Chapter 5- Triple Helix
Upon stepping into the room, the first thing that grabbed Samus' attention was a large holding tank build into the back wall. Not the tank specifically, but the giant hole punched in it. Inspecting it closer, she noticed that the glass/titanium hybrid it was made out of had been cut cleanly and not shattered, shot, or blown up. On a hunch, she picked up a nearby piece of plastic that had fallen off one of the destroyed computers and threw it at the edge of the glass. It split in half rather cleanly, meaning the cut was on a diagonal with no jagged edges, increasing her suspicion that the creature from before was what had been held here. Surprisingly, the damage in this room was minimal; aside from a few destroyed computers, one horribly mangled corpse, and the hole in the tank, there was nothing damaged. This was rather lucky; she stepped up to a computer. Currently on the screen was something about a type of bacteria that destroyed certain plastics, which were in the door labels. More interested in the Delta Metroid, she typed in:
-project information
The delta Metroid is a highly advanced bioform we found inside a tomb- like structure on one of the asteroids left by the explosion of Zebes. How the tomb- or even the creature- survived is unknown. It seemed to be built in the same manner as the Chozo temple that was destroyed on Tallon IV, to contain the creature. After considerable casualties in the attempts to capture it, we managed to return it here. DNA tests show it, aside from having a similar genetic code to a Metroid, to have 3 DNA helixes instead of the one normally present in creatures. That and the fact it was the third "Anomalous Metroid" to be found (First two being the "Omega Metroids" and "Metroid Prime"), we dubbed it the Delta Metroid.
At this point the text broke off, showing Samus a picture of the same creature from before, confirming her suspicions. She scrolled down some more, and came to another block of text
Initial tests, visual and chemical, show that the Delta Metroid is highly intelligent, rivaling almost supergenius level, and incredibly strong. The blades that it has on its arms, legs, tail, and back, are made out of an unknown substance that is nearly indestructible. Attempts to retrieve samples always failed, and only a diamond-tipped needle was even able to scratch it. The 4th blade on the tail has a thin coating of a neurotoxin that causes an extremely short period of unconsciousness followed by a few- minute long paralysis of all but the extremities (fingers, toes).
In addition, the Delta Metroid's triple helix configuration causes extremely frequent and seemingly random mutation. It has some hint of psychic ability and somehow subconsciously "picks" the next evolution based on what nearby subjects are thinking. This has only happened twice, but this is about 300 times faster than the mutations caused by phazon, which took nearly 5 deca-cycles to register, but the Delta Metroid has evolved twice since we found it 3 cycles ago. The two evolutions were the neurotoxin forming, and the eyes later gained pupils (the Delta Metroid was practically blind before this). The creature is continually evolving in this manner, but the biggest leaps happen once every 18 hours, though this rate speeds up continually. The evolutions only seem to happen in open air, as the tomb we found it on was airless, and it took nearly 2 deca-cycles to control it, yet it remained unchanged the entire time.
In an odd coincidence, we have discovered that the frontal lobe of the creature's brain (which controls empathy, emotion, and psionic abilities to a small extent) has extensive damage identical to Phazon Radiation burns. How this happened is unknown, but it gives the creature a psychotic tendency, and makes it nearly impossible to control. It does however seem to be controlling the evolutions and also may give it high psionic abilities at a later time, so we are implementing this find into the "dark nightmare" project, with some success.
Samus scanned it again, then looked at the picture. Sure enough, the eyes of the Delta Metroid in it did not have any pupils, and the last blade on the tail did not have the purple tint she had seen. There was a tapping noise being generated by something, but she ignored it completely. Looking over the text several more times, she almost didn't notice the reflection of the Delta Metroid in the computer monitor. Noticing it, she turned around. For about half a second, she stared at it wondering how it had gotten up here so quickly, right before she jumped aside before it whipped its tail around and smashed the bank of computers. Charging up her plasma beam, she managed to fire a few shots before the Delta Metroid turned and ran forward. The shots seemed to stop in midair before it reached her. Samus jumped over it, but she noticed with some shock it seemed to anticipate this and punched her right in the chest a second after she did. Even through her suit, the hit hurt quite a bit, and Samus staggered back before firing a barrage of super ice missiles at it. Luckily, the creature seemed to share the regular Metroid's vulnerabilities to cold and froze solid. Samus rand straight out of the room, not wanting to try and fight something right now with the headache she had slowing down her reflexes. For good measure, she fired a super missile at the ceiling above the door, making it collapse in the doorway. Running down the hallway, out into the main research room, suddenly she stared around in shock.
