Evolution Confusuion Chapter 1 (Metroid)

Raven Beak, with collected DNA from the phason clone, the x parasite clone, and the original Samus has managed a stable clone; one that seems to have evaded ZDR’s collapse only moments after Samus.

OR

Months after escaping ZDR Samus thinks things have finally gone back to normal; that she can finally return to her normal hunts and bounties. The awakened metroid dna plagued her, riddled her with nightmares, but Adam and her suit seem to have been able to help her regulate it all. It seemed to be capable of handling it until yet another mysterious Samus clone appears.

Chapter 1

*SAMUS… this planet’s reedings reflect that you are not the only bounty hunter to have arrived as of late!* Adam announced within her headset.

Samus’s eyebrows jolted up. Another hunter? This far on the outer reach? But? Who? Why? More peculiar yet, she wasn’t even on an actual mission or hunt. No, this trek was personal.

Who else could care to make the trek all the way out to the old Chozo homeworlds?  Of course she had a reason- ensuring there were no more hold outs like Raven Beak- or hopefully more like Quiet Robe Oh, for all the planets in the ever expanding sky, she desperately hoped any hold outs would be more akin to Quiet Robe and less like Raven Beak. The fight with Raven had been hard enough; desperately fought till she was drawing on her final energy tank… and even then… it was only the metroid within her that saved her.

Samus shook her shoulders in her suit, desperately trying to shrug off the memories of what she had become in the wake of the grueling fight. Of course, that didn’t work. Of course, Samus only felt dread swell deeper in her gut as she thought back to the X parasite mimicking Quiet Robe that saved her. Whatever the answer was, Samus needed to know; she needed to discover if any other Chozo had survived. She certainly hoped not to be forced to repeat what happened with Raven Beak. Killing what was certainly one of the last Chozo… it hurt, shattered one of the faile remnants of her humanity. But it didn’t matter how she felt for it- how much she appreciated what they had done for her. If there were more rogue Chozo seeking to revive the metroids; to threaten all life across all galaxies… she could not let that pass.

*Please, beware, presumptively hostile lifeform(s) have recently passed through this area recently Samus.* Adam chimed and snapped the bounty hunter from her thoughts.

Great… Samus sighed as different tracks of what looked to be humanoid boot prints highlighted on her visor. If the federation found anything of te Chozo- no! No, it couldn’t have been them. The federation never ventures so far out into the reach. Somehow, ruling them out as the potential intruder didn’t make Samus feel all that much better.

As Samus proceed, she followed the tracks, her cannon raised and charging a beam for whatever hostels she might come across. Each step lead her further down and into the abandoned corridors of the old Chozo facilities. She could remember playing and running around, all her training. It was quite the nostalgic experience; almost enough to distract her from just how similar the tracks were to her own. Could it be another of the Chozo robots? Like the ones she had fought on ZDR? Or maybe… another Chozo themselves? Again, the question, friend or foe built in Samus’s mind.

Tired of the hesitant hunt, Samus charged her boosters, she picked up her speed and launched with a shine spark.

Breaths reverberated in Samus’s visor and Adam continued to highlight the tracks for her as she zoomed away.

*Samus! Proceed with caution! Trace amounts of Chozo dna detected*

*Samus! Proceed with caution! Trace amounts of Metroid dna detected*

*Samus! Proceed with caution! Trace amounts of phazon energy detected*

*Samus! Proceed with caution! Trace amounts of human dna detected*

Adam blared all four announcements over each other and Samus could barely make them all out- barely, but she could. Above all, phazon energy caught her attention. She hadn’t encountered that since… and she thought she had gotten rid of it completely. Slamming her fist on the ground, Samus came to a halt and stored all her inertial in the form of a shine spark. Whatever it was, whatever was here, she could take it down. After all, despite this land being the Chozo’s it was also Samus’s home. Any beast who threatened to invade Samus’s home deserved to be-

*Warning! Atypical hormonal spike detected. Report back to the ship for more diagnostics* Adam snapped Samus from her territorial thoughts only a moment before something caught her eye- green… the same green as her arm cannon.

Without thinking- almost entirely on instinct, Samus raised her arm and blasted at where she had spotted the movement, the hint of the familiar green. Disintegrated vegetation collapsed in it’s spot, but again, from the corner of her visor, Samus spotted- a ball? A morph ball! Had someone else gotten another of the Chozo armor suits? The morph was too small to be a Chozo.

Emotion shot through Samus. Once more without thinking; without thinking anything other than that this was her childhood home after loosing her parents, she darted her cannon to the ball and shot.

Samus should have known. After so many encounters. The X parasite, and the phazon clone, she should have expected it.  But, for whatever reason, it caught her off guard just as much as it had the first time when she saw her mirror image backflip from the morph ball and land on it’s feet.

“Who are you! Where did you get one of my power suits!” Samus yelled and powered a wave blast.

The figure said nothing, she did not speak, she barely even reacted- well, she didn’t react aside from a flinch till, the wave blast hit full charge. The moment it did, the mirror rushed for her. Reflexively, Samus released the blast, but the adversary deflected it.

The mysterious creature followed up with a barrage of storm missiles, each targeting a different vital area. With a curse under her breath, Samus blasted two of the missiles out of the air and dodged two more, only to be slammed from behind by the fifth and final projectile.

*Warning Samu-* Adam tried to inform her of something, but Samus tuned the program out and dismissed his notification before it could even finish. She didn’t care what Adam had to say! This! This imposter! It intruded on her home! Whoever they were, they had no place, and she had to protect the Chozo ruins!

