A/N: Ok, so a heads up in advance, the OC bios are going to make the Smasher Bio section a bit long this time. I don't anticipate having any other Smasher Bios be longer than this one, since in the next arc, we'll start to have characters return to the spotlight. Hopefully it isn't too much of a hassle for this chapter.
Captain Douglas J. Falcon
Threat Level: 5
Captain Falcon is an F -Zero racer with a lot of flashy techniques and a big ego. Don't let that distract you from the fact that he was a bounty hunter for years and considered to be one of the most powerful Smashers for a reason. His Falcon Powers and martial arts expertise is not to be discounted lightly. His specific martial arts style is unknown in origin, but it appears to be focused exclusively around landing powerful strikes rather than blocking, countering or throwing the opponent. To compliment this, Falcon's physical stamina is immense, allowing him to use his energy intensive fighting technique for extended periods of time. All of this is boosted by his Falcon Powers. It is believed that Falcon's abilities are a form of kinetic energy manipulation instead of a form of pyrokinesis. Falcon has been observed using his powers underwater and in low oxygen environments with no issues and they do not seem to be able to catch things on fire. I would also be remiss to fail to mention his two vehicles, the Blue Falcon the Falcon Flyer, a racecar and ship respectively. While he does not call these into battle frequently, he will use them to make fast escapes, and can call them to his location remotely. These vehicles do not appear to be armed and are only extremely fast. On his time as a bounty hunter, few details are available, but considering he was an active bounty hunter for roughly 20 years, its not unreasonable to say that he has a sharp eye, quick reflexes, a lot of experience and a keen understanding of how a target thinks and will fight. Do not underestimate him, even for a moment, because he will likely be able to take advantage of it. In terms of weaponry, Captain Falcon is known to carry a blaster pistol on him. That being said, it's usually not his first response, he will use only use it when the situation calls for it. Finally, it is worth mentioning the Flaming Falcon, Captain Falcon's powered up form. This increases the power of all of his attacks. It is easily distinguishable by the intense Blue Falcon Energy aura that cloaks him while in this form. It is strongly advised to avoid combat with Captain Falcon when he is in this form if you do not possess significant power.
To combat Captain Falcon, rough, uneven terrain and long-range weaponry is suggested, as he generally prefers close quarters combat. Try to keep him at a distance, and try to land hits as he rushes in. He may also be at a slight disadvantage in a natural environment, as most of his fighting experience is most likely within Mute City and other urban landscapes. Don't count too heavily on this one, as one does not remain a successful bounty hunter if one can't handle a number of environments. As his powers appear to be kinetic energy based, any means of absorbing or reflecting kinetic energy presents itself as a means of defense against such attacks. It may be also possible to disrupt or ignite the energy with another burst of energy, though this has never been attempted on Falcon. It is worth nothing that his suit is very thin, and while it's likely it is lightly armored, its not going to be turning dedicated strikes. Remember to keep your distance and let him come to you. It won't be an easy fight, but it is a winnable one.
Packrat
Threat Level: 3
Packrat is an interesting case, as while clearly a Human fighter, he more closely resembles the Pokemon Trainers than anything else. Packrat is known to be a Sentry Guardian. Sentry Guardians originally hail from the planet of Loek III as the security force of the Britech Corperation. After the fall of Loek III and Britech Corperation, they settled the continent of New Michigan on Horizon along with the refugees of the collapse. They are known for their usage of a variety of sentry guns and support gadgets, carried and deployed from specially made heavy duty IDDs. They are known for their tactical maneuvers and for the immovable nature of their combat style, enforced by their overwhelming sentry gun firepower. These tactics were so effective that the Horizon Military designated a Sentry Specialist as a specialization for individual units and additionally created the Sentry Engineer Corps.
