Another Hatchling

by Tatsurou

Aether: Amorbis

"Spike?" Twilight asked worriedly. "Is...is everything alright?"

Spike shrugged his shoulders. "It's fine," he replied. "I'd...rather not think about it just now."

"Then don't," Rarity spoke up quickly, nuzzling his shoulder. "Would you rather take a break from the story now?"

"No," he replied quickly. "I...I want to finish it. I'd...rather get through to the end of Aether before we stop again, if we can."

"Well, your aerial reconnaissance in both worlds did make it one of our faster missions," Samus pointed out. "We could probably manage it before sundown."

"Especially if Sunbutt gets so enthralled in the story she loses all track of time again," Discord teased.

Celestia blew a raspberry at the mischievous spirit, though she did make a mental check of her connection to the sun against the clock on the wall, just to be sure.

Chuckling, Samus continued the tale.

---

Returning to Aether through the nearby portal, the pair made their way back out of the Pirate Base, which was now much emptier. However, they did encounter a few Metroids that had broken free due to the damage they had caused. Thankfully, Samus' new Dark Beam - with enough shots - caused the same chilling effect that her Ice Beam used to. Spike preferred to use his flame breath, as it was able to catch several Metroids in a single sweep before he ran out of breath. Besides, he no longer had a need to eat everything in sight, though he did occasionally eat a nearby attacking creature to replenish his energy.(1)

Once outside the Pirate Base, the pair made their way back to the other primary portal to Dark Aether in Agon. Passing through, they made their way to the one part of Dark Agon that Spike wasn't able to explore on his first flight there, the Dark Temple itself.

Once there, a side passage granted Samus access to the last Temple Key. Bringing the three keys to the gate, they opened the path to the Dark version of the arena where Samus had reacquired her Morph Ball Bombs. The area was one massive sand pit, with three Luminoth Crystals and three Beacons scattered around the outside at equal spacing, surrounding a massive black sphere with similarly colored...things wrapped around it.

Once Samus and Spike entered the sandpit, however, things quickly changed. The things curled around the sphere turned out to be giant, greyish worms with three eyes and a massive mouth, and they seemed to be attached to the sphere. Samus quickly scanned the creatures as they began to move, identifying them as Amorbis. Her scans revealed the best way to fight them was to break their shells when they leapt out of the ground to attack her, and that they apparently drew energy from the sphere.

When she relayed that information to Spike, he took to the air. At first, he tried attacking the sphere directly with his breath, claws, and mass, but this proved fruitless. Also, it drew the attention of the Amorbis, making them attack him. Thankfully, his breath was exceptionally effective against the Amorbis themselves, shattering their protective shells as he swept their long bodies with his intense beam.

Once it lost its shell, the first Amorbis attached itself to the sphere, becoming charged with Dark Energy. A strange helm protrusion covered its head, which included focus points for dark energy based projectiles. Samus did her best to dodge, while Spike stayed airborne, using his flame breath to break the helm.

After the helm broke, the Amorbis reared back in pain before going vertical, attempting to suck up enough matter to fix itself. Getting an idea, Samus went into Morph Ball and allowed herself to be sucked in. Planting several bombs inside the creature's mouth was enough to make it flail, spitting her back out and cracking the sphere.

Repeating this process a few times with all three Amorbis - and evading the Dark Energy lasers they unleashed when two or more of them were attached to the sphere - brought the creatures low. The creatures dissolved into dust, and the sphere - taxed beyond its structural integrity - exploded in a flash of light. Left behind was what Samus easily recognized as a suit upgrade for her, though it didn't show the usual signs of Chozo construction. It more closely resembled what she'd seen of Luminoth tech...especially as it was generating a Safe Zone. Samus purposefully walked forward and acquired it.

As the Luminoth tech fused with her Chozo Power Suit, the Safe Zone vanished...and she stood changed. Her suit was now a dark brown with grey plates, red glowing dots scattered across the suit. Her shoulder pauldrons were now flat circles, and her visor shield was a bright orange.

Her HUD gave her a status update.

