Chapter Seven

The Stagnant Ruins

"Hrmm…yet another collection of…wait…what on Earth…?! 'Burn Dome?' Could my scan visor possibly be interpreting this correctly? Oh no, that doesn't sound unpleasant at all, Mr. Chozo architect…"

Eddward exhaled sharply in exasperation as he calmly pressed his left thumb and pointer finger on his steadily-beating temples, proceeding to rub them softly. How long could he fight off the throbbing headache that had been threatening to grapple with his over-productive brain? He could already feel the uncomfortable, subtly blunt pain stretching into the back of his eyeballs – what an awful, aggravating feeling it was. Was it the fact that he had been constantly interpreting data on his translucent, frameless visor? Was the close proximity of the text to his eyeballs the cause? Or was it perhaps the fact that his allergies had finally found the motivation to unleash their ruthless irritation on his sinuses? The fact that the Chozo had most likely been absent from their home for multiple decades probably meant that they had never found the time to return and dust the place. Edd had finally become aware of the ruins' horrible lack of sanitation…given, they were not as grotesquely murky or humid as the rain-drenched Tallon Overworld or as riddled with Space Pirate corpses, entrails, and gore as the now-defunct Orpheon…but it was still a tad shiver-inducing.

"An hour of uneventful excavation, with hardly even a trace of docile animal life, and now I come across a doorway with the words 'Burn Dome' emblazoned upon it!" complained Edd aloud, a thick, sarcastic tone practically dripping from his every word. "Given how 'inviting' these ruins are, and from what I've witnessed, I would be absolutely astonished if the Chozo had ever entertained any house-guests at all!"

Despite his growing cynicism, Edd had found the incentive to venture quite deep into the ruins – their clever, yet admittedly repetitive, blocky architecture had not yet ceased to astound him, though the fact that they were almost completely devoid of any non-floral, friendly sentient life did seem a bit disappointing. Sure, there were unusually large fungi growing from the floors in the more humid chambers, but besides that…he was pretty let-down thus far, as well as completely exhausted.

And now, standing stalwart before the pre-teenager was an age-old, bronze-textured, thoroughly-rusted and dented, seven-foot-tall double-door with the oh-so-inviting words 'BURN DOME' branded horizontally across its full length (of course, the words were written in Chozo script, only translated into English on Edd's visor, so in reality, it looked as if a giant chicken had scratched its talons against it multiple times). Edd had been silently pondering to himself whether it would be a wise course of action to actually go through the door and see for himself what was on the other side, but his indecisive nature had caused him to reach quite an impasse.

He lowered his hand from his beanie-concealed forehead and eyed the massive door again, exhaling with annoyance. "Well," he sighed, attempting to build up at least some amount of courage. "I won't get any closer to locating my friends if I just sit here and curse these defiled, grounds. After all, I've yet to have my fill of surprises this day!"

Finally reaching a decision, Edd firmly pressed his left palm on one of the doors, expecting it to slide open quite smoothly – to his surprise, however, it remained quite firm, the only outcome being a small sprinkle of dust drifting from the ceiling. Befuddled, Edd attempted to force it open with the side of his right arm, but despite an excessive amount of strained groaning, along with his boots scraping against the stone floor of the hallway, the door still did not budge.

Refusing to call it quits despite his pathetic display of strength (or lack thereof), Edd simply rolled up his sleeves (a pointless mannerism – he was sporting a t-shirt, after all) and put his back carefully against the rusted door, taking care to avoid a sudden outbreak of tetanus. With an even longer array of grunts, groans, and other indescribable, guttural noises, Edd pushed with all of his miniscule might, still not believing that the door could have been this resilient.

"Drat!" grunted Edd as he worked diligently against the heavy bronze slabs, his feet slowly pushing away from him – at this point, his very boots had begun to dig into the cracks between the stone tiles, pushing up a small pile of ancient dirt. "Curse my underdeveloped muscle mass!" He continued to force his back as hard as he could against the portal, but it was fruitless – this was one sturdy slab of bronze.

With another pained yell, the heavily-perspiring Edd put his full force into a fifth and decisive push, hoping that the powers that be would actually allow him to pass through it like a ghost. However, he had not expected that this effort would actually cause the door to swing open without warning, which it did, and he awkwardly stumbled into the unknown chamber behind it, albeit backwards. Letting out a chain of surprised shouts, he tripped on his own ankles after about three feet of stumbling and fell down, his rear colliding with the rock-hard, ancient flooring. Inhaling sharply through clenched teeth at the sudden posterior pummeling, Edd immediately began to rub his behind, hoping to cease the pain.

"Erg…there will be no more of that, thank you!" seethed Edd sarcastically, his voice slowly rising in annoyance while taking a quick survey of his surroundings – not to his surprise, he had once again found himself in a relatively…uninspiring chamber. Completely devoid of appliances or strange artifacts of yore, the room was, however, shaped quite strangely, somewhat akin to the upper half of a large sphere. With a domed ceiling rising about ten feet from the floor at its highest point, the circular chamber (about the size of, again, an average garage) showed obvious signs of wear, as exemplified by the cracked, dull-orange stone walls and dust-caked, matching stone tiling.

"Intriguing…ugh, but this floor would never pass the white-glove test!" muttered Edd as he slowly stood up from his sitting position, ignoring the dullness of the dome but taking note of its rather unusual shape. "Well, it does appear to be a dome…but I cannot help but wonder what exactly the word burn entai-"

The sight of the massive collection of organic structures drooping down from the center of the ceiling had been just enough to stay his words and, additionally, scare him completely out of his mind.

