I am glad that you all like Tal back; while I enjoy writing Samus, it is character interaction that best fuels this story. Similarly, I am glad that Mr. Stevenson is liked; I cannot say that he plays a major role in the story, but it is also not an unimportant one.
This chapter is one of the best, in my opinion. A person previously asked the question as to who is the best bounty hunter, between Samus and Veronica... light will be shed on that in this chapter.
Chapter 24: The Contender
Guards lined the corridors, looking alert and ready to fire. Their orders were to kill anything that entered the corridor on sight. All of them were fully prepared, even eager, to follow the order. Nothing, they thought, was going to get past them.
Explosions rocked through the corridor as carefully planted bombs took out the first of the troops. Plasma was already exploding through the air, killing the next wave of guards just as they began pulling up their guns. Five guards remained around the door at the end of the hallway. Five shots; five guards dropped to the ground. Samus strode through the flames, their low level heat unable to reach her, and blasted her way through the door.
The room beyond was silent, sophisticated and empty. Unlike the rest of the station, it had a thick, soft carpet and wallpaper. It looked almost like a classy hotel, except more opulent. Samus half-way expected to see a chandelier on the ceiling. Walking into the room, she examined the opposite wall.
It was relatively obvious there had once been a ship built into this point. A special ship that would not appear unusual on the station but would allow for quick escapes in dangerous times... such as now. Then she was too late. By the looks of things, far too late. Hopefully Tal was having better luck, but by the looks of this place Samus was pretty certain Mr. Divel had been the one down this corridor.
Raising a hand behind her head, Samus calmly caught the spike of a grappling hook moments before it struck her. Almost casually she turned, still gripping the wire tightly, to look at the bounty hunter standing in the shadows of the room behind her. There was a long moment of stony silence.
"Veronica."
"Samus."
"And so it comes to pass," Samus murmured.
"Do you have anything else to say?"
"Do you?"
"Not really," Veronica responded before taking on a savage grin, "Let's find out which of us is really better, once and for all."
At the same instant both of them moved.
Guards lined the corridors, looking alert and ready to fire. Their orders were to kill anything that entered the corridor on sight. All of them were fully prepared, even eager, to follow the order. Nothing, they thought, was going to get past them.
It was over almost before they realized that it had begun. Something like a wind swept down the corridor, a barely visible black streak. White flashing attacks struck each of the guards along the way, sending them falling in not even bleeding pieces. Retracting the blades into his fingers, Tal returned to full claws, even as he leaped through the door.
Landing heavily in the room on the battered door, Tal immediately swept his gaze to the man standing shocked in one corner. Smoothly Tal swept to him, gripping him by the collar of his shirt and raising him up to look him in the eyes.
"Where's Mr. Divel?" Tal demanded. The man's eyes went wide.
"He... he left the station a while ago. At least half an hour."
"Going where?"
"To the Galactic Council central station," the man stammered, severely shaken by Tal's appearance. Like some sort of monster from a fairy tail... He'd seen plenty of TA models before, but never one so dark, so intense.
"Why?"
"I don't know!"
"Hazard a guess," Tal commanded, grip tightening and claws beginning to slice dangerously through the official's shirt.
"He probably has back up plans!" the man frantically answered, "Maybe he wants to stop this from breaking all over the galaxy! Maybe he just wants to save his own skin! I don't know!"
Not answering, Tal merely kept the politician lifted off the floor, thinking deeply. So Mr. Divel was fleeing this situation... but was he really fleeing? Almost everything he had was destroyed or would be soon when the Galactic Council finished the battle. Was the government corrupt enough that Mr. Divel could control it even with all this? He knew that the Galactic Council was already under his control, and probably a great deal of the Assembly, but how much force could he actually bring to bear?
"You... you can't kill me," the suit said, reminding Tal of his presence. "I can speak with your creators, with Mr. Divel. If I give the word, they'll kill you and all the other freaks."
