Chapter 7: Phazon Titan Thardus

Like before, Samus' gunship zips right out of hyperspace, floating high above a barren planet that looks very similar to Zebes in atmosphere save for a single patch of greenery and burning magma beyond it. The hunter takes the ship down from space and towards the planet's light-blue atmosphere, digging through the heat of the descent and entering a violent array of storm clouds that crackle and bombard the ship with lightning. Though the ship shakes around with each bolt struck against the surface, Samus is able to keep the gunship steady until she breaks the clouds and finds the ship bombarded with rain drops.

For a moment, the hunter floats above an elevated patch of grassy rock that is pocketed between a series of ridged walls. However, she quickly passes on by that area and heads towards a large crater beyond the ledge of an ancient temple, whose Chozo Statues have been tainted by Phazon and are slowly being replaced with floating, phantasmal effigies of Dark Samus herself. As Samus gives an angered glare at the Phazon warrior's blasphemy, Riku goes on to ask "Hey…Shouldn't we have parked the gunship back there? It was a wide open area after all."

"We aren't going to keep the ship parked…" Samus responds, confusing the teenage Overlord before she goes on to say "I'm going to take us to the Phendrana Drifts, since that's one of the more secluded parts of Tallon IV, and then I can discuss the method we are going to use to find the apparitions on each planet from here on out."

With the hunter's words Riku finds partial reason to put his faith towards her, and he proceeds to lean back and wait for the hunter to reach the icy domain. The rain clouds eventually part and are replaced with fluffy white ones that drop snow down onto the lands below that consist of plateau-like elevations and icy lakes. However, the landscapes isn't shown to Riku for long as the bounty hunter descends from the skies towards a lone platform raised high above a shoulder-high pool of corrupted water. There is just enough space on the platform for the legs to spread across on thankfully.

Once the gunship's ignition is turned off, Samus quickly turns to face the teenage Overlord and says to him "Now then, I'm going to need a sample of your blood."

The statement was straightforward and surprising to Riku, who immediately went on to ask "How is my blood going to help us find the apparitions?"

Samus, who is busy digging into her compartments in search of a particular tool, nonchalantly mentions to the boy "Right now your blood has traces of Phazon in it. I can imagine that the corruption isn't very strong at the moment, but the little bit you do have will allow me to use the ship's scanners to detect anything similar to your Phazon…"

"Even though these are ghosts we are dealing with?" Riku points out.

The bounty hunter nods her head and draws out a small needle attached to a tube connected to the computer itself. "I'm not used to drawing blood from people…" Samus points out as she looks awkwardly at the needle.

After a momentary pause, the hunter faces the boy and hesitantly asks him "Do you have any experience in the matter?"

Riku shakes his head, and seeing as Samus doesn't want to risk permanent bodily harm she quietly says "…Well, so much for this idea then." And begins to put the needle away.

The teenage Overlord raises his hand though while she still has partial vision on him, saying with an optimistic voice "Don't worry about it Samus, there's still a way for us to get blood from my body."

With a theory on his mind, Riku uses a thought to dispel his weapon and reaches for the glove below, pulling it off with a light tug to reveal his skin underneath. The veins are more prominent than usual thanks to the Phazon in his body, but that will just make it easier for him to know where to pull blood from. What he was about to do was something he had never attempted before, but believed that it was in his capabilities to do based on his knowledge. With his left hand floating above his palm, Riku grunts in pain as he focuses on the veins underneath his skin, gently weaving the blood through his veins and skin cells one molecule at a time until he has formed a large enough sphere of blood to give to Samus.

Though it was hard to tell through the visor, Riku was drained of a lot of energy from doing that action, but Samus didn't comment on the matter as she quickly popped the needle off of the tube and let the teenage Overlord send the blue-dotted dark red blood orb into it. The blood flows into a flask in the ship to be examined by the mainframe, which after a few seconds results in a map of Phendrana Drifts that Samus downloaded from her suit into the computer to pop up across the window behind where the hunter currently sits. Flipping her chair around, Samus pays attention to a single blip of light that is in a circular area to the west of their current location. Recognizing the apparition this blip belongs to, the hunter says to the ship "Extend scan range to cover Phazon Mines, Chozo Ruins and Magmoor Caverns."

