I'll show her, I can be strong, just like her. That's what Zelda had said before she left that day. But training is harder than it looks. She could cheat using her male form, but she wasn't opt for cheating. She wanted her natural strength. She had bought a small, one person, lightspeed ship, and a room at an apartment on a planet she could never remember the name of. She had acquired a job as a chef at a moderate japanese restaurant. She was only a few days into work, and already a favorite employee. Her cooking skills had improved very quickly. She was also learning a bit of sword play from a newfound friend named Rei. She was a Japanese girl who was short, but extremely pretty, with long black hair, and an eye for flaws. Right now though, Zelda was in the gym, lifting weights, trying to become stronger. "Well Zelda, you certainly didn't seem like the type who pumped iron like those gents." a training instructor pointed to a group of muscle bulging men. "I guess. Well, I have my motivations." She replied, grabbing her bar. She leaned back and started again. The instructor leaned over to see her face. "Are you trying to set a world record or something. You work way harder than even some guys." "I want to participate in that tournament that's coming up. I'm nowhere near tough enough." "I'll say. You're only lifting 100 pounds." Zelda stopped and glared at the instructor. He smiled and cocked his head to the side, and sipped a drink he had. Zelda resumed work. "One tip though, try wearing sweatpants instead of a dress." He said, looking at her. A clank of metal and Zelda sat up. "Do they have sweatskirts?" She asked. His response was to laugh loudly, leaning his head back and smiling to his ears. Zelda hated when people laughed like that. "Hey! Here you are. I've been looking everywhere for you." A new voice. Zelda looked to where it came from and saw Rei running towards her, a bag of something in her hand. She stopped in front of the two and panted, leaning on her knees. She stood straight, bowed to the instructor, and then faced Zelda. "Hi." Zelda said. "Hi there. Hungry? I got some food. Hee hee, but it's from one of our rival restaurants." Rei grinned, eyes closed. She had a habit of doing that, the food part. "You know you'll get busted if you're caught with that. Do you ever eat from our restaurant?" Zelda asked. "Yes. When I'm working. I don't hate our food, especially not your cooking. But I like to try different stuff. Wanna come to our apartment and eat?" Zelda sat there, looked up at the instructor, and let out a big sigh. "Sure, let's go." Zelda got up and bowed to the instructor, as well as Rei. He bowed back, and left them. "You must be pooped." Rei said as they walked out. Back at their apartment they sat down at their table, a low, oriental style table. Zelda had to get used to these tables, they were everywhere in this city. Rei pulled the food out of the bag and spread it out at the table. "Alright, let's chow!" Rei was always excited about something. "Hold on a moment." Zelda said, sniffing the food. Rei was stopped in mid-dive. Zelda pulled her head back and thought a moment. "What's wrong? Don't tell me YOU found something wrong. I already made them re-make it three times." "It needs something." Zelda replied. She grabbed all the food and ran to the kitchen. "HEY wait a minute!" Rei jumped up, but it was too late. Zelda was already cooking the food again to improve it. about 2 minutes later Zelda brought the food back to the table. It was steaming, and emanating a mouth watering smell. "Here, try this." Zelda handed a piece of original food to Rei, who ate it... right out of Zelda's hand, which surprised Zelda a moment. "Mm-hmm." She observed, munching away. Zelda smiled. Then handed a piece of her own improved food. "Now try this." She said. Rei almost repeated her previous approach, but Zelda stopped her. Rei picked it up and ate it. "Well?" Zelda sked. It took Rei a moment to respond... .. but when she did, tears began to flow like streams from her closed eyes. She was smiling away, and hands clasped together. Zelda kind of stared at her, and was not expecting the big hug that followed. "You can't believe how good this is. You HAVE to try it." With that the two of them inhaled the food. They lay on the floor, a hand over their stomachs, and a smile across their faces. They had eaten every last morsel, and loved it all. It took her a while, but eventually Zelda sat up, full. "Okay, that was good. I told you my cooking was better than any other's." Zelda said. She had almost turned around to face Rei, when she found Rei's arms wrapped around her from behind. "Actually, I said that. And I mean it. You're cooking IS good." Rei told her softly, a smile still on her face. "Rei? You're scaring me." Zelda replied. "Oh. Oops, sorry." Rei's arms flew off of Zelda and Rei sat back. That was... odd. Zelda thought. Samus had promised to train for the tournament, and had prepared for training. She however, was not training. She was drifting. Her ship had run out of fuel and was floating aimlessly though space. "Why didn't I stop and refuel. I passed a perfectly good station, THREE minutes before this happened. Why did this happen to me?" She was sitting in her chair, fiddling with her pen. Her computer was sending out occasional distress signals, hoping to the gods that someone, ANYone would pick it up, and come to her rescue. To have to be rescued by someone else, especially a man, would be one of her worst nightmares. It would be something she had to endure though, if she wanted to get out of this. She looked out the window and saw a blue planet passing by, or rather, she was passing by IT. She saw multiple spots, which where objects in the atmosphere, probably other ships entering. She was appearantly too far for them to pick her signal up. To pass time, Samus decided to do searches on her computer. She logged onto her computer, and found she had mail. It was all junk mail, advertisements and such, except for one, from the tournament staff. "Let's see. 'Samus Aran, thank you for joining this year's tournament. We regrett to inform you that it has been... POSTPONED!?" Samus yelled. She read on. " We have had some trouble with the staff and, disputes, but it should be sorted out soon. We expect the situation to return to normal in a week and a half. The tournement is postponed to two weeka later, at earliest. We will contact you again when the date has been verified. Thank you, the Management.'" Samus sat back in her chair, groaning. "At least I have more time to train now. What kind of bonus is that?" Her intercom beeped. Samus looked at it, and finally pressed the button. "Chu!?" was heard. "What?" Samus replied. A picture of a Pichu appeared on screen. He was wearing green goggles over his eyes. "Chu chu pi-chu!" "Hold on a moment. I'll turn on the translator." She flipped a switch and pressed some buttons. "Samus? Is that you?" the Pichu asked. "Yeah. It's me." Samus mumbled, wishing eagerly for a man to come and rescue her instead. "Your ship was sending distress signals. Are you alright?" "Are there any other ships around?" "Um..." checking his radar, "Nope. None on my scanners. Are you okay?" "I need a pickup. Preferably a refuel right here." Samus groaned. "No can do on refuel, but I can get you to a nearby station in a jip." the Pichu jumped from board to board on his console, rapidly typing in commands. "Okay, just do it fast." Samus leaned back in her chair. She saw a larger ship move over hers from behind. She felt a jolt as the tractor beam grabbed her ship. She was carried up, and then locked into place by electromagnets. "Hold on tight, this'll be quite a jump." Pichu announced. Samus grabbed onto her seat, and they shot forward. Samus felt a long stretch in her body as the ship entered a jump. A station appeared in front of them in seconds. Silence was about for a minute while Pichu negotiated an entrance. They flew into the hangar a moment later, and Pichu guided Samus's ship into a platform, and the systems locked her in place. Samus stepped out and looked around. "Oh no. No no no. Any other station, it had to be this one." Samus realized that this was the station where she had left... her. She tried to forget her, but now she remembered again. She turned her head and closed her eyes tight. I'm going to forget all about this. I'm going to get a resupply and get out of here. "Pi? Chu pi?" Pichu came up behind her. Samus turned around, confused. "You know, I can't understand a word you say." She had left her translator in the ship. "I'm going to refuel and then leave." "Pi-chu? Chu chu pi-chu!" Pichu squealed, shocked. "I honestly have no idea what that means." Samus told him again. "Catch!" Samus whirled around and barely caught something a man threw to her. She observed it and saw, it was a mini translator. She thanked the man and put it on her shirt. "What did you say again?" "You just got here. Why leave so soon?" the little Pichu questioned. "It's my business." She told him firmly. She couldn't stop thinking about her, Zelda. She waved the thought off and marched towards a maintenance crew. "The tournament was postponed?" Zelda was reading the same e-mail. She too had signed up to participate. Samus was probably going to be in the tournament as well. "What happened?" Rei questioned. She was in PJs. She went to Zelda and sat down in the same chair. Zelda, a little nervous at Rei's actions, replied, "They postponed