-Metroid Fusion

--Blackdie

---Chapter 12: Auction Day

The security room of the Beluga was known for it's huge wall screen and a system able to bring up any section, any inch, and any dark corner of the ship at any moment. For Scratch, it was a dream come true to have the Beluga's security system at his fingertips. He hadn't had a system so advanced since his last intelligence mission in the Galactic Army. Even the Sand Trap's system was a dinosaur. The only explanation he had for that was the official one. The one where HQ said the facility was so isolated that it didn't need any. But Scratch knew that the real reason was because of the B.S.L. sucking up their funding. It was memories like that, which reminded Scratch why he followed Tanner around for so long.

Scratch was looking at the Black Hole rooms right now. Most of his concentration was at the one with Sturm and Drang. They had done something to the sensors and the only picture that came up when their room was cued was a blank screen. He'd been working at it for hours, but it was no use. The only blind spot in the entire cruise ship was where Sturm and Drang stayed, and he couldn't figure out why. A separate window popped up and showed one of their soldiers pressing the call button in a separate room. This caused him to key in a "comm" command on the main screen, and he soon had audio contact with the service room.

"Hey Butch, the Black Hole guys called. They want room service, and you better get down there fast. Sturm and Drang don't have a whole lot of patience for humans."

The camera showed a clean room with five or so guys, all dressed in the white Beluga uniform. Despite their looks, all of them were from Sand Trap. As far as Scratch could tell, the captain of the Beluga owed Tanner something, and that's why they could blend into the crew so well. The only catch was keeping up the normal routines of the crew, and that included servicing to guests.

"Scratch? Since when did you get to be no.2?" Butch called up toward the screen.

"Since Boris and Chester got their guts torn out by Space Pirates. Now you wanna move already?"

He made sure Butch got his ass in gear, and then went back to the Black Hole surveillance problem. For a reference, he brought up the Vespula room with the queen and her six generals. Seeing all six of them together was still a bit much for Scratch to take in, even though he was using a camera to see them. And he stared for awhile, watching them as they huddled up around their queen who was lounging on a sofa. He noted how the queen could never get comfortable, and was always moving. The generals would do their best to fix the situation, but it was never enough. The room was still primarily made to suit Galactic Federation visitors.

Then he heard a strange drone from behind and swiveled in his chair to see what it was. Now he had his nose partially shoved in Samus Aran's arm cannon and almost fell backwards when he realized just what the hell it was.

"What the... how in the hell did you get in here?" Scratch bellowed.

Samus moved to the left a bit, and gave Scratch a view of the doorway. The two men who were acting as guards were nowhere to be seen... but the mist associated with very cold temperatures could be seen creeping along the ground.

"God damn broad." Scratch muttered. "I can't wait till Tanner-"

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. Let find that out for you." He shot back in an annoyed tone.

Scratch had begun to move toward the console when Samus grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him back around.

"I'll help myself, thank you." Samus told him. "You go to the corner, next to the boxes."

Samus kept her arm cannon trained on Scratch as he stood up and moved toward the corner up against the wall screen and some crates.

"You're suicidal; you know that? If the Vespula don't cap you, those Black Hole weirdoes will. They aren't from any part of known space, but they're pros. They move like any well-trained organized group would, only better. And from what the cameras are showing, they're packing anything from machine guns to rocket launchers."

"Oh, I'm well acquainted with their tactics." She responded while typing away on the console.

This got a laugh from Scratch, who then crossed his arms and leaned back against the boxes.

"You talkin' about your little slash and burn action in the holds? Hell, that's nothing. You had a spectral anomaly covering your back. That's another thing I'm gonna be looking forward to. When you catch them on a bad day. And with their leaders around, it seems like every passing second is an inconvenience to them."

She looked up from the console and only took a glance at him.

"I'll remember that."

The wall screen soon picked Tanner out from the hordes of occupants of the ship and enlarged the screen that had found him. He was just leaving the room with Sturm and Drang. There was a notable difference since she had last saw him. Now he was wearing a tuxedo of sorts, and even though the outfit had some of the newer features of clothing, it still retained the traditional shape and color. Two soldiers also left the room and watched him leave. When he had made it around the corner, the screen shifted to show him approaching an elevator. It was there he paused to give a thumbs up to the screen and moved into the car. Scratch gulped.

