Author's Note

Welcome back to this story of mine! Yes yes, I know, it's been a little while since I first posted this story. And I know what a few of you were thinking, that 'Oh he must have abandoned this story!'. But I assure you that I have not, and will not do that. It takes a lot longer for me to put my thoughts down into format with this story, more so then any others that I have made on this website. The main reason behind the delay is that I wanted to make sure that it was as good as I could possibly make it, and that took time and effort to do so...

Fanfiction also somehow deleted the last 1,000 words before I could save it, so I had to go back and re-type the ending. I wish that didn't happen, because I liked the first version more so then the second version. They are still the same of course, just worded slightly differently then each other.


LEGEND BELOW

"We've got a live one over here!" = Normal speech.

''What in the world?'' = Normal thoughts/communication system.


-(LOCATION)-

-(UNSC-INFINITY)-


The Medical Bay was alight with the noise of all the high tech health equipment placed around everywhere. The head medical doctor stood up on the viewing deck over looking the room below. His vision was currently locked onto the heavily armored figure resting on the main medical bay below. He was concerned with the lack of progress that his medical ward had made in the last thirty minutes. He had personally promised Commander Palmer progress by the time she next came by, but he wasn't sure if he could keep true on that promise.

The first thing his ward had done after bringing the survivor in was run a few quick tests to make sure that they weren't going to flat-line before he could figure out a way to get the survivor out of that suit. But it was in that stage of tests that they hit a roadblock so to speak. The second his medical crew went to try and remove the helmet, some kind of unknown energy shielding popped into existence, preventing them from attempting anything. It seemed to work just like a Spartan's shields in the way that they conformed around the body of the suit. But from what they observed in the short period of time that they had, the shields were much more powerful then any known Spartan in existence today.

He ordered his entire medical ward to attempt to breach the shields in order to finally get at the suit itself, and to say that it went well would have been a lie. The first attempt was breaching them was by use of a repair-welder, and that didn't work at all. The fire merely bounced off the shields harmlessly, almost frying the face off the guy attempting it.

With the danger that this experiment posed to his workers, he had the Spartan he had on post do the next attempts. The rather bland looking Spartan took up the second attempt with the use of a laser-cutter, with similar results. The laser disappeared into nothingness upon contact with the shields. Seeing as that wasn't going to work, the Spartan gave up on the attempt.

Next came the third attempt. He ordered use of powerful heavy duty energy cutters. He knew that this had the chance to backfire on his crew badly if the weapon actually breached the shields. He was banking on the hopes that the armored suit was as strong as it looked, and it actually held it's own against the lasers long enough to shut them down. With that thought in mind he had ordered the attempt. The large energy cutters came out from the ceiling above and quickly locked onto the suit below. He personally flipped the switch to power the weapon on, and waited patiently for the thing to charge up.

It was exactly at that moment that Commander Palmer and Captain Lasky entered the Medical ward. Silence pursued in that moment, as Palmer took in what she was looking at.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Palmer shouted in outrage, shoving the head doctor out of the way so she could shut the weapon down before things couldn't be reversed. The lasers hummed as it powered down before disappearing back into the ceiling. With potential disaster avoided, she rounded on the head Medical officer. "What were you thinking!? Are you trying to kill the survivor!?" She shouted, verbally chewing the hell out of the man. Lasky pinched the bridge of his nose and stood back, letting the scene play out. What in the world had he walked into?

"W-Well... You told me to get that suit off at all costs..." The man responded, flinching away from Palmer's piercing glare.

"And that means trying to laser them to death!?" Palmer retorted angrily. She actually could not believe the incompetence of the man standing before her. She only told him to get the suit off the survivor, not murder them in the process! What kind of medical doctor was he? "I actually can't believe this right now... You, get out of my sight now." Palmer ordered, pointing to the head medical doctor.

"But this is my station, you can't just..!" The doctor's rant was cut short when a Spartan that had noticed the commotion came up behind him, grabbing both of his arms. "W-What the-? Let me go this instant!" The man shouted, flailing uselessly in the arms of the other Spartan.

"What do you want me to do with him, Commander?" The obviously male Spartan asked. Palmer let out an annoyed sigh, as she shook her head.

"Take him away. I'll find someone else to replace him." Palmer ordered with a wave of her hand.

"What?! You can't do this to me! I'm the head medical officer!" The man shouted in outrage.

