Trace stared at his adversaries, who had formed a triangle formation.
"3 on 1, eh? Well I've been waiting for this for a while!" Trace sneered and fired his Imperialist. The targeted pirate dodged and fired energy bolts, but Trace ducked and fired again. The new target leapt to the side, firing energy bolts, one of which hit Trace and winding him slightly.
"Had enough?" The thrd pirate mocked slashing with an energy blade. Trace dodged by morphing to Triskelion and lunged forward, striking the pirate, but doing no damage.
"That all you got?" the pirate mocked, lashing its foot out, knocking Trace backwards before slashing down upon the Triskelion. Trace lunged again, dodging the sword, striking the black armored Space Pirate in the leg, causing it to buckle. The other 2 pirates withdrew their energy blades and slashed at the Triskelion enthusiastically. Trace narrowly dodged, backing up and returning to biped.
He fired immediately, hitting the off-balanced Pirate in the head, who grunted in pain. Trace fired at the pirat again, knowing that by focusing on one adversary at a time, the odds would be better. However, the pirate had recovered just enough to duck the second shot. Disappointed, Trace fired again, and the 3 pirates vanished into the shadows, emerging at different areas of the corridor.
"Oh, come on!" Trace yelled in frustration, firing again. Once again, the pirates dodged his shots with ease and began to close in on him, raising their blades.
"Shouldn't have come, kriken..." one sneered and slashed. Trace leapt to the side, the blade grazing him, causing a small shock of pain, but nothing more. He fired at point blank range and the pirate screamed in pain. Trace fired again, and the pirate swung its blade again, Trace getting grazed again, falling to the floor. The other two pirates closed in on him and he fired blindly. The beam hit the first pirate who fell soundlessly.
The other 2 hesitated a split second as they saw their comrade fall, but it didn't last. Trace rolled to the side as both energy blades slammed down upon the spot he had been. He stood up again and fired, hitting the closest pirate. The other slashed at Trace again, but missed, causing it to stumble. Trace kicked his foot out. pushing the off balanced pirate aside and fired at the wounded one, smiling at the shout of pain he heard. He ducked his victim's blade, but barely and fired up at the pirate, who was now moaning. He fired one final time and the pirate collapsed.
The last pirate seethed with fury and leapt at him, firing energy bolts from one hand and swinging the energy blade with the other. Trace used this to his advantage and allowed one energy bolt to hit him, which caused him to fall back. The blade missed by a millimeter. Without the energy bolts, Trace would have been sliced in two. He jumped forward, grabbing the pirates' wrist and pulling forward.
Caught off guard, the sword slid easily from the pirates's grasp. The pirate stared in complete shock and Trace slashed, slicing the pirate's head off, the body falling limply, and the forcefields vanished. Trace threw the fading energy blade aside carelessly and headed to the elevator. He would finish the Dark League himself, with or without the other hunters!
Samus scowled as she ducked another energy blade slash. The pirates were just too fast. It was great that she and Sylux had beaten the newcomer pirate, but the other 2 were still battling. Sylux fired his Shock Coil at his opponent, draining its energy, but overall doing no damage whatsoever. Samus fired a missile at her opponent, but it dodged by vanishing into the shadows, reappearing to her left. She spun around, firing the Imperialist, striking her target.
Sylux smirked slightly as his constant Shock Coil lock on his opponent began to take its toll. The energy bolts the Space Pirate was firing had no effect on Sylux, so great was his energy recovery. He grinned as the pirate twitched, the energy coursing through it was definitelty penetrating the armor's abilities.
"Let me guess...you're either really recent or they gave you weak armor?" Sylux asked the weakening pirate.
"Weak...armor...not...elite...for the...better armor..." the pirate panted, before collapsing lifelessly. Sylux sighed and fired the Imperialist, finishing off Samus' opponent as well.
"Nice one!" Samus commented. Sylux nodded as they hurried through the labyrinth corridors that they were currently in. The exit had to be around here somewhere...
Weavel fired his Battlehammer relentlessly, disappointed on the force barriers the Dark Hunter conjured to block the shots.
"You're not nearly strong enough!" the Dark Hunter explained calmly, now conjuring barrier to block Kanden's Volt Driver shots as well.
"We beat you once, we can do it again!" Kanden snapped, as the Dark Hunter laughed.
"You played no part in my death! The Hyper Beam did. But my current armor is an upgrade, equal to that of the Dark Master! You can't win." The Dark Hunter vanished into the shadows, emerging behind the hunters.
"You could have all the power you want to accomplish your goals...whether it be power, revenge, or anything else!" the Dark Hunter whispered and Kanden scowled.
"Like we forgot what you did to us last time!" he snapped coldly. Weavel looked blank and the Dark Hunter laughed.
"You were saying? What is it I did to invoke such hatred?" he sneered.
"You showed us illusions when we nearly died!" Kanden bellowed.
"So what? You were weak then, and I see that hasn't changed. You're fighting what you should be trying to control. Dark Armor could give you anything you ever wanted. Acceptance, power, and fear. You've seen Sylux when he gave in to the armor, and he was stronger than ever before! You two could be the same!" the Dark Hunter studied them a moment and vanished into the shadows. Weavel seemed deep in thought while Kanden scoffed.
"What a liar!" Kanden muttered angrily.
"Ok, let's go!" Weavel said absently, and they walked through the door on the other side of the conference room, revealing an elevator ahead. They hurried to it and traveled down slowly, both deep in thought. Weavel was wondering whether Dark Armor would truly make him greater, maybe even good enough to regain his status from the Space Pirate Army...Kanden was wondering whether Dark Armor was really as good as it was advertised. Despite his protests to the contrary, Kanden really wanted the power the Armor offered.
"Status?" The Dark Master asked as the Dark Hunter reappeared.
"I think they'll be tempted enough to experiment. They will belong to us!" the Dark Hunter said triumphantly. He looked at the two armored krikens. "What have you 2 been doing? Slacking?" he asked with a smirk. Servu attempted to lunge at the Dark Hunter, but Drek tripped him.
"Let it go, Servu!" Drek hissed impatiently. Servu hissed in fury, but didn't continue his attack attempt.
"Don't worry...the hunters will all meet their doom before they come anywhere near us!" the Dark Master mused. He placed 2 black crystals on the table nearby. One was the silhouette of Kanden, the other of Weavel.
"Soon the Dark League's ranks shall increase, and 2 more elites shall join us!" the master said triumphantly.
Samus and Sylux spent several minutes trying to escape the labyrinth until they finally found an elevator. They entered and pressed a button, waiting as the elevator slowly descended towards the labs of the Dark League. Sylux was thinking hard. Odds are, there would be Dark Armor in the labs, so he had to be careful not to touch it.
His last experience with Dark Armor wasn't a very fond memory. He had been consumed by hatred, which blinded him to the side effects of the armor. It was a gift and a curse in one. It increased your abilities, but slowly drained free will until at last you were acting without thinking, without caution. It was that factor that led to his hatred of the black enhancer. He had sided with the other hunters so he could avenge his mistakes. At all costs, he would help destroy the Dark League!