The fact that Ridley was even capable of thought greatly surprised others when he finally joined them.

It wasn't just that he looked like a beast. The way he fought was animalistic and he made no attempt to give his fighting style any finesse. Not many Space Pirates in general put much thought into it, preferring to simply tear their victims into pieces with their fangs and claws. It worked out well enough for them and very few Galactic Federation soldiers could handle their onslaught.

But what was more surprising was the dragon's engineering skills. He was a military commander above all else and the Science Team was probably better suited for it...when they weren't busy wasting resources on stupid ideas, but he was skilled nonetheless. Of course, most of his work was focused on weapon development. It simply wouldn't be Ridley if he didn't try to make mass murder easier to carry out.

Perhaps one of his greatest creations was a robotic replica of himself. A monument to his power, it was meant to be a massive, invincible killing machine capable of flight and long-ranged combat, much like Ridley was...Well, it would be one of the greatest if he wasn't almost killed before he could finish development. He didn't even get to install the flying and walking units. Worse still, the machine itself was destroyed. He would have tried building it again if several things didn't keep him busy.

But here, he had more than enough time to get back to work.

The room he used as his workshop normally had enough space even with his large size in mind, but now it seemed giant. What once fit him perfectly was now too big or too high, forcing him to drag all sorts of junk towards shelves just so he could use them as platforms to take whatever was out of his reach. He did have fully functional wings, but those were almost useless in this room. He could easily end up knocking everything over by simply unfolding his wings. Using his tail didn't work well either as the bladed tip wasn't flexible enough for him to wrap it around something that was lying flat on the shelf and trying to drag it towards him ended poorly. His head still hurt after that attempt.

His tools now being too big for his delicate hands was certainly the worst part. Some of them were even big enough to require using both hands, which would be bad on its own, but it also meant that some processes that required using both hands to begin with were now almost impossible. His opinion of this human-like body was getting worse with every hour.

There were some advantages of being smaller though. At that moment, he was disassembling one of the furry mercenary's devices he had traded for certain resources. The device in question could reflect physical and energy projectiles, but its energy consumption was surprisingly low. However, it was very small and the parts it was composed of were even smaller. Normally, even though his eyesight was remarkable, he would have had a hard time working with it given how large he was in comparison, but now that his hands were much smaller, the task didn't take much effort.

Of course, that was still far too situational for him to change his mind. It didn't help that he was too stubborn to do so anyway.

That aside, his little project was progressing quite well in spite of the lack of resources and the pocket dimension's quirks. While he prefered to use his own teeth and claws. he never denied how useful weapons were. Space Pirates despised those who were worthless without them rather than advanced technology itself. Chozo in particular seemed even more pathetic to Ridley than others as they once were great warriors whose might he would have greatly admired...if they didn't decide to become pacifists. By the time he raided Zebes, they were mere husks of themselves. Simply thinking about it made the dragon grit his teeth.

The idea was born shortly after his promotion. Technology of his world was impressive on its own, but what he had seen from other worlds was just as impressive, if not more so. Then there was magic. Sure, there was technology in his world that seemed like magic, but it was simply that advanced. What he had seen here was completely different. He had seen several humans conjure fire out of thin air and he himself had the opportunity to use magical items when fighting others. Unfortunately, the dragon barely understood how it worked. Most of the magical items he managed to gather were impossible to properly utilize at that moment.

But once he figured everything out, his Power Suit would greatly surpass Samus' own and ultimately bring an end to her once they were back home. He was sure of it.

What Ridley wasn't sure of was when they would be brough back or if it would even happen. The Master was just as likely to return everyone to their respective worlds as he was to simply erase them from existence or throw them into some metaphysical equivalent of a trashcan. Even if the former happened, nothing guaranteed that Ridley would be brought back to normal, either before or after leaving this place.

The Space Pirates certainly wouldn't take that well. He was confident in his ability to re-establish his dominance through brute force, but the idea of being stuck like this did not appeal to him. He wasn't even sure if replacing his body with a mechanical one or cloning himself would work as magic caused this mess. He had to take care of this issue while he still could.

Of course, nothing guaranteed that the Space Pirates still existed either. Samus did a number on them, much to his frustration. Dark Samus's actions also greatly thinned their numbers. For all he knew, they were already gone by the time he was cloned by those human idiots.

Getting distracted wouldn't do him any good.

There really wasn't all that much for Samus to do in her free time here at this time of the day. Exploring every piece of other worlds didn't took her all that long and recreational activities with others usually took place later in the day.

What she could do was reading books. Back home, she was too concerned about potential threats to concentrate on reading something that wasn't vital to her survival anyway. But here, she could simply sit on a couch and read all day. Having a glass of juice helped too. Ridley wasn't anywhere in sight either, which made it easier to relax.

Unfortunately, that alone time ended as soon as she heard someone kick open a door. That someone was the stupid dragon she never wanted to see, but at the very least, he didn't seem to be interested in ruining her day and so she resumed reading, taking a sip of juice.

Which then immediately left her mouth as soon as she registered the state Ridley was in. Aside from being naked, he was also rather dirty. She wasn't sure if it was oil or something else, but that didn't really matter.

"You're supposed to swallow that, not spit it out."

"And you're not supposed to walk around buck-naked!"

"Now that's a problem? Why don't you just drown yourself?"

"It's- Yes, it is! Clean yourself up and put something on!"

"I'm not wearing that shit again! Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it feels? And I can't groom myself with a neck this short!"

"Do it or I'll do it myself. I don't want you making a mess here just because you couldn't be assed to take a bath!"

"Try me."

Samus silently closed her book and put it on the couch as she stood up. Without hesitation, the bounty hunter walked up to the annoying dragon and grabbed him by his hair. He was still very strong, especially for someone so small, but she was by no means weak either and so his attempts to break away were unsuccessful. Once they reached the bathroom, Samus roughly threw him into the tub, slamming his head into it when he tried to stand up.

"You bitch! I'll tear you g-"

A shower head to his cranium quickly shut him up, with a second strike stopping his attempts to escape. She really didn't want to waste her time on this bastard, but it would take much less effort than cleaning up after him.

As it was the first time she ever had to wash someone, it didn't go very well...not that she really cared. All she needed to do was getting rid of the smears on Ridley's skin and get whatever that stuff was out of his hair. At least he didn't struggle anymore, whether it was out of resignation or concussion.

The Space Pirate in question wasn't as thin as she expected him to be. Given how he normally looked like a skeleton wrapped in dry skin, she thought he was still a twig under that dress, but that wasn't the case. He was still thin compared to her and lacked any muscle definition, but it was an improvement nonetheless. The way his wings and tail connected to his body was just a little disturbing though. They didn't quite blend in and the way scales turned into deathly pale skin made it look like some nasty skin disease. At least his hair hid where his horns grew out of.

Once she was done washing him and the bathtub was refilled again, Samus prepared to leave the bathroom, but then she remembered the second problem.

"Where did you put your clothes?"

"Hell if I know. I just threw them away as soon as I took them off."

She was tempted to just leave him be, but having him walk around naked didn't seem like a good idea to her, especially when there were children around. Others wouldn't appreciate it either...well, most of them. Either way, that wasn't an option and it was going to take some time to take care of this issue.

At least hitting that idiot with the shower head one more time made her feel a little better.