Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction / Other Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Fusion of Destinies ❯ Frozen Over ( Chapter 15 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Fusion of Destinies
a Harry Potter/Metroid crossover
Chapter 15: Frozen Over
1-31-2006
by Grey

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series and all of its characters are the creation and property of J. K. Rowling. Samus Aran and the Metroid series are the creation and property of Nintendo, and was originally masterminded by producer Gumpei Yokoi (1941-1997) .

This fic is dedicated to Razor Knight and CubedCinder128, whose support gave me the confidence I needed to write this thing.

---

The HP-X slowly walked through one of the many corridors of the sector, carefully looking for any signs of his quarry. Here was the sector that mimicked the environment of SR388, the homeworld of the Metroids. And now, a human that was part-Metroid was in here with him, and he had to be destroyed.

Hunting in this manner was inefficient for one who could transport himself - Apparate - at will. But here, that wasn't an option. With the way enchantments had been used to recreate the station and piece it back together, as well as keep some systems running (a bit ironic, since magic tends to cause technology to choke), it had essentially become an Apparation-free zone like Hogwarts.

And so, he continued to walk on, his talon-like toes scraping against the unlevel, stony floor and his dark, armor-like sheath glowed slightly in the light of the fixtures embedded in the walls. And his face still had that soulless, pallid look, and was utterly devoid of any human emotion.

All of a sudden, though, the HP-X stopped in his tracks. Something had just happened, something detrimental to the future of his parasitic race. After a few more seconds, he realized what he was sensing. The signal put out by an X-Core...had abruptly ceased. That made three X-Cores that had been eliminated by the enemy, and this one...had been close by, possibly in this sector.

HP-X's glowing, green eyes narrowed. Things were getting out of hand. Not only was Samus Aran here, but Harry Potter was proving just as capable of handling the X. Not only that, his power would increase with each X-Core he absorbed. Something had to be done before he got too powerful....

Having reached a decision, HP-X turned around and went back the way he came. There was no sense in trying to hunt Harry Potter down anymore. There was a much better way....

---

Samus ran back to the end of the absurdly long tunnel and skidded to a halt, almost colliding with the hatch at the end. Damn x-ray visor, she thought acidly as she turned around. Well, it's still not as confusing as that echo visor....

Samus broke into a run again, going back the way she had just come. Within seconds, her speed booster kicked in and she was running at speeds of over 200 miles per hour, and ghostly silhouettes of her body trailed behind her. Soon she reached the end of the tunnel, which led out into an enormous chamber saturated with large, rocky formations that reached up to the ceiling, as well as the obligatory suspended platforms. The entrance to her tunnel was at the very top of the chamber, and directly across from it, there was a solid stone wall. Or at least, to the untrained eye it was....

Samus ducked down as she reached the edge of the tunnel, storing up power. After a second's hesitation, she hopped up slightly, and her glowing, energized body hovered a foot above the ground. Then she was propelled forward with her right shoulder positioned in front of her, as if to ram any unlucky host that got in her way. Her body continued to rocket forward, and the light given off by her shinespark maneuver illuminated the entire cavern below, the way a blazing comet lights up a night sky. When she reached the wall at the other side, her body plowed through meters of solid blocks until, finally, she collided forcefully with a solid metal wall, part of a small section hidden deep behind the chamber walls.

Samus gracefully touched down and flexed her aching shoulder, looking around to see what she had uncovered. There had indeed been a small niche hidden within the walls of the chamber, and only with the shinespark was she able to smash through the blocks concealing it. She switched off her x-ray visor and looked around; some light was provided by wall fixtures, and there were some computer terminals and screens embedded in the walls of this niche. Maybe, I can find something, she thought hopefully as she switched to her scan visor.

But she soon found out that the computers were inoperative and no data was stored in the terminals anyway. Obviously, this wall was merely part of the last station, and whoever was responsible for all this hadn't bothered to restore these computer systems.

Samus shook her head, annoyed. Ever since arriving on the station, she had been hopeful that she - or at least Adam - could find some record of what their unknown enemy was doing and planning. But all the computers she had come across in the sector yielded nothing, and Adam hadn't found anything useful when he interfaced with the navigation room, otherwise he would have told her.

Maybe it is Voldemort. He sounds like the type who guards his secrets well, she thought. Sighing in annoyance, she looked around again, and saw a hatch in the wall to her right. Reasoning that it must lead to someplace important if it was hidden so well, she went through it.

A narrow, rocky tunnel stretched out before her, and once again it was so dark that she had to switch on her x-ray visor. As she walked on, an unwelcome obstacle soon came into view: thick, writhing, vine-like growths came out of the tunnel walls, creating a net-like barrier that barred her way. And Samus could tell that most of the tunnel was saturated with them.

