Chapter 18
Evils of the Cosmos

The group consisting of Krystal, Wolf, Slippy, Diesel, and Delta ran together through hallways, shooting down ape soldiers that got in the way. So far, they had yet to find anything of interest, but they continued to press on until they eventually entered a large room with several tables and chairs. It was the mess hall.

"Good to know Andross feeds his men," commented Slippy.

"Trust me; he takes more care of his men than you think he does. Why else do you think they are so loyal to him?" Wolf said to him.

Krystal looked to the side and happened to see someone entering the room and immediately opening fire at them. Acting fast, she used her staff that she brought along instead of a traditional firearm to create an energy force field that protected her and her teammates from the gunfire. Everyone turned and saw Star Exotic standing there with their guns pointed at them.

"Guess you managed to survive your way to this place," said Crow. "But this as far as you go."

"It will take more than that to beat us!" Krystal said to her.

"We can say the same thing to you!" Sin said to her.

"So… I take we're going to have to fight them?" asked a nervous Slippy.

"What else is there to do?" said Wolf with an enthusiastic and evil-looking smile while holding up his gun.

Samus, Elegg, and Neon made their way to the deeper part of the base and encountered Space Pirates. With her hatred for Space Pirates in her mind, the female space warrior did not hold back and let loose in destroying them all.

She moved around with great agility and shot down the Space Pirates with great precision, not sparing any of them. Elegg and Neon tried to help, but they ended up not doing much other than shooting some Space Pirates that approached them from behind or the sides. Samus ended up doing most of the work in wiping the place of Space Pirates.

"She's good!" said Elegg in awe.

"I think she's just mad…" said Neon.

The group fought their way through the place until they entered a different room. Looking around, they saw several glass tubes and glass walls, and contained within them are floating jellyfish-like creatures. "Metroids!" said Samus with widened eyes.

"Guess we finally ran into them…" said Elegg.

"Does that mean I get to use my ice power at last?" asked Neon, sounding rather excited while holding up her shotgun.

There were a few more Space Pirates in the room, so the good guys took them out. The last Space Pirate hurried over to a control panel and pressed a button that not only caused a siren to blare out through the room, but also all the glass walls and tubes to open up, releasing all the Metroids.

"What are you doing?!" Samus asked in shock and anger.

"You want to know just how dangerous Metroids are? Be my guest! Hahahahaha!" laughed the Space Pirate… shortly before a Metroid latched onto his head and began draining away his life. He screamed and thrashed around, trying to get the Metroid off, but was unable to do so. After about a minute, he stopped moving and turned gray and lifeless, and that was when the Metroid let go of him.

"Wha… That's… how Metroids feed…?!" asked Neon in disbelief.

"Honestly, I expected it to be gorier…" said Elegg.

Seeing the three girls in the room, the Metroid let out screech-like sounds as they flew towards them at a fast speed, intending to compete against each other for meals. Immediately switching her to arm cannon to ice beam mode, Samus fired whitish-blue beams at the incoming threats and instantly froze them from head to toe. The frozen Metroids fell to the floor, and some cracked and broke a bit when they landed. Samus either crushed the frozen Metroids underfoot or blew them up with missiles.

"Finally! Ice power!" shouted Neon with excitement as she fired at an incoming Metroid. Her shotgun released a blast of cold of whitish-blue energy that not only froze the Metroid, but also sent it flying back through the air until it hit a wall so hard it shattered. "Wow! This is as awesome as I think it would be!"

More Metroids flew towards Neon, who shouted ice power over and over in excitement as she destroyed them all with her icy weapon.

Elegg's Boomstick also fired whitish-blue energy bullets. She fired at the Metroids in the air around her, freezing them with her icy projectiles and making them fall down. As she walked around, she accidentally kicked a frozen Metroid and fell down on her front. A Metroid immediately swooped down at her and latched onto her butt.

