Into the Dark


Author's Note: Why hasn't anyone reviewed lately? I know there are people reading this! You know who you are so please just take the time and leave a review. :)


Chapter 7: Now That's What I Call Backup


The banging on the door continued. Samus clicked off the safety of her weapon. "I don't have enough ammo..." she thought. The moaning was getting louder as more zombies gathered outside. "There's no way I'm dying to a bunch of mindless freaks!" Samus paused for a moment. "How the hell did I even get all mixed up in this mess?"

An image of Captain Falcon popped into her head.

"You're worthless," he said. "You're nothing but a little girl with an attitude. You don't belong in the Smash Bros."

Samus fought back at the thought.

"Shut up! This is your fault."

Captain Falcon's laugh echoed through her head.

"My fault? You're the one who thought it was a good idea to run from you're problems. Now look where it got you! If you have any honor at all, you would at least accept your fate and be eaten by those monsters."

"I'll fight them. They won't get me."

"They will. And when the sad news of Samus Aran's death spreads throughout the world, I'll be there, laughing. Ha ha ha!"

"Not if I can help it!"

Samus saw a rotting hand reach in through the crack in the barricaded door.

"They're coming for you. They killed everyone else and now you're the only one left. You're the only one left, Samus."

"I'm not the only one. Link is still alive. He has to be."

"He's dead. They're all dead. And you can't save them!"

Samus snapped out of her daydream and noticed the rotting hand was gone from the door. She heard gunfire coming from the main hall. The moaning of the undead seemed to get farther and farther away.

"They're...leaving..."

She looked down to see that the hand holding the gun was shaking. She packed the weapon into her bag and headed for the door.

"If I ever get my hands on that Falcon, I'm gonna strangle him so hard he's gonna-"

She was cut off to see Mike at the door with a surprised look on his face.

"Samus! You're safe!" he exclaimed

"Mike, I thought you were dead!" she replied as she joined the other survivor.

"Who, me? Aw, nah."

"Mike, you're arm, it's-"

"Oh, it's nothing, It got caught in a door while running away from those things."

"Here, I found a First Aid Spray."

Samus reached into her bag and pulled out the green can.

"Oh thank goodness! You're a life saver! Here, let me see that."

Samus gave him the medical container and he performed the treatment on his arm. Half the can was left after that, which Samus retrieved.

"Did you hear gunfire anywhere, Mike?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah that's what I wanted to tell you! I think reinforcements have arrived! I heard the shots coming from the main hall of the station."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Samus and Mike entered the smelly hallway. Even though the zombies were no longer here, they left an awful stench behind. Samus was used to it by now though.

"Man, the first thing I'm going to do when I get back to the mansion, is take a nice, long shower," she thought.

Mike ran in front of her as the gunfire continued to fill the hallway. Just who could it be? They turned a corner to see the backs of a wall of zombies covering the entire width of the hall. The two quickly ducked behind a corner.

"Those are the ones from before. They must be going to the source of the gunfire," Samus whispered. Mike looked to a door on the right that the zombies overlooked. It was open and a set of stairs could be seen standing idly by.

"Let's get to the stairs," Mike whispered back. Samus nodded and they made their way to the door and up the stairs. They ran up the flight as quickly and silently as they could. The gunfire was getting louder. They must be close to wherever it was coming from. "There's a door up there!" called Mike to Samus who was in front of him. She opened the door quickly and was stunned by what she saw. Mike ran up next to her and stood on the second floor balcony of the main hall.

"My God..."

Three men stood in the centre of what appeared to be a sea of zombies. One of the men wore a green tunic and wielded a shotgun that looked very familiar. Another one held some kind of rapid fire weapon he used to mow down a whole pack of monsters. The third was a man in blue and stood close to the other two men completely unarmed but not at all fazed by the environment. The only light in the room was that of the moon's rays shining through a circular skylight above the three survivors.

"That's Link! He's alive!" Samus shouted. "But they're outnumbered!" Indeed, they were outnumbered, for the entire room seemed to be filled completely with zombies and more seemed to be coming in through the side doors. "There's no way they'll be able to survive that!"

Mike smirked.


A zombie lunged forward out of the group at Leon. He quickly kicked its face inward, sending it flying into the group behind it.

"Dammit! There's too many of them!" he shouted.

Link fired a shell clumsily into the chest of one zombie, but it continued its assault, pretending the blast was nothing. He was already on his last bullet.

"I need more ammo!" he shouted.

