Note: Chapter review and editing thanks to "Pushing Metroid Boundaries
-Metroid Fusion
--Blackdie
---Chapter 8: Special Delivery
"Who do we have today Barnes?"
"It's that man from the elevator, you know... The one with the... eyeball."
"Oh? I heard about him on the news. I've wanted to carve into this one." There was a snap of rubber gloves being put on. "Let's get started shall we?"
The three coroners moved up to the metal slab and looked over their newest arrival. It was a muscular, middle aged man wearing a blue delivery uniform. It was undisturbed except for the blood that had covered the front of it. One could barely make out the emblem of a dolphin on the chest. Blood could also be found on the hands and under the fingernails, suggesting the wound near the face was self-inflicted. This wound was the center of attention for the three coroners. Apparently, the man had pried his left eye out of his head, then proceeded to place it in his mouth before dying. It certainly got the attention of the examiners, because for all the years they had worked at the Big Blue Federation Precinct... they had never seen anything like it before. They moved their masked heads back and forth, simply absorbing the whole scene.
"Are we recording yet Barnes?"
The coroner known as Barnes moved over a console and pressed a button or two then gave his colleagues thumbs up.
"We're up and running."
"Ok, the date is during the Big Blue Swell Period, the seventh day right?"
"Yes correct. This is case 1120, a man found in the elevator with his left eye found in his mouth. Put on display as I see it."
The three moved forward and looked at the empty socket.
"That must have taken some dedication." The coroner then paused and let out a dry laugh. "I'm glad to finally be back in familiar territory."
"Talking about those Vespula huh Edwards?"
Edwards was on the left side of the table, and looked over his shoulder to the six or so Vespula corpses pulled from the spaceport explosion. They were neatly lined up on tables of their own and had already been cleaned and examined. The three found there wasn't much left after Samus Aran was through with them. Still, none of them ever liked digging into Vespula corpses. Breaking the exoskeleton was hard enough, and the job didn't get any easier when they had to swim through the haphazard internal organs. Yes, they could all agree that examining a human was a welcome break.
"Ok, let's run an ID check before continuing. Remember people, protocol."
Barnes nodded his head and moved back over to the console. He flipped a couple more switches and began a scan of the man's face. A search immediately began through the Federation Databanks. While that ran, they all began to concentrate on the eyeball in the mouth.
"Let's remove it for further observation."
The last corner, who had been mostly quiet the whole time removed a set of medical tongs and carefully went in to grasp the eye without crushing it. He pulled, and it failed to move. Trying harder only brought more frustration as Edwards moved in to take over.
"Give me that thing." He snapped. "Hm. it's like it's stuck in there..."
"You won't get it out that way. The nerves are wrapped around the tongue." Someone said. "It's going to take a knife."
The three coroners jumped, and looked to see Samus Aran standing in the hatchway. She had her free hand on her hip, and let the arm cannon hang at her side.
"Aran? What the hell are you doing here?"
She said nothing, but turned to look at the ID scan that was going about. It had stopped on an individual known as Boris Kail. It listed his stats, such as weight and height and other data, but when it got down to occupation and place of residence. A red blinking flag showed up. The three coroners gave each other uncomfortable glances. They could tell, even though the masks they wore hid their facial expressions. The eyes said it all.
"A red flag?"
Samus moved forward to the table and began to look Boris's body over. They moved to stop her, but Barnes had looked further down the file.
"Uh. It says here that man relates to a mission she's on. Jurisdiction is all hers."
"By who's order?" Edwards nearly yelled.
"General Graves it says."
There was silence as Edwards and the silent coroner backed off. They just watched as she began to walk around the table, pausing every once and awhile to observe Boris. She seemed to be particularly interested with the logo on the chest. But as hard as you could look at it, there was too much blood to see it clearly.
"So, observing your work eh?" Edwards spoke up. "Haven't you done enough damage? We're still processing the last six you worked on."
He thumbed toward the Vespula behind them.
"There wasn't much up for discussion." Samus explained calmly. "They were out to kill me."
"Humph, one can only wonder why." Edwards snickered.
Despite the hostility, Samus continued to focus on Boris's body.
"Have any of you seen this logo before?"
She pointed to the dolphin on the chest. Barnes stepped forward and nodded.
