Chapter Three : Tranquil Green
Her whole body was taut beneath the blanket, fear and nausea battling for her attention. Inside her bedroom it was dark, except for the faint sliver of light that crept beneath the door. Caught by the few strands of white that slipped along the floor and onto the walls, her teddy bear kept solitary watch over her, its dark eyes glinting with an almost malevolent glow.
Fearfully, she tried to quieten her breathing, to calm the frantic rhythm of heart and lungs. If she didn't, if she made too much noise then they would come and then... it didn't even bear thinking about.
For some, incalculable, perioid of time she lay there, hovering in a place that was almost sleep but was devoid of dreams or peace. Instead she watched the shadows dance across the walls and tracked the shapes that flitted in the darkness behind her eyelids. Then she heard them, heard them outside her door.
It ws the metal boots that gave them away, the added weight making the floor boards sing a crazy, hectic hymn of horror. Then she saw two dark shapes blot the light beneath the door and she knew that they stood outside her door. Closing her eyes, she tugged the blanket higher, hoping that for once that they would move past her door. But they never did, and they didn't this time.
Slowly the door opened, each squeak of the hinge a scream that she wished she could make. But if she screamed then mommy and daddy would come and then they would get them. So she squirmed deeper into the bed and shut her eyes so tight that tears almost came to them.
A moment later she heard their footsteps across her floor and heard their breath above her blanket and she knew that if she opened her eyes, if she just opened them even a little that she would see them. And if hearing them was bad, if hearing made her feel like she was already dead then she knew, she just knew that seeing them would be a thousand times worse.
Yet against her will she felt her eyes opening as a clawed, inhuman hand ran through her hair. Please, she thought, please, please, please go away. Just a fraction, that's all, but it was enough for her to see them.
They stood tall as men, but far more threateningly. Their legs bent oddly at the knees and their arms were long and gangly, but it was the face, the face behind the mask that made her scream and scream and scream. It was not human. The eyes were glittering facets of compound brilliance, antennae protrude from the forhead and worst of all the mouth, no teeth in it at all but a strange, insectoid hole that gaped like an open wood from discoloured inhuman flesh.
Grinning, they bent over her and whispered her name before stretching out one claw-like hand and running it down her cheek. Tears trickling down her face she sucked in a deep, terror fuelled breath and-
====
Samus awoke with a dazed groan, her battered body betraying her as she tried to sit up and push aside the heavy steel plate on top of her. Instead she felt tendrils of agony race down her right arm and lance into her skull, her vision blurring from the sheer, mind numbing pain. Then, when she heard the broken ends of her forearm grate against each other she almost retched.
Slumping back to the ground, she took a few deep, heavy breaths trying to calm her racing heart. Slowly, her pulse and breathing returned to normal and she squirmed around until it she could push on the steel plate with her left arm. It tumbled off her with a hollow clang and she took hold of a nearby console to pull herself to her feet.
At first the room swayed and she blinked several times to clear the haziness from her vision. Finally, she began to walk, a cumbersome, shuffling gate that was a testament to the scores of bruises that marred her body beneath the suit. Inside her visor a brief display sprang up, stating the damage to both her body and the suit itself.
Her grapple beam, morph ball, charge up beam and missile launcher were all disabled. In its desire to save her life, the organic part of the suit had destroyed all nonessential systems, diverting all power to sustaining the suit's armour. Unfortunately though the suit had managed to keep her alive, it had overloaded and she'd lost both varia and gravity suit capabilities as well.
What worried her more though was the sorry condition she was in. Extensive bruising to virtually every part of her body, a broken right arm and several hair line fractures in her other limbs meant that even moving was painful. Somehow she had to get to a power source for with adequate power the suit would be able to restore most of its functions as well as begin accelerating her healing.
With a grimace she staggered out of the almost totally destroyed ship and took stock of her surroundings. The ship had crashed on a large plateau, perhaps five kilometres across, that overlooked a vast, seemingly limitless expanse of lush green forest. At the base of the plateau she could see a river, wide and fast flowing, that wound its way through the maze of green before emptying into an enormous lake some ten kilometres to her north.
