Welcome back, O loyal reader, to the OVA of all Xs.

I present to you the final chapter in the X-Bunch. After this we will be entering the O-Bunch. You'll understand when you finish reading this Bunch.

Chapter Eight: Theta RegiΘn

He sat in the pilot's seat of his ship. He was waiting for something, someone. The Space Pirates were aiming a photon rifle at his head trying to get him to reveal its location to them.

He did not tell them. He knew the price he would have to pay for his silence.

There was an explosion that made the ship sway slightly.

He blacked out.

Keaton sat at his desk. The HoloProjector showed the Alpha Centauri station in high orbit above the planet known as Nemesis. The space surrounding it was empty.

Hardy walked into the room carrying a Subway box and wearing a concerned look on his face.

"Chairman," he started, he sounded like he had just run a marathon.

"Any reports from Samus, Hardy?" the chairman interrupted.

"None yet Sir."

"Fine," he mumbled to himself, "what do you want that warrants you to come here in such a rush?"

"I was just coming to ask how many ships we are expecting so as I can get someone to ready the docking bays."

"There she is now," said Keaton looking at his HoloProjector, not hearing a word of what Hardy had said.

"Just the one?" asked the Chief Officer.

"No the other two should be arriving any time now. Go and loose them in."

But the other two ships never came.

Wildfire entered through the force field into Bay One. On board were Samus, a corpse, some coordinates, Malkovitch's ship's Black Box and a 4½ inch Floppy Disk.

Hardy was standing at the end of the loading ramp ready to greet her. The highest ranking officer greeted the arrival in the standard modus operandi, but the warrior did not, as was usual for her, follow the protocol this time.

Hardy opened his mouth as if to say something but Samus was quicker off the mark than the Chief Officer.

"Skip the formal briefings Hard; I need to do something important."

With that she pushed past the sandwich-filled Chief Officer and disappeared through the door to the transport.

Hardy was wondering why Samus was in such a rush, but she was not one to be questioned and Hardy was not one for having his lunch a second time round. That is unless of course if it was slushy and covered in hydrochloric acid.

The 24 letters were written from memory. He was laughing at the irony of the situation.
Samus walked into the lab and handed the paper to the technician. She asked him to see if there was any way of testing when it was written. He said that he would see what he could do.

As she walked out the door she told him that there was also some stuff being unloaded from her ship. That needed testing as well.

She then went and made a cup of coffee and casually made her way up to the bridge. Keaton was waiting for her. He looked happy to see her. The look of happiness changed to an almost-disgust when she asked him to dispose of her empty coffee cup.

Samus sat down in the Chairman's chair, never one to obey the rules if at all possible. The 'almost-' was removed from Keaton's visage in an instant; he had steam coming out his ears until Samus started to give her report.

The scientists were working hard. So far they had guaranteed that the writing was written an hour before Samus arrived.

There was also Aran DNA all over it.

"Ships do not just blow up, Keaton!" shouted Samus, "I'm telling you, there were space pirates in that sector! I saw them, killed a few too!"

"Then why didn't your computer detect them."

"I don't know. They must have developed some new technology, or something."

"Samus," Keaton started. He scratched his back a bit to kill time, hoping Samus would have suddenly gained a way of controlling her temper. He carried on, giving up all hope, "What would Space Pirates want from your investigation anyway?"

Suddenly a technician came through the door. "I don't know," said the man who's name-tag read 'J. Smith', "but I suspect it has something to do with this."

He held up the paper.

"What's this?" asked Keaton.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot to mention. I need to borrow the station's scanners."

Samus input the coordinates into the NaviScan. She had got the technicians to wire up Wildfire's scanners to the station's. The NaviScan was displaying a message that said 'connecting to remote scanning protocols…' There was also a cheesy fairy sprite bouncing round the screen.

"Note to self…" Samus thought, "Remove the head of whoever programmed this piece of junk."

She read the tiny writing at the bottom of the screen: 'NaviScan© Copyright 2700 Kevin O'Haley programs' see what I've done there? Yes, yes, oh forget it. It's not that important anyway

'Uncharted planet in region...zoom in? Y/N'

Samus pressed Y.

'Sending satellite………data ready.'

Samus was preparing her ship for a journey to the uncharted 'Planet Z' as Keaton called it.

"X has been over used. We need something new and innovative, like Z."

The chief science officer came up to Samus with a report on the final tests.

"The corpse was Pirate at some time. The disk contains nothing useful and Malkovitch doesn't plug his black boxes in. I thought you would know that by now. Where you off to?"

"Tell Keaton I'm off to Z."

The science officer was clearly confused but left anyway assuming the Chairman would understand Ms Aran.

Wildfire was in orbit. The scanners were testing the atmosphere and the NaviCom was mapping the surface. All was ready for landing.

She did not here the warning siren…

Warning siren?

Can't tell you yet.

O-Bunch?

You'll see next time you read a Metroid chapter.

What has happened to the wormhole?

Maybe it fell down a black hole?

Next chapter: an unexpected arrival in Hyrule…

After that: Samus on 'Planet Z'

After that: who knows? (Me!)