The prisoner on the other side of the glass battled her restraints and grunted into her gag as Samus stared on, wondering. She had powered down upon docking with the Federation’s holding station and now stood in her skintight red Zero Suit, the colour choice perhaps deliberate for intimidating her prisoner...
The bound and gagged woman inside the room was the exact double of Samus, with a few exceptions. She had black hair, tied back in a ponytail, that contrasted Samus bright blonde hair. Her eyes were a deep, menacing red compared with Samus intelligent green eyes. And, of course, she wore an identical skintight Zero Suit in black because she had, at one point, claimed to be Dark Samus.
The whole affair had been rather messy. After ambushing Samus on her ship, leaving her bound and gagged in her own restraints, Samus escaped and beat this supposed ‘Dark Samus’ in a one on one fight, restraining her as she was now. This had all followed a rash of Samus clones harassing people around the star system and running every time Samus got near. Until she finally caught one. But that’s when all the trouble started.
Readings of the clones seemed to indicate that the Metroid Prime had actually been involved in their creation. With it being destroyed, along with the real Dark Samus, that would have been impossible So something was amiss for Samus. Especially when this fake ‘Dark Samus’ claimed to be a clone of hers as well. So she had brought her here, to a Federation holding cell, to find the answers to all of her burning questions.
The false Dark Samus was seated in a chair in the empty room. Samus’ red holo-restraints held her dark haired doppelganger’s legs together at the ankles in a glowing pair of shackles and straps buckled on above and below her knees. More of the straps framed her chest and held her arms tightly at her sides while a pair of bright red, high security handcuffs secured her wrists behind the chair. A matching red panel gag, also glowing, covered her mouth and rendered her captive silent.
While she watched the prisoner, Samus idly spun the glowing red release in her right hand round and round. The memory returned to her of having used it to free herself only a few hours ago on her own ship. That was her first indication that this ‘Dark Samus’ wasn’t the real deal. There was no way Dark Samus would have made an amateur mistake like that.
Though her scanners did tell her that trace elements of the Metroid Prime existed within the false Dark Samus’ body. And a more detailed scan kept showing her something termed ‘unknown Phazon compound.’ Could the Phazon be... synthetic? And developed in a laboratory somewhere? That must have been it. Samus had destroyed every last bit of it herself. But how had they acquired Samus’ DNA? The only way they could have is if she had somehow fought the creator of her clones before, perhaps even bled in one of her many battles as the feared bounty hunter. But who would have the capability of cloning Samus so well?
Samus’ thoughts were distracted when the jovial Federation officer who had let her in approached and stood beside her. He was a very friendly younger man who just seemed to like idly talking. This made their conversations comedically one-sided as the man chattered away to either one word answers or silence from the notoriously silent Samus Aran. It seemed this man didn’t care that she was a woman of few words...
“Find anything yet?” he asked.
Samus turned her head to look his way, saying nothing. “I mean, about the other, well... you, in there. She told you anything?”
“No,” Samus said.
He reached up and gently patted her on the shoulder. “Ah, well you’ll get her eventually, right? I mean, you are Samus Aran after all...”
Samus sighed and shut her eyes.
“You know, I gotta say, I like your suit in black. And red, too,” the man said, frowning at his own boring, official black uniform and then nodding toward Samus’ current Zero Suit. “It’s... different. Makes you look even tougher somehow, you know what I’m saying? And that suit in black I mean... it’s pretty cool, don’t you think?”
Samus just let out a long breath in response, staring back into the room where her captive squirmed in her restraints.
“So how are you going to get her to crack, Samus? What’s your plan?”
“Recover her memory,” Samus said simply, not even looking at the man.
“Wait, her memory? Why?”
Samus’ hard stare was upon him and her visibly shrank back. “I mean, I guess you know what you’re doing! I wasn’t trying to... I’m just interested. These clones of yours have been causing trouble for everybody lately.”
“I know.”
“Well, yeah... But how would her memory help? Isn’t she just a clone like the rest of them?”
“No,” Samus said.
“Hang on... she’s not?”
“No.”
The man furrowed his brow. “How do you know?”
“Said she was a bounty hunter. Before.”
“Before... this? So she was like you?”
“Yes.”
The man shook his head. “Man... what could have happened to her? And she thinks she’s a clone of you?”
