Throne Room, Palace of Power, VideoLand.

At 6.00, Steelheart had finished checking most of her traps except the last one, which was in the throne room itself.  It was a trap door that, when sprung, would quickly transport anyone who stepped on it to the basement.  "Ah!" said Steelheart.  "I'm done!"  A ray of sunlight two centimetres in diameter came through the window.  "Sunlight?  That means that Ludwig should be here in minutes.  Now to summon everyone."  She slammed on a button.  In about fifteen minutes, everyone, completely dressed and after doing whatever they needed to do to be prepared, was in the throne room.  "I have calculated," said Steelheart, "that von(Bowser)Koopa, his father, his step-mother, his siblings, his servants, and all of the rest of the Brain-Team will warp in here to exactly this spot."  She pointed to her trap door.  "Look how sensitive this thing is."  She peeled a little piece of paper out of her notebook on a table.  She dropped the piece on the trap door.  The trap door opened and sucked the paper down to the basement of the Palace.  "That way, the villains will be sucked down to the basement.  They will have to work their way up through traps which I have designed cleverly and carefully."  She looked at her watch.  "By my watch, they should be here right about now."  She stepped back.  The Brain-Team materialised in the room. . . just where they would avoid the trap door!  "Damn!"

            "And I calculated accurately," boasted Ludwig von(Bowser)Koopa, "on how to avoid that cute little trap of yours, Steelheart!  Ha, ha, ha!  I can tell that you and I are going to make quite a pair of adversaries!"

            "Save the junk!" Steelheart snapped.  "Where is Captain N?"

            "Just as anyone, even an idiot, could determine," proved Ludwig, "I had no intention of bringing back Captain N."

            "I knew it," said Steelheart.  "You rotten snake."

            "You'll be singing a different tune when we get through with you," said Mario.

            "Don't forget," said the idiotic Eggplant Wizard, "that you can't hurt him by stomping him without the Kuribo's Shoe."

            "Thank you," said Ludwig, after which he fried the ignorant vegetable.  "I was counting on his not remembering that!"

            Mario and Luigi clapped their hands together, singing, "Paddycake, paddycake, pasta-man, give me pasta-power as fast as you can!"  They both drew Fire Flowers out of their overalls and turned into Fiery Mario and Fiery Luigi.

            "Come on, Luigi, let's give these creeps a taste of pasta-power!" said Mario.

            "What are you two idiots doing?" demanded Mon*Star, his Light*Star Eye flashing.  He had not transformed.  "Take this!"  He blasted the two with his Light*Star.  Mario and Luigi, in inclusion with losing their 'pasta-power,' were frozen by the Light*Star.

            "Whoa!" exclaimed Toad.  "That piece of laser sure did something, but I don't want to find out what!"  He tried to make a run for it, but Mon*Star blasted him with a Light*Star, too.

            "Hee, hee, hee!" said Mon*Star.  "Stick around, funny fungus!  You won't be going anywhere!  Ha, ha, ha!"  Suddenly, he buckled from the pressure of some strain.  "Ohh. . . I need to transform with the Moon*Star's rays if I'm going to keep this up."  Ludwig von(Bowser)Koopa tossed a warp formula on the floor.

            "Step through there, and you'll wind up on Brim*Star's surface, where you can gaze at the Moon*Star and transform," said Ludwig.

            Bluegrass pointed the head of his Laser Guitar at Mon*Star.  "Oh, don't go anywhere; I have a solo for you!"  Bluegrass fired at Mon*Star with blue laser music.  A ray of red laser music cut it perpendicularly, though, before it hit the Planet Master.  "Huh?  Uh, oh; it's the competition!"

            "You're darn right, cowboy!" said Melodia, blasting the red laser music from her Sound Smasher.  She abruptly stopped.  "Now, you'll be all wrapped up in your work, country hick!"  She blasted him with laser music and wrapped him up.  "Eat rock and roll, cowpoke!  Ha, ha, ha!"  A laser blasted the Sound Smasher out of her hands and onto the floor.  "Whoa!"

            "Your rock and roll days are over, Melodia," announced Quicksilver.

            "Suck sneeze gas, melodious evildoer!" said Darkwing Duck, aiming his Gas Gun at Melodia.  He blasted her with a gas pellet filled with sneeze gas, and Melodia went into a sneezing fit.  "Yet another treacherous transgressor foiled!"  Mon*Star sprang up and entered the warp.

