"Within each of us, there is a corruptible element which those who wish to destroy us may seek to draw upon…"

~Meta Knight

Synopsis and Space Pirates

What does it mean to live in the Smash Universe?

Does it simply mean to exist in body and mind, occupying material space within one of its many worlds? Does it mean to tangibly feel the soft heat of a Fire Flower, or the frigid freshness of Icicle Mountain snow, or the sultry suppleness of a Kongan palm tree? To taste the citric zing of a Delfinian grapefruit? To smell the savage spiciness of Chef Kawasaki's curry? To hear the quotidian clamor of Fourside City traffic? To behold the magnificence of mighty dragons pounding across the Akaneian sky?

Or does it mean to employ one's faculties, to actively play a role in the world's proceedings? To rescue princesses, to defend kingdoms, to enshrine dangerous powers against those who would abuse them? Or to bond with other worlds—Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, what have you—in peace, in war, in competition, in celebration, in dissent, in resolution? Or to hold close those who are most precious—brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, friends, fiancés, leaders, heroes?

Or does it mean something more?

Or something less?

Do heroes in This World architect their own destiny, or are they the instruments—the Trophies—of some Hand of Fate?

These questions have been, in one capacity or another, on the minds of Nintendo's farthest-thinking inhabitants for as long as they could remember. Yet until the Hylian knew of a world outside Hyrule; until Pokémon Trainers knew of worlds uninhabited by Pokémon; until Nintendo itself knew it was not alone either on Smash Planet or in the Smash Universe—until then, they were questions without any trace of an answer.

But whether or not one believed in a Hand of Fate, it is impossible to deny that it was a Hand that stirred things into motion, that catalyzed the disintegration of the amnesic shroud which had clouded Nintendo's memories of anything that might have come before its current conglomerate existence. Two Hands, to be exact.

The Trophies

When the giant white gloves known as Master Hand and Crazy Hand arose from the shadows of the Battlefields, they brought heroes and villains together for the first time—to fight each other in Smash Tournaments, first as 12, then 25 chosen competitors. But when Master Hand took his manipulative game to the next level, when he sought to collect his chosen warriors like trophies, the Nintendo World truly came together to battle not each other, but a common enemy. Strangers became friends, and foes became—at least temporarily—allies.

Some time after the second Smash Tournament, Master Hand employed metal clones he'd created from the Smashers' DNA to imprison several of the world's most eminent fighters: Mario, Link, Pikachu, Ness, and so on. He did this to provoke the rest of the tournament participants (the Original 25)—and the rest of the world, for that matter—into going after their friends.

Clusters of Smashers gathered to journey to Master Hand's Room, where they knew not what challenges awaited them. Some were driven by nobility, such as the parties headed by Luigi and Red. Others were drawn in by necessity, like Samus and Fox who suddenly found themselves without transport. And a few—particularly Bowser and Ganondorf—were fueled by a thirst for revenge.

Regardless of their motives, the Smashers slowly but surely made their way toward the Room, with the occasional unexpected delay caused by besieged allies, traitorous Nintendonians, or even unfortunate carelessness. At length, most of the Smashers converged on Fourside City. There, they were deceived into entering an ill-willed tournament whose strings were being pulled by the great puppeteer himself, Master Hand—just as he had carefully manipulated many of their journeys' events.

The tournament proved to be a conspiracy to capture the Original 25, and it nearly succeeded in ensnaring not only those on their way to the Battlefields, but those who had escaped the Room and united with the resistance group, the Smash Brothers, who had come to meet their friends in Fourside. They suffered heavy losses—including the death of their leader, Impa— because of the duplicity of individuals such as Wario, Waluigi, and Shadow the Hedgehog, but the Seven Star Spirits of the Mushroom Kingdom saved them from certain destruction with a splendorous shower of shooting stars. Still, the Wire Frames led by Crazy Hand (Master Hand's left-handed counterpart) left Fourside devastated and nearly destitute.

