Samus's Theatre (pt. 2): Chaos in the Hive Totem
What's the deal with the organic entity? And what about the pathway to the Magmoor Caverns transport? Oh, you're about to find out in a few seconds.
The loss of a loved one has an undeniable impact on a living soul…
The death of a close friend or family member results in an integral part of a person's personal world being removed from his or her grasp, resulting in inevitable sorrow…
This is especially true when the decreased soul in question is taken away by a form of injustice, such as the case with both of Samus Aran's parents, who were murdered by the Space Pirate Ridley…
It usually takes weeks or even months for a person to recover under normal circumstances…
However, in the most extreme cases, the damage done to the mind can be irreversible…
Those who suffer from permanent damage will never fully recover…
They will generally commit acts of self-deprivation, which can ultimately lead to either insanity or death…
Samus, accompanied by Meta Knight and Olimar, came within proximity of the organic blob in a matter of seconds. The pulsating property of the strange entity provoked disgust inside the minds of the three, disgust that was thinly veiled by cold, emotionless façades. They were attempting to retain their cool, but the possibility of them revealing a sign of discomfort was not entirely out of the question, as Samus came to believe. The faint thumping from before was now louder, almost sounding like a distant earthquake. This would have caused any lesser being to back away in fear, but Samus and her companions were no strangers to danger.
"Ready?" the bounty hunter asked. A simple nod was all that Meta Knight and Olimar delivered in response, and with this in consideration, the trio closed the distance between the blob's hole and themselves. Hoping for the best and fearing the worst, the huntress burrowed her free hand deep inside; a heavy squelching noise echoed throughout the hall, sounding very reminiscent to a soaked sponge being squeezed to the point of total suffocation. Pikachu struggled to resist closing its eyes when the wretched noise entered its ears, though Fox, Snake, and even Wolf felt just as uneasy. With Samus, the hole's upper wall weighed down on her arm, making it difficult for her to dig inside the structure. As a precaution, the huntress set her visor to scan the blob; it only took a few seconds for the analysis to be completed, but what she got was something of a surprise to her:
Scan completed. Origin of organic entity unknown. Multiple unidentifiable organisms located in the complex.
The last bit was what truly caught her attention. Multiple organisms of unknown origin? Whatever these creatures were, it was unlikely, if not outright impossible, that they were natives to Tallon IV. On top of that, no hint of their biology or behavior was noted in the scan, so there was no known way of dealing with them if they revealed themselves to be hostile. Regardless of these concerning facts, however, Samus continued to reach into the blob's interior. But, without any sort of warning whatsoever…
RRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
"Oh, son of a bitch…!" Wolf snarled. Had he not shielded his ears in time, the horrible noise that emerged from the organic complex, which was comparable to a demon screeching, would have inflicted permanent damage. All other Smashers except Samus, who withdrew her arm out of surprise, and the leaping Olimar, whose helmet muffled the terrible noise, were also forced to cover their ears.
"Pika…" Pikachu grunted as it felt pain in its ears. Such pain, however, would be the least of its worries when the blob's hole stretched itself open to reveal a swarm of hellish creatures within the morbid interior. To say that the residents of the organic formation were hideous was a considerable understatement; they were vaguely insectoid in appearance, with six legs protruding from each side in threes and wings attached firmly to the back, but the colors that tinted their bodies were unnatural shades of red, purple, green, and black. Such a combination gave off vibes of stomach-twisting disgust to the fighters, which was exacerbated by how bloody the insects appeared. Sharp, absurdly straight horns emerged from the top of each insectoid's head, and the mouth could be best characterized as a circular hole with rows of sharp teeth on the edges. Sharp stingers protruded from each creature's abdomen. A partial exoskeleton that was horribly wrinkled in appearance helped to reinforce the body. But the most fear-inducing aspect about the insectoids was the way the eyes appeared.
They were completely black, devoid of any kindness or life, and they always remained wide open, making their gaze even more terrifying.
"What the fuck…" Snake gasped. Even as a soldier who had successfully defeated Metal Gears, deadly cyborgs, Subspace entities, and foes far beyond the strength of normal humans, he felt unnerved from staring into the voids that peered right back at him. There was not a single time in his life where he truly felt chills from the mere sight of his enemies… until now.
"I got a bad feeling about this," Fox muttered. Nearby, Pikachu gathered electricity on its cheeks as it prepared to strike with full ferocity.
