Dedede and Little Mac, fearing contamination, covered Marth's body with a white bed sheet. As soon as it touched the body, it was stained with red. Samus sat down at the table away from the mess, looking at the ground. How could she be so reckless? The moment that they returned to ship, she should have screened all of them and had them clean themselves off. More so, Samus felt responsible that it had to come to this; she should have gotten all her crew some suits like her own, just for protection, or she should have just swallowed her pride and done this mission alone. Little Mac, Dedede, Peach, Rosalina, Mario, and herself were now stuck in the middle of space with a deadly monster she knew very little about. Marth's death was entirely her fault.

Samus was quickly taken out of her own self-deprecation by the whimpers of somebody; Peach was clear disturbed by what she saw, like the rest of the lot, but she seemed to take it particularly hard. It was not until now that Samus saw blood covering Peach's dress and cheeks. She had been the closet to Marth when he died.

With Peach tucked into his embrace, Mario asked, "What are we dealing with?"

"The Federation called it a Blood Metroid," Rosalina muttered blankly, "When Marth killed one back on PM-18C, its gametes must've gotten into his body somehow."

"But, how do we kill it?" Mario asked, his voice rising.

Shrugging, Rosalina desperately looked at Samus. When Samus did not move from her seat, still looking down with wide eyes, Dedede hopelessly asked, "…Can we kill it?"

"If it bleeds, it can die," Mario deduced, caressing Peach's head gently.

"It's not that simple," Samus added suddenly, bringing her head up. However, she still looked into nothing, "The Federation burnt their bodies back at that facility. But, they created an ideal predator, and it quickly adapted; the Blood Metroid's skin is basically impenetrable when it becomes a Gamma Metroid. Our best hope to kill it is while it is still an infant."

"But, how can we kill it?" Mario asked again, sounding angrier than before.

"Although it's skin is impenetrable, I still think we can break it," Samus explained. She brought her gaze to Mario, who looked extremely focused, "When the Federation Scientists found this mutation, they kept burning them. Just because their skin can't be broken doesn't mean that it's fireproof."

Shaking his head, Dedede cussed, "Holy crap… You want to cook this thing to death?"

"I don't know if we have any other options," Samus replied, looking to Mario.

It seemed that all eyes were on him now. Feeling this, Mario said, "I don't even know if I can create flames that get hot enough to roast something."

"You won't be the only one," Samus explained. She stood up and said, "I need to get my suit, and I have some weapons by the living quarters. Once I'm ready, I'll head over there and get them."

"We should go to the cockpit," Rosalina suggested, looking down the dark hallway opposite of it, "We can airlock the door while you load up…"

"Little Mac, come with me," Samus said. Turning around, Little Mac looked at Samus terrified, "We'll meet the others in the cockpit once I get my suit."

Once they were in the cockpit, Dedede sat down in the first chair that he saw. He wiped sweat off his face and panted heavily. As he rubbed his arms trying to comfort and unnerve himself, Rosalina entered a code into the pad next to the door. Mario watched her as Peach continued to whimper quietly. Turning back to her, Mario tried to hush her.

"It's okay, Peach… It's okay…" he tried to say, again embracing her, "We're going to be okay."

Finally, she lifted her head up and looked and him; her blue eyes were wet, tears slowly flowing from them. "I've never heard someone scream like that…" she muttered, her voice nearly breaking with every word, "I didn't know that a person's scream could be so… So horrifying…"

Taking her hand gently, Mario softly said, "It's going to be okay, Peach. I know you're scared. I'm scared too. We're all terrified. But, we have to be brave now. The only way we stand a chance against this thing is by working together."

"Well, why don't we just hide in here?" Peach asked, boarding on frantic, "Get Samus and Little Mac back in here. Lock the door and let that thing starve to death."

"It's not that simple…" Rosalina rebutted. When she saw that she had everyone's attention, she continued, "The Blood Metroid would find a way to get inside; it's one of the smartest organisms in the galaxy."

"How do you know this?" King Dedede asked from his spot, still panting.

Rosalina stood up and calmly walked over to the main console. Seeing that the memory stick was still plug into it. She pressed a button on the console and said, "Adam, bring up the last documents opened."

Suddenly, on the windscreen, several documents appeared. One of them, the one furthest away from Rosalina, was a lab report. Walking over to that side, Rosalina said, "This lab report was written after thousands of trials. The Federation finally created what they called a "perfect organism capable of complex thought that only becomes more intelligent with age". If we stay here, it'll find a way to get to us."

"That gives us no choice then…" Mario shook his head, looking at the lab report, "We have to kill it."

