XVI. Crossovers. Part II
One, two, three. One, two, three, four. One, two, three…
Samus repeated the sequence in her mind, burning it into her memory, her eyes closed in concentration as she hung from a metallic rod forty feet off the ground. The maze had taken some time to navigate. Backtracking and item collection she was used to. But deciphering hieroglyphs, figuring out puzzles, and understanding number sequence patterns made this maze much more complicated than any Chozo ruins or Space Pirate stronghold she had ever encountered. Whatever was at the center must be one of the Chozo's most powerful secrets.
She had several times, and from several angles, passed by a tall tube of metallic-stone, much like a circular chimney, protruding from a deep pit in the floor. Each time she lit a torch, further lighting the area around it, and each time her access to its opening had been blocked, though at each crossing there were clues about its access and the dangers that lay between. As she continually encountered it and by the clues she had found, she knew it was where the path led, if one followed it properly. She was certain she had. The chozean inscriptions and clues, though coded, were unmistakable. This was the path Old Bird intended her to follow. Now she was at the end and there was only one way to go: down.
When she realized this, and seen the handholds on the wall leading up to the rod, and only the encoded number sequence inscribed in the wall, she sat down and pulled out of the pack she had taken, an archaic writing implement and blank-paged book into which she had sketched all the clues, writings, and inscriptions she had found. She had taken at least an hour or more sorting and arranging them, matching them to the number sequence as she did so. When she finally completed the work and seen the pattern, she had stood up, taken the pack along with the notebook and most of the items, and burned them with a torch. Taking only a simple hunting knife and a coil a rope which she wrapped tightly around her waist, Samus had tucked its sheathed form into a fold in her zero suit, stretched, and climbed up the wall to the rod.
Now as she hung there, her eyes closed as she repeated the sequence in her mind, she felt a slight wind. She opened her eyes.
Another bar, higher up lay only a few feet away. Between her and it, a blade the size of a chozirim statue sped past, moving from a slot in the right wall, to a slot in the left and back again with deadly swiftness. It was unlike the Chozo to use such archaic weaponry. But she understood its purpose.
Beyond the second bar, an electrical wave running from wall to wall appeared and then moved swiftly downward where it would disappear only to reappear a moment later in its starting location, repeating the cycle. Below where it stopped, Samus could see archaic blades, electrical pulses, chozean devices sticking out of walls, bars, blocks, and a host of obstacles all between her and the opening of the shaft. The sequence she had deciphered would give her the timing she needed to make it past everything and land her squarely in the opening…if she did it right.
Her moves had to be precise. Her timing had to be perfect.
She closed her eyes and repeated the sequence in her mind as she began to swing her body.
Forward. One, two, three.
Back. One, two, three, four.
Forward. One, two, three…
Back. One, two, three, four.
She felt her body swing forward. She felt the breeze blow past her. Her body reached the apex of its swing and she released. She flipped, reached out her arms, and gripped the metal bar in front of her. Her body swung forward as the breeze blew past just behind her. One, two, three. She released, throwing her body forward into open air. Flipping, she heard the electrical spark and reached out a fist. The electromagnetic wave of the grapple beam caught the material of her Zero Suit and her body was suddenly jerked downward at tremendous speed.
She held her body taught and straight as an arrow, feeling the wind as various objects rushed past her some millimeters from her as she continued the sequence in mind. One, two, three, , two, three. The spark sounded again and she felt the wave release her. As her body continued to fall, she kept her count going. One, two… she twisted, and tucked into a ball. Something rushed past her on all sides. …three… she began to turn her body …. four… as she turned, she straightened, her body momentarily in a horizontal position. She felt the wind shift as two large objects passed just above and below her. One, two… She went back into a ball momentarily to gain more spin …three. Then straightened again so that she was facing downward as four more objects blew past her in sequence. She continued this, keeping her count as she spun, tucked, straightened, twisted, and turned, all as she continued to fall through the silence of the chamber, her body narrowly missing the many deadly objects and traps that whooshed passed her. She was almost there. One last test.
