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Metroid Rebirth (Worm/Metroid)

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I'm just hoping Calvert doesn't plot too much this time....The Goblins were a surprise but I'm glad they're there to help out Samus and Adam. Great story, didn't know this was something I needed.
 
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Revival 4.2
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    • Revival 4.2



    Our approach to Brockton Bay was cleared by local air towers appropriately, though we did keep our cloak up to prevent an outcry. I tasked Adam with locating the nearest point to where Optics… where Kenzie had broadcast from. I would not be leaving an eight-year-old child in the firing line of any violent person, let alone someone with powers. I made sure to place the gunship in a hover formation before I exited. I would be finding Kenzie, retrieving her, and then I would rendezvous with Velocity. I wasn't entirely sure if I'd be able to keep up with him, even with my Speed Boost active.

    As I jumped from the top of my gunship, landing lightly on the roof of a nearby building, I brought up the dossier that Adam had assembled for the woman who had called in the bomb threat to the PRT.

    Katherine Yoshida, codenamed Bakuda, was apparently what the PRT had deemed a "tinker," specifically one that focused on bombs. This apparently meant that she had the capability to produce esoteric devices and effects, so long as they fell under the purview of either single-use devices or "bombs." Thus, the rather uncreative name. Apparently, Yoshida had gone to one of the local universities and upon gaining her powers, used them to threaten the school to attempt to get one of the professors to change her grade or something. The psychological profile that Adam had managed to build had Yoshida as a dangerous egomaniac, but thus far, none of her effects were anything I would have to worry about.

    I brought up the map of Brockton Bay, planning my route. I'd landed on the roof of the apartment building Kenzie had called from. A quick calculation had me map my route, and then I adjusted it on the fly to account for the fact that I shouldn't just burst through walls like they were tissue paper. This was a residential complex, not a space station or a set of Chozo ruins, after all.

    I'm not going to lie, it was a little tempting to just blast my way into the apartment and snatch her then leave.

    Instead, I made my way to the roof access door, and with a brief tug, pulled it open with my free hand. I adjusted the power output on my blaster to the stun level once more, just in case I needed to shoot anyone here. Hopefully that wouldn't be necessary, but I ran into the stairwell.

    Judging from Adam's calculations, Kenzie's signal came from the eighth floor, approximately seven floors down from where I was. I vaulted my way into the center of the stairwell, letting myself fall those floors, and then, using my grapple beam, I swung onto the eighth floor's landing. I popped open the door, and then I winced at the smoke that billowed out. Either the blasts had spread to this building, a fire had coincidentally accidentally caught, or someone took advantage of the situation. Either way, something was going on, and I swapped to my thermal visor.

    It would be the only way to see through the smoke.

    "Adam, patch me through to Optics," I said. I needed to get to her quickly.

    "Doing so now, Lady," he said.

    At the bottom right of my HUD, an image of Optics in her mask popped up. "Hunter, you're here?"

    "I am," I said. "Which apartment?"

    She gave me the number, and as I pushed through the smoke, I caught glimpses into the other apartments with my thermal visor. Three on this floor had people inside on the way to Kenzie's. I suspected there were possibly more.

    Keeping to my private channel with Adam, I asked, "Estimated EMS response time?"

    "Given the state of the city? Ten minutes, at least," Adam responded.

    Ahead of me, a person staggered out into the hall from a nearby apartment., an Asian woman wearing what looked to be some sort of cocktail dress. She came up to me, grabbing onto my armor.

    "Help me! Help me, please! I don't want to be here!" She continued to babble similar things in Japanese. "She made me do it!"

    My thermal scanner picked up something in her skull, something small, but it was lighting up like the core of an overloading reactor.

    "She made me… she made me…"

    "Who made you?" I asked in her native tongue. "What did she make you do?"

    "I didn't want to… I don't want to! No!" She screamed in pain, and reacting purely on instinct, I reached my hand onto her head and pulled. Not literally grabbing her head and taking it off, but I pulled the energy away. All of it that I could, but it wasn't quick enough. I couldn't… I tossed her into the empty apartment she'd come out of, and I witnessed… something I hadn't seen since my days in the Federation Police.

    The bomb in the woman's head exploded, but instead of fire, shrapnel, and force, the bomb exploded with scorching heat alone. If I hadn't been in my Gravity Suit, the heat would have been too much to bear, but I stood unfazed.

    "Hunter, are you there?" Kenzie asked.

    "Yes," I said.

    "What happened?"

