Chapter 49: The Pirate Homeworld
The Pirate Homeworld being in another, far away solar system, the trip wasn't as short as the one between Bryyo and Elysia (the two planets being part of the same system). So Samus took some time to do a scan on herself to see how bad it now was.
She discovered that her Phazon level had raised to 50%.
She decided that it was alright. She could still resist to the corruption. But with the present of a third Leviathan on the Pirate Homeworld, this level will certainly rise again, and THIS made her worry. She really hoped that this Leviathan was the last.
Sweetie Belle looked at Samus with some worry, especially after seeing the results of the scan, but decided to not say anything. Instead, she silently waited to reach their destination.
Eventually, they reached the Pirate Homeworld.
From space, the planet was red and dark, with many white lines spreading on the surface like spiderwebs. It really looked like it came out of Hell, or Tartarus, or whatever.
And as they approached the surface, things didn't look better. The sky was a dark orange, covered by black clouds from which rained what was certainly not water. The ship's systems indicated that it was actually acid! It also detected a big level of pollution, which may be at the origin of the disastrous atmosphere. The city, or base, of the Space Pirates was spreading as far as they could see, protected from the acid rain by shields coming from large structures floating above. There were, however, areas where immense Phazon growth could be seen as well as huge tendrils of Phazons coming out of the ground a little everywhere, swaying in the air.
Seeing this chilled Sweetie Belle. The situation here really was bad.
They saw the Leviathan in the middle of the city, without a defensive shield like the two previous Leviathans, but it was clear that flying to it with the ship was suicidal in the current situation, and even impossible before of the shield covering the base. Also, there didn't seem to be a path leading inside that could be accessed.
So they had to find a path that would let them get around the shield and land somewhere in the city and figure what to do from here.
Thankfully, Samus' ship was small enough and had a good cloak, so they were able to approach without being spotted. Passing between tendrils of Phazon, they reached a river of Phazon and entered a giant tube that seemed to be a waste disposal, the ship passing between the two parts of what seemed to be some kind of turbine at the entrance. The tube led to a series of tunnels, one of which eventually led to a landing site that the ship had detected.
They entered a large circular room through a hatch and found a landing pad here. Huge racks with tanks locked into them were present on the walls, and there were also a lot pf pipes and wires. Pirate drones could be seen flying around, but they didn't seem to be the military type, seeing how they weren't armed and flew to and from the tanks. Phazon was also present on the part of the landing pad before the pathway to the exit.
Samus rapidly landed the ship before she and Sweetie Belle disembarked.
Sweetie Belle looked around and said, "Alright. We're here. So, we simply explore until we find something?"
"It seems so. I haven't received any transmission from the Federation yet," Samus answered. "Be careful. We are in enemy territory now, and all your powers won't save you if you take a shot to the head from a turret. You have no armor."
"Aye aye!"
A small gap separated the landing platform from the pathway to the exit, so they had to jump to reach the Blue Door. Almost immediately, in the access tunnel that followed, they encountered patrolling Crawltanks that they had to destroy. However, the Crawltank passed in Hypermode when they spotted them, so it took a bit longer to destroy them than usual.
"Well, it didn't take long," Sweetie Belle remarked.
"I don't think these drones had time to inform the pirates of our presence. Let's ensure that this continues."
The next room was protected by a solid turret, but it still didn't resist long. Small critters ran away during the fight, escaping potential death as collateral damage. Once the turret was destroyed, Sweetie Belle and Samus were able to get a proper look at the room around them.
At the left was a map station blocked by a shield. At the right was a locked door. Between the two was a lift. On the wall at the right, there was also a device containing coded Space Pirate data. Samus was able to decode them, allowing her to read an entry from the pirates telling that they discovered Phazon for the first time two years ago and that two operation had been established only to fail because of (thanks to) Samus. It said then that the Federation had moved to secure what remained of the Phazon on Aether, and the pirates had been ready to fight to the death to get it from them. Also, the Pirate who had written this entry was apparently part of the crew of a battleship named the Colossus.
"Uh. Didn't expect to get the pirates' perspective of this story," Samus said.
"Maybe this will tell us how they entered in contact with Dark Samus. It would be nice if this could also tell how she came back to like."
Samus nodded before she turned to scan the locked door and the terminal beside it, discovering that the door led to another lift, but the terminal opening it missed power. She then scanned the terminal beside the shield and found out that she needed a different visor to interact with it.
