In the beginning there was nothing. It was the most peaceful time the universe had ever known, when it was free of plagues, war, and wanton destruction…But the birth of everything brought forth these concepts into existence in a variety of forms, creating sentient and sometimes inorganic bodies to host these procreators of such vile concepts as they wandered the universe, spreading their filth onto the growing planets and species and dictating their ways of life before they even came into existence. One such plague was a sentient organic substance that went by the name of Phazon. It was a highly poisonous and corrosive mutagen that had the power to instantly mutate of kill those it touched. Whether it be sentient beings or inanimate landscapes, Phazon neither cared nor judged right or wrong as it spread across many planets, bringing an end to the primordial life growing on the surface by making it all part of its very being.

Time and time again Phazon merged the newly forming planets into its body, taking advantage of the short distance between them to transform itself into a planet of its own design. By absorbing these planets and primordial beings into itself, the newly formed Phaaze became intrigued by the concept that echoed in its mind that was known as "creation", and for thousands of years Phaaze floated in the darkest depths of space and tried to comprehend what "creation" truly meant. It grew slowly in sentience, its glowing blue body sticking to a sector of space that it called its own where no one would ever find it. From there, Phaaze stood in place for thousands upon thousands of more years, thinking about nothing more than the illusive concept of "creation" as its thoughts became more and more complex in regards to that single word.

From those thoughts, Phaaze began to understand what "creation" meant, and from the oozy scars in the core of its body the planet created its first form of life. It was nothing more than a simple worm that squirmed for a bit before it died, but the success of this "creation" caused Phaaze to desire more "creations" be made in its image. It worked tirelessly over centuries, its creatures becoming more grotesque yet stronger in design as the death rate plummeted and the planet became inhabited by this highly toxic form of life. However, as one that knew nothing about right and wrong, Phaaze believed that all other worlds should experience the gift of its "creation", not realizing just how corrosive its bodily substance would be to other worlds.

At first Phaaze tried to send its "creations" directly to other planets, but found that none of them could survive the cold vacuum of space. The many deaths didn't weigh heavily on its conscience, because such a thing didn't exist in this sentient virus. It just kept creating new life, trying time and time again to master a creature powerful enough to survive a journey through space. Eventually through years of failure Phaaze chose an alternative, and created a type of seed that could carry his life into space and bring them to new planets. But the planet was not satisfied with the small life it had created. It wanted something bigger, something as grandiose as itself to herald its concept of "creation" onto these strange new planets.

The discovery and development of "creation" throughout the years had given birth to an ego inside of Phaaze's sentient mind, causing it to believe itself to be higher than it truly was. With its power of "creation" Phaaze crafted Leviathans, gigantic sentient capsules of pure raw phazon that would seek out and infected a single creature in these new worlds and show the world the beauty of its "creations", and these new guardians would spread Phazon across the lands from the Leviathan seed. However, Phazon was not the only plague spreading itself across the universe at the time. Another sentient 'virus' that consisted of black creatures with hellish yellow eyes was making its presence known across hundreds of planets, their influence so mighty that the Leviathans Phaaze sent out were swiftly overwhelmed before even a single drop of Phazon touched the surface of the planet.

Phaaze didn't become angry, nor did it desire revenge against these heartless monsters. It merely waited, creating new creatures by the droves that would secure the planets once this mysterious new plague had disappeared from the universe. It took thousands of years, but eventually Phaaze knew that the time was right for it to strike out again, and sent a Leviathan seed to one of the planets it tried to conquer before, a lone paradise inhabited by the wise bird-like alien known Chozo that went by the name of Tallon IV. The Leviathan seed impacted with the surface of the planet, creating a massive crater through which the seed spread itself Phazon across the landscape, tainting its beauty and leaving nothing but mutation and death in its wake.

The Chozo on this world began to die out, but not before witnessing the Leviathan emerging from the seed and devouring one of their creations, the parasitic organism known as the Metroid, become forcibly transformed into the guardian of Phazon on Tallon IV known as Metroid Prime. The Chozo then died, their spirits forced to stay on the planet thanks to the otherworldly affecting powers of the Phazon that had corrupted their world. But before they left their physical bodies, the Chozo saw visions of the future and set up their temples and bastions with weapons and items that would surely help the savior of their world defeat the one called Metroid Prime…

Fast forward nearly thirty years later, where on the lone mining colony of K-2L a group of humans set their sights on mining the minerals and rare stones from the ground for use in trading and other means of profit. One of the humans on this world was a little girl barely three years of age, whose fate would forever be changed and her innocence swiftly shattered by those that were soon to arrive. After a peaceful faction of Chozo from the planet Zebes came to K-2L in search of the rare Afloraltite, which many used as a means of powering their space-faring vehicles, the planet was suddenly attacked by the vicious marauders known as Space Pirates along with their fearsome, draconic leader Ridley.

