Chapter 5: Sector 4
We step out of the Recharge Room and immediately cross two platforms and down a drop, through a utility corridor and into a large room, or so it seems. We immediately get excited upon sensing massive amounts of electricity right beneath our feet. Samus grunts and comments, "You may have electrical powers, but I for one don't. What sort of power do you have anyway?"
"Mostly absorb, aim, and release. Actually not so much absorb per say. We can use power from our internal supply, but we need external energy to catalyze our power. We've been meaning t play with it, but we haven't found the time."
We jump up two ledges, blast one of the water wallhuggers from Sector 1 that apparently doesn't depend on water and bomb out the top of a column, dropping a waterhugger on the other side t the floor. We eject a blaster rifle clip and drop down onto the waterhugger (moderate ranged and contact attacks, weak to most weapons) and give it two barrels of 12-gauge, reload the blaster and spray some more on a collection of cubes suspended by chains to the ceiling. Samus hits a few of them n the ceiling. We run down a slope on the flor, crouch, and dip our left hand into the crackling water. Electrical arcs start to flow up our arm and surround our body in a nimbus f energy before settling into a gauntlet of energy. Samus pens the next door and we hop from one platform to another, quickly catching up with her.
We give Samus a cocky grin and a "watch this!" before sending an electrical discharge at the nearest waterhgger. It jitters for a second and derezes. Samus shots three more and we hop up onto an overhang sealing ff a large pool of water. We spot a small brown fish in it. We will a spark from our gauntlet onto our finger and nonchalantly toss it into the water. With the amount of energy we absorbed, our electrical gauntlet hasn't changed appreciably, even without recharging it with our own energy supply. Samus jumps into the pool and opens the door inside it. We erect a telekinetic shield around our arm to protect it from the water, and to not electrocute Samus. We copy the form of it (Unrestricted movement in water, weak to most weapons) but elect not to use it yet, as this would lose our electrical buildup. Samus climbs a ladder on the opposite side of the continuation of the pool in this room and investigates a room to the side before returning and commenting "Biometric."
Across a small gap from the biometric room is a long corridor with some of the waterhuggers. We follow it down and up a large vertical shaft, through a morph tunnel and int a room near the target location. A large collapsed ceiling blocks ur path, though Samus grabs an energy tank. We re-enter the shaft and corridor rm and hear the waterhuggers reforming.
"Well," Samus starts, "That could be a problem. I don't have any weapons that can hit that little bugger right above our exit, and he'll inevitably shoot us while we're rolling through."
"You don't and we don't. The only weapon we have that could hit it is a Redeemer we picked up in a video game a while back, but that would take out us too… Wait, can't believe we forgot this…"
We hold out our hand and a collection of red data cubes begins to swirl above it, dropping down and forming a brown tripedal combat drone with a helmet-shaped turreted head and spindly legs with single joints. We send it a few commands and it transforms into a traditional flying saucer in a swirl of servos. It disappears, reappearing unseen to us n the other side of the wall. It floats upward, coming level with the waterhugger blocking our exit. The saucer, spinning on its axis, rotates its two runs into line and pens fire, spraying the target with energy pellets. The target derezes into an X which floats through ur wall, surprising Samus.
"What's that from?"
"That's the 'little bugger' blocking our exit."
"Think you can deal with the rest of them in the hall?"
We open a comlink with Samus, not knowing why we haven't already done so and send her a visual feed from the drone. The drone drops down, blasts another enemy on a ladder below the tunnel, drops down further and hits a target on the ceiling of the corridor below us. We recall it and dissolve it in a swirl of red energy before morphing and dropping down. We start to open fire on the last waterhugger before deciding to do something different. Bolts of power flow down our arm, arcing between our splayed fingers before being pushed out into forks of lightning that obliterate the last watterhugger. Not even the X survives. Samus starts before commenting, "One down, so many more to go." The attack has, however, drained a noticeable amount of power from our gauntlet. We make a mental note to recharge as soon as we can. That opportunity comes pretty quickly as we drop into the water, through the door, up over a few ledges, and through a lower door, coming out right on top of more electrified water.
Samus jumps up into the ceiling space and bombs out part of it, revealing a horizontal ladder, crosses over the water, and we pulse out a small tower. We lead Samus up a large vertical room and into one of the biometric rooms, where Samus transmits and starts to wonder where to go next. We shrug and point out that there's no way to the terget.
"Search the wall," Samus orders. We glance around and spot a cracked patch. We morph into ball form and use a telekinetic burst to open it. Samus nods and we roll through, burst out a blockage, and through another door.
The next room appears to be Serris's breeding chamber. We hop up onto the rim of the tank and look down.
"Well… crap," we comment, seeing the gutted skeleton, "The X got it.."
"Thank you for telling me what I can figure out on my own," Samusus responds, "Now how's about we go about FIXING THE PROBLEM?"
"Well, if you're going to be like that..."
"Sorry, I'm getting a bit tired." Samus changes to a more lighthearted tone, "These missions really take it out of a girl."
"If you need any sleep, we'll be happy to stand guard. After we kill Serris of course."
"Right, I'll hold you to that," Samus jumps out of the tank on the far side and goes through a door. She climbs up some rubble, up two ladders, and down a hole. We follow her and land just in time to watch her finish off a door guard. We open the door and enter a large room. Half of the room is submerged, there's a ladder on the oppposite side, and there's a large walkway above us at the waterline. We hop up onto a ledge right above the door and note a locked door across the room. We release the telekinetic seal around the electricity still hanging onto our arm, which has been swirling around our ball form. We haven't lost it because our ball form technically has all the powers our base form does.