During the Horizon Civil War, Sentry Guardians held a defensive line along the Big Sky River against the full wrath of Grey Army forces for several months and repulsed all attempts to break their line with severe casualties. Later in the war, they applied slow but heavy offensive pressure, moving their deadly line of sentry guns forward, mile by mile, slowly boxing in the Grey Army. Sentry Guardians utilize a variety of anti-personnel, anti-tank and anti-aircraft, sentry guns. They are also known to favor small arms with high rates of fire and large magazine sizes.
Packrat is no exception to this rule. He has been observed deploying a variety of sentry guns in combat and seems to possess a personal LMG with an extended magazine. Furthermore, Packrat is also known for favoring the use of explosive traps and mines. Finally, Packrat is also in possession of some sort of reality warping device. It's large grey box with the Timberwolf Squad logo on each side, and it appears to be a contraption of his own devising. While the designation of Packrat's device is unknown, it has been observed creating gravity wells, generating EMP pulses and generating fields in which movement is slowed. Any further abilities of this device are unknown.
There are a number of ways to defeat Packrat. The first thing that should be noted is that any sentry gun or gadget that Packrat deploys should be destroyed as soon as it can safely be done. Just be warned, the nickname "Packrat" likely denotes that he's got plenty of spares. If one should get the opportunity to attack Packrat before he can set up his defenses, it is a worthwhile effort, as Packrat will always be more dangerous the more sentry guns he has on the field. As for his guns, all manner of attacks have been proven effective for destroying them, it's more of a matter of landing the attack without getting injured. Remember, it's more of the quantity of sentry guns rather than the quality that seems to be the troublesome factor. As for the man himself, the last one thing that seems to stand out about Packrat is his remarkably stationary fighting style. While this seems strange for a combatant, it makes sense due to the stationary nature of his sentry guns. As such, a fast opponent is best suited to take on Packrat, to destroy his sentry guns quickly and bring him down before he can react. Packrat is only as dangerous as the number of sentry guns he has on the field and when he's all alone, he's easy pickings.
Cordelia
Threat Level: 3
Cordelia is a member of the collective known as the Windrunners. The Windrunners are an interesting group, having been created by the fusion of two separate groups, the Runners and Splitgate Tournament teams. Both originally hail from the planet of Cygnus Prime and are associated with a number of cities, most notably the Shard, the City of Glass. The Runners were a group of social outcasts who lived in small groups and were masters of a movement technique called parkour. The Splitgate Tournament was a professional sports league of sorts in which teams utilized stun laser weapons and wrist mounted portal guns to fight each other in an arena similar to the Splatfests seen in Inkopolois. As the Cygnus Prime government grew more restrictive and more corrupt, the two groups combined with others who were dissatisfied by the state of things and formed the Windrunners. The Windrunners attempted to live peacefully off the grid, however, after being antagonized by the government, fighting broke out. After several small conflicts and high tension, the Windrunners escaped the planet on a stolen ship shortly before the planetary government collapsed. They settled in the capitol of Horizon, New Toronto, favoring a cityscape similar to the one they left.
During the Horizon Civil War, the Windrunners formed an underground resistance, helping dissidents escape the clutches of the Grey Army and sabotaging critical military locales. Towards the midpoint of the war, their network was exposed, and they were forced to flee. Joining forces with the Sentry Guardians, they acted as much needed light assault teams, counterbalancing the Sentry Guardian's immovable combat style.
Cordelia's combat style revolves around continuous movement, running and climbing around her environment and shooting while she runs. It's a very hit and run style of combat. She augments her movement capabilities with various equipment such as a wrist mounted grappling hook, jet thrusters on her boots, and a wrist mounted portal gun. Unfortunately, there's precious little information on the portal gun she uses, but it appears to require a surface with enough flat space for the portal to deploy. For combat itself, Cordelia seems to prefer dual wielding small weapons like pistols and machine pistols, though she is known to use other maneuverable automatic weapons like SMGs and assault rifles. Cordelia is also the only member of Timberwolf Squad to ever be seen engaging an opponent in hand to hand combat. Her style seems to be highly momentum based, and very aggressive, though my lack of familiarity with human martial arts prevents me from saying anything more with certainty.
