A/N: Chapter 2 is up. I'm doing my best to keep Samus from becoming a Mary Sue, but given the character that Nintendo made her to be, it's pretty darn hard. Don't be too harsh, okay?
Don't forget to review!
The Hunt Begins
The morning of the robbery, Samus found herself at the steps of the Customers First Bank in New Criaven. She entered the bank carefully, wondering what to do next. She milled about aimlessly, probably looking rather suspicious herself, simply wandering around the bank.
What am I even doing here? Samus asked herself. This is crazy. I could get hurt; or worse yet, I could get killed! She immediately headed back outside, intending to distance herself from the bank and all of her crazy ideas. It would never work, anyway.
She walked briskly down the street, silently chiding herself for being so stupid. She passed a coffee shop, and decided to go in for a cup to clear her head. As she opened the door, a little bell hung atop it rung, telling the shopkeeper that she was entering. She went to the counter and ordered a cup of black coffee. The creature behind the counter poured it for her, and she sat down at a booth.
After sipping her coffee for a while, Samus got the eerie feeling that something was amiss. There were several other booths in the small shop, and two of them were packed full of fidgety creatures of different species. They were murmuring quietly to each other, but they all seemed ill at ease. Some of them had drinks, but many did not. Every once in a while, they would glance out of the window nervously.
Samus immediately knew that something was up. She tried to conceal the fact that she was watching them, and continued to slowly drink her coffee. Minutes ticked by, painfully, and Samus' coffee got dangerously low.
Suddenly, a craft's horn beeped outside. Now, a craft beeping its horn in the city was no rare occurrence, but it seemed to make all of the tense people inside the coffee shop jump. Quickly, one of the men got up, and the rest of his booth followed him out of the shop. Minutes later, the second booth left.
Samus jumped into action, forgetting her personal decision to not get involved. She placed her coffee cup on the counter, paid for it, and headed for the bank.
When she arrived, she thought it best not to go in, but instead wait for the robbers to come out. She checked to see that nobody was looking, and she shuffled into an alleyway. From here, she had an excellent view of the bank.
Samus was startled when she was grabbed around the throat from behind by a scaly hand. "Sorry, miss," A grating voice hissed, "But I can't let you ruin this for us!"
Of course, Samus' racing mind realized, They have a lookout! The creature's grip tightened around her neck. It was trying to suffocate her. Samus acted fast: She brought one leg back and hooked it around her assailant's ankle. She shot one elbow back into her opponent's gut, knocking the wind out of him, and then brought her foot forward, effectively sending him crashing down on top of her.
Well, this wasn't exactly what I had planned, but I'll take it, Samus thought to herself. She was now lying underneath the creature, but he no longer had his arm around her neck. Samus thought back to her days with the chozo, when they would wrestle for sport. She was never any good at it, as her arms and legs were a good deal shorter than the chozo's, but this creature was much more of a match for her.
It started to get up. Samus took this opportunity to wriggle out from under him, and then kick the underside of his elbow, sending him crashing back to the ground. Samus managed to get to her feet and then dealt the creature a neat blow to the temple, knocking him out.
Samus was breathing heavily, more from the startling experience than from physical exertion. She looked down at the now unconscious creature lying on the ground. He would wake up with a pounding headache, but he'd be alright. She turned her attention back to the bank. She saw a few creatures dashing out of the doors and down the steps, then into an alley. It wasn't long before they were gone.
Samus cursed under her breath. Now what was she going to do? They would be too far away now to follow back to their hideout. She looked back down to the thug that she had beaten up. She didn't want to be around if the cops discovered him, just in case. She decided to head back to her apartment.
As she reached her room, two emotions were filling her: One was the thrill of adventure. The other was the sinking feeling of defeat.
-X-
"What happened to you?" The big, burly creature growled at its scaly associate.
"What does it matter?" It snapped back, holding an ice pack to its throbbing head.
"Ah," The big one grumbled. "Got beat up, did you?" The other creature just shot him a cheeky look. The big creature frowned, and headed into another room.
Sitting in the center of this room behind a giant desk was an ugly bug-like creature. It had four armor-plated arms, and its mandibles were large and foreboding.
"What is it, Grimm?" The insectoid murmured, looking at the big creature.
"I think Dei got beat up on the job," Grimm explained.
"By whom?"
"I don't know. He won't tell me."
"Bring him here." Grimm nodded and left, bringing the scaly creature with him.
"What is it, boss?" Dei asked with the slightest bit of fear in his voice.
"That bump on your head. How'd you get it?" The great insect demanded.
"I was attacked while on lookout duty, sir," Dei said, feeling very small.
"And, who, pray tell, attacked you?" The boss insisted, leaning over his desk at Dei.
"It— It was a female human, sir."
"What?"
"A female human." Both Grimm and the large insect laughed heartily.
"Do you mean to tell us that you were beat up by a girl, Dei?" Grimm asked him, about to burst with laughter again.
"But you should have seen her fight! It was amazing. I've never seen somebody so skilled at hand-to-hand combat before in my life. I didn't stand a chance," Dei tried to explain. He wasn't really helping his case.
"What was she doing that she would try to beat you up, Dei? Why was she there?" The insect continued.
"You know, I'm really not sure. I saw here there, watching the bank. She didn't notice me, so I grabbed her from behind. After that, well, it all went so fast— I was on the ground and didn't wake up for a while, I guess," Dei recalled. Grimm and the insect looked at each other.
"You say she was watching the bank, Dei. Why was she doing that?" Grimm asked, suddenly suspicious of this whole encounter.
"To be honest with you, I don't know…" Dei trailed off, afraid that he would get struck for his ignorance. Grimm and the boss exchanged glances again.
"Dei," the boss began, "I need you to show us this woman. I want to find out exactly what it is that she knows."
-X-
The next morning, Samus woke up wondering if the events of the previous day were all a dream. She got out of bed and walked into her bathroom to splash water on her face. Maybe she hadn't actually done any of that stuff at all.
As she made her way to Happy Fun Burger, her mind wasn't really on what she was doing. She kept on going over the previous day's events, trying to sort through them all. Was she still going to try to catch Url-Krym? Or was that all just a disillusion of grandeur?
Because Samus wasn't really watching what was going on around her, she failed to notice the group of people following her closer and closer. When she passed through a particularly desolate part of the city, they quickly grabbed her and drug her to the nearest alley.
