CHAPTER TEN
Obstruction
March 2nd, 2057
Heaven Arm General Hospital, Planet Corneria
"Marcus McCloud?" asked a nurse.
"Yes?"
"Mr. Dengar can see you now."
"Thank you."
Marcus walked into the pearly white hospital room where Peter was resting, and upon seeing his porcine friend, he wasn't very shocked aside for the intense red hue. As Marcus came in, a smile came across Peter's face.
"Hey, buddy."
"Hey."
"So did we get the beacon?"
"Good. That's all that I really cared about."
He sighed and leaned his head against the wall he rested his back on.
"I tell ya, mate, that Kursed woman is one psycho bitch."
"You don't know the half of it…but let's not talk about her. I've had enough of her as it is. How do you feel?"
"Much better now. My face feels a little weird, though. It's all velvety now."
"He's right in here, Ms. Keller." said the nurse.
Just as Marcus and Peter looked towards the doorway, Susan came rushing in and embraced Peter.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Easy there, sunshine. I'm fine. I'm tougher than you might think."
"I know that, but that doesn't change the fact that you got third-degree burns all over your body. Didn't it hurt?"
"It hurt for about five seconds and then my nervous system just went dead. Not a pleasant feeling."
"So how long before you're let out?" asked Marcus.
"A few more days at the most. They need some time to get my skin back to normal so I don't look like a devil pig. Can't have that, can we?"
Marcus laughed. That was what he needed right now. A good laugh. Granted, he hadn't forgotten that Kursed was the cause of this, but he still liked to feel good about the things in life that made him happy instead of just brooding over the bad things. Otherwise he'd be no better than…I'm very afraid of offending Final Fantasy fans, so I'm gonna stop right there.
"So are you two living together now, or what's going on?" Marcus asked.
"We're dating. Taking it easy for now." Peter replied. "I'd say we're at second base."
"How far off is home plate?"
"Uhh…"
"Five months, maybe." Susan answered.
"I was talking about marriage."
"Exactly. Five months. For the other thing, I give it three."
Marcus smirked. Now THIS was one feisty woman. Sure, she hid it under her cute feminine charm, but her primal instincts were still there...but then again, if they were truly primal instincts, then she wouldn't be dating a pig, now would she?
Much to Marcus' surprise, in wheeled another patient with a bright smile on her face, making him even happier when he saw who it was.
"And how are we this morning?" she asked Marcus.
"Samus! How do you feel?"
'Pretty good. I'm starting to be able to feel my legs, but the doctor's saying that I might have to learn how to walk all over again."
"That sucks."
"It shouldn't take too long. Falcon's doing pretty well, too. In fact, he's already out. I heard he's gone back home."
"Thank God. I didn't expect him to survive playing the superhero like that."
"Well, he did. I did manage to get to know your friend pretty well, too."
"Yeah…he's in here for the same reason you are."
Samus grimaced.
"That woman…that experience with her was honestly one of the scariest moments I've ever experienced, and believe me: I've seen some scary shit in my day."
Let's just assume she's talking about being chased by SA-X, okay?
"So what are you gonna do?" Samus asked.
"What we're doing right now is ruling out any possible nests of hers by collecting the beacons…yes, I said nest, because I seriously doubt anybody would consider her humane in any way. There's about two left and Anne said that once we get them all, we can track the epicenter and hopefully be able to put a stop to it."
"Sounds epic. How much are you getting paid?"
"Nada. This is personal."
"And the rest of the team is okay with helping you on a personal vendetta? Are they getting any reward out of it?"
"I don't know. I never asked them to help. They just want to do it. Whether it's because I'm a saint to them and they think that everything they do is for me or they just don't wanna see the galaxy to shit, I'm just happy they're helping me. They'd do anything for me, and I'd do the same for them."
Samus smiled.
"To think I questioned your authenticity as a hero even for a second."
Marcus' pager beeped the second Samus stopped talking. He answered it to reveal Chase.
"Get down to the airway, Mark. We've found the fourth beacon."
"Got it. I'm on my way."
He turned it off and looked at everyone in the room.
"Duty calls."