“Yes...”
“This is... complicated. Way above my pay grade, let me tell you.”
Samus said nothing more and walked to the door, letting it slide open as she walked into the room. The man called after her, cheerily. “Good luck, Samus!”
She knew he was watching but Samus didn’t care. He was just a nosy, cheerful Federation guard and him listening in wouldn’t do any harm. Besides, if he walked away he’s just ask her questions when she came out anyway and she was tired of hearing his voice...
“Mmmph! Pllmmph, Smmummph! Lmmt mm gmm!”
Kneeling down, Samus flicked the red release remote once and the glow of the gag on her captive’s mouth faded. She unbuckled it and pulled it off the false Dark Samus’ face and let her speak.
“Samus, I’m sorry, okay? How many times do I have to say it? I wasn’t acting like myself! I’m not really Dark Samus. I’m-”
“You’re not a clone,” Samus said.
“What?”
“My scans. You’ve been shaped into my image. With my DNA and a synthetic Phazon compound.”
“That doesn’t... but I don’t remember ever not looking like you.”
“Memory wipe. When you were captured,” Samus said.
“I do remember being captured by... aaargghhh! I can’t remember!”
“Wiped that, too,” Samus said. “Keeps them untraceable.”
“And you... you want to find them?”
“Yes.”
“That’s crazy! Why would you want to do that?”
Samus stood up to her full, imposing height. Her impressive, toned muscles showed through her skintight, red Zero Suit and the fake Dark Samus took in the sight of her, trembling a bit. “Listen... I-I-I really think that’s a bad idea. I don’t know why but, whoever captured me, they really hate you. I remember that much. They wanted to ruin you and then have me capture you and take your place and I guess bring you there to them. So they could keep you forever for whatever reason.”
“You must remember, then.”
“Remember what?”
“Who you were supposed to take me to,” Samus said.
“I... I only remember where. An orbital station... cloaked by a stealth device. It was orbiting... Zebes. Yes, I’m certain of it. It was around Zebes.”
Samus nodded and searched her memory. It might be possible... she thought to herself. Someone or something hyper intelligent could do this. Create Phazon... and would have my DNA... But is she really still... functional?
“S-Samus?” the fake Dark Samus asked. “What’s wrong? Are you... are you thinking of something?”
“Tell me...” Samus said, turning around. “Were you supposed to deliver me there yourself?”
“Yes...”
Samus nodded again. “I see...”
“Um... Samus? What-”
“You’re going to take me there. In disguise.”
“Wait... what?”
“We’ll drop their guard.”
“But how?”
“You have access to your Power Suit still?”
“Yes but... why?”
“I’ll hold on to this...” Samus said, waving the release to the holo-restraints. But then she pressed one button and they all fell off her captive and clanked to the floor. She helped the false Dark Samus to her feet.
“What are you planning?”
“You take me in... as a prisoner.”
“I... what!? You’re... volunteering for this?”
“It’s the best way in. Long as they think I’m no threat...”
“They won’t be on guard...” the fake Dark Samus finished. “So... you’ll be a fake prisoner?”
“Yes,” Samus said. “I keep the release in my hands. And my Power Suit on standby.”
“So that when they think they finally have you...”
“I level the place. Destroy whatever operation they have going on.”
The fake Dark Samus nodded back. “Okay. I’ll help you. I do want to get them back for stealing my memory like that...”
“Then I’ll need to look the part.”
“Right. Head back to your ship then?”
“We will. Come on.”
...
Now dressed in her normal blue Zero Suit, Samus palmed her remote release in her right hand, now trapped behind her back beside her left, and closed both her hands into fists to keep it concealed. She just hoped she could manoeuvre it enough in her tight restraints to release them when the time was right.
In her full black Power Suit, the fake Dark Samus walked beside her, gripping one of Samus’ arms in her hand and pulling her forward.
Samus’ legs had yet to be restrained but the glowing red handcuffs tightly held her wrists behind her back and the buckling straps that held her arms to her torso both kept them tightly pinned. The glowing panel gag had also been locked on over Samus’ mouth to render her silent, though she wouldn’t have had much to say anyway.