Elegg looked back at the Metroid and screamed, "YAAAAAAH! IT'S GOT MY BUTT! IT'S SUCKING ON MY BUTT! GET IT OFF!" She shook her butt wildly while still down on the floor, but the Metroid wouldn't get off.

"Hold still!" said Neon as she ran in front of the Metroid and aimed at it, but Elegg stopped her.

"Wait! You'll freeze my ass off and even blow it up! I can't go on without my butt!" Elegg told her.

"Which is more important, your butt or your life?" asked Neon, still intending on pulling the trigger.

"I won't have a life if my butt is gone!" Elegg yelled at her.

Samus fired at the Metroid while those two were still bickering at each other and froze it. She then walked up to the frozen Metroid and shattered it with a kick. The frozen fangs on Elegg's butt fell off as the Nikke stood up and thanked Samus.

"Good thing your body is artificial, thus preventing the Metroid from draining your life force," Samus said to her. "It would be a different story if it got onto your head where your brain is though…"

"Huh, I thought it had to do with my butt being too fat for it to sink its fangs into that I didn't dry up yet..." said Elegg.

The mess hall was a mess as members of Star Fox and Star Exotic open fired at each other nonstop. Both sides were gathered together behind rectangle tables, using them as shields against each other's gunfire. Occasionally, they would look up to fire at the opposing side, but fail to hit anyone.

"This table is tough!" said Slippy while feeling his hand across the table. "Normally, something like this would've been shot full of holes by now! Where did they get something as durable as this?"

"We're in a middle of a war, and you're talking about tables?!" Wolf angrily snapped at him while firing at the opposing side.

After finding the opportunity, Diesel rushed out from the side of the table and got as far to the side as she could so she could see her enemies behind the table, and then she fired from her machine gun at them.

Leon moved out of the way in time, and then he fired back at Diesel, who dodged it. The chameleon leaped onto the wall and began climbing along it towards Diesel. Delta spotted him and aimed at him with her sniper rifle before opening fire, but Leon jumped off the wall in time and towards Diesel, landing onto her and pinning her onto the floor.

"Move and I'll shoot her!" Leon said to the Star Fox members while pointing his gun at Diesel. However, due to having superior strength from being a Nikke, Diesel easily shoved him to the side and into the wall.

She aimed at him and was going to pull the trigger at the same time a knife was seen flying towards her head, but at the same time, a blast of energy shot through the air and struck the knife, deflecting it and saving Diesel from what could be a fatal blow. Diesel was surprised by this and didn't fire at Leon, who hurriedly scurried back to the others.

"Tsk!" growled Crow, the person who threw the knife. She glared at Wolf, who had his gun pointed at Diesel, as he was the one who shot the knife that was about to hit her.

Wolf pointed his gun at Crow afterwards and fired at her, but she ducked underneath it. She then said to her teammates. "Push the table towards them!"

They nodded and then, still hiding behind the table, pushed it across the room and towards Star Fox's table, colliding with it and pushing it back. The good guys found themselves being unwillingly pushed back by their table as a result until its legs hit the wall. The bad guys then stood up over the tables and pointed their guns down at them, ready to fire.

Acting fast, Krystal held up her staff, which glowed brightly to form a blue energy shield over herself and her teammates, protecting them from the bad guys' shots.

Delta rushed out from the side of the table and fired her gun at Sin. Sin reacted in time by holding up her gun to block the bullet, and then she fired rapidly at Delta, who ran away fast to avoid getting shot.

Wolf leaped out from behind the table and lunged at Crow, pushing her back onto the floor. Crow growled in anger as she tried to shove him off, and they locked hands as they wrestled against each other on the floor.

Krystal swung her staff at Panther's legs and knocked him back onto the floor. She then pointed it at him with a look of anger, but Panther simply smiled and said in, "You look as beautiful as ever, Krystal! Even when you are angry and trying to kill me!"

