Chapter 2: Enter the Queen
The lavender-skinned messenger walks up to Samus and Houston as though trying to be
sneaky, and bellows out loud.
"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
Samus and Houston jump, startled, and both hit the messenger in the face. The messenger
gets up and grumbles.
"Ugh...is this how you'll continue to treat The Kefka? You know, I'll always
make a surprise appearance." Samus crosses her arms.
"Bounty Hunters are meant to be jumpy. You never know when there's a gun at your back."
Kefka laughs.
"Gun? Samus, I'm a loose cannon!" Just then, Kefka turns into a cannon and fires a
large iron ball at Ridley, who turns to face it too late and gets hit in the stomach again.
(Poor Ridley.) "Ggh...VELVET SLIDING TROMBONES!!!" Kefka reverts to her normal form and hands
Samus a disk. "From the Chairman. He says that you three are to see the contents of that disk
the moment that you all get home...and...sorry about that, Ridley." Ridley could only manage a
moan while rubbing his stomach. Kefka disappears in a poof and a cracking noise.
"Hey, Houston? Why not check that while I take Ridley to Old Bird? Catch us up when we
get back." Houston shrugs as they go thier separate ways. Samus knocks on the door to Gul'Gen's
chamber on the station and waits for it to open. Nothing. She knocks again. Nothing.
Raps "Shave and a Haircut" on the door. Bangs two times. And then stops.
"Wait...Samus, can't you hear him meditating?" Samus looks up at Ridley.
"Huh?" She puts an ear to the door and hears a meditation chant, sure enough. But a
moment later, she turns to face Ridley and the door slides open. "Well, that answered how we're
going to get to him."
"You mor gur goy fie die tsao...you mor gur goy fie die tsao...you mor gur goy fie die
tsao..." Gul'Gen chants while in a cross-legged sitting pose, floating in the air.
"Old Bird?" WHAP! Samus gets hit on the head by Gul'Gen's cane as it floats to him.
He grabs the cane and stands using it as a support. "Old Bird, have you been-"
"Yes, trying to look into other situations, but something just keeps drawing me to a
batty old chi wizard...one more thing...oops, uh...why is Ridley with you?" Samus looks back to
see Ridley standing in the doorway.
"Well...I was wondering if I had accidentally jinxed him during the tournament. I
punched him in the stomach and since then he's been hit there three times." Old Bird twiddles
with part of his moustache. "And hit there hard, too."
"...Hmmmm...no, Samus-san. You didn't jinx Ridley, he just had a sharp stroke of bad
luck...which you somehow predicted. Your blow to him there was light, right?"
"Yes." Samus had it click now.
"Which means that you knew that he was going to suffer far worse there than he expected."
"Oh. If that's all, then we'll be on our-"
"One more thing." Samus stifled a chuckle. "Watch out for metroids." This last bit
shocked and at the same time confused Samus. She was busy wondering what he meant when they
both went into Samus and Houston's chambers, Samus watching Houston look at the display in
horror. She walked up to the display to take a closer look at what was on the disk.
Information about Metroids galore. And highlighted was a snippet about Royce Felder and
the report about the Metroid attack 11 years ago.
"Royce Felder...that name rings a bell. Wasn't she the person that I was told to
locate and return to the Federation?" Houston shook his head and Ridley tried to sit comfortably
on Samus' couch.
"Y...yes. You said that aside of giving the hatchling to B.S.L., the mission was a
failure. You couldn't find Royce and the hatchling was still a Metroid, so..."
"This couch is too small." Samus looks at Ridley and then back to the display.
"It says here that Royce was never attacked by any of the Metroids. She sent the report
and then vanished." Ridley fell asleep sitting down while Samus pored over the data that was on
the disk.
-------------------
"And Keaton wants us to WHAT?!" Samus looked at Hardy, livid with frustration.
"He wants you to try to find Royce...again...but this time should be easier, right? You
have Houston and Ridley to accompany you." Samus looked around for something to throw, but
instead goes to don her Power Suit, seeing that Houston was already inside his before she got
back to thier quarters.
"Well, if he says so, he says so...and I can only think of one place to look first.
Somewhere around SR388. Probably Chauda Station first, which orbits the planet." Samus, Ridley,
and Houston head for Samus' ship and have an uneventful flight until halfway to SR388, a Lirran
salvage vessel asked for clearance. And that was red tape to get tangled into.
-------------------
A woman walks along an open area on the surface of the planet SR388. Her red hair
reached in flat strands to her shoulders as she looks up at the many little blobs of X floating
around. Ever since all the Metroids of SR388 were gone, the X began a massive population
explosion. And she knew that the X were far worse that Metroids. They would disrupt and then
mimic an ecosystem. She also knew that B.S.L. would pick onto the intensified bio-activity and
investigate. But the little 'present' that she left for the X before reaching the surface would
hopefully stem the tide and re-regulate the planet. An X sails straight at her thinking that she
wasn't what its mortal enemy was. Catching and then squeezing the X, it seemed to be absorbed
into her. She then lets off a laugh, sinister and frozen as the vacuum of space. She was
Royce Felder, Queen Metroid.
