They followed Samus up to the third-level deck and went up the blast door, and found themselves in a cylindrical chamber with a glass-like half-pipe floor. A fan set into the end opposite of their entrance was blowing cool air into the room--it was not nearly strong enough to hamper them. Samus dropped down into the main chamber and walked across to the next door, opening up the Ice Beam door to the Omega Research.

The upper room they were in held a single set of terminals, and an outer deck leading into a larger cavernous room--they could hear Space Pirates talking in their native language on the ground level below. "Incoming!" Samus shouted, arming her Wave Beam. A Wave Trooper dropped down onto a floating platform between the outer deck and the deck opposite, while a second one raced up towards them from a ramp on the right side of the deck.

"This is starting to piss me off!" Hugo launched a charged burst at the Trooper on the floating platform.

Matt eyed the one ascending on the ramp. "Silver Tomahawk!" His kick sliced the air and shot a wave of pure, razor sharp wind energy.

The wave of wind cut into its armor, and the Wave Trooper staggered back, only for Samus and R.D. to fire blasts of electrical energy at it simultaneously, killing it almost instantly. Samus switched to her Power Beam and leaped off of the deck, dropping down to the floor below. Her jump was simultaneous with Hugo's shot, which stunned the Wave Trooper, allowing R.D. to jump across onto the platform, his Phase Blade drawn. He quickly skewered the alien, and kicked him off the platform.

The first of three Power Troopers charged her, only for her Super Missile to kill it instantly, smashing it against the wall at the end of its flight. She quickly spun around and began pelting the second and third ones with a series of Power Beam shots to hold them off. More shots rained down at them from above, though they couldn't damage their armor system, but Samus wasted no time in getting into her Morph Ball as R.D. held them off for her.

The two Power Troopers rushed the woman, only to meet death as her Power Bomb went off. The explosion incinerated them in an instant, ending the battle. R.D. dropped down behind her, while the others made their way down using the ramp--they passed an empty pod in the process. Once they got down to the bottom, however, Ileyna gasped and pointed to something set into the wall.

"What in the world is that!?" R.D. said, looking at the pod. Within was a truly gigantic, muscle-bound Space Pirate--it towered over them. Across the room in the opposite wall was another pod, also with another giant Space Pirate.

"That," Samus said, examining it, "Is an Elite Pirate. The fruits of their experiments with Phazon using the Space Pirate genome. Now, come on. We need to keep moving."

Samus led them to a blast door set into the floor itself, and opened it and dropped down. As they dropped down into the room, the lighting suddenly fluctuated for a brief moment--Samus wrote it off as a malfunction from the missing Dynamo, as she had destroyed it with a Power Bomb the last time she had come through here. However, as they came into the center of the room, which held another Elite Pirate pod, something happened.

The creature within had awoken, and it raised up its fist and smashed through the pod with ease, causing it to shatter. Ileyna screamed and scrambled away as the Elite Pirate stepped out, staring at them with murderous rage in its eyes. "Watch out!" Samus shouted, firing a Super Missile at the creature's head. It exploded, causing it to stagger, but it quickly recovered and raised its fists up and smashed them into the ground, launching a shockwave of energy across it. The shockwave smashed into R.D. and Samus, knocking them back. As they landed, the Elite Pirate stepped forward, and R.D. retaliated with a beam of potent energy to its face.

Rather than play it safe, Matt decided the best way to do this was to have fun with it. With a mighty yell, he leapt into a bold aerial kick at the Pirate. As he rebounded, Helena and Hugo followed up with powerful blasts of their own.

Matt's kick did little more than anger the Elite Pirate, and it made a powerful swing at him, but missed thanks to its slow speed. The attack left it open for Hugo and Helena's attacks, knocking it back against the wall. Before they could follow up or it could retaliate, a massive, scorching beam of superheated ions seared the air as it smashed into the Elite Pirate's face--the charged up version of the Plasma Beam.

The attack ended the threat, as the Elite Pirate slumped and collapsed, its face thoroughly burned. "Good lord," R.D. breathed as he got up. "This is what the Phazon does!?"