"Not anymore." Palmer responded as she signaled for him to be removed from the deck. Palmer felt like rubbing her temples as she felt a headache coming on, but her helmet of course prevented that. The sounds of shouting slowly drowned out as the Spartan forcefully led the unwilling doctor away.

"I'm guessing that's the survivor down there?" Lasky asked, even though he already knew the answer. Palmer sighed loudly as she turned to the deck below them.

"Yes." Palmer replied simply. "I was hoping that they would have managed t-" She was cut off when she noticed the body move. The heart rate on the main monitor sped up, signaling that the survivor was probably waking up. The doctors and medical workers down near the medical bed were quick to notice the fact that the suit started moving. The entire medical ward went silent as their attention focused on the medical bed.


A hazy fog filled her mind, her thoughts scattered around her swarming mind. She wasn't aware of how long she had been asleep, or when she had actually lost consciousness. Her head had been one hazy mess ever since she finally defeated her dark clone. She barely remembered escaping Planet Phaaze before it all went dark, and what happened after that...

Her eyes swam behind her eyelids, seemingly in a deep dream. Then her eyelids slowly fluttered open, her vision heavily blurred. She blinked a few times, trying to focus on her HUD that was flashing before her eyes. Her eyes slowly widened in shock at the first think she noticed flashing. She had hoped that it wasn't true, yet the facts were flashing right before her very eyes.


Phazon Enhancement Device online

Diagnostics loading

Last activation two weeks ago

Automated Phazon vent failed

Hypermode total current run time

336 hours, 47 minutes

Unable to shut Hypermode down

Phazon levels at 100%

Body unrecognizable as Samus Aran

Welcome new Power Suit user


Samus shut her eyes closed tight, wanting to ignore the blaring warning that her suit had probably been trying to inform her of for the last two weeks straight. Yet it was impossible to ignore that truth, because as she lay there on the unknown surface, she could already tell that her body felt largely different. She was still shaped like that of a human, at least that's what she hoped. She could feel what felt like her feet, her arms, her head, her body, and her chest... Yep, it was all still there. She let out an inaudible sigh. At least she was still in the shape of a humanoid...

She blinked once more, her eyes taking in the sight of what lay beyond her visor. It only took a moment for her to realize that she wasn't in her personal gunship. Not only that, but she wasn't in a place that was familiar to her either. From what she could see, it looked rather similar to a Galactic Federation medical room, but she couldn't be too sure. She tried to sit up, only to realize that something was holding her down, that and the fact that she felt horribly weak at the moment. She let out a confused groan, turning her head to the side. Her vision was partially blocked by her large left suit shoulder, same for the right side. She struggled and tilted her head down to look at her chest, her body was still covered in Phazon tentacles that grew from her overpowered Hypermode state.

"Hey, relax." Samus sluggishly turned her head at the sound of an unknown female voice coming from her right. Standing before her was what clearly looked like a Human in a powered armor suit of some kind. The white armored figure typed a few buttons on a holo-pad, disabling the magnetic restraint around her chest, allowing her to at the very least sit up. Samus once again tried to sit up, yet her strength had yet to return, and she fell back down. She glanced down to her left arm, staring at the armored hand that covered her true body. Her right arm which held her Arm-Cannon, was still locked down by the restraints, preventing full mobility.

"Who there, let's take it easy now." Samus's attention was once again brought back to the armored figure standing next to her medical bed. The figure hit a few buttons on her control pad, and not a moment later the medical bed's back half bent upward into the shape of a chair. Samus almost fell forward as her head began to spin once more, only to be caught by the white armored figure and placed back into a sitting position.

"Hey now, are you OK?" The presumably medical figure, female if the voice was anything to go by, asked trying to gain Samus's attention. Samus's head felt heavy, like she was drowning in a lake of Phazon... Actually she felt like she was drowning in an ocean of Phazon more like it, and it didn't feel normal. It was also making it very hard to concentrate on the medical soldier standing only a foot away from her. Yet she did hear the woman, and so she attempted to face her, even though that alone felt difficult to do.

"Can you speak?" The medical woman asked, typing down a few things onto her holo-pad. Samus blinked sluggishly as she tried to respond, but the only sound that came out was a very alien sounding hiss. The woman visibly recoiled slightly at the sound, not really expecting it. She turned back to her commanding officer who was standing on the viewing deck above her, a silent conversation passing between them.