Samus had encountered these vines elsewhere in the sector, and so far, they had hindered her progress greatly, keeping her from going down certain paths. There were tiny thorns coming out of every square inch of the vines, and they secreted a powerful venom whenever she touched them, which damaged her suit considerably. Scans had revealed that they might be vulnerable to fire, and Samus had used power bombs and charged plasma beam shots in attempts to burn them away. But they always grew back; she seemed unable to kill them at their source, even with a power bomb....

Wait a minute! Samus thought excitedly, remembering the ability she had gleamed from the X-Core mimicking Phantoon. She switched on her grapple beam and fired. Sure enough, a long cord ablaze with blue plasma came out of her arm cannon, hanging limply.

Let's see if this thing works, Samus thought hopefully as she reared her right arm back, brandishing the whip. She lunged forward with her arm cannon, and the wisp whip slashed across the vines in front of her. As soon as the whip cut through them, the vines began to shrivel and burn up. And this time, they didn't grow back.

Encouraged by this, Samus slowly walked forward, continuing to lay waste to the venomous vines with her wisp whip. She lost track of how long it was taking to clear herself a path, or just how long the array of vines extended through the tunnel. But eventually, she obliterated the last batch of poisonous plants blocking her path, revealed another hatch at the end.

I should've figured that out sooner, Samus thought as she went through the hatch, frustrated with herself. It was already taking far too long to cover even one sector, and she had taken out only one X-Core so far. She was almost beginning to wish she had brought along McGonagall or even Harry. If the two of them could each explore different sectors....

The hatch had led to another enclosed chamber. The walls of this chamber were rocky as well, but Samus noticed there were some light fixtures planted in them, so she turned off her x-ray visor.

She could now see it was somewhat circular, with a diameter of roughly seventy feet, and the ceiling looked to be about eighteen feet high, so she'd easily bump her head against it if she jumped. She also saw there were five rather large boulders - about as tall as her and twice as wide - strewn about the room, but none were more than a foot or two from the chamber walls. Lastly, she noticed there were no other hatches in the room; the one behind her was the only way in or out.

What's supposed to be in here? Samus wondered. As soon as she had completed that thought, she heard the hatch's power being drained away. And now, despite the ample lighting in the room, a feeling of foreboding gloom seemed to press against her heart.

Then she felt it: another rush of cold, accompanied by brief glimpses of tragic events from her past...the attack on K2L, Adam's sacrifice, the Metroid Hatchling's death.... It could mean only one thing: dementors were in there with her. Samus glanced at her radar, but there was no trace of any hostile lifeforms....

And then, in the very center of the chamber, she saw a dementor rise out of the ground and hover there. Like all dementors, this one was grotesquely large, its head brushing against the ceiling as it hovered above the ground. But Samus immediately noticed something different about this dementor: it had four arms.

Samus saw the dementor clench its four fists, and suddenly, something utterly perplexing happened. The rush of cold the dementor induced died away, and was replaced by...heat. Samus felt her skin become very hot, despite the protection of the varia suit effect. Samus aimed her arm cannon at the dementor and backed away, but as she did, she noticed it took some effort to lift her feet. She glanced down and saw molten magma coming up to her ankles, and it was continuing to rise. It didn't hurt her, but it would slow her down, so she hopped up to one of the boulders.

One thing was clear: this was no ordinary dementor. She switched her scan visor on and promptly scanned it, and the results were even more unsettling....

Morphology: Elementor
Rare form of a dementor that has control over the forces of nature; it is said that one comes into existence only once a millenium. Its four arms are said to represent the elements of earth, fire, air and water.

"That doesn't help me much," growled Samus, disappointed that her scans didn't reveal any weaknesses. Oh well, I'll have to just improvise! she thought as she leaped at the Elementor, curling herself up and using the screw attack. But a split second before she would have hit it, it seemed to turn into black liquid and seeped into the magma below.

Samus landed on a boulder on the other side of the room, and quickly turned around. The Elementor was hovering above the magma again in the chamber's center, and two balls of magma were rotating around it. All of a sudden, the magma balls lurched toward Samus. She shot down one of them, but the other struck her chest, and she felt unbearable heat seep through her armor.

Fighting back against the pain, Samus switched her beam's ice effect on and immediately returned fire. Her shots seemed to make the Elementor's body convulse a little. But it began slowly gliding toward her, ignoring how she was peppering it with ice beam shots. Soon it closed in on her, and when Samus turned to jump away it was too late.

The Elementor grabbed hold of Samus's shoulders with two of its hands, and she felt heat penetrate her suit once more. But despite the heat, she could feel an icy grip around her heart simultaneously, and she heard the Metroid hatchling's dying screech in the back of her mind. And she heard the Elementor ravenously suck away at the air in front of her; she knew what it would soon try to do, but her consciousness was slipping away....

No, got to concentrate...CONCENTRATE!!! she thought furiously, focusing her mind in an attempt to block out the Elementor's power. At the same time, she armed an ice missile and began powering it up....

The Elementor realized was she was trying to do and released its grip, preparing to move off. But it was too late: Samus shot the powered-up diffusion missile down onto the boulder. A swirl of icy mist came out of the detonating missile and enveloped the dementor, stunning it. Samus used that opportunity to repeatedly charge up ice beam shots and fire at it, one after another.