The corpses had vanished.
Upon stepping into the room, the first thing that grabbed Samus' attention was a large holding tank build into the back wall. Not the tank specifically, but the giant hole punched in it. Inspecting it closer, she noticed that the glass/titanium hybrid it was made out of had been cut cleanly and not shattered, shot, or blown up. On a hunch, she picked up a nearby piece of plastic that had fallen off one of the destroyed computers and threw it at the edge of the glass. It split in half rather cleanly, meaning the cut was on a diagonal with no jagged edges, increasing her suspicion that the creature from before was what had been held here. Surprisingly, the damage in this room was minimal; aside from a few destroyed computers, one horribly mangled corpse, and the hole in the tank, there was nothing damaged. This was rather lucky; she stepped up to a computer. Currently on the screen was something about a type of bacteria that destroyed certain plastics, which were in the door labels. More interested in the Delta Metroid, she typed in:
-project information
The delta Metroid is a highly advanced bioform we found inside a tomb- like structure on one of the asteroids left by the explosion of Zebes. How the tomb- or even the creature- survived is unknown. It seemed to be built in the same manner as the Chozo temple that was destroyed on Tallon IV, to contain the creature. After considerable casualties in the attempts to capture it, we managed to return it here. DNA tests show it, aside from having a similar genetic code to a Metroid, to have 3 DNA helixes instead of the one normally present in creatures. That and the fact it was the third "Anomalous Metroid" to be found (First two being the "Omega Metroids" and "Metroid Prime"), we dubbed it the Delta Metroid.
At this point the text broke off, showing Samus a picture of the same creature from before, confirming her suspicions. She scrolled down some more, and came to another block of text
Initial tests, visual and chemical, show that the Delta Metroid is highly intelligent, rivaling almost supergenius level, and incredibly strong. The blades that it has on its arms, legs, tail, and back, are made out of an unknown substance that is nearly indestructible. Attempts to retrieve samples always failed, and only a diamond-tipped needle was even able to scratch it. The 4th blade on the tail has a thin coating of a neurotoxin that causes an extremely short period of unconsciousness followed by a few- minute long paralysis of all but the extremities (fingers, toes).
In addition, the Delta Metroid's triple helix configuration causes extremely frequent and seemingly random mutation. It has some hint of psychic ability and somehow subconsciously "picks" the next evolution based on what nearby subjects are thinking. This has only happened twice, but this is about 300 times faster than the mutations caused by phazon, which took nearly 5 deca-cycles to register, but the Delta Metroid has evolved twice since we found it 3 cycles ago. The two evolutions were the neurotoxin forming, and the eyes later gained pupils (the Delta Metroid was practically blind before this). The creature is continually evolving in this manner, but the biggest leaps happen once every 18 hours, though this rate speeds up continually. The evolutions only seem to happen in open air, as the tomb we found it on was airless, and it took nearly 2 deca-cycles to control it, yet it remained unchanged the entire time.
In an odd coincidence, we have discovered that the frontal lobe of the creature's brain (which controls empathy, emotion, and psionic abilities to a small extent) has extensive damage identical to Phazon Radiation burns. How this happened is unknown, but it gives the creature a psychotic tendency, and makes it nearly impossible to control. It does however seem to be controlling the evolutions and also may give it high psionic abilities at a later time, so we are implementing this find into the "dark nightmare" project, with some success.
Samus scanned it again, then looked at the picture. Sure enough, the eyes of the Delta Metroid in it did not have any pupils, and the last blade on the tail did not have the purple tint she had seen. There was a tapping noise being generated by something, but she ignored it completely. Looking over the text several more times, she almost didn't notice the reflection of the Delta Metroid in the computer monitor. Noticing it, she turned around. For about half a second, she stared at it wondering how it had gotten up here so quickly, right before she jumped aside before it whipped its tail around and smashed the bank of computers. Charging up her plasma beam, she managed to fire a few shots before the Delta Metroid turned and ran forward. The shots seemed to stop in midair before it reached her. Samus jumped over it, but she noticed with some shock it seemed to anticipate this and punched her right in the chest a second after she did. Even through her suit, the hit hurt quite a bit, and Samus staggered back before firing a barrage of super ice missiles at it. Luckily, the creature seemed to share the regular Metroid's vulnerabilities to cold and froze solid. Samus rand straight out of the room, not wanting to try and fight something right now with the headache she had slowing down her reflexes. For good measure, she fired a super missile at the ceiling above the door, making it collapse in the doorway. Running down the hallway, out into the main research room, suddenly she stared around in shock.
The corpses had vanished.