The hospital hired Eli as a security measure. It was the best-paying job he'd ever had, dwarfing even the massive payday he'd just recieved from the GF for his previous mission along with the greivences he'd filed for restitution. Even so, he was pissed that he'd accepted a job that could potentially mean pulling the trigger on his heroine.

Samus had recieved a masssive dose of the chemical the Space Pirate called Necris Serum. It was the mutigen powerful enough to reanimate dead tissue and alter its compisition into the life-forms called NecWorms. According to the info the Eli and Dr Hornst's staff had been able to decipher about it, Samus had less than a 5% chance of coming out as a human.

The hospital had hired him to protect the other patients, and the Galactic Federation ammended the deal to state that should Samus change, Eli would recieve the treason bounty on her head if he brought her down. But the whole thing smelled like a conspiracy to Eli. He'd taken the job because he expected the GF to try to enforce the death penalty insinuated by the 'treason' she'd commited by destroying the X-Parasites and SRS-388's environment, both declared invaluable research materials to the Federation; as such, Eli was looking at himself as her bodyguard.

Eli laughed as he looked at the door to Samus' recovery room, "a B guarding and S? that's funny..." His head snapped to the bay-door every time it opened. He hadn't even removed his armor long enough for the hospital staff to check his ankle. Eli had set his helmet to proximtiy mode than moved over next to Samus' room. Eli allowed himself to drift off to sleep once he had set the hospital staff to clear without alerting him.

beep! beep! beep! beep! Eli brought his shock-cannon to bear on a man in a GF standard-issue trooper combat suit. Five men brought their weapons to bear on him.

"Woah cowboy!" the man with sergeant's stripes on his shoulder stepped between Eli and his target. "We're here to support you!"

"Bull-shit!" Eli knew the GF too well to believe that. "GF troopers aren't assigned as back-up to a B. it's the other way around, since the GF thinks their D-level peons can do better than us..."

"That's cold, son"

"I've seen this game before."

"Game, son?"

"Yes. On Menah, the locals would always 'back-up' assasins, then when they take out the target, they kill the assassin and take all the glory saying the target overwhelmed them and they saved the day."

"We aren't-" the sargeant started.

"I didn't request back-up," Eli interrupted, "and you're a green squad anyways."

"How do you know we're green?"

"Did you guys see what my active weapon was?"

"It wasn't your cannon?"

"Nope, grapple beam... you guys failed. Get out."

"You cant tell us to leave!"

"No," Dr Hornst cut in, " but I can. I authorized Eli to be on my floor, and no other armed forces. I am asking you to leave."

"Doctor. I'm sure you are aware that there is a dangerous criminal in that room... correct?"

The sergeant's latest comments were more than enough to confirm the reason for the GF's presence in the facility. Eli flicked his blade into combat position under the pretense of inspecting it, he got the feeling he was about to need it. "we ALL owe our lives to Samus Aran, Sergeant."

"Be that as it may, she disobeyed direct orders."

Eli ran his fingers along the length of his blade, "bounty hunters all have a code they follow. If I were capable of even half of her feats, I'd have blown up the satellite once I realized the danger the parasite posed. Life over science is a principle she and I share."

The sergeant paused, this was a different version of the story than he'd heard.

"Oh yes," Eli adopted a cynical tone, "the GF lies its ass off sometimes. Ever heard their description of Menahrites? ... according to them, we are all ruthless and shameless blood-money dealers, some of the extremist factions of the Federation say that we are a rebellion waiting to happen... did you know that the GF started the war with the Pirates?"

"Why does this all matter, Eli?" Dr Hornst asked.

"Think about it," Eli released the safeties on his shock-cannon, he was now guilty of slander and bordering on public beligerance. "I know the GF's version of the story: Samus' Metroid implants transferred their preditory instincts to her, causing her to desperately thirst for the destruction of all X's. She is supposedly a dangerous animal, and yet, the GF still hired her to rescue me when I got screwed because of their misinformation... Odd, isn't it, that they'd hire their most wanted criminal for a rescue mission of someone they are confident a single squad could defeat?"

"Mr. Trace, I'd suggest that you check your attitude." The sergeant no longer warned, but threatened, "our orders are to make sure she doesn't leave this room out of our custody."

Eli chuckled and lowered his arms, making it obvious to the security cameras that he wasn't outwardly threatening the soldiers. "Capture Samus?"

the man nodded

"you guys couldn't even take me."

One of the privates had heard enough of the young man's arrogant commentary. He stepped forward and swung. Eli knew that the GF Combat-suits amplified human strength to lethal levels, this was the exact attack he was hoping for. he slid his left foot back to avoid the attack, and brought his blade up through the man's neck. "Sergeant, your men just attacked a civilian on a GF-sponsored mission without orders or provocation... If you don't want me to take out the rest of your squad under the pretense of self-defense I suggest you do as both Dr Hornst and I have told you to do."

Even the sergent had his weapon pointed at Eli's head. "Boy, as I said, we have orders. You will move and let us pass or we will remove you."

Eli shrugged, never raising his weapons. He knew that they'd attack first, and that would be on camera, so at least he wouldn't have assaulting military personnel on the list of his crimes.

The Sergeant sighed, "intent to capture. however, lethal force approved."

Dr. Hornst stepped in between them all, "There are far too many innocents! I will not allow this to happen!"

The door of Samus' room opening stopped the battle before it happened. Her blonde hair was now white with black streaks, her skin pale with strange tribal-tatto like marks weaving across it, and her eyes had become red.

"What the hell?" Eli asked

"My God!" Dr Hornst exclaimed

"Men, hold your fire!" The sergeant ordered uncertain if he should have just let them attack or not.

Samus yawned and rubbed her eyes sleepily, "will you please keep it down?" she asked, exhaustion filling her voice. "I'm trying to sleep in here."

"Samus," Dr Hornst asked, "How are you feeling?"

"A little tired, but I'm fine." She told him. Then Samus smiled at Eli, "I know I owe you for that."

"Are you sure you're ok?"

Samus eyed the scene warily. In an instant she knew that the GF-troopers had come for her and Eli was trying to stop them. "I'm fine. Why?"

"Look in the mirror," Eli instructed

Samus raised and eyebrow questioningly before stepping up to inspect her reflection in Eli's helmet. Her face changed expressions each time she blinked: fear, concern, facination, curiosity, Eli picked up on each of these. "What happened?"

"It's likely a side-effect of the Necris Serum," Dr Hornst explained. "It interacted with the dead cells in your body, but instead of the reaction resulting in NecWorms, this happened... Facinating, actually."

"Samus Aran!" The sergeant commanded the attention of the room. "You are accused of teason and evasion of justice! You will come peacibly with us and we will bring you before the Galactic Council! Refusal will be met with violence."

Samus scoffed and looked at Eli, who nodded. She walked back into her room, "you'll let me get dressed, won't you?"

"Of course, under supervision."

"No," Eli rebuked, "there aren't any women in your squad. my code as a man-of-honor wouldn't allow me to give a man the chance to see such a thing. it would be quite rude to Samus."

"Stay out of this Trace!" the Sergeant barked, "your contract is terminated!"

"Fine by me... but do you really wanna release the only thing stopping me from killing you?"

"You wouldn't even-"

Eli smiled beneath his visor as the sound of glass breaking interrupted the sergeant, "would you care to re-hire me to chase her?"