"Sure thing, strangah," replied the merchant as he tossed Link a case of ten shotgun shells. Link received it before blasting off the head of a zombie that got too close. In a room with a seemingly unlimited number of monsters, this battle was already lost. Their only chance of survival would be escape. Link glanced up to the balcony and noticed Samus and Mike.

"Samus! She's alive!" Link thought.

A zombie quickly jumped in front of his face. Leon blasted its face off with a few rounds of his TMP.

"We gotta get out of here!" he shouted over the moaning.

"How?! We're surrounded!" Suddenly, a rumbling sound hummed over top of them. The entire ground shook. "What is that!?"

"I...don't know!" Leon replied.

The sound stopped and the zombies continued to move forward. There was barely any room for the three survivors to move. Link felt an icy hand grab his tunic. He shook it off and backed up into Leon who barely had room to stand.

"Is this the end?"

The sound of glass shattering echoed through the air. Clear shards rained down from above and covered the survivors and nearby zombies. Link and Leon looked up. "What the-?" they both said. Two short silhouettes in front of the moons gaze down at the carnage below.

"Strangah?..."

The two figures fell from the roof and landed on their feet, one in front of Link, the other in front of Leon. "No way..." Link thought.

The two figures shouted in unison: "PK FIRE!"

The zombies in the front of the swarm were completely engulfed in a wall of flames.

"PK FIRE! PK FIRE! PK FIRE!" The two figures shouted.

Link instantly recognized the boy with the red baseball cap that stood before him.

"Ness!" Link shouted to the short boy.

Ness turned to him while the fire shield protected them from further assault.

"Link, we gotta go!" he said.

Link nodded.

"But how?" he asked over the groaning.

"Link! Up here!"

Link looked up to see Zelda's face leaning over the side of the shattered skylight.

"Zelda!" Link called back.

Ike and Meta Knight's face also appeared.

"Grab this rope!" Ike called down, throwing the survivors a long rope. Link grabbed on.

"Leon! We're getting out of here!"

Leon hesitated before turning to Link. He was too entranced by the blonde boy in front of him shooting fire at the zombies.

"Who are these people?" he asked.

"No time to explain, just grab a hold!"

Leon, the merchant, Ness, and Lucas grabbed on.

"Ah, strangah, you really know how to think on your feet!"

Ike, Zelda and Meta Knight started pulling the heavy rope up to the roof. Link looked down. The fire shield was dissipating and the zombies were gathering around underneath them. He held on for dear life.

"Link!"

It was Samus' voice. Link looked up towards the balcony to see Samus and Mike waiting to be rescued. Zombies were approaching them from both sides.

"They'll never make it out..." he thought.

He quickly pulled out his hookshot and aimed it at the balcony railing. The weapon locked with the metal bars and began to pull the rescue rope over to the remaining survivors.

"What's he doing?" Ike said. "He's pulling us down!"

"He's getting Samus! Don't let go!"

Mike climbed over the railing and grabbed the nearby rope. The zombies on the balcony were moving closer to their prey.

"Samus, grab on!" Link reached out for her hand. She leaned far and took hold, barely losing her ankle to a close zombie. The hookshot broke from the railing and the rope with all the survivors swung across the room before returning to its standard position. The extra weight was making it harder for the brawlers on the roof to pull them up.

"Fox, Falcon! Get over here and help us!" Ike called to his comrades.

Leon looked down at the sea of zombies.

"Man that was close," he said.

"You're tellin' me, strangah," replied the merchant.

They were almost at the roof now. Link and Samus were the first ones to climb out, followed by Leon, the merchant, Ness, Lucas, and Mike. All of them fell onto the ground, panting hard.

"That...was scary," Lucas coughed.

Ness put his hand on his shoulder.

"We did good, don't worry. What's important is that we managed to save them," he said heroically. Lucas smiled at his friend.

Link and Samus sat on the cold cement looking at each other.

"Thanks," said Samus.

Link managed a small smile.

"You're welcome," he said before falling onto his back and closing his eyes. Samus looked around at her saviors.

Ike stood by Zelda with his large sword on his back. Neither of them had any wounds at all. Meta Knight stood by silently with his cape wrapped around himself. Fox came over and offered his hand.

"You alright?" he asked. Samus grasped his hand and stood up.

"Never better," she replied.

Fox was actually pretty stunned to see her as well as the other smashers. She had forgotten that not one of them have ever seen her without her zero suit or power suit. It felt kind of good. She promised herself she would dress casually more often. Captain Falcon stood away from the group, leaning on his Falcon Flyer and staring out into the distance. Samus ignored him.

"I'll kill him later," she thought to herself.