So this left no choice but to enter the lift in the middle where they had to choose between two other floors. Samus decided to start by the first of the two floors only to be blocked in the next room by a large mechanical gate that cut the room in half and that couldn't be opened from this side. Also, they spotted a Missile Expansion accessible from the other side.
So this left the other floor which split into two path. They quickly saw that the right path led to another dead end, another mechanical door (different from the other one) that also couldn't be opened from this side. Also, the door was at the other side of a room without roof, and Samus' Suit apparently had no defense against the acid that rained here as a result.
So they took the left path leading to an Orange Door after turning left, which led to what seemed to be a courtyard, meaning that it was raining acid here too. They immediately saw pirates patrol on a pathway in the upper level, and they also spotted drones, but thankfully, none of them noticed the girls. At the other end of the clearing, a lone Space Pirate opened a force field to reach a Blue Door, the field closing once he passed.
It was at this moment that Samus finally received a transmission from AU 242 who said that the Federation got more information from Gandrayda's capsule. To make it short, behind the force field was a path connecting directly to the Seed, passing by a cargo supply route. But Samus first needed to find a way to protect herself from the acid rain.
"Well, at least, we found our final objective. But in the end, we still need to explore," Sweetie Belle said.
"Nothing new..."
They advanced in the courtyard, remaining under the pathway in the upper level to avoid the acid rain (not that it would matter for Sweetie Belle, she had thousands of ways to protect herself from the acid).
As they followed the protected areas, Sweetie Belle stopped in front of an hologram that showed the head of a clearly dangerous reptilian creature. She raised an eyebrow, wondering what that creature was, but she shrugged and continued to follow Samus who had found a vent shaft for the Morph Ball that was blocked by ventilation fans. Not able to reach the vent, she instead jumped to reach a ledge that let her and Sweetie Belle enter a small tunnel passing under the pathway. Navigating the tunnel, they passed under many pirates and, after some exploration, they found a Missile Expansion. The tunnel eventually led to a sheltered area with an Energy Cell that Samus took, which deactivated the holograms here and opened a hatch to another tunnel. This tunnel led back to the vent, the fans now deactivated too.
The vent led to a corridor with pistons at the left and a cylindrical generator visible through a window. Phazon infested the walls, and there was also a lift currently deactivated, forcing them to continue. After some Crawltanks, they reached an opening from which they dropped to the lower level where they followed a similar corridor even more infested with Phazon, having to fight more Crawltanks.
At the end were two Morph Ball tunnels next to each other, the one at the left blocked by a panel. The one that wasn't blocked however, at the right, only led to the room with the generator where there was only a Spider Ball track leading to a Missile Expansionthat Sweetie Belle flew to grab. So Samus used the grapple on the panel to move it, making it block the right tunnel so they could enter the left one.
This tunnel passed under what seemed to be a command room full of pirates with a central column that looked important and with some pink crystals. Here they found another Missile Expansion before they continued, the tunnel ending at a room with walls covered in Phazite. Here, they found a terminal like the one that was beside the shield blocking access to the map station, so Samus needed a different visor to interact with it. Behind that terminal was a large glass window that let them see tanks full of raw Phazon being transported to an unknown place, Surveillance Drones scanning around in search of potential intruders. Finally, in the ceiling, there was a multi-targets lock keeping a cylinder. Scan of the cylinder revealed that it contained an X-Ray Visor upgrade.
So Samus used the Seeker Missiles to open the lock so she could grab the cylinder and get the new visor, which used X-Rays to allow her to see things that she couldn't normally see, even through some matters like the Phazite. She could even see her own bones through her Suit.
She immediately used the new visor on the terminal. The terminal presented her with a code of four symbols, and she needed to press the right keys in the right order to activate it. The keys had symbols that she could see thanks to the X-Rays, allowing her to see which keys she needed to press. An added difficulty was that each time that she pressed a key, right or wrong, the symbols changed places.
This lowered a rail, allowing the Phazon tanks to be carried into the room. Sweetie Belle fired at one of them as it passed above the hatch blocked by the Phazon, making the tank fall and explode on it, destroying it.
They then entered the now unlocked tunnel which led to a corridor with paths. One was a simple Blue Door which, from the map Samus' Suit had made with the explored rooms, led to that room cut in half by the big mechanised door. At the opposite side of the Blue Door was a door with a green shield, this one needing a high-frequency beam to be opened which Samus didn't have. At the left of the Green Door was a locked door that needed an X-Ray terminal to be activated to be opened. At the right was one of these shields with a terminal that had to be drained of energy.
