Metroid: A Tangle Web be Weaved
The Present – 2613
"Still no sign of Pirate activity," Adam said over Samus's speakers.
"It's been three months," Samus replied, "they never stay this long." She hit the computer console with her fists.
"Easy," Adam replied, "don't hurt me."
Samus groaned and laid her head down on the console. After the BSL incident the pirates had disappeared off the map, no activity anywhere. I wish the pirates would just show themselves. As if the computer had heard her wish it started to beep. Samus bolted up. On the console a light was blinking. Samus sighed, it was the message light. Laying her head back down on the console she asked Adam, "What does it say?"
After a minute of silence Adam replied, "My Lady, it's a message about pirate activity rumors."
Samus bolted up again. "Where do the rumors say the pirates are?"
Adam was quite for another moment. "You'll never guess where their at."
"Where," Samus demanded, frustration showing in her voice.
"Tallon IV"
Samus came out of hyperspace and looming before her was Tallon IV. It had been almost three years since she had last visited the planet. The last time the Space Pirates had been there they were after a source of energy called Phazon. An energy force that was extremely powerful, but also corrupted any living form that it came into contact with. While on Tallon IV Samus had run into many of the creatures that had been infected by Phazon; the most deadly a creature known as Metroid Prime. Metroid Prime had been the main source of the Phazon and after Samus had foiled the Space Pirates attempts to harness the Phazon and destroy the monster she destroyed the rest of the Phazon, or so she thought.
"I'm picking up massive amounts of Phazon planet side," Adam said.
"That can't be. I destroyed Metroid Prime the last time I was here."
"Well, I don't know Lady, but it seems to be back and there is definitely some major pirate activity going on down there."
"Let's throw them a surprise party, shall we."
Samus maneuvered the ship so that she would land in Phendrana Drifts. From there, she decided, she would go through Magmoor Caverns to one o f the elevators that led to the pirated Phazon mines.
Once the ship was set down Samus activated the bracelet that held her power suit. Piece by piece the power suit encased her. Her power suit, which was red and yellow consisted of not much more than her arm cannon, missile launcher, and very little protection, would not be able to support the massive heat in Magmoor Caverns; nor would it provide enough protection against the pirates. With this in mind Samus upgraded to her Varia Class power suit. The Varia Class power suit looked quite similar to the power suit. The only real difference was the massive shoulder pads and the extra protection. Samus debated on whether or not to upgrade to her Gravity Suit, but besides the cool addition of the color blue, it offered nothing more than the Varia Suit did in the conditions she was about to enter. Checking her visor she saw she was fully loaded with missiles and power bombs.
Samus was leaving the ship when Adam called after her. "Samus remember that you don't have your Phazon Suit so the Phazon will hurt you."
Behind her visor Samus rolled her eyes. "Yes Adam, I know," and she took off.
She stepped of the ship and into the snow. She walked to the door nearest her and shot it with her power beam, the blue ring surrounding the door disappeared to reveal a hallway. As much as I love the Chozo, their obsession with different color ringed doors annoys the hell out of me. On last encounter Samus had run across four different doors. Each one used a special type of beam to open it; power, ice, wave, or plasma. Thankfully her arm cannon was upgraded with all four beams, but still it was a hassle.
The hallway, like outside the door, was covered with snow and surrounded by ice. Samus walked through the hallway and shot another blue door. The door opened to reveal an elevator.
The elevator was a huge brown platform with an orange hologram in the middle of the elevator. Samus stepped into the hologram and the elevator headed down towards Magmoor Caverns.
Once the elevator touched down, Samus stepped off and shot yet another blue door. She walked in, scanning the room for space pirates. The cavern was empty.
Her walk to the Phazon Mines was pretty uneventful. Only a couple times did she have to bother with some of the animals that dwelled in the caves. Many of which were still affected by the Phazon.
Samus stopped at the door. According to her map of the caverns there was a big open cavern just on the other side. There were also two other doors, one of which led to the Phazon mine elevator. She shot the door and immediately brought her arm cannon up.
