Mastermind
Chapter 1: Wrong Place At The Wrong Time
"Augh!!!"
I screamed as the covers of my bed slid off my deformed body. I woke up panting with sweat coming off of my fusion suit. Ever since the metroid vaccine had been injected into my body, this suit was fused to me. When the metroid DNA counter infected the X parasite, it had to route itself to get to the main core of it. Therefore it too had taken over my nervous system too, with memories of the metroid, and "premonitions" is what it seemed. It infected my mind and my skin, deforming my muscle structure, therefore changing my skin. This is not a suit, this is my body, as horrid as it seems. My helmet is fused with my body too.
I had woken up because of a dream I had of me being charged at by a metroid, and attaching itself to my head. If I didn't know any better, I would say it was the metroid that saved my life, but it can't be! That metroid is dead. No way could they have taken the DNA from that metroid, not even when they had it, they didn't have a chance. According to the metroid log that Adam Malkovich had kept, the metroid was taken by Ridley before they had a chance to extract its DNA. He also stated he had a chance to upload his brain to the computer and route it to my ship as a replacement. That Adam... always a step ahead of me.
"Lady, lady are you alright?"
The voice of Adam had snapped me out of my daze as I wiped the sweat off of my helmet.
"Yes Adam?"
I asked in a calm tone, Adams digital voice was starting to really get to me.
"You have an appointment at the doctors at Mentus station about your body remodeling."
I had totally spaced out on that, even though it's not like me to visit a hospital center, I still decided that I really needed a makeover. "Okay Adam, just let me get ready..."
I wiped the sweat off of my "head" and walked toward the control unit, and sat down in my chair. I then punched in a few numbers and buttons, grasped me hand on the controls, and started my way. Then I saw something that depressed me, my reflection in the space ship shield. I could vaguely see through my helmet visor, and got a hard knock. My face was altered too. My eyes were pure black, like they aren't there, and my face looked like the filmy clear material on the exterior of a metroid.
"Oh my god, Adam, this suit isn't a body attached to my nervous system, it's a metroid taking over every cell in my body!"
I was breaking into a cold sweat, nervous and shaky suddenly.
"Meaning, lady?"
How could Adam be so stupid?
"I'm turning into a metroid Adam; we have to get there fast! I don't need a cosmetic surgeon, I need an emergency room."
I exclaimed. My fingers were pressing buttons faster than I could think, and as soon as I pressed auto pilot, my fingers detracted, turning into short stubs, and I passed out."
"Oh no!"
I said, as I saw Samus starting to mutilate in front of my very lenses. Not only did Samus pass out, we were heading into a huge asteroid belt. I had no experience with the ship; I was a scientist, not a pilot! With ever passing second we were drifting closer to the asteroid belt. I didn't know what to do... Wait! I know what to do!
"Uhng..."
I moaned as I woke up on an operating table, and began to sit up.
"AGHHH!"
I screamed as loud as my lungs would let me. Ever part of my body was sore as if every muscle was burnt.
"Welcome back to reality Samus."
I don't know why, but the voice calmed me, it was deep and echoic, and almost empty. I tried to open my eyelids, but I couldn't even open them, it even hurt to open my mouth.
"Don't move Samus, initiate fast recovery immediately!"
I heard him say. I could feel a slight twinge in my arm, and within a matter of minutes, I was no longer in pain. I dared to open my eyes, and saw a tall man standing over me. When my eyes sharpened I could see that this was no ordinary man. He was a bounty hunter I had never encountered before by the looks of his suit. It was like my Varia suit, except that it was purple with a polygonal like helmet.
"What happened?"
I said as I got used to the light.
"Your ship drifted into an asteroid belt, but it doesn't matter now. When you arrived, you were already half human half metroid. We didn't know how to save you. When we found that an X parasite survived, we managed to inject it into you."
Oh great, another injection, I'm probably going to turn into an orange blob now.
"When it was absorbed into the metroid, its altered genetic makeup caused it to kill the metroid within you, and itself with it. It was sucked out what we could via IV and now you are completely you, just looks if you don't believe me."
I had almost forgotten. I looked down at my body, and for the first time in days, I saw my skin again, me beautiful skin... hold on a second, that's an awful lot of skin. I was completely naked in front of a man! I ran back to my operating table and covered myself up.
