//------------------------------// // M: Animal Inside // Story: Another Hatchling // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// After the silence hung for a while, Anthony finally spoke up. "If I have to tell this part, it's going to be pretty short!" Spike and Samus both managed to chuckle at that. "Alright," Samus stated finally. "Well, as we were about to enter the Geothermal plant..." As Samus and Spike approached the entrance to the Plant, both paused. Above the door, the shape of the creature they'd been pursuing could be seen, split open and discarded like the shape of the Little Birdie had been. Both steeled themselves at the sight. They were about to face an unknown threat...and they had to be extra careful when they did. A few chambers beyond, and they found themselves in the Plant itself, dark from everything being turned off. The pair made their way carefully onto the central platform, glancing around to see any threat that might be there. As they walked, Spike froze. "Mom..." he whispered, his eyes tracking from her boot up her body. Glancing down, Samus saw the red light of a laser sight tracking up her body. Spinning, she saw a figure in Federation Trooper armor with a heavy plasma cannon aimed towards her. On the assumption it was the Deleter android, she prepped her arm cannon. "Samus!" Anthony shouted out. "Get out of the way!" Reacting instantly, Samus dove to the side. A figure behind Samus leapt into the air, the sound of leathery wings echoing in the chamber as Samus and Spike raced to back up Anthony. "Damn!" Anthony swore as he tried to track the creature. "I can't see a thing in here! We gotta clear out!" "The exit's over there-" Spike began, only to witness a blast of flame destroy the bridge between platform and exit. "...no..." he whispered. It was familiar...too familiar. "Not again..." "Spike, what-" Samus began. "Samus!" Adam interrupted. "None of you can fight in the dark like that. Use your super missiles to blast open the eruption port to get the magma flowing for the Power Plant." Nodding, Samus isolated the Eruption Port and unleashed a Super Missile. The Port exploded, magma pouring in and illuminating the entire chamber. As she spun to track the target...Ridley erupted from beneath the flowing magma, his glowing eyes locked on her with baleful rage. Samus staggered back. She'd fought Ridley several times...but each time, he had been different. Whether amplified by cybernetics or Phazon, or simply the ravages of time, he was a distinctly different figure in each confrontation. But here before her, in sight, sound, and even smell, was the very same visage she had seen when her parents died on K-2L...when he ravaged her Chozo home on Zebes. He was once more the face of her nightmares. Samus struggled against the fear and rage that raced through her being, doing her best to maintain the mental control the Chozo had taught her...but her concentration slipped as the nightmares returned. She saw her father exploded right in front of her eyes to protect her from Ridley. She saw the scorched ruin of her world. She smelled the charred flesh that had spattered her in her dark hiding spot. She heard Ridley all but gloating over how he'd eaten her mother to sustain himself after her father's suicidal tactic had only damaged him. The death screams of those who counted on her, whom she'd failed, echoed in her ears. Unable to completely fight off the nightmare images, to completely separate reality from nightmare, her Power Suit began to fail as her focus wavered. "Samus! Do you copy?" Adam yelled in her ear...but she barely heard him. "Samus! Use your Plasma Beam!" Her suit registered the command and reactivated the functionality...but Samus continued to fall back. "What's your status? Samus, do you read me?" ...but his words were swallowed by the nightmare. Spike and Anthony lunged forward to try and get between Samus and Ridley, trying to draw his attention. As soon as they were in sight, Ridley let out an enraged shriek and lunged for Spike, his lashing tail smashing Anthony's plasma cannon and knocking him aside almost contemptuously. Spike struggled to match Ridley in battle...but it was much like his first fight with the dragon. Except this time, Ridley was the young and strong dragon in the full power of first flight. Spike was the one having to marshal his power to keep from breaking the world around him. Ridley had no such compunctions. Before Spike knew what had happened, Ridley had hurled him