Just outside the door Samus could hear the whine of twin hover packs above her. She switched to her plasma been and prepared for a fight. Peaking out of the door Samus looked up and saw three pirated above her.
The pirates saw her and one, presumably the leader, gave the other two orders and they circled around and came towards her from either side while the leader came straight towards her. Pressing her back up against the now closed door, Samus swore. She was cornered.
We have the Hunter one of the pirates said in his native tongue.
Ridley will we award us well said the second.
Focus on the task at hand the leader said looking at his comrades before turning is attention back to the Hunter. He gasped. The Hunter had disappeared. Before they could react an explosion went off beneath them and all three were sent flying in different directions.
Samus de-morphed from her morph ball and watched as the power bomb she laid down exploded and sent the pirates in opposite direction. While they had been conversing she had quietly slipped into her morph ball, laid a power bomb, and rolled away.
She brought her arm cannon up charged her plasma bean and shot the nearest pirate. The pirate was incinerated instantly. That left two pirates. She turned to face them and was greeted with two beam shots to her chest. Samus was thrown backwards tumbling across the rocky surface. She recovered almost instantly and checked her suits power. It was down to seventy-eight and she had ten extra energy tanks left. She was in good shape.
Samus locked on to one of the pirated and took a shot. The pirated dodged the shot – almost. The plasma beam hit one of the wings of the jet pack and caused the jet pack, along with the pirate, to dive uncontrollably to the surface below, exploding on impact. Samus turned her attention to the other pirate.
She looked up and the pirate was gone. Samus swiveled around and looked again. Then she heard the ear shattering whine of a missile. She jumped to her left as the missile exploded where she had been. Samus got up and looked around. Locating the pirate she activated her screw attack. She spaced jumped at the pirate. The pirate had no time to react and was torn in half. Samus landed and looked down at the carnage. She was just getting ready to go when she was smacked up side the head.
Her suit protected her from most on the punch. Samus back handed the pirate with her arm cannon. Apparently he had been able to survive the jet pack dive and wanted to go for round two.
The pirate stumbled back. "Hugntrss gvoe – "
It didn't get to finish what it had to say before Samus shot him with a plasma beam and he vaporized. Samus dropped her arm and headed for the mines.
Samus got off the elevator and went out the door. Her visor showed ten space pirates in the neat vicinity. With luck she could slip by. She crept to her left and slid along the wall towards the door that led to the mines. Then she heard the whirring of servos. She jumped away from the wall as two missiles impacted where she had been standing. She had forgotten about the missile launchers.
"Hugntrss," she heard one of the pirates shout.
Samus dove behind a pillar out of sight from the missile launchers. When she was sure they had stopped firing she leapt around the edge and fired to missiles at one of the launchers and slipped back into her hiding place. Then the beams started to fire down on her. Samus looked up. Oh Great.
Five of the ten pirates where standing above her, but that wasn't the problem; the problem was that of the five pirates only two looked alike. All of them looked like normal space pirates except for the colors lining their bodies. She had encountered pirates like these once before on Tallon IV and had hoped to never encounter them again.
The problem with these pirates was that they were only weakened by one weapon and they weren't weakened by the same weapon. If the pirates were lined in purple they were weakened by the wave beam; if they were lined with white they were weakened by the ice beam; yellow, the power beam; and red, the plasma beam.
As it stood there were two whites, one red, one yellow, and a purple one in front of her. One missile launcher behind her and five more space pirates somewhere else. This is not going to turn out good.
Samus immediately to her right and shot a missile into the five pirates. If the other five didn't know she was here, they sure did now. All five pirates were knocked off the ledge and Samus took the advantage. She switched her arm cannon to her ice beam, charged it up and fired at one of the ice pirates. The pirate was hit with the full impact and frozen in place. She did the same to the other ice pirate. What I wouldn't give to have my ice spreader about now. She then changed to her power beam and charged up a super missile. She locked onto the yellow pirate and fired. The pirate was killed instantly. Next, Samus switched to her wave beam and fired two charged shots at the wave pirate. The pirate took the first in the chest but was able to dodge the second and jumped behind one of the pillars. The pirate came out to fire but Samus was ready and again hit it with her charged power beam. The pirate was knocked over an edge, dieing on impact. Samus was scanning for the plasma pirate when a plasma beam blasted past her mere inches from her head. In one fluid motion Samus ducked, did a one-eighty, and switched to her plasma beam. She shot off two quick beams at the pirate and it staggered backwards. Samus took the opportunity to charge up her plasma beam and incinerated the pirate.
