Space. The limitless area in which all things exist. Limitless. This was the one thing Samus adored about space above all. It was the reason she became an intergalactic bounty hunter. To experience limitless space.

Space had always given her the feeling of freedom. In her ship there was nothing to control her. It was sometimes lonely but she could live with that. Everyone she ever truly was attached to was lost. Mom, Dad, and Grandpa Bird, gone. She learned to not attach to people she knew. This allowed her to kill without regret. Which was what she needed for this next mission she was on.

She was assigned to an execution mission. Some Federation Troopers were supplying Space Pirates with Federation weapons. This was treason of the highest degree for which the punishment was death. She knew some of the Troopers she was going to kill. Though she would not hesitate to kill them on sight. It was her duty.

This was the reason she was highly respected by lower and sometimes higher ranking officers. She always got the job done no matter how awful the job was. Though she would never kill the innocent, none of her jobs had come to this.

"Warning! Warning! Approaching a dimensional storm!" the ship's computer announced.

"Storm's power." Samus demanded.

"Highest class." replied the ship.

"Activate hyper-drive thrusters now!" Samus yelled.

"Negative. Thrusters offline due to storm's gravity. Contact with the storm in minus 15 seconds."

"F!" Samus swore quite loudly.

It was like watching a magnet move closer to a paperclip. The ship was the paperclip and the storm was a huge electromagnet. The effect was very devastating and wonderful.

Once Samus's ship made contact with the storm, it was highly painful. So painful it could not be explained. After this, her thoughts ceased to exist.

A pop is the best way to describe what Samus heard next. She was very disoriented. She could not see even though she was sure her eyes were open. One thing she was sure of was that she was still in her ship since she could still hear. The ship's computer was spewing gibberish through its PA system. Finally Samus's vision came back. She looked out of the ships cockpit window.

She was on a planet for sure but a very somber one. The sky was black, not because it was night but because the clouds themselves were black. The planet also seemed to have some hostile robots according to the computer that just stopped malfunctioning.

His training today was to fight twenty ninjas without being hit once. Near impossible for reality but this was the furthest thing from reality. The alternative was known as the Matrix. He wasn't really in the Matrix. This was just a training program but very similar, the fake world that the robots used to keep their human batteries under control.

The Matrix was a dream world that the robots used to create the illusion so the humans they used to power their cities would not rebel. Raven was just told this four months ago when he was unplugged from this deception.

Raven shot at two ninjas from his two handguns. They went down. Easy. A stunning round house kick to the ninja behind him followed by four shots. It didn't stand a chance. Three down within six seconds.

The next one didn't see the bone crushing uppercut into its chin that instantly caused its neck to snap. Raven grabbed this one's legs as it was flying back from the shocking uppercut. He tossed it into four ninjas by some gasoline cans in the junkyard they were fighting in. Raven triggered six shots that were aimed directly at the cans. The explosion left only twelve ninjas. Ten seconds.

Raven quickly dodged four swords coming at him in unison. The owners of the swords each took one bullet to the head. Eight ninjas. Fourteen seconds.

Raven was very gifted when it came to the Matrix. Even more than the legendary Neo that had defeated the Smith Virus almost ten years ago. With his gifted powers Raven caused the skulls of the remaining ninjas to implode. Eighteen seconds.

"Get me out of here, operator." Raven said into a Blutooth

"Sure thing Raven." the other line said.

Once he was unplugged, he went to have a shower.

"Boss wants to talk." said the operator who just unplugged him.

"Boss can wait until I have a shower, Chip." Raven said.

"He won't be happy."

"He never is."

After Raven had a shower, he went to Boss's cabin. He didn't want to, but the other option just meant more talks which Raven hated.

"What's up Boss?" Raven said.

"I'll tell you what's up. Your Fing rule-breaking attitude is what's up Raven." Boss angrily said. "You're not supposed to use your powers during training programs. It messes up the entire program."

"So?"

"So. It takes Chip a week to fix these programs just because you want to play wizard." said Boss. "We just unplugged two more people from the Matrix and we need those programs to train them."

"Are we done?" Raven asked casually.

"NO! We are not done. You're not jacking in until I say so. You got that?"

"Yep."

"Good. You're dismissed." said Boss

Raven left the cabin feeling slightly irritated. He and Boss didn't see eye to eye. This was mainly due to the fact that Raven surpassed him in almost every way when it came to the Matrix.

Raven headed to his cabin to sleep. The training, even though it was only eighteen seconds, had exhausted him. It took a lot of energy to do such things in the Matrix. Once he hit the bed he fell asleep almost instantly.

Samus quickly activated her Varia suit. It only took a second to materialize. After this she quickly exited her ship.

There were about ten hovering robots headed her way. She scanned them to find their weakness.

