Chapter 15

Betrayal

            General Marqeen held a rocket rifle in one hand with the point jabbing into my side.

            "Make any movements and I'll blow your beautiful ass off." He grinned down at me.

            "General, what are you doing?" Adam asked in a surprised voice.

            The General turned his head to glare at Adam, "What does it look like? I'm about to blow your girlfriend's body in two if you don't standstill!"

            Marqeen grinned hungrily at me, "As for you, you're coming with me!" He snatched up my under arm with his free hand and pulled me down the corridor. Marqeen pushed me to walk ahead of him while his gunpoint was jabbing into my butt.

            "Raise your arms up where I can see them!" Marqeen snarled.

            I raised my arms into the air above my head. "What is the meaning of this, General?" I asked calmly.

            General Marqeen laughed, "What do you think? I'm using you as my hostage, bounty hunter. If you try running, say good bye to your cute ass!" He jabbed his gun harder into me.

            I grew annoyed… very annoyed.

            I stopped and spun around to face him. "What makes you think you can get away with this so easily?" I placed my hand on my hip and gave the General a hard glare.

            The General grinned and asked mockingly, "You mean my gun up your ass? Would you prefer my hand on it instead? I wouldn't mind that!"

            I smiled, "If you think you can."

            Suddenly, I kicked the gun out of Marqeen's grip and snatched it out of the air and then put the point of the rifle to Marqeen's long hawk nose. "I don't like being touched! I may be just a resident of Terra, but I'm still a bounty hunter at heart!"

            General Marqeen smiled, "I never said otherwise." He ripped the gun out of my hand and stabbed me between my breasts with the gun. "You're good, bounty hunter, but apparently not as good as me. You are not even a military soldier. If you were, then you wouldn't have aimed the gun where I could have grabbed it so easily.

            Now turn around! The kind doctor waits for us."

            I slowly turned around with a grim look over my face. This bastard is going to pay for touching me in areas I do not like to be touched.

            The gun again jabbed into my butt.

            I narrowed my glare, quickly becoming more annoyed with this dumb ass. Apparently, he doesn't know whom he is dealing with. He'll soon find out.

*          *            *

            "Here she is, Doctor!" General Marqeen called out.

            A figure in a dark blue suit, much like my old power suit, came out into the small room.

            I was tied to a chair in the corner of the room.

            General Marqeen stood beside me with his gun pointed at my head.

            I quickly took a glance at his hand that held the rifle… his finger was resting on the trigger guard.

            The blue suit lowered its head and exclaimed in an angry muffled voice, "What the hell?! Why is her suit still on?!" The figure's head rose to look at the General. "You idiot! She is still capable of escaping!"

            "Oh, sorry." General Marqeen spoke lazily.

            The dark suit's voice sighed heavily, "You jar heads are so stupid! Those tight hats must prevent blood flow to your tiny brains!"

            General Marqeen lowered his gun and stepped to stand before the dark suit. "You should look in the mirror once in a while, you pale ass pansy! If you're so smart, how are you going to fix the X parasite problem that you released? Those damn things could be in this very room!"

            The dark power suit lifted up its left arm with a beam cannon attached to it. "It's not my problem. Maybe you should think of your own life right about now. I'm perfectly safe since I coated this suit with Metroid serum."

            General Marqeen stepped away from the dark suit and I saw the look of horror on his face. "Damn you!" Marqeen blurted out angrily.

            His eyes became wide and he suddenly gasped. He slowly fell to his knees and his face slowly lit up red and went to blue. Marqeen soon collapsed unconscious on the floor.

            I let out a gasp as orange ooze slowly came out of Marqeen's gaping mouth.

            I glared up at the dark suit, "You're just going to let him be infected?!"

            The dark suit turned to me and nodded its helm, "Yep. In about ten minutes, the X will have his body under their control."

            My eyes widened, "You monster!" I growled.

            The dark suit came toward me and pinched my lips together with its fingers of its right hand. "Temper, temper. Why should you care about such a puny life the likes of his? His usefulness has been used up, anyway." The blue suit released my lips and reached down to take off the chains from around me.

            The left arm where the beam cannon was attached to slowly rose up and aimed at me. "I don't want to have to hurt you. It would be most generous of you if you would do as I say and not try to get away. I may be just a scientist, but I know combat."

