Metroid: Endgame

by Enterprise F

After rescuing a ship and its crew from the Space Pirates, Samus Aran has been tasked with infiltrating the Earth and stopping Cyrus once and for all. However, the Space Pirates have also come to Earth, and they have a surprise in store for the hunter...

18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

Kraid stomped towards Samus, the ground shuddering with each thunderous step he took towards the bounty hunter. Before starting the fight, she activated her Scan Visor. After scanning the beast, the scan came back, Morphology – Meta Kraid. This is a clone of the Space Pirate enforcer Kraid, enhanced with Space Pirate genetic engineering and bionics. Among the new weapons the subject possesses are explosive claws-like spikes launched from the stomach, boomerang fingernails, fire breath, and explosive magma boulders launched from his mouth. Subject's skin is highly resistant to damage and can withstand multiple attacks from vehicle-mounted weapons, and even weapons like Smart Bombs and Power Bombs. The same weaknesses apply to this version of Kraid. Fire a Charged Shot or missile at the eyes to force open Kraid's mouth and fire Super Missiles into the mouth to inflict damage.

After she read the scan, she focused back on the beast, charging her Power Beam so she could launch a Super Missile at the towering beast. Before engaging him, though, she checked to make sure that the Star Fox Team was well away from the mountain as she engaged the massive reptilian beast. Kraid began the fight by firing the three protruding claw-like spikes from his stomach towards the bounty hunter below. Samus deftly dodged the incoming claws and avoided taking any damage. The claws soon exploded with the same force as three Super Missiles, gouging massive craters into the rocky ledge, and inflicting damage to Samus's suit with the splash damage of the blasts. As he was firing his stomach spikes, he also spewed out boulders from his mouth. Fortunately, Samus managed to dodge them, and their blast radii with ease, and avoid taking further damage, for even the indirect splash damage of the stomach claw-like spikes took off nearly an entire Energy Tank from her. She then fired a Charged Shot at his eyes. Being slow to respond, Kraid took the hit head on and roared in agony as one of his eyes were stung by the blast. Samus took advantage of the opportunity to charge her Power Beam once more and prepare a Super Missile while Kraid was still roaring. She targeted the beast's open mouth and fired a Super Missile. The missile erupted from her arm cannon and streaked straight towards the beast. It landed in his mouth and exploded.

Kraid roared in agony at the explosion of the missile and smoke issued forth from his mouth. Glancing at the beast's life bar on her HUD, she found that the Super Missile had only taken off roughly one tenth of his total health. That meant that she would require at least nine more Super Missiles to take him down. Given that, with the firing of her previous Super Missile, she only had one hundred and twenty-five missiles left, and would be left with eighty missiles, at most, at the end of this fight, she hoped that he would leave energy and missile power ups once he was beaten. She then considered another option for dealing with the behemoth standing before her. She checked her remaining number of Power Missiles and saw that she still had nine such missiles remaining.

Kraid launched a vicious counterattack in the form of a stream of fire towards Samus. The attack caught Samus by surprise and she suffered a direct hit, losing an entire Energy Tank in the process, before somersaulting into a Screw Attack to protect her from the rest of the blast. The stream of fire melted a gully into the ledge of the mountain, which traveled down the mountainside and even to the path below that led to the mountain, forcing those who were traveling the path to jump to the side, or be reduced to ashes by the flame. Eventually, Kraid ceased his fire attack and inspected the damage. Samus was still standing, but the blast of energy had taxed her Screw Attack shield to the limit. She knew that she would not be able to take another blast like that without sustaining damage.

Kraid, taking full advantage of his strengths, covered his eyes with his left hand, while he launched the boomerang-like fingernails of his right hand towards Samus. The spinning projectiles came right towards her and she fired a blast from her Power Beam at the nails, only to find that her Power Beam was not sufficient to deflect them. She then dove to the ground, allowing the nails to sail overhead, and then scurried out of the way of their return strike. The boomerang-like fingernails returned to Kraid, who launched them again, along with a series of fireballs. Samus evaded the fireballs and switched to her Plasma Beam in the hope that the beam would be able to deal with the fingernail claws. Taking aim at the incoming claws, she opened fire on them, her Plasma Beam knocked them out of the air, melting some and burning others to ash.

Seeing that a battle with Kraid would take a long time, and likely be costly in necessary supplies, she decided to forgo the usual long fight, switched to her Wave Beam and charged it. Knowing that only her Wavebuster would be able to inflict damage to the beast's eye while his hand was covering his face, shielding him from her other attacks, she locked onto him and opened fire. Lightning arced from her cannon and streaked towards his face. The lightning struck the beast's arm and arced across the arm, down to the body, and eventually arced across the entire body. Despite the fact that she was blowing through missiles like crazy, she continued the attack, for she knew that it would only take one Power Missile to destroy him should she launch the missile into his mouth. Once the lightning arced into his eyes, Kraid recoiled and stomped away from Samus and roared in agony. He then stood perfectly erect and spread his arms out as electricity still arced across his body.

Before Samus could open fire on his mouth, though, two Space Pirate Armored Tactical Carriers came out from the opening in the mountain behind Kraid and opened fire on Samus with their tribeam cannons, unleashing a volley of blue energy blasts upon her. The bounty hunter jumped into the air and performed a Screw Attack to avoid taking damage from the attack. The energy blasts bounced off of her Screw Attack shield and flew in a variety of directions, with one of them being deflected into Kraid's eye, paralyzing him again just as he had regained movement to his body.

Seeing this as her best chance to take down Kraid, Samus zeroed in on the behemoth's mouth and prepared a Power Missile. The red-tipped warhead emerged from her arm cannon as it opened up to fire the missile. Once Samus had locked onto the beast, and ensured that his mouth was still open, she let loose with the missile. The projectile streaked from her arm cannon and flew up towards the enormous maw of the beast. Kraid looked down and saw the missile streaking towards him and tried to close his mouth in order to minimize the damage that he would sustain, but he was unable to do so. His mouth was locked open for a split second too long as the missile flew into his mouth just before he was able to close it. This was the ATCs' cue to get as far away from their soon-to-be former general and enforcer as they could before the Power Missile exploded. The Power Missile promptly did explode, and blow apart Kraid. The explosion expanded out from his stomach and Samus fled the ledge, jumping down off the mountain to avoid the blast. As she did so, she saw the orange wave of destructive energy expand outward from Kraid, but only a dozen meters or so beyond the ledge. She figured that the body of Kraid had absorbed most of the explosion, thus limiting the damage inflicted to the surrounding area.

Samus soon performed a Screw Attack to take her back to the ledge and make her way into the mountain base of the Space Pirates. However, a volley of two energy blasts struck her Screw Attack shields and were deflected away. Looking up, she saw that the two Space Pirate ATCs were hovering above her, ready to fight. She Screw Attacked her way back up to the ledge and landed on the now burnt ledge, smoke and steam still rising from the remains of Kraid's destroyed body. The two ATCs followed her and opened fire on her, deploying four Space Pirate Troopers, each.

