"An X...mimicking you?" Celestia asked, her voice shaking. "H...how is that possible?"
Luna's eyes widened. "The infected portions of your suit," she whispered. "They were half biological, weren't they?"
"Not exactly," Samus replied softly. "But yes, they did contain enough of my genetic material and tech for the X to create an incomplete copy of me...and a complete copy of my suit. It had all of my abilities, and...we don't know how much of my mentality. We later learned that the X could process data biologically, but...we never did figure out how the X worked beyond that..."
"Learning there was, in essence, an evil clone of Mom running around drastically changed our priorities," Spike added.
"I dubbed the creature SA-X," Adam explained. "And a large part of my efforts after that were dedicated to trying to analyze its movements and goals. As for Samus herself..."
"We've analyzed the explosion from the Quarantine Bay," Adam continued. "The SA-X apparently came from your infected suit parts, and used a Power Bomb to escape, so we know it has that capability at least."
"Like it needs any others?" Samus asked worriedly, glancing back and forth in terror.
"Don't worry, Samus," Adam continued. "The Navigation Rooms on the BSL are specially hardened. Even the blast of a Power Bomb won't penetrate the walls of that chamber, or others like it, and with the doors locked down, it can't get in. If you need to rest, you can do so safely in the Navigation Rooms."
"That's a relief," Spike proclaimed as he released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "So...the SA-X has Power Bombs and Super Missiles bare minimum..."
"And its original escape explosion released the X that started this disaster," Adam continued. "But for now, we need to focus on the SA-X. It's mimicking you at full power, Samus. You can't face it. Based on our projections, the only thing that can even damage it is your Plasma Beam function...but we aren't having much luck creating it for your new suit. In the meantime, if you see it, just run. Spike's Ice Breath should slow it down for a little while, but a direct confrontation is out of the question. Its Plasma Beam and Screw Attack would tear through Spike's armor and scales like tissue paper, and its Ice Beam would freeze you solid, Samus. Unfortunately, the Metroid Vaccine gave you the Metroid vulnerability to cold. We're working on Varia Suit data to account for that in the meantime."
"I know you're all doing everything you can," Samus replied, struggling to get the shaking out of her voice. "But I can't just sit here and wait and hope you get what I need. The SA-X might go after our ship. If it gets off station..."
"I've got remote access to your ship's controls," Melissa responded. "While I can't make it take off on its own, I can lock it down. And..." She hesitated, not wanting to go on.
"If it looks like the SA-X is going to get into the ship, activate its self destruct," Samus instructed firmly. "We can't let the X leave the station, especially not the SA-X."
"Okay, Samus," Melissa replied worriedly. "If...if it comes to that-"
"If it comes to that, we'll set the station to self destruct," Spike replied. "Do not try to board the station for us. Assuming Mom's suit is still functional, I'll take us out into space with a wormhole jump, and you can pick us up there."
"Understood," Adam replied readily, cutting off Melissa's worried reply. "In the meantime, Ghor did finish reconstructing Bomb data for you, which should be helpful in evading the SA-X. We can't get you back to the Main Deck Data Room, so we'll have to use the one here in Sector 2." The map on the display shifted to highlight it. "Unfortunately, it's sealed behind a Level 1 Hatch, which can't be unlocked remotely. Instead, you'll have to find the Security Room to release the locks on Blue Hatches."
"Despite my best efforts, I can't locate the Security Rooms," Melissa added sadly. "That data is completely locked down, and can't be accessed unless the hatches it controls are unlocked."
"So you can't show us the Security Rooms until after we find them," Samus murmured. "It's alright, Melissa. We'll find our own way."
Adam nodded firmly. "Get to the Security Room, get the Bomb Data, and get out. Move quickly but carefully."
"Understood Adam," Samus confirmed before cutting the communications. The security door into Sector 2 opened.
"After that, even the simple part of exploring Sector 2 became terrifying," Samus admitted. "Every sound I mistook for the SA-X coming after us. Every sudden movement made me spin." She chuckled ruefully. "I nearly shot Spike 12 times before we even made it to the Security Room."
