No reviews. Disappointing; though that is hardly my motivation for writing. This chapter contains something that I certainly would hope people would comment upon, regardless of surprise or lack thereof. Fairly obviously, it's an important chapter in the story.

Chapter 6: Complications

Straightening his suit, Mr. Divel took a deep breath, then picked up the phone. Tapping one of the preprogrammed numbers, he waited while a secure connection was formed. All his channels were heavily encrypted; while it was an obnoxious use of time, it was absolutely essential.

"Yes, sir?" a voice came from the other end. It was monotone, carefully modulated to betray nothing of the speakers identity. Such it always was with private detectives.

"Full status report of the investigation. Now," Mr. Divel demanded.

"We have still been completely unable to find any evidence as to the destructions of Stations Ruby or Sapphire," the voice complied instantly. "I believe that had the investigative team been able to return their findings from Station Sapphire, we would have some true information."

"Sacrifices must be made."

"I'm not arguing the point, sir. Unfortunately, it appears your bounty hunter did her job, and Station Sapphire was destroyed completely. I've noticed some similarities between the destruction of both stations, leading me to believe that both were destroyed by causing terminal errors in the Power Core that destroyed the station."

"What does that tell us?"

"Basically nothing, sir. Only that someone from within Station Ruby destroyed it."

"I see. Carry on."

"Station Emerald is under heavy guard per request, sir."

"Did either station go awry in their experiments? Were they outside their limits?"

"Well, sir, we can't be certain until we have real information. However, I do not believe so, everything appeared to be going according to the plan. There's only one other bit of relevant information, sir."

"What?"

"Station Ruby was experimenting on human life, and Station Sapphire was about to start. I don't know if that means anything to you, sir, but I thought you should know."

"I see. Thank you."

Hanging up quickly, Mr. Divel swivelled in his chair, looking out the window. Steepling his fingers before him, he let out a deep sigh. Human life? That meant nothing to him. Nothing at all...

Sensing she was mostly through the wall of rock, Samus stepped back and blasted her way through the rest of it. Jumping from the hole she had created, Samus glanced around the other side. Tal was nowhere to be seen.

Cursing, Samus found that there was one other passageway leading from this side. How had he found it, in complete darkness? For that matter, why had he left? Breaking into a steady run, Samus moved down the corridor, sweeping the area with her lights for any sign of him. He couldn't have made it too far, in theory.

Something flew in from the side, and Samus acted on instinct, dropping to the ground and rolling. Some manner of dart imbedded itself in the wall above her. Remaining in a curled formation, Samus rolled on, up the side of a wall, then transformed back in midair, guns blazing. Whatever it was fell to the ground.

Two other dart like objects flew toward her, and Samus barely ducked them. Her gaze eventually came to rest on an alien creature at the opposite end of the corridor. It was small, spiky and apparently throwing its spines at her. Jumping, Samus avoided a few more aimed at her feet. Quickly she fired a shot, and cursed as it bounced off the creature's armored body. Tough little monster.

Switching to gatling-gun mode, Samus sent wave after wave of small energy bolts at the creature. None of them did any damage, but they did manage to keep it from throwing any more darts. Meanwhile, Samus fired a rocket from her other arm. Bracing herself against the inferno that followed, the bounty hunter looked back into the corridor and was relieved to find nothing. Hopefully there had only been two of the beasts.

Suddenly a disturbing thought occurred to Samus. Tal had been on this side of the wall alone. He was a bad shot in the first place, but he wasn't packing anything powerful enough to fight this manner of monster. Cursing again, Samus picked up her pace, making her way down the corridor.

The room ahead of her was large and apparently empty, a fact that immediately made Samus suspicious. All across the room were signs of a battle: giant claw marks in the rock, burnt sections of ceiling and floor. There had obviously been a fight here, and quite a destructive one, from what she could see.

Attempting to flip to thermal mode, Samus accidently switched to Darklight mode. It worked just as well, as she found a brightly glowing green body in the room. Returning to normal vision as she rushed into the room, Samus found Tal slumped against a wall.

He raised his eyes toward her weakly, but at least they focused. Quickly Samus rushed to her fallen comrade and kneeled beside him. Apparently he had been involved in the battle, and probably on the losing side: his skin was bloody and occasionally little more than shreds. It appeared that nothing internal had been struck, but Samus recognized that he could easily die from loss of blood.

"What happened?" she asked worriedly. Tal shook his head slightly.

"Giant alien. Claws about two feet long. They hurt, just so you know."

"Well, you're being sarcastic. You can't be too hurt."

"Heh." Tal breathed heavily, and it was painful to watch. "I think I'll be alright, it decided to leave pretty quickly; I hurt it some, too. Just to tell you, normal weapons don't really work on it. Its reach is longer than it looks."

