I saw my free time dramatically decreased these past few months, which meant no time to write this or anything else. That's changed for the time being, so here's the next chapter. I was supposed to put it up on the 4th but I forgot...
But before that, I was considering a SoaS side story. I've written Halloween fics for my other Smash series and think I might do it for this one too. The preliminary idea is Link & company trying to spook each other with their scariest stories.
Chapter 6 – Return of Samus
Colors and light swirled in a cacophonic blitz as Samus rapidly surfed through countless channels stuck in the banality of daytime television. After flipping through infomercials and countless shows featuring panels of TV personalities discussing last week's non-scandal, she finally settled on a mystery program, Elusive Encounters. In a darkened room, the silhouette of a woman spoke in an altered voice as she recounted meeting beings from another world.
"They spoke but their mouths didn't move. I could hear their voices... like they were talking directly into my mind."
The camera switched back to the interviewer, a graying man in a beige suit with a clipboard in his lap. He narrowed his eyes contemplatively and asked in a serious tone, "They communicated with you telepathically?"
"Yes. They said they needed me, that I was special. They wanted to take me back into the sky with them right then and there."
What a bunch of bologna! Yet, Samus found it hard to switch the channel. What was it about this woman's story that intrigued her so?
"What could they have possibly needed you for?" the interviewer questioned, pointing in the woman's direction with his pen.
"They wanted me to repopulate their home world."
Bzzt!
Samus couldn't change the channel quick enough. She knew she was avoiding the news stations; maybe she wouldn't have gotten caught up in all these terrible shows had she not. Hotspur was on the loose again and she, a cop on active duty, practically vanished from the scene. Were they talking about her? Was anyone looking for her? And then there was her partner. How would she even begin to explain everything to Marcus?
Confronting her fears, Samus settled on a cable news station and felt a bit of relief to see the current story covering a massive fire that broke out somewhere in Moore. No news on Hotspur meant he continued to evade capture, but also meant he hadn't hurt anyone else since the bank encounter.
"Samus Aran."
Images of that woman from the TV shrouded in darkness flashed for an instant as a familiar voice weaved its way into her mind once again.
"You said I had a choice and I made it! Leave me alone!" Samus shouted into the empty apartment.
"You can't escape the truth. What's at stake is bigger than you and I."
Samus muted the television and stood in silence. He had to be somewhere nearby to communicate like this, and she'd find out where.
"We will tell you everything you want to know."
"We?" she repeated cynically. This time the voice carried a sense of direction, as if she were being spoken to from above. She glanced toward the nearest window and knew what was coming. Running away wasn't in her nature, so it was no surprise that she was compelled to slide the window open and scan the fire escape snaking all the way to the roof, and even less of a surprise when she climbed all the way to the top.
Waiting for Samus was the familiar sight of Lucario, accompanied by a man in a green tunic that perked up upon sighting her.
"There are more of you now," she said.
"Hello Samus, my name is Link," the man in green introduced himself. "My friend Lucario here... he isn't too great with people. He's working on it, though. That's why I came – I know what you're going through, because I've been where you are."
Samus approached close enough to see what she needed to while keeping a safe distance, using her skills as a cop to analyze the both of them with just a few lookovers. Lucario was strange enough on his own, but pokemon came in countless varieties with little rhyme or reason. Link, clad in tunic and chainmail, with boots and gauntlets to match, a sword and shield strapped to his back and pointed ears, looked as if he had rode a horse right out of a fantasy book. Who were these people?
"No more secrets and whispers, and no more vague nonsense," she demanded. "You have my attention at the moment, so who are you people and what do you want?"
"I know about the dreams you have," Link started softly. "They're vivid, almost like memories of another world. There's another version of you in them, a protector and savior, and you're approached by a malevolent figure unlike anything you've encountered before. The dreams are always the same and you never share them because you know no one else will understand them, so you learn to live with them." He found himself squeezing his knuckles as fleeting emotions from the past welled up. Kneph was dead, and yet the demon's impact on his life was still profound.
Samus felt a surge of her own emotions but kept her poker face intact. "You sound quite experienced with this."
"A couple of weeks ago I was just a kid at Volesdale High going through exactly that scenario. Then Lucario came to me and unlocked the secrets of the past, and gave me the knowledge and power to confront my enemy. And now we want to extend that opportunity to you."
Samus folded her arms. "I'm still at a loss for what you people are and what exactly it is you plan to do."
Lucario grunted; Link ignored him. "The simplest way I can put this right now is... we are of the Smash Brotherhood, and we've sworn an oath to protect the worlds from monsters like the one in your dreams. Those dreams, by the way, weren't dreams at all, but memories of your past life. With Lucario's power, you can regain what you once lost.
"You can become the you whose life was stolen, once more."
"I'm baaaack!" Sonic sang into the apartment. "I hope you've got good taste 'cause I got good food!"