The map's range broadens to encompass most of the areas Samus specified save for Phazon Mines, which the voice in the ship points out that there is "Insufficient Phazon for this range of scanning" when it tries to extend to that area. However despite the broadened range of the map only one blip is still visible in Phendrana Drifts. This was good enough for Samus though, and with a cold voice she commands the ship to download the updated map data into her suit. Via a holographic projection around the hunter's Varia Suit, the ship successfully inputs all needed information into her systems in a matter of seconds, all the while Riku puts his glove back on and summons forth his weapon ready to head into the Phendrana Drifts.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm there and I'm glad you were able to give me a blood sample, but we can't head off just yet…" Samus says as she leans forward slightly and begins to work around the control panel of her ship.

"How come?" Riku asks, his left hand grasped around the left barrel of his weapon as he perks his eyebrows up and stares at what the hunter is doing.

"With the amount of Phazon I can see in this area I can't imagine the ship being safe on this platform for long. I need to program the ship to stay high enough above the planet so it can be in range for remote commands. This is going to take me a few minutes, so if you want to get your energy back after drawing blood go walk around underneath the ship until I'm ready…" Samus has a brief moment of empathy towards the boy in regards to his momentary fatigue from the blood draw, and Riku takes note of this and says "Thank you" before he turns around and heads to the elevator to descend.

The heating in his armor takes hold as he enters Phendrana Drifts, helping him deal with the sub arctic temperatures surrounding him. Riku decides to focus on calling Adam to let him know about the apparitions, especially since this is the first time he has had a chance to do so since falling into Zebes' deepest caverns. The teenage Overlord checks his connection with a light tap, and after seeing that it was good he patches in to Adam's line and is greeted with a surprised "Riku? What's going on right now?"

"You haven't heard that Zebes has been cured of Phazon?" Riku says in response to that inquiry.

Adam says through the line "I've been busy dealing with some other matters alongside the Dark Samus incident, and news hasn't traveled to me about your efforts thus far. Though I am glad to hear that you were successful in purging Phazon from Zebes…From now on, it would be wise to let me know when you have dealt with a planet since it would be faster to do so."

"Not a problem." Riku replies quickly. "Speaking of which, we actually encountered a couple of interesting problems on Zebes."

"Run them by me." Adam says without hesitation.

"Tell me Adam, do you believe in ghosts? Whether you do or not, we actually came across a few of them in Zebes. They were born from Phazon and took on the form of enemies Samus had encountered in the past." Riku explains to the Commander.

"…Hmm, apparitions you say? That sounds familiar, now that you mention it. Is there anything else you need to mention to me?" Adam calmly asks after pausing to think about the Phazon ghosts.

"Oh yeah, Zebes nearly blew up once we defeated all of the apparitions. The Phazon was pulling itself right out of the planet, possibly to head back to whatever base of operations Dark Samus has set up, but I can't fathom just why the disappearance of Phazon would cause the planet to start a self-destruct sequence." Riku says. He avoided mention of the mysterious Samus-like phantom that they encountered before facing the Mother Brain along with the dialogue spoken directly to him that suggested sentience, at least until he finds out more about the ghosts themselves.

"That's another mystery that I'll have to put some effort into solving. But from the sounds of things escaping the planet prevents it from detonating, so just keep getting off world in time and we won't run into any problems. As for the ghosts, I'm going to do a little research and get back to you in a bit…Before I sign off though, I'm inclined to ask how things are going between you and Samus." Adam is straight to the point in his words, which pleases Riku greatly all things considered.

"Samus is a little more tolerant of my presence, but I think she just sees me as a means of dealing with the Phazon apparitions for the time being instead of an actual partner." Riku adds a light chuckle to the end of his sentence, showing that he wasn't all too displeased with the results so far, and Adam himself chuckles on the other line in turn.