Now to deal with the other two.
At that moment an ice beam shot over her head and froze a piece of equipment. She hadn't been fast enough; the pirates had already thawed out. On instinct she ducked and ran to the other side of the pillar. Then she heard the whirring sound.
Shit.
Samus quickly turned around, locked onto the other missile launcher and fired two missiles. Both impacted, blowing the launcher up. Before she knew it Samus was dodging ice beams again. She changed to her ice beam and jumped over the ledge nearest her, landing on the platform below. She charged up the beam and waited for the pirates to come after her. The first and probably the most stupid because he looked over the edge came first and Samus fired first, freezing him in place. Then, changing to her missiles she fired one and blew the pirate up. The second pirate was smarter. This time Samus had to bait it. She looked up over the edge. The pirate was gone.
Swearing to herself she quickly looked around. The pirate was no longer in sight. Then she heard the slightest of noises coming from around the corner. The pirate planned to get off a sneak shot at her. Samus had other plans. Quickly she morphed into her morphball, rolled up to the corner, and laid a power bomb. Rolling away she de-morphed and waited for the bomb to explode. When the bomb exploded the pirate jumped back on top of the platform he had previously been on and Samus was ready for him. Again she fired a charged ice beam at him and then once frozen a missile to blew him apart.
By the time Samus had dispatched with the second ice pirate she saw to more red pirates. Samus quickly looked for a way to destroy the two pirates and looking up saw a crane looming over them. Charging up a super missile she fired it at the crane and was rewarded with the screeching of metal and the crane fell on top of the pirates. I don't care if you're Ridley, no pirate could have survived that, Samus thought. Looking at her visor she saw that four of the five dots had gone out. Must have been two more in the area where the crane fell. Good makes my job easier.
That left one more, and according to her radar the pirate was just above her. Samus switched to her wave beam which could penetrate any solid matter and turned on her x-ray vision. Looking up she located the pirate. Sure enough it was directly above her. Probably thought it could jump down and surprise her. Samus lifted her arm straight up and fired. A few shots later the pirate fell over dead.
Feeling proud of herself, Samus looked at her energy level. She must have taken more shots then she had thought. Somewhere around here there should be a station where I can restore my energy. After a few minutes of searching Samus found the station, refilled her energy, and headed for the mining entrance.
Not paying attention Samus shot the door and was dumbfounded when the shot bounced off and the door did not open. Taking a closer look she saw that the door had a white ring around it. Sighing she changed to her ice beam and opened the door.
Being more careful then when she first entered the area she recalled the last time she had been behind the door. If memory serves me correctly there should be two missile launchers just around the corner. Samus pressed herself up against the wall, readied her missiles, and leapt from her hiding place prepared to lock onto the launchers and blow them to pieces. To her surprise the missiles weren't there. Instead it was a long empty hallway with a door at the end. Steel and rock made up the walls, suggesting that the pirates had carved out the mines all those years ago.
Samus put her arm cannon down and walked to the end of the hallway. She was no more than half way when something hit her from behind and sent her flying toward the other end. Samus got up, turned around, and looked down the hall. It was empty.
Thermal Pirates.
Samus switched to her thermal visor and sure enough two thermal pirates were advancing towards her. Samus charged her super missiles and fired two at the pirates. The pirated flew backwards landing on the ground with a thud. They did not get up.
Samus looked at her missile gauge. She was almost out of missiles. Somewhere there has to be a missile recharge room, she thought. She opened the door and continued through the mining complex.
About an hour later, fully recharged in missiles, Samus stepped through the door to the main mining complex. She slipped into the shadows and worked her way across the upper platform. She was almost to the ramp that would lead down to the machines that were mining the complex when she heard the voice. It was his voice.
