Into the Dark

Chapter 11: Those Behind the Scene

Snake lunged at the first figure he saw which appeared to be a man dressed in a black robe. He put the person in a headlock before glancing around the room at the other people. Something wasn't right. Samus, Lucario and Ness came in quickly, armed with their weapons, but froze on the spot. The man in Snake's clutches laughed. A large group of robed figures stood around the room, all chuckling and looking at the tall man. Ness was feeling uncomfortable.

"There must be at least thirty of them", he thought.

The cloaked men all wore black robes just like the first man with some of their facial features hidden in shadow. Some of them didn't even have their hoods over their heads and instead had strange red tattoos covering their bald and pale heads.

"What are you guys, some sort of street gang?" asked Snake.

The man in his arms did not resist the grip on his neck. Samus pointed her cannon at one figure, then turned to another quickly, not sure of which one would strike first. Lucario sensed demonic aura coming from these men.

"Who are these people?" he thought.

The room they were in was large and it had a high ceiling. Just how far underground were they? A portrait of an old man in a purple robe was hanging on the stone wall on the other side. Ness flinched at the sound of the chanting.

"Cogedlo, cogedlo..." the robed men chanted.

Snake had a bad feeling about this; the man in his arms wasn't even moving. He turned to the men that were slowly surrounding him.

"Hey, will someone answer me? Who are you?!" The men crept closer to the four survivors. Snake stepped back with his hostage. "Get back, or this guy gets it!" he called.

The figures kept approaching, as if they were oblivious to their captured friend. The chanting continued.

"Cogedlo, cogedlo..."

Snake had no choice at this point. He grunted as he twisted the neck of the man in his arms. The man cried silently before falling to the ground. Surprisingly, the robed men ignored his actions and continued their approach.

"Snake! There's too many of them! We have to retreat!" cried Samus.

Snake stepped back into his group. He hated to admit it but she was right. There was no way they would be able to take on all these men by themselves. An image of a man in black falling into the sewage water flashed through Snake's mind.

"Okay, let's go!" he called, turning around. He stopped when he saw more men approaching from the hallway they came through. "Shit!"

Ness clutched his bat tightly, unsure of what to do. Lucario backed into the wall. Demonic aura was everywhere, and it was closing in on them fast. Samus fired a rocket at one of the men in front of her. His body exploded as a mixture of blood and guts splattered onto his friends. Just as before, the men ignored the event and kept chanting.

"Cogedlo, cogedlo..."

Samus was beginning to freak out. Whispering and chanting clawed at her ears.

"These people are mad!" she thought.

Lucario fired an Aura Sphere at a close figure sending him flying back into his crowd of cultists.

"We have to fight!" cried Lucario as he charged another sphere.

Ness put his bat back into his backpack and pointed his finger at an approaching man in black.

"PK Fire!" he cried.

The man caught fire instantly and started running about until he fell on the ground, dead. Snake ran up to one and dropkicked him in the face, knocking him down for good.

"Heh, they're not so tough," he thought.

Suddenly, he felt the grip of cold pale hands clenching his arms. He looked to see a robed man clutching his limb, more of them following behind.

"Hey!" Snake cried as he shook it off. He backed up into another man who grabbed him around the waist. Another ran up and tackled Snake to the ground. More soon came and piled up on Snake, holding him down. "Samus! Lucario!" he cried. But it was no use, because his three friends were also swarmed by these creepy men. Lucario was on the ground along with Samus. Ness attempted to PK Fire more enemies but was stopped when one of them punched him in the stomach, forcing him to drop to his knees.

"Ness, no!" cried Lucario. "Get...OFF OF ME!" Lucario exploded with blue aura. The men that were on him were sent back into the wall. The Pokémon was floating above the ground, dark aura covering his entire body. "GET AWAY FROM THEM!"

He fired huge bursts of aura which struck the robed men on Samus. They disintegrated instantly, leaving a panting Samus on the ground. Lucario shot the other figures on top of Snake and Ness. He cleared the room until every single stranger became nothing more than a bloodstain on the wall. Several holes in the wall were left from the aftermath of this rampage.

