“The Koopa upgrade” Samus said, confirming the upgrade. It was odd to get used to having physical limits on her body again after the Elastic upgrade, Samus thought as she reached for the chip, having to lean forward as her arm refused to extend the last few inches to grab it. She had felt similarly after the Gel upgrade, but much less so, since she had spent most of the time using that upgrade to try to stay as solid as possible, and it was a rather different effect.

As for this upgrade, it was yet another zero suit upgrade, with those seeming to outweigh the Power suit ones by a considerable degree. Thanks to their more biological bent, she supposed it allowed for greater variety, considering the A.I. that made the upgrades had been churning them out for who knows how long.

 Still, it wasn’t like she would need most of them for a serious combat role, since when she had her Power suit, what was the point of going in without it? She inserted the upgrade into her zero suit, and waited for the changes to begin.

Immediately, her suit began to recede yet again, he suit withdrawing until it left all but most of her back from the ass-up uncovered, the remaining material clinging to her back somehow, Samus not even feeling put-off by her sudden nudity, thanks to the frequency in which it happened.  Her skin began to tingle yet again, and Samus looked down to see most of her skin turning a goldenrod yellow tan, quickly turning to scales, Samus suppressing a slight shiver as the sensation ran up her body, her skin’s sense of touch altering to accommodate her rougher skin.

She also noticed that while her arms, legs, and most of her body had turned to scales, from the groin upwards in a leotard-like fashion her skin had turned a more pale yellow, changing into a tougher shell-like material, lined ridges running up it to allow her to bend and flex naturally. Her breasts were completely  covered by it, her nipples having smoothed out and disappeared entirely, once again preserving her modesty to some degree.

Samus had stayed mostly still during this, occasionally bending over or moving an arm to get a better look at herself, finding that her flexibility had been unaltered by her new skin and chest. She remained still, waiting for the changes to continue, only to find that they seemed to have either stopped or paused, which was odd, considering that usually they kept going until they were done. Was this it? Just scales? Well, that was a bit boring, all things considered. Still, if it meant she didn’t turn into a dragon or something, she supposed she didn’t mind.

She ran her hands over her new skin, feeling the difference in texture and toughness between the different parts of her torso.  With skin like this, Samus thought to herself, giving a tap to her shell-like chest, I feel like nothing could break through it. She then immediately chastised herself for a thought like that. A well placed energy bolt could tear through any skin like this, as Ridley had found out in his fights with her.  

But that hasn’t been proved yet, has it? Samus thought, before wondering why she had thought that. Of course that would be how it would go. Continuing her probing, she touched her face, finding that above her nose and cheeks was the scales that made up most of her body, but from her nose down, it felt more leathery and soft. The soft part of her face continued down her neck, until it ended at her collarbone, becoming the tougher shell that her chest had. She quickly strode towards the mirror to take a better look at herself, the new skin of her feet making a heavier thump on the ground.

She examined her face, having been able to get a fairly good look at her body before, finding that it indeed seemed to be separated into two different areas. Except instead of the normal yellow scales, it was a deep green colour, clashing with her blonde hair. It was odd, seeing herself like this, particularly since it was an odd sight to see her normal blonde hair on her scaled skin. She spun around, getting a good look at her naked back, finding that the large patch of zero suit still seemed to be there. So the upgrade wasn’t done yet?

But before she ponder the thought any longer, she began to get a familiar stretching feeling going over her body, and turned back into the mirror to face forward, calmly waiting for the changes to continue. The mirror slowly seemed to become lower, Samus looking down to see that she was growing, her legs becoming longer, her arms cracking as they proportionately changed to match, Samus feeling very tight in her chest and abdomen as they grew as well. Her breasts swelled out to match her increasing height, but while they were much larger, they were more proportionate, and simply matched her body’s increase in size.

She held up an arm as she felt it tightening, her obvious muscle definition that barely showed through the scales growing more obvious, her arms thickening and growing stronger, Samus feeling like she could take on an entire army like this. The increased muscle definition showed in her legs as well, her thighs fully taking on a thick-muscled appearance, and the only reason her abs weren’t completely and thickly chiselled was thanks to the rigid material in the way.

She also noticed, once she stopped appreciating her thicker muscles, that her hips were growing outwards, giving her a more heavyset frame, and in a change from the norm, her waist wasn’t cinching in, instead widening with it, giving very little curve to her form in that regard. From her hips to her shoulders there wasn’t much of a curve, and it served to make her look much stronger, and she didn’t feel like she’d be getting knocked down any time soon.

