Mario and Kirby stepped through the door cautiously and found themselves in a place just as weird, if not moreso, than the previous ones they had seen. Kirby could feel heat rising from the floor below them, and when he glanced down, he nearly jumped into Mario's arms in fright.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!" they screamed.
"It's a volcano!" Mario trembled. "We're inside of a volcano!"
"Who could possibly fight in a place like this, let alone live in it?" Kirby stuttered.
"Let's look around." the plumber took a few cautious steps forward.
The lava below bubbled and boiled threateningly, as though mumbling wishes for the plumber and the puffball to fall into it. Kirby noticed some movement on one of the platforms above them.
"Up there!" Kirby pointed. Mario looked up.
Something large and white descended into view, and the two friends watched and waited. Suddenly it became clear what it was.
"The Master Hand!" Mario quickly blazed up a fireball.
The giant, gloved appendage was gripping something tightly in its grasp, but released it and gave a thumbs-up to Kirby and Mario. The object landed neatly, and it turned out to be a person in heavy, futuristic red armor. It stood up and pointed the cannon it had for an arm in their direction.
"Duck!" Mario tackled Kirby out of the way of an incoming blast.
"Looks like that Master Hand has got someone else under his control." Kirby rolled to his feet."We've got to snap him out of it!"
"Right!" Mario nodded.
It took alot of skill and agility to dodge the incoming fire, and it wasn't long before the puffball took a nasty hit.
"Are you okay?" called the plumber.
"Ow!!! Kirby dodged another shot. "That thing stings worse than Fox's laser!"
The warrior came after them with a vengeance, firing and kicking repeatedly. Mario managed to get in a few hits, but they hardly inflicted any damage at all.
"This guy's like a walking fortress!" remarked the plumber as another of his fireballs nicked the opponent's helmet.
"Tell me about it!" Kirby swept the opponent off its feet.
The armored foe continued to unleash a vicious assault of shots and blows as Kirby and Mario scrambled to get out of the way. This guy was tough, and it was going to take some kind of strategy to knock him to his senses. The plumber and the puffball jumped back to plot their next move.
"I think I have an idea." Mario said quietly to Kirby. "Do you think you can inhale one of those cannon blasts?"
"I'm not sure." Kirby replied. "But I'll give it shot. What did you have in mind?"
"He seems to take hits to the body pretty well, but the head's a different matter." the plumber watched the opponent carefully as he continued talking. "The way I figure it is if we can smack him a few times in the head, we can knock him out. What do you think?"
"I say let's go for it!" Kirby nodded.
With that said, they put their plan into action. The warrior came at them full force, firing a deadly barrage of blasts. When it saw that Kirby wasn't making a move, it took aim and fired directly him. This was what the puffball had been waiting for. He opened his vacuum-like mouth and swallowed the blast whole. When he swallowed, the new power caused electric sparks to emenate from his body.
"Now here's something familiar!" Kirby smiled as he tested out his new power. It was almost identical to having absorbed a Spark's power back in dreamland, only this one was much, much stronger.
"A little help here, Kirby!" yelled Mario as he got pummeled into the ground.
"I'm coming!" the charged puffball came running.
Just when it seemed that the opponent was about to deal a final blow, it instead began jumping up quickly onto the platforms above. There, it stood, as though waiting for something.
"What the --?" Mario puzzled.
The already intense heat from the lava below suddenly rose, and with it, the boiling lava. The pink color drained from Kirby's face as he noticed it.
"Mario! Get out of there!" he cried.
"HOLY RAVIOLI!" screamed the plumber as he ambled clumsily to get to higher ground.
The lava rose quickly, almost like a tidal wave, and smothered the bottom platforms in its molten wrath. Kirby had managed to reach the top platform safely, but Mario, being slower and heavier, was not so fortunate. Some molten rock splashed against the seat of his overalls.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!" Mario screamed, jumping higher than he ever had in his life. A trail of steam followed him as he frantically tried to extinguish the flames on his butt.
The molten rock flow continued to rise, engulfing all the platforms below them. Slowing down momentarily, it suddenly shot upwards toward the remaining platforms. Kirby and the other warrior leapt clear of the danger and hoped that the lava would subside before gravity plunged them into it. The armored opponent took advantage of Kirby's distraction with the lava flow and fired at him. Kirby was sent hurdling toward the lava, but just as he was about to hit it, the lava subsided and he landed somewhat safely onto one of the platforms. Mario, too, came crashing down, still rubbing his sore bottom.