Using the ice beam like this was making her head ache with cold, but it didn't matter to her; she wanted to destroy this monster as quickly as she could. She landed five direct hits, but eventually, the Elementor regained its bearings and lurched at Samus again. This time, Samus was ready, and she jumped over to another boulder, charging another diffusion missile at the same time. When she reached the boulder, she turned around and fired it at the wall next to the Elementor, and once again the icy mist paralyzed it, letting Samus resume her attack.

After four more hits with her charged shots, its top, right arm fell off and landed in the magma below, burning into nothingness. Not only that, but the magma was starting to drain away, as if by magic. Samus glanced back up at the Elementor and aimed her arm cannon at it again, waiting to see what it would do next.

She didn't wait long, for once the magma disappeared completely, the Elementor struck the ground with the fists of its bottom arms. The chamber shook with the force of an earthquake, and a tremorous shockwave traveled along the ground toward Samus.

Oh, this'll be easy, she thought disdainfully as she jumped off the boulder; it shattered along with the rest as the shockwave hit it. She switched off her beam's ice effect and fired at it with her spazer-plasma-wave combo. It ripped right through the Elementor and she connected with a few more shots, but eventually it started to swiftly float away. She was having trouble landing more shots, as it was gliding about so fast.

The Elementor hit the ground again, and Samus avoided the shockwave by jumping in place, and she fired four more shots before landing. It then began gliding toward her, but Samus was ready, and jumped at it with the screw attack. Samus felt herself go right through its cloaked body, but judging from the sonorous, inhuman howl that chilled her blood, she must have done some damage.

She quickly charged up a shot before she landed, and turned around and fired it at the Elementor. It let out that eerie howl again and floated in midair, motionless, letting Samus charge another shot and fire. This time, its bottom, left arm fell off as her charged beam tore through it.

But as soon as its arm came off, the Elementor launched another form of attack; it began spinning around rapidly, becoming little more than a columnous, black blur. The bits of fractured rock from the boulders suddenly flew toward the vortex and disintegrated upon contact with the Elementor's body. And Samus felt her armored feet slide against the grainy ground, toward the vortex....

Uh-oh, Samus thought with a twinge of panic as she turned around and jumped away, using the space jump to fly. But as she feared, she still felt herself being sucked toward the Elementor's spinning body. Oh great, now what? she thought dejectedly as she continued to try and space jump away from it.

Then it came to her. While jumping away, she readied a diffusion missile. Then, in one swift motion, she aimed it downward. It flew toward the Elementor, but it struck the ground right underneath its vortex, releasing its paralyzing mist.

The Elementor's spinning stopped abruptly, and Samus, who was still using the space jump, turned around and flew at it. Her screw attack ripped through the Elementor again, and before it could recover, she turned around and tore through it again. After three more passes with the screw attack, Samus saw its bottom left arm fall off. OK, three arms are off, she thought as she landed at the far end of the chamber. It's used fire, earth, and wind. All that's left is....

Samus turned around and saw that the Elementor was once again hovering in the center of the chamber, and streamy coils of water were circling around it like writhing snakes, magically suspended in the air. Not only that, jagged, razor-sharp ice crystals were rotating about it at blinding speeds.

The Elementor raised its remaining arm, and the water streams shot out toward Samus. They came at her so suddenly, so quickly, she had no time to dodge. The cascades of water struck her with tremendous speed and force, and she was momentarily knocked silly. It was only for a few seconds, and when she could see clearly again, she saw the Elementor pointing at her. Then the ice crystals sped toward her like bullets.

Samus's legs still felt too wobbly to jump away, and she only had a second or two to act. She did the first thing that came to mind: switching on the grapple beam, she twirled her wisp whip around in front of her at blinding speed; it was merely a circular, blue blur. The ice chunks broke apart the instant the whip touched them.

You've used up all your ammo. Now it's my turn to attack! Samus thought acidly as she retracted her whip and charged a shot. The Elementor tried to glide away, but she nailed it in the back with her charged beam as it was moving. It stopped in midair as the beam ripped through it, and Samus moved in closer, firing more shots. The lingering chill in her soul got worse as she got closer, but Samus ignored it; she concentrated on firing at the Elementor and keeping it in one spot.

When she was within a few feet of it, Samus rolled into a ball. She then rolled forward and laid a power bomb when she was underneath it.

After unrolling a couple feet behind it, Samus turned to see if the power bomb did what she hoped it would. It had: the thermonuclear fire had completely enveloped the Elementor, and she saw its last arm had fallen off and the rest of its body was being burned away. After a few seconds, all that remained was the encased X-Core.

The rest was ridiculous easy for Samus; she locked onto the X-Core and began firing missiles at it, easily evading its clumsy attempts to ram her. In less than a minute, she shattered its protective membrane and jumped at it to absorb it. That familiar feeling of being re-energized swept over her, and a lengthy message flashed across her HUD.

