A/N: Spring Break all week=faster updates. Well, let's get started, shall we?


Samus

The trio sprawled out onto the sand, breathing hard. Samus did a quick look around the room and realized that the man behind the counter was no longer there.

She looked at the "officer" once again (who was trying to pick himself up from off the ground), walked over to him, and promptly pulled him up and slammed him against the wall.

"Would you mind telling me just HOW and WHERE you got this armor?" she said through gritted teeth, glaring at the man.

"Listen," the man pleaded, "I'll explain everything later. Right now, we need to get off of this planet."

"I think I agree with this male," Sylux interjected, having pulled himself off of the ground and was standing stiffly behind Samus, "This is neither the time nor the place to be having long-winded conversations."

Samus paused for a moment before letting go of the man. "Fine. We'll discuss this later." She said while walking towards the entrance of the building.

Finally, the trio reached Samus's ship in the desert. Time had passed considerably: it was already the evening.

Samus continuously paced the deck of the ship, the stranger had seated himself on one of the seats inside the ship, and Sylux was just standing in a corner of the ship.

Finally, she pointed her arm cannon at the man, saying "Now, answer my question."

"I think we need to talk about what just happened down there, first," said the man stiffly.

"Yes, I believe we do," said the purple alien, "We also need to discuss why exactly the Galactic Federation sent all of us to arrest that one man."

Aran grudgingly lowered her weapon and sat in the pilot seat. "It wasn't the Federation who gave you the invitation," the stranger replied, "It was me. I hacked into the Federation network and sent the two of you the message."

Samus looked at the man with cold eyes. "And why, exactly did you do that? You wanted to get us all killed by people gone insane?"

The man turned directly to Samus before replying with "No. I just knew that I would need the help in capturing Strande. But, things don't always go according to plan, do they, Samus?"

He held up his crossbow arm and tapped a section near the back of it: a hologram then popped up of the trigger that Strande had been holding before he died.

"This," continued the stranger, "Is what he used to murder those children. I'm still not sure what it does exactly, but from what we just saw, it emits a high pitched noise that turns whoever that hears it into…" he trailed off, trying to find the right word.

The word came from Sylux, who had been still standing quietly in the corner. "Animals. Correct? It terminates almost all intelligent brain functions and turns them into beasts."

The man only nodded curtly. "The Federation wanted to keep this part of the murder under wraps."

Samus couldn't help but smirk as she heard this. "It wouldn't be the first time," she noted, remembering the X. "But you're not part of the Federation though, are you?"

"Right," the man replied, looking down at his suit for a moment before continuing, "I'm alone in this. I had been on the planet at the time that he killed those children. I snuck into the Federation, and overheard what really happened on that planet. I knew that I would need help though, so-"

"So you sent us in. Is that correct?" Samus interjected.

"Yes." The man began to turn his hand into a fist as he continued angrily, "I wanted to just arrest him. I didn't want him to do that to a whole city….."

Samus softened her glare a bit as she heard this. "I understand," she interjected, "But the damage is done. The trigger is still down there, isn't it? It's being trampled into pieces by all of those people, right?"

"Probably," the man said. "He had important information. I don't think he was alone in this. There might be more of those devices manufactured across the-"

"We have company," interrupted Sylux, and as the other two looked outside the ship with him, they saw that he was right: the people had managed to pull off the same trick that they had, and were now outside, looking around, hunched over like animals.

Quickly, the man turned towards both of them, "Now, I need to ask for your help. Will you try to help me stop this?" he said, gesturing towards the people now sprawling out of the building.

"Yes," Samus quickly replied. She had saved the galaxy before, she could do it again. Now, they both turned to Sylux. His expression was unable to be seen.

Finally, he said, "Fine. We cannot possibly let the entire galaxy go to hell, now, can we?"

Samus turned back to the ship's controls and lifted the ship up and out into space.

As they entered into the vast area of space, Samus said aloud, "Adam? You on?"

The computer hummed to life, and the voice of Adam spoke. "Yes lady. My sensors indicate that there are two others with you. One of them, I am able to identify as the bounty hunter know as Sylux. The other….the other doesn't show up on any known database. Why are they here?"

"You were able to program an officer's mind into your computer?" questioned Sylux, "That is…..interesting."

"Yeah, it is," Samus said, slightly glaring at the purple-armored alien, before turning to the other man again, saying "and Adam's right. When I scanned you, nothing came up. You're just a ghost according to technology. Who are you?"

The man paused for a second before replying, "My name is Pierce." He extended his hand out in formal greeting, and Samus shook it.


A/N: A bit of a shorter chapter, but I already had a bit of action last chapter, so this explains some stuff while keeping some mysteries unsolved until later on. Please, tell me what you thought of it!