"Yes," Samus said, as a shaken Ileyna approached the group. The bounty hunter turned and continued down the hall, opening the door to the massive Central Dynamo chamber, a cavernous room with several hovering platforms and a large, grated floor. They were immediately assaulted by Ice Troopers, but before any of the group could attack, Samus fired an Ice Spreader at them--as it hit the ground just underneath the Ice Troopers as they landed, a torrent of ice spread out and froze them. The sudden cold shattered them instantly.

She quickly crossed the room to a pile of debris, which she cleared out using a Power Bomb. Behind it was an Ice Beam door, and she opened it. Three Megaturrets in the hallway dropped down, and she quickly entered the Morph Ball and rolled across the room to a hole in the floor, under the glass-like floor, and made her way safely down the hallway while the others waited at the end. The turrets tracked her progress, firing plenty of missiles at her, though they couldn't hurt her through the floor. She came up behind a wall, out of their line of fire, and looked across to a terminal. She hacked into it with her Scan Visor, and disabled the turrets.

They made a sound as they deactivated, the lights on them going from red to green. "Its safe to come through!" she called to the others.

"I sure hope there's a bathroom nearby!" Matt remarked dramatically.

"Well, go over there or something," Hugo said.

"I'm not going in the CORNER!"

"Then HOLD IT."

"Are they--?" Samus began, but was cut off by R.D..

"Yes, they are," he said wearily.

They progressed into the next room, on an upper deck, quietly--Samus saw over it that there were some Space Pirates down below, and behind the large forcefield... Metroids. Lots of them. She motioned for the group to be quiet as she made her way to the set of terminals on the deck, and scanned through them. Most of it was information on Phazon-infused rationing for their experiments, but one was the forcefield controls.

Samus got an idea. "Get your ice attacks ready," she whispered to them. "And let's let the Metroids do our work for us."

She scanned the terminal with the forcefield controls, and deactivated the field. The Space Pirates fled in fear, but it was already too late--the Metroids quickly went to work, streaking in with loud shrieks and latching onto the aliens and sucking them dry of their life energies. Within a few minutes, all of the pirates had been killed, and the Metroids began to look elsewhere for food.

"Here they come!" R.D. shouted, firing bolts of ice at the creatures, as did Samus.

Hugo and Matt unloaded their ice attacks while Helena stayed back-and that was good, because that was the last thing she needed.

Between the four of them, the attacking Metroids were swiftly dealt with, allowing them to get down to the main floor. Here, they found more pods and Phazon-infusion devices for them--likely for research on the Metroids. One of them was set into the middle of the chamber, with the pod facing them and the Phazon tanks on either side behind it. And hovering behind the blue glass was a shimmering blue gemstone.

R.D.'s eyes lit up. "The Chaos Emerald!" he cried out, vaulting over the handrail of the ramp, landing in front of it. Immediately, he reared back with his right arm as the Godhand ignited around it, and punched the glass, shattering it. He quickly snatched the Chaos Emerald out of the pod. "Great, that's one objective completed."

"Good," Samus said, as Ileyna nodded fervently behind him. "Let's continue."

They came to the forcefield, and found themselves standing on a ledge over a pit of Phazon, and gigantic Phazon-mutated Saturnine mushrooms growing up to the left of them. Immediately, Ileyna's barrier encased them, shielding them from the radiation. "Now, to figure out how to cross this gap," Samus said, not seeing any useful Grapple Points. She switched to the X-Ray Visor, and spotted the Invisible platforms hovering over it. "Excellent."

She jumped up onto the Saturnine mushrooms, then leaped out over the Phazon and onto the invisible platforms. R.D quickly followed, using his own X-Ray Visor, while Ileyna automatically lifted up Hugo. Samus made the jumps across the moving platforms to the other side, immediately getting attacked by a pair of Metroids--they were easily dispatched with R.D.'s help. She looked around with the X-Ray Visor, then climbed up another nearby Saturnine. "Wait here," she said to the others, jumping up onto another invisible platform to cross the gap to a higher ledge. She destroyed the wall, which she could see through using her X-Ray Visor, and made her way across a magnetic rail using the Spider Ball to reach a Missile Expansion before returning, and using the other magnetic rails to reach the top of the room, where a door was waiting. The others quickly made their way up to her through flight and other means.

They progressed through a short hall with some native Burrower bugs in it, crossing over a pit of Phazon, and entered the next room behind the Plasma Beam door. Within was an Elevator that would lead them down farther into the Phazon Mines. At the far end of the room, next to the elevator, was a windowed wall showing an expansive view of the Impact Crater.

