//------------------------------//
// BSL: Maze Escape 
// Story: Another Hatchling 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	"The SA-X was...that intelligent?" Shining asked worriedly.  "Is that because it was copying you and you're that intelligent, or are all X that intelligent?"

Samus shrugged her shoulders.  "We were never able to get a straight answer about that," Samus replied.  "It's not like it sat down and talked to us or anything.  Sides, once I knew what it was and that it was after me, surviving was the main goal."

"That's something I've been wondering about, actually," Discord spoke up, spiraling down from the ceiling.  "I get that the SA-X was incredibly dangerous...but why were you so terrified of it?  How was it any different from Dark Samus, as far as fighting it was concerned?"

"I was on a space station," Samus replied simply.

"Huh?" several of her listeners asked, confused.

"Confined spaces," Samus explained.  "Very little room to maneuver.  Chambers that would seal themselves shut if I got caught in combat in order to limit damage to the station, meaning escape wouldn't always be a viable option, especially if we clashed.  And even if I was able to avoid being frozen long enough to do any damage to it...that model of my suit allowed me to survive in space for a time, and even reboard a space station after unexpected EVA, like back on the Olympus.  So if the SA-X determined I was too much trouble...it could just blast open the walls and have us all sucked out into space...where without the Varia Suit data, that absolute chill would freeze me solid, and I would either die slowly from hypothermia and suffocation, or quickly as I plunged into SR388's atmosphere..."

Everyone listening shuddered from her description.

"But there's more than that," Samus continued.  "Dark Samus' weapons were all Phazon based, which could damage Spike's energy reserves at worst.  It could weaken him into a comatose state, but not really kill him unless he was really careless.  With the SA-X...one Plasma Beam between the eyes and he'd drop, brain fried.  The SA-X could kill him in a single shot if it got lucky, or Spike got careless.  And if he got too close and it used the Screw Attack..."  She shuddered just imagining it.  "So yeah, I wasn't risking facing that thing unless absolutely necessary."

"I can easily understand why," Twilight agreed, glancing worriedly towards Spike.

"It didn't happen, Mom," Spike chided gently, smiling reassuringly.  "We were fine...after the fact, anyway."

As everyone digested that tidbit, silence reigned.  Eventually, Adam spoke up.  "How come it took you so long to return from the TRO sector, anyway?" he asked.  "Were the other tunnels that hard to maneuver?"

"More that they required an ability I didn't have at the time," Samus explained.  "I needed to jump higher than I could normally to get back to the mapped areas, and the rooms were too small for Spike to get big enough to carry me and get up there.  Thankfully, we encountered another Large Core X..."





Spike and Samus dropped down into the large chamber they'd found in the unmapped area while trying to get back out, surprised to find a large red and blue Core X surrounded by a pale blue shell, with numerous small yellow X floating around it.  Eventually, it fused together, manifesting as an armored, bulbous creature, tall and thin with a single eye near the top and several tendrils waving up top.  The pink, spiky shell surrounding the creature proved impenetrable to the pair's available weapons, though it only wriggled along the ground towards them.  Unexpectedly, it leapt into the air, forcing Samus and Spike to race under it to avoid being landed on.

When it jumped again, the pair once more dashed under it.  Glancing up, Samus saw that the bottom of the creature was, in fact, a maw, and what she'd taken for toes were actually teeth.  The maw also had a straight path to the creature's core, behind the eye.  At the next leap, it paused in the air, slowly floating down to attempt to envelop her.  Taking a moment to fire a missiles upward, she confirmed the nucleus was the only part that could be damaged, then rolled out of the way of its landing.

"Spike!" she called out.  "How strong is the ceiling?"

Spike glanced from the creature to the roof, then grinned.  "Strong enough!" he called back, racing up the wall while Samus continued to fire on the creature with her beam, keeping its attention.  After a time, it began its jumps again, while Spike stayed near the ceiling near the center of the room.  When it once more paused at the apex of a leap with its maw open, Spike lashed out and caught the tendrils at the top with his teeth.  He then held it there as Samus moved underneath, firing her missiles straight down the maw into the nucleus until the creature's form began to dissolve.

When the form collapsed, the X Core attempted to escape, only to be knocked back into the chamber by Spike's claws, leaving it in perfect position for Samus to shoot it with her missiles until the shell broke apart, allowing her to absorb the X inside.



Hi-Jump and Jump Ball abilities recovered.



Samus couldn't help but smile.  "That will be most useful," she murmured happily, leaping up to catch hold of Spike's outstretched claw.  "Let's go."





"After that, we made our way out of the TRO Sector," Samus explained.  "The only odd point of the trip was that all the red larva we'd encountered had turned grey and solid...as though having entered cocoons."

"We didn't know what it was about at the time," Spike explained.  "But it came back to bite us later.  Not that we could have done anything about it..."