Chapter 5

"Cute my ass!" Barked Alexia.

"Well what did you expect?" Adam replied right back. "Wait till they start changing to the other forms they've got."

Everyone looked at him with a very concerned look on each of their faces. Samus was the first to move and that was to smack Adam up side the head. " Quit fooling around, we don't even know if that is really true."

"Wait these little pieces of crap change? They get uglier and bigger?" Alexia inquired.

"Relax!" Samus ordered, " I just said we don't know if that is really true or not."

"Ahhh, ma'am?" One of the soldiers spoke up, " What is that?" He asked pointing to a computer consol. Samus ran over to take a look. "Growing" on the computer was a strange orange looking gel. It moved inside the transparent membrane that lay on consol. Samus approached it curiously.

Dan was just wondering around the room when he noticed a tray of needles with green liquid inside them. "Samus?" Dan called, just before she touched the strange gel that was "growing" on the consol. "Samus what do you make of these?"

She walked to Dan taking a last look at the gel that started to giggle a bit. She looked at the needles then picked one up and read a lable on the side of a beeker with the same liquid in it.

"This is a metroid liquid of some sort" Samus explained, " Look here." She pointed to the label and all it said was "metroid" in black permanent marker.

"Wait," Walking over Erika cut Dan off from what he was about to say, " Why would there be a liquid made of a metroid?"

" Simple," Samus answered, " Remember all the medical advantages the metroid has over other creatures. The metroid doesn't really get sick you know. I'm sure if we pumped this into our blood stream we would either be sucked dry of all our life force or wouldn't have to worry about getting sick very often."

Suddenly the gel on the computer jumped up off the consol and started hovering around the room seeming to watching everyone. Its shape kept shifting from a ball to an oval of some sort then something with all sorts of bumps on it among other shapes as it flew through the air. Some soldiers aimed to shoot it but Samus ordered otherwise. It seemed interested in one soldier unparticular. Just when it seemed it was about to get friendly it seemed to get nervous. It started vibrating violently than shot as fast as it could into the soldier's chest dropping him with no effort. It seemed to suck itself into the soldier's chest and cause him to shake just as violently.

"What the heck!" Alexia screamed, "What did it do!?"

"Hold him down!" Samus ordered. Three soldiers grabbed him but he still was too much for them to handle. Suddenly, for no reason he stopped and dropped flat on the floor, not moving what so ever. One of the soldiers checked his pulse then looked up at Samus and shook his head.

"What was that, dam it?" Alexia continued her ranting, " What now?"

Samus looked down at the needle she still held then looked at Dan. He looked at the rest of them, counting them. She looked back down at the needle again then ran over to soldier and stuck the needle into his neck. Samus emptied the whole thing into him, but he didn't move at all. After a bit his eyes opened and he looked around.

"What-what happened?" He asked, "That gel thing hit me and I could feel it rushing all through my body. It felt like it was trying to do something to me. I-I don't know what it was doing."

Everyone in the room stood around him as Samus helped him up.

"Samus!" another soldier called. " I got the computer here up and running! Logging into the information net." Samus along with everyone else approached the consol too watch the glowing monitor. "Here we go."

On the monitor the words "project X: program files activated" glowed across the screen. Suddenly a female voice came out of a speaker on the computer. It said all sorts of strange code numbers and access codes. After a few beeps it started saying information that made sense. " Project X," the voice started, " gelatinous membrane covers the interior. Interior consists of three nucleuses. each nucleus appears to be used for separate tasks that have not been determined what they are yet. further testing will be required.beep. beep. Project X: on site the parasite appears like a cell on a much larger scale.differences to determine if X is a cell: behavior to- light, sound, movement," The voice rambled off a series of different things about the flying Jell-O mold that didn't make it a cell. Just the fact that it wasn't inside anything and it was just flying around freely didn't make it a cell.

