Well, next chapter's finally up. Sorry about the wait, life caught up to me (as did a little bit of writer's block!)
Aran's Apprentice- I'm not exactly sure what you mean about summarizing character traits. If you mean that I have the 'narrator' give bits of backstory in random places, it's simply because I wanted to answer a few holes in the Metroid storyline (such as, why are there chozo on Tallon IV?) I didn't feel that a 'scene' was necessary, because there wasn't enough information there to base a scene off of.
About the short chapters, I quite like short chapters. It allows me to update more frequently and put in more cliffhangers. I suppose it's just a style thing.
About Samus and Caern seeming younger than they are—I can't disagree with you more:P I think they seem perfect for their age. You're probably right, though that they seem young because so many other authors present teens as being much more level-headed and sure of themselves than they really are. I think I've given a pretty accurate depiction of teens. Just my opinion, though.
I really like the Caern, too. I have a lot of plans with him: You'll see soon. And I do intend to answer what he was thinking about, but I won't reference that scene directly.
And yes, that creature is in Zero Mission. In fact, you could follow Toré's adventures in Brinstar (you'll see) perfectly on a Zero Mission map.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Keep those reviews comin'!
A Parent's Torment
Toré wasted no time. At the break of dawn, he suited up immediately, and set out. He knew that Great Master Yurh would come with a search party for Samus later in the day. Toré could not wait that long. He felt his heart being tugged the way any parent would with a missing child: He had to find Samus.
Toré's mind wandered. He wondered where Samus could be. He knew that Samus was not safe outside of the borders of Chozodia. A horrible thought came to his mind: What if Samus did not survive the night? It was, after all, most dangerous at night. And a night had passed. Had something terrible happened to Samus?
This thought horrified him. He shoved it away, knowing he could not function properly if he dwelled on it. He knew that he had to find Samus as quickly as possible. The longer she was gone, the less chance she had of survival.
That thought lingered a moment.
In a sudden burst of energy, Toré scribbled a note out. He did not want Great Master Yurh to worry about him when he found his hut empty. He left the note pinned to his door, and then headed straight for the cliffs of Chozodia.
-X-
As Toré climbed down the cliff face, he looked for signs of where Samus might have gone. He reached the bottom and surveyed the area. He switched to his scan visor. Seeing nothing, he turned off the scan visor and started walking. Samus clearly was not here, so he just had to search.
After walking a distance, Toré came upon the entrance to the Brinstar mines. He thought for a moment. The mines had not been used for hundreds of cycles, perhaps even thousands. But there was no dust on the door. It did not have insect eggs or cocoons on it. It seemed to be in perfect condition.
His mind reeling, Toré fired once at the door with his blaster. It opened silently, and Toré peered inside. It was dark and dreary, and looked just like any abandoned brinstone mineshaft should look. He slowly entered the room and climbed down the steps that led to the elevator.
Just before he reached the elevator, he saw what he had come for: On the wall were several small mushrooms, feeding off of the nutrients in the rock. A few of them, however, were broken off. Somebody had been down here recently. Toré felt his heart leap as his hope was restored to him. It had to have been Samus: there were no other sentient creatures on Zebes other than the Chozo, and no chozo in his right mind would enter the Brinstar mines. No beast could have opened the door, either, as it required a blaster shot to open.
Toré opened the door leading to the arcane elevator that would take him into the heart of the Brinstar mines. He walked to the old platform and its control panel. He wondered for a moment if the elevator would even work, it being so old. He switched to his scan visor and scanned it.
"This elevator is old and worn. Functionality at 100. Elevator is relatively stable," the display read. Toré nodded, satisfied, and pressed the down button on the control panel.
Immediately the electromagnets surrounding the platform released. The heavy metal disk dropped down the shaft with no warning. Toré gave a cry of surprise as the floor fell from beneath him. After a few seconds the thrusters kicked in and a small jet on the bottom of the elevator slowed its decent, slamming Toré to the ground, shocking him.
After another second or two, the platform stopped moving, and Toré regained his posture. He surveyed his new surroundings. He was standing at the bottom of the mine, with a pillar on either side of him. Atop each pillar was a stone head. They made Toré feel uncomfortable, as it almost seemed like they were watching him.
He headed down the corridor, searching for more signs that Samus may have come this way. He found none upon reaching the next door.
He entered the next room, which seemed to be rather small. There was a ledge in the center of the room. Toré jumped on top of it and opened the next door.
He walked cautiously into the next room, his blaster at the ready. This was a long, open room full of discarded mining equipment. This was probably the place where the miners came to take breaks and such. Across the room was a pile of rocks, leading to the ceiling, blocking access further into the mines. It seemed there had been a cave-in here cycles ago.
There was an explosion of movement above Toré's head. He looked up, instinctively charging his blaster for a full-power shot. A skree was hurtling from the ceiling at Toré, its claws bared and ready to attack. Toré released the trigger on his blaster, sending a large ball of energy hurtling toward the creature. Upon impact the skree vaporized.
Skrees were bat-like creatures that would hang from the ceiling, silently waiting for prey to pass beneath them. When they spotted the potential prey, they would drop from the ceiling at incredibly high speeds. They were incredibly accurate, and they had to be, for if they missed, they could not stop in time to avoid the stone floor. Many were killed upon impact. Skrees could burrow through rock, and that's probably how they got in here in the first place.
Another skree burst from the ceiling, aiming for Toré's head. Toré jumped out of the way, and the skree crashed to the ground with a sickening crunch. It did not move any more.
Toré flipped on his thermal visor, searching for the heat signals of other skrees that could be hanging onto the ceiling. He found a few, and made short work of them with his blaster. Then he proceeded to check out the pile of rocks in front of him.
Toré almost turned back, when he saw a hole at the bottom of the pile. It wasn't quite big enough for him to crawl through, but maybe…
Toré activated his morph ball, and curled into a small sphere. The morph ball was the wonder of the chozo; it was the epitome of technological advancement. With it, any being could curl up into a perfect sphere and roll around as they wanted to. None but the most intelligent chozo had any idea exactly how it functioned, or how the being could still see while in morph ball mode, but it worked, and was very helpful for exploring small areas.
Toré rolled into the small hole and made his way through the pile of rocks, picking and choosing his path carefully, so as to not cause it to collapse on him. When he found his way out the other side, he returned to his upright position. He swung his blaster around, expecting some creature to burst out at him. Seeing nothing, he lowered his arm and took note of his surroundings.
He was clearly in the other half of the room. There was a large statue of a sitting chozo in front of him, and a door on a step above it. The chozo statue was in a sitting posture, with its arms outstretched. These statues were positioned throughout the mines. Some were used to hold important mining equipment, and some were equipped with special nodes in the hands that could heal an injured chozo miner. All the miner had to do was stand on the hands and enter morph ball mode.
This particular statue was used for healing injured miners. Toré could have used it if he wanted to, but he was not injured. His suit's shields were at 100. Toré marked it on his digital map, just in case he needed it later.
Toré walked up the step and opened the door. He was not expecting what he found behind it!