When they got too close of the Green Door, a computerised voice detected Samus and Sweetie Belle an unauthorized presences, leading it to engage a security gate made of Phazite plating that could only be penetrated by a high-frequency beam.
"Okay, okay, we understand. We need a high-frequency beam," Sweetie Belle said with a roll of her eyes.
Samus opened the left door with the X-Ray terminal, letting them access a lift that took them to a Blue Door to a balcony area overlooking the command room they traversed earlier by the tunnels. From here, they could see a pirate and a drone performing maintenance on a Phazine panel on the central pillar, which revealed to be a generator with three energy cores apparently powering the shield that protected the base. Samus was also able to scan the pink crystals from here which revealed to be vulnerable to Phazon.
A device with a new entry was present in the balcony area and Samus scanned it. The entry revealed what Samus already said. The pirates weren't able to stop the feds from leaving Aether with some Phazon, but more Phazon was still left on the planet and the pirates took it. But then, the entry revealed what they hoped to discover. In their haste, the pirates not only took Phazon, but also the remains of Dark Samus who then revived herself in their Phazon storage. Dark Samus then absorbed all their Phazon and wiped out a third of their crew before she began to brainwash what remained. The pirate writing this entry was one of the last few who still had all their mind.
"These idiots..." Samus muttered with a shake of her head.
"It still doesn't say how Dark Samus' remains were on Aether when she died on Dark Aether," Sweetie Belle said. "They should have disappeared with the planet."
"Probably used some Phazon power to transfer what remained of herself into the Phazon that the pirates had stored on Aether. I did kill her several times before our final encounter, but each times she came back. This must be how."
"Okay. So, now we have the full explanation of her return. And how she got her first pirate minions. I think that I know where this will go next."
"Me too."
They backtracked to the corridor where two Assault Pirate Troopers (the pirates with orange shields that deflected missiles) were now present. The pirates fired as soon as they spotted them, and the girls quickly killed them before they could get the idea of raising the alarm. Sweetie Belle then teleported the corpses into the river of Phazon they flew over earlier to leave no trace. Samus approved with a thumb up.
They then went to open the mechanical door which needed the X-Ray Visor to spot and disengage the five locks. It was then that Samus received a distress call from a Federation Trooper that had apparently been captured during the pirate assault on Norion. The fed had been able to escape but required help, and apparently had information about how to bypass the acid rain to reach the Seed. He then gave Samus his coordinates, in another area of the planet.
"Why would the pirates capture a Federation Trooper?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"There could be many reasons, like experiments. What really surprises me is that the trooper is still alive, or even still has his mind, after a month of capture. Captured victims generally don't last for than a few days, unless they are important to them."
"And by chance, the trooper knows a way to protect yourself from the acid rain."
Sweetie Belle and Samus exchanged looks and nodded. "It's a trap," they both concluded.
"We should still go, it's our only lead right now," Samus then said.
Sweetie Belle nodded, and on this, Samus used a newly activated Morph Ball slot to make the mechanical door and the platform it was on spin with them while Sweetie Belle grabbed the Missile Expansion they had seen earlier. Now at the other side of the room, they were able to return to the lift leading back to the room with the Map Station. Speaking off, Samus took time to use the X-Ray terminal to deactivate the shield and access the station, downloading the map data which not only gave the whole map of the current area, but also gave them the coordinates of the landing site of the area where the "Federation Trooper" was. It also gave them the coordinates of a landing site in the Leviathan, but they couldn't access it.
With this, they returned in the ship and took off.
Moving through the tunnels, they eventually reached the coordinates of the landing site of the facility from which the "Federation Trooper" had called "for help." Like in the previous landing site, drones were present, some transporting canisters clearly full of Phazon. Another of these canisters was on the walkway connecting the landing pad to one of the exits of the room. There was another exit at the other side of the landing pad, but it was blocked by a shield with a terminal that had to be drained of its energy.
The map data they had gotten from the station included the map of this facility, so they had a clear path to the coordinates given by the "Federation Trooper." So they passed the Blue Door at the end of the walkway with the Phazon canister and entered a room where there was an elevator directly in front of them. The elevator led them upward in a diagonal fashion, but once at the top, a locked security hatch blocked the path to the exit.
There was however another hatch, a weaker one blocking a tunnel that was destroyed with a simple charged beam. The tunnel led them to a chamber from which they were able to fire at the switch controlling the first hatch, opening it.
