"So, how did it go?" Rainbow asked curiously.
"Well, it got off to a really bad start," Samus grumbled. "While finding a path into Sector 2 proved surprisingly easy, as soon as we got there..."
As soon as Samus rolled through the narrow path into Sector 2, she heard the footsteps. She immediately froze, listening to determine exactly where they were coming from, rolling forward very quietly before uncurling from Morph Ball as she reached a wide opening. Spike joined her, staying Morph Ball size for now. "The SA-X..." he whispered.
Samus listened to the footsteps carefully. "What's taking it so long to leave?" she grumbled angrily.
Spike listened carefully. "It's not leaving, it's patrolling," Spike murmured softly. "It's walking back and forth directly below us...waiting for something."
Samus cursed under her breath. "It knows we have to come this way. It's waiting for us."
They stared at each other for a time. Finally, Spike spoke up. "I'll go in first as a distraction," he stated firmly. "I'll go in for a physical strike, then shrink down to evade any counterattack, giving you time to pull ahead. I'll catch up with you."
"No," Samus countered firmly. "If it's anything like me, as soon as it sees you it'll shoot you with Plasma. With you charging in full force, you'd be torn apart, especially if it then followed up with Screw Attack. I'll be the distraction while you clear a path for me to follow you down. My armor can take a few Plasma shots, and I'll be able to freeze it with an Ice Missile for a time. Maybe I can apply the dragon auto-fire to my missile launcher to keep it still long enough for us to get away."
"Hang on a sec," Spike interrupted. "...you didn't have any fire type weapons when you got infected, right?"
"No..." Samus confirmed, waiting for Spike to continue.
"Here's the plan then," Spike offered. "You go first and get the SA-X with some Ice Missiles. I'll back you up with my Ice Breath. Once it's frozen, I'll make an ice wall with my breath between it and us. The only way it'll be able to pursue-"
The wall nearby erupted as an orange clad fist punched through.
"-is if it can do that!" Spike shrieked out, diving down through the partially damaged floor and making a run for it, Samus close behind.
The SA-X Screw Attacked through the wall to pursue them, immediately firing off several rounds of Plasma Beam. Samus fired Ice Missiles all around, hoping to create enough temperature differential to skew the beam flow dynamics with its Ice functionality. Spike, meanwhile, turned his head and filled the whole corridor with his Ice Breath, since it was narrow enough he could do so efficiently. Unfortunately, the SA-X Screw Attacked through, not freezing as a result of the half-energy state.
Thankfully, this also stopped the build up of speed it had been developing, allowing Samus to run ahead, unlocking security gates as she went. Her scans showed a path downward through a hidden passage through the floor. She quickly blasted it open and leapt down. "Come on!" she shouted at Spike.
Spike dove after her, freezing the path closed behind him as they raced ahead. Past the next open door, they stopped hearing any sound of footsteps. They both breathed a sigh of relief as they realized they'd successfully evaded it once more.
"Eeyikes!" Pinkie yelped out. "It went all Shining on you!"
"Huh?" Shining Armor asked, confused.
"Horror movie, dear," Cadence told him.
"Oh, right, never mind," Shining muttered, shivering all over.
"You've got that here too?" Anthony gasped out, stunned. "Okay, someone's gotta do a comparison of everything that developed here that's like what we've got. There's way too many similarities to be coincidence."
"There's 27,432,965 points of commonality over the course of historical development of science, fiction, and entertainment," Discord spoke up. As everyone turned to stare at him, he shrugged. "What? I had to entertain myself somehow while being in stone for over a millennium."
Spike cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "At any rate, the only hard part after that was actually getting to the source of the vines. Having a path already laid out for us helped immensely." He tipped his head towards the Ettecoon, who shot him a thumbs up. "The actual source of the vines, on the other hand..."
After passing the Eye Door, Samus and Spike found themselves dropping down into a large chamber. The bottom was platforms interspersed with pools of water filled with carnivorous plants. Other flowers dropped acidic pollen into the air from the ceiling, floating down towards the pair as they landed. Across the room, a massive plant creature resembling an upright Chozo Statue controlled all the plants.
"Looks like that's the source-"
Samus' voice was cut off as Spike opened his mouth and unleashed his full power flame breath, scorching everything even as the plant creatures let out screams of anguish. He didn't let up even as the source of the plants started to crumble, bits of its structure falling away. When the plants on the ceiling dissolved as the front of the creature fell away and it started firing Plasma Beams at them, he leapt to the ceiling out of its range, clung there, and blasted it with even more fire until the entire thing crumbled away, revealing the Large X Core, showing the signs of being another one with Beam Data, having the thicker membrane and the eye that occasionally opened to fire on them. It focused attention on Spike, only to freeze.
Samus stared right at the X Core she held in her dragon-modified Grapple Beam. "...you know, with there not being any points to lock onto with this, I hadn't even realized I still had this. Funny thing...the dragon modifier supercharges my Grapple Beam. I can lock onto anything now." Turning, she yanked her arm, slamming the X Core into several walls as she flipped it around before jerking back, tearing the membrane open. As the X Core floated, dazed, she leapt up and absorbed it.
Plasma Beam ability recovered.
Beam now pierces enemies.
...dragon auto-fire modification applied.
Piercing beam aimed at joints can disarm targets.
"...nice!" Samus purred, stroking her arm cannon lovingly.
"I did not!" Samus insisted angrily.
"You so totally did, Mom!" Spike snapped back as many of those listening laughed. "It was really creepy!"