Chapter One – Zebes
How am I still alive...? Samus pondered, just coming back into consciousness as a flock of her blonde hair fell down to her face. Entombed in her now heavy Gravity Suit, her weakness over the fact that her life had almost ended moments ago, she had little energy to move. Samus let out a slight grunt, it was difficult to prevent herself from falling unconscious. The Super Metroid... Samus mustered the strength to look slightly to see the Super Metroid, latched to the top of her head by the mandibles.
A projectile slammed into the Metroid and the creature recoils back, not letting go of Samus. She looked ahead of her and saw the cybernetic, mutated and enraged Mother Brain that she had engaged minutes earlier. Its head was glowing a salmon red, bare flesh, Samus could vaguely remember the Super Metroid having latched onto Mother Brain, absorbing its Laser Brain Attack and doing the same for Mother Brain's energy.
Samus then took notice of her own energy increasing. Samus looked up at the Super Metroid, another projectile impacted the creature, its colour darkening to a sickly yellow, its brain-like insides were a pained purple. Mother Brain continued her bombardment, however, once the Super Metroid had become bruised from the punishment it had taken, Mother Brain began charging her Laser Brain Attack, a whirring enveloped Samus' now restored hearing, her legs tensed. She then felt a sudden sense of falling and she looked up.
The Super Metroid had released Samus. Samus' eyes widened and an immense amount of dread filled her heart. The Super Metroid moved back from Mother Brain, began to tense itself, and charged for Mother Brain. Samus landed with a hard and heavy thud and she stared up at the Super Metroid whilst on one knee. Mother Brain launched a pulse of her Laser Brain Attack and time stood still for Samus for a moment as a weak and low chirp of pain emanated from the Metroid. Samus just stared with her mouth open and eyes widened, not breathing and heart not beating.
The Metroid started to fall slowly as it started to fall into small pieces, floating down almost only on Samus, who just glared where the Metroid once was. She was soon slowly covered in the blood and flesh of the Metroid that she had witness hatching on SR-388 and it taking on Samus as its mother.
Finally, Samus let out a gasp for air and she leaned down and looked at her hand, it was covered in the blood and membrane of the Metroid, she then let a single tear fall from her eye. Upon feeling it however, she snapped back to reality, she clenched her hand into a tight fist and her visor began to glow a vicious blue colour while her Gravity Suit began to pulse in the colours of the rainbow. Samus sharply stood and aimed her Arm Cannon and fired the most powerful beam that Samus had ever obtained, the Hyper Beam.
Upon impacting Mother Brain, the beast let out a shriek of pain and terror. Nothing Samus had in her arsenal could damage Mother Brain. Now that the tides had turned, Mother Brain was in a panic. Samus unleashed a hail of energy from her Arm Cannon, all without muttering a single word and standing in one place. Mother Brain could not even attempt to do anything, the impact of Samus' Hyper Beam sent Mother Brain's head reeling back, slamming into the wall with a thud, Samus did not feel satisfaction, nor did she feel pity nor remourse, all she knew was that Mother Brain had to die. Samus continued unleashing a hail of energy directly into the head of Mother Brain. Then, the beast's motion ceased, along with its sound. Samus interrupted her barrage to look at Mother Brain, after having an extreme sense of tunnel vision. Mother Brain was motionless in a gaze at Samus, jaw open and teeth exposed, however no noise could be heard. That was until the biological computer's added body began to fall apart and explode, its head detaching and falling to the floor with a heavy thud, in front of Samus, who simply looked back into the now deceased Mother Brain's lifeless eye. Its head reeled back. Samus aimed her arm cannon to the throat of the helpless beast, and fired. The head shattered into dust.
There was a moment of silence, Samus just stared at where Mother Brain's head disintergrated for moments. Alarms began to blare throughout the Tourian, bursting through the silence. A communications channel from her Gunship opened to Samus;
"WARNING: IMMINENT PLANETARY SELF-DESTRUCTION! EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!" A three minute countdown appeared on her heads-up-display and the wall ahead exploded, revealing a path.