The room after the security hatch had some Phazon in the form of vapor released from vents in the floor, which would be toxic to any bioform not adapted to it (unless that bioform was Sweetie Belle). The first thing they saw upon entering was a large deceased unknown bioform that appeared to be part of a bioengineering experiment which disgusted the girls. After avoiding local versions of the Shriekbat dive-bombing at them when they advanced under the deceased bioform, Sweetie Belle and Samus then had to deal with some little creatures called Phazon Grubs coming out of the vents.
A bit before the Grubs, they spotted another security hatch, bigger than the previous one, blocking the exit, so they had to find a way to open it. While Sweetie Belle flew around to try to spot whatever controlled the hatch, finding a Missile Expansion above the deceased bioform, dealing with some more Shriekbats, and being careful to not be spotted by the patrol drones, Samus followed a made of a series of platform, one of which passed by the inside of the deceased bioform which had been hollowed-out. She eventually found a Morph Ball tunnel and signed the filly to join her before she entered it.
It led to a different room that contained more tunnels over a pool of liquid Phazon. The pool was guarded by a turret that fired at the pests that it detected such as Phazon Grubs, and Sweetie Belle quickly destroyed it before it detected them. To advance in these tunnels, Samus had to use bomb slots to open new passages while dealing with some of these pests that didn't have to worry about the turret anymore. On the way, they got an Energy Tank.
The tunnel ended in a high chamber with two circuit boards and a X-Ray terminal without power because one of the bords was damaged. Samus repaired the board, and then used the terminal, opening the big hatch and forming two steps out of blocks coming out of the walls, forming a path to the exit.
They then had to return in the tunnels, taking a different path where Samus had to use the Boost Ball to reach a bomb slot. While Samus did this, Sweetie Belle explored a bit, killing a swarm of creatures called Phazon Leeches (that had first been encountered in the landing area of the Elysian Seed) and finding a Ship Missile Expansion (which Spider Ball tracks were supposed to lead to).
The bomb slot opened a hatch to a last tunnel leading back to the room with the deceased bioform.
But then, as soon as they got out of the tunnel (which was blocked by a hatch that closed back behind them), a patrol drone scanned them and sounded the alarm.
"Shit."
Sweetie Belle sighed. "And we were doing so well..."
Two pirates with armors made of Phazite then appeared, followed by a pirate wearing an armor of red-colored Phazite that teleported on a platform. The pirate in red armor roared and ordered the two others to deal with "the Hunter and her sidekick" before he teleported away.
Sweetie Belle grinned, giving a shrug. "Oh well. I guess it's time to be violent."
"Just to warn you," Samus began as she scanned one of the pirates while dodging their beams of Phazon. "these Pirate Commandos can cloak themselves and teleport, and their armor of Phazite makes them very resistant. They are pretty much elite soldiers. Shit, I don't have the right beam to deal with them effectively."
"Thanks!"
Samus passed in Hypermode and began to fire at one of the pirates while Sweetie Belle charged at the other with one of her beam swords. The pirate parried her with one of his arm cannons before he fired with the other at her, only for Sweetie Belle to teleport behind him. The pirate teleported too, but when he reappeared, the filly was nowhere to be seen. Then, a sword made of Phazon energy came out of his throat, and the pirate let out a last gurgle before he dropped dead, revealing Sweetie Belle who had teleported again behind him. Meanwhile, Samus' Hyper Beam proved very effective against the armor of Phazite of the other pirate, and the armor was rapidly destroyed before the pirate was killed.
Surprisingly, when the two pirates were killed, the alarm stopped.
But now, the pirates knew that they were here.
"Let's go before more pirates come," Samus said.
"Bah, let them come. I don't mind more action."
Samus chuckled.
At this, they moved toward the opened hatch, climbed the steps, and exited the room through a Orange Door.
They were now in a corridor that turned left. Quickly, they stopped before a series of some kind of optical devices. A quick scan of one of them revealed that they were part of a security system and that they emitted light that couldn't be seen. The X-Ray Visor could see these lights, security lasers that will trigger the alarm if they touched them. The lasers were high enough that they could be passed under.
Instead, Sweetie Belle raised a leg toward the first laser, but before touching it, looked at Samus with a questioning grin. With a sigh, Samus signed the filly to go on, so Sweetie Belle touched the laser and the alarm sounded again. A Pirate Commando then quickly appeared.
Only to be immediately cut in half vertically by a sharp wave of energy from one of Sweetie's swords powered with Phazon energy. The alarm then stopped again, replaced by the sound of Sweetie Belle giggling.