What Edd was sure he was seeing was…well, indescribable, to say the least. In this case, the most effective metaphor that could have been used to describe the objects was "upside-down science-fair-project volcanoes" growing out of the ceiling. With a blunt, weathered shade of slate at their tips and an ugly hue of Halloween-orange at their bases, they were quite a hideous sight, but what was even more strange was the fact that they were so numerous…probably around thirty torso-sized, similarly-shaped structures hanging from the center of the room's ceiling, hanging about two feet down...their repulsiveness was indescribable, but Edd was not one to let "disgust" get in the way of "discover".

"What in the world…for a second I thought I was seeing the dated candy corn hanging from the underside of Ed's mattress…" remarked a curious Edd, prodding at the scan modules on his visor in hopes of gaining some information on these unusual organic stalactites. "But…I've never seen such peculiar specimens! Perhaps if I could just reach…"

Edd's ears suddenly perked up…yes, he could have sworn he had just heard something. It was a sort of…well, he could not quite place his finger on it – it more or less resembled something like a bubbling sound…the sound of an iron pot over an open flame, filled with boiling water and ramen noodles. However, along with the curious noise came a smell – such an awful stench, to be sure! In response, Edd impulsively moved his left hand in order to cover up his nose and deflect the odor, but before he could he could reach his face, he averted his gaze to the floor…more specifically, at the very center of the room, which he was standing about a foot away from.

"Oh my!" he cried in surprise, almost jumping out of his very clothes as he realized that, at the center of the floor was what appeared to be a frisbee-shaped hole about two feet in diameter. Edd did not know exactly how deep it might have been, and frankly, he did not care in the slightest, for he was too preoccupied with the fact that it was practically full to the brim with that same rancid water that he had discovered earlier on in his excavation…it was a well full of the stuff, it seemed.

"Th-the poisonous water?" stammered Edd, his fear-meter rising quite hastily. "Here, of all places? This certainly proves my hypothesis that the stagnancy has indeed spread itself throughout the ruins, but…why such a small-"

Edd was quite used to being interrupted, though ninety percent of the time, it was one of his friends that would accomplish the task – Eddy, in particular, had practically made it a hobby of his to do so. However, this interruption was just a tad different than usual: during the midst of his ramblings, a large, unidentifiable object had immediately burst out from the small, toxin-filled well with a terrible, metal-borne crash. Edd simply responded by shouting in horror and staggering back, falling on his rump for what was probably the eight time that day.

"Good Lord!" he cried, his limbs beginning to enter tremble-mode, utterly shaken by the tremendous scare he had just received. "What in heaven's name is that monstrosity?!"

At first he could not identify the thin, six-foot-tall object that had suddenly risen from the hole – at first it appeared to be something akin to a normal human being standing completely stiff and still in military-pose, though he could not exactly be sure due to the fact that it was completely covered in the puke-green, rich, toxic goop. However, as the gunk slowly trickled and oozed off of its surface, Edd could eventually get a good view of what in the world had just risen before him - one thing was for sure: it was most definitely not a human.

In fact, there was absolutely no chance that it could have been a living being at all. The man-sized monstrosity, once revealed, seemed to be but a simple, tin-constructed totem of obscure design. From what Edd could see, its base, comprised of a large, thick, rusted pipe, extended about a foot and a half out of the well. From there extended a series of thinner rod-like projections bunched together quite neatly, which extended upward about four feet. At the very top of the fragile collection of hollow pipes rested what could have been best described as a slate-colored cylinder of sorts…one could have easily mistaken it for an upside-down bucket all the same, nothing more or less.

Visually, though its height was indeed intimidating, the totem was not a very pretty sight to behold – rather, it was simply a poorly-constructed, six-foot stack of vertically-oriented pipes with a bucket-shaped 'head' at its top...a tragic take on the conventional snowman, one might say. An armless pipe-man, perhaps, but that was all.

Edd slowly rose to his feet once again (becoming quite annoyed at having to constantly do so after every sudden phenomenon), though found it quite difficult to do so due to his agony-stricken backside. "I was startled for a moment!" sighed Edd in relief as he adjusted his visor. Being an avid perfectionist, just one slight imbalance of his visual apparatus would have set him off immediately. "This looks to be merely a poorly-designed totem…or stack, I should say…of rusted pipes and rods. Why, even a simple kindergartener could have constructed this industrial disaster!"

He scoffed and crossed his arms, his right eyebrow raised quite high, feeling like an aggravated teacher critiquing the bad behavior of a schoolyard bully. "Honestly, I am appalled at the Chozo for failing to piece together such a horrible excuse for-"

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Edd still had not exhibited any patience for being interrupted mid-sentence, but what was occurring had attracted his attention quite raptly - at that very instant, two of the numerous pipes that made up the four-foot middle section, or the "torso", of the frail metal totem shifted and rotated outwards, now parallel to the totem itself, giving the strange impression that the horrible piece of technology had suddenly acquired thin, rusted, outstretched arms…it eerily resembled a thin, frail cross, to say the least.

Once the extending ceased, one of the robot's narrow pipes (or "arms") spun around clockwise and pointed itself directly at Edd's sweat-speckled visage, while the other arm pointed in the exact opposite direction (toward the wall opposite of Edd), keeping with it's cross-like formation. Even at about two feet away, the dark barrel of the pipe just seemed to forebode bad news, and caused Edd's sweat ducts to shift into overdrive.

