Chapter 11

The ship continued to shake somewhat as Samus finally heard a loud evil roar and took several deep breaths. Just then, the large talons of the beast reached down inside the hatch where she'd blown it open, but Ridley was too big to fit through it himself. So Ridley continued tearing at the hatch of the ship until he'd opened it much more than it already was, but still he didn't come inside. Samus waited, knowing he was trying to figure out how to get her out of there without damaging the Metroid DNA on board and finally, when she heard him climbing down the side of the ship, she ran for the hatch and jumped straight out of it, flipping through the air and landing several feet away from it, as well as Ridley, turning around to find herself staring straight at the 10 foot tall beast.

Ridley looked like a dragon, with a long snout and razor sharp fangs, golden glowing eyes, webbed wings, and large talons on each of his three fingers as well as three toes. He also had a 7 foot long tail with a spear shape to the tip of it, one of his most deadly features, as well as the ability to breath fire. Despite looking like he was simply a killing machine and knew nothing else, Ridley was very intelligent, and had the ability to talk, though most of his words of English came out garbled and somewhat sputtered sounding, especially because he wasn't a humanoid, and his mouth wasn't shaped properly to speak the language correctly.

Even though, he and Samus never carried out a conversation in words. Only with their fights did they ever speak. Samus had killed this beast numerous times, but he'd only been recreated by the space pirates. Needless to say, Samus had long accepted the fact that he was going to be a constant enemy to her, and one day, she feared they would make some sorts of changes to him to make him invulnerable to even her missiles.

Samus didn't have time to think or worry though, because he lunged for her quickly with his sharp talons, and she ducked to the side, coming around behind him and began to fire her missiles into his back. He roared for only a second before Samus felt him wrapping his tail around her waist, and pull, causing Samus to fly through the air and hit the wall with a lot of force.

She laid there for only a moment, and could still feel the tail wrapped around her as Ridley began flapping his webbed wings and took off. The docking bay was a good size room for him to fly around in, at least 50 ft tall.

Oh shit, Samus grumbled, and then grunted as the tail pulled her into the air with him. She had a feeling he was going to try and smash her into anything he could, so tried her best to keep from hitting anything. Though she wasn't entirely successful as Ridley pulled her along with him, she was able to grab a hold of his tail with her left hand, and get a clear shot of it with her cannon, firing 2 missiles off and watched his tail snap, hearing his roar of pain while she fell to the floor with what had been severed of his tail still wrapped around her waist.

Managing to land on her feet, she looked up and pointed her gun towards Ridley, taking a few more shots off, watching the missiles fly through the air and following him about because of the homing capabilities they had.

Ridley screeched loudly, knowing he had her missiles following him, and turned to head straight for her. Once Samus saw this, she knew he was going to try to get her own missiles to run into her, and so she waited for her chance and once she was close enough, jumped towards him, holding onto his arm while the missiles crashed into the wall behind her.

The fight continued on in midair. Samus was constantly hitting his jaws with her cannon arm while Ridley tried to hit her with his free arm to get her loose. Finally he was able to get his hands around her waist and pull her loose from his arm, where he flew high up towards the ceiling and then let go of her.

Samus! Came Drevan's voice as he saw her once Ridley let go, falling towards the ground. Such a high drop wasn't safe, even for Samus, he knew, and in those seconds he felt his heart almost explode as she feel to the floor, only to see her use her grapple beam to pull herself towards the edge of a platform and hang there from it.

Samus thought she'd heard someone yell her name, and as she hung there from the platform, she looked about and saw Drevan. He was near the door she'd blown up to get inside the room, and she wondered for only a split second how he'd found her, much less gotten onto the ship.

Then she saw Ridley heading straight for Drevan, fire coming from his mouth as he opened it and she yelled, Get out of here

Drevan looked up and jumped back when he saw the beast flying towards him. What the hell is that thing?

As flames began to shoot forward from Ridley's mouth, Drevan took off in a dash to get away from it, finding his way behind the cargo ship and using it for cover. Ridley simply landed on top of the ship and was about to reach down and pick Drevan up when he felt Samus' missiles slamming into him. He stumbled forward with a loud roar of pain, and looked back at the hunter who was now on the floor near by.

Ridley forgot all about Drevan, more concerned with his old foe, and jumped down off the ship, heading towards her. Just as he hit the ground though, Samus let loose a charged missile, something she hadn't had time to shoot at him yet, and as the powered yellow blast shot forth from her cannon with such power that it knocked her weakened body 5 feet backwards, it flew towards Ridley's head, making impact and blowing a hole straight through his cranium. Ridley fell back instantly and landed with a loud thud.

Samus watched this and then let herself lay there upon the ground for a few moments. She was breathing heavily, and soon saw Drevan leaning over her. Are you alright?

Samus didn't respond at first, but instead pushed herself up. How did you get in here Drevan?

He shook his head, Don't worry about it. In fact, don't worry about anything right now. There are 5 federation ships outside right now, and they actually have this vessel in tow. I'm still not sure what this is all about, but I asked for Jillian's help in finding you, and she agreed, and helped me decipher the Federations transmissions. Once we heard they were sending battle ships to this area, we decided that's where we needed to be, and so we followed them here, and it wasn't too hard after that. What the hell was that thing anyway?

Samus didn't say anything as the doors opened and she saw a number federation soldiers run in. They all went to secure the cargo ship, and some of them went towards Samus and Drevan. Who are you?

One of them had asked Drevan that question. He didn't get a chance to answer though before Samus said, He's my back up.

But you work alone Samus.

Most of the time. But I've been finding that more and more difficult to do here lately.

Drevan smiled somewhat, supposing Samus was alright, she'd just been worn out from the fight. He'd find out what that thing was she'd killed later. The soldiers began trying to help Samus to her feet, but as Drevan expected she turned down their help and stood on her own. The DNA is on that ship over there. Don't thank me or anything.