#Metroid Prime 3

[hoshizoralone]

samus the protector of space pride

the girlfriend in question:

[razables]

based off me saying the phrase “the darker samus” over and over again while drawing this

[it-seemo]

@yamcans00's Skulltober Day 29 - "Rainbow"

<- Day 28 | Day 29 | Day 30 ->

[brandon-the-terrible]

Started playing Prime 3 and couldn’t get this out of my head

[tallon-underworld]

The Chozo Observatory on SkyTown, Elysia. This is one of my favorite locations in Metroid Prime 3: It’s gorgeously designed, with carvings of constellations adorning the walls and spherical holograms that turn into 3D replicas of planets as probes retrieve data on them.

All of this is under the watchful gaze of a statue depicting the Searcher, an ancient Chozo who tirelessly scanned the heavens centuries ago. It was from this Observatory that she first glimpsed a mysterious living planet - which would later doom both the Searcher and her people.

Backstory aside, this Observatory is also an inspired way to let you get item locations late in the game, as well as some optional worldbuilding as you fill the Observatory’s database. You can even check up on the planets you explored in Primes 1 and 2, and see how they're recovering!

[mhexart]

You? Me? Who?

[thejazzywaffles]

Nintendo 2024 game lineup, maybe

IDK I'm just guessing for most of this list.

January - Another Code: Recollection

February - Mario vs Donkey Kong, Metroid Prime 2 and 3 enhanced ports

March - Princess Peach: Showtime

May - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

June - Mario Sluggers 3

July - Luigi's Mansion 2 HD, Fire Emblem: The Holy War

August - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

September - Kirby spinoff game (eShop)

October - Metroid Prime 4, the launch of the Switch successor console

November - Pokemon: Black & White remakes (still on Switch), Something for the Switch 2

December - Something for the Switch 2

[beevean]

What is your favourite attention to detail in both the main Metroid games and the Prime games ?

Prime has

the rain droplets on the visor (and in Prime Remastered, on the gun)

the X-rays of Samus' hand when she gets hurt while you're using the X-ray visor

the flash of her face when you shoot a particularly powerful shot

the cannon freezing when you use the Ice Beam

the water rippling if you shoot it

the one random mirror in the Chozo Ruins that exists only to flex lol

Prime 3 in particular has Samus' face getting more and more corrupted the further you are into the game, I wanted to see it but also I felt so bad <3

A non-Prime example... Samus subtly breathing in SM, and her breathing accelerating if you're low on health. They did not need to do this in a sprite-based game. I also always liked how her suit would be illuminated by the lava in the superheated rooms.

[master-of-47-dudes]

So, to continue my rambles about Dark Samus with the context of Prime 3 now that Prime 3 has been refreshed in my mind:

Dark Samus's behavior and role in Prime 3, which is almost entirely told to us through the lens of the lores in the Pirate Homeworld as well as the deaths of the three hunters, rather than direct confrontations with her like in Prime 2- in Prime 3, Dark Samus shows up at the very beginning of Norion, proceeds to fuck us up in a cutscene, and then peaces out until the very end of the game.

While certain aspects of Dark Samus (like her becoming so radioactive and unstable her armor was transparent) weren't kept consistent, her character sure as hell was.

Dark Samus harassing you in Prime 2 was entirely a mixture of opportunism, spite, and pettiness: she never went out of her way to cause trouble for Samus, she only ever fought you or fucked with you when you happened to show up somewhere she was already hanging out.

Even when she shows up to laugh at you in Torvus or break the bridge in Sanctuary Fortress, the implication is always: "she just happened to be there and saw an opportunity to fuck with Samus on her way to find some phazon to eat"! She never really seemed to be actively seeking you out, and while the Pirates considered trying to bribe Dark Samus to fight you, it doesn't seem like they actually managed to do so successfully before a combination of Samus, Dark Samus, and the Ing collapsed their operation on Aether.

What am I getting at? Well, you kicking Dark Samus's ass three times didn't actually do more than slightly inconvenience her- each time she comes back stronger like your ass whooping didn't interfere with her goal of feeding herself and growing stronger.

And in Prime 3? Dark Samus reforms in a Space Pirate cargo hold after Dark Aether collapsed on her stronger and in a more stable form than how you left her! Regardless of your interference, Dark Samus's goals on Aether succeeded.

