Samus was the first to strike. A single missile was fired, leaving behind it a wave of heat. It hit the creature in the center of its face between two of its eyes. It roared in pain, drops of acidic saliva spraying from its mouth. This gave the Hunter time to dash behind a large, glass tube that contained some kind of creature that had a thin body but large paws. It seemed to be unconscious, or maybe even dead. Samus was hardly interested in the Space Pirates' experiments at a time like this, however.
The large monster put its tongue into the cool air again and caught Samus's scent, or at least sensed the energy from her Power Suit. It lifted a massive foot over Samus, who ducked into a morph ball just in time to avoid getting crushed, while a shower of sparks and glass rained down on her from the smashed tank. The monster did not at all seem bothered by the shards of glass piercing through the bottom of its foot. It was after Samus, its prey. She rolled along the side of the room under some computer screens until she came to the back corner, where she returned to her normal state and fired two missiles in succession. They both hit the creature's face and burned out one of its glowing eyes, leaving black and red around the socket. It roared again, and when it soon found her location between two monitors, it crouched, and let a greenish acid drip from its mouth, and in the next moment seemed to vomit a thick wave of it over the floor. It tore away at the stone and metal almost instantly, and Samus was smart enough to avoid it as it came, though she could have sworn she saw the body of a Space Pirate within the acidic substance. Of course, it may have just been undigested armor that happened to be unaffected by acid.
She tried not to think about what would happen if that stuff got through her Power Suit, and focussed on attacking the monster's eyes to hopefully get a missile to its brain. A half-charged Wave Beam took out the other right eye, leaving that side of its face hideously distorted and burned. Then came the worst of luck. The electricity in the room gave out, shutting off all sources of light, including the dim computer screens. It was pitch black, and all Samus could see were the two glowing eyes of the beast. She clasped her left hand around the barrel of her Arm Cannon, and again began charging up her Wave Beam's intensity. The eerie light that rippled across the floor and walls from the charging beam was all that could help Samus find her target.
Once again, she locked onto its face and released the blast, watching parts of the dark room light up in its path before it made contact with its target. A second later, the creature charged at her, panting loudly as it neared. Samus leapt to one side to narrowly avoid being torn apart by its long, fangs. She was shocked at how fast this thing was for its size. Backing away from it, she fired her last missile. The dimming of the glowing eyes told her that she had managed to hit and blind her foe.
She knew that its flesh must have softened after so many blows, and prepared a final strike with her Wave Beam. However, before she finished readying her attack, she was swept aside by the hook of the creature's scorpion tail. She was thrashed into another glass tank, shattering it, but the stinger luckily failed to puncture her suit, though it left quite a scratch. She got up quickly and fired what she had of her Wave Beam's energy through her enemy's skull. Coincidentally, the power came back in the same instant that the terrifying beast was killed. Obviously, there was a generator hidden somewhere in the building that a Space Pirate had activated.
From above, the guard pirate cursed his bad luck, determined to destroy Samus at all costs. Dashing to the nearest computer, he entered a code known only to the guards and Ridley. It was a code to activate the self-destruct system. He could have locked the doors as well, but was greedy for his own life, and did not think twice about the Hunter's ability to escape. Samus quickly realized that the system had been activated, and according to the message flashing in her visor, she had three minutes to escape.
The guard pirate ran for his dear life through a route that was off limits to the Space Pirates that led further into the ruins beyond where they had been plated with metal and electricity. He thought that there would be a shortcut to the way out if he just went down the long corridor he had noticed several times while on duty. He went through an automatic door, where on the other side his clawed feet touched warm stone. This was the corridor. The walls were lined with endless runes and lore from an ancient civilization, though the pirate had no care as to what it meant. He ran down this long hall, the engravings on the stones on either side of him flashing through his large eyes.
One minute had passed since he set the self-destruct, and the hallway seemed endless. Then, there was a pale red light ahead, just like he had seen while on duty. He was positive that this was the surface. He continued on, the air howling through the teeth of his claws and whipping his face. He came into the light, and let it pour over him. He was sure that he was out, and just in time, too, as the building was about to explode any time now.
Then he smelled the air. The air that he expected to have had the scent of toxic fumes. He could smell it, but it was not as strong as it should have been. He then realized that this was definitely not the surface, but a room deeper into the ruins. The pirate was curious, though, of the source of the red light, as well as finding a way out quickly. He looked around to find a way out, but all he saw were three passages leading lower into the building, and a large statue looming above him on the ceiling. It was a sandstone sculpture of something with spikes on its head and talons for hands. It appeared to be resting on its back, with its claws crossed over its chest, and glaring red eyes looking down at the intruding pirate. It was so old, though, that it was hard to make out what the sculpture was of. The guard stopped to stare at the well-crafted statue curiously, particularly the red eyes that were boiling with warm energy. However, it was too late when he realized that the energy could be released from the eyes in two long beams that seared straight through him.
He could have considered himself lucky then, that he did not have to experience the explosion first-hand.