There are a few strategies that can be used to defeat Cordelia, all of which limit her ability to move. The first is to force her into an enclosed area to limit her movement, like a small room or tight corridor. While she is fast and can augment her speed and movement, parkour users seem to need open areas with a lot of space to be most effective. Another strategy that can be used is to destroy the environment around her. While it won't slow her down any, it will prevent her from taking routes she previously would have taken and force her to slow down. If you're lucky, she may twist an ankle or otherwise injure herself. My last recommendation is to try to injure one of her limbs. As parkour requires both legs and both arms to utilize effectively, injuring any of her limbs will force her to slow down significantly. Cordelia is fast, but not so fast that she can outrun defeat.
Act 4: Samus
Chapter 2: Headlong
Scrapper continued to scout ahead with his Firefly drone as the others waited in anticipation. After a minute, the drone returned.
"They're carrying all sorts of stuff through some sort of portal," he said. "I saw a bunch of equipment, boxes of supplies, weapons, that kinda thing. They actually seem to be moving in a coordinated fashion for once."
"Do you see Ridley?" asked Samus.
"No, I don't see him. I don't think he'd fit in any of these tunnels either," replied Scrapper.
"He's a slippery one. You'd be surprised where I've found that lizard slinking around. Contrary to popular belief, he's not too big for a lot of places," said Samus.
"All right, we'll keep an eye out," said Scrapper.
"How many of them are there? We're probably going to need to take these guys out," said Samus.
"Moderate amount. Most of them aren't on guard," said Scrapper.
Samus nodded. "Let's move then."
The Smashers quickly moved down the tunnel in front of them. It led to a massive, cavernous room, with a few catwalks dangling above. A number of Space Pirates were milling throughout the bottom, moving what looked to be the last pieces of equipment out of the base. Against the wall of the bottom of the cavern, there was a giant swirling portal that the Space Pirates were carrying the equipment through. A large circular stairwell wrapped around the side of the cavern, starting off to the Smasher's right and ending on the floor of the cavern below. It was a steep drop from the top, several dozen meters down at the minimum. On the catwalks, a few guards patrolled disinterestedly, having had nothing to do for hours but watch their comrades move equipment.
Samus surveyed the operation below her, trying to stay out of sight. "Do you recognize any of that equipment?"
After a minute, Scrapper said, "Looks like mostly cloaking equipment. High end stuff too. Do Space Pirates usually have this kinda stuff?"
"Their leader is Ridley. They have no concept of subtlety. It's probably a miracle that they even know how any of it works," said Samus flatly.
"Hey! Scrapper, do you see that?" whispered Packrat suddenly. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
"If you're seeing a mininuke generator, then yeah."
"A mininuke generator!?" said Cordelia in surprise. "How'd they get one of those?"
"Dunno. Nobody I know would let Space Pirates anywhere one. And that includes good guys and bad guys," said Packrat.
"Mininuke generator?" asked Samus.
"Human tech. Very expensive but very powerful nuclear fission-powered portable generator, so whatever you do, don't shoot the thing. I don't know how they got it, though. Space Pirate raids stopped altogether after what happened at New Toronto, and there's still a lot of bad blood on our end. They shouldn't have been able to get one," said Packrat.
Samus nodded. The raid of New Toronto, the capital of Horizon had been one of the most ambitious raids that the Space Pirates had attempted. It had also been one of their most crushing defeats. Packrat, Cordelia, Scrapper and Skylark had all been present during the raid and had mauled Ridley so badly that the Space Pirate leader had barely escaped with his life and had ordered an immediate retreat. She was the only person who'd ever managed to cause Ridley to do that before. She was so very proud of them. It was also one of the reasons she liked working with them so much.
"Do we jump them?" asked Cordelia. "This area's better for me."
