Samus strolled forth from the waiting room and entered the arena confidently as the crowd cheered wildly at the sight of her. As her opponent entered the arena, Samus activated her scan visor and analyzed his data thoroughly. The opponent appeared to be a boy of approximately eleven standard cycles. He was clad in green and had a short sword on his back, accompanied by a shield. The lad was apparently quite skilled for his age, as he had upon his person numerous weapons, items, and trophies that were presumably excavated from great dungeons or lifted from formidable foes. Further scanning would be required to get a full analysis on all of his equipment, but Samus was unable to proceed as the great voice suddenly boomed over the stadium once again.
It spoke these words as it crashed thunderously across the stadium, "We will now commence the fourth match. Samus Aran, versus, Young Link! The match will take place on the Phazon Lake Stage. Fighters, COMMENCE!"
The moment the voice ceased, the massive arena began to shift. The center of the arena caved in upon itself and began filling with water, as this was happening, Samus detected large amounts of Phazon materializing beneath the surface of the water, and her feet. Re-activating her scan visor, Samus began to analyze the nearly completed stage. According to her data, beneath the surface of the water lay an intricate network of sub-aquatic caverns and tunnels, and dispersed throughout this network were large deposits of Phazon.
Samus began to slowly make her way towards the water's edge and pondered the design of the stage. It was not an optimal stage for gladiatorial combat. Likely the primary combat would take place below the surface of the lake, thus severely limited the view of the spectators. As she considered this flaw, a series of massive video displays were projected in the air above the stadium. Clearly they were going to be used to display the fight during the time the combatants would be away from the eyes of the spectators. She had wanted more time to analyze and assess the stage, but apparently her opponent was growing impatient. She gathered this information from the flaming arrow that had been directed at the head. Deactivating her scan visor, and activating her primary combat visor, Samus turned to face her opponent, who was on the bank on the other side of the massive lake. The time for combat was now, Samus decided.
Samus leaped high in the air above the lake and launched a single missile at her young opponent. The green clad youth apparently did not know what to make of the projectile, and brought his shield up in front of him. Samus could clearly see that he was shocked as the missile combusted upon impact, and tossed the boy several feet back and onto his side. Young Link's shield was no more; it had shattered into thousands of tiny fragments which had been scattered in every direction. Samus, having reached the peak of her jump, began to descend towards the surface of the lake at high speed. Right before she impacted the water's surface though, she fired her grappling beam at Young Link and had it latch onto him securely. Then as she broke the water's surface, she dragged Young Link down into the watery depths with her. The young boy screamed loudly as he was pulled deeper into the lake, though all that could be seen coming from his mouth were a series of bubbles. Now underwater, Samus immediately began adjusting her suit's movement systems to adapt to sub-aquatic conditions. The process took mere seconds as the gravity booster activated flawlessly as Samus descended. The water no longer took any more effort to move through than would air.
She boosted herself towards the struggling Young Link and fired off a series of consecutive blasts at him from her Power Beam, followed by a charged blast from the same weapon. The boy writhed in pain as he received the blasts. After he recovered, he desperately drew his sword and began swimming at Samus. Unfortunately for him though, he was still bound by the resistance of the water and swam very slowly. Every time he got even remotely close to her, Samus launched a Power Missile at him and boosted away. Having received the fourth Power Missile at a direct hit, Young Link stopped trying to swim after her and remained still in the water. Samus paused to observe him and noticed that he had pulled out a bluish-white mask and was moving it towards his face. Though unsure of what effect a mask could have, Samus opted that it was better to prevent her enemy's actions, and then study the possible effects at a later time. She boosted towards Young Link at high speed as she switched her arm cannon to the Plasma Beam setting. As she approached, she fired off several searing blasts from the Plasma Beam that evaporated the water on contact. Samus detected the temperature in the water around her rise by several dozen degrees as she continued to fire of the blasts of burning plasma. The blasts all hit the boy full force, though their overall effect was reduced by the water, furthermore he was making no effort to dodge them or even acknowledge their presence. Samus raced to remove the mask from his possession, but she was too late to stop him, he had donned the mask and its effects were beginning to take place. Young Link was at once surrounded by a field of distortion as he began to writhe, contort, and shift his body. He was clearly in extreme pain during this process, but he endured. After moments of painful change, the transition was complete. Young Link had transformed into Zora Link.
