Chapter Text
In Smash Bros., it was always a big deal whenever another fighter's rival joined the tournament. It happened with Mario when Bowser entered the Melee tournament. It happened with the Links and Zelda in that same tournament when Ganondorf joined—though the Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf in this tournament are all from different timelines, Zelda knows exactly who Ganondorf was, while Link hates him without even knowing why yet. It happened with King Dedede when he entered the Brawl tournament and saw Kirby and Meta Knight—Kirby ignored him, Meta Knight gave him a nasty look. It happened with Fox and Falco when Wolf joined that same tournament. It happened with Mario again when Bowser Jr. entered the fourth tournament. And it happened with Pit in that same tournament when Dark Pit showed up.
Now, in the Ultimate tournament, things haven’t changed, because it happened again: with Donkey Kong when King K. Rool entered, with Mario—again—when he saw Piranha Plant, even with Cloud when he saw Sephiroth... And let’s be honest, the idiot who thought that was a good idea is out of their damn mind.
But the one who's had it worst this tournament is Samus. Because it’s one thing to invite her Phazon clone to the tournament. She could deal with her; Dark Samus hated her just as much as she hated Dark Samus, but she tolerated her to a degree, and only really fought her when Dark Samus herself picked the fight… which was often, and Samus always won. But if fighting her kept Dark Samus away from others so she wouldn’t hurt them, Samus preferred it that way.
The real problem was Ridley.
Except for Cloud, who left the room the moment Sephiroth entered, everyone else mentioned could at least tolerate their rivals. They didn’t necessarily get along, but they had enough self-control not to start fighting right then and there. Samus and Ridley, on the other hand? It was a miracle they hadn’t already thrown down in the middle of wherever they happened to cross paths.
Samus hated Ridley with every fiber of her being. After all, he killed her parents, and every time she managed to take him down, the bastard somehow came back. Whether it was because he survived their last encounter and got patched up with mechanical parts, or he was just straight-up cloned and revived—it didn’t matter. The bastard always came back to torment her.
The worst part of it all was that Samus genuinely tried to stay composed and ignore Ridley’s presence... but he always went out of his way to provoke her. Was she at the gym lifting weights? The bastard added extra weight just to mess with her. Was she training in the yard with unmoving targets? Ridley would activate the movement mechanism at full power, and while she still hit some of the targets, the bastard laughed at her whenever she missed. Was Samus just trying to exist and relax? If she crossed paths with Ridley, he’d scream in her face, messing up her hair, chuckling under his breath as he walked away, leaving Samus with a throbbing vein in her neck.
And today was no different, because after spending fifteen wonderful minutes at lunch thinking she’d finally get a peaceful meal, the second Ridley entered the room, she summoned a titanic amount of strength to ignore him. She kept chewing—aggressively now—praying to whatever deity might be listening that, for once, he’d completely ignore her... but when she looked up, Ridley was standing right in front of her, wearing that damn smirk that said, "I’m about to do something I won’t regret." Then he exhaled, blowing smoke over her, and walked off.
Of course, the smoke landed all over her—and what little was left of her food.
Samus swallowed what was in her mouth and sighed, gripping her fork so tightly she left visible marks, but said nothing.
"...Dude, I swear I can hear her blood pressure rising..." said Luigi from another table, panicking, using his cap as a shield.
"Honestly, I’m surprised she hasn’t exploded yet," said Sonic, sitting at the same table, eating fruit from a plastic cup with a spoon. "At this point, I’d already expect a fight breaking out in the middle of the hallway."
"I have to admit, her patience is admirable," said Mythra, also sitting at the same table, stirring her food with a spoon. "But at the same time, I think she should just ignore him and go about her day."
At that, Luigi and Sonic looked at each other with a "Is she serious?" expression before looking at her.
"...Mythra, if Malos were in this tournament, you'd be acting just like—or worse than—Samus," Sonic pointed out, checking the bottom of his cup with one eye before flipping it over and tapping the end so the mixed fruit juice would slide into his mouth.
"You probably would've thrown him out a window by now," added Luigi.
