Chapter 4: Zero mission Pt 3
"Second floor. Caves. More caves. And even more caves, with a good chance of other cave inhabitants." Ben said as the elevator finally arrived at the second arrived at the second part of the caves known as Norfair. Both he and Samus stepped off and looked around.
"Ok. Where to now?" Ben asked.
"We head down." Samus said as she blasted a hole and jumped down with Ben following suit. They walked through a left door and entered a long corridor as they walked they encountered several creatures which were quickly disposed of by Samus. Eventually they reached another weak wall.
"I'll take care of this one." Ben said as he activated the Omnitrix.
After choosing the alien he wanted he slammed the core and after another flash of green light he was replaced with a creature with a yellow-armored body and looks much like a robot. His head is similar to a Greek Corinthian helmet with two ears on it giving him the appearance of an armadillo. He has a gray tail and jackhammer parts on his elbows, wrists and hands, creating the impression that it is a digging robot and the Omnitrix symbol was on his chest.
"ARMODRILLO!" He shouted as he then raised his hands and they converted into two drills. The Talpaedan then began to drill away the wall creating a hole big enough for the two of them to walk through with out any trouble.
"I don't understand why I didn't think of this sooner. Would have saved us a lot of trouble." Armodrillo admitted.
"It doesn't matter. As long as we continue we'll be fine." Samus said. The two continued on with the Talpaedan drilling away parts of the cave that were too small for either of them. Eventually they reached the end of the corridor and walked through the door and upon entering they saw they were in a small room with a small hole in the wall. Armodrillo was about to drill his way through but Samus stopped him.
"What is it?" He asked.
"My sensors are picking up several things above us." She said. The two walked up to see an elevator ahead of them. Armodrillo changed back to Ben and the two stepped on and the elevator began to ascend upwards. By the time it stopped they realized that the elevator had taken them to a new area.
"Where are we?" Ben asked.
"According to my scanners were in Crateria." Samus answered.
"Where to now?" He asked.
"This way." Samus said as she began to walk right. The two walked down the corridor until they reached a part of the caves that was partially full of water.
"Looks like we go up." Ben said. He then activated the Omnitrix and slammed the core and after a flash of light in Ben's place stood a tall humanoid slime-like creature with a small device over its head and the Omnitrix symbol on its chest.
"GOOP!" He shouted with his voice sounding like he was talking underwater. Samus began to leap onto nearby platforms while Goop hovered behind her. They reached a small opening in a wall and Samus entered her morph ball and rolled inside.
She placed several bombs on barriers that would block her pats and continued forward while Goop used some crafty maneuvering with his anti-gravity projector pulling the rest of his body along with it. Eventually they reached a new room and looked around their surroundings.
"My scans are picking up something just directly ahead of us." Samus said as she walked over to the Chozo statue and took the item of its hands.
As she looked over the item there was something about it that caught her interest and Goop noticed it.
"What is it?" The Polymorph asked.
"This is strange. My scans can't seem to make out anything of it. My power suit is apparently not compatible with this item." She said.
"Maybe we should hold on to it. I mean who knows, it could be useful later on." Goop said.
"Good idea." Samus said as she placed the item in her subspace. The two walked out of the room and back down the small tunnel but along the way they Samus planted a bomb on what looked like a dead end. It exploded and created a hole large enough for the two to climb out. As they looked around their new surroundings they saw ahead of them what looked like the ruins of a temple.
"What do you think is in there?" Goop asked.
"I'm not certain." Samus admitted.
"But I believe it wouldn't hurt to investigate." She added, as she walked towards the temple entrance. The two entered and saw a door ahead of them in the distance.
"What do you think is behind that door?" Goop asked.
"I don't know but-" Was all Samus could say as she walked towards it before the next thing she knew the floor suddenly collapsed on her. As she fell she felt something slither around her shoulders, and waist. She looked up to see Goop shift his entire body into a make-shift parachute. The two slowly descended towards the bottom of the pit before finally reaching the bottom.
Goop quickly flung himself off Samus and tapped the Omnitrix symbol changing Goop back to Ben.
"You ok?" He asked.
"I will be. Thank you." Samus said but noticed something.
"What is it?" Ben asked.
"I'm picking up something behind that wall." Samus said pointing to the wall behind Ben. He looked over to see the wall she was pointing to and after activating the Omnitrix changed into Armodrillo and began to drill his way through the wall.
After successfully drilling away the wall the two were met with a room with a Chozo statue much larger than the ones they previously encountered. Much like the others this one had an item in its hands.
Samus walked over towards the statue and grabbed the item and looked over it.
"What is it?" Armodrillo asked.
"The power grip." Samus answered.
"Power grip?" Armodrillo asked.
"With this I can be able to grab and hang on to corners and ledges." Samus explained.
"You couldn't do that before?" The Talpaedan asked.
"Not on my own no. My suit alone is too heavy." Samus admitted.
As she finished her sentence both she and Armodrillo felt vibrations underground and quickly ran out of the room to see that the central pillar began to rise, and several platforms emerged from the sides of it.
Armodrillo tapped the Omnitrix symbol on his chest causing him to change to Crashhopper and he along with Samus began to jump onto and from platform to platform.
Eventually they reached he top and walked through the door and through a corridor before finally reaching the end where they were met with a large view of Zebes.
"Nice view." Crashhopper said, before the two leaped down towards a door at the bottom and walked through a long corridor leading to the elevator to Norfair. Crashhopper changed back to Ben as they stepped on.
"Well. Back to Norfair." Ben said as they descended down.
The two stepped off and began to walk back through the corridor they previously entered from and began to move right. As they walked down they saw that the path led to a room with a small pool of lava.