into the wall of the chamber before leaping forward, slamming both hind talons into his gut. Spike struggled to break free, but Ridley moved too fast. Catching hold of Spike's skull, he brought it down in both claws to slam his knee into Spike's jaw, dazing him. Ridley then hurled him to the platform below and dove in, digging claws into his foe's back and driving his barbed tail through his right wing. Spike screamed in agony. Something inside Samus snapped. Spike's scream of pain cut through the storm in her mind. "GET AWAY FROM MY SON!" she roared out as her suit responded. Samus paused in her tale. "I...I don't actually remember what happened next," she admitted. "All I know is what my suit logged at the time of what settings I altered somehow, and the damage it did to the suit in the process. Something about putting it into Overdrive, risking permanent damage to the suit...and interlinking Upgrades to unlock new systems...something about an Electromorph..." She shook her head. "Probably not what you want to hear..." "Heck no that's not enough for this part!" Rainbow Dash complained. "Anthony, you describe the battle!" "No can do," Anthony admitted. "When I got hit by Ridley's tail, I fell into the magma below. Missed the whole fight." Twilight gasped in shock. "How did you survive?" Anthony smirked, a wicked twinkle in his eye. "How do you know I did?" he teased. "Yeah, I already did that bit with Spike during the Aether section," Pinkie pointed out. "Not gonna do it twice." Pouting, Anthony lowered his head. "Froze a magma monster with my freeze rounds," he grumbled. "Spike, at least tell us you saw the whole thing!" Scootaloo pleaded. Spike grinned widely, his eyes somewhat starry. "I certainly did..." "GET AWAY FROM MY SON!" Spike glanced up as he heard that roar, as did Ridley. A blaze of light that Spike recognized as Samus in Shinespark slammed into Ridley, driving him back and slamming him against the far wall. As dazed as Spike was, all he could manage to think was, Where did Mom get room and time to trigger Speed Booster? With Ridley pinned against the wall, Samus' Speed Booster jets and Space Jump Boots triggered, keeping her hovering in the air in front of Ridley as she proceeded to wail on him with punches, kicks, headbutts, and charged plasma blasts that diffused through his whole body. Even as she unleashed an unbelievable wave of punishment, her Power Suit fluctuated, rippling with the colors of every suit configuration ever stored as data in its systems. Ridley attempted to swipe at her to push her away, only to receive three Super Missiles energized with the Plasma Beam in quick succession to his shoulder, elbow, and wrist joint, atomizing his right foreleg. Screaming in agony, Ridley finally managed to kick Samus away before turning to try and run, bombarding a far wall with his weapons to open a hole. Samus landed heavily on the platform as her suit shifted, briefly taking on the yellow of the standard Power Suit and the black of the Phazon Suit. "GET OVER HERE!" she roared at him, hurling a grapple beam that was a lot thicker than normal. It latched onto Ridley's tail and dragged him back to the platform. As Ridley thrashed in desperation, Samus grabbed his left wing with her free hand and ripped it from the joint as easily as if she were pulling a roast chicken apart. Screaming, Ridley spun to try and attack, only for Samus to slam a Power Bomb into his crotch, the explosion somehow tightly focused so it only blasted forward to obliterate his lower body. At this point, Samus' arm cannon shut down, no longer able to handle the strain it was undergoing after focusing the blast of a Power Bomb. Undeterred, Samus leapt onto Ridley's torso and delivered punch after punch to what was left of the dragon. In desperation, Ridley tried to lunge in for a bite...and Samus' arm plunged straight down the dragon's throat. When it jerked back out, it held a lump of flesh that pulsed and wept blood. She crushed it in her hand. As Ridley fell backwards, Samus stalked forward and brought her foot down on his skull, crushing it beneath her. As she caught her breath and turned towards Spike, the young dragon slunk up to his mother, finding himself purring as he nuzzled her hand, soliciting affection. Relaxing, Samus stroked Spike's head. Then she glanced around. "W...what happened here?" she marveled. Just to check, Discord dropped a pin. The sound of its fall - let alone its landing - was plainly audible throughout the entire castle.