Ravaging the planet and its people, these propagators of wanton destruction left barely anything in their wake, including the little girl's parents, Virginia and Rodney Aran. In the end, it was only through the sacrifice of a massive quantity of Afloraltite that Ridley and the Space Pirates scattered from the planet, leaving an unconscious and traumatized Samus Aran alone on the burning planet's surface until she was rescued by Old Bird and Gray Voice, two Chozo whose wisdom and finesse were said to be incredible even amongst their race. Taking this child back to Zebes, the two Chozo infused her with their DNA to allow her to survive, unknowingly increasing her strength and agility to above peak human levels.

For years afterwards the two Chozo trained Samus in their warrior ways, giving her their specially designed Power Suit in order to give her a fighting chance when basic kicks and punches would have no effect on the foes she would most certainly come across. Though Old Bird and Gray Voice trained Samus to be a warrior, underneath that suit of armor lied a child-like heart that hadn't aged much thanks to the trauma caused by Ridley eleven years ago. From this innocence spawned a strong desire to prevent needless bloodshed, culminating in a defiance of Gray Voice's wishes when he wanted to burn a venomous plant along with the innocent creatures that carried them to Zebes known as Iono Feria. After this defiance, Gray Voice believed that Samus was ready to leave Zebes, and though it took a little persuading to silence her doubts Gray Voice managed to convince Samus to take up the mantle of "Protector of the Galaxy."

After departing from Zebes, Samus became a part of the Galactic Federation Police, a galaxy-wide force that worked to keep the peace on every planet under the authority of the GF. Samus embarked on a variety of missions that allowed her to utilize the training her Chozo surrogate parents gave her, and with the Power Suit assisting her in every battle Samus slowly began to become famous amongst the ranks of the GF. She especially grabbed the attention of General Adam Malkovich, who saw great potential in Samus behind the layers of recklessness and defiance she showed. In time, Adam would take Samus under his wing and train her…But there was still one obstacle for Samus to overcome before she reached that point.

A return to planet Zebes led Samus to encounter the dreaded Ridley once more, whose mere presence brought back the paralyzing trauma that struck her once more, the pain of those memories being amplified by the revelation that Ridley had devoured her parent's corpses in order to survive all those years ago. Samus begged her allies to kill her to end her pain, but none of them could bear to do the job. The situation grew worse as it was revealed that the sentient computer, Mother Brain, had allied herself with the Space Pirates, and the remaining Chozo on Zebes were slowly wiped out one after the other until only Old Bird himself remained.

Through her own self-preservation and willpower, Samus conquered her trauma long enough to help her friends escape, blasting Ridley square in the chest with her Power Beam while Gray Voice sacrificed his life to try and stop Mother Brain. Samus Aran escaped Zebes that day, but returned to the HQ of the GF as a serious, is somewhat bitter and distant woman. Years passed, and after a couple of those years spent under the wing of Adam Malkovich ended in a heated argument over the order to not let her save Adam's brother Ian the matured Samus Aran became a solo bounty hunter that began to distance herself from others…Even those friends of hers she shared fond memories with had become nothing more than a memory to her in time.

But despite the bitterness of her departure from the GF Police Force, Samus still willingly took up missions for them whenever they asked, her grandest mission coming when it was revealed that Mother Brain and the Space Pirates were planning to use the Metroids to attack the GF main Headquarters. Traveling to Zebes, Samus Aran gathered the items that the Chozo had left behind for her and slew both of Mother Brain's generals, which included the draconic Ridley, whose burning carcass brought nothing but emotionless satisfaction to Samus' mind as she confronted the traitor Mother Brain and destroyed her with her vastly improved arsenal. Some say the bounty hunter was ambushed as she headed off world and was forced to re-acquire her Power Suit, but no one on Zebes save for her managed to fully survive this aptly named "Zero Mission"…And Samus herself was unwilling to go into full detail on the matter to anyone but those who hired her.

