Chapter Text
Samus led the others to what seemed like a ruined sanctuary, located at the end of an extensive destroyed bridge that extended from the jungle where they had found Sonic and Simon.
The room where they finally stopped resembled more of a military camp, with advanced equipment and large metal crates scattered everywhere. However, the area Samus brought the group to was a makeshift desk next to what appeared to be a control panel, although the spoken language on it was unfamiliar to them.
Samus finally stopped in front of the desk from one side, with the others surrounding the other. At the same time, she made a modification to her cannon, giving it an electric appearance, before firing at the device on the desk, which quickly came to life and displayed a hologram of Samus's cannon.
Immediately, the bounty hunter pressed several buttons on the hologram, which changed its appearance, now showing the Chrono Tower surrounded by the Sol Valley, with sightings of the other zones in Viewros.
"You’re right, Mythra," Samus said, looking the Aegis in the eyes. "I’ve been here before."
Samus then shifted her gaze specifically away from Viewros to show a solar system, but it was unfamiliar to the others.
"Years ago, in my world, I came to the aid of the Galactic Federation. They were being invaded by a bounty hunter who hates both the Federation and me. In our encounter, Sylux shot at an artifact they were studying in the research center they had invaded."
She changed the hologram again, showing the same artifact that Mythra had dropped in the mansion, which had brought them here in the first place.
"Oh, so that's how we ended up here!" Sonic exclaimed.
"And what exactly is this artifact?" Simon questioned.
"A teleporter that leads to this planet, Viewros," the bounty hunter replied. "I ended up here with five Federation soldiers I found lost and trapped across the planet. Together, we made our way to discover how to leave Viewros."
Samus changed the hologram to show the Chrono Tower again, zooming in on its tip.
"This here is... or rather, was, the Master Teleporter, the only way to get us out of here. It was activated with five keys that I also collected while saving those soldiers. And we were about to escape, but..."
"There’s always a 'but,'" Lucario closed his eyes with his arms crossed, having anticipated the conversation would go this way.
"Sylux had also ended up on Viewros," Samus sighed. "He spent all his time recovering in a healing pod, and he came out just when we were about to leave. We fought him, then it was just me, and when it seemed like he finally fell and we could leave... he came back, and almost destroyed the teleporter."
"But... you still beat him and escaped, right?" Isabelle asked, although deep down, she already expected the answer Samus would give.
"...I escaped," was all she replied, implying what had happened to the soldiers.
A heavy silence fell over the group after Samus's response. They all knew the bounty hunter's story was far from simple, but the way she said it revealed a painful truth that weighed on her.
Isabelle was the first to break the silence, clasping her hands in front of her chest with a worried expression.
"...The soldiers...?" she said softly, unable to finish the sentence.
"...They bought time," Samus answered. "They held Sylux off while I restarted the Master Teleporter sequence, and in the end... they begged me to flee, to leave them there. I wanted to refuse, but... they didn’t give me a chance."
The silence grew heavier, and the atmosphere became even more tense. Sensing this, Samus decided to change the subject, bringing up the hologram of the small teleporter that had brought them there.
"What I still don’t understand is why Xander had a Lamorn Teleporter in the mansion’s storage."
"Eh... shouldn’t you be asking why there’s even something from your world in the Smash Universe in the first place?" Mythra questioned.
"We’re not in my world," Samus revealed, to the shock of the others. "We’re in another universe, even one alien to mine, one where the Lamorn inhabited long ago."
"...The what?" Simon couldn't help sounding a bit harsher than he intended with his question.
"The Lamorn were an intelligent species native to Viewros, gifted with psychic abilities and responsible for constructing many statues and artifacts on the planet. But a tragedy befell them, and in the end, only 13 of them remained."
Samus now displayed a hologram of 12 spheres, which seemed to be capsules that soon scattered, followed by the hologram of a strange creature.
It was a humanoid, slender being with two pairs of arms—four arms in total—and a pair of legs with only two fingers. Its head had three pairs of extensions on each side that stretched backward, and its face had no mouth but had eyes and a circle on its forehead, along with white skin.
"This is Chatoyant Vooloon, the last Lamorn who remained on Viewros. The other twelve traveled to other dimensions in search of a 'Chosen One' they discovered through a prophecy that promised salvation for their species. But none returned, and eventually, Chatoya died."
"I guess: you were that 'Chosen One,' weren’t you?" Sonic asked, arms crossed.
Samus simply nodded at the question.
"Other dimensions..." Lucario murmured, his telepathic voice resonating in everyone’s minds. "If your world is as alien to this one as the Smash Universe is, then it wouldn’t be surprising if one of those Lamorn ended up in that dimension."
"That would explain why one of those teleporters ended up there," Mythra confirmed. "But it still doesn’t explain why Xander had it."