Zora Link stretched and flexed his new body as Samus retreated to analyze her post-transformation opponent. Clearly this new form was more adept at sub-marine locomotion, and it appeared to utilize natural weapons, rather that materially crafted ones. Before Samus could get any further with her assessment, Zora Link swam towards her at shocking speed, but as Samus tried to evade he delivered a swift blow to her left side and continued to swim past her. Prior even to her recovery of the first hit, Zora Link delivered several more to her back with his arm blades. Samus spun around to counter the blows, but he was already gone by time she turned. Zora Link was maddeningly swift beneath the water; Samus could not even keep track of him. Unable to locate him by sight, Samus assumed he had gone off into one of the many tunnels around them. She immediately shifted to her X-Ray Visor and began searching all the directions. He was found to be in one of the smaller caverns below her, and at once she headed off to his location. Samus traversed her way into the cavern in which Zora Link was located, though she stopped just outside the exited. The cavern had no light source save for the dull blue glow of Phazon, and she had to adjust her suit accordingly. She switched her Plasma Beam out in favor of the Ice Beam, and her primary visor to the Echo Visor. Following that she morphed herself into the Morph Ball and began to slowly, and discreetly, roll her way down to the bottom of the cavern, where a massive deposit of blue Phazon was present. Zora Link was swimming around the cavern sporadically, and had no idea that she was nearby. Once she had made her down to the cavern's floor, she carefully maneuvered her way around the Phazon to the approximate center of the floor. Having found an area big enough for her to revert to her standard form without making contact with any Phazon, she waited for Zora Link to turn his back on her location. As soon as he did, she exited Morph Ball mode and charged the Ice Beam. Fully charged, she released a large sub-zero blast at the agile Zora. The blast froze the water as it streamed towards him, leaving a column of ice in its wake. When it hit Zora Link, he immediately slowed down and was treated to a thick layer of ice on his scaly skin. Samus followed up by shooting off several other icy blasts in his direction, these ones aimed to surround him with Icy columns, rather than hit him directly. Zora Link managed to shake the ice from his skin and had begun to swim around the cavern at high speed. She was able to track his movement via the Echo Visor, as every movement he made in the water emitted sonar waves that she was able to pick up on. She detected an incoming attack from behind and retreated into Morph Ball mode. The moment Zora Link got within range she set off a massive Power Bomb that blew him into the cavern's wall. Although her opponent was dealt with for the moment, Samus now had to deal with the fact that her bomb had caused a great many chunks of Phazon to start drifting around her. She struggled to avoid contact, but despite her best efforts she was barraged with hit after hit by the unstable substance. Each hit caused her extreme damage and disrupted her bionic suit. Having sustained heavy damage, Samus eventually managed to retreat to the entrance of a tunnel, wherefrom there she could see the full extent of the effects her bomb had caused.
There was Phazon everywhere. Particles, small chunks, and massive boulder sized pieces. The cavern's floor had now been predominantly stripped away, leaving only a floor of deadly Phazon. There was now too much activity to use the Echo Visor, so Samus switched it with the Thermal Visor. She spent a moment attempting to locate Zora Link, and found him dodging Phazon expertly as he searched for her. Apparently he had located her as he then rushed her head on. As the raced towards her, he was grazed by shards of Phazon that burned his skin on contact. He disregarded this and focused solely on her. Just before he reached her, she switched her Ice Beam to the Power Beam and fired a few quick blasts at him. Before they hit him, his eyes glowed for a short moment as a purple force field surrounded him and warded off the shots. Force field up, Zora Link rammed Samus full force, and knocked her down the tunnel and into a sheer wall of Phazon. Zora Link stopped and watched as Samus contorted in agony as she was enveloped by Phazon. Her suit began to malfunction as she endured critical damage. Missile Systems: Offline. Advanced Weapon Systems: Offline. Advanced Movement Systems: Offline. Visor Systems: Offline. Her suit was about to shut down and she had to do something. She began to reprogram her suit's energy system to accept Phazon as its primary source, while simultaneously re-configuring her arm cannon to be compatible with the same substance. Mere seconds remained before her suit would cease functioning and shut down, resulting in her death. Sweat dripped from