"So after besting the Boost Guardian," Samus continued, "we went to explore the one other area of Torvus opened by the new translator program...the underground - and underwater - sections of Torvus Temple."
"Bet Spike was a huge help with that, given his swimming abilities," Rainbow pointed out.
"Indeed he was," Samus replied. "Managed to make quite a bit go smoother."
In the lower sections of the Temple, the water filled most of the area they needed to explore, making movement exceptionally difficult for Samus. Spike, on the other hand, was finally able to swim freely, making him especially effective both in maneuvering and in battle with Blogg - large eel like swimmers, heavily armored, with ram shaped heads and the ability to fire sonic bursts. Spike's strategy was to wrap himself around the Blogg, grab its face, yank its mouth open, and then use what he could of his flame breath to superheat the water in the Blogg's mouth, cooking its interior flesh, before ripping it apart and eating it. He stated that the Blogg had a mild taste, like various white fish.
There were also three switches that would open a lower level of the Temple, but Samus was only able to reach one to activate it, as none of them could be activated from the center of the underwater segment, and she was only able to reach one directly with her limited aquatic movement. Looking at her map, she began to plot a course involving her taking the one path she could reach with her limited movement and looping around to the two switches from the doors that opened onto their platforms. While she did that, Spike swam around the chamber and activated the other two switches, causing the central platform to raise up, opening a gate for them into the lower depths of the Temple.
The path deeper into the Temple led down the outside of two large cylinders, and Samus was able to scan an Alpha Blogg - a much larger version of the Blogg - through the screens separating the center of the cylinder and the outside path. Noticing a portal out of reach for Samus without water maneuverability, Spike swam up and went through it, collecting the last of the Torvus Temple Keys, having collected the other two during his first aerial survey of Dark Torvus. As the other two paths of the Dark Torvus side of the portal were sealed and could only be opened with Power Bombs, he went back through to rejoin Samus.
In the innermost chamber of the Temple, Samus found the Gravity Boost, an airpack attached to the back of her suit that enabled her to move through the water as easily as on ground, as well as letting her glide through the water for a distance after her second jump. On the way back out, however, the Alpha Blogg burst into the chamber and attacked.
Spike and Samus worked as a team in the water. While Spike couldn't attack directly like he had on the Bloggs due to how big the Alpha was, he was able to draw attention, keeping it distracted long enough for Samus to get a good shot angle to slam its sensitive mouth tissues with Super Missiles. Five Super Missiles later, the Alpha Blogg was dead.
After that, the path back up into the Temple became available...but Spike paused, glancing elsewhere in the chamber. "What's up, Spike?" Samus asked.
"There's a portal up there," he murmured.
Following his gaze, Samus examined the indicated area. "...can't get up there until I recover the Spider Ball," she pointed out.
"I can," Spike indicated, swimming upward. "I'll be right back." With that, he went through the portal.
About 20 minutes later, Spike returned. "Got something for you!" Spike said happily. Opening the chest compartment of his armor, he handed Samus her suit's Power Bomb Generator. "The Power Bomb Guardian was on the other side. I dealt with it."
"Nicely done," Samus commented, equipping the tech. She then noticed something else fall out of his compartment. "And this?"
Spike looked away. "...Seeker Missile upgrade," he murmured. "Found it when I overflew the Temple Grounds."
"And you didn't give it to me because...?" Samus led.
"...I was hoping I could somehow equip it to my armor so I could have missiles too," he murmured shamefacedly.
Chuckling, Samus equipped the Seeker Missiles. "We'll look into that for you when we finish up here on Aether, alright?" Turning, she led the way back upward.
"Hang on a minute!" Scootaloo called out. "What about Spike's fight with the Power Bomb Guardian? I wanna know how that went!"
Nods around the table indicated she wasn't the only one. Chuckling, Spike scratched the back of his head. "Alright. Let me tell you how it went. See, the Power Bomb Guardian was a Ing possessed Dark Aether Sporb, a plant based creature that could launch various projectiles. In this case, Power Bombs. My scans indicated that the exterior of the creature was impervious to everything except heavy kinetic damage. Now, there was a heavy weight above it that, if dropped, would have crushed it, but I had a better idea. See, my scans indicated that its base - against the platform - wasn't so indestructible..."
Spike raced up the wall and across the ceiling, getting into position where he could attack. As the Guardian launched one of its Power Bombs, he acted. He knew the explosive could tear through his armor and scales easily, so he had to act quick. Grabbing hold of the projectile midair, he forced it between the creature's base and the platform before kicking back into the air. Flipping around, he fired off an intense blast of flame, setting off the bomb. The explosion lifted the giant Sporb up, exposing its base. Spike's continuous blast of flame scorched the Guardian to cinders from the bottom up.
"Dude!" Rainbow shouted excitedly. "That was awesome!"
"That's really how ya beat it?" Apple Bloom asked in awe.
Spike smiled widely...perhaps just a bit too widely as his mind turned back.
"Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!"
Spike raced around the chamber in terror, the Guardian launching Power Bombs to try and destroy him. He managed to keep just ahead of the bombs as he raced along floor, walls, and ceiling, desperate to escape death.
Over the course of the next 20 minutes, the Power Bombs launched after him happened to land in the four Bomb Slots scattered around the room, resulting in the central weight crushing the Guardian.
Staring at what had happened, Spike buffed his claws against his chest plate. "...maybe I shouldn't tell anyone exactly how I won here..."
"Yes, Apple Bloom," Spike finally replied. "That's exactly how I beat that Guardian."
Oh Spike
: I meant to do that.
........... of course spike of course...........
NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW.
"Um...I meant to do that."