"Are you sure you'll-"

"Ssh." He silenced her. "This alien appears to have collected every metal object within the caverns, and it's holding them all not far from here. You know what we need, get it from there. As long as you kill it before it comes back, I'll be fine."

"How did you manage to hurt it? For that matter, how did you see in pitch black?"

"I was... creative. Excuse me, I'm a bit busy bleeding to death."

Somewhat chagrined, Samus quickly got to her feet. Tal was right, she had more important things to do than ask those questions. At the moment it was more important to find what they needed and make sure Tal stayed alive. After doing her best to bind his wounds, Samus set off down the only corridor that continued from this room. It was fortunate that there was only one; she wouldn't have wanted the alien to get Tal while she was away.

Abruptly something loomed in the corridor ahead of her. Screeching to a halt, Samus threw herself back, just as massive claws raked the air where she had been. Tal hadn't been kidding about it being dangerous. Just to test, Samus fired several shots into it; they struck relatively harmlessly. It began rushing toward her, but Samus fired rockets from both barrels.

The force of the explosions knocked the alien back a bit, though they did almost no damage. Samus had not, however, fired the rockets to cause damage. As soon as the smoke from the blasts cleared, Samus leveled her gun and fired a fully charged blast directly at the creature.

Blasted backward, the alien smashed through the narrow corridor and into a much larger room. Breaking into a run, Samus followed it, intending to finish it off before it could recover. Unfortunately, it did so much faster than she had expected, jumping off the ground and slashing her on the side. The bio suit took the damage, but Samus could tell it was extensive. Before it could slash again, Samus fired a shot directly in its eyes.

While it reeled, Samus rolled backward, getting out of the creature's range. They began to circle, watching each other carefully. There was a feral light of near intelligence in this creature's eyes, Samus realized, and it disturbed her. Several long gashes had been made in its hide, and Samus knew she hadn't caused them. How had Tal managed to do damage like that?

She had no more time to think, as the creature launched itself at her a second later. Samus ducked, but underestimated the length of its reach. Two more slashes were made in her bio suit. However, the creature was not familiar with fighting bounty hunters. Had it done so before, it would have known that you do not come into close physical contact with them. Fixing a bomb to the creature's hide, Samus leapt away from the situation.

Roaring, the creature turned to her. Waving goodbye cynically, Samus triggered the bomb, destroying the alien completely. After weathering the blast, Samus quickly assessed her condition. She had taken some heavy damage, especially the specific areas where the claw had struck. Some of it would heal, the rest might require repair. Most likely her left arm's weapon functions would be offline until she could get them fixed.

Remembering her purpose, Samus quickly moved into the next room. Here she found the cache of technology Tal had referred to. Finding what they needed as quickly as possible, Samus stored the things and then practically sprinted back to the room where Tal had been.

He hadn't moved, as was common for people with life-threatening injuries. Actually, he looked better than he had when she left. There was no blood on the ground, either, which was surprising for the injuries he had sustained. Apparently he had managed to keep it inside relatively well.

"Do you have it?" he asked. Samus nodded. Tal tried to get to his feet, but acknowledged defeat almost immediately. Shrugging, Samus picked him up and bolted down the corridor. The sooner they were out of this place the better.

Around her the world was nothing but shifting sand and a dull, never-ending landscape. Had it been practical and the air more breathable, Samus would have taken off her helmet and let the wind blow through her hair. That would be an irrational course of action, so of course she didn't.

A few days had passed since their excursion into the mines. Tal had recovered surprisingly well, and it didn't appear that he would keep any scars out of the experience. That was strange, Samus reflected; he didn't seem to scar easily at all. Meanwhile, she had managed to repair most of her bio suit. Both arms would function properly, but her left arm's Gatling and charging functions would be offline until she could get more high tech repairing. Her ammunition stores were running a bit low, she'd need to restock as well.

Fortunately, it probably wouldn't be too long before that could happen. After recovery Tal had immediately returned to the ship, now equipped with newer and better parts. Yesterday before going to sleep he had said something about just needing to fine tune a few things and then the ship would run. Then they could finally get off this mudball.

Most people probably thought she was dead, Samus reflected. The Galactic Council had most likely disavowed anything that had happened on the station, but it didn't matter. When a bounty hunter disappeared for such a long time, it was assumed they were gone. There were probably already rumors about her death, created with no factual base whatsoever. Well, she'd just have to prove them wrong; it would add to her reputation quite a bit.

What's going to happen to Tal? she wondered. He was evidently still searching for answers, just as she was. This business with the three stations wasn't over yet, and Samus wasn't about to let them get away with not telling her anything. First thing she did after reequipping herself was go there and find out. Speaking of unanswered questions, Samus remembered for the first time some questions Tal had left open. What with healing and repairs they had slipped her mind, but now he had some questions to answer.