From the ashes of the city, the remaining Smash Brothers reemerged, brushed off their shoulders, and got to work. Led by Professor Elvin Gadd and Meta Knight, they recruited Nintendonians far and wide to their cause, found the two missing Smashers (Mewtwo and Dr. Mario), instituted a rigorous training program, and even sent a party to a different dimension—The Dimension Conflux—to seek out the five Dimension Relics. These relics, along with the Original 25, had been prophesied by a ghostly fortuneteller named Madame Clairvoya to be essential to the Smash Brothers' ultimate victory. But with the intervention of the metal doppelgangers, the heroes were only able to retrieve three of the relics (the Reset Button, the Life Shroom, and the Pencil), while Master Hand's minions made off with the Superstar and the Smash Ball.

Once the diverse armies of the Nintendo World had congregated in Fourside—many of them setting aside deep-rooted grudges and animosities to pursue a common cause—the united Smash Brothers had nothing left to do but to take the fight to Master Hand. With the help of Shadow, who had shown remorse for his mistakes and was anxious to help the Smash Brothers rescue his friend Sonic, they were as prepared as they could have been. They launched their assault on the Battlefields; they fought in the skies; they fought on the flashing purple plains; they fought in Master Hand's Room and in his fortress. The Boos, the Aparoids, the Starmen, the Pokémon crime lords, and the Space Pirates from Samus's Galactic Federation had all defected to Master Hand's side, but nearly everyone else fought the Wire Frames for the freedom of their world.

Professor E. Gadd fought his way to the lair of his evil cousin, Professor Ulysses Reeka. In that monstrous laboratory, he triumphed over the mad scientist with his opponent's own Magic Paintbrush, even with Gadd's Poltergust 3000 turned against him. Having defeated Master Hand's fiendish servant, Gadd put an end to Reeka's perverse experiments, perhaps the worst being his five mutated hybrid creatures: The Shadow Hand (Shadow Queen + Floormaster), Piranha Gohma (Petey Piranha + Gohma), Mr. Dragon Patch (Mr. Patch + Dogadon), Krackorock (Kracko + Regirock), and Aparidley (Ridley + Aparoid).

The Smashers triumphed over the rest of Master Hand's pawns—only for Master Hand to come down himself and activate the Smash Ball. Using this power, he and Crazy Hand subjected the Original 25 to a perilous fight to the finish in which only five of them could face the Hands at a time. Eventually, the Smashers came out victorious, but their enemy wasn't done with them yet.

Their true enemy was Master, a being known to Kirby as the Cloaked Nightmare, who had gone under the guise of Master Hand and Crazy Hand in his pursuit of collecting the world's greatest fighters and making Nintendo his personal playground. Nightmare had once belonged to a different dimension, part of a team of humans that was responsible for the Nintendo World's creation. However, he had wanted to change the rules to cause evil to triumph over good, and as a result, he had been banished to that very world he'd failed to change. Because of this curse, Nightmare dedicated himself to spreading fear and chaos wherever he went, creeping from the shadows and introducing evil into the hearts of many.

After telling his story, Nightmare used the Smash Rod to decimate the Smash Brothers' armies, leaving everyone as trophies—or corpses. But the Hand of Fate had other plans, for Mario, Link, Kirby, and Ness were inexplicably revived from their immobilized state and stood to face Nightmare once and for all. They defeated every monster and twisted form Nightmare threw at them with the additional aid of Dr. Mario, Meta Knight, Gadd, and Mewtwo, but then faced certain doom as Nightmare filled the Room with his destructive whirlwind and fell upon them. Yet at the last second, Kirby found himself saved by a stray Warpstar, which he rode into Nightmare's core, banishing the supervillain from This World forever.

The Nintendo World was left with a third of its population lost, but also with the promise of a united future. Dr. Mario departed to resume his role as Overseer of the Dimension Conflux—permanently this time. The Smash Brothers became a provisional interregional government. As they began to recover, they reached a state of peace and prosperity like none of them had ever experienced.

The Subspace Emissary

But within that first year of reconstruction, evil reared its ugly head once again. A new threat showed its face: the Subspace Army. Made up of a variety of hostile creatures, these forces sought to fulfill the will of their master, the Ancient Minister. Aided by Wario, Bowser, and Ganondorf (who had been released from the Sacred Realm by the enemy), the Ancient Minister directed a calculated plot to transform the Nintendo World's heroes into trophies once again; not only that, but he employed Gadd's own R.O.B. units to activate Subspace Bombs that would draw the world into the nether region of Subspace piece by piece.