He frowned when he didn't get a response, dropping the bag of food on the kitchen's marble countertop.
"I didn't know if you liked chilidogs or not so I went with burgers. I would have been back sooner but they had to put the food together... I'd show them the real meaning of 'fast' food!"
He peeped down the hallway to find the bedroom and bathroom empty.
"Where'd ya go...?"
Sonic noticed that the TV was muted and retrieved the abandoned remote from the wooden chair. Hotspur's mug was planted on the screen and restoring the sound revealed nothing new about the situation. He was still at large, but the news story had changed a bit to acknowledge that a cop had gone missing on the scene; who the missing cop was and how she disappeared was mysteriously absent.
"Oh man, I've gotta get her back to her station," Sonic realized. "She didn't already leave, did she?"
A gentle breeze answered him through the open window. Icy dread crawled up the hedgehog's spine and he was out of the window and up the fire escape in a blur.
"Samus!" he cried out, stumbling across the scene. "What are you doing up here? How can you trust them?"
Link gawked. "Holy crap!"
"This does not concern you," Lucario suddenly growled. "You've interfered enough already."
Sonic gritted his teeth. "Nobody's talking to you, blue boy!"
Samus sighed, walked towards Sonic and touched his shoulders. "We both know that there were questions only Lucario had the answers to. All we're doing here is talking, and I've learned so much about the worlds, the Void, reincarnation, elements, and my past self... if those two over there are to be believed. So there's no need to freak out. Besides, you're the pot calling the kettle blue right now."
Sonic chuckled. "Talking can't hurt, I guess..."
Samus turned back to Link and Lucario. "What do I have to do to unlock my memories and bring back my past self?"
"Lucario's going to use his power to release those memories and you'll awaken as Samus Aran," Link said, finding it hard not to glance at Sonic. "It's going to be confusing at first because you're dealing with the memories of two separate lives. You'll need some time after the fact to process that."
Aura energy flickered like flames across Lucario's paws as he took a step forward.
"If you try anything funny, Sonic will deal with you before you know it," Samus warned. The hedgehog folded his arms and gave one of this meanest scowls... which looked more like he was annoyed than actually threatening.
"Link needed some prepping, but I see you are fully prepared to embrace the memories," Lucario noted. "Focus on the dreams and the feelings they evoke. My powers will do the rest."
She could see it clear as day, that derelict ship and that demon woman Avira, her scaly hide aglow from the rings of fire in her hands. No, there was much more to her life than that moment, and she had the distinct feeling that she wasn't the only one exploring the memories.
"Zebes."
The dam splintered with a thunderous crack; the memories began to pour out faster than she could sort them. Feelings of warmth from a place she once called home as a growing child swaddled her, memories of hurdling through the corridors and caverns of the natural labyrinth. But something had gone very wrong there. The pang of hurt in her heart told her what her memories had not yet divulged.
"Chozo."
There it was, the wisdom and tenderness from the people that took her in. A parental bond she had missed all her life in Centropolis. In the periphery of her mind, she could make out the silhouette of her second skin, one of the greatest gifts they bestowed upon her.
"Metroids."
A million streams of thoughts and memories converged into one. No matter what she did, all roads led to Metroids. Exterminating them and those that would weaponize them – that was her mission. She remembered it all. All but...
A violent feedback of energy knocked Lucario back as light bathed Samus. Once the brilliant pillar of light receded, a technological masterpiece gleamed under the sun, bonded to the woman within it. Samus Aran, the intergalactic bounty hunter, had returned.
The slick appearance of the Varia Suit swept the eyes of all those on the roof, in particular Sonic, who bore a look of apprehensive unfamiliarity.
"What did you do to her?" he whispered.
"This is who she was and who the universe needs her to be again," Lucario said as Link helped him to his feet.
"It's me," Samus said affirmatively, but Sonic's expression barely changed. She took it a step further, and with a single thought, the suit dissolved in a spectacle of cubic light. Sonic relaxed at the familiar sight of Samus, though he did take note of the blue, skintight Zero Suit.
"That is, um... that's an interesting choice of clothing. Not leaving much up to the imagination, huh?"
Samus quirked a brow. "Am I getting lectured by a naked hedgehog?"
"Hey, there's a difference between tantalizing and au naturel!"
"Is that difference called hypocrisy?"
As the two argued about proper attire, something about Samus's rebirth nagged at the back of Link's mind. He had no ceremony of awakening to reference besides his own, but the way Lucario was blown back seemed impromptu.
"Something's bothering me," he finally spoke up, in a hushed voice only Lucario could hear. "This wasn't quite like my awakening, was it?"
"The process was not fully completed," Lucario admitted. "I don't think even she realizes it but, something somewhere deep within Samus Aran had no intention of being brought back. For her sake, I hope we figure out what that is."