Samus turned around and quickly dealt with the Space Pirate Troopers with a few uncharged Plasma Beam shots to the Pirates, each. She took down two Pirates in her opening volley, but the rest of the Pirates, plus their air support made life tough for the bounty hunter as they opened fire on her. A few of the blue beams from the Troopers managed to score a hit on her, but she managed to avoid the fire from the ATCs. Seeing the ATCs as the greater threat, at the moment, she decided that she had to take them out as quickly as possible. Remembering the Battle of Norion and how the bounty hunter Rundas had taken down four ATCs in rapid succession with a volley of ice blasts, she switched to her Ice Beam and charged it in preparation for firing blasts from her Ice Spreader, all the while dancing out of the way of the energy fire of the Space Pirate Troopers and the ATCs. Quickly checking her missile loadout and finding that she had eighty missiles remaining, she locked onto the lead ATC and unleashed an Ice Spreader blast at the ATC. The expanding wave of ice emerged from her arm cannon and quickly streaked towards the ATC like a missile. The ATC attempted to ascend and fly over the blast, but the expansion of the ice wave managed to tag the craft and freeze its intakes, as well as its engines. With the craft's engines down, the craft was no longer able to stay aloft. It fell out of the sky, and into the crowd of Space Pirates below, exploding upon impact. The explosion scattered the eight Space Pirate Troopers, killing several of them, and wounding the others. Before giving quick mercy to the wounded Pirates, she focused on the surviving ATC.

The other ATC ascended into the air as the bounty hunter charged her Ice Beam once more. Seeing that she had a chance to end this quickly, she fired her Ice Spreader once the beam was charged. The expanding wave of ice erupted from her arm cannon and streaked towards the carrier. This carrier was quicker to ascend and evade the blast. The ice wave sailed under the carrier as it once again opened fire on Samus. Samus was not deterred, though. She quickly switched to her Wave Beam and charged it. Knowing that it would be tougher to evade lightning, she unleashed her Wavebuster upon the remaining ATC as it fired another volley of energy blasts on her.

Lightning erupted from her arm cannon and instantly arced towards the ATC. Upon striking the ATC, electricity arced across its hull as its systems were overloaded and burned out by the electrical assault. The craft's engines quickly went dark and it was transformed into nothing but a deadweight, which quickly came crashing down to the ground. It fell to the ground a fair distance away from Samus and exploded upon impact. Samus then went over to the wounded Space Pirates, who were still trying to inflict damage on her and, switching to her Plasma Beam, took them out with single shots to the head. Once the Space Pirates had been dealt with, she made her way over to the entrance to Mount Coronet.

Back in Goldenrod City, Cyrus stood inside his command center, surrounded by his current Team Galactic Executives, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Charon. Saturn had since left Team Galactic and had even defected to the Earth forces in revealing his knowledge of Cyrus's plans. Of all of the Team Galactic commanders, only Mars, Jupiter, and Charon had been commanders in Team Galactic during his first attempt to create a new universe. Now, as he looked around, he found that he had representatives of all major planets, save for Earth and Saturn, and even one of the objects in the Kuiper belt. They all stood around the computer screen as Venus input the data that she had gathered from the various scans that she and her escort had managed to obtain before being chased away by a group of Pokémon Trainers and supposedly wild Pokémon.

"There's little doubt in my mind," Venus, the tall blond-haired, green-eyed executive began. "Given the amount of energy emanating from this area," she pointed to a large area that was highlighted orange on the screen, "along with the fact that we were chased away by a group of Pokémon Trainers, I think that it's safe to conclude that this is the location of the Sinjoh Ruins."

"It makes sense," Uranus, a young human male with red hair and gray eyes interjected. "It's way north of Johto," he said, pointing to the location of the Johto Region of Japan, compared to the locations of both Sinnoh and the supposed Sinjoh Ruins, "but not so far away from Sinnoh that the people from the two regions could not interact with each other. We'll need to get in close for a closer scan, but that should not be too much of a problem."

"But what about those Pokémon Trainers and other defenders?" Venus asked. "There's no way that they're going to let us pass without a fight. Besides, chances are that the Pokémon League Champions already know the location of the Ruins as well and will assemble there if we so much as glance in its general direction for merely in instant."

Cyrus gave a smirk. "That's why we aren't going alone." Turning to Mercury, he said, "Assemble a defense force and tell them that they'll be escorting us on our journey, but make it quiet. I don't want to draw too much attention to us. I have a call to make. I want to bring in some extra defenders, just in case."

The others bowed and replied, "Yes, sir." With that, they made the necessary preparations to depart for what Cyrus hoped would be the Sinjoh Ruins. His heart raced as he went to call the Star Fox Team. He was so close to his goal, and he would not let anything stand in his way.

Over on Mount Coronet, Fox McCloud watched as Samus battled Kraid and, later, the two Space Pirate ATCs. He was shocked to find that the likely Wolfen II pilot that had taken down his entire team was Samus Aran, a bounty hunter who was far better known for being a foot soldier than a starfighter pilot like members of the Star Fox Team were. Only Krystal was known better as a foot soldier than a pilot, though she had quickly proven herself in the cockpit of an Arwing fighter. As Samus was facing down Kraid, Fox was careful to observe the battle from a distance, making sure that he did not get noticed by either Kraid or the bounty hunter. As he watched, he thought back to the disastrous dogfight his team had had against her one Wolfen II. While the Wolfen II was a tremendous starfighter, he and his team had taken down a quartet of such fighters, piloted by mercenary pilots on a par with the Star Fox Team in the form of Star Wolf. Thinking about the battle, he remembered that the Wolfen II had demonstrated an ability that it had not demonstrated in its only previous use during the Battle of Venom in the Lylat Wars. He smirked to himself and realized that the bounty hunter that had shot him down had merely used the fighter to its full effect, and had taken advantage of the fact that the team had been flying with damage.

He was shaken out of his reverie when a beep came from his jacket pocket. He pulled out a Federation communicator and flipped it open. He put it to his ear, much like an old Earth cell phone, and listened as Cyrus said, "Is this Fox McCloud?"

"Yeah," the tan-furred humanoid fox replied.

"Good," Cyrus answered. "Fox, I have a special mission for you. At the end of this mission, you will receive payment in the form of one million Gold Federation Credits."

"What's the mission?" Fox asked; his interest piqued by the promise of money. Still, he could not help but notice a feeling of suspicion rising in his heart at the mention of the reward for accepting the mission being one million Gold Federation Credits.

"I need your squadron to fly escort for me and a group of special Galactic Federation Troopers. I want your squadron to rendezvous with me as quickly as possible."

"That might be a problem, sir," Fox told him.

"What do you mean?" Cyrus asked, his voice showing signs of concern.

"While we were finishing the mission to open a hole in the planetary shields that would allow your troops to fly through, we encountered Samus Aran. After engaging her in a battle, our fighters were shot down. We should have replacements shortly, but she has since gone into Mount Coronet. I wish to remain here so we can finish her off should she survive the Space Pirates inside."

"She will," Cyrus told him. "And as for your wishes, it is imperative that I manage to get at least three fighters to cover me. If the Earth's military forces find out about my move, or Star Wolf enters the fray, then we'll be in a great deal of trouble."

"Perhaps we should stay out of the mission," Fox suggested. "Our presence at Mount Coronet would draw attention away from you, while you could search for whatever you need to find unmolested."

"No," came the voice of Cyrus over the comm, far more calmly than usual. "I don't trust that my other forces will be sufficient should we be discovered. While I do wish to avoid discovery, I want to take the necessary precautions such that should we be discovered, we would still be able to put up a fight against any pursuers."

"I understand sir," Fox said. "I'll get most of my squad, and a friend, over to help you. But I do wish to remain behind so as to deal with Samus."

"She embarrassed you that badly?" Cyrus asked with a note of humor.