The Smash Brothers, scattered across the world, gathered in small clusters once more to deal with the Subspace Army. With new Smash Tournaments taking place and Madame Clairvoya's prophecy fulfilled, the Original 25 were no longer the exclusively chosen heroes of Nintendo; many others joined them on this quest. Banding together, they defeated Wario, Ganondorf, and Bowser. They discovered that Mr. Game & Watch's essence had been manipulated to extract Shadow Bugs, fuzzy purple dots that formed the moldable substance of the Subspace Army.

The Ancient Minister was revealed to be Gadd's original R.O.B. prototype, who had been enslaved along with his fellow robots to serve what appeared to be a resurrected Master Hand. R.O.B. nearly sacrificed his life in order to help several Smash Brothers escape a particularly large Subspace Bomb.

At last, the Smashers converged on the gaping portal to Subspace left behind by the bomb. They dismantled the cannon that would have enveloped the rest of the Nintendo World, and they entered Subspace itself to confront the source of their troubles. They found that Master Hand was indeed behind the campaign—but not in the way they expected.

It was some kind of reanimated—though not entirely self-willed—version of Master Hand. But each of the white fingers was controlled by a golden chain, all of which were held like puppet strings by a strange being that looked somewhat like a neon blue Wire Frame.

Tabuu.

The immaterial man unfurled what appeared to be two radioactive butterfly wings and unleashed his secret weapon: the Off Wave. This transformed all of the Smashers back into trophies, reminiscent of what Nightmare had once done with the Smash Rod. Then, a few of the Smashers who had been wearing King Dedede's peculiar badges were revived. They traversed the Great Maze—a conglomeration of the various pieces of the Nintendo World that had been taken into Subspace—and freed the rest of the Smashers.

They would have fallen to Tabuu's devastating Off Wave attack a second time had Sonic the Hedgehog not intervened, shattering the being's luminous wings and giving them a fair fight. The battle that followed was terribly close, but finally, Tabuu was defeated and destroyed. Link and Zelda subsequently sealed Ganondorf in the Sacred Realm once again, and everything seemed to return to normal.

It was only afterward that Kirby and Professor E. Gadd realized who this Tabuu had really been: He was none other than Nightmare (or what was left of him), who had been trapped in Subspace after his first defeat and had sought to bring the rest of the Nintendo World down with him.

The Forgotten Rights of Passage

Six months later—one full year since Nightmare's original defeat—the Smashers (minus Dr. Mario and Ganondorf) gathered along Nintendo's western shore to witness the arrival of a strange being on a wooden raft: L.O.G., or Lord of Games. Introducing himself as an ambassador from the Microsoft World and a representative of a mysterious organization called RareWare, he encouraged Nintendo's leaders to organize parties to reestablish relations with the estranged Sony and Microsoft mainlands across the sea.

After much debate, Professor E. Gadd sent Nintendonian emissaries to Sony and to several distant islands, hoping to restore friendly relations as L.O.G. had suggested. In planning these expeditions, he consulted a strange historical text in the library of his colleague Professor Frankly, which gave precise cartographical details of Smash Planet. In addition, though much was muddled beyond legibility, it also appeared to describe a worldwide conflict known as the Copyright Wars, which only a few Nintendonians directly connected with RareWare had any memory of. The source of this book was unknown, but it proved remarkably accurate, and its description of the Copyright Wars was confirmed as more of Nintendo's shrouded memories began to resurface.

During this time of preparation, Red followed Pikachu through the Veridian Forest—only to find his starter Pokémon brutally murdered by Metal Mr. Game & Watch, who along with Metal Mario were the sole survivors of Master Hand's creations. Yet they now appeared to be acting independent of their former master with unknown motives.

The King's Krystal embarked toward Sony under the direction of Captain Tetra. Red's long-lost father, Quentin, saved the ship and its crew from a maelstrom of sea monsters, and began teaching his son the ascetic ways of Pokémon Spirit Bonds, which allowed him to summon any Pokémon at any time in any location through his one-of-a-kind Omni Ball. Meanwhile, Young Link woke up one day to find his body cartoonish—a Toon Link, as it were—possessing memories of the Great Sea he couldn't explain.