"Get ready!" Samus announced. But no sooner had she spoken than the insects initiated their assault on the Smashers, with loud buzzing and screeching to boot. Fox, Wolf, and Snake immediately drew their respective pistols, all of them set to kill, and began firing away, but nearly every foe swiftly avoided the plethora of speeding lasers and steel bullets. A few were hit, but their unnoticed regenerative powers immediately kicked in to repair the damage sustained. Pikachu unleashed a wicked burst of Thunderbolt at three out of nearly one hundred and fifty insect-like monsters, forcing them to drop out of the air like slaughtered flies. Olimar attempted to strike with a chain of Pikmin, but the attack's range was too short for the Hocotatian to earn a clean hit. In return, a single enemy grabbed him by the helmet before launching him into the top of the organic blob, where some of the other insectoids remained.
"Gotcha," Wolf quipped as he executed a foe with a headshot and wounded another with a precise shot to the abdomen. But it was at this point that he quickly noticed the not-yet-defeated insect heal with Återuppliva, the name of which remained unknown to the ruthless mercenary.
"What?" he gasped. "How's it healin' so fast?"
SHINK!
"Hrgh!" The eyepatch-wearing lupine barely resisted the temptation to yell as he felt a stinger, flying from behind, tear a deep cut across his shoulder. Not one to succumb easily, he ignored his pain and quickly shot a few insectoids in the abdomen, with accompanying fire from his vulpine rival. On the other side of the field, Samus fired off several shots that killed one foe and injured several more.
"I shall strike like the fiercest of winds," Meta Knight proclaimed while simultaneously brandishing Galaxia. As his cape transformed into a pair of flight-ready wings, he narrowly avoided a fatal blow from an incoming foe, mainly due to said foe's absurd speed, before replying in the best manner for the situation: a swift removal of the fear-inducing head from the rest of the body. His sword viciously tore through five more opponents, but while attempting to tear apart a sixth, his left wing was pierced by a launched stinger, forcing him to collide into Snake. In the process, one of Snake's fired bullets was deflected by the mysterious warrior's faceplate, with the hazardous projectile's path redirected into a wall.
WHAM!
"Damn!" the ex-FOXHOUND member yelled. While he did not completely topple over due to Meta Knight's low weight giving off a weaker force, the distance in which he was shoved backwards almost came to the point of him being thrown into the water below. Two insectoids approached the duo from behind, and they would have dealt serious damage to the duo…
PEW-SPLACK! PEW-SPLACK!
…had Fox not assisted his fellow Smashers in time. Two red lasers instantaneously reduced each insectoid's head to blackened chunks that tainted the clear water.
"Thank you, Fox," Meta Knight commented.
"No problem," the leader of Star Fox replied. "Now, it's time for these bugs to say their prayers!" With Wolf by his side, he proceeded to strike a few more of his foes while simultaneously avoiding counterattacks with swift acrobatics. Olimar, who had recovered from his earlier injury, tossed one of his three Pikmin, a red one, at a creature who was busy with Snake. Upon contact, the tiny plant-creature began to smack its much larger foe with fiery blows that burned the exoskeleton to the point where not even Återuppliva could save the monstrous insect from a flaming death. The defeated creature fell into the water, with the Pikmin leaping from it to avoid drowning; however, by the time the flames were doused, the damage had already been done.
"You guys mind givin' me a hand here?" Wolf snarled. Although he successfully cleaved a foe in two with a modified version of his blaster's bayonet, which resulted in black blood spraying onto his uniform, the aggressive mercenary was starting to feel heavy amounts of pressure from his wasp-like foes. His physical endurance was pushed to the limits as he was forced to dodge every few seconds, but even his quick reflexes were not enough in preventing some of the even faster insectoids from scoring solid blows on him via stingers and violent tackles. To make things worse, his earlier wound began to swell rapidly to the point where it ached relentlessly. Pikachu was faring better due to its electrical attacks being able to turn foes into crispy corpses, although it took a painful sting to the tail when it tried to dismember a charging foe with Iron Tail. Snake brought one of his trusty grenades into battle by tossing it several meters into the air…
BOOM!
…right into the group which Wolf struggled to fight against. Black blood rained from the explosion and tainted the natural colors of both the platform and Wolf's uniform.
"It's about time someone's given me a boost," the leader of Star Wolf grunted. "Thanks for the blast, Snake."
"No worries, Wolf," Snake replied. His gun continued to create loud cracks inside the Hive Totem as he eliminated more insectoids and wounded a few more. Once again, Återuppliva's ability to heal most wounds kicked in, something which Snake now took the time to notice. Like Wolf before him, his reaction was one of shock and confusion.