the tournament. Something's happened with the staff in charge." "They misspelled 'regrett', it should only have one 't'" "I wonder what's going on." "And tournement is correctly spelled tournament." Zelda glared at Rei, who looked back, and shrugged. "They also put an 'a' instead of an 's' at the end of weeks. It says weeka." "Perfectionist." muttered Zelda. "What was that?" Rei asked, a strange tone in her voice. She wrapped her arms around Zelda again and leaned off the chair, making them fall to the floor. "HEY! What are you... EEEEEK!" Zelda shreiked. "You know I admire you Zelda. You're sweet." "I... I..." Zelda was speechless. "Do you MIND!?" She yelled. "No. Not at all." The rest is not to be said. Needless to say, Zelda's night was... different. The next morning, the sun poked through the window, and shined in Zelda's eyes. She pulled the blanket over her head to block the light, and gazed at the sleeping Rei. Her arms were wrapped around Zelda, and her head snuggled up in her neck. She had, as well, a leg up over Zelda's hips. The night before, Zelda would have been freaked out, but things changed, suddenly. Zelda was content, lying there with Rei's arms around her. She had a certain attraction to Rei now. An attraction that she had with another before. "Rei?" Zelda whispered. Rei moaned. Zelda smiled and said, "I think it's morning." Rei looked up from Zelda's neck, eyes half open. She yawned, mouth wide open, and forced her eyes open all the way. "Shall I make breakfast?" Zelda asked. "Will it taste as good as dinner?" "Better." they both giggled, and Rei kissed Zelda. Funny how this can happen overnight sometimes. Rei stepped out of the shower to hear the sound of sizzling bacon. The smell was better, and she had to force herself to get dressed first. She walked out a minute later, in her training outfit. She and Zelda sat down to the table, a delicious omelette in front of them, with bacon and sausage, a pitcher of milk and orange juice, and toast. A simple breakfast, but everything was made by Zelda, so it tasted good. "I'm assisting a teacher in a sword class today, you can come along if you want, get some practice." Rei suggested, awfully forward. "Alright. I was going to go to the gym today anyway, so it won't matter if I do that instead. And remember we have work tonight." "Yeah yeah. Youre such a perfectionist kind of girl. You need to do everything just right, so you don't look bad." Zelda gazed at Rei, who shrugged. "You should talk Rei. You corrected every spelling error on that e-mail last night. You convinced the man working on the billboard to add a little shade to a certain color, you had the rival restaurant re-make the food three times before I got to it. You go out of your way to try and make everything just right." "Eh-hem!?" "Okay, so you don't TRY, but you get the idea." "So what if I like things perfect. I can't allow anything to be even slightly wrong for my Zelda." Zelda looked at Rei again, sighed, and returned to eating. They arrived in front of a building with a picture of two kids beating the heck out of each other with sticks. "Well, it works doesn't it?" Rei questioned. "I never said anything." Zelda replied, as they walked in. They stepped through the door, and not a moment later did a kid come flying by their faces, and into a padded wall. "THAT'S the correct attack Ling. Very good. Now you try it Billy." The instructor was a loud, but energetic, trainer. He turned around and saw teh two girls and walked towards them, smiling widely and arms wide open. He grabbed them both in a big hug saying, "Ladies how good of you to join us. Rei I haven't seen you in a long time how have you been?" "Good coach, just dandy." Rei answered back, acting as though trying to keep her distance from the instructor. Zelda leaned over and whispered into Rei's ear, "Is it just me, or does everyone here act a bit looney?" "You act just as looney you know." Rei whispered back. "Well girls, are you ready to start?" "I don't know much about swordplay, Rei's sorta teaching me." Zelda explained. "Ahh, it's good you're here then. I taught Rei everything I know." Rei leaned in to Zelda and whispered, "Which wasn't much. I learned mostly from myself." Both girls giggled quietly. "Well then. Let's get you started." Samus flew from the station as fast as she could. No matter how she tried, she couldn't get Zelda off her mind. "I can't stop worrying about her. I wonder how she's doing, if she's alright." She logged onto the Galactic HQ website, looking for bounties. There were three that she could take care of easily. She sent a message to HQ telling them that she would take the jobs. Then she shifted her ship into maximun speed and took off, searching for the location of the first target. She stopped at a red planet with a few clouds here and there, and a large city on the surface. She flew her ship into the atmosphere. Time to get into character. I haven't done this in a long time. She dashed to her room and quickly equipped her suit, ten return to the front room. As she neared the city, she could see mayhem below. Switching to the long range visual scanners she detected a large, single pilot machine causing the ruckus. "Alright, already into the action... oops." She covered her mouth and remembered not to say anything. The machine was armed with a massive claw and a cannon. Samus stopped her ship in midair, jumped out of the hatch, and controlled it to fly higher. She landed on the machine's head, beam sword ignited, and cutting into the cockpit. The pilot inside realized what was going on and swerved the machine to throw Samus off. She flew off, but pushed off the side of a building and back at him. He in return, threw his massive fist at her. Samus fired her grappling beam at his feet and pulled out of the way. There she morphed to ball mode and bounced up the machine's leg, dropping bombs here and there. She rolled out of ball mode and jumped up to his head again. The bombs exploded together, crippling the machine. The pilot put the gun arm to his head where Samus was. He fired, Samus jumped. The shot blasted right through the cockpit, missing the pilot by a foot. Samus fell back down and landed into the cockpit. There she recieved a warm welcome of a knife thrusting at her. She moved sideways and caught the man's wrist, twisting it. He screamed and dropped the knife. This is good. I'm back! She ripped the man out of his seat and conked him in the head with her gun, knocking him out. She then proceded to blast the inside controls of the machine, disallowing anyone else to pilot it. She called her ship back, and jumped up when it came. She landed inside and grabbed some cables to tie the man with. After securely fastening the man, Samus turned around and looked at the machine. What am I going to do about that? I don't have a grappling hook to attach to it. She sat down at her computer and send a text message to a nearby cleanup crew. Then blasted off into space. It's back to headquarters, and then the next victim. That was fun. She stopped at HQ and dropped the man off, recieving her pay for the catch. Next one. He's on Earth. Haven't been there for a while. She thought to herself as she blasted off full speed. Some ways through the ride she started thinking about Zelda again. She wouldn't admit it, but she dreadfully missed Zelda's company. Even with the frequent breakdowns into crying, Zelda was still a joy to have around. Samus thought about how different she might be now. It had been at least 3 or 4 days since she left Zelda. No. I can't think about her! But the more she tried not to think about her, she thought more about her. She continued through space. "You are a born sword fighter Zelda!" The instructor clapped Zelda on the back, almost causing her to drop her boken on her foot. "I'm exhausted." Rei concurred. "Well thanks guys, but I don't feel too comfortable with the sword. Is there anything like a sword, but... not?" The kids all gaped at Zelda, who had just put on a fantastic show with Rei. The coach turned to the kids, "Remember my students, though I teach swords, and I will make you a master at it, you may not prefer a sword. You might prefer..." He grabbed a spearlike weapon from a rack. "... a spear, or naginata. This is similar to a staff, but with a sword on the end. If you use some of my sword techniques, and combine them with skills you learn from staff or spear fighting classes, you can master the naginata on no time at all." He turned around and tossed the weapon to Zelda, who dropped her boken, and almost dropped the naginata. It felt... different in her hands. For one, it was much longer, and had a different wieght placement. For another, it had a smaller blade. She didn't know much staff fighting, bu she tried swinging the weapon. It felt smooth through the air. "I like it." "See my students? The sword is not quite her style. But she has mastered the sword here, and in time, she will go beyond master in the naginata." Rei looked at Zelda, eyebrow raised. While the instructor kept yammering, Rei used her sword to cut the tops of his pants off. They slipped down, revealing pink underwear with flowers on them. The instructor realized this only when her heard Zelda snickering behind. The kids all stared at him, then burst out laughing. He grabbed his pants frantically and pulled them back up. "You see that? Rei has mastered stealth in her attacks. Not something I teach." He blushed as he moved to his