Fox nodded with a sullen expression. "Yeah," he answered in a melancholy tone. "Still, she's quite a dangerous enemy and at the very least, I can keep her away from you."

Cyrus was silent for a moment before speaking again, saying, "You have a point Fox. Send in your help, but if you and another of your squad wish to remain behind to deal with Samus, then feel free to do so. Her demise would make me feel a lot more comfortable."

"Understood, sir," Fox said. "Fox out." He then closed the channel.

He soon pressed the code for an alternate channel and reactivated the communicator, speaking into it, saying, "ROB, this is Fox, do you copy?"

"I read you loud and clear," came the mechanical voice of ROB over his comm. "You and the others disappeared from sensors. What is your situation?"

"We were shot down by Samus Aran in a dogfight," Fox responded with a grimace.

"Four elite pilots were beaten by a foot soldier?" ROB asked in disbelief. "Is this a joke?"

"No joke," Fox lamented. "We were flying with shield damage, though."

"That's no excuse," ROB cut in. "It's still four-on-one. Zombies could win under those circumstances."

I'll have to tell Slippy to extract and modify his personality chip when we get back to base and make him more like he was during the Lylat Wars, Fox thought, making the note to himself. "She was flying a Wolfen II that seemed to have some upgrades, not the least of which was the ability to charge and fire a Homing Laser. At least, we managed to take down the fighter."

"Too bad it cost you all four of your specialty fighters to do so," ROB countered. "And she still survived the fight, and on the ground, you'd get wasted if you fought her again."

"ROB, we need four Arwings, and possibly a Landmaster for me. I'm going to follow her into that base."

"You alone?" ROB asked. "Did that defeat scramble your brain? That would be a huge mistake, especially since the only Landmaster I have onboard is designed for anti-aircraft combat, not anti-ground vehicle combat."

"Which is strange since I have found our current Landmaster to be less effective against enemy aircraft than its previous incarnation, which was supposedly more of an all arounder tank, rather than an anti-aircraft specialty tank."

"Finally noticed that, huh," ROB commented sarcastically. "Perhaps you should get a refund." His voice soon became more serious as he got back to the issue at hand. "If I send down the Arwings, will you make sure that you bring these back in one piece? These are all the fighters you've got left, you know, and your recent track record against some of your stronger enemies is less than stellar, just so you know. You lose these, and you're S.O.L."

"Yeah, I know." Fox answered harshly. He did not need ROB to remind him of the recent humiliation of being embarrassed by a foot soldier who, while a good pilot, did not earn her fame for her starship piloting abilities. "Just get them down here. We need them right now. Without her Wolfen, Samus is stuck on the ground. We can just bomb her with Smart Bombs from the safety of our Arwings. She can't beat four fighters that are armed with nuclear-level ordnance. Heck, two fighters should be enough."

"Yeah, well, don't forget that we're, or rather you're getting low on cash, here," ROB notified. "It cost a pretty credit to reinstall all of the military hardware back on this assault carrier. Not to mention the fact that it'll cost a lot of money to rebuild the Arwings or that you lost in that battle. You only have these four Arwings and one Landmaster left, with the armaments already installed on them. We're also maxing out on our spare parts."

"I know," Fox retorted. "Don't worry. We'll be able to deal with Samus, one way or the other. When she's done with the Space Pirates, we'll deal with her then. Just get those ships and tank down here."

Fox then waited for a few moments until he saw a Landmaster appear close to him. "I sent you your Landmaster, along with Arwings for the rest of your squad. I'm keeping your Arwing up here until you need it. I don't want to risk it getting stolen by some hacker or hotshot pilot that has a hacker ally. Okay?"

"Fine," Fox sighed. "Just make sure that you keep the channel open. I may need to talk with you in the future."

"Will do," ROB replied.

Fox then cut the channel. Yep, definitely need Slip to adjust his personality and sarcasm chips; as in, eliminate them. He then switched his communicator to another channel and activated it. As he did so, he heard the sounds of battle and weapons fire come in over the bridge. He then spoke into the speaker, saying, "Peppy, this is Fox, how are things going up there?"

"Fine, for now, Fox," came the voice of the current leader of the Cornerian military. "Don't worry about the sounds of the fighting. We're just finishing up a volley of cannon fire. My flagship is part of the attacking force that jumped into weapons range. As for the rest of the Federation fleet, it's taken some damage, but reinforcements are coming in. For every ship we lose, two come in to take its place. Why do you ask?"

"Could you possibly join us down here?" Fox asked. "We just got beaten by Samus in a Wolfen and are in need of support down here, especially since Samus is now dealing with Space Pirates and we've been called in by Cyrus to rendezvous with him over Goldenrod City. Krystal and I are going to stay down here to wait for Samus. Falco and Slippy will need some help, especially if Star Wolf decides to enter the fray."

"A bounty hunter not particularly known for her piloting ability beat you?" Peppy asked in disbelief, though there was no hint of mocking in his voice, unlike with ROB.

"Yeah," Fox sighed. "We were flying with some shield damage, but I'm still as surprised, and embarrassed, by it as ever. So, can you get down here? ROB sent us some Arwings and a Landmaster, but I have to split up the squadron. Cyrus requested our presence to escort him to a special location. I think that he may have found the Sinjoh Ruins. I'm sending Slippy and Falco with Cyrus. Krystal and I are going to stay at Mount Coronet and wait for Samus to come out."

"I'll be there as soon as possible," Peppy said. "Do you want me to rendezvous with you first, or just go straight to Goldenrod?"

"Go to Goldenrod with Slippy and Falco. Krystal and I can deal with Samus, should she survive inside the mountain. And if she doesn't, we can bomb the mountain if worst comes to worst."

"Are there any innocents that could be killed by bombing the mountain?" Peppy asked.

"Not that I know of," Fox answered. "The mountain's destruction shouldn't be a threat to the surrounding towns and cities, either. The routes that lead between the towns, cities, and the mountain are also mostly deserted. Cyrus and the Galactic Federation have pretty firm control over the region."

"Good. I'll get down there as quickly as possible."

"Thanks Peppy," Fox said as he went over to the Landmaster.

As soon as he arrived, he entered the tank and proceeded to open a channel to the rest of the team. "Hey everyone, this is Fox. Have you found your old Arwings yet?"

A chorus of replies soon filled his headset.

"Falco here, I'm headin' towards my ride now."

"This is Krystal. My Arwing appeared a hundred meters away and I'm on my way now."

"This is Slippy. I'm already in and ready to go. What's the plan?"

Fox then answered, "Okay everyone, I just received orders from Cyrus to rendezvous with him in Goldenrod City. From there, you'll fly escort for him as he flies to the Sinjoh Ruins. Peppy'll be joining you two as well."

"Peppy?" Slippy asked enthusiastically.

Fox nodded. "Yeah, Peppy's coming down to fly with you. He'll be team leader in my absence."

"What'll you be doing?" Falco asked.

"I'll be staying here with Krystal," Fox answered. "Samus, the pilot of the Wolfen II that just defeated us, went inside the mountain, here, which seems to be a Space Pirate base. She'll have to come out some time. When she does, we'll be waiting for her. If not, I'll be going in to search for her, myself." He then opened a private channel to Krystal. "Krystal, do you copy?"

"Yes," she answered.

"I'll need you to fly a holding pattern over the mountain. Keep your scanners active. If you spot her before I do, tell me. Once you do, don't hold back. Open fire with everything you've got."