"Like I said before, just don't be too reckless and eventually she'll see you as a partner. But don't let things go beyond that…The last thing Samus needs is to grow attached to another Phazon corrupted person that ends up getting killed by her when they go out of control. Anyways, I'm taking up your time here, so I'm going to get to researching the apparitions…" Adam's line cuts before Riku can comment on the mention of Samus' old Phazon infected allies…Perhaps it was for the best though that he didn't say anything, for only a second later does the teenage Overlord hear the elevator descending behind him with the hunter on the platform.

After she leaves the ship, the elevator retracts into the ship and the legs become wings once more. With the engines flaring to life Samus' gunship flies off out of sight beyond the foggy white clouds, leaving Riku to stare at the path the ship flies as he asks "So you setup an autopilot for your ship?"

Samus nods her head, saying calmly to the boy as she looks towards the east "I'm keeping it above the atmosphere out of range of all Phazon on the planet. From here on out we'll be relying on a map I've downloaded into my suit to traverse Tallon IV. Follow my lead and you won't get lost." Samus then points towards a door ahead of her, this one having a six-sided format to it with a two-dimensional barrier protecting the door itself.

Samus opens the door with a power beam shot, leaping off of the platform and onto the icy ledge with Riku following close behind as they head on to the next area. Surprisingly, there is not much in the way of Phazon in this part of Phendrana Drifts, but that's likely because the only thing of note in this room is a small tunnel drilled perfectly into the center of the snowy incline. Only Samus would be able to fit through the hole with her Morph Ball, something the hunter was prepared to turn and make note of when Riku brandishes his right hand and says without concern in his voice "I can manage a way around the pipe, just wait for me on the other side."

Samus pauses before nodding her head, and after curling up into the space of her Morph Ball she rolls into the tube. The innards beyond the opening are covered on the outside by long Phazon roots, the enemies that were once in this area having vanished probably from being overloaded by corruption. With the speed of the hunter's roll she makes it to the other side in six seconds, and after unfurling from her ball she sees Riku standing right in front of her. Her heart skips a beat in surprise, but after composing herself she asks "How did you get here so quickly?"

Riku points a thumb up towards the ceiling, a couple droplets of water falling in front of him as Samus looks up and notices that a hole has been burned in the snow. With the answer present in a non-verbal format, Samus doesn't say another word and proceeds on ahead towards the door ahead of her, which has a purple barrier in front of it that would require the use of her reacquired Wave Beam in order to open the way. The barrel reconfigures itself on her right arm, widening out an releasing an array of purple sparks as she unleashes the tri-way shot at the barrier to dispel it and open the way to the next room.

The first thing beyond the door is a snowy ledge that leads into large circular domed pit that is kept supported by four thick stone pillars along the walls. Phazon has grasped itself onto these pillars though, and the tight clasp threatens the stability of the pillars as cracks are drawn across their surfaces from beyond the undersides of the roots themselves. But beyond the walls the Phazon doesn't touch the surface of the vivid snow, though the blue glow beneath the lengthy layers of white flakes suggests that the corruption is buried underneath. The only other thing of note is the large pile of rocks in the center of the room, most of which were roughly bigger than Samus and Riku combined. It was the remains of one of the enemies that the hunter had conquered on Tallon IV, and Samus herself was surprised to see that the remains of the foe had not been recovered by the Space Pirates before they departed from the planet.

Leaping down from the ledge and into the midst of the snowy dome, Samus recalls that there is a widened rail hanging across the walls and ceiling of the room that leads to the blue-shielded door on the other side of the room that the two of them would need to enter to reach the Phazon Mines. However Samus' current capabilities rendered her incapable of using these rails, for the dark hunter had absconded with her Spider Ball power. Riku leaps down behind Samus a moment after the hunter despised what her dark counterpart had done in her mind, and the boy comments in a puzzled tone "Say, didn't the reading mention something about a powerful Phazon signature in this very room?"