''Commander, I was under the assumption that the survivor was a Human, not an alien.'' The medical Spartan stated through her communication system, her voice not escaping from her helmet. Commander Palmer seemed to glare down at her, though that was hard to determine because of her visor blocking any view of her face.

''I had believed that the survivor was human as well, mostly due to the armored suit's strangely human female shape.'' Palmer responded. ''But knowing that they are an alien won't change your ability to assist at this moment, correct?'' Palmer asked, the way she said it made it clear that the other Spartan didn't really have a choice in the matter. Yet, the other Spartan didn't at all seem dismayed at the order, and nodded back affirmation. She then turned back to Samus, the presumably alien had her left armored hand rubbing at her throat.

"Alright then, let's use simpler questions for now, hmm?" The medical Spartan stated, getting a sluggish nod from Samus in return. "Are you feeling OK at this moment?" She asked again. Samus seemed slow to respond to the reasonably simple question, garnering a concerned gaze from the Spartan. Samus's head once again fogged up, and her head started to spin. She was, however, aware of the warning that her HUD was flashing in her face.


Warning

Internal Phazon levels at 115% and rising

Phazon energy levels reached over body's total safe limit

Recommend immediate venting of Phazon energy to bring body back down to safe levels

Failure to do so may result in total body energization


Samus groaned out in pained fear, the alien sounding screech that resulted put the surrounding medical staff on edge. That's why she was so messed up at the moment, because her body was far over the limit of Phazon that should normally be contained at once. It was similar to her deceased dark clone back when she fought her on the planet Aether. Dark Samus had been continually increasing her own internal levels of Phazon during that entire mission, and by the end all that was left was a horribly corrupted version of it's own self. She couldn't allow that to happen to her, because if she did, the it would most likely spell her demise.

Samus's head fell back as she struggled to bring her hand up to her breastplate where her PED-Suit activator resided. If only she could vent the excess Phazon energy that her body was containing, then she would probably be fine. She couldn't ever again vent all of her Phazon energy however, seeing as there was no difference between her own body and the Phazon that resided within it anymore. She was for all terms and purposes, a completely different being now, one created by the Phazon corruption within her.

The entire medical deck was alight with worry when the sensors started to go off, sensing a massive power build up coming from the survivor's body. Samus turned to the Spartan, their visors locking for a moment. Then she flicked her head to the side very slightly, signaling for the Medic to move away quickly. The white armored woman got the hint and backed away, and just in time as well seeing as Samus's body started to light up very rapidly.

"What the hell is going on?!" Commander Palmer shouted from the viewing deck above, leaning over the railing. The survivor had pressed a few buttons on her big red breastplate, then suddenly massive amounts of energy started to vent from her body. The automated defense systems had immediately shot to life, sectioning off the survivor in a four walled see through room. The systems had prevailed in containing and safely absorbing the latent energy that wafted off the survivor.

The entire medical deck stared in awe at the amazing sight. Flashing blue arcs of energy flew around inside of the survivor's room, slamming into the defensive wall systems. Massive otherworldly tentacles rapidly grew from the survivor's suit, whipping around the room thoughtlessly. The amount of raw energy that she was producing at that moment was astounding, it was almost unbelievable.

Then it slowed down. The massive tentacles shrunk until all that was left were the veiny blue ones that wrapped around her suit. The arcs of energy receded into her suit, and the air once again became calm. The defense system finished absorbing the remaining energy, before powering down. The entire deck was silent as they watched the walls vanish back into the ground where they came from. All eyes were on the survivor who was currently sitting back against the medical bed.

"What in the world...?" Captain Lasky muttered to himself. What he just witnessed was astounding, that was for sure. It was probably the perfect definition of otherworldly, without a shadow of a doubt. What had actually happened? Now that was an entirely different mystery to unfold.

"Spartan Jasmine!" Commander Palmer shouted suddenly. The medical Spartan that had been at the survivor's bedside before quickly jumped to action, running back to the survivor. She whipped out an advanced medical scanner to make sure that the survivor was still alive. The now named Jasmine however, only got to scan her for a few moments before Samus's hand came up to stop her. The Spartan stopped when she realized that they were alive, alive and well, if the body language was anything to go off of.

Samus was sitting up fully now, all signs of the recent weariness gone. She took her hand off of the Spartan, letting it rest comfortably on her thigh-plate. That was a sign that she wasn't going to be a threat to the others in the room, and for the soldiers on staff to please lower their weapons that they had currently aimed at her head. Commander Palmer was quick to notice the fact that her Marines were aimed and ready to fire at the survivor.

