Samus glances up from her glass. The nanomachines within her helmet begin scanning the bar for familiar energy signatures. Finding none, Samus sighs and snatches up her drink. Swirling the amber colored liquid around a few times, she downs the contents quickly. Closing her mouth piece, she pushes away from the bar and exits the building.
Unbeknownst to her, one of the six or so patrons present at the time cracks a smile.
"The legendary bounty hunter. This should be quite fun." Slamming back his shot of burbon, he puts his hand over his head, leans back and lets out a rumbling laugh that unnerves the other occupants of the bar.
"Are you certain master?" James looks up from his meal of rice and bell pepper.
"Of course. This is why you've been trained in such arts." The elderly man rises slowly to his feet. Popping his neck, he quickly cups his hands and draws them to his side. "Block it," he says calmly, collecting energy within his palm. The dark energy forms into a sphere. Thrusting his hands forward, the energy flies forwad. Shadow, without dropping his bowl, backhands the blast away. In the distance it impacts with the ground, sending shockwaves with enough force to uproot a nearby tree.
"Any more questions?" Shadow shakes his head and James smiles.
Samus removes her armor and stows it beneath the queen sized bed of her hotel room. Exhausted from her extensive thirty six hour search for leads on the shadow warriors she fought as soon as she had landed here, she plops down on her bed. Clad only in her underwear, she does not even bother pulling the covers up.
"You should be more careful Miss Samus," calls out a voice. Quickly, Samus rolls off of the bed and shoves her arm under the bed where she can grab hold of her plasma rifle attachment.
"That won't be necessary. Beside I don't think it would even be effective. I'm just here to issue you a simple message. My employer wishes for you to stay out of his affairs. Imagine that your assailants do not exist. Whatever eases your curiousity. If not, then next time we meet, it will be no where as pleasant as this encounter." Smiling, the man dressed in a full length hunter green trenchcoat turns his back on her and exits through the front door. Samus, still clinging to her weapon, scrunches up her nose.
"As if you could stop me."
Shadow, with the aid of a space ship on loan by Drago Corporations, travels silently through the vast void of space. His destination, Sine 8, a small planet that for the most part serves as an intergalacitic rest stop. The automatic navigation program pilots the craft flawlessly, allowing for Shadow to meditate on the current dilemna afflicting the three powers.
Samus, attired in a pair of red slacks, white t-shirt and red vest, slides a pair of pumps over her feet. Looking outside her window, the faintest hint of sunlight catches her attention. Being the hunter that she is, her plan involved her leaving before morning's first light. But this time was as good as any. Reaching into her vest pockets, she practices sliding her fingers through the grooves of her power knuckles. The brass knuckle like apparatuses allowed for six charged particle blasts each and were inconspicously small, allowing them to be carried in a pocket as she now does. Content with her reaction time, she runs a comb through her hair a few times and lets it fall about her ears. Stepping out, she flicks the light off and locks the door.
Shadow's eyes open as the mechanical hiss of the cockpits door signifies that he has arrived. The door slides to the side allowing Shadow access to the cabin where the main doors are located. Stepping off of the foot or so high ledge, he marvels at how temperate the weather feels despite the intense amount of sunlight currently blinding him. Taking a few steps forward, he stops abruptly and turns to his left.
"Blinx," he murmurs.
"One and the same," the animoporphic mammal responds. Suddenly, Blinx is upon Shadow, hammering blow after blow upon the skilled fighter. However, few of them even make contact with Shadow's blocking forearms, let alone any other body part.
"Okay, guess we'll have to get creative then." Blinx begins moving incredibly fast, blurring in and out of Shadow's vision. Soon, Shadow cannot even see the blur. His speed is amazing. I can detect he is here, but Where. Suddenly, Shadow is doubled over with a kick to the midsection. A punch to the jaw turns his head and causes him to skid back a few inches. Shadow attempts to retalitate, but his strikes, no matter how quickly he throws them, seem to slow down just before reaching their target. Moments before impact, Blinx not only avoids the punch or kick, he sidesteps it, looks at it, does a little dance, moves back in front of the attack, and avoids it with a quick jerk of the neck. Impossible! Shadow's mind screams just before he blocks high and winds up with the effect of four punches to his stomach. Staggering back, he blinks back the white spots begining to cloud his vision.
"I could do this all day. Matter of fact, let's have a replay of that." Suddenly, Shadow finds himself flat on his back. Just as Blinx had told him, the entire scene was replayed. But unlike a video being rewound and sped back up, he feels all of the hits for the second time.
"Let's make it a trifecta." Once again, the scene replays, and Shadow has a difficult time clinging to consciousness at its culmination.
An hour has passed and Samus is no closer to finding her mysterious visitor. All the bars in the area she had been in the previous night were deserted, many of which closed until later that night. Taking a seat on a bench, she fishes out her pocket computer and downloads files from UWW.Bounty.com and combs through them in an attempt to discover the identity of the man. The cursor stops on one profile, but not that of the one she desires. Moments from closing it, she stops.
"Maybe I need a little hunt to sharpen the skills." The file details the crimes and bounty on Blinx, as well as his extraordinary gift over time itself. It also states that he is in this area of the galaxy, the bit of info that stopped her from ignoring the file. Shoving the computer back into her pocket, she runs the entire distance back to her hotel room.
Blinx grabs Shadow by the hair and stares into his eyes.
"And the big man said this one would be difficult." Underestimating the reserves of the mysterious fighter, he is caught off guard with a quick punch to the throat. Grasping his injured throat, he find his body falling to the ground as a side kick to the chin lifts him an inch or so from the soil. Unrelentless, Shadow dashes forward.
"Shadow!" he yells, black energy crackling around his clenched fist. Blinx, his chin bruised, notices the build up and focuses his energies on avoiding the attack. "Strike!" yells the fighter as he drives his fist towards the fallen creature. An explosion proceeded by an immense dust cloud rocks the entire area around them. Thought I had him there, Shadow admonishes himself, wrenching his fist from the wrist deep hole he caused within the deeper crevice created by the explosion. As the dust clears, he looks up from his four foot hole fissure. Standing just inches away is Blinx.
"Perhaps this won't be as easy as I thought." As the words leave his mouth, he feels an intense, searing pain in his lower back. Falling forward, he smashes his faces into the hardened soil of the battlefield. Writhing in pain, he lets out a tortured scream as pain burns away all rational thought.
Shadow looks up and finds Samus, arm cannon still leveled and smoking.
"What a waste of talent," she remarks, lowering the weapon and advancing towards the two of them. She turns Blinx over and finds his temples dilated. "He'll live. But I'm taking him in for the bounty."
"As you wish Miss Samus."
"Why does everyone keep calling me that? I'm just Samus. I don't like titles."
"My apologies." He bows to her. "I have come in search of you." She levels her weapon at him. "Did I say something to offend you?"
"Why are you searching for me?"
"Because, you may hold the key to stopping whatever is threatening the three powers."
"I'm listening."
End of Episode Four
PREVIEW OF NEXT EPISODE
Sonic makes a recovery, but something is not quite right with the sapphire hued hero. Especially when he attacks Tails.