Samus had not forgotten that little detail, but says in a cold voice "It seems that the scanner was reacting to the remnants of Thardus in this room. Considering Thardus is made of stone there is no way that he could have an apparition here."

Riku was still a little cautious though, which was a surprising contrast to Samus' brief moment of naivety as he was quick to point out "But wouldn't the scanner only work on active quantities of Phazon? …Huh?" The teenage Overlord pauses at the end of his inquiry upon noticing odd moving in front of his line of sight. Leaping down from the ledge he was just on is that phantom of Samus that the two had seen earlier on Zebes. As phantom hunter landed in front of the real deal the room began to quake as Phazon was drawn out from below the snow, a multitude of flakes joining in the ensuing maelstrom surrounding the pile of rocks in the center of the room.

The rocks shake back and forth, the clattering of their forms against each other ending in a matter of seconds as the stones rise from the ground and merge together tightly, forming a colossal stone titan that looks nothing like any creature that has ever been born into the universe that Samus has traversed. The only thing that could be described about this mighty titan is that neither of its hands are alike in size, with the fingers on the left hand being substantially bigger than those on the right. The same matter applies to the feet, but the right one has the distinction of having toes whereas the left one does not have that luxury. There are also two large diamond like rocks floating behind the creature's main body, and contrary to what Samus witnessed before the titan Thardus uses these rocks to draw on the power of Phazon in the very atmosphere around him. A whirlwind of corruption is drawn out from the walls and ground, covering Thardus completely as it lets out a beckoning roar. The whirlwind of Phazon snaps apart, leaving between the many gaps on the titan a field of blue and purple electricity born of the corruption, empowering him greatly.

"…I never accounted for the possibility of Thardus simply coming back to life." Samus quickly and calmly says as she points her arm cannon at the titan and immediately spreads the barrel apart to fire a missile straight at the creature's body. The Phazon sparkles from around him, thrusting in various streams that target the missile heading his way and blow it up, the titan roaring before it charges forth like an unstoppable juggernaut across the snow to try and attack the hunter herself.

Samus is surprised by Thardus' speed and quickly proclaims to Riku to split up, and boy leaping to the right after a momentary nod as the hunter leaps back to avoid the titan's well-placed punch that impacts with the ground and sends a shockwave of Phazon across the top of the snow. Using the magnetic plates on the bottom of her feet along with the grip of her right fingers, Samus sticks to the wall below the ledge she entered from and activates her scan visor to see how this new Thardus works. Before she finishes though the titan pulls his fist from the ground and prepares a shoulder ram to dislodge the hunter from the wall. Disconnecting herself from the wall with a mighty leap, Samus launched herself over Thardus as the titan slammed into the ledge and dismantled the entire thing into a pile of rubble and snow as the very foundation of the room quivered.

Once Samus lands behind the titan she reactivates her visor to finish the scan on Thardus, revealing to her a few lines of text that state that "Ascended Thardus' power is coming from the two giant stones near his back. The Phazon around his body is electromagnetic in origin, high-impact weapons like missiles are ill-advised. Destroy the stones and he will crumble."

With the advice given to her by the scanner, Samus activates her Wave Beam functionality and aims at the specified giant rocks while the titan's fist is lodged into the wall. She charges up a shot and launches the electric sphere at the rocks from the lip of her cannon, the attack impacting with the jagged point and dispersing a static effect across the backside. Thardus turns around after taking this damage, bringing with him the remnants of the cliff side he struck that fly away from his fingers and crash down around the hunter as she braces herself with a defensive stance. The Wave Beam didn't do much damage to the targeted area, as evidenced by the scan she performs that reveals that it has a "99% shield".

"Figures that the Wave Beam wouldn't work in his new state…" Samus murmurs to herself as she lowers her arm, and with a leap back to avoid another punch from Thardus the hunter sees a few streams of fire flying across the sky that pierce right through the rocks that are holding the Phazon together around the titan. Thardus doesn't react to the damage, his fist being dragged out of the ground in an almost marionette manner as Samus notices a change on the numbers for the titan's shields. "92% for the left…86% for the right…" She murmurs as she turns her head and glances at Riku hovering in mid-air with his double-barreled cannon extended in front of his body.

