Samus Aran watched as the so-called "Hero of Space" stepped into the daylight. He wore a battle-suit much like her own, only it was fully mechanical and didn't require special blood implants to operate. His youthful face was visible, though she knew that when necessary, a green breath mask and transparent faceplate would cover his face, forming an airtight helmet.

Two locks of golden hair stuck out from the helmet. The armor itself was bright green at the moment, but Samus had learned from experience it shifted to red to focus on attack, and blue to focus on defense. Strapped to his back were a prehistoric sword and shield, and various other weapons were stored within that unassuming death machine he called a battle suit.

All in all, he stood a bit less than six feet tall, and was by no means a dangerous-looking figure. But between his equipment, what he claimed was magic, and his own natural abilities, she had found very few among the galaxy who came so close to her in one-on-one combat. And in addition to that, whether his "magic" was biological, technological, or truly mystical, she wasn't sure. But he could project an shield deadly to Metroids. He hadn't been willing to use this ability to help her wipe out the Metroids before, but she had some images she thought might be able to convince him.

"I have your evidence for you. Enough Metroids to wipe out ten more species. Will that satisfy your sense of ethics?" Seeing him nod, she brought up the image on her ship's screen: Over a hundred of the things, nestled between walls and on ceiling, transparent membranes, blue tentacles and red cores. He looked doubtful at first, but confirmed the threat by studying the screen intensely.

"Like I said, enough Metroids for ten species. I don't exaggerate."

Link merely looked at her, a pointed expression on his face.

Samus glared back at him "That was a long time ago! This is no time to be trifling about mistakes long past!" Link merely nodded. Now was not the time for reminiscing. "Let's go," she said. Samus tried to keep herself under control, but he really put her on edge. He reminded her of her younger years, and in her business, sentiments didn't pay. Fond memories were fine, but attachments were a bad thing to have.

Link's ship had already been docked, so they took Samus's for the final leg of the trip. Samus had grown used to this "heroic" silence from Link. He was the few "free" hunters who lived for something other than the spotlight, but he could act infuriatingly superior sometimes.

Link gestured at the chaotic jumble of what appeared to be a dead Metroid. It was simply a sack of transparent matter, almost gel-like, with dozens of tiny glowing red spots connected by blue-gray tentacles. The entire mess was about the size of Samus.

A team of scientists had accompanied the two of them into the building, as well as their equipment. They'd begun running scans and taking pictures as soon as they'd entered, and one piped up. "They could be distant relatives of the Metroids, looking similar without actually being harmful."

Suddenly, one of the red cores was ejected, with a small amount of gel around it, straight onto the floor. The floor seemed to evaporate, and a creature shot up out of the sac. It stood on four thin legs, spiked tentacles covered in gel. A red core acted as the head, with six protruding tentacles. The gel clung to it and seemed to make up most of the mass.

The creature stuck its tentacles through the scientist's protective gear. The equipment, in turn, simply disappeared, and the creature was suddenly larger. But this size increase did not last long. A glob of the strange transparent mass suddenly broke off and attached itself to the wall. The wall was then converted into more red cores and blob matter.

"They eat matter the way Metroids eat energy," Samus observed.

"Anti-Metroids." offered the scientist, feeling, and looking, naked without her attire.

"But how did they get here?"

"Isn't it obvious? They don't breathe, they don't have fixed forms, and so they are space-worthy. Obviously, they're dormant in egg form since they made it here, only reacting when they touch matter. Their home planet was obviously destroyed by them, and they sent egg sacks everywhere. This is the first one to reach matter, probably thousands of years later."

Samus grew silent, stunned. Images of whole solar systems wiped from existence ran through her head.

Further examination showed that the radiation, the force field, even the energy from the power pack left by the suit had spread out, but had not been absorbed by the creature. Samus, already chilled the bone, grew still more horrified as she realized what it meant. "Metroids." she moaned aloud. Was she never to be rid of them?

Though they were extinct, they had a nasty habit of popping back up. And were they to pop back up here… well, energy drained from these things wouldn't affect it as long as the mass was intact. If this thing consumed a Metroid and there was another around, well, matter was no great loss to those things. Like matter and anti-matter, these Anti-Metroids and the Metroids could never be brought together. If they did, the resulting explosion would destroy not only the surrounding area, but also quite possibly the entire universe.

If any Metroid DNA remained, they could be recreated and used as a weapon greater than any anyone could bring against it. She had Metroid DNA within her, and since she had no intention of leaving the galaxy any time soon, she would have to be on even more constant guard. Of course, for now, she was here, the creatures were here, if there were competentterrorists, or at least enemies with no scruples, the galaxy. She looked at Link, wondering how much better he'd gotten. The two of them could fight most attacks. But still…