A Metroid Among Zoanthropes
A Metroid/Bloody Roar Fan Fiction Crossover
by Derald Snyder
Part 4- Training with Long
*WOC Headquarters, the next day*
"Shenlong?! So he's still alive, huh..." Yugo mused after Samus relayed the news to him.
"Not that we couldn't have taken him, but we've got other things to worry about," the hunter said. "You wouldn't happen to know where Long is, would you?" Long Shin was the template for the clone Shenlong as well as Uriko's teacher in the martial arts.
"Not really," Yugo shrugged helplessly. "I know that Alice wanted to seek him out for training..."
"You sure he's not still on the mountain where he and Uriko trained together during the ZLF crisis?" Shina pointed out.
"That's probably not a bad place to start," Yugo nodded. "Anyway, what did Jenny tell you?" So Samus relayed what she'd learned... "The Tabula of a Thousand Beasts? Sounds like someone already got their hands on it, then... otherwise, why would it activate now?"
"Adam, can you find any information on this Tabula of a Thousand Beasts?" Samus requested.
"Searching databases now, Lady," Adam responded. "Ah. I seem to have found something."
"All right, pay dirt, finally!" Shina said with a grin. "So what'd you find?"
"It seems that the Tabula is a relic purported to contain a disaster of terrible proportions," Adam stated. "However, it's power is sealed by the power of those bearing the mark of the beast."
"Wait, what?! These marks are actually seals?!" Shina gasped in disbelief.
"It would seem so. The only way to fully unleash the Tabula's power is to kill all Zoanthropes bearing the mark. At least, that's what the legend implies," Adam finished.
"Okay, then what we need to do is look into recent homicides and see if any of them were zoanthropes," Yugo proposed. "I'll have Kenji look into that. Shina, you should go with him in case of a confrontation. Not that Kenji can't handle himself, but..."
"I know, you worry about your brother," the leopard zoanthrope nodded. "If this Tabula user thinks he can kill me, he's got another thing coming!" She punched her fist into her hand.
"I'll see if I can help Alice find Long, and let him know about Shenlong," Samus suggested. "After that, I'll start looking into recent murders as well."
"Alright, you do that," Yugo agreed.
*And so...*
"Ugh, I feel a little queasy," Alice groaned as Samus' starship flew towards the mountain.
"Miss Jenny got sick the first time too," Uriko spoke up. "But she got used to it. It's so much fun flying in Mommy's ship!"
"The vertigo isn't quite so bad once you get into space," Samus said. "Anyway, we're almost there. Adam, where's the cave that Long was training at?"
"It is located here, Lady," Adam replied, a marker appearing about halfway up the mountain. "However, there is no space to land the ship safely nearby, so you, Alice and Uriko will have to do some climbing."
"Well, I'm a rabbit, so it shouldn't be that hard," Alice said with a small nod.
"Don't worry, I'll show you the easiest way to climb!" Uriko exclaimed.
*After landing the ship...*
"Ugh, this is harder than I thought..." Alice grunted as the trio hiked up an animal trail.
"Don't worry, we're almost there!" Uriko encouraged. "See? I think that's the cave!" She pointed to a cave nearby a waterfall further up the trail.
"Let's hope there's no bears in there instead," Samus half-snarked. Fortunately that didn't seem to be case, as the trio reached the entrance and looked inside. "Doesn't seem anyone's home..."
"Maybe he just went out to get food?" Uriko wondered.
"Or he's training somewhere else," Samus suggested.
"Ugh, I hope not! I didn't wanna come this way for a wild goose chase!" Alice complained. At that moment, the group heard a rustling, turning to see a man with dark brown hair pulled back into ponytail and wearing green Chinese-style clothing emerge from the brush, carrying some fruit in his arms.
"See? I told you he was getting food! Hey, Teacher!" Uriko waved.
"What the...?" Long Shin stopped short upon seeing the trio. "...Oh, it's you, Uriko. You've brought some friends, I see... Wait, haven't I seen you before?" he looked at Alice.
"Well, Yugo is a friend of mine," the rabbit zoanthrope stammered. "Um, I'm Alice Tsukagami, and I'm Uriko's cousin. And this is Samus Aran, Uriko's adopted mother."