Packrat shook his head. "Not with the mininuke generator. That thing has to be dealt with carefully! We're under a neighborhood – we can't risk a stray shot hitting it here!"
"Yeah…even Sonic couldn't outrun the blast from this close," said Captain Falcon uneasily. "Do you have any other ideas?"
"Blast 'em from orbit!" joked Scrapper cheerily.
Cordelia sighed. "Do we have any actual other ideas?"
"Can we try to get them to surrender?" asked Skylark.
Samus snorted. "No. That would be like waiting for a purple unicorn to jump out of a portal from the sky."
Space Pirates were infamous for never surrendering. Ever. Which oftentimes made dealing with them a very dangerous prospect.
"So, we have to fight. But how do we get next to the reactor in time?" asked Packrat. "It's in the middle of all of that cloaking equipment. Even Cordie will have a hard time getting in close fast enough. And that's with everybody shooting."
Suddenly a thought came to Timberwolf Squad, and three heads turned towards Scrapper.
"Ugh, fine. I'll sneak in and drop a bubble shield."
Samus rolled her eyes. "You take that whole long distance shooting thing way too seriously."
"Hey, it's the safe thing to do!" muttered Scrapper. He hefted his shield off of his arm and onto his back, where it attached to a magnetic plate on the back of his trench coat. Scrapper then deployed a small device with a tripod bottom from his IDD. "All right. Open fire after the dome shield activates. Not before. Got it?"
Samus nodded. "Absolutely. Just make sure the shield doesn't go down."
Scrapper nodded back. Moments later, he vanished into thin air. Due to the very expensive and highly regulated nature of cloaking device ownership, Scrapper was the only one of his teammates to own one, but as Samus had seen time and time again, Scrapper made the investment worth every credit.
She glanced to the side. Skylark, Cordelia and Packrat were all readying their weapons.
Packrat took a crouching position, LMG at the ready. "We've done this before and we're going to do it again! This is gonna be easy!"
Samus grimaced under her visor. She hoped Packrat's optimism wasn't unfounded. Ridley was known for appearing exactly when he was least wanted.
After a few minutes of waiting, a translucent blue dome suddenly appeared and covered the mininuke generator. The Space Pirates jumped in surprise, as Scrapper suddenly faded back into sight in front of them, inside the dome. They raised their weapons, but Packrat, Cordelia, and Skylark immediately opened fire on them before they could react. A hail of laser fire struck the ground, taking down the guards on the catwalks before turning downwards towards the rest of the Space Pirates. Falcon, having drawn his blaster, took some more precise shots at some of the Space Pirates who were still out in the open. Samus joined them, unleashing a storm of Plasma Beams from her arm cannon, forcing any Space Pirates in her sights to dive for cover.
Packrat jumped back as a missile struck the ceiling above him. "Get down there! We'll cover you!" he shouted as he resumed his original spot. Cordelia and Captain Falcon bolted down the stairwell. As they ran, Cordelia slung her assault rifle on her back pulled out one of her machine pistols. The two began shooting as they descended. Falcon charged ahead, gaining a lot of speed. He jumped over the railing and plummeted towards a group of Space Pirates on the ground, flames already gathering around his foot.
"Falcon Kick!"
He hit the ground with an impressive explosion, catching some of the nearby equipment in its range. He charged off in one direction, dodging the returning laser fire, as Cordelia flipped over the edge and swung herself onto the stairwell one layer below the one she was on. She landed right in front of a group of Space Pirates. She knocked one down with a well placed kick and decked another one in the face with a pistol whip. She quickly drew her second machine pistol and finished off the group with several bursts.
Seeing another group of Space Pirates coming up the stairs, she holstered her machine pistols and pulled her assault rifle back out. Ducking under a barrage of wild shots, she began unloading her Assault Rifle at the Space Pirates on the stairs. A few of the returning shots struck her, but it only caused her energy shields to flare.