Samus walks out onto the middle of the walkway, glancing from side to side in anticipation of a fight. The room quakes and the water sloshes before most of the walkway collapses. A large wormlike creature jumps out of the water with a screech, moving at supersonic speeds. Samus leaps out of its way, instantly charging and firing her beam at it. The beam bounces.
"Samus, whatever you do, stay out of the water," we yell. The creature slows down to subsonic and plunges back down. We let our energy swirl around us in a nimbus of power, waiting. We hear the gurgle of the creature preparing to jump and make our attack. Electrical energy swirls around us in a cyclone of pure power, arcs jumping between different parts of the cloud and our own form. It explodes up and out in a dome of harsh yellowish light, tendrels connecting it to us. We raise our arms over our head and spread them down towards our sides, separating the dome into a form that is half-disk half-ring. We slam our hands down, sending every joule of electricity we have, and plenty that we really shouldn't spare plunging into the water, instantly electrocuting Seeris.
Seeris releases a bonechilling scream before its bodyless head lunges out of the water, rapidly derezing into a Core-X. We collapse onto the walkway, badly depleted, sort of crawling towards the water, a good source of energy for us. Samus covers us by distracting the Core-X by destroying its shell and absorbing it and yelling something about a Speed Booster. We derez our visor and shove our fox-like muzzle into the water, rapidly absorbing its energy into our own system. We stand up unsteadily, but rapidly gain strength, shaking our head to get the water off of our fur. How can we get wet if our fur is a dataform?
"Okay, that was cool," Samus says, "I gotta admit, you've got some power."
"Didn't know… we had that… in us," we pant, rapidly recovering, "We've never tried anything with that much power. To be honest, we mostly fight on instinct, not much technique. We just do whatever comes into our head."
Samus shakes her head, "You shouldn't do that. Lack of proper technique is going to get you killed at some point."
"We know, we're working on that. Now let's see if you can do anything about that water. Let's try the room next to that vertical shaft."
Samus leads us to the vertical shaft leading to Seeris's breeding chamber and through an unexplored door, picking up a missile expansion on the way, We take the opportunity to recharge our electricity while passing over one of the large patches of electrified water. Samus runs towards a wall and surges forward, breaking the sound barrier. We follow her, hovering an inch off the ground, making a rapid skating motion and traveling just as fast as she is. We blast through the wall and stop in front of pumping controls. Samus lowers the water level quickly. We dive down a hole and retrieve an RU expansion for us, not that running out of RUs has ever really been an issue, and Samus gets a missile expansion. We race back to the Navigation room, crashing through several walls in the process.
"So Seeris was infected by the X," the AI starts, "But you did recover another ability. At this rate, you may be able to face the SA-X. But htat's a little way off. HQ has sent me data for a missile upgrade, but you'll need to find another data room to get it, as the last one has been destroyed. It's almost as if the X are deliberately preventing you from becoming more powerful. Your best bet is Sector 3. I'll brief you when you arrive."
"Computer, maybe you don't know much about humans, but I need sleep. I'll get to it in about four hours." She signs off abruptly, not giving the computer time to object, "Composite, don't you need to sleep too?"
"No, we only need to rest for one in 24 cycles, and we can save it up. We slept for a full weekend straight from 20:00 Friday to 08:00 Monday, we're good for the next month and a half."
"Lucky," Samus grunts, getting herself comfortable agianst a door, not even bothering to remove her suit.
Time Cut
About three and a half hours later, a call comes in for us on our Ki. It's Camanion.
"Happy Birthday sis!" she says excitedly.
"Happy… What?" we ask, dumbfounded.
"Birthday, I wrote a program that allows me to check how long objective time it's been between my dimension and Fcon's, you know, the corporation that made you as part of a world domination scheme? Well, it's been exactly one year sine you came online. Give or take a few hours anyway."
"Yes… we remember Fcon. And you didn't just check some timestamps?"
"Nope," she deadpans.
Flashback: POV: Third: Place: Camanion's home: Time: One week ago
Camanion sits at her workstation at home, typing away. Her tail waves idly as she rapidly types on the keyboard. She suddenly jumps slightly and yells out, "Hey Risa, come check this out!"
Risa wanders over with a screwdriver and a disgruntled expression, "Yes?" she asks in an acidic tone, "I was fixing one of your servers. Seriously, how unreliable can your hardware be?"
"Well, I'm sliced into Fcon's network and I find this..." Camanion prints out a file listing on her terminal window, "This is the memo Dr. Lightfoot sent to the CEO to report Composite's escape. Se the timestamp?"
"Yes, I see it."
"And this is the timestamp of a log file the system just edited. They're almost exactly one year apart!"
"And we need to give Composite something for their first birthday eh?"
"I was thinking an open invitation to come pick up the portable PDA, the file's a little big to email."
"Something like that."
End Flashback
"Totally," we respond, not believing her for a second.
"Well, I've got a little gift. It's a little big to send to you though. If you get the means and the time, come pick it up!"
"We'll make a note. Say, you ever heard of BSL? It's a space station orbiting planet SR388."
"Huh. Never heard of it."
Samus starts to stir, and we think we hear the beeping of an alarm, "Well, Samus's waking up, we've got to go. Talk to you soon sis."
"Same to you!"
"Who was that?" Samus asks, instantly alert.
"Our sister. Apparently she did the math and we're exactly one objective year in our home dimension."
"Good for you, happy birthday. Now how about we go shoot something?"
"We like the way you think!"
And that's sector 4. Yes, Composite is one year old. I did elease the first chapter of their first adventure on New Year's Eve 2015. Or was it New Year's Day, 2016 around midnight? Can't remember, don't really care.
Anyway, I'll see you next chapter! Until then, this is SabaraOne, logging out.