And Dark Samus immediately proceeds to stop giving a shit about Samus, because now that she's stabilized and reached her peak of power and command over phazon, she has bigger fish to fry.

Dark Samus in 3 doesn't go out of her way to find you: when you cross paths on Norion, it's because Samus and the other hunters are a wrench in Dark Samus's and the Space Pirates' plan and not an expected variable. Dark Samus shows up, sees that Samus has shed the majority of the gear she used to defeat her on Aether, and decides to corrupt you and the other hunters instead of trying to kill you out of a mixture of "fighting all of you is a waste of my time", "you won't put up enough of a fight to be remotely worth it", and "I have a much more fun way to spite you >:3".

Dark Samus wasn't paying attention to Samus's conflict with the Ing in any meaningful way. Dark Samus doesn't know that Samus has an unbreakable will- had she been actively following Samus around Aether, watching her, she might have had the foreknowledge to realize that infecting Samus with phazon would not enthrall her (after all, the Ing couldn't manage to possess her), but instead give Samus a weapon to turn on her. And even if Dark Samus did know (she did get a first-hand show of the ing failing to possess Samus during their first encounter on Aether after all), she likely considers her corruptive influence far above the Ing's.

Dark Samus is overconfident. She's nigh-unkillable and, by 3, in possession of a horrific degree of power. The same overconfidence that led her to repeatedly challenge Samus to duels on Aether out of sheer petty spite (and to test her abilities) is what has her decide to infect Samus and the other hunters on Norion instead of simply killing them, even though she very likely could have done so with ease and ensured the success of the Norion assault. She would much rather have a potential setback and get to continue toying with Samus than win overwhelmingly and end her game.

Which is why Dark Samus doesn't seek Samus out in 3. She has more important work to do on Phaaze, and it's more fun to torment Samus through Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda succumbing to her corruption. Taunting Samus with their deaths to whittle away at her resolve is the extent Dark Samus goes, because to Dark Samus, Samus isn't a threat anymore but a toy to play with and break.

Let's face it, if Dark Samus actually intervened in 3 prior to the fight on Phaaze, Samus likely would have lost horribly or only barely scraped by with heavy use of the PED. And to Dark Samus, cocky and spiteful, there’s no fun in an easy victory over such a despised adversary. And Phaaze? Loaded to the brim with so much phazon that a corrupted person couldn't get far before succumbing, she's obviously not capable of making it to the core of- oh shit, she did.

Dark Samus challenges Samus to a death match in 3 only after it becomes truly clear that Samus is U N B R E A K A B L E. And to some degree, I believe this is part of Dark Samus's game: At the level Dark Samus is at, it wouldn't be satisfying to beat Samus in a duel if it wasn't on Samus's terms.

Does Dark Samus bring out and assume direct control of Aurora Unit 313 knowing that if it were to be destroyed, Phaaze would destabilize and collapse? The unused Space Pirate lores (particularly Onalaught) reveal that Dark Samus was planning to force Phaaze to overproduce and launch hundreds of leviathans at once, likely killing the planet in the process. Perhaps she was willing to take the risk of Phaaze dying under the assumption that she would survive it?

Perhaps Dark Samus, desperate to put an end to Samus after Samus bested her yet again at the point where all of her scheming was teetering on the brink, fused with 313 in an attempt to use the Aurora Unit to bring Phaaze's full wrath to bear against Samus... only for her to realize that the Aurora Unit did not have enough control of the planet to wield it as a weapon.

Or perhaps, Dark Samus was simply doing as she did as Metroid Prime and fighting to the bitter and bloody end, refusing to surrender even after her greatest weapons are repelled and she is forced into a weaker, more vulnerable form.

Did Dark Samus, even while desperate, come to fear Samus?

...Yeah... no, she was a cocky shitlord until the end, and honestly? I don't think she believed Phaaze or AU 313 dying would destabilize phazon everywhere. (Hell, AU 313 might have been the reason that actually happened? Due to the hivemind networking of AUs and the eldritch sentience of phazon causing a bizarre and unexpected feedback loop or something.) The reality is even after she gets desperate and merges with 313, she still takes the opportunity every so often to pause and laugh at you through the Aurora Unit.

Dark Samus likely believed even this setback would be nothing more than a temporary thing. She could come back from it as she has every time prior. And honestly? It is unlikely a creature like Dark Samus CAN know fear - a flight response is only necessary for a creature with a concept of mortality, after all. Dark Samus was spiteful and cocky to the end, taunting Samus even as she desperately tried to claw victory from the jaws of defeat.