    "Bakuda," I said, and I continued on my way to where I knew she must be. When I got to the doorway, I frowned at the heat coming off the doorknob and lock. "Optics, Eleventh Hour, it's Hunter. I'm at the door now, but I don't think you can open it."

    "Open it however you need," came Eleventh Hour's voice.

    "Stand back," I said, and I gave them a few seconds to stay away from the door. I opened the door the best way I knew how: I shot it. With a charged shot. The door vaporized upon my blaster's impact, and I pushed my way into the apartment.

    Eleventh Hour stood in the corner with Optics in costume. The two looked me over, and I could feel the exasperation coming from the older cape as the younger one's excitement was palpable.

    "Hunter! You're actually here! Helping us first rather than going on and dealing with the bad guy," Optics said. "And Bakuda's a really bad bad guy, even if her work is interesting."

    "She's putting bombs in people's heads," I said. If there was one example of it, there would be more. I knew the type.

    "Like I said, really bad bad guy," Optics said. "How can I help?"

    I glanced over to Eleventh Hour, who, despite having a mask that covered half his face on, still managed enough consternation in that look to be recognizable.

    "Optics, Hunter is here to get you to safety," Eleventh Hour said.

    "Both of you," I said. "My ship is outside, and I can carry you both."

    I estimated both of their weights to be well under what I could carry, even if I weren't already in my Gravity Suit, and, given the current status of the building, I simply turned toward the wall. I gestured for Eleventh Hour and Kenzie to stay behind me.

    "What are you doing, Hunter?" Eleventh Hour asked.

    I fired a missile at the wall, blowing a man-sized hole in it. Then I scooped both Optics and Eleventh Hour up in my arms and jumped out to my waiting ship. Eleventh Hour had a powerful set of lungs on him, but Optics seemed to genuinely enjoy the jump.

    As the three of us boarded the gunship, Optics was looking around eagerly, clearly curious about the technology. I held up a hand to forestall any questions by her, and I looked over to Eleventh Hour, once he had managed to orient himself.

    "Never do that again," he said.

    I looked at him flatly.

    "Unless…" He closed his eyes. "Balls. Seven. Okay. Never do that again unless absolutely necessary, please."

    I nodded, and I glanced toward the building. "Adam, run a thermal scan on the building and identify all occupants."

    "Of course, Lady," Adam said. "What would you want from your new guests?"

    "Give Optics limited access to our database," I said, kneeling down so I was level with the girl. I lowered my voice somewhat. "I'm going to need your help, Kenzie. Adam can do a lot of data organization on his own, but I'm going to need your insight. This… Bakuda…"

    Eleventh Hour moved to speak, but I held up my hand.

    "She's dangerous, right?" Kenzie asked, and I nodded. "Of course, I want to help."

    "I will ask Adam to sanitize things so you don't see anything that disturbs you, but I will need help in determining effects," I said.

    "I don't think she should be looking at anything like that," Eleventh Hour said.

    In principle, I agreed. No child should be exposed to what was going on that night in Brockton Bay, but regardless, it was happening. At the very least, whatever Bakuda's plans were for that night needed to be disrupted.

    "My queen!" Polka jumped onto my shoulder.

    Eleventh Hour yelped. "What? What is that?"

    "Polka!" Kenzie said. "She's a goblin that Hunter saved."

    "And is responsible for," said Jareth. "Like myself. So, what is your next plan, Hunter?"

    "Clear this building first," I said. "Then meet with Velocity and my father."

    "Scan complete," Adam said, and the map data of the building overlaid in my visor. "Eighteen life signs in the building. Four with anomalous cranial thermal activity."

    "Cranial…" Kenzie muttered. "Oh. Can I get some tools?"

    "What are you thinking of doing?" Polka asked. "Will it help my queen?"

    "I think so," said the young tinker. "Those are bombs in their heads, right?"

    I nodded.

    "Tools!" Kenzie insisted, and I led her to the part of the gunship where I repaired bits and bobs of my suit. Sure, sometimes there would be malfunctions with the suit, where I would lose all the upgrades, but other times, I just needed to repair some basic damage. I hadn't had to since the ZDR mission, but that didn't mean the room couldn't be used for something else.

    Behind Optics's mask, I could see something like a spark.

    "How long do you need?" I asked. "And what are you planning?"

    She looked around the repair bay, and I saw determination in her stance. "I need at least two hours, but I might need some help reaching the parts."

    "Jareth?" I asked. "Eleventh Hour?"

    "Yes, Hunter," said the goblin. "I would be happy to help."

