Chapter 11 - A Day of Training
The hunters had finally defeated the giant Gorea, and the Supreme Metroid as well. Unfortunately (but fortunate for various life forms) , the dead bodies could not be removed. After this battle, they traveled to Alinos. Samus had an important event planned, but had not told any of them just yet. She led them to the Combat Hall, a small, rectangular room with no roof, two pathways for alternate forms on the second level (one on each side, both connected by a bridge), and a very thin hallway stretching the length of the base level. The name matched the feel of the room perfectly.
"That fight was only the beginning. There will still be more; maybe not as challenging, but still more. Remember, one Gorea was enough to push the Alimbics to extinction. Until we find the source of the Goreas, there will be many battles. So, we will travel throughout Alinos, Arcterra, and the two stations for most of today. In every area, I will point out rooms that can be used as battle arenas. This area, as you know, is the Combat Hall. It was used by the Alimbics for military training. We will use it for this purpose."
Samus finally finished her speech. Judging by her serious tone, the hunters knew this would be important, like she had stated earlier that morning.
"Now, who would like to fight here?" Samus asked with the same tone of voice.
The hunters were all shocked. They hadn't know they would be fighting each other. They had survived encounters like this before, though, so they soon got over this uneasy feeling. Weavel then stepped forward.
"Weavel, due to various 'findings' here, you cannot participate in this battle," Samus said when she saw him volunteer. He would have to wait until the next arena.
"Also, there are some rules to this training. First of all, you may not stay in your alternate form for more than one minute at a time. This is mainly just because of the fact that Goreas are more vulnerable to your BiPed forms than your alternates. Also, it is not an honorable tactic, and we must not degrade ourselves, even if it is war. Sylux, Noxus, Spire, and Kande- KANDEN!" Samus shouted, shocked. She could have sworn that Kanden had died and was now helping them in spirit. But, this wasn't a spirit. He was the real Kanden. But how...? Samus wondered.
"Yep, I'm back. Can't say how, due to secrecy reasons. All I'm saying is that it involved another hunter and a Save Station. But now's not the time. We gotta train hard if we're gonna win," Kanden explained. He seemed different, somehow. Maybe while he was helping in spirit, he gained more confidence and the like. But as he said, now is not the time. They had to train.
"Get it off me! Get this damn fire off me!" Sylux was screaming. He, Spire, Kanden, and Noxus were fighting in the Combat Hall for their first training round. Samus had equipped them with Federation technology, allowing them to fade and respawn somewhere else when attacked enough, to keep them from getting injured. (Of course, it cannot be used against Goreas, since they can detect the spawn points.)
Anyway, Spire had just fired a charged Magmaul shot at Kanden, lighting him on fire. He immediately transformed into his worm-like Stinglarva, jumped off the ledge he was perched on, and ran straight towards Spire, dropping homing bombs in his path.. A light blue, shadowy figure was left in Spire's place, soon disappeared, and then Spire was at the opposite end of the arena. Wow, that thing really works, Spire thought as soon as he appeared there.
At the other side of the Combat Hall, Noxus was charging up a Judicator shot while trying to dodge Kanden's bombs. The Stinglarva slithered around, following everywhere, and dropping the regenerating portion of his tail. (This portion is the bomb). Noxus finished charging his shot, and as soon as Kanden went back into his BiPed form, he fired! Kanden instantly froze, unable to move or speak! Well, this is gonna turn out badly, he thought to himself. Sure enough, Noxus fired several Judicator shots at his head, and as soon as he unfroze, he vanished and reappeared somewhere else. This practice would continue until their next arena.
On Arcterra, Samus, Weavel, and Trace were training in a small, underground area. Half of the bottom floor was a sheet of ice with several pillars. There were small corridors around the area. The second floor was a horseshoe-shaped platform with several holes. Samus had called it Sanctorus.
Weavel saw a strange object in the midst of battle. He jumped over to the pillar it was on, and observed it closely. But when he picked it up, it started glowing. Then, all of a sudden, it spread out and covered every inch of his Space Pirate Power Suit! He started glowing purplish-blue, and felt a rush of power coursing through his veins. He felt almost supercharged, even. But then, someone shot him in the back! He looked behind him, and saw his former-rival smirking at him. He then turned around and got back into the fray. He got his BattleHammer ready, and shot green, exploding orbs towards Samus. Once the fifth one hit, Samus "died" and regenerated in another area of Sanctorus. She immediately walked over to him, ignoring the training.
"What the hell was that! Five BattleHammer shots don't kill someone with full health! And why are you glowing blue, by the way?" Samus yelled, wondering if Weavel was somehow cheating, getting stronger shots than he should.
"I don't know. I saw this orb on that pillar over there," he started, pointing to the pillar. "I tried to pick it up, but it enveloped me, basically. I felt a strange rush of power. Yeah, look. It's over there again now. I don't have a scan visor, but you do, right? Scan it and see what it is," Weavel finally finished explaining.
Samus, sure enough, set up her scan visor and scanned the orb. "Double Damage. Increases the power of whoever touches it. It is unknown how it works; all that is known is it increases the substance that Metroids absorb when latched onto someone..."
"These could help in the war. They regenerate a lot, too. After our training we should try to take some of them with us. We just gotta make sure they don't touch us. Ok, back to the fight!" Weavel shouted.
As soon as he said this, Samus shot him right in the head. With fast thinking, Weavel split into his HalfTurret, and ran, using his hands, toward Samus. The turret shot anyone that came by, and soon enough, Trace had to respawn from being shot by it. (He was shot while sleeping; he was waiting for Samus and Weavel to rejoin the training, so he fell asleep).