Krystal took a few moments to respond, "Understood." Fox could tell that her voice was wavering. She was uneasy with using her Arwing to what would amount to slaughtering a foot soldier.

"Don't forget the danger that she poses," Fox admonished. "Samus managed to take all of us down just now. She's fighting for the enemy. We might not be members of the Galactic Federation, but they are our allies and we promised to assist them in their hour of need. And if Cyrus is successful in his mission, then a great enemy to peace and freedom will be destroyed. In order to ensure the success of Cyrus's mission and the safety of the Galactic Federation, we must neutralize Samus Aran any way we can, capture or kill. But I think you know that with enemies as powerful as her, killing is likely going to be our only option."

"I understand," Krystal responded. With that response, Fox drove his tank to the nearest entrance to the mountain and waited, hoping that the entrance would be the exit that Samus used to leave the mountain.

Up in orbit, Peppy Hare looked out the window of the bridge of a Cornerian Battlecruiser, a larger, more powerful, version of the Cornerian Cruiser. The Federation in Exile fleet had inflicted significant losses on the attacking force, forcing it to retreat, but the Federation fleet still had a great number of ships with which to use. In addition, slowly, but surely, the Federation in Exile fleet was slowly being pushed back towards Earth. It would only be a matter of time until the Federation fleet managed to overwhelm the defenders and either scatter or destroy the fleet. He watched as a wave of fighters made their way towards the shield opening over Japan, only to be blown out of the stars before they even got close. I've gotta plan this carefully, Peppy thought. He soon looked over at his executive officer, John Husky, a humanoid gray-furred dog-like male. "Captain Husky, I have to go down to the surface. You're in command of the Cornerian fleet."

"Understood, General," the Cornerian husky answered.

Peppy then left the bridge and rushed down to the hangar bay. A wing of Cornerian fighters was scheduled to launch and he would be joining them. He entered the turbolift that would take him down to the hangar and waited for it to arrive. Along the way, he thought about Corneria's involvement in the Galactic Federation Civil War. Many of its citizens had been against the Corneria military's involvement in a foreign civil war, but since the Galactic Federation was an ally of Corneria, he had felt that it was his duty to help their allies in their hour of need. Former General Pepper and a contingent of the Cornerian Army, however, had disagreed, stating that Corneria did not know enough about the circumstances of the war, citing the fact that while Elric was known to be a traitor, many of Elric's surviving forces were working with Cyrus. Indeed, Cyrus had, himself, been a subordinate of Elric. While Cyrus had used his charisma to bring in not only Corneria, but many other worlds and Federation members to support his side, including the N'Kren and Ylla, almost all of the human worlds were either firmly set against him, or were at best neutral, if not tacitly on the side of the Federation in Exile. Peppy prayed every day since the beginning of this war that he was doing the right thing, and that he was on the right side. So far, he had not been ordered to do anything that would make him doubt his choice, but he had heard rumors that other members of the Federation military had been far more ruthless. He watched as Admiral Breaz had sent another wave of capital ships to their deaths and wondered if the Federation was as pure as it had claimed.

Soon, the lift reached the hangar bay and the doors slid open. Peppy entered the bay and found that the other fighters had already launched, leaving only his own Arwing. He went over to his fighter and boarded it. Once inside the cockpit, he began the startup sequence. The lights came online and the status monitor appeared. This Arwing was equipped with twin Hyper Lasers and three Smart Bombs. The lasers could charge to create a Homing Charged Shot. Once he saw that everything was in order, he told flight control, "This is General Peppy, requesting clearance to depart."

A response came swiftly. "This is flight control. You are cleared to depart. Good luck."

Peppy smiled as the catapult aimed his fighter towards the open door. Once it was lined up, it launched the fighter out of the cruiser.

Once out into space, Peppy gunned the engines and headed straight towards Earth. He checked his scanners and found that he was able to make a micro-jump towards the planet. He activated his ship's faster-than-light drive and entered subspace for a brief instant.

He almost instantly reverted back to normal space just above Earth's atmosphere. He immediately initiated a barrel roll and several beams were deflected by the shield that was produced. Looking forward, he saw that the shield hole was closing. Apparently, Earth was quick to repair its damaged shield projector. He accelerated towards the hole as the wave of fighters launched from the Cornerian flagship flew towards the hole as well. The Heavy Defense Platform, which was unengaged by any capital ships, focused on the fighters and promptly annihilated them with a single barrage of laser fire. This distraction, however, allowed Peppy to make it into Earth's atmosphere and through the hole in the shields just before they closed. A couple of Heavy Assault Transports had not been so lucky and crashed into the shields, exploding upon impact. Saying a silent prayer for those that were lost in the crash, he set course for Goldenrod City, and gunned his throttle.

Back in Mount Coronet, Samus entered the mountain and found herself in a cave with a rocky floor. To her right a little ways forward was a small pool and waterfall on the far end of the pool, which seemed to be the end of a small underground river. Inside the cave, she came across ten Space Pirate Troopers, and two Golden Torizos. The sight of the Golden Torizos surprised her, and disturbed her a bit, for the Torizos were Chozo statuary that was given the ability to move and defend their designated station. She grimaced and readied her arm cannon, checking her missile supply and seeing that she was quite low. She remembered from previous encounters that the Golden Torizos were able to catch missiles and Super Missiles, so she would not have to waste missiles defeating them. Still, she did not like the prospect of having to face down ten Space Pirate Troopers along with the two Golden Torizos. Wanting to take out the Space Pirates quickly, so she could focus on the Torizos, she switched to her Ice Beam and charged it just as the Golden Torizos were launching gold energy waves from their hands. Using her Screw Attack, she barreled through the energy waves and suffered no damage at all. She then uncurled herself and targeted the Space Pirate Troopers, all of who were firing their blue energy pulses from their energy assault rifles. Samus dodged the aims of the cannons, and thus, the energy blasts, with the grace of a professional dancer. She retaliated by launching her Ice Spreader shot right at the Pirates. The Pirates, not expecting her to use a Charge Beam combination, were unprepared for the attack and were caught off guard. The expanding wall of energy reached the Pirates and engulfed them, along with the two Golden Torizos. The Pirates were frozen solid, and while the Torizos were not frozen completely solid, ice covered their torsos and parts of their legs, rendering them immobile. Not wanting to waste any more missiles, she switched to her Power Beam and charged it. Once the beam was charged, she fired a single orange blast of energy at the massive ice sculpture. Upon striking the sculpture, the ice block shattered, along with the ten Pirates frozen inside. That merely left the two Golden Torizos, which Samus took this opportunity to scan so she could get a health reading on them. Her scan read, Morphology – Golden Torizo. Subjects are based upon statues that were left on the planet Zebes and taken control of by the Space Pirates. Subjects have strong shields and durable armor. For offense, they can fire energy waves, fireballs, and can launch boulders. Scans indicate the presence of organic technology and metallic compounds native to Zebes, but also samples of steel and other metals created on or native to Earth, indicating the possibility that these Torizos were built on world.