Months after the Space Pirates' defeat on Zebes, Samus received word of their activities above Tallon IV via a distress signal, and after tearing about their facility known as the Frigate Orpheon the bounty hunter was shocked to find a rejuvenated and now metallic Ridley flying towards the planet with his massive wings. Pursuing the metallic dragon to the planet after most of her powers were disabled via short-circuiting during her escape from the falling Frigate, Samus traveled across the surface world of Tallon IV and used her wits and finesse to reactivate and acquire many weapons and functions in the Power Suit. Along the way Samus learned of Phazon and the destruction it spread across the planet many years ago, and discovered that there used to be Chozo on this planet.

As she continued to travel through Tallon IV, Samus laid waste to all of the Space Pirate's experiments and facilities, making certain that not a single one of them survived an encounter with her until she finally took down the Omega Pirate, a monstrosity infused with the rawest phazon drawn from the Impact Crater, the place where the corruption originated from. The Omega Pirate, however, fell on top of her suit, infusing it with an immunity to blue phazon that would allow her to escape the Phazon Mines and head towards the Impact Crater itself, where a confrontation with the revived Meta-Ridley ended with the supposed destruction of the beast's inflamed heart as he was flung from the grounds by the searing lasers from the eyes of the Chozo statues above.

Samus entered the crater, at the end of its encountering Metroid Prime, which had become wrapped in a shell of many weapons that it had stolen from the wandering Space Pirates. Using her many beams to break apart at the shell, Samus pursued Metroid Prime to the very core of the Leviathan seed, where the creature emerged in an almost phantasmal state, its appearance mutated to the point that the only thing that could connected it to its former self being the large red brain in the center of its gelatinous body. Though her normal weaponry didn't affect the creature, Samus quickly learned that her Phazon Suit could siphon Phazon from the pools Metroid Prime created and damage the beast immensely as it was filtered out through her arm cannon. With this in mind, Samus quickly slew the beast and transformed it into a membrane filled mound of raw phazon.

In its final act, Metroid Prime used its tendrils to latch onto Samus' Phazon Suit and tear it off of here, reverting her to her Gravity Suit before she left the collapsing Leviathan seed. But despite the destruction of the Impact Crater and Samus' departure from Tallon IV, a new creature was born from the remnants of Metroid Prime that took on the form of Samus' armor. It was a creature of dark phazon, born with something that most other creatures of Phazon never had before…Free will. It was because of the connection to the suit of the Chozo along with the DNA of the Metroid that allowed this "Dark Samus" to act on its own wishes instead of that of its birthplace Phaaze. The first thing it desired was revenge against Samus Aran, but knew that it would never win in its weakened state…Thus Dark Samus left Tallon IV and went to the nearby planet of Aether to consume Phazon.

In the time it took for Dark Samus to arrive, Samus had already dealt with a crisis in the Alimbic Cluster and the Space Pirates sent a convoy to investigate Aether for more deposits of Phazon. Samus herself was brought to Aether by a distress call sent by a GF squadron that was under attack on the surface. Samus Aran found herself face to face with the Ing, a powerful and deadly race that was spawned by the Leviathan seed's impact with the planet splitting it into two different dimensions. With the help of the Luminoth, Samus fought through the hordes of Ing and destroyed Dark Aether by slaying its leader, the Leviathan guardian Emperor Ing. Along the way, Samus encountered her dark counterpart three times, the Phazon copy growing stronger with every meeting until she mutated into a exoskeleton form that looked like a combination of Samus' Phazon suit and the original Metroid Prime.

Dark Samus fought the original Samus in the decaying Dark Aether, the phazon infused monster fighting merely not to serve the will of Phaaze but rather to exact revenge against the one who killed her original body. But once again, the Phazon Dark Samus used was turned against her, ending with her body falling unconscious as Dark Aether crumbled apart and Samus Aran returned to the light realm alive and well. As the bounty hunter departed from the planet, she had little idea of the job she failed to accomplish…Through the particles of Phazon spread across space above Aether, Phaaze reconstructed Dark Samus' body, making it only part way before a departing envoy of Space Pirates snatched the Phazon from space and put it away with the rest of their acquired load.