"How are they healing so damn fast…?" he sighed under his breath.
WHOOSH!
"That nearly took my head off." The soldier was barely able to dodge an attack that would have left him impaled in two different places. Another grenade was thrown out by him, but since the hostile creatures were more spread out, the effectiveness of the resulting blast was significantly lower than with the first grenade; only two foes were killed. Meta Knight took to the air again and used Galaxia to tear through distorted flesh, occasionally dodging an attack every few seconds. Olimar and Samus unleashed their combined plethora of Pikmin and energy shots, but while the huntress had no problem getting horrifying insectoids grounded, the Hocotatian's throws were neither strong nor fast enough to maintain a solid hit ratio. Adding on to this problem was the fact that Olimar's physical endurance was sub-par compared to most other Smashers, and so, with each attempted throw came an increase in fatigue. As a final blow, the Pikmin often ran the risk of being swept up by a stinger, launched or not, or a tipped horn simply by being out in the open. If this situation kept up, as the captain strongly believed, then dire misfortune could certainly fall upon him and his trusted Pikmin…
"Not a chance," Fox muttered. His reflector created a hexagonal shield around him just seconds before a stinger could impale him. The attacking creature wailed in pain and was left unable to move for a few seconds, although its wound was quickly healed by the magical spell bestowed upon it by its creators. Fox then leaped into the air to perform his signature high-speed attack, the Fox Illusion.
SLASH!
The impact of such an instantaneous move decapitated five insectoids and injured four more. At the same time, Wolf engaged his multi-hitting Fire Wolf to knock an approaching enemy into one of the ancient walls.
"You like that, sucker?" the lupine taunted. Despite pain crushing his body to the point of reduced mobility, his sharp finesse with both blaster and Fire Wolf, a fast-flying aerial kick, then led to him pushing back and even defeating several foes who were harassing Snake and Meta Knight. Pikachu, who had removed the stinger in its tail, began charging up for a deadly dose of one of its strongest moves: Thunderbolt.
"Piiiikaaaaa…" The Mouse Pokémon began to glow a dangerous white-yellow, with the luminosity of this event being strong enough to light at least ten rooms. In the few seconds that it was charging, Pikachu was a living storage of devastating energy that could kill anything in seconds, something which a few of the Smashers, particularly Samus and Snake, took note of. Then…
CRACK-ZAP! BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
"CHUUUUUUUUU!" Pikachu's voice was loud and powerful, almost overshadowing all other noises except for the electrical attack. A vicious bolt of thunder left multiple opponents dead due to the serious burns, while a few others experienced a decrease in altitude due to injury. Wolf, who was now approaching the bottom of the room, simply stared at the horrifying yet interesting attack in awe.
"Now that is some very wicked shit right there," he sighed. As he continued his descent into the waters, a few insects attempted to attack him with launched stingers, but like the earlier instance with Fox, the lupine activated his reflector at the last possible moment. The results were nearly the same as last time, with the only major difference being the increased number of impaled insectoids. Leaping into the air and ignoring his throbbing wounds for a few seconds, he utilized his tipped bayonet to cleave a foe's head in half before tearing both sides off with his claws. On the other side of the battlefield, Samus launched an energized tether beam, more commonly known as the Grapple Beam, to slam a single insectoid against the floor. The force utilized was so great that it completely reduced the huntress's target to smashed paste, with a loud and sickening splat to boot. Two snarling foes from behind launched their stingers, but such attacks only produced small dents on the Power Suit…
SPLACK! SPLACK!
…while simultaneously provoking deadly retaliation from Samus herself. Her superheated Plasma Beam instantly reduced the top half of each insectoid to burnt remains, which would have provided a horrible smell to an unshielded nose. Twisting around, she noticed a foe aggressively charging into her, and since it was only less than a meter away, she barely had the time to block the charge with her enhanced arms.
POW!
"What…?" Samus slid a huge distance back, almost to the point of establishing contact with the still-pulsating blob. Her armored feet created enough friction with the ground to prevent further movement, but this action was not enough in preventing an undeniable thought for penetrating her mind. For a small fraction of a minute, the huntress could barely comprehend the insectoid's surprising strength behind a ramming motion, especially when the creature's size relative to most of the Smashers was considered. While she had faced dangerous insects in her past adventures, most of them were unable to exhibit ridiculous amounts of power like the one she was battling. On top of that, this insectoid's physical properties were a combination that was never witnessed to begin with; though its exact origins were unknown, it was reasonable to believe whatever the Lords had used in their attempts to create or alter the bug were powerful enough to produce an efficient killing machine.