‘Dark Samus’ had the remaining restraints hanging from her waist and stared ahead silently down the long, dimly lit corridor of the space station. She hadn’t lied that it was cloaked but Samus was able to just about pick it up on her scanner by scanning a lock of hair from one of the many captured clones stashed and tied up in the cargo bay. All she had to do was scan for something similar in the orbit around Zebes and, sure enough, she found the orbital station in question and docked her ship without issue.
Whoever was inside refused to make themselves known and everything remained deathly silent as the two women approached a huge sliding door. ‘Dark Samus’ didn’t know how she knew where to go but there was something almost... pre-programmed into her brain that allowed her navigate this station with ease. And something in her memory stirred. She had definitely been here before.
Finally reaching the door, the fake Dark Samus led her fake captive through as it hissed and slid open, revealing a large room with a huge metal cylinder in the centre. Myriad glowing tubes and wires protruded from it that connected to the ceiling and the floor. In front of it, facing the tube, sat a strange metal chair. Instinctively, ‘Dark Samus’ led her prisoner to the chair and sat her down. Samus didn’t even bother fighting, feigning exhaustion, and let ‘Dark Samus’ shackle her ankles together and strap up her legs above and below the knees. Now fully restrained, Samus watched the ominous metal tube as the fake Dark Samus stepped back and looked up at it.
A crackling, hissing voice echoed in her mind and she reached up to her head at the pain it caused. “Your purpose is fulfilled....” the voice said. It sounded vaguely feminine but oddly mechanical. It’s tone made ‘Dark Samus’ feel like her brain was being rattled around in her skull. “Go now... Leave this place!”
The fake Dark Samus didn’t want to obey but found herself compelled to do as the voice said and leave the room behind, walking back to the long corridor and back outside. The voice’s influence seemed to end there and she was now standing beside Samus’ ship alone. Though she wanted to go back inside, the voice’s influence refused to let her. “Guess I just wait here then....” she said to herself.
Inside the room, Samus watched bright lights jump to life in the ceiling above her. The room revealed itself to be a massive computer and a rotating, simulated model of Samus in her blue Zero Suit appeared on a huge monitor on the metal tube. Samus glared as she started to put the pieces together...
A strange device like a blaster rifle descended from the ceiling and pointed at the chair Samus was sitting in, casting a glowing, green light over it. It pulsed once, blinding Samus for a moment, before the light faded and a clone of hers appeared in front of her.
Struggling with her restraints, Samus let her clone approach and kneel down into her face. The clone’s eyes changed from Samus’ bright green and went all black. She could see a blue wire frame in the blackness of her clone’s eyes.
“A simulation,” the crackling, hissing voice boomed from somewhere above her. “That is all they are.”
Samus’ clone held her gaze and suddenly spoke with the same voice. “Not human. Made from a compound of code and synthesized Phazon. Why do you think we disappeared so easily, Samus Aran?”
“Mmmpphh...” Samus grunted, fumbling with the release to her restraints. She found the main switch with her thumb and waited for the right moment.
“Those captives you have?” the clone said. It somehow knew of the captured clones. It must have been a hivemind of sorts, governed by one central brain...
“They are gone. Dissipated into the code that they are. As for your dark counterpart...”
The metal doors hissed open again and Samus heard the hum of a machine from the ceiling. A sort of conveyor of metal poles moved along the ceiling from the corridor. And restrained to one of them was the false Dark Samus who had helped her break into this facility.
Glowing green chains wrapped around her arms and held a hefty pair of steel shackles, also glowing green, to her waist. The shackles held her wrists behind her back. More of the chains held her legs together, coiling from her ankles all the way up her calves, while another held her thighs tightly together just above her knees. A head harness with a glowing green ball in her mouth silenced the struggling doppelganger as she struggled against the restraints.
The conveyor stopped just above Samus and the pole lowered until it rested in the air just above the ground, stopping just to the left of Samus in her chair.
“Mmmph! Nngghh! Lgghmmt mmggh ggghhmmm!” the false Dark Samus said behind her gag.
“This one had been... lost,” the clone said in the strange, crackling voice. “She was to be your... rescuer. Yes?”
Samus said nothing, glaring at the clone and hovering her thumb above the release switch.
“You influenced her... reached her mind. She is tainted. And must be dealt with. Perhaps she will make a suitable cellmate for you, our permanent prisoner.”
“Nmmmmpphhh!! Plllmmppphh!” the false Dark Samus begged, struggling wildly against the tight chains.