…A mistake they would soon regret, as Dark Samus consciously absorbed the Phazon and finished her rebirth in a new suit that looked more like the Varia Suit than the last one, corrupting and mind controlling the Space Pirate crew to do her bidding as she took they ship and invaded the G.F.S. Valhalla, ripping its Aurora Unit 313 from the ship and leaving it as nothing more than a phazon infected mess as she proceeded back to Phaaze to initiate a new plan. Using the Aurora Unit in the core of Phaaze, Dark Samus turned against her creator and gained control of the planet, using its powers in order to launch Leviathan seeds onto various planets. These seeds were stronger than those made before, amplified by Dark Samus' overabundance of Phazon to spread corruption faster across the planets they land on.

One such planet Dark Samus planned to attack was Norion, which was very close to Galactic Federation controlled space. Her plan was to lure out the hunter Samus Aran, an effort that worked perfectly despite the loss of hundreds of her controlled Space Pirates and the damage that the space dragon Meta-Ridley endured. Ambushing Samus Aran and her fellow bounty hunters Ghor, Rundas and Gandrayda at the cannon control room of Norion, Dark Samus unleashed a devastating wave of Phazon that infected their bodies with the poison. However, the intervention of the GF forces and their PED suits prevented the Phazon from integrating too deeply into their bodies.

It was but a minor setback though for Dark Samus' plans, as while Samus resisted the grip of Phazon the other three hunters were lost to her control after they went to investigate the Leviathans that had landed on Bryyo, Elysia, and the Pirate Homeworld. The bounty hunter traveled to these worlds to destroy the Leviathan seeds, but was also forced to kill her fellow bounty hunters in battle. Each time she slew one of them in battle, she cursed Dark Samus, the phazon monstrosity enjoying every second of Samus' pain as she also became more and more infected with each Leviathan she took down. When the Phazon empowered Omega Ridley was the last to fall, Samus was barely recognizable underneath her armor…And Dark Samus was pleased to know that soon enough her end game would be reached.

Dark Samus wished to turn Samus Aran into a monster like her, making the bounty hunter fall in her place as the most feared and hated being in the entire universe as retribution for everything Samus had done to her before and after she became her dark copy. Once Samus was dispatched, then Dark Samus would use Leviathans to conquer the universe unopposed, the GF not knowing about the ruse she had set up until it was far too late for them to fight back. However, the unexpected happened, as with the help of a hijacked Leviathan Samus managed to create a wormhole directly to Phaaze alongside the GF armada, which combated the Space Pirates Dark Samus had near the planet in preparation for her later conquering of the universe.

Samus Aran landed on Phaaze and went through the planet, barely clinging on to her sanity as Phazon begin to take its hold on her mind forever. With all the resistance Samus was showing though, she would instead perish once Phazon fully corrupted her body, a fact that Dark Samus was angered by yet at the same time she felt strangely sorry for what might happen to the bounty hunter. The Dark Hunter couldn't believe that it was beginning to feel…regret for someone, especially after the bounty hunter had wronged her so many times before. Little did Dark Samus know that because of the Phazon Suit she has absorbed as Metroid Prime along with the connection with the empathetic Samus Aran caused by corrupting her, Dark Samus had begun to grow a conscience…

But it was too late to back down, especially once Samus dropped into the sanctum core of Phaaze, bringing with her a cold fury the likes of which Dark Samus had never seen before. The bounty hunter and the dark hunter fought, and even with all the Phazon on this once sentient planet backing her up Dark Samus could not win. Feeling that these growing emotions were now holding her back, Dark Samus fused with the corrupted Aurora Unit 313, dispatching those emotions to become truly robotic as she faced down Samus Aran for what would appear to be the final time.

As to be expected, Samus won, destroying the Aurora Unit and causing Phaaze itself to explode without anything keeping it alive. The bounty hunter escaped, freed of corruption with Phaaze's destruction…And never again would she have to see her dark counterpart. Or so she fool heartedly believed….Though Phaaze was the originator of Phazon on the universe, its destruction only purged the poison that it itself had spread. Dark Samus' strain of Phazon was different from that of the original planet, and there was still plenty of it left in the universe…Over the next few months, that very Phazon gathered to the place of Phaaze's destruction as if guided by the will of another, including the rare orange Phazon birthed in the Impact Crater. From the swirling mesa of phazon particles…A being both old and new was born…

