Chapter 13: The Other Me

Her dark brown eyes, with a glint of orange, triumph gleaming in them, bore into mine. She smirked, fully expecting this very reaction from me. Big Amy, Chikorita, Grovyle, and Samus slowly turned around, with abject looks of disbelief on their faces, taking in the fact that both hers and mine were exactly the same. They looked back and forth between us. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. I couldn't say a thing.

Three Amy's. Three Amy's, again! Me, Big Amy, and the other me up there. How could it have come to this? What could possibly, within the next four years, enable me to undergo a complete 180 degree transformation of my personality, my values, and yes, even my fashion? Was it college? This adventure? Or something much, much worse? Me: at 18, still young and innocent. Her: at 22, voluptuous, cosmopolitan, evil, leader of the Space Pirates, and dripping with power. How, how, HOW? And for that matter, why was she even showing me herself at all? It made no sense.

She rose into the air and charged up a ball of dark energy. All I could shout to my friends was, "LOOK OUT!"

We dodged out of the way just as the energy exploded on impact, kicking up the metal tiles on the ground. We climbed up to the rafters and prepared to fight the doppelganger, but Grovyle stopped me and Team Pecha, ordering, "No, don't! Go ahead of us and find the exit. We'll handle this."

Samus added, "Besides, I have way more experience fighting doppelgangers than any of you. We'll be fine." I believed her. After all, she fought against Dark Samus in the Prime series and the SA-X in Metroid Fusion.

With that settled, I picked up Big Amy and ran up the stairsteps up the ladders one way, with Chikorita close behind, trying to get as far away from the maelstrom as we could, while Grovyle and Samus climbed the other way, going into battle mode. We climbed higher and higher, desperately looking for a way out. If I were to look back, I would've seen the doppelganger easily dodge all of Grovyle and Samus' attacks, and even if one hit, she'd block it with a shield of dark energy.

It was only their shouts of pain that made me look back.

The doppelganger wielded two whips made of dark energy and slashed them at Samus and Grovyle's necks over and over again. In the Pokémon video games, it was called a Critical Hit. In Metroid Prime Hunters, it was called a Headshot. But no matter what it was called, there was no mistaking it. Mother Brain was right again. This lady knew exactly where their weak points were. Finally, she chucked them right at us, and we barely dodged in time.

Quick as a flash, she caught up to us, freaking my friends out. She lashed out at them, tossing them aside, and then started strangling me with eight tentacles of dark energy that materialized out of her back. I gasped, "If you're from the future…then why…are you trying to kill me?"

She flew in close and sneered, "Silly child. I'm not trying to kill you. I'm trying to show you exactly how powerful you will become in only four short years. Aren't you tired of being the weakest link in this little group of so-called friends? You, too, will become the kick-butt fighter girl you've always wanted to be. Feel this energy. Feel it!" A wave of dark energy cut through me, almost like in Star Wars Episode VI. As I shouted in excruciating pain, I realized how Luke had felt.

"And that's only on the lowest setting," she whispered.

After it was over, I finally managed to gasp, "Why would I ever…want to hurt…my friends?"

She smiled nastily as she went into her speech, which she had no doubt prepared every last word of. "Plans change. Very soon, these so-called friends of yours will abandon you when you need them the most. You can probably feel it, can't you? They're afraid of you and your so-called unnatural amount of knowledge. And when that happens, you'll wonder why you ever looked up to them. The Galactic Federation, too, will treat you like a criminal too, because you were never supposed to exist. And that's why you eventually will become the new grand mistress of the Space Pirates. They're a hive-mind species, you know. You will gain enough power to defeat Mother Brain, and then they will obey your every word. No more tantrums, sweetie. Take it from me. Once you become like me, you'll be able to think much…more…clearly! Remember Grandma Verdona from Ben 10: Alien Force? She was right all along."