"Knock 'em dead out there, Mark." Peter said.
"Be sure to give Kursed three shots in the butt for us, would you?"
Marcus smiled and winked.
"You can count on it."
A use of light-speed later…
"I can't believe we're actually even coming this far out here." Coyote said.
"We've got no other choice." replied Damalgo. "If we're gonna get to the fourth beacon, we've gotta get through here."
Here being the Bolse Defense Outpost, a gigantic satellite orbiting around Venom and generating a protective shield around the massive and nearly uninhabitable planet. The only other way to Venom was through Area 6, but that was on the far side and they'd had enough trouble going through there three years ago just to get to Sauria. The satellite's edges were covered in neon lights (a questionable design choice considering the core of a defense system should be well-hidden and not flashing red and green like a Christmas tree), and it was almost as large as the Great Fox.
"Okay, team. Let's delve in and find a way to blow this thing to smithereens." instructed Marcus.
The five Arwings rocketed downwards. Anna immediately noticed eight tall towers on the face that they were delving towards, each emitting a stream of energy that went inward and formed a shield around a large hole in the structure.
"This should do it." she concluded. "Everybody aim for the towers!"
Each of them broke off in different direction as the Aparoids started phasing through the shield and flying toward them at top speed.
"There's just something about this that perplexes me." Damalgo said. "How is Kursed able to generate Aparoids? Didn't the old Star Fox team blow their queen up or something?"
"You know what's perplexing me?" Anna asked. "Why you're asking that when we're trying to blow up a satellite."
"It's a legit question!"
"Well, yes, it is. Chase, you're the biological genius here. You explain it."
Chase obliged after barrel-rolling away from a projectile.
"You see, Al, my theory is that when the Star Fox team destroyed the Aparoid Queen, some of her DNA must have intermingled with Krystal's. Maybe she was a little too close when the Queen went boom, I don't know, but since Kursed was a part of Krystal back in the day, it's very likely she somehow absorbed the DNA, an dthus became the new Aparoid Queen. Thanks to this, she's able to generate Aparoids, and she must have split this power off into the five beacons."
"Oh, okay. I get it now. And you mentioned that apoptosis thing meaning that if the Queen goes, the whole species goes with her."
"Yes. We kill Kursed, we kill the Aparoids. We nab all the beacons, we can trace the epicenter which is probably where her physical form is hiding out."
"Like we said before, though," Anna interrupted. "The beacons aren't generators. They're gateways, and there's no planet large enough to house a big army like the Aparoids, especially when new ones can generate in seconds. Therefore, they may or may not be confirming my theory that I told you guys to hope I was at least 80% wrong on."
"I still have no idea why you said 80%. You're either right or you're wrong. There's no in-between." Coyote said philosophically.
"Actually, there is. Remember when we were half-right about you trying to gun down Mark on Sauria three years ago?"
"Low blow, Annie. Hitting below the belt. Not pleasant."
Getting back to the battle at hand, Marcus immediately began heading toward the nearest tower. To his surprise, he heard the loud revving of a motor before each of the towers began rotating away from them in a clockwise manner.
"Built-in defense mechanism, eh?" Chase said with a smirk. "Perhaps Andross wasn't so kooky after all."
"No, he was." Coyote replied. "He was like Marilyn Manson. He was a whacko, but he was a very intelligent and talented whacko. That's why you're better. You're intelligent, talented, and stable."
"That's a first. Coyote O'Donnell actually complimented me."
"Don't get too used to it."
"Two can play at this game…or I guess six…dammit." Marcus grumbled before giving out the order. "Change tactics! Let's go counter-clockwise and charge 'em!"
The team U-turned and shot back the other way, the Aparoids doing the same. When one of them swooped in front of Coyote, she locked onto it and fired away with a charged shot, only to have it bounce back at her when a force field popped up around the creature at the last second.
"Hey, what the…the Aparoids are shielded, too!"
"You're shittin' me!" Chase said in shock. "Might as well give 'em frickin' laser cannons for Johnsons…please don't tell me I just jinxed it."
A few seconds went by and…
"We're good." Marcus said.