Regardless, Edd simply squinted his ever-curious eyes, startled at this astonishing new development – had the mangled machine just shown signs of sentience? Taking an even closer look, he suddenly noticed that the seemingly ordinary opening at the end of the machine's pipe-arm was quite unusual. In fact, though it appeared to be simply an everyday iron pipe, it caused a chilling shiver to slowly inch its way down his spine…he felt as if he were staring down the barrel of a rifle.

…And that was when he finally realized it.

"Lord Almighty!" shrieked Edd as he desperately dove to his immediate left as quickly as he possibly could, just in time to deftly dodge the blazing torrent of fire that had just gushed out of the machine's extended pipe-arm. Instantly the entire chamber had illuminated with a vermillion glow as both pipe-arms shot out a continuous stream of flames, thoroughly charring the age-old, stone-crafted ruin walls.

"Oh dear…a flamethrower?!" cried a frightened Edd as he scrambled as clumsily as he could to his feet, attempting to shake off his newly-arisen fear, obviously to no avail. "Well, I now realize the sense in labeling this chamber a 'burn dome!'"

To make matters even worse than they seemed, the machine had also decided to demonstrate that it was not just a simple flamethrower. As if it had detected his every movement with perfect precision, the drone slowly rotated its two flame-throwing pipe-arms, its rusty joints creaking aggravatingly as it, once again, fixed one of its ends directly at Edd's face.

A second torrent of smoldering flames immediately burst from the pipe-arm, and Edd quickly stumbled off to the right and proceeded to up his pace into an all-out run for his life. However, the flame-spewing pipe continued to display its intelligence by rotating itself in the same direction, its deadly jet-stream practically tickling the remnants of the boy's battle-torn, tropical-orange shirt.

The machine is detecting my every motion…scrutinizing my every action! thought Edd amidst absolute panic, trying as hard as he could to keep up his pace – at this point, he definitely felt the urge to avoid being the next freshly-charred dish on the intergalactic menu. Surely it must have some sort of technological motion-detector system within its mainframe…but just look at its design! How could a frail statue of metal and piping boast such incredible artificial intelligence?!

Amidst the continuous whoosh-whoosh of the roaring flames at his very back, Edd had distinctively heard a mechanical whirr-clack noise emanating directly from the stationary robot's body. As he averted his gaze toward it, he noticed that something had slowly risen out of the top bucket-like part of it (it's "head", one might say)…it appeared to be yet another large, metallic cylinder – relatively boring, just like the rest of the totem. However, the fact that this "incinerator drone", as Edd would come to call it, had just grown a makeshift "head" was not important at the moment – the sudden presence of a baseball-sized, flashing red iris staring at him from the center of the cylinder was they boy's primary concern.

"Ah-ha! I am being tracked!" muttered Edd, his mind quick at work despite the fact that his body was struggling just to keep ahead of the searing heat that was practically stalking his back. Somehow the bright-crimson "eye" on the head of the incinerator drone reminded him of something…yes, something…but what? Where had he seen something that red? When had he witnessed such an ominous, taunting glow before…?

The alpha beetle! thought Edd, his mind a newly-illuminated light-bulb as he came to the sudden realization that red, flashing objects, from what he had seen, had a tendency to denote a "weak spot".

Taking care not to lose his pacing, yet making sure that he aptly took proper aim, Edd swiftly lifted his arm cannon and attempted to lock onto the taunting, red iris. Squinting his visor-shielded eyes, as well as bracing for the loud, concussive noise that was sure to follow, he fired a single missile at his "target". Immediately the bright, silvery blast flew from the cannon's barrel, the recoil travelling up his arm nearly sending him careening straight into the wall.

To his surprise and delight, though, despite his rather unsteady aim, his projectile had successfully struck his assailant's weak spot…and dead-on, as well!

"Yes! A phenomenal shot, Eddward!" cried Edd in self-praise as the drone's arms, though still spouting a continual stream of flames, ceased to rotate counter-clockwise and suddenly became completely stationary. Edd simply stayed where he was, opting to take a momentary breather as he observed the incinerator drone's reaction to being shot in the eye by a concussive blast. Its central body had appropriately begun to twitch and whirr, sparks ceaselessly sprinkling out of its explosion-singed head and body. "Well, that will teach the Chozo to take more care when constructing defensive mechanica-"

Edd's words had immediately begun to trail off into garbled gibberish, his mouth simply hanging open loosely like a windblown screen door – such was his reaction when he had witnessed the incinerator drone's next action. The construct, while Edd had been musing to himself, had pointed one of its pipe-arms directly toward the ground, spewing fire straight onto the stone floor – no harm done there, fortunately, for it was doubtful that the Chozo would care whether their archaic tiling was singed or not.

However, since its arms seemed to be connected at an axis located within the robot's body, the other one was now pointing straight upward, shooting a torrent of flames directly onto the organic, slate-and-orange cylinders on the ceiling…the grotesque, sagging objects that resembled old candy corn that Edd had noticed before! Not surprisingly, the cylinders were immediately consumed in an aura of fire, and Edd had just been about to mutter something along the lines of "oh dear", as he often did – however, what had happened then had left him far too panicked to even conceive such an idea…

The organic, rotting candy-corn imposters drooping disgustingly from the ceiling…were hives.

