Samus waited, frozen in the dark, for the inevitable assault. Now that the space pirates had learned exactly where she was, they would come in droves and overwhelm her.
On one hand, she knew she could take them in a fight. Despite her weakened state, she had the element of skill on her side.
On the other hand, there was the element of Metroid. She would need to keep one eye on the Baby at all times. Knowing Ridley, he'd somehow survived Ceres and already informed the pirates that the larva was in her hands. It was what the pirates craved more than anything now, more than they wanted to see her, the dreaded Hunter, dead.
On top of everything else, teamwork was never her strongest skill. If she got too distracted fighting the pirates, the Baby could be snatched from right under her nose. A far worse outcome, she realized, than the Baby getting killed.
No use debating. When it boiled down to it, she had two choices: wait for their attack, or take the fight to them, and the latter felt like the only real choice.
But even as she re-entered the elevator, silence pressed in on her eardrums. A hollow silence, one that couldn't be muffled by the presence of others. Even the elevator's pleasant hum felt subdued. Even the Baby grew quiet and still as it sensed the tension in the air.
With every passing second, Samus's senses dialed up to eleven. She gestured for the larva to get behind her as she approached the door to Tourian. However, her radar revealed no life signs ahead. The pirates hadn't found them yet. Drawing a deep breath, she opened the door.
Scores of sharp eyes glowed yellow in the dark. Tourian's dustbowl of an excuse for an atmosphere had concealed her enemies' presence. They swarmed, rushing her from above and below, crawling like clawed spiders on the walls and ceiling. They were everywhere at once, and Samus had her back to a wall.
Now, Samus didn't speak the pirates' language, but over the years of repeatedly kicking their butts, she'd picked up a few words. Mostly her name, "the Hunter," "Death to the Hunter," and a very rough equivalent of "I want my mommy". Aside from that last one, those phrases, curses, and incoherent screeching echoed from every angle in the claustrophobic chamber as the pirates poured every last drop of hatred and malice into their one combined attack on their greatest enemy.
Samus knew she was outnumbered and underpowered, with only her basic Power Beam online. But she was far from outmatched. Taking a stance, she shot rapid-fire at the accursed crab-handed roaches. Not a single shot missed. Every hit killed. And still they came, fierce and unstoppable like waves from a stormy sea.
The fiery aura of battle enveloped her. This aura was not her imagination. Sheer willpower and the determination to fight on increased her power exponentially. Her simple Power Beam tore through multiple foes at once. She began to push back against the waves, body slamming into pirates, seizing them, and throwing them away from her.
The Baby hovered a little ways above Samus, watching the battle with interest while dodging flying bodies tossed every which way. One still-living pirate sprang off a wall and made a desperate grab for the Baby, but the tiny larva simply moved aside, and the pirate careened into a broken Zebetite pole. Checking Samus wasn't looking, the Baby began edging toward the downed foe.
It wasn't until Samus reached the end of the room, every pirate roach exterminated, that she realized the larva wasn't behind her. A flash of panic broke her concentration. She fervently scanned the room, then caught sight of a bioluminescent bulb floating in the middle. The Baby had just dropped the dry corpse of the pirate and bobbed slowly over to Samus, chirping merrily in a carefree manner.
Stiffly, Samus gestured again for it to stay behind her. Even if her radar was useless down here, she could hear slithering sounds in the vertical shaft that could only belong to more pirates. Again, she drew a deep breath.
This would take a while.
She didn't pause until they'd broken back through to Crateria, and even after, she kept running, taking a different path underground.
This path also wound through crumbling ruins. Unlike Tourian, these ruins were made of carved stone rather than melded steel. Eons ago, this stone had been sculpted and shaped by Chozo hands. The pirates certainly had their way with drilling holes into it, marring the architecture's beauty and any nostalgia Samus might've felt.
More pirates sprang out of these holes, and they proved tougher than the ones in Tourian. Her Power Beam hardly scratched them, and they might have gotten the upper hand if not for the Baby. It latched onto the nearest pirate's head and sucked his energy dry, sending the others into a frenzied panic. Most fled, but one fired a shot at the larva, only for another to smack his hand away, causing it to miss. They garbled harshly at each other, shoving back and forth as they argued.