"What was that supposed to mean?" Samus demanded.

"That means it's auction time. I don't mind telling you, since there will be about 200 armed alien individuals with their rulers in attendance. That means they'll fight tooth and nail to protect them." He paused to adjust his collar and took a deep breath. "In short, you're screwed if you show up, and I'm not saying that to be an ass."

Samus stood up and caused Scratch to flinch. She only wondered why for a second.

"You think I'm going to kill you?"

"No... I just think..."

It was then Scratch suddenly turned around and pulled something up from behind the crates. Samus narrowly avoided a blast from the Charge Rifle Scratch had drawn out. It used to be standard Galactic Army issue, but was more or less outdated by now. But the blocky weapon still packed a punch, and Scratch was no stranger to its use. He fired again to blow the security console in two and then rushed toward the door. His attempt at escape was almost successful, until his left foot felt a tingling sensation.

Samus had jumped up just in time to catch Scratch's leg with an ice beam. It grazed him and froze his foot solid. He stumbled around in the hallway outside the security room and went face first into the ground. The bounty hunter ran out into the hallway to finish subduing Scratch, but was met with automatic fire and darted back into the safety of the security room. Now Scratch was on his back, barely able to keep the sights on his rifle straight enough to target properly. There was a short pause before he rolled over onto his belly and started to crawl away.

It was a straight shot to the elevator, only 13 or so feet, but too far for Scratch's condition as he squirmed as fast as he could go. Samus leaned out from her position in the security room and fired at the prone man. This move caused him to roll over onto his back and fire off more shots in her direction. They would have made their mark if it weren't for his awkward firing position. The exchange of blasts lasted all the way to the elevator, where Scratch fought to pull himself up and pound the keypad for the lift to head his way. The next time he looked in Samus's direction, she was halfway down the hall with her blasted pointed directly at his chest.

Scratch was frozen solid before he could get his weapon readied again. The elevator came just in time for Samus though. But she didn't get in. She only gazed downward at the frozen Scratch and checked a timer on her blaster.

"Wish things would stay frozen longer than a minute." She grumbled and headed back toward the security room.

The cameras trained on the Vespula and Black Hole rooms shown they were moving out. To somewhere in the cruise liner. The mass of soldiers following Sturm and Drang moved under sensors that constantly blacked out. Whatever was wrong with the system was following the Black Hole leaders as they moved along. This caused Samus turn to track the Vespula, who were easier to follow with sensors that actually worked. It only took a couple of seconds to see they were moving into the Beluga's largest theater. The real crew were already blocking off hallways to make room for the coming flood of exclusive guests. Samus checked the map of the cruiser liner and left the room.

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Sebester Tanner entered the massive theater with a small grin. Since he was last to enter, he had a perfect view of the Vespula, Black Hole, and the other arrivals that meant very little to him. The Vespula and Black Hole had used the center isle as a separator while everyone else sat behind them. You had Vespula on the right, and Black Hole on the left. It made Tanner laugh to see they were keeping an eye on their leaders as well as each other. The soldiers from both sides kept their weapons in plain view, as a warning for those who wanted to try anything stupid. Now, Tanner knew nothing about Black Hole other than that they were extremely dangerous, so he couldn't quite make out what kind of defensive formation they had set up. But the Vespula were another matter entirely.

He could tell in a heartbeat that the six generals were on a Two-Two-Two formation. Two watched the queen, two watched the competition, and the last two were drifters. They would change their tactics according to the situation, whether it called for more offense or more defense. And you could trace this type of tactics all the way down to front line drones. But Tanner always kept this fact that Vespula behavior never stayed the same in the back of his mind. Whenever a different queen ascended to power that meant the whole race would change, as well as military tactics. The difference from other militaries is that the change in the Vespula was instantaneous. There was no transition stages, it just happened and made them all the more hard to predict and counteract. He wondered for a moment if Black Hole had any tricks of their sleeves when it came to tactics.

By the time he had finished reminiscing, he had made his way over to the Black Hole side, where Sturm and Drang were looking at him as if he were a cockroach.

"Don't disappoint us." Sturm warned.

This fired up Tanner in a second.

"You guys don't got any room to talk." He nearly yelled. "I caught you with your hands in the cookie jar. I hope your men told you that there wasn't any Zonagen down there."