It's actually an interesting bookend to the series. Metroid Prime, its armor destroyed, forced to fight Samus to the end even as it's unable to keep itself from providing her the very thing Samus needed to defeat it. Dark Samus, spiteful and petty, imbuing Samus with the very source of phazon Samus would need to destroy her.

[sparky-x]

Next up after Prime 2 is Prime 3 Corruption! A which is much better than the 2 predecessors in terms of gameplay and design!

[hoshizoralone]

bite sized sammies

[razables]

metroid prime 3 in a nutshell

((actual art under the cut))

+ the original meme

[kimzee-the-great]

If you vote, please reblog.

[nerdy-the-artist]

Metroid Prime 4: Ruins looking niiice.

[coldgoldlazarus]

I think in hindsight, one of the things I most appreciate about Prime 3 that I didn't when I first played it, is the double genre misdirect/switch.

The big bombastic first hour or so on Norion, even if I enjoyed myself with the crazy action setpieces like that falling fight against Ridley, had me feeling like Retro was trying too hard to turn Metroid into Halo or something, (and I do like Halo too, mind you) instead of just letting it be Metroid, but then after the timeskip the game settled down into more familiar territory. Still more on the more blatantly linear and action-oriented side of the series' typical genre range, sure, but it wasn't quite so overblown.

The early half of the Pirate homeworld was probably my favorite section of the game to play overall, the almost stealth-section like vibe of trying to avoid getting noticed, punctuated with frantic firefights to eliminate any Pirates who did spot you, the quite welcome return of a relatively more complex and mazelike layout to wind my way through... and all set to that eerie, ambient music that's near silence yet ooozing with tension waiting to be released.

And then yeah big epic battle on the train pushing through all the security checkpoints to the Seed, yet another chance to smack Ridley down with a steel chair, etc. A nice way of bringing it full circle, even if I did just personally prefer the tension itself to the release.

But then.

But then towards the end, with the GFS Valhalla and then Phaaze, the game did a complete 180 and leaned hard into pure, unadultered, pants-shittingly terrifying eldritch horror. If not for the rest of the game (and the final boss) counterbalancing it with bombast, taken on its own, those sections could possibly count as the scariest any Metroid game has been, with only Super's crashed ship, Prime 2's Dark Aether, and of course a lot of the original Return Of Samus as significant contenders. (Dread's EMMI zones are going for a different sort of scary) And given how retro-horror-inspired the series as a whole is, that's saying something.

But I think part of the beauty of it is because of the contrast with that earlier Norion action extravaganza I had been so put off by, and the context of Prime 3 coming out specifically for the Wii, one of the most-purchased consoles by "casuals." (I mean hell, that's why my family had it and I was thus able to play the Trilogy in the first place, when my parents saw videogames and their consoles otherwise as a total waste of time and money.)

I don't know how many people outside of Metroid's pre-existing fans actually did buy Corruption, (especially given it unfortunately got overshadowed the same year by another sci-fi shooter with a 3 in the title) but I feel like there has to have been at least a few people out there who picked it up and played it, got drawn in by the promise of a rocking military action-adventure, were indeed bouyed along by hypermode, and then got completely blindsided by the late-game shift to Peak Metroid Nightmare Fuel. I would love to know what they thought.

[zeydaan-isabella]

Phazon Echoes - Zeydaan

Story by Metroid711 - Seeing their transformation abilities at work in Smash. Samus recommends Zeydaan/Isabella for a highly classified mission. Recreating the conditions to make dark samus in order to combat a NEW phazon threat. It's good they're used to this kind of thing.