"This guy is used to this sort of thing happening!" Kirby remarked, having realized that the opponent had completely avoided the firey flow.
"I know I sure as hell am not!" Mario fanned his smoldering clothes. "Where I come from, lava doesn't shoot up like that! It just spits fireballs!"
The opponent took aim at them again and continued to fire. Having had enough of this fighter, Mario and Kirby split up to put their plan into action. The plumber began throwing fireballs at him while Kirby crept up behind the warrior. When he was close enough, Kirby crouched down and unleashed the electric power he had obtained earlier. The voltage stunned the warrior, giving Mario an open opportunity to strike. The plumber pounded mercilessly on the tough helmet, not giving the foe any chances to retaliate. When the opponent seemed too dazed to continue, Mario dealt one final punch that sent him flying across the platform. The impact had knocked the enemy's helmet off, and it fell with several loud clangs a few feet away.
"I think we did it!" Kirby stood up and expelled the power star.
"Hey! Are you alright?" Mario called out.
The figure twitched and moaned dizzily. It brought a hand to its head and weakly tried to get up.
"Oh.....................what hit me?" came the stranger's woozy voice.
"Sorry about that." Mario apologized as best he could. "That was my fault. But we had to bring you back to your senses and--"
The stranger's voice escalated from a low angry tone to a furious screaming.
"Lemme get this straight... you beat the absolute crap out of me.... " the stranger suddenly sat up, reavealing a woman with long blonde hair. "...AND THEN YOU SAY YOU'RE SORRY!!??"
Mario and Kirby couldn't believe their eyes. Their jaws hit the floor with an unmistakable clang in absolute shock.
"Y- YOU'RE A--" stuttered Mario.
"A-A-A GIRL!!!" Kirby finished for him.
"Gee you're just noticing that?" the girl sweatdropped. She then looked down at her armor and shrugged. "Hm. I guess with all the armor on it is kinda hard to tell, now, isn't it?"
"B-But we thought you were a--" Kirby scratched his head confusedly.
"A guy. I know." she ambled to her feet and brushed herself off. "Alot of people make that assumption. You make it sound as if women can't be bounty hunters nowadays!"
"Oh no! It's not that! It's just--" the plumber attempted to recompose himself.
"--we've never met a girl who could fight like that!" Kirby retrieved her helment, dusted it off, and handed it to her. She took it and tucked it under her arm.
"Where I come from, this is the kind of thing that I do on a daily basis." she explained. "It's always 'go here' and 'go there' and 'help, we're being threatened by metroids' and that sort of thing. After awhile, you kinda get used to it."
"You must be pretty famous where you come from then." said Mario.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." she shifted her helmet a bit. "So who are you guys?"
"I'm Mario."
"I'm Kirby. Who are you?"
"Samus Aran" the girl nodded slightly. "Though I can't say that I'm pleased to meet you. My head's killing me thanks to you!"
"You can thank the Master Hand for that one." said Kirby. "If he hadn't turned you against us, we wouldn't have had to knock you back to your senses."
"Huh? Oh yeah! Now I remember!" Samus expression turned sour. "This huge, gloved hand just showed up out of nowhere, and if it had had feet, I'd say it really kicked my butt! All I remember is getting grabbed by it and everything going black. When I woke up, I had this headache and you guys staring at me."
Kirby and Mario explained to Samus what had happened and brought her up to date on everything that had been going on so far. Samus found it all pretty hard to swallow, particularly hearing about Fox's appearance and Kirby's power absorption ability. When asked if she wanted to see the puffball's nifty little trick in action, she immediately declined, not wanting anything to do with Kirby's black hole of a mouth.
As their discussion came to a close, a door suddenly appeared on one of the upper platforms. Checking her built in watch quickly, Samus suggested that they go through the door as soon as possible.
"What's the hurry?" asked Kirby.
"That's why!" Samus pointed down at the rapidly rising lava below them.
"Point taken!" Mario leapt up and made a dash for the door. Samus and Kirby quickly followed suit, and as the lava reached the platform, the door disappeared behind them.
~~~~~~~~~~~
As for Samus's hair color-- the way I hear it, her hair's gone through more color changes than a chameleon! (did I spell that right?) I picked blonde because the only clip art I found of with her helmet off showed her with blonde hair.
This is Chapter 7. Where would you like to go next?