"Think before you start talking," Tal told him dryly. The next instant his claws flashed in an efficient and lethal arc. Dropping the body, Tal glanced about the room and then took off down the corridor. Hopefully Samus had received better luck. In any case, it was time to plan his next move.
Samus jerked the grappling wire just as Veronica pulled the switch to retract it. The metal spike was ripped from her grasp, flying back toward Veronica's gun. Shifting her gauntlet from glove to gun mode, Samus fired a quick shot that managed to knock the spike off its course.
Shifting to compensate for the wildly flying grappling hook, Veronica was distracted long enough for Samus to hit her with a few shots. She staggered backward, only minorly damaged, before abruptly leaping away, avoiding the remainder of Samus' fire. Landing on the wall, Veronica rapidly fired gatling-gun styled blasts.
Dodging right, Samus rolled and swiftly retreated to the opposite end of the room. Rolling partially up the side of the wall, she pulled out of her crouch, already firing. At the same instant both of them launched grappling hooks on the opposite sides of the room and pulled toward each other.
They crossed near each other in midair, shots firing but striking nothing. Turning off the magnetic grappling hook, Samus dropped to the ground just before fire struck the wall where she had landed. From the ground she fired backward, catching Veronica in the leg but not causing much damage.
Abruptly Veronica vanished, leaving nothing in the office but Samus and what remained of the furniture. Whirling to her feet, Samus swiftly glanced about the room. So she had cloaking as well. Of course, she had already lowered her suit's temperature and was invisible by all accounts. Gunfire exploded toward Samus the next moment, and she flipped backward, managing to avoid most of it.
Firing at the source of the blasts, Samus discovered, as expected, that Veronica had already moved. The next instant a gun struck the side of her head, sending her staggering just slightly. Unfortunately, Veronica made a serious mistake by getting that close to Samus. Before Samus had fallen far, Samus' other leg slammed to the ground, stopping her fall. In the same motion one of her hands had already clamped around Veronica's cloaked wrist.
Jerked through the air without warning, Veronica was slammed to the ground a moment before Samus landed as well, her elbow driving into the other bounty hunter's stomach. Gasping past pain, Veronica activated jet packs, blasting away from Samus, who barely rolled out of the way. Moments later the energy from the jet packs vanished, leaving her as ghostlike as before.
Dodging fire to the center of the room, Samus rerouted energy to another new weapon. Before Veronica could fire on her new position, an ear-shattering wave of sound exploded from Samus' bio suit. Veronica gave a slight cry and put both hands to her ears reflexively.
Her brief noise pinpointed her location for Samus, and a massive plasma shot smashed into the cloaked bounty hunter. Crashing back and partially through a metal wall, Veronica hissed in anger. This battle was slowly wearing her down: heavy damage to her overall system, jet packs only partially online, armor almost completely wasted, cloaking functions offline. Most of her weapons still worked, though.
Growling in the back of her throat, Veronica rose to her feet, glaring out from the smoke rising from her impact. She realized with shock that there appeared to be no one else in the room. The next second her feet were swept from the ground and she was falling back. It didn't cause any damage... but the energy bolts slamming into her in midair did.
Skidding back across the ground, Veronica shifted one arm and launched a fine spray through the air. Instantly glowing sparks lit up around Samus' cloaked form, making her location quite clear. Dropping out of cloaked mode, Samus immediately leapt left to avoid further fire from Veronica.
Moving to close range, Veronica fired a missile directly toward Samus, taking advantage of her momentary jump. With startling speed Samus flipped backward, kicking the rocket away from her. It crashed into one of the walls and blew away a major portion of it.
In midair Samus' back was exposed, and Veronica capitalized on the moment. Shifting a blade out of one of her arms, she aimed to slice through the blond bounty hunter's back. Before it struck, Samus turned slightly, and clamped the blade between a knee and an elbow. The move put her fist aimed for Veronica's head... and a blast slammed directly into the former attacker's helmet.