Mythra stopped stirring her food for a second, frowning. Her golden eyes flashed with irritation as she looked away and huffed.
"That’s not the same," she replied sharply. "Malos is—was a manipulative bastard. Ridley’s just an ugly monster with wings. There’s levels, okay?"
"And isn’t it even more concerning that an 'ugly monster with wings' can get under someone like Samus’s skin with that kind of surgical precision?" said Luigi. "I mean, we’re talking about an intergalactic bounty hunter here, not a Saturday morning cartoon villain."
"Yeah, put yourself in her shoes for a second, girl," said Sonic, wiping juice from his mouth with the back of his hand. "That thing killed her parents and her whole people when she was just a kid. Surviving something that traumatic leaves scars, and the one Ridley left in her hasn’t healed. Might never will."
Mythra didn’t answer right away. She lowered her gaze to her food tray, now stirred up but still untouched, and idly moved her spoon through the pieces without any intention of eating them. Even though she clearly didn’t feel like talking, she eventually did, in a quiet voice.
"I know what it's like to live with something that doesn’t heal." Her fingers gripped the spoon tighter. "It’s just hard to watch her hold it in for so long without snapping. I don’t know if I admire her, or if I pity her."
"Could be both," said Sonic with a shrug. "But honestly, I think she’d rather swallow all that fire than let Ridley see her break. Because if she does, he wins."
Luigi nodded with a heavy sigh. He looked back at Samus, who was now cleaning up the remnants of her lunch with tense, mechanical movements—like even the smallest gesture was a battle to hold back her fury.
"And what do you do when the guy who destroyed your life walks the same halls as you every day, sits in the same cafeteria, lives under the same roof... and no one can do anything to get rid of him?"
"Well, if I were her, I’d take him to a real stage and punch the crap out of him..." Sonic started to suggest, but then something clicked in his head, and he smiled very slowly. "Hey... that’s not such a bad idea."
"Didn’t you just say that if she snaps, he wins?" Luigi pointed out.
"Exactly!" said Sonic, as if it were obvious. "If Samus blows up on Ridley outside the battlefield, he wins. But if she challenges him to a real match, without looking provoked, she wins because she finally gets to take it out on him!"
Mythra looked at him skeptically, one eyebrow raised. "And how do you propose that doesn’t look like a reaction? Ridley’s been provoking her for months. If she challenges him now, it’ll look like she finally snapped."
"And what, you think they should sit down and talk it out like civilized people and hope that solves everything?" Sonic shot back sarcastically. "Like it or not, the only way Samus isn’t going to bust through a wall is if she lets it all out by fighting Ridley. Besides, this is Super Smash Bros. The ‘Smash’ isn’t there because we’re gonna make out and bump the tournament rating up—we’re here to beat each other down until there’s only one left standing. And honestly, we’ve needed two arch-enemies to throw hands in this house for a while now."
Mythra let out a sigh, crossing her arms with a deep frown. "I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that... I don’t know. Something about this smells like a disaster waiting to happen. And if Ridley really is as calculating as he seems, maybe he’s waiting for her to challenge him."
"And what if he is?" said Sonic, his eyes flashing with confidence. "Just because he’s waiting for it doesn’t mean he’s gonna win. If Samus channels all that into strategy instead of blind rage... she can crush him in style."
"Besides," added Luigi in a softer tone, like he was thinking out loud, "maybe it’ll give her some peace. Even if just for a little while. She’s been holding so much back..."
The three of them looked back at Samus, who was now getting up and taking her tray to the cleaning station. Her stance was firm, but there was something dangerous in the way she walked—like every step was a decision not to explode and level the building.
"...Do you think she’d agree if we suggested it?" Luigi asked in a low voice.
"No risk, no reward!" Sonic said, standing up and walking confidently toward her.
"And if you’re the one taking the risk, we all lose," said Mythra with a bored expression, grabbing Sonic by the head, effortlessly lifting him and setting him back down in his seat. Sonic glared at her. "Hedgehog, you’re going to screw this up whether you admit it or not. Samus doesn’t need some stupid joke to lighten the tension."
