Super Mario Bros. 3 - The Subspace Emissary

Chapter 9: The Lake

A mysterious lake - Universe-1200201

Diddy flew through the skies and suddenly ran out of fuel. He yelled as he quickly caught himself with the vines of the jungle. "Man...I lost the ship."

He set his jetpack down and hit it under a leaf. He ran through the jungle and found himself by a lake. Diddy was amazed by this universe's clean water, or at least, this body of water. He then noticed a one-man spaceship that was just there by a tree. Diddy gasped and whispered, "I so wanna tear that thing apart..."

He sprinted toward it and suddenly heard a rumble. Suddenly, a creature splashed out of the water. The creature was large, green, serpentine-like, and also resembled a missile. It had red-tipped, rudder-like wings on its shoulders and down its body, similarly patterned fins on the tip of its tail, yellow ring-like symbols that ran across the length of its body, an additional yellow ring on top of its head, two limbs with three-clawed hands, and two long, flat, horn-like structures on its head, with two shorter horns along its jawline, small, yellow eyes with black pupils, prominent pink gums, and two discernible fangs in its upper jaw.

This was Rayquaza, the Sky High Pokemon. Diddy shrieked at the sight of the monster and attempted to run faster to the spaceship. Rayquaza noticed the monkey intruding on his property and roared. It then fired an electric ball from its mouth and engulfed the spaceship in an explosion and fire.

Diddy shuddered at the fear of the dragon and Rayquaza snatched the Kong in his hand and prepared to eat him...until something broke free from the spaceship and zipped past the Pokémon, breaking its grip on Diddy.

The person that freed Diddy landed and posed. He appeared to be an anthropomorphic fox with orange-brown fur, with golden-brown and white highlights. He wore a grey flight jacket with a patch with an emblem of a fox, green pants with a gun holster on his hip, a red scarf, a green visor next to his right eye, and metallic legs. The fox smirked and asked Diddy, "You okay?"

Diddy could only nod. Rayquaza roared again and fired another ball of energy. The fox then pulled out a small device that formed a hexagonal field around him and reflected the ball. The fox then gestured for Diddy to fight with him and the two prepared to battle with the Pokemon.

Rayquaza roared a powerful gust of wind that launched Diddy back but the fox grabbed him by his tail. The fox then ignited a bit on fire and flew toward Rayquaza while exclaiming, "Fire!!"

He impacted Rayquaza's head and performed that dash move he used earlier. He quickly pulled out his blaster and opened fire on Rayquaza. The lasers hit the Pokemon and Rayquaza dug into the ground. Diddy pulled out a peanut popgun and asked, "Where did he go?!"

The fox looked around, keeping his stance. He then heard rumbling and said, "Below us!"

The two quickly avoided Rayquaza erupting from the ground and Diddy fired a peanut which exploded on impact. Rayquaza roared again and then Fox released a kick that was able to take down the Pokemon. Rayquaza let a cry of pain and then finally fell, at least twitching a small bit.

The fox's visor deactivated and he gave a thumbs-up to Diddy. The Kong sighed and said, "Thanks...What's your name? I'm Diddy Kong."

"The name's Fox." the fox replied. "Fox McCloud. I'm the leader of Star Fox, a flight squad hired by General Pepper to keep the Galaxy safe. Now that I helped you beat that thing, I'd better get going."

Fox then walked off and Diddy pulled him back with his tail. "Wait! My buddy's been taken and I gotta find him!"

"Yeah, my friend, Slippy, is gone too and I gotta find him also."

"Don't worry! I at least know where they took my buddy. Maybe the same guys I'm after took your friend too. And also, I'm needing some company so the thing with the dragon doesn't happen again.

"Sorry. The last two apes I met in my life before you tried to kill me. I'd prefer to go my own way."

Fox then walked off again and Diddy was not having any of it. He then grabbed Fox by the back of his jacket and proceeded to drag him along.

He's arrogant like Andrew... Fox thought. "This is gonna be a loooong way from finding Slippy..."