Ben activated the Omnitrix and changed to Goop and both he and Samus began to move up and around several obstacles and creatures such as 'Poly P', 'Ripper', 'Sova' before they exited the door. They climbed up a small area before they entered a door that had a corridor with more lava and small platforms.
Goop realized that he was not going to cut it on this one, so the Polymorph slammed the Omnitrix symbol and after a flash of green Goop was replaced with a creature that looked like a gorilla made out of red blue and yellow Lego blocks with black lines running across its body and the Omnitrix symbol on its chest.
"BLOXX!" He shouted. Samus looked at the Segmentasapien with interest and confusion.
"What can this creature do?" She asked. Bloxx's response was to grab on to Samus with his right arm.
"Hold on." He said, and before she knew it he thrusted his left arm forward. It extended towards one of the small platforms and grabbed on to it allowing Bloxx to extent his torso forward, all the while Samus was stunned by the feat he's performing.
When he reached the platform, he placed Samus on it and saw that it was big enough to hold only one person.
"Listen I'm gonna make a bridge out of my body, all you have to do is keep anything that looks like it might give us any trouble off me." Bloxx explained earning a nod from the hunter.
"Alright. Here I go." Bloxx said as he extended his body forward and reached out to the next few platforms and created small support structures on each one.
This gave Samus the opportunity to run across the 'bridge' all the while some Sova attempted to get in her way but were quickly dealt with. Eventually they reached the other side allowing Samus to walk off Bloxx and allowing him to retract the lower half of his body returning to his original shape.
"Smart thinking." Samus complimented.
"Thanks." Bloxx said.
The two walked inside to see a room like the previous ones before with a Chozo statue and an item in its hands. Samus walked over and took the item and her suit informed her what the item is.
"Ice beam." She said.
"A freeze ray? That is pretty cool (No pun intended)." Bloxx said resulting in an eye roll from Samus who stopped and noticed something.
"What? What is it?" Bloxx asked.
"There's something above us." She said. The two were about to leave but Samus entered her morph ball and rolled into a tunnel underneath the statue.
Bloxx tapped the Omnitrix symbol changing him to Goop and the Polymorph and follow Samus. The two began to move upward with Goop seeing first hand how the ice beam works, completely freezing the rippers that were in the way in place and using their frozen states as makeshift platforms. The two reached the top and as they entered the door they were met with a creature that leaped form the lava before falling back in.
"What the heck was that?" Goop asked.
"That thing is a Squeept." Samus explained.
"Cute." Goop muttered sarcastically. Just as he finished that sentence the Squeept once again jumped into the air from the lava, and this time Samus was ready and quickly blasted the creature with the ice beam and quickly leaped into the air and land on to the frozen Squeept as it fell and jumped again onto a platform as the Squeept fell into the lava.
"Quick thinking." Goop complimented earning a nod from Samus. Looking ahead of them was another Chozo statue blocking their way. Then another Squeept shot into the air but was frozen by Samus who quickly leaped onto it and leaped from the falling Squeept and entered her morph ball and landed in the statues open hands.
'Ok. That was impressive.' Goop thought.
Then the light in the statue's eyes began to die down and it began to move into a sitting position before Samus un-curled herself.
"I think I figured out were to go to next." Samus said to Goop.
"And where is that?" Goop asked.
"Kraid." Samus simply answered.
"Kraid?" Goop asked in confusion.
"An area of the caves named after Ridley's sub-commander." Samus explained.
"And let me guess… We take Kraid out before we take out Ridley?" The Polymorph asked earning a nod from Samus.
"Well, lead the way." He said and the two began to head to their next destination. As they walked they re-encountered several creatures before they entered the elevator which took them to Brinstar, and as they continued there was something on Goop's mind.
"Hey Samus, can I ask you something?" Goop asked. "What is it?" Samus asked.
"I noticed that when you talked about the Chozo there was this look in your eyes. It was as if they were you're family. Why is that?" Goop asked almost hesitantly. Samus's only response was to stop dead in her tracks and stand in silence.
"Samus is something the matter?" Goop asked as he tapped the Omnitrix symbol changing him back to Ben.
"Is it something I said?" He asked but got no response. "If this is something that you don't want to talk about then that's ok."
"No, I'm sorry Ben. It was just that… when you asked about the Chozo I was… just… remembering." Samus answered.
As she answered Ben noticed there was hesitance in her voice.
"What exactly?" He asked.
"Everything. The Chozo took me in after the massacre on planet K-2L. I was only three-years-old when it happened, yet I remember it all too well. Especially when my real parents were…" Was all Samus said before trailing off.
It didn't take him long to realize what it was.
"Your real parents were killed by the Pirates and the Chozo took you in and raised you." Ben stated, resulting in Samus to turn around to face him.
"How did you-" Was all Samus could saw before Ben interrupted.
"Call me whatever you can think of, but I was always a good judge of character. I can tell right off the bat that this whole thing isn't just a mission for you, but a personal vendetta. A vendetta against the Space Pirates." Ben said.
"Ben I-" was all Samus could say, before Ben interrupted again.
"Look, I get it. I can tell this is something that you want to avoid talking about, but I know that you don't want to keep this to yourself forever. It's going to take you down and make you act just like them, and I can tell that is the absolute last thing you would ever want to do." Ben said.
"Besides, you don't have to do this on your own. I have your back through and through." He added.
Samus didn't know why but for some strange reason she started to realize that Ben was right and that maybe she really doesn't have to do this on her own.
"Ben I… I really don't know what to say." She said.
"Don't worry about it. Just remember if you need someone to talk to then I'm all ears." Ben said and could tell there was a small smile behind Samus's visor.
"Well come on, we have a pirate commander's butt to kick." Ben cockily said before the two continued down the corridor.