"Well, excuse me for trying to brighten the mood," Sonic muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Let me talk to her," said the Aegis of Light, standing up. "If she says yes, go ahead and call yourself a genius for today. If not, you owe me ice cream."
"You and your obsession with ice cream..." Sonic shook his head.
Mythra ignored him and walked over to Samus, who was just about to exit the cafeteria. The bounty hunter stopped when she heard footsteps behind her, and out of habit, turned slowly, expecting Ridley to come provoke her again. But to her surprise, it was Mythra. A part of Samus relaxed slightly at the sight, though her expression remained as neutral as ever.
"Do you need something?" Samus asked, her voice low and firm—impatient but not aggressive.
Mythra stopped a half step away, crossing her arms. She hesitated for a second before speaking, which was rare for her.
"I’m not here to bother you," she began, then corrected herself with a slightly awkward smile. "Well, maybe a little. But... I want to suggest something."
Samus barely raised an eyebrow. The hallway was quiet, save for the distant buzz of the cafeteria. Mythra continued.
"We know Ridley’s driving you crazy. And I know you probably don’t want to talk about it, but I’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it." Her voice softened, and she looked down slightly. "Honestly, I don’t know how you do it. I would’ve blown up half the Mansion weeks ago."
Samus said nothing. She just stared at her. Mythra sighed, but kept going.
"But Sonic had an idea. And while I’d normally ignore him for being the loudmouth he is... this time, I think he’s got a point." She stepped a little closer. "What if you stop ignoring him? What if you face him? Not as an emotional outburst, but as a strategic decision. Challenge him to a real match. No provocation, no explosion. Just you, him, and a battlefield where you can... let it all out."
Samus looked down for a second. As much as she tried to hide her reaction, Mythra could tell she had struck something. A muscle in the bounty hunter’s neck tensed.
"And what if that’s exactly what he wants?" Samus asked, her voice gravelly. "What if he’s provoking me for that, so I face him when he’s already prepared and I’m not?"
"Then let him think he won," Mythra replied without hesitation. "Let him come with all his arrogance. But you train. Plan. Prepare every hit with focus. If you’re going to fight him, make sure it’s on your terms, not his."
Samus didn’t speak at first. She turned her face slightly, as if still debating it internally.
"Would you do it?" she asked suddenly, and Mythra blinked.
"Do what?"
"If someone like Ridley had destroyed your home, your family... if you knew that every time you defeated him, he just came back like nothing happened. Could you really face him calmly?"
Mythra swallowed hard. For a moment, she was forced to recall things she’d buried long ago. Her face lost some of its edge, but she held her posture.
"I don’t know," she admitted. "But if I can’t stop him from coming back, then I’ll make sure that every time he does, he has to crawl."
Samus lowered her head for a few seconds, and when she lifted it again... she smiled. It was a small gesture, but filled with resolve.
"Tell Sonic he’s not as much of an idiot as he looks... just for today."
Mythra smirked. "I’m charging him for the ice cream anyway."
Ridley, for his part, was perched on top of a streetlamp with a look of absolute misery, Kirby sitting on his head. That horrifying creature was capable of destroying entire demons, and he knew he’d be next—just a matter of time before it dropped the cute-child act and showed its true colors... or at least that’s what he believed. Kirby actually just wanted to be his friend, unaware that Ridley saw him as a threat—and an incredibly annoying one at that.
Just then, he noticed Samus walking by, out of her armor and wearing only her Zero Suit. He grinned like a demon and took flight, the motion knocking Kirby off to land seated on a bench, glancing around in confusion.
Ridley, meanwhile, swooped toward Samus from behind, wings spread and claws raised, mouth open and ready to roar, but...
"You could at least try something less childish, don’t you think?" said Samus without turning around, but stopping in place.
Ridley froze mid-roar, eyes narrowing. His jaw snapped shut with a clack, and he slowly lowered his arms, staring at Samus’s back with a mix of confusion and caution.