"Marines! Stand down!" Palmer shouted her order loudly, the Marines were confused but still followed the command, and lowered their weapons. Palmer turned her attention back to the medical bed, and to Spartan Jasmine. "Alright, continue with the medical exam." Palmer called out. Spartan Jasmine nodded back to her, before focusing her attention on her patient.

It only took a second for Spartan Jasmine to realize that Samus wasn't restrained at all anymore, completely free to do as she wished. Yet Samus just sat there, unmoving as Jasmine did a quick medical scan of her just to be safe; That, and to confirm something for herself. The medical Spartan then called over some assistance in the form of a few of the other medical staff. The other Humans were wary to approach the being that had just caused the scene from before, but Jasmine assured them that it would be fine.

"Now then." Jasmine spoke up, gaining Samus's attention once again. "You are not going to do that outburst again, are you?" The medical Spartan asked, though it sounded more like an order to Samus. Samus went to respond, yet once again all that came out was that alien sounding screech, making the medical workers jump slightly. Yet seeing as Samus hadn't done anything, they quickly resumed their work.

Samus brought her left hand up to her helmet in confusion, pressing a few nonexistent buttons on it, buttons that only existed for the suit's user. Spartan Jasmine watched her carefully, while also interested as to what they were doing. Then suddenly there was a flash of light, although not blinding, but it did catch everyone's attention. The medical deck felt like their minds couldn't handle what they had witnessed earlier, but then the survivor did something else. They watched as the red helmet somehow disassembled into thin air, exposing the face of the survivor underneath.

Now, Commander Palmer wasn't quite sure what she was expecting that the survivor looked like under all that power armor, but what she saw before her was not even close to what she thought they might look like. It wasn't Human at all, that was for damn sure. Even with only just the head exposed to them, they were all baffled. A clearly see through blue head that left nothing to the imagination as for what it held inside, framed with these two long angled light blue glowing eyes that actually looked nothing like eyes at all. A mouth was clearly missing or just blended in very well with the translucent body. It actually looked like a blob of energy that held the vague shape of a female human head.

(((Quick Author's Note. Check the cover image, as that is exactly what Samus looks like.)))

The two glowing eyes blinked slowly as her face was finally exposed to the air outside of her helmet. She raised her armored hand to her head, carefully touching and examining the part of herself that she couldn't see. Her eyes widened in silent surprise at the extremely strange feeling of her own face, as even through her armored hand, she could still feel properly. It felt wrong, so very wrong. If her new face was properly capable of displaying emotions, then there was no doubt that there would be shock, horror, fear, and confusion; The order of said emotions were scrambled, but they were still there.

Spartan Jasmine could clearly tell that something very heavy was weighing on the mind of the survivor, if the way she stared forward blankly said anything at all. It didn't take a therapist to realize that something was wrong with her, so the Spartan gave her a moment to come to terms with whatever she was dealing with currently. She turned back up to her Commander, searching for an order of some kind. She and Palmer seemed to silently stare at each other, before Palmer turned to Captain Lasky.

"What do you make of this, Lasky?" Palmer asked. Lasky hummed in thought, gazing down at the alien survivor. From the way that they were reacting to touching their own face, he was just going to go ahead and say that what they looked like at the moment wasn't what they were supposed to look like. The shock of realizing that you weren't the same anymore; Lasky couldn't possibly fathom what that would be like to go through. He turned back to Palmer who was waiting for a response.

"I say we leave them alone for the time being. They are clearly going through something heavy right now, and we can't exactly help with that." Lasky stated with a sigh, before turning to walk away. "I'll be back at the Command Deck if you need to find me." And with that, the Captain walked away, leaving Palmer to oversee the medical deck. Palmer seemed lost in thought for a moment, before nodding in affirmation.

Palmer turned back to over looking the medical bay from above. There was another flash of light from the alien's suit, and this time both the left hand and the right weapon system had disappeared into thin air. Now with both of her arms exposed, she took the time to ponder over her new body. Her upper arms were a bit thin compared to her forearms, as now that the suit was partially gone, she could see that her forearms were too large to even fit into the arms of her suit normally. But with her body type, they merely seemed to conform to the proper shape while inside the suit. The ends of her hands ended in three large glowing blue claws that would not work with the normal five fingers of her battle armor, yet they seemed to change into five shorter claws when it was required of them to do so.