R.D. whistled as he looked at it, while Ileyna pressed her hands up against the glass to stare. "Wow," she said, looking about. "What's that up there?" she asked, looking back at Samus. R.D. looked himself--it was like a giant rock hovering over the crater.

Samus looked over as she completed granting herself access to the elevator's systems. "That's the Cradle," she said without looking at it herself. "Its the temple the Chozo built to prevent the Worm from escaping," she said. "That's where I need to take the Artifacts and open up the Cipher."

"Hooo, boy," Matt said, looking up at it. "That is one giant rock."

"I've seen bigger," Hugo said.

"You have not."

Veronica was sitting in a chair, leaning on the dining table when Alasea came down.

"We never did ask if the boys found a boat to use for transport." Veronica mumbled tapping her fingers on the wooden table. It would be possible to check themselves, sense the danger was probably gone by now...but...god knew that wouldn't hold up long. They'd be lucky to get out the door without a mishap.

Samus stepped onto the hologram, activating the elevator. It slowly descended downward, revealing more of the three-sided windowed wall and giving them a better and better look at the Cradle hovering solemnly over the Impact Crater as it waited for the Newborn to return with the Artifacts and open the way to the Worm's Lair. Samus watched it until it disappeared from sight, as rock wall covered the windows. Soon, the windows revealed veins of Phazon gleaming through the stone, and Ileyna hastily stepped away from the window, looking at the Phazon with trepidation. Thankfully, the room had its own radiation shielding.

The elevator came to a halt at the bottom, allowing them to step off into the small square foyer. Samus opened the door with a Plasma Beam, revealing a short path to a deep cavern. At the bottom was numerous giant Saturnine mushrooms, and a pit floor covered in Phazon. Above it slightly was another pathway, and a Space Pirate guarding it. It immediately opened fire upon spotting the Hunter, but her charged Plasma Beam incinerated it in an instant, and it screamed as it died. Ileyna manifested her powers, and they made their way down using the mushrooms, and filed onto the path.

"There's a Missile Expansion in here," Samus said, looking down at the lowest large mushroom. "But its in the Phazon."

"I'll get it, then," R.D. said. He dropped down onto the Phazon, his own Phazon shielding protecting him, and dropped down onto his hands and knees to look under the mushroom. Sure enough, there was a discarded Missile Expansion. He grabbed it and tossed it up to Samus, who quickly added it into her systems.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem."

Samus made her way to the door, and opened it up with her Plasma Beam. What she revealed was a large, expansive cavern with even more of the gigantic, luminescent blue-gray fungi and scattered growths of Phazon--and the four deadly Hunter Metroids roaming it.

"Watch out!" R.D. shouted as one spat its energy tendril at the Hunter. Before it could latch, his ice beam froze it solid, and Samus destroyed the creature with a missile.

"Blasted monsters," she growled. "I don't know why the Chozo ever made these things."

She quickly began hopping around on top of the Saturnines to progress, with the rest of them quickly following. She dispatched the remaining three Metroids. They came to the central part of the cavern, and there was a sting-ray like creature floating about at the top; a Glider, which they hadn't seen since they were in the Hunter and Frost Caves back in the Phendrana Drifts.

Samus used the creature as a moving Grapple Point, and the creature loosed a strange, but not agitated cry as the beam made contact with its magnetic underside. She swung her way over the central cavern to the Saturnines on the other side, and waited for Matt and Ileyna to ferry Helena and Hugo across, while R.D. replicated her own actions.

===Pillar of Dawn, Japan===

"We'll ask tomorrow when they wake up," Alasea replied, stretching. "They earned their nap. I'll help you guys find a boat tomorrow... I don't want that skank Llewelyn to ambush us."

Edited by RisingDragon on January 18, 2009 at 20:20:41.

"A wise man once said something about jaunting through places like this," Matt said.

"What did he say?" Helena asked.

"I dunno. I just know that he said something."

Upon seeing the next room, a small chamber blocked off with a cracked wall, Samus made everyone stay behind in the small cavern outside of the Ice Beam door. As it closed up behind her, she used a Power Bomb to destroy the wall, but the damage she caused only did enough to allow her entry through the use of her Morph Ball form. She opened the door back up.