He growled and tilted his head, baffled. If he could speak, he might’ve asked her what she just said.
Samus turned slowly, her gaze calm, steady, dangerous... and completely serene.
"What’s wrong? Being predictable bothering you?"
Ridley squinted. He was used to fury—boiling hatred from Samus. To the shouting, the missiles, the unleashed rage. But this... this was different. And it unsettled him.
He let out a low growl, as if asking what had gotten into her.
Samus stepped toward him, solid as stone. She had no armor, no cannons, no advanced tech—but the way she looked at him could’ve made even Kraid back off.
"I want to fight you," she said simply.
Ridley tensed. He blinked once. Twice. Then tilted his head and let out a dry, almost disbelieving laugh. Was she... challenging him?
"On the battlefield. Tournament rules," Samus continued. "Just you and me. No provocation, no ambushes. A fair fight. If that’s even something you’re capable of."
Ridley lowered his head slightly, his tail cracking against the floor like a nervous whip. It was hard to tell what he was thinking. Maybe he suspected a trap. Maybe he thought she was bluffing. But something about her stance... it wasn’t the explosive fury he loved to provoke. It was... focus. Coldness. Total control.
And it threw him off.
Samus raised an eyebrow. "What’s wrong? Can’t roar without an advantage?"
That hit a nerve. Ridley spread his wings with a violent snap, releasing a guttural, piercing screech, brimming with rage and challenge. He lowered his head until his jaws were inches from her face. Samus didn’t even blink.
"So you accept," she said, with an icy smile. "Great. Then you’ve got ten minutes to warm up before I tear you apart."
She turned around with all the calm of someone who had just bought bread at the store and walked off, leaving Ridley standing there, the roar still stuck in his throat.
It didn’t take long before Ridley showed up in the mansion’s lobby, where Samus waited by the stage selector door. She was fully armored now, standing with her back to her nemesis as he landed beside her.
Neither of them looked at the other—or at least Ridley didn’t look at her. But Samus, behind her visor, glanced at him from the corner of her eye before stepping into the stage selector, Ridley silently following behind.
Unbeknownst to them, Sonic, Mythra, and Luigi arrived in the lobby just as the doors shut behind the two fighters.
"Are we seriously not gonna watch them fight?" Sonic asked, arms crossed, wearing a bored expression.
"No," Mythra said firmly, though she smiled. "This fight is theirs. We’ll know who won when they walk back through those doors. It all depends on how they each come out."
"Ugh, you can be so boring sometimes..." Sonic rolled his eyes, leaning against a pillar. "What’s the point of suggesting the fight if we don’t even get to see it?"
"This time, I agree with Mythra, Sonic," Luigi added with a nervous smile. "This is something personal for Samus. Very personal. Let her destroy Ridley on her own, okay? Besides, if you’re really that eager, you can always catch the replay on TV tonight."
Sonic snorted but shrugged. "Fine, fine. I’m just saying, if they end up tearing each other apart and I miss it, I am not responsible for yelling at the screen later!"
Mythra chuckled quietly, folding her arms as well. "You know it’s not about the show. Samus doesn’t want an audience. She doesn’t need anyone to see how she deals with this. She just needs to do it."
Luigi nodded, hands clasped in front of him as if in prayer. "And let’s hope she does it quickly..."
Samus waited in her energy recharge station, the place she was always transported to before each battle, as it was from this very spot that she would emerge onto the selected stage. She took a deep breath, counting to three with her eyes closed.
This wasn’t just any battle: it was against Ridley—her nemesis, someone who always came back to screw up her life because he had nothing better to do with his own. She had endured him for months, but today she wouldn’t hold back. As Mythra had said, she needed to make Ridley think he already had the fight won. She had to keep a cool head and not let the rage that boiled over every time he bothered her take control. If she was going to defeat Ridley today, she’d make sure he crawled off that stage.
"Cool head, Samus... cool head," she told herself just as the station came to a stop and began to open.
