"Incoming transmission. Source, unknown. Incoming transmission. Source…"
Samus Aran muted her gunship's AI, observing the gibberish characters that lined her screen. An ancient language, likely. It would still be some time before her suit would manage to finish a translation of basic Argentan. It was now that she was alone again that it was back to business - and that meant figuring out just how the hell she ended up here to begin with. Phaaze had been destroyed and the threat of Phazon was eradicated from her universe, last she saw of it. She had just left from Elysia, paying her last tribute to the fellow Hunters who'd lost their lives to the war, when a disturbance of Pirate origin ripped her ship from the void of space and spat her out in the atmosphere of what was left of Mars...but nothing was as she knew it.
"Incoming transmission. Source: unknown."
Just thinking of Elysia again brought back swarms of memories of the allies she'd had ripped away from her, forced to oppose her by the swathing tendrils of Phazon. One by one she hunted them down, and one by one she was made to watch the last light of life fade from their dying eyes...each and every one by her hand.
"Incoming transmission. Source: unknown."
It became more and more clear to her that this wasn't something she could just isolate herself to contend with once and be done with it. Horrifying images flashed in her mind. Rundas impaling himself on his own ice in one last act of defiance. Ghor's burned and battered body crumbling to ash, Gandrayda reaching out to her with Samus' own hand, projecting a horrible mirror before her as a final cry for help, there's no reason I shouldn't have been able to save them, we had all put so much trust and faith in one another, I thought I was supposed to be...
"Incoming transmission. Source: unknown."
"Incoming transmission. Source: unknown."
"This...this is Samus Aran, licensed Bounty Hunter. State your purpose..."
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, Aran," Samuel Hayden answered from the other side of the comm link.
"No. I...apologize. Was there something required of me, Dr. Hayden?"
"Just a tip. The Slayer has requested that you bring your armor the next time you come down. I believe he wishes to gauge your strength."
He paused for a moment. "But there is no rush."
Samus didn't respond, still looking down with her back to the front of the ship.
"As I'm sure you can imagine he is not much of a people person," Hayden added. "I don't believe he entirely trusts you yet. This could be an opportunity to better your understanding of one another...the old Sentinel way."
Hayden cut communications then, leaving Samus to bask in the low hum of her gunship. She hadn't fought in almost a week now, if her sense of time was still worth anything here. The last thing she wanted to do was come in rusty and have the angry green man turn into more of a brick wall than he already was to her. But Hayden was right...this was a chance to get rid of that barrier. And these two were the only support she'd be getting out here any time soon, if her brief experience with the UAC was anything to go by.
The Hunter descended from the high tower of the Fortress her ship was perched on, and landed triumphantly on a stone walkway outside. The wounded moon's light and beautiful Earth before her reflected off the glistening metallic sheen of the legendary Varia Suit.
. . .
The Doom Slayer was already geared up and entirely loaded, watching the Hunter enter the Fortress from the window in his room. He clenched his armored fist tightly, glancing down at it as it flared with dormant energy.
"I have to admit, Slayer, your idea holds value where research is concerned," Samuel spoke to him through the comm channel in his helmet. "She survived her first encounter with the demons, before we discovered her. This is an opportunity to see how she handles that at more...realistic intensities." He chuckled grimly, once again earning no reaction from the Slayer.
"You rang?" Samus asked, stepping into the main atrium - having collected herself. As usual, the Slayer didn't respond. He turned his back to her, looking back at her briefly before walking towards one of the spiraling staircases. Samus took the invitation to follow. Behind a glass panel lay an elevator, and having glanced over the railings it was pretty clear this led to the Fortress' basement. Even standing side-by-side in the lift, not a word was exchanged between the two, nor were any glances. He's about his business today, Samus observed, holding her cannon as the elevator descended. I suppose I am too.
At the bottom of the elevator was a long bridge, suspended over a vastness Samus couldn't quite make out.. They were at the bottom of the Fortress, now. It was dark, natural rock formations lining the walls, and red gates of energy making up the bridge railing. Overlooking it all, up above the grand gate at the end of the bridge, there was a giant suit of battlearmor...heavily damaged, but undergoing self-repairs. It bore a resemblance to the Doom Slayer's Praetor suit...perhaps there was a story to be told there later.