One, two, three, four, NOW! Her body in an upright position, Samus opened her eyes, reached over her head, locking her hands together, and tilted her head to one side. A swinging axe-head slipped perfectly into the gap of her arms, the haft catching her hands, halting her downward progress and yanking her painfully backwards. The axe swung her to a wall, where she swung her feet up behind her to contact a particular stone which slid into the wall as she did so. She immediately released her grip on the axe, pushed off the wall and launched herself forward. Her forward momentum began to turn downward, and she flipped so that she was falling feet first. As she completed the motion, a large, block slid out of the wall beneath her. She landed on it and gripped the handholds on its sides just as it cleared the wall. Her hand nearly slipped on her initial grip, but she was able to recover and hunch down, holding fast to the quickly falling stone.
Thousands of archaic, but razor-sharp knives began shooting out of the walls on all sides. Such was the timing that all either bounced harmlessly off the metallic-stone block, or passed millimeters over Samus', hunkered head. One, two, three, four. Keeping the sequence going, Samus leaned back and pulled on the block until she had turned ninety degrees. She then pushed off, sending the block into a diagonal descent as she twisted and flipped so that she slid perfectly into the stone shaft feet-first, her arms over her head. The shaft was just wide enough to accommodate her size with the rope around her waist and she held her pencil stance for one more count until the walls gave way, she caught a metal bar, swung, flipped once, and landed perfectly, one knee and one hand down upon the hard, metallic-stone floor. Calmly, though her heart beat madly, she stood, finding herself in complete darkness.
Fire crackled and snapped as the alien vegetation burned within its strange, purple flames. Above the small blaze, a creature unknown to Joanna's eyes lay skewered on a spit, slowly roasting. Jo sniffed the air.
"Almost done." she said. "Still smells odd, though. Though probably not you four, I imagine."
She looked up at the four creatures standing on the other side of the fire. It had been days. The narrow shaft she had crawled into had opened up into another large cavern, which had split off into two smaller passages, one of which had additionally split off into two more passages, one boiling hot, the other freezing cold. That's how it had gone for nearly a week. As she had moved from cave to cave, the scenery and the wildlife changed and she had found a few other interesting devices, but otherwise, it had just been a long, lonely, boring, subterranean exploration. Lonely, that is, except for the company of the meta-ostriches.
They had stayed with her this whole time, sometimes following, sometimes leading. They seemed to know this place well and would often ward her off from a dangerous path, plant, or creature. They ate just about anything they could find and they were even good watch...ostriches. They had been quite a help to her, and she had come to trust their judgment.
She eyed each one in turn. They were nearly as tall as her now. She had been amazed to find how quickly they were growing. So much had her fondness for them grown, she found herself giving them names and even correcting them like a mother.
Must be this place. She mused.
One of them squawked, a sound which she knew more or less meant, "look out".
She looked to the roasting beast and quickly removed it from the flames. Pulling a hunting knife from her belt, she sliced off a large chunk for herself onto a leaf that lay on the ground next to her. She then turned to the group who stood eagerly awaiting their meal.
"Bernie." she said sternly.
One of the creatures cocked its head.
"You share with your brothers and sisters." Jo instructed.
The creature squawked and Jo tossed the roasted beast among them. The four of them proceeded to ravenously tear at their meal. Jo wrapped the leaf around her meat and took a bite as she watched her "children." One of them bumped another which squawked in objection.
"Hey, hey! No fighting." Jo called around her meal.
The group finished their meat and then scattered in different directions as they always did after a meal. Jo remained by the fire, eating her meal and letting her mind wander. After finishing, she activated her teleprompter and set an alarm for one hour. She disliked staying in one place too long and wouldn't resign herself to a full night's sleep until the end of the "day". Deactivating her device, she lay down and stared off into the flames. Her mind contemplated how long she'd been there, her time with Samus and Lara already seeming so far off, her life beyond that seeming like a dream. Sadness crept over her as she pondered if she would ever again see the sunlight or hear the warm tone of Daniel Carrington's voice. Her mind was tired. Her eyelids were heavy. She closed them, and instantly fell asleep.
"Central, this is Four. All clear."
No sooner had the trooper given his status then he felt a blow to the back of the head and collapsed unconscious on the ground. Lara stood behind him, holding a pistol in a backwards grip. For the last twenty minutes, she had encountered soldier after soldier. After the first few didn't talk, she realized the futility of such efforts and resigned to just taking them out. Still, she did not like having to engage again and again in the killing of other people, so she did her best to rely on stealth and be satisfied with knocking them unconscious whenever she could. It was fortunate she kept the radio she had taken off of her second captive. There was some kind of device attached to it that looked rather alien to her eyes. She surmised it was responsible for boosting the signal enough to allow it to pass through the interference of the walls. It enabled her to listen in to their conversations and get an idea of how many soldiers she was facing and even helped her with some of their locations. If nothing else, she was grateful for the fact that it helped her to avoid unnecessary killing.