Space … an ever expansive, never ending darkened void that was filled with billions upon billions of stars. And mixed in with these stars, several light years away from each other are planets. The Milky Way galaxy is one of these, neighbor to the Tetra Galaxy. These two astronomical wonders were inhabited by a multitude of species and creatures across dozens of planets and civilizations, and most of them would fall under the caring watchful eye of the Galactic Federation. A special government who’s main duty was to keep the peace between the races that inhabited the many worlds, and to prevent the strength of those who may pose a threat to that peace. For about half a decade, the Galactic Federation had to deal with the threat that almost tore the very galaxy apart, Phazon. This extraterrestrial radiation would be used and abused by a number of villainous parties that almost led to the extinction of all life in the galaxy, until their top bounty hunter put a stop to it and its vassal. However, a new threat has begun to reveal itself, returning in the form of Phazon once more. Phazon’s origin had come from the planet it was named after, Phaaze. The planet had been destroyed, but since that occurred, almost 3 years later, Federation members have detected another planet naturally producing the radiation. The scientists have theorized it may be some sort of planetoid like Pluto, albeit still just as toxic as the original planet. They have named it Phaaze Minor, but it has presented an issue that cannot be fixed the same way it was before. Since her last mission, Samus Aran has become far more susceptible to radiation on account of her Metroid DNA mutating to a full body transformation. While she can switch between the two, this factor has made it impossible for her to attempt the destruction of Phaaze Minor. Because of this, Federation leaders have enlisted the help of an independent research group known as the Hawkmoths. One of their members has the unique ability to adapt their form to specific situations, including physical attributes. They have been transported to the Federation research facility closest to Phaaze Minor to begin Phazon mutation adaptation testing, with the overall project being titled Operation Aquamarine. All of this information was what Zeydaan would be reading over. Ever since they were shipped out for this operation, they had gotten into the habit of looking over the federation researcher’s notes. It was helpful as, well, despite being told what would be happening, they didn’t wish to have any details left out. The ship they were currently resting in was piloted by a few select Federation soldiers that were similarly acting as the Fae-Wolf’s body guards. A knock on their room’s door and after Zey opened it, one of the suited men would be standing there. “We will be docking at the research station in 10 minutes, please be prepared to board.” As serious as the guard’s tone was, Zey knew they had the best intentions. Intergalactic governments like this tended to get a bad rep simply for stereotypes. After a bit of shaking and some clicks, the guards would open door for the fae-wolf as they stepped out with them. The station was impressive to say the least. There were large ship docks for medical vessels, military gunships for protection, even a couple small scouter ships probably used to examine the planet a good couple light years away. Zey would walk alongside the bodyguard group of guards as they would lead them through the shipping area and through a series of hallways and doors with scientists, doctors, and other workers walking past. Several would give them glances; some stared the whole way. Heck Zey remembered one of them even smiling and applauding for them, which felt … weird. Zey was led to an enclosed room, although it was by no means decrepit. It had a comfy bed, a computer table, some shelves with reading, its own bathroom, even a mini fridge. They weren’t surprised by this however, as it was one of the requirements their Hawk Moth friends put forward. Zey wasn’t to be treated as a test animal or lab rat like most experiments, they were to be given good and comfy treatment and kept healthy throughout the process. Only during the metamorphosis itself was Zey meant to be kept in quarantine, but they understood that part. “You will remain in here until the head scientist comes to pick you up for test screening, please refrain from wandering around the station. We will not stop you, but I doubt the good doctor would wish to play hide and seek with this galaxy’s only hope.” The soldier had a bit of a snarky attitude which caused a twinge of annoyance to spark through Zey, but they would roll their eyes and nod in response. The guard would nod back before the door closed behind them. Zey would have relaxed in that room for a couple hours. They were tempted to leave despite warnings but honestly it was probably best to get this done and over with, and that meant no issues caused for the others. It was going to be a long enough process after all, as they would sit on the bed and stared out the reinforced glass window. It was the swirling, gorgeous vast expanse of space Zey would be met with, something they honestly could never get used to with how pretty it was. However, besides this, far off in the distance was the cause of this whole fiasco. From here it was no bigger than a dot, but the glowing blue blot on the spatial sky would pierce it like some kind of stain. Zey knew they were outside its range of radiative influence but even then, they could feel just how wrong something like that should exist. While they were glad to be of service, getting mixed up in a material with such a legacy of destruction and corrosion behind it made them nervous. It