As soon as it opened, Samus stepped out onto the stage: Big Blue, a battlefield from the world of F-Zero where part of the fight would unfold on top of the moving Blue Falcon, with various ships from other racers speeding below. The stage was tricky—everything was constantly in motion, and at some point the Blue Falcon would fly off, leaving only the lower ships as the main platform until the match ended. And if either fighter fell onto the track, they wouldn’t just take damage—they’d risk being left behind, and since everything was moving, they’d be taken offstage and lose a stock.
Ridley didn’t take long to make his entrance, appearing on the other end of the Blue Falcon with a ferocious roar, eyes locked on Samus with pure intent to destroy.
Samus instantly felt the anger surge through her at the sight of him, clenching her left hand—the one without the cannon—into a fist as she remembered just how insufferable he had been over the past five months... but then she closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and exhaled, letting herself relax. Her left hand loosened immediately as well.
"Cool head," she repeated to herself, opening her eyes now with a determined look.
"3... 2... 1... GO!"
When the announcer gave the signal to begin the fight, Samus didn’t move. Ridley, on the other hand, launched straight at her, attempting to use his Space Grab—a move where he seizes his opponent and drags them across the ground before throwing them for heavy damage.
Samus didn’t dodge immediately. She waited, analyzing Ridley’s flight angle, reading his trajectory like it was a ballistic calculation. Just as he was about to reach her, she tilted to the side with pinpoint precision, avoiding his grasp by mere inches. Ridley’s momentum carried him straight into the Blue Falcon’s metallic edge, causing a burst of sparks.
Samus didn’t waste time. She rolled across the ground and raised her cannon, firing a barrage of homing missiles. Ridley roared as the first missile struck his left wing, forcing him into the air to avoid the others. But Samus was already in motion again, sprinting along the vehicle’s platform like it was an extension of her own body.
She wasn’t going to fight with rage. She was going to fight with strategy.
Ridley dove at her, tail aimed like a spear. Samus slid beneath the strike and countered with an energy blast that detonated just beneath his chest. Ridley reeled back, flapping hard to stay airborne before landing on a floating platform that appeared nearby.
The Blue Falcon began to move, meaning it would soon vanish from view. Samus took the opportunity to leap and land on one of the speeding vehicles below, eyes never leaving Ridley as he charged up his Incinerator Breath, unleashing several massive fireballs in her direction.
The flames came fast, one after another like meteors wrapped in fury. But Samus was no longer there.
She had slid over the hood of the ship she’d landed on, spun midair in a lateral jump, and landed on an adjacent vessel just in time to see the fireballs slam into where she’d been seconds earlier. The impact shook the metal frames, leaving behind scorched, glowing burn marks.
Samus raised her cannon instantly and fired a Super Missile—a larger, faster projectile with devastating explosive force. Ridley barely had time to shield himself with his wings, and though it wasn’t a direct hit, the blast still threw him against another moving platform, forcing him to recover in midair with a roar that made the stage plates tremble.
But Samus was already on the move again, jumping from ship to ship with the agility and precision of a seasoned intergalactic warrior. It wasn’t just her suit. It was her. Her experience. Her rage, now tamed and transformed into lethal efficiency.
Ridley lunged at her again, this time spinning with his tail extended, trying to sweep her in a spiral attack. Samus didn’t back away. Instead, she leapt straight into danger.
At the last second, she activated her Morph Ball form, shrinking into a metallic sphere that spun between the gaps of his attack as if it were part of the same motion, dropping a bomb mid-movement while still in Morph Ball mode. Ridley flew past her, and Samus emerged behind him, instantly regaining her humanoid form and charging up her Plasma Beam.
The shot hit the base of Ridley’s right wing, forcing him to howl in pain and lose altitude. He stumbled onto a lower ship, claws scraping the metal for balance. As if that weren’t enough, the bomb Samus had dropped finally exploded, dealing even more damage and making him roar in agony.
Samus landed in front of him. She didn’t say a word. She just stared at him.
Ridley rose, furious, his body covered in burns and sparks. His tail slammed against the ground, jagged and ready to impale. But now, Samus was ready for him. She could read him like an open book.