Unfortunately, she was forced to pull the trigger on one soldier that caught her by surprise. That brought a slew of others after her. One good thing about it, though, she had acquired quite an arsenal. She had even discovered that each weapon she picked up had a secondary function, which she found very handy indeed. But the height of her discovery was that these soldiers, of whom she was now in no doubt to their identity, were attempting to unlock something holding an immense power source near the heart of the labyrinth.
Lara laughed silently at the notion as she replaced her pistol and stripped the unconscious man of his weapons. This place was about as much of a labyrinth as an air duct system in a three-bedroom bungalow. She'd been in museums that were more confusing than this place.
Making haste, Lara took up an assault rifle in her hands and proceeded down the corridor. The man had identified himself as "four". She had to be close to "central". She turned a corner. Another dark hallway. This one was warmer than the rest. Light shone into it from a doorway further down. Voices could be heard, distant, echoing, and unclear. Quietly, she crept down the corridor. As she drew closer, the voices became clearer and she quieted her movements all the more that she might hear every word she could.
"…twelve units." A voice said. "There's no telling how many of our own products we could power with it."
"Do not be concerned with your own units." Said another voice. Its dark tone and inhuman sound sent shivers down Lara's spine. "Whatever you receive when we are finished with it will be more than sufficient."
At this Lara arrived at the doorway. Peaking an eye around the corner gave her a good view of what was in there. Two, bright, battery-powered floodlights stood lighting up the chamber and shedding light on two figures. One stood facing some structure that sat beyond the lights, some sort of statue, perhaps. The other stood facing the first figure. Lara pulled her head back and continued to listen, not wanting to be caught.
"Until we find a way to split the power from the device, neither of our peoples can use it." Said the first voice.
"As I said." Said the second. "Do not be concerned with your own units. Just be concerned about freeing it from-"
"Sir!" a third, more human-sounding voice cut in. "I'm not getting a response from any of our units except three and two."
"It must be that intruder." The first voice responded. "What about the Skedar?"
Skedar?
"All of my units are in the central chamber and they report no anomalous activity." The second voice replied.
"That's good. Tell our men in the central chamber to stay alert. Join two and three and canvas the area-"
"No." the inhuman voice cut in. "Your men have failed. I will deal with this intruder myself."
A strange sound was heard like a spark of electricity and all went silent. Lara stood silent and still a moment, her body pressed against the wall as her mind reviewed how many rounds she had used in this clip and how many were left. Sweat rolled down her cheek. There was definitely a heat source emanating from this room. She held the rifle upright against her chest. She could feel her sweating hands gripping the cold steel, one hand holding the fore stock, the other wrapped around the grip, her finger resting gingerly on the trigger. Lara prepared herself, knowing there was little chance she would get away with not killing all three occupants.
Do, die, or let the universe go to rubbish. Strap up, Croft. There's no turning back.
Lowering the barrel, Lara heard the same electrical noise and saw a dim flash of light directly in front of her where the barrel of her gun had dropped. She immediately leapt and rolled out of the way as something shot into the wall just missing her arm. She rolled and came up on her haunches, letting loose a barrage of bullets on her former position. Her eyes saw flashes of light where her bullets impacted something luminescent. Behind the strange phenomenon, she thought she saw a strange figure vanish out of sight. The luminescence stopped almost immediately after and her bullets flew freely down the corridor. The gun clicked, announcing the depletion of its ammunition. Inwardly, Lara cursed at the size of the magazine as she switched it out with a fresh one.
She again aimed her gun as she backed down the corridor. There was no sound but that of her own footsteps. Whatever had attacked her was still there somewhere, probably cloaked somehow. Blast, but she had no way to detect it! Her mind went over the devices and weapons she had acquired and something stood out. Dropping the assault rifle, she pulled out two sub-machine guns and flipped the switches to activate their secondary functions. In that moment, the electrical sound emitted from behind her and caused her to spin and duck an overhead swipe from the claw of some alien-looking beast. One look and Lara's mind recalled Joanna's description of the Skedar and she now knew what she faced as she let loose a volley of bullets. The luminescence reappeared, protecting the thing like some sort of technological shielding. Lara leapt backwards, avoiding another strike that went into the floor. Her guns pulled on her hands, preventing her from properly entering her roll and causing her to land awkwardly and painfully.
