Disclaimer: I do not own Metroid, but all original characters are mine.
"Rick!" Colleen called out, her voice ringing through her apartment. "Rick, where did you hide the keys?" There was no reply; the only sound came from a HV set that magically seemed to raise it's volume even higher. Colleen rolled her eyes. He had lost them again and was obvivously trying to avoid her. She could just barge into their bedroom and face him head on, but she knew that it would not solve her dilema.
And so were the perks of marriage.
"Have you checked behind the table," Colleen's sixteen year old niece, Amber, stuck her head out of her bedroom. "Uncle Rick oftens drops them by there." Amber's parents were archeologists, whose exploits were too dangerous for their teenage daughter; so, Amber resided with Colleen and Rick.
"I've checked sweetheart," Colleen said, throwing aside a few couch cushions to reveal a few wrappers, the HV remote but no keys.
"Oh and one more thing," Amber said. "A man came by with a message for you."
"What?" Colleen's head snapped up.
"Yeah, he said something about it being more trustworthy than email or something," Amber said with a shrug. Her head disapeared behind her door, but she emerged a minute later with a data pad in her hand. Colleen turned it on. In large, bold letters it read,
"Good Job Colleen. Samus has found my base, as well as another old friend of ours. I need to see you immediately. And if you try to elude this one conference, then expect a loved one to disapear.
You have three hours from when you receive this message. I'll be in New York. You know where."
"Amber, sweetie," Colleen said, her eyes still gazing on the message. "Tell Uncle Rick that I have an unexpected…buisness meeting in New York."
"New York? That's so far away! When are you leaving?" Amber asked.
"Now."
Xxxx
To any casual bystander, the man sitting by the window at Maxie's was just a regular old fellow in his early sixties. He lounged contently on the wooden stool, sipping a cup of coffee. His steady gaze remained on the door, as if he were waiting for someone, but it occasionally strayed to the window to watch people rush by with shopping bags or brief cases. A small smile grew on his lips when his companion entered.
"Bill," She said, her tone stern.
"Colleen." He greeted in a much more jovial manner. "Please, take a seat and order a drink for yourself. The journey must have been exhausting."
"Let's not play games," Colleen retorted, crossing her arms. She remained standing, glaring at him. "Who did Samus meet?"
"Why would you care?" Bill asked, taking another gulp of coffee.
"Being who I am, I care very much," She snapped. "I promised Eric I would look after her."
"Don't worry, she's a very famous and capable bounty hunter," Bill said with an amused glint in his eye. "I'm sure whoever it was that she could not harm her."
"Who is it?" Colleen demanded, her voice much more harsh.
"The girl who now calls herself Rista Nevaria." Colleen's eyes widened.
"How-"
"You should have known, Mrs. Eurynache. Rista tracks me down at all my bases. In fact, she is the reason I have so many. She was there long before Samus arrived, and they seemed to…bump into eachother."
"You know what this means?" Colleen asked. "You are going to die because those two have the biggest grudge against you, and together-"
"They don't know," Bill injected.
"They don't know what?"
"I listened to their conversation, and they don't know…that."
"They're still going to kill you," Colleen pointed out, finally taking a seat.
"Yes and I decided to make it a little easier for them."
Xxx
"Why now would he want to reveal the entrance to us?" Rista said in frustration. The entrance was so obvivous now that it made seem almost stupid of them that they missed it before.
"He wants us to come in," Samus said.
"Figures, anyway possible to drag me into a trap," Rista muttered. She stared at it for a moment. The rock that had been there the day before was gone, and now there was a door with an strange looking metal contraption covering it. "How do we get in?"
"Step back," Samus said, gesturing her with one armored hand to go behind her. When Rista did, Samus raised her arm cannon and fired a missle. Rista gave a low whistle.
"Geez, you're better equiped than Mark Aurora," She commented. Mark Aurora was an infamous bandit that plaugued the VX sector.
"You know they guy?"
"Of course." Rista just shrugged it off. Unlike most people when infiltrating a Space Pirate base, she chose to go in with no armor of any kind and a few blasters. "They don't want to kill me. That is reserved for Bill" she told Samus earlier. Still, it would be smart to try to avoid a few stunners, though Samus assumed that was she was there for.
The first hallway they entered was a sterile white color, much like a hospital. Their footsteps echoed loudly on the tiled floor; it was almost too nice and neat for a Space Pirate base.There no doors lining the walls, and there no Pirates patrolling the length of it. It curved at the end, where there was another door.
Samus blasted through, revealing a swarm of Pirates. Rista felt her hand tighten on her blaster. She had taken on quite a few before but never this many. There were about twenty of them, the lowest rank but still quite formable because of the size. They immediately opened fire on the pair.
Rista ducked and rolled away to a corner. Before they could relocate her, she fired a few well-aimed shots and took down two Pirates while injuring a third. She dodged their blasts with ease, and in return, she sent them a "thank you" shot. With her blaster was of high quality; so, when she did hit, it often resulted in a kill.
Samus meanwhile took one their shots, but it her relatively no harm as she charged her gun and let loose a ball of energy. Her shot also killed two pirates. With ease, she cleared off the majority of them, finding Rista with a slightly annoyed look on her face.
"Hey, let me have a little more fun next time," She said. Before Samus could respond, though, a familiar count down began. Samus cursed.
"Come on, we have to leave," Samus said grabbing Rista's arm and leading her out. "This place is going to blow."
"I've been in enough of these to know," Rista snapped. They ran out of the base with time to spare and quickly boarded Samus' ship. Samus let the computer lead them out as she removed her suit and met up with Rista once again.
"Where are we going?" Rista asked, sitting on the control room chair, using her foot to twist it back and forth ever so slightly.
"To find a woman named Colleen Eurynache," Samus said.
"Colleen but she works for Bill," Rista said. Samus nodded.
"I having my doubts about where her loyalties lie exactly," Samus said.
"Do you know where she is?"
"No, but I know how to find out," Samus leaned over the control panel. "Computer, log me on to the Federation's Employee Database."
Authors Note: Definately not my best chapter. (too much dialouge, the action scene stunk). I hope to have the next one up soon, but I am going out of town later this week. I'll see what I can do.
