Pub Hostilities

Samus moved like lightning through the pub, using her limbs to strike her assailants. She could have cleared the room in short order using her projectile weaponry, but not without killing most of its occupants, so she had to resort to physical attacks.

There were about nine opponents in the room, Kale not included. He seemed to have disappeared behind the counter. Two were the ten-foot tall, dangerous looking aliens of unknown origin, still blocking the side doors. Five were human, four men and one woman, all doing their best to shoot Samus. One was a species of alien with four arms, each holding a gun, and one was a rather large bipedal lizard.

Samus grabbed the gun from the leader with her left hand and kicked him in the chest, toppling him over. Tossing the gun aside, she rounded on the other human attackers nearby, all of whom were shooting her. She felt the blasts as moderately painful impacts, but it wasn't enough to stop her. A flurry of strikes from her elbow, left fist, and arm cannon left the other four human attackers on the ground, groaning in pain and incapacitated. Then the lizard leapt onto Samus's back, digging its claws in, its weight causing her to stumble.

The lizard tried biting at her shoulder, but her armored Fusion Suit kept its teeth at bay. Samus struggled in vain to get the creature off her back, while to her right, the four-armed alien leveled each of its four guns at her and fired. The impact from the blasts sent her and the lizard tumbling over a nearby table, and the lizard lost its grip on her.

Samus scrambled upright and kicked the lizard in its midsection as it tried to do the same, launching it a good distance further away from her. She rolled into her morph ball form and shot across the room, coming to rest at the feet of the four-armed alien. The alien gaped at the orange ball. Samus uncoiled and slammed her left fist into the alien's gut. The alien doubled over, and Samus kicked it, sending it sprawling, its guns flying out of its hands. Then something heavy smashed into Samus's shoulders, a crushing blow that flattened her body to the ground.

Alarms went off in her suit, with red warning icons appearing on her HUD. That attack had caused some damage. Ignoring the sharp pain, she turned to face upward, still lying on the ground, revealing one of the hulking aliens looming over her, with its companion not far behind. They were almost as broad as they were wide, with spikes jutting out from their elbows, forearms and shoulders, and fists bigger than Samus's torso. The close one, leering menacingly, brought its arm up to strike again. Samus rolled aside just in time, and the alien's fist collided with the solid floor instead, leaving a thick spiderweb of cracks in the stone.

Samus decided it was time to relax her stance on not using weaponry. She leveled her arm cannon at the alien. Hatches opened along the cannon, revealing a primed missile. She fired.

The missile struck the alien in an icy explosion, sending it staggering back as a sheet of ice cocooned it, freezing it in place. The alien's companion roared in response, but immediately received its own missile to the chest, likewise encasing it in ice.

The pub was silent at last, except for groans of pain from Samus's downed assailants. Samus strode through the room, relieving her enemies of their weaponry. All the weapons gathered, she tossed them into a corner and destroyed them with a few blasts from her arm cannon.

"Hey, miss," someone called. Samus whirled and aimed at the source, which turned out to be Kale, who had suddenly reappeared behind the counter. Kale flinched.

"Whoa, easy there!" he said, raising both arms. "I don't want to hurt you. Doubt that I could, anyway."

Samus, still on edge from the fight, did not lower her weapon.

"Look," Kale began, "if you're done beating up all my customers, I believe we had a conversation to finish."

"No, I'm pretty sure it was over. You don't have a ship to offer, and you can't help me."

"Ah, see, you're wrong about that. I can help you. Or, more specifically, I can direct you to someone that can help you. Maybe."

"Maybe?" Samus eyed the occupants of the room apprehensively, uneager for the fight to resume. A few were starting to get up, but thankfully the icy prisons entombing the alien colossi had yet to thaw. "You'd better be able to give me more than 'maybe'."

"How about 'probably'? That suit your tastes better?"

Samus turned to leave.

"Wait!" Kale called. "There's a guy. At least, I think he's a guy. Pretty famous around here. Not exactly chummy with the Federation, so I'm sure you'd get along. I know how to contact him."

"Then do it."

A few of the humans had stood up, and hastily exited the building, staying far away from where Samus was standing in the middle of the pub. The lizard, too, quit the establishment, not wanting to receive any more injuries.

"How do I contact you?" Kale asked.

"You have a transmitter?"

"Yeah." He pulled the device out of his pocket.

Samus focused on the transmitter in Kale's hand. Her suit scanned it and picked up its frequency. She tapped the side of her helmet, sending her contact information wirelessly over to the device, which lit up in response to receiving the information.

"That info won't work after 24 hours," Samus warned. "Better contact your friend quickly."

"Cool," Kale said. "See you around, Samus."

"Send anyone to attack me, and I'm coming after you personally once I've taken care of them."

Without waiting for Kale to respond, Samus left the pub.