There was a stunned silence after this challenge. Trace looked startled even more then the other hunters. After some consideration, Trace nodded.

"We'll have the battle at the Duel Stadium." Samus said. Trace agreed, suspicious of her goal. All the hunters (Spire keeping his distance from the Kriken Sniper ship) flew to the Duel Stadium. Trace followed Samus into the stadium and they stood in the center of the arena. Spire sat by Noxus on a higher level, while Sylux and Kanden stood closer to the ground floor. Weavel watched from his ship's recovery station, since he had been the most damaged of the hunters.

Samus and Trace walked to opposite ends of the field and prepared to duel.

"Begin!" Kanden called. Both hunters watched the other, then immediately sprung into action. Trace fired an Imperialist, and it streaked past Samus' arm. Samus unleashed a small hail of missiles, and Trace grunted as he was caught in the blast radius. First hit: Samus. Trace morphed to Triskelion in the confusion of the missile smoke and turned invisible.

When the smoke did clear, everyone started murmuring. Samus charged her missiles. She looked carefully for a hint of his wherabouts before firing. The missile curved towards his location, and he lunged foward to dodge it, returning to biped and firing his Shock Coil. Samus, surprised by the weapon change, was forced to go the morph ball to escape, but a missile hit her. She willingly left her morph ball before the Alt-Disabling missile could do it for her, and ducked an Imperialist shot.

She fired Volt Driver shots to confuse Trace, but Trace responded by going to Triskelion and lunging at her. She jumped over his lunges and fired missiles at the ground below. Trace returned to biped and fired the Shock Coil as she descended, weakening her relatively quickly. Samus fired a Magmaul at close range, burning Trace, who yelled as the magma scalded him. Samus fired an Imperialist, and Trace dodged, firing his own beam.

Samus dove backwards, landing on her back, but rolling back to her feet expertly. Trace was impressed by her maneuvers, but he'd still win. He had the Omega Cannon, although she had the Hyper Beam. He fired Battlehammer rounds to try to get her to the area he wanted, but she recognized the danger and rolled forward, firing another Imperialist shot. Trace yelled in pain as the beam pierced his leg.

"Come on, Trace. You can do better!" Samus said, laughing. Trace scowled and fired his Imperialist, but a twinge in his leg made him buckle, and the beam missed by an inch.

Samus circled Trace. The duel was intense, and they were so evenly matched. She was waiting for him to use the Omega Cannon. Her mission wouldn't end until the Omega Cannon and Hyper Beam were destroyed. She had a plan on how to destroy it, and she needed Trace to shoot the Cannon. At that moment, she would strike, destroying the Omega Cannon and the Hyper Beam in one blast. It was only a matter of time.

She fired her own Battlehammer shots, and Trace leapt out of range, the bolts undershooting. Trace fired his Volt Driver shots so rapidly that Samus was struck by 3 before dodging the rest. She was as strong as ever, but had to bait the Omega Cannon. She smiled to herself as she equipped the Hyper Beam. She fired. The bright beam fired, striking Trace squarely in the chest. His eye bulged in shock and he slammed into the stadium wall, panting.

"Playing that way? Take this!" he snapped. He fired the Omega Cannon and watched with satisfaction as it flew at her. She fired another Hyper Beam, and the projectiles struck each other. Both hunters watched nervously, hoping their projectile would win. Samus aimed her Hyper Beam carefully. She fired and the beam lanced out, striking Trace's arm cannon.

Trace stared at his cannon in horror, for the beam had been so powerful it disabled his arm cannon and also demolished the equipped weapon, the Omega Cannon. Trace glared at Samus as she withdrew the Hyper Beam and threw it into the projectiles that still were struggling to overcome the other. Trace's eye widened in amazement as Samus then fired a missile into the Omega Cannon projectile, creating a blinding explosion.

The explosion was so powerful, that the stadium shook forcibly. Trace growled as the energy emitted from the blast sent him flying into the stands, and Samus was thrown in the opposite direction. Weavel gasped from his ship, as his screen had turned pure white. Spire, Noxus, Kanden and Sylux all moaned as the energy smashed into the stands, creating a force that destroyed most of the stands. The dust slowly settled, and the destruction of the stadium was complete. The stands and field looked like a tornado had struck.

The 6 hunters in the stadium stared around in awe. Trace staggered back to the field and collapsed a few moments later.

"Good duel...Samus!" he whispered. "I admit defeat." he moaned. Samus nodded.

"And now my mission is done, as both the Omega Cannon and Hyper Beam are destroyed." she said. Trace looked shocked.

"You intended to do that?" he asked, stunned. Samus nodded.

"Why?" Kanden asked, making his way to the field.

"It was my objective was to destroy both. Look at the damage they did during this hunt. In our eagerness to get it, we were willing to destroy, kill, abduct, terrorize, betray everyone and everything. There will never be true peace with either of them around. So I was ordered to destroy them. I'm glad they're gone. We'll meet again, I'm sure." she said, turnng to leave.

"Samus...we'll duel again. I'll beat you then!" Trace called after her. Samus nodded, then did a mock salute with her arm cannon. Trace grinned and slowly got to his feet, staring at his useless arm cannon.

"I'm guessing that means I'm safe?" Spire whispered loudly. Trace smirked.

"Better run, Diamont! My bro still put a bounty on you!" His smile ruined the otherwise terrifying words. Spire nodded, knowing that Trace would still hunt him. He left, Kanden not far behind.

Noxus stared at Trace a few moments before asking, "Why did the Empire leave Vho?" Trace was visibly startled by the question.

"Why?" Trace asked.

"I've been dying to know." Noxus responded. Sylux had hesitated at the doorway, curious.

"The Empire never captured Vho. Most Vhozons thought they had lost the war, so they stopped resisting. The Empire decided Vho was inhabitable to Krikens, and left. Technically, the Empire never controlled Vho, and they have no interest in it. This was over 100 years ago, and exiles for the rite of passage are told to ignore Vho unless there's a new development they should know of." Trace said.

"History is wrong for the Vhozons. The Vhozons still think the Kriken Empire owns Vho." Noxus said.

Trace shook his head. "They don't care."

Noxus nodded. Sylux and Noxus left and Trace smiled sinisterly. He signaled his Kriken Sniper and recharged his arm cannon. He double-checked his weapon status.

Battlehammer- OK.

Volt Driver- OK

Judicator- OK

Magmaul-OK

Imperialist- OK

Shock Coil- ERROR.

Omega Cannon- OK.

He snickered. Samus was an idiot. She assumed she had destroyed the Omega Cannon because he had fired it last. She had forgotten that he swapped weapons almost everytime he fired. Lucky for him...Unlucky for the Universe.

Author Note: Haha! Like the twist? This fanfic is over, but I will create a sequel to end this story line, but it won't be updated as regularly as this one was. Feel free to contact me with questions, ideas, etc. Please review this story. Thanks for reading this far, and I hope you've enjoyed it.