wouldn’t be much long after this when there was a knock at the door, as it would open to reveal a stereotype that seemed to reign true still. Of course the head scientist was the sketchiest looking person they had ever seen. Stumpy and shorter, bald with small round glasses and tiny rat like eyes sitting behind them. He had a big somewhat concerning grin with a couple missing teeth. “I’m glad you could get here so quickly, this is … truly a special situation~” despite the fact he was talking about a planet comprised of one of the most volatile substances in the galaxy, that didn’t sound like the best tone of voice to take. He would gesture them to follow, and so they would, without really questioning much. The less they asked questions and thought about this, the more annoying it’d end up being. This guy probably wanted to use Phazon for his own means in some way, although while Zey didn’t know what, it didn’t matter to them. He would babble on about the importance of all this and his research and how this would be for the good of the whole galaxy. Zey would be led into the main lab, assumedly where they would be a majority of the time once this all started. “The process is quite simple! ~ Every day for five hours, on the hour, you will be exposed the Phazon samples we extracted from the newly discovered planetoid. Your special … abilities … will cause your body to adapt and mutate with the substance, far faster and differently than most would. I’m only slightly fluent in how your powers work, so I will trust you will be able to handle any attempts of the radiation trying to corrupt you mentally. Once we have deemed you fully adapted to the substance, we will inject you with the DNA of the Bounty Hunter Samus Aran. We had a few of her samples on file before her … recently completed mission. Once your metamorphosis is completed, we will send you to the planet to place the means of destroying it. Do you understand all this?” Zey didn’t even want to know how this all worked, but they would nod as the scientist would cackle a little and clap his hands. “Splendid! ~ I truly am looking forward to how this will go ~” Zey would step into a changing room to slip into something similar to the zero suit Samus wore. It was tight, but it was meant to be that way so it would stretch and adapt to the mutations same as Zey’s body would. They knew they’d have no trouble with the mutations, this isn’t something they haven’t dealt with entirely before, but their main concern was the Phazon’s infamously known effects it has on people’s minds. Samus’ bounty hunter party got driven completely insane to the point of trying to murder her, and Zey didn’t want to end up becoming the enemy because of all this. “You may step into the chamber when ready to begin the first dosages ~” Zey would step out, the purple colored zero suit shifting with their movements as they stepped inside the chamber. It was fairly well built, if anything. Having to deal with Phazon for a good decade or so allowed security measures to be made to deal with the radiation. The walls were comprised of a special alloy embedded glass with the corners and roof made entirely of the same allow. This material supposedly was taken from the remains of Samus’ old suits back when she was investigating the Phazon on Aether and Tallon IV. Once Zey gave the okay, the scientists would be messing around on some of the computers, and with the press of a button a square hole in the floor would open up. It would raise a platform in which sitting upon it would be a large 2 foot tall cannister of the pulsating, bright blue substance. Phazon, pure corrosive Phazon that has nearly caused the destruction of the galaxy three times over and yet it still somehow continues to exist. It was a plague; it should not exist, and it shouldn’t continue to exist. And knowing this was why Zey took the job in the first place, because if they didn’t it would cause more problems. Either in the hands of the Space Pirates, or probable scumbags like the scientist. “Beginning test 1 of the Phazon dosage … now!” and the front of the cannister would slide open, and instantly Zey had to take a step back as the waves of radiative energy blasted throughout their very being. It was like the waves of the ocean knocking them back over and over in a rhythm of cacophony. It felt wrong, but it was for the better of the future as they would grit their teeth and grunt. Already they began to feel their abilities going into effect, albeit small to start. The major mutations wouldn’t come until much later, with this time they felt their fingers began to crack and extend, shifting as their claws got slightly longer. They would gasp and arch their back as it would crack and creak, making them hunch only slightly as the muscles would expand slightly. That was something they were aware of Phazon being capable of, boosting and mutating the physical capabilities of creatures at the cost of their minds. This process of being pounded with the radiation would go on for what felt like forever, but it was only in fact about 30 or so minutes. Once it was done, Zey collapsed against the glass wall, panting and breathing heavily as the cannister would shut. They had 30 minutes to relax before the next dosage, but doing this five times a day was going to get exhausting. And they hadn’t even begun to feel the mental effects yet, as the scientist would turn the intercom on inside the chamber. “When today’s tests are done, you will be given a physical examination to see what sort of mutations your form has gone through for future research purposes.” That didn’t bode well, but they were too tired to care as they were trying to catch their breath. Zey would feel the second test ripple throughout