…And from the incinerated hives flew insectoid horrors far more grotesque than mankind had ever encountered…massive arthropods the size of a grown man's skull! Flaunting their soot-black, disgustingly bony exoskeletons and their fluttering wings, they burst forth from their habitat in droves, dozens of them fluttering away hyperactively from the all-consuming flames. One had to admit that they were just so disgustingly large that one could see practically every miniscule detail on their insectoid bodies: their orbed, emerald, bulging eyes, their limp, scrawny legs flapping back and forth uselessly in the air, their translucent and oh-so vein-wired, turquoise-tinted wings…and their stingers.

Oh man, those stingers… longer than a newly-sharpened pencil and as deadly-looking as a kitchen knife in the hands of a madman they were! To make matters worse, before even ten seconds had passed after the hives even caught flame, each and every oversized hornet had turned their attention toward the little, wide-eyed human pre-teenager trembling in terror within their chamber.

Edd loved insects, he truly did…with the exception of those particularly nasty sorts that displayed this kind of ruthless intent…the intent on murdering him.

"Oh good Lord Almighty!" shrieked poor Edd as he sharply turned around and sprinted as fast as he could in the direction opposite from the killer army of monster-sized wasps. "First oversized beetles and now…this?! I've heard of the errors of disturbing a bee's nest, but this is ridiculous!" Oh, he could hear the low-frequency buzz-buzz of their flapping wings coming from directly behind him – the sound resembled that of a fast-traveling motorcycle – that is, a motorcycle chasing him down a highway…an infinitely-looping highway with no escape!

Desperation fueling every fiber of his being, Edd quickly attempted to escape through the heavy, bronzed door that he had first entered the burn dome through – no way was he going to stick around and defend himself against an army of enraged killer insects with wings the size of bread loaves! Unlike his encounter with the beetles, there was actually a fair chance of escape this time around. Additionally, the bronze door was only about ten feet away from where he was…the room was, more or less, shaped like a clock, and he was running in clockwise fashion around it – it he was at the "one" point, the door was located at the "three" point.

"Just a tad further!" Edd panted as he upped his speed to a whole new, never-before-seen level, his legs becoming quite numb already. Unfortunately though, and by an unfortunate twist of fate, a horizontal torrent of fire immediately arced down from the ceiling and blazed across his vision, effectively blocking his escape. The insidious incinerator drone had actually recuperated and succeeded in detecting him once again! What was more, its flame-spewing pipe-arm had begun to slowly revolve counter-clockwise toward him, threatening to singe his flesh at any moment.

Fighting the overwhelming urge to curse under his breath, Edd immediately turned around in order to make a run for it, but as soon as he did so, a swift, bullet-like object quickly zipped past his head, followed by an intense, but horrendously short sizzling sound...the sound of moist, raw bacon kshhhhhh-ing against a seething, iron, grease-soaked pan.

The massive wasp had just barely missed his head – instead, it had flown straight past him and into the stream-like torrent of flames. No matter, though…there were still eleven more of the beasts hovering just two feet away from his face.

And that was it – that one, small feeling of hopelessness and anger toward his own characteristic helplessness. That feeling of being outnumbered, outmatched, and outwitted...he had always hated the feeling – he hated it in Peach Creek, and he hated it on Tallon IV. He had reached the breaking point once again.

"Enough already!" screamed Edd, immediately covering his visor with his left hand and pointing his arm cannon randomly to his right, not even bothering to take aim. In a state of absolute panic, he hastily fired a violent barrage of missiles in totally random directions, screaming terribly in fright as he did so. The room had become positively abound with deafening, explosive kawoosh's and kaboom's as the bright-silver missiles jettisoned from his arm cannon and collided with who-knows-what and where-the-heck. Edd did not care in the least…the wasps and the incinerator drone had crossed too far over the line for that.

But after only ten seconds, even during the short pause between the numerous missile blasts, all had become instantly silent, save for Edd's own instinctive shrieking. Eventually he regained his senses and ceased his primal yelling, thoroughly embarrassed by his outburst. Cautiously, he removed his hand from his visor, though he was still trembling at the idea of looking around at the destruction he had no doubt wrought. When he did, though, he found that could see quite clearly, for his missiles had not produced any smoke or emissions that would cloud his vision – they were entirely energy-based, concussive blasts, as his scan visor had notified him previously.

The burn dome was pocketed with television-sized craters, of course – his spastic lack of aiming had already hinted toward that. However, the biggest surprise that had hit him was the fact that all of the wasps had practically vanished, the only remnants being a plethora of translucent wing fragments strewn about on the debris-covered floor. He noticed that the flames had finally ceased, as well, and in curiosity he looked toward the center of the room - as he had predicted, the incinerator drone had completely disappeared, completely obliterated by his random barrage of missiles and explosions.

Panting furiously, Edd immediately clutched his chest and attempted to regain his composure, something that he had preferred to keep under control. "Goodness…I'm not…not sure how Ed and Eddy can undergo such…int-intense bouts of violent behavior," he stammered as he momentarily lifted the front end of his black beanie and wiped his hidden brow of sweat. "Though perhaps I'm ill-suited for this kind of work, it's clear that I'm at least...at least capable of defending myself quite adequately!"

However, as Edd had taken a close view of the remnants of the burn dome, he had noticed that the room still contained one small, mysterious artifact. In the very center of the room, hovering just a few feet above the toxic well that the incinerator drone had risen out of, was a sphere, rotating slowly and bobbing up and down, suspended in the air.

