Disclaimer: Samus Aran and Metroid are properties of Nintendo
The Three Bloods
Chapter 3
Houston fired from nearly point-blank range. Samus had no time to duck or cover, no time to fire back. So she did the only thing she could. With her free hand balled into a fist, she reached back and slammed a fierce backhand into the ball of energy.
There was a sharp crack as the energy crackled and veered off into the side of the cavern, blasting a crater into the fissure wall and causing a few hanging stalactites to fall to the floor.
"Warning. Moderate damage to left hand. Right hand shielding at 42%."
"You're dead," Samus hissed, ignoring Adam's caveat.
Houston raised both his smoking gun-arm and his free hand into the air in a placating manner. "Oi, oi!" he sputtered suddenly. "Don't take it so personally, luv. It's just business."
Electricity was still crackling on Samus's left hand and she waved at it dismissively. "You want personal?" she growled, and with a blast from her boots she rocketed into the air. As Houston watched with a stunned expression she pivoted her body in mid-air until she was directly over the other bounty hunter, toes up. Samus flexed her right hand and fired a series of concussive energy bolts straight down on Houston. Debris from the explosions ripped up from the ground as Houston raised his hands and moved his feet to protect himself. Just as the last bullet pierced the floor, Samus landed behind him and aimed her cannon.
"The ol' 'flash and dash', eh Samus?" Houston chortled, and with a speed that surprised even Samus, he turned and knocked her gun away just as she fired. The blast pummeled the wall and created another flash-crater in the side of the cavern. Houston Armstrong chuckled again. "Same old Samus," he said as he raised his gun, "Ever heard of 'once bitten, twice shy?'"
Samus knocked away his arm with a loud clank, and as she did Houston's free hand connected with a hard crush to the chest that sent her flying. She spun around head over heels in midair as she skid back, and when she righted herself Houston was right in front of her, and he nailed her with a second powered-up punch that sent her crashing straight through the cavern wall.
"Energy down to 95%"
With barely the time to recover from that assault Houston was on her again, blistering round after round of ammo towards her. Samus pirouetted to deflect the shots and boosted her jets away from Armstrong and to another position. She looked around and saw that she was in another cavern similar to the last one. According to Adam these caverns stretched for miles underground.
"You shouldn't be studying your environment when you're in a battle with such a tough enemy, my dear." Houston's voice drawled as he leveled his way down to the floor to face Samus evenly. "I wouldn't want to hurt you too badly. You see my employer simply asked to see you unconscious, not dearly departed."
Shaking her head in annoyance, Samus muttered loud enough for him to hear, "You see Armstrong, that's why you're possibly the dumbest shit alive."
Houston laughed. He had been used to her friendly and sometimes non-friendly jabbing at his character. He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh really, and why is that?"
Samus raised her left hand in the air and explained by lifting one finger. "One, you must always be aware of your environment, no matter who you're fighting or how bad the fight is going. Two," She lifted a second finger, "You're overestimating yourself when the fight is just starting."
Then she let her hand fall to her side and placed it on her hip. "And three…possibly the most asinine thing you've ever done in your whole sad life…you took a job with me as the target. I would have told them to keep the money…or gamble it. It probably would have been safer that way." She smiled at him, seemingly losing all of the rage she had just a moment ago. "If I were your mother, I'd slap you silly."
"As much as I might enjoy that," Houston started as he flared his back jets. The air underneath them rippled and distorted as the heat rose to high levels and the jets gained in energy. "I think you might be the one who's overestimate one's self!" And with that he blasted forward with tremendous momentum.
Samus didn't move an inch. She simply watched as Houston came forward, gaining more and more speed. She watched as Houston brought his free hand back to crush her with a powerful high-speed strike. Instead, just as Houston reached her, she expertly stepped to the side, twirled and crushed Houston on the back of his helmet with the back of her cannon.
Houston went straight into the ground with an impact that crushed the floor, and bounced straight back up. When he did Samus was there to knock him flying with a precision strike with her left hand.
While in the air Houston struggled to regain control, Samus turned her back to him, powered on both her back and her boot thrusters and blasted into the air with a mighty back flip. She caught Houston in midair, aimed for the floor and turned on her jets.