            "Uh, oh!" said Steelwill.  "He entered the warp!"

            On Brim*Star, Mon*Star caught a glimpse of the Moon*Star.  "Hee, hee, that's enough light for me to transform!" laughed Mon*Star.  "Moon*Star of Limbo, give me the might, the muscle, the menace of Mon*Star!"  By the last word, he had transformed entirely into his powerful form.  "Hee, hee, hee!  Now, to get back there and blast those do-gooders!"  A laser hit him in the back of the head and knocked him onto the ground.  Steelheart came out of the warp.  "Yaaah!  You!"

            "Yes, me," said Steelheart.  "Now, do you want to come quietly, or will I have to drag you back by your pinkies?"  When she got close enough, Mon*Star kicked her over on her side and ran into the warp, then he sealed it so that Steelheart could no longer use it.  "Damn!  I'm off today."

            "Eat Light*Star, wimps!" said Mon*Star.  He was about to blast them when Steelwill blasted him with a laser.

            "Whom in the hell are you calling wimps, star-face?" demanded Steelwill.  "And where is Steelheart?  I know:  you left her out there in the rain!"

            "Even a Silver Hawk," said Mon*Star, "can die of pneumonia!  Hee, hee, hee!"

            "Why you overgrown!. . ." shouted Steelwill just before bashing Mon*Star in the area where digestive organs would be located in a human.  The plate there was vulnerable.

            "Yaaaah!" screamed Mon*Star, turning into his pre-transformation form.  "Why, you!"

            "And here's one for Steelheart!" continued Steelwill.  He kicked Mon*Star where it would really hurt in a male human, and it really hurt in Mon*Star, too!

            "YEEEEOWCH!!!" screamed Mon*Star.  "THAT HURT!!!"

            "Good!" said Steelwill.

            "I'll help her!" said Mario.  He spilt a warp formula on the floor.  Steelheart came out.

            After emerging from the warp, Steelheart stormed over to Mon*Star.  "That," expelled Steelheart, "was awfully damned stupid, buster!"

            Mon*Star said, "Are you kidding?  Ouch!  That was a stupid idea of mine!  Ouch!"

            "What the devil happened to him?" asked Steelheart.

            Steelwill announced, "I gave him what he deserved:  a good ol' kick between the legs!"

            "I ought to kick you between the legs, blasted Silver Hawk!" said Hardware, pointing a laser gun at Steelwill.  Quicksilver blasted the laser gun out of Hardware's hands and wrapped him up in a laser and even added a laser bow!

            "You're all wrapped up, Hardware," said Quicksilver.

            "Terrible joke!" shouted Hardware.  "Terrible joke!  I shall not wish you a Merry Christmas!"

            "Who cares?" asked Quicksilver.  After this, he got the cold shoulder by Windhammer.  "Brr!  What the. . . Windhammer!"

            "Ha, ha, ha, yes!" answered Windhammer.  "I'm here to give you a white Christmas!  Ha, ha, ha!  Merry Christmas, Silver Hawk!  Ha, ha, ha!"  He got a laser in his back.  "Aah!  All right!  Who did that?"

            "It was yours truly!" said Hotwing.  "Now, take this!"  Hotwing created ribbons that tied up Windhammer.

            "I'm all tied up!"

            "You got that right."

            "I'll stop you guys cold," said Timestopper, pressing the button in the middle of his belly.  In the centre of his chest, a clock counted down two seconds, starting off by reading 3.00.  When it reached 1.00, a colon formed between the one and the two zeros and it counted down one minute.  "Ha, ha, ha!  That ought to keep them out of our hair for a minute!"

            "Wow!" said Eggplant Wizard.  He knocked on MegaMan, who was frozen stiff.

            "This is excellent!" said Ludwig.

            "Yes!" agreed Timestopper.  "With time stopped, we can capture these guys and hang them up again!  And this time, none of us will make the mistake of letting them off!  Ha, ha, ha!  But I can only hold time for one minute."

            "Remember, I also want to crucify Link, my wicked compatriots," Ludwig reminded them.

            "Yes!" said Luna.  "And we Luna-tacks and Mutants want to deal with Lion-O personally.  We'll make him sorry he ever crossed us!"

            "My time is running out!" complained Timestopper, with thirty-five seconds left on his clock.  "Let's just get them to Metroid!"