Drang turned toward Sturm and shook his head.

"I told you that was a fool's move, brother."

The two mysterious brothers exchanged more words, but by that time, Tanner had already moved over to the Vespula. Immediately, he could see the queen was pleased about something.

"I've been waiting a long time for this." She began. "I hope it's everything you've promised, Tanner Sebester. It would certainly make up for having to be in the same room as the dark ones."

"Hey, you saw my free sample. And that was only the tip of the iceberg."

He soon saw the Vespula queen glance downward at his left arm and snicker.

"Did something happen to your arm? It looks and smells different from the last time we met."

Tanner scratched at the cheap touch up job he had done after Ridley roasted his arm. It was enough to get by, but there wasn't enough skin to cover the exposed muscle and painful burns. It no longer hurt, but it still looked like someone put it through a blender.

"It's fine..." He answered darkly. "And I've got something special for any more interruptions."

The queen merely nodded and said something to one of the generals sitting next to her. The high ranking Vespula snickered and then nodded back. Tanner simply narrowed his eyes and then made his way to the stage. It was time to get this over with. Already there had been a screen and podium ready for some sort of announcement. But a surprise for Tanner involved one of his men peeking his head out from behind the curtains.

"Hey loser, what the hell do you think you're doing? Where's Scratch? I thought I told you to find him."

"That's just it... we can't find him. Sorry boss."

Tanner looked toward the crowd of aliens behind him and shook his head.

"Ok screw it, I'll do the sales pitch. I don't think our buyers were up for technical mumbo jumbo anyway. You just find Scratch."

"Roger boss."

Tanner took out a remote of sorts and flipped it around in his hands like some sort of old western movie. With the click of a button, the lights dimmed over the house and the screen began to play an official file from the Federation concerning the project Blackdie.

"Blackdie, ladies and gentlemen, Vespula and Black Holes... was a Federation project designed to trump the Space Pirate's obsession with the Metroids. But apparently, it wasn't going along fast enough for them, and they tossed it aside, like garbage. Good for you, bad for them."

He hit another switch, and the file began to play out.

"Zonagen is a mix of chemicals and a very special additive that involves microorganisms. These organisms carry a variety of deadly diseases. Some we've seen, some we haven't. But the bottom line is, that when you're infected with Zonagen. There is no cure. Even if there is one that comes up. It'll only work for one patient, and fail for billions of others."

Graphic images of organisms infected by Zonagen began to roll by. One by one. Some at stages so advanced there was no telling where the bed ended and the organism began.

"The strains inside Zonagen are constantly changing. There is no worry that some alien organism you encounter will suddenly form an immunity to it. Because there is no constant side effect. It changes so quickly, our best supercomputers couldn't calculate all the variables."

Now the screen moved onto tests involving protective suits and robotic devices.

"Now, all that is assuming you don't die from the radiation. There used to be a compound known as Phazon in this system. It was highly unstable. Over long periods of time, it could cause madness. Zonagen uses a similar component, except that it only takes one exposure to be fatal. This same radiation, compromises protective suits, and any mechanized defenses."

It was that moment the nobodies in the back began to talk amongst themselves and rubbed their hands together as if it was candy they were seeing. Sturm, Drang, and the Vespula queen just continued to listen.

"Now, you take small amounts of Zonagen, and this radiation can be used for a power source. Operate ships, run cities, or... enhance a bomb. Surely you heard of that. It made Big Blue front headlines. News. The works."

"What exactly are we buying worm?" Sturm shouted. "The Zonagen isn't on the boat. You have nothing to offer us!"

"I'll tell you what I'm selling you. I'm selling you a briefcase with all the information and activation codes necessary to finding and arming Zonagen in Big Blue. Once you get the case, you can go snatch it up, and use it to your heart's desire." He paused. "Don't worry, no one is going to stop you. They won't know what it is until it's too late. The Galactic Federation have a habit of waiting until the last possible moment before telling anyone what's really going on."

Tanner went back to his remote and clicked a combination of buttons. The file stopped playing and the lights returned to brighten the theater. He went to the podium and leaned up against it in a laid back manner.

"Ok, enough of my babble. And the starting bid is..."

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Bloodbath Theater