Switching her scan visor on she activated a long neglected search pattern, letting the suit project tenuous strands of energy to the distant horizon. Almost immediately the scan visor found what it sought, a large, relatively stable source of energy. Automatically cycling into magnification mode, her visor zoomed in on the lake, revealing a large, seemingly abandoned metal structure on a small island in the middle.
Interesting, she thought, willing the magnification of the visor to increase until she could clearly make out the Galactic Federation insignia on the structure's walls. Unbidden, a series of readings popped into her vision. The power source was a standard, Galactic Federation fusion generator, more than adequate for her needs and was located no more than thirty metres below the ground.
I have to get there, otherwise... she ran her left hand across her right arm and winced, I'm in a lot of trouble.
A few minutes later she had made her way over to the edge of the plateau, and found herself looking down a nearly vertical sheet of porous rock about a hundred metres in height. Normally she'd be able to scale it with ease but in her condition she'd have to be careful. As she lowered herself over the edge she made a few last adjustments, diverting power to her right arm and retracting the arm cannon.
With agonising caution she made her way down the rock face. There were times, many times when her hands slipped, the sleek metal of her suit finding little purchase in the rock or sliding off moist, overgrown moss. More than once she had to stifle a scream as the loose rock gave way beneath her. Finally though she reached the bottom, and panting knelt to take a few moments rest.
Just a few hundred metres ahead of her she could see the swiftly moving waters of the river and with a dogged determination she stumbled over to it. Beside the river, the ground was moist, rich black sand and her metal boots sank deeply into it, leaving her with little choice but to retreat back onto the harder soil of the forest.
For a while she simply walked alongside the river, content to let its melodic bubbling soothe her jagged nerves. Listening to it, she tried to focus not on the dull, throbbing and insistent pain that shot through her whole body, but on the ground in front of her, taking the ten kilometre walk one step at a time.
Some time later, she couldn't be sure how long she'd been walking, only that her thighs had begun to ache and cramp, she heard a rustle from the trees. With instinctive speed she whirled to face the forest, her arm cannon at the ready. Damn it, she thought, studying the forest's edge and the deep empty shadows cast by the massive trees of the canopy, there's no way I can see anything.
She had just begun to turn away when she felt, rather than saw something flying at her. Blindly, she twisted to the right, feeling something large and powerful spear beneath her arm and strike the sand by the river's edge with stunning force.
A faint hiss drew her attention, and she saw what it was that had so nearly struck her. It was long and serpentine, its five metre long body rippling with hardened, shimmering scales. Upon its head, two diamond like eyes studied her, flickering from her arm cannon to her visor with malicious intelligence.
Inside her visor, the suit's inbuilt memory kicked in, displaying part of the data she'd managed to steal from the cruiser before she'd crashed.
'Creature identified.' The voice was the robotic drone of the original power suit, rather than the vibrant, passion suffused diction of the fusion infused suit. 'The Creeper is a large, reptile, bearing a remarkable aesthetic and anatomical resemblance to the snake. Though able to engage only in melee combat and lacking any venom, the Creeper's tough scales and enormous physical strength means that it should be approached with caution.'
Almost as though it had been waiting for the morphology report to finish, the Creeper coiled itself into a spring, its whole body tensed and ready. In an instant it sprang and before Samus could fire she found herself face to face with the reptile as it wrapped its great length around her and began to squeeze.
Ignoring the pain in her right arm, she wedged the arm cannon between her chest and the Creeper, using her left hand to reach for its head. Hissing once more, the Creeper tightened its coils and she groaned, her back arching in agony before her hand found its head and clenching tightly, shattered its skull. Immediately, the body went slack and with a relieved sigh she tossed it aside.
Gazing back into the brooding forest she decided that maybe, maybe trudging in the mud would be safer than straying too near the trees. With that thought in mind she resumed walking, cradling her right arm in her left.
