Eli's head hit the floor as he was thrown into the cell, causing little lights to flicker around his already hazy vision. His body was on fire from the torture and drugs used during his questioning. It seemed that even after 8 days of captivity, the Space Pirates were still convinced that he wasn't who he said he was, he was hiding something. It was impossible that he was Eli Trace, 'Eli' wasn't good enough to take on the ASF-13 Security Drone by himself.

Eli chuckled to himself, the abuse coupled with being called a liar reminded him of his step-father. A dispicible man that, for some reason or another, his mother loved. Theo Trace was the first criminal that Eli ever killed to collect a bounty, that was when he was 15.

Thoughts of his past came flooding into Eli's mind. Even as a child, he'd shown a strong sense of justice. he'd been the 'bully hunter' in his neighborhood, and he'd narc on those he couldn't take down himself. His father died in the line of duty when his SWAT unit found a drug ring and moved in to bust them, he took a plasma bolt to the chest during the brief skirmish. At age ten, Eli's name changed from Ryez to Trace when his mother remarried. at first, Theo seemed to be a... sufferable person, Eli found out soon enough how wrong that impression was.

After five years of abuse, Eli had enough. After school one day, he'd overheard a shifty looking character inquiring after Theo Trace, claiming to be after the price on his head. The teenaged boy knew this was his answer, and grabbed a knife from the kitchen as he dropped his backpack to the floor. he marched straight to the tool shed in the backyard, where Theo would find clever ways to smuggle drugs and other illegal contraband. He called out to the man who'd tormented every moment of his homelife for the past five years, and once Eli looked him in the eye, he put the knife between his ribs. It was quite a sight when the 15 year old boy was dragging the body of his step-father into the town square and up the stairs of the police station, demanding the bounty.

It was once his mother disowned him and threw him out of the house that his favorite memories began, it was when he first began Hunting. Hunting was all he had, and there was always some petty criminal or gangster with a price on their head. after all, his home world of Menah was known for its underworld connections. A motel owner who had been a friend of his father gave him one of the rooms to live in at a quarter of the normal price, since Eli was too young to own or rent anywhere else.

After four months, Eli'd been able to save enough to buy his ship from a junkyard, and thus began living in that. By his seventeenth birthday, he'd fixed his ship and aquired a Bounty Hunting License from the Federation, allowing him to take official jobs posted on the Fed-Net. He took after his work with a passion: bodyguard, SWAT-assists, escorting convoys, and info hunting.

Around his eighteenth birthday, he had his first run-in with Maurader. It was during his first trip out of the Menah System, an escort mission for a medical shipment. the shipment was Asterlin, a chemical compound that was a very potent, nearly cure-all, medicine; however, if properly processed it became the primary ingredient in a dangerously addictive drug. As they passed by a nebula, the radioactive energies interfered with the sensors on his ship. Before he had any warning, swift-attack ships damaged all of the primary systems aside from life-support, leaving him stranded and helplessly drifting for nearly a week.

The confrontation taught Eli that he wasn't invicible. Before he'd finished emptying his bank account to fix his ship, he'd swore a vendetta against the criminal organization known as Maurader. He took any job that would hinder Maurader, within a month, every member of the syndicate knew his name; within a year, he had nearly brought them to their knees.

It was at the point that Eli had reduced them to barely more than a well armed street gang, that he allowed the locals to have the leftovers. He left the system in search of 'bigger fish', this was when he'd first heard of Samus Aran, who had recently defeated some strange organisms know as the X-parasites. Everything he'd hear about her was unreal, but the equally unreal bounties on her head seemed to confirm them. If somebody would manage to bring her in, to the Space Pirates especially, one would be able to live a life of luxury without ever needing to work again.

As Eli began drifting back and forth between conciousness the airlock of the cell block hissed open, and the guard was dispatched by a single missle. Eli groggily turned his head to find the source of the disturbance, and was convinced he was having a drug induced hallucination. the legendary orange armor stood in front of his cell as a hand was brough up to the visor, causing it to change colors. after a moment, the figure nodded affirmitively, "Eli," a woman's voice came through the external speakers of the power suit.

"you can't really be here," he said as he turned away from the cell door, "the drugs are making me see things again."

his cell door slid open and a strong grip lifted him to his feet and pressed a pneumatic injector into the base of his spine.

after a few seconds, Eli felt the fog starting to lift from his mind. He would have pinched himself, but the pain in his body told him he wasnt dreaming. "You're... really here? Are you really Samus?"

"come on," the figure turned towards the door, "let's get you out of here."