ELEMENTAL ENHANCER ACQUIRED
Plasma Beam strength increased by 16.1 percent
Wave Beam strength increased by 15.771 percent
Ice Beam strength increased by 5.2193 percent
Ice Missile blast yield increased by 10.0709 percent
Diffusion Missile spread radius expanded by 28.66 percent
Power Bomb blast yield increased by 9.75 percent

Samus stared at the readout's report for a moment, reviewing how this newly absorbed power had affected her weapons. Obviously, the strength of many of her weapons had been strengthened a little. Hopefully, she thought as the words faded away, this'll give me a bit of an edge.

Then she took a good look at the rest of the data on her HUD. She only had five full tanks, and four of them had just been filled by absorbing the X-Core. That meant the Elementor had wore her down to one tank, and she had been so wrapped up in the battle she hadn't noticed.

That was too close. Good thing it's over, Samus thought as she ran over to the chamber's exit. Indeed, even though it wasn't a normal dementor, just being close to the Elementor filled her heart with dread as it drained her suit's energy. Not only that, it kept giving her brief glimpses of how Adam and the Hatchling had died.

It merely reaffirmed her decision to not bring anyone else with her.

---

"Urgh! Damn narrow tunnels!" cried Harry as he forced his way through a rocky tunnel no more than three feet wide, his wand lighting it up. Having covered almost every other area in the sector, one of the only unexplored paths was this claustrophobic tunnel; where it led, he didn't know. It wasn't going very smoothly, and he had already gotten stuck more than once. "Oh why oh why couldn't I get that morph ball power too?!" he spat as he continued to crawl through the tunnel.

After defeating Fluffy, things had gone very smoothly up to this point. With his spazer-wave, dispatching the X-hosts in the sector had become easier; he could even wipe out the dementors WITHOUT a Patronus. Harry was confident his efforts had whittled down the X population quite a bit. But he remembered what Adam had said: only by killing all the X-Cores did he and Samus have a chance to wipe them out for good.

And so, Harry pressed on, hoping the tunnel led to another X-Core. I just hope this tunnel ends soon, period, he thought acidly. It's a wonder I'm not sweating like a pig in this....

Then his mind just registered that fact: it should have been hot and stuffy in that tunnel, but it wasn't. Come to think of it, after beating Fluffy, the place hasn't felt warm and humid anymore. I wonder why? he thought.

But Harry dismissed it as an insignificant detail and kept crawling. After a while, however, Harry crawled onto a spot where the rocks beneath him crumbled from his weight and he fell down. Not only that, there were rocks underneath THOSE rocks that broke away as well!

"What the?!" exclaimed Harry as the rocks beneath him continued to fade away as his body touched them. On and on this process went, until finally he plummeted painfully into a small room barely bigger than the Dursleys' cupboard.

"Ow," Harry muttered as he picked himself up. Thankfully, his wand was still radiating light. The tiny room had two hatches, one across from the other, but one looked as if something heavy had smashed into it and it had no power. There were also two tiny air vents, one that filtered air out and another that brought air in. But the air that was coming in, it felt rather chilly....

Harry looked up and saw that the rocks above him had somehow reformed themselves. He tried to clear them away with a Reductor Curse, but it had no effect. "Guess I'm stuck here," he said as he shot a spazer-wave blast at the working hatch and went through. On the other side was a room with a large computer terminal and screens along the walls. It looked indentical to the one he went through at the sector's entrance, but with one difference: everything was working, and all the panels were alight and buzzing.

Harry cautiously walked up to the control terminal, unsure if he should touch anything. This station was under the control of whoever was using the X, after all. How could these computers be of any help to him?

As he stared at the screen on the terminal however, he saw something that made him gasp. It said, 'Incoming Signal. Galactic Federation signature.' Harry then looked down at the screen at the panel. On it, there was a flashing button, that said 'Receive'. Harry hesitated for a moment, then pushed it.

All of a sudden, he heard Adam's voice reverberate throughout the navigation room. "Wait, who are.... Oh, it's you Harry. I was hoping you'd make contact."

"Huh? You were?" asked Harry.

"Yes. I was concerned, and I've been continuously hailing the station and keeping channels open in the hopes that you might contact me and give me an update. It's good to see you've come across a working navigation room. Even though I know the enemy will be listening in, I wanted to check on your status," said Adam. "Give me a minute..."

For a few moments, Adam fell silent. Harry stared at the terminal, wondering what Adam was up to. "Uh, what are you doing?" he asked at length.

"Examining what's stored in your visor's databanks," came Adam's reply in his customary no-nonsense voice. "Excellent, it seems you've covered most of this sector. And that's two X-Cores destroyed, and no doubt Samus has neutralized others by now."

"When was the last time you heard from her?" asked Harry, hoping for some more good news.