her brow and into her eyes as she panicked to adjust the suit. The reconfiguring complete, Samus grabbed the nearest chunk of Phazon with her left hand. It seared her palm on contact, but she ignored this as she shoved the volatile material into a gash in her suit's chest area. Samus flinched and groaned as the she did so, but the pain was worth it apparently, as the suit began to draw energy from the Phazon. She used the newly acquired power to redirect the Phazon energy directly into her arm cannon. As she aimed the arm cannon in the general direction of Zora Link, she fired. A tremendous beam of Phazon erupted from the arm cannon and hit Zora Link full in the chest. Drawing energy directly from the Phazon itself, she was able to maintain the Phazon Beam for as long as she required. She allowed the beam to utterly wreck Zora Link for a full thirty seconds. The longest thirty seconds of his life; Zora Link howled in hellish agony as the gargantuan beam of Phazon mutilated his body. Eventually Samus dropped the Phazon Beam, and used the energy from the Phazon to temporarily re-activate the Gravity Boost System. She grabbed another chunk of Phazon in her hand before she launched herself away from the wall. Diverting over 90 power to her movement systems, she rocketed past Zora Link and through the network of tunnels as she headed to the lake's surface. Samus fast approached the surface of the water and noticed a horribly wounded Zora Link struggling to catch up. He struggled in vain though, as Samus broke through the surface of the water and blew over a hundred feet into the air.
Rising in midair, she shut down the Gravity Boost system, and restored the Wave Beam System in her arm cannon. As her ascent began to peak, she switched to the newly restored Wave Beam as Zora Link launched himself from the water up at her. She knew it was futile for him to try and reach her height and she gazed down at him as she forcefully inserted the Phazon she had clutched in her left hand into the chest of her suit. She directed 100 of this new burst of power into her arm cannon. She took a last glance at Zora Link; he was about twenty feet into the air as he began to descend. He glared up at her darkly through furious eyes. Samus glanced at her arm cannon, the Phazon Beam and severely damaged it; the end of the barrel was melted and misshapen. Damaged as it was though, it could handle one more shot. Aiming her arm cannon straight down at Zora Link, she fired the Wave Beam. Her arm cannon launched an absolutely enormous wave of electrical energy down at Zora Link. The wave was so powerful that her arm cannon could only sustain the wave for a mere 1.5 seconds before it literally exploded. Zora Link's eyes went wide with horror as the unstoppable energy wave crashed into him. The wave slammed into him with all the force of a sonic-speed meteor as it pushed him back down into the lake's depths. As if the blast itself was not bad enough, the instant he and the wave hit the water, the entire lake was charged with electricity. Zora Link was barbequed alive down in the dark depths of the massive lake. As the electricity within the lake began to discharge, Samus used the little remaining power she could draw from the Phazon to restore and activate her Grappling Beam. She launched the grapple and managed to hook it onto one of the arena's walls. As she began to descend though, the grapple shorted out and dissipated. Samus was left to fall over eighty feet down onto solid stone. The impact hit her hard and she was nearly knocked unconscious, they she remained awake long enough to hear the announcer proclaim the satisfying words of, "This game's winner is: Samus Aran!"
Having been proclaimed the winner, Samus had her suit switch to power conservation mode as he drifted into unconsciousness. The crowd cheered wildly around the arena as wireframes bearing stretchers dashed towards both Samus, and Zora Link deep down in the Phazon Lake. As Samus was carried off, and Zora Link was searched for, the owner of the great voice had his attention directed elsewhere…
Hours had passed since the battle between the bionic bounty hunter, and the Boy-turned-Zora, yet deep within the Phazon Lake, a presence was stirring. Traces of Samus' blood and fragments of her suit radiated darkly as they began to react with the volatile Phazon. A cloud of darkness formed in front of the Phazon, and from it emerged a small cluster of darkness. This little dark being drifted towards the reacting traces and fragments of Samus, and when it got close, it began to merge with them and the Phazon itself. Black radiation and blue Phazon energy collided and created a small explosive reaction. Out from the reaction field stepped a figure clad in a jet black bionic suit. Its eyes glowed with the dull blue glow of Phazon as it emerged from the lake. A deep voice could be heard laughing satisfactorily as this dark incarnation of Samus expelled a field of Phazon energy, and then glided from the arena.