"Praise Jesus." Chase sighed.
"We've got no choice then. Avoid the Aparoids at all costs! Al! Let's you and take care of this one here!"
The Arwing III and the Bonesetter veered off in the direction the former's pilot had pointed out. They charged up their lasers and prepared to fire away, but Marcus right away felt his ESP go off.
"Oh, no. Everybody be careful! I think she's…"
"What the hell is that?!" Coyote interrupted.
What Marcus hadn't seen was a massive shadow fly across the satellite before disappearing. The shadow appeared to have two massive dragging arms but no legs.
"Umm…just an assumption, but we might wanna do what we've gotta do and get outta here…fast!" said Anna after a few moments of silence.
"No need to tell us twice." Coyote said, looking around for any sign of the shadow's source.
"Yeah, but I didn't tell you twice."
"It's a figure of speech, Annie."
Nevertheless, Marcus and Damalgo locked onto the tower and fired away at the tip. Upon the charged shots colliding, the tip crumpled away and the beam directing itself to the energy field disappeared. The field itself remained intact but it seemed to flicker slightly, and this became more pronounced as Anna and Coyote took down a tower on the other side. Chase managed to notice that the Aparoids chasing them were flickering in a similar fashion.
"So are the shields a factor of their evolution or are they just…hey, what the hell is going on?"
It was now that the team started to feel as though the gravity was steadily starting to work against them, beginning to steadily push each of the five ships down towards the metal surface.
"Increase G-Diffuser system output!" Marcus barked.
They did so and their ships were able to fly normally again.
"Well?" Coyote asked. "Any reasonable explanation as to what's going on?"
"No," Anna remarked. "But I can definitely say that it's not the satellite's doing."
"What a smart and pretty little girl you are, Anna."
Anna looked all around her.
"Who said that?" she asked.
"Said what?" Damalgo asked.
"…never mind."
The voice was sinister and very calm, completely the opposite of what the testosterone-charged action going on around them would call for. Anna had a hard time listening to everyone else talk, let alone shaking off what she had just heard.
"We're gonna need to make this fast if we're gonna outrun whatever is shifting the gravity around." Marcus instructed. "Let's try to split up and take 'em out one-by-one! Anna, Al, and Coyote can take the west side. Chase and I can take the east."
The five ships split off in different directions with Marcus and Chase U-turning back towards the three towers behind them. A small gang of Aparoids came shooting towards them, forcing the two to veer off and split it apart before they could reroute back towards the tower…at least, that was what Marcus did. Chase meanwhile went back towards them and started flying around them.
"Yo, bug breath! Hit me! I dare you!"
"Are you out of your mind, Toad?!" Coyote hollered. "Your dad's the king of getting chased around by bogies and you're willingly offering yourself to them?!
"Watch and learn, puppy girl."
As soon as the Aparoids began chasing after him, Chase shot back toward the tower and as soon as it looked like he was about to crash headlong into it, he performed a quick somersault and the first Aparoid took his place crashing against the tower while the second and third flew overhead and smashed into the next one, all three destroying themselves and taking the two tower heads with them.
"POW! Ha ha!" Chase whooped in an obviously fake and heavily exaggerated Russian accent.
"I stand corrected. Well done, Chase." Coyote said.
"Whatever happened to the "don't get used to it" bit?"
"And now I'll correct myself: don't expect a compliment unless you do something smart for a change."
"Okay, that does it. Screw you, guy. I'm going home."
'Not now!"
"I'm only kidding. Jesus Christ, what's a guy gotta do to get a laugh around here?"
Marcus steered around the two towers ("THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD!") and headed toward the third one, but as he approached it, he heard the voice. It wasn't coming for him or Coyote, though.
"Oh, Aaaannaaaaa…" Kursed cooed. "I wanna play a game."
Anna bit her lip and furrowed her brow and she blasted down one of the tower heads. The voice seemed to be the only audible thing in Anna's ears, and considering her heritage, that was saying a lot.
"Let's play hide and seek. Try to find me." the evil voice whispered.
"Leave me alone!"
"Anna, what's wrong?" Coyote said. "Are you hit?"