office. "Oh and... class dismissed." The kids stood up, and did a respactable bow that they were taught here. Then ran out, cheering and laughing. Rei and Zelda stayed behind, gazing at each other. They giggled a moment before leaving. At work Zelda was cooking furiously at three different dishes at once. Rei was serving. The manager walked in and observed Zelda's work. "3 days ago, you had set every pot you touched on fire. It was almost as if I had Samus Aran herself cooking in here." He said. She dropped a salt shaker she was holding. Samus! She had forgotten Samus in the course of the last 3-4 days. She was angry at Samus for just leaving her, but she rememebered that Samus still cared for her. She couldn't stop thinking about her. One of the pots began boiling over, and another ignited in flame. "ZELDA!" "Huh?" Zelda looked at the pots. Her eyes widened. "OHH NOOOO!!" She frantically went to work trying to save her masterpieces. She managed to stop the boiling pot from completely spilling over, but the other food was badly burned. "I'm sorry about that." The manager said. Zelda smiled and shook her head, busily restoring the meals. "Tell me if I'm intruding, but what's the deal with you and Samus?" "Nothing." Zelda replied. "Okay. Good work anyway. Now to check if Rei dropped anything on someone's..." "HEY YOU MORON!!! Watch where you're going!" a big voice from the other room. "Too late." Zelda chuckled. The manager sighed, throwing his arms up and marching out of the kitchen. That night, the two girls collapsed in their room. Zelda into a chair, and Rei on the floor. "Tonight has to be one of the worst nights I've had working." Rei complained. "I made food explode." Zelda added. "You did WHAT!? You haven't done that in for a long time." "Only 3 days. Besides, I saved most of the food." "Yeah well, you can't exactly save food you dropped on a biker gang leader." "You dropped the food on..." Rei nodded. Zelda let her head fall back, eyes wide. She remembered the biker gang leader. He was there the first day she cooked. He had a mean temper and was almost as picky as Rei. "You like the naginata huh?" Rei asked, steering away from the previous subject. "Yes, it feels comfortable." 'I prefer the sword myself. I'm better with that than any other weapon." "Clearly. I worked up quite a sweat just trying to keep you away." "You almost got me once." "Once." "Be quiet you." They sat up and glared at each other, smiling. Then their glares turned into gazes. Zelda got up and walked over to Rei. She lay down next to Rei, their hands found each other's. "We need one of those holes that they have in the ceiling, you know, so you can gaze at the stars." Rei suggested. "Yeah. Maybe we should buy one. You know, we could sit on the roof." They looked at each other, and then got up. They climbed up onto the roof and sat down, their hands found each other's again. The stars were beautiful that night. "How long do you want to stay out here?" Zelda asked. Rei inched towards Zelda, and put her arm around her. "Forever." She whispered. Samus flipped high ito the air to avoid another blast from the tank's cannons. How am I going to get past this thing's attacks? I can't get close, or it'll use it's shotguns. If I hide, it just waits and fires mortars everywhere. I lost count of the shots it was using at 556. I don't know how much ammo it has left. She was crouching behind a sand dune, furiously thinking of something she could do. She was convinced it wasn't using it's full power. Okay then. I haven't used these in a long time. She switched her weapon to her biggest missles. Leaping up into the air again, she took aim and fired. The tank fired at her as well. She dropped in time to evade the shots, and her missle hit square onto the armor of the tank. She looked up to see, but there was only a black colored splot on it's armor from the explosion. The tank began rolling towards her. She fired again, this time into one of the guns. The missle flew straight down the barrel and inside. She saw an explosion, and the machine stopped. She smiled to herself, and dashed towards the machine, activating her beamsword. She reached it and found the door, but before she could cut away at it, the tank began shifting and rumbling, almost knocking Samus off. She held tight and thrust her sword into the armor, cutting away at it. Then suddenly, the machine stood up. Wait a second, this is a tank. Why is it standing? No sooner than that did she realize an arm with a nasty blade on it reach for her. She jumped off, switching her weapon to her combined shot. She fired a tripled blast of ice energy. It hit the armor, freezing a section. The machine turned around. It was like a centaur bug machine. It's treads had converted to four legs, and it's front section had converted to the arms, which now pointed at her. Oh no. It fired the shotguns at her, at a fast speed. The pellets from the shots hit her armor, not throwing her back too far, but causing decent damage. As soon as she landed it came barreling down on her, blades out and ready to take a big swipe. Samus readied herself, and locked on to the machine. She fired a shot, and it hit dead center in it's face. She jumped over the first massive blade, and landed on it's second arm. She ran up to it's head, and jumped off the arm as soon as it began moving. She ignited her sword again. It slashed at her, and she grabbed it's head with her grappling beam, pulling herself away from the blade. She thrust her sword deep into the thing's 'skull', and ripped the sword out. The machine moved abruptly while she was still pulling out. She fell to the ground, landing on her feet. It was too late to avoid a swift kick from the front legs. She flew back, arming her heavy missles again. She landed on the ground and fired, but her shot was blocked by the machine's leg as it came down on her. "SAMUS!!!" Zelda jumped up in her bed. She was sweating cold, and panting hard. Rei woke up from Zelda's scream. "What's wrong Zelda?" Rei asked, worried to death. "Noth... nothing." "It doesn't sound like nothing. What's going on?" Zelda, still breathing heavily, looked at Rei. She shook her head. "What happened with you and Samus?" "I...I... nothing." "I want to help you, and I can't if you don't tell me." Zelda looked away, a tear almost coming out. She had dreamt of Samus fighting a massive monster, and she was losing. She clenched her fist in her chest, wincing at a huge pain. "Zelda? Are you sure you're alright? Do I need to take you to the hospital?" "I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry." "Zelda, tell me what's wrong." Rei tugged at Zelda's arm, almost tearing herself. Zelda lay back into bed, and gazed at Rei. "Samus and I... well..." "You and Samus? Wow, I never knew." "We, didn't go THAT far you know. It's okay." "Yeah, but... what happened with you two. I mean, why aren't you still with her?" Zelda looked up at the ceiling and sighed. The pain wouldn't go away. "She... she left me on Ceres II. I dont know what happened with her, but she said she couldn't be with me any more. She didn't want to see me getting hurt, so she just left me." Rei gazed at Zelda, a tear streamed down her face. She looked away. "She said she still cared about me. I can't stop thinking about her, even though I am so angry at her." Zelda heard Rei crying. "Now what's wrong with you?" She asked. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I did that with you." "What do you mean?" "You and Samus, you two were in love. You loved her a lot. I can sense it. She loves you too, and probably still does, but won't admit it." "Rei..." Rei put her head in her hands, resting on her knees, crying. "I'm so sorry Zelda. I didn't know about you two. I went too fast didn't I?" "I... I don't know what to say." Zelda replied. "Zelda, I love you, but your heart belongs with Samus." Zelda sat up, and stared at the floor. Rei stood up, and walked out of the room. She almost left, when Zelda said, "Rei wait. I don't love Samus anymore. How could you love someone who just leaves you, and tries to forget you. I just can't forget about her, but I hate her. I don't love her anymore." Rei looked back at Samus, tears in her eyes. "I love you too Rei. You don't have a life like Samus has. I know you won't leave me so you can't see me get hurt. You don't worry about me so much that it gets in your way. I can't love someone as selfish as Samus." She stood up and walked to Rei, wrapping her arms around her. "You care about me. You were worried about my love for someone, and didn't want to hurt me. I love you now Rei." Rei smiled slowly, eyes glistening. She wrapped her arms around Zelda. None of this helped Samus however, as the machine still drove his foot into Samus's chest. "You... bas... ah... bastard!" She had grabbed it's foot and was trying to push it off. She was trying to figure another way to get out as well. Oh how she wished even PICHU would come and save her. Unfortunately, no ship ever came into sight. "Zelda, I wish you were here, but I don't think a thousand wishes could bring you back to me." An idea popped into Samus's head. She began pushing to one side with most of her strength. The leg shifted to keep her under. Perfect. She immediately pushed the leg the opposite direction with all her might. It slid past her and slammed into the ground. Samus quickly morphed and created a bomb, then shoved it into the nearest joint she could find, and rolled away. The bomb