Knowing her danger, she ignored the pain and followed the pull of her weapons, firing as soon as it lessened. The luminescence appeared once again and Lara kept her fingers pressed on the triggers as the creature reappeared from its invisible state. Her bullets pounded relentlessly on the thing's shields as Lara painfully got to her feet and backed away. She knew she could not keep this up forever and there would be no time to reload. As she began to formulate her next move, her guns clicked. Her fingers released their grip as her mind worked in desperation. Then her eyes saw the last of her bullets fly past the surrounding and fading luminescence and strike the creature in its hideous beak. The creature reeled and gave a feral cry. Immediately, Lara knew her next move, dropped her guns, and reached to her backpack.
Recovering faster than Lara expected, the creature charged her in motions nearly too fast to counter. She attempted again to dodge the creature's lunge, but the monster caught her by the foot and raised her off the ground, dangling her like a caught fish and roaring an ear-piercing scream at her.
Lara wasted no time, but pulled from her backpack a strange, cylindrical grenade. She immediately popped the lever and chucked it towards the monster's open maw. A lightning-fast claw caught the projectile.
The monster, who had ceased its feral cry, looked at the grenade with a growl and then back at Lara who was…smiling? Her adversary caught a glimpse of something in her other hand and looked just in time to see Lara swipe upwards with a large machete, severing the claw that held her. The creature roared in pain. Lara dropped to the floor and rolled to her feet. Forcing her body to its physical limits, she turned, ran two steps and leapt into the doorway as an explosion ripped through the passageway.
Something woke Joanna before her alarm did. She lifted her head and blinked and for the briefest of moments, thought she heard a distant rumbling. Had the ground just been shaking? She lay there for a few moments, waiting for something else. But nothing came.
Looking around, she saw the fire had gone down to embers and her four friends were lying asleep in a clump just beyond. Her alarm went off and she pressed the button on her earpiece, canceling it. Sitting up, she stretched and prepared her mind for another day of walking, treasure-finding, and shooting various wildlife that tried to attack her. But first, human nature was calling, and she quietly slinked off to find a private spot.
Having finished, she made her way back to her campsite and proceeded to smother the remaining embers of the fire. It was fortunate that she had remembered the Moonraker Laser strapped to the wrist of her suit, lest she wouldn't have been able to start a fire and cook her food. It had also come in handy on its primary function for opening a few doors so she didn't have to keep wasting bullets.
The fire sufficiently out, she was about to turn and wake her friends when she noticed Clarabelle's head was raised up and cocked, as if she was listening for something.
"What's the matter, girl?" Jo asked her. "You hear something?"
The creature gave a squawk in response, waking the others who mimicked her actions. Slowly, they unraveled themselves, walking around in seemingly random patterns until Winston, the furthest away, squawked back at the other and they all turned and began running in his direction. Jo had learned when they ran, it usually meant danger and so she gave chase as fast as she could, pulling her pistol as she followed. Her friends were fleet-footed, though they always seemed to slacken their pace in order for her to keep up. But this time, they seemed to have forgotten that and were running so fast that Jo soon lost sight of them. Fortunately, as far as she could tell, this particular cavern only had one path. She kept up her pace, catching a glimpse here or there of Bernie bringing up the rear of the group as she turned a corner or crested a hill. At one point, the terrain leveled out and Jo got a brief glimpse of a glowing, blue object in the distance. She pushed herself to catch up, knowing what was coming.
At last she saw the cavern ended abruptly at the base of a wide, vertical shaft up ahead and she caught a glimpse of one of her friends, now flashing off-white, hunched onto the ground. Jo ran full out, but before she could get there, the creature had leapt up into the air and rocketed skyward, leaving after-images of itself in its wake. Jo arrived at the shaft just as the last of the after-images dissipated. Out of breath, she stopped and leaned over, attempting to recover. When she had caught her breath, she looked up the shaft. It was wide, likely twenty feet across, and extended beyond the range of her nightvision lenses. Joanna grumbled. This wasn't the first time they had left her like this. Giving a frustrated sigh, she shouted up the hole, "I can't do that!"