The training in Sanctorus and the Combat Hall lasted for about another hour. Samus, Weavel, and Trace headed to the Combat Hall to get the others and tell them their new opponents and arenas.
"Okay, this training is working out well. With a small computer program I wrote, I can determine a skill ranking for each of you at the end of the training. We all have two more arenas to train in. After that, I'll use this pro-" Samus explained, but in the middle of her training, an explosion was heard behind them! Seven Goreas had entered the Combat Hall! They seemed like an elite squadron (even though they have no teams; they just seemed stronger than the others), and were all ready for battle. One by one, they jumped off the ledge and landed next to the hunters!
"Reeeawww!" One Gorea shouted. It seemed to be the strongest of these ones!
"Alright, time to put this training into action! We'll train again in a few days. Just fight these Goreas!" Samus ordered.
Trace immediately ran for a ledge. He went to the back of the Hall, into a tunnel (using his Triskelion), and stopped at the end. He then went out of his alternate form, and got ready to snipe some Goreas. He saw one of them heading towards Noxus! But it was red... that meant Imperialist weakness! The Gorea was about to shoot Noxus! There was no way he would be able to survive that shot! Trace tried to focus his Imperialist on the Gorea's shoulder, and then he fired! The arm completely faded away! With fast aim, he shot the other shoulder! The Gorea's armor was weakened! He then shot it with a direct headshot! Next thing anyone knew, the Gorea completely exploded!
"Hey, Trace! Watch where you're sniping! You got Gorea blood all over me!" Noxus complained. He really did look like a puddle of Gorea blood due to that.
"Sorry about that! Nox, that one's current weakness is the Judicator!" Trace yelled, pointing at a Gorea coming towards them. Noxus ran straight for it, but couldn't dodge its MagMaul shots! He was on fire! Luckily, his Judicator was cold enough to go through the flames. In a few minutes, the whole Combat Hall was a blood-covered arena, with two dead Goreas.
"So, you think you can beat us, huh? Let's see what you think about that... when you're in Hell!" Samus taunted the leader of these few Goreas, while sidestepping to dodge its attacks. It had the Omega Cannon equipped, but she discovered one thing about them. Missiles are the weakness of Goreas with the Cannon! With quick thinking, she charged up a Missile blast, and fired! With a few more shots, the arm vaporized! She repeated this with the other arm, then the head. The whole Gorea exploded!
At the Alinos Gateway, the hunters were having another meeting.
"Okay. That was unexpected. But if we were all able to kill one Gorea each in just ten minutes, then we should be able to win this war. But we also need to find the source of the Goreas. Remember, since the closing of the Infinity Void, there have been even more Goreas appearing. Throughout the next week, will we attempt to find the source of these Goreas. It is somewhere out of the Tetra Galaxy, so we will need to travel far. There will be many obstacles. Tomorrow we will improve our ships' weapons and armor for the travel. Now, get to sleep. We need all the energy we can get," Samus stated. All of the hunters soon left to their ships, which were all in different areas of the Gateway. All of the hunters, except Spire.
"Samus. Wait. I need to tell you something," Spire said, slightly nervous. The Elder's spirit had told him not to tell this to anyone, but he needed to. It was a desperate situation.
"Don't worry about it. Just go back to your ship," Samus said, seemingly distracted. She started to go into her ship.
"WAIT! This is important!" Spire shouted. What he needed to say could mean the difference of winning the war or having Goreas invade the universe.
"Fine. Just tell me what you need," she said, slightly annoyed.
"Follow me. I need to show you something," Spire said. He turned his head towards the flowing lava at the back of the Gateway.
Samus decided to see what was so important. Following Spire, they reached the shore of the lava, behind the ship. There were no platforms, though, so this could be risky.
"Spire. Wait. I need to know one thing about this," Samus said nervously. She was almost positive there was a path behind the lava flow, but would she survive that long?
"What do you need to know?" he replied.
"Judging by what you said, there's a path behind that lava. But there's no way I would survive that long if it's covered in lava, even with jumping. Do you have any kind of boots or something, maybe?" Samus asked.
"Crap. Forgot, you can't walk in that. Sorry, I don't have anything. You're gonna have to, er, stand on my shoulders or, uh, something." Spire was embarrassed by this, but it would be the only way to get Samus across.
"This is war. If it's for something important, it has to be done," Samus said seriously.
After awkwardly getting into the cave behind the lava, and finding the platform at the end of the path, Spire noticed the Elder's spirit was there. But why...?
"Welcome back, Spire. I have told you to keep quiet about this until it is finished, but I know you are getting closer to defeating the Goreas. Only you two must know about this, though. Samus Aran. I welcome you. This is the second control of the Alimbic Cannon," the spirit said, gesturing toward a room that looked like a smaller version of the other control. "The Alimbic Cannon, as you probably do NOT know, was our last attempt at defeating the Gorea. We decided to use the Seal Sphere and this Cannon to lock it away forever, though, since the weapon did not work. But, you may find a use for it. It is currently, charging its energy, though. You have to wait one Alimbic cycle, or as you humans say, a month, before it is finished charging. I will summon both of you when it is finished. You may go now." The Elder hadn't given Spire or Samus a chance to speak. But when Samus tried to ask him something at the end of this speech, he had faded away.
"Well, now for another awkward trip back to the Gateway," Samus said, embarrassed. Despite this, it was their only way to travel back. Hopefully, in a few days, the source of the Goreas could be found... and eliminated...