"Ridley actually had his own special area within Zebes' catacombs," Samus explained. "It could be accessed via an elevator in Norfair, and it was filled with acid pits, which were incredibly difficult for me to navigate around. Spike's adaption from the Pirate Homeworld made him immune, so I mostly let him explore ahead and see if he could identify the path forward first. Although the first path forward involved activating a Chozo Statue to drain the acid by curling up in its outstretched hands."
"Which made it rather confusing as, immediately after, we came face to face with another rogue statue..." Spike continued.
As the pair dropped down into a wide open area, a Chozo Statue also dropped down. As its eyes opened, its brown exterior turned golden and it stood up. It lunged after the pair, hurling explosives, emitting penetrating energy waves, and leaping to try and crush them.
Spike expanded himself to match the size of the statue, trying to meet its charge head on. Samus dodged around the conflict, trying to get clear shots on the Statue with her Plasma Beam that wouldn't risk hitting Spike. As it had been discovered, this version of the Plasma Beam phased through his scales as easily as anything else, forcing Samus to be quite a bit more careful with her weapons.
With careful maneuvering and timing on both their parts, the statue was eventually destroyed...which revealed an alcove behind it containing the Screw Attack.
"Now we're talking!" Rainbow crowed, pumping her hoof into the air, ignoring the titters from the star born visitors at her enthusiasm. "Bet that made things a lot easier!"
"As long as I was careful not to hit Spike," Samus replied. "He isn't immune to that either."
"Really it just changed how we did things," Spike added. "Always before, I'd been the one leading the charge, with Mom either behind me or on my back. Now, she charged ahead Screw Attacking, and I followed up blasting anything she missed. Allowed me to stay clear of her to avoid getting shredded, and was quite efficient any time we had to head through an area that started to fill with acid as we passed through...which did happen in that area."
"Further beyond that, we encountered Space Pirates with two new types of armor," Samus explained. "The first type, in gold armor, could only be damaged by my Screw Attack, while the second - in black - could only be damaged from behind after they performed a jump kick. Thankfully, there were only two of that last sort."
"And then we encountered Ridley himself," Spike concluded. "He was not happy to see me..."
As Samus and Spike entered the chamber, a draconic shriek startled them as Ridley lunged up at them, slamming Spike against the ceiling as he immediately lunged in for a bite. Spike managed to catch hold of the lunging jaw with both claws, but was left defenseless against the lashing tail.
Samus immediately opened fire with a volley of Super Missiles from below, slamming them into Ridley's hide. "Let go of my son, you son of a bitch!" she roared out as she continued the unending volley.
Ridley snarled angrily as he deflected several of the Super Missiles with his tail. "Stay out of this, bitch!" he growled. "This is a battle between dragons!" He exhaled a barrage of fireballs at Samus, which she barely managed to dodge.
"You leave my mother alone!" Spike snarled, bringing his clenched fist back and punching Ridley across the jaw.
Ridley staggered back, spitting blood. "Always hiding behind your human, are you?" Ridley screeched. "You're no dragon! You're nothing but a pet lizard!"
"As if I wanted to be anything like you!" Spike snapped back.
"You'd be no match for a true dragon without your tender!" Ridley snarled.
"I'm 7!" Spike shouted back. "What's your excuse?"
"Insolent whelp-" Ridley cut off his tirade to round on Samus, who had taken advantage of his distraction to get behind him and slam him with several super missiles. "Do you mind?" he growled out.
"Yes," Samus replied as she shot a super missile straight down his throat.
Ridley started coughing up blood. "You'll pay for that, wretch!" he snarled, lunging for her only to fall on his face as Spike grabbed hold of his tail.
"You really need to learn not to turn your back on me," Spike growled, spinning to slam Ridley bodily against the walls of the chamber before plunging him into the acid pits below.
Ridley shrieked in agony as the acid poured through the missile wounds and into his flesh, burning him away.
"Where's Squishy?" Spike demanded angrily.
Ridley burst into agonized laughter. "The Metroid is ours now!" he shrieked out. "And will be your demise!" With one last agonized wail, most of Ridley's body dissolved.
As the acid drained away, the door opened wide. Samus and Spike immediately rushed through. Inside, they found the containment capsule the infant Metroid had been in...broken open, no trace of little Squishy anywhere in sight.
"W...what now, Mom?" Spike asked worriedly. "Where else could he be? We've been everywhere on this planet!"
"Almost everywhere," Samus corrected. "There's one last area we can check. The one part of the planet that they'd keep a Metroid. The one place they kept them before. But if we need to go there...then they've brought back Mother Brain, who can control Metroids telepathically, and...we may end up fighting Squishy, like Ridley said."
Spike stared at Samus, waiting for clarification. "Where?"
"...Tourian."
The final place they're Tourian.
Oh, this will end badly for poor Squishy...
You know, the constant denouncement between the two raptors makes me wonder. What do you think will be the interaction between Spike and the Little Birdie when we get to other M?
Little birdy felt to me like a mindless ridley version, so no banter there, i assume.
So, I'm assuming Super Smash Brothers is considered an alternate universe to this story and Metroid in general? If not, will we get to hear some of Samus's exploits there?
