Hello Readers, I'm online once again!

Chapter 2: Main Deck

Samus was calmly investigating the Quarantine Bay, jumping and clambering over damaged equipment. Her ship's AI had told her that there had been an explosion here, and that's what had started the whole mess at BSL. Samus was convinced that she should have recognized the X as a dangerous lifeform. And speaking of dangerous lifeforms, how did the hornoad get up here? Samus thought, starting to brink her Power Beam to bear on the target, which was already preparing to spit a fireball. Unexpectedly, a beam of blue light slammed into the hornoad. Samus's HUD helpfully illuminated the path of the beam.

Samus whirled around, reflexively firing a shot at the hornoad, and watched a creature drop from the ceiling in the next room. It started falling fast, and then about halfway down a green-white energy field started to glow under it and it slowed, standing to a full humanoid height as it landed. It floated just an inch above the ground on the energy cushion, entering the room with a sort of skating motion. It seemed to be wearing a powersuit of some sort, but in the low light she couldn't be had bright blue lines covering its body and its right arm ended in what looked like a cross between a shotgun and a sniper rifle. It had a helmet with upward pointing spikes and a green visor, not unlike hers.

"Who are you?" The creature asked in accented English. Samus thought it was a British accent, but she wasn't an expert. She had a female voice of the sort that never needed raising. Samus noted the presence of what looked like sword handles poking above her shoulders.

"I am Samus Aran, intergalactic bounty hunter. What, or who, are you?"

"We are Composite, a wetware-software fusion symbiont. We detected the distress signal from this station and came to investigate."

"My ship's AI locked the hatch to the Navigation Room. How did you get through?"

The green cushion faded as Composite floated to the ground. "So, what was that yellow thing?"

"What yellow think?"

"The toad thing dissolved into a yellow blob when we shot it, It flew into you and you absorbed it."

Samus swore, "That's an X parasite. It infects a host and copies its DNA. It is capable of emulating its host after killing it. I was infected recently, surviving only because of a vaccine created using cell cultures from an organism called a Metroid. I must report this immediately."

Composite jerked their weapon closer to lining up with Samus, "The last time a program told us that, he attacked us within a nanosecond."

"I have no orders to attack non-hostile organisms"

"We are not an organism," a wrist-mounted device appeared on Composite's left hand, projecting a pair of holograms appeared, "We are a fusion of a Mobian single-tailed fox and a Turing-class Artificial Intelligence. Clones of our sisters Camanion and Risa in fact. By the biological definition, we are not an organism."

"But you are currently non-hostile."

"Undeniable," Composite agreed, "But let's go to your Navigation Room."

Our visor clicked to clear transparency, revealing our face as we entered the well-lit Navigation Room. We shook our head to clear the spots from not switching off Night Vision fast enough. Samus started at our fox-like face. Samus stepped onto the central plate. It sank slightly under her weight. She faced the main display, which turned blue. We stepped forward, but Samus waved us back. It hadn't occurred to us, but she was slightly over a head taller than us.

A harsh metallic voice rang out, grating on us. "This isn't good… The X have spread at least to Main Deck. You barely survived your last encounter. Fortunately, the Metroid Vaccine has given you an advantage over the X. You are immune to infection, in fact, you can absorb them to recover energy and weapon ammunition. However, I'm picking up significant bio-signs in this area." A map of the deck scrolled and an objective mark appeared. The X are massing. Keeping them out of the breeding labs is top priority."

Samus nods, "Understood," She is clearly relieved at the fact that she hasn't been infected by the X, "I found a possible ally when exploring the quarantine bay," she gestures us forward, and we step onto the plate, "This is Composite. They seem to have significant combat power."

"They?" the AI asks.

"We are a symbiont of sorts."

"Understood. I'll keep an eye on you, but you can work with Samus."

"Though for the record, I work best alone," Samus comments.

"That makes two of us," we respond.

"Samus," the AI interrupts, "You are currently at 10% battle capacity. Your chance of survival is very low. I've unlocked level 0 security hatches. Look for the flashing doors. Now GO!"

The screen goes dark. We have, of course, memorized the map.