Scrr...
"No way," Samus grunted. As she slid back even further, her cannon, which was often referred to as the Arm Cannon, suddenly fired a powerful missile that split apart the insectoid's body into an indiscernible number of pieces. Black blood sprayed onto her visor, although it was quickly wiped off. Just a few meters away, Pikachu rushed in with Iron Tail…
SH-SH-SH-SHINK!
…and successfully eviscerated several foes into bloody messes. However, the Mouse Pokémon was then tackled to the ground from above. The subsequent impact was hard enough to cause a swelling pain that temporarily paralyzed its small body via the overloading of nerves. Heavy were its stubby arms and legs; while the exact amount of damage was still a mystery to the Pokémon, there was no doubt that the impact inflicted some bruising and possibly a few broken bones. Pikachu's attempts to stand up were simply bouts of torment inflicted by a temporary malady, however imaginary it was, eating away at its nerves. Besides that, the electrical mouse's vision was losing focus due to a head injury from the impact.
POW!
"Pika…!" Pikachu could feel the pain inside its body suddenly increase by a near-drastic margin as it sustained a tackling blow from an unseen hostile. Its vision was black for a few seconds, stemming from a combination of its face now pressed against the stone floor and the danger of completely losing consciousness.
"I got your back, Pikachu," the Pokémon could hear Fox mutter. Within the next couple of seconds, there were the sounds of laser fire and organic matter exploding, indicators that several insectoids were facing their final demise. Wet liquid, assumed to be the black fluid that once circulated inside the slaughtered creatures, sprayed onto Pikachu's back, but it did nothing to reduce the painful swelling or help with mobility. Slashing noises, presumably from Meta Knight, were also among the noises that forced Pikachu's eardrums to vibrate.
BAM!
"Olimar!" Snake could be heard yelling. As Pikachu successfully stood back up, it noticed an unconscious Olimar lying right next to the massive blob, with a deep red spot discoloring a part of his suit. Buried partway into said spot was a long stinger, having been separated from its owner via high-speed launch. The three Pikmin, who were very dismayed by their commander and friend's serious injury, remained close to confront the Hocotatian while avoiding detection from the malevolent insectoids. By this point, it now became clear to some of the other Smashers that, despite the severity of the situation, the number of enemies had dwindled down to less than half the original amount; through a quick scan, Samus realized that the exact number stood at fifty-seven.
"Got to take as many down as possible before they hurt Olimar," she sighed to herself, but not before noticing the Hocotatian's condition. With the Plasma Beam, the huntress proceeded to fry six opponents in quick succession. However, without any warning whatsoever…
WHAM! SPLASH!
…she was thrown into the water by a combined attack from two insectoids. Due to the water being shallow for the most part, her armored form struck the dirt ground, albeit with somewhat reduced force due to fluid friction. The huntress was not injured in any way, although the attack did chip off a portion of the Power Suit's overall energy. As she proceeded to travel back to the platform, a loud yell from Meta Knight echoed across the room very suddenly such that the Chozo-trained combatant nearly froze in place for a few seconds.
"HUAAAAAAGH!"
"Damn…!" the bounty hunter cursed under her breath. Leaping back onto the central part of the battlefield, it was revealed to her that the mysterious warrior from Dream Land had been impaled from behind by an angry stinger. Just like Olimar, blood slowly but surely discolored a part of his uniform, although the latter's more subdued coloring made the former harder to detect in comparison to the Hocotatian's suit. The pain that plagued the small but deadly warrior was so serious that it forced him to initiate an emergency landing. Meanwhile, Snake and both Lylatians fired away to keep the remaining hostiles at bay. Pikachu also contributed to the assault with Iron Tail, but when it attempted to fry more foes with Thunderbolt, a serious blow to the head knocked it into a near-unconscious state.
"Pikachu…" the Mouse Pokémon moaned. "Pika-pika…"
"Fox, go and help Meta Knight out," Snake ordered. "Wolf and I will stay here to protect Pikachu."
"But what about you guys-" Fox started, but a simple hand gesture from Wolf silenced him instantaneously.
"We're not leavin' this spot until we wipe the floor with the rest of these scumbags," the lupine grunted. "Just go and help MK before he gets killed."
"Fine." As the headstrong commander of Star Fox rushed to Meta Knight's aid, Snake tossed yet another grenade into the air, but not before waiting at least two seconds. This delay in action was helpful in catching a few foes by surprise, for there was next to no window for any insectoid to escape explosive dismemberment.