About an hour later the river began to broaden, the fast flow slowing to little more than a trickle as the lake unfurled before her like a sail in the wind. Despite the danger the forest presented, she found herself lost in its beauty for a moment. The lake was almost perfectly circular, its edge lined with a broad belt of black sand and ringed with verdant greenery. In its shining, almost crystalline depths, she saw her reflection, noting with a wry smile the sorry state of her suit.
Activating the scan visor again she located an access control panel on the other side of the lake, and realising that there was no way she could swim across in her current condition, resolved to reach it. The sand by the lake's edge was firmer than by the river's and so in a few short minutes she'd reached the panel and after a bit of tinkering she was rewarded with a quiet hum as it sprang to life.
When she turned her eyes back to the lake she was stunned to see a huge, dark shape rising from its depths. Long, and thin it was too regular to be an animal and as it rose still higher she realised it was the silhouette of a narrow bridge between the shore and the facility. After a few moments the bridge had risen to the surface and locked into place with a resounding clank, small red lights activating along its length.
She had taken no more than three steps towards it when once more she had the impression of something, large and muscled hurtling towards her. This time though, she was too slow and was sent tumbling through the sand, sending up thick plumes of ebony dust as she came to rest on her back.
Sitting up quickly she studied her attacker with practised ease. It was a large feline, with fur the colour of a moonless night. Beneath its fur, muscles rippled smoothly, the beast's whole form seemingly imbued with barely repressed strength. On her visor its name sprang up : Serinor. It gave her precious little time to analyse it though as it attacked again, its glinting claws catching the dim light of the dusk sun.
Desperately, she rolled to the left, lashing out with one metal boot and gratified by the dull thunk of metal on flesh. With a snarl the big cat loped away, putting some distance between them as it began to circle. Bit by bit, she inched away from it, until at last the narrow bridge was directly behind her.
As it leapt once more she swung with one armoured fist and sent it sprawling. Then she was off and running towards the bridge, her footfalls ringing out with metallic clarity as her gait shifted from a narrow walk to a wide, somehow graceful run. But the cat was not idle and the Serinor had not reached the top of the food chain by giving up easily.
It followed her onto the bridge and slowly but surely it gained on her till it was little more than a half step behind her. Once again she felt its sleek, streamlined body rise behind her but this time she was ready and she spun, swiping at it with her left arm. She struck it soundly but it clung to her, sinking its teeth into the armour.
Suppressing a scream as its weight put pressure on several bruises, she tried to shake it off. When that failed she shoved the arm cannon into its face and fired. Instantly the energy took effect, the fur vaporising in a hot, bitter red spray as the underlying bone fragmented and was blasted away.
Falling onto her haunches she crawled away before taking hold of the railing on the bridge and getting to her feet again. A moment later she was at the end of the bridge, a single, solid bedezium elevator door in front of her.
Taking one last look at the downed animal she activated the doors and stepped inside the elevator, her nose crinkling as the stale, dead air filtered into her suit. Outside the air was rent with howls as the forest came to life.
Night was coming soon and with it something tall and terrible, something that stalked the dark, lonely places between the trees. Something that was at the lake's edge waiting for its prey. And as the elevator reached the bottom, the sun dipped just below the horizon, painting the lake a gentle blood red.
====
Author's Notes And Legal Disclaimer
All the material that preceded this legally belongs to Nintendo. I can claim nothing here, except the situation that I have put Samus in :). So, please don't sue me - besides I don't have any money :).
Now it's time for me to answer a few of the questions you probably have. Firstly, if Samus has a broken arm and extensive bruising, how is she still functional? Simply put Samus is not human. She has been infused with the X- virus, phazon, metroid DNA and Chozo blood. All of this leads me to believe that she has inhuman strength. Also, in my opinion, the biological fusing of the suit with her means that while wearing it, she is able to survive injuries that would normally kill her. Finally, the suit runs off pure energy, and because it is biomechanical once it has enough energy, it will first repair itself then repair Samus, which is why she is venturing into the facility.
Finally, please, please, please, please ( well you get the picture ) review. There is nothing that makes me writes faster ( except maybe too much coffee ) than reviews. Heck, feel free to email me at phantom_typist@yahoo.com.au.
Yeah, and to all those people who have reviewed : THANKS!!!!