"I'm not really interested in seeing you're... body, Miss Aran, there's something more in matter."
What could possibly go wrong, I have my body back, and I'm safe from danger. "Here, I'll walk with you while I tell you, after you get your clothes on." He threw me some jeans and a T-shirt, and left the room.
When I shut the door on my way out, I saw the man that was in the room and ran up to him.
"What is it you wanted to talk about?"
He turned his helmet toward me and said
"The X survived, Samus, and you won't believe how."
My jaw dropped, I have no idea how it could have happened.
"Remember those animals that boarded the ship? When they boarded the ship, didn't you notice one that wasn't originally there?"
I originally noticed a small ostrich like thing.
"That was a baby X; it mimicked the older one, incapable of mimicking anything large due to its size. When you released it into the wild, it remembered the space ship."
I didn't like what he was getting at.
"He was able to mimic the SR388 at full power when it got more powerful. It then mass multiplied, resulting in an organic SR388."
"So what do you propose we do?"
"There is, like every X, a core in which it derives its energy, you destroy that, you kill the entire station, and everything in it."
"Why does everything die inside it?"
"The X produces artificial Hydrogen, what the X depends on to survive, that's why you had to destroy the ventilators immediately, even if it was too late..."
All this was happening very fast, and how did he know about my mission on SR388?
"What's your name anyway?"
He turned his helmet toward me, and it's like he hesitated to say it.
"Aaron, my name is Aaron Harkowitz."
"Well, Aaron, what are we going to do about a suit, I can't fight like this you know."
He turned his helmet to me slowly again, God, what's this guy's problem?
"You don't need a suit; you are your own suit."
Huh? What the heck did he mean?
"I mean the X in your nervous system was overridden by your own immune system, instead of your suit absorbing it, your body absorbed it, you know have the full power of an X, as well as some Metroid abilities as well. Now lets get on my ship, we really don't have a lot of time."
"Set coordinates to X-AV100 Y-RN362 Z-TF347 computer!"
I didn't like this guy at all. He barked orders like he had no soul, like he was a lifeless machine.
"Why didn't you say SR388?"
"Because, Samus, SR388 is destroyed."
God I felt stupid asking that question. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. I yawned and stretched my arms.
"I'm going to take a nap while I'm waiting, ok? Those coordinates seem a while away..."
"Yeah, about 32000000 miles away, we'll be there in a day. Rest would be smart; the quarters are down the hall to the left."
I walked over to the door and opened it, it was pretty dark, but I didn't care, I was still recovering from surgery. I laid my head on the pillow and felt my mind wandering. Who was this guy? How does he know about my adventures on SR388? And how did I get out of that asteroid belt? My mind slowly shut down, and I fell asleep.
Click clack. I slowly opened my eyes and back flipped out of the way instinctively and reflexively. I went for the trigger on my gun, but then I realized I wasn't in my suit.
"Uh oh!"
Then my eyes adjusted to the light, it was Aaron wielding the gun. He slowly walked over to me and aimed it at my head. Then all of the sudden, some black material crawled up my arm and on my hand, I then stuck my hand out and nothing happened. Then my hands started to glow and I inched my hand toward Aaron, then suddenly KERPOW! I flew backwards into the wall, but I hadn't shot my energy. Aaron's head was missing, and he fell to the floor. I looked up at the doorway, and it was... Aaron?
"They're here."
"So I've noticed."
We ran into the cockpit and I looked backwards to see other Aaron's.
"Shit, where did they all come from?"
"I don't know, that's the thing. It could have been anything."
We were also had SR388 in our sights, only it looked different. It was pulsating and it had a huge eye on its side.
"And another thing, were going to crash course with SR388."
My eyes widened, this sounded really familiar. I went back to the gates of the cockpit and initiated the steel door to shut. It may hold them for a while, but not forever.
"How do we get out of here?" I asked.
"We don't, we have to go down with the ship, there's nothing we can do."
My eyes got even wider now. I am going to die.
"No! No way am I, Samus Aran, going to die in a space crash! No way!"
I then remembered something.
"Why can't we just use the landing gear?"
"No way, those things will kill us; they are probably much more advanced than anything on that station."
"What if I cut the cockpit from the rest of the space station, and use the thrusters on this to land safely?"