The monster lunged again, faster this time, holding nothing back. He attempted a Deadly Stab—an attack that, in Samus’s current state, would only stun her briefly, leaving her momentarily vulnerable. But if the tip of his tail struck her directly, it could knock her out entirely.
Samus barely managed to get out of the way, but the attack still grazed her. That was Ridley's first successful hit, and even though it was just a glancing blow, her damage percentage jumped to 16%.
Samus took a few steps back, feeling the sting of the hit. It wasn’t deep, but enough to remind her that even the slightest lapse in focus could be fatal with Ridley. She gritted her teeth, assessing her stance, noticing how her arm trembled slightly from the vibration of the impact. She had to keep a cool head. This was nothing compared to what Ridley had done to her in the past.
"No more surprises," she muttered to herself, calibrating her cannon and adjusting her aim.
Ridley, meanwhile, seemed to gain a spark of confidence from the hit. His chest expanded with a heavy breath and he let out a piercing screech, spreading his wings wide as if trying to intimidate her. But Samus wasn’t afraid anymore. She had stopped fearing him a long time ago.
The stage shifted. The Blue Falcon finally vanished from the top section, and the moving platforms began to rearrange, leaving parts of the arena open to the void. A single misstep now could mean a straight fall out of the match.
Ridley took flight and hovered in the air, plotting his next attack. Samus didn’t give him the chance. She fully charged her cannon, the green glow of the Plasma Beam intensifying, pulsing with power. Ridley dove claws-first, but just before he could reach her, Samus fired the charged shot.
The impact was brutal.
Ridley was thrown back, his body crashing into another ship. A column of smoke rose from the impact. Samus ran toward him, knowing even a second’s hesitation would give him time to recover. She leapt over the smoldering wreckage and dropped a bomb in Morph Ball form just as Ridley began to rise. The explosion hit him again, launching him off the stage and knocking out his first stock.
Ridley respawned on a floating platform, and as he landed on a nearby vehicle, he roared with unrestrained fury and rose, eyes locked onto Samus. His wings beat the air with such force that they scattered the lingering smoke fragments still drifting across the battlefield.
She was already waiting for him, steady, her cannon glowing with the residual heat of her last shot.
This time, there was no hesitation.
Ridley lunged like a wounded beast, faster and more aggressive than ever, trying to make up for the humiliation of being the first to fall. He attacked with a flurry of slashes, tail sweeps, and furious charges that made the platforms tremble beneath them. Samus backed up, dodging with surgical precision, rolling beneath his claws, leaping between floating platforms, pausing only to use her shield when necessary. Every movement was a calculated response—a controlled dance between the dragon’s fury and the hunter’s calm.
Ridley landed another hit, a sideways charge that sent Samus flying into a moving ship. Her suit absorbed most of the impact, but it was still strong enough to knock her off balance for a second. Ridley didn’t waste it—he followed up with another Incinerator Breath, launching a fireball that bathed the area in a hellish glow.
Samus barely managed to leap into the air with a double jump, clearing the flames, and as she landed, she rolled across the ground to snuff out a spark that had caught her shoulder pad. She spun around instantly and unleashed a missile barrage, but Ridley deflected them with a violent wingbeat that scattered them into the sky.
Both fighters were breathing heavily now, though there was no exhaustion on Samus’s face—only unwavering focus.
Ridley launched into a powerful jump and came crashing down like a meteor with a spinning kick. Samus dove into the void… and landed on a lower ship, barely visible. From there, she aimed her cannon upward, waited for Ridley to stabilize after the rough landing… and fired another Super Missile.
This time, the projectile struck him square in the chest.
The explosion sent him staggering to the edge of the platform. His claws scraped at the metal, struggling to hold on… but it wasn’t enough. Ridley fell into the void again, roaring in frustration, and Samus’s visor confirmed his second KO, displaying both their current percentages in the corner. Having just respawned, Ridley was back to 0%, but he had only one stock left. Samus still had all three, though Ridley’s earlier strike and grazing attack had raised her damage to 43%. She had a huge lead, but couldn’t afford to get careless—a single mistake could turn the tide.