exploded, damaging the joint. She jumped up again with all her strength, driving the sword upwards into the armor. The machine, stunned, fell in half, front side coming apart first. It collapsed to the ground, thundering as it fell. Samus flipped through the air and landed on the top hatch of the machine, driving her sword into it. She popped off the door and hopped inside. Oh great, it's a mini complex. She though as she looked around. There was no sign of any people. She slowly stepped through the thin hallways, peeking around the corners. Suddenly, a clash noise behind her. She whirled around to see a man in a skeleton mecha suit. She could see his face, he was smiling cruely. He launched his fist at her, leaving no escape. She was hit and sent flying through the tank's insides. She landed in the control room. There was a dead guard lying on the floor, head split open, and blood everywhere. The man ripped the hallway to pieces coming after Samus. He plowed through the wall and lunged at Samus. She rolled under him, in ball form, dropping a cluster of bombs. The man turned his suit around, and was blown out through the window by the explosions. He hit the ground hard, and didn't move for a few seconds. Samus charged up her plasma beam and lunged out the window after him. He used a force thruster on his back to jump to his feet. Samus landed on his front side and fired her shot into the mech's generator. It went critical, and Samus had to rip the man out of his seat before the machine exploded. She called her ship, knocking him unconscious, and jumped inside. "One more to go. I'm getting used to this again." She flew back to HQ quickly, and dropped off the criminal, recieving her pay. "I hear this group is a dangerous one Samus. So be extra careful." "Group?" Samus asked. "Yeah, big badass group, even more viscious than the pirates." Samus took off, wondering about that. She had only flown for half an hour before she picked up distress calls from a nearby station. Derekin station, an older station, not widely known, but one of the oldest remaining, was calling for anyone to help. She flew at top speed towards the station. This wasn't her primary target. That would have to wait until she did this. She quickly landed in the badly beaten up hangar, and jumped out. She landed, crouching, on the walking platform. Glancing towards the main door, she observed instense combat. This station was appearantly heavily guarded, but the opposition managed to punch through. The distress signal suddenly stopped, and the lights all went out. She activated her ship's attachment, and had it latched on to the platform. She then went through the door, heat visor activated. About 5 minutes of careful walking, after she made it perfectly clear she was here, on accident, she came to the control room. There were dead bodies lying about. It looked like a horde of mini-Ridleys came through here. She hoped to gods that wasn't this case. She whipped her head around to her left as she heard an object clunking around. She looked around to see a ventilation shaft, opened up. Ah ha! She thought. She silently strode towards the shaft, weapon out. She hadn't charged it because she had not wanted to make any noise. Looking up into the shaft she saw nothing, and no traces of anything. She jumped up into the shaft and looked around. She didn't hear or notice the 5 bulky figures sneaking out the door. Samus rolled through the shaft. It was a large shaft, but she was more or less invisible like this. She rolled through quickly, but finally realized, nothing actually had entered the shaft. She cursed to herself, and unrolled. She found a shaft entrance and slipped up to it. She peeked down through the vent door, looking around. She saw movement for a split second, but nothing when she looked. She held extremely still, knowing that something was there. She saw nothing move, so she backed off. Still, nothing passed by the shaft entrance. She carefully pried the piece off and set it in the shaft, then slipped out, looking around frantically. She moved towards the hangar. She considered that the enemy might be trying to escape, and broke into a run. She thought she saw movement in the corridors as she passed them, in fact, she KNEW there was movement. She fired shot down the corridors, finally seeing the multiple bulky objects, moving at high speeds. She looked ahead at the door to the hangar and ran through, jerking to the left. She ran and fired at the objects. Three of them ran towards a ship that Samus hadn't noticed before. They were carrying a large machine with them. The other two ran at Samus, at almost blinding speeds. She fired at them, but they moved sideways, and started circling her. She felt like she knew this attack. None of her shots were hitting. Suddenly she was struck from behind, a heavy hit from the one she lost track of. The one in front of her slammed her in the arm, and into the torso, with the broadside of his forearm. She flew to the side, almost into a broken ship. She whirled around and saw the first one's fist coming at her, just in time for her to duck, and ram her sword into it's chest. There it grabbed her and flung her over the back of it's head, and into a wall. The second one grabbed her head and began crushing the helmet. She kicked it in the ribs, but it had little effect. Her helmet began cracking. She jumped up and pushed off the wall, into the creature, pushing him back. She broke free of his grip, and fired several shots into it's face. It didn't stop the creature as it rammed it's shoulder into her, knocking her back. She stumbled as she regained her balance. One of the creatures turned around and ran towards the ship. The one that faced her now, remained. It lunged at her, body lowered. She flipped over it and fired more shot's into it's head, and started charging another shot. She landed, and was struck from behind, knocked to the ground. Before she could roll back up, she was pounded on her spine. She heard a crack from it as the creature hit her a second time. After it hit the third time, she quickly jerked and rolled away, jumping to her feet. The creature, who had slammed his massive fists into the ground again, pushed up and grabbed Samus from behind. It ran her towards a wall. She squirmed around and ran up the wall, breaking from it's grip. She landed behind it, ducked as it whirled around with another massive arm swing, and punched it in the chest, firing a fully charged blast. It was blown against the wall. The creatures' ship began flying away, and the one she was fighting glanced at it. She looked at it for a moment. It was still alive after the shot. HEY! I recognize this thing. No... She saw what it was, but didn't see it's head bash into her helmet, knocking her back. The creature ran to the ship and lunged to it, grabbing onto the door and pulling itself in. The ship then blasted off. Samus quickly got up and ran to her ship. As soon as she jumped in she was at the controls, locking the hatch, and speeding away after the enemy ship. Behind her, the run down station began to explode. "I'm positive I'm cursed." She muttered as she flew away. She controlled her ship firmly, chasing after the other ship. Those things. I haven't seen them in years. About four years ago, the Mother Brain began using humans in suits that were supposed to be fear inducing. She had a lot more minions after that, but they weren't as tough as before. It seemed as though the original pirates disappeared. Now they were back. These real pirates WERE fear. They might as well be dressed up in pink bunny suits, and still scare the crud out of their enemy. They were fast, had brutal strength, incredible durability, and were smarter than humans. To top it off, they were viscious beyond reason and knew how to fight, well. The last time she fought the real pirates was years back, on a planet she couldn't remember the name of. It was the second time she had 'completely wiped out' the last of the metroids. The 'Prime Metroid' as it was called. Or maybe it was the 'Metroid Prime', she couldn't remember precisely. Still, she chased after the pirates, full speed. "I don't know. I don't have any real fighting experience, so I don't know how I would do this." "Oh come on. Just one mission." Zelda pleaded to Rei. They were at a galactic bounty hunter's HQ, looking for something to do for the next few days. They were off work for a while. "Okay here you go. Something easy to start off with." Zelda pointed out a small fry on the board. "Nah. I want a challenge. I've faced down guys like that all the time. The only reason I would lose to them, is because I fell asleep. It makes me wonder why guys like them are up on this board." "I thought you said you didn't have any real experience." "Uh... Did I? Nah, of course not." Zelda sighed and shook her head. "Don't even bother with that one anyway." A man came up abruptly and took down the notice. "You would believe who caught him. An unarmed, teenage, redhead girl with a bunch of modernized 007 equipment, aided by a nutcase who carried around a naked molerat with him. Talk about your group of oddballs." He walked away. "Oh hey. How about this. It says 'Great Melee Tournament particepants preferred'. Don't you fall under that category?" Rei asked. "Yeah. I wonder why. What do you say Rei?" "Sure why the heck not. It's not like it'll take that long. Probably just lawyers gone wrong, with guns." Zelda laughed at the thought, then went