Chapter 9 - The Hunters and the Hunted
The hunters have once again split up, despite Kanden's death. They had to continue the war at all costs, even if it meant the death of a partner. Weavel and Samus stayed on Alinos. Sylux and Trace both headed towards the Vesper Defense Outpost. Noxus and Spire headed to Arcterra, and the two Goreas, Denkan and Kraid-2 went to the Celestial Archives ("They're officially part of the team," Samus had said). At once, six ships and two Goreas flew off to different stations and planets. There was one ship left behind...
Arcterra. A cold, ice-covered environment, covered with Alimbic passages and buildings. Noxus and Spire were looking for anything they could find.
Spire looked in a small passageway, set into the wall, he had just found. Big enough to stand in, but very narrow. There was a little glowing orb inside.
"Nox, come look at this!" He yelled, with his head still in the passage.
Noxus sighed. "What now?"
"Some glowing orb. Looks kinda like Samus's Morph Ball."
Noxus gently pushed Spire out of the way. "What is this?"
"That's why I'm wondering," Spire replied.
Noxus tried to pick it up, and that's when it happened. He started glowing orange, then turned into his alternate form, the Vhoscythe, without his command. He felt an urge of destruction, wanting to kill everything that moves! But, he couldn't control himself! The top-like Vhoscythe soon started to head towards Spire!
"Spire! Run! I.. I can't control myself! That thing locked me in alternate form! It turned me into a hell-bent fiend, killing anything that moves! RUN!" Noxus screamed, in his last seconds of control. Then, he started heading towards Spire!
Crap! That's that DeathAlt thing! Locks you in alt, steals your control, then kills everything it sees by touch! Spire quickly folded up into his alternate form, the Dialanche; a rock-covered spiked ball. Lucky for him, the Dialanche, genetically developed by the first Diamonts, can easily scale walls. But, it was very slow on ground and wall. Too slow to avoid the Vhoscythe!
Spire rolled to the highest wall he could find, and immediately tried to climb it. The Vhoscythe was waiting for him at the bottom. If he fell, he would never know the location, or fate, of the other Diamonts. Possibly, he would cause his race to go extinct, just from falling a short distance.
"You can't stay up there forever, Spire!" Noxus said in a sinister voice. But, there was no way he'd normally say something like that. All Spire could do was keep looking down, waiting for the orange glow of the DeathAlt to fade...
But then, trying to get over to a cliff, Spire felt the spikes of his Dialanche slipping! There was no way he could stay onto the wall! He was too far from the wall to latch onto it again! In a minute, he would land right on top of Noxus, controlled by the DeathAlt. There was nothing left, but fate...
Denkan and Kraid-2 finally felt appreciated. For once, they got to go off on their own, ignoring all the rules.
"Wait here. There's another one right over there. I'll clear the path, you defend," Kraid-2 said to Denkan. (Of course, they are speaking in their normal language. This is just a translation.)
"Right," Denkan replied, getting his version of the Omega Cannon ready. Kraid-2 then turned into his round, gray, alternate form, Gorea 2, and charged up a slight flare. It soon grew to a large ball of flames. He aimed at the Gorea across the room, and fired a flaming laser, causing the Gorea to explode, blood and gore flying everywhere!
"Ok, hurry! Let's go!" Kraid-2 ordered. They kept using this newfound strategy against all the Goreas they found. The other hunters were able to see the explosions from where they were, even.
"Is it just me, or did that one just commit suicide?" Denkan asked, seeing a Gorea jump off into space through one of the many broken areas of the Archives. They just gave each other a blank look, then got back to the fight. But, they wasted too much time! There were at least ten Goreas running towards them!
"Feeling better yet?" Spire asked Noxus, still shocked from the DeathAlt incident. Noxus was feeling slightly ill from the mind control of it. He could barely concentrate.
"Not just yet. Put me back in my ship. I gotta rest up," Noxus said, sounding awful. Spire then grabbed Noxus and brought him back. He then turned on the defense mechanism, shielding the ship. Spire was about to tow Noxus to Alinos, but then, out of nowhere, the bridge from the Sic Transit crashed right next in the Gateway!