Shortly after the 2 minute long list there was a few more beeps than a man's voice appeared. It sounded like it was a recording of some sort: "Dr. eds login date. third, two thousand and .. " the message seemed very scrambled and barely put together. The soldier at the consol said it was because the X that attacked was apparently downloading in a way information. The message continued on, " The X appeared here shortly after we received the metroid meteor. They arrived in a ship of some sort and were in the shape of strange reptile like creatures. They were very violent but once they were killed they seemed to return to the state of a jelly. Later we found a lizard from the original crew of the vessel. We moved him to the west wing in one of the specialized environments. We were going to put the metroids in these environments but then the X showed up. I don't know what happened, but apparently the pilot of the first crash in Roswell awoke and threw a fit. Systems failed all over and before we knew it the pilot, code named Ridley had escaped the base and the X were everywhere. I think I'm safe here for now. The X seems to fear the metroids. Perhaps it is the metroid's ability to drain the life force out of anything it desires. I'm going to attempt to revive some of the metroids to help combat the X in the base. Hopefully I or rather, they will be able to defeat them all before they learn how to activate the emergency override for the exits. I. no! Please .. God no! Send he..." there was nothing but static left.

Everyone was horrified by what they heard at the end of the message. No one moved, Samus didn't even move. Dan couldn't believe anything that was happening. There was Ridley, the parasite X, right down to the metroid and even Samus herself. All he remembered from a simple video game. Then he looked back at the needles on the cart table he was looking at before, and remembered something else from the video game he had played. The metroids were the only predator of the X. And there was no way to tell if the metroids would turn on them or not. Leaving everyone in the base and possible the planet at the mercy of two superior species.whether man kind wanted to admit or not.

Chapter 6

Gunshots suddenly broke the silence. Samus looked around to see who was shooting then realized that the shots were coming from the lobby like room where the elevator was. She noticed Dan starring intently at the syringes with the metroid serum in them. She remembered what it did for the other soldier so she thought back to the whole video game thing Dan had always talked about.

"Everyone! Listen up pump that crap into you now!" Samus ordered, "Dan, Erika, and Alexia I want you to take it first."

" Say what!?" Alexia screamed, " What the hell is that anyway, seriously?"

" It's a." Dan started than stopped thinking for a moment why there was no sarcastic answer then looked at Samus, " Where is Adam?" he asked.

She looked around and didn't see him anywhere, "Shit!" She cursed, "Find him! I want him on the surface now. If he says otherwise shoot him."

" I still don't know what that shit is." Alexia complained.

" See the metroids there," Dan answered, "That's what that shit is. It will keep that X parasite away from us. Okay?"

She thought for a moment than grabbed for one of the needles, and before anyone could say anything she had it in her neck and was making sure she got every last drop out of it. When she was done she looked at Dan and announced, "Hey, I am not about to end up like that guy on that, that thing."

Soon everyone in the room had had some of it. Gunshots from the other room thundering the whole time. Then Samus gave out orders to everyone. She told Dan to go look for that creature. She got Alexia on a computer to see what she could really do. In the mean time she wanted Erika to try and take out some of the parasites. Before leaving the room herself she told the soldier at the computer to let the metroids out and get to the surface. She ended the whole scramble with the words, "This mission is over."

Dan made his way into the west wing of the facility like the recording had said, but once he was there he had no idea where to go. Quickly he got Alexia up on the radio camera communicator. Her picture appeared on the visor of his helmet.

"Alexia!" Dan called, "I need a scan of the area here, tell me if there are any life forms that are not X."

" Sure, just give me a minute here." After a moment she started talking again, "Okay, your on the first floor, let me think.okay here we go. Dan go up three floors, that is where I'm picking up a reptilian life form of some sort, good luck. I'm down loading the map to your visor now. Any questions?"

"Yeah, when did you take over for Samus with the giving of orders?" She didn't even reply, she just closed the link and he just laughed. "Right three floors up, here we go."

Dan made his way to the elevator seeing a dead body here or there every now and then. Nothing really threatening. He got to the third floor with out any problems either. He couldn't figure it out, what the men in the lobby had been shooting at before he left. As he was crossing through there was nothing there even though they were aiming for something that wasn't there any longer.

The door made a ding, a light came on and the doors opened to reveal a room not much bigger than the elevator he stood in. He walked in and looked around for anything that would pose as a problem, but fortunately there was nothing. There was one door right ahead of him, once he approached it the door spun open. Inside there was a cave like environment. Dan could tell that parts of the environment were artificial, some rocks were foam others were different sorts of metal, and of course there were actual rocks of different types, sizes, and shapes. There was kind of a red or copper brown tint to the walls that reached several meters into the air and supported the ceiling. There were many stalagmites and stalactites. Suddenly out of the corner of his eye, Dan noticed something move in the shadows. Dan whirled around aiming into the shadows hoping to see something.

"Whose there?" He called, "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm not infected with the X or anything else. I'm perfectly healthy and am not breathing directly into the air so you don't have to worry."