BOOM!
"My turn," Wolf chirped. His reflector activated when no more than five stingers were close to impaling him and Snake. Through a stroke of luck, and as Snake would soon come to realize, some of the attackers already had stingers buried partway into their bodies, so it was no wonder that they appeared even more soaked with black blood upon being impaled again. Shrieking echoed throughout the room for another short moment in the temporal flow, but this occasion was so severe that it made each insectoid's raspy voice a major component to a symphonic composition of terror and pain.
"Shut up already…" Wolf moaned. Next to the organic blob, Samus fired several missiles into the air, reducing the number of insectoids down to an exact count of twenty-eight.
"Get a load of this," the bounty hunter sighed. After a small period of charging, the Arm Cannon, now switched over to the chilling Ice Beam, froze three insectoids solid; since their wings could no longer sustain them, the monstrous creatures were doomed to have their bodies shattered when they crashed into ancient stone. Snake, who swiftly dodged a deadly blow despite his rapidly aging body, reduced another foe's head to chunks after a well-timed headshot.
"Pika…" Pikachu, struggling to overcome its pain, moaned. With hardly any strength left in its body, it was just barely able to release powerful sparks from its cheeks, which transformed four foes into burnt food for any potential scavenger. A second stinger was fired from the front, but because the yellow rodent attempted to avoid the hit by dropping down, the best the offensive projectile could do was inflict a small cut across the Pokémon's back.
"Gotcha," Fox quipped. With fast reflexes, he shot down three insectoids with relative ease. Turning around, he noticed a stinger flying right at him, which naturally led to the activation of his reflector. What the vulpine failed to notice, however, was that the weapon of impending doom remained attached to its owner…
CRACK!
"AAAAHHH!" A swelling pain entered the vulpine's right shoulder and quickly spread across the surrounding areas like a rampaging wildfire. Blood soaked his jacket and underlying shirt to the point where the affected area felt like it was not merely damp, but outright soaked. As his aggressor pulled away, he fired off multiple shots to ensure a brief victory on his part. But it was already too late; the damage had been done.
"Taste this!" Wolf snarled. Brandishing his claws, he hacked off the heads of six insectoids in one swift motion, all while temporarily ignoring his existing pain. Snake toss one last grenade to reduce the number of hostiles down to a paltry seven. Pikachu, still on the limit of its physical endurance, used Iron Tail twice over to cut three foes into three different segments.
SHINK-SHINK!
"Oh, you guys are definitely fucked now," Wolf jeered. With his bayonet, he swiftly decapitated two insectoids before kicking their heads into the water. The last two opponents were shot by a missile from Samus.
"Well, it's finally over," Fox sighed wearily. Indeed, the heat of the battle faded away as soon as the final two insectoids were dismembered to bloody bits, leaving the Smashers with one task besides searching for the staff piece: tend to the seriously wounded.
"Hold still, because I'm going to pull this out…" Snake muttered. The barely scathed soldier gently gripped the stinger that was still plugged into Meta Knight's back, but as he tried to remove it, the mysterious puffball began wincing in absolute pain.
"Not too quickly…" grunted the sword-wielder. As if the stinger was not giving him enough pain, its removal was ever worse, perhaps worse than anything else he could ever imagine; not even the worst foes of Dream Land or even Halcandra could deal out such a serious dose of painful sensations, and that was saying a lot. Meta Knight tightened his hands and bit his lower lip to brace himself, but even these actions were unable to fully suppress what was to come, for at the very moment the stinger was completely pulled out…
SQUELCH…
"Harrrgh!" There was no possible way for the winged fighter to prevent a loud yell from leaping out of his mouth. The full jolt of pain was as if something had been torn out of his body. Nearby, Olimar felt the same painful stimuli tearing through his physical form, but because he was on the verge of unconscious due to serious blood loss, his reaction was not as extreme, being only a weak grunt of pain.
"Does anyone have anything that can stop the bleeding for Olimar and Meta Knight?" Samus asked, her voice exhibiting great concern for her fellow Smashers.
"I have some medical equipment as well as a few rations," Snake answered. After detaching a bag from his skin-tight suit, he opened the former to pass some medical equipment, including bandages, a vial of disinfectant, and a suture kit, to Samus and Fox; the two galactic heroes were tending to Olimar and Meta Knight. With some assistance from the aged soldier, the huntress and vulpine healed their allies in a matter of a few minutes; Olimar's suit was also repaired to prevent oxygen from invading his lungs.