The clone walked to ‘Dark Samus’ and looked into her eyes. “There is a chance she can be... retrained. To finally take your place, bounty hunter.”
‘Dark Samus’ struggled wildly again. “Nnnghhtt ahhgghhnnnmmm!! MMMMMPPPHHH!!”
“As for you, Samus Aran...” the clone said, kneeling down in front of the chair again. “The time has come for you. No more shall you plague our operations. The project will not be stopped this time now that you will be our prisoner for the rest of your days.”
Still listening to the voice, Samus thought she knew who it was that was behind all this. Her theories thus far had not been fully proved. But her answer lay what was inside that huge metal cylinder, connected to all those tubes and wires. There was a keyboard on the outside, small enough for human hands, that glowed bright red. It had to be the release for the metal shielding. And she knew just what the metal was shielding and guarding from all harm. All she needed now was time.
The clone stepped around the chair and flicked a switch around the back of it. Another conveyor started to move and sort of cylindrical cage began descending from the ceiling.
“Farewell, Samus Aran. Your days as the fearsome bounty hunter are at an end.”
Samus grumbled into her gag and pretended to struggle for a moment, letting the cylinder drift closer and closer. The clone stepped back, toward the keyboard, as it watched the cylinder drop closer and closer to the mighty bounty hunter.
Finally, as it was just above Samus’ head, the clone turned around to face the keyboard and Samus took action. One flip of the switch to her release and all the restraints fell loose. She rolled forward and tore the gag from her mouth, letting the cylinder close around the chair she had just been in and stood tall. With a single thought, her classic Power Suit appeared on her body, increasing her height. She tapped the arm cannon once as the clone turned around and took a heavy blast full in the chest, sending her sprawling backward, dissipating into nothing but code once more.
“Impossible!” the voice boomed from above, shaking the very facility to it’s core. The strange blaster rifle glowed as brightly as before and now at least ten clones stood around the where the chair was, now being lifted away empty in the metal cylinder that was supposed to be Samus’ cage.
“Protect me!” the voice boomed again. “Capture the bounty hunter! Now!”
It seemed odd that the voice wouldn’t escalate this and try to kill Samus. It must have known that the clones couldn’t actually harm her. But it seemed to have also worked out Samus’ plan and worked to protect that keyboard at all costs.
The clones moved in, attacking all at once, and Samus readied her arm cannon yet again. The first to reach her was blasted away but the second was too quick and tried to tackle Samus, who just shrugged her off with her free arm and slammed the clone to the floor. Another two came at her from either side so Samus spun in place and landed a high kick to both clones’ heads, sending them sprawling back as well.
They continued disappearing as well so Samus realized these clones must be weaker than the normal ones. The ones she had fought before must have been cultivated in some way to make them stronger and more stable. Whatever was creating them didn’t have time to make them strong and just threw them at Samus in their desperation to protect the metal cylinder.
Knowing this, Samus charged into the middle of the remaining clones, lowering her shoulder into one and using her momentum to punch another while she readied the stun whip of her arm cannon and flicked it once to bring it out. With several furious lashes of her stun whip, the rest of the clones were short work and rendered to naught but the code they came from.
Samus took a moment to look between her captured doppelganger and the keyboard. ‘Dark Samus’ mewled and pleaded with her, rattling her chains and struggling hard. The rescue would have to come after shutting this place down.
Turning her back on ‘Dark Samus’ for the time being, Samus heard the desperate squeals of the bound and gagged false Dark Samus as she walked to the keyboard and powered down her suit for the time being, though she had to keep it ready at a moment’s notice.
“Stay away from that!” the voice crackled, though it fizzled out somewhat when it spoke and the lights flickered. It seemed to be getting weaker and perhaps unable to regenerate clones for the time being. This gave Samus ample time to work out how to override this metallic shield.
“I am warning you, Samus Aran! I will destroy you if you do not cease at once!”
The override was a relatively simple process. All of the technology was familiar to Samus, after all, and only further reinforced her theory about just who or what was behind this metal cylinder. Inputting a few commands, the lights overhead began to turn read and a low rumble emitted from somewhere below. Samus stepped back, summoned her Power Suite again, and charged up her arm cannon, aiming it high where she knew her target would be...
