I was attempting to finish GoW:OoT but that's still going on, so it was time to update all my other stories! Yay! Shorter chapter here but it's a set-up for the upcoming Echoes chapters.

Published December 6, 2009

Dark Aether

Dark Samus easily killed the bickering group of pirates before continuing to absorb the barreled Phazon. "What pathetic fools. They also appear to have left the front door of their base open. Sad." The being floated inside, intent on seizing more of the radioactive substance.

Inside, Ridley was observing the strange black portal in front of him. "Interesting. Are you sure that it leads to another dimension?" he asked.

"Yes sir, we've sent in three squads to investigate."

"I thought you said that the air kills us, why would you send three squads in?"

"Right after I said that we perfected a suit that renders one immune to the atmosphere's deadly properties. Our exploration teams have all been outfitted with these as well as guns which have proven to be the most effective on the inhabitants of that dimension," the pirate explained.

"But it was a twenty second walk!" Ridley exclaimed. "How did you do this and get results so fast?!"

"It's a family secret," the pirate said knowingly.

Ridley snapped his fingers and four pirates grabbed the one he had been talking to. "I want his mind drained and dissected for secrets. Have the results on my desk by Tuesday, no later." They dragged the pirate away kicking and screaming. "No one keeps secrets from Ridley Scoot!"

With that out of the way, he decided to wait for the exploration teams to return. According to the data logs the next team was scheduled to return in a half hour. How they had actually gained so much information before this was beyond him.

-An hour later-

Ridley was not happy. The team was very late, and Ridley did not like lateness. The only thing he liked less than lateness was Kraid, who fortunately was in the Torvus Bog at the moment. "Get me a suit, I'm going to go in!" Ridley ordered.

"We would, but Samus Aran is currently stealing all of our Phazon and we're a bit distracted," the pirate closest to him said.

Ridley's neck twitched. "Why didn't you tell me this?!"

"We thought we had in under control, but then she slaughtered half of our forces and disintegrated their corpses. Not to mention you've lost against her twice before, so we didn't think it would be the best idea to call you here."

"That's a good point. Find Crocomire and have him attack her, he's the only one so far who hasn't had a chance yet."

"Crocomire was on the exploration team."

"Why am I not being told anything?!" He took a deep breath to calm himself. "Get me a suit, I'm going in to get Crocomire. Everyone else is to hold off Aran until we return. You should know what that means."

"Throw our bodies at her and hope that the obliteration makes her stop for a second."

"There is nothing more for me to teach you. Now get a large enough suit for me to wear!"

Dark Samus blasted the door before her to pieces and floated inside as though that hadn't even happened. The pirates inside all opened fire, but it did no harm. "What sad life forms, thinking that they actually have a chance."

"Fire the Hyper-Atomic Super Ray!" A huge cannon, about twenty times the size of Dark Samus, lowered from the ceiling and began to charge.

"That's not good."

Ridley, now with a space pirate dark suit on him, approached the portal that would lead to Dark Aether. He pressed a few buttons and the black spot in reality grew to a size that he could go through. "I will not be gone very long," he said. "Don't screw up while I'm gone, and if Kraid comes back send him out again before he learns the layout."

"Yes sir," the second in command dully stated. Ridley ignored this and entered Dark Aether.

"Well this is lively," he muttered to himself as he looked at the black, purple, and gray surroundings. It looked similar to their current base of operations making navigating easy enough. He noticed that none of the inhabitants of the world would enter strange white barriers that were set up sporadically around the whole dimension.

Ridley followed the faint tracks left by Crocomire - the ones that looked like someone was dragging a ten foot wide plow through the area. It went in a huge circle around the base, one that Ridley felt wasted his time once he was done following, before heading out into the wastelands.

"Why are we so interested in this place?" Ridley asked himself. "It's barren, boring, and kind of cold." He pulled a random Inglet off of the wall, watching it squirm. It soon bit his thumb and would not let go, no matter how many times he hit it off of the wall and punched it. He eventually incinerated it with his kinetic breath.

