Chapter
5: Party Pooper
Samus and Houston had been dancing for a while, about 10 minutes. Then the music made a homestretch and slowly ended. Samus and Houston only had about a minute left of enjoyment left.
"Houston…" Samus whispered in his ear,
"I want to meet you."
"Huh? But I'm right here." Houston
whispered back.
"No…not really meeting you, I want to
get to know you…"
Before
he could answer, the music faded and the lights turned back on. Then the
audience clapped loudly for them.
Leslie Gentes stood up on the stage
and clapped shortly before saying, "Okay, Okay, very good Samus – Houston. We
are glad you're enjoying this night. Now would you all please enjoy the night
and wait for our next dance couple! Thank you!" She stood down and took a seat at
a table near the stage. Houston and Samus sat down and watched the groups of
couples dance in graceful circles in unison with the music.
Samus looked around and tried to find
some familiar faces to talk with. Then she remembered. She looked up at Ridley
perched on the balcony. He grinned at her and pretended to clap silently. She felt herself get a little red. He
laughed as he saw the look on her face.
Wait until Hardy hears about this,
he'll be hysterical! Ridley thought as he might as well start some
confusion about Samus and Houston together.
* * * * *
It was early in morning, and the
festival lasted throughout the night with not a single person getting sleepy.
Ridley was obviously bored, since there was no one to terrorize without getting
punished by Keaton.
Leslie Gentes was talking with Keaton
about having dinner later that night with the rest of his family, perhaps.
Hardy was doing a weird boogey dance that made him look larger than he was, but
he seemed to be enjoying the party. But something was missing.
Houston may have been dozing off, but
Samus could tell that something else other than her date was missing. Then it
hit her.
Laguna.
That wacko had missed her dance with Houston, an excellent opportunity to mock
her, and had missed out on every minute of Miss Gentes' speech. She was about
to wake Houston up to help her look for Laguna, when a deafening loud crash
came from above.
The glass skylight in the interior
framework of the station had been shattered, and down came a heavily armored
space pirate. The pirate spotted Ridley quickly and hissed at him. Then it
started blasting everything in sight.
Houston woke up and didn't ask what
was going on. He took out his blaster pistol, as did Samus, and they fired at
the pirate.
The pirate, seeing that he had
competitors, gave a little screech and in seconds, a flood of space pirates
came down and seemed to turn the tables on Samus and Houston. But that wasn't
so bad.
An inhuman roar came from up high, and
Ridley threw off his tuxedo and top hat, and flew down into the pirate crowd.
He had claws slashing and fire blazing in no time; but for each pirate he
killed, more reinforcements would come in from high. He was quickly overwhelmed
and backed onto the stage near Leslie Gentes. They didn't notice her yet.
Ridley yelled at her behind him, "GET OUT OF HERE! IT'S YOU THEY WANT!" He
quickly impaled a stray pirate with his tail.
Leslie Gentes knew when to run, and
she ran faster than a track star on that slightly overweight body. She made it
to the exit before Ridley could turn back to check if she was running to the
door or not.
Just when another pirate army came in,
the entrance doors flew open.
Laguna,
in his new suit, got all the attention he wanted. The pirates all stopped and
chased after him; about two hundred pirates total. But he wasn't worried. He
charged up his unusual arm cannon and fired several added spazer and what
looked like a weak hyper beam at them all. Before the first one got within ten
feet of him, they were all gone. He had cleared them all out. A cheer of
Federation officers rose throughout the theater. All the audience rushed
towards him faster than the pirates did and carried him above their heads and
out the hallway. This left Ridley, Samus, and Houston in a very messy ballroom.
All of them were confused of what had just happened here so quickly. "Who is
this guy?" was what Samus had to say and thought about it.
"I don't get it. He came here just at
the right time, just when we were gonna lose. How'd he know when? And where'd
he get that kind of technology, only the chozo have that kind of weaponry."
