And I'm back, to cover almost all of the rest of Other M. It feels strange, getting ready to move into the home-stretch-game. I've had this story active for so long... Ah well, need to get to its conclusion eventually. I can't wait to get to Fusion, all the plans come together... Yes, as hard as it is to believe, everything doesn't just come off the top of my head as I go.
Just one character reference in Mother Brain's dialogue today!
Published July 14, 2012
Finding Ridley
"This might be the toughest decision I've ever had to make," Jikarvl said, leaning back and taking one more look at the information sitting stagnant on the display. "What do you think Brain? Should I tell him?"
"VORF DENDU LAMBDA LANNILULA. RIDLEY CHAPPA LOBUNVI."
"I'm not so sure about that. And remember, it's not just my ass I'm worried about. If he has a breakdown..."
"VIVI WARPOI, HAHAHAHAHA!"
"That's true, but it's not what we want in the long run."
-Inside-
One of Ridley's favourite things to see was the look of surprise on a human's face when a dragon, a giant moth and a dozen space pirates break down the wall and storm inside. The moth was optional. The woman appeared to be a scientist, a perfect candidate for answering questions.
"No, you can't be fully grown yet!" she said, backing up against a wall.
"Ah, good, you do know things about what's going on."
The shock apparently wore off as he spoke, letting her notice the many weapons in the pirates' hands and the suit of cybernetic armour the dragon was dressed in. "Wait, you're not... oh no..."
"Ah, my favourite two words. Makes every day brighter. Now your eyes seem to be darting at that terminal over there bit too much for my liking, so allow me to remove temptation." He leapt across the room, pinning her down with one claw. "Temptation: removed."
"Ridley," the woman gasped, eyes growing wide. "No, you're dead! I read all the official statements, checked the visual logs, and you can't be alive!"
"Quit being melodramatic. I'm Ridley, that's all you need to know. But I'm not the only one, am I? There's one that 'can't be fully grown yet' running around out there. What else did you clone?"
"U-um..."
-Sector 2-
"MAMA!"
Samus watched, too horrified to look away, as some Crocomire-like abomination crawled across the rock toward her, mouth hanging to the ground as to leave a trail of green drool to its rear.
"Oh, honey, no, I'm not."
"MAMA!"
"I think I'll consider this one a mercy killing..."
-Ridley-
"Everything, really. Everything that left DNA on Samus Aran's suit during her last mission was put through a genetic organizer and-"
"Yeah. Dump it all in. I got the gist of it. For how long has it been a GF tactic to grab every spice in the cupboard and pour however much you feel like?"
"Too long..." the scientist said, sighing. She seemed contemplative, eventually looking up to meet Ridley's eyes. "I know this may sounds strange, but I'm actually glad you're here. Maybe you can put a stop to this madness."
Ridley presented the human with a mighty, draconic shrug. "En contraire, we came here to destroy everything but it seems like you've done a good job fucking it all up on your own. After I put down that bastard clone I think I'll kick back and watch the fireworks."
"No, you still don't understand. What we've created here is a threat to everything, not just us. It would be in even your best interests to stop it."
"Meh."
"When we cloned Mother Brain, we created an artificial human body for it, designated MB. I treated her like a sister, and she was given a high position as a scientist supervising the experiments. We took advantage of Mother Brain's hypnosis abilities to keep everything in here under control and willing."
"Wait, what?" He flipped open a channel. "Hey, Brain, do you have hypnosis powers?"
"GALVE? WAFF, PIGALOO. KAPPALANDA?"
"Yeah, didn't think we'd ever seen examples of anything like that before. I think you may have spliced some genes in the middle stages, lady. Unless you're like us and have hundreds of willing test subjects, that ain't the best idea. Ignoring your other idiocies, tell me more about this clone of me..."
-Meanwhile-
"Oh my god, YOU'RE EVEN MORE ADORABLE THAN THE LAST THING!" Samus screamed. She was pinned to the ground by the medium sized dragon clone of Ridley, half-heartedly swatting its tail away whenever it tried to impale her. "This entire station is filled with the greatest things ever!"
-Back with Ridley-
"So... you didn't even know it was me until several seconds before everything broke out and went berserk. My god, we're more competent than you guys and that is saying a lot! Have you seen Science Team? They spent the last two weeks building a device that specifically targets and destroys the DNA of June Bugs, but at least it works!"