"I suppose that will work, how are you going to do that? I don't have any lasers?"
"Aaron, I am the laser!"
I smiled and black liquid engulfed my hand again, and it began to glow.
"Well, don't waste any time, that door won't hold forever."
I looked over to the door to see several dents in it.
"Gotcha!"
I slowly moved my hand to the outer edge of the ship and it cut through it like butter. I was already halfway through when the door was hanging my a thread.
"Get a move on Samus; we really don't have a lot of time here!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
BAM! I looked to my left to see the door fall over. SHING! Before I knew it I was finished and the other half of the space craft disintegrated into space.
"Great, now we got to survive!"
Oh no, I didn't realize that! I ran over to the controls and tried to start the thrusters, but they were malfunctioning.
"C'mon! Let's go! Go!!!"
Suddenly, the thruster reared into gear, and we were going to land just fine, but wait a second.
"Aaron! How will I survive with no oxygen tanks?"
Aaron didn't look at me when I asked him.
"Aaron, are you listening!?!"
"I don't know..."
K-K-KRUUNNNNCH... Oh no, the engines gave out! We were careening out of control!
"ADAAAAAM!!!!!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! We were breaking through the walls of the organic space station when we hit one wall that didn't break, and we were soaked into the wall.
"Quick, swim through this wall!"
We both swam through the wall to the surface.
"Where are we?"
"I think we are in the docking station."
I looked around and then realized it did look like the docking station.
"Wait, how am I breathing?"
I started to wildly exhale, this hydrogen could kill me.
"It's the X in your system; it changed your cellular makeup."
Wow, I am no longer me, just some hybrid human bounty hunter, after this I'm definitely quitting. I looked around for a door, and saw the familiar circular steel door.
"C'mon Aaron! This way!"
We both ran through the door at the same time, but then i noticed something we had ran past. It was an organic copy of my ship. Aaron was already a few yards ahead of me.
"C'mon Samus, I don't have all day!"
"Coming!" I said as I looked back one more time at the organic ship.
If it went as far to copy my ship, could it have copied me too? 3 mes? 2 was too much as it was, I guess we'll find out soon.
Chapter 1: Wrong Place At The Wrong Time
"Augh!!!"
I screamed as the covers of my bed slid off my deformed body. I woke up panting with sweat coming off of my fusion suit. Ever since the metroid vaccine had been injected into my body, this suit was fused to me. When the metroid DNA counter infected the X parasite, it had to route itself to get to the main core of it. Therefore it too had taken over my nervous system too, with memories of the metroid, and "premonitions" is what it seemed. It infected my mind and my skin, deforming my muscle structure, therefore changing my skin. This is not a suit, this is my body, as horrid as it seems. My helmet is fused with my body too.
I had woken up because of a dream I had of me being charged at by a metroid, and attaching itself to my head. If I didn't know any better, I would say it was the metroid that saved my life, but it can't be! That metroid is dead. No way could they have taken the DNA from that metroid, not even when they had it, they didn't have a chance. According to the metroid log that Adam Malkovich had kept, the metroid was taken by Ridley before they had a chance to extract its DNA. He also stated he had a chance to upload his brain to the computer and route it to my ship as a replacement. That Adam... always a step ahead of me.
"Lady, lady are you alright?"
The voice of Adam had snapped me out of my daze as I wiped the sweat off of my helmet.
"Yes Adam?"
I asked in a calm tone, Adams digital voice was starting to really get to me.
"You have an appointment at the doctors at Mentus station about your body remodeling."
I had totally spaced out on that, even though it's not like me to visit a hospital center, I still decided that I really needed a makeover. "Okay Adam, just let me get ready..."
I wiped the sweat off of my "head" and walked toward the control unit, and sat down in my chair. I then punched in a few numbers and buttons, grasped me hand on the controls, and started my way. Then I saw something that depressed me, my reflection in the space ship shield. I could vaguely see through my helmet visor, and got a hard knock. My face was altered too. My eyes were pure black, like they aren't there, and my face looked like the filmy clear material on the exterior of a metroid.
"Oh my god, Adam, this suit isn't a body attached to my nervous system, it's a metroid taking over every cell in my body!"
I was breaking into a cold sweat, nervous and shaky suddenly.