Mike was scrambling to his feet. He had never seen so many weird-looking people in his life.

"You...you're not police. You're not even military! What are you?" he choked.

Zelda looked at Ike who nodded.

"We have come here to rescue our friends," said Ike, pointing at Link and Samus. "You just happened to be there when we rescued them so consider yourself lucky."

Mike was shocked. So if he hadn't showed up at the right time, they would have left him to die? These people were crazy.

"What happened to this city?" Zelda asked.

"I've been asking myself that same thing since I got here," replied Mike.

Samus handed Meta Knight her duffle bag.

"Hold onto this for me. There are important documents in there that may come in handy," she said to the star warrior. Meta Knight received the bag silently.

Leon and the merchant stood up, finally able to get a good look at the people who saved them.

"Oh, strangah, this just keeps gettin' better 'an better!" The merchant opened up his coat for all to see. "What're ya buyin'?" The others just stared at him awkwardly. Leon put the merchant in a head lock. "Hey! What're ya doin', strangah?!" the merchant cried.

"You gave me no choice!" replied Leon.

Zelda took a step forward.

"Are you...okay?" she asked the two men.

"Please excuse my smelly friend here; he just can't control himself," said Leon. Zelda nodded. "Thanks for saving our butts back there. You guys really know what you're doing."

"Any time. But, we're not done yet. Two of our friends are still out here somewhere."

Leon let go of the merchant. Link's head shot up.

"Snake..." he said quietly. Wait. Two friends? If Snake was one, then who was the other?

"One of them is a tall man with army gear. The other is blue and looks like a wolf.

"Lucario?" thought Link.

Leon looked to the merchant who shook his head and then he turned back at Zelda.

"Sorry, I don't know who you're talking about," he said plainly.

Link took a step into the conversation.

"Snake's dead."

The other smashers turned all their attention towards Link. Zelda put her hand up to her mouth in shock.

"Wait, what do you mean he's dead?" asked Ike.

"I mean HE'S DEAD!" Link shouted. "He got eaten by those things roaming the streets!" Link turned to Mike. "And you..." he started.

Mike took a few steps back.

"Wait, hold on-" he said nervously. Link was about to take a step, but Samus knew where this was leading so she took a step in front of him.

"Link, don't," she said. Link looked at her in the eyes and backed off. Samus turned to Zelda. "So, you mean to tell me that Lucario is stuck out here, too?"

Zelda nodded.

"Yes, but we fear for his safety. Ness and Lucas have been trying to locate his aura, but unfortunately, PSI powers and aura are two totally different things."

"Well, then we have to go look for him! He could be in trouble! Who knows what those monster could do to him!"

"I know, which is why we must act quickly. Two of the survivors Fox found earlier said that this city was going to be sterilized in less than 9 hours. If we don't find him before time runs out, he could die!"

Samus fell silent.

"Two survivors from earlier?" thought Link. "That must be Dana and that other guy she was with."

He looked over at Leon who made no facial reply. He then turned back to Zelda. "So, what's the plan?" he asked casually.

"Hm?" she asked.

"I've seen way too many people get killed tonight." The thought of Snake and John blew through his mind. "I'm not about to let one more fall victim to the hands of these freaks."

"My first priority is to get to my ship so I can resupply," said Samus.

Fox took a step forward.

"We have to get these people to safety as well."

"Okay, listen up," started Ike. "Fox is going to bring the survivors to the town we saw coming in here. That should keep them safe from the bomb or nuke or whatever's going to 'sterilize' this city. We can drop Samus off at her ship. Then we can drop off some scouts to search the city for Lucario. Ness and Lucas will have to lead though because they can sense his aura the best out of all of us."

"Sounds good. I like it," said Fox.

"Alright then let's get moving," replied Zelda. Fox get those people to your ship. Everyone else, come with me."

"Wait, I'm coming too!" said Leon immediately. Everyone turned to him. "One of my friends is trapped in this city. I...I need to find her. Please, you have to take me with you."

Ike walked up to Leon.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Leon Scott Kennedy. I came here to find my old partner when the virus broke out."

Ike offered his hand.

"I'm Ike. We can help you find your comrade, but only if we work together."

Leon shook his hand.

"Thank you."

Ike's grip was strong. Leon cried in his mind as Ike crushed his hand with his.

"We better get moving."

Fox lead Mike to his Arwing. James and Dana were already inside it. Mike boarded the small ship.

"See you in a few," said Fox, saluting to Zelda.

"Hurry back," she replied.

Fox got in and took off in a flash. Everyone else made their way to the Falcon Flyer.