My insides churned. She really was me from the future. Only I would be able to make relatively obscure cultural references like that. But before she could go any further on how "grown-up parties are so much better", Big Amy slammed into the doppelganger with Rollout, while Chikorita charged up a Solarbeam and launched it. The impact was enough to make her drop me. "Just shut it, you fake! She's our friend, and you're never turning her to the dark side! Never never never never never!" shouted Chikorita.

By that time, Grovyle and Samus recovered. Grovyle shouted at us, "She's too powerful! We have to retreat! Samus, quick! Where's the ship?"

Samus pointed to a door one floor above us. "Adam's through there. We're close!"

The doppelganger was stunned at the moment, but we knew she wouldn't stay stunned for long. We were about to run for it, but Samus had a better idea. "Kid! Pick up Puffball Girl and Chikorita!"

I did, though Chikorita felt relatively heavy. "Okay…?"

From her left hand, she shot her Grapple Beam at me, reeled me in, and threw us all the way up to the door. We landed in a sprawling heap. "Oooowww…" we groaned. But we had to get moving; Grovyle and Samus were climbing up at full speed. Samus shot a beam at the door, opening it, and Grovyle and the three of us ran through it. She stayed behind to shoot a few more Ice Beams at the doppelganger, only making a giant ice orb thanks to that annoying dark energy shield.

We ran and ran, smacking Space Pirates left and right as they descended to stop us. I mean, my friends did the smacking, while I just ran for my life and hoped not to get hit. We ran through three reddish corridors before we finally found the oh-so-welcome purple ship, sitting in the middle of a familiar platform—oh yeah! This was the Space Pirate Homeworld from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

"Guys! I've been sitting here for, like, five hours, dodging Space Pirate lasers! Where were you?" shouted Adam's voice from the ship's computer.

"Shut up, Adam!" shot Grovyle and Samus. So did I, but only in my head. Instead, I shouted back in desperation, "Hurry up and get us out of here!"

Samus somersaulted over all of us and landed on the hidden entrance at the top. She had already started the ship by the time the four of us reached the elevator, and we had to clamber on (with Grovyle's help) just as it retracted into the ship. We sprawled out onto the cabin floor, finally relaxing, but Samus and Adam had other ideas. Samus pulled the ship into full throttle.

"Lady! There are 300 Space Pirate aerial lasers locked onto us and 400 TIE-fighters after us!"

"You forgot to mention that homicidal Space Pirate grand mistress who happens to look exactly like our friend the kid here. Give me manual control."

I watched in awe as she managed to steer the ship with only her left hand, while she inserted her Arm Cannon into another appliance that popped up, presumably the controls for the ship cannons. We rose higher and higher, at faster and faster speeds, but despite that, some of those Space Pirate battleships managed to get in front of us and charge up their lasers. Ha. Just my luck that the Space Pirates would start piloting vehicles from Star Wars.

"Everyone hold onto something back there!" ordered Samus. But there were no seatbelts, or even any handles at all, so the only things I could hold onto were Big Amy and Chikorita. To my chagrin, Grovyle also had the same idea, and the four of us became a tight ball of mass.

Considering what happened next, that was probably the best idea we could come up with.

Samus went to town on the steering device. She spun it over and over again, sending the ship into a series of—you guessed it—barrel rolls. She dodged every single enemy laser, and I'm sure she also skillfully aimed the ship's lasers to take out the entire Space Pirate fleet too, but…we were thrown around the cabin, left, right, up, and down. Ow, ow, ow, and ow! Big Amy might've cushioned us a little, but soon enough, a multitude of bruises blistered every side of our bodies. During the ordeal, I vaguely remembered what a camp counselor from Tae Kwon Do camp six years ago said: "If you can't do a barrel roll, it's not a good video game." Well I sure hoped that fanfictions counted too, 'cause by the time it was over, we were twitching in pain and agony!

Finally, we cleared the atmosphere. "Where to, Lady?"

"Planet Portania, on the double!" Before I could ask why, she pushed the hyperdrive to the max.