With the changes seeming to stop again, Samus walked a few steps away from the mirror to allow her full body to be shown, giving a few appreciative flexes. It reminded her of the Amazon upgrade, with how tall and strong she was, feeling like she could snap a normal person in half easily, crushing their bones with a single blow… Samus stopped her flexing for a second, slightly concerned at her violent thoughts. While she was obviously not bothered in the slightest by combat, she rarely actively entertained the thought of violently breaking someone, showing her obvious dominance over them…

She shook her head, trying to calm down her faster and more excited breathing. These upgrades were getting to her. The sooner this one was over, the better. And speaking of getting it over with, judging by the fact that her nails seemed to be digging into her unconsciously tightly clenched hands, they seemed to be starting up again.

She uncurled her fingers to see that her fingernails were growing outward into almost inch-long claws, and in addition, seemed to be growing into the rest of her fingers, the ends of her fingers ending in pure claw, rather like a talon. A similar thing seemed to be happening to her feet, her toes merging into three large ones tipped with deadly looking talons, her feet growing slightly larger to accommodate the new balancing her altered foot shape had.

While looking down to watch her feet changing, Samus noticed that her face was starting to stretch and change as well, quickly looking herself in the mirror and watching herself change. Her nose flattened out, upturning slightly as it widened, while Samus grimaced as her mouth and chin stretched and extended outwards into a sort of snout-like shape, her mouth widening to run down it, her lips oddly staying their normal size and shape and not moving at all, looking slightly strange at the end of her new mouth.  

The inside of her mouth, other than aching briefly from its change in size, felt strange, and Samus opened it to find two wide rows of sharp teeth, Samus giving a dangerous looking grin as she imagined how easily they could tear through meat, or anything else for that matter. She knew she should be trying to avoid thoughts like that, but it just felt right for some reason.

She began to feel pressure just above her rear end, and correctly predicted that she appeared to be growing a tail, a long, scaly one that quickly reached the floor, thicker than a leg with large spikes quickly growing out of it and running down it a foot apart. She quickly gave it an experiment wag,  having roughly figured out how to control tails after gaining them several times, before taking a scratch at an uncomfortable itch on her scalp, finding that, instead of rough scales, there appeared to be two short curved horns growing up and out of her hair.

With her changes apparently complete, Samus took another look at herself in the mirror, gingerly touching her new horns, noticing that her ears seemed to have taken on a point, although mostly unnoticeably so, still hidden under her hair. She also felt like she had something stuck in her throat, coughing in an attempt to clear it, seeing a short burst of flame come out. Unable to stop herself from coughing more violently, she spun away from the mirror, before hacking out a fireball that flew across the room and into the opposing wall, leaving a scorch mark on the wall. 

Slightly cautious of her own breath now, but elated by her new ability, Samus attempted to replicate her fire breath, managing to first get out a few jets, before a short burst of flame, which quickly devolved into slightly pained coughing from her inability to use it properly. She felt like her throat should at least be burnt from such an act, but if her throat was fireproof, what was to say that the rest of her body wasn’t? Just another thing to add to her already impressive body, which she couldn’t believe she had missed out on before. Just perfect for a fight, and she wished she had somebody to break, just to try it out.

Not even noticing her own violent thoughts this time, she noticed when she turned back towards the mirror that something seemed to be happening to the patch of zero-suit left on her back, which seemed to be growing outward and larger into what appeared to be a large green shell, Samus easily carrying the new weight as it grew larger and larger, until it was almost twice as wide as she was, spikes sprouting from it all over, Samus eagerly thinking of just how much damage she could do if it collided with something.

Her changes finally complete, Samus finished examining her new shell, which felt weightless to her new, powerful body, taking a few heavy steps away from the mirror to admire herself, thinking of her previous fights outside of her suit. Before, she had been an abnormally powerful human, but still just human. Now, she was more than human, and she didn’t need to rely on tools and weapons anymore. The thought of her simply ignoring her power suit triggered one last warning bell in her head, one that she quickly ignored. Why would she need that pathetic piece of technology when she could crush her enemies with her bare hands? 

Logic quickly went out the window as her thoughts went increasingly megalomaniacal, Samus thinking of somewhere that she could go to prove her strength. And when she thought of her history as a fighter, she wondered why she had just stopped at defeating her enemies. Why not conquer them? Why not show off her power to the universe, and take a piece of it for her own? She had a ship, and she had a reputation, and it was time to make use of it. Samus gave of a short barking laugh as she headed for her ship, wondering how she was going to fit in the cockpit to travel to her first destination.