3/9/19 began work on chapter 15.
3/28/2019 Solo here, I have so many announcements and things to say!
LONG AUTHORS NOTES AHEAD, LONG BUT VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ!
Firstly, I have noticed I received two more reviews, and more favorites and follows!
PRAISE THE LORD HALLELUJAH! I'm very happy to get feedback, especially positive feedback from you guys! So In would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed this story, I've had such fun writing this. These days, it's my main creative project. You see I've always been someone who enjoys creative projects. I used to be a creative builder on Minecraft years back, and that was pretty fun. But now I've discovered I LOVE fiction writing. I actually have a fiction novel that I'm writing, specifically science fiction. But now I found I really like fanfiction writing too, and it's kinda like a dream come true to write something that many people can read and tell me how they thought of it, so I just wanted to let you guys know how much it means to me as a writer to get feedback.
Okay, another announcement. The last chapter I posted, while its labeled as chapter 13, is ACTUALLY CHAPTER FOURTEEN! In the authors notes in the chapter I call it chapter 14, and that's what it is. It was my mistake to label it as chapter 13 in the title, I'll try to change it, but I suspect that the website might keep it as technically being chapter 13 by default. This might not make sense at first, why would I want to skip a chapter? Well, I have a draft of chapter 13 written, and I intend to post it someday. Think of it as a "secret chapter" that contains a lot of knowledge and hints about the series that I am not prepared to post quite yet, and in chapter fourteen I actually allude to some of the events that took place in chapter 13. I will post that chapter someday, and if you guys want to see it, continue to support this fanfiction by leaving reviews and favoriting it if you like it. If there is something you do not like about the series, I am perfectly fine with some constructive criticism. Just know that I might take suggestions, or I might not if I feel like it would take away from the plot of the fanfiction. Believe it or not, I DO have a plan for this series.
OK! I've bored you enough for now, or excited you perhaps, I don't know which haha... I have one more major announcement to make, but I'll put it on the end of the fanfic, so DONT BE LIKE PIT ("I never learned how to reeeaaaddd) AND READ!:)
Previously on Aran:
"PUT DOWN THE KNIFE AND THE EGGPLANT!"
(...Yea I think that's all the context you need folks.)
Let's just say I put two and two together. I've been in some weird situations before, but I never thought I'd be holding a robot at gunpoint so that he wouldn't turn my friend into a salad ingredient. But life has a way of throwing those... interesting... little curveballs at you, and hey, you just gotta swing. Luckily, this particular R.O.B. unit was programmed with enough sense to know I was serious, so he obeyed and dropped what he was holding. I picked up the eggplant from the floor, the pair of legs that stuck out of the eggplant were kicking around wildly as if in a panic.
"Hey chill out, it's Samus." I didn't know how conscious he was in this form, if he could even see or hear, but he musta' heard me, because he seemed to calm down. "That's a good eggplant." My suit had a handy little hidden storage compartment, and I put him in there.
"Alright, robo-buddy... tell me where Snake is, before I start tinkering with you! The last R.O.B. I programmed, well let's say I musta messed up a few lines of code or somethin... and he ended up exploding."
The R.O.B. unit obediently beeped, and then projected a holographic map of the region we were in. Snake was still quite a ways away. He was in hiding in a building that looked pretty similar in overall shape and layout to the building I was currently in. Snake's location was about a few kilometers further through the desert, and the terrain just got bumpier from here. According to the map, at least three other identical looking bases were scattered around a ten kilometer radius. These bases were probably intended as decoys, Snake apparently hadn't counted on us being able to precisely pinpoint his location, so he figured he had a chance of slowing us down by having multiple possible hideouts. Though we had now successfully located him, the chances of him not having at least one backup plan was lower than the chance of convincing Meta Knight to take his mask off. I'm just dying to know how he looks underneath...
Anyways, I got the R.O.B. unit to copy some of his files to my suit's hard drive. Some of the files looked like they could be useful intel. I then accessed the R.O.B. unit's programming, and disabled its communication methods so that it wouldn't contact Snake to report on my presence. Although my guess is that Snake probably had some sort of security system rigged in which he could see what the R.O.B. unit sees and hears, so he possibly already knew I was coming, and that I knew where he was. But I couldn't help that. I might have done something funny with its programming though, because after I made those changes the R.O.B. started to dance and play mariachi music...
