Chapter 22
Pandemonium.
The Robotnik Factorial Facility was in chaos. The Black Arms were continuing to stream almost endlessly from the innermost depths of the factory. Zant was attempting to lure the black alien soldiers from the infiltrators, but as more and more alien soldiers streamed from their barracks, hidden deep within in the confines of the massive fortress, more and more of them were able to search for the intruders.
Link and Samus were finding it more and more difficult to avoid being caught by the aliens. They had exhausted their supply of cloaking devices due to the massive industrial scale of the factory. They had been attaching timed bombs to the nuclear reactors, not plastic explosives like the C4 Zant had used, but small heat charges that would generate enough force to melt down the reactor cores and cause a chain reaction that would be contained within the perimeter walls. They had meant to do the task in stealth, but with battalion upon battalion of Black Arms Forces streaming from within the factory, that was becoming more and more difficult.
As Samus planted their last charge, a massive alien rounded the corner and spotted her. With a loud roar, the massive alien charged. Samus scrambled to complete the charge start, but there wasn't enough time to do so and ready her cannon. As Samus braced herself for the attack, an arrow came flying out of nowhere, striking the alien the chest and instantly freezing him in place, encased in a cocoon of ice. Link dropped from the nearest building and held his hand out to Samus.
"Need and hand?" he asked with an imp-ish grin. Samus took his hand and grunted as she stood up.
"Thanks. Where are Snake and Shadow?"
"I just got a com from Snake, they've finished planting their own explosives. We have to meet them at the crane where Raiden is."
Samus nodded. "Let's go."
This task, however, proved to be even more difficult. Even as they rounded the corner, several of the smaller Black Arms rushed up the gap between the buildings, and upon seeing the two warriors, roared and charged. Samus charged her cannon and fired. An orb of pure electricity struck the lead alien in the chest, and, using its nervous system, amplified and struck all the aliens standing behind it. Link stared at the carnage that that single electric ball had caused and then turned to Samus.
"Remind me to never piss you off," he said grimly.
Samus grinned under her helmet. "Noted."
With that, the couple moved through the labyrinth of buildings, fighting off more and more of the Black Arms as more and more of them emerged. Link was aghast at their numbers. How many of these fuckers ARE there?! No matter how many he and Samus killed, more and more kept coming, two more replacing each one they killed. Link had faced massive numbers of enemies before, but that was nothing to this. Never in his life had he fought so many at once, and his weapons were limited. Samus was fighting harder than she had ever fought before, having to use the smallest of her projectile weapons, as she found no time to charge for anything larger.
On the other side of the facility, the situation was very similar. Snake and Shadow were fighting tooth and nail to stay alive and keep moving. Shadow was the faster of the two, and having fought the Black Arms before, was far more familiar with how to kill these aliens, and was taking out legions of them at a time at lightning speed. Snake, while not as fast, was just as tough, and his teeth were bared in a snarl as he took down aliens in every way he could, tossing grenades, using his copter to drop on them from above, and using every martial arts combo he could to keep the aliens from gaining any advantage.
Slowly, but steadily, the two teams made their way to the crane, with Zant making his way there as well, using his power, augmented now by the Fused Shadows, to draw great numbers of the invaders into his energy, compressing it and imploding it, taking out a single battalion with one attack.
Finally, after fighting through the masses of aliens for what seemed like hours, the five fighters made it to the crane, and as the mass of aliens charged, a massive, several ton cinder-block dropped down on top of them, crushing the entire legion and forming a barrier between them and the heroes behind it. The crane lowered down, Raiden at the helm.
"Figured some extra weight could be added to the mix," he quipped. Snake ran to the controls of the crane, looking at the display on the dashboard.
"Can this thing access the mainframe?" Snake asked.
Raiden nodded the affirmative. "It can but it's very restricted. We'll need to hack it."
Samus moved forward. "Move over." Snake scrambled out and Samus sat at the controls. She pressed several buttons on her wrist and several wires extended out and plugged into the USB ports on the dash, hacking into the system and accessing the mainframe in moments. "What do I look for?"
