I gave him the past allies, then that would be an opportunity for Mario to explain the mysteries surrounding his death and we can't have that, yet. Getting to the bottom of that mystery is going to be one of SRB3's big plot threads. Oh, and we get our first glimpse at the real Alucard here. This was originally going to be a cameo to lead into him being a supporting character in Luigi's next spin-off (I don't have a title for it yet but it's going to focus on Luigi and Daisy getting dragged into an adventure while on their honeymoon) but changed my mind about him simply walking off after they defeat Nightmare Dracula.
Samus got help from the past and Luigi got help from the present. So naturally, Ridley got help from the future and that help came in the form of… his daughter? I was also thinking about having some more future kids show up here (Luigi and Daisy's oldest son, Mario III; and older Bowser Jr.; and Peach and Bowser's fight child together, Plum) but decided that there was already too much going on here. I went back and forth a lot on how much I wanted to reveal about the character that I eventually decided to call Asta (I went through a few names before settling on that one). Originally, I was going to be much more vague, with Ridley claiming that her existence should be impossible, and her visual similarities to her parents being the only clue to who she was. As I was writing it, though, I decided to go ahead and confirm that she's Ridley's daughter while leaving her mother's identity ambiguous for now. There should be a few possibilities based off the clues I provided and I'm curious to see who can correctly figure it out in the reviews/comments or on my Discord (invite code available in my author bio).
Oh, and before anyone asks, the line about personas was just an Easter Egg, not foreshadowing. I realized while working on an earlier chapter that the dream world would be considered part of the collective unconscious and therefore summoning personas there should be possible. But I felt that it was too early in the series to introduce those and I don't currently have any plans to add them later, so I decided to just throw in that line as a bit of a joke. For those curious, Samus' persona would be Amon Ra, the bird-headed warrior sun god of Egyptian mythology who battles a serpent every night, while Ridley's would be Apep, the aforementioned serpent. Luigi would have Remus, reflecting his Italian heritage and his status as the less well-known member of a pair of famous twin brothers. Not sure about Roshi or anyone else, though.
Next time, we'll be checking in on how Roshi's doing before moving on to what comes next.