I had no time to waste. I blew a hole straight through the wall of the building to exit, and sent a call request to Mario's airship. He picked up, surprisingly.
"SAMUS, MOMMA MIA, WHERE ARE YOU! WE NEARLY WERE MARINATED IN OUR OWN PASTA SAUCE!" Mario yelled at me.
"Sorry Mario, I had to. I've got Pit... I think... and I have Snake's exact location, sending files extracted from a R.O.B. unit now. But don't go directly there, if Ridley is still on you go to another one of the buildings on the map I sent you. Trust me."
"What do you mean, 'you think'? Never mind, I don't want to know... Don't worry about us, Fox shook him off our tails for now. Why wouldn't we go for Snake?"
"Because you're the decoy, you have to keep Ridley off of me, at least for now. I've gotta... we've gotta apprehend Snake, and beat some answers outta him. Got any ideas about how to counter a magic spell?"
"Understood, we will set course for the building to the northwest. What kind of magic spell are we talking about?"
I was now jogging my way towards Snake's location, keeping an eye out for a psychotic space dragon, or whatever other "surprises" they had in store for us. I responded to Mario:
"A spell that can turn an angel into a healthy fruit!" (Fun fact, eggplant is a fruit not a veggie!)
"Oh momma mia... that's a bit above my expertise, you would probably need Palutena's help for that one... she usually handles things like that. But her powers don't extend to this region."
That made sense, if lady P's powers could reach here, we would not have had to go to the trouble of gathering all of that intel.
"Alright, Mario I want you to send her a message and see what she can do! Contact me when you get a reply."
"Will do. Good luck out there, Samus. Fox and Mega Man say hello."
"Tell them I said hi back." then I hung up on them.
I made my way through the desert, I was halfway climbing at this point due to the change in the terrain. It wasn't that far to the target, but the going was slow, and I was worried that at any moment Ridley would pop out of nowhere. I fear no man, but that thing... it scares me. But so far, Ridley was completely absent. He wasn't going after me or Mario's ship... I was getting nervous over the suspense, like I almost wished that Ridley WOULD attack, I was starting to have some worrisome thoughts.. such as...
What if something WORSE than Ridley came along?
I dismissed the thought immediately. I didn't have the time or the mental capacity to imagine that... plus what could be worse than Ridley!? Unfortunately, the answer came sooner than I thought.
As I continued to make my way through the desert, I became aware of a constant, low pitched droning sound, not unlike the sound a helicopter would make. I couldn't judge how close it was to me, however. I just had to press on, I didn't care what kind of dirty tricks Snake had up his sleeve. I could handle it.
But as I got closer to my location, I was about a kilometer and a half away from Snake so far, and making decent progress... the sound grew louder. Almost as if the source was getting- HOLY CRAP!
Some sort of mechanized metallic grey flying weapon was headed straight for me. It was about my size, maybe a bit smaller and its propulsion was provided by rotor blades. It was flying low over the sand. I had just enough time to react and shoot it before it got too close. It was about twenty meters away, and I nailed it. Upon my energy shot's contact, the device exploded... after my long career in nearly getting killed, I was prepared for this scenario and dived into the sand right after I took the shot, so I was able to avoid any damage.
"The hell was THAT!" I shouted at nobody in particular. I had encountered some sort of anti-personnel mine, I deduced. Guessing this was Snake's handiwork judging by the technology. Maybe Snake got a new toy... he's just full of surprises, and any more of these "surprises"... well MH might have to find himself a new badass space bounty hunter lady... I activated my scanner, I didn't detect any other biosigns apart from the one's I expected, although I could not see Ridley's anymore, I could see Mario and the gangs, Snake's, and my own and pit's. My scanner was programmed to find living things, but it also picks up on large emissions of many kind of energy. It just so happened that there was a massive source nearby. It was a quarter of a kilometer away, basically just past a sand dune to the east. I started in that direction, I had a suspicion whatever was there had something to do with Snake's plans. I turned my audio receptors to maximum input, and filtered out high frequency sounds. As I got closer, I did become aware of noise. I hadn't noticed it earlier as I was focused on the sound that that weapon had made. But it seemed rather loud. Like massive footsteps. I wondered if it was somehow Ridley, and Snake had found a way to mask his biosignature. However, I was reading massive electrical energy surges periodically, so I doubted it.
