Hm, looks like I'll need to get a few more chapters out before people start reading this again. Well, here's one.

Published October 13, 2010

Losing Ground, Gaining Progress

"This is unacceptable!" Emperor Roger roared, thrashing his tentacles against the ground. "The Agon Wastes have been under our control for an entire generation and thanks to your incompetence it's lost! A single human managed to take the whole region!"

The Emperor Ing continued his rant for about fifteen minutes, yelling about how incompetent they were and why he should just kill them all. Ridley's thoughts were drifting away from Samus and the Ing, going back to his base and the many pirates he had under control. With Crocomire in charge things should be going well. But without Ridley there, Kraid was most likely running rampant.

The best part of all that was that Ridley wasn't there. Kraid was going nuts and he didn't have to deal with it for once. "Life is good," he said to himself.

"It's good that you think that," Emperor Roger growled. "Because-"

Another Ing poked its head into the chamber. "Sir, we just lost the Torvus Bog."

"WHAT? It's been like two hours!"

Ridley chuckled. "You guys lose ground even faster than we do, and you don't even have to deal with Kraid."

-Torvus Bog-

Target Chykka has been terminated. Lifesigns are at flatline. No regenerative ability in effect. No evidence of symbiotic corpse possession. Resurrection does not appear to be likely.

Samus shut off her scan visor. "Well that's a plus." She left the Dark Torvus Temple, planning to return the captured energy right away.

Immediately after leaving, Chykka's wing twitched...

-Sky Temple-

"I want every Ing we have in the Hive!" Emperor Roger roared. "We will not lose, not after this long!"

"That's high quality leadership right there. Send everyone and just keep on trying to hit her. We passed that stage after an unintentionally hilarious Commando moment like three years ago."

-Sanctuary Fortress-

Deep inside the fortress, Dark Samus was easily killing every space pirate that stood in its way. "Fall back!" one of them shouted out before getting shot through the head. The survivors began to flee, running out of the fortress.

"HAI EVERYONE!" Kraid could be seen bounding toward them in the distance. "I'm helping here now!"

"Back inside!" The pirates returned to their battle with Dark Samus, embracing the upcoming slaughter.

In a different dimension, something else was happening at the same spot. Ridley landed at the entrance to the Hive, a scowl on his face. The novelty of being with the Ing was wearing off and he wanted to go back to the space pirates. The only thing stopping him from doing so was the fact that his armour was possessed by and Ing, and since it covered his whole body the monster could basically control his every move.

He was walking toward the Hive to intercept Samus when a voice behind him yelled, "Ridley!" He turned, seeing Crocomire slowly drag himself toward him. "I've been looking for you for- Why are you black?"

"Ing possession. Getting annoying. Why aren't you at the base?" There was no way that he'd leave Kraid in charge, right?

"I've been looking for you," Crocomire repeated.

"That's good and all, but please tell me that Phantoon or Draygon is there. Please tell me that you didn't leave Kraid in charge."

Crocomire hesitated. "I could tell you that, but it would be a lie." Ridley blasted him with his kinetic breath, knocking the lizard back. "Dammit, I gotta get you de-possessed."

"That wasn't the Ing, that was me you retard!" Ridley stalked his way over to the lizard, his claws curled into fists. "Why would you leave Kraid in charge? He'll fuck it all up! Do we still have a base?" A spark shot out from his helmet.

The bridge below them began to shake as though something huge was running across it. "What was that?"

"Something happened in the regular world. I'm ignoring it in favour of pointing out that YOU'RE AN IDIOT!"

Crocomire slid backwards, putting some distance between himself and Ridley. "You can yell at me once I've got that thing out of your armour, okay? The faster you get back, the faster I stop being Kraid's evil half brother."

Ridley's chest plate opened, revealing a dozen missiles ready to fire. The space dragon glanced down at them. "I'd start hitting me if I were you."

The missiles shot out, blasting Crocomire onto his back. "Maybe you should have made a plan before you came after me."

"I didn't know that you were possessed!"

"Well whose fault is that?"

-At the pirate base-

"GALVE MAKAWACKA?" Mother Brain's voice boomed over the radio.

The operator stepped over his captain's blood covered body and put on his headset. "Hello there, pirate command. We read you loud and clear."

"GALVE MAKAWACKA?"

"We haven't been able to send any radio signals through the atmosphere until now. It looks like the storm's starting to subside."

"JIKKI YAKU RIDLEY?"

"No, Ridley is not here at the moment. He's MIA."

"LAN. KUWA CROCOMIRE?"

"Also MIA."

Mother Brain was silent for a moment. "KRAID?"

"Sent him halfway across the planet."

"HUWANUWAN?"

"I'm not sure anymore. I just stepped over the body of the guy I thought was in charge so I guess no one is."

"YAYAYAYA KU?"

"It's hard to explain."

Swatllum stood up behind him, stretching his arms. "Wazgoingon?" he yawned, cracking his elbows

The operator jumped in shock, staring at the bloody pirate. "I thought you were dead!"

"I was sleeping. Punching out three Metroids is really tiring."

He looked over his captain, noting how most of him was coated in blood. "You should be dead with all that blood loss!"

Swatllum looked down. "When'd all that get there?"

"LAVULAVA!" Mother Brain roared, getting annoyed at being ignored.

-Back in the Ing Hive-

Crocomire slowly dragged himself through the halls, ignoring the many Ing that stared at him and instead focusing on the possessed cybernetic dragon that was walking at a leisurely pace just behind him. "You should be glad that you're invinci-" Ridley's sentence was stopped when his kinetic breath weapon activated, hitting Crocomire in the back.