As Edd walked over to its location, he had noticed that it was indeed a sphere of some sort – a mechanical one, it seemed. Hovering mysteriously above the small pool of poison, the object had a faded, ugly-orange hue to it and was no bigger than an ordinary backyard softball. Additionally, through a series of small, rectangular openings on its surface, a soft, vermillion glow shone through, giving the artifact quite a mysterious appearance. Sure, it looked radioactive, but after spending years and years with his friend Ed (who was admittedly "hygiene phobic"), Edd had become quite accustomed to such strange sights.

"How very curious…" mumbled Edd as he slowly bent over in order to get a closer look at the mysterious, floating orb, noticing that it had only appeared after the incinerator drone had been vanquished. "What could this be? Was it perhaps a segment of that mundane, robotic flamethrower…or…" In the midst of his thoughts, he lightly tapped the orb with a curious finger so as to examine its seemingly smooth, reflective texture – he could even see his own reflection in its sleek, lustrous surface.

At the instant that his finger even made contact with the orb, however, the artifact had immediately dissipated into thin air with a woop-ing sound, right before his very eyes! Taken aback, Edd let out a short, surprised cry as he quickly staggered backwards. "Wha…what in the world just happened?!" he cried out in shock, looking around the room, hoping to identify the location of the ball that had just vanished into thin air. His search was cut short when he suddenly felt a strange sensation in his own left hand – frightened, Edd quickly lifted his hand and began to witness what was happening.

A fluorescent glow of sapphire light had begun to completely enshroud his entire hand, from the base of his wrist to the very ends of his fingertips. With the ever-increasing intensity of the glow came a high-timbre sound that continued to rise in volume and pitch, similarly to the sound of a science-fictional "laser" being "charged up". Edd wished he could somehow hold his hand steady in order to prevent it from falling off, as it had eventually begun to tremble spastically after about ten seconds of radioactive glowing, but alas, his right hand was inside his arm cannon!

"Good Lord, what is this phenomenon?! Make it stop!" yelled Edd in fright as he closed his eyes tightly, firmly expecting that his hand was about to ignite in a radioactive explosion.

However, after about six full seconds of intense trembling, even more sweating, and nervous whimpering, his eyelids slowly lifted, and he set his vision upon what was sure to be a horribly disfigured left hand.

…And what a sudden jolt of surprise! Instead of seeing a lack of fingers or a massive hole where his palm should have been, Edd simply saw that his hand was now encased in a glove, no more and no less…of course, no "less" was the more accurate phrase. Penguin-black in color and matching with the metallic, lustrous space-jump boots he was currently adorning, this leathery hand-sheathe appeared to be lightly padded on both the back and palm portions, as well as on both sides of each finger. The interior felt quite comfortable and soft, and though it was not as soothingly fluffy as the inside of the winter ski-gloves his mother had made him, it was still a welcome addition. Finally, resting in the palm of the noir glove was a simple-looking, standout circular pad of sky-blue hue that was no larger than the face of a watch. Any hardcore biker, perhaps even local jock and all-around-showoff Kevin, would have given it a ten-out-of-ten for both comfort and sleek style…far out, dude.

"…This was…not what I was expecting in the least!" sighed Edd in relief, overjoyed to see that his hand was still in existence and was unharmed in any way…at least, he had hoped so. Obviously, he was extremely intrigued by the mysterious design of this brand-new, state of the art…glove-whatchamacallit, but was still forgetting the fact that he was in possession of a scan visor. "If my hypothesis is correct, then the floating orb left behind by that insipid drone had, just moments ago, transferred its…energy, if that's what it was…into the form of this glove, which was then transferred onto my hand…fascinating!"

Stricken with awe, Edd began to curl his fingers in and out in order to break in his new hand-wear while he stared at it curiously, finally getting the feeling that venturing into the burn dome may have been worthwhile after all.

"I must say that, though I'm not exactly sure of the nature of this accessory, it is quite a good fit!" At that point, he had completely contracted his hand into a fist, at which point he heard a tiny sound…a small ker-click emanating from his palm – his middle finger must have accidentally pressed that small, curious pad in the middle of his palm. Not thinking much of it, he simply outstretched his hand again and looked at his palm so as to examine that one small pad.

However, his examination was obstructed by the sudden presence of a bloated, softball-sized ball of energy resting in his palm. This glove truly was a fascinating apparatus, and upon observation, Edd determined that it truly appeared to be an orb, though not composed of anything that resembled a solid – in fact, it looked to be completely comprised of static energy…a "ball of electricity", one would say. In fact, a stereotypical static sound was continually emanating from it, the noise slowly increasing in volume as the sphere began to pulsate at an alarming rate. The object had only generated itself about two seconds ago, as a matter of fact…and given the fact that it seemed to be practically ticking…it could have easily been a…

"Bomb?!" shouted Edd in surprise as he instinctively chucked the static orb away from him and toward the bronze door that served as the entrance of the burn dome. As he had suspected, as soon as the sphere had so much as touched the ground, it exploded in radiant sapphire light – it was not a fiery blast, though, and actually resembled what appeared to be an "electric" explosion, but it was at least quite loud and had a conventional boom sound to it. The concussive blast had also proved its incredible destructive nature – the explosion had immediately blown down the amazingly solid burn dome door, straight off of its hinges!