Before they entered the dark corridor, Samus let her pistol cool down. She set it on the table as Little Mac stared across the room. The blood that covered it was completely dry, looking maroon and crusty. The sheet that covered Marth's corpse shared the same colour and texture as the wall and floor now, making Little Mac uncomfortable. Seeing this, Samus spoke up, "You okay?"

Little Mac still stared at the wall and body. He wanted to look away, but he just could not; the horrifying scene and stench demanded his attention. Trying to talk, Little Mac opened his mouth. However, he simply could not reply. Samus stood up and approached him, standing between him and the blood. "You have to talk to me," Samus said.

Little Mac sighed, "I'm not cut-out for this… This is something I can't deal with. Samus, I'm a boxer. I fight people; I have a hard-enough time keeping up with the other Smash Brothers as is… How the hell am I getting out of this alive?"

"Believe me, I'm in way over my head too," Samus said, trying to sound as empathetic as possible, "I always get in way over my head; it's apart of my job. It's just something you have to push through."

"It's apart of your job, not mine," Little Mac said anxiously, "You've handled things like this before… I let my curiosity get the best of me…"

"Don't think about that," Samus warned, picking up her pistol, which was now cool, "You're stuck here, now. And, we're in a life or death situation. If the Blood Metroid is let loose onto society, there will be consequences that you nor I can imagine. They are the apex of apex predators; they can and will kill everything."

Samus walked down the hallway slowly, followed extremely closely by Little Mac. The sooner that Samus could get to her Varia suit, the better. She felt unusual vulnerable without it. She knew that she could fight in what she was already wearing, but, after everything she saw in her research, and after she let Marth die, Samus would be safer in it. At least, that's what she thought.

They crept further into the shadowy hall, still having some of the light from the main hold lighting the corridor, though it was very dim. When Samus took a step, she fell forward, tripping on something. Quickly, Little Mac helped her up and looked at whatever she tripped on; there was a large hole in the ground, seemingly burned into it. When Samus was on her feet, she squinted her eyes. There were ash marks and little holes all over the ground. Now watching her steps, Samus sprinted towards her room.

The door was open, and there was a trail of holes. And, when Samus turned on the light, she saw her Varia suit; it was all over the ground, having gushes, burns, and yellow liquid all over it. Distraught, Samus walked over to her suit, her jaw dropping with each step. She saw a hole directly through the middle of the chest-piece, which was completely burned through it. She could have broken down and sobbed right there; her Varia suit was both contaminated and destroyed.

Walking behind her, Little Mac saw the suit and looked down, "…I'm sorry, Samus."

Still in her own head, Samus knelt in front of the wreckage. She stayed there, absolutely silent, mourning the loss of her suit. From here, their job would get much tougher.

The only thing that took her out of her trance was Little Mac's scream. He flopped onto Samus' bed, kicking his leg in the air. Samus turned around and saw it; the Blood Metroid had grown into it's Alpha stage. There was a bug-like shell on the top of it now, but it still had a translucent bottom with a maroon tint. Also, just above it's four fangs, it had snow white eyes. It must have been hiding in the room, waiting for somebody to come inside. It's fangs were around Little Mac's leg, and Little Mac tried desperately to kick free.

Instinctively, Samus raised her weapon and shot at the Blood Metroid. The Blood Metroid froze for a split second, but bit down on Little Mac's leg harder. He screamed louder, furiously kicking his leg as fast as he could. Samus shrugged and shot it again, much to the same effect. Little Mac kept shrieking at the top of his lungs; blood began streaming down his leg as the Blood Metroid bit deeper into his calf. Samus put her gun down, staring at the Metroid. She saw a large scar between the Blood Metroid's eyes. When she turned around, she saw a piece of her Varia suit which had become sharp and splinter-like.

"Stop kicking!" Samus shouted, grabbing the piece. However, Little Mac could not hear her, for he kept kicking aggressively. After a few more powerful kicks, Little Mac became noticeably lethargic. When his leg barely bobbed up and down, Samus took her opportunity; swiftly, she stabbed the piece into the scar of the Alpha Metroid.

The Metroid shrieked and released Little Mac's leg. Yellow blood began leaking from the wound, splashing onto Samus' arm. She cussed and pulled the piece out, but it broke in half. The Blood Metroid flew away, hitting the wall outside of Samus' room recklessly. As it flew in the opposite direction of the cockpit, Samus aided Little Mac to the others. With Little Mac's arm over her shoulder, Samus rushed to the cockpit and banged on the door.

"Open the damn door!" she yelled, "Little Mac's hurt!"