to the front desk to take the assignment. They climbed into Zelda's ship. It was a tight fit, but just enough room for them. "Are you ready?" Zelda asked. "Um, if I start cramping, I'll let you know, as well as the people in the next solar system." Zelda and Rei both laughed again. Zelda put the ship into launch mode, and they lifted off the ground. Soon they were flying out of the atmosphere. Rei sat up and looked out the window, gazing at the stars. "Oh. It's beautiful out here. We can see the stars so much more clearly." Rei whispered. "I know. When I first got this ship, I decided to turn off the engine, and just drift, watching the stars in complete silence. It's so relaxing, being all alone in the middle of nowhere in this huge universe." Zelda gazed dreamily at the stars as well. "You know something we might need, that we forgot to get before we left?" "Hm?" "Weapons, equipment, armor, food. The works. Maybe a bigger ship?" Zelda chuckled, and searched for a nearby station. "Let's see. I'm picking up, Hydra sta... tion." Zelda went silent. "Is something... oh... never mind." "No no it's nothing. Don't mind me. That's where we're going." Zelda said, shaking the thoughts off her head. "Hydra station this is Zelda, requesting permission to dock." Zelda spoke into the intercom. "Zelda, this is Hydra station, give us a moment, and we'll secure a docking bay for you." They waited a moment, before... "Zelda, you are clear to dock in bay 35. Just fly under the station and to the blinking light." Zelda confirmed and flew below the station. She found the flashing light and entered the opening door. She flew up and inside, allowing the magnetic field to draw her in, and the arms to grab her ship while the lock-in proceded. With a jolt, she was locked in. "Zelda, give us a moment to fill the bay with oxygen, then we can let you out." A platform slid under the ship, for them to walk on. Then a hissing sound was heard, and the ship rumbled as air filled the chamber. Finally it stopped. "Zelda, you are clear to disembark. Welcome back to Hydra station, haven't heard your voice in a long while." The transmission ended. Zelda sat there, shocked somewhat that the person remembered her. "Okay, that's one naginata, and one upgraded sword. That comes out to 650 credits." The cashier told them. Zelda paid and recieved the weapons. She walked out, looking for Rei, who was buying food, and other small supplies. Soon, Rei came along, carrying two small bags. "Hiya. Got the stuff?" "Yeah. Here's your sword. You remembered a medical kit?" "Yes. Now to get to armor." The two turned around to go to the armory, but ran into the commander. "Zelda? Is that you? Wow, I almost didn't recognize you. I heard you had returned, and here you are." He greeted her. "Hi again. Sorry, but we don't have really any time to chat. We took up a mission, a bounty, and we just stopped by because we forgot supllies." Zelda told him, trying to get away. "Oh hey. I've got your old armor, the one you used when you defended the station. I had some people clean it up and upgrade it a bit. It's like brand new if you want it. I was going to give it to you, but you and Samus disappeared." "Yeah, well, we had a mission that time as well." "Say, where is Samus?" "She doing her own thing. I really have to get moving." "Okay then, sorry. Follow me to my office and I'll get you the armor. Maybe I can grab something for your friend too." The two nodded and followed the commander around the station. Finally to his office. He went to one of the walls and pushed a button, opening a door. He went inside, and came out a moment later, carrying Zelda's old armor. He went back in after handing it to Zelda. They could hear clanking and clinkering. "You know the commander of the station? Better yet, you helped defend this station?" "Yes I did. I dreaded every moment of it. Those pirates were nasty buggers." "Pirates? You're lucky to have survived back then." "Are you saying I suck?" The commander finally stumbled out, knocking a few items out as well. "Sorry kid. I don't have anything. It's all busted up stuff." He said. "Hey, what's that?" Rei asked, pointing to a wooden crate with strange writing on it. "Oh that? I dunno. Let's find out." He grabbed the crate and dragged it out. Rei grabbed the top and studied the writing. Shaking her head, she finally yanked the top off. Inside was a bunch of wood chips, which Rei plunged her hands into. She drew out a gardening set. The other two stared, shocked. "I forgot, I put that in their when my wife died. After I left my home planet." The commander told them quietly. Rei dug deeper. "I feel something in here." "There probably IS something in there." Zelda replied to Rei. "No, I feel something, in my spirit." Rei pulled out a ring that had robot style winglets. "Oh, wait. I think..." The commander began. Rei pulled out a chestpiece of some odd looking armor. Then she pulled out waist, leg, and arm pieces. They were all smoothe, and felt like plastic. "Ahh yes. I remember this. It was an armor suit we found in a temple. It was on a skeleton. We took it to a research station and investigated it. We tested it, but nothing ever happened. The armor seemed worthless. I don't know why it ended up here, I thought we dumped it." The commander explained to them, picking up the headset. Rei looked it all over. "I feel power coming from it." She said. "I do too." Zelda seconded. "I don't feel anything." The commander said. He handed the headset back to Rei, and it lit up in her hands. A light on either side of it, on the winglets, pulsed. "Wow. This is mezmerizing." She exclaimed. "I wouldn't bother. It doesn't look like it would fit you now that I think about it." The commander observed. Rei ignored him and put the headset on. For some reason, Zelda thought she could see a faint glow in her eyes. Rei slipped on the rest of the armor pieces. The commander was right, it was too big, but once she slipped on the last piece, it made a fizzling sound and tightened over Rei's body. It was a perfect fit. "That's funny. It never worked when we had our soldiers try it." "Well it works now." Rei replied. "I feel really powerful in this." "Feel free to take it. I have no use for it." "Thank you sir." Rei bowed to the commander. Then the two girls left. "This here ship will seat two people, just like you. It is a high performance ship, with mounted lazer weapons, missles, a light tractor beam, and shielding capability. It is also equipped with a stealth system, silencer, cloaking device, and high quality detector. It is the perfect small ship for the likes of you two." The ship salesman showed the girls a ship. They looked it over, Rei's eyes searching everywhere for flaws. She observed the engine, looking through precisely. She observed the amored plates, and all the weapons. The salesman stood there, wringing his hands, smiling away, hoping they would buy. "Can I trade my old ship, along with some credits, to pay for this?" Zelda asked, while Rei still scanned over the ship. "Of course. Just how old is your model?" "Not very. I bought it recently." "Okay then. I guess you bought from one of our rival businesses, if you wanted to get rid of it that fast." "Actually, it is a really good ship. I just need a two seater with good capabilities." "Actually Zelda, yours is better than this thing, by far for sure." Rei shouted from inside the engine compartment. The salesman yelped, teeth clenched. "This is our best model. I don't know how any other ship could out do this one. I mean aside from a larger ship." "Let me show you the ship, then we'll decide." Zelda lead him to her bay. "Is this a good deal ship?" Zelda calmly asked. the salesman was gaping at the ship, jaw to the floor, and eyes wide open. He strode over to it and observed it. "Oh I could kiss you for this. This model does surpass ours. I would give you that two seater, with upgrades, free for this thing. We've been trying to get our hands on samples of technology this good." "Oh thank you sir. You may have it then. Here are the keys, and the papers." Zelda said as she grabbed multpiple items from inside the ship. The two walked back to Rei, who was still observing the two seater. "Well Rei. We got ourselves a ship, so let's get on our way." Zelda shouted. "Actually ladies... I'm not really supposed to show you this, but... I can show you a new prototype model we're building. Maybe with a little extra cash..." The two girls looked at each other, smiling gleefully. They shot away from the space station, 75% speed, which was still pretty damn fast. The new prototype was incredible. With faster speeds than any ship they had on the market, full combat arsenal, silencer, full grappling beam, cloaking device, and radar jammer, and a special unknown capability, this was a winner for their money. "This also has a high-tech searching computer, memory banks, and control system. Let's see. Where did the paper say these baddies were?" Rei blabbed on, excited. Zelda had to admit, the suit Rei was wearing looked good on her. "I don't think it's too far from here." Zelda replied finally. They began a search with the name on the mission paper, locating... nothing. "Okay. I'm already lost." Rei threw up her hands. "This business is difficult. We need to study the happenings, and then search from there. Find as much as we can to lead us to the source." "Okay, let's check the reports." Rei finished. They learned about the attacks on multiple space