Chapter 19
The Brains to Rule

Samus, Elegg, and Neon beheld the giant cybernetic brain inside the glass tube before them, and the latter two were in awe at the size and appearance of it. "Wow… I may have saw pictures of it back on Corneria, but seeing something like this up close is something else!" commented Elegg.

"But how is it going to attack us? What's a big brain going to do? Stare us to death? It doesn't even have eyes!" said Neon.

"Don't underestimate Aurora Units. They are perfectly capable of self defense, and they can pack quite a punch," said Samus as she took aim at the brain using her arm cannon.

When she did so, a siren went off, with a computerized voice saying that threats had been detected. Certain spots of the Aurora Unit glowed with red light, while a low-pitched growl-like sound could be heard coming from it.

Turrets then appeared from the ceiling as well as the floor, all of them aiming at the three girls. "Oh, so that's how it's gonna fight us," said Neon.

BGM: VS Aurora Unit 313 (Metroid Prime 3: Corruption)

The turrets open fired at the three girls, who scattered in different directions to avoid getting shot. Samus fired plasma shots at some of the turrets on the floor, blowing them up instantly. She then locked onto as many ceiling turrets as she could before firing multiple homing missiles that took them all out.

However, the destroyed turrets were instantly replaced with new ones that continued to bombard them. Elegg dodged the shots and then went crazy with her Boomstick, blowing away all the turrets nearby. "Take this! Boom! Boom! Boom!" she cried out.

"Your firepower is nothing compares to mines!" Neon said out loud after blowing up a turret in front of herself.

More turrets continued to show up to fire at them, including red ring-shaped lights that fired energy rings at them. Samus dodged the incoming energy rings and fired at said lights, blowing them up. She then turned to Aurora Unit and fired at its glass container, but a force field appeared in front of it, blocking her shots.

She growled in frustration as she continued to fire, hoping to penetrated the force field eventually, but was forced to get out of the way to avoid turret gunfire. After landing, she took a few seconds to scan the force field and determined that there was a generator keeping it up, and she had to destroy it first. "Adam! Scan the room for the generator of the force field!" she said to Adam.

"Scanning the room for every detail," said Adam in response. A few seconds later, he said, "It is located at the back of the room, behind the wall."

Samus then switched to her x-ray visor and scanned the back part of the room, behind Aurora Unit, and found an electric box hidden behind the wall. "That must be it!" she thought.

She ran for that place, only to find cylinder-shaped robots blocking her path. Upon seeing her, the robots began wobbling in her direction while shooting laser beams that she had to dodge. She fired at those robots, but her shots didn't seem to do much to them other than pushing them back a bit, not even tilting them over.

"These things' tough…" commented Samus.

Elegg ran over to Samus and pointed her gun at the robots. "Try BOOM install for a size, all of ya!" A holographic spelling of BOOM appeared on the turret of her gun as she fired electrified bullets that tore through the air and blasted those robots backwards, even tearing holes in some of them. "The path is clear now!"

Samus nodded and thanked her before running past those fallen robots and fired multiple missiles at a specific part of the wall until it was blown off, revealing circuits and motherboards behind it. It was the force field's generator.

Standing side by side, Samus and Elegg fired their weapons at those things, blowing them up and sending sparks and smoke everywhere. After the generator was destroyed, Adam said, "The force field is down."

"All right! Now we can take that thing out!" said Elegg happily as she turned to the Aurora Unit.

"Behold the combination of our firepower!" shouted Neon as she open fired alongside the other two girls.

Together, they fired at the glass container, hoping to shatter it instantly. However, all they managed to do was make cracks on it. "Dang! That's one tough glass!" commented Elegg in surprise.

"Keep firing!" said Samus as she continued to fire nonstop.

As the two three continued to fire at the glass, turrets appeared all over the room and fired at them. They had to stop to dodge the shots and then destroy those turrets before attacking the glass container again, but overall, it was no big issue for them.

After taking enough shots, the glass container finally shattered into pieces. "We did it!" said Elegg happily.

"Now time to unleash all our firepower on that big ugly thing!" said Neon.

They fired at the Aurora Unit, which shot up into the air all of a sudden to avoid the incoming projectiles. "What?! It can fly?!" said Elegg in shock, her eyes appearing from underneath her hair that was normally covering them up.

"That's why I said this thing is more than capable of self defense," said Samus, remembering well the last time she fought an Aurora Unit.

The Aurora Unit bobbled up and down in the air as it floated closer to them, and four claw-like turrets came out of its sides. "Okay, you look like you have quite some firepower for a brain…" commented Neon.

BGM Ends

The giant mechanical head that was Andross floated before the two Arwing walkers and laughed, while his large mechanical hands floated next to both sides of him. "He turned himself in that thing?!" said Privaty in shock.