Out of the shadows walked a reptile like creature. It stood on its hind legs and held a sword in its hands. "I am not worried of you. It is the X that you speak of." It looked around as if looking for something.

"What's the matter?" Dan asked.

"It is the X, it took the form of one of my crew mates." It approached Dan and stood up straight. "My name is Relk. What is yours?"

"My name is Dan Zeary. Wait a minute," Dan took a step away from Relk, "how do I know you're not a X?"

"Because the X can take the form of a creature, they can even learn from that creature's memory. But the chances of them acquiring enough knowledge to actually communicate on this level." Suddenly Relk jumped to a battle ready position. "And though they may just be a limited intelligence creature they do know how to use some of the simple weaponry like a sword."

"But if you have the technology to travel through space why do you use a sword?" Dan inquired.

"Tradition, now be quite." Relk ordered.

"Why, do you-"

"Quite!" Relk barked again, " I hear something." He whispered.

Sure enough after Dan did a scan of the area his sensors picked up something about 7 meters ahead of him. "Freeze!" He yelled to the creature what ever it was. Suddenly the creature that looked quite a bit like Relk leapt out at Dan sword in hand and took two or three swings at Dan. All of which missed by a few inches.

"Idiot!" Relk yelled. Almost instantly Relk was engaged in a full throttle sword fight. Dan couldn't believe what he was seeing. Up, down, thrust, left to right, right to left, jump, duck, punch, every ability they had they were using. Soon they got locked in a pushing contest with their swords. Dan could see the sweat on Relk's face drip to the floor. Dan could tell Relk was not going to last for much longer. As for the X that he was fighting with, its face was cold with no emotion and it didn't even struggle all that much. Relk's Muscles where shaking with stress as the X stood like a statue, unmovable. Relk looked at Dan with a look like he was going to die. That slight movement was the entire X needed. It threw him to the ground a meter from where they were. It shot over to keep him that way. It kicked away his sword and flipped its own in the air to bring it down on Relk. Dan wasn't about to let that happen. He raised his cannon arm up and fired two missiles into the thing's back. Even though Dan could see the chunks of meat fly through the air the thing still stood, sword in the air. Now it was a struggle for the X to keep it there but before anything else could happen Dan unloaded two more missiles, one for each arm. And it still stood with no arms or spine. No one moved for a time.

Shortly the X's legs curled up to its body and the whole thing became a large floating ball. As it developed little transparent spines sprouted out of the surface of the now transparent membrane. It looked like a bigger version of the X jelly Dan had seen earlier. Only it was a big ball instead and Dan could see the organs and nuclei that floated around the inside of the creature.

Obviously the thing was pissed, cause it totally forgot about the helpless Relk on the floor and came straight after Dan. Dan blasted another missile into the thing as it squeaked in pain and flew over his head. Dan whirled around to get a better shot in time to see the person sized ball of X smash itself into him and land him right next to Relk who still lay on the floor. Dan jumped up to his feet and fired two more rockets into the thing as it spun around the room to come hit him again. This time Dan quickly spun into his morph ball and shot to the other side of the room to get it away from Relk. The minute he came out of the ball he dropped to the floor avoiding another near hit by the X core. He sat up real quick and unloaded two more missiles into the thing. Another squeak came from it and then it raced over to Dan on the floor still. Dan rolled out of the way letting the thing crash head long into the concrete like surface. After the impact it didn't move. The membrane of the X melted off and all the veins and organs seemed to stay intact.

Dan walked over to the pile of mush ready for anything as he let Relk get up behind him. He walked right up to it and still nothing moved. He put his arm cannon down at his side and studied the mess carefully. He stepped in the puddle of what was the membrane of the creature and the whole mess shifted toward him. He stepped back and fired another missile into the pile but it seemed to go straight through it. It didn't even seem to slow it down. The pile latched itself onto Dan. He could feel it seeping through his armor and onto his skin. The minute it came in contact with his skin it shot back but the armor kept it there. Before Dan knew what was going on the whole X had been absorbed. Suddenly a message appeared on his visor: "Beam sword acquired."

Dan didn't understand. Remembering how to activate his missiles, he tried a similar idea to activate this so-called beam sword. After a bit of trying a bright, blue light sprouted from his cannon. Sure enough the beam from his arm didn't go anywhere and very much resembled a sword.

"Cool," Was all Dan could say, "Its like a light saber."