She didn't get a response. Anna laid her head on her ship's dashboard and brought her hands up to her ears, wanting to shut out all the noise. It didn't do any good. The voice was in her head, echoing throughout her brain.
"Do you give up? Aww, that's a shame. Here, let me give you a hint."
Anna felt a hand down on her shoulder, causing her to sit up suddenly and spin around. There was no one there. She took several deep breathes and managed to calm herself down before she turned back to…a decomposing and zombified Kursed sitting right in front of her and staring her in the face!
"How's Annie?" she croaked with delight.
Anna covered her eyes and screamed as loud as she could, severely startling all of the other team members before Marcus pressed his fingers to his temples and closed his eyes.
"Anna." he said softly. "Everything is going to be fine. She can't hurt you like she hurt Coyote."
Anna continued to scream and whimper until she heard Marcus' voice echo in her ears. It was soothing enough to steadily slow her heart rate back to normal, and when she opened her eyes, Kursed was no longer there.
"Why don't you go back to the Great Fox?" Marcus suggested. "Just try to get yourself calmed down."
"N-no…I'm not going back there by myself…"
"No worries, Anne." Chase said. "I'll go with you. I won't let her hurt you."
"…okay."
The Slip Strap and the Punk Rock-It flew back to their mothership, adjusting the G-Diffuser as they left.
"She's trying to get to everyone...everyone that's close to me." Marcus grumbled. "She's just doing this to torture me, isn't she?"
"Mark, it's..." Damalgo started.
"Were you just about to say it's not a big deal?!"
"No, I was about to say it's not the appropriate time to dwell on these things! The gravity's starting to get worse!"
"…goddammit, I'm turning into a brooding mama's boy."
The last two towers were taken care of relatively easily, and the second the last one was down, the force field began flashing rapidly until it disappeared altogether. There was one problem, though: the moment it did this, several Aparoids came shooting out through the hole.
"And this is why I usually prefer the stealth missions." Coyote groaned. "…there it is again!"
The shadow swooped across the satellite yet again, this time leaving a terrible moaning in its wake.
"Where's that damn core?!" Damalgo said somewhat nervously. "Let's just blow this thing and get out of here!"
"We're just gonna have to hold them off until the core appears." Marcus said before motioning to his comm. "Chase, are you and Anne back at the Great Fox?"
"We're landing in the hangar bay right now, but that gravity thing is over here, too."
Marcus sat completely confused. Was there any indication as to what was going on? Did this shadow that kept sweeping across the satellite have anything to do with the gravity?
None of these questions were answered right away as a group of Aparoids came charging towards him. He locked onto the center one and fired away with a smart bomb, decimating anything that came within its blast radius. Another Aparoid landed on top of the Iron Maiden, only to be sent hurtling into what little remained of one of the towers when Coyote barrel-rolled to send it flying off. Damalgo halted to ensure that there were two Aparoids coming from either side of him before somersaulting out of the way and forcing them to crash into one another.
Once each of them had taken down a decent number of the creatures, they heard a loud sliding noise before a large cylindrical structure emerged from the hole in the center on the satellite face.
"There's the core!" Coyote yelled. "Let's move in and attacking the glowing spots!"
On the Great Fox, Chase had just gotten Anna out of her ship and sat her down on the bridge, looking into her eyes with complete sincerity.
"Anne, are you okay?"
Anna continued to steadily pant and stare off into space. He gently touched her cheek. She blinked once but otherwise didn't move. He gently kissed her forehead. She turned her head towards him and finally seemed to calm down.
"Chase…she…she was…"
She couldn't even finish what she was saying. Chase laid a hand on her shoulder.
"It's alright. You don't have to be afraid of her…"
"But I…she…what the hell is that?!"
The shadow hadn't appeared on the satellite, but the Great Fox itself. Just when Chase was about to call Marcus and warn him, the mothership shook with such a force that it knocked him off his feet. He was just barely able to recover from the shock before he turned on his comm.
"Mayday! We've got an unidentified being attacking the Great Fox! Repeat! The Great Fox is under attack!" he yelled.
