Upon passing through the main hold, Dedede and Mario took a left. The hallway was dim but not as dark as the cockpit. However, the hallway seemed much smaller than it was previously; Dedede looked like he took up nearly half of it. They heard some footsteps in rapid succession, but it was all behind and below them, so they paid little attention to it. When they got to the living quarters, Mario noticed that it was the most well-lit area in the ship. Beside the individual bunks inside the wall and table were two silver doors. One of them led to the bathroom and shower area, and the other one housed the weapons.
"This must be it," Dedede muttered, catching his breath from their walk.
"You shouldn't be here," Mario said, looking at the door, "Why didn't you go down to maintenance?"
Dedede shrugged nearly carelessly, "I need to get my hammer."
"You would've had it regardless," Mario fired back quickly, "Just think about it for a second. Samus brought you on because of your knowledge of this kind of technology. Now, when we need you the most, you want to come get weapons instead of repairing our power supply?"
"Get off your high horse, Mario," Dedede shrugged again, "I need to get my hammer… I'm nothing without my hammer…"
"Well, if you're nothing without your hammer, then you shouldn't have it," Mario said, looking away. He gritted his teeth, "Go on and open it; I'll keep watch.
Dedede hobbled to the door and pressed one of the buttons next to it. When the silver door opened, he saw the weapons cache; it was a small walk-in closet with several shelves full of weapons. Dedede immediately grabbed his large wooden hammer and swung it around, looking incredibly relieved. As he did so, Mario looked deeper inside the cache; there were many different kinds of weapons, but he did not know which ones to grab.
While Mario picked up a plasma rifle, the super scope, and inspected it carefully, Dedede heard noises coming from the hallway. It was the footsteps from before, but they felt closer. He turned to it when the noises became louder and faster. Mario put the super scope down and followed Dedede's yell. In front of them, about a head taller than Mario, was the Blood Metroid. It grew from the last time Mario had seen it; now, it had a full insect-like shell on its back, six fangs protruding horizontally from it's mouth, six dead, white eyes, and four long, skinny, spider-like legs. Mario quickly summoned some flames to his hands as Dedede raised his hammer. When the Blood Metroid opened its mouth and let loose its high-pitched shriek, the lights turned off. The only thing lighting Mario's vision were the flames in his hand, and the slightly illuminated underside of the Metroid.
He heard Dedede swing at something, then he heard another high-pitched shriek. Mario tried to create more fire to get better lighting, but he could not. Mario launched some fire balls carelessly into the darkness, hoping that he was hitting something. Then, when he heard the sudden cracking of what sounded like skin, Dedede frantically swung and smacked Mario accidentally. He flew into the table just as Dedede, who did not seem to notice, felt his coat burn from acidic blood.
The legs of the table collapsed when Mario was flung into them; the top of the table covered his entire body except for his head. When Mario opened his eyes, he saw the lights flickering. And, because of this, he saw Dedede fight the Metroid as if it were a series of pictures; Dedede was jabbed in the foot by one of the sharp legs, and he dropped his hammer in shock. Mario witnessed the Blood Metroid sink all six of its fangs into Dedede's torso suddenly. Dedede screamed and hunched down. He tried to push the fangs out, but the Blood Metroid shot forward violently, driving Dedede against several of the shelves in the cache. Mario could not turn his head, but he could hear Dedede's cries eventually fade away. Then, after he saw the blood spill down the floor, into his vision, the Blood Metroid appeared directly in front of his face. Mario tensed up and closed his eyes, preparing for the worst.
The Blood Metroid shrieked again, following the stoppage of the flickering and the sounds of yet more skin cracking. Mario opened his eyes upon hearing the distant shrieks of the Blood Metroid again. It was gone.
He struggled to push the table off himself, and he struggled even more to get to his feet. When he was back up, he summoned more fire once again. Dedede's misfire really did a number on Mario's back and legs; it felt like he was just hit by a car. The plumber doubled over, panting harshly. He followed the blood and saw what the Blood Metroid had left in the cache; Dedede had been impaled, and his blood splattered all over the weapons. Disgruntled and regretful, Mario looked away and cussed under his breath; the sight was bad enough, but the stench is what really upset him. In the mess, Mario pulled out the super scope he was looking at earlier. It probably would not kill the monster, but it would at least damage it maybe. Mario looked up, holding his side, and saw a decently-sized flamethrower that had not been touched.
