The explosion of Phaaze was catastrophic, and the trooper barely made it out alive. He clung to the fragment of his once proud vessel Lancelot, wondering how he was still breathing. He had to ration his oxygen supply, for it was dwindling as the seconds of silence and pain seemed to quicken. Almost like the galaxy wanted him dead.

He shook off the strange thought and watched the empty hole of space that the destruction had caused, thinking of how beautiful the boom had been, until it went awry. Bright blue filled the stars, and eventually caught up to his fleeing ship. However, the wormhole closed before he and his crew had time to escape, thus destroying his ship and about a third of the Galactic Federation's fleet. Scalded bodies drifted around the new graveyard, and crimson blood still boiled from being superheated.

It was growing unbearably hot in his thick suit, sweat seeping from his skin and running down his face. The salt from the fluid stung his eyes and made him make a disgusted frown as it tainted his tongue.

He tried once again to contact Olympus, saying desperately into the microphone on his arm, "Come in. Come in. This is sergeant Larsen. I'm in distress, I survived the blast from Phaaze, and am waiting for any assistance necessary." No response came once he sent the message, but he still attempted it, getting less and less hopeful each time he failed. He pressed the contact button again. "Please! Someone has to be there! I'm going to die, help! Help!"

And less, and less.

He finally gave up, sitting his head on the metal he gripped for safety. Would anyone save him? Would anybody notice that sergeant Jake Larsen was missing? Their best sergeant ever trained? He didn't think he would survive.

Something floated into Jake's view. It was small and circular, with three fangs that lined the bottom of the greenish see through body. A trio of large, red nuclei were inside it, with veins that were crookedly stuck around the spheres.

It moved like a jellyfish, slinking towards Jake as he stared at it. When it came close enough, the thing just hovered in front of him, squishing audibly as it extended its claws and retracted them again.

The sergeant was struck in awe. He thought he recognized it, and then it hit him. The creature was a Metroid.

"Shouldn't you be dead?" He said aloud to it, thought he knew that it couldn't understand him. The Metroid spun in a circle, jellyfishing away a few meters. Then he watched in shock as it returned and sped behind him, sinking its teeth in his oxygen pack. Jake tried to reach and pull it off, but he couldn't for some reason, and gasped as his oxygen reserve was blown out from his back. "No, no, no!"

The Metroid tore through his suit, claws stabbing his spine and puncturing through his skin. He could feel the blood spurt from his new wounds. "Aauugggh!!" The thing continued to imbed itself into his back, eventually scraping a hole big enough to fit itself. It crawled eagerly in.

The sergeant went still, the Metroid stirring and wrapping around his backbone. He heard the sickening squelches as the gaping hole from the creature sealed itself as if by magic, locking the Metroid inside him.

Suddenly, the monster within Jake mutated, causing him to transform too. The veins beneath his skin protruded and bursted through his pores, gushing blood everywhere. His hair hardened till the locks became black spines that broke out of the helmet and suit, lengthening. His brown eyes changed to red, with the whites a gross yellow. His teeth elongated an inch more than what each of them were, all sharpening and becoming thicker. His many muscles gained two times their own strength.

Holding his hands to his head, Jake began to scream in absolute pain, though no sound was made. All of his air was gone, and not a single soul heard his agony and suffering.

The mutation from the Metroid completed, and the beast's mind fused with Jake's. They were not two, but one now.

The pain stopped as Jake looked around dead, empty space, his body better and more powerful than it was before. He looked at his hands, which were clawed. He noticed his damaged suit, seeing to it that immediate repairs were made. Almost instantly, his alien half patched up the holes and tears of his armor with more durable, Metroid hide that could withstand much. Now his plating was his own skin.

Something bleeped on his arm, and he looked down. A message was coming in from the G.F.S. Olympus:

"The hunters are arriving for the training, Admiral Dane," said a voice he recognized. Though, Jake couldn't think of the man's name. "any orders for them?"

"Just tell them all to meet at the conference room at 0600 hours. Then we'll talk." The Admiral responded to the question.

An angry thought passed through Jake's head. The bounty hunters killed our mother. She will never return! The Metroid screamed unhappily, though the words were spoken through the sergeant's voice.

He smiled, something he hadn't done in a while. "Then let's pay them a visit. We must avenge Dark Samus's death!"

Jake activated the still online jets built into his boots, and was rocketed towards the G.F.S. Olympus, following the coordinates he had already downloaded into his data bank.

None shall stand in our way of annihilating them all!!