"…Riku, keep using your plasma beam on Thardus and try to breech his defenses! When an opening is available I'll attack it with my missiles." Samus locks her arm cannon into Power Beam mode and grasps the top of the barrel with her left hand, preparing to provide cover fire for the teenage Overlord since the titan is entirely focused on her at the moment.

She performs a mighty leap to the left the moment Thardus rips part of the ground up, crunching it with his bulky fingers above the hunter so a bombardment of Phazon electricity shrouded rock shards rain down upon her. With a rapid fire of Power Beam shots Samus keeps blasting apart the rocks to minimize their threat level while Riku levitates counterclockwise around Thardus to get a clearly lined up shot at his back rocks. The boy was thankful that he wouldn't have to use Hyper Mode to damage the titan, since the strain of dragging the blood from his arm was still affecting him slightly. Three plasma shots go out, melting separate holes right through the two stones and heavily damaging them.

Thardus finally takes notice of the teenage Overlord though, and with a mighty roar the titan spreads sparks of Phazon across the dome and drags the flakes of snow up to create a thick white veil that makes visibility scarce in order to throw his aggressors off. Riku flinches first, lowering his weapon slightly to give himself a better line of sight as he exclaims out Samus' name to figure out just where the hunter was. Before she could respond though the titan charges at him, using the echoes of his voice to track him down and slam the front of his rocky right palm against his armor and press him hard against the nearby wall. A crack resounds through the armor, and from the pain inflicted on his body Riku grits his teeth as warning sirens go off inside of his helmet.

"Darn it, if I don't free myself quickly Thardus will breech my armor and force me into Hyper Mode with his Phazon!" Riku thinks in a panic as he tries to fight against the strength of the titan to drag his weapon out. The bulk of the double-barrels proved too much to allow him to budge free, but as the boy's armor was about to break and the Phazon surely about to leak in the boy quickly thought up a plan of action. With a thought Riku dispelled his weapon, making his arm small enough to slip free of Thardus' grasp before the titan applies more pressure to owe up for the loss of mass. With the double-barrels aimed straight at the titan's face Riku charges up his plasma beam energy and unleashes a powerful meteor strike that impacts with Thardus' face and blows it clean off.

The resulting explosion knocks Thardus back a few feet, his grip on Riku's body releasing as the snow veil fades away and gives the bewildered Samus perfect vision once more. The hunter turns around and upon noticing a distortion in the titan's body jabs her arm cannon in the direction of his back stones, charging up and launching a Super Missile straight through the sky until it explodes upon the left one and the blast radius swallows part of the right rock. The missile shot was a direct hit, seeing as the shielding on the left side was brought down past the halfway point while the right one was down to 68%.

Riku kicks himself off of the wall after reactivating his back thrusters, pointing them directly behind his body to give him the perfect launch speed. While the electric Phazon field was still down around Thardus the teenage Overlord took his sturdy double-barreled cannon and charged another shot up, getting close to where the giant stones floated and pressing the lips of the barrels against them before unleashing a close-range meteor that explodes and blows the left rock right apart. The teenage Overlord then flips once through the air to put his feet towards the ground, making a soft skidding landing on the snow before swiftly turning around and watching as Thardus' entire left side crumbles apart into the snow.

And without half of his body supporting him, the rest of Thardus soon crumbles apart as well, but the titan tries one last futile attempt to strike back at the heroes…Twisting the left half of its body around as it falls, the titan throws a pitifully sized stone covered in Phazon at the hunter, who calmly raises her arm cannon and blasts the stone apart with a single tiny shot. With Thardus defeated all that remains in the pile of crumbled rocks is a hologram representing a magnetically charged version of Samus' Morph Ball and a Phazon Sphere with the element of Earth trapped within.