As soon as she finished reading the scan, the life bars of the two Golden Torizos appeared, showing that the two Torizos still had about three quarters of their health remaining. Remembering her last battle with them, she selected her Plasma Beam and charged it as the two statues unleashed a volley of fireballs at her. She dodged the incoming fireball volley and unleashed her Plasma Beam at the lead Torizo. The blast struck the Torizo in the chest, causing it to issue a groan. The two semi-organic statues then charged towards Samus, prompting her to back away. As she retreated from the two statues, she charged her Plasma Beam. Once it was fully charged, she unleashed a second shot at the lead Torizo. The Torizo groaned again after taking the hit, but the damage inflicted did not force it backwards or stagger it at all. She moved to her left and ran in a circle so as to avoid the Torizos as she continued to fire Charged Plasma Beam shots at the Torizos. However, she noticed that each shot, while it was inflicting noticeable damage, was not inflicting enough damage, while several of the energy waves and fireball volleys were colliding with her, inflicting twenty points of damage to her suit per hit. While it was not all that much in the grand scheme of things, considering the fact that she still had to go through this Space Pirate base with the limited armaments meant that if she saved her weapons for later fights, that she would likely suffer too much shield damage to be able to have a chance against her parents if, indeed, it did come down to a fight between her and her parents.

After a couple more Charged Plasma blasts, she found that the lead Torizo was down to half his original health. Seeing this as her chance to inflict some real damage, she switched back to her Ice Beam and charged it, preparing another Ice Spreader blast. As she did so, both Torizos launched golden energy waves at her, forcing her to Screw Attack into the air in order to either dodge or have her Screw Attack shields absorb the blows. Her golden Screw Attack shields were buffeted by the energy waves, but they did not break. After the attack ended, she uncurled herself and fired her Ice Spreader at the Golden Torizos. The expanding wave of ice erupted from her arm cannon and struck the Torizos, this time managing to encase them in ice and freeze them solid. However, the ice was already beginning to melt by the time she switched to her Power Beam. She charged her Power Beam and targeted the lead frozen Golden Torizo. Once it was charged, she fired on the statue and blew a massive hole in the torso of the ice statue. The rest of the statue fell over and immediately shattered into a thousand shards of ice. Now, there was only one Golden Torizo left, and while it had just defrosted, it was now down to only half of its remaining health.

Seeing that the Ice Spreader was a very useful weapon for dealing with the Torizo, Samus decided to try it on the last of the Golden Torizos. She charged her Ice Beam, going evasive as the Golden Torizo unleashed a volley of energy waves towards her. She managed to avoid the energy waves and leveled her arm cannon at the Torizo. Before she could fire, though, the Torizo launched a hail of fireballs her way, hoping to not only inflict damage to her, but also to neutralize her Ice Beam, and by extension, her Ice Spreader. Some of the fireballs scored direct hits on her torso, but they did not manage to negate the Ice Beam's charge. She retaliated by firing an icy wave of freezing energy from her Ice Spreader at the final Torizo. The Torizo was too slow to maneuver and the expanding wave of energy ensured that the statue would not merely be able to sidestep the blast. The icy blast caught the Torizo squarely in the chest and expanded upon impact, freezing the statue solid. Samus immediately switched back to her Power Beam, activated the Spazer setting so as to punch numerous holes into the frozen statue, charged it, and unleashed a Charged Shot before the Torizo could defrost. The shotgun blast of orange energy erupted from her arm cannon as she charged the statue and the frozen Golden Torizo was punctured by numerous orange blasts of energy, each of them entering through the front part of the body and exiting out the other end. The Torizo's structural integrity was completely compromised and statue caved in on itself. With the Torizo gone, Samus scanned her surroundings to make sure that there were no more enemies present. When she was satisfied that she had taken out all of the Pirates in this area, she proceeded deeper into the cave.

As she went deeper into the cave, she came across numerous animals and wildlife that resembled other types of Earth wildlife, but were noticeably different in some ways. She suspected that these creatures were the Pokémon that she had heard about. As she continued into the cave, the Pokémon, many of them resembling bats, with others resembling living boulders, scattered before her. She ignored them as she passed. She did not want to pick a fight with any of the wildlife if she could help it. Not too far into the cave, she came to a wall that seemed like a dead end. She quickly spied a ledge above, but turning to her right, she saw the waterfall next to her empty into the lake. Above the waterfall, she spied another ledge that had a door. Using her Screw Attack, she jumped up to the ledge and proceeded to make her way through the door.

On the other side of the door, she found herself in a small room with a computer that had a large number of wires leading from the console at the far end of the wall, into the ground. Another set of wires connected the console to a small chamber just right of the console. Inside the chamber was a N'Kren soldier. The soldier was writhing as she noticed wires connected to his head, and orange lights leading out of his head and towards the computer. The Space Pirates were trying to download his mind into the computer. She also noticed another computer on the right wall, but she ignored it for the time being. Standing at the console at the far end of the room were two regular Space Pirate Troopers. Turning around, they immediately saw Samus and opened fire on the bounty hunter. Utilizing her Screw Attack, she protected herself from attack and charged forward as the Pirates fired uselessly against her. When she got close to the Pirates, they fled to either side. When she arrived at the console, she uncurled herself and quickly switched to her Plasma Beam. She charged the beam and targeted the Space Pirate Trooper to her right, while slinging her Grapple Voltage to the Space Pirate to her left. The Charged Plasma Beam shot burned through the shields and armor of the Space Pirate Trooper to her right, incinerating him, while the purple Grapple Voltage made contact with the other Space Pirate Trooper. Upon making contact with the Trooper, the beam turned blue as she drew that Space Pirate's energy into her own suit. As more of the energy was siphoned off into her suit, the Space Pirate's armor went dark, the strength leaving the Space Pirate. Eventually, the Space Pirate fell to the ground, being rendered unconscious by the attack. Samus finished him off with a single uncharged Plasma Beam shot to the head, vaporizing the Pirate's head and upper torso.

Once she was finished dealing with the two Space Pirate Troopers, she approached the console and activated her Scan Visor. She scanned the console and the scan came back, reading, Computer console is downloading the knowledge of the N'Kren soldier in adjacent chamber into its memory banks. Press red button to reverse the process. The computer and its connection with the captive can be terminated with a single Charged Shot of the Wave Beam.

With that knowledge, Samus went over to the console and pressed the red button, as her scan had directed her to. Once the button was pressed, the orange lights ceased entirely, rather than follow a line back to the prisoner. She gave it a few seconds, but it appeared as if nothing was happening. Fearing the worst, but hoping for the best, she switched to her Wave Beam, charged her it, and fired on the console. Immediately upon impact, electricity arced across the console. The lights went dark and the hum of the computer that pervaded the room went silent.

After the computer was deactivated, Samus rushed over to the adjacent chamber holding the N'Kren soldier and opened the door. Once the chamber was open, she scanned the N'Kren, but her scans indicated that the soldier was already dead. Hoping that N'Kren technology could revive this soldier, just as it had for her parents, she took off the emergency teleporter unit and prepared to activate it. However, upon nearing the soldier so he could be sent back to the N'Kren flagship, she noticed a device on his chest that seemed to be counting down. Knowing that it was a prelude to a bomb, Samus ran out of the chamber just as the timer reached zero and the bomb exploded, blowing out the chamber, collapsing it in the process. Smoke and debris erupted from the entrance to the collapsed chamber, but Samus was already away from the chamber, having jumped down the waterfall and into the lake as the chamber exploded.

