In another place underneath the surface of Zebes, where hot magma bubbled furiously yet never rose, a purple and yellow dragon lurked ominously. He sat atop a high rock, gazing out at the seemingly endless pits of boiling hot magma below the planet's surface. He breathed out a smoky sigh, showing his display of ugly pointed yellow teeth. This galactic space dragon was known as Samus' ultimate nemesis—Ridley.

Ridley let out a low moan, as though bored with waiting. He craned his extremely skinny and bony neck to catch a glimpse of the opening door in his chamber. Two creatures stumbled through and hopped across the rocks leading up to the rock on which Ridley remained. These figures were two of Ridley's loyal minions, Space Pirates. These strange beasts looked like giant praying mantises with bug-like features and scythes at the ends of each arm. They acted and served as Ridley's "army men", guarding his valuables and protecting his lair. The Space Pirates arrived at the rocky throne of their master and spoke in their own language to him, knowing that he could fully understand their speech. The news roughly translated into this:

"We've found Samus Aran. She is in Crateria, searching for the metroids and possibly you, master." Ridley opened and closed his clawed fingers repeatedly. He nodded, and did not speak, but instead moved his yellow and red eyes to the metroid he had taken prisoner, which sat behind him. Ridley gave the signal for them to give chase and to give more protection for his lair with more Space Pirates. Once they had departed, Ridley turned to see his prisoner once more. The metroid was struggling to break free from its glass prison by throwing itself against the walls and squealing with fright. It was only a larvae, after all.

Metroids are mysterious creatures that carry a dangerous amount of energy that pulses through their bodies. They come in many different sizes and shapes, but the standard shape of a metroid, the most commonly seen, is a jellyfish-like green blob with a transparent body that shows an array of veins running to a red, three-segmented brain. Instead of tentacles underneath the body, metroids have four sharp teeth for latching onto their prey and sucking it lifeless.

Ridley grinned. A dragon's grin is a dangerous and terrifying thing. It shows a certain maliciousness through bared teeth and small reptile's eyes. Ridley's grin was no different from this. He did, in fact, have a plan—something that not even Samus Aran had met before. The great dragon roared, using it to resemble an evil and maniacal laugh.


Samus had come to a lush green place under the planet's surface, also known as Brinstar. Not more than three seconds ago, there was a rumbling sound that many of the smaller creatures even ran and his from. Caught off-guard by the strange disturbance, Samus moved on with her exploration.

Samus began picking up signals that might somehow be connected to the metroids' energy. C'mon, give me something good here . . . she thought to her visor. The signals being picked up were weak, but they were still something. Frustrated, Samus growled as she shot a power beam at a Sidehopper as it reared up, ready to leap to the side(hence the name of the creature). It screeched as the beam assaulted its leg and began gushing a yellow jelly-like substance. Samus had a stomach of steel and was not irked at all by the creature's limp and oozing body. After all, the bounty hunter was very used to it.

Hours passed until Samus opened another door, which finally led into another elevator room. Odd . . . her map was telling her that the room was much bigger, which generally didn't happen when it came to elevator chambers. Feeling that she had no other choice but to explore the room's secret, Samus began shooting at the walls. Generally, something would have broken open, but nothing did. This isn't right . . . she thought, confused. Samus scanned all the nooks and crannies in the wall, attempting to morph into a ball and use her tiny morph bombs to break through, but to no avail. Frustrated still, Samus stood upright once again and took one last look at the room, impatient and restless. The bounty hunter craved some action; something besides plain exploration. Finding something new would have been great and all, but without something actually happening, she became agitated.

Samus stepped on the glowing elevator pad and waited for it to descend. For some reason, it didn't budge. A sudden tremor shook the entire room, like the rumble from earlier. However, this time, the tremor was much closer. Alarmed yet excited, Samus backed off of the elevator pad and moved towards the door. All power in the room suddenly shut down, except for Samus' power suit. The door refused to operate, and the lights and elevator pad were no longer brightly lit. Another intense tremor followed the power outage. Samus gripped her blaster tightly, ready for attack. Another deep rumble, a roar, and suddenly, the ceiling of the room began to crumble. The sound of splintering metal and shattering glass was deafening as something gigantic passed through the ceiling. Samus stood next to the door, covering her head and protecting it from falling debris and shards of metal. Lights were collapsing and giant cracks were forming in the ceiling. Samus took the dangerous risk of switching her blaster to "launcher" and aimed a super missile at the crack. No more suspense, she thought, let's see who you are, big guy.