Alarms blared as the giant machine whirred to life and the shields prepared to drop. “Warning: Shielding Plate Declination in Progress. Declination in Progress,” a loud, automated voice said, echoing around the room even above the alarms. With a deafening hiss and pillars of steam shooting out from the floor below, the steel cylinder began to gradually lower, revealing part of a glass tube underneath.
The red lights within the tube shone upon a massive... thing, floating in the middle of the tube. As the shield lowered further, Samus heard the loud squeal of the chained and gagged ‘Dark Samus’ when the thing inside came into view...
The enormous brain sat suspended within the glass tube, tubes and wires protruding from it and into the ones attaching to the ceiling and floor. As it floated there, Samus noted the familiar black spikes protruding out of the more cerebral top parts of the brain though, for now, one thing seemed to be missing. She expected that would appear soon, however...
It took quite some time for the shield to finally drop all the way down. The alarms faded away, the red lights turned back to white and the floating brain in the tube remained silent and still. An eerie tension hung in the air. Keeping her aim steady, Samus waited for the right moment once again and kept charging her shot. Her arm cannon was now arcing with the energy of the blast beam and it started to glow bright blue from the power within it.
A loud, metallic shriek vibrated the room around them all of a sudden, shattering the glass around the brain and causing the tube to crumble to the floor in shards. Finally, one red eye on the very frontal lobes of the brain opened wide and shifted it’s gaze upon the armoured bounty hunter below it.
“Saaaammmuuusss Aaarrrraaaaannnn!!” the same, crackling voice shrieked.
Still unfazed, Samus stepped back further and kept the charge up. “Mother Brain...” she said.
The metallic shriek echoed around the room once again as the metal base acting as a spinal cord for the brain began to rise up and sprout robotic legs. Arms soon protruded out as well with sharp, steel claws at the ready. The voice screamed her name again. “Saaaammmuuusss Aaarrrraaaaannnn!”
Her body climbed out of a hole in the floor and loomed above Samus. The false Dark Samus screamed and struggled wildly at the horrific sight. But there was little she could do against the strong chains and shackles that held her captive. Samus, meanwhile, had to aim carefully and keep out of range of whatever Mother Brain was about to do.
She was notoriously hard to predict, always changing bodies and never really attacking the same way twice. But Samus had encountered her enough to know her tactics. And, this time, it seemed she let blind rage cloud her judgment. Though she was still very dangerous in this form...
Another vicious shriek erupted from Mother Brain as she swiped downward with one metallic claw at Samus, forcing the bounty hunter to roll backward. The claws ripped through the metal floor like nothing, leaving a deep gouge in its wake. Mother Brain lumbered after Samus at an alarming speed, a red beam of light blasting from her eye and melting the wall behind Samus as the bounty hunter once again moved aside.
This is familiar... Samus thought, knowing the laser would take it’s time to recharge. And there would be no ‘Baby’ this time so the charged up blast would have to finish the job.
But Mother Brain seemed intent on keeping Samus on the back foot, slashing at her with her massive steel claws and continuing to lumber after her around the room.
Conscious of the false Dark Samus and her predicament, Samus was careful to lead Mother Brain away from her captured double and keep Mother Brain’s attacks focussed on her.
Sparks flew as Mother Brain lashed out again and again at Samus and tore into the network she had created, destroying the huge super computer and tearing wires from the wall. Several of them sparked just above Mother Brain with several of the crackling, broken tendrils falling down from the ceiling.
Something like an idea formed in Samus’ head as she kept luring Mother Brain around the room, charging her cannon. In truth, the cannon was fully charged and she could have fired it but Mother Brain’s rain of attacks would likely cause her to miss and have to charge it up all over again. She wasn’t sure she could keep that up. And, even if she did manage to hit Mother Brain, it would likely be a glancing blow and not necessarily guaranteed to incapacitate the autonomous brain monster.
But the wires... they might be able to short out Mother Brain’s robotic body. So Samus hatched a quick plan and remembered she still had her paralyzer on her hip. With her free hand, and the arm cannon still fully charged, Samus grabbed hold of the paralyzer and aimed it at a wire that was dangling over a broken shard of steel from the ceiling. It looked long and if she could dislodge it...