"More than half an hour ago, when she entered the nocturnal sector," said Adam. "Do not worry, I know her better than anyone, and I'm sure she is doing well. No doubt with your combined efforts, you can...."

And then Adam's voice trailed off, leaving an ominous silence in his wake. This was starting make Harry nervous. Then, as suddenly as he had stopped talking, Adam spoke up again. "No, this can't be right," he said, and Harry swore he detected a hint of fear in his voice.

"What is it? What's going on?"

"Now that you've uplinked to me from this room, it's given me a point from which to examine this sector from within. But this is impossible, these conditions don't match the environment of SR388...."

His voice trailed off again, leaving Harry in silence, wondering what was going on. "'Conditions that don't match SR388'? What are you talking about? What are...."

"Harry, you're in danger," came Adam's voice, and this time, it sounded even more gravely serious. "The environmental controls in this sector have been hacked...altered. The environment is slowly being changed to match sub-zero conditions."

"WHAT?!" cried Harry. "You-you mean...."

"Yes, the sector will eventually have a temperature of below freezing. Don't forget, your Metroid DNA makes you vulnerable to extreme cold. This is undoubtedly a deliberate tactic to kill you."

Harry gaped at the computer screen, his mind in a fog. This explained why the station had been steadily getting cooler. "The HP-X. It's him. He's in the sector with me," he said to Adam. "C-Can you change it back?" he asked nervously.

"No, not in time. There are too many firewalls in place. It seems our adversary is better at working with computers than I suspected, or just gleamed the knowledge from the SA-X," said Adam apologetically. "You have only one chance: escape before the temperature becomes lethal. Your shields will offer a little protection, but you are its power source. Once the temperature drops to freezing, they will be slowly depleted. And if the shield drops completely...."

Adam didn't have to finish that sentence - Harry knew very well what would happen. As he stood there, panic threatening to overtake him, Adam spoke up again. "Harry, you've got to go NOW. Use your map function to plot an escape course."

"My what?" asked Harry.

"It's activated by the bottom button on the right side," said Adam with a hint of impatience. "All the areas you've been to are mapped out."

"But I can't go back to way I came! The path is blocked!"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!! JUST GO NOW!!" bellowed Adam, with a vehemence that rattled Harry to the core. It was this, more than anything else, that finally snapped Harry out of his panicky stupor. Harry quickly turned to the hatch at his right and opened it, running through it as fast as he could.

As soon as he stepped out the other side, a message flared on his HUD: 'WARNING: Temperature in sector is at 14 degrees and dropping.' And Harry could feel a rush of chilly air sweep over him as he stepped out, and his entire body convulsed as if a dementor had snuck up behind him.

Yet another long, winding tunnel lay before Harry, and he sprinted down it at top speed. Deciding it was as a good a time as any to check his map, Harry tapped the bottom button. Instantly, a three-dimensional hologram filled his visor, showing him which rooms he had already been in, as well as his current position....

He was at what looked like the very bottom of the sector. The HP-X couldn't have timed it better: not only was he lost with no means of retracing his steps, he was stuck in the sector's lower bowels. Harry switched off the map to see that there was another path in the tunnel coming up at the left, but he ran past it. Eventually, the tunnel came to an end, and Harry quickly went through the hatch.

On the other side was another rocky tunnel about twenty feet long, which led out to what looked like another vertical corridor. Harry ran out into it and looked up; the walls of the corridor were only about fifteen feet apart, and it extended upward for more than a hundred feet. But there were no platforms to jump onto, or any ladders on the walls. It was possible that he could climb the craggy stone walls, but it would take far too much time - time he didn't have. How do I get up there?! Harry wondered nervously.

At that moment, another message flashed across Harry's visor: 'WARNING: Temperature is at 10 degrees and dropping. Activating shields.' Harry looked down at himself, and saw that his shields had sprung to life across his body, giving off a flickering glow. The feeling of cold subsided somewhat, but Harry knew that his shields wouldn't protect him for long.

"I've got to get up there!" Harry thought aloud as he looked up again, his goal seeming to loom further and further out of reach. But he couldn't think of any way to ascend. He wasn't good enough with the Levitation Charm to support his own weight, he couldn't Apparate, and the top of the shaft was too high up for the Carpe Retractum spell....

But then he remembered...one of Samus's stories, about an ability she had learned to perfect thanks to those strange aliens called the Etecoons. The question was: could he do it too?

All of a sudden, the hatch behind him hissed open. Harry looked over his shoulder to see that several Space Pirates were pouring through the hatch, all with a malicious gleam in their eyes. Harry faced forward and ran at the corridor wall. Now he had no choice but to try.

Harry jumped at the wall, soaring almost ten feet upward, and a split second before he made contact with it, he spun around in midair. He was then flattened up against the wall with his knees bent, and then he kicked off of it, soaring over toward the other wall, where he repeated the procress.