The previously locked door opens. We follow Samus out of the navigation room.

We jump up one platform, onto an overhang, onto yet another overhang, up two small platforms on a scaffolding and to a door. It has a flashing hatch. Samus opens the door by simply shooting it. We glance curiously at her and she simply shrugs. "I don't know why the doors open when they're shot. That's just how it works."

We walk into the room, slapping a DC-17 assault rifle mag into our shotgun. The long upper barrel shortens so that it is only. Slightly longer than its standard length and the stock emerging from the lower barrel shrinks and widens.

An X floats down and forms a hornoad. "Spread!" announces Samus. She jumps to the left and we cartwheel to the right, bringing our weapon in line and shooting it twice. It dissolves and Samus jumps forward, curling into a ball and absorbing the X. "Composite: 2, Me: 0" Samus comments, "Let's even it out a little shall we?"

"Only if you speed up!" We say with a laugh, our visor fading from the solid red of combat to the translucent red of danger.

We run up the stairs and shoot the door, almost surprised when it opens for us. The next room is empty but for a floating circular platform in the middle, "Any idea what that is?" We ask.

"Only one way to find out," Samus states, jumping onto the platform. It sinks down and, according to Samus transmits her biometrics to her ship. Pointless.

In the next room, Samus snipes a zombie and dashes forward to get the X. We hop up three platforms and eject the magazine from our shotgun. The barrels revert to their normal form. We jump up to the fourth platform, bowling over another zombie and blasting it in the head before it can react. "Go infect Samus," we tell the X that bounces fruitlessly off of our data shell. The little yellow blob floats away, seeming almost dejected.

The third platform leads to a door, blocked by a large barrier. Samus shoots it a few times, and none of our weapons dent it. We think for a minute and digitize an anti-armor grenade

AMMUNITION DETECTED : ANALYZING…
TYPE: ANTI-ARMOR GRENADE
FIRE RATE: LOW
DAMAGE: HIGH
READY

The bottom of our weapon, where a real shotgun would load shells, expands. We slide the grenade into the slot and slap it home. "Stand clear!" We announce, firing the grenade in an arc. It takes a chunk out of the barrier, which promptly regenerates. Four grenades later, we decide to give up.

Up two platforms and through a door is a Navigation Room. We step onto the plate with Samus.

"Samus, HQ have told me they can support you with downloadable weapons data. They can currently send you Missile data. Proceed to the Data Room." A new mark appears on the map, "With Missiles, your chance of survival rises to 20%."

We step off the platform and through the next door. Samus blasts two zombies before we can even bring our weapon into line, having previously reloaded the blaster ammo. We follow Samus up a few platforms and into a room with nothing but an elevator. We follow Samus onto the platform and press a button on the back. The elevator rises.

"You know, That computer reminds me of my former CO, Adam Malcovich. I remember during missions he used to call me 'Lady.' He was the only one who could call me that without it sounding sarcastic or belittling. Out of respect and irony, I'm calling the computer 'Adam,' but not to its face, as it were."

"Understood," we comment.

We follow Samus through a door, up an overhang, and into the navigation room, through the nav room and into a data room. It is brightly lit with a chamber in the middle. Samus steps in and the chamber activates, surrounding her in a yellow field of energy. She steps out and sends a missile into the ceiling, her arm cannon opening up into four parts and spinning slightly before closing into the normal configuration. She follows us back into the navigation room.

"You have your missiles. Good. Electrical interference has locked out the elevators. The X may have done this. I'll look into it. In the meantime, find another way to the target." Samus nods, we throw a sloppy salute and "Sir, Yes Sir!"

We walk out and spot a plate on the wall that begs for a good missile. Samus aims and fires. The panel clatters to the floor. We platform to it and jump through into a tall air duct. It was blocked by one of the barrier X. Samus blasts it with three missiles and it dissolved into a green X. Samus absorbs it and comments that it recharges two missiles. We follow her through several ducts and ladders. Along the way she picks up a missile expansion, giving her five more of the little beauties to play with and ducks into a side chamber, shooting around randomly until finding a second. We draw our katana and chase down a zombie, plunging the blades in, rotating them sideways, and slicing outward, much to the annoyance of the X parasite.