Hurry up you bumbling idiots. The Hunter could be here at any minute, Ridley yelled at the pirates.
Samus crept over to the ledge of the platform. At first she couldn't believe her what she was seeing. The pirates had decided not to ship the phazon through the mine and instead had drilled a hole through the wall and built a platform right outside where they could land their ships. There were about twenty space pirates in the mining facility along with the rest of army outside on the platform loading the phazon into their ships. At end count there were about a hundred and fifty space pirates.
Samus backed away trying to form a plan. She couldn't take on a hundred and fifty space pirates single handedly, she wasn't stupid. The last time she had been here she had been able to open a force field that had been holding metroids and let them feast on the pirates. This time, however; there were no metroids and many more pirates. She peaked back over the edge and this time saw Ridley or more precisely Meta-Ridley.
Meta Ridley was an all mechanical pirate that stood three times as tall as a normal space pirate and had every sort of weapon imaginable equipped on him. To top it all off he could fly too, which made that much more difficult to kill him, if killing him meant watching him "die" at least five times in the last five years.
How many times am I going to have to kill him, Samus thought thinking back to her encounter on the BSL station where she thought for the last time, she had killed him.
She looked around for something she could use to distract the pirates. Looking up Samus saw a metal beam hanging precariously from some lone attached to the ceiling. She looked directly below and saw that the pirates carrying the crates of phazon were walking directly underneath the beam. If the beam crashed down on them and the phazon was released it would kill a good portion of the pirates below. Taking careful aim, Samus shot the line and watched as the beam fell; smashing two pirates carrying a crate and releasing the phazon.
Samus had been right. The phazon did kill many of the pirates, but not as many as she'd hoped. The pirates had reacted quicker than she thought, many of them jumping out of the way before the phazon reached them.
The surviving pirates looked up at where the beam had been and then in her general direction. Spotting her, the pirates advanced forward. Samus turned to run and was cloth-lined by an invisible force as she tried to run through the doorway. More shadow pirates. Getting up and switching to her thermal visor Samus ran back into the room. Hitting her emergency call to contact Adam she thought, Great there goes my surprise attack.
Ridley was very pleased with the way things were coming around. The Hunter had arrived two days later then he had predicted. The Hunter has walked right into my trap. Just a week ago by Galactic Standard he had started a rumor that the pirates were on Tallon IV. He thought the news would have traveled faster, but in any case it did not matter. By having the hunter show up two days later than schedule he had been able to get all the phazon he required and plan for the Hunter's arrival. He had known exactly when the Hunter's ship had set down on the planet, exactly when the Hunter had entered the mines, and known when the Hunter had entered the loading bay. All thanks to the many shadow pirates he had set up around the facility. All though his plans almost went to hell when the two shadow pirates at the entrance to the minds had gotten it into their heads that they would take the Hunter on by themselves, but thankfully the Hunter hadn't been smart enough to check for anymore shadow pirates.
An explosion shook the platform the Hunter was standing on and Ridley looked up to see the remnants of a power bomb explosion fading away. The Hunter was fighting – good. It was funnier this way. With a tweak of his back muscles, Ridley unfolded his wings and took flight. As he headed for Hunter he realized – he didn't even know if the Hunter was male or female. Oh well, Ridley thought, the Hunter will die soon enough anyways.
Out of the corner of her eye Samus saw Ridley take flight and head towards her. Just what she needed and where was Adam? What was taking him so long? Not only had she fallen into a trap but she had to deal with the hundred and fifty pirates and their crazed, mechanical leader.
A loud obnoxious screech erupted from Ridley's mouth followed by what Samus could only guess as a command in the pirate's own language. Suddenly all the pirated retreated leaving her with Ridley.
Speaking in her tongue Ridley said, "Underneath you are ten crates of pure, unaltered phazon surrounded by explosives. Also the explosions will set off a chain reaction that will cause entire facility to be demolished. There won't be a trace of you or this facility after the explosion. On my command once the ship is far enough away my troops will set off the explosives and you will die."