Houston explained. He had a point. Ridley continued the idea. "Not just the
chozo. When I was raiding planet back in my the old days, I had recovered
technology just like that on chozo planets. Maybe he got it from the pirates…"
he said. Samus quickly interrupted, "No…why would they sell the technology they
knew would kill them?" But Ridley already had the answer to that question.
"If he was on their side, he'd have access
to the technology, he would know where to be at what time, all just to make
himself more popular. But what's in it for the pirates? I always got about
three fourths of the deal, but then again, the space pirates no longer have a
great leader…" Samus interrupted him, "We know already, Ridley. We're talking
about Laguna, here." That made them think about this and completely forgot
about Miss Gentes or the promotion Laguna was getting from Keaton. It was very
likely that Laguna was working with the pirates…but who would really believe
them?
Chapter 6: Imposter
Keaton
was having a field day; his Fine Arts Festival was crashed by a band of space
pirates, had his butt saved by Laguna, and had this time two promotions
to make to Laguna, who would soon be Samus' commanding officer, as a well as
Houston's.
This time, Laguna did not stay around
after celebrations to give autographs or continue his story about his visit on
SR388. He had locked himself in his quarters and strictly told everyone not to
bother him. Of course, everyone left him alone, 'since their hero had a long
day and needed some time to himself…' and so on. What struck Samus hard was the
fact that Laguna had accused Ridley of bringing the space pirates in the station,
and got close to yelling at Samus. Hardy, still not converted by Laguna's
charms, defended Ridley; and had it not been his position in the Federation, he
would have been starved as a punishment, (his idea of a punishment.)
Keaton was fiddling with his stack of
paperwork, as usual, when a buzzer greeted him at his desk.
"Who is it?" he called, not caring who
it was.
"Your mother, Keaton – let me in, we
need to talk." Came a voice from behind the door.
Keaton woke up out of his paperwork
trance and yelled at Samus.
"Well hurry up then!" he was not happy
to see just her.
Samus
busted in and coolly sat down in the chair and slammed the door behind her. She
looked pleased to some extent.
"You wanted something Miss Aran?"
Keaton said with as much authority as he could muster up to the bounty hunter.
"Yeah. I wanted your apology. You
didn't believe Ridley when he said he didn't bring on that pirate band. It just
isn't in Ridley to do it. The only thing is that he is…" she got louder as she
spoke.
"GUILTY! How dare you intrude into my
office and make a mockery of me! Get out before I call Security to detain both
you and Ridley. Be happy that you aren't the spy!" Keaton almost
exploded in the rage at Samus, and that took Samus by surprise.
"That doesn't surprise me, though,
since the Federation is all too interested in Laguna that it can't think
straight or even bring fairly those to justice that need it. Good day,
chairman." Sand she walked out and slammed the door on her way out.
Keaton didn't know whether Samus had
another hatchling depression, or was just trying to get attention. But it
certainly wasn't Laguna to be worried about. He had far more expectations for him. Besides, he thought, how
trustworthy is a dragon anyways? He answered that thought by calling
security.
* * * * *
"It's
hopeless, Keaton is totally convinced that Ridley is the spy in our midst. I
think I just provoked him to call security sooner. I'm worried for Ridley."
"It's
ok, Samus, we can just hold Keaton hostage until Laguna gives in, eh?"
Samus
chuckled a bit as Houston cheered her up.
"You
see, we have the advantage…we're the two most unpopular bounty hunters in the
galaxy now, and we can join forces with a wanted dragon to convince the
Federation that they're wrong. I've got it all planned out. Ok?"
She was in bed with him and they were
talking as they sat on the edge of their blorff-size bed. Houston hadn't slept
in a big bed for months.
"And what would that plan be?" Samus
said with no life at all.
"We could…take the day off…" Houston
managed to say before he fell face-first into the mattress. Samus soon followed
suit, and the sandman was working the living daylights into their heads.
* * * * *
That
evening, Samus and Houston were well rested and were ready to execute their
day's worth of investigation, provided they aren't found out with their day off
and all.