Captain Falcon stood by the boarding platform making sure everyone got on. As Samus walked past him, they locked eyes with each other. She by-passed it and boarded the ship with everyone else. Link was the last to board the ship. He had forgotten how huge the ship was. He didn't notice it, but it must have covered half of the roof of the R.P.D. at least. This ship was the second largest ship any of the smashers owned so it had more than enough room for everyone to fit. The survivors made their way to the main deck.

The merchant was curious and wanted to press all the shiny buttons on the control panels. Leon slapped his hand away from the ship's main cannon control.

"Don't touch anything."

Captain Falcon took his place in the pilot seat and leaned back.

"So, Samus...where's you're ship?" he asked as casually as possible.

Samus was surprised by his mood. Was he still mad at her? Who cares, she hated him all the same. She moved to the front of the deck and looked out the main viewer.

"It's in a forest not far from here. I'm sure you saw it on your way into the city," she replied.

Captain Falcon turned on the main power for the ship and it lifted off into the low atmosphere above the burning buildings. It flew at incredible speed to the outskirts of the city.

Meta Knight stood in a corner silently, duffle bag at his side.

Below them, the aftermath of the disaster lay still: Blood on the streets, decapitated bodies everywhere, flaming vehicles and homes. Tit was more or less the same scene Link had been witnessing all night. Oh how he wanted to go home. He wanted to finish the tournament and get it over with.

"Wait a second..."

Link, turned to Zelda who was standing next to him.

"Is the tournament over already?" he asked.

Zelda shook her head.

"No, Master Hand stopped everything after you guys went missing. Lucario went to go look for you. That's how he got lost in the first place. Master Hand ordered a search party to come and find you guys."

"If the tournament's over, does that mean they'll have to redo it again? What would Master Hand say about Snake's death?"

Link had a feeling he had asked himself that last question before but couldn't remember when.

The forest came into view below them. The dark mountains stood silently on the horizon.

"There it is!" said Samus, pointing down at an orange ship in a clearing. The ship hovered over the open space.

"There's not enough room to land. You'll have to drop off here," said Captain Falcon.

Samus nodded. She waved to Link, Leon and the merchant to come follow her. "Ness, you're coming too." The five of them made it to the exit platform.

"I'll beam you down," said Captain Falcon's voice on the intercom. A bright light surrounded them all and they disappeared. They reappeared directly below the Flyer in the clearing. Captain Falcon's voice was heard from the ship again. "Let's split up. That way we can cover more ground." The ship did a quick 180 and headed back to Raccoon City. Samus and the others made it over to her ship and went onboard.

Everything was as they had previously left it. Link went over and picked up all the items he regrettably left behind. Samus went into her quarters to change. Leon and the merchant sat in the navigation and cannon control seats obediently. Ness went over to the intercom system.

"Captain Falcon, come in. This is Ness," he said speaking into the microphone. Captain Falcon's voice was a bit fuzzy on the other end.

"I hear ya, Ness. What's going on?"

"I'm sensing Lucario's aura again. It's stronger this time. He's definitely in the city. He may even be underground..."

"Roger that. Lucas is feeling the same thing over here. Stay sharp and keep an eye out. If we don't find him in 8 hours, report back here to the clearing, got it?"

"Got it. Ness out."

Ness put down the microphone and looked behind him to see Leon staring at him.

"You're a pretty smart kid," he said.

"Uh, thanks."

"How did you manage to deal with those zombies back there?"

"With my PSI powers."

"Okay...and that means?..."

"Basically, I have elemental mind powers."

"I see. That's a pretty handy skill to have."

Link walked over with his sword and shield on his back. He sat down in the co-pilot seat. He looked at the controls in front of him. There was dirt all over them.

"Nice sword," said Leon.

"Thanks."

"Hey, strangah. I like this ship! I'll buy it at a high price!" called the merchant from his seat.

"Sorry, it's not for sale," said Link, shaking his head.

"Man, you really have a problem. You should really think about seeing a psychiatrist or something," said Leon to his dirty blue friend.

"I'll take that as a compliment, strangah."

A humming sound was heard as a figure entered through the sliding door. She stood tall in an orange suit similar to the colour of the ship they were in. A green cannon was mounted onto her right arm. She wore large circular shoulder and everywhere she walked, the sound of metal clanking on metal could be heard. This was the Samus Link knew all too well. He could see her eyes through the green plating covering her face. Leon sat up straight in his seat as she approached.

"Who is that?" he asked curiously, the cyborg now standing before the survivors.

"My name is Samus Aran."