Chapter 3

"SAMUS ARAN!!! That's your name?" Dan erupted, "no way that's impossible. How can a video game character come to life?"

"Is it really so hard to believe." Samus answered, "Actually the game came from me. The game wouldn't exist without me."

"Wait can some one explain?" The 'independent' girl asked. " What game?"

" I played it. It's called Metroid, right?" The blonde chimed in. "wait a minute.if your real. then does that mean that."

The scientist lady stepped up again, " No don't worry, the Metroid is fake as well. There's nothing to worry about. Even if they did exist we would take care of that and either kill them off or contain them. Okay."

" Stop! Hold up! For starters who are you lady." The brunet complained, " Ya know what, while we're on subject, don't you think us three should get to know each other. That would help don't ya think. Well if any body cares My name is Erika."

" I'm Dan Zeary-" He was cut off by the blond.

" Alexia, so let me get this straight your going to give us one of those suits?" She jumped to her feet with excitement, " Sweet!!"

" Well I'm Dr. Carmen, and yes you'll get a suit like this." She announced pointing to Samus' suit, " the only thing is there are some differences with her suit and yours."

As Alexia jumped around with joy Erika stood and continued her investigation, "So, now please explain what a Met. met. met joid or what ever it is. What is it?"

" Its an organism that can drain the life force out of any living thing it chooses." Dan explained, " In the game they've become endangered due to the efforts of Samus Aran. To my knowledge there are about what five games."

"You know your games, Dan." The doctor announced, " The story, creatures and every thing but Samus are fake, made up have you."

"When do we start!?" Alexia screamed more than ready to start now.

Coll stepped up to announce his own statement," Okay listen, I see your all excited to start," Erika and Dan looked at one another with uncertain looks, "but its late. I'm sure your all very tired, so why don't we go to sleep tonight, then in the morning, we'll start. Okay."

"Samus," Alexia paid no attention to General Coll, "Did you ever have a husband or kids or even at least a boyfriend?"

Samus looked at the ground, obviously hiding or ashamed of something. She waited for a moment as the whole room listened in silence. After some time Samus looked at them again, "Coll is right we all need some sleep. We have a long, early day tomorrow." She announced hiding some pain of some sort behind a smile.

With a yawn Erika agreed and set off through the closed door, even though she had no idea where to go. Without thinking Alexia ran up to the stage to talk with Samus. Coll and Dr. Carmen came down off the stage along with the rest of the people on the stage. Dan approached them with a question of his own.

Seeing him coming up Dr. Carmen spoke first, " Something wrong Dan?"

"I'm not the only male am I?" He asked, "Five isn't a whole lot of people either, so there's got to be another set of three kids right? Or maybe a couple of sets?"

Coll walked away, wanting nothing to do with any of it. Seeing she was on her own, she decided to answer his question without telling him to much about tomorrow, "Well there is going to be more that you'll meet in the morning, but that is in the morning, so why don't you go to bed and find out in the morning."

Dan hesitated a moment, "All right, but I have one last question. How? How did the game come from her?"

It wasn't much to go on but she gave him the answer he was looking for. "You know how every government has its own little secrets that they hide from the public? Well during Operation Desert Storm we had decided to give the Power suit a test drive. So when we got wind of some of those secret government projects over there, we jumped on the opportunity. Well it turned out the project wasn't a very big deal, but Samus had been ordered to eliminate any who saw her. So she had to kill lots of people that didn't really need to be killed. Unfortunately one of these men got a photo of her, and she didn't know it. When clean up crews showed up the photo vanished. Then the game came out. Needless to say we were shocked." (note: Time lines might not quite be in line but its a story and no one should really care. Its all for the fun of it.) " To make a long story short, we caught up with a few people and made sure that they said nothing. The games have been a hit and no word has ever gotten out, so everyone's happy. So now why don't you make us happy and go to bed." Dan looked around and saw that both Samus and Alexia had both left as well. " Please Dan? Everything else is fake remember."

He didn't like the idea of not knowing enough but it was enough to satisfy him for one day, "All right. I take it a guard will show me to my room with a blind fold?" He joked as he left.



It was quiet as usual in the early morning forest. The only sounds where that of the wind in the trees and the scurrying of small nocturnal animals returning to their dens until night fall again. It was still dark and the stars were only starting to disappear from the sky. But what was different was that one star instead of getting dimmer it was beginning to get brighter. Soon it was more than a star, it was a rocket, a meteor entering the atmosphere. The fireball shot across the sky, blinding to any who saw. Animals leaped from their perches as the rocket skimmed the tops of the trees, igniting all that it hit. Soon the fire spread to the trunks creating a massive forest fire. In the mean time the fireball continued on through the trees, and slamming hard into the forest floor, giving off a tremendous explosion. The explosion set fire to all the trees in the area threatening any and all in the path of falling tree trunks. Siting amongst the flames was the burning rock that started the fire. Deep within the several feet deep rock a creature stirred hoping to be released soon, but would have to wait for more than just a day or two to unleash its own plans. It sat unmoved, unseen, safe from the flames and waiting.



