Metroid: Show Off

by Ahvie Brightsinger

It's Samus Aran, Armstrong Houston, and Ridley too after the Kihunter War with another crisis... Please R&R!

7. The Lost City

Chapter 13: The Lost City

As Ridley flew faster and faster and faster downwards, Samus noticed that the glass walls didn't help her see past it very well. The entire pillar of glass had its own interior lights, but she couldn't see past the dark, murky waters of the abyss. Miss Gentes was getting impatient,

"RIDLEY!!! CAN'T YOU MOVE ANY FASTER?!! LAGUNA WOULD BE AT THE BOTTOM BY NOW!!! MOVE IT, NOW!!!!"

Ridley suddenly woke up from what was to him a daydream. He frowned at Miss Gentes and growled slightly when he dropped into a straight dive downwards, flapping his stubby wings as hard as he could to propel them to fall faster. He winced as he broke the sound barrier going straight down.

Samus almost fell loose of his grip. The shockwave from a mysterious sound barrier this deep in the ocean could only mean…

"We're almost there! Look all around you, we're almost there!!!"

Miss Gentes was screaming at the top of her lungs as they broke through the sealed gate at he bottom with supersonic speed. Samus could not believe her eyes as she stared down at he view below.

The water around them had gone. They were in an oxygen atmosphere at the bottom of the ocean. The sound barrier was a duplicate of Acuar's own sound barrier. Ridley and the gang had flown into a sub-marine city. The water around them before they broke the city gates was light blue, the color of the water near the planet's surface. Artificial sunlight glowed into the gigantic glass dome and gave them sight to everything in the preserved part of the bottom of the ocean. The perimeter of the dome was reinforced with thick heavy brackets that kept the glass from cracking at such a deep depth. But that wasn't the real beauty of the sanctuary, it was the city itself.

Instead of the old and small villas and houses from ancient history to be the remnants of the city, this lost city was intact, and completely modern.

Present-day skyscrapers and highways covered the city's floor. It looked like a re-make of Earth's old American city of Chicago. Skylines and parking garages, restaurants and suburban homes, even observatories, all in all a real city. What weren't there were the inhabitants. The city was completely silent and dormant. Not a sound could be heard.

Ridley didn't know where to go, but since he had already landed, he could think this whole predicament out. They were on the roof of the largest and tallest skyscraper, only about 6 feet short of the gate. Ridley had to crouch to avoid bumping his head on the ceiling of the glass dome. The gate, already shattered, was only about 30 feet in diameter. Miss Gentes was also awed at the excavation site she had only been told about by her subordinates.

"Well, what now? Where do we find Laguna?" Samus breathed out, snapping everyone out of their trance. Houston shrugged. "Well, if he doesn't know where to go, shouldn't it take him a while to find what he wants too? I mean, we could go buy some ancient hamburgers is they were preserved well enough." Everyone just glared at Houston. "What?!" He exclaimed. Miss Gentes was no longer in an amused state.

"Quiet Houston, if this city is as sophisticated as I think, the security systems probably still work. And we can use them to track Laguna down. Trust me, these are the works of my ancestors, obviously far ahead of anybody else in the galaxy. Let go down this tower. Maybe we can find something in it, since it's the top of the city." Miss Gentes walked towards the shack at the edge of the building, with Basic letters written in it: "STAIRWELL". Next to it, were two humungous obelisks that touched the top of the dome, probably to the ancients, their idea of the first entrance to the city. Everyone followed Miss Gentes down the old stairwell. They kept going down, and looked out the occasional window outside to see Ridley making clown faces at them and waving at them. But Samus ignored him.

They stopped at a door of a floor labeled in Basic; "SECURITY". It seems the ancients were very original in the name they chose for titles.

Miss Gentes opened the door quietly and walked into a room full of monitors and computers and keyboards and control panels. Miss Gentes lightened up.

"OH…..Yes!!! The Atlantis Security room! Now for the chance to really use their ancient technology. And look, the equipment still works!"

She pointed to the rows of computers, with the monitors on and the databases ready to be accessed. Without consulting the gang, she hopped on a chair nearest to the closest computer, and she typed in a few Basic words and found what she was looking for.

Atlantis Security System

Please enter password:

Miss Gentes stopped short of typing. She didn't ever hear of an Atlantic Password. She looked at Samus. Samus said, "Well, if the technology was created by Chozo for humans, wouldn't the Chozo leader have some special purpose in their security?" Houston wasn't paying any attention and was taking yet another nap.

Miss Gentes didn't notice and guessed her hardest.

Atlantis Security System

Please enter password:

Enter Gul'Gen

Access Granted.

Select Observation Mode:

Ø City Gate

Ø Security Tower

Ø City Hall

Ø Observatory

Ø Chozo Museum

Ø Marine Lab

Ø Vault

Enter vault

Accessing security cameras…………………………………………done.

Miss Gentes then turned her attention to the vault area of the underwater city. Samus looked around at the various monitors that all showed the same views. Houston jerked awake.

It appeared to be the only part of the dome without a paved road or metal plating on the floor. It was bare rock and the real bottom of the ocean exposed. It appears the Chozo had hidden their technology well – a gigantic excavation site, covering a hole a mile in diameter, was the Vault. At the very bottom, which appeared to be another abyss, was a large metallic dome with super thick doors. A road from the main part of the city lead further away from the city itself, and ran through dozens of deactivated security posts and checkpoints. But that was all long since turned off.

Then a flicker of movement met their eye. A person, in Chozo armor, was running down the road to the first checkpoint and was passing through the dormant security stations. Though he would reach the excavation pit in almost 30 minutes, it would take that person a while to scale down the pit's edge; And even longer to get through the heavy metallic doors. Laguna was no longer undercover.

