Varia31's Metroid Prime Hunters: Chapter 3

Noxus treaded across the ice-coated terrain, as a Vhozon ice based entity, the chilling weather didn't affect him. He observed his surroundings, searching for the being he knew was watching him; Noxus had briefly caught a glimpse of the interloper, it was crimson in color, had a relatively thin body, and was able to cloak itself; Noxus figured it for a Kriken, one of the most despised species in the Ooromine galaxy. Noxus activated his Judicator and opened fire on the area where he could hear the coward move; the ice weapon missed, but hit the wall and caused some frost to disperse, enough of which landed on the Kriken's armor and revealed his location. Noxus did not hesitate to fire on him; he knew that the Kriken had ill intentions, as he had shot at Noxus out of nowhere when he first encountered him.

The Kriken deactivated his cloaking and avoided the weapons fire; he then shifted to his Triskelion mode and ran swiftly across the ground, then lunged at the Vhozon and brought him to the ground. While struggling, Noxus said, "I know what you're after Kriken" Noxus then kicked his opponent off of himself, then stood up, "You seek the 'ultimate power'." The Kriken then shifted back to biped then got up, "Precisely" he said coldly, "And when I find it the Kriken Empire will consume the galaxy!" " You'll never fulfill your goal!" replied Noxus. The Kriken was the first to react, he brought up his precision weapon, which was called the Imperialist, and aimed at Noxus' head, he then fired, only to have the Vhozon dodge it. The Kriken had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to best his adversary with a frontal assault, so he took the opportunity to flee. He shifted to his Triskelion form again and ran as fast as he could, but Noxus wasn't going to allow the Kriken to escape again, he changed into his alternate form, the Vhoscythe, and then went after him.

Noxus activated the extending blades on his alternate form and struck the Kriken in the back, forcing him back to biped, he turned around as quick as he could and then fired the Imperialist at Noxus, the laser of red plasma hit its target, Noxus was knocked out of his Vhoscythe form, changing back to biped, he fell on his back, he was feeling nothing but agonizing pain. He struggled to get up, as he did he noticed that his enemy was gone, he looked around, then he saw some tracks trailing up the wall and ending at a semi-large ledge, Noxus knew where the Kriken was and then jumped out of the way of the Imperialist's round of plasma just in time. Then he heard his enemy's raspy voice say, "Before I kill you, you may call me Trace." Noxus then said back, "Well then, 'Trace', give up while you can, your hopes of avoiding justice are futile."

Noxus and Trace continued to battle each other, while the Vhozon was on the ground, Trace chose to play it safe and stay on the ledge while firing the Imperialist. After a few moments of sparring, they both heard a heavy metallic footstep, they both stopped firing and turned to see what it was, only to see a spine chilling sight; the great bounty hunter, Samus Aran, had joined the battle. Noxus had no choice but to open fire on her, he knew that she meant well, but she was both a rival hunter and feared what might happen if she decided to use the supposed ultimate power for the wrong purposes. Samus avoided the Judicator's super cooled plasma rounds with striking ease; she fired a missile at Noxus, he was to late to avoid it, it struck him with great force and stunned him long enough for Samus to fire the power beam at him. Noxus had heard that Samus was highly skilled, but had no idea that she was this powerful; his energy reserves were reaching critical, he pulled through and fired a charged Judicator shot at her, he was relieved to see it catch her off guard and freeze her in a thick layer of ice.

Noxus ran up to the frozen Samus in an attempt to shatter her with his fist. He was too late however, as Samus broke out of the ice, the shards of ice flew everywhere, damaging Noxus in the process; Samus then seized the opportunity to attack Noxus and threw her fist at him. She struck a blow to his upper body which sent him flying into the wall with tremendous strength; Samus continued to fire at him, Noxus was struggling with anguish to get up, he had never been hit by something that strong before, Noxus now knew that he had angered Samus and that it was a costly mistake. He finally rose to his feet and fled, Noxus was not a coward, but had to leave because his shield's energy was depleted and was therefore vulnerable.

With Noxus out of the way, Samus turned to look at Trace through her chilling green visor. Trace looked back at her with strong discomfort, a feeling of terror as he stared back at the flickering glow of her visor; he was horrified at the fact that she had taken the Vhozon that he was having trouble with out of the battle within moments. He knew that if she were capable of that, he wouldn't stand a chance against her; Trace took the current moment of silence to escape, after he had left, Samus walked towards a door, opened it, and then walked through it. Now that she had instilled some fear in her opponents, they should keep out of the way while she searches out another Octolith.