Flipping in midair and landing on her feet, Veronica slapped her helmet in an effort to clear static from her vision. That had taken out a few computer systems, though thankfully nothing vital. Changing her other hand to a blade as well, Veronica struck out at her opponent, who was just now landing on her feet.
She just doesn't learn, does she? Samus mused to herself, shifting to a mode where she could use her hands. With startling speed she gently pushed aside Veronica's blows, effortlessly defending herself. The instant she had an opening, she smacked a palm into her opponent's helmet, knocking her off balance. Striking with all the physical and mechanical power she had, Samus kicked the purple bio suit directly in the chest.
Hurtling backward across the room, Veronica slammed into a wall. Cracks had formed across the front of her bio suit. She realized with a cold sweat that one good shot would leave her completely exposed. Flesh struck by plasma...
Touching the ceiling with magnetically charged hands, Veronica pulled herself up to it, barely avoiding Samus' shots. Too late she saw the wire slicing through the air, hitting her arm and wrapping itself around her wrist. Jerked off the ceiling, Veronica braced herself for the blasts she knew were coming, doing her best to spin and avoid them.
Shots blazed around her, but Veronica felt no fatal impact. Amazing, and quite fortuitous. Landing just before Samus, she leveled both her guns at the other bounty hunter's head, energy charging dangerously within them. A smirk spread across her face.
"Game Over. You missed."
"Did I?" Samus asked calmly. For the first time Veronica took a look at the guns at the ends of her arms... and realized they had been mostly blown away, leaving her gloved hands in the air, unable to fire. The shock stunned her for a split second, in which Samus slapped a hand on her shoulder and then leapt backward.
"Eject!" Veronica roared, executing the verbal command as quickly as possible. The suit violently unfused, hurling her away from it seconds before the bomb attached to it shattered it into thousands of pieces that rained down into the carpet. Striking the wall painfully and collapsing, Veronica could barely pull herself up when a needle struck her arm. She slumped to the ground further. What could she do without her bio suit?
Samus loomed above Veronica, who gasped and shrank back. A long pause stretched between them.
"What, Samus? Not going to kill me? Too soft?"
"I need information from you," Samus stated flatly. "Besides... you aren't even worth killing."
"What? I-"
"I assure you I can get the information out of you one way or another. Did Mr. Divel hire you?"
"Yeah," Veronica nodded quickly. "He hired a whole lot of the bounty hunters, quite some time ago. Didn't tell us why but paid pretty well. Was prone to rambling about things involving taking over the world. He's probably going back to the Galactic Council Central Station now to try and mend his broken plans."
"My. You certainly are loyal to your employer."
"I hate the arrogant dick," Veronica spat. "I hate you too, but I'm kind of hoping you both kill each other. It'd be viciously iro-"
"Don't care," Samus cut her off. "Thanks for being helpful. Have fun sitting here until the entire station explodes and you burn to death."
"Oh, it'll be a ball." Samus was just leaving when Veronica exerted considerable effort to call after her. "What are you doing, Samus? Why are you working with the TA1?"
"What the hell are you babbling about?" Samus asked, stopping.
"I worked with some of the other TA models too, you know. You can control him now, but for how long? They're all monsters, I tell you, not even slightly human. Eventually he'll turn on you! What are you going to do when he gets stronger than you are?"
"He might already be," Samus answered simply.
"What?"
"I haven't seen all he can do since last time, but there's a chance he's more dangerous than I am now." Briefly her mind returned to the Darklight Scope's view of Tal, a hot white glowing being.
"Oh... then he's controlling you," Veronica realized slowly.
"No. It isn't about control." Samus glanced back toward the fallen bounty hunter contemptuously. "But I don't think you can understand that."
Before any further words could be spoken the entire station rocked violently. There was an explosion of solid white, and then Samus felt everything fading into darkness...