"Meaning, lady?"
How could Adam be so stupid?
"I'm turning into a metroid Adam; we have to get there fast! I don't need a cosmetic surgeon, I need an emergency room."
I exclaimed. My fingers were pressing buttons faster than I could think, and as soon as I pressed auto pilot, my fingers detracted, turning into short stubs, and I passed out."
"Oh no!"
I said, as I saw Samus starting to mutilate in front of my very lenses. Not only did Samus pass out, we were heading into a huge asteroid belt. I had no experience with the ship; I was a scientist, not a pilot! With ever passing second we were drifting closer to the asteroid belt. I didn't know what to do... Wait! I know what to do!
"Uhng..."
I moaned as I woke up on an operating table, and began to sit up.
"AGHHH!"
I screamed as loud as my lungs would let me. Ever part of my body was sore as if every muscle was burnt.
"Welcome back to reality Samus."
I don't know why, but the voice calmed me, it was deep and echoic, and almost empty. I tried to open my eyelids, but I couldn't even open them, it even hurt to open my mouth.
"Don't move Samus, initiate fast recovery immediately!"
I heard him say. I could feel a slight twinge in my arm, and within a matter of minutes, I was no longer in pain. I dared to open my eyes, and saw a tall man standing over me. When my eyes sharpened I could see that this was no ordinary man. He was a bounty hunter I had never encountered before by the looks of his suit. It was like my Varia suit, except that it was purple with a polygonal like helmet.
"What happened?"
I said as I got used to the light.
"Your ship drifted into an asteroid belt, but it doesn't matter now. When you arrived, you were already half human half metroid. We didn't know how to save you. When we found that an X parasite survived, we managed to inject it into you."
Oh great, another injection, I'm probably going to turn into an orange blob now.
"When it was absorbed into the metroid, its altered genetic makeup caused it to kill the metroid within you, and itself with it. It was sucked out what we could via IV and now you are completely you, just looks if you don't believe me."
I had almost forgotten. I looked down at my body, and for the first time in days, I saw my skin again, me beautiful skin... hold on a second, that's an awful lot of skin. I was completely naked in front of a man! I ran back to my operating table and covered myself up.
"I'm not really interested in seeing you're... body, Miss Aran, there's something more in matter."
What could possibly go wrong, I have my body back, and I'm safe from danger. "Here, I'll walk with you while I tell you, after you get your clothes on." He threw me some jeans and a T-shirt, and left the room.
When I shut the door on my way out, I saw the man that was in the room and ran up to him.
"What is it you wanted to talk about?"
He turned his helmet toward me and said
"The X survived, Samus, and you won't believe how."
My jaw dropped, I have no idea how it could have happened.
"Remember those animals that boarded the ship? When they boarded the ship, didn't you notice one that wasn't originally there?"
I originally noticed a small ostrich like thing.
"That was a baby X; it mimicked the older one, incapable of mimicking anything large due to its size. When you released it into the wild, it remembered the space ship."
I didn't like what he was getting at.
"He was able to mimic the SR388 at full power when it got more powerful. It then mass multiplied, resulting in an organic SR388."
"So what do you propose we do?"
"There is, like every X, a core in which it derives its energy, you destroy that, you kill the entire station, and everything in it."
"Why does everything die inside it?"
"The X produces artificial Hydrogen, what the X depends on to survive, that's why you had to destroy the ventilators immediately, even if it was too late..."
All this was happening very fast, and how did he know about my mission on SR388?
"What's your name anyway?"
He turned his helmet toward me, and it's like he hesitated to say it.
"Aaron, my name is Aaron Harkowitz."
"Well, Aaron, what are we going to do about a suit, I can't fight like this you know."
He turned his helmet to me slowly again, God, what's this guy's problem?
"You don't need a suit; you are your own suit."
Huh? What the heck did he mean?
"I mean the X in your nervous system was overridden by your own immune system, instead of your suit absorbing it, your body absorbed it, you know have the full power of an X, as well as some Metroid abilities as well. Now lets get on my ship, we really don't have a lot of time."
"Set coordinates to X-AV100 Y-RN362 Z-TF347 computer!"
I didn't like this guy at all. He barked orders like he had no soul, like he was a lifeless machine.
"Why didn't you say SR388?"