Keeping her defense up Samus replied, "And you expect me to just stand here."
"No," Ridley smirked, "this is a trap after all." Opening his mouth Ridley let out a stream of fire aiming just in front of Samus. The fire touched the platform and ignited a barrier of fire that wrapped around Samus. Ridley then turned and took flight, along with the ship.
Samus wasn't stupid. Even without her danger indicator screaming in her ear, she knew she would not be able to jump through the flames without taking heavy damage. And after the fight with the pirates her energy was extremely low. She wasn't sure she would be able to get thought the flames without losing the rest of her energy and having her suit fail on her now was not the best idea in the world. If her suit shut down she would never be able to get out of the mining facility before the pirates blew it up. But, what if she could create a gap in the fire? A gap big enough for her to jump through.
Switching to her ice beam Samus fired at the fire. The ice beam worked, but only for a second. Before she could escape the fire had enclosed the ice and the route was gone. She had to think of something else, but what? Then it came to her.
Power Bomb.
Samus morphed into her morphball and laid a power bomb. Without demorphing she charged up her boost ball and as soon as the bomb exploded zipped through the opening.
De-morphing Samus ran outside to see her ship arriving. She climbed aboard.
"About time, we have to get out of here before everything explodes around us."
Without saying a word Adam turned the ship around and started taking off. Samus looked out the cockpit, deactivated her power suit and saw the pirate ship was still not out of range. They had plenty of time.
Then everything exploded around them.
Both ships were flung in opposite directions. Samus, not being buckled in, was thrown from one side of the ship to the next as Adam tried to correct the ship's roll. On the ship's third role Samus hit her head and everything went black.
Samus woke up to a throbbing headache.
"About time you woke up," Adam said.
"How long have I been out?"
"Three standard hours," came the reply.
Samus got up and looked out the cockpit, they were still floating above Tallon IV and there was no sign of the space pirates.
As if reading her mind Adam said, "The pirates took off almost immediately. Also while you were out I scanned the planet. It seems the explosion completely obliterated the mining facility. There's no trace of it. And to top that off the planet seems to now be void of all phazon. I can't even find a micro liter of it."
Samus looked down at the planet. It looked so peaceful. Maybe now the planet could finally rest. Turning back to the computer she said, "Let's head back to Earth and inform HQ about the pirate development."
Setting a course for Earth Adam took control of the ship while Samus tended to her headache.
Upon coming up on Earth Samus knew something was wrong. The orbital defense system that surrounded the planet was no longer there. She had been gone a while but not that long and she never got a distress signal. Deciding to take a more detailed look, Samus flew the ship in closer.
As the ship entered the Earth's atmosphere a warning tone sounded. "Adam, what is that?"
"It appears that the ship suffered minor damage to the engine core during the explosion. The damage was so minor that the scanners never picked it up, but the hyperspace travel seems to have damaged it further." Another tone sounded as Adam took control of the ship. "I'm going to set it down on the upper east coast of what used to be the United States. A place called Manhattan Island. The settlement just outside the ruins of New York City should have some sort of communication device you can use to contact HQ."
Once the ship was set down and Samus got together the equipment she would need, she got off the ship and looked to the horizon where the old ruins could be seen.
Her jaw dropped.
Speaking into her communicator she said, "Adam are you sure your right about where we are?"
"Yes my Lady, why?
"Because what's in front of me does not look like old ruins."
Sure enough directly in front of Samus were not old ruins but many buildings and skyscrapers that looked to still be in use. Her comlink beeped.
"I did a scan of the area. We are where I said we are," came Adam's response. "But…"
"But, what?"
"I also did a technology scan and based on the advancement of their technology I would have to say this is New York City…of 2004."
"Are you saying we went back in time six hundred years?"
"It seems so"
"Shit"
"What's wrong, my Lady?"
"There are three things wrong. One, there is now no way I will be able to fix my ship; two, I can't contact HQ; and three, how long do you think it will take the space pirates to figure out what happened?"
Samus looked around at the peaceful serenity of a world yet to be tainted by the space pirates. "And when they do Earth won't have a chance."