Twilight should really stop treating Spike like a servant...
6892787
No Smash adventures, no.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
6892636 6892744
Not mindless, just feral. Think of Little Bird more as Ridley's infant son, rather than the beast himself.
6892852 Okay. By the way, throughout the whole story, you were using adaption when I think you were looking for adaptation.
Hilarious lines.
Got to wonder: could Spike get a gauntlet with a grapple point on it so Samus can latch on and Screw Attack, thus allowing Spike to swing her around like a morning star that shreds everything it meets???
Oh, and when they pass the gold statue in the water, Spike should claw the Ridley part into scrap metal.
Translation, the place looks like Hell. Literally. Magma, red background, superheated, complete monster at the center...
Oh god this fight.
Indeed.
Ah yes, the Screw Attack. LOVE it.
Man, that thing backs one hell of a punch.
Oh god, I HATED those two. Also, it was the golden ones who could only be hurt by a jump kick.
And I'm having flashbacks to the countless time I've died against him.
One does not simply piss off Samus Aran, holder of one of the biggest body counts in Nintendo, including yours, and expect to live.
Oh really?
He's a kid!
See my point? Wait, 7?! Man he's young.
I love it when they answer that.
That has gotta hurt.
What do you mean by that?
I remember getting a chill down my spine when I saw this. I knew it wasn't the endgame. Also there's an Energy tank in there, right under the doorl
Tourian.
Called it!
6892942
The black ones turn gold when they jump kick, and you have to shoot them from behind as they come in for a landing.
6892955
Oh yeah.
Man, Ridley got ripped a new one. That was just sad for a 'true dragon'.
6892955 they are a pain in the flank to fight when super low on energy
Nothing more humiliating than getting your tail handed to you by a child
6894056 Insult to injury.
6893203 No, I just don't accept "sci fi" as a license for inferior writing.
Thumbs down.
Meanwhile, in the future:
Core-X digivolves tooo...... <whooshy noises> RIDLEY-X!
Spike: <shaking with rage>
Samus: I'M GOING TO Fyay!ING EAT YOU!
It's been bugging me for a while, and now i met it in other Tats cross-fic...
What that "Woof" suposed to signify? Is that a reference or what? I CONFUSED!
6898246
When a female says 'Woof' while looking at a male specimen, it implies they find said specimen quite attractive, and strongly masculine.
Fun fact: Varia Suit was originally a mistranslation due to how Barrier is pronounced Baria in Japanese. The translators mistakenly turned Baria into Varia, instead of Barrier, and the name stuck.
6895879 Given that canonically Samus Aran is SUPERHUMAN, those numbers make sense. She is superhumanly strong, fast, and durable. WITHOUT the armor. The line "infused with chozo dna" gets mocked a lot, because let's face it none of the canon chozo are really that badass, most of the time. But what people also forget is that Samus was designed to be a LIVING WEAPON. Like the metriods she was genetically modified by a species that possessed hyper-advanced technology, psionic powers, and outright magic. They did this to create the Ultimate Warrior. Metroids to deal with the X-parasite, and Samus to deal with EVERYTHING ELSE, including the metroids and the X. (Though she needed some help from the metriods when dealing with the X-parasite.) The Chozo are a species that, at least several of them, ascended beyond the need for a physical body/existence in known reality. They could see the future, at least partly, and forged Samus Aran to be Protector & Guardian to the entire galaxy.
This is a woman who has survived entire planets trying to kill her, a sentient parasite trying to eat her from the inside out, regularly endures enough G force to turn ordinary humans into paste, (The Speed Booster) and is constantly exposed to so many varieties of radiation and poisoning that Wolverine would wonder how the fuck she survives. That's all discounting the fact that her suit is one of the most powerful science fiction artifacts that doesn't outright blow up entire planets. (by itself anyway) This woman could face tank her way through entire armies of Spartans. You would need to break out the WH40K crap to seriously be a threat to her.
So when you factor all that together, YES I really do believe she can handle 40G environments without her suit. It's far and away the LEAST impressive thing she's done.
6895879 Dude. You desperately need to take a yourself.
6900125
Ease up on RC a bit here; he's just pointing out that there is a point where suspension of disbelief isn't enough to get past what has been written.
It is for me, but that's because I know not to over analyze things that are in a pure science fiction setting. Pure science fiction often steps all over the laws of physics, and is completely indistinguishable from magic.
7562272 Honestly I'll be nice to him when he drops dead. I might snark and snap at others, but RC can go fuck himself.
"SCREWATTACK!!!" the echoing voice shouted once more, making Samus growl and curse under her breath.
Pinkie, however, held a hoof over her muzzle, stifling her laughter.
7588400 I'm probably just missing something, but what is this referencing?
7621380 This guy is referencing a gag from a YouTuber channel called Some Call Me Johnny. It's a joke on his channel. Whenever he says Screw Attack there is an echo that says Screw Attack as well. It annoys him in his videos. However when he reviewed Metroid Prime 3 he managed to shoot it. Literally. And so the joke ceased to exist now.
SA: Another Chozoa?
Samus: A Chorizo, actually. A more advanced version of the Chozoa.