"I’m not sure. To be honest, I doubt he even knew what it was," confessed the bounty hunter.
"Well, I guess now we need to talk about how to get out of here, right?" Isabelle nervously laughed. "Although knowing that there’s that, uh, legendary teleporter or whatever, I guess we don’t have to worry!"
Samus lowered her head. She had completely forgotten that detail, and now telling it to five people who trusted her to get them out of there wouldn’t be easy.
"...The Master Teleporter was destroyed when I escaped," she revealed with a sigh. "Like I said, Sylux left it damaged, and at that moment, it was either flee or die... You all know the rest."
"...In short: we’re stranded on an unknown planet, in another dimension, with few chances of getting out..." Sonic muttered.
"Exactly," Samus replied, her voice more serious than she intended, looking down for a moment before lifting her gaze toward everyone. The silence that followed was heavy, filled with the same uncertainty that had accompanied Samus during her escape.
"So, what do we do now?" Sonic asked, breaking the tension in the room with a sarcastic smile, but his tone was more serious than usual.
Samus changed the hologram again, this time showing the entire map that made up Viewros.
"In the center is the Chrono Tower, where the Master Teleporter used to be. Surrounding it is the Sol Valley, the vast world that connects all the other zones of the planet. Right now, we’re in Fury Green, a lush jungle where the Sacred Tree is located, along with this temple. To the north of the jungle is Ice Belt, where we found Lucario. And to the southeast is Magma Pool, where Isabelle was."
Samus pressed two buttons, making only two zones visible on the map.
"To the south of the jungle is Volt Forge, a Lamorn factory consisting of three massive metal towers, where the bike I use to move through the Sol Valley was built. The problem is that there are electrical storms raging in the region. On the other hand, to the northeast are the Great Mines, an ancient mining complex the Lamorn used to extract exotic minerals."
"Hmm... I see where you’re going with this," Simon said, crossing his arms. "If what’s to the south is a factory of those aliens, then maybe there are more of those artifacts that brought us here."
"Exactly," Samus nodded. "And if they’re out of energy, we can always go to the Great Mines. The materials they extract from there are converted into energy for their devices on the planet, anyway."
"...I doubt it’s going to be an easy journey, is it?" Lucario mentioned.
Samus nodded again, changing the hologram to show the same type of robot as the ones that attacked Isabelle in the Magma Pool.
"These are Psybots. The Lamorn created them as protectors of Viewros, but Sylux reprogrammed them to turn against anything that enters Viewros. They’re abundant in the factory, so we’ll have to be careful."
She then changed the hologram to show the monsters they had all already dealt with since arriving on the planet.
"Oh, right... those things..." Mythra huffed, crossing her arms.
"They’re called Grievers," Samus explained. "And they’re not 'things.' They’re... well, they were Lamorn."
"What?!" Isabelle exclaimed, both incredulous and upset.
"Those beasts are the same beings that created the technology on this site?" Simon said, his brow dangerously furrowed.
"They once were, but now they’re just monsters," the bounty hunter said. "Remember what I said, that the Lamorn had psychic abilities? Well, not all of them were born with that gift. Those who didn’t have it obtained it by merging with a special crystal on their foreheads. However, a green energy destabilized the fusion, causing those Lamorn to mutate into Grievers. The others tried to reverse the effects, but... all the experiments failed, and in the end, they couldn’t save anyone."
"And now they roam their home like wild predators," Lucario concluded. "I guess that’s why they wanted someone to save them, even if that someone came after their extinction."
Samus lowered her head. Even though no one could see her face due to her helmet, it was clear that speaking about the topic affected her.
Because of this, Isabelle cleared her throat.
"So... what’s the plan to get out of here?" the Animal Crossing secretary asked.
In silence, Samus appreciated the change of topic, straightened up, and clenched her left hand into a fist.
"We’re going to split up."
A tunnel opened out of nowhere, with Samus riding the Vi-O-La, followed by Mythra and Simon behind her as Samus advanced toward the enormous door of the first tower of the Volt Forge.
"Simon, Mythra, and I will head to the Voltaic Foundry, to tower 2, to look for a Lamorn teleporter. The rest of you, head to the Great Mines to the northeast. It’s a huge structure, marked by a gigantic abyss surrounding it; you can’t miss it."
Once inside the first tower, Samus turned the Vi-O-La toward the gate on the right before accelerating through a tunnel/bridge that connected to the next tower.
"If we succeed, but the teleporter has no power, we’ll go to the mines to descend together. That’s how we arrived on the planet, and that’s how we’ll leave."
Upon reaching the second tower, the three dismounted from the bike, and Samus approached a station that displayed the map of the tower in a hologram. At the same time, Mythra barely dodged a laser shot from a spider-like robot, its red eye glaring at her as it prepared to fire again.