We emerge from the air ducts and shot a zombie. The two chambers leading up along a staircase contain a dead end and a floating platform room. The third door is at the same level as the duct. It is guarded by a zombie and some sort of eye-guard. It opens its eye and sometimes it peeks out, sometimes it shoots an energy wall. The zombie also keeps being reanimated by new X. We keep the zombie occupied while Samus waits for the eye to appear and shoots it with a missile, occasionally jumping an energy blast.

Samus absorbs a red X from the dead door guard and opens it. "Come on, let's go." We shoot after her on a wave of telekinetic energy. She climbs up a group of ledges, grabbing onto the edge and jumping to the next. We tuck our legs under us and follow on a cushion of power.

"Hey, what's that?" We ask, gesturing to a red sphere on the floor with a large 'E' on the side.

Samus pick it up and slip it into a slot in her right arm, "An Energy Tank. It increases the amount of damage my suit can take." She proceeds towards a hole in the floor.

"Wait," we said, noticing something on the ceiling. We divert full energy to cognitive functions, our head glowing brightly as our visual acuity increases significantly, "There's something up there," we pointed, "Try shooting it." Samus obligingly pumps two missiles into the spot, revealing a tunnel. She jumps up and emerges a moment later. We reset power and all our circuits equalize brightness.

"Energy Tank," she says, "Let's go." She jumps down the hole. We follow, breaking our fall and landing on the bottom of the hole… Which collapses under us, dropping us into a room. Samus drops from a ledge she grabbed just above the floor and snickers, "Saw that coming. Welcome to the club." Her expression changes.

"Our target is behind us, isn't it." We state, turning around. A large X hovers in the middle of the room, surrounded by a group of smaller X. The collection floats to the ground and turns into something like an armadillo. Samus's arm cannon opens into missile configuration and we slap in an anti-armor grenade. The creature screams and flings a sonic wave in front of it. We flow up and Samus grabs onto a ledge.

"Looks like the X have made some improvements," Samus comments, "last time I fought one of these it couldn't do that…." The creature throws a carpet o fire onto the ground before curling into a ball and surging towards the wall under Samus, "But it could do that," she finishes, jumping over its head and landing on her creature slams into the wall and whirls around. Samus shoots a missile at it. It screams in pain and we fire a grenade at it. The grenade arcs beautifully and slams straight into its underbelly. Samus leaps over it, dodging the shrapnel from the detonation. We create a telekinetic shield. The creature throws another fireball that we jump over. We continue to fire at its underbelly. After a minute, it dissolves into a large, shielded X. We slam a grenade into it and Samus puts two missiles into it. The shield disappears and Samus absorbs the resultant X. On landing she curls into a ball just over two feet tall.

COMPILATION JOB COMPLETE: BALL FORM READY

We pop up into the air, green energy swirling around us. When it fades, a ball about the same size drops to the ground.

"Great minds think alike," Samus comments.

We follow Samus down a small tunnel. We revert to Base Form and Samus comes out of ball form, jumping over a large pile of trash. We follow her through a series of passages, emerging in a familiar chamber. We took off, blasting zombies and beating Samus to the navigation room by a solid minute.

"So," Samus asked, "Shall we make our report?" She stepped onto the navigation room's platform and we followed.

The AI activated the screen, "Samus, Composite, it is as I feared…"

So… What happened? I'll have the answer up next week!.

As you may have noticed, Samus doesn't use any of her Other M melee junk, but Composite does whatever Composite darn well wants.

My guess for how I'm going to do my uploads during a mainline story is that there will be an upload on Saturday with the mainline story. There will be a minimum one spin-off such as Demon Admin every two weeks on Wednesday. If I have one, I'll put it up every week.

I'm sorry about the bad formatting last chapter. I'll have that sorted out by the time this chapter goes up. I forgot to finish my formatting after uploading.

I updated the list of Composite's known abilities to reflect the newest ones.

I forgot to mention this, but when Composite summons their ship is sort of a combination of the portals from Mortal Kombat and the Homeworld Hyperspace effect.

So until next time, this is SabaraOne, Logging Out!