    "I don't think this is a good idea," Eleventh Hour said. "But… despite my feelings…"

    I nodded. "Adam can help identify the parts. Polka, don't try and eat what Kenzie is making. Which… is?"

    "A signal messer-upper," Kenzie said, and as everyone looked curiously at her, she continued. "Bakuda's using head bombs, right? Whatever they do, those are bombs she has set up. I don't think they're on a timer. I think she has a control. The control has a signal."

    "And the signal can be messed with?" Polka asked.

    "Yep! I don't know which is which, but…" Kenzie shrugged. "With Adam's help, maybe I can get it directly to you, Hunter."

    "Maybe," I said. "Stay here."

    As I left the room, I heard Eleventh Hour make some remark about how much I spoke, but I couldn't worry about that now. There was something about spending this much time around people that made me a little uncomfortable. Usually, I spent my time traveling through deep space, after all, and for the longest time I didn't have any companions unless I was hired to provide security to someone.

    Exiting the gunship again, I brought up the scans of the building. The building's structural integrity likely wouldn't hold long enough for EMS to get there, so I needed to do something. I highlighted those likely to have bombs implanted in their heads and planned my route. I was going to need to go full speed through the building, mixing my Speed Boost with Flash Shift to clear the occupants out. I did so mostly on autopilot, breaking through doors, using my Grapple Beam to help get everyone out. I intentionally steered clear of those who had the bombs in their heads, at least until I could suppress whatever would make them explode.

    Unfortunately, Bakuda chose to activate another one of them. I still hadn't encountered this tinker, but without the capability of tracing the signal, that was no easy task.

    As I brought the last person out of the building other than the two remaining bombers, I took a deep breath.

    Adam, anticipating my question answered, "Optics has completed construction of an emplacement that can disrupt signals. The emplacement is in the shape of a cube, Lady. She asked to bring it down to you."

    That was… faster than expected. I figured tinkertech took longer to construct, even with the tools that I had available on the gunship.

    "Can you lower it to the street?" I asked.

    Optics's icon popped up on my HUD. "Jareth and Eleventh Hour helped me bring it to the loading bay. According to Adam, the ship is equipped with a tractor beam, which is really cool, by the way. He's helping me use it."

    A green light appeared on the ground, and I gestured for the people gathered around to step back. From my cloaked ship, a metallic cube approximately one and a half meters along the side lowered to the ground at a constant velocity that was slow enough to have it land softly. I walked around the cube, examining it. I couldn't see what Kenzie did to the insides, but the circuitry I could see on the outside was complex and interesting. Of course, the real interest I had was the port on the center on one side, perfectly sized for my Beam Cannon.

    So, I did what I always did in this situation. I doubted Kenzie would do anything intentionally harmful here. I stuck my arm in the port, plugging my suit into the cube.

    Immediately, data flashed on my HUD. Line after line of code showed, not hacking the suit per se, but adding to it. Upgrading it. Kenzie had successfully built an upgrade for my Suit, as my visor tinted from its normal green to a more lime-green overlay.

    My HUD readout named the upgrade.

    [Signal Visor Acquired]

    As I removed my arm from the cube, it disappeared into motes of light, the energy makeup of it being fully absorbed into my Suit's systems. I wasn't sure if that was what Kenzie had intended, but I was happy with the result.

    A low whistling had me spinning around, my cannon at the ready.

    "Whoa! Easy, I come in peace!" A blonde girl, maybe a little older than Emma, stood at the corner of the street. She was wearing a skintight black and lavender outfit with a purple mask across her face. A stylized Tt was on the outfit's front, and I spotted a stylized eye on her chest.

    Making sure the Stun Beam was active, I aimed at her directly. I didn't know this cape, but somehow she'd managed to sneak up on me while I was getting my upgrade.

    "Hunter, right?" asked the girl. "You really don't need to shoot me. I'm here to help."

    I tilted my head. How would she be able to do that?

    "Oh, I like you," said the girl. A readout on my screen indicated that she was likely the cape known as Tattletale, a so-called villain. She smiled at me. "I'm sure your fancy AI and doo-hickeys are telling you all about me, which is fair, I'm sure. But I can actually help."

    I let out one word. "How?"

    Her smile practically exuded how proud she was of herself. "I know where Bakuda is going to be."

    "Why?" I asked.

    "Because I don't want to have my city end up like Canberra or worse," Tattletale said. "She's got something blue."

    Oh. Oh no.
     
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    • … It's Cauldron.