"Mark! Coyote!" Damalgo ordered. "Go check out the Great Fox! I'll finish up our business with the satellite!"
"Are you sure? There's still dozens of Aparoids flying around here." Marcus asked.
Damalgo flew up alongside Marcus and gave him a smirking wink,
"Trust me."
Marcus sighed and nodded.
"Alright, Coyote. Let's go see what the problem is."
"Right behind you…really. I honestly don't wanna see what that thing is."
The two ships cruised away from the satellite and searched around the Great Fox until they found their target clinging to the underside of one of the ship's wings: a large mechanical creature with two incredibly long arms but no legs, as well as a strange glowing sphere that seemed to be phasing the air around it. Its face was not visible, covered by what appeared to be a mask of a human face with hollowed-out eyes and its mouth stitched shut and while the creature's armour was a dark shade of blue, Marcus could still make out an inscription on one of its arms: "GMM1".
"THAT'S what we were nervous about?" Coyote asked. "That thing's just barely bigger than an Arwing!"
"Don't underestimate it. There's no telling what this thing is gonna do."
The moment the creature saw the Arwing III and the Iron Maiden, it charged and swung at them with its arms. The two of them dropped like apples falling from a tree and jetted away from it, forcing it to give chase. It was when Marcus looked in his rear-view camera (a mirror would seem obsolete this late in history) that he saw the small laser cannons attached to its arms, which began firing at them the moment he saw them.
"It's safe to say that whoever built this thing tricked it out pretty nicely." he said.
"What, you don't Kursed built it?"
"I doubt it. This isn't where the beacon is, so our robotic friend back there definitely isn't an Aparoid…I think…Chase, run me a scan of it real quick so I don't seem like an idiot here."
Once Chase had gotten a good look at the creature, he searched it up in the Cornerian military files before being redirected to files from the Galactic Federation database.
"Gravity Manipulation Mechanoid 1, codenamed Nightmare. It was built to protect an area of the Bottle Ship known as Sector Zero, but it looks like it malfunctioned and was destroyed by Samus, and…son of a gun."
"What?"
"I guess the phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover' is very accurate in this case. What you're seeing is just a suit of armour, but there is a living organism inside it."
"And am I to assume that this is what was screwing with the gravity?"
"I suppose so. You see that sphere on its underside?"
Marcus looked into the rear-view camera again and saw it.
"You mean the big thing that's glowing obnoxiously and basically saying 'hit me'?"
"Yeah, that's it. Obvious weak points for the win."
"In our case, yes."
"But for the love of God, watch your G-Diffuser and don't fire any smart bombs! They'll just drop like rocks!"
The two ships looped back towards the large creature, dropping down as it swung at them with its arms again. Marcus locked onto the glowing spot and fired away, hitting it spot on. Nightmare let out a low moan and thrashed about, managing to just barely scrape Coyote's ship with one arm.
"Hey! What am I, a piñata or somethin'?!"
The two ships swerved back up top and saw something quite odd: seeping out of one of the mask's eyes as what appeared to be green slime.
"Umm…what exactly does this living organism look like, Chase?" Coyote asked.
"I don't know. I would imagine no one but Samus has ever seen its face before."
"Peachy…just peachy…"
Marcus barrel-rolled when one of Nightmare's lasers came just a hair too close before U-turning and shooting back towards it. Nightmare held up one of its hands, which quickly morphed into a larger cannon and showed a massive buildup of energy.
"He's dropping anchor!" Coyote yelled as she swerved out of the way.
The massive laser that was fired was only there for a brief moment, but it surged through the air and grazed against the satellite, giving Damalgo just enough time to boost out of the way.
"Can't let my guard down for a second out here, can I?" he sighed before continuing his assault on the core.
Coyote managed to distract Nightmare by flying around its head in an irritable fashion while Marcus got another charged shot to its gravity manipulator. The mechanical monster's mask spouted more slime from its eyes as it let out a deep roar, and the gravity manipulator began to spin faster. The two ships began to be weighed down even more, forcing them to push the G-Diffuser up to its absolute limit, and that still did them very little good.