"If you continue like that, you will have killed all the Pirate Commandos on the planet before the start of the Federation's assault," Samus said, making the filly laugh more.
In the middle of the corridor were two Phazite panels and a new entry that Samus scanned.
The entry was terrifying. The pirate who wrote it (probably the same pirate who wrote the previous ones) had fallen victim to Dark Samus' brainwashing, and now, he was like a zealot who had "seen the light" part of a cult with Dark Samus as the god. The pirate, by the same occasion, revealed Dark Samus' goal: to rule the universe.
Of course!
Further, the corridor turned right before ending, and the girls passed a Blue Door.
Behind it was a large room with a large containment tank in the center going all the way to the ceiling. Inside the tank was a lump of crystallized Phazon. In the walls around were containment chambers housing Phazon Metroids and what seemed to be eggs. There were also a few more, smaller, empty tanks and some exhibits of dissected Metroids. The room had a upper level with a pathway surrounding the central containment tank.
On this pathway, before an Orange Door, a pirate spotted them, and another ran before a White Blast Shield before he raised an orb that sounded the alarm. The two pirates then jumped down to attack the girls, quickly joined by a Commando.
Sweetie Belle went to deal with the Commando, leaving the two other pirates to Samus. The pirates had handshields, so Samus had to rip them off with her grapple before she could fire at them. Sweetie Belle rapidly killed the Commando by teleporting his brain out of his skull before she turned to the remaining pirate, Samus having killed one by now. The pirate hesitated a moment, not sure who he should fire at, and the girls used it to fire at him without mercy.
Like before, the alarm stopped with the death of the last pirate, letting the girls explore the room.
The compartment inside central tank could move between the current level and the upper one, but it was currently stuck because of a lack of power. The chambers containing the Phazon Metroids and eggs (as well as a Missile Expansion in one of them) had shields that apparently emitted a high-frequency noise that kept the Metroids docile so they didn't try to escape by phasing through the walls. The empty tanks contained some information about the specimens of Metroid that had been in them. One had contained a Metroid from Zebes, judged highly aggressive. A second had contained a Metroid from Tallon IV, and a third had contained a Metroid from a planet called SR388 which had been a "newly discovered strain." All three had been transferred respectively to an "off-site laboratory," "its original research center," and to the "main science center." Then came the exhibited dissected Metroids, starting with what Samus recognised was a Dark Tallon Metroid, a Metroid that had been possessed by an Ing from Dark Aether. The two other exhibits revealed that the pirates did some inconclusive researches on the Metroids' energy-draining abilities and that the Pirate Homeworld's atmosphere "resulted in various unique physiological mutations."
"The pirates could open a museum on Metroids with all this," Sweetie Belle remarked.
"An idea that will never cross their minds," Samus said.
The Hunter moved to a terminal beside a gate, a new kind that also needed the X-Ray Visor to be operated. The terminal opened the gate, revealing a lift that led them to the level below where Samus was able to repair a circuit board. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle found an Energy Cell that she took (making it four in their possession), cutting the power in some systems. When they returned in the main level, the compartment in the central tank was now moving up and down, and the shields on the chambers were deactivated, allowing the Metroids to get out only to be quickly killed. Sweetie Belle then destroyed one of the still intact glasses to reach the Missile Expansion and give it to Samus.
They remarked then that there was now an opening at the base of the central tank. When the compartment moved down, it revealed a slot that Samus quickly had to enter with the Morph Ball. The compartment then moved to the upper level, transporting Samus to another opening on the pathway that surrounded the tank.
The coordinates of the "Federation Trooper" were beyond the Orange Door, but out of curiosity, they destroyed the Whist Blast Shield to see what was behind, which turned out to be a room in open air, meaning that acid was raining in most of it. While they weren't able to continue further here, they found a Morph Ball tunnel that led to a Missile Expansion, so their curiosity rewarded them in the end.
They then took the Orange Door back in the room with the Metroids (where they had to kill a few more of them) and entered a smaller room with a wall jump surface with a multi-targets lock on it. Destroying the lock activated a mechanism that then formed the second wall jump surface. after destroying four Crawltanks that came, Samus then used the surfaces to reach an upper level, Sweetie Belle protecting her by destroying some Puffers Mines (Puffers that were engineered by the pirates to become patrol animals, their body filled with Phazon gas ready to explode) that were constantly coming.