Slamming her fist on the ground once more, Samus made her choice. This intruder NEEDED to be delt with. The shine spark glittered around her as she momentarily levitated with energy and- and- the intruder glittered with energy and levitated too. Terror spiked through Samus as she realized it was too late to change direction, they were both about to launch at each other and-

Samus remembered the corridor and the Chozo writings that covered the walls blurring around her. She remembered the sight of the imposter shooting into her. She remembered the heinous crack of her helmet and the wailing sound of her power suit on it’s last energy tank to keep itself together. The world seemed to spin as Samus tried to lift herself off the ground. Her visor was cracked. The odor of the forgotten planet soaked her mind and brought back so many memories. Her training, running around as a child, the way the Chozo took her in and cared for her. And… and… this intruder! Samus saw red as she swung her legs up and around to land on her feet with a flourish. Just as she found her footing she spotted the imposter struggling to their feet.

Again, Samus shouldn’t have been surprised. She shouldn’t have been so caught off guard. Samus had seen it twice before. What was a third? For whatever reason, it was stunning, enough to make Samus hesitate to strike. Maybe she would never grow accustomed to seeing her own face staring her down. Samus blinked. She tried to take the sight in. Something about the sight was wrong- wronger than staring into her own eyes… the imposter was… different. Her jawline was slightly harsher. Cheeks and chin seemed to have something covering her chin and cheeks. Not only that, her eyes… they glimmered green like the body of a metroid.

Samus was too caught up in analyzing the imposter to strike. Instead, the imposter charged her first. Samus tried to deflect when the duplicate approached, but her timing was off. Her timing was off and the other didn’t strike. No arm cannon, no missiles, no shine spark or even morph ball bombs. Insted the duplicate tackled Samus down, grabbed her by her shoulders and forced them both to the ground. Closer up, Samus could see that the other being was not a perfect copy. It was certainly her… but… she looked different. Not only that, the other her panted heavily; like she had been running for hours and only just had the chance to catch her breath. Her eyes glimmered and… and Samus felt something pull at her- at her abdomen- no… lower- it seemed like some part of her tugged or was tickled in the oddest of ways and.

“You!” The replicant accused between breathy pants.

Suddenly Samus could feel that her heart was pounding- it thudded so hard she could barely hear the other being’s breaths, much less herown which were completely drowned out. The sensation in her core doubled! Metroid! Adam warned her that this being could have metroid dna- it certainly did given how similar it looked to her! Samus attacked, she tried to swing her cannon at the imposter, but the other her blocked it and pinned her cannon down to the ground.

“Y- you! Me!” It accused and almost seemed like it was confused or in pain- maybe both.

Whatever the imposter was going through, Samus felt no sympathy for it in the moment. It had invaded her home and nearly killed them both. In an act of desperation, Samus kicked up at the fake, knocking it off of her and giving her just enough time to escape. Thank the stars the sensation in her core simmered down at that. There was no knowing what damage a metroid being could do if it wanted to absorb her… there was in fact knowing- the damage would be death, but being part metroid herself, Samus did not like to think about that; about the death and harm she harbored in her existence.

“Beak-” The imposter cracked out in a voice very similar and still not the same as Samus’s before Samus sprayed a volley of quick cannon shots at it.

The imposter didn’t dodge. It didn’t move in the slightest. No, it’s eyes just glimmered the haunting green and almost seemed to even water before Samus’s volly knocked the imposter back.

Samus’s jaw dropped. Since when had taking down copies of herself been so easy- never… nothing was ever that easy. She readied her arm cannon and prepared a storm missile blast. Her visor was broken, but Samus could still hear the sound of her suit’s lock on clicking as it found every weak spot of the copy. No mercy! This was her home! Her nest! She needed to have no mercy she-

The copy, with clear effort and pain looked up. It’s eyes blinked and for a moment Samus saw the same innocence of her child in it’s eyes; the hatchling metroid she had saved all those years ago; the one who sacrificed itself to save her.

Rage, unreasonable, illogical rage still boiled in Samus’s veins. This was her home! Her nest! None but her and the Chozo should ever return to this planet! She could still feel all her rage and fury and despite it, she depowered her arm cannon, disarmed her missiles and even began to lower the weapon. Samus couldn’t explain it. She couldn’t explain it in the slightest. And she certainly couldn’t explain what came next.

The clone spoke something- a Chozo word Samus had years since forgotten. She likely could have heard and understood if the clone had done any more than mouthed the singular word, but she didn't have the time to process it. How could she when the clone began to glow so brightly it damn near blinded her. Worse yet, she recognized the horrible sight when the lights died down and she could see again. She dreaded it- never wanted to see it ever again. It was her; the mirror image if her after her bout with Raven Beak. A version of her, overcome with the metroid dna. If… if this other version of her could-

Once more, the clone mouthed the word lingering in the back on Samus's mind. She knew it, recognized it, but… somehow… it still eccaped her.

Passively, Samus knew the danger. She knew how easily a power hungry parasite clone of her could decimate worlds much less a single her.

The copy screamed! Howled! It- it was in pain? Scared! Samus- though incredibly stoic and rare to let it slip, was more than familiar with the sight. Fear. She had certainly felt it in the wake of her encounter with Raven Beak, but she also-

Energy exploded from the mimic’s arm cannon. It shot, her cannon blasting as the force clearly knocked her off balance. Samus only narrowly avoided it, her heart racing, and the pull back at her core. She could feel it- the attraction. It must have been due to the metroid dna in the copy. It must have evolved to parasitize her power even from a distance! That was the only explanation for how her guts twisted and fought at her. Her whole body seemed to protest running- and not just for what it did to her pride- though of course that protested her retreat as well. No, the pull of the parasite must have been what had whole fucking existance protesting as she ran.

End of Chapter 1