"I never said anything we were doing was right-"
"There's a clear difference between 'right' and 'smart', and when a Space Pirate has to give this lecture you are clearly on the wrong side! I'm getting too emotional over this. I need a break, Victum, you take over in telling her how stupid they are." Ridley released the scientist, making sure to blast the nearby terminal to hell before taking to a corner. It was there that he curled into a ball and moped over the rapidly decreasing IQ average of the universe.
"Oh captain my captain!" Victum strutted toward her, standing at attention in Ridley's previous position. "Your general incompetence is worthy of a trophy to leave an eternal monument to your idiotic acts. As General of the Space Pirate Confederation, I take it upon myself to bestow the honourable title of Kraid's Brain: Left Hemisphere upon you. May you forever be remembered as just half of Kraid's intellect. Have a wonderful day, ma'am."
She was too stunned to react to this, allowing Victum to walk back to his team unimpeded. "What is the next matter of business, comrades?"
A loud, constant screech forced all the pirates to cover their ears. In the corner, Ridley was slowly grinding one of his metal claws against the steel wall, sparks shooting out as he left a jagged gouge. "Find the clone. Kill the clone. We're splitting into two teams, one to accomplish this mission and the other to find any other projects they're engaged in that we may deem interesting. None of you can kill me. That means I go kill the clone."
-On Kraid's end-
Kraid piled the pirate clones in the middle of the room, rubbing his hands together eagerly. "Let's make a sand castle! You can be the sand, and I'll be the castle! Ready... GO!"
The pirates stared vacantly up at him, confounded. Even if they spoke English it is doubtful that they would find any way to comply with this request.
"He's building a sand castle," came Roerwell's report over the radio.
"Why do people find it so hard to believe that I don't care?"
-One hour later-
"What the...?"
Ridley, Chykka and Victum found themselves in a rocky cavern with pools of lava scattered across the floor space, a molten waterfall on the far left. Some small creatures ran around, engaging in tame day-to-day habits.
"They seem to have an entire area full of lava," Victum stated, nodding to himself. "In their space base."
"...I've seen weirder." He pressed a button on Victum's communicator. "Hey, Brain, do you remember the very inaptly named Hamburger Outpost?"
"GURD," Mother Brain transmitted, probably shuddering.
"Yeah. Makes this place look tame in comparison."
The lava to their right rippled, a bulge forming the middle. Without warning, a gigantic fish-like monstrosity burst from the depths and leapt at them, rows of jagged teeth splitting wide.
Ridley spun and smacked it into the wall with his tail. "I'm trying to kill myself. Don't get in the way."
The fish monster failed to give up, instead diving at the dragon and taking him by the torso, causing both of plummet down onto a rock near the lava's edge. Ridley shoved his claws into its mouth, using both to slowly pry the jaw apart.
As Ridley grappled the fish, his companions noticed something else. "My captain, I see the clone!" In the distance of the massive cavern, another space dragon was happily circling before shooting off through a large pipe.
"Dammit!" Contorting his body, Ridley replaced an arm with a foot and punched the fish in the eye, adding in a blast from his breath weapon for effect. The heat did nothing to the lava fish, nor did the metal fist against its hardened skin. "All right, the hard way!" Twisting, he corkscrewed his way out of the fish's grip until its jaws snapped shut, empty. He let loose some missiles to cover it in smoke and shot up, rejoining his allies. "Where is it?"
Chykka buzzed, flying toward the pipe the clone disappeared into. Ridley quickly snatched Victum up and followed.
Unlike the brightly lit room of molten rock, inside the pipe was solid black. Ridley flew to the front, spotlights shooting from his eye visors. Wasting no more time, he dove in.
It was a tight fit for fliers, the clone obviously being smaller still if it could go through so easily. Every few flaps the dragon's metal wings collided with the walls to create sparks, briefly lighting it further.
The pipe forked, one way just as hot as the previous room and the other slightly cooler. "This must be a ventilation shaft to regulate temperature," he stated.
"Fascinating!" Victum exclaimed.
Chykka purred.
"Why am I pointing out the trivial to you two?" He flew down the warmer tunnel. Space Dragons were fans of heat if his constant stays in Norfair meant anything.
