The light of a sinking sun found itself half dimmed as it sank slowly behind a deep blue horizon. The gentle sound of ocean water stroking white, soft sand filled Fox's ears as he lay there. Everything was blurry, but the sight of a sunset was unmistakable – the rushing sounds and colors rather soothing to his body and mind. He gave a light sigh in his chest when he soon became aware of a presence standing near the shoreline not too far away. Long hair flowed in the ocean breeze, the fading light accenting the curvature of a female body.

"Hmn.......?" he heard himself mutter, though it wasn't clear if he said it with his mouth or mind. The woman standing across the way was human, he could tell, as she looked back over her shoulder at him. His vision wavered a moment, appearing like the wavy distance of a hot Sahara.

"Fox." Came the female voice, though it seemed to echo around him rather than come from the slowly approaching Samus ahead. Yes, it was Samus, he decided once the light had caught the blonde of her hair and the blue of her eyes had settled on him. She looked a lot smaller without that metal getup of hers. She was still tall and fairly well shaped in many aspects – toned with battle and bodily exercise.

He was startled from his admiration as her form seemed to speed forward and was suddenly peering over him. Her voice was louder and she grasped his shoulders. He suddenly became aware he was being shaken.

"Fox! Damnit, you furball, wake up!!" Fox cringed at this, feeling his head reel as everything went black. A sharp pain shot through the back of his head before he opened his eyes and looked clearly upon the bounty hunter now. But there was no beach.... No calming breeze...... She didn't look pleased. It had been an illusion. "For crying out loud are you even in there??"
"Yes, would you stop shaking me! My head hurts!" Samus released his shoulders and he leaned back on an arm where he now sat, rubbing the back of his head with the other. Samus rose and paced a bit in front of him. Indeed, she was not clad in her bulky armor it seemed as she strutted along in what could only be described as a black sort of bikini with a top that came up fully around her neck. The only other thing she wore was a pair of thin space boots.

Looking around, Fox realized he would have much preferred the beach to where they actually were. It was dark and dank. They seemed to be in a large metal squared off room with no windows and one very dim, half- functioning light.

"What happened?" he murmured, rubbing his head again. A disgruntled Samus huffed and leaned against the fore wall by the door, crossing her arms.

"I don't suppose after a blow that like it'd come back to you all at once, eh?" she said, her features half shadowed in the lack of light beneath her hair.

"What blow? Is that why my head hurts?" He moved to get up slowly.

"Well, if you insist on storytime..."

-----Samus POV------

Self-designated General Scales had just entered the room where you and I were trying to figure out what had sent that distress signal from the space station. He damn near filled the entire doorway with his form and caused a bit of a rumble trying to press through. Well, he managed, and decided to get rough from the get go.

Seems he has some sort of agenda with you – but I'm not asking to hear that, so don't bother explaining. At any rate, he headed for you first and being the spry little furry you appear to be, you managed to dodge his slow ass pretty easy. Well, this pissed him off of course... So while he's rip roaring mad over there I power up my arm cannon and let a charged missile fly at him. Hit's him smack in the side of the face, starts burning his left eye. By this point he's thrashing around, clawing at it and you damn near get taken out by his tail.

So you get up from where you got bumped down and start going for his gut with your blaster. I could see that. Soft spots always tend to be in the stomach area, right? Well, he gets a sense for where the shot is coming from and charges right for you, blindly, ya know? I see you evade this barely and take a shot with my grapple beam. You know, it's like using a grappling hook. It get's wrapped around his neck and I'm pulling on it, yelling at you to get around and start pushing him from behind however ya can. I figure we'll get him to slam into the control panel and maybe he'll get a good shock.

By this point the bastard is glaring out his one good eye at me and I know it's no good. He reeled and rammed smack into me, crushing me into the panel and it's my suit that gets the overflow of energy. Things just shorting out everywhere...

------end pov-----

Samus rubbed the corner of her eye near her nose a bit as she hummed, halting the story a moment as if in thought. Fox swished his tail mildly and looked at her, the memories falling back into place for him as he listened to her side.

"Yeah, I remember all the snapping and energy spurts going on...," he recalled lightly, crouching down and resting his paws on his knees.

"Yeah..... I kinda blacked out after that..... Next thing I know I'm in here with you and my suit isn't summoning up like it should..." **

"Oh, so that's why you're without it...," he remarked and bowed his head, eyes shifting to the side. "Well, I remember that far...... By then I was near the door again and was trying to get his attention. ......I think I was yelling anything at him to get him to turn around... you know calling him names and such.."

Samus chuckled, "Oh, is that why I heard 'fossil face' in the middle of all that electrocution. Here I thought my brain was frying." Fox smiled a little toothily and went back to thinking.

"......Strangest thing, though.... Last thing I can recall is seeing him turn around....then I think he let out this really weird growl. It wasn't like the normal dinosaur growl you'd expect. It sounded like it had more than one pitch to it at the same time...." He rubbed a finger against his mouth lightly. "I remember getting intensely dizzy and then... nothing."