            "Don't worry, I shall see to that," said Liquidator.  He ordered the water in the drinking fountain to wash the entire N-Team into a warp to Metroid.

            Ludwig got out his radio and said in French, "Armies of Metroid, this is Ludwig von(Bowser)Koopa.  The N-Team has just been washed into the Planet Metroid.  Clamp them firmly to the wall in the prison room.  This is Ludwig, until we speak again."  He put his radio away.  In English, he told everyone, "They'll be through in a few seconds."

            "Damn!" said a surprised Mega Volt.  "Why did you say all of that in French?"

            "They do not understand English," said Ludwig.  "Just French, Spanish, and Italian."

            "Well, that would tend to make sense," said Liquidator.

            MotherBrain said, "They're supposed to understand all the languages I speak, but, as they sometimes say, c'est la vie {sáy lah vé} [French] (that's life).  Ridley, of course, the smartest creature there, knows English."

            The radio in Ludwig's hand beeped.  He responded, "Yes?  Ludwig here."

            Ridley replied, "Prince Ludwig, this is Ridley.  We have completed your request."

            "Ah, good!  Timestopper is about to turn time back on for them."

            "Very well.  We'll make sure they don't escape."

            Timestopper pressed his time-button and re-started time.  "Okay, that's taken care of," said he.  "Now, let's get over there to Metroid and do to them what they did to us!"

            "Sounds good to me!" said Ludwig, as they all went through the warp to Metroid, single-file.

            * * *

            Prison Room, Norfair, Metroid.

            The wicked world of Metroid, the evil fume-spewing planet, was still cloaked.  In the prison room, the Brain-Team was very happy, for their captured N-Team members were tied to the wall appropriately.  "It seems to me," said Quacker Jack, "that we were at this point before.  This time, we don't take those Steel-smart-rears off of the wall!"

            "Correct," said Ludwig.  "That trick won't work this time, Steeltwins."

            "Can I let Mario, Luigi, and Toad out of the Light*Stars now, Ludwig?" asked Mon*Star.

            Ludwig said, "Nope!  No one ever underestimate these guys again!  Quacker Jack, search them thoroughly for Darkwing's smoke capsules."

            "Whatever you say, Ludwig!" said Quacker Jack.  "You're first, Steelheart."  When he proceeded to check Steelheart in the chest area, a huge steel trap snapped his arm.  "YEEEOOWWCH!!!  YOU UNDERESTIMATED HER!!!  YOU UNDERESTIMATED HER!!!"

            "Nice booby-trap, sis!" said Steelwill.

            "Let's not get vulgar, Will," said Steelheart.

            Bushroot used his weeds to open up the device.  As soon as the trap opened and fell on the floor, it once again snapped shut, but this time on nothing.  "There you go, QJ," said Bushroot.

            "Thanks," said Quacker Jack.  "Well, smarty-steel, take this!"  Quacker Jack got a pair of snap-teeth and got ready to snap it on Steelheart's wrist.

            "Wait!" said Ludwig.  "Not until I give the gong are you to hurt any one of them.  Just put your snap-teeth away, Quackie."  Quacker Jack reluctantly obeyed.

            "You know," said Link, "that crucifixion is not the only way to deal with me."

            "I want to be cruel," said Ludwig.  "I will give you nothing to deaden the pain.  Your death will be slow and agonising."

            "Something's wrong here," said Luna.  "Where the devil are Bengali, Pumyra, Lynx-O, Snarfer, and the Thunder Kittens?"

            "Ludwig knows," said Mumm-ra, "that those Thunder Kittens are inconsequential.  We don't need them.  Yet, we should obtain the others.  Those other four must be at the Tower of Omens.  Hee, hee, hee!  I'll deal with them before those kittens can get word to them!  Heh, heh!  Ma-mutt, let's get them!"  Ma-mutt, his foul doggie, whined in agreement.  "Ancient Spirits of Evil, transform this decayed form to Mumm-ra, the Ever-Living!"  As soon as he was through chanting, holograms of the four stone statues representing the Ancient Spirits of Evil appeared near the ceiling and blasted Mumm-ra into his transformed form. . . his more powerful transformed form, in which his eyes were like this:  ò ó.  "Hee, hee, hee!  I'll be back with them soon, Ludwig."

            "Hee, hee, hee!" said Ludwig.  "There's no way they can stop you."  Ludwig created a warp to the Tower, which Mumm-ra and Ma-mutt promptly entered.