"THREE MINUTES REMAINING!"
The entire facility started to shake violently and explosions could be heard. Samus bolted through the hole that appeared in the wall and the hallway ahead began to seal itself off. Instinctively, Samus fired her cannon at the sealed doors, and due to her still having the ability to fire the Hyper Beam, the seals were obliterated instantly. Samus ran down the hallway and through a door. She used her Speed Booster to dart around maze-like corridors and rooms littered with panicking Space Pirates, some attempting to prevent Samus' escape, others making their own. She quickly put many out of their misery whilst blasting passed the bodies that had been thrown from explosions.
Samus used her Space Jump ability to leap her way up through Tourian, gunning down any Space Pirate that crossed her path. Upon opening another door, heat began to bellow up from beneath the surface of which Samus stood on.
"TWO MINUTES REMAINING!"
Samus came up to a familiar escape shafts that lead to the surface, the same area that she went through to escape the last time she was on Zebes. Samus looked up at an exploding and steaming shaft and began to scale it, activating Space Jump to weave between platforms, steam, fire and metal. Samus landed on a platform, fired at the door above and jumped through. The door sealed locked behind her as Samus began to jump onto the now red and exploding soil of Zebes, some areas forming into molten lava.
Samus leaped onto a flat surface with the door to the outside in sight, however, four faint yellow icons appeared on Samus' radar. Extremely puzzled but having a gut feeling that innocent lives were in danger, Samus felt the obligation to investigate, even in life or death situations.
"ONE MINUTE REMAINING!"
Samus transformed into the Morph Ball and rolled down a small tunnel and came to a door that she had been to before, where she faced the first Torizo upon landing on this now soon to be erased planet. Samus blasted the door and sprinted down the hallway, coming to the room she fought the Torizo, only for it to be housed by the creatures that she had encountered earlier, assisting her in refining her abilities. Heat began to rise from below and upon noticing a weakened wall, Samus fired a beam of energy into it, a path revealing itself. The animals ran down the tunnel, however one remained, seemingly thanking Samus. She wasn't sure if she had truly saved the creatures, however given the reaction, she had concluded as much.
A nearby explosion rocked Samus, a rock striking her helmet with a clang, bringing her back to reality. Samus turned and blasted out of the room, leaped up to the door that led outside and opened it. The surface of Zebes was slowly morphing into a real version of hell, explosions and lava surrounded the land as far as the eye could see, clouds above like ash and lightning striking the earth. Floating above reddening soil and burning grass, Samus' Gunship opened its door to allow Samus in. She ran and hurled into the it.
Descending into the cockpit, Samus fired up the engines of her Gunship, lifted it up and sped her way off the planet, climbing through thundering clouds. Molten magma seeped onto the surface, along with violent explosions, launching debris miles into the sky, into the path of Samus' Gunship. Samus launched a missile from on board her ship and it impacted a large rock in the direction Samus headed. Samus flew through the dust of the rock.
The planet Zebes, once home to the Chozo and Samus Aran, imploded and then detonated with incredible force, exploding with unimaginable power. The explosion gave off light to which would rival its star in brightness and heat.
The light began to dim, and the silhouette of a spinning ship appeared, emerging from the chaos. Samus leaned back in the pilot's seat and let out a heavy sigh of relief. Learning from last time, she scanned the area for any hostiles, however only an unidentified ship relayed back, she looked at the object to see it flying off into the far reaches of space. Samus held slight confusion on her face as the ship was not recognisable. She sat down, able to fully relax, yet did not want to take the chance of her being caught weak, she kept her Power Suit active. She had finally accomplished the missions that she had been set out to do previously. Obliterate the Space Pirate base on Zebes, and wipe out the Metroid species. Her eyes opened upon the thought of the Super Metroid. The only thing that could even be remotely called family to Samus, gone.