"You'll need to use Chaos Control to cross through the next area," she said. "Looks like there's some sort of mining tunnel in there, and there's bound to be a lot of Phazon within."

"Alright, just signal us when you're through," R.D. said, pulling out the blue Chaos Emerald he had collected. Samus nodded and left, entering her Morph Ball form again to proceed through the tunnels. Platforms disappeared on her as she proceeded, forcing her to use her Boost Ball to get through, but soon she was in another small chamber, one that was dark--it seemed the rest of the trip would require Thermal Imaging to proceed. She signaled R.D. while she stood by the door.

The room was blinding momentarily as they warped in through Chaos Control. Nodding to them, Samus opened the Plasma Beam door and went through--the next room was entirely black save for the dark blue glow of the Phazon and the Saturnine mushrooms it had mutated. And, there was the telltale cries of Metroids roaming in this fungal hall.

Luckily, Ileyna's aura gave the others some light to see by while she shielded the group from the Phazon radiation. "Those Metroids are farther in," Samus said, arming her Ice Beam. "Let's take care of them."

"Frost Mine." Matt threw out a small diamond of ice that multiple in size, crystals forming all over it. As it floated near the Metroids the crystals dislodged, firing in all directions.

The Frost Mine did its job spectacularly, freezing the Metroids without problem and allowing R.D. and Samus to destroy them with concussive strikes. Once they were destroyed, Samus went about investigating the room, and found two doorways--one of them lead to a Missile Station, which allowed Samus to restock her missile stores. She was grateful for the chance, as the scan her Hunter-class Gunship had made said that the unique Phazon reading was very close. Further investigation netted her yet another missile expansion, and then they crossed the room into the next area.

Within the Phazon, they saw small explosions of energy occurring. Luckily, Samus wrote it off as nothing dangerous--she switched to her X-Ray Visor, and found Pulse Bombus, those spherical energy creatures she had seen in the Phendrana Drifts. They were easily dispatched with the Wave Beam, allowing them to continue. They found themselves entering a second Metroid Quarantine area, only on the other side of the forcefield--luckily, though, there didn't seem to be any Metroids in the area. But on the far side of the room, across the large Phazon pit, was a pair of Plasma Troopers going about their work.

As R.D. dropped down to the grated floor on the side opposite of the workstation , there was the sound of collapsing metal--two more Plasma Troopers, clad in crimson and black armor, dropped down from the ceiling supports up above, their beam cannons firing madly at them. R.D. found himself pressed back by the barrage of beam fire, and Samus switched to her Plasma Beam to retaliate.

Edited by RisingDragon on January 19, 2009 at 17:52:29.

"Hugo?" Matt asked, in the midst of blasting.

"What is it?"

"Do you think love can bloom on the battlefield?"

"Please quit talking."

The various attacks quickly destroyed the two Plasma Troopers, alerting the other two across the Phazon pit. They, too, began attacking them, firing from across the gap.

R.D. and Samus quickly destroyed them with the Plasma Beam and the Dragon Blaze. The group crossed the gap with ease, through flight and grapple beam, and made it to the forcefield. Unfortunately, it was still up. Samus located the controls for it in the terminal, however, and she quickly brought it down, allowing the others to swiftly deal with the Plasma Trooper on the other side as it was looking about the monitors.

A pair of Wave Troopers ran down the ramp on the wall to the left, but R.D. jumped up onto it with both of his swords drawn. Two quick slashes launched a pair of Shinkuujin blade beams, and the electrified blade arcs easily cut through them.

"Looks like that's the last of them," Samus said as she lowered her weapon and switched to the Scan Visor. "Let me go through the terminals in here and make sure there's nothing else we need to worry about."

Samus quickly went to work, hacking into the stations. She recorded a pirate log about the Elite Pirates being a new era in Space Pirate history, but figured that wouldn't happen now that she'd dealt such a critical blow to their forces. Another terminal, however, gave her far more useful information.

"That's interesting," she said as she read through it.

"What is?" Ileyna asked, walking over to her.

"The Omega Pirate's armor systems are resilient to my beam weapons, but they can't deal with my missile systems," she explained. "They're working on trying to correct that, but they couldn't have had the time to finish it."

"Excellent," R.D. said. "Now we just need to find this Omega Pirate and kill it before it can be released."