Slowly, Samus hopped off the last few steps of the steel ladder. She grabbed Rosalina's hips and helped her down from it. Rosalina dusted herself off while Samus looked around. The lighting down in maintenance was similar to the cockpit; extremely dim, looking like they were under twilight. They knew the Blood Metroid was down there somewhere, but they did not know its exact; there were only four hallways down there, and one room in the center of all of them. Silently, Samus instructed Rosalina to go to the hallway to their left. Rosalina snuck down there, and Samus closely followed behind her. The hallway light above them was flickering directly above the shed skin of the Metroid. Using her pistol, Samus picked up the skin. She dropped it a few seconds later, a reaction caused by the sudden rapid footsteps in a nearby hallway.
"It's going upstairs," Rosalina said, slightly louder than a whisper, "We should be okay for a few minutes."
A few steps later, they got to a steel door. However, a giant hole had been burnt into it. They stepped through the hole, into the room. In front of a few lockers and besides a smaller one, they saw the generator, which was incredibly large, had been trashed. Besides burn marks and yellow liquid, several punctures had been made across it; it was a miracle that the emergency power supply had been completely untouched.
"Well, we can't repair it," Samus said, standing up disappointed, "That thing completely trashed it…"
"What now?" Rosalina asked.
Thinking on her feet, Samus left the room. Following closely, Rosalina watched as Samus opened a panel right beside the door; there were many buttons and knobs inside it. Samus turned the top-most knob and pressed a few buttons. She went back inside and knelt behind the generator. Rosalina again followed her, seeing a few levers. "If we can re-route the power, we can power certain areas of the ship for longer," Samus explained quietly, pulling all the levers down, "So, if we focus all of the emergency power to the cockpit—"
"It'll last much longer," Rosalina muttered, looking down at the levers.
Nodding optimistically, Samus continued, "Instead of a few hours, it should last a few days. For now, we have to make sure the emergency generator is protected."
Rosalina whispered, "How do we do that?"
Thinking, Samus looked over at the smaller generator across the room. She looked back at the broken generator, "We'll break the emergency generator a little; just enough to make the metal untouchable. If the Metroid tries to destroy it, it'll get shocked."
"Exactly," Samus said, "I'll re-route the power. Once I'm done, we'll rig it."
Both of them snuck across the room to the smaller generator. Samus opened a panel on the back of the generator, revealing a few more levers. She pulled two of them down, leaving two others in the middle up. When she pulled one of the other ones down, the room, along with the rest of maintenance, became completely dark. Rosalina, on cue, grabbed a nearby pole, and smacked the generator a few times. The sound echoed throughout the room, and Samus sprung up and stopped her from swinging again.
"Are you insane?!" Samus whispered harshly, "What the hell are you doing?!"
"I'm breaking it," Rosalina whispered back, "What do you want me to do?!"
Samus snatched the pole from Rosalina's hand. She stabbed into the generator a little, right in one of the corners, and twisted the pole to one side. Leaving it in, Samus stepped back confused. "It should be working," she said, touching it lightly, "Why isn't it…?
Suddenly, Rosalina heard something sizzling somewhere above them. She turned towards the door, but she could not see anything. However, Samus did not notice the noise; she went behind the generator and saw the problem. She grabbed one of the levers and pulled it down a little more. Now, it sparked. They heard the electricity flowing through the exterior metal of the generator.
"It's set," Samus panted in relief, "Let's go back to the cockpit. Mario and Dedede should be back with the weapons."
"Samus, do you hear that?" Rosalina asked, turning back to her, "It sounds like something's sizzling."
Samus slowed down her breathing and listened closely. It was now faint but still noticeable. After a few seconds, Samus felt something wet hit her shoulder. She looked up and saw six fangs and six white eyes, in two pairs of three, above her. A long mouth dropped down, narrowly missing Samus. Though it was dark, Samus was able to see a long, skinny face and an extremely pointed, maroon-coloured head. Interestingly, there was still a fragment in the scar between it's pair of three eyes. Samus backed up, quickly firing her pistol and the Metroid. It did not seem to affect the Blood Metroid. Instead, it lunged at her and quickly bit down at her hand. Though she pulled it away, she felt the fangs tear away something. Samus flopped onto the ground; there, she saw that it had became a Zeta Metroid.
Rosalina quickly grabbed the pistol on the ground and fired it. She hit the Blood Metroid twice, then it turned its large head towards her. As it's mouth opened, and green light began forming inside it, Rosalina shouted, "HIDE!"