Pit and Quill were deployed to investigate Atari Island, where they found that Professor U. Reeka had survived and was plotting to create a massive bomb that would sink the entire Nintendonian continent. Quill was shot down, while Pit barely escaped with his life to report their findings.

Back in Dreamland, the Smash Brothers were suddenly attacked by Microsoft's Spartan and Seran forces. Bowser and King Dedede headed the siege's defense along with King K. Rool, who was cruelly slain by the Master Chief's titanic flying frigate. Master Chief hinted that all he and Microsoft had done had been under the direction of an entity called the Great Moon Deity, who they looked to as their greatest source of power and protection. The Smash Brothers then barely managed to drive the Microsians off with the timely arrival of the Pokémon armies.

The King's Krystal reached Shadow Moses Island off the northern coast of Sony. There, they encountered Solid Snake, who gave them a brief history of the First Copyright Wars. In essence, the war was fought over a land dispute between Nintendo and Microsoft concerning DK Isle, Timber's Island, and the Isle o' Hags. All of these belonged to RareWare, an organization dedicated to achieving excellence independent from any of the three larger worlds. When some kingdoms on Microsoft's own mainland seceded to join RareWare as well and showed a greater partiality toward Nintendo than their native continent, Microsoft's highest leaders declared war on Nintendo under the leadership of the Master Chief. Sony was forcibly enlisted as Microsoft's allies. Nintendo nearly fell to the combined armies of both worlds (DK Isle being completely destroyed), but they were spared during the final battle by a strange army of Fighting Polygons which interceded and drove their attackers away, leading to an uneasy truce.

Snake agreed to help Nintendo reconnect with the rest of Sony in order to resolve whatever enmity remained between them and Microsoft. They traveled to Sonic's homeland of Mobius and used the Chaos Emeralds to travel throughout the Sony World and recruit its heroes (known as the Sonian All-Stars) and peoples to their cause. Eventually, most of Sony was united. But when Master Chief showed up at Candy Chateau on the western coast of Sony under the pretense of peaceful negotiations, the ensuing ambush resulted in the destruction of The King's Krystal, the capture of many, and the escape of the rest in a giant whale Pokémon, leaving just a few Nintendonians behind with the All-Stars.

The escapees ended up on Atari Island, where they followed a mischievous Galaga into the black void filling the island's center. There, they found Atari's diverse residents enslaved by the Space Invaders. The castaways met up with the Atarian hero Rocketman, and together they organized a coup, overthrowing the Space Invader Queen and chasing Professor U. Reeka off the island along with his destructive experiments.

Back on Nintendo, Gadd and L.O.G. gathered the rest of the Smash Brothers and persuaded Wario and Waluigi to construct a massive Ark, which would bear them all to the Islands and then to Microsoft to see that these Second Copyright Wars be brought to a definitive end. They reached Timber's Island and learned from the sole survivor, Pipsy, of the death of its leader, Taj, and the capture by Microsoft of most of its inhabiting racers.

Undaunted, they proceeded to the Isle o' Hags, where they launched an extensive strike against the occupying Microsians. Joined by their friends on Atari, they liberated the island from the oppression of the resurrected witch Gruntilda—at great cost, not the least of which being the shaman Mumbo Jumbo.

Those who had been captured at Candy Chateau were transported to Microsoft and tried and sentenced in Reach's capital of New Alexandria. Joanna Dark, a former member of RareWare, broke them out, and they commandeered a Spartan vessel and escaped to the Enchanted Kingdom—the last RareWare sanctuary on the Microsian continent. Along the way, they passed the burning remains of Joanna's home, the Carrington Institute, but to avoid discovery by the Spartans, they flew on to the Enchanted Kingdom's castle. There, they met the elfin princess Kameo, who agreed to help them infiltrate Microsoft and take down both Professor U. Reeka and the Great Moon Deity. According to Ryu Hayabusa, who had become an ally to the Smash Brothers after his life had been saved by Kirby, both of these targets would be found at the Moon Deity's Palace in the canyon kingdom of Vigoor.