Dan sat in the same in the same seat he had sat in the night before. He yawned as Erika skulked past him to get into a seat of her own. Alexia was already sitting, but was soundly sleeping in the chair. Her head was leaning on the back of the chair and her feet sat on the back of the chair in front of her. Once Samus entered the room along with Coll and Dr. Carmen, Alexia immediately woke up, wiping the drool from her mouth. Coll was the one to brake the morning silence though.

"I trust you all slept well." The sarcasm wasn't very funny, even the guards groaned at the unfunny joke, " Well that's good. Now down to business. Its a question that Dan had asked before retiring last night. Who else would be joining you in your training. Adam."

A boy about 16 stepped out and stood next to Samus, who was starting to dose off. He didn't where a power suit but was wearing something that looked like he was about to get in one. He seemed very similar to Dan: Brown hair, about six feet tall, skinny. He was more build than Dan though, and something in his unnaturally green eyes told Dan that this kid was going to be a problem. Dan just starred at him with dissatisfaction as Adam stood with a sarcastic grin on his face, one that Dan hoped to smack off later.

"So what's so special about him?" Erika asked between yawns.

"He's genetically engineered." Dr. Carmen announced, Samus reacting with an unhappy turn away from the child, " He's not cloned, but before he was born scientist went in and changed his genetic make up. He's suppose to be stronger, smarter, faster, and has more endurance and stamina then the gifted human. To sum it up, he's a super human. He will be your fourth party member."

"Say what?!" Alexia jumped to a stand, " Only us four. Shouldn't there be like eight other sets of four kids maybe? What the hell are four kids gonna do?"

"remember, your all going to be given the power suit remember?" Dr. Carmen reminded.

"Yea, but that will farther enhance his abilities," Dan announced, "your throwing him into the mix to show that your new 'super human' can best us no matter what happens. Is that it? Your going to give him the disadvantages then put him against us in hopes of proving he's superior then us."

"I'm impressed," Coll said, "essentially that is the idea. We're not trying to make you look bad or anything we're just testing his abilities."

"So we're the test pigs for your 'super human'." Dan argued, " nothing more than that?"

"Now Dan, " Coll continued, "you know that's not true. Once your in here there is no returning to society. Even if you could what and where would you do and go? Your services can and will be used else where."

"Thanks. Its good to know we're all important here." Dan complained.

Coll obviously missed the sarcasm in his voice, "Yes you are. Now then you all know his name?" Everyone nodded their heads in the yea whatever motion, " Adam, why don't you greet your new 'friends.'"

Dan didn't like the tone in which Coll said the word 'friends,' and in focusing on it for too long missed the first sentence coming from Adam's mouth. " I suppose you want me to go down and sit with them as they are escorted to the first training exercise?"

Coll almost didn't here him, " What? No, no you all need breakfast first. You know you can't train on an empty stomach." Erika gave him the finger as she yawned again.

The whole time Samus stood facing away from Adam turning so not to see him every time he moved. Dan noticed this but said nothing, knowing it probably was none of his business. To his knowledge he was the only one who noticed and cared.



Chapter 4

Six years pasted and Dan was confused on why he remembered that day know. They where in a chopper on their way to Area 51. Not knowing what was going to happen there he started going over all the practice exercises they put him through from that time. From the first test which was a simple race between the four of them in which Adam had cheated by shoving his elbow into Alexia's side. He remembered the weapons training in which he hit all the targets in the same amount of time as Adam did. Thinking he realized that every training program eventually came down to how well they did against Adam. He was glad when they cut the hand to hand training short because him and Adam had gotten into more than just a training fight. Had they gone by the designated time, one of them would have died that day. Dan tried to remember why he fought so rough that day, then he remembered that it was because Adam had gotten the nerve to tell them how they were erased from society. Dan remembered the conversation word for word.

"You have no choice you have to partake in this exercise otherwise you'll be shot." Adam had started. The whole conversation started because Alexia didn't want to fight.

"Shot? What makes you think that? I'd go back to my old life if I didn't have the chance to meet Samus in person." Alexia had argued as Dan and Erika stayed out of it for the moment.

" Your old life? I guess they didn't tell you."

" Tell us what?" Dan interrupted.

