18: Corruption

Upon landing on K-2L, the grass and soil under me had turned to phazon. The air around me seemed to become blue as well. Within eyesight, I saw Sam walking about field of phazon prairie grass she had created. Behind me a portal opened up and spat out Vela.

"You actually went and had the planet create a core in you. I knew you would."

"Yes and shut up. Your peer pressure had no effect on my decision. It was entirely a conscious choice."

"Well I guess we just have to contact the ground, and it will corrupt through our beings, like Sam said, the planet said."

By this time Sam had disappeared from sight, but her field remained. As I finished my sentence, I felt a sudden, sharp pelvic pain, almost like going into labour. I felt pushing coming from inside my uterus. I pressed on my hips to disengage the leg section of my suit. When it dissolved back into my body, I ripped off the legs to my elastic zero suit. The pushing became more intense and more frequent, until a smaller, darker blue version of the core in the leviathan burst out of me. The parasite remained attached to me and began to look around. After a few seconds the parasite shot a beam of phazon that reached 100m in the air, and than spread outward. The beam also penetrated the earth below it to reach the planets core. The parasite thrust itself back inside me and added even more phazon into my system. Just before I passed out, I saw that Vela had stripped off her leg's armour and her skirt while another parasite had burst from her. I also noticed my parasite thrust out and detach, heading for the hole it had created.

"What the fuck are you and why did you burst from my vagina?"

I aimed my arm cannon at it and pressed the trigger to fire at it. The primary energy function was not working, nor were the secondary missiles. My vaginal parasite shot a beam into the planets core and into its atmosphere. When it stopped the beam the parasite crawled back into me and began to vibrate and release phazon into my system. When it stopped vibrating, it thrust back out of me and detached. Although I blacked out, I knew that the parasite had dropped down the hole just like Samus' had.

I awoke to a passed out Vela and a still missing Sam. My legs were still exposed but the skin had become almost cobalt instead of the pale-blue my skin was after letting myself become corrupted for Vela. The armour on my chest had become bluer but the orange trim from my gravity suit was still visible. It was raining liquid phazon and where the raindrops splashed, grew simple phazon moss as the starting of the self-sufficient corruption of my home world. Deep within the tunnel that the parasite bore, I could see a pulsating blue light, that was beginning to turn the core, mantle, and crust into phazon. Soon, if the rains kept coming and the parasites in the core could work their magic, this planet would become another phazon planet. I reengaged my leg's armour just as Vela was stirring. Her flesh was almost cobalt coloured as well, meaning that when the parasite re-entered out bodies it corrupted us further, but not enough to take our free-wills. There was a puddle of phazon near Vela's right leg, but no trace of a cut on her leg. The phazon that now makes us must be very quick in self-healing. As she regained consciousness, she seemed to go on instinct to remove her helmet and eat some of the phazon moss and drink the rain to replace what she had lost to that cut.

"Did that really happen the parasite in our bodies?"

"Yes it did look, your flesh is cobalt, and see the moss, rain, and narrow shafts? The parasites are real and are efficiently doing what they need to do to corrupt this planet. Apparently either Sam or the phazon planet lied to us about what would happen as to the corrupting of other planets."

"Where is Sam anyway?"

"I saw her when I arrived but I lost her during your arrival and my labour. She's likely back on the phazon planet."

"We need an actual name for that planet. How about something like Phaaze?"

"I like it. It easy to remember that as the master planet and we could just add an asterisk and a capital 'p' to any planet we make into another Phaaze. Like K-2L*P. You know that you haven't re-armoured your legs, right?"

She pressed on her hip to reengage the armour over her legs. In a few seconds, her cobalt flesh was no longer visible. While she was redressing, I pressed on the weapon select button and a new division appeared on my visor screen. When I ran the cursor over it and clicked it, a screen of text appeared. It read, 'Portal Generation: select symbol from weapon select, select one of three methods to arrival destination (envision location, enter coordinates, or select from list.) After selecting destination, squeeze trigger and release to generate portal. Portal beam can be charged to create larger portals for ships. Portals do not have a vacuum affect and will close after a target has entered, or after two minutes.'

"Samus, Samus! How do we get back?"

"We can generate portals. On your weapon select the is another symbol. Click it than envision Phaaze. When you have a stable image of Phaaze, squeeze the trigger in your arm cannon and release, than step through the portal."

I selected the portal again, this time the text screen did not appear, and my arm cannon changed shape. The entire cannon widened to support the energies to create the portal. I pictured the open room on Phaaze where we had been previously. When I squeezed the trigger, a narrow white beam shot forth, travelled two metres, than expanded into a portal large wide enough to take Vela and I as we stood abreast.