Yes, I'm doing it! Harry thought hopefully as he continued using the 'wall-jumps' to ascend the corridor, feeling a rush of excitement despite the danger he was in. It was already a thrill being able to jump higher than any normal human and bounce all over the place, but using his ability like this...it was something Muggle acrobats and gymnasts could only dream of!

A raspy chirping noise from below snapped Harry back to attention. He looked down, and saw the Space Pirates were wall-jumping too, and they were doing it much faster than he was. The joyousness of wall-jumping forgotten, he pointed his wand down at one of the pursuing Pirates and yelled "Incarcerous!" Thin ropes shot out of his wand and ensnared the Pirate as it was about to jump off a wall, and it fell and collided with another Pirate.

Eventually, Harry made it to top, and landed in front of the hatch with a grace that surprised him. Wasting no time, he went through it. Once on the other side, he turned and pointed his wand at it. "Colloportus!" he yelled, then he turned and ran.

As he ran down yet another tunnel, yet another message scrolled across his visor: 'WARNING: THE TEMPERATURE HAS REACHED ZERO.'

At that point, Harry had been so focused with eluding the Pirates that he hadn't noticed the feeling of icy cold had intensified yet again. Now, however, he was keenly aware of how insufferably cold it was. He glanced up his shield energy. All three batteries were full, and the number was at 47. A second later, it was 46. And a second later, it was 45....

A feeling of icy cold that had nothing to do with the temperature tugged at his heart. He had run out of time: now the very atmosphere was damaging him and draining his shields. If he didn't escape soon, the shields would fade completely, and the sub-zero air would kill him instantly. Harry ran down the tunnel like he had never run before, shooting open the hatch at the end well before he reached it.

The next few minutes were a blur for Harry. He wasn't really sure what he was doing or where he was going. He sprinted down tunnels and jumped and climbed up vertical corridors in his mad rush to escape. At one point, he had to slap on his breathing apparatus to filter the piercing, frigid air and make it breathable. Some weak X-hosts, like doxies and hornoads, he took the time to destroy so he could absorb the parasites. But the stronger ones, like the Space Pirates and dementors, he did his best to avoid. All thought of exterminating the X in the sector was lost; Samus could do that later. Only one thought was on his mind: making it back to the top of the sector.

Harry reached the top of another maintenance shaft, a Space Pirate and a dementor hot on his trail. He felt a chill induced by the dementor that punctuated the dropping temperature, and well as the Pirate's energy blast striking his shielded back. Harry ignored both of them and went through the hatch, magically sealing it once on the other side. As he did, yet another message flared on his HUD: 'WARNING: Temperature has dropped to -5 degrees.'

The knot of panic in the pit of his stomach growing ever tighter, Harry turned around and prepared to run again. He had entered a moderately-sized, circular observation room with a dome-like ceiling, electronic panels and terminals along the walls, and a hatch off to his right. But in the room with him, lying in wait, were two Space Pirates and a troll armed with a giant hammer.

For a second, Harry gaped at them, and all three stared right back. But Harry soon sprang into action, thinking, I haven't got time for this! Before any of the creatures could move, he aimed his wand at the troll's head and hit it with the Conjuctivitus Curse.

Almost immediately, the troll began to convulse and flail about wildly as the curse began to take effect. Even better, the troll blindly spun around and knocked both the Pirates around with its hammer, just as Harry had hoped it would. He then sprinted for the room's other hatch, rolling under the incoming hammer, ready to exit the room.

But as he was about to open the hatch, Harry became aware of a soft buzzing sound behind him. Turning around, he saw that one of the computer terminals had been smashed apart by the troll, revealing another crystal. "Accio!" he yelled, pointing his wand at it, and it immediately flew toward him and was intergrated with his shield device. OK, that's another battery, and now they'll all full, he thought, his hopes beginning to rise. But the number atop his HUD was already ticking down again....

Wasting no more time, Harry went through the hatch, running out into a chamber which was roughly the same size as the one Fluffy was in, only the ceiling was about twenty feet above him (roughly his maximum jump height). But the lighting was much brighter here, and frost was starting to form on the jagged rocks. Harry could see another hatch was directly across from him, and he quickly darted toward it.

But when he was only a few feet away from it, the hatch's power drained away, and then a locking mechanism slid over it. "WHAT?!" exclaimed Harry, turning around. Just as he had feared, the other hatch was powerless and locked as well.

For a moment, Harry just stood there, his body aching with cold, unable to think and watching his precious shield energy tick away. After a while, though, he became aware of a tremorous rumbling coming from within the chamber. Looking around, he saw one portion of the wall was glossy and smooth, and it seemed to vibrate violently....

And then, something monstrously huge came smashing through that wall.

This creature looked a lot like the baby Sheegoths that had lurked in the Chamber of Secrets, only this one was twice as big. There were obvious differences, however: three glassy, silver eyes were on either side of its head and instead of a thick dorsal plate, a collection of long, glassy spike-like crystals jutted out of every square inch along its backside.