Samus turned to Packrat and Skylark and nodded. The three hustled their way down the stairs, laying down heavy suppressive fire on the Space Pirates on the ground as they went.
"Cover me! Out of ammo!" shouted Skylark suddenly. Packrat stood in front of her, still shooting his LMG. Samus shook her head as she took up her position next to him. She scanned the area in front of her and quickly located a group of Space Pirates taking cover behind some crates. Samus quickly opened suppressive fire, as Packrat kept shooting at a different group lower down the stairs, preventing them from moving forward.
"You good on ammo, Packrat?" yelled Samus above the noise of all of the chaos around them.
"Still good! I've got big magazines!" yelled Packrat back.
Samus nodded. Packrat loved talking about the oversized, extended magazines that he used. No wonder he never needed to stop and reload when his weapons had 2500 round clip sizes. Such were laser rifles after all. The only people who needed to reload less than him were Megaman and herself. Arm cannon technology was pretty useful in that regard. Well, modern technology. Human arm cannons were still catching up.
"Ready to go!" shouted Skylark from behind them. She took point as they moved down the stairs.
Lower down, Cordelia vaulted through a portal and landed a flying kick to the back of a surprised Space Pirate before taking out the other two with quick bursts of her machine pistols. With no warning, an fiery orange explosion threw another unfortunate Space Pirate into the air, before he plummeted back to the ground. Looked like Falcon was keeping himself busy.
By the time they reached the lower levels of the stairwell, Cordelia had cleared the stairs and had already reached the ground floor, taking cover behind some large boxes as her shields recharged. Most of the remaining Space Pirates had already retreated through a tunnel in the side of the cavern. As they reached the bottom, Samus saw that while there were three doors, two of them had been filled in with rubble, leaving only the one tunnel open. She saw that a few Space Pirates had taken cover behind a very large device that looked like it was made for drilling. Samus rushed towards them, while Skylark, Packrat, Cordelia and Falcon applied heavy pressure on the remaining Space Pirates that were still trying to hold the remaining open hallway.
The Space Pirates behind the driller opened fire on her as she approached.
"IT'S THE HUNTRESS!" one shouted. "KILL HER!"
"We can't take her!" shouted another. "How many times has she beaten the boss?"
"Coward!" hissed the first one, as the others turned and fled down a small escape hatch cut into the side of the room.
Samus casually shot the rifle out of the Space Pirate's hand and walked up to him. "You should have run," she said menacingly.
The Space Pirate jumped and took a wild swing with a Space Pirate style knife. The knife didn't even scratch Samus's armor. Samus casually knocked it from his hand, the knife clattering to the floor. The Space Pirate looked at his weapon, panicked.
"Go. I'm not interested in taking prisoners."
"What?!" asked the Space Pirate confused.
"Do I really need to tell you twice?"
The Space Pirate turned on his heel and fled down the hatch. A few moments later, Samus could hear the sound of several charges of instant concrete expanding. Samus sighed. Though the Space Pirates at large believed in their conquest based society, not all were enthusiastic about being pirates. Some small settlements of peaceful Space Pirates had popped up and had been granted protection and membership among the Galactic Assembly. They had named themselves "The Liberated", seeing themselves as liberated from the cycle of pillaging and death that their brethren were still trapped in. The Chozo hoped that by letting as many Space Pirates as possible live, some might rethink their lives and possibly join the Liberated.
Samus shrugged. If they didn't escape, they'd definitely be captured when the police got down there. Couldn't say that she didn't give them a chance. The Chozo elders would take that explanation for how she promoted peace, right? No need to get chewed out again…
She turned to see the other Smashers congregating in the middle of the room, as Scrapper deactivated the dome shield.
"All right, what do we have here?" she asked.
Packrat crouched down next to the equipment. "This is a stealth radio transmitter here….this is an electric field suppressor…oh! Thermal defuser! Nice one too… Somebody with a lot of money is behind these guys. Unless the Pirates are that rich themselves?"
