Rundas's POV again. Sorry for all the jumping around between minds, but I have to! It helps tell the story! Anyway, have fun reading!
I dodged a rogue Phazon glob, it mixing with the rest of the pooling floor. The Leviathan was groaning and filling up our little chamber with goop, which had started to devour ᾏРђѦ Ridley's body. Dark Samus was nothing more than crushed, black remains, which floated on the surface of the blue sludge next to my ruined Hazard Suit.
The three of us were up to our knees in Phazon, and we were struggling to escape. "Can't you use your ice to fly us out of here, Rundas?" Samus asked, pulling her leg out of the slime with a sucking noise.
I shook my head, scraping off slop from my shoulder. "No!"
"Why?"
"There's too much stuff caking my feet. I need to have open hands or feet to manipulate it," I looked at her and U-Mos. "Plus I could never carry you both."
U-Mos sighed. "This is a terrible predicament we've gotten ourselves into. I never imagined myself dying in this way, trapped inside a monster, with death oozing from the walls and floor..."
"Don't give up now, guys! We'll get out of this alive. We always have." Samus reassured, confident as usual. Her statement made me relax a little bit.
After a silent pause, U-Mos whispered, "Oh..." He clutched his wounded abdomen, hunching over.
"What is it?" Samus wondered, glancing at his shining hand.
"It... suddenly hurts..." he grunted, pulling out his fingers from the gash, with the tips of them blue. "Is this... Phazon...?"
Samus leaned closer, scanning it. "You've got 30% in your blood. How much have you taken in?"
U-Mos weakly shook his head. "None... Why do you ask?"
She pondered. "You only have Phazon in my bloodstream if you've inhaled fumes or actually absorbed it," U-Mos's feathered 'ears' drooped and his eyes sank. "I don't see how you've gotten it..."
She waded her way through the mire and in front of him, and was closely watching the hole in his stomach. "Rundas..."
I dabbled over, "Yes?"
"Has it gotten bigger to you?" Samus pointed to the cut, which issued gold mixed with blue.
Indeed. The circular gap had widened from her pointer finger sized, to about five inches in width and height. It was deep, and I swore I saw something like an organ inside it. I peered harder, trying to place a name on U-Mos's innards that barely showed.
He shivered, and covered the slash so we couldn't see it. "I do not wish to be observed anymore, if you will."
Samus and I pulled back immediately, acknowledging his request. "Hmm..." she thought aloud to herself, tapping on her helmet. U-Mos's shoulders slouched as he heavily exhaled in pain, and I turned my head upward at the sound of something familiar.
Another loud roar came from the high cavern, but it wasn't from the Seed. The three of us watched Samus's gunship descend into our swamping arena, hovering a few feet above the writhing blue surface. I and the other two gawked in gratitude.
Dray popped out of the top hatch, grinning. "Heya, people! Say, in case you guys want to be blown to smithereens, you'll join Ghor and I in leaving this gross planet behind. What do you say?"
We all agreed, wallowing over to the ship and boarding the open pedestal lip. Samus made U-Mos and I -along with herself- shake off the Phazon from our legs before getting inside her gunship. Apparently, she had designed and built it herself, and didn't want any Phazon grunge on it.
Once clean, we were pulled up into the limited cockpit, where Dray sat in the back. Ghor was there too, and was reaching to the ceiling, reattaching wires and functions that he had disabled. "Sorry, Samus," he apologized with a faint smile. "I had to merge with your ship..."
The owner shrugged. "It's okay."
He gave her an actual simper. "Thank goodness. Oh!" He got a glimpse of U-Mos. "What happened to him?"
"We'll explain a little later," she excused, helping me with the tall creature. His arms were around both our shoulders, and he was bowing his head and moaning. "He needs to sit down.
"Gandrayda, move!" she ordered, the purple girl rising and squeezing herself next to the cyborg. "Easy does it, now..." Samus cued me to lower U-Mos down against the wall, cushioning his head easily. He slowly closed his red eyes, pressing his hand to stop the increased blood flow from his stomach. "Everybody on the floor, now. We have to get going." the pilot commanded, turning and taking her seat.
I looked to Dray and Ghor, who were puzzled. "Uh... Samus? We've got a problem..." I mumbled.
"What is it?" she flipped around, realizing what we were troubled with. "You won't all fit..."
Dray playfully nudged Ghor's shoulder. "Told you!"
The Leviathan griped outside of the vessel, and a low buzzing sounded afterward. Ghor sat next to U-Mos's foot, towing Dray next to him. "We'll make due with the room the Luminoth left for the two of us."
I glanced to Samus. "I guess I'm sitting up there with you?"
She turned her head away. "I guess so..." She stood, letting me sit in the chair. Then, to my heart's flutter, she gingerly placed herself in my lap. I gasped silently. "You okay with me right here?"
I nodded. "Perfectly. Okay... so I'll just let you drive?"
"Yeah," Samus replied, resting her palm on a blipping scanner. A map screen flashed on the HUD, and she touched where she wanted to go. Several hundred miles away from Phaaze II at an abandoned Space Pirate weaponry outpost called Tyhorn. As soon as she confirmed her desire, the ship hummed, and we were lifted out of the dying Leviathan.
After a few minutes of ascent, a conversation sparked. "So, what exactly happened to U-Mos?" Ghor asked curiously.
I and Samus looked back at the three behind us. The Luminoth was breathing heavily, blood cascading through his fingers and running down his hands like streams. He had gone pale, the red streaks on his body dim. I had a sad feeling come over me as I watched his chill and miserable body.
"Well, we fell down the cliff, and U-Mos landed on Dark Samus," Samus explained, a tad edgily. She was tense on my thighs. "Her finger went through his stomach."