"Because, Samus, SR388 is destroyed."
God I felt stupid asking that question. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. I yawned and stretched my arms.
"I'm going to take a nap while I'm waiting, ok? Those coordinates seem a while away..."
"Yeah, about 32000000 miles away, we'll be there in a day. Rest would be smart; the quarters are down the hall to the left."
I walked over to the door and opened it, it was pretty dark, but I didn't care, I was still recovering from surgery. I laid my head on the pillow and felt my mind wandering. Who was this guy? How does he know about my adventures on SR388? And how did I get out of that asteroid belt? My mind slowly shut down, and I fell asleep.
Click clack. I slowly opened my eyes and back flipped out of the way instinctively and reflexively. I went for the trigger on my gun, but then I realized I wasn't in my suit.
"Uh oh!"
Then my eyes adjusted to the light, it was Aaron wielding the gun. He slowly walked over to me and aimed it at my head. Then all of the sudden, some black material crawled up my arm and on my hand, I then stuck my hand out and nothing happened. Then my hands started to glow and I inched my hand toward Aaron, then suddenly KERPOW! I flew backwards into the wall, but I hadn't shot my energy. Aaron's head was missing, and he fell to the floor. I looked up at the doorway, and it was... Aaron?
"They're here."
"So I've noticed."
We ran into the cockpit and I looked backwards to see other Aaron's.
"Shit, where did they all come from?"
"I don't know, that's the thing. It could have been anything."
We were also had SR388 in our sights, only it looked different. It was pulsating and it had a huge eye on its side.
"And another thing, were going to crash course with SR388."
My eyes widened, this sounded really familiar. I went back to the gates of the cockpit and initiated the steel door to shut. It may hold them for a while, but not forever.
"How do we get out of here?" I asked.
"We don't, we have to go down with the ship, there's nothing we can do."
My eyes got even wider now. I am going to die.
"No! No way am I, Samus Aran, going to die in a space crash! No way!"
I then remembered something.
"Why can't we just use the landing gear?"
"No way, those things will kill us; they are probably much more advanced than anything on that station."
"What if I cut the cockpit from the rest of the space station, and use the thrusters on this to land safely?"
"I suppose that will work, how are you going to do that? I don't have any lasers?"
"Aaron, I am the laser!"
I smiled and black liquid engulfed my hand again, and it began to glow.
"Well, don't waste any time, that door won't hold forever."
I looked over to the door to see several dents in it.
"Gotcha!"
I slowly moved my hand to the outer edge of the ship and it cut through it like butter. I was already halfway through when the door was hanging my a thread.
"Get a move on Samus; we really don't have a lot of time here!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
BAM! I looked to my left to see the door fall over. SHING! Before I knew it I was finished and the other half of the space craft disintegrated into space.
"Great, now we got to survive!"
Oh no, I didn't realize that! I ran over to the controls and tried to start the thrusters, but they were malfunctioning.
"C'mon! Let's go! Go!!!"
Suddenly, the thruster reared into gear, and we were going to land just fine, but wait a second.
"Aaron! How will I survive with no oxygen tanks?"
Aaron didn't look at me when I asked him.
"Aaron, are you listening!?!"
"I don't know..."
K-K-KRUUNNNNCH... Oh no, the engines gave out! We were careening out of control!
"ADAAAAAM!!!!!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! We were breaking through the walls of the organic space station when we hit one wall that didn't break, and we were soaked into the wall.
"Quick, swim through this wall!"
We both swam through the wall to the surface.
"Where are we?"
"I think we are in the docking station."
I looked around and then realized it did look like the docking station.
"Wait, how am I breathing?"
I started to wildly exhale, this hydrogen could kill me.
"It's the X in your system; it changed your cellular makeup."
Wow, I am no longer me, just some hybrid human bounty hunter, after this I'm definitely quitting. I looked around for a door, and saw the familiar circular steel door.
"C'mon Aaron! This way!"
We both ran through the door at the same time, but then i noticed something we had ran past. It was an organic copy of my ship. Aaron was already a few yards ahead of me.
"C'mon Samus, I don't have all day!"
"Coming!" I said as I looked back one more time at the organic ship.
If it went as far to copy my ship, could it have copied me too? 3 mes? 2 was too much as it was, I guess we'll find out soon.