    They somehow figured or something is telling them that either empowered Samus or Super Metroids could eat the energy that keeps the entities and shards up, so they threw metroid DNA at the goblin king so he would make some…

    No wait, why would they also trigger a Ripley cloning event?
     
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    TT: She has something Blue.
    Taymus: *heart skips a beat in fully justified fear.*

    -Hours later-

    Taymus: *looking blankly at the bottle of blue toilet cleaner having caught Bakuda in the middle of doing some housework. (She doesn't trust anyone not to pull something and has seen way too many movies where someone got offed because they let their guard down in the bathroom)* *in a terrifying deadpan* Adam… remind me to Kick Tattletale somewhere unpleasant next time we run into her.
    Adam: *equally deadpan* Noted Hunter.
     
    Somebodynobody10 said:
    … It's Cauldron.

    They somehow figured or sometging is telling them that either empowered Samus or Super Metroids could eat the energy that keeps the entities and shards up, so they threw metroid DNA at the gobling king so he would make some…

    No wait, why would they also trigger a Ripley cloninf event?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Considering their Canonical Track Record......I'd say yes
     
    Cauldron: "Either Phazon empowered Ripley or Super Metroid might be able to say FU to Scion...sac one earth to save multitudes...done."
     
    Revival 4.3
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    • Revival 4.3



    Not for the first time since returning to Earth Bet did a sense of dread build within my gut. I should have been actively hunting Ridley to at least contain the clone of the space pirate or to eliminate it, and instead I was dealing with other ghosts of long ago. I'd assumed that when Phaeze was destroyed that all Phazon had either shifted out of the universe completely or been destroyed. Apparently, the Simurgh had decided to prove me wrong, but Eidolon was supposed to have it contained in Canberra, with the Phazon-corrupted people stuck in that one area.

    I'd drained what I could from Dauntless when he'd been exposed, and then I'd vented it straight at the Endbringer via a hyperbeam. Adam cleared me of the corruption myself, but I certainly didn't want to have to do that often. If this Bakuda person had it, I might not have a choice.

    Tattletale knew where she was going to be, however, and she knew more about the Phazon than she should have.

    Which meant she was coming with me.

    Without giving her time to protest, I scooped the blonde into my free arm and activated my return beacon, boarding the gunship.

    "Hey!" Tattletale yelped as the boarding platform pulled us in, and then her eyes widened as she stepped out onboard. She looked around hungrily, eyes taking in each new item.

    "Samus," Adam said on my suit's internal comm. "Are you certain about this course of action? With the new upgrade provided by Optics, you should be capable of tracking this Bakuda yourself."

    I subvocalized back. "She knows of Phazon, and she has an idea of where Bakuda will be. She's useful."

    "So, you're abducting me?" Tattletale asked. "I'd ask you to take me to your leader, but I get the feeling I'm looking at her."

    I smiled wryly. If only she knew.

    "Wait, I was only half-joking there," Tattletale said, her smirk dipping some. "You're really—Never mind. I can tell you where she's probably going to be."

    Adam spoke out of the boarding room's speakers. "Miss Li—"

    "Tattletale, please," said the supervillain, cutting him off and looking to the speakers questioningly. A look of recognition passed over her face, and her smile returned. "Oh. You'd be Adam, right? Hunter's AI companion?"

    "You seem to be well-informed, Miss—Tattletale," said Adam. "I would ask how you came by this information, but I suspect it would be less than useful at the moment."

    Adam didn't make mistakes like this, which meant that he was intentionally making it seem like he was wanting to use her real name. The readout on my helmet's screen listed out a dossier that pulled from police reports, PRT outputs and the Parahumans Online wiki for the girl. The dossier updates happened in real time as Adam continued speaking with her.

    "I could tell you that," Tattletale said. "But it wouldn't help you with your goal. Can't let that something blue just sit around all radiating and dangerous, after all."

    "You claim to know where Bakuda will be," Adam said. "But you told us that she was using Phazon in her new bombs."

    Tattletale shook her head as she followed me to the elevator leading to the Combat Information Chair. "I said nothing of the sort. I said she has something blue, but I don't think she's used it yet. Phazon, huh?" She took in Jareth and Polka as we walked into the Bridge, and her smirk grew as she spotted Eleventh Hour and Optics. "Well, I didn't know you rated Watchdog."

    "Tattletale," said Eleventh Hour. Behind his clock-mask, I could almost feel the disappointment he felt. "You've got a three."