The lavender-skinned messenger walks up to Samus and Houston as though trying to be
sneaky, and bellows out loud.
"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
Samus and Houston jump, startled, and both hit the messenger in the face. The messenger
gets up and grumbles.
"Ugh...is this how you'll continue to treat The Kefka? You know, I'll always
make a surprise appearance." Samus crosses her arms.
"Bounty Hunters are meant to be jumpy. You never know when there's a gun at your back."
Kefka laughs.
"Gun? Samus, I'm a loose cannon!" Just then, Kefka turns into a cannon and fires a
large iron ball at Ridley, who turns to face it too late and gets hit in the stomach again.
(Poor Ridley.) "Ggh...VELVET SLIDING TROMBONES!!!" Kefka reverts to her normal form and hands
Samus a disk. "From the Chairman. He says that you three are to see the contents of that disk
the moment that you all get home...and...sorry about that, Ridley." Ridley could only manage a
moan while rubbing his stomach. Kefka disappears in a poof and a cracking noise.
"Hey, Houston? Why not check that while I take Ridley to Old Bird? Catch us up when we
get back." Houston shrugs as they go thier separate ways. Samus knocks on the door to Gul'Gen's
chamber on the station and waits for it to open. Nothing. She knocks again. Nothing.
Raps "Shave and a Haircut" on the door. Bangs two times. And then stops.
"Wait...Samus, can't you hear him meditating?" Samus looks up at Ridley.
"Huh?" She puts an ear to the door and hears a meditation chant, sure enough. But a
moment later, she turns to face Ridley and the door slides open. "Well, that answered how we're
going to get to him."
"You mor gur goy fie die tsao...you mor gur goy fie die tsao...you mor gur goy fie die
tsao..." Gul'Gen chants while in a cross-legged sitting pose, floating in the air.
"Old Bird?" WHAP! Samus gets hit on the head by Gul'Gen's cane as it floats to him.
He grabs the cane and stands using it as a support. "Old Bird, have you been-"
"Yes, trying to look into other situations, but something just keeps drawing me to a
batty old chi wizard...one more thing...oops, uh...why is Ridley with you?" Samus looks back to
see Ridley standing in the doorway.
"Well...I was wondering if I had accidentally jinxed him during the tournament. I
punched him in the stomach and since then he's been hit there three times." Old Bird twiddles
with part of his moustache. "And hit there hard, too."
"...Hmmmm...no, Samus-san. You didn't jinx Ridley, he just had a sharp stroke of bad
luck...which you somehow predicted. Your blow to him there was light, right?"
"Yes." Samus had it click now.
"Which means that you knew that he was going to suffer far worse there than he expected."
"Oh. If that's all, then we'll be on our-"
"One more thing." Samus stifled a chuckle. "Watch out for metroids." This last bit
shocked and at the same time confused Samus. She was busy wondering what he meant when they
both went into Samus and Houston's chambers, Samus watching Houston look at the display in
horror. She walked up to the display to take a closer look at what was on the disk.
Information about Metroids galore. And highlighted was a snippet about Royce Felder and
the report about the Metroid attack 11 years ago.
"Royce Felder...that name rings a bell. Wasn't she the person that I was told to
locate and return to the Federation?" Houston shook his head and Ridley tried to sit comfortably
on Samus' couch.
"Y...yes. You said that aside of giving the hatchling to B.S.L., the mission was a
failure. You couldn't find Royce and the hatchling was still a Metroid, so..."
"This couch is too small." Samus looks at Ridley and then back to the display.
"It says here that Royce was never attacked by any of the Metroids. She sent the report
and then vanished." Ridley fell asleep sitting down while Samus pored over the data that was on
the disk.
-------------------
"And Keaton wants us to WHAT?!" Samus looked at Hardy, livid with frustration.
"He wants you to try to find Royce...again...but this time should be easier, right? You
have Houston and Ridley to accompany you." Samus looked around for something to throw, but
instead goes to don her Power Suit, seeing that Houston was already inside his before she got
back to thier quarters.
"Well, if he says so, he says so...and I can only think of one place to look first.
Somewhere around SR388. Probably Chauda Station first, which orbits the planet." Samus, Ridley,
and Houston head for Samus' ship and have an uneventful flight until halfway to SR388, a Lirran
salvage vessel asked for clearance. And that was red tape to get tangled into.
-------------------
A woman walks along an open area on the surface of the planet SR388. Her red hair
reached in flat strands to her shoulders as she looks up at the many little blobs of X floating
around. Ever since all the Metroids of SR388 were gone, the X began a massive population
explosion. And she knew that the X were far worse that Metroids. They would disrupt and then
mimic an ecosystem. She also knew that B.S.L. would pick onto the intensified bio-activity and
investigate. But the little 'present' that she left for the X before reaching the surface would
hopefully stem the tide and re-regulate the planet. An X sails straight at her thinking that she
wasn't what its mortal enemy was. Catching and then squeezing the X, it seemed to be absorbed
into her. She then lets off a laugh, sinister and frozen as the vacuum of space. She was
Royce Felder, Queen Metroid.