When the door opened, King Dedede helped Samus carry Little Mac to a chair. Little Mac breathed heavily, flopping into the chair; his legs and arms were limp, and his head was back. His calf had four bleeding gashes in it, and his ankles had been burnt badly by the blood of the Metroid. Samus looked at her own arm; the bit of blood that splashed onto her arm burnt her a little of her Zero suit and the skin underneath.

"It evolved…" Samus panted, tossing her pistol onto the ground, "It evolved in less than an hour…"

"Does that mean…?" Rosalina asked, but she could not finish. As she looked down, Dedede looked at the both of them.

"If we don't kill it within a few hours, we're going to have a big problem," Samus said, looking at the door.

Baffled, Dedede shouted, "A big problem? A BIGGER ONE THAN WE HAVE NOW?!"

"My suit's contaminated, and this thing can evolve faster than what the Federation documented," Samus fired back, not quiet as loud as Dedede, "So, yes; a bigger problem than we have now!"

Shaking his head, Dedede looked outside; again, he saw that they were absolutely stranded. There was not a star system anywhere near them. Both Peach and Mario walked over to Little Mac. He looked deflated and tired. Every breath he took looked like it could have been his last, and his wound slowly seeped blood continuously. "Is he infected?" Peach asked worriedly, still looking at the struggling Little Mac.

"How would she know?" Dedede muttered, "She was wrong last time."

Surprised, Samus slowly turned her head towards Dedede. With fiery eyes, she said, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Dedede said, looking at Samus. He approached her slowly, only stopping when he was inches away from her face, "You said that Marth wasn't infected, didn't you? Rosalina told me that you said he was fine. And now he's dead."

Clinching her fist, Samus almost started shaking, holding herself back. Within a second, Mario and Rosalina were between the two, pushing both away from one another. "Stop it!" Rosalina shouted, "We can't do this right now!"

"But, am I wrong?!" Dedede asked, trying to shrug Mario away from pushing him back, "We should've left Marth on that planet, and you know that, Samus! Because you were too careless, we're all going to meet the same fate Marth did!"

During the commotion, Peach looked closely at Little Mac's wound. It was still fresh but barely bled. Now that the bleeding mostly stopped, it did not look like a regular wound; it looked more like four perfectly shaped holes in Little Mac's calf, some larger than the other ones. The wound on Little Mac's ankle somehow looked worse; the skin was pink and tender, like a raw chicken breast. When Peach tried to clean the wounds with her glove, Little Mac winced the moment she touched his skin. Peach saw that Little Mac wanted to scream in pain but did not have the energy to. When Peach looked back down at the wound, it became pitch-black in the cockpit, silencing the argument. Even the main console, which had buttons that never actually turned off, was black. A few seconds later, something in the main console booted up; the lights inside the cockpit turned on, although they were extremely dim.

"What the hell was that?" Rosalina asked, her voice shaking.

Samus did not respond, but she did run over to the main console. She leaned on it and asked, "Adam, bring up the security feed of maintenance."

On the windscreen, a camera feed appeared. In maintenance, the lighting was the exact same as it was in the cockpit. However, they saw, clear as day, that there was a large pile of skin on the ground. Defeated, Samus sighed and dropped her head, "It evolved again… Now, it's in maintenance."

"It must've done something to the generator down there," Dedede thought aloud. He looked up at Samus and said, "I should go down there and try to fix it."

"It's a Gamma Metroid now," Samus said, "If you go down there alone, you're going to die."

"He doesn't have to go alone," Rosalina said, looking at the door. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her nerves, "I'll go with him."

"Me too," Mario said, "We have to kill that thing as soon as we can."

"Please don't leave," Peach muttered, grabbing Mario's arm from behind. Facing her now, Mario saw her wet, scarred eyes, "I need you right now."

Samus bent down and picked up her pistol. She looked at the door as well, sighing, "We have to fix the generator. The emergency one is only meant to last a few hours, maybe a day, and we're not due back home for another two weeks. There's only six of us left, almost five… One of us has to stay back with Little Mac while the rest of us get to the weapons by the living quarters and repair the generator."

"I'll go get the weapons," Mario volunteered, stepping forward and away from Peach, "Once I get them, I'll come straight back here."

"I'm going with you," Dedede muttered with a nod. When the others looked at him, he said, "I need to get my hammer."

"But, you have to get down to maintenance," Rosalina said, "You're the best one."

"It's fine," Samus shrugged, shaking her head with frustration. She looked at Rosalina and said, "This is my ship. I know it better than anybody else here. You and I can go there," Samus handed Rosalina the silver pistol, trying not to look as angered as she was, "You'll just have to cover me."

Dedede nodded and set out immediately after. Mario put his head down and sighed, then followed Dedede. However, Peach pulled him back at kissed him on the cheek, "Hurry back. Please."