    "Only three?" she asked, and a pout formed. "I'm hurt, but not surprised. I'm here to help."

    "Where?" I asked.

    "So, you already know that Bakuda's a tinker," Tattletale said, without any confirmation. "Kind of like the kid. Bomb specialty, something with Boston, yadda yadda…"

    "Get to the point," said Eleventh Hour.

    "Tinkers need workshops," Optics said.

    "Bingo," said Tattletale. "And you won't be able to find hers without me."

    "We can use the signal visor to triangulate where the signals are coming from," Optics said. "But that would require finding more people with bombs in their head."

    Phazon could also be scanned for, but without the infrastructure in place that the Federation had, I would be entirely dependent on the gunship's sensors. I wasn't entirely sure that Dragon's own infrastructure would be enough to work on this. I didn't want to risk people becoming corrupted back home in Brockton Bay. Of course, since I'd destroyed Dark Samus, it was possible that the corruption was mostly inert. It certainly seemed that way.

    But it wouldn't be the first time that an enemy of mine had only seemed dead and gone. At the current rate with Ridley, it probably wouldn't be the last time either. Just because I hadn't seen the corrupted Phazon battle suit since the destruction of Phaeze didn't mean it was dead and gone completely.

    I really hoped I wouldn't have to destroy Earth. There were too many people I liked here.

    "There are no detectable sources of Phazon within city limits," said Adam. "But until the cannister was cracked in Canberra, the energy eluded sensors. Tattletale, do you know where the workshop is?"

    A three-dimensional map of the city projected into existence in front of us, and Tattletale made a low whistle. Optics and Eleventh Hour also seemed impressed, but neither made any comments.

    "I don't know exactly where the workshop is," said the supervillain. "But I've got an idea. Kid, you managed to get something together for Hunter here, right?"

    "Yeah, I gave her an upgrade for her visor to block signals from those bombs," said Optics. "And I'm Optics…"

    "Yeah, yeah," said Tattletale. She offered a smile toward Optics that seemed a little more genuine than her smirk. "So, you can identify the signal that her bombs use to blow up. And Adam mentioned that this blue stuff—Phazon—is probably shielded in a container." Tattletale gestured at the map. "So, ABB territory includes the Docks and the north side of town. We can pretty much rule out these warehouses here…"

    "I thought you said you knew where she was going to be," said Eleventh Hour.

    "I do," Tattletale said. "She's going after Lung. That's obvious. I just thought that Hunter would want to deal with this blue crap before we had another Canberra on our hands."

    "So, she's not in her workshop?" Optics asked.

    "I might be psychic, but I'm not omniscient," said Tattletale.

    I'd met psychics before, and one thing Tattletale wasn't was that. Her power was probably more like super-deduction or the like. I glanced over the map, now with ABB territory highlighted. Tattletale had ruled out half the warehouse locations in the docks, partly due to state of disrepair, and Adam had started running his own scans.

    "You're dealing with a narcissist who insists that she is the smartest person in the room," said Tattletale without even the slightest hint of irony. "And she's willing to blow up anyone who disagrees. That's her problem."

    "You don't think she'd have shielding?" Eleventh Hour asked.

    "Oh, she probably does, but I doubt that her power let her shield against all forms of detection, or it'd block the bomb signals," said Tattletale.

    "I also sincerely doubt that she would have been able to shield from Lady Hunter's technology, even if her tinkertech did that," said Jareth, carrying Polka in.

    Eleventh Hour was the only one to react, and that was primarily with a glare. "What would you know about that?"

    "Me?" Jareth asked. "I was my king's most trusted advisor, up until the fell beast came. We spoke of many things, and King Rinke had his speculations on the limitations of tinker technology and why our humble town remained untouched."

    "Humble, right," Eleventh Hour said.

    "What sort of numbers do you get if Hunter goes after the Phazon in the docks?" asked Tattletale suddenly.

    Eleventh Hour held up a hand, and he frowned. "Six. Waiting for Bakuda to make her move is an eight, especially with this Phazon stuff involved. What exactly is Phazon?"

    "A classified energy source that should not be on this Earth," said Adam. "Hunter is the only one cleared to know the specifics of it."

    "You just need to know that it's bad and radioactive," said Tattletale. "And mostly bad." She looked me over, and her grin widened. "There is an alternative to trying to find exactly where her workshop is."

    "What?"

    "Several of the buildings down there are condemned," Tattletale said. "Collateral in cape fights, and the ones that aren't have been abandoned for a while or have minimal population with some insurance against cape fight damage. You can act in your usual manner, Hunter."

