Metroid Prime: Hyrule

Rated M for Violence and Language. This is NOT a lemon or a slash fic. There will be NO explicit sexual content. I do not own any of the characters or concepts. All of the Metroid and Zelda related characters and concepts are property of Nintendo. Any original characters are still part of the Zelda universe and thus fall under intellectual property rights of Nintendo. This is a fan produced work and not meant to infringe on anyone's rights in any way. I'm a huge fan of both universes and I encourage everyone to please support the official releases.

As her ship broke the atmosphere of Aether, Samus thought back on her experiences on the strange planet. With the Ing defeated, U-Mos assured her that the Luminoth would recover in time. Their people now had the chance, and that was what mattered. More importantly, Samus had accomplished her mission and ascertained the whereabouts and condition of the GFS Tyr and her crew. The fact that they were all dead wasn't ideal, but the information would still get her paid. With the ship logs and many of the personal logs of the crew safely stored in the Power Suit's memory and backed up in the ship's memory, she felt satisfied that she would see her pay day. She wished she could have kept the Light Suit she used to defeat the Emperor Ing. That would have almost made that crazy nightmare worth it.

An alarm went off, bringing her attention back to the present. She tapped the display, bringing up view of Aether. She was unsure as to why her auto scan had alerted her, at least until she saw the glowing particles beginning to come together at the center of the view. She checked the radiation signature read out, confirming her fear. The particles were phazon. As she watched, they began to draw to a single point, glowing with unrestrained energy. Slowly, a form began to grow out of the mass. A yellow warning sign appeared proclaiming UNKNOWN PHAZON LIFEFORM.

Please no, the bounty hunter thought, Please don't let it be her!

As the form solidified, the reading underneath switched from the yellow letters to blinking red block letters proclaiming WARNING: PHAZON LIFEFORM METROID PRIME; EXTREME CAUTION ADVISED. If it hadn't been silhouetted against Aether, she wouldn't have been able to see it. The form hovered above the planet like a dead body in water.

I have to do something, she thought, I can't let her escape. She maneuvered the ship closer. If she could catch the creature before it regained consciousness, she might have a chance. She fired one more burst from the thrusters and let the ship's momentum carry it forward as she brought the ship's targeting scanner on line. The display lit, but the view was obscured by large red letters; WEAPONS OFFLINE: REPAIRS INCOMPLETE.

"Damn," she said aloud, "I should have known that would be too easy."

Pressing a small button on the over the left breast of her jump suit, she activated her power suit. She glowed with energy as it materialized around her. She moved quickly to the escape platform. A force field, designed to prevent explosive decompression, surrounded the platform just before the hatch in the roof opened and the platform rose, expelling the bounty hunter into the vacuum of space.

Just as she aimed her arm cannon at the creature, it suddenly moved, raising its head and staring at Samus. For just an instant, there seemed to be recognition in its face, a sense of familiarity. She hesitated.

Without warning, the creature's arm cannon came up. Pure phazon sprayed at the bounty hunter. Samus jumped to avoid the deadly substance, realizing her mistake an instant after making it. With no gravity, there was nothing to pull her back to the ship. She looked down, from her perspective at least, to see the object of her rage and fear staring at her. The creature, Metroid Prime, took a last look at the Hunter's ship, slightly scarred from the raw phazon blast. Suddenly, it flew into the void of space, leaving a glowing trail of phazon particles behind.

Looking up, Samus saw that she was actually looking down at the surface of Aether, and the seriousness of the situation became clear. Tucking into a roll, she reoriented herself so that she was right-side-up relative to the planet. Putting her feet together, she fired her boots' thrusters. Nothing happened. She ignored the flashing malfunction light and tried again. Again nothing.

SHIT! She thought, The phazon must have fused the thrusters. As she looked down at the approaching planet, one thought dominated everything else in her mind; I am SO royally screwed.