Mother Brain shrieked again and launched herself at Samus, who had to steady her aim and stand still much longer than she wanted. She fired off a shot from her paralyzer and it struck the broken steel shard, jarring it a bit. It was enough to cause the wire to fall down just as Mother Brain reached her, arcing and sparking as it contacted her metallic body. She was able to connect as she swiped at Samus, however, sending her hurtling into the wall. Samus hit her head, hard, though her helmet at least absorbed some impact. Falling to the floor on her stomach, she looked to her arm cannon which still held the full charge in it.
Scrambling back to her feet, she looked up at the vibrating Mother Brain, hissing and screaming at the electricity coursing through her robotic body and into her brain matter. Before Samus could take aim, Mother Brain still had the wherewithal to keep her eye on Samus and let go of a charged up laser blast.
Samus took this shot square in the head and it shattered her green visor and knocked her backward into the wall again. ‘Dark Samus’ squealed into her gag when she saw Samus go down... but the mighty bounty hunter stood up again, staggering a bit from the heavy hit. She was forced to remove her helmet and drop it to the floor. Grimacing, Samus finally got her aim steady and levelled her arm cannon with Mother Brain’s single eye. Knowing the laser would once again need time to recharge, this shot would not miss...
Another ear-splitting shriek violently shook the room as Mother Brain tried anything to get her malfunctioning body to move again but, this time, there was nothing she could do. The bright blue beam, wide and forceful, hammered into Mother Brain’s eye and blew her backward toward the shattered glass tube, colliding with the floor in a mighty thud.
One final hiss erupted from Mother Brain as her robotic body went limp and her one eye went still. Samus couldn’t tell if this shot had killed the giant brain or not but, finally, Mother Brain had stopped moving. Letting out a long breath, Samus crossed the room to where the fake Dark Samus was still chained and gagged.
She unbuckled the gag and pulled it free of the captive’s mouth, finally allowing her to speak.
“I... I can’t believe it. You did it!”
“It’s what I do,” Samus said, trying to work out how to unlock the shackles and the chains. In the end, she honed her arm cannon into a laser cutting tool and carefully cut the fake Dark Samus free. Catching her as she fell, Samus helped steady her and get her to her feet. She towered over the woman in the black Zero Suit in her Power Armour, minus the helmet, and looked down to meet the woman’s eyes.
“Th-thanks...” the woman stammered.
“You have a name?” Samus asked. “A real one, I mean.”
“Um... I don’t think I remember. But maybe you could help me recover my memory? You already did that once.”
Samus raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Well, when you had me tied up in that room and just... talked. I remembered this place. Maybe we can try that again.”
Samus just grunted and said nothing, letting the Power Suit dissipate once more. “Please Samus,” the woman pleaded. “I need to get my life back. I’ve got no use for impersonating you anymore...”
Shaking her head, Samus picked up the restraints that had been on her body, since they remained on the floor where the chair had been. She eyed them and the false Dark Samus suspiciously. It was almost as if she... wanted to be tied up again. And specifically by Samus.
“What’s wrong, Samus?”
“You enjoy this?” she asked, holding the restraints out toward her dark counterpart.
“Um... well... with you I... kinda. Yeah... Plus it might help me restore my memory! Especially if you just ask me about my past and stuff. It’s bound to trigger something like it did before, right?”
Samus just shook her head again walking back toward the corridor they had come in. “Whatever.”
“Is... is that a yes?”
Samus shrugged as her doppelganger followed after her. “I guess so.”
“Well... thanks...” the woman said. “I’m glad to try it again, anyway.”
“Why?”
“Well because... you’re Samus Aran. And you’re the coolest and best bounty hunter in this whole galaxy. I just saw you waste Mother Brain! Why wouldn’t I be glad to be tied up by you?”
With a growl under her breath, Samus led the mysterious, unnamed woman who looked like her back to her ship. When they were both aboard, she couldn’t help but shake her head yet again at the odd circumstances of this whole situation. Starting with clones, the “return” of her evil half Dark Samus and then, finally, having it all lead back to yet another battle with Mother Brain... to having a woman now infatuated with being tied up by her... it had all been a strange journey indeed.
But, without the menace of Samus clones to worry about anymore, she supposed her next mission would be to help this mysterious woman get her memory back. She shrugged to herself at the thought. At least it was a job. And a much more pleasant one at that...