"You sicked womanizer!" Krystal angrily said to him as her staff glowed brightly, ready to do something. However, Leon reached out his long prehensile tongue towards her and yanked the staff away. "Hey!"

Panther got up fast and grabbed Krystal, forcing her onto the floor and pinning her down. "I do not wish to hurt you, and it would be an honor if a beauty like you join us!" Panther told her.

"Never!" replied Krystal angrily.

As the two wrestled against each other on the floor, Leon thought of using the staff against Krystal. "How does this thing work?" he wondered as he shook it around. When he pointed its upper end at Krystal, that part began to glow. Thinking that he got the hang of it, he prepared to fire some kind of magical energy blast at Krystal, who was still struggling against Panther.

However, he was interrupted by Slippy firing his gun at his waist, injuring him and causing him to aim to go off. A blue energy blast was fired at Panther instead, knocking him off of Krystal and instantly encasing him in ice.

Leon cried in pain as he got down on one knee, using the staff for support and his other hand on the wound. Slippy ran up to him and grabbed the staff, trying to pull it out of his hand. "That doesn't belong to you!" the toad told him. "Give it back to Krystal!"

"Over my dead body!" replied Leon, who still had strength to grip onto the scepter tightly even when injured.

Both sides pulled left and right until Krystal lunged forward. "That's mine!" she shouted. However, she ended up crashing into them both and causing the scepter to go flying into the air. Leon recovered first and jumped at it, but the toad shot out his long prehensile tongue and caught it, pulling it out of the chameleon's grasp and to himself.

Slippy held the staff in his hand and said, "I just realized I never really used my tongue more often than I should!" When Krystal went up to him, he gave it back to her.

She then pointed it Leon, who backed away in fear. "It's over for you!" she said before firing a blue energy blast at him that encased him in ice.

"Haha! How'd you like that, coldblooded freak!" taunted Slippy.

While those three were engaged in their own battle, Sin was hiding behind a chair to use it as a shield against Delta's sniper rifle shots. After blocking some shots using the chair, Sin flung it at Delta unexpectedly. The latter got out of the way in time, and then Sin ran towards her while firing from her assault rifle.

Delta rolled out of the way and then stood up, but Sin caught up to her and grabbed her by the neck before forcefully pulling her forward. She whispered into Delta's ear, "Go and turn against your allies!"

Delta began feeling her body moving against her will, and she pointed her gun at Diesel, who had a look of shock on her face. "Run! I can't control myself!" Delta called out to Diesel as the former tried her best to go against her actions.

"You have to fight it!" Diesel said to her. When Delta pulled the trigger, Diesel got out of the way and then kept on running to avoid getting hit by the following shots. Diesel made her way towards Sin, but the latter moved back as Delta got in front of her to protect her "master."

Diesel stopped in her tracks and bent down just in time to avoid getting shot in the head by Delta, and then she lunged at her legs and yanked it, sending her onto the floor on her back. "I'm sorry!" Diesel said to her before thrusting the back of her machine gun against her abdomen hard to make her too pained to get back up right away.

Diesel then glared at Sin before running towards her while firing from her gun. Sin dodged the shots and ran into the kitchen that was connected to the mess wall. Diesel followed her in there and was greeted by cutting knives being thrown at her by Sin. Diesel reached out to a frying pan nearby and deflected the next wave of knives before running at Sin to whack her with it.

Sin stepped aside and dodged the attack, and then she grabbed Diesel's and forcefully pushed it onto an electric stove. She turned it on, and the stove heated up, beginning to burn Diesel on one side of her face. Diesel cried in pain as the temperature increased, but Sin pushed her head against it, refusing to let her get up while grinning evilly.

Delta suddenly struck Sin in the back of the head using the back end of her rifle to loosen her hold over Diesel. Sin turned to Delta to see that her hypnotic hold over the latter had disappeared after reaching its time limit. "You!" said Sin angrily before grabbing a nearby knife to swing at her, but Delta dodged it before grabbing her hand and disarming her, taking the knife for herself.