"Definitely not," said Samus definitively. "This equipment was either stolen or given to them."
"Maybe both?" said Captain Falcon. "Criminals ready to turn an easy buck?"
"Maybe," said Samus. "Do you see anything else other than equipment they used to hide their signature here?"
"Not off the bat," said Packrat. "Lemme take a look around."
Falcon joined him and the others as they inspected the other equipment.
"This gear like it's pretty new. Reminds me of some of Black Shadow's operations. This equipment makes me think this whole operation was well planned out."
"Then it wasn't Ridley in charge," said Samus. "He's a fly by the seat of his pants kind of pillager."
"Is Ridley taking orders from somebody above him then?" asked Falcon. "Does Ridley even respect anybody enough to listen to them?"
"Not often," said Samus wryly. "But on occasion he'll take a few pointers from others."
"What kind of person would Ridley listen to?" asked Packrat.
"Somebody with the ability to help him raid things he usually couldn't," said Samus.
"Which gives us something on the person he's working with," said Falcon. "Somebody with cunning."
"I didn't think of that. You getting anything else from all this?" asked Packrat.
Falcon rubbed his chin. "Probably has to be strong enough to match Ridley, I'm thinking. Could it be possible that Ridley has a new advisor, Samus?"
Samus shook her head. "Ridley is the brains of Space Pirate operations. I've seen them plan, its always Ridley in charge, and if you disagree with the guy in charge, you die. Whoever they're working with is smart, but powerful enough for Ridley to respect him."
"I'd say Black Shadow, but he's in jail and I spent too much time dismantling his criminal empire for him to have any resources to work with," offered Falcon. "Maybe he actually is working with Ganondorf after all?"
"How powerful is Ganondorf when he's not being boosted by a Subspace Core?" asked Samus.
"Not sure, we'll have to ask Link. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say he's probably powerful enough to get Ridley to listen," said Falcon.
"Oh hey, look at this!" said Scrapper from a different part of the pile. He held up a device.
"This is Chozo tech, right? This looks like a bio scanner?"
"Let me look at this," said Samus.
She quickly walked over and inspected the device.
"Yeah, that's Chozo tech all right. Here, cover me, I'm going to see if I can get in with my skeleton key, but I'm going to need to deactivate my suit."
Samus pressed a button on the back of her arm cannon. Suddenly, her suit began to glow as it dematerialized around her. Packrat, Cordelia and Skylark all took defensive positions around her as Scrapper and Falcon crowded in curiously. Samus turned on the device before pulling a card out of her pocket and swiping it in front of the scanner area.
Immediately the screen changed to an admin screen.
"And there we are….let's see…" mumbled Samus.
There was a moment of silence as Samus fiddled through the various tabs.
"As I figured. They definitely stole this….not much out of the….oh! Look at this!"
"Look at what?" asked Scrapper.
"This is the species list that this biosensor has been set to scan for. There are two that I would expect, those being Space Pirates and Chozo. However, this scanner has also been set to scan for Star Warriors, Hands, Pokeanians, Gaians, Hylians/Gerudo/Kokiri, Beorc, Icari, Mobians, Sindarians, Quenyalans, and Mushroomians."
"Gaians…from Gaia…that's Cloud's, Little Mac's and Ryu's home world, right?" asked Skylark.
"And the Icari… that's Pit and Palutena's people," said Cordelia.
Falcon nodded. "That's right. The Sindarian one is probably for my clone, since I'm the only Smasher from Sindar. With the Icari, Hylian and Chozo ones corresponding to the other clones. I wonder if the Quenyalan is Dr. Wily. He's the only one on Quenyala that's powerful enough to be part of this alliance. We'll have to tell Megaman and the others after we're done here."
"Isn't Ganondorf Gerudo?" asked Scrapper. "So, he'd be a second person for that Hylians/Gerudo/Kokiri category."