stations, mostly research labs. All the stations that were attacked carried some new prototype device. What was stolen could not be identified, as the attackers hit hard before they stole, and blew up the stations when they were done. They found that most of the new technology was power generators and such. Mining equipment was also a possibility. A particular piece was an energy enhancer, and manipulator. The girls looked at each other, grinning. "I'll bet you they'll attack another research station soon." Rei suggested. The computer beeped, notifying them of an update on the mission. Derekin station had been under attack. "I doubt they will now." Zelda said. "Let's see what you had on you Derekin." She searched the database for equipment Derekin station carried. It was a metal extractor, used for taking out only certain kinds of metal in any material or substance. "I think they are setting up a mining operation." Rei suggested. "Yeah, probably. Where's the richest mining section Rei?" Rei worked at her computer. "There's an asteroid belt, supposedly filled with phason. That's nearby. It's suicide to do work on an asteroid in the asteroid field though, so I doubt they landed there." "What else we got? We need material here." "There's a planet covered in thick forest nearby. Some plants down there have an armor fortifying sap. No mining stations there though." Zelda sat, arms crossed. They were obviously making something, big. A machine of some sort. What where they going to attack though? What were they doing? "I've found a mining station, perfect for mining bandits. It's on a planet not farther than a jump from here. They've got tunnels rich with minerals." Rei told Zelda, covinced it was the place. "How well guarded are you mining station?" Zelda searched the station's operation systems. It was entirely automated. Not a single breathing, living thing was working in the tunnels. "Okay, let's hit it!" Rei shouted. Zelda and Rei grasped each others hands, and hit the jump button together. They stretched forward and entered the jump. Samus veered her ship left to avoid yet another flying asteroid. She was cursing at herself for being so stupid as to enter an asteroid field behind PIRATES. They seemed to be able to avoid being hit every single time a rock came their way, but Samus had to work hard to keep from being hit. She had already been scraped once, and almost a second time. She had been grateful for her natural reactions, otherwise she would be drifting through space, with a ship that had a massive hole down the center. To make matters worse, the pirates' ship was well armed. Samus cursed at her poorly equipped ship. It was time to get a new one... or rather, after she took care of these pirates. They had the advantage in that she couldn't destroy them yet. They had to lead her to their hideout. She was hard pressed to find a way to convince them that she was no longer following them, and not lose them at the same time. They fired two more reversed missles. Samus was preparing to avoid them when she noticed a rock flying her way. If she could time this just right... She flew towards the rock, missles streaming towards her. Her ship flew behind the rock, and she turned around, to face the missles. She locked on and fired at the last second. The missles exploded, and Samus immediately switched off her scanners. She ejected the ships spare parts, making it look as though she had exploded into pieces. She glanced around to see another large rock flying her way. She smiled and slipped behind it as it passed. She kept hidded behind it, but saw the pirates ship fly behind the rock and observe the faked death. Samus considered a different technique they could use to detect her. She flew to an asteroid she was passing, and slipped into a hole inside. There she grabbed the rock wall with her attachment, and shut her power completely off. Fortunately for her, the asteroid was near the right color to camaflouge with. Just her luck. She waited for a while, trying to find the pirates. She knew they weren't convinced just yet. The asteroid slowly rotated around, and showed Samus a clear view of the pirates ship, still waiting. Now we would see if her camaflouge worked. The pirates circled around, and Samus tensed. She reminded herself to relax, her finger hovered above the power switch. The pirates moved towards her ship, slowly. They didn't see her yet. Samus noticed her heartbeat increasing, and her breath getting heavier. She switched off her suit, and made sure there wasn't anything else that had been turned on. The pirates ship moved closer. Oh god they've seen me. I know it. The pirates remained there, and fired a few blasts around. Samus didn't budge, but her heartbeat was heavy. Fortunately, even the creatures with the best hearing couldn't hear activity in space. Still, Samus tried hard to calm herself down. Finally, the ship turned around and blasted off. Samus waited. When the ship had left her view she slowly turned her power on. She detached from the asteroid, and flew slowly after the pirates. "Gods I hate you pirates. You scare me half to death." She growled. The pirates left the asteroid belt, but Samus stayed inside, to mess up their scanners. She was left with visual detection though. Finally, when it was safe, she left the asteroid belt. Far ahead she could see a planet. She ran a check on the planet, and identified it as Terra II. The galaxy's #1 mining planet. Samus still had no clue what the machine was that the pirates stole, but she was going to find out. She entered the atmosphere, slowly, so as not to reveal her postion by her entrance fire. She observed the land below her. Swampy, forest, mountain ranges. Just excellent. She landed on a landing pad in the midst of the forest area, and saw that there had already been some fighting. Mostly just ships though. There were lots of smaller pirate fighters that had been littered here and there. "Wait a minute. These look like human pirate ships." She said quietly as she jumped out of her ship. She landed with a thud, not expecting slightly heavier gravity. She could fix that though. She entered a few codes into her gun arm, which transferred actions to her helmet, activating the gravity suit's ability to adjust to different pressures and gravities. She looked up, and saw dozens of human pirates strewn about. They had been mostly hacked to pieces. Whoever got here first was using a blade of some sort. Maybe two weapons at that. Come to think of it, Samus couldn't remember the last time she actually had someone get to the scene before her. I'm getting old. She thought as she stepped over the pirates' bodies. "I lost track of the alien pirates' ship. It doesn't seem to be here." She walked towards what looked like the entrance. There had been explosions, numerous ones, that had bombarded the door. She stepped inside, readying her gun. She might have to fight whoever it was who was trying to claim this bounty before her. Zelda lunged back, whipping around and slicing the head off of a pirate foolish enough to get in her way. The pirate she jumped from lunged at her, which she responded to by blasting him with a fireball, sending him flying into a wall, and exploding. Rei had parried five pirates' attacks at once, and ran one through. The others swung blindly at her. Rei stepped back and swung her sword, flinging the dead pirate into two of the others. The remaining ones cursed, and one lunged at her, the other scrambed to aim and fire his gun. Rei blocked the pirates slash, whipped his sword around, and ran him through, carrying him all the way into the second. She pulled her sword out and let them fall. Rei perked up for some reason, looking slighty upward. "Another person just entered the tunnels. This one used our entrance. I can't identify him." Rei whispered to Zelda, inching towards her. "What about the five that came in just before?" "They're still moving. They seem to know of a different... they just got lower than us. I think they took a shortcut." Zelda sighed of frustration. "Come on. Let's keep moving, lest the guy following catches up." Zelda suggested. Rei nodded and the two dashed down the tunnels. They were in a complex of massive, long, winding tunnels that were just peppered with jewels and metals. Rei and Zelda ran through the tunnels, Rei slightly faster than Zelda, and could be going faster. Her suit somehow made her feel lighter, and stronger. She was not affected by the stronger gravity, unlike Zelda, who almost fell to her knees when she stood up. They slashed through two pirates standing guard at a gate, and kept running. They were getting bored of all the pirates they were fighting. Suddenly they came to a split in the tunnels. "Which way Rei? Can you sense them?" Zelda asked. She was referring to voices crying for help once their attack started. She assumed they were prisoners. Zelda was pretty sure they were the staff of the tournaments, so their rescue was crucial. "Right." Rei answered. The two dashed to the right. They came to a screeching halt when they saw the surprise drop. They looked down, and saw how far the drop was. "This is huge. How do we get down?" Rei questioned. Zelda grabbed held on to Rei. "I love you too Zelda." "Watch this, hold on." Zelda used her spell and teleported down to the bottom with a breeze of wind. "Wow. That was amazing." Rei commented. "I haven't been using it much lately." Zelda replied. Samus ran through the tunnels, observing