At the top, badly contaminated by Phazon, was another entry of crucial importance because it revealed the name of the sentient planet at the origin of everything: Phaaze. To make it short, Dark Samus left the pirates (who shot down any who thought that she abandoned them) and came back with a Leviathan. Dark samus then used the Leviathan's ability to create wormholes to lead the pirates (who, again, shot down any who were scared of the unknown) to Phaaze, which was confirmed to be the source of all the Phazon in the universe.
If they destroyed Phaaze, they destroyed the Phazon for good.
"Now, we just need to wait for AU 217 to get the coordinates that the Elysians had discovered and Phazon will be history!" Sweetie Belle said happily.
"We will still have to find a way to destroy Phaaze," Samus reminded.
"That's not a problem."
"How so?"
Sweetie Belle answered with a simple innocent smile that said everything Samus needed to know.
Honestly, she wasn't even surprised. That filly was a monster.
They then passed the Blue door at the end and entered a hallway that had windows letting them see a room where a containment unit was loaded in a chamber. Another unit took the place of the first one in the room, at the base of a tower that could be rotated. They were able to see that this unit contained an upgrade, the one that Samus needed to resist the acid rain, the Hazard Shield. However, the only way they could see leading into this room was a Spider Ball track.
"So close, and yet so far..." Samus mumbled after sighing.
"New objective: find the Spider Ball," Sweetie Belle said, wanting to sound amused while she was actually annoyed.
Thankfully, the "Federation Trooper" wasn't far, so they continued in the hallway and passed the door at the end.
As soon as the door opened, they heard gunfire. When they arrived, they saw two pirates firing at a Marine who was covering behind a storage unit in a room with a deactivated elevator. Samus turned into Hypermode and fired at the pirate at the left while Sweetie Belle charged at the pirate at the right with her sword powered by Phazon energy and impaled him. The two pirates died, Samus' one taking a little more time as his armor had to be destroyed first.
the Marine came out of his cover.
"Samus!" he shouted happily. "Samus! Thank the stars it's you! I thought I was a dead man. I think I can help you get to the Seed."
Something definitively felt fishy for Sweetie Belle. Or rather, she was feeling Phazon, inside the Marine.
A lot of Phazon.
Don't say anything Samus, Sweetie Belle said in Samus' mind.
The Hunter reacted by looking at her, but didn't say anything. But under her helmet, she had a rather shocked expression.
"As I'm sure you know, the path to the Seed entrance is exposed to the acid rain," the Marine continued, unaware of the discussion that was starting in Samus' mind.
I'm feeling a lot of Phazon inside this guy. Whoever or whatever he is, he's corrupted.
"However, I've seen the pirates using a special suit shield that protects them from the elements."
I think that I know who this is. It's Gandrayda, Samus said in her mind, assuming that Sweetie Belle was able to hear her.
Really? Sweetie Belle asked.
"If you can acquire one of these shield units, you could probably make it to the Seed. Lucky for you, I've seen where they make these devices. Here are the coordinates," the Marine said before he downloaded the coordinates in Samus' Suit, not that it helped since they already knew where the shield units were stocked.
Gandrayda can shapeshift, Samus explained.
I see. So, what do we do? Should we wait for her to drop the act or should I try to destroy the Seed in her while she's busy monologuing?
"I even know a back entrance to that location, but will need your help activating the lift that takes us there. We've got to engage the security levers simultaneously," Gandrayda finished as she walked to one of the levers in question.
She's probably on her guard. Just keep an eye on her while we activate this elevator, Samus said to Sweetie Belle as she moved to the second lever.
"I'll call out the instructions. We must synchronize our movements or the security clamps won't release," Gandrayda instructed. "Are you ready?"
Samus nodded, grabbing the lever.
"Pull."
She pulled the lever.
"Twist."
She twisted it counterclockwise.
"Push."
She pushed it back in place.
They succeeded, and the elevator activated. Samus then walked on it alongside Gandrayda, and Sweetie Belle quickly joined them before the elevator rose.
It led them to a large circular room, clearly an arena of sort, with shutters as walls.
As Sweetie Belle and Samus looked around to get a good look at the room, Gandrayda silently moved her arm cannon toward the filly.
Only for said filly to suddenly turn around, materialize her whip, and wrap the arm cannon with it. she then pulled to bring Gandrayda in the air before she smashed her on the ground. Gandrayda let out a gasp of pain, and purple electricity came out of her body as it shifted, becoming like it had been shown by AU 242 in her briefing.
She had a humanoid appearance. Her body was entirely pink and blue, and her flesh was transparent excepted on her head, her skeletal structure visible as a result. Her eyes glowed blue, and Phazon could be seen circulating inside her.