Before Samus could protest, Rosalina ran out of the room, having caught the attention of the Blood Metroid. Once it was gone, Samus struggled to her feet and pressed her bleeding hand. Weakly, she opened the locker and tucked her knees to her chest. She closed the locker and leaned her hand against the back of the locker. As she heard the Metroid's cry, and thunderous footsteps, Samus looked down at her hand; her index finger was completely gone, and her middle finger had ben reduced to a little stump. Now, her breathing became rapid, and her body tensed. She became limp, and her legs extended a little more. Pressing on her wounds tightly, Samus muttered to herself, trying to talk herself down. Just as her breathing steadied, she heard a growl in the room. Samus held her breath and stayed perfectly still. Through one of the holes in the locker, she saw the glowing underside of the Blood Metroid. Her eyes widened as the Blood Metroid stopped directly in front of her locker. She heard it breath louder; it must know that she was in there. She closed her eyes and prayed. And, suddenly, the breathing and growls stopped. The second that Samus opened her eyes and allowed her body to relax, her locker flung open. Samus almost screamed, but a hand came over her mouth.
"Don't scream, don't scream," Rosalina whispered while Samus looked at her with hysteria filling her eyes, "It's me… It's okay…"
She slowly let go of Samus' mouth, and Samus gradually caught her breath, "I was able to lose it," Rosalina whispered, "It actually stopped running after me… It's guarding the ladder out of here."
Still holding her hand, Samus responded, "That's our only way out…"
Rosalina looked down at Samus' hand, seeing that her had bled all over her zero suit. "We need to get back to the cockpit as soon as possible," she said, looking back up at Samus' face; it was dangerously pale and covered in sweat.
The two of them snuck out of the room, Samus moving extremely slowly. When they got to a corner, Samus sat against the wall, trying to stay conscious. Looking around the corner, Rosalina saw the Blood Metroid faintly; it was crawling along the ceiling a few feet from the ladder. It was waiting for them. "We need to find a way to distract it," Rosalina suggested, studying the hallway.
"Good luck finding one," Samus muttered, her vision beginning to blur. She shook her head and wiped her eyes, restoring her vision slightly, "It knows that we've only got one way out of here; it's not going to waste it's time hunting us down in here."
Looking up, Samus saw a hole in the floor. And, through the hole, she saw Mario limping on the floor above them. She stood up slowly and whispered, "Mario! Down here!"
Mario looked down and saw Samus and Rosalina through a small hole in the floor. "What happened to you?" he asked, kneeling to the hole.
Sighing, Rosalina said, "Samus lost a couple fingers… We need a distraction. The Blood Metroid's cherry-picking the ladder."
"I can't do much…" Mario muttered, wincing in pain, "That thing attacked us and killed Dedede… I got messed up pretty bad, too."
"Peach's the only one left who might be able to get away from it," Rosalina said, looking back down the hallway, "She's not hurt."
"No," Mario said immediately, "I'm not letting Peach do that."
"Mario, we're trapped down here with a goddamn monster," Samus said harshly. She flopped backwards but was able to catch her balance against the wall, "I personally don't give a crap about your opinion right now. We're going to die if you don't help us."
"The only thing that the pistol's good for is pissing the Metroid off," Rosalina explained, her voice nowhere as frantic or angry as Samus', "I don't think any weapons you have will fit through that hole. We need help."
Upon hearing a knock at the door, Peach unlocked and opened it. When Mario entered, carrying a flamethrower and super scope in each hand, she hugged him tightly. He winced in pain and lightly pushed her off. Mario dropped the weapons on the floor and quickly airlocked the door. As the door locked, Peach noticed that Mario was alone. Mario did not say anything, but Peach knew what had happened.
"…Was it quick at least?" Peach asked, clearly shaken.
Mario chose not to respond. Instead he slowly took a seat and leaned back, trying to relieve the pain he felt all over his body. Little Mac was able to sit up and look at the weapons that were on the ground, then he looked back at Mario. "That was all you were able to grab?" he asked, doubtfully.
"Considering Dedede's blood was all over the other weapons, yes," Mario responded, his breaths long and heavy, "I would have tried for more, but I got tossed into a table…"
"Where are Rosalina and Peach?" Peach asked, looking at the door.
"That's why I came back here," Mario responded, grimly. He rose from his seat and grabbed the flamethrower. Slowly, he walked over to Peach and handed it to her, "They're trapped in maintenance right now, and Samus was attacked by the Metroid. You're the only one who can help them right now."
"What do you mean?" Peach asked, looking down at the flamethrower.
"The Metroid's blocking the only way out," Mario told, sitting back down in pain, "Little Mac's still drained, and I… I can barely move. You don't have to kill it; just keep it occupied for a few minutes. Rosalina and Samus just need to get back here."
"Mario, what am I supposed to do?" Peach asked, becoming hostile with her tone, "How am I supposed to keep it occupied without getting myself killed?!"
With his eyes, Mario motioned down to the weapon in her hand. Peach followed Mario's gaze, looking at the flamethrower skeptical and scared. "You're the only one of us who stands a chance at getting away," Mario explained regretfully, "Samus' life hangs in the balance, Peach. You have to be brave."