Though Edd marveled at the fact that the orb had such destructive potential, he was even more impressed with the glove that he was now adorning. "What on Earth…" he muttered curiously as he examined the pad in his palm, his scan visor already relaying data pertaining to the accessory to him in text form. "Yes, it appears my assumption was correct…this 'glove' seems to be able to generate energy-based…bombs…whenever I tap the illuminated pad in my palm…how incredibly dangerous, but…such ingenious design!"

That taught Edd to never underestimate the technological brilliance of the Chozo race.

And as he continued to marvel at the glove and its astonishing capabilities, he came to the realization that the burn dome had suddenly begun to reek of a putrid stench…something along the lines of a mixture of charred grass, oil, and freshly-caught salmon. Scrunching his face in absolute disgust, he forced himself to take his attention off of the glove.

"Right, well, I had best continue my search for Ed and Eddy…this horrid stench is becoming all too familiar…and it's beginning to give me a headache…" he scoffed as he carefully stepped over the scattered remnants of the dead wasps and, ultimately, left the burn dome, all too eager to locate his two planet-fallen companions.

And that was why he was there, right?


They say that caves can be the darkest and most mysterious places on Earth, thousands and thousands of which have never seen the presence of man. Murky, humid, and downright eerie, these cavernous lairs are, more often than not, wellsprings of biodiversity. Fish without eyes, myriads of bats, insects that use the nerve endings on their legs to see…the world's most incredibly bizarre creatures can be found in caves – they are homes to hundreds of living beings, coexisting together in a world of their own amidst the still darkness and the drip-drip of water trickling off of the age-old stalactites.

The bleak, frigid caverns of Tallon IV's tundra regions, though, were nearly devoid of these biological blessings. Tinted with hues of jet-blacks, whites, and navy blues, they were homes almost completely unsuitable for all but the most resilient of residents, and thus were as silent as could be.

This particular cavern was no different from the rest of the expansive network beneath the snow-blessed surface: with a ceiling reaching as high as fifty feet, and with stalagmites drooping downward like earth-borne icicles, the faintest falling of a pebble would have caused a fairly noticeable echo. Perhaps long ago, this chamber would have been the home of the more thick-skinned mammals, or perhaps some other unnamable, alien cave-dwellers. Now there was naught but the eternal, frigid mist blanketing the surface of the ice-glazed pond located in the very center of this gymnasium-sized, snow-glazed cave, surrounded by a series of high, snow-packed ledges near the cave's ceiling – the only sounds came from the tinkling of the solitary icicles clinking together, growing ever more frigid and still with each passing day…

All solitude must come to an end at some point – such is the way of the universe, some would say – and on that particular day, July 10th of the interstellar year 2005, an unusual phenomenon had occurred.

With gargantuan force, the most unbelievably alien-looking object imaginable crashed straight through the northern cavern wall with a deafening kaboosh. Sending massive shards of rock residue sailing in all possible directions and causing the entire cave as a whole to tremble, the pale-white, boulder-sized, egg-shaped object careened through the air and crashed straight into the southern cave wall, embedding itself in the snow-covered rock, no doubt creating quite the miniature impact crater. The gargantuan, car-sized stalagmites fixed on the ceiling had threatened to fall due to the earth-jarring crashes that had just taken place, yet held fast - numerous icicles, though, had instantly snapped from their foundations when the smoke-emitting object had first crashed through the wall, and the rest rained down when it collided into the opposite wall.

There was hardly any light coming from the massive hole in the wall through which the alien object had sailed - there was nothing but simple caverns leading further that way. All that was present was a single, solitary figure, standing stalwart with a young, humanoid build. Slowly and curiously it stepped out onto the high ledge at the northern end of the cave, its jet-black, metallic boots sinking about half a foot in the fresh and never-before-trodden snow that had been carpeting the cave's grounds for decades, ever since the ceiling had closed up. As the strange, destruction-bringing creature began to tilt its head from side to side and survey its surroundings, it let out a strange, guttural grunt, the likes of which these caverns had never seen before, not even when they had been inhabited with the hardy creatures of yore:

"Whoaaa... Santa's basement!"

Ed had escaped the icy cave-prison he had crash-landed in and had just stepped out into the mysterious, frigid caverns of Tallon IV, having just hurled his egg-shaped escape pod through the cave wall.


Kaboom!

The dishwasher-sized, cracked sandstone barrier instantly broke into hundreds of tiny fragments and dispersed into the air, having been completely demolished by one of Edd's new concussive bomb-orbs, freshly generated from his new glove-like module, which he had now taken to calling the "bomb glove" – short, simple, and quite easy to remember.

"I certainly hope that such concussive bursts of energy don't cause the collapse of these ruins!" muttered Edd as the sandy remains of the blockade swept down the stone-tiled ramp and toward his travel-worn space-jump boots. "Honestly…"

Edd's search of the ruins for his friends had proven to be quite fruitless thus far, and to his dismay, the burn dome had actually proved to be a dead end. To make matters even worse, all of the other buildings located in the Chozo Ruins were either too derelict to risk entering or far too difficult to access due to high altitude. Thus, on the way back from the burn dome and toward the ruins' main plaza, he had come across this exceptionally massive chamber - granted, he had been inside it on his way to the dome, but had never really thought much of it. The exceptionally large, ceiling-less room had featured a rather massive tree, decorated with dying autumn-leaves (no doubt due to the corruption that the ruins' poisonous water supply had wrought) that seemed to infinitely extend upward and into the sky About ten minutes ago, he had realized that about half of the way to the top of the room was a small ledge, and surmising that this outcropping could have been a pathway leading deeper into the ruins had given him enough incentive to climb the tree, albeit with great difficulty.