"Welcome to the Ripatorium," Hayden announced as the two warriors walked calmly towards the gate. "Or as VEGA called it, the Anomaly. Originally used as a demon prison, the clashes of the forces of Hell and Urdak in the mortal realm began to put the multiverse in a state of flux. VEGA would see, observe, and simulate the countless battles taking place in infinite realities around us. He found a way to work those simulations into a sort of...interface for the Slayer to directly interact with, granting the Slayer a more efficient way to train, and VEGA more opportunities to gather data on the forces of Hell."
"So...it's a slightly more complicated VR training mission, then?" Samus asked, arriving with the Slayer at a set of ornately decorated doors at the end.
"That is the short version, yes," Hayden sighed. "I had hoped you'd be at least slightly more interested in the specifics, given your arrival in this world possibly having something to do with this chaos."
Beyond the gate, there was a series of computer interfaces the Slayer briefly interacted with. He led her up another small staircase onto a circular platform as red, crackling energy began to engulf them. "We start off small. I'll be watching."
His voice was quiet and raspy, as if it took effort to speak. Samus could tell the man hardly ever did. A great flash of red blinded them, and suddenly, they weren't in the Fortress of Doom anymore.
. . .
There was thunder overhead. Monstrous thunder and flashes of light high above the azure clouds that covered the sky. But there was no rain. In fact...as Samus scanned her environment, the visual before her was almost...serene. There were trees, forests, even, leaves as green as the grass and mossy waters beneath her feet. Ancient stone structures surrounded the area, fortifications, it looked like. The buildings were battle-damaged, yet now overgrown with vegetation. This world almost reminded her of one of her many homes, Tallon IV, ever-recovering…
Something collided with the side of her helmet. There was a searing heat that she could almost feel radiating through to her. A spiked, brown creature clung to the wall of a building at her side, charging another ball of plasma in its hands. Samus rolled out of the way of that one, swiftly returning fire with a few well-placed shots from her arm cannon. The first one knocked it from the wall, the second and third cost it an arm, and then a chunk of its head. Its lifeless body fell limply to the ground, staining the mossy waters red, and Samus' radar picked up movement from spots all over the area. It was time to move.
Morphology: Imp
Ferocious and agile demons. Attack in great numbers to make up for relative frailty.
Sure enough, the Imps seemed to move in a scattering swarm, much like the War Wasps of her home dimension. The speed and ferocity of their attacks reminded her of the lower rungs of Space Pirates they'd use as fodder during raids. She shoulder-bashed through a pair of them that attempted to block her way up an incline, their bones shattering as the Hunter plowed through them like the fodder they were. One or two shots to the head, three to the torso seemed to blow them apart into red paste, Samus observed, the concussive blasts of the Power configuration proving effective against the weak carapace that lined their bodies. Where a crowd of them would gather, she'd fire a missile - the resulting explosion catapulting limbs and blood into the air.
Where her enemies fell, the Slayer would notice the Hunter running through afterward. Her shielding seemed to fluctuate throughout the battle, and at times, missiles re-appeared in the barrel of her cannon, instead of simply being loaded as they normally would.
"Another who draws strength from their fallen foes…" Samuel observed.
The Hunter was knocked off her feet, a much larger beast slamming into the ground next to her, kicking up debris and dirt. It snapped its beady, yellow eyes to where she flew, leaping to continue its assault. Samus reoriented herself mid air, a hand gesture changing the beam's configuration to Ice. In the few seconds she had, she charged the weapon and fired a freezing projectile at her new assailant's legs, freezing them in place and forcing the beast to land abruptly, upright. Samus' armor at an instant morphed down into a metallic sphere just a meter in diameter, rocketing forth and shattering the creature's frozen legs. It roared with pain as its helpless torso fell to the ground. Samus changed back, flipping backward onto the beast with a piledriver, her cannon over her shoulder finishing it off with a charged blast that obliterated its skull. With both legs she kicked the Imp jumping to pounce her as she leaped back to her feet. A lasso-like beam erupted from an attachment under her left arm, snatching the Imp out of the air. Its face scraped all the way off as it collided with the stone platform.
Another bald-goliath looking demon ran at her, the Hunter triggering her thrusters and shoulder-bashing into it, firing shots into its less-armored torso as they flew off a ledge.
Morphology: Hell Knight
Towering brute. Fights exclusively up-close, but can leap long distances and create shockwaves.
As the Hunter snapped the neck of her latest attacker, she looked up to see a huge, bull-like demon snorting loudly and ramming directly into her. It sent her rolling and tumbling through the mud, further staining the once shining Varia suit, now covered in dirt, blood and viscera. Another day in the life of Samus Aran. She scrambled to her feet, just in time to catch the bull demon's charge again. It collided with her, suspending Samus as it charged across the battlefield. Her shielding was knocked out completely, sparks beginning to fly as she coughed up something she didn't want to identify behind the helmet. It was looking to crush her against a wall.