Lucario fell to the ground, his aura depleted completely. Samus and Ness ran to his side.

"Lucario!" said Samus.

He had bruises all over his body from their attackers.

"My aura...it's so weak..." Lucario coughed.

Samus and Ness helped him to his feet.

"It's okay, you saved our lives."

"Uh oh," said Ness.

Samus looked down at the boy.

"Huh?" she replied.

"This is not good," said Snake who was looking to the other end of the room. A robed figure in red was leading a group of figures in black. The ones in black were chanting something different this time.

"Morir es vivir, morir es vivir..."

The red figure approached the group and stopped in front of them. Some men in the back raised crossbows and pointed them at the four survivors. Snake flinched.

"Is this guy their leader?" he thought.

The red man pointed a scrawny finger at Snake.

"¡Mátalo!" he shouted.

Suddenly, Snake was grabbed by two men in black and knocked out cold by a blunt hit to the head. He barely struggled to see Samus, Lucario, and Ness also being taken captive.

"Shit..." thought Snake.

The red man turned around to exit through the door he came in on the other side. The men in black followed along with Samus, Snake, Ness and Lucario as their hostages.

Van led the way with his flashlight. The sewers were darker than any of them could have expected. Todd scampered closely behind followed by Link, Leon and Ada. Van looked down at the water rushing past his feet.

"Man that's gross. Hopefully, we can get out of here through this way," he thought.

Leon remembered that he had his rifle strapped to his back.

"How many shots did I have left? Aw, I can't remember..." he thought.

The sound of viscous water took over their ears as they ventured into this dark unknown. Van's light was small in the darkness, but at least they could see where they were going.

Link was feeling awkward in the silence. He wanted to say something but he couldn't. What would there be to talk about? He had to take his mind off of the situation. He tried to think about Samus. He was worried. The feelings he felt for her he kept bottled up inside him. Link started to regret not telling Samus how he felt about her before she and Ness left him. He wanted to be back in the mansion. Back with all his friends.

"I wonder how Zelda's doing?" Link thought to himself. Zelda was one of Link's closest friends. She was like a sister to him. Now she's out there running around in this living hellhole as well. Link thought back even further. "Why the heck did we come here in the first place?" An image of Samus crying flashed through his mind. "Samus...we came here to cheer her up. Oh yeah, we've been doing a 'great' job so far."

Todd stumbled nearby in the dark liquid but quickly recovered his footing.

Link looked back into his memory. Captain Falcon's smug face blew across his mind. "Why didn't I kill that guy when I had the chance on the roof?" he thought again. "He's the one who got us trapped here." Link clenched his fists. He wanted to teach that narcissistic racer a lesson. "No one hurts Samus and gets away with it." He was trying to plan ahead. "When we get out of here, I'm going to beat that guy so hard, he won't be able to see straight. I'll make him pay for what he did to Samus, and what he did to us!"

Link bumped into Todd who stumbled forward.

"Hey watch it!" he said.

"What's the hold up?" asked Leon from behind.

Van was pointing his flash light back and forth in two directions.

"There are two ways we can go here," said Van, who was still ahead of the group.

Leon came up and looked down both paths.

"Both of them look equally bad," he replied.

"I say we go right," said Link as he approached from behind. "That should lead us down to where Samus and Ness disappeared."

Van checked both ways again.

"Okay, if you say so."

They continued their way through the thick liquid between their feet. Link could feel the water penetrating the thin soles of his boots.

"Not that I'm worried about getting wet. I've been underwater hundreds of times before," Link thought.

The thought of going underwater reminded him of Zora's River back in Hyrule. He remembered doing the diving contest and jumping off the waterfall in Zora's Domain. The Zora's themselves were such nice and elegant creatures. He remembered Ruto, the princess of the Zora's. She had told Link that they were going to get married when she gave him the Water Pendant. And still, to this day she waits for him...