"It's the-"
"Don't answer that Barnes." Edwards interrupted. "Whatever she's involved in, it's a sure bet it's going to pertain to a lot of sensitive information. Are you absolutely sure you want to be involved?"
Through the silence, you could still feel the conflict of interests going on with Barnes. He wanted to help, but he had a superior to deal with as well. Samus just kept her focus on Boris's wounds and the outfit he was wearing.
"Dolphinhead." Barnes answered suddenly. "It's the Dolphinhead delivery company. They have a warehouse down the street from that spaceport you were at."
Edwards didn't say anything. He just turned around pretended he didn't hear a thing. Finally, Samus looked up from the corpse on the table and turned to Barnes. She nodded and then left.
Tanner stood outside a Dolphinhead warehouse and looked at his watch. Boris was late, and didn't look like he was going to show up anytime soon. He shifted his view impatiently up and down the street, and sometimes paused to glance upwards at the nearby Serpent Reef Hotel and it's teal tower where the Vespula were staying. Even though he paced, he didn't stray too far from a large garage door that was slightly ajar. You had to duck to get under, and that's just what Scratch did when he came out to find his boss moving back and forth.
"Hey Seb! What are you waiting for man? Boris isn't gonna show! We just saw the news, he was found in an elevator with one of his eyeballs shoved in his mouth!"
This spurred a laugh from Sebester Tanner, as he put his hands in his pockets and grinned. He laughed again upon turning his back to Scratch and began to watch the traffic go by.
"And I thought he'd be in a gutter by now..."
This made Scratch stutter and take a couple steps back, but he quickly recovered.
"Tanner, it's Boris! He's dead! Come on-"
"Shut up loser! Boris was an insubordinate moron who got what was coming to him! Reckless, disobeying direct orders, hell... he changed. I have no pity for people like that." Tanner snorted. "Glad we finally lost some dead weight..."
"... Who's gonna drive the lead truck?"
"Tch. I will. Come on, let's go."
When Tanner turned around, he looked to see Scratch frozen in position. He was pointing to something down the street. Slowly, he moved his gaze in the direction the finger was pointing. People had begun to part as someone was hurrying their way toward them. Tanner couldn't make anyone out through the mass of people, but he figured Scratch had spotted something before losing sight. Then, a figure leapt from the crowd and did a somersault until landing right at his feet.
"Sebester Tanner! Don't even twitch!" Samus shouted.
People from across the street began to stop and watch as the bounty hunter's arm cannon was mere inches from Tanner's chest. Scratch began to look toward the garage door, but was so shook up from a second encounter with Samus that he didn't move. The reaction from his boss was one of someone who didn't care. Head back, eyes narrowed, arms crossed as if it was a mere inconvenience.
"Well, well... It's Samus Aran. I always wanted to meet you. You know, you an Zonagen have a lot in common. After all, it's not everyday someone meets the Chozo's greatest biological weapon. You still killing everything that ever disagreed with them?"
Samus deflected Tanner's statement and tried to stay on track.
"Where is it?" She asked strongly, while they were on the subject.
Oh, Tanner wanted to respond. He wasn't going to answer her question, but it was going to a response none the less. But he barely got his mouth moving when Chester came outside to see what was keeping them. The bearded man did a double take upon seeing his leader staring down Samus's arm cannon.
"Boss!"
"Stay right there Chester! Just don't even think while we're out here." Tanner snapped, then turned back to Samus. "We're just talkin'."
"You're about to give up the Zonagen. Is it in that warehouse?"
"How does it feel to be out of your element? No more abandoned planets to blow up. Just a highly populated world, where the tiniest stray rocket could kill hundreds."
"You have no more time to play traitor. The Space Pirates are right on your tail." Samus warned. "You can't outrun them, and they won't show any mercy."
"Good, I like it that way." Tanner spat. "It would refreshing really. No more dehumanizing trials to go to. No more months and months of questioning just to figure out something everyone knew in the first place."
It seemed like time had come to a stop. Traffic had almost halted as some people were trying to watch the whole scene from their car. The other side of the street was packed full of onlookers, and everyone just waited for something to happen. They were captivated by the scene.