the dead bodies that lay strewn about everywhere she stepped. Who on earth was doing this. It was definately recent, most of these guys were still breathing, if only barely. The warrior ahead was running through, wiping out these numbers and keeping a strong pace ahead of Samus. "I have to admit soldier, you may actually beat me." Samus suddenly detected a strong wind from... deeper inside the mining caverns? She felt this wind before, but she couldn't remember where from. After minutes of running, she came to a split. She couldn't figure out where the other warrior went in, so she chose one. She ran down the left. She heard footsteps ahead, and stopped running. She inched up behind a corner, and peeked around. There were the 5 real pirates, marching along, carrying the machine with them. She studied them, and tried to identify the machine. However, it was too far away, and they were moving too fast. When the pirates where clear, Samus dashed after them. She would get to the bottom of this operation, and they would lead her there. Then she would destroy them all. First she had to stop running so as not to crash into this dead end. Dead end? I swear... they ran this way. Samus looked around, for any sign of the pirates. She tried to find a way past the wall. She knew this wasn't really a dead end, she just had to prove it. She gave up looking and began charging plasma shot. She took aim. Down the wall came, with gears flying here and there. She ran through. "I found them!" Rei shouted back to Zelda as they ran into a large cavern. There was a large cage with multiple humans inside yelling for them to help. Rei and Zelda ran to the cage, and positioned their weapons to break the locks. At the other end of the cavern, a secret door slid open, and three huge monsters came dashing through, one carrying an odd machine. They stopped running and looked at Zelda and Rei. The one holding the machine turned and sprinted out a large door, and shut it. A rock barrier came down to hide it, and further ensure passage to be impsossible. The other two came charging at Zelda and Rei. They acitvated a reverse pointed energy blade from their elbows. They shifted a device on their wrists, and kept running. "Those are the REAL space pirates! Watch out!" cried man from inside the cage. Zelda and Rei turned their attention to the new, real, huge, pirates. One of them lunged into the air, faster, higher, and further than the human pirates. Zelda stepped sideways to accept the flying one. Rei stepped forward to accept the running one. Zelda pointed her weapon into the air for the pirate to impale himself on, but the pirate just soared right over her head. She whirled around to face him, and was slammed with the broadside of his arm, sending her flying back. She skidded along the floor, scrambling to get up while in motion. Rei tilted her sword and swung, reaching far forward. The pirate just waved his hand over the flat part of the blade, pushing it to the side, and connecting his huge fist with her face. The energy blade followed and hit her chest. She too was sent flying back, into the cage. She observed her chest, and found that there was no wound. Her face didn't feel broken either. She was glad the armor had protected her, in some odd way. She went to stand up, but almost collapsed from a sudden exhaustion. The pirate came barreling down on her again, this time to crush her against the cage with his arm. She found the energy to roll back, but was still being drained by something. Then she noticed the winglets glowing furiously. She calmed herself down, and they dimmed to their usual pulse. She felt recharged. Again came the pirate, but this time he circled around her. Zelda lurched up to her feet once she slowed down a bit. The pirate had grabbed a boulder from a pile next to a recently mined section. He lunged forward and hurled the boulder. Zelda used her fire and slowed the boulder, not enough though. She rolled to the side to evade the boulder. Suddenly the pirate was behind her, having hidden behind the moving boulder. She didn't notice until it grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her side. She struggled to get free, but the pirate bearhugged her, crushing her into it's massive chest. She screamed in pain. Her armor was just helping him in this case. She though furiously, looking at her situation. The pirate grabbed her naginata and threw it to the floor. Zelda suddenly remembered her spell. She dissapeared from the pirate's arms with a gust of wind. She reappeared at her weapon and picked it up. The pirate glared at her angrily, and fired multiple blasts at her from his gun. Zelda brought up her barrier, deflecting the shots, and then broke her shield, sending shards of it the pirate. He was hit, but it didn't affect him much. "Oh no." Zelda groaned as the pirate came at her again. He hurled his fist at her, and she stepped back, only to be greeted by his blade, which she locked with her weapon. Samus dashed quickly through the tunnels, wondering where the pirates went. She came around a corner, to find a full offense of lazer fire, and quickly ducked behind the corner. There were two pirates blasting away at her. Setting her gun, she armed herself with her plasma beam, and rolled out from her hiding spot, firing like mad. One pirate was caught off guard and was struck in the chest and belly, while the other managed to duck and roll behind some crates. Samus held her position after the roll and focused on the first pirate's head, firing madly. He finally backed off and hopped behind some crates. Samus ignited her blade and dashed towards him. The other pirate ran the crate he had towards Samus, giving her only a split second second to jump onto the crate and slash down, before hopping over the pirate and landing behind him. She realized that they had their old melee weapon, the reversed arm mounted energy blade. The pirate halted movement and grabbed the box once Samus landed. The other pirate threw his crate at Samus, and she ducked. Then the pirate in front of her whirled around with the crate in his arms, forcing her to roll back. She activated her plasma beam again, and charged up a shot. The first pirate jumped up in her direction, firing at her. Samus jumped up, avoiding the first shots and placing her foot right in front of the pirate. They both went flying towards the wall, the pirate with a foot and a pain in his face. Samus turned around and grabbed onto a ledge. This was a verticle room, that seemed to lead all the way to the surface, with winding stairways, and enough space sideways to fit a medium sized cargo transporter. She pulled her way up, and met with the other pirate, who plowed his foot into Samus's helmet, sending her plummeting into the ground, where the first was waiting to hammer her into the ground. She rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the first hammerfist, but he brought his massive clenched fists back up, connecting with Samus's face again. She went flying back, but not without sending her fully charged blast of plasma into the pirate. His right side was completely burned, and his arm missing. He screamed with rage, and Samus went crashing into a stack of crates. The second pirate, from above, jumped down, attempting to crush Samus under his weight, with the added force of gravity. She tried to move, but was stuck in the pile of shattered crates, and the pirate came down with enough force to have splattered a normal human on contact. Samus flexed her chest muscles to resist his force, then exhaled letting the armor take the rest of the weight. The chestplate cracked. The pirate raised his fists and came down on her head. Zelda was thrown clear across the room, splashing into the underground spring, and almost impaling herself on a rock spike. She planted her weapon into the ground, and thrust herself up. The pirate was already on her, firing his lazer endlessly. He was serious now. Zelda had proven a worthy foe after impaling him right through the chest. He swung has massive fist in rage, and Zelda sidestepped. She moved again as the other fist came her way, and she blocked the energy blade that followed. She jumped and kicked him twice in the face, and landed, spinning around and slashing him in the face with her blade. Blood sprayed and he stumbled back. He looked back at her, anger in his eyes, but no fear whatsoever. Zelda gripped her naginata, ready to take him on again. He had already gone through at least 8 attack runs, but he didn't seem to be slowing his offense. Rei parried the slash from her pirate's blade, and slid past, pushing it's arm around and thrusting her sword into it's knee joint from behind the leg. The pirate reached behind him and grabbed her head. He threw her into the wall next to the cage, then pulled the sword out of his leg. He bled a lot, and was clenching his knee tightly, snarling. Rei rolled back from the wall, facing the pirate, unarmed. Her sword was too far for her to run, and she didn't know how well he could still move. Appearantly, very well, as he charged forward, blood spurting from his wound. He hurled himself at her, shoulder first. Rei leaned towards the ground and carried him over her head, into the wall. "Now you know how much it hurts you worm!" She yelled. She turned and ran for her sword. Picking it up and whirling around she saw him coming at her again. This time he circled her, carefully choosing when to come in for a strike. Rei heard