The final assault on Microsoft commenced on several fronts. Gadd deployed a squad led by Bomberman to defuse Reeka's bomb beneath the continental ridge of the Kongo Jungle. However, despite their best efforts, they succeeded only in springing a trap that released an underwater army of R.A.W.s (Reeka's militant variation of Gadd's R.O.B.s) and began a 10-minute countdown toward Nintendo's utter deluge.

From the Isle o' Hags, the Smash Brothers launched their attack on Microsoft's northern coast near the submerged city of Rapture. They triumphed over the Microsian armies, and with the timely arrival of the Cornerian Fleet, they decommissioned the Seran superweapon known as the Hammer of Dawn. On the eastern front, Sony's forces contended against more Microsians, including Commander Shepard's Edenese spaceship, Normandy. Princess Peach's diplomatic expertise, combined with the projected memories of her sentient parasol, Perry, convinced Shepard that Nintendo was not responsible for the Fighting Polygons' recent attacks on Eden Prime and other Microsian territories, and with the aid of the Mushroom Kingdom's Star Spirits (again), they stopped another superweapon—known as the Reaper—from obliterating Sony's armies.

The heroes in the Enchanted Kingdom made their way down to Vigoor and infiltrated the Moon Deity's Palace. Those who ventured inside confronted Reeka and his R.A.W.s and endeavored to destroy the mad scientist's Deconstructor machine, which was responsible for sending the signal to sink the Nintendonian continent and had already begun doing so. Try as they might, however, they couldn't get the best of either Reeka or his robots. All seemed lost until two unexpected figures appeared and destroyed both Reeka and the Deconstructor: Metal Mr. Game & Watch and Metal Mario, who just as promptly vanished once more.

Outside the palace, Diddy Kong was forced to confront his traitorous friend, Conker the Squirrel, who had been working as an agent for Master Chief the whole time and had brought about much grief for those who had suffered from his snitching. Though they had been friends since racing together on Timber's Island, Diddy now found Conker maniacal and bloodthirsty, and he was forced to fight the gun-toting rodent to the death. Then, once Conker's last murderous attempt plunged the squirrel fatally into the Pit of Obaba, Diddy had little time to rest before the Great Moon Deity revealed his true form to him.

Wizpig. The giant swine who had long sought to conquer worlds through racing but had been thwarted by the racers of Timber's Island and then exiled to the moon. He had come to possess godlike powers in his exile, and he had used them to destroy the greatest villains of most of Microsoft's regions, thereby winning their loyalty. Wizpig had spearheaded the Copyright Wars through the Master Chief and other Microsian leaders so he could extend his porcine grip over all of Smash Planet and conquer it first through blood, then through racing.

Wizpig transported Diddy to the Catacombs of Sera and challenged him to one final race. But this time, even though Diddy was about to come out on top, Wizpig interceded and put an end to it—both the race and Diddy's life. He then used his powers to teleport all the combatants on all fronts of the war to a location just off the northern coast of Reach, and there demanded that all worlds submit to his control. Donkey Kong, incensed by Diddy's death and unwilling to listen to Gadd's words of caution after their relationship had become strained, led other Smashers in a rushed attack on Wizpig, at which point the latter began demonstrating his terrible destructive power, which was far too great for any of his enemies to overcome.

Back in Vigoor, Samus, Snake, and Captain Falcon made their way through the warring fairies, Tediz, and Spartans to the Falcon Flyer, and they sped like a missile into the heart of the Spartan Frigate. They fought their way toward Master Chief's command bridge, but on the way up, Snake and Falcon nearly came to blows over the issue of Samus's affections, and Snake continued alone to the top. He hoped to avenge a fallen friend, Meryl Silverburgh, whom Master Chief had murdered during the First Copyright Wars. Snake fought fiercely, but met more than his match in the Chief's superhuman strength.