            I narrowed my eyes, "Who are you?"

            The helm shook, "I'm afraid I cannot show you right now, but you will soon find out. Now, please walk ahead of me. We're going to the ship hanger."

*          *            *

            I walked toward one of the Federation star ships with my hands raised behind my head. I thought about General Marqeen and how much of a sick bastard he was. I wanted to pay him back for jabbing me in places where his gun wasn't supposed to and show him what kind of person I am he was dealing with. He shouldn't have pissed me off, but I guess he got what was coming to him. Although, he shouldn't have suffered with an X parasite infection.

            I stopped and looked up to see that the stairway to get into the ship was down.

            "Where are we going?" I asked without turned my head to look at the dark power suit.

            "Somewhere where I can finish this experiment." The suit's muffled voice replied.

            "What are you talking about?" I found myself growing a little nervous.

            "I cannot allow such a great specimen such as you to go to waste. If you really want to know about all this, Samus, I'll tell you… in the ship."

            I felt the suit's beam cannon nudge into my back.

            I slowly walked forward and stepped up the small stairway and went into the storage bay of the ship.

            I heard hissing and turned to look back as the dark suit pulled its hand away from a switch.

            I looked down and saw the stairway slowly come up and clashed together as it sealed shut.

            The dark power suit turned to me and raised its arms up to take off its helm.

            My eyes grew wide and I gasped, "Doctor Horn!"

            Doctor Horn lowered his arms and smiled at me. "You seem so surprised, Samus. You shouldn't be. You should have expected this because I was the one that set Kyan up with you."

            I stepped back, "What?!"

            Doctor Horn nodded, "I was the one that told him to escort you to the ceremonial dinner, and then I had hoped the love chemistry would take its roll between you two.. Everything has gone according to plan! Now, I have you, the product. Now e can really start the experiment."

            I narrowed my eyes, "What the fuck are you talking about?!"

            Doctor Horn chuckled and answered smugly, "Your unborn child is my main concern. The child may have possibly acquired both yours and Kyan's DNA signatures. And perhaps even your mutated cells from the Metroid vaccine."

            My eyes grew even wider! The Metroid vaccine! I realized what was going on! Ever since my first encounter with the X parasite that had infected me, I was injected with a sample of a Metroid cell colony that the Federation had kept from the Metroid hatchling from SR388.

            The vaccine immediately took care of my X parasite infection, but in the process it mutated my cellular makeup.

I have the genes of a Metroid!

"Now you understand you, Samus? Yes, I wanted to experiment with your Metroid genes and Kyan's genes to try and create something new! With Kyan's DNA code and his blood's ability to resist any disease, plus the Metroid's genes to fight off X parasites, I thought that I could create a being that could be immune to all diseases, viruses, and parasites! Maybe even possibly create a creature that is part human, Archon, and Metroid!"

            I glared at the doctor, "You're mad!"

            Doctor Horn laughed, "No, I'm not. Try to understand that this is simply experimentation. After all, I'm a scientist. Now, my dear, just relax. I don't want my prized specimen to get hurt."

            "The only one that is going to get hurt is you!" I snarled.

            I raised my beam cannon to aim at Doctor Horn and charged it up.

            Doctor Horn grinned, "That won't do you any good, my dear. My suit is impenetrable and your cannon won't have any affect on me."

            "But I will." A soft voice spoke from behind the doctor.

            Doctor Horn spun around, "Huh?! Who the hell are you?'

            "Let's just say I'm the other one that is apart of your twisted experiment."

            I looked over Horn's should to see a silver-armored figure with a dark reflective round mask over its head.

            The figure's hand suddenly came up and jammed its index finger into Horn's forehead. "Sleep." The soft voice spoke.

            Doctor Horn's eyes rolled and he suddenly collapsed on the ground.

            I raised my gaze from the unconscious doctor to the figure and got the whole view of the armored figure.

            The figure stood tall in magnificent silver armor. The shoulder armor stuck out, slightly curving down and was engraved with black designs of fire. There was even silver plated elbow armor and bracers on the figure's arms. The hands were covered with knuckle bracers as well. The torso was covered with a breastplate that moved in the flow of the muscles underneath.

