Chozo Identity Crisis - Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don’t own the copyrights to Metroid, but the person who does is probably a very rich man. I will use characters in and from the Metroid series, but I do not take credit for making them up, although I do take credit for the characters I do make up, like General Kreejn and Commander Ihkiyuk. There will be other characters introduced in this Fan-Fic, those existing in the series and those not. I will also take several liberties with this story, so don’t bug me about accuracy like a half-blind bookish scholar (stereotype!) who tries to point out that Samus is really a guy, and has no idea what the heck he’s talking about. So, with further ado, enjoy this Fan-Fic. (Or not. It kinda depends on what mood you’re in….)

----------------------------------------===================-----------------------------------------

<We have a visitor> Adam chimed.

Great. Another task, another week of battling and destroying.  Heaving a great sigh, Samus Aran, the great bounty hunter of the Galactic Federation, settles back into her command chair, glancing at the other pilot chair to her left. Empty, as usual.

<The ship is a stolen Federation craft, the Delano 7, piloted by Sylux. Target is closing fast. Evasive maneuvers recommended>

“Not yet, Adam. Let’s see what he wants first. Change course to the nearest planetoid without harmful atmosphere. Open a channel with our visitor.”

<Yes, Ma’am>

Suddenly finding the soft command chair uncomfortable, Samus pushed herself up and paced in front of the video screen. Realizing she shouldn’t embarrass herself in front of another bounty hunter in her zero suit, she quickly went over to the transparent field behind which her Varia suit was kept. Beside it were other suits, collected over her missions. She preferred the Varia suit most. It felt natural. Punching in a quick command into a side panel, the suit, as if by magic, materialized from behind the storage container to cover Samus’s body, conforming itself to her figure and booting up systems. That done, she casually placed herself in a daunting position in front of the view screen.

<Connection made. Visual in a few seconds>

“Thank you, Adam. That will be all for a while,” Samus spoke clear and direct, the words coming without thinking.

The screen went black, and slowly materialized into a figure, the background shrouded in darkness. The figure was clad in a blue suit with shoulder spikes, with no attached arm weapons, and glowing green lines running up and down the body. The helmet was blue, with a T of green lines to serve as a small visual connection to the surrounding world.

“So, Samus Aran, we meet again. You disappoint me, fighting for a power-hungry government. I thought you would know better than that,” Sylux’s cool words and soft-spoken voice send chills down Samus’s back; the voice was strangely familiar.

“What do you want, Sylux? You have the chance to surrender yourself now, or I’ll have to arrest you for stealing, murder,…”

“Heh,heh,heh,” Sylux’s cold laugh shoves a dagger of ice through Samus’s heart. “You don’t learn easy, do you? I’m not here to surrender. I’m here to level debts. You owe the space pirates, and I’m here to collect the payment. So prepare yourself for battle, Samus Aran. I’ll be waiting.”

The screen blacked out, leaving Samus looking at a reflection of herself in the black void that was space. An interesting proposal he had. This wasn’t an assignment, and she could use some relax time.

<Target changing course. Current trajectory is aimed at the planetoid you set as a destination earlier. Change in course recommended>

Samus frowned. Why would Adam recommend a change in course? He had heard the battle proposal just as clearly as she had. Samus opened her mouth to speak, but instead walked over to a recharge station, where she selected weapons she would want, and punched the nozzle of her arm cannon into a special port, quickly downloading the information and ammo supplies. She then sat down in the command chair and waited to land.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Kreejn paced in front of the view screen. He occasionally stopped to check various instruments, fine tuning them again and again. He stopped and glared down a soldier who had just entered the room. General Kreejn was a Space Pirate to be reckoned with, fierce in battle and diplomacy, a force only second to Ridley, his commanding officer. With his commanding officer currently undergoing regeneration processes, he was in charge.

“Well, soldier, speak or I’ll rip your tongue out with my toes, after you’re long dead! Don’t just stand there, talk to me!” Kreejn’s vice echoed around the room as he towered over the cowing soldier. All movement froze as the surrounding Space Pirates watched in high amusement.

“Sylux has confirmed contact with enemy Samus Aran, and is landing on nearby planetoid. Visual in a few minutes. Samus Aran is following,” the unfortunate soldier replied.

Kreejn glared at him, and the terrified soldier scurried away as the surrounding officers and commanders laughed. Scowling at everyone else, the general soon gained silence from the crowd of military personnel. Gradually returning to the usual business, the room filled with the sound of work. Kreejn liked that sound; it meant progress was being made. He returned to his console. Sylux was being used to get to Samus’s DNA. If only he knew how he was being manipulated to get to Samus. Oh, well. This would all be done with shortly, with him in command of the Space Pirates. Grinning wickedly, he imagined what kind of power that would give him. But Ridley would have to be taken care of. No, that would not give him satisfaction. He would need to do better than that. Thinking hard, he exited the command room and made his way back to his private quarters. He needed to think this out. Every detail.

-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The landing gear engaged and pushed against the hard stone as the ship lowered itself with expert precision into the rough canyon floor. Samus was raised via an energy lift from the cockpit to the outside world, and she stretched, enjoying the freedom each world visit allowed her. Then, focusing on her self-given mission, she departed for Sylux’s ship.

________________________________________________________________________


Sylux relaxed on the large rock he had perched upon. He switched to his energy visor, which received all kinds of different energy and recognized different energy signatures automatically. He set it to receive electrical impulses, and watched Samus’s suit, outlined by its energy signature, through the canyon walls as she made her way to the wide area he had selected for their battleground.

________________________________________________________________________


Samus stopped. Something wasn’t right. A feeling deep inside her surfaced, a feeling that had saved her countless times from ambushes and attacks. She continued with caution, scoping out each area before going on.