their body, and by the end of the 5 tests they really began to feel the effects. Their muscles had expanded slightly, with their fur a little stretched across their frame. It was the basic physical implements Phazon was known for as they felt their strength being far better than it was. Although there were sensations that were more alien, with their claws and fingers having extended a bit longer, and their back felt somewhat hunched with more of the muscle bunching up there. Despite all this, Zey still looked relatively normal, but this only meant they hadn’t fully adapted to the body. The cannister would lower into the ground, and after a few minutes they were let out and taken to their room. A benefit of Phazon at least: unless it was directly pure, it couldn’t influence anybody. It wasn’t like normal radiation and being around Zey was toxic. Instead, what made Phazon so dangerous was how psychotic it would make those who’s minds it destroyed. Speaking of which, as Zey lay in the bed with a little less comfort from before, they felt a slight headache induced twinge of pain. And for but a moment there was a flash … of something in their vision. Nothing they could remember; it was there and gone faster than they could fully recognize it. But they realized it was a hallucination, something in the corner of their room, before it was gone instantly. This wouldn’t be the last they’d probably see of these, and they know they’d get much worse. The many who had succumbed to this alien radiation usually had hallucinogenic symptoms, hence why a majority of them tended to go insane simply from being unable to understand what was real. The next day would come quickly, especially since Zey could barely sleep. They were having the strangest dreams … they weren’t mutated yet, but they were walking around the testing facility. Everything was dark and murky, and space outside had been replaced by what felt like a dark desolate black and blue void. Glowing blue tendrils had snaked up the walls and ceiling and everything looked deformed and decayed; like nobody had been there. They would call out to get no response, wandering the empty abandoned facility. But it didn’t feel like wandering, it was like with every step in their dream they were approaching something important further and further inside the facility. However before they could go deeper to see what it was, they would wake up. Their muscles throbbing a little from their body not being entirely used to it all, as they would sit up. There would be a knock at their door and the guards opened it to allow Zey to proceed back to the testing chamber. Today was particularly stressful because the head scientist and his team was upping the dosage. That was the plan, taking in more each day, allowing Zey’s absorption abilities to adapt to more of it. Eventually the plan was to physically assimilate piece of the substance into them. The zero suit that was covering their slightly enlarged form would begin to stretch further as the larger cannister would be opened, releasing twice the amount of radiation into the fae-wolf. The effects were a little more grotesque this time, with their slightly elongated fingers starting to stretch and crack further. They had been shifting from a light and dark grey set of paws into enormous wicked gangly claws that only an alpha beast would use. The radiation was doing its job and increasing Zey’s physical capabilities, including evolving the latent animal traits they had. Each finger would crack sharply, the stretching fingernails that had been hardening and blackening would start to glow a bluish color on the ends of the sharpened tips. They couldn’t help but wince a tad, especially as the skin and fur over their arms began to slough, with the arms elongating. Their small hunch would become more prominent as their head lurched forward, back cracking as the fur was starting to fall off slightly in clumps to reveal the joints of their spine had hardened and protruded out their enlarged swelling back into natural armor-like spines. They had a feeling their fur would start to go, as this was much like normal radiation in a way. The enormous gangly claws had already been shed of all fur, with their creaking and elongating arms losing the grey fluffy substance in slight clumps. They winced a tad from the deformation of their regular body structure, but in the end it was worth it. And at the very least its not like their final form would be keeping them. Their tail was slumping a bit, with their spine restructuring they felt the nerves becoming numb in that extra limb. It didn’t fall off or anything, but Zey imagined it wouldn’t last the next day. Especially as their legs would tremble a tad. With how their body was restructuring it almost felt like they were losing their humanoid stance and taking a more digitigrade one. Eventually the day would be over, and the pounding in their head had increased. And as they were hobbling back to their room, they could’ve sworn they saw that same figure watching them from down the hall … around the corner. They were still too far away to make out, but Zey figured the hallucinations would get more vivid as this went on. More of a reason to keep getting sleep and not falling into the corruption like so many had before. The dream that night was more of the same. They woke up in the same place of the facility, back to normal, everything swallowed up by corruption. However, this time Zey practically heard a voice whispering, although they couldn’t make out any words. They were drawn deeper into the mental space catacombs, getting a little deeper this time. The veiny blue vines would have glowing pustules of Phazon across them, almost like it got worse the deeper they went. However