The blast pushed him forward. "Still thinking!" he announced.

"Think faster or I'll aim this thing-" He fired another breath attack. "-at your shithole!"

"You won't be able to if I don't face you!" Crocomire turned with the hall but his route was immediately cut off by a door locked by a white shield. In a vain attempt to open it he blasted at the shield with fireballs, failing horribly, and allowing Ridley to catch up. It wasn't a difficult feat to accomplish.

"Well, looks like this is it," Ridley said. "My only regret is that I won't get to watch Kraid die."

Crocomire turned around, facing him. "Why are you the one saying your regrets?"

"Regret," Ridley corrected. "And it's because I really don't care about yours."

"Fair enough."

"Unfortunately, you've left your shithole wide open." Ridley's chest plate opened, preparing to blast him with another barrage of missiles. Just before he could, a single beam of energy slipped between them and into a small ball of white light to Ridley's left.

The light exploded outward, creating a dome of light energy. Ridley's armour began convulsing as the light enveloped it, the Ing inside forcing his limbs to go ways that they were never meant to go, before the darkness that seemed to cover it dissolved. He dropped to his hands and knees, freed.

Samus hopped into the light, opening the door with her light beam. She seemed to ignore them as she passed through the doorway. It closed behind her, the white shield once again covering it.

Ridley dropped to the ground, his whole body aching from the convulsions. "We never speak of this again."

-In Sanctuary Fortress-

The battle between Samus and her dark counterpart had gone extremely well for the bounty hunter. Despite several complications and her foe's new abilities she had triumphed, forcing the being to retreat. Dark Samus staggered through the halls of Sanctuary Fortress, purple gases flowing from its wounds and a desire for Phazon overpowering its senses.

Several space pirates appeared from a tunnel to the right, sprinting directly at Dark Samus. It growled, preparing to put a shot through each of them at the first sign of hostility. The pirates sped past it, not paying any attention to the being. Dark Samus stared, confused and curious. It decided to check the direction they came from for anything of interest.

Dark Samus had much to learn.

"HAI PRETTY LADY!" Kraid roared. The giant lizard was hunched over but still making good progress through the hallways. "This is great! Ridley didn't say anything so we don't have to fight and can be friendly people today, right?"

Dark Samus loudly sighed. "Kraid, right?"

Kraid looked to his right, staring at a metal wall. "It's a wall," he reported with a goofy smile on his face.

"Uh... Yes it is." Dark Samus thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to benefit from this situation. "Kraid... friend, do you know of any Phazon hotspots that your squads haven't mined?"

Kraid nodded enthusiastically, his head smashing through the ceiling and knocking a Quad Mech over. "Oh yeah, there's blue stuff all over the place! It tastes really good." He licked his lips.

"You... ate the radioactive matter?"

"Nooooo, I ate the blue stuff. Are your ears full? Actually..." Kraid stuck a finger into his own ear, pulling out a ball of earwax that was as large as Dark Samus' head.

"As wonderful as this chat is, I need to go."

"Wait, you can't go!" Kraid quickly said. "We haven't done anything fun yet. We should find anyone else here and start a big party! And then we can have cheese. I don't mean that really nasty cheese that's blue, I mean the good stuff. Is it yellow or orange? I can never tell. Ridley keeps telling me that it's 'yushouldeye' coloured but to be honest I think he's colour blind."

"I see," Dark Samus muttered, not even paying attention to what he said. There was door just beside Kraid's left foot and if it could get there quickly then he's be unable to follow.

-Elsewhere-

Ridley and Crocomire exited Dark Aether through a random portal which Samus had probably unknowingly left open. Sanctuary Fortress was much more welcoming than the Ing Hive.

"Now we just need to return to the base," Crocomire stated. Ridley didn't answer, he simply stared ahead. "Ridley?"

"I sense something."

Kraid hugged him from behind, pulling Ridley into a vice grip that cut off his air supply. "RIDLEY! I'm so glad that you're back! They told me that you were dead but I didn't think you were dead because I know you Ridley and you can just eat things to stop being dead so even if you were dead you'd get better. But now that you're back we can have so much fun that we couldn't before! No one would play any games with me..."

Ridley squeezed out of Kraid's rather small arms and put some distance between them. "Kraid, what are you doing here?" he asked, both curious and annoyed.

"I'm a Modulator!" the lizard decalred.

"That- I- I don't care anymore. Can someone tell me why none of our commanders are AT THE BASE?"

"I was told to modulate people!"

"I seriously doubt that. You two can have fun here but I'm going to fly back to the base before my head catches fire again and hope that I'm not going to find a smoking crater."

Ridley took off, glad that things were returning to normal. He turned on his radio and tried to make contact with their base. "This is High Commander Ridley, do you copy? Over."

He received a response a few seconds later. "We read you sir. Where have you been this whole time?"

"There were delays and I was eventually helped by Crocomire. What's the condition of the base?"

"Oh, it's still here. We had a few problems but they're-" A loud shriek came from the background before being abruptly cut off.

Ridley closed his eyes, sighing loudly into the radio. "What was that?"

"That was our last freezer getting killed by about eight Metroids. Don't worry sir, we're taking control of the situation."

"Bring whoever's in charge. I want to have a word with them before I arrive."

"All right sir, I'll bring Crocomire right away."

"He hasn't been there for six hours!"

"Oh. Shows what I know, eh?"

"Is everyone except me an inept asshat?" Ridley turned off his radio.