"That's just how messed up Andross is! He's willing to turn himself in any form of monstrosity for the sake of power!" said Fox in anger.

"Looks like taking you in is no longer an option," said James. "Don't blame us for being merciless on you then!"

BGM: Final Battle (Star Fox Zero)

The two Arwings fired at Andross, but his hands got in front of him and served as shields, blocking the laser beams. "Get crushed like bugs!" said Andross as he brought down one of his hands onto them.

The Arwing Walkers got out of the way and continued to fire at Andross while running around. The hands moved around fast to block the shots, and though some of them did manage to go past the hands and hit Andross, they did not do anything noticeable to him.

When one of the hands came down onto the floor again, it created a red shockwave that knocked Fox's Arwing into the air, and while it was airborne, the same hand slapped it onto the floor. It hit the floor with such a force that the cockpit swung open, and Privaty came tumbling out violently. Fox remained in the Arwing because he had his seat belt on.

Privaty grunted in pain as she stood up and held up a torn seat belt in her hand. "Seriously…?"

Fox had the Arwing walker stand back up and told Privaty to come back on quick, but he had to move out of the way to avoid getting hit by a hand. Privaty, instead of running back to the Arwing, fired at the hand from where she is instead, grabbing Andross's attention. "Don't worry about me! I can contribute more if I'm out here!" she said to Fox while firing nonstop.

"Your confidence will be nothing but the cause of your demise!" Andross said to her before moving one of his hands towards her.

Privaty fired rapidly at the hand, aiming at the light in the center of the palm. She moved out of the way fast when the hand was about to grab her. The hand then flew over her to drop down on top of her, but she got out of the way as well, though not before leaving behind a miniature smart bomb that she stocked up on the Great Fox. The hand slammed down onto the smart bomb, setting it off and getting blasted into the air. Damage was done to the hand, but it was still functional.

Privaty turned to Andross and fired at him rapidly. Andross growled in pain as some of the energy projectiles hit his eyes, which was made worse when James changed his Arwing back to flight mode and fired at his eyes as well.

In response, Andross fired a pair of eye beams out of his eyes and aimed them all over the place, trying to hit the good guys, who moved around desperately to avoid getting hit. The tip of Fox's Arwing's wing got hit, but it was nothing serious and got patched up in no time by nanobots.

Raising his hands high above everyone, Andross had them rain down energy blasts from the lights on the center of their palms. As the good guys dodged the incoming projectiles, Privaty was struck and sent tumbling onto the floor violently. Before she could get back up, Andross slammed down one hand onto her, flattening her against the floor.

"Privaty!" gasped Fox.

However, Privaty was still in one piece even after what was supposed to be a fatal blow, albeit in pain. She ignored her pain and got back up, firing at the hand that tried to flatten her just now. That hand swung at her from the side, hitting her, but instead of getting swatted away into the air, Privaty grabbed onto one of its fingers when it came towards her. Holding onto the edge with one hand and with her feet pressing against the palm, she pressed the turret of her gun against the light on the palm and fired at point blank.

She was able to blast through the light and damage the interior of the hand. The whole thing began shaking and smoking, and she jumped off it before the whole thing exploded. "Argh! Why you?!" said Andross in anger when he saw that one of his hands got destroyed. Glaring at her, he asked, "You're a cyborg, aren't you? That explains why you weren't squished like a bug!"

"Underestimating me was your greatest mistake!" said Privaty before firing at him.

Andross brought his remaining arm in front of himself for protection. "I'll be sure not to make that mistake again!" He thrust that hand at Privaty, who rolled out of the way.

Fox flew at him and fired rapidly, so Andross swung that hand at him and swatted him out of the way, but the former was able to regain control of himself and continue flying.

James went after Andross next, so the latter attacked him with his hand. Rather than flying out of the way, James spun his Arwing continuously like a drill and collided into the hand while firing laser shots nonstop. He pushed against Andross's hand and fired rapidly until an explosion occurred. Andross pulled back his hand, which began smoking. The light in the center of the palm has been destroyed, ultimately causing it to blow up.

"Argh! Curse you!" shouted Andross in anger before unleashing his eye beams at them.

James and Fox flew around to avoid the beams that moved around in a wavy path, and Privaty continued to fire at him from below. She then reached into a bag she was carrying on her waist and took out a disk-shaped object that she threw onto the floor behind her. "AK Missiles! Lock onto target and fire!" she shouted.

Activated by voice command, the disk opened up and shot out missiles that reconstructed themselves and grew in size as they soared through the air, aiming for Andross and colliding with his face, creating multiple large explosions.