            Three plates of armor in the shape of round spikes dangled from the figure's straight hip and over its pelvis.

            I noticed under all the armor was a shiny black surface that covered the figure's skin.

            I raised my beam cannon to aim at the figure, "Who the hell are you?! I narrowed my eyes.

            The figure raised its arm up, holding something in its hand.

            I lowered my gaze to the large round object that was in the figure's hand.

            "My helmet?! Where did you get that?"

            The figure held my helmet out to me, "You left it behind."

            I snatched my helm from the figure's grasp. "Where did you get it?!" I snarled.

            The figure placed its hands on its hips, "Now, that's no way to treat your soon to be husband! You still have the heart of a bounty hunter, don't you my dearest Samus?"

            I blinked and my eyes grew, "Kyan?"

            The figure raised its hands up and pulled off its round helm. Kyan smiled at me, "In the flesh."

            I lowered my gun and dropped my helmet to run and throw my arms around Kyan. "You're alright, Kyan!" I cried happily.

            Kyan placed his hand on the back of my head to run his fingers through my hair and his other arm wrapped around my waist. "I heal fast." Kyan smiled down at me as I raised my head up.

            I raised my hand up to stroke Kyan's long dark blue hair as I stared into his glowing eyes.

            Kyan made a worried look, "Are you alright?"

            I smiled pleasantly and nodded. I looked down at Doctor Horn and asked, "Is he okay? What did you do to him?"

            "He's asleep. Just another handy-dandy spell." Kyan smiled smugly as I returned my gaze back to him.

            I gasped suddenly. "The X parasites! Doctor Horn's helmet isn't on! He could get infected!"

            Kyan raised an eyebrow, "Is that what happened to the General?"

            "Huh? How did you-"

            "I followed you and the doctor, then I came across the General's corpse. I put him out of his misery. He was a walking zombie, but he had tried to shoot me with the rocket rifle… Seems the parasites acquired his skills from absorbing his DNA… how dreadful." Kyan's smile vanished. "What a terrible way to die." He said sadly.

            I nodded in agreement. "I almost ended up like that when I was first infected by the X." I blinked at Kyan, "You better put your helm back on before you get infected."

            Kyan laughed and said, "Did you forget, my love? I'm capable of fighting off the X parasites. Any unrecognized organism that gets into my bloodstream is immediately terminated by my T-cells. My immune system is twice as strong that of a humans." He looked down at Horn, "he hasn't been infected yet… Let's return him to Stellbak. I'm sure the Federation has the perfect jail cell for him." Kyan smirked at me.

*          *            *

            "Thank you Samus and Kyan. Horn will be immediately taken to the Galactic Headquarters to be have a trial right away for his crimes." Stellbak smiled at Kyan and me.

            The Officer's smile quickly faded though, "A few problems still remain.. One, the X parasites are still floating around in the Science Facilities. Two… we are gradually losing oxygen… rather rapidly, I should say."

            I stepped forward, "What?! But how?!"

            Officer Stellbak placed his hands behind his back and lowered his head, "Something in the plant habitat is sucking out the air. It's located in the Mother Plant area. We do not know what the cause of it is…" Stellbak raised his head back up and stared hard at me, "Samus, you must go and find out what it is. This will be your last mission on Terra."

            I pursed my lips and narrowed my eyes. "Well… I don't know." I muttered softly.

            "Are you disobeying orders, Lady?" Adam came into the room.

            I quickly turned my head to smile at him.

            Adam smiled at Stellbak, "I'll handle this." He looked back at me and lowered his voice to its ironic tone, "Investigate the Mother Plant area and find out what is casing our air supply to drain. You only have two hours left to find the cause…. Do you have any objections, Lady?"

            I smiled at him, "No, sir!" I saluted and turned to head out of the room.

            "Wait!" Adam called.

            I stopped and spun around.

            Adam looked at Kyan, "Don't you think Kyan would be helpful to you? After all, he is quite powerful."

            I looked at Kyan and shook my head, "I don't want him to get hurt. He must stay here." I replied softly. I made a sorrowful look at Kyan, "Try to understand, Kyan. I cannot afford to lose you.." I lowered my head.

            Kyan came up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "I'll be fine. It takes a lot more than just an evil tree to kill me.. A lot more." Kyan smiled, but I didn't feel reassured.