I get the feeling that Corruption will be a large part of this story. Oh well, more fun for me!
Published March 19, 2011
Down the Pit
Ridley found himself on top of the generator, the large chamber stretching across his gaze. He saw Samus uncurl from her Morph Ball form below and felt the machine begin to descend into the correct place. "ARAN!" He dropped, claws outstretched.
Samus looked up. "Are you back again- OH SHIT!" She began to fire at him but he crashed down on her, the powerful impact shattering the glass floor and sending them plummeting down the generator shaft.
Using her space jump Samus managed to get above the dragon, watching him latch onto the walls below to slow himself. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she shouted down at him. "What possessed you to dive down at a glass floor?"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time!" Ridley snapped, his enraged state momentarily leaving him.
"Well it wasn't!" She fired a charged shot down at him. It flew through the air, hitting the dragon in the mouth. He lost his grip and fell down a hundred metres before digging his claws into the pit again.
"Do that again!" he roared. "Go ahead, make my day!"
"Okay!" She shot him in the face. Ridley released the wall, flapping his wings and soaring up at her. As he reached out, Samus concluded that she shouldn't taunt the giant space dragon when he's angry.
Ridley grabbed her in his claw, reminiscent of how he had held Rundas maybe ten minutes ago. "I could make a witty retort but I'll just settle for biting your face off." He latched his jaw onto her helmet, twisting with so much force that he very nearly broke her neck. Samus quickly jammed her gun into his mouth and fired a missile, pushing him off.
By now their descent had stopped. Ridley held her as he hovered in mid air, his wings barely having enough room to flap. "Since you're going straight for the kill I think I will too," Samus said as she began to charge her arm cannon.
Ridley chuckled, glancing at the puny weapon. "What do you hope to accomplish with that?" He was answered when a Super Missile hit his head with enough force to obliterate any less durable being. He dropped Samus, his skull crashing against the metal shaft.
It didn't take long for Ridley to regain his senses. When he did he saw that Samus had fallen far, she was almost a dot. Feeling up for some vengeance, he pulled in his wings and dove.
-In space-
Phantoon felt confident in his knowledge of who would be able to clear up the situation for him. It was with this confidence that he had his pirates call Ridley's frequency. "This is Phantoon. Ridley, do you copy?"
A massive explosion greeted him. "Busy!" came Ridley's enraged voice. "Killing now, talk later!" He dropped the call.
The space ship was silent for a moment. "What now?" a pirate asked.
"Call Crocomire. He's our second option," Phantoon ordered.
The sane pirates did so, calling Crocomire. "This is Phantoon. Crocomire, do you copy?"
"Yes, I'm here. Me and Swatllum just wiped out Elysia's aerial defences," Crocomire responded.
Phantoon had no idea who Swatllum was but he didn't care enough to ask. "What are you doing on Elysia?"
"We're just purging a civilization for the great Dark Samus and waiting for her to lie upon them the seeds of chaos. How about you?"
All the pirates in the ship turned to Phantoon. "I was wondering if I could borrow your potato peeler. Mine is broken and I didn't dare go into your kitchen without your permission."
"Sure, knock yourself out."
"Thank you. I must be going." The pirates didn't even need his signal to cut the transmission. Phantoon sighed, closing his single eye. His men could tell that he was fighting with himself over a decision which would direct the lives of both him and every Space Pirate aboard. "Call Kraid."
"HALLO!"
If he weren't a floating ghost Phantoon would have jumped in fright. "Kraid? When did you call?"
"I've been here for like twenty minutes you silly goose. So what's up? I just got hit by a giant Phazzy seed thing and it hurt. But I forgave it and now me and Phillip are throwing it a welcoming party."
"I feel as though I have missed a lot. Kraid, what is going on? Everyone is talking about this 'Dark Samus' and our allies seem completely enthralled in whatever it is. I know that I can trust you to give me an inaccurate picture of the situation that I can easily interpret on my own."
"Ridley always tells me I'm good at that. So one day the pretty lady came down only she was a lot darker and could fly like this." Apparently not knowing that Phantoon couldn't see him, Kraid did something which caused one of the pirates on the other end to scream very loudly. "So then everyone started worshipping her and I thought that I could worship so much better than they could and tried my hardest to convince Ridley to help me but he didn't want to. Then me and Phillip decided to put on a circus show and show her and Ridley loved it just as much as I think any man should love something another man does and then he hugged me and then he hugged Phillip and then he hugged Draygon and then I woke up and told him this but he didn't like it and told me to shut up. Then we attacked Norion, Bryyo and Elysia with the intent of planting these Phazzy seeds to brainwash the GF into following her."
"So that Dark Samus that Ridley once spoke of used some sort of seed to take over the minds of our people and intends to do the same to the Galactic Federation," Phantoon summarized.
"Uh-huh. I'm on Bryyo right now and it's good to be back. Ma keeps fussing over my teeth and pa wishes I took over the family business of being a predatanor but they're both happy to see I'm doing well. Big bro's still bigger than me but personally I think I'm more intelligenter than him."
"I'm sure you are."
"KROD!" a voice in the background called. "Look at this soap! Isn't it fantastic? This is what planet insides are made of!"
"Uh-huh, sure is Rippy. See? Told ya," Kraid whispered.
Phantoon had had his dose of Kraid for the day. "I think I have all the information that I require. But first, would you mind telling me where Ridley is?"