Her whole body was taut beneath the blanket, fear and nausea battling for her attention. Inside her bedroom it was dark, except for the faint sliver of light that crept beneath the door. Caught by the few strands of white that slipped along the floor and onto the walls, her teddy bear kept solitary watch over her, its dark eyes glinting with an almost malevolent glow.
Fearfully, she tried to quieten her breathing, to calm the frantic rhythm of heart and lungs. If she didn't, if she made too much noise then they would come and then... it didn't even bear thinking about.
For some, incalculable, perioid of time she lay there, hovering in a place that was almost sleep but was devoid of dreams or peace. Instead she watched the shadows dance across the walls and tracked the shapes that flitted in the darkness behind her eyelids. Then she heard them, heard them outside her door.
It ws the metal boots that gave them away, the added weight making the floor boards sing a crazy, hectic hymn of horror. Then she saw two dark shapes blot the light beneath the door and she knew that they stood outside her door. Closing her eyes, she tugged the blanket higher, hoping that for once that they would move past her door. But they never did, and they didn't this time.
Slowly the door opened, each squeak of the hinge a scream that she wished she could make. But if she screamed then mommy and daddy would come and then they would get them. So she squirmed deeper into the bed and shut her eyes so tight that tears almost came to them.
A moment later she heard their footsteps across her floor and heard their breath above her blanket and she knew that if she opened her eyes, if she just opened them even a little that she would see them. And if hearing them was bad, if hearing made her feel like she was already dead then she knew, she just knew that seeing them would be a thousand times worse.
Yet against her will she felt her eyes opening as a clawed, inhuman hand ran through her hair. Please, she thought, please, please, please go away. Just a fraction, that's all, but it was enough for her to see them.
They stood tall as men, but far more threateningly. Their legs bent oddly at the knees and their arms were long and gangly, but it was the face, the face behind the mask that made her scream and scream and scream. It was not human. The eyes were glittering facets of compound brilliance, antennae protrude from the forhead and worst of all the mouth, no teeth in it at all but a strange, insectoid hole that gaped like an open wood from discoloured inhuman flesh.
Grinning, they bent over her and whispered her name before stretching out one claw-like hand and running it down her cheek. Tears trickling down her face she sucked in a deep, terror fuelled breath and-
====
Samus awoke with a dazed groan, her battered body betraying her as she tried to sit up and push aside the heavy steel plate on top of her. Instead she felt tendrils of agony race down her right arm and lance into her skull, her vision blurring from the sheer, mind numbing pain. Then, when she heard the broken ends of her forearm grate against each other she almost retched.
Slumping back to the ground, she took a few deep, heavy breaths trying to calm her racing heart. Slowly, her pulse and breathing returned to normal and she squirmed around until it she could push on the steel plate with her left arm. It tumbled off her with a hollow clang and she took hold of a nearby console to pull herself to her feet.
At first the room swayed and she blinked several times to clear the haziness from her vision. Finally, she began to walk, a cumbersome, shuffling gate that was a testament to the scores of bruises that marred her body beneath the suit. Inside her visor a brief display sprang up, stating the damage to both her body and the suit itself.
Her grapple beam, morph ball, charge up beam and missile launcher were all disabled. In its desire to save her life, the organic part of the suit had destroyed all nonessential systems, diverting all power to sustaining the suit's armour. Unfortunately though the suit had managed to keep her alive, it had overloaded and she'd lost both varia and gravity suit capabilities as well.
What worried her more though was the sorry condition she was in. Extensive bruising to virtually every part of her body, a broken right arm and several hair line fractures in her other limbs meant that even moving was painful. Somehow she had to get to a power source for with adequate power the suit would be able to restore most of its functions as well as begin accelerating her healing.
With a grimace she staggered out of the almost totally destroyed ship and took stock of her surroundings. The ship had crashed on a large plateau, perhaps five kilometres across, that overlooked a vast, seemingly limitless expanse of lush green forest. At the base of the plateau she could see a river, wide and fast flowing, that wound its way through the maze of green before emptying into an enormous lake some ten kilometres to her north.