"Why haven't you shot me yet? Come on. I wanna see some blood and guts." He then paused and narrowed his eyes. "Graves gave a refusal to terminate Sand Trap personnel, didn't he? It's just like him.
Samus was about ready to freeze Tanner solid when a blur swooped down and snatched up Chester within the blink of an eye. Everyone stood dumbstruck, their senses had picked up the whole thing, but their brains were struggling to process. Tanner and Samus were the first to realize what had happened, and exchanged surprised glances. Frightened screaming came next a little ways down the street, as Chester fell from the sky and landed smack dab on someone's car, shattering all the glass and rolling to the street. A familiar shadow began to dart behind a building.
"Ridley..." Tanner hissed.
Samus switched her priorities in an instant, knowing Ridley was far more capable of slaying hundreds within the blink of an eye and turned her back to Tanner and Scratch. These two ducked back inside without wasting a second as she began to scan the skies when Ridley made another pass. She was confused, usually she could feel Ridley's prescience. Whenever he was near her, there was a feeling impossible to escape, as every muscle in her body tensed up and her pulse pounded. But this time, there was no such reactions, not even as Ridley swooped down and grabbed Chester. There was none. She moved closer to the entrance of the warehouse, with a strange feeling of vulnerability on the rise.
Soon something new popped up, as an electric whine began to emanate from the garage door. It was quiet at first, and Samus almost didn't hear it. But as it grew louder, it became impossible to ignore. She almost didn't recognize what it was fast enough, as she barely avoided getting hit by a huge antigravity semi. The flat end truck would have smashed Samus nicely if it had hit her. The garage door was decimated as it roared away from the warehouse with Tanner behind the wheel and Scratch in the passenger seat. He gave her a farewell salute as she fired her ice beam, unsuccessful in stopping it. And when she ran to the other side, more trucks began to exit.
They were moving too fast to be scanned, but it was obvious Tanner's men were driving them. None of them were afraid to T-bone vehicles in their way and push them to the side as they fought their way to alternate streets and routes. Some flipped cars completely over while forcing their way through the heavy traffic to an open road. Samus was helpless to stop any of them, and simply avoided getting plastered. Ridley appeared from out behind one of the skyscrapers and began to fly after Tanner, roaring his horrible screech as he went.
It was chaos in a quick minute, and it all happened before most people could make sense of it.
The eight trucks were charging through the heart of downtown Neptune and they constantly split up and took seemingly random directions. It was only when they reached the highway, did the eight come back together in astounding coordination. Tanner was leading the pack now, continuing to steamroll any one stupid enough to get in his way. He could do it too; the antigravity technology tossed out the old notions that trucks with large trailers were slow, clumsy vehicles. On the contrary, it allowed him to stop on a dime and easily maneuver the weight and size of the semi through traffic.
It didn't seem like anyone was going to stop them either. The Big Blue Central Traffic Control was isolating the highway to ensure no one else went head on with the large trucks, and despite the computer system on their sides it would take quite some time due to how busy the city was. Then there was the damage the trucks had caused on their route to the highway, it would take Big Blue's full Police force to clean up and secure the mess they had made. The only ones in pursuit of them now were Ridley and Samus. The thought of getting caught by either provided little comfort.
Ridley reached the convoy of trucks first due to his broad wings and wicked reflexes. Weaving back and forth around the buildings was child's play to him, and now that they had reached the highway there was nothing keeping him behind now. He positioned himself right above Tanner's truck and opened his razor sharp claws and talons. In the same speed he had used to snatch up Chester, he dove towards the truck. The two men behind Tanner could hardly believe their eyes as Ridley landed on the trailer and began to make his way forward.
Scratch and Tanner soon felt the whole truck shake like an earthquake was going on right under them. The truck shook so much that they nearly lost control of the whole thing. When it was over, Tanner had already begun to use the cameras on the dash to see what had happened.
"Talk to us guys, what just happened?" Scratch asked frantically.
"#$%! Ridley just landed on ya; he's headed right toward the cab!"
"Oh is that so?" Tanner laughed.
He then leaned out the window and looked back toward the trailer with his fist waving in the wind.
"C'mon! I'm gonna turn you into dog meat Ridley!" He cried.