Andross cried in pain as the explosion forced him back, and his mouth was wide open, James fired a smart bomb into it. The bomb blew up inside his mouth, damaging him internally and causing great harm to him. Despite this, Andross was still alive and coughed out a large amount of smoke, while certain parts of his head short circuited a bit.

"Looks like your time is almost up!" Fox taunted him.

"Defeat is nothing to me! I will be back again and again, learning from my mistakes every time!" said Andross in anger. "You will never defeat me!" He then lunged at Fox with his mouth wide open in an attempt to bite him, but the Arwing flew out of the way.

"Time to give up and hit the retirement home, Andross!" James taunted him as he shot him from behind.

Andross turned around to face him and began sucking in a large amount of air, and Fox found his Arwing being pulled into his mouth, where there were pink energy "burning" like a furnace. James desperately hit the brakes and tried to pull back, but the suction force was too strong.

He tried countering it by firing a smart bomb, but when Andross saw this, he switched to blowing air at James, pushing him and the smart bomb back. The smart bomb exploded next to him. Fox and Privaty were both shocked to see this, but were then relieved when Jame's Arwing flew out of the explosion.

"I thought you were a goner…" said Fox.

"Don't think this thing's gonna hold on for too long though…" said James, checking his Arwing's status on the screen to see that it was badly damaged and couldn't fully be fixed by the nanobots.

Andross then fired eye beams at them, so they tried to dodge them. Privaty leaped around acrobatically and happened to land onto the cockpit of Fox's Arwing as it passed by underneath her. Crouching on the Arwing's cockpit as it flew around Andross, Privaty fired her gun at the villain. Fox looked up and found himself staring right into her butt clad in silver skintight shorts, and it was jiggling rapidly due to the nonstop recoil of firing her gun.

"Whoa… man…!" he commented with a reddened face.

Oblivious to her butt being stared at, or maybe she doesn't care, Privaty continued firing rapidly at Andross. He turned to her and fired eye beams that she jumped away to avoid at the same time Fox moved the Arwing away. She ran around the floor while shooting at him, and at the same time, the two Arwings flew around the air and blasted him rapidly.

Andross growled in frustration as he looked all over the place and fired eye beams at them, but kept on missing, while he himself was getting shot nonstop and gradually short circuiting. He opened his mouth wide and sucked in a large amount of air, and Fox and James, who were in front of him when this happened, began being sucked him. They tried to pull back, but Andross's suction power was too strong for them to fight against.

Privaty pulled out the same kind of disk-shaped object as before flung it onto the floor. "AK Missiles! Fire!" The device opened up and shot out several missiles that grew to a larger size as they flew towards Andross and right into his mouth.

The missiles exploded inside him, damaging him internally greatly. He coughed in pain and released smoke afterwards and he seemingly struggled to stay airborne, and then Fox and James flew towards him while firing rapidly. Andross was pelted in the face multiple times. The explosives that he ate earlier damaging him made him even more vulnerable.

Andross let out a scream as he fell backwards and crashed onto the floor hard, growling weakly. As Fox flew over him, he looked down and asked, "How'd you like that?"

BGM Ends

BGM: Metroid Prime Core Battle (Metroid Prime)

The turrets sticking out of the Aurora Unit's body fired at the three girls, so they ran to dodge them. Elegg and Neon then fired at the Aurora Unit, aiming for the turrets and taking them out, and then they fired at the main body. However, their shots didn't seem to do anything.

While they were focusing on firing at the front, Samus ran behind the Aurora Unit and fired at a purplish-blue glowing spot at the lower back side. When the Aurora Unit was shot, it let out a painful hissing-like cry while flying higher into the air. "The lower back part is the weak spot!" Samus told the Nikke.

"Should've said that earlier!" said Elegg as she pointed her gun up at the Aurora Unit's weak spot and fired, but the Aurora Unit flew out of the way fast.

Moving to a safer direction, more turrets that replaced the old ones came out and fired at the girls again, once again causing them to scatter for safety. The Aurora Unit then came down closer to the floor and emitted electricity around itself as it began spinning and moving around at a fast speed.

"Get away!" cried Neon as she fired at the incoming Aurora Unit, and she leaped to the side at the last second to avoid getting hit and letting it hit the wall.

The Aurora Unit stopped and floated back into the air. The center front part of it glowed with blue light before firing a blast of energy at Elegg and Samus that they dodged.

Taking advantage of the Aurora Unit not facing her direction, Neon ran behind and below it and fired at its weak spot, damaging it. The Aurora Unit turned to her and fired the blue energy blast. She was able to avoid a direct hit, but the explosion struck her and blasted her back into a wall.