"High frequency pitches can trigger strange brain patterns.. Maybe make your ears bleed," Samus hummed, shrugging her shoulders a bit.

"Yeah, that might explain the light headache......"

"What we need to do now is find a way out of here. The scaley bastard is obviously keeping us trapped. Neither of us has any weapons and our situation is just not good in general."

"You're quite the ball of sunshine, aren't you, Blondie?" Fox said, looking up at her.

"Hrmph..," she responded and he chuckled, rising to stand straight again.

"Well, let's see here... Metal on every wall...floor and ceiling..." He began meandering around the small cell, tapping the walls and cocking his ear to listen.

"I've checked the walls ...They're too thick to try ramming through.... And it'd take a long time to scratch through them with your little foxy claws."

"Not so cocky when you're without that suit of yours are ya?" he replied casually. "Take my advice and try working without it more often.... What hinders us here is the lack of light...."

"I do fine with or without my suit, thank you. And why are you feeling so positive all of a sudden? What ace do you have up your sleeve?" she replied, walking over to where he was standing.

"I don't suppose you were conscious before we got thrown in here, huh?"

"No.. I got fried, remember?"

"Well... If I've heard half of what Slippy's ever said to me..." He trailed off and got down on his hands and knees, pressing his ear to the floor. Samus stared down at him, pressing a hand to her hip and waiting to see what he was up to. "Metal is always thickest on the outside of a ship.....and thinner between rooms..." His eyes meandered a bit as he crouched there before getting up. He turned his attentions to the ceiling and then looked at her.

"What?" she asked after a moment.

"I need an ally-oop."

"Huh?" she asked, wrinkling up her nose at this terminology. Fox chuckled. Samus wasn't too much bigger than he was. At this height he was probably about head level with her breasts (not that it was a BAD angle, mind you), but the ceiling was higher than she or he stood.

"I need to get on your shoulders so I can reach the ceiling." Samus glanced up and then tilted her position as if to measure the dual height in her head. With a huff of a breath, she admitted to herself she was out of options and got down. Fox rounded her and clambered up, starting with his legs wrapping around her neck, his paws on her head.

"Awg! Hey watch the hair up there!" Samus squelched as his movement tugged her long tresses. He chuckled to himself and apologized just slightly as she moved carefully to get up, gripping his legs. Once she was standing, he carefully began to shift his legs so he could place his feet there instead and rise up to full height. Samus worked hard to keep them both balanced and gripped his ankles once they were available. "So are you going to tell me what's going on or is it you just like feeling tall?"

"Ha ha," he retorted down and shuffled in his jacket. "You never keep your handiest tools in sight.... And as the frog says – make them as small as possible." He pulled out a short cylander, no longer than an inch and folded it out three times. Fiddling with the tiny buttons on its now visible underbelly, he held it up towards the ceiling. Samus strained just lightly to see what he was doing. "Keep it steady, down there, Blondie. This is hot stuff."

"If the situation were different I would consider that a bad pick up line or something," she mused. Fox chuckled and shook his head, activating the small laser. It made a light hissing noise as it began eating through the ceiling panels.

"Isn't that gonna be a pain to catch when you're done?" the bounty hunter remarked as she watched him.

"Shouldn't be. If you can make a ship lighter in any way, this is where it would be – floors, ceilings, and usually walls. The outer plating is what gets all the real heat... so that's where the weight is."

"Makes sense."

"Yeah. Slippy makes sense on occasion," he smirked, amused at the whole thing. Samus remained quiet as he did his job. Soon there came a crackling noise as the circle he'd cut came loose from the ceiling and he grasped it. Figuring it would be best to push it up rather than drop it and make a racket, he gave a push best he could and shoved the panel aside. "Tada~" he hummed.

"Nice. Now get up there so I can stop looking at your furry butt."

"No one told you to look," he poked back and grasped the edge of the new exit, pulling himself up through the hole. Luckily the room above seemed to be deserted in all the wreckage. They were still in the space station it seemed. He looked down through the hole.

"The coast is clear. Can you get up here or should I go try to unlock the door?"

"I should be fine....just give me a second..." Fox leaned back a bit, peering at her just slightly through the hole. She bounced on her toes and heels for a moment then leapt off the ground once, pressed off the air midway and jumped again, grasping the edge of the hole as she got there.

"Girl's got frog legs!" Fox said, ears perked forward in amazement. Samus chuckled and pulled herself up through the hole carefully.

"Mine look better than that...," she chuckled and placed her hand on his head, rubbing it as if she would muss his hair if he had any. His fur, at any rate, got ruffled as she did so and then stood up.

"Grah! Please do not touch the fur."

"Yeah, yeah... let's just get out of here, eh?"

** In the newly released Japanese metroid manga () Samus seems to have the ability to will her suit away or back on command.