Immediately after disarming her, Delta swung the knife across Sin's face at a fast speed, slicing one side of her mouth. Sin cried in pain as she held one hand over the bloody gash, only to be stabbed in the side of her neck immediately afterwards by the same knife.

"Ugh… Grrr… You… You…!" said Sin in pain angrily and weakly before collapsing motionlessly onto the floor.

Delta looked at the seemingly dead Sin for several seconds before sighing in relief that the fight was over. She turned to Diesel, who was groaning in pain with her hand on one side of the face. "Are you all right?" Delta asked her as she went up to her. Diesel lowered her hand to show her that part of the face. It was charred and scarred from the burn, but not to a serious degree.

"Good thing I'm a Nikke, so the burn isn't as serious as it should be…" she said.

"Still not pretty-looking though..." said Delta, looking at the wound. "Don't worry; we can patch you up perfectly with the our technology." Hearing this made Diesel relieved.

While all those fights were going on, Crow managed to slip away from Wolf and ran out of the mess hall and into the hallway. Wolf gave chased while firing at her, and she dodged the shots while firing back with her gun.

Crow got behind a corner and waited to ambush Wolf. However, Wolf ended up being the one to "ambush" her, as his claws came out from around the corner first and caught her by the neck, much to her surprise. Wolf pinned her against the wall and said, "You call yourself the leader? How laughable! You can't even fight for your life!"

Crow growled in anger before taking out a knife and stabbed Wolf in the waist. He cried in pain as he let go of her, and then she kicked him back before firing at him. Even when in pain, Wolf managed to get out of the way in time, but he wasn't as lucky with the shots that followed and was shot in one leg.

Crow continued to pull the triggers, but a red reflector appeared around Wolf this time, causing the shots to bounce back to her and injuring her. She fell to the floor with her hands over her wounds in pain, and then Wolf went up to her and kicked her away in the head.

Not stopping there, Wolf continued to punch and kick her nonstop, not giving her the chance to fight back. After receiving much beating, Crow fell back against a wall and panted heavily. She glared at Wolf and said, "I can't believe Star Fox would let someone as rough as you into their team… I thought they had more honor than this…!"

"I'm not part of that stupid team! We just share the same bones to pick and that's it!" said Wolf as he picked her up by the collar.

Crow suddenly jerked her head forward and headbutted him hard, causing him to reel back in pain. She tried to stab him in the body with her knife, but he caught her hand and tried to prevent her from doing so. They pushed against each other while moving in circles for a while before shoving each other in opposite directions.

Crow took out a miniature smart bomb and threw it at Wolf. He caught it and hurriedly threw it backwards, letting it explode elsewhere. However, the explosion rocked the place and sent debris falling down and smoke being kicked up, and the two found themselves being engulfed by the latter.

Wolf got up from being buried underneath debris and coughed when he breathed in the smoke. He was struck in the shoulder by an energy shot and cried in pain. Looking to the side, he could see Crow's silhouette in the smoke firing at him, so he hurriedly activated his reflector to bounce back the shots.

Crow was hit by the homecoming shots and took some steps back in pain. Wolf rushed out of the smoke and swung his claws at her, but she got out of the way and avoided it in time. She then realized that his claws struck a small bag she had strapped around her waist used for carrying miniature smart bombs, and the claw swipe hit and set off one of them, triggering it.

Crow took out that bomb in panic and threw it away, but Wolf caught it and rushed up to her, pushing her back by the neck with an evil smile on his face. "It's yours. Why throw it away?" he asked before shoving the bomb into her cleavage and then kicking her back by the abdomen.

Crow recovered from the kick and cried in panic as she tried to take the smart bomb out of her cleavage, only to be shot in the forehead by Wolf's blaster. A moment later, the bomb went off.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Wolf was blown back by the explosion and landed onto the pile of debris from before. He sat up, groaning a bit, and noticed a severed hand with circuits and metal parts sticking out from one side of it falling down next to him.