She slowly got up, staggering a bit.
"Damn, you got me little horsy."
"We saw through your trap since the beginning, as well as I can see through you right now," Sweetie Belle said.
Gandrayda laughed, but Sweetie could hear anger in it.
"I was instructed by Dark Samus to kill you in priority after what you pulled off with Ghor. She told me of your power, so I prepared this trap. I put a lot of effort in it, it really hurts my pride that you saw through it."
"That was you putting a lot of effort? A child could have seen through it. Oh wait, I'm a child."
Gandrayda growled, but her anger then turned into anticipation.
"You know what? I'm glad that you survived. Now, I will be able to kill you the fun way. We will probably end up blowing up the facility, which I wanted to avoid, but... Oh well," she finished with a shrug. "This will be the pirates' problem. They can always rebuild it."
Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. "Not that I want to boast, but do you really think that you have a chance against me? What I showed to Dark Samus was just the tip of the iceberg."
Gandrayda laughed again, her body changing shape. She shrunk, her arms turned into legs, she grew a tail and a pair of wings, a horn appeared on her forehead...
When the transformation was over, before Sweetie Belle stood a perfect replica of herself. She even had her whip
"Oh..."
"So, let's see what this body has to offer..." Sweetie-G said as her whip separated into ten cannons that then turned into double beam swords powered with Phazon energy. "Oh my..." she purred.
Sweetie Belle gulped. "Uh... Samus? How much can she copy from others?"
"As far as I know, she has always been able to copy the abilities and powers of the others, weapons included, no matter what they were."
Sweetie Belle stared blankly at Samus. "Abilities... Powers... Weapons..." She grinned. "There's one thing she can't copy! Even if she really can copy ALL my powers, I will still win!" Her grin then turned into a sheepish one. "But maybe I should teleport you to your ship so you can leave this planet ASAP. This will get very dangerous."
"I don't think so. Look," Samus said as she pointed at Gandrayda.
Sweetie Belle looked back at her doppelganger and saw that Gandrayda was now looking at her forelegs with a shocked expression, tears appearing in her eyes.
"I'm... I'm..." Gandrayda's shock turned into pure joy. "I'm myself! I'm myself again!" She suddenly jumped in joy with a "Woohoo!!!"
"What?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"I'm back in control! Yeah! Wooh! Suck it Dark Samus! I'm not your puppet anymore!" Gandrayda continued.
"Wait, WHAT?!" Sweetie Belle shouted. "What the heck? How is that...?!"
"Think about it," Samus said. "The instant she turned into you, she gained your immunity to the corruption of Phazon."
The next few seconds, Sweetie Belle remained silent, jaw dropped. Silence during which Gandrayda calmed down and flew to Sweetie Belle.
"There is no word to express how much I am thankful! Thanks to you, Dark Samus and her Phazon have no control over me anymore! No more corruption! I'm free! Ahahahah!" She hugged Sweetie Belle, tears streaming from her eyes. "I'm free! I'm free...!"
"Eheh... eh... You are welcome... but... that was nothing... really..." Sweetie Belle hesitantly said as she patted Gandrayda's back. Really, that was nothing. I literally did nothing. Also, way to go Writer, hyping an epic fight only to do this. I'm not complaining, but your followers won't be as happy I think.
I'm really sorry!
I really was ready to do an epic fight between Sweetie Belle and Sweetie-G, where Sweetie Belle would have eventually won because Gandrayda couldn't copy her skill, but then, I realized what Samus explained at the end, that by turning into Sweetie Belle, Gandrayda gained her immunity to Phazon corruption.
Well, at least, I didn't have to come up with if Gandrayda actually managed to copy ALL of Sweetie's powers or just a part of them. By turning into Sweetie Belle, Gandrayda should have gained her ability to control Void Energy, but whether it was all of it or not, I couldn't decide. Her shapeshifting would be very OP if she could actually do it.
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It isn’t soul deep, it only copies the physical, and at least part of sweetie is physical, whatever power is in her body is stronger then phazon.
I'm actually amused at the bait and switch, but wouldn't Gandrayda become re-corrupted as soon as she turned back into her natural form?
10960934
You are right.
10960945
She would as long as she still has that Seed inside her. Of course, they will take care of this.
Don't jump to conclusions, Sweetie Belle. I'm fine with this perfectly anticlimactic result of Gandrayda gaining Sweetie's immunity to Phazon corruption. Besides, I think the most epic fights should be reserved for final or semifinal bosses (with a few exceptions; who thinks the Pauline spirit battle was harder than the Galeem and Dharkon battle?).