I looked out the window as the hyperdrive charged up. To my horror, I realized the other reason why Samus performed all those barrel rolls. Above the surface of the Pirate Homeworld, the doppelganger lady was flying, closing in on us in hot pursuit! Big Amy and Chikorita saw her too. "Hurry!" shouted Big Amy.

It activated. We were thrown back against the wall. We were safe! I exhaled in relief.

Or were we?

Everyone else might've been, but I wasn't. I heard a voice whisper in my ear. The doppelganger's voice. "It's not over yet, Amy [you know who]…You can't run away from me. My very existence is proof that you will walk down my path. And if you even try to resist, I promise you, I will break your soul so badly; you'll have no choice but to become me! Heheheheheh!"

Finally, we exited out of hyperspace and saw Planet Portania below. "Huh? Why are we back here?" asked Chikorita.

Samus didn't answer.

We could only watch in silence as she landed on the planet, in a place with no Pokémon…for then. My mind raced again. What was she mad about this time? Didn't we gain her respect yet? Why wasn't she saying anything? It wasn't until we landed on the planet that she finally spoke.

"Amy Vee Purima and Grovyle? Don't get me wrong. I really respect you guys, I really do. Chikorita, I'm still not so sure. But you, Amy [you know who]…YOU…! I've always thought you were a spoiled, whiny, lazy, good-for-nothing civilian with hardly any manners at all. Well, I was wrong." My heart rose in hope, but when she stood up and turned around, all of those hopes plummeted. I flinched.

She wasn't just angry; she was absolutely livid. "You're only pretending to be a spoiled, whiny, lazy, good-for-nothing civilian! By now, I think it's pretty clear that we all know what you'll do to us if you stay with us any longer. I've given you too many chances to earn my trust already. In fact, I should never have trusted you at all! That's what I get for letting civilians come along. You can't trust anyone in this galaxy, least of all an omniscient malicious double-agent Space Pirate spy who's trying to tear my career apart!"

"NO!" I shouted. "I'm not like that, I swear!"

"Yeah, how do you know that everything that crazy lady said wasn't a total lie?" asked Big Amy.

Adam interrupted us, "Whoa whoa whoa! Am I missing something here? What's all this about the kid being a Space Pirate spy?"

Grovyle explained, "While we were escaping, a frighteningly powerful human looking exactly like this other Amy came out from a Dimensional Hole to stop us. The Space Pirates and Mother Brain said that she was their grand mistress…and that she was this other Amy from the future."

"There's no way she could've been me, though!" I complained. "She was evil and nasty and knew all sorts of energy attacks, and besides, I would never in a million years dress like that!" I shuddered at the memory of that…eww…outfit.

Samus continued ranting, "Don't give me that garbage! Isn't it obvious? The Space Pirates want both of you Amy's! Puffball Girl was bad enough; she comes from a time that doesn't exist anymore…but you make her look like a harmless toothpick! Not only are you from the 21st century, you're from the 21st century from another freakin' dimension! And most importantly? You know way too much. You knew everything in Puffball Girl's past, even though you never met. In fact, I bet you know everything in my past too, even though I never told you! Well? Don't you? Don't you?"

My mind froze. I knew I probably should've lied and said I didn't, but on the other hand, I was such a bad liar, she would probably tell in a heartbeat and get even madder. Besides, she was right. The only thing I could squeak out was, "Well…not quite as much as Big Amy's…"

"Ah-HA! That's what I thought. But exactly how much do you know?"

My brain was still frozen.

She practically exploded, "Answer me! Answer me, or I swear I will personally dump you and your friends back on this primitive outer rim planet and never come back!" That's what she shouted, but her actions clearly suggested that what she really wanted to do was much, much worse: She had her Arm Cannon pointed at my head, nearly scaring me to death. Big Amy and Chikorita looked at me in dismay. What could I do? If I told her everything, she would kill me. If I didn't tell her anything, she would still kill me. If only I had time to see this coming, I probably would've thought of a solution that would enable me to calm her down and avoid telling her anything at the same time. But my slow-processing introverted brain was made all the worse thanks to the fact that pure, abject terror completely hijacked my ability to think of a better solution. There was only one thing I could say at the time.