Just then, the Star Fox members came out into the hallway after having defeated the other Star Exotic members. "Are you all right?" Diesel asked him.

Wolf showed them the severed hand that once belonged to Crow and asked, "You think this will make a nice souvenir?"

Needless to say, they were freaked out by the sight of it and jumped back a bit.

Jackal was laughing like a maniac as she ran through a hallway, firing energy blasts from her rocket launcher at more or less everything she came across and causing a large amount of destruction.

Space Pirates were screaming in terror as they tried to fight back and also run for their lives. Though they outnumber her, they were having a hard time trying to do anything against her because of her nonstop bombardment.

"She's only one person! How hard can it be that hard to take her out?!" shouted a Space Pirate moments before he was blown up by an energy blast fired by her.

"Hahahahahaha! This is so fun! I'm told I can destroy everything here, and I love it!" said Jackal happily as she continued to fire nonstop.

A Space Pirate approached her from behind and opened his pincers to fire laser beams at her, but she somehow detected the incoming projectiles and stepped to the side before turning to face him and blowing him up with an energy blast.

"Get her!" shouted another Space Pirate. While her back was turned towards them, a number of Space Pirates lunged at her. They all crashed into Jackal at the same time and ended up in a dog pile where they try to pin her down and attack her nonstop, not giving her breathing space.

However, Jackal slipped out of the pile of Space Pirates without them ever realizing it, and then she blasted them away altogether with her rocket launcher. Looking around, she saw that the area was now devoid of enemies and only consisted of dead and broken bodies all over the place. "Everybody's dead… Is there anyone left who can still play with me?" she wondered.

She continued on through the hallway until she came to a larger room. She looked around and sniffed the air and then said, "I think I smell someone…"

"Who are you?" asked a sinister-sounding voice. Jackal looked into the air and Ridley perched on a balcony up there.

"I know that smell! You're the same monster who almost killed me!" said Jackal in anger while pointing at him.

Ridley remembered her and asked, "How are you still alive?"

"Because I'm a tough jackal, that's why! It's payback time!" said Jackal before firing her rocket launcher at him, but Ridley flew out of the way.

"Very well! I'll see that it that you die for real this time!" said Ridley.

BGM: Ridley Phase 1 (Metroid: Samus Returns)

Ridley swooped down at Jackal as she jumped to the side to avoid being stepped on by him, and even before her feet touched the floor, she fired from her rocket launcher at him. Ridley took a step back and then breathed a stream of fire at her that she avoided by jumping even farther back. She continued to fire at him afterwards, interrupting his fire breathing attack.

Ridley took off into the air and then charged at her at a fast speed, going through the energy blasts like they were nothing to him. Jackal jumped to the side, while Ridley turned around before he hit the wall, planting his feet against it and then pushing off it towards Jackal at a fast speed.

He caught her in his hand and flew towards the wall on the other side, slamming her against it hard and trying to crush her against it. "Nnnngh!" grunted Jackal as she tried to pry off his hand, but when she couldn't, she bit his hand hard, making him cry in pain and letting go of her. Jackal dropped to the floor and fired energy blasts at his body multiple times.

Ridley recovered from the blasts and angrily thrust his extendable spear-like tail at her, but she ran away. Jackal tried to get away from him, and when she looked back, she saw him flying after her and catching up with her. She rolled to the side before Ridley flew into her and then aimed up at him, though her shots missed.

From the air, Ridley shot fireballs at Jackal, who ran and jumped around the place to avoid the fiery exploding projectiles. Ridley flew ahead of her and dropped down with a stomp, blocking her path forward. He breathed fire at her, but she jumped unexpectedly high into the air and over him, and as she was flipping upside-down and on the way back down, she aimed and fired at the back of his head, knocking him over on his front.