"Yugo Ogami... I see. So you must be the rabbit that broke out of Talon's lab," Long nodded. "And you... Samus, was it? Uriko said something about saving you. It seems she was successful."
"She had help, but yes," Samus nodded.
"Yeah, Yugo and Miss Jenny helped me find her!" Uriko nodded. "Anyway, Alice was wondering if you could train her like you did me, Teacher!"
"Absolutely not. I don't take students," Long denied. "I only trained Uriko because that Jenny didn't give me much choice in the matter... and even then, it was just her trying to copy my movements. All I did was keep her fed."
"But you told me sometimes when I was doing it wrong!" Uriko protested. "Why do you have to be so mean, Teacher?!"
"For your information, we didn't come here just for that," Samus stepped in. "I thought you should know, that Jenny and I encountered your clone last night."
"Shenlong?!" Long's eyes went wide at this. "So he's still alive?!"
"And kicking. Burtory and I barely managed to escape from him," Samus recounted. "He doesn't seem to have anything to do with the current crisis, though."
"Crisis? What's going on?" Long pressed. So Samus and Alice told him about the Tabula and the beast marks... "Ah. So that's where this came from," he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a glowing tiger tattoo. "And here I was afraid that my beast spirit was growing out of control again..."
"Well, that's part of the reason I need training," Alice insisted. "It's not like I don't know how to fight, but... it seems that I'm always having to be bailed out or told to stay back, be it by Yugo or Samus. I... I just don't want to be a burden to Yugo or my family. I want to be able to stand on my own two feet!"
"Yeah! Please, Teacher...?" Uriko made a sad face, which caused Samus to smirk.
"...Oh, all right. I suppose I can offer some assistance," Long sighed. "But, first... Alice, let's have a quick spar, so I can see where your fighting style is lacking."
"...Okay," Alice nodded. She placed her hands over her chest, taking a deep breath to steel herself, before taking her stance. "I'm ready. Let's do this!"
*Meanwhile, in the city...*
"...Yeah, definitely a zoanthrope," Kenji said as he finished examining the corpse. It was a middle-aged man with worn clothing, his face unshaven. "Looks like a feline type, if I had to guess."
"Damn it," Shina cursed. Being a leopard, knowing that the dead man was a fellow feline hit her just that much harder.
"I don't know how I feel about you beast-men interfering in our investigation," said the human detective.
"We're not interfering, we wanna catch this this bastard too," Shina pointed out. "We're thinking this might have to do with a crisis that we're tryin' to deal with as well..."
"Look, there's a security camera," Kenji pointed to said camera hanging above a store entrance. "Maybe it caught the crime on video..."
"All right, we'll talk to the store owner and get last night's footage pulled," the detective nodded. "If it was one of your fellow beast-men, we might need your help on this anyway..."
*Inside the store...*
As it turned out, the store owner had his own computer to view the camera footage on, which Kenji, Shina and the detective were currently doing. "Look, right there! That's gotta be our victim!" Shina pointed. Not long after, another man showed up, this one with long hair that flowed free. But then, there was a flash as he suddenly transformed! "Wh-what the hell?!"
"That's no zoanthrope I've ever seen before," Kenji noted. The creature seemed to be somewhat insect like, with two long antennae extending from his head and two appendages emerging from his back. He also had pointed blades on each arm, one of which was used to stab the victim in the chest before he could react!
"That's our murder suspect," the detective said redundantly. "If I had to hazard a guess, he almost looks like a praying mantis or something... but given that it's late at night, it's hard to tell..."
"Yeah, well, at least we know he's a male with long hair and a slight build, not to mention pretty tall," Shina stated.
"Could we get a copy of this video to take back to WOC headquarters?" Kenji requested.
"Yeah, I'll see if I can get you a copy," the detective nodded in agreement. "I just hope you've got what it takes to bring down this dirtbag..."
"No worries! They call me the Fighting Marvel for a reason!" Shina assured him. "If anyone can take this bastard down, I can!"
"We still have to find him first," Kenji pointed out. "I better call Yugo and let him know what we found..." He took out his cell phone and dialed...
*To be continued...*