Samus got onto the kitchen table in
her quarters and simply took off the grating from the skylight in the ceiling.
She climbed into her room's framework, and was 5 feet away from the vacuum of
space. She helped Houston up and she led the way. They were traveling above all
the hallways and rooms in the 4 feet of room between the visible ceiling and
the outer armoring of the station. When she neared another room with a
skylight, very similar to hers, she stopped and hushed Houston to be very, very
quiet.
They both peeked in over the edge of
the skylight and looked into the room that they were looking for.
It was very messy inside, with pillows
and sheets all over the place, and the television facing the wall while against
it. Certainly not Laguna's room. But they changed their minds when a new sight
caught their eye.
There
he was, in full battle armor, Laguna was in front of a laptop on his bedroom
desk. He spoke to the computer and it answered him in some weird language. They
tried to listen in on the conversation.
"…yes, yes, the planet is all
yours…………nope, I'll notify you again in about two months."
An outraged sound of warbles and
squeaks came from the speakers.
"Hey! Ok…ok…do what…want me to
do………I'll be there for it."
The
computer suddenly shut off and Laguna breathed out a heavy sigh. Then he just
stopped. He didn't appear to be breathing when he slowly turned towards the
skylight. Samus and Houston popped their heads back around the edge and lay
down flat to the floor.
"Huh?! Who's there?" Laguna said in a
confused and yet scared tone.
He
didn't know if there were any boogey men in the ventilation shafts of the space
station. He soon backed away from the grate and laid down on his bed and
pretended to look relaxed, something on his mind.
Samus peeked around one more time and
saw what she needed to prove her theory about Laguna's betrayal… the space
pirate logo was on the back of the laptop, and obviously out of site from
anyone looking in through the front door. Keaton and his investigation crew
missed a lot. If they even came, that is.
Samus poked at Houston, who was taking
a nap, and pointed at the laptop in Laguna's room. He stared at her. She
pointed at it again.
Houston looked at it and smiled. He
pointed back out the way they came imploringly. Samus smiled back and nodded.
They both backed away, and made their way back.
Then Houston accidentally tripped over
the air conditioner unit in Laguna's room, causing a big boom on the metallic
ceiling. And a high-pitched, almost girly scream came from his room.
"AAAAAAAAAAH!!!! Help me! Help me! There's a monster in the air conditioner!!!
HEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!" Enough racket was coming from his room that Samus and
Houston could have held a marathon to her room and not a sound of it would
reach past his room.
There's one for the scrapbook. Say,
the galaxy's dumbest criminals would just eat this one up. Samus thought as
the Federations hero was afraid of the boogey man. They day wasn't so bad after
all.
* * * * *
Keaton
didn't know why Laguna would wake him up in the night to tell him that a
monster was in the air conditioner unit of his room. For once, Keaton didn't
believe him, but tried to calm him down by telling him that he would get bounty
if he did find one in the air conditioner, which would be no problem for a
bounty hunter as good as him. Laguna, relaxed after hearing this and
straightened up. The he started his hero act all over again.
* * * * *
Keaton
wasn't having very much fun with Laguna, though this time, Laguna had claimed
that a Metroid was in his air conditioner. He didn't like Laguna's sense of
humor and ignored him this time. Though Laguna hated the shrill chirp of the
metroid in his room that went off about every minute or so, he couldn't get to
sleep.
Samus
and Houston almost laughed out loud as they recalled attaching a recorder to
Laguna's air conditioner timer. Every minute, the unit would give off a few
recorded sounds of the metroid's infamous chirp. The made plenty sure Keaton
wasn't enjoying Laguna's presence at his quarters every ten minutes. Laguna's
acting as a bounty hunter is terrible compared to even Schneider back then.
Schneider was a dishonest and not very
trustworthy bounty hunter that had worked for the Kihunters and died with them.
At least he actually knew how the job was carried out. Perhaps the upcoming
mission would soften Laguna up.
* * * * *