Dark Suit Acquired.
This Luminoth tech power suit adaption has drastically reduced the amount of damage you take from Dark Aether's atmosphere, providing protection roughly equivalent to Spike's Dark Mode. Defensive shielding has also increased in effectiveness.

"Well that's helpful," Samus commented dryly. She and Spike then made their way to the Dark Aether Temple.

As it turned out, draining the energy into the Energy Transfer Module was quite straightforward, involving little more than Samus jamming her arm cannon into an appropriately shaped receptacle. As a bonus, doing so also fully replenished her energy reserves. Also, the storms above Dark Agon grew slightly worse.

Returning to Agon Temple, the pair found that restoring the energy was just as straightforward. Apparently, the Luminoth tech was designed to take care of most of it on its own. With the energy restored to the Energy Controller, it began to broadcast energy across Agon, calming the storms and beginning the process of revitalizing the landscape. A beam of energy shot out from the Controller, connecting it to the one in the Grand Temple.

With their work in Agon done, the pair left the region to return to the Grand Temple and consult with U-Mos.

---

---

(1) I know some people have been complaining about the 'running gag' of Spike eating everything in sight...but it was supposed to be a parallel to Samus collecting energy and weapon pickups in the games. So, if you played the game on 'Spike Mode', you would replenish health and ammo by eating creatures.

Comments

[VampDash]

Thank you for addressing Bottomless Pit Spike.

[Djax80]

too bad she didn't get the light beam upgrade. spike can't be everywhere and some of those passage way are tiny as all hell

[Tatsurou]

6326323
She got Light Beam last chapter.

[Djax80]

did she lemme go check

[Djax80]

Now I see. sry

[QCosmic Derp]

6th!

[Maxes Altho]

Amorbis, that fucker... the last thing I did in that game before someone filched my copy...

[RanmaChaos]

Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.

[Merv]

Well of course Spike is going to eat a lot--that kind of active adventuring really works up an appetite.

[SigmundRoamer678]

That was a good chapter. Although, I would have liked to here about Amorbis nullifying the safe zones. I can see that leading to some panicking.

[Sidetrack]

6326343 img08.deviantart.net/b651/i/2014/305/5/9/no_by_deadpan_happiness-d84wkpo.png

[ShadowLDrago]

"Well that's helpful," Samus commented dryly. She and Spike then made their way to the Dark Aether Temple.

Indeed.

(1) I know some people have been complaining about the 'running gag' of Spike eating everything in sight...but it was supposed to be a parallel to Samus collecting energy and weapon pickups in the games. So, if you played the game on 'Spike Mode', you would replenish health and ammo by eating creatures.

Nice.

[Kenshinryuu]

I honestly enjoyed Spike's comments on the taste of new enemies. I'm eager to see what comes next, though I think after two days of story telling Spike might need a bit of time to stretch his wings and the rest of Twilight's family should show up to greet him.

[King Leoric]

I did to enjoyed Spikes comments on new enemies.

[Scolipede]

Oh, I would definitely enjoy Spike mode.

[Lord Olympius]

Personally I really like the Spike eating his enemy thing.

[Blaze Song]

So... Spike is Kirby? Neat!

[MysteriousFox]

6338667
No, not that cute little pink puffball of DOOM! Anything but that!

[Scribe Scribbles]

Well I guess don't get to learn about Skipe just yet . Next chapter!

[jwizard]

I'm of two minds concerning the Dark Suit. On the one hand, the colors are fairly cool. On the other, those shoulder plates are an eyesore.

[Xenoguyver]

7536267

When I first saw the Dark Suit when I played the game, my first thought was "Cool! She turned into a Transformer!"

[Hearts warming gamer]

6591593
You mean spike right

[Unkown101]

Can there be a spike mode in metroid prime 2 please?

[Cyrus Colter]

7536267
Agreed on both points

[94000130 FFF70000]

(1) I know some people have been complaining about the 'running gag' of Spike eating everything in sight...but it was supposed to be a parallel to Samus collecting energy and weapon pickups in the games. So, if you played the game on 'Spike Mode', you would replenish health and ammo by eating creatures.

Could probably make that Metroid Mode too. Or even SA-X mode for that matter. Eating stuff is just what they do, in their own ways.