"Right," Samus said. "Let's get going."

They proceeded up the catwalk to the upper deck and opened up the doorway, revealing a short hall to a misty room. As they entered, they found themselves in a room with gears working behind a glass window, a grated floor, and massive metal blast doors blocking them. A secret panel opened up and deposited a Plasma Trooper into the room--between Samus, Matt, R.D., Hugo, and Helena, it never stood a chance.

"Alright, how do we get through?" R.D. asked, folding his arms as he examined the doorway. Samus looked up above it, and found power coils frozen over. She aimed her Plasma Beam at it and fired, melting away the ice and returning power to the room. With a rumble, the two metal beams began to retract as a warning klaxon went off, signaling them to back away. Once they had retracted fully, they found a Plasma Beam door, which Samus opened with a shot.

"Get ready, she said as she entered the room, with the others close behind her.

The room they found was absolutely massive, and mostly empty. Off in the corners were large growths of Phazon, and up above was a gigantic crystal formation of Phazon, with catwalks circling it. But in the back of the room was a massive, towering stasis pod, and within it was a monstrous creature.

R.D. felt his jaw drop as they slowly approached it, Samus using her Scan Visor to identify it.

"That's it," she said quietly. "That's the Omega Pirate."

It rested within the pod with its arms folded and its head held low. Massive orbs of Phazon Ore armor were embedded into its black-skinned thighs and shoulders, and its massive claws pulsed with Phazon energy. Its head was adorned with a massive blue fin-like crest of armor. It seemed to be asleep, leaning against one side of the pod, bluish-white mist floating about its lower body. R.D. had to say it was around twenty-five, maybe thirty-five feet in height.

Ileyna cowered behind the group, gripping onto Helena's skirt for reassurance. She did not want the Omega Pirate to wake up.

Edited by RisingDragon on January 19, 2009 at 20:14:24.

"Sweet mama, that thing's huge," Matt said, looking up at it.

Helena gripped her arm as she looked up as well. It was still warm from all of the casting she had recently done, but at least it hadn't gone out of control. Still, her casting so far had been minor...if it got stronger, who knows how that would affect her?

As Samus approached the pod, R.D. watched, his arm cannon trained on the monster. He concentrated, eliminating everything else from his sight... he had to see if what he saw was just a trick he played on himself or not.

It wasn't. The creature inside was moving... stirring.

"Samus, its awake! Get out of there!" he yelled.

It was too late. The creature's yellow eyes began to glow, and its head suddenly pushed forward as it loosed a terrible roar from its fanged mouth. It reared one arm back within the chamber and smashed it forward, completely shattering the pod in a single strike. Cold mist sprayed out as it escaped the wreckage of the pod, and the Omega Pirate took several steps and flung its limbs out as it roared. Energy traveled up its arms as its Quake Wave Generator activated, and it smashed the ground with both fists, unleashing a powerful shockwave of energy across the ground. The attack smashed Samus backwards, causing her to cry out in surprise.

"Suck on this, you bastard!" R.D. said as he began rapid-firing energy beams at the monster, but it lifted its left arm up, and some strange vortex of energy absorbed the shots, powering something in the creature's armor.

"Aw, shit!" R.D. cried as Samus began to retreat.

"Get back!" Hugo shouted. He bolted, followed by Helena.

But Matt just roared a battle cry, raising his arm. "Fist of Gaia!" He sent the angled blow at the massive Pirate's abdomen.

The gigantic stone fist smashed hard into the Omega Pirate, but it grunted with surprise and little else. It swung its massive, three-clawed hand into the Fist of Gaia and utterly destroyed it. It turned its gaze on the group, only for a Super Missile to streak through the air and crash into its left shoulder armor.

The creature bellowed as the Phazon armor was destroyed by the blast, sending shards of it skittering everywhere. The creature itself dropped to a knee, and Samus shouted, "Aim for the shoulders and legs, those are its weak spots!"

The Omega Pirate stood up and made a gesture with its hand before it continued, raising up its hand and activating that vortex device again. R.D. nodded and ran forward, drawing his Phase Blades and combining them into the Phase Scythe. If I can't use my long-range weapons, I'll just have to cut him down to size! he thought as he ran. He leaped up at the gigantic Space Pirate with a battlecry, swinging his sword at the creature's leg.