She then holstered her gun and crossed her arms, waiting. A moment later, Bernie dropped back down, landing on his feet with unnatural ease for the height that he had dropped. He then ran around in a seemingly random pattern until he came up behind Jo and slid himself underneath her, putting her on his back. Jo held onto his neck as he ran back down the passage to gather speed. Jo closed her eyes, bracing herself for what was coming. This always made her sick.
She felt Bernie change direction. She felt the g-forces pull at her body and saw through her eyelids the glow of blue and then the flash of off-white. She felt herself being pressed down as Bernie leapt high into the air. And like a roller-coaster, she felt the quick easing of the pressure and the gentle bump as they arrived at the top of the shaft and landed on solid ground. Jo opened her eyes and Bernie leaned over, allowing her to slide off. Jo closed her eyes and held her stomach as she muscled down the reflex to vomit.
Bernie came alongside her, looking at her and twisting his neck so that his head was upside-down, as if the odd vantage point would give better insight into his companion's behavior. Jo felt his eyes upon her and opened her own slightly, looking sideways at him.
"Don't worry about me, Bernie." She said. "I'll be right proper in just a bit."
Bernie gave a squawk (rather loudly considering he was only inches from Joanna's face) and, satisfied that she was fine, twisted his head back and ran off ahead of her. Jo stumbled after him, her nausea quickly fading.
It wasn't long before she came to another of the strange doors. The four meta-ostriches stood in front of it, jerking their heads this way and that, as if attempting to hear something that was inaudible to the young agent. Jo deactivated her lenses, aimed her laser at the door, switched to its primary function, and fired a few bursts. The door easily withstood the blasts and Jo saw through the light of the laser pulses the obvious color before her.
Orange. Massive force needed. She thought as she reactivated her lenses.
She then looked again to her friends. Yes, they were her friends, even if they were just dumb, highly-intelligent, alien animals. They had been a great help to her and had gotten her out of what could have turned into some pretty nasty scrapes. The least she could do is return the favor.
"You four want to go in there?" she asked.
The four of them swiveled their heads to look at her and started squawking incessantly.
"Alright, alright." Joanna said as she attempted in vain to shut them up. "okay, fine, ENOUGH!"
They all stopped squawking and stared at her.
"I get it." She added.
Winston gave a weak mumble of a squawk and Joann rolled her eyes as she moved towards the door.
"Stand aside." She said impatiently as she waved them away.
The four shuffled away as Jo pulled from her belt one of the spheres she had found right after she had arrived in this place. It was almost inconceivable that something this small could create a force wave intense enough to open the door. But, then, nothing about this place was normal and she had no other options, besides more unknown devices.
Six of one, half-dozen of another, I suppose. She thought to herself as she squatted down and engaged the band.
The moment the sphere started to pulse, the four meta-ostriches went into a frenzy. In one smooth motion, Bernie knocked the object from Jo's hand, slid her onto his back and began running. Jo held on tight to his belly. She was on her stomach and facing the wrong way. Bernie was jostling her too much for her to attempt to turn around and so she had to remain riding as she was. Turning her head to look ahead of them, she felt panic shoot through her as she realized they were headed straight for the shaft.
A pop sounded off in the distance and Jo looked back to see a tremendous wave of light accelerating towards them. She felt Bernie push off the ground which promptly disappeared beneath them as they jumped the chasm. Jo tightened her grip, causing Bernie to squawk. Time seemed to stand still as the wave quickly filled the cavern, almost blinding Jo as it moved towards her and Bernie at incredible speed. Jo barely had time to duck her head down and pull it in. They were still in mid-air when she felt heat on her head. She felt her hairs begin to singe and then…
Bernie landed awkwardly with a thump and the two went tumbling onto the floor of a cavern that lay on the other side of the shaft. Painfully, Jo got to her feet and looked across the chasm. She barely caught a glimpse of the wave just as it faded out and dissipated over the shaft. She then looked over to see Bernie in a heap upon the floor. He was flailing wildly, his body resembling a pretzel. Jo rushed over and pushed him, causing him to roll. This apparently was all he needed to untangle himself and get to his feet, shaking his head like dog that had just finished scratching.
"You alright?" Jo asked.
He replied with a squawk and then began pecking at the singed feathers of his rear.
"Alright, good. Well, care to see if the door is still intact?"