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you."

She removed her Arm Cannon from my head and sat down in the driver's seat, but still glared at me. I took a deep breath and explained, "It all started on Planet K-2L. There was an Earth colony that mined this stuff called Afloraltite, which powers hyperdrive engines. And you lived there with your mom and dad, Rodney and Virginia Aran."

Chikorita interrupted, "Hey wait a second! Little Amy, didn't you say that Virginia was the place where you came from?"

Adam explained, "It's also a woman's name. Now shut up and let her go on. This is juicy stuff."

I continued. "You were only 3 years old when you met these two old Chozo guys named Old Bird and Gray Voice, who wanted some Afloraltite to…create the Metroids or something. Anyway, Mr. Rodney said no, so they had to leave, but then Ridley and the Space Pirates found the colony and massacred everyone. Old Bird must've confused you, because while you could be friends with him, you tried to be friends with Ridley, too, and that didn't work out. Your mom protected you from his Flamethrower just in time, and…" I paused, noticing her trying to hold back tears. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, your dad blew up all the Afloraltite the Space Pirates tried to steal."

She interrupted me and said, "You're wrong. He found their bodies and killed them. In front of me."

Big Amy paled and gasped, "Just like…me…!"

My heart skipped a beat. I didn't remember that part of the story. But I had to go on. "Old Bird and Gray Voice got the distress signal, but it was too late. There were no survivors…except you. You were probably hidden under a cushion or something when a building collapsed, but I don't know. Anyway, they decided to rescue you and took you to their home on Planet Zebes. Gray Voice gave you his DNA so you could survive in the planet's harsh atmosphere. It also gave you your awesome jumping abilities, too."

"And Mother Brain was there too."

"Yeah, she was. You didn't like her very much. The Chozo found that you had natural-born warrior instincts that were long gone from their civilization, so for the next 11 years, they trained you how to fight properly. By the time you were ready, they gave you your Power Suit and your gunship, and you left to join the Galactic Federation and become a bounty hunter." I thought it over in my head. She was 14 when she left. Fourteen! I was 18, and I still wasn't 100% sure if I could live on my own, though admittedly, these adventures were helping me get better.

I then summarized the plots of all the Metroid games in the series, in the correct order. Adam was nice enough to give me a few water bottles so I could keep talking. In order, I told them about: Metroid (or Metroid: Zero Mission) for the NES (or the GBA), Metroid Prime for Gamecube, Metroid Prime Hunters for the DS, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, also for Gamcube, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Wii, Metroid 2: Return of Samus for the Game Boy, Super Metroid for the Super NES, and finally, Metroid Fusion for the GBA. I was aware of the fact that Metroid: Other M for the Wii was set between Super Metroid and Fusion, but it wasn't out yet, so I had to leave that part out. I only ever played Fusion, but I thoroughly researched the plots of all the other games. [If you readers out there don't know the details, I'd like it if you would go look them up yourselves. Quite frankly, not only do I need to keep this story moving, but my arms are getting tired of typing.]

Before I could say much more about Fusion, though, Samus came to a conclusion. "So that means you know full well about my X Parasite incident…you knew how precarious it made my career…yet you stowed away, which could only mean one thing. You wanted to get me fired!"

My heart skipped another beat. I shouted, "No! It's Zoroark's fault! He disguised himself as Commander Tierney and fired you to make you think it was my fault! Maybe you aren't really fired at all! Go check and see!"

"She's right, she's right, we saw it too!" shouted Big Amy.

"He transformed right after he pulled you out of the room for Sylux to execute you!" pointed out Chikorita.

"I can attest to that too," said Grovyle.

Samus ignored us all, and continued speaking to me. "I can't believe you, kid. You made your Pokémon friends believe your malicious lies."

