The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Samus Aran]

Samus fell – she’d been ready for a trap, and instantly launched her grapple beam upwards towards the entrance of the trapdoor. It connected, but pulled away, eliciting black liquid.

And so the ground it was. But luckily for Samus, there were no spikes or lava waiting below. Just soft dirt. She landed softly, the air itself seeming to cushion her as she fell.

That sealed it, then. The Black Knight was as arrogant as he sounded.

All the more reason, then, to avoid the dark power her allies had been so eager to borrow of. She’d always suspected, but now it was seemingly obvious – the dark power was as big of a trap as anything they faced on their way to the core of this pocket verse. They wanted people to use it. Fire versus fire. And let the fire spread.

As she stood up, eyes scanning the environment, Samus touched the breastplate of her suit. The one dark chip she’d taken was still locked away in there. As a last resort. Should she destroy it now?

A laugh interrupted her thoughts. The Watcher.

The bounty hunter sighed, as the old man shimmered into sight before her. As casually as one offers a hand in greeting, Samus thrust a foot into the old man’s mouth. It passed straight through, carrying the hunter to the other side of the apparition. She turned with a wry expression. “Worth a shot.”

The Watcher laughed again. “Nothing phases you, does it, my lady?”

Samus backed off, keeping her gun trained on the phantom enemy. “No.”

She turned and took off into the maze.

It was a hedge maze. Samus immediately pined for the loss of her x-ray visor’s full functionality, flipping it on just to see – worthless. Wherever she was, it was totally separate from where the others were being confined – she’d teleported or perhaps entered a new pocket of sub-space. Great, the hunter found herself thinking. At the very least, she didn’t have to worry about her allies – there was no point. They would make it or they wouldn’t.

The hedges didn’t go up to the ceiling, but Samus knew that trying to jump over would not help. There was probably some dark force-field or something or other, but better to check, she supposed.

She jumped, keeping one hand over her head to brace for that forcefield.

Thud.

Yep. These darkphiles were arrogant, but not entirely stupid – at least the maze designer wasn’t. Why was everywhere she visited always some kind of labyrinth?

Samus hit the ground and kept running. She was coming to the end of a long corridor, which ended up leading to the right. Doubtless there was gonna be something around the corner. Easy moments always led up to difficult moments. That was also something Samus had learned.

Samus stopped before the corner and took a peek.

Zombies.

The hunter honestly could have turned her palms up in mock-disbelief, but didn’t. She was too grateful to be facing such an easy foe.

She rounded the corner and ran, firing as she did so. Men – women – even the children. The hunter only hesitated for a moment before the latter. Then she gunned them down too. These weren’t people that might-or-might-not be cured. She didn’t even know if they were real. The damned old man hadn’t been. Judging by what they’d seen so far, in and out of dark space, the power of Nebula didn’t leave much outside of possibility. All the more reason to destroy it, now and forever.

A sucking-clicking noise filled the air. At first Samus thought it was some monster, the next challenge to gun down. But then she realised it was the Watcher’s voice, amplified, and the sound had been him tutting. “So easily you gun down these innocent villagers, these children! Would it not have been easier to simply play my little game?”

Samus used the walls of the corridor as footing, jumping between them to both dodge the zombies’ swipes and rapidly ping-pong through the maze. The Watcher?

Fucking ignored.

Some time passed before the old man piped up again. “You ah … don’t care to prove your points? I thought Samus Aran was a warrior. Someone who respected morality.”

“Yeah, I am.” Samus took a moment to reaffirm. “That’s exactly why I need you to shut up.”

The Watcher’s voice took on an angrier tone. “You won’t listen, you won’t diplomatize – and this is your reward! Dealing with a maze full of angry zombies, and I could help, you know! I could get you through the maze!” In the corner of her eye, Samus could almost see the Watcher, hands spread in frustration, like one trying to lead a horse to water.

Samus took the head off another zombie, and continued on. By this point the Watcher’s voice had started to take on blatantly inhuman qualities. It warped and morphed as his anger rose.

All this time, she hadn’t happened upon the real weakness of Nebula’s forces, but now she was realising it like a slap in the face. In exchange for all that power, the minions of Nebula?

Not incredibly smart.

None of them had been. Strong, yes. Indescribably strong. But nothing came free in this world.

Now she just had to escape this damned maze.

She turned another corner, aware that her muscles were beginning to feel leaden. Despite the power suit’s augmentation, movement was still movement – and she’d been moving all day. She recognised this not as a terrible thing, but simply a fact – as the day wore on, she’d be less and less capable. But rest was not an option. That, too, was simply a fact.

This next corridor lead into a kind of clearing. There she saw the Watcher, standing. Waiting for her.

And this time, it was him that decided to finally play on Samus’s level. He did blurt out one final banality – “I warned you!” before he prepared for battle. His arms burst outward, the whole length of them having been the mere fore-digit of a much larger arm that had somehow been contained within. A second set of arms joined from within the human clown car that was the Watcher’s body, this set bearing a pair of carapacic sickles where a hand might otherwise have been. His legs burst up, revealing several more pairs, and his head exploded into a bug-eyed, reptiliansectoid monstrosity. In the end, he looked like a cross between a centipede and a praying mantis, and whatever dark power could cook up.

Without breaking momentum, Samus jumped up and kicked him in the face.

It was, in fact, far easier than Samus had expected. Instead of having to counter his sickle-hands or some other insectoid attack with her charge-beam as she’d been prepared for, she’d knocked him straight down. And Samus never looked a gift horse in the mouth. She unleashed her charged energy down the barrel of her gun and straight into the monster’s maw, and then shot down the barrel of her throat until the pellets came out of his spidery abdomen.

She surveyed the smoking corpse. It was probably fine.

Then she turned and continued running. If the Black Knight was foolish enough not to kill her at the first opportunity, and prideful enough to play games, then this maze had an end. And now she knew his weakness. But would it help, in the final battle? When blow came to blow …

Her thoughts visited the chip lodged securely in her breastplate.

Would she have to use it?

I MAY HAVE TAKEN SOME LIBERTY WITH 'ILLUSIONS' AND MAYBE FUCKED UP BUT WELL THE POST IS DONE NOW SO I'M POSTING IT