Turning to go back to the escape pod turned ship, Samus continued to think about her plans after leaving. Once she got this entire situation straightened out, then what? Most likely just back to Bounty Hunter HQ, to get another mission. That was her life; it was what she enjoyed doing. Sometimes, though, it felt just a bit futile.

Seeing something in the corner of her vision, Samus whirled just in time to be tackled by a large monster of some sort. It sent her flying back, smashing into the sand. Immediately whipping up a gun, Samus blew its head off, then kicked the body aside. Rising to her feet, Samus realized that there was more than just that one.

Some distance away there was a decent number of monsters, all rushing in her direction. That was unusual for this planet; Samus remained confused for some time until she recognized them as the same monsters they had fought in the mines. Had the remaining ones followed them?

Unfortunately for the monsters, Samus was completely aware of their presence, and no longer confined by the weak mine walls. Charging up a laser to full power, Samus abruptly turned and swept it across the ranks of monsters, wiping out most of them. They split up, some rushing past her and other swarming around her.

Launching herself into the air, Samus fired at them from above while airborne, then landed some distance away from the pack. Almost immediately some of them turned toward her, but Samus was already firing into them. Most of the monsters fell away before they crossed the distance between them.

One of the larger monsters rammed into Samus, flinging her backward. As she flew through the air, Samus smiled slightly. A few seconds later the monsters discovered why as the bomb she had left exploded, destroying the remainder of the monsters.

Landing and sinking a few inches into the sand, Samus returned to her feet. Strange that the monsters had followed them from the mines, and that they had waited until now to attack. Such thoughts were blown from her mind an instant later, as she realized she hadn't destroyed all the monsters. Some of them had gotten past her, and she knew exactly where they were going.

Muttering under her breath Samus took off for the ship, hoping she wasn't too late. There had been a good number of monsters that went past her, and Tal was completely defenseless. Hopefully he could escape them long enough for her to arrive.

Reaching the ship and circling around to the back side of it, Samus found a strange sight before her eyes. The monsters had indeed reached Tal before she could, but the results were quite different than she had imagined. Tal was standing, perfectly fine, and the ground around him was littered with alien bodies. All of them looked as though they had been shot by an energy weapon, a few were smoking lightly. There was nothing in Tal's hands.

Hearing her, he turned. They locked eyes for a few moments, neither saying anything. Tal's gaze was deeply and profoundly sorrowful.

"What happened?" Samus demanded. "How did all these aliens die?"

"I'm... sorry," was Tal's only answer. "I wish this didn't have to happen."

"What are you talking about?"

He said nothing, eyes still sad.

"You have a lot of questions to answer. How could you see in the dark? How did you manage to hurt that creature without your gun? And how did you do this?"

For a few moments Tal floundered, his look distinctly guilty. Abruptly it hardened, and his eyes focused on something behind her. Whirling, Samus found herself looking at a monster at her back, raising a claw to strike her. Before she could raise a weapon to destroy it, a bolt seared just over her shoulder, smashing into the creature and blasting it away.

Whipping her head back, Samus looked just in time to get a glimpse of Tal. His hand had been raised, and it had looked nothing like a hand. It had been more of a claw, and Samus couldn't get the image out of her head.

"What is this?" she demanded, anger beginning to rise. Tal sighed, then abruptly something changed. Before her eyes, a dark material emerged from Tal's skin. It spread out over him, and Samus realized it was actually the bones that made up an exoskeleton. They enveloped Tal, covering him with what was essentially a suit of armor. His hands became claws, just seconds before something came up from Tal's neck, extending around his head, leaving only his face visible.

In shock, Samus couldn't bring herself to move during the relatively brief transformation. Tal stood before her, completely unlike what he had been before, save the face. After a few seconds, Samus recognized why he looked so familiar: he had been the strange being she had fought on the research station! Questions ran through Samus' mind like water, and she found she had answers for none of them.

"I'm sorry," Tal repeated with a heavy sigh. "If it makes you feel any better, our fight on the station was an accident, I thought you were with them." He gestured at the escape pod. "The ship will fly now, it should take you to civilization nearby. I was hoping this wouldn't have to happen, but I guess all good things pass, don't they?"

Large, bat-like wings erupted from Tal's back, a dark ebony in color. They expanded out at least four feet on either side of him. With a powerful flap, the wings bore Tal into the air. For a moment he hung suspended there, his gaze haunting, then the exoskeleton closed over his face and he turned. In seconds, he vanished into the sky above.

Still stunned, Samus remained looking after him... it... him, for several seconds. Slowly her mind caught up with this rapid twist of events. Her mind blank and numb, Samus moved back into the ship, full of unanswered questions.