"Argh!" Ridley cried in anger as he got back up and turned to her. "Why you?!"

BGM: Ridley Phase 2 (Metroid: Samus Returns)

He opened his mouth, and orange light poured of it. As Jackal wasn't the brightest tool in the shed, she just stood there and watched curiously at what was going to happen rather than coming up with a method of counterattack or even run.

Ridley finished charging and fired a powerful orange laser beam. Jackal reacted in time and jumped to the side, only getting her left shoe burned off. The beam blasted a hole on the wall behind her, creating a way outside.

Looking at the damage done, Jackal said in shock, "Whoa…! Good thing I dodged it in time!"

Ridley swung his claw at her from behind, but she leaped up into the air without even looking back. While in midair, she turned around and fired her rocket launcher into his face. Ridley cried in pain while stepping back a few steps, and then he swung his tail at her, but to his surprise, Jackal caught it with her teeth.

Ridley pulled his tail into the air and swung it around wildly, but Jackal held on tightly with her mouth and also her her hands, refusing to let go. "Get off my tail, you brat!" he shouted in anger.

Ridley continued to shake his tail around until Jackal was eventually thrown off straight into the air. From there, she fired multiple shots downwards at him, and he held up his wings in defense. Jackal fell down onto his back and bit down on his neck, making him scream in pain.

Ridley flew into the air and thrashed around wildly, trying to get her off, but she held on firmly with her teeth. Grabbing her body, Ridley forcefully yanked her off his neck and then slammed her against the wall and scraped her across it as he continued to fly through the air. Eventually, he pulled her off the wall and tossed her forcefully onto the floor.

Jackal got up while holding her hand over one side of her face in pain. Due to being a Nikke, her skin was much tougher than organic beings and therefore managed to not suffer serious injuries, but it still hurt nonetheless.

While she was dazed from the pain, Ridley fell down on top of her, stomping her and pressing her against the floor. Jackal cried in pain as Ridley brought his foot back up and slammed it down onto her again, and he did this over and over several times, not giving her the chance to do anything.

"You may be tougher than expected, but now you'll die like a bug!" he said evilly as he continued to stomp her. Eventually, he was interrupted by a laser beam shot at his eye, making him flinch and stop what he was doing. Looking to the side, he saw Falco standing the entrance with a pair of laser guns pointed at him. "You!"

Hey you, ugly skinless bird!" Falco said to him in a rude tone. "How about you pick on someone your own size instead?"

"As if you are a size that can intimidate me!" said Ridley in anger before flying at him. He swung his claw at Falco, but the latter performed an acrobatic flip into the air and went over him, shooting him in the back rapidly with his laser guns as he did so. Falco landed as Ridley turned around to face him. "You think peashooters like that will work on me?"

"Which is why I brought a big peashooter as well!" said Falco before putting away his blasters and taking out a missile launcher he was carrying on his back. Taking aim, he fired several missiles at once at Ridley, who closed his wings in front of himself for defense.

While he was wings were still closed, Ridley looked down and saw a metal sphere rolling underneath his wings. He realized too late what it was, as it was a bomb that exploded in his face.

"Ha! How'd you like that?" taunted Falco.

Ridley stood back up and roared in anger. "YOU'LL DIE FOR THIS!"

BGM: Ridley Phase 3 (Metroid: Samus Returns)

Ridley shot multiple fireballs at Falco, who ran to avoid them while continuing to shoot missiles from his big gun at him. Some were destroyed by the fireballs, while some managed to hit Ridley.

Falco got in front of Jackal, who was still in pain on the floor, and took out his reflector, which formed a shiny blue hexagon made of energy that bounced the fireballs back to Ridley, hurting him. Falco then turned to Jackal and helped her back, "You all right?"

Jackal glared at Ridley and said in anger, "That bastard! I'll make him pay!" She then ran towards Ridley while yelling loudly and firing from her rocket launcher at him.

