Chapter 3: RO
Following too close for comfort, Ned made several more reports on Samus' abilities (wall-jumping surprised him, the physics involved were complex). Ted mumbled about getting passed-out-on-the-floor drunk after this ordeal, so he could forget it. Intoxicating substances were always prohibited on HYMY-734, but now that he had no commanding officer or barracks, Ted would do as he pleased.
"Where did she go?"
Not again, Ted thought. That Human/Chozo/Metroid/X female was sneakier than a Shadow Pirate.
"Oh, there."
Part of the wall in front of them was shimmering. It became solid after a few seconds.
"The hell? Why does a research lab need holographic walls?"
"X-Ray Visor intact," Ned reported gloomily, then, "It's a restricted area, and if I know anything about restricted areas, it will have some deadly trap or the other."
"Oh, a ray of light you are," Ted complained, but followed.
Darkness. Ted clicked open his suitcase and the Plazmite flew out, hungrily searching for a heat source. By its glow, they made out a fifty-foot wide circular hole in the metal floor before them, dropping down to infinity. A huge winch sat on their right, its hook suspended over the hole. The walls were covered with blank monitors and large bits of machinery sticking out here and there, all the way up to the featureless ceiling. The machines looked like deadly armaments, usually found on warships.
Samus was on the opposite end of the chasm, silhouetted redly in the Plazmite light and staring directly at them.
"Ah…!"
"Sh!" warned Ned, "Let's back up, slowly, maybe she won't…"
Ted knocked him to the floor and a diffusion missile, spitting cold blue exhaust, sped over their heads and out of the holographic entrance.
"You were saying?" muttered Ted, and, forgetting his suitcase, grabbed Ned and began to drag him toward the entrance.
While Samus thought of firing another missile (those two look pathetic. They just want to get away, but they're still Space Pirates) the floor trembled and she hopped backward, away from the hole in the floor.
Something huge, black and ugly shot out of the hole and snapped the Plazmite right out of the air with a resounding crunch. The monitors hummed into sudden life all around the hideous creature as it flapped black wings, airborne. Red warning lights silently flashed everywhere, illuminating the thing.
"My Plazmite! And, what in Space is that?" cried Ted.
"Those fools went through with it!" Ned shouted angrily as the thing breathed heavily and glared around at the monitors, "They've made a Ridley/Metroid hybrid!"
Samus was fascinated. Its head, wings and tail were Ridley's, but its chest glowed like an Omega Metroid's. Closer scrutiny with her Scan visor revealed throbbing, dark red veins covering the black scaly hide of the Ridley/Metroid.
"New data entry: Ridley Omega. A hybrid of Omega Metroid and Ridley DNA. Extreme caution is advised."
Ridley Omega, beating the still air with his wings, snorted and turned to Samus. Its jaws opened, and a second set of jaws, those of an Omega Metroid, popped out and lunged toward her. Samus jumped and the jaws crunched into the floor. Ice Beams hit the extendable Metroid jaws and Ridley Omega screamed.
"Vulnerable to ice," Samus completed her Scan visor entry.
Ned and Ted sat against their end of the wall and gaped.
Withdrawing his frozen Metroid jaws, RO breathed flames at Samus. She countered with a sustained ice beam that nearly overloaded her arm cannon. The flames neutralized, she shot an ice missile into the still-open maw. RO swallowed it and the light of his glowing chest became dimmer. He wavered and landed on top of the winch, right next to Ned and Ted. They jumped up and ran to the other side of the room as the machine splintered and snapped beneath RO's weight.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Not if it eats us," replied Ned. RO had blocked the holographic entrance/exit with his bulk so they just needed to get out of the way for now and hope the bounty hunter killed it, or else, RO would eat them.
Samus leaped onto the firing mechanism of a cannon, set high on the wall, and peppered RO's Metroid chest with ice beams. Ineffective. RO spat a fireball at her and she jumped to another wall cannon. Her arm cannon was blazing blue energy.
"What's she gonna do?" wondered Ted.
"You know, it's no use asking questions to which the answer will be apparent," grumbled Ned. They were depending on their mortal enemy, and he had to put up with additional stupidity besides.
RO opened his mouth…
Samus fired off a fully charged diffusion missile…
When RO gulped it down, the shock of sub-zero ice spreading throughout his internal organs forced him to land. He perched opposite the two Pirates and made horrible choking sounds. Samus readied another missile.
"It's dying," mourned Ted.
Ned noticed that the exit was unblocked. He motioned silently and the two Pirates snuck toward their escape.
RO retched and tried to breathe. He generated a fireball, and felt some of the pain melt away. Samus noticed his chest area regaining its glow.
"Oh, no, you don't!"
As the fireball grew larger and RO's jaws parted, Samus released the charged missile. The fireball exploded blue, and RO's maw was encased in ice. He could not breathe. He stumbled about, gasping dryly and flapping his wings. Samus made her last Scan entry.
"Fatal flaw in RO structure: Oxygen is needed in vast quantities to sustain energy levels."
Ridley Omega staggered, screeched and fell into the floor chasm. Samus saw him fall far, far downward with her Thermal visor before he disappeared.
Predictably, alarms joined the flashing red monitors. Samus translated what one of them read:
"ALT-F4 FACILITY COMPROMISED. SELF DESTRUCT IN 1:00"
One minute. They really wanted to kill her.
***
Ned and Ted were a kilometer above ground when the research facility melted down. Thousands of acres of rock and metal flew into the atmosphere; the shockwave sent their small pod hurtling far into Space.
"That was fun," muttered Ned as the craft stabilized.
"What of the Hunter?"
"Let's hope for the best."
He turned to the tiny control panel. Central Command went for economy of scale in their escape pods.
"Set course: Beta Quadrant, Sector 4."
"Huh? That's not Central Command."
Ned grinned as only a Space Pirate could.
"I've changed my mind. We're going to Scoria!"