After the chamber was destroyed, Samus emerged from the water and Screw Attacked to the ledge on the right side of the underground lake. She made her way towards a set of stairs and ascended them. Once she reached the top, she found a group of computer consoles to her right, as well as a mechanical eye hanging from the ceiling. As she approached, the eye opened and a yellow light shined on her. Remembering this as one of the scanners that the Space Pirates used in their base on Zebes, she was unconcerned. She figured that the Space Pirates already knew that she was here. She went over to the computers and found a map station among them. Going over to the map station, she scanned it, and when the scan read that it was free of any viruses, she plugged her arm cannon into the socket and downloaded the map of the Space Pirate base to her logbook. Once that was finished, she headed over to an exit and left the cave.

Once outside, she found that she was back on the same ledge that she had been on when she entered the Space Pirate base. Opening her logbook, she went to her map and studied it intently for several minutes. Once she was able to formulate a plan and a path to her goal, she proceeded to walk to the edge of the ledge, and jumped down to a thin ledge below. She followed the path along the ledge, encountering no Pirates, traps, or other defenses. Soon, she came upon another entrance to the mountain. Checking her map, she found that this entrance would eventually lead her to her desired destination. Without any hesitation, she made her way into the Space Pirate base.

Deep inside the basement of Mount Coronet, Space Pirate High Command sat in their makeshift command center. They watched the screens as the image of Samus Aran appeared on their monitors. The faces of the Pirate Commanders went wide in horror. "Oh my darkness, the Hunter is here!" one of the Commanders cried.

"The Hunter has found us!" yelled a second Commander.

Mother Brain, who sat motionlessly inside her stasis tank behind the command center, scoffed at the cowardice of Space Pirate High Command. "I'm shocked that you're surprised by her appearance," she said in a cool demeanor. "I would have thought that the loss of Kraid and two ATCs would have been enough to alert you to the prospect of Samus having come."

"So, what do we do, Mother?" a third Pirate Commander cried. "She's downloaded a map of out base, and we haven't had much time to excavate a base, here. It'll be only a matter of time before she arrives here and kills us."

"Then the solution to your problem is simple," Mother Brain said evenly. "Go as a group to confront her and kill her. You outnumber her ten-to-one, and that's without bringing in your support."

"But what about Ridley and Rodney and Virginia Aran? Why can't you send them to deal with her?"

"Because I need them to remain here and coordinate the defense of the base," she answered nonchalantly. "The ten of you, plus the rest of the cannon fodder troops, should be more than enough to deal with her. If you need more than that, then you've got problems."

The Space Pirate Commanders of High Command seethed at her order. They did not view Mother Brain's excuse for sending them as legitimate, but they did not dare go against her. It would have been simpler to say that you're stronger than we are combined and you want to use us to find out what new abilities Samus has, without wasting your more valuable generals, Ridley and the Techno Lords, one of the Commanders thought with annoyance. Mother Brain easily picked up on the thought but decided to let it pass. All ten of the Space Pirate Commanders would be necessary for her purposes. After all, she needed them to get Samus to expend her ammunition against them so that when she arrived to face her, the bounty hunter would be out of ammunition for the battle. The Pirates of High Command soon stood up and prepared to leave the command center. Before leaving, though, they activated a the intercom and commanded, "Any and all remaining Space Pirates. We have a security breach. The Hunter has appeared inside out base and is searching for us. Activate all security drones at once. In addition, Squadrons Five through Ten are to form up and join their respective Space Pirate Commanders on the second floor, Sector Three. The rest of you are to join us in the Mount Coronet Basement. We will be the last line of defense for Mother Brain."

"Understood," came a chorus of responses.

Mother Brain scowled at Commander One and asked in a suspicious voice, "Why have only five of you to face her?"

"So that we can find out the strengths and weaknesses of the Hunter without getting everyone killed," the Space Pirates answered. "Besides, if we are all beaten upstairs, then the Hunter can replenish her weaponry and casually saunter down here and face you all alone. With us, you'll at least have some protection should the Hunter make it past the other Commanders and their troops, her parents, and Ridley."

Mother Brain narrowed her gaze on the Commander as he ushered Commanders Five through Ten out of the command center and over to the elevator. "Coward," the organic supercomputer muttered as the Pirate went about his work, and sent half of his remaining forces to what would likely be their deaths.

Up on the third floor of the mountain, Samus Aran entered the mountain on the peak's lower entrance. She found herself in a relatively narrow corridor with a pair of SATs that had to have been either given to them by Cyrus, or stolen from a Galactic Federation weapons cache somewhere. Upon spotting the bounty hunter, the SATs leveled their assault rifles and opened fire. The robots only had standard Army Trooper assault rifles, though, and the projectiles launched by the rifles did not inflict any damage to the shields of Samus's suit. She responded by firing two uncharged Plasma Beam blast at the weak robots. The blasts burned through the torsos of the robots and felled them. With the robots having been dispatched, she proceeded down the corridor.

A ways down the corridor, she came upon a squad of eight Space Pirate Troopers. Not wanting to waste her missiles, she kept her distance since they had not detected her yet and charged her Plasma Beam. She soon activated the Spazer setting and, while the shotgun-like blast would not necessarily kill the Pirates, it would allow her to inflict damage to many more Pirates than a single blast would. She soon rushed forward and fired her Charged Spazer Plasma Beam blast at the Pirate Squad before they had a chance to respond. The blast spread out from her cannon and struck four Space Pirates. While the damage was not fatal, she quickly charged a second blast to unleash on the Pirates. As she was doing so, the Pirates all turned and targeted her, opening fire with their assault energy rifles and plasma missiles. Dodging their aim, along with some of the slower plasma missiles, she unleashed a second shot upon the first four that she had fired upon, hiding in front of them so that in order to hit her, the other Pirates would have to fire through their comrades, which a couple of them did. The Spazer shot struck the four Pirates and, with the damage inflicted by both the first Spazer shot, as well as the "friendly" fire of the Space Pirates behind them, breached their shields and armor, burning numerous holes in their bodies. The four Pirates fell over onto the floor, dead or dying. Samus quickly turned to face the other four Pirates and, seeing that she was still in the narrow corridor, decided that it would be safer in the cramped confines of the corridor to use her Screw Attack to deal with the remaining Pirates. After all, they were limited in their mobility as well. She somersaulted through the air towards the Pirates and activated her Screw Attack. The Pirates, tried to flee the hunter, but she was too quick, and the corridor too narrow, for them to be able to escape. She barreled through the four remaining Pirates, annihilating two of them, taking the head off of a third that tried to duck beneath her, and the legs and waist off of a fourth that tried to jump over her. The sole surviving Pirate fell to the floor, crying aloud in agony as he landed without his waist and legs. Samus put an end to his suffering with a single plasma blast to the head. With the small squad of Space Pirates having been dealt with, she continued along the corridor.

The rest of the journey down the corridor was not very eventful. She continued to Screw Attack down the corridor just incase she ran into any Stealth Pirates. She did not run into any Pirates, but she did come across some Mega Turrets, defense turrets that had not been seen since her adventure on Tallon IV. She plowed through the turrets with her Screw Attack and continued down the corridor until she came to a set of stairs. She went down the stairs and found herself on top of a two staircases that went down in different directions. Checking her map, she found that one of the staircases took her to a recharge station room, while the other took her further down into the base. Seeing that she was low on missile ammunition, as well as having her shields taking some damage, she turned to her left and went down the stairs.

