"At any rate," Samus continued, "after that, I had to find something that would allow me to open the kinetic lock."
"How did the kinetic lock work?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Basically, something had to transfer enough kinetic force inside the lock's mechanisms to make it open," Samus explained, drawing a few sketches.
"In other words, you needed your boost ball back?" Pinkie guessed.
"Precisely," Samus confirmed. "And it wasn't exactly fun getting it."
"You can't tell me you didn't have fun collapsing that bridge behind you and dropping all those robots into the storm clouds below," Spike countered.
Samus shrugged. "Okay, that was fun." She then frowned. "But the Defense Drone I had to fight to get the Boost Ball wasn't fun...especially since you stayed outside."
"I couldn't fit through the passage to where the Boost Ball was!" Spike complained.
"You could have just folded your wings," Samus chided.
"I got stuck!"
"So, how did you fight the Defense Drone?" Fluttershy interrupted, not wanting to see them fight each other.
Samus shrugged. "It wasn't all that difficult, actually. Just really frustrating. I had to blast its sensors to get it off balance, then tear its top open with my grapple, then blast the insides as it leapt around, trying to do as much damage as I could before having to do it all over again. After that, I got my Boost Ball back, and headed straight for the Aurora Unit..."
With the Boost Ball, Samus was able to unlock the kinetic lock and enter the Aurora chamber. However, when she attempted to open communications, she instead got an alert. "The Aurora Unit is corrupted and requires repair. Opening maintenance level hatch."
As expected, the hatch opened to reveal a Morph Ball tunnel. Spike pouted when he saw that. "I'll wait outside," he grumbled, turning to leave.
Samus sighed as she watched him go. The cramped interior of Skytown had severely limited Spike's ability to assist her, despite how easily he handled things in the open air. Entering Morph Ball, Samus went down the maintenance tunnel to enter the lower level, beneath the Aurora Unit. There she was confronted by numerous Tinbots, similar to Steambots but more durable. However, as she'd learned, boosting into them caused them to fly apart.
With all the Tinbots down, Samus gained access to the Aurora interface, letting her download the antivirus program to purify the systems. However, as she turned to leave to actually communicate with the Aurora Unit, she was surprised to see someone waiting for her. "Ghor!" she gasped out. "Are you alright? Why haven't you been communicating with us, or the Aurora Unit?"
Ghor twitched a bit, his circuitry glowing blue with Phazon. "This turn of events is insignificant!" he proclaimed. "Here, I'll show you what I mean. Observe!" His last word was barked out angrily as he spun, firing his plasma beam and severing the connections of several terminals.
Samus ducked under the beam and did the only thing she could to minimize damage by opening fire. She managed to get one shot on the PED itself, causing Ghor to fall back.
When Ghor stood back up, his body seemed to be acting on a different set of instructions than his head. As his body started to flee, he shouted out, "The network's been severed! You have no chance of destroying the Seed, unless you restore the Aurora Unit!"
As he fled, Samus realized what that meant. "Spike!" she called over her communicator. "Ghor's on the run, and I don't think he's been fully claimed by the corruption! I think he managed to segment off part of his brain to protect it!"
"You were quite right, Samus," Ghor pointed out as he leaned back. "That's exactly what I did. As soon as I realized that the Phazon was corrupting me, I segmented most of my brain - and my machine empathy abilities - off, and sacrificed the rest to the Phazon. It was my hope I could use this to minimize the damage I inflicted, but..." He shrugged. "Once the Phazon claimed my entire body, there wasn't really much I could do."
"The fact that you were able to do anything at all is impressive," Luna countered softly. "Well do I know the power of a corruptive influence on one's mind...and the guilt of it being one's own doing. That you preserved any part of yourself against the corruption's control is a testament to your strength of character."
"And besides that, can you imagine how much harder it would have been if your corrupted self could control the other machines in Skytown?" Samus pointed out. "We might never have gotten as far as the Aurora Unit if they were acting on a plan...or if you'd reactivated the Aurora Unit without purging it of the virus."
Ghor was silent for a time. "I...had not thought of that," he admitted.
"Besides," Spike admitted. "That bit you protected saved you, too."
"Huh?" several voices asked in confusion.
Spike chuckled. "While Mom was discussing things with the Aurora Unit, I tracked Ghor's movements. He joined with his power armor, and then went after our ship. I didn't let him get that far..."
Spike growled deep in his throat as he saw Ghor - once more in his power armor - leaping towards the ship. His armor was well designed for traversing the cloudy environment, and Spike followed along as silently as he could. This was going to be difficult. He needed a way to get Ghor out of the armor if he was to work his plan to save him. He just hoped he knew enough tech to actually make it happen.
Seeing Ghor getting ready to attack the ship, Spike decided to act immediately. Diving forward, he slammed full force into Ghor's side, knocking him away from the ship. Sending a command to the ship, it took off to get out of range of the battle. As Ghor stood, Spike noticed he'd left dents in the metal of the armor where his claws impacted. If I can do that much damage as is...
"Shi'cho-kra!" Spike barked, the hum of his armor vanishing as he lunged forward. He seized hold of the left arm unit of Ghor's armor. "If you can still hear me at all and act, I suggest disconnecting from this part of the armor now!" Without waiting for a response, he flexed, tearing the left arm off, leaving Ghor's arm intact.