"Thankfully, the only X hosts we encountered on the way to the Security Room were some familiar looking giant larva," Spike explained. "A bit of logic while looking at the map allowed us to figure out where the Security Room was right away and head right there. Oddly, it was a tall room with a Blue Hatch at the bottom by the Security Terminal and a White one at the top...both on the same side."
"...odd choice in architecture," Shining murmured. "Not sure of the logic of it."
"Especially since there wasn't a stairwell down," Samus added. "We just had to drop. Thankfully, there weren't any new forms of X hosts until we nearly reached the Data Room, and the dragonfly-like creature was relatively easy to evade-"
"And was quite tasty," Spike interrupted.
Samus rolled her eyes as several listeners giggled. "Considering I was 'eating' the X this trip, too, I can't really call you on that." Her face turned serious. "I managed to download the Bomb data with no problems, but...when we tried to leave, we found the pathway severely damaged, sealed against our getting through. And..." She swallowed. "We could hear footfalls, like the sound of my suit, walking away. We learned to fear that sound."
"We wound up taking a detour," Spike continued once he got his shivers under control, "through a few paths the bombs opened for us. Thankfully, we didn't encounter the SA-X on our way out."
"The SA-X wasn't attacking us at that point, we don't think," Samus concluded.
"Then what was it's-" Twilight began, only to freeze. "The path it blocked off...it was the only way into the Data Room, wasn't it?"
"Yup," Samus confirmed. "Once it had done that, we couldn't get back in..."
Technically speaking one could backtrack to the data room after getting the space jump, but then the trip itself would be very tedious. The only data rooms that got wrecked were in sectors three and five.
Ok, good chapter, but there's something I've been wondering about for a while now. Tatsurou, how in the hell do you keep such a frequent update schedule? It's consistent, and it's quality. I guess keeping the chapters short helps, but still, you update daily(?) with multiple stories updating on most days of the week. Like...are your stories just written very far in advance, or do you somehow have tons of time to sit down and write? I'm really curious.
Looks like Twilight has some competition in lampshade sales.
But seriously, good job at demonstrating how terrifying the presence of the SA-X was, and giving hints at how intelligent it really is.
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I write the chapters the day of posting.
And I'm able to do it because it's literally the only thing I have to do all day. I...I have no life outside my stories.
...and now I need to go read a few of the comments I've bookmarked that help keep the depression answering this question always brings at bay.
I never understood if SA-X was trying to save you at the end or pull one of those "Only I will be the one to kill you." moments a lot of corny villains exhibit.
regardless, I had nightmares about those goddamned footsteps.
7219890 Ohh......I'm sorry I asked, then. Didn't mean to make you depressed or anything. If it's any consolation I always look forward to your stories updating and I think you're a great author.
7219899
My guess, either it saw the Omega Metroid as the bigger threat, or the part it copied from Samus sees killing Metroids as a higher priority than killing body doubles. (Which, admittedly, is also high on her to-do list.)
They were biological enough.
Which means there's a fully armored and powered Samus Aran running around BSL.
She's isn't wrong.
Yep. Scary innit?
That thing is currently a juggernaut. Damn near unstoppable, damn near unkillable, and VERY dangerous.
She's right, if even ONE X leaves, and makes it to another living being, they're all doomed.
Smart drake.
Ah bombs, only useful against the Zazabi X boss and even then only if you get caught. Fantastic for puzzles though.
I know what you mean, first time I ever played Fusion, that thing terrified the shit out of me.
Trust me, they get worse.
It's almost as if it were designed for Samus.
Oh yeah, even now when I've beaten the game dozens of times, I still shudder at the sound of those haunting footsteps.
Not by traditional means.
Suffice to say, that 'thing' went from causing pants-sh**ing-terror, to variable levels of frustration. I wonder how it'll end up in Equestria.
it's one of the best executed survival/horror villains in games these days. To quote JoshScorcher.....
Man, if Metroid Fusion was remade into a Metroid Prime style game, it would be like the Valhalla and the Metroid Research Facility in Elysia combined into one.........and multiplied by cancer.