Luckily, the path that he had been hoping to find was now before him, presented in the form of a small tunnel in the wall that would require some ducking-down to traverse. It had originally been blocked by a thick block of sandstone, but that was now dispersed in hundreds of particles around the chamber.

Edd would have already been inside the tunnel if it had not been for the small glimmer that had caught his watchful eyes. Puzzled, he looked upward at the large, rising wall above the tunnel, for he had seen the glint in his upper peripheral view – and lo and behold, there on the wall rested yet another familiar-looking Chozo engraving, which was typically, yet still mysteriously, glossed over by a thin layer of translucent liquid.

"Intriguing…" muttered the ever-questioning Edd, his fingers working quickly at his visor while eyeing the illegible alien carvings of old. "I suppose now would be an opportune time to learn more about the Chozo – I can only handle so much environmental destruction at once, you know!"

Within seconds, a fresh slew of radioactive-green sentences had emblazoned themselves on Edd's visor, spelling out a well-crafted message in English-speak:

We have returned to Tallon IV, borne here against our will by a great cataclysm from the reaches of space. A meteor came, casting a dark shadow of debris over the land with the violence of its impact. Though we perceived this from beyond space and time, it was but a curiosity: a brief flare in the universe. But the meteor brought with it corruption. A Great Poison burst forth into the land, clawing at life with such violence that we were ripped from our peaceful state and find ourselves wandering as shadows of the mortal forms we left behind, searching for why we are here.

"A 'Great Poison'?" questioned Edd to himself, his eyes still wide with wonder at this enlightening new tidbit of information. "A great cataclysm indeed… From what I can discern, it appears that the Chozo had temporarily returned to this planet, only to witness a great…meteor strike? Or perhaps this means that they were 'knocked out' of their spiritual state and brought back to reality…" His eyes suddenly lit up at a sudden revelation, but immediately dismissed it as improbable. "No, no, there is little possibility that the earthquake that struck the planet only a few hours ago while I was excavating the Tallon Overworld…was caused by this meteor – no, this could have happened years ago!

"But this…Great Poison that the Chozo speak of," he mused, lowering his head in order to squeeze through the relatively short passageway that he had just revealed. "How could the meteor have brought a poisonous influence with it when it struck the planet? To ravage all peaceful life…wait, that must be it! Yes, the…Great Poison, whatever that may entail, must have eradicated most humble life on Tallon IV. This would explain why the only life forms I've seen thus far are hostile." He stepped out of the dust-infested passageway and stood up straight, dusting off his completely ravaged clothing, which was at this point in desperate need of repair – he could even see his skin through the rips in his shirt. "Perhaps the darkness the Chozo had imagined flowing out of their fountain, wherever that was, could have been referring to this poison…"

Though his mind was working overtime trying to decipher the meaning behind yet another cryptic message, his body was almost entirely fatigued – climbing a five-story tree was never his idea of a leisurely activity, after all. Luckily, the ornate, winding pathway that lay before him was much more inviting toward someone of his physical caliber, and he calmly followed it. Though the archaic path, which had most likely never felt the presence of a human being before, snaked left and right, Edd was not deterred, even when stepping over fallen stone bricks and eroded floor tiles. The strange succession of petrified vines scraggling out of the cracked walls that wired themselves against the slowly-crumbling ceiling seemed to be a testament to the deterioration of the city.

"Perhaps if I can reach some sort of vantage point within these ruins," muttered Edd aloud as he stepped over a small pile of brick and dirt in the very center of the path. "I can take a survey of the horizon and perhaps locate something…perhaps even a pillar of smoke, which will be most likely be rising from the escape pods, and from there I can make headway into locating my friends."

Edd had to admit, it was tough work going it alone. In fact, though he preferred solitude, he had never once imagined what it would be like without his two close buddies alongside him. The feeling of loneliness had not yet hit him, though…not with full force, that is.

Edd slowly edged his way around a gargantuan tree trunk that been obstructing about half of the passageway and saw that before him lay two old, slate-colored steps…at least, they appeared to be steps. What was so deterring about them was that they were both quite large, each about the size of a modern automobile, averaging at about five feet tall. If they were indeed supposed to be steps, Edd wondered when he would arrive at the giant's castle at the top of the beanstalk.

Nevertheless, Edd simply sighed and slumped his shoulders. "I suppose all impasses can't be avoided…this is becoming monotonous." Tensing up his feeble muscles and gritting his teeth, he jumped upward as high as he could, grabbing the very edge of the first step with his left hand – the fact that his right hand was inside his arm cannon was not going to assist him in this exercise, for sure. Next, he attempted to lift himself up and onto the giant slab, but to no avail – his biceps were literally nonexistent.

Instead, the persistent young genius slowly began to swing his left leg from side to side in a pendulum-like manner, eventually gaining enough speed to lift it onto the edge of the step. Shaking with strain, Edd then pulled himself up onto the massive stone slab of a step and immediately broke out into a fit of panting, crouching down on his knees in exhaustion and desperately craving a hot, hygienic shower. Not pausing to speak to himself, though, he repeated the process with the next step (an endeavor which took about two minutes to complete – a new record for him), and found himself facing yet another unrealistically massive door reminiscent of the one guarding the burn dome – however, this one was colored with a remarkably dull shade of emerald, though it still had an array of scribbles splayed across it…Chozo text, no doubt.