The clunking of armour alerted Ridley to another presence's existence in the room. He turned to the noise and saw three random pirates walking toward him. "There you are. What's the situation in this area?"

"Situation's fine, sir," one grunted. "Please come with us, we have something to show you."

"As much as I'd love to go see whatever boring shit on a stick you found I need to find Crocomire so that Aran doesn't tell Kraid to blow up another facility. It isn't cheap to invade a planet, make a building, and steal all the resources necessary for the inhabitants' survival. In fact, we just made a big budget cut with several thousand layoffs, by which I mean we obliterated a lot of the dead weight, and I had to sell my Tickle-Me Kakkmed. I just realized how much we suck right now."

"Actually, we found a Tickle-Me Kakkmed over there, sir," a different pirate said. "We thought you'd-"

"REALLY?! FUCK YES!" Ridley jumped into the air, cheering wildly. He was about to dance a bit but then he saw the three pirates blankly staring at him. "Alright, let's go check it out," he said calmly.

"Did-"

"Nothing just happened here," Ridley firmly declared, a small burst of fire flaring from his barred teeth.

Back in normal Aether things were not going well for the pirates. Dark Samus had absorbed more than half of their Phazon, after limping out of the now destroyed room with the HASR in it of course, and there were no higher-ups there to boss the standard pirates around. That may seem bad, but the pirates in the Torvus Bog had it worse…

"I like water, it's all wet and cold and when I drink it I'm very fulfilled." The two scuba-pirates accompanying Kraid kept their distance from the rambling monster as the three of them waded their way through the deep water. "What I don't like is when those mean fishes go poop in it and make it all brown and icky. HEAR THAT FISH?! OTHERS USE THIS WATER TOO!" Kraid punched a passing Blogg.

"I'm getting relocated to the Metroid section tomorrow," one scuba-pirate said to the other as they watch Kraid get angry at the fish for existing.

"I'm going to fake my own death and go live in the Ceres Resort."

"Ah, sneaky."

"It's a big one!" They turned to see Kraid wrestling with a Blogg that was nearly his size. He swung it around and threw it in their direction. Both pirates screamed and swam as fast as possible when the Blogg turned on them. "Get back here you weird fish thing! I'm not done with you!" Kraid began to sprint at the three, water flying everywhere in massive waves.

"RUN!" The pirates grabbed onto the Blogg which completely ignored them in favour of fleeing from Kraid. Kraid began to fire spikes from his stomach at the fleeing trio, impaling the Blogg and killing it. The two pirates turned to see Kraid still running toward them.

"I see no Tickle-Me Kakkmed!" Ridley growled as the three pirates led him into an empty room. They stopped and turned to face him. "What is going on here?"

"I'm sorry sir, but it's time to join the horde," the main pirate said.

Black puddles began to slide down the wall and onto the floor, all of them approaching Ridley. As the puddles became Warrior Ings, the monsters surrounding Ridley, he stretched his wings and hissed at the small army. "What is going on here?"

No one answered, instead all of the Ing moved in on Ridley. He swung in a circle, his tail bashing the Ing that were closest into the ones behind them. He thrust his chest out and fired a dozen missiles into the crowd in front of him. The Ing backed off slightly, staying away from the dangerous dragon.

"That's right assholes, I'm dangerous and if you don't back off I'm going to annihilate everyone one of you!" Ridley growled, lashing out with his tail. The Ing all glanced at each other, one turning into a gaseous state and charging at Ridley. He tried to slash it with his claws but it just seemed to disappear on contact with him. "Someone tell me what just happened. Now."

-Far, far away-

"A ship with two squads of soldiers went missing several weeks ago, but recently we picked up a distress signal on planet Aether. We could not establish contact and as you haven't had anything to do in a while and technically broke in demanding a paid mission while I was giving this briefing, it is up to you to find out what has happened to them. Are you up to it?"

Samus nodded. "I'm always up for something paying."