    On the one hand, that actually was useful. It would speed things up significantly if I could just blow through the walls to find where Bakuda's workshop was. On the other hand, clearly there was some sort of leak at the PRT. Tattletale had clearly seen some of the sanitized ZDR footage.

    "Adam, contact Director Piggot and let her know that I will be actively looking for and dismantling Bakuda's workshop," I said as I directed the ship's autopilot toward the docks. I glanced at the thinkers and tinker onboard as well as my goblin guests. I closed my eyes and let out a breath. "You'll stay here."

    "I'd actually like to get out," said Tattletale. "And a good distance away. I told you what I could, and you're on your way."

    "Director Piggot has been notified, Lady," said Adam. "Tattletale, as you came here under an intent to help, you will be released upon the completion of this mission."

    Tattletale frowned. "I really should be getting going though." For the briefest second, I saw a ghostly overlay of blue on the girl. Had she been exposed to Phazon at some point? The energy wasn't there within her, but something felt off.

    I shook my head, and I switched to a private channel with Adam. "Scan her thoroughly for corruption. If it's there…"

    "Understood, Lady," Adam said. Out of the bridge's speakers, he said, "I do apologize, Tattletale. In return for your cooperation, I will offer you a terminal for you to browse through some of Hunter's exploits."

    "Redacted, I'm sure," said Tattletale.

    "Only for Federation secrets," said Adam. "And her own private ones. If she chooses to tell you…"

    Tattletale's eyes lit up.

    "Can I look too?" Optics asked.

    "You may," Adam said.

    "Yus!" Optics cheered. "Polka, want to be my shoulder buddy for this?"

    The small goblin hybrid nodded, hopping off Jareth and onto the ever so slightly larger tinker.

    As I made my way back to the boarding area, letting Adam handle the guests on the ship, I mulled things over. If Tattletale was corrupted, then her information was suspect, but what incentive would the corrupted have to reach out and help? Why warn me of Bakuda's use of Phazon?

    I wasn't sure that Tattletale was corrupted though. Not directly, anyway. It was almost like a vision of something that could have been. Things had been weird for me since I became part Metroid, but Phazon-related visions happened to me long before that. Was it Phaeze? Was the planet somehow back? Or was it the remnants of the Metroid Prime and my corrupted Phazon suit?

    Was the so-called 'Dark Samus' back in action again?

    That plus Ridley made things so much worse.

    I stepped onto the transport pad, and I descended down onto the streets below. Stepping off the pad, I immediately slammed my leg backward, kicking into a solid body. Except my leg met resistance for only a second before the body collapsed into ash. Oni Lee.

    The signal visor's readout popped up, and immediately I tried to activate it, blocking the detonation signal. Something was off though, and a concussive blast sent me flying forward. I righted myself instantly, brushing some of the shrapnel from my suit's armor, and I glared, looking around for the teleporter.

    I hated fighting teleporters. I charged up my charge beam, still on the stun setting, no matter how tempted I was to switch to the full-on plasma beam.

    "Well," said a female voice with a robotic monotone hiss from down the alleyway. "Samus Aran. I must say that I am impressed. A lesser woman would have died."

    As I looked over to the speaker, I blinked. The woman had black hair, wore large opaque goggles, a metal mask with a gas-mask filter, and she had braided wires of black, yellow, and green over her shoulders. She wore a set of something resembling a bootstrap power armor over a black bodysuit with it. Her goggles gleamed, shifting between red and an all-too-familiar blue. That didn't sit right.

    "Bakuda," I said, my left hand curling up into an almost-clawed fist. My armor didn't shift.

    "Aww, you know me," said the tinker, tilting her head. "And I know you. I bet you'd like to know how."

    "Not really."

    I shot her with my charged stun beam.

    Villain monologues were passe.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Boss fight time! It looks like Bakuda's got a set of Phazon Enhancement Device power armor. That means she won't go down easy, and depending on the quality of it...I can see Phazon sickness/mutation getting bad enough to make her regret using it.
     
    Villian and Hero using the monologue to quietly power up an 'ultimate' and the strikes cancel out right after the speech is done.

    "Well that was a waste."
     
    Note that "shot" does not mean "had desired effect on target". With Bakuda wearing armor of some sort, unless Taylor shot her in the head, she's still awake, just ticked more than usual.
     
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    I do hope they learn of the Baby Metroid and what Ridley did to her 2nd family. That way they know exactly why she hates and fears(?) Ridley.
     
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