"You know I've always wanted to say this," Samus whispered.
"Don't say it!"
With Armstrong in tow, the Hunter plummeted downward and straight through the cavern floor in a massive body slam, the shock of which caused tremors throughout the entire series of tunnels. On the new lower level of the planet, Samus released the other bounty hunter and watched as he fell to the new floor with a booming crash. Samus smiled and gave him a wink.
"Houston, you have a problem."
Samus thought the pun was well said, but apparently it was mistimed. Houston was a lot tougher than she thought. As he fell he had rained a barrage of missiles and energy bolts at the Bounty queen. Samus's jets weren't meant for flying, and as she made her descent she fired back at the enemy projectiles with her own. She fired twelve shots each in rapid succession to totally nullify Houston's attack, and when she landed she activated her diffusion missile launcher on her gun-arm and fired two rounds towards the enemy hunter.
Houston tried to move but was too late. The missiles hit him dead on and the resulting ice explosion pinned him to the wall. He wasn't finished yet.
"Activate Porous Radiance!" he shouted. His suit began to hit up and emit fine lasers from different points all along his body. With one blast he shattered the ice that had held him fast and he stumbled forward. When he looked up again, he saw Samus's gun arm glowing incandescently with accumulated power.
Samus let out a short laugh. "This is when I should have said it."
"Wai-!"
Before he could finish the word, he was blasted to kingdom come by Samus's powered up shot. His body spun through the air, ricocheted off a nearby cavern wall, crashed and settled on the cavern floor. He wasn't moving.
Just a little concerned, Samus took a step forward and inquired Adam. "I didn't kill him, did I?"
"Negative. Life Sign readings confirm that he has lost consciousness. Armstrong life-support systems remain functional."
"Outstanding."
Samus whirled behind her to the source of the new voice. Standing now in front of her, almost ten feet tall was the same creature that had contacted her before, the one that she had been searching for on this planet. There in the flesh and blood, was a Chozo Master.
"Warning. Proximity Alarm malfunction. Detecting the presence of an unknown life form"
"It's you," Samus breathed. The Chozo looked just as he did as the one on the screen, and the one in her dream. Tall, with a wreath of feathers that jutted from his face. His metallic cloak shimmered with an eerie golden light, his beak and face were partly obscured by his tall golden collar, and his small eyes burned with fire. He didn't look too friendly…not like he did in the recording and not anything like the Chozo she remembered from childhood. But then the Chozo warriors back then always looked grumpy. He looked like he may have been one of them.
Samus looked at him sidelong, and then she smiled uneasily. "I didn't think you were going to show."
"When a Chozo tells you he will appear, then he will appear." He said with a rumbling voice.
"Wait a minute," Samus thought suddenly. "'Outstanding'? What did he mean by that? Was he watching us?"
"I have come here, Hatchling, as I said I would. I have come to give you your reward."
Samus suddenly stepped back, instinct kicking in. "Wait a minut-"
Before she could finish the Chozo opened his beak wide and released a piercing squawk. That the sound was deafening and painful was one thing, but this was different than just noise. Samus fell to her knees, her legs and arms suddenly freezing up. Her vision began to distort and fizzle out in her visor. It was becoming harder and harder to breath as her life support systems began to fluctuate.
Like a rusty suit of armor, Samus tipped over and fell to her face, completely immobilized. She could hear Adam talking to her:
"S—S-Sy-s—SyS-System—De—Deed-De-dd-Desta-Destabiliz---Sysytem Destabilized-ized-ized. A—Audi---o---AudioChronistic----nistic---Viru-Virus— "
"…compensate…" Samus whispered, struggling to breathe within her Power Suit, realizing that it may now become her coffin.
The Chozo stepped towards her and looked down on her like a hawk on a field mouse. "This is your reward, for all of your endeavors on the behalf of my people, Hatchling," the Chozo said callously. "Your reward is death."
@
Dither Bikky says:
Sorry for another short chapter. I'm so busy with other stuff that I think all I can churn out is small chapters for now. Anyway, you think our gal pal is gonna take this sitting down? No chance! It's Samus Vs. The Chozo Master, with the biggest of all prizes up for grabs! Booooooyah!