Right when Master Chief was about to run Snake through with his Energy Sword, Samus and Captain Falcon came to the Sonian's rescue, and together they subdued Master Chief and forced him to lead them toward the escape pods. However, at that point the Frigate had been teleported to the great gathering where Wizpig was now raining his deathly powers upon all who opposed him. Due to some last-minute wit on Wario's part, the Ark was preserved from a devastating blast, using a Hylian Switch Hook to literally swap positions with the Frigate, leaving the Spartan vessel to take the full brunt of the blast.

Master Chief used trickery to escape his captors and take the last pod himself, leaving the three of them to die in the crumbling ship—though not before Samus accused him of dishonoring the memory of Cortana, a fallen friend of his own. While Snake and Samus survived the fall, Captain Falcon was trapped by a broken ceiling piece and went down with the ship.

The Chief returned to his Deity's side, but despite himself, Samus's accusation had struck him deeply. And watching Wizpig crush innocent Timber's Island racers, he finally saw Wizpig for the beast he truly was. Master Chief leapt out of his pod and beheaded the Great Moon Deity, putting an official end to the Second Copyright Wars.

When all had settled down and Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft had begun to mend their broken bonds, a tribunal was held in the airborne Edenese city of the Citadel to decide the fate of Master Chief and other Microsian leaders. Even though the Chief had single-handedly ended the war in the Smash Brothers' favor, he and others still had plenty of war crimes to answer for. When the council decided to spare Master Chief and reinstate him as leader of Microsoft, L.O.G. spontaneously Deleted him, causing his body to digitize and go to a virtual Recycle Bin in the ambassador's computer monitor head.

L.O.G. revealed that he was the brother of Nightmare, a fellow designer who had likewise been exiled to the universe his team had created—not because he wished to cause evil and fear to triumph as Nightmare did, but because he sought to distort natural rules and engineer imbalanced, never-ending chaos through his cunning manipulations. L.O.G. was the true mastermind behind everything: Wizpig's ascent to power; Gruntilda's resurrection; RareWare's interference with the peace between Nintendo and Microsoft; and much more. In essence, he was responsible for both Copyright Wars. Being able to calculate the future and modify memories, he had caused all on Smash Planet to forget not only the preexisting conditions of their worlds' existence, but the circumstances of the First Copyright Wars that rightly laid the blame not on Microsoft or Nintendo, but on him and Nightmare secretly manipulating the worlds in a perverse series of war games. Some forgotten memories created Memory Paradoxes, which could modify the present reality (as evidenced by Grunty's temporary return). In other words, L.O.G. was the reason no one knew—really knew—how and why their worlds had come to be, and what roles they were designed to play in it. He did reveal, however, that the four mainlands of Smash Planet—Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and Atari—could be arranged to form the Smash symbol of a circle with an off-centered cross, providing some insight into what the symbol represented. He also mocked them for being nothing but characters in a universe of video games, puppets with programmed destinies who had no real choice and no real life.

In the ensuing struggle, L.O.G. Deleted most of the council, though Ratchet's magnetic OmniWrench did irreparable damage to his monitor. The remaining heroes were brought inside the "LOG Box," where they were further tested but managed to cause terminal damage to L.O.G.'s brain. Finally, L.O.G. transformed into a giant meteor-like sphere and propelled himself in a desperate attempt to take the Citadel and all the heroes down with him. In what appeared to be their final moments, the few who remained inside the LOGosphere called upon their Nintendonian deities, who miraculously came to their aid: Lady Palutena of Skyworld; the Star Spirits; the three Triforce Goddesses; Gotoh the Divine Dragon; and Mew, once Red finally figured out how to channel his Spirit Bond through the Omni Ball. L.O.G. was brought to an ignominious end at the hands of Rocketman's rocket fuel, the final trigger appropriately being pulled by Banjo.

And so Smash Planet was at peace. Many questions still remained—many of them existential—but with friendly bonds between their neighboring worlds, the Smash Brothers began a new era of prosperity, and the general sentiment was that there was no obstacle, no villain, no evil they couldn't defeat together.

The Space Pirate War

While Smash Planet was dealing with the Second Copyright Wars, the broader Smash Universe outside it was engaged in a serious conflict of its own.