Down the stairs, she found herself in a small room with four Zebesian Space Pirates standing guard. She shot and killed the Zebesian quartet before they even managed to turn to face her. Once they were defeated, she went to the recharge station and, not one to take foolish chances, scanned it to make sure that it was not a trap. The scan came back, reading, Mechanism – Recharge Station. This recharge station is based upon Chozo technology and will refill your energy and ammunition. There are no anomalous readings associated with this recharge station. That was what she wanted to know. She made her way into the recharge station and waited as the station replenished her shield energy. Once she was replenished, she exited the station, her health and ammunition fully restored.

She ascended the staircase and then followed her map down the next staircase. At the end of the stairs, she found herself in a small room, guarded by a Torizo. This Torizo resembled the weak Bomb Torizo she had fought on her second mission back to Zebes, and she charged her Plasma Beam and unleashed a vicious blast of orange-red energy upon the statue as it stood and spewed forth a series of fireballs her way. She dodged the fireballs as the Charged Plasma Beam scored a direct hit on the Torizo's chest and blew a large hole into it. The Torizo fell over onto the ground and ceased moving. Just to make sure that it was dead, Samus unloaded several more plasma blasts into the statue. Once she was certain that it was destroyed, she made her way down a small set of stairs and to the exit. Checking her map, she saw that the area ahead would be a great place for the Space Pirates to set up an ambush, so she charged her Plasma Beam and steeled herself for the likely battle to come. When she was ready, she made her way over to the door and went on through.

On the other side, she entered a large chamber with stone structures, and bridges that crossed the structures. The bridges looked to be of human construction, but that did not mean that the Space Pirates did not use them, for there were numerous Space Pirates in the room, with many of them located on the various bridges. Standing in front of her, though, was a Space Pirate wearing ornate and what looked to be formidable battle armor. She suspected that he was a Space Pirate Commander, but she did not remember the armor being as ornate as what she saw standing before her. Just as she normally did with new enemies, or enemies that she had not faced in a while, she scanned the Pirate Commander, the scan coming back, reading, Morphology – Space Pirate High Commander. Subject wears powerful battle armor equipped with strong shielding as well as an energy siphoning system that can be used to power his heavy energy cannon and shields. Subject is armed with the aforementioned heavy energy cannon that can fire both an extremely powerful Charged Shot, as well as be set to rapid-fire anti-personnel mode. In addition, Pirate High Commanders are armed with twin shoulder-mounted missile launchers.

Samus gritted her teeth at this reading. These High Commanders were stronger than they had been at the failed attempt to retake Urtraghus and, after quickly scanning the room; she found that at least five High Commanders were present in this chamber, not to mention their personal cohort. She figured that there had to be at least a few dozen Space Pirates present in this room along with the High Commanders. Thinking fast she ran around on the ground, allowing the Pirates on the bridges above her, as well as the High Commander, to open fire on her. Her fast movement allowed her to evade the fire of the slower Pirates, their fire burning small and large holes, respectively, into the ground, but there were several Space Pirate Commandos present and they had been engineered to "hunt the Hunter." Their enhancements were not just in the form of their armor and weapons, but also in their genetics. They had enhanced physical attributes as well as reflexes. They were able to follow Samus and fire on her with their energy cannons. Samus took a few hits to her shields, but it was nothing that she was not able to shrug off. She lost less than a half an energy tank to the barrage.

Once she had built up enough speed to utilize her Speed Booster, it activated, and Samus came to an immediate stop. Scanning the room before her charge gave out, she spied a Space Pirate Commando standing on one of the bridges in the distance. Using this as her opportunity, she Shinesparked to the Pirate. Afterimages of Samus followed her as she accelerated to supersonic speeds towards the Pirate. She plowed through the High Commander, annihilating him with one hit and then abruptly came to a halt, curling into her Morph Ball form in midair. As she began to fall to the ground, she laid a Power Bomb in the air, which hang suspended in the air for a second before it began to fall. Before it detonated, she uncurled herself and curled herself into a normal human-like ball, and activated her Screw Attack. Her Screw Attack shield protected her as the Power Bomb detonated, producing a blast radius of thirty meters. A dozen Space Pirate Commandos and Troopers were caught in the detonation and killed. One Space Pirate High Commander was caught on the outer edges of the explosion, but his suit's energy siphoning system, shields, and armor kept him alive. However, it came at the cost of his energy siphoning system, shields, and some of his armor.

Samus took advantage of the second Space Pirate High Commander's weakness by quickly switching to her Wave Beam and locking onto the Pirate High Commander. She fired the homing Charged Wave Beam blast and watched as it nearly instantaneously struck the Space Pirate High Commander, electricity arcing across his body. The High Commander writhed in agony as he suffered under the attack and fell to the ground. Switching to her Plasma Beam, she finished off the High Commander with a single charged blast to the head, vaporizing his head and upper torso in the process.

She then Screw Attacked up to the intact part of the bridge that had just had half of its span disintegrated by the Power Bomb and, switching to her Ice Beam, targeted four Space Pirate Commandos and, activating the Spazer feature of her arm cannon, fired on the Pirate Commandos. The shotgun spread of ice blasts struck all four Commandos and froze them solid. Samus then targeted the four frozen Pirate Commandos and fired four missiles at them. The missiles struck the Pirate Commandos and detonated, shattering the frozen Pirates.

She went to search for the next High Commander when one suddenly appeared right in front of her. He unleashed a charged blast from his heavy energy cannon, which struck Samus squarely in the chest, and took off twenty units of energy from her Energy Tank. She switched to her Wave Beam and fired a series of blasts at the Pirate High Commander. The blasts phased through his shields, but his armor managed to absorb the blows without difficulty. Samus suspected that that would not be the case with a Charged Wave Beam blast. She charged her Wave Beam as the Pirate High Commander fired a missile at her, which homed in on her, struck her, and detonated. The missile's detonation hurled her through the air and inflicted fifty points of damage to her energy reserves. While she was nowhere close to critical, she did not want to take too many more hits like that. Fortunately, her Wave Beam was fully charged and she proceeded to unleash her Charged Wave Beam blast upon the Space Pirate. As she did so, the Pirate targeted her with his cannon and sprayed a series of rapid-fire blue energy pulses towards her. Samus took several hits to her suit, taking out the remaining energy in her current Energy Tank, along with twenty units of her next Tank, but she was not concerned, yet. She watched as the trio of purple undulating energy pulses phased through the Pirate High Commander's shield and struck his armor directly. Electricity arced around his armor and the energy cannon and missile launcher sparked, indicating that they were offline. Soon, more Space Pirate Commandos, Troopers, and even a High Commander came to support the stricken High Commander, with the Commandos and the High Commander appearing on the ledge. This was a fatal mistake for them, since Samus took this opportunity to drop a Power Bomb on the remains of the ledge.

She dropped her Power Bomb, using the massive bulk of the stricken Space Pirate High Commander to shield the dropping of her Power Bomb. Once she uncurled her self from her Morph Ball form, she fired a series of blasts from her Wave Beam towards the Pirate Commandos and other Pirate Troopers that had appeared to aid the High Commander. The Wave Beam blasts were not meant to inflict a great deal of damage; they were merely used as a distraction so that the Pirates would not notice the Power Bomb that she had dropped in front of them. When the bomb was about to detonate, she spin-jumped into the air, performing a Screw Attack. The disabled High Commander screamed at the top of his voice, "Get back! There's a Power…" but he could not finish as the Power Bomb exploded, destroying the ledge, and vaporizing the Pirate Troopers and Commandos that were on the ledge. Even the Space Pirate High Commander was unable to escape the blast, for he was too close to ground zero for his suit's defenses to be able to shield him and absorb the energy. Still, his defenses managed to hold out for a fraction of a second before he joined his comrades in death. Seeing the dead Pirates, Samus scanned the area and noticed that the few surviving Space Pirate Commandos were teleporting away from the scene, with some other Space Pirate Troopers headed towards he exit to the next lower level. That left only one Space Pirate High Commander. Samus fell to the ground, where she landed on her feet and scanned for more Pirates. She soon spotted the sole remaining Space Pirate High Commander on the floor.