Switching her scan visor on she activated a long neglected search pattern, letting the suit project tenuous strands of energy to the distant horizon. Almost immediately the scan visor found what it sought, a large, relatively stable source of energy. Automatically cycling into magnification mode, her visor zoomed in on the lake, revealing a large, seemingly abandoned metal structure on a small island in the middle.
Interesting, she thought, willing the magnification of the visor to increase until she could clearly make out the Galactic Federation insignia on the structure's walls. Unbidden, a series of readings popped into her vision. The power source was a standard, Galactic Federation fusion generator, more than adequate for her needs and was located no more than thirty metres below the ground.
I have to get there, otherwise... she ran her left hand across her right arm and winced, I'm in a lot of trouble.
A few minutes later she had made her way over to the edge of the plateau, and found herself looking down a nearly vertical sheet of porous rock about a hundred metres in height. Normally she'd be able to scale it with ease but in her condition she'd have to be careful. As she lowered herself over the edge she made a few last adjustments, diverting power to her right arm and retracting the arm cannon.
With agonising caution she made her way down the rock face. There were times, many times when her hands slipped, the sleek metal of her suit finding little purchase in the rock or sliding off moist, overgrown moss. More than once she had to stifle a scream as the loose rock gave way beneath her. Finally though she reached the bottom, and panting knelt to take a few moments rest.
Just a few hundred metres ahead of her she could see the swiftly moving waters of the river and with a dogged determination she stumbled over to it. Beside the river, the ground was moist, rich black sand and her metal boots sank deeply into it, leaving her with little choice but to retreat back onto the harder soil of the forest.
For a while she simply walked alongside the river, content to let its melodic bubbling soothe her jagged nerves. Listening to it, she tried to focus not on the dull, throbbing and insistent pain that shot through her whole body, but on the ground in front of her, taking the ten kilometre walk one step at a time.
Some time later, she couldn't be sure how long she'd been walking, only that her thighs had begun to ache and cramp, she heard a rustle from the trees. With instinctive speed she whirled to face the forest, her arm cannon at the ready. Damn it, she thought, studying the forest's edge and the deep empty shadows cast by the massive trees of the canopy, there's no way I can see anything.
She had just begun to turn away when she felt, rather than saw something flying at her. Blindly, she twisted to the right, feeling something large and powerful spear beneath her arm and strike the sand by the river's edge with stunning force.
A faint hiss drew her attention, and she saw what it was that had so nearly struck her. It was long and serpentine, its five metre long body rippling with hardened, shimmering scales. Upon its head, two diamond like eyes studied her, flickering from her arm cannon to her visor with malicious intelligence.
Inside her visor, the suit's inbuilt memory kicked in, displaying part of the data she'd managed to steal from the cruiser before she'd crashed.
'Creature identified.' The voice was the robotic drone of the original power suit, rather than the vibrant, passion suffused diction of the fusion infused suit. 'The Creeper is a large, reptile, bearing a remarkable aesthetic and anatomical resemblance to the snake. Though able to engage only in melee combat and lacking any venom, the Creeper's tough scales and enormous physical strength means that it should be approached with caution.'
Almost as though it had been waiting for the morphology report to finish, the Creeper coiled itself into a spring, its whole body tensed and ready. In an instant it sprang and before Samus could fire she found herself face to face with the reptile as it wrapped its great length around her and began to squeeze.
Ignoring the pain in her right arm, she wedged the arm cannon between her chest and the Creeper, using her left hand to reach for its head. Hissing once more, the Creeper tightened its coils and she groaned, her back arching in agony before her hand found its head and clenching tightly, shattered its skull. Immediately, the body went slack and with a relieved sigh she tossed it aside.
Gazing back into the brooding forest she decided that maybe, maybe trudging in the mud would be safer than straying too near the trees. With that thought in mind she resumed walking, cradling her right arm in her left.
About an hour later the river began to broaden, the fast flow slowing to little more than a trickle as the lake unfurled before her like a sail in the wind. Despite the danger the forest presented, she found herself lost in its beauty for a moment. The lake was almost perfectly circular, its edge lined with a broad belt of black sand and ringed with verdant greenery. In its shining, almost crystalline depths, she saw her reflection, noting with a wry smile the sorry state of her suit.