"Maybe, I'll pay her a visit sometime..."

Hell, anything was better than this.

The survivors made their way up to another fork in the path. Van was getting annoyed by these sudden twists in the tunnels.

"Okay, now what?" he asked, pointing the flash light back and forth just as he had done before. Link came forward again, this time, unsure of which way to go.

"Hmmm, maybe-"

He was interrupted by the sound of a large roar. Everyone shook at the sound and turned in the direction it was coming from: The left fork. Waves started gushing rapidly towards the group. Not one of them moved. Something was coming their way. Something big. Link turned to the right fork which seemed to be clear of any monsters.

"Let's go!" he cried.

None of the others moved. They wanted to see just what they were about to face. Van held his flash light up high so he could see the distinctive features of this monster. A large reptilian creature was stampeding down the narrow tunnel towards the survivors.

"Is that a crocodile?!" shouted Van over the loud splashing.

"Not again! Everybody move!" cried Leon.

The five survivors ran in the opposite direction of the beast. Not one of them could see where they were going because Van kept moving the flash around while they were running. The giant crocodile was howling and in close pursuit of the group.

"Why is that thing so big?! cried Todd.

"It's been infected with the virus! Quick in here!" replied Van.

They jumped into a narrow path they were sure the crocodile could not fit through. They crouched down while the coldblooded monstrosity passed by them without noticing their hideaway. When the crocodile was out of sight, Van stepped out into the clearing.

"Everyone okay?" he asked.

Leon and Ada stepped out.

"I'm fine," she replied.

Link came out next.

"That thing was huge! I never would have thought there would be one underneath the city."

Todd came out last. He was shaken up from all the running. Van quickly put his arm around him and helped out the civilian.

"It's okay, you did good," he said.

Leon looked down the path where the crocodile went.

"Something's not right."

Ada went up to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I've fought a crocodile like that before. There's something different about this one, though."

"Oh really? How so?"

"Did you see how fast it was going? That thing wasn't looking for food at all. It seemed to be...afraid of something."

"Afraid of something?" asked Todd. "How could that thing be afraid of anything? It was as high as the ceiling!"

"It must be guarding the tunnels down here; otherwise it could be trying to run away… But from what?"

Link turned to a platform that rose above the sewage waste. A metal, rusted door stood in front of it.

"Maybe we'll find our answers there," he said.

Van went up to the platform and climbed up. He checked the door.

"Seems stable. You want to take a look?"

Leon climbed up too.

"There's no sign on the door. Wonder what could be behind it?"

Link's ears picked up the sound of the crocodile coming back towards them. He quickly ran up to the platform.

"Guys! It's coming back! I can hear it!" he yelled.

Ada heard it too. She swiftly climbed up the platform and opened the door. It led down a hallway with stone walls and torches lit on both sides.

"Good enough for me. You coming?" she said as she went into the next room.

Link got up and went through the door too, followed by Leon. Van turned to his friend.

"Todd! Let's go!"

Todd hesitated at the rumbling and waves coming from down the tunnel. He turned and climbed up the platform with Van's help.

"In here! Now!"

Todd and Van went in and Van slammed the door shut behind him. The crocodile passed them a second time, not even realizing that it had missed its chance at a free meal. Van leaned against the door and sighed. He glanced ahead to see his fellow survivors in the stone hallway. What was this place?

Leon put his hand against the wall. The stone was warm, as if it was being heated by something. The lit torches lining the wall did not flicker when Link walked past them.

"There's no wind down here," thought Link, "which means there's no way out. We have no choice but to press forward."

Some stone doors stood ahead on both sides of the walls, all of them looking similar to the one they came in from.

"Which way now?" asked Leon.

"How about that one at the end?" suggested Van as he pointed down the hall to a lone door.

Todd's legs were shaking. He was afraid.

"Why are we down here again?" he asked as he hugged himself despite the warmness of the room they were in.