Unlike his support troops, the remaining Space Pirate High Commander remained to fight Samus. He teleported directly in front of her and fired a series of energy blasts from his energy cannon. Before Samus could retaliate, he teleported to a ledge above and fired a homing missile at her. She dodged the missile's initial pass and focused on the missile, ignoring the subsequent attack on her from the energy cannon. She zeroed in on the missile and shot it down with a single blast from her Wave Beam. After the missile was taken care of, she focused back on the Pirate High Commander, who continuously teleported to and from the ledge, attacking her each time he reappeared. Still, he was following a pattern, one that she picked up on easily. After attacking from a ledge, he always reappeared behind her to shoot her in the back since it would keep him from being spotted. Knowing this, Samus stood still and allowed him to fire on her, inflicting more damage to her shield, as she charged her Wave Beam. She spied him on a ledge, firing down on her. She steeled herself for when he would disappear to attack her from behind. Sure enough, the High Commander vanished from his perch and reappeared directly behind Samus. Just as he disappeared, Samus spun around and unleashed her Wave Beam upon him the split second he reappeared. The Pirate High Commander did not have time to react to Samus's attack and, as such, took the full brunt of the Wave Beam attack. Electricity arced across his armor and his missile launcher and energy cannon were disabled by the attack. Samus pushed the attack home as she switched to her Power Beam and readied a Super Missile. She unleashed the missile on the Pirate, which struck him in his head and exploded. The explosion blew the Pirate High Commander apart, ending the battle.

Once the battle was over, Samus scanned the area and found no living Pirates remaining. Before continuing to the stairwell that would take her down to the next level, though, she backtracked to the recharge station so she could replenish her energy and ammunition once more. She wanted to be at full strength when she went down to the next level to face whatever Space Pirate defenses were down there.

Down in the command center, the five Space Pirate Commanders stared at the screens as they witnessed their comrades get casually annihilated by Samus Aran. The only High Commander to put up a halfway decent fight was P'Maul, and that fight ended with a Wave Beam strike followed by a Super Missile. One of the remaining Commanders went over to the intercom and opened a channel to Ridley. He told the Space Dragon, "Ridley, half of High Command has just been taken out by the Hunter. Are the Techno Lords ready?"

"They sure are," Ridley replied in a satisfied voice that had a hint of sadism in it.

"Then deploy them now!"

"With pleasure."

Now, all the Space Pirate Commanders of High Command could do was wait, and pray to whatever powers they worshipped that the Techno Lords and Ridley would be enough to deal with Samus, for if they were not, then chances were that they would have to face the Hunter, themselves. One of the Space Pirate Commanders, however was surreptitiously making plans for the continuation of the Space Pirates, just incase Samus made her way down here and took out the rest of High Command, along with Mother Brain.

Back a few levels above them, Samus emerged from the recharge station, her energy and ammunition fully replenished. She followed her original path back down to the now ruined level where she had fought what she suspected to be around half of the survivors of Space Pirate High Command and their posse and proceeded to search for the stairwell that would lead her to the next lower level. She quickly found the path that led to the stairwell and proceeded to follow the trail to the stairs. Along the way, she came across a few auto defense turrets that had survived the previous battle. She Screw Attacked past them, letting their energy blast glance off of her shields, and barreled into them, annihilating said turrets. She soon arrived at the stairs and made her way down them, and to whatever awaited her below.

Upon emerging from the human-crafted stairwell, she found herself standing on a ledge overlooking the floor below. There were four underground pools or lakes, as well as several small hills. She focused on the center of the area and her eyes met with the eyes of her greatest nemesis: Ridley. Upon meeting eyes with her nemesis, her expression went cold. Seeing that he was wearing armor of some sort, she scanned him, her scan coming back, Morphology – Armored Ridley. This is Ridley encased in armor similar to Chozo battle armor. The suit is equipped with shields similar to those found on other Chozo Power Suits, as well as energy projectors, missile launchers, and even bomb and Power Bomb dispensers. In addition, Ridley has his own natural weapons as well, such as his plasma breath, razor-sharp tail and claws, and also his flying ability. In addition, he can harden his skin to make himself more resistant to damage, and render almost any beam weapon useless against him. Engaging him in combat at any range is hazardous at best.

A cold shiver entered her body. This was not a shiver of fear, though, but of excitement. She could hardly contain herself. She knew that this would be it. This would be the final battle. One would live; one would die. She jumped off the ledge and over towards Ridley, who grinned at the sight of the bounty hunter. She then rushed over to the small hill and stood at its base, looking up at him. The Space Dragon looked down at her and said, "I must say, I'm not surprised to see you here. But this is as far as you go. Today, you will die."

"I've beaten you numerous times before, Ridley," Samus proclaimed, trying to get him to remember his more recent defeats, and, thus, intimidate him. "What makes you think that this time will be any different?"

Ridley grinned. "Because I'm not fighting alone," came the dragon's response. "Look behind you."

Samus moved to her right and looked behind her. There, she saw one of the underground lakes. Rising from the water was an elevator. The elevator then opened and a bridge formed from the lift, to the ledge of the lake. Stepping out from the elevator was none other than her own parents, Rodney and Virginia Aran, dressed in the same white clothes, bearing the patch of Space Colony K-2L that Ridley had destroyed on their left breasts. They slowly made their way to the shore, their faces blank but their movements fluid. Once they arrived at the shore, they seemingly slumped forward, as if they were marionettes, and the puppet master was setting down the control strings. A look of horror crossed Samus's face as she stared into their eyes and saw that they were basically reduced to organic robots. Samus stood still, almost as if she were in shock. Ridley laughed. "What's the matter, Hunter? Can't stand the prospect of fighting your own parents? You've killed so many other beings that this should be easy!" He then jumped from the small hill and landed in front of them. They continued to walk forward and parted as they made their way around him, and then formed up back in front of him. A mixture of rage and hatred towards Ridley welled up in her heart, combined with the absolute terror of the prospect of having to fight, and kill, her own parents, even if she managed to kill Ridley beforehand.

"You know you'll have to do it," he taunted in a low voice. "You'll have to kill your own parents. If you don't, you'll die. And I'll be watching as you either kill your own parents, or die trying. And whoever dies, I'll eat their rotting corpse!"

Samus could only stare at her parents, unable to bring herself to even lift her arm cannon towards them. She then saw a tear run down the eyes of each of her parents. It was then that her mother spoke in a faint voice, pleading, "Kill…us."

"Don't…hold…back," her father pleaded, reiterating his wife's wish.

Both humans exposed their wristwatches and pushed a single button on them. A crystal-like spike appeared from each watch and they grabbed them. Pushing another button on their watches and a golden sheen of light shown around them. Immediately, their human forms were replaced with two armored warriors, one wearing golden armor, the other, silver. They drew their swords and pointed them at Samus. "Defend yourself, Hunter!" they called towards her in unison as they charged towards her. The fight between Samus and her parents had begun.