Activating the scan visor again she located an access control panel on the other side of the lake, and realising that there was no way she could swim across in her current condition, resolved to reach it. The sand by the lake's edge was firmer than by the river's and so in a few short minutes she'd reached the panel and after a bit of tinkering she was rewarded with a quiet hum as it sprang to life.
When she turned her eyes back to the lake she was stunned to see a huge, dark shape rising from its depths. Long, and thin it was too regular to be an animal and as it rose still higher she realised it was the silhouette of a narrow bridge between the shore and the facility. After a few moments the bridge had risen to the surface and locked into place with a resounding clank, small red lights activating along its length.
She had taken no more than three steps towards it when once more she had the impression of something, large and muscled hurtling towards her. This time though, she was too slow and was sent tumbling through the sand, sending up thick plumes of ebony dust as she came to rest on her back.
Sitting up quickly she studied her attacker with practised ease. It was a large feline, with fur the colour of a moonless night. Beneath its fur, muscles rippled smoothly, the beast's whole form seemingly imbued with barely repressed strength. On her visor its name sprang up : Serinor. It gave her precious little time to analyse it though as it attacked again, its glinting claws catching the dim light of the dusk sun.
Desperately, she rolled to the left, lashing out with one metal boot and gratified by the dull thunk of metal on flesh. With a snarl the big cat loped away, putting some distance between them as it began to circle. Bit by bit, she inched away from it, until at last the narrow bridge was directly behind her.
As it leapt once more she swung with one armoured fist and sent it sprawling. Then she was off and running towards the bridge, her footfalls ringing out with metallic clarity as her gait shifted from a narrow walk to a wide, somehow graceful run. But the cat was not idle and the Serinor had not reached the top of the food chain by giving up easily.
It followed her onto the bridge and slowly but surely it gained on her till it was little more than a half step behind her. Once again she felt its sleek, streamlined body rise behind her but this time she was ready and she spun, swiping at it with her left arm. She struck it soundly but it clung to her, sinking its teeth into the armour.
Suppressing a scream as its weight put pressure on several bruises, she tried to shake it off. When that failed she shoved the arm cannon into its face and fired. Instantly the energy took effect, the fur vaporising in a hot, bitter red spray as the underlying bone fragmented and was blasted away.
Falling onto her haunches she crawled away before taking hold of the railing on the bridge and getting to her feet again. A moment later she was at the end of the bridge, a single, solid bedezium elevator door in front of her.
Taking one last look at the downed animal she activated the doors and stepped inside the elevator, her nose crinkling as the stale, dead air filtered into her suit. Outside the air was rent with howls as the forest came to life.
Night was coming soon and with it something tall and terrible, something that stalked the dark, lonely places between the trees. Something that was at the lake's edge waiting for its prey. And as the elevator reached the bottom, the sun dipped just below the horizon, painting the lake a gentle blood red.
====
Author's Notes And Legal Disclaimer
All the material that preceded this legally belongs to Nintendo. I can claim nothing here, except the situation that I have put Samus in :). So, please don't sue me - besides I don't have any money :).
Now it's time for me to answer a few of the questions you probably have. Firstly, if Samus has a broken arm and extensive bruising, how is she still functional? Simply put Samus is not human. She has been infused with the X- virus, phazon, metroid DNA and Chozo blood. All of this leads me to believe that she has inhuman strength. Also, in my opinion, the biological fusing of the suit with her means that while wearing it, she is able to survive injuries that would normally kill her. Finally, the suit runs off pure energy, and because it is biomechanical once it has enough energy, it will first repair itself then repair Samus, which is why she is venturing into the facility.
Finally, please, please, please, please ( well you get the picture ) review. There is nothing that makes me writes faster ( except maybe too much coffee ) than reviews. Heck, feel free to email me at phantom_typist@yahoo.com.au.
Yeah, and to all those people who have reviewed : THANKS!!!!