Morphology: Pinky Demon
Unnamed in Hell. Heavily armored in the front, thus preferring charging attacks. Little to no protection in the back.
No different than a Grenchler, the Hunter thought to herself, entering the Morph Ball once again and laying a bomb. It flipped the Pinky Demon off its feet, sending it sliding with its chin to the ground. Samus recovered and rolled behind it, a hand-sign switching the beam to Spazer, and blasted a powerful scattershot chunk of green plasma into the Pinky's exposed backside. It vaporized the entire back half of the demon, the Hunter's cannon clicking back into place as it 'reloaded'. She sensed another one merely a foot away from her, and her body gave into instinct as she thrusted out of its way - delivering the same spreadshot payload into its back and obliterating it. Another one appeared, and using the grapple lasso she steered it into a nearby wall, the stone crumbling around it. She dashed into that one, destroying it just as swiftly. She inhaled deeply, collecting all of the siphoned energy her weapons had produced from the gathering bodies, and watched as her shields restored, her injuries healed, and her ammunition replenished. Another gift from the Chozo, whom she owed so much to.
And then more fireballs. They crawled along the walls pelting her from afar, new demons that bore wings and wristblades scrambled the skies and assaulted her with globs of burning plasma. There were bloated ones with cannons on both arms, bursting from the walls and dousing all before them in flames; animated skeletons with jetpacks that rained down hell from above. They tore the area asunder with reckless abandon and threw themselves at her with no regard for their own safety, augmented in twisted, horrible ways just to better their own prowess in combat. The way they fought was so agonizingly familiar, almost like, like…
Pirates.
Who'd taken home, family and closest allies from her. Who stalked her in the far reaches of space and rose again and again no matter how many times she'd crushed them underneath her boot. Who would ransack innocent towns and villages and leave no survivors just for the sake of their own sick amusement and glory. Who'd even instilled corruption in her own former home of Zebes, running her people out from it. The Chozo had taught her love and peace, not to hate...but she'd also learned war. And with war came hatred. A scathing hatred for the scum of the universe who'd rear their ugly, ever changing heads at every corner she turned. And these 'demons' were no different.
What came after was a cataclysm of violence the Slayer had not witnessed himself since he'd been surrounded by his former brethren in the Night Sentinels. She was like a pinball of fury, at times literally, dashing around the arena and striking back against the demonic horde with supreme prejudice. She was guided by a vengeance in her heart that even he could feel, and without thought he felt the pumping of his shotgun as he leaped into the arena to join her. It had been eons since he had the luxury of fighting alongside a warrior so driven, so capable...he felt the adrenaline swelling within him as he crushed a Gargoyle's head with his landing, getting to work with a zeal and haste that had almost felt foreign to him.
"RIP...AND...TEAR!" he chanted, raising his boomstick high as he barrelled into a Dread Knight. Samuel Hayden chuckled to himself, watching the furious carnage that overtook the battlefield. The Doom Slayer had once again found a comrade.
Cacodemons were fed grenades from the Slayer's shotgun, then slammed into the ground by the Hunter's lasso. The Plasma Rifle's Microwave Beam and the Wave Beam's Wavebuster crossed streams to cook the likes of Pain Elementals and Carcasses to combustion. A crowd of demons frozen in place by the Ice Bomb, and the Hunter's Shinespark barreling through the crowd and reducing even the mighty Barons of Hell to clouds of ice shards and bloody mist. It was glorious.
When the dust settled, the Hunter and the Slayer stood back-to-back. Exhausted, breathing heavily, and covered in the entrails of their enemies. The once pristine ruins site was covered in rubble, debris, and unspeakable gore. Both of them were heavily wounded, but showed no signs of succumbing to any injuries. In fact...the bouncing of their shoulders as they slowly leaned against one another implied an entirely different reaction. Both removed their helmets and shared in pained, but relieved laughter. It felt so simultaneously unnatural, yet refreshing...neither could remember the last time they'd felt so incredibly exhilarated, and even more surprising, with another to revel in it with. Their bodies felt like crumbling, but it was this moment, this terribly strange and grim moment, neither side wanted to get away from it.
"I believe the both of you have had enough excitement for now," Hayden said to both of them, opening an exit portal before them. "I'll have the medical bay waiting."