Clash of the Elements Part 4, Story 2: Desolate Corruption

Chapter 1: The Nightmare's Rebirth

In the darkest depths of space, a being wanders adrift. He is barely awake, because he hasn't slept over the last three weeks he has spent traveling the universe. He can't afford to sleep, for every time he tries to close his eyes he is haunted by a single nightmare, one that causes him a massive deal of incapacitating trauma each time it returns to his head. This being is also malnourished, for he hasn't bothered to eat anything in almost a week. In fact, this very lack of care towards his body was making it harder for him to concentrate on the barrier of air that was allowing him to avoid dying as he went through space. He is the Elemental Overlord, Riku Mew, a clone of the Earth-based Elemental Overlord Mewmaster. He was tasked with traveling the universe in search of planets that are in need of assistance, but his first journey to one of these planets led to absolute disaster…

If he wanted to, Riku could recall the walls of fire and the glowing eyes of the demonic entity whose very rebirth and actions caused him this immense trauma. He cares a great deal of guilt on his conscience, for it was because of him that the hero of that world perished, plunging everything into a state of utter chaos the likes of which the teenage Overlord couldn't bear to think about as he fled from that world and left countless people to a terrifying fate. It was too late to go back though and owe up to his mistakes…In his panic and trauma he fled through space without a single idea as to where he was going, never once looking back at the planet he left behind as his heart beat rapidly in fear.

Now Riku was nothing more than a floating mess of a human being, his body flying limply through space as he has not a single clue as to what he should do next. He was so lost that he felt that he would never be able to return to Earth ever again…And even if he was able to, how could he? He would have to face his brother and tell him about the grand mistake he made, and how he doomed an entire world because of his failure as an Elemental Overlord and as a living being…And what did Riku even gain from his travels on that world? He looks at his hands, feeling the vast, empty energies of darkness flowing through him as he curses it for putting him through all this trouble in the first place…In his current emotional state, he doesn't even think about the fact that Mew never told him about this darkness along with the fact that his memories deceived him about the elements he was capable of using.

In the end, the teenage Overlord was nothing more than a vegetable, a barely functional human being that one has to wonder just how he is capable of even moving let alone travel through the lonely depths of space. But little did Riku know, he would soon be greeted with some company…And not the pleasant type either. As he continues to stare at his hands, the teenage Overlord notices something odd floating around him. Tiny, light blue particles that clearly had sentience began to grow in numbers around his body, infiltrating through his veil of air at a rapid pace. Riku begins to panic, flinching awake in a matter of seconds as he feels the particles crawling across his skin and climbing up his arms towards his shoulders and neck.

These particles were attempting to invade the teenage Overlord's body through the mouth, and in his sudden state of panic Riku fails to recall just why these particles looked familiar to him. He was too focused on trying to expel them from his skin, using his air barrier to forcibly push all of those particles away from him with a thought before he flies back a bit to escape the newly created cloud of light blue particles. But before he can draw forth his weapon and fight, the cloud charges straight at him, bunching together and forming a sharp thin strain that weaves its way through the veil and pushes itself into Riku's mouth, digging through his esophagus and into his gullet so quickly that the teenage Overlord blinks only once before the events finish.

He then lets out a raspy hack, his right hand pounding against his chest as pain ruptures through it thanks to the violent infiltration of those mysterious particles, but after two more seconds his heart performs one violent, heavy beat as his eyes widen and his pupils shrink. Suddenly, without any other prior warning, Riku's body begins to slip into unconsciousness, with the legs going limp and his body falling backwards as his arms grow stiff and hang out in space beside him. However, his eyelids remain eerily open, his mouth partially agape as he looks up. Not long after he falls unconscious, a large Olympus-Class battleship begins to fly above his body, noticing the oddity that was this barely living human body floating in the unlivable depths of space and swiftly using their tractor beam to pull the unconscious Riku onboard so they can determine just how and why this human was here. This battleship, known far and wide across this galaxy, was called the G.F.S. Olympus…

Next Time: The Two Hunters

Author's Note:

I would like to apologize right now for having the first chapter of this story be filled with a ton of lore and only about a page worth of actual story progression, but I'm trying to make it so this story can still be followed by those who haven't played Metroid before yet still want to follow on from the previous entry. At the same time though, I've also chosen to be vague about what happened in the previous entry so anyone who starts with this story doesn't end up being spoiled completely. This won't be become a recurring thing with the other stories, especially not the next two, so don't worry about that.

As usual, I urge readers to review so I can know what I'm doing right and wrong here. Besides that though, enjoy.