The Aurora Unit covered itself in electricity as it charged at Neon to crush her against the wall. Acting fast, Samus ran to Neon to shove her out of harm's way while taking the hit herself. However, using her enhanced strength thanks to her power suit, she pushed against the Aurora Unit to keep it from closing in.

Elegg and Neon ran behind the supercomputer and fired at its weak spot, making it miss in pain while flying back into the air in a wobbly manner. The three girls then fired at its weak spot altogether, bringing more pain to it.

Aurora Unit hissed loudly and angrily as it tried to escape them. A large amount of energy surged throughout its body before it slammed down onto the floor hard, creating a shockwave that spread throughout the room and blasted all three of them back into walls hard.

Lasers then came out of its claw-like turrets as it spun around, hitting in various parts of the room. The girls tried to avoid them, but they got hit a few times. Samus herself was protected by her power suit, but Elegg and Neon received some burns to their bodies due to being unprotected. However, being Nikke, they did not suffer any fatal injuries because of their durable bodies.

"You call that firepower?! I'll show you what real firepower is!" shouted Neon in anger as she fired multiple times at the Aurora Unit, aiming for the turrets and blowing off one of them. The Aurora Unit covered in electricity and swooped down at her, but she jumped out of the way, turned around in midair, and fired at the weak spot. The supercomputer wobbled in pain as it crashed into the wall up ahead.

"Eat this!" shouted Elegg as she used this opportunity to fire rapidly at the weak spot.

The Aurora Unit took several hits before floating into the air and turning around, only for Samus to latch her grappling beam onto its front part. Using all her strength, Samus pulled and swung the Aurora Unit across the air and slammed it against a wall hard. She then yanked hard, ripping off the front part of it, exposing blue organic matter underneath it. She fired at that part, making the supercomputer writhed and cry in pain.

Arm-like and tentacle-like turrets came out from hatch-like openings on its sides and fired at Samus. Samus ran from them, enduring few of the shots that managed to hit her. The Aurora Unit faced ahead of Samus and fired a concentrated laser beam for her to run into. Samus cried in pain as the beam scorched her suit, causing her to fall to the floor.

Elegg fired at the Aurora Unit's backside, and immediately in response, the supercomputer spun around to face her and fired the laser beam into her, blasting her backwards. "Yeow!"

"Take this! Firepower!" Neon shouted as she fired at the Aurora Unit. The latter faced her and attacked with the same laser beam, but she was able to dodge it in time. Switching her shotgun to "ice mode," she fired freezing projectiles at the Aurora Unit, covering some of its parts in ice and rendering the now frozen turrets unusable.

She aimed for the weak spot, freezing it, before changing back into its default ammo and fired at it. Due to being frozen, the weak spot became more brittle and less durable, so the shotgun blast was able to blast it apart. The Aurora Unit hissed loudly in pain as it moved around erratically in the air for a few seconds before crashing down onto the floor, hissing weakly.

Neon ran up to the organic matter in front of it that Samus exposed and thrust her shotgun's turret into, shouting, "FIREPOWER!"

BANG!

Due to being fired at point blank right into its body, the top portion of the Aurora Unit exploded, sending glowing blue flesh-like substance all over the place. The supercomputer still managed to fly into the air while hissing loudly in pain, but after a few seconds, it fell upside-down onto the floor, its claw-like turrets bent inwards like a dead insect.

The Aurora Unit glowed brightly for a few seconds and then exploded.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BGM Ends

Samus and Elegg lowered their hands after the explosion was clear and saw nothing left of the Aurora Unit. Neon placed her shotgun against her shoulder and her other hand on her waist while sporting a smug look on her face. "Wow! You defeated the Aurora Unit! Incredible!" exclaimed Elegg in disbelief.

"And that's why you don't underestimate firepower!" said Neon proudly.

Suddenly, the entire place began shaking, and sparks, smoke, and steam began bursting out from various parts of the room. "The Aurora Unit has been destroyed, so the fortress is now collapsing without it to sustain it," said Adam.

"We have to get out of here fast!" Samus told Nikke.

"It's just like a video game, where you defeat the final boss and the whole place blows up for no clear reason!" said Elegg. The three girls then rushed out of the place with the intent of escaping Andross's base fast, and they hoped the others also got the message and were on their way out too.

TO BE CONTINUED

Admittedly, I had a hard time doing Andross's fight, but there's really so much you can do with him when his hands are destroyed, thus leaving him with nothing but a head. He doesn't really have a lot of moves to pull from in source materials to begin with too… I apologize if you found the fight with him too short and underwhelming...

On the other hand, I think the fight with the Aurora Unit went a lot better. Hope you liked that one more if you didn't like the Andross fight too much! Either way, stay tuned for the conclusion of this arc next chapter!