"I'll take that as you're okay…" said Falco with a shrug.

Ridley was pinned against the wall from the constant blasting, and Jackal pounced onto his chest and bit it hard, making him cry in pain. He flew into the air while trying to pull her off, and Falco used this opportunity to run behind him and fire missiles at him from below. Ridley was blasted forward, while Jackal fell off and back onto the floor. Together, Falco and Jackal fired exploding projectiles at the Space Pirate captain nonstop.

Ridley was eventually knocked out of the air and fell onto the floor, groaning in pain. The two good guys approached him with their weapons still pointing at him, ready to attack again if he made a move. While still lying down, Ridley thrust his tail at Falco, aiming for his chest, but Jackal got in front of the incoming tail in a blink of an eye and caught it with her teeth like last time.

Ridley got back up swiftly and tried to pull back his tail, but Jackal grabbed the tail while still biting its tip and played tug of war with him. While doing this, Ridley opened his mouth to shoot a fireball, but before he could do so, Falco fired some missiles into his mouth that exploded in there, interrupting him and causing him to fall back.

Jackal then gathered all her strength to spin Ridley in circles by his tail multiple times before letting go of him completely to send him flying across the room, hitting the part of the wall next to the hole he previously created with his charged laser attack.

Ridley got back up and roared in anger before opening his mouth to charge up orange light. "He's going to use a big laser attack he used on me before!" pointed out Jackal.

Acting fast and out of desperation, Falco tossed his reflector at Ridley just as he was going to fire the beam. The reflector flew into his mouth and activated a split second before the beam was fired. This resulted in an explosion of energy that caused the orange beam to be splintered in various directions, while Ridley himself took heavy damage from said explosion.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BGM Ends

The explosion propelled Ridley backwards and out of the hole on the wall. He screamed with a large amount of smoke coming out of his mouth as he fell to the rocky ground below.

Jackal and Falco fell on their butts in shock due to what happened. They were fortunate enough to not hit by the splintered laser beams, which hit different parts of the room. "I… didn't expect something like this to happen…!" said Falco in disbelief.

Jackal went up to the hole and looked down to see a charred figure down below presumed to be Ridley, and she laughed out loud while pointing at him, "Hahahahahaha! I got my payback! How do you like that, you giant chicken!"

"Giant chicken… Ha! That's hilarious!" commented Falco with a laugh.

After fighting their way through the army of Metroids and finally ridding the area of them completely, Elegg and Neon were exhausted as they followed Samus, who didn't look tired even the slightest, through the hallway, gradually approaching a large door up ahead.

"That was scary… Glad the coast is clear at last…" said Elegg.

"I think those Metroid things are crazier than Raptures, who at least keep their distance instead of flying straight for your head all the time…" said Neon.

Samus walked up to the large door up ahead and observed every part of it, including the control panel at the side. "Adam, can you hack into it and open the door?" she told Adam.

"Please wait for a few seconds," replied Adam. Lights on the control panel then began flickering, showing that Adam was now at work trying to hack into it.

A couple of Space Pirates showed up around the corner and shouted at them. "Hey! You're not allowed here!" said one of them angrily.

"Oh yeah? Try and chase me out if you can!" said Elegg loudly in response before firing from her Boomstick.

The Space Pirates swiftly dodged them and then scurried along the walls to get close to them. One of them jumped at Neon before she could fire from her shotgun and disarmed her with a swing of his pincer. But before he could do anything further to her, Samus shot him head in the head. Neon fell back while breathing heavily with a look of shock on her eyes. "Phew… That scared me…!"

Meanwhile, Elegg punched the other Space Pirate away in the face with her fist when the latter got close to him. He was not expecting such a powerful blow coming from someone like her. "Guess you're still shaken from encountering the Metroids," she said to Neon.