"Wait…I've got it!" Marcus said. "Coyote, come on! Let's head back to the Great Fox!"
"What for?"
"We're gonna try and lure him into the hangar bay."
"Are you crazy?"
"Think about it: what's in the hangar bay that has a more powerful blast than an Arwing?"
Coyote realized what he was talking about in an instant and slammed on the boost pedal right away.
"Last one there's a fried dog…literally."
The two ships shot back towards the Great Fox. Luckily, Marcus' idea worked as Nightmare began chasing after them. Marcus and Coyote jumped out of their ships the second they landed and quickly hid as Nightmare came flying in after them. The beast began scouting the area, looking for any sort of movement. Coyote stayed perfectly still while Marcus fought the overpowered gravity to the best of his ability to make his way over to the Landmaster tank sitting in the corner. Every time Nightmare looked anywhere near his vicinity, he got behind the nearest obstruction and stopped moving. This went on for several minutes, building up more suspense than Marcus could bear to handle.
He looked over at Coyote and nodded. She nodded in return, crept over to a deep trench that the Arwings launched from, then took a coin out of her pocket and dropped it down below. The soft chime of it striking the metal frame below caught Nightmare's attention, and it began gliding over to investigate. The moment it turned around, Marcus went headlong to the Landmaster and climbed inside. Once Nightmare saw that it had been duped, it spun around just in time to see the tank's cannon charge up.
"Yippy-ki-yay, motherfucker!" Marcus whooped as he slammed down on the fire button.
The blast slammed into the gravity manipulator, this time detonating it. Nightmare thrashed about with its mask bursting with slime. It flew about and crashed into the walls numerous times before slamming down onto the ground. As Marcus got out of the Landmaster to check if it was still alive, the mask suddenly split in half and revealed something that wasn't exactly pleasing to look at. The creature inside the armour was indeed made of what appeared to be green slime. It had a wide and gummy-looking mouth as well as six yellow eyes, and the second its face was visible, it let out an ear-shattering screech that sounded similar to a crying infant. All of this happened in just a few seconds before it went limp and stopped moving.
"So…no beacon?" Coyote asked.
"He wasn't the boss." Chase replied. "Though to his credit, he was pretty tough. That armour is so awesome!"
Marcus turned on his comm just as Damalgo attempted to contact him.
"How's it going, Al?"
"That's the last weak point! Get the Great Fox outta here, 'cause this sucker's gonna blow!"
Chase immediately rerouted the Great Fox out of range from the satellite as it began quaking and throwing out sparks. As they rocketed away from it as quickly as they could, the satellite quaked one last time before exploding into a massive cloud of fire and debris. Once it had done so, the massive shield encircling the planet steadily faded away.
Marcus himself looked out at the planet in a slightly unnerved way. He'd heard about this place from his father many times, and if he was to be believed, this was perhaps the worst place they could be in the entire Lylat System. But they had to go down there. They had a job to do.
"Get ready, team. We're heading for Venom."
There isn't really too much to say, but with exams coming up, it's safe to assume that this will be the last chapter for this month...and yeah. For those of you couldn't tell from just having Samus and Ridley in this story, I REALLY like Metroid.
One thing I was really happy to hear about was the introduction of the R18+ rating for video games in Australia, which basically means that now the good folks of the Land Down Under can finally get their hands on Mortal Kombat 9 legally. They've earned it. It's a great game.
SOUNDTRACK SO FAR
Krystal's nightmare- "Parabola" by Mer (Originally by Tool)
Marcus versus Coyote (friendly)- "Name of the Game" by the Crystal Method
F-Zero race- "F-Zero Medley" by Entertainment System
Space pirate attack- Space pirate theme from Metroid Prime
Ridley- Ridley's theme from Metroid: Other M
Falcon takes down Ridley- "The Meaning of truth" by Hiro-X
The date- Ilia's theme from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Coyote versus the shadows- "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson
The star Lylat- Magmoor Caverns theme from Metroid Prime
Marcus and Fox- "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Fox versus Kursed- "Du Hast" by Rammstein
Marcus and Coyote versus Nightmare- Nightmare's theme from Metroid Fusion (ArcX version)