Samus and Spike both stared at the table for a time, lost in their memories. It took a while for them to notice that they were being hugged again. "...thanks," Samus eventually spoke up.
"So you went after him, then?" Luna spoke up, stepping back from the embracing once the pair were responding again.
"Yeah," Samus replied. "Followed him all the way back to Zebes."
"Isn't that where the Chozo gave you Spike's egg?" Twilight asked, remembering the early part of the story.
"Yes," Samus confirmed. "It was like reliving my first mission all over again."
"Complete with picking up the same power ups!" Spike joked, earning himself a punch on the arm from his bounty hunter mother.
"Didn't you have all your upgrades in the ship's computer?" Rainbow asked, confused. "I mean, I know you said you downgraded to not damage the station..."
"My ship's computer only has so much space," Samus explained. "An emergency protocol during Ceres' self destruct protocol was to download all information into the nearest ship granted clearance...and since I brought in most of what the information came from, my ship had clearance. And the only data on my hard drive marked 'non-essential' for the station to overwrite was the data on my upgrades."
"At least we were able to save their work..." Spike murmured softly.
"I'm guessing this adventure ran a bit longer?" Cadence inquired gently, thinking to distract them with storytelling. "And perhaps a bit nostalgic for you, Samus?"
Samus shrugged. "A bit," she admitted. "The ship settled down in the only viable landing spot, in the region called Crateria..."
The ship settled down amidst pouring rain and crackling thunder, the storm seeming to mirror the moods of the two Hunters. The blue stone of the ground was interspersed with patches of green grass, sending small echoes as the pair followed the path into the cave systems that were nearly the entirety of the planet. The stone crunched under their feet, both metal boots and scaled claws, each setting up their own distinct echoes.
Spike followed Samus closely, since she knew the way through. The entrance to the cave system was sealed by a blue energy door, which irised open from a single shot from Samus' arm cannon.
Knowing exactly where to go, Samus made her way down a long passage that varied between natural stone and carved walls, the sure sign of a Chozo structure. What she found beyond there, however, was definitely not Chozo. Recognizing the old Pirate base where she'd destroyed Mother Brain all those years ago, she continued to scour for a sign of Chozo tech or Squishy.
An elevator took the pair down to Brinstar, where Samus found a replacement Morph Ball module-
"Seriously?" Rainbow demanded, stupefied. "You disabled your Morph Ball for fear of damaging the space station?"
"My upgrade programs had all become intertwined because of the PED functionality," Samus explained. "I had a choice of 'full arsenal' or 'restore suit defaults'. Since I thought I might actually have been able to rescue survivors, it was a no-brainer."
"...oh," Rainbow replied lamely, wilting in on herself. "Sorry..."
"It's alright," Samus replied. "I didn't really explain that well..."
"So..." Twilight began, "once you had the Morph Ball, you had to recover the rest of your arsenal?"
"Yup," Samus confirmed. "Thankfully, having Spike along made navigating the place easier, even if he wasn't able to open any but the blue doors." Noticing shocked expressions, she chuckled. "Unlike the other worlds, the doors - except the blue ones - required specific energy reactions to disable shield locks, after which they'd be blue. Reds required the energy of five missile explosions. Green required one super missile, and yellow required a power bomb."
"So we were limited to what we could get through via skill," Spike explained. "Thankfully, we managed it well. Although when Mom grabbed the Morph Ball, security systems activated, causing both the native wildlife and various old mechanicals to become both active and hostile."
"Thankfully, I was able to recover my Missile Launcher shortly thereafter," Samus continued. "Five Missiles for enemies and doors. And the first red door trailing back had a missile expansion behind it."
"After that, it was back up to Crateria for her Bombs," Spike concluded. "Unfortunately, not only had both the local wildlife and Space Pirates come out of the woodwork to fight us, the Bombs were guarded..."
After grabbing the Bombs from the Chozo Statue that was holding it, Samus turned to join Spike in leaving the room. Before she could get there, the door irised shut, the brown coloration showing that the locking mechanism had kicked in. Both she and Spike tried to blast it open anyway, to no avail.
Behind them, the stone covering of the Chozo Statue broke off as the inner mechanisms activated, its normally peaceful systems overridden by an unknown signal as it stood up, its eyes glowing a malevolent red. It then let out a roar as it charged them, hurling bombs and releasing explosive energy from its talons.
Samus and Spike split to either side of it, readying for battle. Spike's breath attacks were effective, but getting too close for melee resulted in him taking bad hits from the explosive energy. Samus used both her missiles and her arm cannon when she ran out of them.
Eventually, the chest of the statue burst open, letting its internal circuitry fall out. A few more shots and its head exploded. After that, it collapsed, its structure totally compromised.