Van frowned, realizing that he never should have brought a civilian down here in the first place. It was his job to protect people. So far, he wasn't doing a very good job. He went over to Todd and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about anything. Remember, I promised you I'd get you out of here. I'm not about to go back on my word any time soon."

Todd nodded as he wiped a tear from his eye.

"Okay, then let's go," said Link as he walked towards the far door.

Leon took a few steps before stopping to look at the group.

"Hold on. Where's Ada?"

The four survivors looked around. Link, Leon, Van, and Todd. Ada was no longer with them.

"Oh, great she ditched us," said Link as he put a hand to the warm rock beside him.

Leon looked at him.

"No, she didn't ditch us. If I know Ada, we'll be meeting up with her again soon. She even told us that she works best alone. She probably feels that she doesn't need us anymore to finish her mission."

At that, Link turned around to face his partner.

"Her mission? Do you know why she's here in the first place?"

Leon shuffled his feet for a second before answering.

"She's here to help us get out of here. We're best not to get in her way."

Link raised an eyebrow. How can she help them when she wasn't even near them?

"I don't understand," replied Link.

Leon walked past him to the door.

"Look, it's best that you didn't. Van, come on."

Van and Todd followed Leon to the door.

Link paused for a few seconds before catching up with the group.

Snake stirred in his sleep, blurry memories dancing in his head. He remembered fighting what seemed like an army of robed men who were chanting something crazy. His mind went blank after that.

"Damn, how long have I been sleeping for?" he thought.

He opened his eyes to see nothing but a stone ceiling.

"Great...we're still under the city..."

He slowly got to his feet and took a good look of his surroundings. In front of him stood a cell door with vertical metal bars silently taunting him. The whole room around him was a sick colour of worn stone and blood. Rusted chains dangled behind him on the far wall as well as a skeleton lying face down beneath it. Snake shivered when he saw this.

"Jesus...Where the hell am I?"

"Snake! You're awake!"

Snake turned to the voice he heard. It was Samus and she was standing in a cell across from his.

"Samus! What happened?"

Samus put her hand on the bars in front of her. Her power suit was all dirty and there was some blood stains on the side of it.

"Snake! They took Ness! I don't know where he is!"

"What!?" Snake looked past Samus into her cell to see a blue Pokémon sitting on the side with his eyes closed. Snake's memories shot back at him like a bullet. "Lucario! Is he okay?"

Samus turned to the Pokémon in her cell then back to Snake.

"He's fine. He's just used up too much of his aura. It'll be awhile before he comes to. Snake, we have to save Ness! They took him!"

"Can't you blow up the door with your rockets?"

Samus shook her head.

"No, I can't. Those men disarmed all my rockets and explosives. All I have is the beam cannon, which can't break open this cell. I've tried already."

Snake tried to look out of his cell and into the rest of the room. Luckily, there were no guards anywhere. Two more cells lay adjacent to his and Samus'. He tried to look into the cell next to Samus' but couldn't because of the angle he was at.

"We got to find a way to break out of here!" he said.

Samus thought for a moment.

"We have to save Ness! Who knows what they'll do to him!" she thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging noise coming from the cell next to hers. "What the hell is that sound?" she said.

Snake tried to look in to the cell, but again he failed.

"Who is that?" he asked.

Suddenly, the banging stopped and the two survivors heard a voice coming from the cell.

"Is someone there?" it asked.

Samus and Snake identified this voice right away.

"Ike!" they both called.

Ike paused before replying.

"Samus, Snake? Is that you?"

Samus went over to the wall next to Ike's cell.

"Ike, it's us! We've been captured by those men in the black robes."

"Yeah, I know, we had a little problem with them earlier."

"Can you make contact with the others?"

"No, I can't. Zelda and I got separated from them awhile back. I don't know where she is! I think that those men took her!"

Snake leaned against the wall and listened to the conversation.

"Wait, Zelda's down here too?"

The loud noise of fists slamming on metal could be heard from Ike's cell.

"Yes! And it's all my fault! Dammit! I should have fought harder!"