"Tell you that your all dead." Adam took to much joy in saying that sentence, " Alexia remember when they picked you up? They called it a kidnapping, and your body was never found. Erika, your boyfriend found out about what happened to you and volunteered to come up with an excuse. He was driving you home one day when they hit a patch of black ice and went over an embankment. Sending him all alone in the car into the river below. Neither body was ever recovered and the car was found in pits and pieces." Erika stood paralyzed by the thought that her only love in life had given his life just because the government stole her away.

Dan saw the tears coming to her eyes, but they never made it to her eyes because she began to lash out at Adam, " You son of a bitch!!" were her only words. She never hit him though, Dan had grabbed her and held her back.

"Dan why stop her with what happen to you your going to attack me too." Adam continued, " On the ride home from school the day you were picked up, a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel. As he swerved he clipped the back of the bus you were suppose to be on. Actually it did more than clip, it them straight off the road. They went flying into a two story drop off a bridge and into a river, truck, bus and people. Almost everyone was killed. And those who weren't are presumed to be in a vegetative state for the rest of their miserable little lives."

Dan thought for a moment and remembered all who were on the bus that day. All his friends and even Jill, the girl he had liked at the time. Thinking of all that had died all because of him, and the only reason he was there was to test him against a human wannabe. As predicted he too attacked Adam as Erika fell to her knees sobbing in disbelief. Dan didn't get far because the faculty and guards grabbed him quickly and told him to save it for the training.

That was a while ago, Dan was on a chopper now and as much as he hated it Adam was a team mate now. Dan glared at Adam through his visor, knowing that Adam couldn't really see through it.

A door sung open and Samus walked in, trying her best to keep her balance. She sat down across from Dan. A picture of her face came up in his visor, a little to the right of his head.

" Okay listen up!" She announced, as pictures of everyone else came up on the screen. "AG- 1 will be going in first, AG- 2 with me, Adam and Erika will fallow. Dan and Alexia in AG-3 will cover our backs if need be. Then AG-4 will set up their perimeter around the designated bunker."

"Samus?" Erika came forward.

"what is it Erika?" Samus replied.

" What exactly are we doing here any way?"

" Well, about six years ago, around the time you all met Adam for the first time a meteorite struck hard in the high poconos, setting fire to the entire area."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Alexia complained.

" Let me finish. After we recovered the rock and cooled it down we brought it to our facilities for study. As we took pieces of it off for different studies they started hearing sounds from inside."

"Inside a rock. That's not possible. Especially coming from space." Adam argued.

"Shut up!" Samus ordered, " They called me over for the braking of the covering and when I got there they were all too eager to open it. When they opened there was a living creature in side." Everyone had a look of confusion on their faces. "Now we're being sent in to see if the people in area 51 have the same creature we do. Questions answered?"

"Samus, Can you come to the cock pit?" The pilot asked. She got up and walked to the front of the chopper. Dan couldn't help but fallow. Alexia jumped on his back to see if she could get a look too.

" What is it?" Samus asked.

" We keep trying to communicate with Area 51 but we're not getting a response from the tower." The pilot answered.

" Try again." Samus ordered.

" Okay," The pilot held his head speaker close to his mouth, " Area 51, Area 51, this is Area Lander please respond." There was nothing but static on the other the line. "Area 51, this is Area Lander please respond!" Still nothing. " Samus?"

" Land any way, get as close to that bunker as possible." She turned around and ushered Dan and Alexia back to their seats.

" Hey Erika as long as your with me you'll be fine" Adam announced. Erika just gave him the finger and loaded her canon.

Dan decided to go over his equipment himself. He checked his energy supply and found that it was at full power. He remember checking his things before they got on the chopper, but he decided to check any way, just to pass the time. Missiles were full, bombs were full, everything was full.

All the sudden there was a shift and the chopper descended to the base grounds. It wasn't very high because they landed not too long after the chopper started down. The side of the chopper opened and everyone jumped out. Dan dropped to one knee and looked around. The only thing he saw were the other choppers dropping the other groups of soldiers going in with them. Other than that the entire base was dead silent. Dan didn't like the idea of saying 'dead silent' because for all he knew, they all were dead. He got up and ran over to Samus who was just as confused.

Alexia was there too. " Samus where is everyone? Shouldn't we be ducking for cover and fighting with people?"

" I have no idea." Samus answered still far too confused to continue answering.

"Samus, " Dan began, " What was the creature they took out of the rock you think is here? Could it have done this?"

Samus looked at him. " Just one no. It would take it several weeks to pull that off. Months without getting killed itself."

" But what was it?" Dan persisted.

" The creature, it couldn't have done all this. A single Metroid couldn't have done this, not by itself."