As the door unlocked, Samus approached the ruined statue...and examined the name engraved upon it in Chozo text. She owed it to the spirits of the Chozo to remember the one whose statue she'd been forced to deface and destroy.
"After that, we returned to Crateria," Samus finished. "I was able to collect a few expansions and map data for the region before making our way to the next region...Brinstar."
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
Brinstar, here we come!
Huh, I always assumed that the Chozo Statues that attacked you were tests put there by the Chozo themselves, the mirror thing guarding the upgraded/replacement suit in Zero Mission seems to support such thinking too.
6821198
When they fight you before giving you the upgrade, that makes sense.
But not when it's after. It also doesn't explain the one later in the game that doesn't have an upgrade.
6821211 I think it's closer to a security system, personally- pissing this one off pisses off the one later on as well. The Ghost Ship one either isn't built for combat or never got any indication that Chozo Tech was 'Stolen' because of its location.
Main flaw with that explanation is the whole 'WHY WOULD YOU TRY TO KILL SAMUS' thing. Unless they never got around to giving her a way to disable them herself due to the genocide- which is possible.
6821211 Well, got to have some way of preventing the maintenance guy accidentally getting tested to death right? The yellow/golden one guards the door to the room containing one of the most powerful weapons in the game. (The room it's in is also able to be accessed without immediately triggering the test.)
6821227 The Chozo knew she would be able to handle the challenges the tests posed and thus didn't bother to give her a way to disable them?
6821227
6821249
I was implying that Mother Brain - who was originally a Chozo creation - had taken control of the statues.
6821270
Pretty easy to tell, but at the same time it would have been neat to have had it as more of a 'Chozo messed up a bit/had an oversight they couldn't fix before their deaths' thing IMO. I keep forgetting MB is a Chozo creation, as well...
6821249
"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is the clean the deadly statues that house our technology. If you touch the technology, you will die."
"Why the hell would you hire me, a janitor, for this and NOT properly equip me!?"
"Erm... Didn't you say you were a black belt in Karate on your resume?"
"Just because I'm a badass martial artist janitor, doesn't mean I can ninja clean rooms!"
"Well, that's what you were hired to do. Get to it!"
Great, you got me thinking of some random janitorial alien beating the crap out of everything in his way to clean all of Zebes...
6821307
That would be an awesome game mod!
Incoming Kraid!
Here we go, finally the metroid game I've actually played. Of course, it was nearly two decades ago, so I can't say I remember it much better than all of the ones I haven't played, heh.
I really hope spike gets some kind of ram attack at somepoint
As someone who played Zero Mission before Super, it really was nostalgic.
Gotcha. That explains why she didn't have her upgrades, that was my main complaint about Super, the lack of explanation of WHY she started at zero.
Ta, ta, ta, ta, taaa, taa... (That's the theme that plays when she finally appears on top of her ship. Couldn't find a clip.)
... Point taken.
Fun fact, the Reds also open to a single Super, meaning it's 5 times as powerful as a normal missile.
And thankfully, no need for the Long Beam.
The Bomb Torizo.
Makes sense, he's a big dragon and the room to fight that Torizo is TINY.
Ah Brinstar. What memories.
Eminently enjoyable.
6823999
Thanks
This is a detail in Super Metroid that you (the author) probably already know ,but I´m putting this anyway just in case be carefull anybodie else because it has some minor spoilers
6824370 OH. Thanks.
I can't wait to see the ponies reaction to Spore Spawn and some of the other bosses. I expect Scootaloo and Rainbow will be thrilled at the fight with Crocomire. Though I fully expect Fluttershy to feel sorry for Draygon's babies the Evir.
6821211 Good point, think Mother Brain hacked them???
6821349 Agreed!!
Crateria, an excellent starting point of the game, especially outside in the rain. It grabs your attention perfectly and set the mood well. As for the story, interesting points with the whole upgrades explanation. It makes a lot of sense and I can see why she went with the suit defaults.
C&C:
An emergency protocol during Ceres' self destruct protocol was to download all information...
> Put a dash between ‘self’ and ‘destruct’.
Twilight: What was THAT!?
Samus: A Chozoa, a nasty parasite that can take over both biomaterials and machines. Called so because they where first recorded by a Chozo who had his statue taken over by one.
8273144
This is my fan reason that the Torizo exist s
Tch. Technology. Am I right?
6824373
Samus wouldn't have saved them or she would have killed them afterwards because of the fact that they have the x in them every living thing besides her was infected with the X parasite so Samus must have thrown them out the airlock after learning about them to avoid anyone else getting infected by them