a splintering sound, and the pirate collapsed, hands over his knee, screaming in pain. Rei walked over to him, smiling. "Now dog, you die." She hissed. He roard and fired at her. She parried his shots quickly and she sliced his head off all in one fluid movement. "Let's just see you keep fighting now" She turned to look at Zelda. She was backing towards a wall, with the pirate advancing on her. Rei ran in as fast as she could, and Zelda hit the wall. The pirate swung his blade arm at her, and she jumped up the wall and off of it, soaring over his head. She landed and recieved his charging slash. He pulled three more lightening fast swipes, which she parried, spun to the ground, and sliced his head off. The head fell to the ground, and the body soon after, making a thud as it landed. "Whew! That was a workout." Zelda panted. "Tell me about it." Rei concurred, running up to her. "Now let's save the captives." Zelda nodded in agreement, and they walked towards the cage. "What about the one who ran off? Shouldn't one of use go and take it out?" Zelda asked Rei, as she drove her blade into the lock. "He's probably gone by now. But we'll let whoever's here as well chase after him. We've done enough fighting already." The blade was no use, so Zelda put her hands on the lockpad. It glowed red, and exploded. The prisoners pushed to get out of the cage, and the girls let them out. One among the group was a blue haired, handsome young man. "These pirates have my magical sword. If I may, I know where it is and I would like to retrieve it." He inquired. Rei nodded and he strode off. "Come right back here when you get it!" She yelled. "Shouldn't we have someone accompany him? There might be more pirates." "Okay, I'll go look after him." Rei dashed after the man. Zelda turned around to look at the people. "So are you all the staff for the tournament?" Zelda asked. The group nodded. "Why did the pirates kidnap you all?" "We had made a deal with a company a while ago. We were low on money, so the tournament's stuff would have been limited, or maybe the whole thing cancelled. We couldn't let that happen." "We made a deal with this company, that we would borrow a lot of money from them, to pay for the tournament." "We had no clue they were the pirates." "We managed to raise the money we needed to pay them back, but it was stolen, and the pirates did it. The company we borrowed money from demanded we pay them back, or something bad would happen." "When we told them that the pirates had stolen the money, they got angry, raided our company, and kidnapped us, forcing us to work off our debts, even though they already took the money back." "The company was really the pirates." "But we had worked off our debt already and they wouldn't let us go. They were going to perform some freak experiment on us. We are so glad you came before they did that." "Not a problem. This is our first mission so... it was a good experience." Zelda told them. They were all staring at her, and she heard whispers. "Their first time and they took out a whole force of pirates, and two real ones." "These girls are really skilled." "They must work out." "I wanna get one's autograph." "She's really cute." "Shut up" Zelda sighed. Men. She thought. Good for nothings. Rei and the warrior returned. When Zelda saw his sword, she was impressed. It reminded her of the master sword. "Okay folks, we gotta get out of here and get you back to HQ." Rei shouted, punching her fist into the air. They entire group ran up through the passages. Samus was thrown into a wall, full force, her visor shattered, exposing her face underneath. Her left shoulder pad had already been bashed off. Her non gun arm was battered, and she had trouble moving it. Why are these two giving me so much trouble? I haven't given them hardly any damage. I've forgotten how to fight them. The huge fist came at her again, and she shielded her face with her gun arm. She noticed the other pirate, the one with the burn, picking up a long metal pole, that was sharp enough to be a spear. He turned and ran at her, full sprint, ready to drive the pole into her soon-to-be-lifeless torso. She started panicking, and was hit in the stomach. The armor cracked there as well. She looked at the pirate who was pinning her to the wall, clenching her teeth. She went into a rage and threw up her left arm, her non gun arm, and grabbed the pirate's arm. He drew his fist back for another punch, and the other pirate was drawing ever closer. Samus lowered herself, then jumped up with all her strength, and dragged the pirate into the wall, where he was impaled by his friend. He screamed and let Samus go, grasping the pole that was now driven into his upper torso from behind, and locked him into the wall. Samus ignited her sword, and came down on the pirate's head, driving it in with all her might. She ripped the blade out, and slashed at the other pirate. She jumped down as he backed up. He swung his fist at her again, and she moved sideways, lunging forward, driving the energy blade into his chest. He grabbed her helmet, and she pushed the blade up. He kicked her in the stomach, sending both of them crashing down to the floor. Samus heard another crack in her helmet, and she could swear she felt it caving in. She drove her sword up desperately, ripping it through the pirates upper torso, and out it's head. Her helmet collapsed, caving in on her head. She screamed, but the pirate's strength ended before it crushed her head. The pirate had collapsed onto her body, and she pushed it off, with difficulty. Her face had scrapes and very shallow cuts. She felt light bleeding on her head. Her computer was damaged in the fight, so she was unable to read her suit's or her body's damage. She forced herself up. Looking at the pirates who lay dead on the ground, she almost whimpered. Why did she have that much trouble with them. Never before had they been that difficult to kill. She walked through the door, and continued on. Eventually she found the room with two other pirate bodies. The only blood she could find was the blood of the pirates', and no traces of the other warrior. There were obviously prisoners, as there was an opened cage. The lock had been blown to dust. Samus could see no other way out, except for her exit, and on at the far end of the room. There was no evidence to say if the warrior had experienced any trouble with these pirates. When samus returned to the surface, she climbed up the side of her ship, and dropped inside. She closed the hatch and initiated lift off. The other warrior had left no traces of his ship, so Samus had no clue how long ago he had left. She went into her room as the ship lifted off. Sitting down, she pulled off the numerous pieces of armor. It hurt to pull it off because most of it had been severely damaged. She tossed them into her closet, and closed the doors. She had programmed the ship to enter space and just drift. She collapsed on the bed, eyes closed. She was whimpering, a small tear streaming from her eye. Then she just let loose, and cried heavily, face into her bed. She had just chased down a group of the REAL pirates, and almost gotten hammered into space dust by the asteroid field. When she landed she found dozens of dead pirates, wiped out with incredible skill and speed, as most were still alive when she found them. She had fought a hundred battles previously, but this was her worst. Two of the five pirates that she encountered, had beaten her almost to her death. She touched her face, feeling the cuts, which would soon be scars. She was an inch from death. Another second and she would not be in her comfortable bed now. She had been beaten, and never even found out who the other warrior was. "Beaten by an unknown force. How dare you." She cried. She almost wanted the pirate to have finished her, crushed her head, and ended it all. But she had to fight, and survive. She remained there and wept for hours. Zelda and Rei walked out of the bounty hunter's HQ, putting away their half a million credits each. They were back home. "Well. We finished that, and we still have a day or so before work." Rei reminded Zelda. "We can search out a bounty here." Zelda suggested. They both thought a moment, and shrugged off the idea. Both of them were dog tired from their previous mission, and neither of them was interested. "Let's go back home." Zelda said. Rei nodded, and the two walked back to their ship, holding each other's hands. (WHEW!!! I agree with the girls on that one. I am exhausted after just writing about it. Again, sorry folks for making any long boring periods. I have yet to read over my own work, so I don't know how bad it is. Can anyone guess what the pirates are doing? Poor Samus. It kinda hurt me when I was writing that part. I mean, she is probably the coolest female hero ever. And she is also beautiful, like "gouge my eyes out, because I'm positive that kind of beauty is forbidden for me to see." Or "someone shoot me she's beautiful." No offense to my girlfriend. By the way... Zelda and Rei knew each other for 4 days before they had their special scene. Don't be worrying about any kind of seduction or rushing into relationships. I know that storywise they didn't spend all that much time together. Okay so 4 days isn't that much time anyway, but it's better than going that far in the first night We got more Zelda and Rei, and Samus coming up soon, so keep reading.)
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