"I say, who in their right mind would ever construct such unnecessarily humongous steps? Giants, I would suppose, but unless the Chozo were truly that gargantuan…come now!" complained the ever-critiquing Edd, prodding the left side of his visor in an attempt to decipher the alien code splayed across the door, only to find that, once the translating process was complete, the text amounted to one English word:

'SUNCHAMBER.'

Given the fact that it sounded far more inviting than the horribly repugnant 'burn dome', Edd decided not to offer his criticism on the name and promptly pitted his shoulder against the door, and with enough force he slowly wedged it open far enough for him to collapse face-first into the chamber that lay behind it.

Rising to his knees (and muttering an array of complaints and intelligent curses), Edd could not help but raise his eyebrows in wonder as he took in an eyeful of what the Chozo had apparently dubbed the 'Sunchamber'.

And it was an appropriately-named room, to be sure - there happened to be no ceiling present whatsoever. Fortunately for Edd, this area may have even been the highest geographical point of the Chozo Ruins. The cloud-smeared, jade-and-turquoise alien sky stretched out in sea-like fashion above him in all of its sun-bathed splendor. There were walls present in the Sunchamber, of course, though they were constructed in a large, circular pattern, making Edd feel as if he were in a ceiling-less version of the Pantheon, albeit with a floor consisting of firmly packed soil instead of elegant marble tile. Easily as massive as the central area of the cul-de-sac, the Sunchamber was an impressive sight to behold, but boasted one unusual characteristic in particular – located at its very center was a relatively large pool of what Edd immediately assumed to be the venomous liquid that was plaguing the ruins, and out of the poison grew what appeared to be a house-sized, pink-hued flower, its five gargantuan, tongue-like, heavy petals budded up together, convulsing and swaying about mysteriously in the refreshing winds.

Many would have missed it, but Edd saw the connection right off the bat.

"By Jove, this is it," he stammered, his voice slowly rising in volume with excitement due to his discovery. "Yes, the green, oversaturated nature of the flower's stem, its partial submersion in volatile liquid, and its continual exposure to sunlight, not to mention its position at the apex of these grounds… This must be the source of the poison running through the Chozo Ruins!"

He immediately stood up with excitement, his knees aching like nothing else while his brain quickly sprang to life once again. "But how to stem the toxin?" he queried, prodding his chin as he tossed various solutions about in his genius mind. "Surely it will prove difficult enough to separate the plant's symbiotic relationship to the ruins' water source, given its massive size…" He offered a small glance toward the black glove that was encasing his left hand and considered a few possibilities. "Perhaps…this module can be of assista-"

Krooooosh! The dry, shriveled noise of rustling leaves filled Edd's ears immediately, forcing his train of thought to completely derail. What in the world was this noise...the sound of millions of dead leaves rustling all at once was what it had sounded like. Several glances about the Sunchamber revealed nothing as Edd's panic began to rise…until he had looked toward the very center of the chamber and found the cause.

Quickly, and with a scream of terror, Edd rolled as athletically as he could about six feet to his immediate right, just barely dodging the wild stream of gargantuan plants quickly sprouting, in a straight line, from the flower in the center of the room to where he had been standing – worse still, the line of six-foot-tall flora that had just instantly appeared where he was standing…was completely enshrouded in a sickly, lime-tinted mist and a vomitous odor – the poison in gaseous form, no doubt! These plants…they must have been venomous…deadly to the touch!

"Wh-what just happened?! What's going on?!" cried Edd, sweat dripping down from his temples to his cheeks as he averted his terrified gaze from the line of newly-sprouted killer plants to the giant, bulbous flower in the center of the Sunchamber.

Cha-Koonk! A hollow, metallic sound rang just a few feet directly above Edd. Quickly looking upward, Edd saw that there was a rather large object hanging from the very top of the Sunchamber's wall – a mirror, no doubt. Due to the presence of wind within the area, it had been shifted enough so that it tilted downward and became locked in place, facing the gargantuan, convulsing flower, and it immediately began to reflect sunlight onto it. Exposed to the heavily-concentrated rays, the plant began to violently writhe and flail about with increasing intensity, until it finally unfurled, its gigantic, pink petals rolling outward like a carpet and dipping down into the stagnant pool of poison.

…And out from the center of the flower came a beast so hideously grotesque…

Edd screamed out in horror, staggering backwards in utter disbelief, as he set his petrified eyes on the terrifying insect slowly snaking its way out of the flower and rising three stories into the sky. The monster, a horrible mantis/plant hybrid at best, was unlike anything Edd had ever imagined, even in his wildest nightmares. Sporting an ugly, forest-green exoskeleton and a soft, wafer-hued underside, a countless collection of pseudo-legs sprouted out of its sides and traveled all the way up to the base of its arms, giving it the haunting appearance of a writhing, behemoth centipede.

And those arms…small, bony, and pathetic-looking mantis arms they were… but with school-bus-sized, metallic, razor-honed scythes growing outward at its elbows, reflecting sunlight and flailing about in every direction as the fifty-foot-tall beast, easily dwarfing the likes of the Parasite Queen on the Orpheon, simply stared at Edd…stared at his insignificant form…

…Stared at him with its bulbous, over-bloated, praying-mantis head…its slimy, silvery, saliva-dripping mandibles…its two massive, leaf-like antennae growing out of its forehead and flapping in the strong winds…and those two grotesque, glossy, crimson orbs…those two gargantuan bulbs consisting of millions and millions of eyes

Eddward truly was the master of stirring the bee's nest.