The creature extended its wrist bayonets and took a powerful swing only moments before R.D. struck--pain arrested his body as the gigantic fist, easily as big as himself, slammed into his body. He was thrown across the room, where he smashed into the wall with a loud thud.

"R.D.!" Ileyna cried in horror as the Omega Pirate advanced on Samus and Matt.

Edited by RisingDragon on July 26, 2009 at 21:23:25.

Matt threw out his hand as a massive hammer of rock burst from the ground. Seizing it, he yelled as he smashed it against the Pirate's calf. This was followed by a charged blast from Hugo, who was staying in the back along with his Laser Options.

The Omega Pirate staggered as Matt's hammer struck it in the leg, cracking the Phazon armor. The follow-up shot from Hugo smashed it apart once it connected, staggering the creature down to one knee again. Samus took advantage of the moment and aimed her Power Beam at its shoulder and charged up before activating her missile launcher. The blast compressed and fired into a Super Missile, which streaked through the air and exploded violently against the armor, destroying it.

The creature bellowed in rage, and the two cannons mounted onto its back aimed at Samus and fired, lobbing two energy projectiles at her. She made to run, but before the projectiles could hit, a wave of plasma energy streaked through the air and collided with them both, detonating them prematurely. Across the room, R.D. lowered his arm cannon and locked onto the Omega Pirate as it raised its arms up to slam the ground again.

Switching to the electric stone, Matt leapt backwards with great speed. He waved his hand about him, gathering power. "Thunder Blast!" He launched a beam of lightning at the Omega Pirate.

R.D. fired in tandem with Matt, and a searing wave of plasma shot towards its remaining armored shoulder. The plasma and lightning exploded against its shoulder while crossing over one another, easily destroying the Phazon armor there. The monster roared in pain and fury, dropping down to its knees, supporting itself with its right claw. It breathed heavily while the group readied themselves to attack.

Suddenly, the creature looked up and bellowed, raising its left fist up. Samus' eyes widened as she realized what it was doing. "It's calling for backup!" she cried out. A pair of Plasma Troopers rushed into the room and leaped off of the catwalks high above, blasters and bayonets at the ready as the Omega Pirate stood up and activated its cloak. A white flash of light occurred, and the Omega Pirate disappeared from sight.

"Damn it!" Matt shouted. "Where'd it go?!"

"Focus on the other guys!" It used some kind of cloaking technology, so it could probably be found by its energy signature. "Samus! Use your X-Ray Visor!"

"Right!" Samus said, switching to the X-Ray Visor while looking around. R.D. in the meantime readied the Phase Scythe while charging forward at one of the Plasma Troopers, ducking under its bayonet swing and cleaving it in twain with the massive sword. He took aim with his arm cannon to provide cover fire for the others against the the remaining Plasma Trooper.

Samus saw movement at the edge of her field of vision, and turned--what she was was a massive spherical object with four vein-like tendrils extending out, over a nearby vat of Phazon. It had to be the Omega Pirate. She took aim with her Plasma Beam and charged up, firing at the core of the object. It staggered as the blast struck, and a deafening roar was heard--Ileyna felt it was too close to her and Helena, and she tugged at the girl urgently to try and get her to move away from the Phazon vat, closer to the locked door they had come in through.

Samus continued to fire at the Core, and R.D. took note of her shots, switching back to his own X-Ray Visor and attacking the Omega Pirate. Soon there was another flash of white, disabling their visors, and the Omega Pirate reappeared, its armor restored. It bellowed in rage and fired at the group with its back-mounted cannons.

Helena scrambled back toward the door, but she couldn't take her eyes off the melee.

"Stand back, Ileyna," she said, spreading her palms. "I don't know what this is going to do."

Ileyna nodded fearfully to Helena, but didn't stray too far from the older girl--she had to stay nearby to protect them from the Phazon.

"Scatter!" Samus commanded as the two blasts came in, running off in one direction as they exploded. R.D. air-skated out of the way and took aim at the Omega Pirate, firing a series of weak blasts to distract it. Samus took careful aim with the Power Beam and fired a Super Missile, but it was deflected as the Omega Pirate raised up its arm to activate its energy siphon device.

"Matt, let's go!" R.D. shouted, cutting off his barrage and dashing forward with the Phase Scythe.