My heart seized up in anger. "WHAT? You know I'm a bad liar, but you think I'm lying when I'm actually telling the truth? If you'd let me finish, I would've told you that I hated, hated, hated that terrible ending in Metroid Fusion! Other people might hate you guys, the Galactic Federation might hate you guys, but I don't! Because I know your story, I know that you crashed that station to save the galaxy! If anything, I only want you and Adam to finally have a happy ending!"

"Fine then. If you are telling the truth, then tell me this. You say that you're not trying to tear my career apart. Prove it. Swear right here and now that you'll do whatever it takes to help me get my job back. Swear it!" She held up her Arm Cannon hand for emphasis.

I calmed myself and stared right in her blue eyes behind her visor. I raised my right hand and vowed, in all seriousness, "Ms. Aran? I'll do whatever it takes to help you get your job back. I promise." And I truly believed I would.

"No matter what I tell you to do?"

I took a deep breath and finished, "…No matter what."

"You didn't swear it yet."

I was starting to get impatient. "Okay, I swear it! Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. There!"

Did she just smile? My heart raced. I swore she just smiled. I immediately regretted my words. Maybe she was going to make me do something physically impossible—

"Walk into the elevator and bring your three friends along with you. NOW," she ordered, in an unusually calm voice.

"C'mon, guys," I whispered. Big Amy and Chikorita didn't need to be told twice, but Grovyle was a bit slower, eyeing Samus and me back and forth in suspicion before stepping in the elevator with us.

"Now stay there until you can step outside." She then turned to the monitor and pressed a button. The cramped elevator closed and lowered. The same steam and stuff. Finally, we stepped outside to find ourselves in a purplish marsh, complete with bubbling mud that reeked of poison. Grovyle blanched. "This is the Forgotten Swamp," he explained.

Without warning, the elevator retracted. The engine started up again. We heard Samus' voice from the cockpit, emitting from a speaker somewhere below the hull of the cockpit. "I've come to a conclusion, kid. You know way too much about me. You always did. Quite frankly, I can't let you become the next Space Pirate leader."

"WHAT?" we shouted in dismay.

I screeched indignantly, "That's not fair, Ms. Aran! I told you everything I knew! You can't still dump us like this! You said so!"

Chikorita added, "And why us too? We didn't do anything!"

"Not fair? NOT FAIR? Commander Tierney clearly said that if I personally dump all four of you guys on this primitive outer rim planet, he would give me my job back. If you really swore you'd do whatever it takes to get my job back…stay right there and don't ever speak with me again! EVER!"

"Lady? Just a—what are you doing—?" Adam was flabbergasted, but we couldn't hear anything he said after that, because right then, Samus activated the thrusters and zoomed towards the stratosphere, never to return again, just like the Axiatomic Link.

Exactly like the Axiatomic Link.

Grovyle and I stood there in shock. Team Pecha was crying. While the actual experience of the six scientists and Amy Purima being kicked off the Axiatomic Link impacted me more than the original story written event ever could, this was ten times worse. History was repeating itself. It was happening to us now.

"Was that s—supposed to be…our space adventure? It's over already?" wailed Big Amy.

"It's not fair! I just wanted to be friends with Ms. Aran and Mr. Malkovich too. We didn't do anything to them. It's…not…WAAAAH!" sobbed Chikorita.

"You filthy human…What have you done?" growled Grovyle.

I looked at the poison swamp around us, its dangerous odor overwhelming my every breath. I looked at the sorry state we were in. A smolderingly angry Grovyle. A Jigglypuff who was forever cursed with remembering the horror of her past. A wailing Chikorita. Me, with just a backpack and clothes I thought were cute but suddenly didn't matter anymore. And to top things off…either that was a powerful suit deactivator beam…or my spacesuit was nowhere to be found.

We were so screwed.

Actually, that was an understatement. There was no way I could've possibly comprehended exactly how screwed we really were.

What have I done, indeed?

To be continued…

Coming up next: To add injury to insult, the moment Grovyle finds out that Amy Vee Purima's past wasn't in the game at all, that I wrote every moment of it…I can't. It's too horrible. My chances of gaining his trust back, ever? Absolute Zero.