Samus watched, confounded. Never before had any pirate acted this way. In fact, their hive-mindedness was what had earned them their reputation as ruthless, cold-blooded slaughterers of the innocent. They never questioned, only obeyed, and obeyed to the fullest extent of their powers.
And now, before the galaxy's toughest bounty hunter, they were so absorbed in their little spat, they'd forgotten she was standing right there. This tiniest, minutest seed of discord sown before her eyes gave even her pause. The element of Metroid, it seemed, was far more disruptive than she anticipated.
It wasn't until the Baby dropped its second corpse with a loud thud that everyone snapped out of it. Slowly, the two pirates turned back to Samus, who lightly coughed and waved.
With a screech, the Baby lunged at them. This time, the pirates tried to flee, but the larva latched onto one, the pirate who tried to shoot it. Samus pursued the other and managed to tackle and pin him to the ground. Leveling her cannon under his chin, she made her message heard loud and clear: talk.
Between snarls mixed with every oath and curse word in the pirate's vocabulary, Samus pieced together a general idea of his words. Ordered to capture the Metroid, yes… alive and not dead, that she figured. She inclined her head toward the pirate's dead mate, dangling in the larva's clutches.
"Not orders," spat the pirate, still struggling to throw her off. "Not Mother's orders."
Samus almost lost her grip. Mother Brain…alive?
Given how many times she'd fought Ridley, she probably shouldn't have been shocked. But Mother Brain was a far more complex organism than Ridley. She had the combined intelligence of her engineers, the Chozo, and the merciless, cold-hearted logic of the pirates, whom she'd joined forces with years ago. Her powerful psychic brain waves could control any lesser creature, and her central processing unit had direct ties with Zebes itself. Hence, Mother Brain could see anything and everything occurring on the planet at once, and thus knew exactly where to send her forces to ambush Samus.
That left two questions: if not Mother Brain, who had given orders to kill the Baby? Who was powerful enough to defy her psychic abilities and force members of her own army to disobey her?
"Whose?" Samus demanded the pirate, who had begun thrashing like a wounded serpent. "Ridley's?"
The pirate opened his mouth, perhaps to answer, curse her, or beg for his life. He never got a chance. His eyes burned blue, and he began to choke on thin air. Startled, Samus backed off. She watched as the pirate's body twisted and convulsed grotesquely, limbs folding in like a spider on its deathbed. At last, he lay still. He was dead.
The Hunter was struck by a horror she'd never felt before. Over the death of a space pirate, of all things. True, she would have finished him off anyway, but he had died so…unnaturally. Whatever second entity controlled the pirates had silenced him before he could spill its secrets.
Shakily, Samus rose. Out of the corner of her eye, the Baby swung around its third corpse by the arm, like a ball on a string, before finally releasing it. The shriveled husk hit the wall with an almost comedic squelch and fell with a dull splat.
Samus waved, and the larva zipped over at once, bobbing up and down in front of her helmet excitedly. It did not possess a face, but Samus thought it looked mightily pleased with itself.
This new entity could have its share of pirates, Samus decided as they continued down the tunnel. And if it wanted to kill them, the better for her. The only problem was, it wanted to kill the Baby, so she would have to hunt it down, alongside Ridley and, now, Mother Brain.
"What?"
The larva kept popping up in front of her visor, chirping at her incessantly. Finally understanding this to be a cry for attention, Samus halted in her tracks. Without warning, it latched onto her helmet, sending a bolt of panic down her spine.
Like before, there was no pain. But, this time, a peculiar sensation of both heat and cold flooded her entire nervous system, before converging in her arm cannon.
Samus opened her eyes to an alert on her HUD. MISSILE ABILITY OBTAINED.
Confusion swam through her mind. Slowly, Samus brought up her cannon, aimed at a wall, and fired. Sure enough, a missile burst out and shattered the stone, revealing a passage.
But Samus only stared at her cannon, then at the Baby, who chirped and literally glowed with apparent pride. Did you do that?
The element of Metroid, it seemed, was far more complex than she anticipated.
Can I just say that Metroid Dread was EPIC?!