"What the hell? Where'd that come from!" Spire shouted. "Nox, I know you're sick, but message the others! Now! They'll get an alert, trust me. Message them, tell em something's wrong! I'll take care of this!"
"A-alright. Unh... I'll do that now," Noxus said, feeling very nauseous. Despite this, he alerted the others about the DeathAlt and the explosion almost immediately. Lucky for the other hunters, they were near the gateway and heard the alerts.
"Oh... my... God..." Spire said, shocked. Something was destroying Arcterra! And not just anything... It was a giant Gorea...
As soon as Spire said this, the Gorea turned toward him, letting out an ear-shattering screech! It started glowing yellow and gray! With one shot, it would destroy all of Arcterra!
"NOXUS!" Spire screamed at the top of his lungs. Luckily, he was only one room away. In the Gateway, Noxus could have sworn he heard Spire call for him. Despite his headache and whatnot, he ran straight for the next room.
"Wha-" Noxus started to say. But, in mid-sentence, he saw the giant Gorea. He was almost paralyzed from it.
"NOX! GO TELL THE OTHERS ABOUT THIS! HURRY!" Spire screamed. Noxus was shocked. He'd never seen Spire like this. And the Gorea just frightened him even more. He ran as fast as he could to his ship.
Samus was speechless. She and Weavel had just rushed back to the Alinos Gateway, hearing the message signal. Listening to the message froze them. A giant Gorea, charging the Omega cannon to full capacity. There was no possible way to defeat it. Unless...
"Weavel! Head there, disctract the Gorea! Tell the others I've got a way to stop it!" Samus ordered. She had no time to explain. Weavel was confused, but headed to Arcterra anyway. He had to stop that Gorea...
Samus, while Weavel left, immediately headed to the Combat Hall. She knew something powerful lied at the core. The problem was, how could she bring it to Arcterra...?
Despite this thought, she squeezed through the Core Passage with her Morph Ball and arrived at the core. The Supreme Metroid was down there, but sensed Samus immediately...
"What the hell? We need her here! This thing'll kill us all, and more! It could lead the Goreas to victory!" Trace shouted, frustrated. All six of them were shooting at the Gorea, trying to stop it. But then Sylux realized. Six? But, Samus wasn't here. How could there be...
That was when he noticed. Kanden was standing right there, fighting alongside the rest of them! Ignoring the Gorea for once, he ran over to him.
"Kanden! How are you here! You were killed by the Goreas!" Sylux shouted. His mind was racing. How was Kanden here?
"Hehehe... Yeah, it's me. But, not how you knew me," he said. He then stuck his arm straight through his torso.
"HOLY SHIT!" Sylux screamed at the top of his lungs. "You... you're fighting alongside us, even though you're only in spirit now?"
"Yep. Now, you wanna talk, or kick some Gorea ass?" Kanden's spirit still had the fighting instinct. They both got back to fighting almost immediately.
There was blood everywhere, from the hunters and the giant Gorea. There were Affinity weapons, Power Beams, Missiles, and fire flying everywhere. They were able to stop the Omega Cannon shot, but now it was using the hunters' weapons and it's own flaming beams.
"AIM FOR THE SHOULDERS, TRACE! IT'S RED! RED MEANS IMPERIALIST WEAKNESS!" Spire ordered. The fight would take forever. But this thing seemed unstoppable. The hunters may have met their match...
Underground, in the Alinos core, Samus was having a very difficult time with the Supreme Metroid. The spider-like legs, the giant lasers made of ice, electricity, plasma, and a power beam-like substance, the two huge arms with razor-sharp claws, and the tubular, drooling, deadly mouth. There was no way Samus could live through this thing. It had the ferocity of an Omega Metroid, and the attack power (increased by the Phazon it generates) of a Metroid Prime. It would be able to defeat the giant Gorea in one fell swoop, but how would she get it there?
But then, while trying to avoid it using her Morph Ball, it sucked her into its mouth! The teeth were closing in, and she could feel the heat increasing. It was going to eat her, and there was no way to escape... She would soon be swallowed...