-ThePortalPonies
Guess some things about Spike will never change...
lol
Bweeooo, Bweeooo! My B.S. detector is going off!
Five SUper Missiles later
1. Extra capitalisation.
Guess the... Spike of easy to come and epic wins slowed down a little eh?
Least he told how he went out... With a bang. So to speak.
Good thing Spike can't really... Bomb his storytelling now can he?
lol
and applejack didn't realized he was lying about how he won?
6386973
Or chose not to say anything.
Wait...ok, going to nitpick a bit here, but Power Bombs can't activate Morph Ball Bomb Slots. Power Bombs give off heat, Morph Ball Bombs give off electricity. The latter's used to power Bomb Slots. That's also the reason why Power Bombs can't destroy obstacles that require normal Bombs to destroy. Spike's exaggerated story of how he beat the Power Bomb Guardian is actually more plausible since there's no reason why the Guardian's underside couldn't be vulnerable to attack.
Of course he would save face.
Pinkie is probably gunna this read chapter herself, be like "Oh Spike, THAT'S not what happened! Silly dragon forgetting something like that"
6386001 It was wasn't it? I went and popped a couple in him, just for kicks. It also left him WIDE open for attack, so bonus.
6386978 That or Applejack isn't some overpowered lie detector just because she has the element of honesty? I prefer that.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
6387097
For the sake of continuity, let's assume that the hurled power bombs have an electrical charge that contains the heat before release, which activated the bomb slots.
All went accordingly to the plan that I totally didn't make up after it was completed!
... Nice seave Spike. Anyway, yeah, it's completely reasonable that the underside was soft and squishy. Ing boosted or not.
Make THINGS go quite a bit smoother. You kinda screwed up the word order.
Nice.
Nice.
And you didn't give it to her before because...
You can breathe fire and you're insanely tough, not to mention you can chew through virtually anything. Can't blame you though.
Nice.
Nice work.
Of course. Also, aROund.
Nice.
Oh spike.
I don't blame Spike for wanting to keep an embarrassing battle like that quiet. Nice to see him not being invincible and having some trouble.
6387651
The first correction..."quite a bit" is used as a noun, like "things".
And why does Spike want Missiles? For underwater combat where he can't use his breath.
6387779
Oh.
And because they make anyone who gets hit by them eventually go boom. Which is good.
6387097 True
6387405 He got you there champ
6387485 LOL!!!! Ignore the mistake like a Boss
Dumb luck for the win.
No one has to know about this.
6387290 Super missiles have always been one of my favorite attacks throughout the series. From super metroid on, the high point of a playthrough was always the first super missile tank, at least until fusion made them your normal missiles.
But then the Primes came out, and they managed to make me love super missiles even more, most likely due to how they implemented them.
On a side note, I wonder why the concept of the Imperialist beam from hunters was never used more.
As for spike withholding the seeker missiles, I believe he wanted a way to attack from a distance in Dark Aether outside of a safe zone, cuz I'm sure that atmosphere is worse than inhaling ghost pepper sauce.
The underwater part... The last part I completed before someone filched my copy...
Those fights were nearly impossible.
Also, Spike? Just want to let you know...
i.imgur.com/jc7XXnK.gif
6389967 ...I-what beam from Hunters?
6390825 Imperialist, basically a freaking sniper rifle, and is easily one of the most powerful beams in the whole series. It can one-shot sylux, who is a rival bounty hunter.
6391003 I would imagine the average human would end up as a red smear on the ground.
6393918 ...From Prime Two?
6395946 No, MP hunters, it was a DS game that had you start off with all of your standard equipment, but you needed to get extra weaponry. All of them are beams. Theres the Battlehammer, which is basically a charge beam that is rapid fire, the Judicator, which is essentially an ice beam, the Magmaul, which is basically a plasma beam that arcs, the Shock Coil, which is basically the flamethrower from prime, but uses electricity and gains damage the longer you use it. Next, the Volt Driver is basically just the wave beam from prime except it fires one bolt, and does not home, in exchange for a VERY high fire rate. Finally, the Imperialist is a brand new concept for metroid, an ultraprecise sniping weapon with a built in 10X scope and an absurdly long range. you also have to be accurate with it, as each shot causes requires a short cooldown time after to fire again.
6396267 Oh, that one I never played. That one.
6396417 Never got a DS, but I found an emulator that gets about 99% of a DS's speed. Always wanted to try hunters, and I wasn't disappointed . The alimbic cluster (which is the area the game takes place in) is not quite as big as tallon IV or aether, but it's still pretty big, and it's really fun.
6397144 Bah, Emulators. Cheap ways to get games. When I buy a game, I want to feel a sense of accomplishment because, 'YEAH! I saved my own money and bought this bitch!' Getting an Emulator does not give me the same high.
6398023 I simply did not want a DS, but wanted to play hunters. Using an emulator allowed me to play it without committing any money to a system I didn't want.
6398045 DS's and 3DS's are great. DS's play GB Advance games, and it has some great games in of itself. The 3DS has MANY good games, and you can get some Virtual Console games that are really nice.
6398398 Okay, I'm going to be more specific here, I didn't want a DS because I was saving for a PSP. Then the PSV came out and I had to save more.
- (In his head)Not even close! (Out loud) Yeah. That's exactly how I did it: like a badass.
6387711 I would've done the same thing. I mean really, would you say you did something that embarrassing?
He beat it same way sophomores at my school pass tests. (Internallly) oh crap, I don't know any of this. (Externally) I got this.
7949441 Nah bro, that's how we pass calculus.
8186414 so that's how the kid who should be in eighth grade aced his advanced calc test