After climbing to the top of the steep dune, I looked down. And what I saw was in fact, worse than Ridley, even if I didn't know it at the time. Below me the terrain plunged into a deep oval canyon that surrounded a central raised plateau. The depth of the canyon really helped me to scale the sheer size of the object that I sighted below. Some sort of weaponized and automated mech, the size of a small cruise ship. On four legs, with a spherical anterior extension that resembled a head, as well at two projections that appeared to be rocket launchers that topped its shoulders. I could make out a dimly reddish-glowing cylinder on its neck. It had four jointed legs that enabled it to move its massive body rather quickly. In fact, its movement pattern indicated it was responding to a nearby threat. I took another more detailed scan, trying to identify what sort of weapons it had, to see if I should worry about it. It turns out that the mech was made of material that was of similar origin to the mine I had shot. I forgot all about pursuing Snake when my scanner results indicated that it had nuclear capabilities. Apparently, it has some sort of mobile automated nuclear warhead launch platform. I called Mario again. He picked up immediately.
"Did you find Snake?"
"Dunno about that, but I got somethin' else for us to worry about."
"and what would that be?"
"Remember the ultimatum Snake sent MH? That he threatened to use a weapon of mass destruction?"
"Momma f-ing mia... don't tell me..."
"Looks like he was serious. I've found the machine he wants to launch it from. Suspect it's one a' those 'metal gears' he was always talkin' about back in the day. Its nuclear, so that means it priority number one. Even if we lose Snake, we got Pit back, well sort of... change of plan, rendezvous with me immediately at the coordinates I send you. Ridley's long gone, Snake still hasn't moved. I bet he figures he's gonna do us in with this... thing. I think I can take it out, but I need backup. Sending coordinates now. Fly low, don't know if this thing has anti-air capabilities." I uploaded coordinates for a landing site behind me.
"On our way." Mario responded.
-Ten minutes later-
Mario had made a successful landing, Mega Man and Fox were with him.
"How'd things with Ridley go?" I asked.
"Well, we lost him by flying low through some canyons, or should I say ace over here did." Mario pointed to Fox.
"Meh, it was nothing. Kinda weird though, I haven't seen him since, dunno where he went. You woulda thunk he'd find us again, kind hard to be stealthy in somethin' like... well whatever it is I just flew. Thing sure can move though." Fox commented.
I led the three back to my vantage point atop the hill to show them what I had found.
"Holy Ravioli, what do we have here?" Mario gasped.
"What is it Samus?" Fox asked.
"My scans indicate it's some sort of automated weapon designed to launch nuclear missiles. I figure Snake is in control of it." I explained.
Mega man just stared at it, looking worried.
"You figure Snake is going to use it on the others? We should probably tell em' to evacuate. I'll go send em a quick message." Fox decided.
"Yea, after that I'm gonna need you and Mega's help to deal with it. Can't let Snake keep a weapon like that to himself."
"What's it doing?" Wondered Mario.
The thing was still thrashing about, occasionally leaping in the air a hundred feet and landing a football field away from where it started, and fired missiles and other unidentified projectiles at a target too small to see.
"It's fightin' something, or someone. We should lend a hand. Fox. We will wait till you get back. Mario, you oughta fly the ship and do some recon. Keep an eye out for us, it would be great if you could get eyes on the place Snake's at, in case he decides to move." I instructed.
"Is he still at the coordinates you sent earlier?" Mario asked.
I checked my scanner. In fact he wasn't. Confusingly, his biosign was down in the valley, right by the giant mech we were observing.
"No, actually he's down there all of a sudden!" I pointed to where my scanner positioned him at.