Ridley reappeared for the third time, crashing violently onto a high platform just as several ships descended from the edges of the stage. His wings extended immediately, and he let out a roar so powerful it made the surrounding metal vibrate. He wasn’t roaring to intimidate anymore.
He was roaring because he was losing.
And Ridley hated losing.
Samus knew it. That’s why she didn’t smile. She didn’t celebrate. She didn’t let her guard down. She simply adjusted her visor and took aim again, her body as steady as a loaded spear, the cannon on her arm still hot. She could feel the accumulated tension of the last few minutes in every joint of her suit, but her mind remained focused. It wasn’t over.
Ridley watched her from above, and for the first time, he seemed unsure. His body was scorched with burns, small sparks flickered from his wings, and though he still moved with ferocity, his attacks had grown more erratic. He was no longer the unstoppable beast she had faced on Zebes, nor the monster that had hunted her across half a star system. He was a cornered animal. A broken symbol.
Samus stepped forward. Then again. And in that moment, the entire stage shifted.
The platform system activated a new, more dangerous section: a convoy of ships roared below the fighters, moving at a hellish speed, and the ground beneath them shrank to a few unstable floating platforms, trembling with turbulence. Any mistake would be fatal. There would be no saving someone from a bad fall. This was the final stretch.
Ridley launched himself with everything he had left. His wings created a gust of wind as they lifted him into the air, and like a violent shadow, he dove onto Samus with a series of diving slashes. She rolled just in time, but one of the hits caught her leg, raising her damage to 63%.
She landed poorly, almost collapsing sideways onto a ship that brushed past the base. She activated her boosters just in time to stabilize herself and launched toward a safer platform, spinning mid-air. Ridley gave chase without pause.
But Samus had been waiting for exactly that.
She activated a Power Bomb the moment she landed, and as Ridley charged in to strike, it detonated beneath him. It was a trap. The blast halted him mid-air, and before he could recover his balance, Samus’s Final Smash Meter filled completely. She had managed to endure long enough for the meter to fill on its own.
So, without wasting a second, Samus unleashed her Final Smash: Zero Laser. A massive beam of energy shot out toward Ridley, pulling him into its core and dealing continuous damage before blasting him off the stage—knocking out his final stock.
"GAME!" shouted the announcer, followed by her victory theme. "Samus, wins!"
Samus dropped to her knees atop the still-moving vehicle that formed part of the stage, one hand clutching her chest as she breathed heavily.
The echo of the Zero Laser still lingered in the metallic air of the arena, a reverberation of fury channeled into light. The platform trembled slightly from the shockwave left behind, while flickers of residual energy sparked in the air like dying fireworks.
Samus remained there, kneeling on the hot surface of the moving ship, her heavy breathing echoing inside the helmet. One hand gripped the chest of her suit—not from a physical wound—her armor still held, just barely—but from the emotional weight that had built up until that moment.
She hadn’t done it for show. Not for applause.
She had done it because she had to end him. Because she had to drag Ridley down from that damned cloud of immunity he believed he’d been sitting on since arriving at the mansion.
And now that she had finally gotten him out of her system... She allowed herself to smile.
Meanwhile, in the lobby, Luigi was peacefully reading a botany magazine from a chair, Sonic was upside down playing Breath of the Wild on a Switch, and Mythra leaned against a column, patiently waiting for Samus and Ridley to exit the stage select room.
Just then, the infamous door opened, making all three of them turn immediately.
Samus stepped out, looking just as composed as when she entered, pressing a button on the side of her suit that caused it to dematerialize, leaving her in her Zero Suit. Ridley also came out… quite literally crawling on the floor in a dreadful state. Burned wings, a body sparking with damage, and a dangerous glint in his eyes that reflected both rage and embarrassment from having lost.
"Hohoho, this is gold!" Sonic said with a huge grin, getting up normally as he stashed his console between his quills. "What’s the matter, big guy? Did the bounty hunter bite your tongue?"