like before, they would reach a certain point and then wake up. Zey could’ve sworn the direction they were going in the dream was to the main testing labs. Speaking of which, day three back in the large radiation proof chamber and this was the time for the scientists to expose Zey to pure uncontained Phazon. The mix of goo and crystallized blue plasma would be raised up on the pedestal, with it pulsating and glowing as Zey had to take a step back from the shocking sensations of it. This time it was worse, they felt their entire skeletal structure reshaping, falling forward as their back piled up with muscle. Fur falling away to reveal blackened smooth almost hard skin underneath, with their tail shuddering and detaching. It flopped against the metallic floor and disintegrated, as Zey gasped out with their legs creaking and shifting. Their knees bent as their paws would sharpen and stretch into similarly blue tipped black gangly claws. Their stance was more befitting of an animal in a way, with their chest having expanded further out. Most of their fur on their torso had shed, with only small patches remaining attached to the pitch-black skin. Although Zey felt an urge, just a small one. But this urge was enough to make them lurch forward and dig their claws into the pure Phazon, being a bit ahead of schedule as they felt the need to absorb more of it. It would suck up into them as the glowing blue substance would begin to flow through their veins. That of which would begin to glow a similar blue as they started to thicken and throb, moving up their enormous longer blackened arms. Thick glowing blue veins that pulsated across their body as their neck strained, Zey clenching their eyes shut as they felt their voice gargle into a growl. The whispers were growing louder, pushing them to further this, but they shook their head. They asked for this, they weren’t going to let it take over, although a bit of mutation could be fun at least. Their head looked so off, sitting on their hunched forward blackened neck, with their head having barely any changes, more than likely that would be the focus of tomorrow. Their body size was five times what it was before, with their veins bulging and blue. Their furless skin like a thick blackened hide, with sharpened wicked curved blue tipped claws and an enormous muscular spiked hunch of a back. They would lumber out, winking at the scientist who looked almost disappointed. Zey could only gather he was wondering why the corruption hadn’t broke their mind yet. Zey had been through a lot of situations like this, so they knew how to fight these sort of attacks. They were taken to a different room this time, with it being much larger than their former. Their bed was replaced with a large hanging hammock fit for their grotesque mutated body. Although they didn’t mind it, going to lay down into it with a creak. The hallucinations had increased as well, with a black and blue figure standing in the corner and getting closer. Zey recognized it as the end goal of this whole experiment, a hazy phantom of the Phazon fueled doppelganger of Samus Aran. The cause of all the trouble in the past, and it seems she was trying to use Zey as her own new host. However as she held her hand out, all Zey would do was smirk and turn over not giving her the time of day. Zey had another of the same dream they had been having, however they would finally make it to the decrepit door of the labs. It would open to reveal the testing chamber, a large glowing blue pod undulating inside like a cocoon. It would crack open as the wolf stepped in, and crawling out would be none other than Dark Samus herself. She would let out a soft, echoing hiss and reached out to them. “Join me … and we can rule the galaxy far better than they ever could.” Her voice was like poison, like every word could melt through solid stone. But Zey would approach her, staring at her outstretched hand, and the fae-wolf simply shook their head. “Sorry, but you had that chance, and you lost it already. And this time, I’m gonna make sure you stay gone” They placed their hand on her visored face, and with a small gasp and a flash of blue light, everything around Zey in the dream dissipated into a bluish dust. This was Dark Samus’ last remains. Despite the displays and showmanship, she was just a ghost. Zey woke up the next morning, feeling more at home with their enormous monstrous mutated form. And they were ready to complete the first phase of all this, before preparing to borrow the form of the one who had been trying to puppet this for their own gain. Zey would squeeze inside the chamber, as the last globules of Phazon rose up. The scientists watched in curiosity as Zey lifted them up … and bit down into them. They would munch and slurp them down like large gummy candies, with them not even really having much of a taste if not more of a texture. As they swallowed they felt their face cracking and shifting, their skull elongating as their black and red streaked hair began to fall off in clumps. Their front teeth sharpened into long sabretooth like tusks, with the rest of their wolf canines getting more deadlier. The only way to describe what was happening was that it felt like their skull was pushing out of their old head. The furry skin parted like paper to reveal a skeletal black material underneath. It was like their hide of the rest of the body, but like they had a pitch black animal skull for its shape. No hair, with their eyes almost blinking away into blue goo to reveal empty black crevices filled with glowing blue dots. But what made the changes more prominent would be how the Phazon moved across the rest of their enormous body. Different parts of them would bulge and splurge out into enormous