10960961
Pauline, Dr. Wily, and (if I remember correctly) General Bison are my nightmare.
10960968
There is a cheap way to beat Pauline by using a support spirit that gives you the staff item. Then it's just a matter of sniping her.
10961298
I learned about it not long after I first beat Pauline and I used it in my New Game + run.
10961419
Dr. Wily still gives me nightmares however.
10961421
Donkey Kong's Special Down was very useful for me.
10960961
10961298
The thing about Pauline is that it's not really a "battle" in the traditional sense. And IIRC Bison is just one of the first Primary Legends you can fight and therefore will massively outstat you; he wasn't nearly as much of a problem the second time around. As for Wily... Just bring Ness or Lucas and eat Mega Man's buster shots with PSI Magnet to keep your health up (on Easy, I just brought the Golden Mario spirit and Doriyahed everything to death like I did most other things)
10961427
I hadn't thought to use Ness or Lucas. I will have to remember this next time I do this fight.
I will have to use this one.
10961427
Can't go wrong with Ganondorf and super armor.
10961485
There are a couple Spirits where it doesn't work, like ones where you don't have a working floor without a two-slot spirit... and of course Pauline. When it came to beating the latter with actual skill instead of the cheese that had been patched to be more difficult, I ended up using Dark Samus: her Charge Shot reaches just far enough to hit Peach without triggering her urge to flee, and the best 3-slot Grab spirit happens to boost energy attacks.
10961513
In my opinion, the best overall spirit without using the style trainers is Soma Cruz.
10960968
Don't forget The Boss or was it Big Boss. That legendary rank stats plus poison field almost mandates using poison resistance/absorbtion to win.
10961528
The thing is, using type advantages is important when you're fighting other Legend Spirits. That +30% over Soma is a real difference, although I agree that he's more consistent for clearing the 1 and 2 star stuff.
10961539
I never was clear on how much the swing was regarding type advantage.
10961594
I second-guessed the number I gave myself, but the specifics don't really matter when it's practically free stats and you need every advantage you can get against Legends.
Wiki check says it's x1.3 damage if you're strong and x0.85 damage if you're weak; with Attack and Defense scaling more or less linearly, that's more than enough to beat out the slightly higher overall stats Soma has. Of course, Soma has the advantage of being part of the bare minimum route of World of Light for reasons that are a major spoiler for his debut game seriously Sakurai at least Sheik was gameplay
10961614
I'm just lazy and don't like changing my spirits more than I need to. Also do not forget the bonus from matching a spirit to a character from the same game.
10961620
+10% Attack and Defense, with effects capped at 10k even though the numbers aren't.
I, for one am amused.
So... Does that make Gandrayda a goddess also? If she managed to copy all the abilities and Power of Sweetie Belle?
10962047
As Spellflame pointed out, Gandrayda copies what is physical, not what comes from the soul. By copying Sweetie Belle, she copied her powers pretty much as they were back before she ascended to alicornhood (maybe a bit more powerful because she's still an alicorn and not just an unicorn). She can use magic, control Void Energy and by extension all other energies, materialize and create all kind of stuff, and so on, but not at the scale of the real Sweetie Belle. She must have, like, about 10% to 15% of Sweetie's full power. 20% at most.
10962086
I forgot to mention this when I read the chapter, but I didn't expect Gandraydas to react with such childish glee when she became immune to the corruption.
10962086
So, I take it that you have no idea on how to make the next chapter.
10962997
She already showed to be pretty childish in the game. In her first appearance, she pulled a prank at the beginning of a serious briefing with the other Hunters. And her bio indicates that she considers bounty hunting as a sport.
In short, Rundas was the boastful one with a big ego on who we could count, Ghor was the kindhearted one who put others before himself (he gave the money he got from his bounty hunting to orphanages for example) and who had lot of knowledge on machines and other stuff, and Gandrayda was the childish one who considered Samus as her rival that she wanted to surpass.
10963495
I don't know what makes you think that. I'm in the middle of writing it.
I know the lack of combat surprised me as Gandrayda is rather difficult to beat in games. But the scene made me laugh so don't be sorry.
Wow...that had to be one of the most spectacular backfires I have ever read. A fight that ended before it even began because of a technicality.
That joke really earned the Comedy tag for this story.
10990493
And I'm still proud to say that I hadn't even thought of this technicality until the very last minute.
That was an amusing anti-climax.