Ridley growled lowly and glared daggers at Sonic, but before he could do anything, Samus turned around and faced him, arms crossed, glaring at him with pure contempt. From Ridley’s perspective, there was a dangerous aura surrounding Samus and her frown.
"I hope that fight made your place clear, Ridley," she said, her voice calm and composed, though her eyes sparked with a deadly fire. "If you ever decide to come at me again, well… next time, I won’t even need my suit to tear you apart. Understood?"
Ridley didn’t respond. He only growled, a guttural sound that rumbled in his throat like a suppressed threat—more pride than bravery. His scorched body trembled with fury, and for a moment, it looked like he might lunge at her, even if it cost him his life.
But he didn’t.
He lowered his head, averted his eyes, and with one final frustrated huff, dragged himself out of the lobby with what little dignity he had left, leaving behind a faint trail of smoke and sparks that fizzled in the air.
Sonic, hands on his hips, watched him go and let out a mocking snicker. "Aww, poor guy... someone's gonna need a band-aid and a self-esteem seminar."
Mythra raised an eyebrow, her expression somewhere between amused and sarcastic. "That was brutal. And beautiful."
Luigi, still holding his magazine, muttered, "Mamma mia..."
Samus, however, wasn’t looking at Ridley anymore. She was done with him. She walked to a nearby bench and sat down calmly, exhaling like she could finally breathe after months of holding back. She leaned back, stretching her arms across the backrest as the glow of the fight slowly faded from her skin.
Sonic approached, still grinning from ear to ear.
"So... am I a genius, or am I a genius?" he asked confidently, sparkles appearing around him as he closed his eyes and stroked his chin. "I mean, it was my idea for you to challenge him, and now look at him—literally crawling like a dying cockroach."
Mythra crossed her arms and stepped closer with a half-smile, tilting her head as she gave Sonic a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, sure. All thanks to you," she said with heavy sarcasm. "Not because Samus has spent years training, perfecting her aim, or because she's literally one of the deadliest bounty hunters in the universe. No, it was your brilliant idea."
"Exactly!" Sonic replied with zero irony, patting his chest with a smile. "And you doubted me when I said a good fight would do her some good."
Samus slightly turned her head from her place on the bench, her eyes half-closed as she enjoyed the brief silence. She didn’t smile, but the tone of her voice gave away a faint note of amusement.
"I’ll admit—beating Ridley into ashes had its charm."
"I’ll take that!" Sonic snapped his fingers toward Mythra. "At least someone here appreciates my contribution."
"Yeah, yeah, enjoy your ‘moral victory,’ loudmouth hedgehog," Mythra replied, though she couldn’t quite hide the laugh that threatened to escape. Then she turned to Samus. "So, how does it feel to have literally made your ever-returning nemesis crawl across the floor?"
Samus opened her eyes, staring off at some unseen point on the ceiling. Her shoulders relaxed a little more, and after a second of quiet, she answered with a calmness that contrasted with the intensity of the battle:
"Like I finally scraped a parasite off." She turned to Mythra and gave her a slight smile. "Besides, I have a feeling we won’t be seeing Ridley again for a while."
Mythra smiled back and nodded, like she was silently giving her full support.
"That’s all nice—facing your trauma and whatnot—but I’ve got a question..." Luigi cut in after being quiet for a while. "Why was Ridley even injured? I thought we all got healed up after a fight..."
"Don’t ask," Sonic said with a knowing grin, wrapping an arm around Luigi. "Just enjoy it!"
From his office, the announcer watched the scene unfold through the mansion’s cameras. He had witnessed how Ridley had been treating Samus, and though he hadn’t intervened—since no rules had technically been broken—he had been sorely tempted.
Seeing Samus finish him off in a fight had brought a sense of satisfaction, like justice had finally been served. So, as an extra punishment, he decided to fully restore Samus... but not Ridley.
After hearing Luigi’s question, the announcer slowly turned to the reader and smiled, raising a finger to his lips—asking them to keep the secret.
End of Chapter 60.