The sight of the alien with some parts of her armor suit missing made her look disproportionate slightly. It was a very strange sight seeing the arms that didn't seem to have any bones in them, only the same few red veins that ran throughout her entire body, only to stop at the occasional red neuron-like connections that extended to the main vein. There seemed to be three neurons in each arm, the purpose for them was currently unknown, to both the medical bay and Samus herself. Yet to the changed space Bounty Hunter, it look eerily similar to a Metroid's main three neurons.

The Bounty Hunter fell back into the upward bent medical bed, a silent almost invisible tear fell from her face before she pulled in her emotions and summoned the rest of her suit back, but still left her helmet off for the time being. She sat up to get off the medical bed, but the staff wasn't about to have any of it.

"Hey we are not done with the medical check up! We need to catalog your information for the commander." One of the staff members stated. But Samus was done with sitting down, and got off the bed anyway... Only to fall to the ground in a heap.

"Hey! Are you alright?" Spartan Jasmine exclaimed, quick to go to Bounty Hunter's assistance. Samus was struggling to push herself up off the ground, as suddenly everything felt much heavier now that she wasn't on the medical bed. Samus was acutely aware of the armored hands of the Spartan grabbing under her arm pits and lifting her back up to her feet. Jasmine let her go, only for the Hunter to start to fall again. The Spartan was careful to avoid touching the tentacles of an unknown blue substance that crawled up and around the Hunter's suit.

"Is something wrong?" The Spartan asked, seeing Samus's legs shake under her own weight. Samus let out an annoyed creepy sounding hiss, before bring her left arm to her Arm-Cannon. Without even interacting with it, one of the panels flipped around to expose the alien looking keyboard on the other side. A few button presses later and a mechanical hiss sounded throughout the entire suit. Suddenly Samus straightened out, as the suit's internal skeleton system turned back on, now fully supporting her weight again. Spartan Jasmine leg her arms go again, this time seeing as the Hunter was finally capable of holding herself up without outside assistance... Well not fully, seeing as the Hunter looked like she was unbalanced slightly.

"Are you good now?" The Spartan asked again, gaining Samus's attention once more. The Hunter gave the other woman a nod. "Good. Now then, I'm sure that you probably want to explore around here, but you have more important things to do first." The Spartan stated. "Commander Palmer and Captain Lasky would like to have a few words with you as soon as possible, and seeing as you are now capable of walking, that should be first on your list." Jasmine looked up to see that Palmer had already left the medical bay, presumably to meet up with the Captain on the command deck.

Samus seemed to roll the idea around in her head for a quick moment, before nodding her acceptance. She was on a ship that she had never heard of before, with people that she didn't know who also didn't know of her, and unsure of her location in the galaxy at the moment. It definitely wasn't the most ideal situation to wake up to. But the Space Bounty Hunter, now turned Alien Bounty Hunter, was sure that she would make it work out for the best. Samus was about to follow after the Spartan, when said Spartan gave her Arm-Cannon a pointed look.

"However, before we can proceed to the Captain, I'm going to have to ask that you power down any weapons you have on you." Spartan Jasmine stated. Samus knew she was talking about her obvious weapon system, the one covering her right arm. However that wasn't Samus's only weapon system on her, but they didn't need to know that right now.

Samus brought her Arm-Cannon up, supporting it with her other arm. With another flash of light, the weapon system was gone and was replaced with a reverse copy of her left normal armored hand. The Spartan's eyes widened behind her visor, clearly shocked at the sight. She knew that Hunter could somehow make her armor vanish and also reappear, but she didn't know that she could also replace it with something that wasn't there in the first place. So many questions and yet no answers had come her way. It was very strange indeed.

"Right... Well then. Let us be on our way now. I'm sure Captain Lasky has many questions for you." Jasmine paused a moment, still trying to get over what she just seen. This day had been one strange event after another, and Jasmine didn't know what to really think of it. She shook her head slightly, before leading the alien Bounty Hunter out of the medical bay, and to the deck's main elevator. Samus seemed to struggle with walking slightly, but managed her way to the elevator without problem.


Chapter 2. END

So I hope you enjoyed that, as I truly had fun typing it. But before I say anything else, I highly recommend that you take a look at the new cover image that I posted. That image is what Samus's body has been turned into from the total Phazon corruption. And no it didn't just happen over night, for as if you read the last chapter, it said that she was out for like two weeks or more, plenty of time for her body to change into that.

Well that's all for now.