"Wait, what?" Rainbow demanded. "I thought you were only adapted to a 20g world at that point! How did disengaging your armor on a gas giant make you that much stronger? Last I checked in physics, gas giants had, like, super strong gravity as compared to rock worlds."
"Elysia was...unique," Samus explained. "Since it was, in essence, a 'rock world' inside a gas giant, the gravity was...unusual. Down where the seed was, the gravity was 30g. The pressure of the storms could increase that to as high as 80g due to the added atmospheric pressure, like being deep underwater. However, up in Skytown...it was only 0.5g."
"So having my armored arm ripped off hurt like hell," Ghor explained. "However, most of the pain was being diverted into the part of my mind that was corrupted, so each bit of damage gave me a bit more control." Ghor continued to tell of the fight.
It hurt like hell, feeling my body torn apart piece by piece...but the corruption was suffering more than I. Each piece torn from my body gave me more control. The corrupted part of me activated my Hypermode, trying to do enough damage to Spike with the remaining weapons to gain a foothold...but Spike unleashed his breath.
I barely managed to pull my arm from the armor before the entire thing tore itself apart as the Fazite neutralized the Phazon. The pain...I nearly lost awareness, despite the segmenting. However, I held on. I had to help Spike stop me.
As the last of the armor was torn away, I relaxed. Spike could destroy me now. The threat I presented would be ended. Hopefully, doing so would not hurt Spike too much. Then, much to my surprise, I heard Spike's voice.
"Ghor, can you hear me?"
He was trying to communicate? I could hear him, but could I respond? I couldn't access my voice box...I couldn't control my servos...my optics! I could control those. I blinked them off and back on. He saw.
"Can you access the controls for the PED?"
I tried to focus on those, but they were beyond my reach. I blinked my optics off and on twice. I saw Spike's face fall, and then screw up in concentration.
"Can you reach it with your machine empathy?"
My machine empathy? I never would have thought to use that to access something that had been made a part of my cybernetic self. Touching those abilities, I discovered that my corrupted self apparently never thought of it either. I blinked my optics off and on once.
"Put it in reverse!"
Reverse? How would that work? I couldn't think how...but the insistence in Spike's voice...I had to try. Through a sheer effort of will as I felt the Phazon working away at my organic brain, I did so.
The PED reversed its flow. Instead of pumping the Phazon through my systems as it had been, it started sucking the Phazon out of me, storing it inside itself. As more and more Phazon was drained from my body, I felt more and more of my systems coming under my control. I could access my voice box!
"It's working!" I shouted out. "Spike, it's working! I'm regaining control!"
"Let me know when you have control of your limbs!"
Nodding - surprise of surprises, I could nod! - I focused on my servos, struggling against the remains of the corruption. When I felt my limbs under my control again, I gently gripped Spike's wrist where he had hold of my neck, lowering my feet to the ground. Seeing me do so, Spike released my neck and instead seized the Phazon processing core of my PED, where it was braced on my chest. I could see his face clearly, and he looked worried.
"This is going to hurt."
It was all I could do not to laugh. It was surprisingly painful just to feel the Phazon drained out of me, like an addict being forcefully leeched of his favorite drug. And then there was the burst of Fazite Breath. Surely it couldn't be...
I forgot I no longer had the corrupted portion of my brain to protect my core. And I had not realized that Spike intended to tear the core from my body so violently, especially not as it was absorbing the Phazon Seed. Yeah, that definitely hurt. As I fell backward, I stared up as Spike ate the Core just before it started to go critical.
As I lay back on the ground, struggling just to maintain function, I saw Samus arrive, staring at us in shock. And then Spike lay his armored claw over the hole in my metal torso...and energy flowed from inside of him. My machine empathy! He'd absorbed an aspect of it, gaining the ability to feed his own energy into machines, and was using it to repair me!
As the healing finished, I managed - barely - to stand. "My thanks...Spike."
Ghor fell silent as he finished the telling, his hand stroking his torso where no sign of any damage could be seen. "My cybernetically augmented brain has flawless recall. I will forever remember the pain of that moment...and the glory that was the cessation of that pain."
The whole table was silent for quite some time. Discord was the first to speak up. "So how long before Dark Samus showed up to throw a tissy fit?" he asked Samus.
Samus chuckled. "Not long..."
Samus looked up as Dark Samus showed up, snarling in rage and unleashing blasts of Phazon at Spike. Ghor acted quickly, hauling up one of the pieces of his dismantled power armor as a shield for Spike. Spike immediately countered with his Fazite Breath, shearing through Dark Samus' arm cannon. There was an ethereal shriek before the visage vanished. Samus stepped up. "Are you both alright?"
"I'm okay," Spike replied. "Thanks for the save, Ghor."
"My thanks to you," Ghor replied. "I am once more in control of myself. However, my internal power reserves are low, and my systems are in need of major repair."
"Rundus should be recovered by now," Samus replied as she recalled her ship. "I'll call him to give you a lift. You can rest in our ship until he gets here, once we confirm a complete purge of Phazon from your systems."
Ghor nodded. Turning to his right arm, he disengaged a component. "Here," he said. "Spike's flame breath is not accurate enough to repair the damage to the network. However, my Plasma Beam should be viable to do so once uploaded to your Arm Cannon."
Samus nodded slowly as she took the component. "...thanks."