The temperature went up when they came out in another lava chamber. Even though the floor was flowing yellow and red, thick mechanical pillars rose from floor to ceiling, clustered throughout the room. It would be easy for the clone to hide in here. He signaled for Chykka to stay blocking the exit, put Victum down near the edge of the pipe, and flew toward the devices.
Ridley could hear a third set of wings. It was hard to pinpoint, but it was in there.
Quietly hovering, he drifted around the columns one by one. It was stealthy, this one. He was proud in a way.
"Where are you?" he growled. "Come out and play with your big brother..."
He heard the flapping pick up, getting closer. If that had actually worked...
Some kind of green bird thing came out, hissing and pecking ineffectually at the dragon. He punched it in the head, resulting in the animal's retreat.
"Shit. Where the hell is that bastard?"
-Meanwhile-
"STOP. NOT. DYING. AND. DIE!" A super missile to the face staggered the clone, bringing out a screech as it took to the air.
"Come on, where's the usual banter?" Samus dodged a tail swipe with no effort. "You're not even trying. Hm, has anyone told you that you look twenty years younger? Whoever you guys have does a good job."
She gave him one more super missile to the face. With an undignified howl, the clone spun around and retreated into the pipes.
"That was easy. Now... to deal with the dozens of other problems that have popped up." She was barely able to hold back a giggle. "Who am I kidding? Those are for other people to deal with, I need to find where Ridley flew off to..."
-With Ridley-
Ridley didn't care that he was hitting the walls with every flap. He just wanted to gut that clone already. "Where the hell did-"
The question he wasn't able to finish got its answer when the clone sped around the upcoming corner, colliding head on with his older counterpart. They tumbled in midair until Chykka joined the dragons in crashing, sending all three giants and poor Victum tumbling to the pipe's floor.
Ridley felt a claw shove his face into the metal, his counterpart trying to scurry away. "Oh no!" He grabbed it by the tail at the last second, yanking the beast back.
It came back feet first, pushing both soles into his head. With this baseline, the dragon clone used one foot to kick him in the face. Ridley felt his jaw twist under the strong impact, his grip on the tail slipping. Before he could correct this, the dragon used its other foot to push off, taking flight down the tunnel.
"Fucking... Go!" Ridley threw Chykka into the side and jumped, flapping his wings rapidly to gain momentum. It was a bad place for takeoff as he quickly realized, the flaps each colliding with the rounded bottom of the tunnel. Upon landing from his jump, the cyborg dragon made a higher leap. This time, he achieved liftoff.
He could still hear that clone, taunting his inability with its flapping wings, its pipe-perfect size, its blood dripping all over him... Wait, why was it so hurt? What in the world could hurt Ridley, the powerful space dragon to ever... Oh, right, her.
Did Samus see it?
Did she see it escape?
...Did she think that thing was him? "This is going to be a fun fucking day..."
Left, left, right, left, right, right, left... That clone had natural talent in flight. His natural talent of course, he had it at that age too, and he still had it in fact, he wasn't losing anything! He was at the top of his game!
That's why he was covered in metal and healing his-
No, tip top shape!
Ridley burst out into a lava chamber, scanning the cavern for his double. Hearing something, he quickly looked up and braced for impact.
The clone crashed down from above, scratching wildly at the durable armour. He put some impressive gashes in it before Ridley let loose a volley of missiles, the point blank detonation pushing them both back. Ridley spread his wings quickly to halt the forced descent, growling as the clone stared down curiously. It had apparently finally taken a good look at him.
"I'm not sure how smart you-"
A large jaw closed around Ridley's torso, dragging him down to the lava below. The fish wanted revenge. It hurt, but it was nothing too lethal to a heavy hided space dragon.
By the time he finished ripping that thing's jawbone in half, the clone had fled. "Half my vocabulary will be swear words by the time I'm done here!" Ridley flapped, the excess lava momentarily slowly his ascension, and darted back into the tunnels. There, he barely stopped himself from running into Chykka.
The Aetherian bug had a nice coat of ash on his skin. He buzzed sadly, Victum patting the tail from the floor. "My leader, our comrade took a shot from your abominable copy. It has ruined his beautiful fur job for the remainder of the week!"
"It'll grow back. Where'd it go?"
"It erupted into flame, comrade."
"Not the fur, the dragon!"
The General shrugged his shoulders.
"The fun begins again..."