He peered around it to see that it had emerged from an enclosed, hollow niche in the wall... it was no alternate exit. Realizing that this creature would have to be destroyed to escape, Harry quickly scanned it, praying he would find a weakness.

Morphology: Sheegoth
Dominant predator of Tallon IV's Phendrana region. Crystal formations on the back absorb energy attacks, which are then redirected through its mouth. Also exhales frigid gas to trap potential prey. Sheegoths have poor stamina, and hyperventilate from the gills after performing either form of attack.

"Lovely. If the cold doesn't kill me, this thing will," Harry thought aloud as his visor's sensors locked onto the advancing Sheegoth, targeting its head. He deftly strafed around it with a graceful jump to the right while charging a shot. Once he was facing its side, he fired it at the spot the targeting reticule was indicating: the gills on the side of its neck.

But just as he had feared, his shot's trajectory curved up and to the right, hitting the crystals on the Sheegoth's back instead. The crystal pulsated with purple light, and electricity crackled around them. Then the Sheegoth turned to face him and started expelling its freezing breath at him.

The Sheegoth had caught Harry unawares and its breath washed over him, imprisoning him within a thin layer of ice. It was so unbelievably cold, he thought he would lose consciousness altogether. But somehow, he willed himself to flex his arm and leg muscles while charging his spazer-wave. After a few seconds, the ice covering him shattered and he leaped upward...and just in time. The Sheegoth had tried to ram him, and it passed under him harmlessly.

When the Sheegoth turned around, Harry fired his charged shot directly at its head. But again, its path curved upward and struck its crystals, and they glowed with a fiercer energy. The Sheegoth bent its head down, then it sprang upward while it opened its mouth, firing a huge ball of energy at Harry.

Once again, Harry was caught off-guard, and the deadly blast struck him before he could jump away. The impact knocked him off his feet and he was hurled backward. His spine smashed painfully into the rocky wall, further depleting the lifeline that was his shield energy.

This is ridiculous! My deadliest power is useless against this thing! Harry thought angrily as he slid down the wall. Glancing up at his HUD, he noticed he only had two full batteries and his current one had 67 units left. And that number was still ticking down, at an even faster rate than before.

For a brief instant, as Harry laid there against the wall, he considered giving up. Not only was the AIR slowly killing him, but there seemed to be no way of defeating the massive arctic creature. There was no way out of this one. For the first time since facing Voldemort in the graveyard, he felt completely helpless....

But then he remembered what let him escape Voldemort. It was because he had refused to lay down and die, to surrender to the enemy. And when their wands connected, it wasn't his skill or the power of his magic that had saved him. In the end, what let him overcome his arch-nemesis was sheer willpower....

No, Harry thought furiously as he summoned up his courage and slowly got back on his feet. I'm not giving up. As long as I can stand, I'll fight!

By now, the Sheegoth was closing in, trying to ram him again. But Harry, despite the freezing cold and feeling like had been hit with the Jelly-Legs Jinx, mustered the strength to jump aside. The Sheegoth's head collided noisily with the wall, shaking the entire chamber. His sensors locked onto its head again, and Harry decided to try a different approach. OK, so my beam power won't work. But maybe some spells will. Maybe some heat....

Now only about ten feet from its head, Harry pointed his wand at its gills, praying that was indeed a weak spot. Before the Sheegoth could collect itself and turn to face him, Harry screamed "Incendio!"

But just like when he had used his spazer-wave, the spell was redirected toward the Sheegoth's back, striking one of the many glassy crystals. The crystal it hit glowed bright red for an instant. Great, so my magic is absorbed too! Harry thought fearfully, noticing that his current battery was almost used up. If only there was some way to break those crystals!

And then, it came to him: the Reductor Curse. There was a huge possibility that the Sheegoth's crystals would absorb that curse too, but it was his only hope. Harry jumped backward as the horrid arctic beast tried to spray him with its freezing breath again. Once the gas faded away, Harry ran forward and then swerved to the right. While the beast was standing in place, hyperventilating, he pointed his wand at the crystals on its back and yelled "Reducto!"

Harry's curse struck one of the crystals at its base and caused it to crack. It slowly fell off and shattered went it hit the stone floor. The Sheegoth immediately turned to its left to exhale more gas, forcing Harry to jump aside once more. OK, so the Reductor Curse works, thought Harry, but I can only destroy one crystal at a time! It's getting too fast and won't let me have enough clear shots, even when it's hyperventilating. And it won't say still long enough for me to jump over it and fire curses down at it...I can't smash them all!

The Sheegoth charged forward to ram him again, and Harry kicked off from the ground and flung himself backwards. But the cold was starting to make him sluggish and lose his sense of balance; his feet slipped as he touched down, and he landed hard on his back and painfully skidded backwards. For a moment, Harry was staring up at the ceiling, and he spotted a crucial detail he had missed before: two rows of ladders extended across the ceiling like monkey bars on a playground, and both led to ledges at the very top of the chamber, each with a hatch (of course, both were locked) .