tumors. This was pretty common for Phazon mutations, with a majority of them having radioactive growths like this. Usually it was a sign that their forms had over mutated, but in this case it was good. Zey felt an extra large one push out one of their skeletal eyeholes and the top of their head, with it obscuring half their vision. Honestly given the fact they felt entirely fine, this was pretty dang cool getting all grotesque and monstery. But that was it, all the Phazon left. Their giant overly mutated form had been completed, ripe for the final phase to prepare them in their mission for Phaaze Minor. Before they left the testing chamber they were given a single injection to their larger spine. According to the scientists, it was some of Samus Aran’s DNA from before her last mission. Once this was done, Zey returned to their room, although escorted by hazmat wearing guards, who they actually struck up nice conversation with. It was a little hard to talk with such a gnarly jaw, especially not having lips or a tongue. But Zey managed, and as they stepped in the room, they would get a look at themselves in the full body mirror on the wall. They looked scary as hell, which was exactly the intentions. This night they were not supposed to sleep, to allow the metamorphosis to happen and for their reactions to better be recorded by the camera in the top corner of the room. It only took a couple hours, with them feeling sharp pinches across their skeletal structure again. While it had expanded all this time, it was once again compressing and shrinking down. Their black mutated skin was beginning to lighten and even grow more … transparent. The lighter in color it got, the more they could actually see the effects of the transformation happening in real time. Their animalistic shapes were becoming more human-like, if not glowing and shaped like nerves. They felt one of their enormous claws start to compress and round out, fingers becoming useless as they would fuse into some sort of living carapace. An indent was forming in the middle of the stump like growth as their other clawed hand was compressing into smaller sharpened fingers. What was the weirdest part was their head, as the glossy see through blue skin was swallowing up their skull, as if performing the reverse of the previous mutations. Their maw would shrink back and close up to form no mouth at all, with the blackened texture becoming a bright blue, and their eyeholes becoming a set of pure piercing yellow eyes. Their face looked ghastly, like an abnormal artistic drawing of an alien or a human. They recognized this as Dark Samus incomplete form, with it being an in between state of her original Metroid Prime look and how she was in the end. Although this wasn’t too last long, thank goodness. Zey didn’t know how they felt having all their internal organic parts on display. As their shoulders bulged and enlarged, filling with Phazon, the thin see through skin layer started to harden and solidify. Zey felt their vision growing brighter, a light blue tint taking it over as their alien-like head would begin to fuse with the thin outer layer of skin. If all the mutations were weird, nothing compared to feeling their facial features flatten and extend into a visor in their places. Their claw like feet would smooth over into solid, yet almost breathable boots. Their fingerless arm had taken the form of the familiar weaponry Samus was known for, and their head was a fully visored black and blue helmet. Every part of them felt alive, like they were breathing and feeling out of every organic piece of armor they called their form. They felt the Phazon flowing through them, powering them, allowing Zey to float up, light as air. All this power felt amazing, and it was genuinely a spectacle to experience such a bizarre yet original metamorphosis. It wouldn’t be permanent, but they could at least enjoy it as long as they could. After getting a feel for their new body, they would float out of the room, only to see surprisingly that the head scientist was being dragged down the hall kicking and screaming by some of the federation soldiers. “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, THIS IS FOR THE GOOD OF THE GALAXY! YOU ARE DESTROYING EVOLUTION!!” He would scream out, seems they … or well Zey supposed she was female now given the circumstances, had their suspicions proven right. Zey would float up to a couple of soldiers who would salute her, as they stepped aside to reveal Samus herself walking up to the newly created darkened twin. She would look Zey up and down and let out a small chuckle, “and here I thought I’d had seen the last of this look. ~” One of the soldiers would let out a soft gasp, almost in shock that the silent and stoic bounty hunter even could speak. She would put her armored hand on Zey’s larger shoulder, going to pat it with a small nod of admiration. “At least its in the hands of someone who will use it for the right reasons.” Zey would nod back, a little flushed at that compliment, watching her walk past as the new Phazon conglomerate floated up to the window to stare at the corrupt planet off in the distance. Samus would have stared down at her hand as she was out of sight of Zey, wanting to make sure of something. She mentally noted the fact no Phazon had been leftover on her hand, letting out a soft chuckle. She was confident this would go well now, and that such power was controlled by someone worthy of it. One of the guards would stop behind her, bowing slightly before he spoke: “A ship is ready for you ma’am, are you prepared for the mission?” Zey turned around, giving him an emotionless look due to the visor face, and she felt a swelling of excitement in her chest. Yes, she was ready for anything.