Miss Gentes nearly ran over Samus and pushed the roller chair that Houston was slouched on aside and screamed at Ridley outside the window.

Samus knew how bold she was and followed her out of the room. Houston fell off the chair and looked around as if he was a passenger on a bus being dropped off at the wrong stop. He realized everyone had flew the coop, and he clumsily ran out too.

Ridley then jerked his harpoon tail at the glass window, shattering it. Not long after, a slightly large woman – screaming leapt from the edge and onto Ridley. Another woman in armor jumped on him soon after, and what seemed to be a very drunken marine leapt off the edge and onto Ridley's back, nearly slipping. "Wooooaah!" Houston wailed as he nearly fell. "Ohhhkay…" he started off; and before he could finish saying 'where to?', Ridley flew off for the dark end of the city.

Chapter 14: The Hydro and Pyro Suits

Laguna launched his last missile into the locked doors.

They still didn't budge one bit.

So he launched all his super missiles into hem.

Still no go.

He set off power bomb after power bomb and got down to his last one when he heard something.

Something not right for this quiet city.

Something queer…

* * * * *

Miss Gentes, still screaming at the top of her lungs like an Indian warrior, dropped down from Ridley's back and unloaded all her missiles at the unsuspecting stranger.

Half of them hit the stranger, knocking him down. The other half sailed over his body and against the locked doors, not making a dent in them either. Clearly the Chozo didn't want anyone bad to get inside.

Samus dropped down along with Houston.

Samus cleared her throat and started off at Laguna.

"Laguna Ater, alleged bounty hunter and pirate, you are hereby arrested by the Galactic Federation for collaborating with the pirates, destruction of Federation property, false identity, robber…" she went on, only to notice Laguna concealing a power bomb in his hands, ready to go off.

"EVERYONE – MOVE!!!!!" She yelled and dove at Laguna, feeling the shock of a Power Bomb move through her suit. She stinged all over, but continued to wrestle the armor-clad bounty hunter. During that time, neither of them noticed the doors mechanically open before them and a grand staircase lead downwards to the Chozo technology. Ridley was bug-eyed.

"Nuclear technology, chozo suits, bioatomic weapons…enough toys to make me wanna be a pirate again…" he mumbled on.

Laguna though, noticed Ridley's folly, and shoved his metal glove into Samus' air filter and set off a toxic gas bomb for kicks.

He lunged at the open door way and rolled all the way down the vault's stairs. He didn't plan on doing that, but he was far ahead of Samus now. Soon, he'd be the most powerful person in the world.

* * * * *

Samus woke up.

Houston sat nearby and apparently repaired her helmet.

Ridley was pounding on the doors, already closed. But they still would not open, even after being opened once.

Miss Gentes though, was tampering with the vault control panel, which was lit up, mysteriously. And as it so happened, all that commotion set off the security sensor and gave power to the entire city, lighting up the dome and making the ancient city seem better than Miss Gentes' city.

"What happened? Where's Laguna?" Samus exclaimed, and got up quickly. She looked at everyone.

"Laguna shut the doors on us, and went in. He's probably playing with those nuclear toys by now. Man, wish I had a few…" and Ridley quieted down, not realizing what he was saying.

"Wait Samus…I got it!" Miss Gentes backed away from the panel and watched the doors open with sufficient recognition of Miss Gentes' residency of the planet.

"Hurry Samus! The door will only stay open for a few more seconds!" Samus jerked up and turned her speed booster on and flew straight through the remaining crack in the doors as they closed. She continued to run at supersonic speed down the stair and deeper into the planet. As she ran the entire radius of the planet, she noticed it got warmer, and lava flowed in pockets in the stairway to her sides. She stopped dead short at the bottom.

She stood before what looked like a former subway system, filled with lava and burning columns of concrete at the center of the planet, holding up the ceiling. She jumped up and did continuous flips with the space jump and made it to the cool side of the lava lake. She opened the last door with her last five missiles and stepped to see Laguna looking around a black-steel room filled with nuclear and chozo technology, not quite as red or orange as the station around her. She stepped in and the door closed behind her.

Laguna turned around and she could sense no panic in his voice.

"Ah, Samus Aran, supposedly the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy, given the famous suit by the bird people. And now the beings that raised her as their warrior will betray her for creating the technology that so many races coveted from them, thus destroying the bird people. And it will destroy you too." He turned back around and raised his hand, pointing to Samus all that he had found at the planet's core.

he two elemental chozo suits. Legendary suits of armor that either had the ability to resist water, or create immunity to fire and lava. The Chozo, although they created the suits, made them identical, and impossible to tell different from each other. So they sealed the powerful suits at the core of the planet, where no one could reach them. Until now." He still didn't turn around. He continued on.

"And now the Humans' nuclear technology has been uncovered, as vain as the attempt was to hide such technology from the pirates, we always knew where it was, just how to get past you was a problem." His voice tightened with anger.

"You were always on top, always being the big shot, always the center of attention. I envied you so much, until the remaining space pirates offered to help me achieve my goal of being on top, while I gave them the nukes, it was a deal too good to be passed up. Though you have to persist in foiling my plans and preserving your reputation as I made myself king of weaponry in the Solar System, and soon to Keaton's folly, I won." Then he turned around. "Now, before you die, I will show off to you the brilliant energy of the chozo suits that has been shown before me. Enjoy your last moment on a former chozo planet. As it will soon be MY planet. Hahahahahahahaha!!!!"

And he leapt into one of the suit's chamber and a blinding light filled the room.

Laguna, in a shiny silver chozo suit locked his Nuclear Energy Beam on Samus and jumped at her. Samus set her cannon to HYPER and leapt out at Laguna. The two clashed in mid-air and the room started to quake.