"You're right, I didn't think of that," said Falcon. "I guess that opens the door up for more there being more than one person for each bioscanner type."
Packrat sighed. "It seems like the Space Pirates have a lot of friends working with them this time."
"I think you're being too generous. The Space Pirates have backstabbed a lot of people in their time. A LOT," said Samus. "The best they'll have is an uneasy alliance with whoever they're currently working with."
"Maybe they'll all backstab each other, and we won't have to do too much work!" said Packrat.
Samus barked a laugh. "Yeah, sorry, I'm not that lucky. That being said, their infighting could give us an opportunity to strike or make some of the enemy factions leave the group. I've had that happen before when trying to take down the Space Pirates. I'll take it if we can get a repeat performance, though."
"I'll second that!" said Packrat.
There was a pause as Samus rematerialized her armor.
"Say, shouldn't you pick up the Mininuke Generator before somebody accidently shoots it, Packrat?" asked Skylark.
"Right," said Packrat, rubbing the back of his head. "I'll get that right now."
"Make sure you don't lose it all, again!" said Skylark. "We're still missing those eight ship engines that you misplaced from that one trip to Hossin!"
"Hey, hey! I'm making a new folder for this!" Packrat complained. "Seriously, I'm never gonna hear the end of that one."
"No, you're not," said Scrapper. "Those were worth 20 grand each!"
"I'll find them eventually! Just need to take some time to reorganize my IDD storage!" grumbled Packrat as he fiddled with the screen and control panel on his arm for a minute.
He then pointed his IDD glove at the equipment. The Mininuke Generator appeared to be unchanged as blue lasers scanned it from the palm of Packrat's IDD. Samus didn't know much about Packrat's IDD, but she did know that it was a more advanced model than the ones his teammates had, let alone the standard ones that most of the Smashers used. This let him pick up much larger objects and store them on a much larger hard drive. After some time, the Mininuke Generator suddenly turned into a holographic outline, before vanishing into thin air a few minutes later.
"There," said Packrat, picking up his LMG. "The cops can pick up the rest of it, none of the rest of this stuff is gonna explode if shot. Ready to go."
"All right, let's investigate…." Samus paused mid-sentence, looking up at the wall. The portal had vanished. She activated the R-47 scanner in her visor. The R-47 hotspot that had been in the area was totally gone. However, something caught her vision on the screen.
"Hey…..I see another R-47 signal, but it's not quite so strong…let's go take a look."
Captain Falcon shrugged. "Sure, why not? We're already here."
Samus pointed down the one remaining tunnel.
"That way."
The Smashers made their way down the hallway, carefully, checking all of the rooms. The rooms down here appeared to be mostly storage rooms. While almost everything had been taken out, as with the other rooms, there were a few things remaining. Samus recognized some as racks for Space Pirate weapons. Rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, etc. She was all too familiar with them. However, as they went further down, they noticed one room that had been noticeably better kept. She noticed a few translucent spots on the floor and scanned it with her visor.
"Sword polish," she said after a moment.
"Smells like it," said Captain Falcon. "Didn't Roy say that some of those guys he fought yesterday used swords?"
"Yeah, the Pit clone, the Link clone, and the one they called 'Lucina'," said Falcon.
"But not my clone," said Samus, as she continued to inspect the area. She was wondering how they'd even managed to get her DNA, let alone her suit specs. She was almost always in her suit on missions. Not even her hair should have gotten out. And then there was the suit her clone used. It was possible that they'd gotten their hands on a Chozo style powersuit from an abandoned Chozo settlement somewhere, though. Most likely a lucky find. It needed to be destroyed. She could not let her people's greatest weapon stay in the hands of those who would cause chaos and destruction.
"Hey, Samus, you still have that Phazite scan function?" asked Scrapper.
"Yeah, why?"
"I'm picking up Phazite radiation. I think somebody was using it here. Haven't used my Phazite scanner in a while, so I wanna make sure it's not a bad reading."