But it couldn’t, as Mythra sliced it in two with her sword, destroying it in the process.
Meanwhile, Samus appeared to have found what she was looking for.
"The Lamorn had all their artifacts stored on level 3 of the tower, in the Archives. We’ll go there to see if we can find anything."
"And we’ll have to face machines that want us dead?" Simon questioned, already holding his Vampire Killer Whip.
"Too many," Samus huffed. "We’ll need to take three elevators to reach the Archives. Follow me."
As Samus moved down the dark corridor, the sound of her boots echoed on the metallic floor of the tower, with Mythra and Simon following closely behind. The spider robots patrolling the area seemed to be everywhere, but Samus was ready to face them.
Descending to the Archives area wasn’t too difficult. They had to deal with several Psybots, especially one annoying one that could teleport around and even surprise anyone from behind or head-on, but eventually, it too was taken down.
The Archives area consisted of countless metallic boxes with an unmistakably alien appearance. There were so many boxes that there were probably more stacked behind them. There were even two giant claws, currently inactive, that seemed to be used for moving the boxes around the room.
"Okay... how exactly are we going to find a teleporter among so many boxes?" Mythra asked, crossing her arms.
"It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack," Simon pointed out with a furrowed brow.
Samus knew that Belmont had a point. Fortunately, she could translate the Lamorn language, which allowed her to discover that the boxes were organized by types.
From left to right, in this order, it read: Motorbikes, Psibots, Drones, Guardians, Artifacts, and Turrets.
Samus quickly approached the row of boxes labeled "Artifacts," and after inspecting the label, she lifted one of the metal lids. The box was filled with strange devices, all with complex geometric shapes and materials that resembled nothing known in her universe.
"Here it is," Samus said, taking an artifact, a teleporter identical to the one in the mansion.
Mythra approached her with a doubtful expression.
"Is that...?" she asked, but before she could finish, a loud crash echoed down the nearby hallway.
Suddenly, several of the boxes moved on their own, and a large metal door at the far end opened, revealing a dark corridor, barely illuminated by flickering lights. The surveillance machines had detected their presence.
"We’ve got company," Simon growled, his Vampire Killer Whip already in hand.
A dozen Psybots appeared, surrounding the entrance to the Archives area, all with their red eyes glowing intensely.
The lights in the tower flickered faintly as the Psybots lined up, creating a cold metal corridor stretching between Mythra, Samus, and Simon. The atmosphere was tense, and the threat was palpable. The red eyes of the machines gleamed with an intimidating intensity, reflecting the critical situation.
"This isn’t good," Mythra commented, watching as the Psybots slowly approached. There was no way they could avoid them without facing them directly. Her instinct told her that the best option would be to act quickly before they could organize further.
"It isn’t," Samus replied, preparing for battle. "But we have what we came for, and that’s what matters."
A metallic hum broke the silence as the Psybots activated their retractable wings, extending them and revealing their sharp claws. The machines began to move quickly, trying to surround the three.
"On the count of three!" Samus shouted, charging her cannon.
Her fingers pressed the trigger, releasing an energy beam toward one of the Psybots that was attempting to charge at her. The impact was instantaneous, disintegrating the robot in a burst of sparks.
"Let’s go!" Samus shouted as she fired again, this time at another Psybot attempting to flank her from the side. The yellow beam of light cut through the air, but the machine managed to dodge it, quickly veering toward Simon.
"Watch out!" Mythra shouted as her sword vanished in a red flash. With a quick spin, she drew the Aegis Sword and used it to block the attack from another Psybot that lunged at her, leaving a trail of wild energy after the collision. The metallic sound of the impact resonated throughout the corridor, but Mythra didn’t falter. With a precise movement, she sliced the robot in half, letting its parts fall to the floor.
At the same time, Simon swung his whip, an energy whip that extended rapidly, wrapping around the body of a Psybot and pulling it toward him. Belmont seized the moment to land a fatal blow, disintegrating the robot with a beam of sacred energy from his whip.
They quickly made their way through the machines, and once all of them fell, Samus scanned the area with her visor.
"More are on the way. We need to move now," she declared, handing the teleporter to Simon, who took it without thinking and followed Samus and Mythra toward the exit.
Meanwhile, at the entrance to the Great Mines, near a control panel behind the elevator that descended into the mines, Sonic paced impatiently back and forth, with Lucario and Isabelle leaning against the panel while waiting for the others to arrive.
"How much longer are they gonna take? I’m getting bored!" grumbled the hedgehog.
"Have some patience," Lucario said with his telepathic voice. "Finding the device we need to get out of here is no easy task."
"Not to mention they have to deal with an electric storm over there," Isabelle added, adjusting her hair.