"Well, that changes things. I'll go send the message real quick. Be back before you can say 'melee'," Fox was about to take off towards the ship.
"Wait!" I called after him. He paused. "Take Pit and find a cozy spot for him. Make sure he's comfy, looks like he's had one hell of a rough time." I opened the storage compartment and plucked out the tiny eggplant with legs. He looked a lot calmer now, as calm as an eggplant can look I guess.
"You're gonna be okay buddy. We'll have Lady P fix you right up." He seemed to move in a way that resembled nodding. I handed him to Fox.
"Mario, could you go with him, pilot the ship and keep an eye out for us? I don't want any more surprises today. Keep an eye on Pit."
Mario gave me the thumbs up, and "YAHOO-ED" his way back to the ship with Fox.
Mega Man was still staring, his eyes hadn't moved at all.
"What's up buddy?"
"Not just your ordinary weapon." Mega Man muttered. He doesn't say much, it's hard for him to hold a meaningful conversation with us organic lifeforms.
"Whaddya mean?"
"It... thinks...". Mega man explained, and I think I knew what he was getting at.
"The machine? It thinks? How do you know that?" I was a bit startled. Could Mega man read minds?
"I can communicate with it, somewhat. It's confused, it's lost track of what its original purpose was, but it's basic programming is still intact." Mega Man relayed to me.
Judging by Mega Man's cryptic comments, I surmised that the machine in question was in fact a self-guided robot with some sort of advanced AI, to the point where it can "think".
"If you can communicate with it, what are its intentions?" I asked.
"Like I said, it's confused, but I think it's defaulting to its set programming, which is to launch its missile at certain set coordinates. The missile is capable of inter-dimensional travel, the coordinates appear to be smash manor. It was programmed to do so by its master a long time ago. But it decided to seek its own free will, against its master's wishes. However, it's struggling with defying its own programming. The good news is that somebody is keeping it from launching by stimulating its self-defense mechanisms."
"It couldn't possibly be Snake... could it?"
"We won't know until we get down there. I'm unable to hack into its sensory systems. I'm installed with hacking software, but its security system is multi-faceted and complex, even if it's based on inferior technology to mine."
"Are you bragging?" I teased.
"Just stating simple facts." Mega Man smiled.
-a few minutes later-
"I'm back." Fox said out of breath.
"Thanks, captain obvious, I coulda' said melee a hundred times by now if I wanted to, but I'm over that."
"Heh, sorry, still need to catch up on some cardio, but I've been busy lately. Been giving Slippy extra flying lessons." Fox was still catching his breath, but we didn't have time to waste. Who knew what was really going on down there, if Snake was fighting this thing, there's the possibility he could mess up. I had a million questions running through my head that would only be answered if we charged right in, guns blazing. Just the way we always do.
"Alright boys, let's go stop a nuclear threat, and catch us a Snake. First one there gets to choose the stage in our next match together!" I took off running.
"No fair, running start!" Fox whined, Mega Man right behind him as we started sprinting down the cliffside. Bit risky, but the downward slope angle was shallow enough that we would probably be okay. I used my jump booster to help avoid some of the rougher terrain. Fox halfway sprinted, halfway leapt from rock to rock, with the grace of a... well fox I guess. Mega Man followed suit. I couldn't pull off Mario's N64 speed-running shenanigans, but we got there as fast we could, we were pretty motivated. All the while we got a better view of what was transpiring. We got closer, and I began to truly appreciate the sheer size of the mech.. It was terrifyingly massive, yet so mobile, certainly a deadly weapon. Also, I caught sight of a familiar man in a military stealth suit, he was firing rockets at the mech, hiding behind the corner of a building. He had stacks of ammo strewn about beside discarded cardboard boxes. It looked like he was nearing the end of his ammo supplies though. Once we got closer, I could make out burn marks on his body here and there. I didn't feel particularly sorry for him. Eventually, we reached flat land, and ran over to his position behind the corner of the building. It looked like the building, and the surrounding landscape had been hit by multiple explosives, I could see fires and smoking craters, as well as halfway destroyed odd-looking missiles that were impaled into the ground. We got in close to Snake. He noticed us. Immediately, I aimed my arm cannon at him. He casually leaned his rocket launcher against the side of the wall of the partially bombed out building he was using as cover. He put his hands up a bit in a surrendering gesture. He didn't look all too sincere about it though.