Space Pirates of varying degrees of villainy had always infested many parts of intergalactic space, but never had they come forth with such unorthodox coordination as they did at this time. The bulk of the attackers hailed from the Galactic Federation (Samus Aran's bounty hunting territory), the F-Zero Federation (the late Captain Falcon's stomping grounds apart from Mute City on Smash Planet), and the Lylat System (home to Team Star Fox and the Cornerian Fleet).

Within the Galactic Federation, there appeared to be a schism among the guild of bounty hunters who had once come to the Smash Brothers' aid in the War of the Hands. The dividing issue, as far as the Galactic Federation could tell, was over their loyalty to the Federation's employment versus other lesser known patrons. In any case, a number of them were soon conferring with the leaders of that galaxy's Space Pirates (its leadership these days was unclear with the loss of Ridley and Mother Brain). Then, the raids and terrorist attacks against Federation space stations, colonies, and fleets began, plunging them into war.

In the F-Zero Federation, even less was known of the circumstances leading to the rebellion of Samurai Goroh and his posse of bandits. All anyone knew was that the former colleague and rival of Captain Falcon had left Smash Planet's Fourside Tournament full of rage, and he had gathered low-lives throughout the sector and begun similar attacks on major F-Zero locations such as Port Town as well as the F-Zero Federation's military centers. More space-traveling miscreants had crawled out of the woodwork than the Federation could have ever anticipated.

Lylat's rebellions, on the other hand, were actually much more straightforward. General Scales, the Saurian tyrant who had been ousted by Star Fox once upon a time, was out for revenge against the Cornerian government and had amassed as many of the more aggressive dinosaurs from Sauria and outlaws from the Sargasso Hideout as he could—somehow gathering enough to wage a formidable war on the Lylat System's peacekeepers.

In and of themselves, however, each sector's individual struggles would have been easily self-contained; it was when the bounty hunters, Space Pirates, bandits, and outlaws joined forces that all Hell broke loose. The two Federations and the Cornerian Fleet were stretched to their limits and forced to band together—even across such vast distances that separated their sectors—in order to fend off the piratic legions. For a long while, none of them could spare any additional aid to Smash Planet, even in its dire struggles as Professor E. Gadd sent out a call for help.

With time, however, the united law enforcement of all three sectors began to gain headway against its enemies. During a major battle around Elysia, the rebellious bounty hunters were scattered or destroyed. On the uninhabited marsh planet of Synobazz, Samurai Goroh and his goons were subdued and taken into custody. And in one final, massive battle around the Lylatan planet of Sauria, Star Fox confronted General Scales's legions once and for all—with the special help of the bounty hunter Gandrayda, Fox's Saurian girlfriend, Krystal, and even the PSI children Paula and Poo from Earth.

With that victory, the Space Pirate War came to a close, though investigations into the conflict's roots remained ongoing. Still, what came out of the war was a stronger bond between the sectors of the outer Smash Universe similar to that of the Smash Brothers, although more of a general allegiance than an actual consolidated government.

And so, for the next year, the universe was at peace—or so it seemed. Yet to many who had been born and raised with the vastness of space at their fingertips, something subtle, something unnatural, something intangible and inexplicable had begun to stir, leaving their endless worlds in a state of strange, passive unrest. It was like the quiet before the storm—an invisible storm. An unbeatable storm. An apocalyptic storm. The essential core, the very heart of the Smash Universe was about to be shaken—and to undergo a test it was designed to fail.

Author's Note: As indicated in the title, this story is indeed a direct continuation of The Trophies and The Forgotten Rights of Passage. While this sequel will certainly be found most meaningful to those who have read its predecessors, the synopsis provided here should be sufficient for anyone who wishes to jump aboard. If you are interested in learning about the events in the synopsis in greater detail, however, I highly recommend reading the two previous installments first.

Also, I have created maps for aid in visualizing the geography of this story. Among these maps are:

-the space map of the Smash Universe

-the global map of Smash Planet

-the Nintendo World

-the Sony World

-the Microsoft World

Although I cannot directly link to them here, all you have to do is Google search "Bob_Snicket AND Photobucket", which should bring up my Photobucket user account. There, you will find the maps easily accessible and, I hope, useful and interesting.

I would greatly appreciate feedback both positive and constructively critical so that I can continue refining my craft.

Thanks for reading!