________________________________________________________________________


Sensing the element of surprise was gone, Sylux stood up and moved to the top of a boulder in the center of the canyon, in plain sight, and waited.

________________________________________________________________________


Halting at the beginning of a turn, Samus stopped and switched visors. The Dark Visor worked best in dark areas, but it would also highlight her enemies in bight red, giving her an advantage in accuracy. After she did that, she launched herself around the bend, arm cannon charged and ready to fire.

________________________________________________________________________


Sylux watched in half amusement as Samus dove around the corner, charging a shot. He shook his head and jumped off the boulder.

“Samus Aran, I was beginning to think you weren’t going to show up,” Sylux chided.

“You won’t be so cocky when I’m done with you, Sylux. I let you get away back in the Alimbic system. I won’t be so lenient this time,” Samus replied.

“Really? I thought you were just too slow to catch up. But, on to business. The rules of this battle are simple. Power beam, missiles, and one affinity weapon. Any other weapons are banned, on your honor. But since you don’t have a natural affinity weapon, I’ll let you choose one. Any suit technology is legit. Oh, and one more thing; I won’t be going easy this time,” Sylux pointed his arm cannon barrel at Samus as he said the last words, a challenge any hunter would recognize instantly.

________________________________________________________________________


Samus quickly scanned Sylux; something was different about him. Suit expansion? Modification? Samus would soon find out. A 2-D image dominated half of Samus’s visor. It displayed a stolen Federation technology suit, with dual arm cannons. Dual arm cannons? Last time, he had only one. Grapple beams, new visors, more powerful beam weapons, and a new technology she had not encountered before. She was going to enjoy this fight. Smiling to herself, Samus returned the arm cannon challenge, and quickly fired several shots at Sylux.

Sylux dodged to the side, Samus’s shots following him as he ran a circle around her. He shot a grapple towards the top of the canyon about 50 feet up, catching the edge of the cliff. Pulling himself up, he reached the edge and clambered over. Disappearing out of sight, Sylux quickly engaged his left arm cannon and started to charge missiles in both cannons. Meanwhile, Samus attempted the same feat, pulling herself up her own grapple beam. Sylux leaned over the cliff and shot both charged shots directly at Samus, who was almost at the top. Unable to move out of the way, Samus took both hits and engaged morph-ball mode, hitting the ground with a sickening thud.

Jumping off the canyon edge, Sylux curled up and transformed into Lockjaw, his alternate form. His dual blades pointed at the ground, Sylux rushed towards Samus. Rolling away quickly, Samus changed out of morph-ball, stood up and charged her missile. Missing his target, Sylux quickly hovered away, down the center of the canyon. Sensing he was running away, Samus fired the charged missile after him, missing by inches. Sylux sped towards a distant cave in the canyon wall, disappearing into it as Samus took aim. With her dark visor, Samus could see Sylux clearly, but then Sylux activated a disruptor in his suit, causing Samus to see nothing but popcorn static. Switching visors, Samus stopped running and peered into the gloom.

Sylux watched her as she tried to make out images in the darkness. He stood perfectly still, even as she fired into the dark, hoping to get a lucky shot. Seeing that she wasn’t going anywhere with that tactic, she switched weapons. Sylux readied his dual blasters, preparing to annihilate Samus.

Samus took careful aim with the Imperialist. The zoom capability helped her take precise shots. She had picked it up in the Alimbic system, and knew from experience that Sylux was vulnerable to the Imperialist’s shots.

Sylux grew tired of waiting. He shifted his wait from one foot to another.

Her eyes accustomed to the darkness in the cave ahead of her, Samus stood very still, waiting for movement. As Sylux shifted his weight, Samus pulled the trigger. The red beam shot out of her arm cannon, the noise of the shot echoing off the canyon walls, sending a flock of airborne creatures in the opposite direction.

Sylux took the shot in the neck. It wasn’t a head shot, but it was nearly as bad as one. Sylux’s vision swam, and he swooned. Dazed, he began charging his arm cannons.

Samus charged him, ramming into him. Knocked off balance, he fell to the ground. Samus charged her arm cannon and pointed it at his head.

Sylux opened his eyes to be greeted by a large ball of energy on the end of Samus’s arm cannon. Realizing he had to surrender or die, he shut off his weapons systems. Relaxing, Samus let the charge diminish until the large ball of energy went away. Then, Sylux rapidly kicked Samus in the chest and stood up. Samus, stumbling back, raised her arm cannon in self-defense. Having no mercy, Sylux repeatedly kicked and punched Samus, until she was sprawled on the floor struggling to breathe.

Sylux turned his weapon systems back on. Charging a missile, he looked around the cave. It was eerily quiet on this planet, although scans had detected large amounts of animal life in this region. Hearing movement, he turned back to his nearly dead foe. Samus was standing up, breathing heavily. He smiled behind his visor as he took aim at her head. Her visor was bright blue. All her lights shone blue, and a shadow of a face appeared in the aquamarine visor. The face was not Samus’s. Sylux backed away, refusing to believe it. Samus advanced and delivered a crushing blow to his head with the end of her arm cannon.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



“Stop it! Stop the image right there. What is that?” demanded Kreejn.

“That’s Samus Aran, sir,” replied Commander Ihkiyuk.

“I know that much! But the face, I know that face! Enlarge the visor! Now!”

Ihkiyuk complied. The image zoomed in on Samus’s visor. The image there froze all activity faster than if Kraid had walked into the room, or rather, tried. The face in Samus Aran’s visor was unmistakable. It was a skull, made of the one substance all had thought gone forever with the recent destruction of the planet Phaaze. Phazon. (Spoiler!)

------------------------------------========================-------------------------------------