4
Whatever Samus had injected Eli with was working beautifully. originally he was just following the orange in front of him, but now his senses were returning to him and his eyes darted from shadow to shadow. "Samus?"
The helmet turned slightly to show she was listening.
"It feels like we're going deeper into the base. I thought you were here to get me out."
"you want your suit," she answered, "don't you?"
"ah."
Samus threw out a hand, commanding Eli to stop. She tapped a button on her arm cannon, removing the safeties. Eli backed against the wall, making sure she had room to move if the need was there. the door in front of them slid open and a pair of Space Pirates jumped back in shock as Samus stepped up to dispatch them as they tried to radio for help. Eli felt a burning pain in his ankle when he tried to walk again, he'd rolled his ankle, aggrivating the wound he'd acquired with fighting the security drone and now had to hold himself against the wall as he limped.
Samus made a questioning gesture, and Eli got the feeling that she didn't speak unless she felt a need to. "I'll be fine," he assured her. "once i get in my suit it'll give me the extra support i need."
That was appearently enough to satisfy Samus as she turned back to the door and stepped through it. Eli followed, limping along the wall. when he got to the door and hobbled through it, Samus was looking around, as if searching for something.
"What's wrong?" Eli asked. then he felt it too, they weren't alone. Eli pressed his back against Samus's and they both scanned the room, something else was there, they couldn't see it, they couldn't hear it... but they both felt it.
they slowly moved towards the other door, back to back, scanning the room. the hatch opened once they were close enough and they stepped through it. once it hissed closed, Eli let out a sigh, the other presence was gone. "what was that?"
Samus tapped his shoulder and pointed across the room at his armor, laid out on the table.
"Score." Eli first put on his leg armor to relieve the pressure on his ankle. He saw a data port and moved over, uploading the entire network to his ship via the communications in his helmet.
Samus turned towards the door they'd just used, and charged her arm cannon. "Hurry. whatever was in the other room is coming."
Eli threw on his armor as quickly as he could. the door blew open as he reached for his weapons. "Shit!"
Samus fired and ran back through the door, buying time for Eli to arm himself. He quickly clipped on his shock-cannon and grapple beam to his right arm and ran for the door as he clipped his power blade to his left. He gapped at what he saw, "No... way..."
Ridley had not only been resurrected, but he'd been drastically mutated. his wings had become whip-like tenticles with branch-offs where the bones had once been. His legs were similarly changed, no longer the dragonic claws, now amorphous... blobs. his scaly armor writhed and slithered as if his entire body was made of the whip-like tenticles beneath the skin. Eli frantically began looking around for Samus.
He couldn't find her, "SAMUS! WHERE ARE YOU?"
Ridley turned as he reacted to the sound.
"Eli," the young Hunter sighed, "you retard..."
The dragon-like monster screeched at him, causing much of his skin to separate from its body. Eli saw it only for a second, Samus's arm protruding from between two of the ribs, flailing as she struggled to get free before the tenticles found a way into her power suit.
The skin closed around the body again and Ridley crouched as he tried to get a read on Eli. Eli flicked the blade into combat position and readied his shock-cannon, certain that he would die, but knew he had to free Samus first. "Bring it."
Ridley lunged, trying to catch the boy in his jaws. Eli rolled to the side and jumped when he saw tenticles coming towards him in his peripheral vision. he quickly hacked the snaking black apendages before they could wrap around him. Ridley reared angrily, and Eli shot his grapple when he saw Samus's arm, latching onto her wrist. He jumped into the air andn let the beam zip-line him in.
Eli drove his power blade into the chest of what he'd dubbed NecroRidley. He reached in as wide an arc as he could, trying to avoid hitting Samus as he tried to cut her loose. Tenticles began to wrap around his shoulders and he grabbed Samus's hand, to prevent being wrenched away. He began to yell out as more tentacles began to pull at him, and even started trying to rip him apart. his suit began to flash structural warnings, but he still fought to free his heroine. "SAMUS!" he screamed as he lost his grip on her hand and was pulled towards NecroRidley's fangs.
A grapple beam wrapped around Eli's wrist in time to keep Ridley from snapping down on him. Eli looked down to see Samus struggling against the tentacles trying to hold her back. he fought against those wrapped around himself to aim his shock-cannon and aid her escape.
Samus broke free and fired a missle at the head of the monster. the freezing agents in the explosion caused the tenacles holding Eli to break. He scrambled away as soon as he hit the ground, getting out of reach of the black monster trying to grab him again. Samus moved in between them and began firing.
It was over before Eli turn around again, he saw NecroRidley frozen to the ground. "you were stronger before this," Samus said as she charged her power beam, "STAY dead Ridley."
Eli watched as the shot from her cannon caused the ice to crack, then fall apart. Samus turned to him and helped Eli to his feet, "you did good. He caught me off guard with those tentacles from his mouth, he'd have finally won if you hadn't been here."
"I just went by the logic that you were better than me, and the GF was better off having you than me."
Samus gave an apreciative nod, before leading him towards the door. As it hissed open, Samus fell to her knees, clutching at her stomach.
"Samus!" Eli knelt next to her and saw blood leaking from a hole in the armor she wore. A small wiggling beneath her skin told Eli what was going on, "One of them got inside! you gotta pop your armor so i can get it out!"
"My armor doesn't pop..." Samus said as she passed out into Eli's arms