Samus' eyes narrowed as she switched her scanner to detect Phazite. Sure enough, there were traces of Phazite energy. So, the whole Phazon fiasco was coming back to bite her. Again. Now in its new and "safe" form of Phazite. After the corruptive qualities of Phazon had been made known to the Galactic Assembly, scientists were quickly commissioned to find a solution. While she had been off fighting Phazon meteors and corrupted friends and foes alike, they had come up with a compound that, when exposed to Phazon, reacted the corruptive material and created a new compound, dubbed Phazite. While significantly less corruptive and aggressive as raw Phazon, much debate still raged about how safe Phazite was. Samus already knew what her answer was. Thankfully, because Phazite was made from Phazon, there was a galactic-wide ban on the stuff. And despite this, it was now back, again. Most likely, judging by Roy's report, it was probably her clone using it too. Sometimes Samus felt like she could never escape her past.
It wasn't just being from a "dead" species. Who weren't so dead after all, when a bunch of other humans had popped out of nowhere just over 5 years ago. At least that one had been a good surprise. No, it was the bad things that kept coming back that she hated so much. Like how Ridley had murdered her parents and everybody that she'd ever known at age 5, and now was her nemesis. It felt like she had to fight him at least once every single, stupid year. Well, she did fight Ridley on a near annual basis, the Space Pirate captain hold a bitter grudge against her. And to be perfectly frank, the feeling was mutual.
Sometimes, it felt like it was like it was her fault that the Space Pirates existed or something, because it was always her job to clean up the messes they caused. But it wasn't just the Space Pirates. The Metroids had this quality too. They seemed to be the favored bio weapon of every single stupid terrorist organization and upstart dictator. Somehow, every last one thought that the species that found a way to escape even the Chozo's best containment protocols wouldn't escape containment again, just for them! And then, the famed Metroid Hunter had to come and stop them, again. Phazon and Phazite just needed to stay gone, just like those stupid X Parasites. At least the X Parasites hadn't come back for some time, and some experts were even hypothesizing that she had actually hunted them to extinction. Samus doubted that she was that lucky.
Of course, she had known that if anybody was using Phazite, it was likely that it was her clone, but seeing the readings in person through her own visor was….different. More real somehow. And there was going to be a reckoning for whatever stupid moron who had decided pumping her clone full of Phazite was a good idea. A very loud, explosive reckoning.
She knew that this was exactly the time where Grey Voice would tell her to stop and breathe. And he was absolutely right. She just hated when he was right like that. She could practically hear him saying, "Samus! Samus!"
"Samus? Hey Samus?" said Skylark, shaking Samus' shoulder.
Samus jumped, snapping back into reality.
"You ok?" asked Skylark.
"Yeah, just got lost in my thoughts. Sorry about that."
"Ok. Just wanted to make sure you're all right."
Samus sighed. "Phazite. Can't ever seem to outrun this crap."
Skylark nodded. "I'm sorry. We'll destroy all of it, I promise."
Samus blinked and refocused her mind. Now was not the time to lose sight of the objective at hand.
"Thanks. And sorry to worry you."
"No need to be sorry," said Skylark. "You've had a lot of especially bad experiences with Phazon. Its no wonder you dislike it so much."
Samus just sighed. The mission wasn't over yet. She still needed to be in the game. Why had she let this get to her? She was better than this. She had to be better than this.
They exited the room and continued moving down the hallway. After turning a few corners, the Smashers found themselves looking at one final door. Samus peeked carefully through it, making sure there were no hostiles or traps near it. Through the door was a long corridor. It was dimly lit and she could just barely see the end of it. It had a downward slope to it, and it appeared less well used then the rest of the base. She turned on her R-47 scanner again. The signature was still in the same direction.
"All right. Signal's coming from straight ahead of us. Let's go find out what they got down there."
Come back next time for the conclusion of Act 4…..