"I'll just take a ration for now," Wolf muttered. As he obtained a ration from the bag, medical care was applied to the rest of the Smashers by Snake, with the sole exceptions of himself and Samus.
"Let's keep moving…" Fox sighed, but he was not able to move an inch before something strange started occurring.
Ssssss…
"Is that noise coming from…" Wolf whispered, but he did not have to finish the sentence to notify the others, for the hissing alone was what caught their attention. Before the eyes of all was the sight of the organic blob decaying at an abnormally fast rate; the veins lost their glow within seconds, and the pulsating of the entire structure ceased altogether. Once solid, every single portion of the blob, including the bridges, slowly melted into a dark liquid that poured over the platform and contaminated the pure water below. Faint snapping sounds were heard as the bridges collapsed. To complete this rather disturbing event, a foul odor overtook the Smashers' noses, not counting those who wearing helmets or steel masks.
"Yuck…" Fox grunted. After shielding his nose, he could only watch as the organic blob finally completed its decomposition within the next few seconds. All that was left was the unobstructed pathway to the transport, marked by a melted entryway, and a black liquid that appeared semi-viscous.
"Let's move," Samus ordered. Passing up the black liquid, the Smashers proceeded into a small room with orange lights that provided moderate luminosity, but as they did so, they noticing something out of place.
"I wonder who did this…" Snake grunted. At the front of the room was a large tunnel that appeared to be created at a very recent time. The pathway was marked by a sharp turn to the right and was without any light. Jagged ridges and cracks were present on the floor, ceiling, and both walls, which harbored no defined edges. A cool wind crawled out from the other side, giving some of the Smashers a few chills.
"Most likely the Lords," Samus replied. The travel through the dark tunnel was nothing special, although Fox had to activate the flashlight on his blaster for better visibility. Following a slight turn to the left, the group was introduced to a moderately large room with orange lights at the corners and a thin gap traversing the full length of the floor. Faint, jaded areas in the shape of long rectangles were present on the nearest wall; Samus recognized said areas to be the remains of higher pathways. At the opposite end was a mysterious platform of Lord-related origin. The circular platform was an olive green, and at the very center was the printed insignia of the Orm's Lords. At closer glance, the device, which could only hold up to two people, was revealed to be forged from hard steel.
"And what is that doing here…?" Wolf puffed. As he and Fox stepped on, a low humming abruptly entered the room's auditory landscape, which was then followed by the platform quickly lifting several meters off the ground. The other Smashers noticed a white glow from the platform's underside, a stark contrast to the color that the Lords were usually known for.
"Yikes!" Fox gasped. The sudden lift into the air nearly caused him to lose his balance, but this problem was largely ignored because of a new sight in front of him: a tunnel, this one shorter than the last, leading up to the room where the transport was at. When the vulpine and his lupine rival stepped off, the platform dropped back into its original position, allowing the other Smashers to utilize it. To avoid overtaxing the platform's system, the Smashers had to be paired in groups, excluding the unpaired Snake.
"This is it," Samus muttered. The stroll towards the room was short, although the injured Olimar had to be supported along the way. All seven Smashers would have immediately stepped onto the transport afterwards, but then…
"Hey! What are you fellows doing here?"
The playful-sounding voice forced all Smashers to rotate to their right. What they witnessed was an unfamiliar character, one that they had expected to appear on this planet. The character in question was a younger man with blond hair curled into locks and hazel eyes that emitted a relaxed aura. He was dressed in gray trousers that extended down to the middle of his calves, a white button-down shirt with long sleeves, a black belt, and black dress shoes. The man himself was moderately short, surpassing only Pikachu, Olimar, and Meta Knight in height. His presence alone begged a few questions inside each Smasher's mind:
Just what was he doing here? And how did he come to know of Tallon IV's existence?
Hoping to strike up a conversation that could possibly reveal the answers, Samus asked the following:
"Who are you?"
So, we now have a random guy wandering around the Chozo Ruins. I don't know what his intentions are, but I sincerely hope he doesn't pull any… tricks on us. If he does, I'll split his head open with the tip of my blaster. And as for the organic blob that we saw earlier… Well, I hope Lillian can give us some insight on that soon, if she wakes up within the next few hours.
-Wolf O'Donnell
We have a new character entering the theatre, but who is he exactly? That will be revealed in the next part.
Samus and her group are a little beaten from the previous battle, but things can't possibly get any worse from there, right...?
R&R.