"Oh, he's falling in a hole."
-In a hole-
Ridley was once again hit with a burst of whiplash as Samus' charged shot connected with his mouth, sending him further down the generator shaft. Their positions were reversed again, putting the bounty hunter several dozen metres above him. "I'm beginning to think that this isn't the safest place for a battle," Ridley shouted up at her.
"Really? I NEVER thought of that!" Samus fired a missile at him just to display her anger through explosions.
"No need to get touchy. I'm just saying that we're getting a bit close and this battle looks like it could go on for quite a long time."
Samus brought her arms and legs together, sending her shooting down to him like a bullet. "I beg to differ. THIS..." She landed on his chest plate, a shot fully charged. "...IS FOR KICKING ME!"
"You're very insistent on holding onto that petty little event as your new reason for revenge, aren't-" The blast exploded in his mouth.
"You know it. Oh hi Rundas."
Ridley looked up, seeing Rundas surf down to them and pick up Samus by a groove on her suit. "NO!" He swiped at them but Rundas quickly flew out of range, carrying Samus upwards and leaving him falling. He fired off his kinetic breath one final time, missing. "FUCK! I will murder you- Why do I smell soap?" He brutally collided with the bottom of the shaft.
-In the stratosphere-
Certain that the seed would hit, Dark Samus decided to see how the battle was going. It teleported to the planet's surface just in time to watch an entire squad of pirates get disintegrated. "Eighty percent of the opponent's forces are down," a GF trooper reported. "Any news on the generators? All are back online you say? Preparing to shoot down that bomb? Very good."
To shot its gratitude for the exposition Dark Samus gave that soldier a quick and painless death. Well, it tried.
"AH! My chest! I need that to hold my heart and lungs!" the trooper screamed as he fell to the ground, clawing at the Phazon burning his torso. "What is wrong with you? Why would you even think of making another living being experience this kind of pain? Do you have no emotions at all?"
"No." Dark Samus shot him in the face.
"AH! My face! I need that to see and think! What kind of monster are you, shooting a person in the face? That's even crueler because it means I can't have an open coffin funeral!"
Dark Samus turned and flew away, heading for the tallest building in the fortress. It burst through the window, conveniently finding Samus, Rundas, Ghor and Gandrayda all in that room, by the looks of things preparing to fire the defence cannon at the seed.
It laughed, letting out a barrage of Phazon blasts. Ghor, being a massive target, was hit. Rundas, having glanced away for a second, was hit. Gandrayda, being unsure of what it was she was looking at and thus caught up in thought, was hit. Samus, being Samus, dodged the attack. Despite being hit, the other three hunters quickly recovered.
Dark Samus decided to take a different approach on the next attack. It unleashed a wave of corrupting Phazon, intent on twisting through them and turning them into obedient drones. They were all very powerful, they would make good additions to its army.
Samus watched the expanding wave of Phazon come at them all, unavoidably filling the room.
"Oh shit."
-In a hole-
During the above events, Ridley had been attempting to sit up. He was failing.
The Space Dragon collapsed onto his back, breathing heavily. Something was obviously broken and while he didn't know what it was probably important. "This is Ridley," he groaned into his communicator. "Do you copy?"
"Loud and clear," Jikarvl responded. "What's your status?"
"I'm at the bottom of a generator shaft... and it hurts. How goes the battle?"
"That? It's doing fine, the seed's just about to collide- Oh, wait, no, they just... blew it up. Never mind, we lost. You should probably get up here, fast."
Ridley looked up but found himself unable to see the top of the shaft. He groaned, closing his eyes. "I can't, I'm almost completely broken! Send someone down to help me!"
"Easier said than done. We've got- Shit, we're falling back!"
"DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME HERE! RETURN AT ONCE, I COMMAND IT!"
"Sorry Commander Ridley," a different voice said, this one dark and distorted. It was Dark Samus. "The mission was a failure. All who remain on the planet are now considered casualties. I hope you see better luck in the future."
"You fucking slop of purple shit! I will fucking end you the next time we meet, I guarantee it! I will take ENORMOUS pleasure in tearing off every single limb you have and shoving burning hot shit DOWN YOUR THROAT! Don't think you can make an enemy out of Ridley the motherfucking space dragon and live life completely unscathed! Are you still there?" His question was answered with silence.
"Okay, stay calm. If I get all up and angry I'll overheat and then I'll be stuck down here for eternity. I'd best save my energy, get a bit of sleep and try again whenever I wake up. Why the hell am I talking to myself?"
-Pirate Homeworld-
It had been several days since the invasion of the Galactic Federation. While the assault on Norion had failed, the two other targets had been successfully struck with leviathan seeds.
"RIDLEY!" Kraid bounded through the halls, a goofy grin covering his face. "Hay Ridley, where are ya?"
"Ridley won't be coming back anytime soon." Draygon floated toward Kraid and began circling the giant's head. "There was an unfortunate incident that kept him from returning with the rest of the fleet I'm afraid, heh..."
"Oh... When'll he be back?"
Draygon paused. "You're so much stupider than I thought. I'm insinuating that he's dead!"
"Hey! It's not nice to intimate without permission, and I really don't think Ridley said you could," Kraid said, wagging his finger condescendingly.
He was met with a sigh. "I'm not going to talk to you anymore."