The hunter quickly walks up to her power-up and collects it without so much as a second thought. When the words of "Spider Ball Reactivated" are heard within her helmet Samus curls up into her new Spider Ball state, revealing a dent on both sides of the ball itself that glows in the same color as the core she is stuck in right now. Transparent glass helps the Spider Ball keep its rounded shape while slits along the center of the ball itself assist the hunter in magnetizing to certain metal objects so she can crawl along walls and ceilings. After making sure that the Spider Ball was as familiar as it was before, Samus unfurls and stands up around Thardus' remains. She then turns her head, wondering just why the boy hadn't yet gone to reclaim another one of his powers.

Simply put, Riku felt reluctant to take this power back after the pain brought onto him the last two times thanks to the furthering of his corruption. Sure he needed to have all of his elements back sometime, but will the return of his powers really be worth it if he loses himself completely and endangers the galaxy by becoming Dark Samus' puppet? Each power he regains brings him closer and closer to that almost inevitable conclusion haunting him in his mind. "…" Riku closes his eyelids and takes a deep breath in, realizing that he cannot avoid this matter. He might need this element for what lies ahead, and though he walks with reluctance on his mind he eventually reacquires the Earth element with a swing of his right hand through the orb.

Immediately grasped by an even stronger feeling of pain, Riku can sense the roots of Phazon crawling further along his face, the vision in his right eye growing bluer and speckled as he tries to bear the agony with teeth grit a light bemoan coming from between them that Samus notices yet says nothing about as the boy blinks twice and notes in a puzzled voice "That's weird…Nothing feels different."

Riku turns towards the hunter, who after flinching in surprise that the boy can so easily change his thoughts away from the pain of Phazon corruption, asks in a calm voice "You reacquired the Earth element, right?"

Riku blinks, surprised that Samus noticed that factoid so quickly despite most of her focus being spent on the Spider Ball she just re-obtained, nods his head and asks "Why, do you have a theory on what happened to my body?"

"Considering you got the Earth element from Thardus, I can only assume that you just gained the ability to curl up into a 'Morph Ball' like form on your own. Try and see if you can do it before we move on." After Samus made that suggestion, Riku blinks twice and murmurs "Oh yeah…" because he didn't actually think about that possibility until the hunter mentioned it.

With his eyelids closed and his mind deep in thought, Riku concentrated on the Earth element inside of his body, utilizing it in conjunction with his armor as he feels his body becoming surprisingly weightless. When he can't feel a single aspect of his body anymore, Riku widens his eyelids and finds himself covered in a transcendent glowing light, his body completely devoid of any armor as he sees himself floating curled up in a bright, otherworldly dimension. Outside of this dimension lied a spherical, rocky mass that he had become encased in thanks to the Earth element responding to the laws of this universe at its owner's command. Now that he was in this rocky sphere, Riku said in an echoing voice "Whoa…Is this what happens when you turn into a Morph Ball Samus?"

The hunter, having no idea as to what the boy was referring to, only assumed that his knowledge of her power-ups led him to make that comment and she responded with "Yeah. It feels weird at first, but you get used to it after a while. Though I imagine your method of becoming a Morph Ball works differently than the Chozo tech I use." After the hunter made that comment Riku unfurled from the rocky sphere completely armored, the rocks themselves vanishing without a trace just as mysteriously as they came to exist in the first place.

"Well, that solves the tunnel problem at the very least." Riku comments merrily before facing Samus, saying in a dutiful voice "So then, are we still going to head off to Phazon Mines?"

The hunter nods her head, noting in a calm yet partially authoritative voice "Follow my lead and we'll be there in no time. Hopefully we can find the main apparition on this planet before more start popping up for us to deal with…"

With Samus' remark answered by a nod of Riku's head, the two heroes look towards the incline on the other side of where they entered from, and with the help of their respective Morph Balls' powers they manage to climb to the front of the purple-barrier door. Samus uses her Wave Beam to open the way out of Thardus' former chamber, and the heroes proceed onward to the treacherous Phazon Mines…

Next Time: A Phazon Pirate…Ghost?