That's it! Harry thought hopefully, having come up with a plan within a second. He sprang back onto his feet and jumped straight up, then performed a second jump in midair, all the while reaching up with his left arm. Come on, come on.... he thought anxiously as the ceiling got closer and closer....

Harry grabbed onto one of the metal bars with the tips of his fingers, and he pulled himself up and hung on with all his strength. Looking down, he saw the Sheegoth staring up at him stupidly...and its back was wide open to attack. Smirking, Harry aimed his wand at its back and began firing Reductor Curses at it non-stop. A terrible sound like cracking, shattering glass filled the chamber each time a curse hit home, and it steadily got louder with each direct hit Harry made. Shards of broken crystal were beginning to litter the floor around which the Sheegoth stood.

The Sheegoth did not seem to be aware of what was happening - it didn't react to Harry's attacks or show any signs of being in pain. But eventually it stopped merely gazing up at its prey and blew more gas up at him. Way ahead of you, mate, Harry thought comtemptuously as he began to monkey-swing forward out of harm's way. He could feel the rush of air behind him, but as far as he could tell, the only thing damaging his shield was the cold air in the chamber. He then resumed firing curses straight down into the mass of crystals....

And a few seconds later, the rest of the Sheegoth's crystals were destroyed, and so was its ultimate defense.

Now you're mine! Harry thought as he dropped down from the ceiling and locked onto the Sheegoth's head. He strafed over to its side before it could attack, and bellowed "Incendio!" This time, flames erupted around the monster's gills, and it let out a hideous howl. It turned to breathe frigid gas at him, but once again he dashed to the side out of harm's way. While it was hyperventilating, he charged a shot and aimed it at its gills. Electricity crackled all over its neck, and it let out a howl again.

For a while, the battle became almost like a dance: Harry would cast Incendio on its gills, the Sheegoth would retaliate by trying to freeze him with its breath, and then he would fire a charged shot while it was hyperventilating. It was a rhythmic performance, but while Harry's movements were graceful and elegant despite how the air chilled him to the bone, his dancing partner was slow, ponderous and clumsy.

Eventually, Harry had finally inflicted enough damage. The Sheegoth let out one last, booming howl, then it keeled over and lay motionless for a second. But as Harry had anticipated, it wasn't over yet. The Sheegoth's flesh began to melt away, and up from its remains rose an X-Core, with several smaller X parasites revolving around it.

The protective shell formed around the X-Core, but Harry was focusing on the other parasites; looking up on his HUD, he saw that all the batteries were drained, and only 5 units of energy were left. Forcing himself to keep calm, he pointed his wand at the parasites and yelled "Accio X!" The X-Core was unaffected, but the other viral blobs flew toward him, seeped through his shield and clothes, and were absorbed by his body. Now he had 65 units left, and he had to shatter that membrane before his shields ran out of energy completely.

Once again, the battle was like a dance. The floating X-Core tried to sluggishly collide with him, but Harry either jumped over it or sidestepped it, all the while firing Reductor Curses whenever he could.

"Reducto!" Harry bellowed again, just as his energy counter reached only 10 units, and finally, the protective membrane cracked open. This time, Harry didn't hesitate for a second...he NEEDED that energy. In five more seconds, it would have been too late....

Harry ran at the exposed X-Core and jumped into it, once again feeling that odd sensation of a gelatenous mass being absorbed into his body. After that feeling subsided, Harry became aware that his body was hovering a few feet above the ground. Not only that, the shield device on his chest was beginning to burn his skin, and it felt like sheets of hot cloth were being wrapped around every square inch of his body, thawing what felt like muscles that had been frozen solid. Then, bright yellow light filled his vision, temporarily blinding him. But the light, it seemed to be radiating from his own body....

Then, as suddenly as it started, it was over. The light started to fade away, and Harry's feet touched down to the floor. Once the light died away completely, Harry could see another message displayed on his HUD.

VARIA SHIELD ACQUIRED

Harry then noticed that his shield energy, now at its maximum and with all four batteries full, was no longer ticking down. The air still felt chilly, but it wasn't unbearably cold like before. This new ability...it's improved my shield somehow! he realized, relieved that he no longer had to run for his life. The cold can't hurt me anymore!

Harry looked down to examine his shielded body, and received a bit of a shock when he saw that his sweater had changed from red to a bright yellow, and his jeans were now a dark purple. He didn't know how his clothes had changed color, nor did he care. He then looked up at the ladders on the ceiling. Deciding to explore the sector a little while longer, Harry jumped up to one of the ladders, then swung over to the ledge it led to.

---

Nothing much to say here, except that I'm sorry this chapter didn't arrive sooner. Should've had it done days ago. And hopefully, adding a little twist to shake up what I feared was fast becoming a tired formula of 'wander around aimlessly, kill X-Core' is just what the doctor ordered. Just like with Metroid Fusion itself, I felt adding some specific goals would help. Next chapter will deviate from that formula too.

How so, you ask? One word: rematch.

So long,
Grey