Samus could tell that Ike was hitting the cell bars with all his might, trying to get out. It was no use at all.

"Ike, listen to me. If we don't get out of here soon, Ness or Zelda could die!"

Ike did not respond, but the slamming continued. Snake came up to his cell bars to confront Samus.

"Is there any way you can squeeze through the bars?" he asked.

Samus thought for a moment before realizing.

"I nearly forgot! I have my morph ball!" Samus turned into her morph ball and slipped past the metal. She returned to her original form in front of Snake's cell. "One of the guards probably has the keys. I can find them and get you all out of here."

Snake nodded.

"Sounds good. You better go check on Ike. He doesn't sound too good over there."

Samus nodded and went over to Ike's cell. Ike was punching and kicking at the bars, trying to escape. His gloved hands were starting to bleed from all the battering. His sword was nowhere to be seen; those cultists likely took it from him. His cape was torn on one end and he had blood on his chest, however he did not seem to be wounded too bad. At least he could stand up.

"Ike, stop! You'll only end up hurting yourself!" said Samus.

Ike did as he was told and panted deeply.

"I need to get out of here," he replied.

Samus looked at the door on one end of the prison and a door on the other end. One of them must lead to the key she needs.

"Stay here and don't waste your energy. I'll be back to free you once I find Ness and Zelda."

Ike nodded and sat one the cold ground. Samus was about to turn for the door when she heard it open. A man in black entered through it and noticed the escapee.

"¡Mátalo!" cried the man as he pointed at Samus. He then proceeded to run at Samus with his arms out.

"Samus, look out!" cried Ike.

Samus ran up to the man and performed a flying kick to his face. The robed figure was sent hurling into the wall, but got up slowly and resumed his assault. Samus cursed under her breath. She got low, charging at him and finishing off with an uppercut. The force of the attack was so powerful that the man's head flew clean off his body and flew into the wall before falling on the ground. Blood spouted from the man's neck as his body swayed back and forth before collapsing to the ground.

"Damn…" said Snake.

Ike was in shock.

"Samus, what did you do?..." he started.

amus couldn't even draw the words to react. She just knocked this guy's head clean off! She turned back to Ike and shrugged.

"Samus! Behind you!"

Samus turned to see the man's body get back up, growing a new head in the process. Only this was not a human head. The new head had similar characteristics to that of an insect as a large mouth with teeth and claws sprouted from his shoulders. The man was now three feet taller as the insect grew more and more, its tentacle-like claws flailing about. The bounty hunter stepped back from it.

"What?..."

The man started walking towards her with the monster on his head. The creature lunged at Samus, but she dodged to the side. One bite from that thing could be lethal. She tried charging her beam. The creature attacked again with sharp razors, but she rolled away again, narrowly dodging its claws. Her beam finished charging and she fired it at the monster. The creature exploded and blood flew in all directions. Ike and Samus were showered, but Snake was too far to be hit. Samus wiped the blood form her visor and looked at the massive stain on the ground.

"What the hell was that thing?" she said.

Ike tried to clean himself off.

"Never mind that, just get out of here!" he called.

Samus nodded and ran through the prison doors. Her suit was now red from all the blood. Snake leaned against the wall and looked at Lucario who was still unconscious.

"You're lucky you didn't get to see that," he said to the Pokémon.

Samus ran as fast as she could down the halls. Her suit encumbered her running capabilities, but she dealt with it as best as she could. She hid behind a corner when she heard multiple whispering sounds. It was obvious that there were too many of these freaks to fight, especially when she still needed to free her friends as well as save Ness and Zelda. She continued to run down the lit hallways.

"It's like a giant maze down here," she thought.

This, however, did not bother Samus at all because she was used to running around mazes. Hell, Planet Zebes was practically one giant maze in itself. But that's another story all together...

Samus stopped when she heard the cries of a familiar voice.

"Help! Someone! Please!"

It was Ness. She tried to follow the voice through the labyrinth. His voice was getting louder for every step she took.