Dray and Ghor stared. "And now he's suffering from blood loss?" the robot asked.
Samus shrugged. "That's my only guess as to why he's so sick. We need to get him some medical help."
"We're going to a Space Pirate outpost for that?" Dray wondered, her eyebrow shooting skyward. "Why would they have medical stuff there?"
"Space Pirates have advanced technology. I think that they'll have a sufficient amount of supplies for us to use there." She twisted around, laying back into my chest.
"And what if they don't? What do we do with U-Mos then?" Ghor questioned, and subsequent to his remark there came a gurgled whimper from the injured Luminoth.
Samus sighed in despair. "We'll do our best to heal him."
"Wait... Don't you have doctor things on this ship?" Dray said, looking around.
Samus looked back again. "Yeah... I do... Let me-"
"Um..." Ghor interrupted, twiddling his thumbs. "I accidentally happened to... have thrown them out when I was... merging with the ship..."
The huntress exhaled with irony, lowering her head. "Typical... Why does that always happen to me?"
Ghor laughed nervously. "Heh, heh... I'm sorry..." Dray smacked him across the arm. "Ouch! I didn't mean to!"
"Samus..." a forlorn, gritty voice uttered. All our attentions were diverted to U-Mos, who had weakly raised his sopping hand towards the huntress. "...T-thank... you... For... saving m-me..."
She smiled. "You're welcome, U-Mos. It's a pleasure to help you."
He feebly smiled as well, and shut his eyes with a relaxed breath. I looked back around and out the window, the clouds that rushed by. Samus's gaze stayed fixed on U-Mos, and her visor lit up as she scanned his ichor.
"It's rising..." she mumbled as she screened.
"The Phazon in his blood?" I asked in wonder, watching the Luminoth as he tried to breathe evenly. "It's going up?"
"Yes. It's grown to 60%... I just don't understand..." Samus scratched her head. "How can it be elevating when he's nowhere near Phazon?"
Ghor spoke up. "What?"
"U-Mos has got Phazon inside him. The level of it is getting bigger," Samus described, shaking her helmet from side to side. "It doesn't make sense..."
Dray looked at him as he lightly slept. "Is he corrupted?"
"My scans detect nothing at all. He's totally clean."
Ghor pondered this response, rubbing his chin. "Very peculiar..."
U-Mos stirred, blearily cracking his eyes open. "Unh... Are were there... yet?"
Samus shook her head. "Not yet. Just rest, okay?"
He nodded, but stopped abruptly, his fingers digging into the expanding hole. "Augh!!" he cried out, pinching his eyes shut and squirming. Gooey Phazon fountained from his abdomen, leaking all over the floor. Ghor and Dray came to his aid, trying to stop the flowing.
"U-Mos! What's going on?" Dray said, forcing his hand down over his gash.
"It hurts! Oh, it hurts..." His wails were strained and suffering. My heart sank at how much pain he was enduring. "Please... make it stop!! Please!!"
Samus stood, darting over and kneeling. "U-Mos, calm down, it'll be all right!" She placed her hands on his head and made him stare at her. "Don't think about the pain!"
He steadied himself slightly, but Phazon continued to pulse from his body in a runny torrent. He swallowed, clenching his fists and lolling his head to the side, despite Samus's hold on his skull. The feathers on his crown twitched and pricked upward, then fell neatly down. U-Mos released a relieved exhale, loosening his fingers.
"Are you better, now?" Samus breathed, lessening the tightness of her hands.
The Luminoth tiredly nodded, peeking past her and to me. "A... bit. Rundas... The console..."
I looked back, seeing the bleeping dashboard that requested me to control it. I did so, placing my hand on a flat module, which blinked green after I did. "Landing data received," a female robotic voice said, and the fighter dipped, those not seated sliding. "Docking in Tyhorn bay seven."
Samus stayed behind me with U-Mos, Ghor, and Dray, making sure the crippled passenger didn't burst into painful shrieks again. "You don't have to control it, Rundas. The ship will land itself." She told me as my hands hovered above the complicated panel.
I dropped them to my sides. "Good. I would've never been able to do it." She laughed.
A few minutes later, we docked on the aged, damaged floors of Tyhorn. I was cautious, but Samus lowered the hatch and made us all get out of the vessel. She made sure U-Mos was able to walk, which thankfully he was, and we started to explore.
We were strolling through the beat-up corridors, searching for some sort of medical assistance we could find. "Any signs yet?" Samus asked Ghor, who was tapping buttons and twisting holograms around for a map of this place.
"No. I can't even get an uplink to this... Maybe the computers are too senescent..." he continued to fumble with the technology.
Dray sighed, leaning against a rusted wall. "This is really stupid. So we're just gonna wait here until the Leviathan blows up? Is that right?"
Samus shot her a glare. "As a matter of fact, yes. But we're also here to patch up and heal a bit."
U-Mos was rubbing his abdomen, where the scar had clearly gotten bigger. No more of his golden blood secreted from it, only thick blue guck that reeked. He was looking around with exhausted eyes, and his face lit up. "Look at that!"
We all turned to where he was glancing, finding a large door that was deteriorating off of its hinges. It was open slightly, and above in translated Space Pirate language, read, 'Medical Bay'.
The five of us rushed to the door, with Ghor kicking it down and flicking on the light switch. We each stepped inside, taking a glimpse around at the many shelves and tables that were cluttered with all kinds of doctor's tools. Most them I didn't know, but a select few were human made instruments.
Dray, Ghor, Samus, and I went and examined the new discovery, but U-Mos remind near the door, and sunk to the ground.
I was toying with a few scalpels that gave me an eerie sense of recollection, and tossed them aside quickly. Then I was about through with prying open a rotting metal case did something interrupt me.
'Aauuuuggggh!!!!!!"