Neon stood up with her gun and tried to look tough. "Hmph! As if something like that can scare me me! There's nothing wrong with being surprised, but that doesn't mean I'm scared!"

"Nothing wrong with being scared, because it can save your life, as long as you don't let it define your entire life," Samus told her. "Know when to run if you cannot win against a strong enemy."

The door before them then opened, and Adam said, "The door is opened. Proceed with caution. Our target is just up ahead."

Samus nodded, and then the three cautiously headed inside, the door closing behind them. Inside, they were greeted with a spacious room with complex machines situated around the place, but what caught their attention was the thing up ahead.

It was a giant glass cylinder, and inside it was giant gray-colored structure resembling a brain, with cybernetic components on certain parts of it. "Whoa…! A giant brain! I think…" said Neon in awe.

"The Aurora Unit…!" said Samus.

"So this is the supercomputer that's powering the base? Incredible!" commented Elegg in awe. "I would love to study and understand it more!"

"Our objective is to destroy it," Samus told her while readying her arm cannon. "Once this is dealt with, Andross's operations will collapse completely, hopefully."

Elegg sighed and then readied her gun. "A shame… But I guess there's no way around it…"

The Arwing walkers made their way into a large room, and on the other end of the room was a staircase leading to a throne at the top, on which the mastermind behind all this was sitting on. "Andross!" said Fox in anger.

Andross looked at the two intruders and smiled evilly as he said, "Ah, James McCloud! I have been expecting you! You have finally come to get yourself killed!"

As the Arwing walkers approached Andross, James said, "The only person dying here today is you! If you want to live, then surrender yourself, and I'll see to it that you live a peaceful life in prison, or you can do the things the hard way and get yourself killed!"

"You stand no chance against me!" said Andross as he stood up from his throne. "If you're smart, you'd choose to join me instead! Even the Space Pirates and Raven Beak are smart enough to know that they can achieve greatness by being on my side! Imagine what we can accomplish together if we're on the same side!"

"We're not joining you! You're just a mad and evil conqueror with no respect for life!" Fox angrily said to him. "We will not allow you to conquer the universe!"

Andross looked at Fox and Privaty in the former's Arwing and said, "I see you have new recruits, James! Tell me: what did James tell you to convince you to join his side? Forever serve under that old dog Pepper and never make a name for yourself? Only a fool would see this as an ideal way of living!"

"That sounds better than being a tyrant and oppressing people!" replied Privaty. "That's not my style! I serve mankind and justice, so I will never join you!"

"Like I said, you are all fools!" said Andross while pointing at them. "If you will not join me, then…" Before he could finish speaking, James's Arwing fired a laser beam, blasting him back onto his throne.

"Whoa!" gasped Fox in shock. "You went ahead and shot him?!"

"Life isn't a TV show where you intentionally don't shoot in order to keep the plot going," replied James.

They looked at Andross and saw a hole on his body, and there were short circuiting mechanical components inside it. Privaty widened her eyes in surprise and said, "He's a robot?!"

Andross's voice was then heard coming from all over the room. "Hahahahaha! Fools! You think you can take down the great Andross? Your minds are far too inferiors to mines to defeat me!"

The good guys looked left and right for the source of the voice, and eventually, they noticed something descending from the air. It was a giant mechanical head with glowing red eyes, built in the likeliness of Andross, and accompanying it were a pair of disembodied hands, also mechanical in nature.

"What have you done to yourself, Andross?" James asked him with angry, narrowed eyes.

"What use is a mortal body made of flesh? A mechanical one that can never truly be destroyed surpasses it in every way possible!" said Andross. Glaring at them and holding his hands over them in an intimidating manner, he said in a sinister voice, "You will now see why only I have the brains to rule Lylat!"

TO BE CONTINUED

I had lots of fun typing the battle with Star Exotic and Ridley! Hope you enjoyed reading those parts!

Andross's form at the end is from Star Fox Zero, in case you didn't realize it.