The closer Ridley got to the front, the more Tanner began to swerve. But even he could see it was no use. Ridley had easily dug his claws into the metal frame of the trailer and seemed like he was glued on. This angered Tanner to no end as he took out a blaster pistol and fired on the Space Dragon with one hand still on the wheel. The shots made their mark, but it did nothing but make Ridley retaliate with a fireball. This blew out the glass and melted the side mirror, and caused the truck to dart sharply to the right as Tanner tried to shield his face from the shards of glass.
"Mother of #$% God! I'm gonna kill that crooked neck son of a bitch!"
He had leaned out to take another shot, but his attention was caught by a white blur, speeding toward him along the side of the road. It was hypnotizing. The distraction was enough for Ridley to nearly incinerate his hand with another blast of flame. Tanner's blaster was destroyed and the skin on his hand began to fall away. Scratch grabbed hold of the wheel as his leader cursed up a storm and struggled to fight the pain, the pain that was consuming his left arm.
During the time Scratch had the wheel, he also saw the white blur and instantly knew who it was. Samus Aran with her Speed Booster ability pushed to the maximum. The bounty hunter had caught up with their convoy, and was now running right up along side them. Ridley began to spit a barrage of flame at Samus, but missed as she leapt up and flew through the air until landing somewhere behind him. Now she was on the trailer, with her arm cannon trained on Ridley's back.
"That's right Ridley, I'm here!" Samus declared.
There was a harsh shaking as Scratch had driven right through a bush in the median. This was when Ridley drew his head back and launched a flamethrower in Samus's direction. The heat from the fire melted the top of the truck, and would incinerate anything in it's way. But she didn't wait around for the attack, and jumped off the back of the truck with an acrobatic spin. Tanner could see it due to the cameras and watched intently, still trying to bear the pain due to Ridley's fire attack.
When she landed, it was feet first on the passenger window of the truck behind Tanner's. It was enough for her to push off and launch herself back toward the truck. Ridley had turned his attention back toward Tanner and failed to notice Samus's return. She didn't waste the opportunity and fired repeatedly, driving ice cold blast after ice-cold blast into his back. The strike caused the dragon to arch his back and let out a furious cry, one of anger more than pain. He was standing straight up now, leaving a convent space for Samus to roll under.
Samus did just that, and raised her arm cannon to hit Ridley square in the face once on the other side. But it was not to be, as Ridley suddenly brought his arms forward and slapped her down. She would have slid off the front if he did not spring forward and pin her down. He was seething with anger, showing his teeth, and allowing his ultra hot saliva to drip freely from his mouth. Any section of the truck touched by this was burned as if acid was there. His next fiery attack was about to clear his snout when the truck came to a screeching halt and threw both of them clear of the trailer.
Tanner had slammed on the breaks. He couldn't help but smile when both Ridley and Samus crashed into the highway and rolled several times. The seven trucks cruised on by without stopping. They had their appointed destination and had been ordered to move on ahead. Now it was just Tanner's truck, sitting still in the middle of the highway while Ridley and Samus lay on the ground unmoving. Tanner himself gripped the wheel while shoving his wounded hand under his good arm.
"I'm gonna run them over." He said darkly, almost as if he was possessed. "I'm gonna ground them into dust."
Scratch said nothing and soon let go of the wheel. They began to charge, quickly shooting back up to the speeds where they had just been. Then, as they began to float right over Ridley, Tanner reached down to a switch and flipped it violently. The antigravity systems shut off abruptly, and the truck fell back toward the ground. However, with the momentum gained they proceeded to slide right over what they had landed on, causing sickening cracking sounds all the way. The next sound was the scraping of metal as they slid over Samus.
A loud crash signaled the end of their slide, as nothing kept the truck from the ground anymore. Tanner reached down, turned the antigravity systems back on and leaned out the window before looking back. His maneuver had rolled Samus and Ridley like they were wheels on a conveyor belt. The brutality of it made him smile. Ridley's wings looked like mutilated twigs. The Metroid webbing on Samus's was almost ripped in every place imaginable. The whole event left Scratch's mouth wide as he surveyed the damage they had caused.
"What... what are we gonna do to them now?"
"Leave em' where they are. They're made for each other." Tanner grinned, seemingly recovered from his mild psychosis. "We have a cruise to catch."
-To be continued...
--Next Chapter: Invitation Only