"Hey Samus, Fox, and who do we have here? I suppose MH thought you were more important to put into smash than me, huh?" Snake laughed dryly.
"That would seem like a logical conclusion, and yes, I am bragging now." Mega Man responded, looking proud of himself. I bopped him on the head.
"Don't get too confident yet, blue boy. You haven't even been in a match yet.". Then I turned to Snake, putting on my best stern face, not that he could see it very well behind my helmet now that I think of it.
"Snake." I hissed.
"Hmm?"
"You better have a DAMN GOOD REASON why there's a F-ING NUCLEAR WEAPON OVER THERE, THAT WANTS TO BLAST THE SHIT OUT OF MY FRIENDS!" I shouted at him. You bet I was p-ed.
"Well, I do have a good reason." Snake flashed me his best sarcastic smile. "But if you wanna hear it, keep me alive to tell it, and help me take down this big ol' hunka sh-".
I kind of figured he was trying to fight the thing to prevent it from launching its nuke as soon as I detected him near the weapon, I didn't fully understand his motivations as of yet, but at least for now our goals temporarily aligned, and he looked like he was too tired to try anything afterwards.
"It would be the logical course of action to assist Snake and disable the weapon first, and interrogate him later." Mega man calmly stated. The voice of reason, I'll give him that.
"Sounds good to me, as long as I get to blow something up." Fox shrugged.
I was convinced. "Alright, no funny business Snake, afterwards you surrender to me, and I take you under arrest top answer for your deeds."
"Sounds good to me. Somebody help me with this." Snake indicated his arsenal of weapons, he needed help with reloading, Mega Man walked over to help.
"INITIATING LAUNCH SEQUENCE, 1 MINUTE TO LAUNCH!" A cool female voice rang out, seemingly coming from the mech.
"S-! We gotta distract it! Fox, with me!" I ordered. "Snake, WHAT THE HELL IS IT?"
"Samus, that's the Peace Walker." Snake informed me gravely.
Yes. That's it folks, at least for this chapter. I came up with this idea a quarter of the way through the chapter. Go look up gameplay footage of Metal Gear where Snake fights the Peace Walker, it's EPIC. Originally, I wanted to have a scene of Samus fighting just a plain old metal gear, but then I realized the potential that this could have for the plot of the series. Expect big things in the chapters to come. But seriously, look up the boss fight on youtube, its EPIC! Really makes me feel like I wanna play the Metal Gear games. Snake is a goddamn badass.
Also something I wanted to share with you guys, I recently joined a group on campus of gamers, we hope to become a club and then intervarsity E-sports team, I met the guys when there was a smash tournament hosted on campus (I got 3rd place out of 22, using Pit of course.) Now we are hanging out on weekends and practicing smash bros together. We hosted our own smaller tournament last weekend. There is a guy who heads the E-sports team, but the dude who actually organizes meetings and hosted and participated in the tournament is a different guy, he's a pac-man main, and he's really pretty good. He's fun to watch, because Pac-Man has a really cool moveset with a lot of room for creativity. He's skillful at using the fire hydrant and using his neutral-B projectiles to do different things. I've gotten better now too. Maybe someday I'll go pro and get sponsored by KFC. ITS FINGER LICKIN GOOD!
Anyway, stay tuned, this fanfic is about to HEAT UP! Thanks to the loyal fans that have stuck with the series thus far, and left reviews. I'm so hyped for this series, and I have a specific plan now of how the plot is gonna wrap up.
Also, I promised you guys another major announcement. I will be making a Super Smash Bros. Uiltimate fanfiction after I wrap up Aran, and there WILL be continuity between the two fanfics. Events that happened here in Aran will be canon in that fanfic, in fact it's pretty much like a sequel series. But that fanfic is gonna start out a little more chill, and focus more on characters interacting with each other and doing regular smash bros related stuff, like subverting capitalism. Wait what?
JK LOL
-Solo is peacin' out-