"Please be okay, please be okay," she kept telling herself.

She stopped at a metal door. He was on the other side.

"Help!" he called again.

"I'm coming Ness!" she said as she broke down the door with her foot.

Suddenly, a swarm of robed men lunged at her. She quickly turned into the morph ball and rolled underneath their feet. They were too stupid and confused to realize where she went and ended up tripping over each other. Samus rolled all the way to the other side of the room before turning back into her normal form. She turned around to see the man in the red robe standing in the center of the room. Ness was locked to a chair next him. Torches lined the blue walls again.

"Samus!" called Ness from his seat.

The man in red looked at her.

"Seize her!" he ordered.

Ten men in black ran up to Samus to grab her.

"Oh no, not this time."

One of the men lunged at her. She crouched down and did a screw attack. The power of the attack shredded the man into nothing but a large blood stain on the floor. Samus turned to her other enemies.

"Who's next?"

The others attacked all at once. Samus charged her beam while running back to the wall behind her. She jumped off of it over the group of men. She fired her beam as she arced over them in the air and obliterated one of the robed figures in the middle of the group. The explosion from the blast caused the others to go flying in all different directions. They hit the ground hard but started to get up. Samus turned to the man in red, who had some kind of needle with a purple liquid inside of it in his hands.

"He's going to inject him with something?" she thought.

She ran over to the red man who was about to bring it down into Ness' neck.

"Samus!" he cried.

Samus ran up and tackled the man in red to the ground, the needle falling with him and shattering on the cold stone.

"You!" the man cried as he got to his feet.

Samus blasted the locks on Ness' seat with her beam to set him free. Ness felt his wrists to make sure they were okay.

"Get them!" cried the man in red.

Ness stood before him, his hands turning into flames.

"PK Fire!" shouted Ness.

The man in red was engulfed in a mass of flame as he fell to the ground.

"Lord...Saddler..." he said before dying.

A silver key gleamed in the light on his robe. Ness picked it up off the corpse.

"Do we need this?" he asked.

Samus looked at the remaining men in black heading for them.

"Yes, but first let's get rid of these guys."

Ness nodded and charged his PK Flash.

"PK..." The men approached as a group, which they didn't realize was their downfall. Ness brought the greed light into the center of the group. "Flash!"

The group exploded in the green light as blood was sent flying in all directions. Samus got covered a second time in crimson, but Ness swiftly dodged behind her to protect himself from the downpour. She received the key from him after she wiped the blood from her visor a second time.

"Thanks," she said.

Ness nodded and they both ran for the door.

"Do you know what they were going to do to you?" asked Samus as she opened the door for the small boy.

Ness shook his head.

"No, they were chanting something weird. Although...the man in red did say something about making me one of them..."

"Making you one of them..." Samus repeated. "I don't like that sound of that."

They both entered the hallway and began running down the corridors.

"Do you know where Zelda is?" asked Samus as she tried to wipe the blood off her suit.

"I saw her being taken by some men to another room, but I don't know where she is."

Samus tried to lead him back to the prison room, silver key in hand.

"We have to find her. Time is running out. I don't even know how many hours it's been since we came back from the forest."

Ness realized the weight on his back was lighter than before. The torches on the walls stood idly around them.

"My backpack!" he cried. "They stole my backpack!"

Samus stopped and turned to her companion.

"What was in there?" she asked.

"All my weapons and a picture of my family. I have to get it back."

Samus did not reply. She wanted to help him find his backpack, but it was too insignificant to set as one of their priorities.

"We'll find it. Don't worry," she responded.

Ness had his head down. He missed his mom. Samus didn't know much about Ness' personal or family life. She remembered Link telling her a long time ago how Ness had left his family to go save the planet from some greater evil force, though she didn't read it into it in much detail. She didn't know all the struggles Ness had gone through in his life as an adventurer, but she did know that he was very attached to his mother. Samus made a mental note in the back of her head that when she rescued the other brawlers from this madness, she would help Ness find his backpack.

And that was a promise.