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It most likely terrified most if not all, of the people who played that game the first time around, myself included.
7220447 can you multiply by something that reproduces asexually?
Another enjoyable chapter. Great job.
Symphonicdysonince is unavailable at this moment. He is currently huddled in a corner whispering "can't sleep, footsteps will kill me" over and over...
Ahh the great reveal. Samus seems a little bit overtly skittish here, but then again, different strokes for different folks; I can dig it. Bring on the next!
I looked for nearly an hour to find those damnable. . . horrible footsteps. but i couldnt find anything, nor do i know how to do a sound rip.
7219899 Almost everyone has had come to what the other guy said is the case: that it saw the Omega as a bigger threat, since it nearly one-shots Samus with one claw swipe, with "It had some of Samus' memories of fighting them" as a secondary theory.
[youtube=MK4ckz2fNcY]
MEANWHILE, 'BOUT HALF AN HOUR EARLIER:
Melissa: OK, I got one camera's history, it's about when Samus headed down into the environments.
Ghor: As you can see, there's Samus and Spike heading down the elevator... down they go, and--
The video shakes and is obscured by smoke and debris.
Adam: What the?! Zoom in and enhance, I want to see what they look like
Camera zooms in, and suddenly parting the smoke:
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0d/d4/2b/0dd42b38c6ee27eae172d214f67816e6.jpg
All 3: JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!
orig07.deviantart.net/42f1/f/2009/275/8/b/the_return_of_sa_x_by_sigma_airav.jpg
(though this pic might be more of a concept of a Metroid/Silent Hill crossover fic...)
Man, I hated the sound of those footsteps.
oh those horrid evil footsteps. no matter how many times i played through fusion, no matter how many times i beat that game. Those footsteps always gave me the chills
7221895 Too be fair Samus at her full power is a GALACTIC THREAT. She is the kind of thing you pull "Nuke it from orbit just to be sure" and then pray it does something other than just pissing her off. The idea Samus going rogue is pants-shitting level of terror for pretty much everyone in that setting. The SA-X is all the threat of Samus herself COMBINED with the threat of the X themselves. And the X were so nightmarish that the Chozo made the METROIDS to deal with them.
Samus being scared out of her wits here actually makes perfect sense IMO. She KNOWS just how powerful she WAS, and now the SA-X has all that power and more. Samus and Spike COMBINED right now, despite curbstomping almost everything they've fought together so far, can do NOTHING against the SA-X. Samus used to be an Unstoppable Badass, but now has been nearly Brought Down to Normal. And now the very thing that nearly killed her as all that badassery at its disposal. There is a reason SA-X comes off as VASTLY more terrifying than Dark Samus ever was. With Dark Samus you were the Unstoppable Badass against the Eldritch Horror. In Fusion you're just an Elite Mook and the SA-X is the Unstoppable Badass COMING FOR YOU.
Uh... Doesn't she have Spike's DNA too, this time around? So wouldn't she be able to possess some resistance to ice herself, because of the changes that Spike's life gave her?
7239769
All that did was give Samus Draconic traits, and allow the blending of Metroid traits to go more smoothly.
In essence, she's actually more vulnerable to cold than in canon, since her body inside the suit is vulnerable, too.
The terror of SA-X reminds me of the Alien Xenomorph. If SA-X can crawl through ventilation shafts like the Xenomorph can...yikes.
8767463
It wouldn’t need to crawl - it has Samus’ Morph Ball. Yeah, I never saw Alien, but I’ve seen pictures of Xenomorphs. It’s a lot like those, but much more worthy of being feared in my eyes. Power Bombs, Ice and Plama Beams, the Screw Attack, Samus’ Shinespark ability... I’ve never played Fusion, but I’d be running clear the other way from it if I saw it.
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Silly Mr Good Guy.
Dragon types are weak to ice type attacks; everyone who plays pokemon knows this. The only reason Spike isn't is that he's Fire/Dragon, while Samus is now Metroid/Dragon. If anything, ice should be super effective against her.
(Why, yes, I have spent the last week watching daily Pokemon Let's Go Eevee streams. However did you guess?)