"Find the prison area, and locate Black Doom," Shadow said.
Samus tweaked a few switches and a map of the facility came up, with Samus's commands systematically causing it to locate the prison area.
After a few moments, Samus said, "The prison level is in one of the lower levels. Level 26B, center area."
"Where's Black Doom?" Snake inquired. Samus flicked two more switches.
"He's on the move. He's heading to the main building at the center of the facility. Strange...he's keeping below the surface..." She looked over at Shadow. Shadow crossed his arms.
"He's doing exactly what I thought he would. He's headed to the Central Chamber, positioned directly over the prison area, 35 meters below sea level. He's making it such that we have to go to him in order to get to the rest of SSB."
"Not all the rest of them," came a teenage voice. Shadow looked up and moved out the way as Sonic the Hedgehog dropped down from the nearest building.
"Sonic?!" Samus exclaimed, "How'd you escape?"
Sonic grinned. "They never caught me. I was too fast. I've been in hiding since, and I faked my death to fool Black Doom into thinking I was not longer a problem."
Shadow smiled grimly, looking more as though he was grimacing. "Well, I shoulda guessed they'd fail to get you. You always have had a way of avoiding capture."
Sonic grinned. "So what's been up with you guys?"
Link, Samus, and Shadow quickly explained the events that had transpired, taking several minutes to explain Black Doom's plan. When they finished, even happy-go-lucky Sonic looked grim.
"So what's the plan?"
"Well, it's looking like we're gonna have to split up to get to the prison area," Link said. "Snake, Zant, and Raiden, you guys find an alternate route to the prison area, there's gotta be multiple ways to get in. Sonic, Shadow, Samus and I will deal with Black Doom." From his pocket Link produced a detonator and handed it to Snake. "When the rest of SSB is out, wait until my signal to blow the charges. Once those charges blow, we have four minutes to get out of here before the cores melt down, so we'll have to be fast."
Link looked around at each and every one of the few SSB members who had been his closest companions in this crisis. "It's been an honor fighting with all of you. If all else fails, Snake, and we can't best Doom, blow the charges and get Samus to safety."
Samus stared at Link. "Link,what are you saying?! I'm not leaving you!"
Link looked at his love sadly. "Samus, I don't want you to die. If Doom can't be beat then you need to get out of here. I won't have you..." Link never finished his sentence, for as he said this, Samus pulled off her helmet and planted a big kiss on his lips. Link's eyes widened momentarily as Samus kissed him.
Samus part the kiss after a few moments. "I will not leave you in there, Link. No matter what happens, i'm not leaving you."
Link sighed. "We can't afford mistakes here, Samus."
Samus smiled. "Then let's make sure none are made."
Link looked around at the others. "Let's do it, guys. No mistakes."
Snake, Raiden and Zant nodded and took off in one direction while Samus, Link, Shadow, and Sonic headed for the central building.
Little did they know it, but only six of them would make it out alive.
WOOHOOHOO!
Alright! Hope you like this!
I'm sorry it took longer than i planned for it to, but i've had lots going on, and atm I'm trying to do a lot at once, so...
Anywho, hope you all are enjoying this! remember to read and review!
Update as of August 13, 2013: I am so sorry for the long delay on Chapter 23. Is there an excuse? Well, I can hardly justify delaying what my fans want, but all I can really is that I'm really hating my life at the moment and I am battling a massive depression that is threatening to take over. I'd rather not put what's eating me out there, for personal reasons, but, I will say that the lack of support that I am currently undergoing outside of and the other websites that I frequent during my time online is really starting to hurt and get under my skin. I'm feeling pressured in nearly every aspect of my life. I've been trying so hard to make decisions that could effect my future as a whole, and, truthfully, all of it is crashing down on me and I feel insignificant and worthless in the eyes of those whom I should be getting support from. I barely have the emotional and mental strength to check my email, which is just sad. I am so sorry, guys. I'm trying.