Sonic huffed, looking at the horizon. His impatience was reflected in his posture, with his arms crossed and his foot tapping the ground in a steady rhythm.
"Electric storm?" he repeated, frowning. "Great, just what I needed."
Lucario looked around, his serious expression trying to calm the situation.
"You’re starting to show signs of exhaustion, Sonic. Maybe you should take a breather."
"I don’t need to rest!" the hedgehog replied, his tone more defiant than usual. "I just can’t sit still."
Isabelle smiled, always trying to ease the tension with her optimistic personality.
"Don’t worry, Sonic. Even though the journey’s been long, we’ll surely find something useful in the Colossal Mines. And when we get out of here, you’ll be able to run as much as you want."
Sonic looked at her and, although still seeming impatient, gave her a slight smile.
"I guess you’re right. I just hope we don’t have to stay any longer on this... strange planet."
Just then, Lucario spotted three auras in the distance, coming toward them at full speed, which made him smile and lower his arms.
"They’re here."
Soon, the sandstorm visible in the distance revealed Samus on the Vi-O-La, with Mythra riding behind her, holding onto her waist, and Simon behind Mythra, his back pressed against hers as he held the Lamorn teleporter in his arms.
Samus accelerated all the way to the end of the bridge leading to the entrance of the mines, braking in a drift that left her in a position identical to the famous Akira Slide.
"Finally, you’re here!" grumbled the hedgehog. "It took you an eternity."
"We could’ve been gone for five minutes and it would still feel like an eternity to you," Mythra rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Do you have what we’re looking for?" Lucario asked, receiving a nod from Samus.
"Yay!" Isabelle exclaimed, clapping her hands.
Samus proceeded to scan the teleporter, but as expected, the data she received indicated that the artifact had no energy.
"We need to go down," the bounty hunter declared. "The crystals mined on level 3 of the mines turn into energy, the kind we need to power up the teleporter and get out of this planet."
"Well, let’s go down then!" Sonic said, jumping onto the elevator.
The others quickly followed, with Samus being the last to step onto the elevator, specifically standing in the center, causing it to begin its descent.
The Great Mines were, surprise! Literally huge mines, but they had that gigantic elevator that allowed travel between levels, as well as advanced technology that made regular mining equipment look like relics from the Stone Age.
As soon as the elevator stopped at the lowest level, Samus stopped Sonic from taking another step.
"From here on, I want you to be absolutely silent," Samus whispered, so quietly it was hard to understand her.
"Why?" Mythra murmured, almost as quietly as Samus.
"The Grievers that live down here are more aggressive and sensitive to noise than those on the surface," the bounty hunter explained. "Their senses are three times more developed since they’re blind, especially their hearing. That’s why, no noise."
Sonic nodded, despite the discomfort of having to stay silent. While speed was his thing, he understood that sometimes prudence was key. However, he couldn’t help but glance at Lucario, who kept a vigilant posture, his ears slightly back and his aura extended to sense any sounds.
"Alright, I got it," Sonic said quietly, smiling to himself as if it was a personal challenge to stay calm.
Samus moved forward with steady steps, her boots faintly echoing on the rusted metal as she kept her cannon ready, prepared for any eventuality. Mythra and Simon followed closely behind, both with serious expressions, aware of what lay ahead. Isabelle, for her part, was trying to keep her balance, though she seemed uncomfortable having to walk so slowly and in complete silence.
The air in the Great Mines was heavy, with a penetrating cold that surrounded them all. The walls of the mine were filled with bright crystals that emitted a faint, blue light, creating a surreal contrast with the dark environment. Occasionally, one of the crystals vibrated weakly, as if something was moving inside it.
It was then that Isabelle, distracted while trying to stay alert, accidentally bumped into an old cart, from which a large and clearly heavy metallic object dangled. Isabelle got dizzy from the collision, not realizing what was about to happen until...
BANG!
The object hit the ground with a loud noise that echoed throughout the mines, making the others turn toward her and realize what had happened.
Isabelle herself wasn’t aware of this until she regained her senses, and seeing everyone looking at her, she turned toward the object on the floor before paling.
"...Oops..."
Hundreds of growls quickly followed from all sides, causing Lucario to use his powers to see what auras were nearby... which made him go pale.
"Uh... Lucario? How many of those Grievers do you see?" Sonic asked, joining the others in a defensive stance, the rest mimicking him.
"...Too many," the aura Pokémon replied.
"Where are they coming from?!" Mythra asked, her sword already raised.
"...From everywhere," the Pokémon said, horrified.
And so, from the ground, the walls, even the ceiling, one by one, Grievers began to emerge, all emitting terrifying roars as they charged toward the fighters.
End of Chapter 166 (To be continued...)