"A new (Creatures) entry has been downloaded to your Logbook. Morphology: Sentinel. The soldiers of the robot cities. They use their many appendages to rip and tear apart enemies after they have cut into them with their laser cutters. They are vulnerable to high voltage shocks of electricity. Danger level is moderate."

Samus didn't have any electrical weapons programmed at the moment but a power bomb would do the job. She immediately activated morph ball and waited. As soon as the sentinels came near, she laid a power bomb. The explosion wiped out all ten robots.

Too easy. thought Samus. Then she realized that the first attack was just a test. The next attack was quite larger. She raced back to her ship.

"Activate ship's main thrusters." she told the ship.

"Thrusters offline due to repair. Repair will complete in 20 seconds." reported the computer.

"Damn! Activate ship's weapons system."

"Commencing activation... Activation complete." the ship replied. "Thruster online."

Samus immediately took over the ship's control and began to take off. She noticed that her ship's space thrusters were missing. This meant she would have to find a way to escape the robots without leaving the planet. Then she noticed a tunnel. That would be her exit. The ship dived into the tunnel. Soon after she turned a sharp corner. Then back down again. She checked her radar. She couldn't shake them.

"Shoot any enemy that comes within a 50-meter radius." Samus demanded.

"Affirmative." replied the computer.

Samus once again made a sharp turn but didn't like what she saw next. There was a giant blue sphere that was expanding right toward her.

Raven was woken up quite violently.

"Raven, get up! We're about to be attacked!" a female voice said.

"Wha?"

"Sentinels are on the move and they are moving towards us!" said the voice again.

"Now?"

"Yes now!"

"Damn it!"

"What is the crew doing about it now Esther?" Raven asked.

"They don't know." Esther said as they were running down the corridor. "There is a ship being chased by them, but it's not one of Zion's."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. The ship isn't identified in the Zion records." she said as they were just entering the cockpit.

"Then what are you people waiting for? Blow the EMP!"

"Boss said not to." said another crew mate named Jette.

"Screw that." said Raven as he went to hit the EMP switch.

Nobody had time to stop him. The EMP was set off and everything electrical was shut down within a five-mile radius.

Samus didn't have time to move out of the way of the expanding energy. It hit her ship and every system in her ship went down.

"Damn it! I'll kill the bastard who was stupid enough to fire that EMP." she said as her Varia suit deactivated.

She had to use the emergency hatch to exit her ship. Once she stepped out she quickly looked for the pursuing robots. They were not there.

It had to be the EMP Samus thought. Well at least I'm safe.

She was walking back to her ship that was starting to come back online, when she noticed a spotlight moving towards her. She didn't bother running away because if it was an enemy she would have already been shot at.

"What the f Raven." Jette said.

"If you want to survive you must to what is necessary." said Raven.

"Really? Because I'm pretty sure that the ships guns would have done the job." said a voice from behind.

"What makes you so sure Boss." Raven said.

"The fact that a fifty sentinel patrol coming through a tight hole like that would have been blasted to pieces by our cannons." said Boss. "Now lets just imagine that another patrol came. What would we do then?"

Raven said nothing. Even though he didn't like it, Boss was right. If another patrol came they would be sitting ducks.

"Is our backup power back on Jette?" asked Boss.

"Yes captain." reported Jette.

"Ok. I want you to turn on the search lights and fly the ship near that unidentified craft." said Boss. "Nitro. Pedal. I want you guys to man the guns just in case. Can you handle that?"

"Yes sir!"

"Yes sir!"

"Good. Esther. I want you and Raven to take some weapons and see if there are any human survivors in the ship." said Boss. "Raven. If you screw this up I'll personally serve your ass to the robots. You got that?"

"Ya." Raven said.

"Ok. Lets head out!"

Samus just waited for the craft to reach her. She set her stun gun though. She wanted to be safe. She had no idea what planet she was on so for all she knew this could be another robot.

The craft stopped a then a hatched open to reveal what looked like two humans. They started to come near. They had weapons but Samus thought that if she was in their shoes she would do the same.

"Hello? Any survivors down here?" called a young woman's voice. They had to be friendly asking this kind of question.

"Yeah! Over here!" Samus replied.

"Do you got a flashlight? We can' find you!" said a mans voice.

"Ya! Just a sec!" said Samus. "Computer. Activate ship's flood light."

"Flood light activated."

"We'll come to you!" said the woman's voice.

"Ok!"

"Are you injured?" said the woman as she came near.

"No. I'm fine."

"Great. I'm Esther and this is Raven." she said pointing to the man beside her. And you are?"

"Samus."

"Cool name." said Esther

"Enough chit chat. Our captain wishes to speak to you" Raven said.