Dark Echoes - Isabella

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 whose 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 vassals.

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 her form to specific situations, including physical attributes. She has 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 Isabella would be reading over. Ever since she was shipped out for this operation, she 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, she didn’t wish to have any details left out. The ship she was currently resting in was piloted by a few select Federation soldiers that were similarly acting as the Fae-Dragon's body guards. A knock on her room’s door and after Izzy 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, Izzy 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 the door for the fae-dragon as she 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. Izzy would walk alongside the bodyguard group of guards as they would lead her through the shipping area and through a series of hallways and doors with scientists, doctors, and other workers walking past. Several would give her glances; some stared the whole way. Heck Izzy remembered one of them even smiling and applauding for her, which felt … weird.

Izzy 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. She wasn't surprised by this however, as it was one of the requirements her Hawk Moth friends put forward. Izzy wasn’t to be treated as a test animal or lab rat like most experiments, she was to be given good and comfy treatment and kept healthy throughout the process. Only during the metamorphosis itself was Izzy meant to be kept in quarantine, but she 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 Izzy, but she would roll their eyes and nod in response. The guard would nod back before the door closed behind them.

Izzy would have relaxed in that room for a couple hours. She was 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 she would sit on the bed and stare out the reinforced glass window. It was the swirling, gorgeous vast expanse of space Izzy would be met with, something she 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. Izzy knew she was outside its range of radiative influence but even then, she could feel just how wrong something like that should exist. Whilst she was glad to be of service, getting mixed up in a material with such a legacy of destruction and corrosion behind it made her 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 she 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 composed 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 to her to follow, and so she would, without really questioning much. The less she 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 Izzy didn’t know what, it didn’t matter to her. 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. Izzy would be led into the main lab, assumedly where she 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?” Izzy didn’t even want to know how this all worked, but she would nod as the scientist would cackle a little and clap his hands.

“Splendid! ~ I truly am looking forward to how this will go ~” Izzy 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 Izzy’s body would. She knew she’d have no trouble with the mutations, this isn’t something she has not dealt with entirely before, but her 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 Izzy 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 ~” Izzy would step out, the purple colored zero suit shifting with her movements as she 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 alloy. 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 Izzy 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 canister 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 Izzy took the job in the first place, because if she 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 canister would slide open, and instantly Izzy had to take a step back as the waves of radiative energy blasted throughout her very being. It was like the waves of the ocean knocking her back over and over in a rhythm of cacophony. It felt wrong, but it was for the better of the future as she would grit her teeth and grunt. Already she began to feel her abilities going into effect, albeit small to start. The major mutations wouldn’t come until much later, with this time she felt her fingers begin to crack and extend, shifting as her claws got slightly longer. She would gasp and arch her back as it would crack and creak, making her hunch only slightly as the muscles would expand slightly. That was something she was 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, Izzy collapsed against the glass wall, panting and breathing heavily as the canister would shut.

She had 30 minutes to relax before the next dosage, but doing this five times a day was going to get exhausting. And she 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 she was too tired to care as she was trying to catch her breath. Izzy would feel the second test ripple throughout her body, and by the end of the 5 tests she really began to feel the effects. Her muscles had expanded slightly, with her fur a little stretched across her frame. It was the basic physical implements Phazon was known for as she felt her strength being far better than it once was.

Although there were sensations that were more alien, with her claws and fingers having extended a bit longer, and her back felt somewhat hunched with more of the muscle bunching up there. Despite all this, Izzy still looked relatively normal, but this only meant she hadn’t fully adapted to the body. The canister would lower into the ground, and after a few minutes she was let out and taken to her 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 Izzy was toxic. Instead, what made Phazon so dangerous was how psychotic it would make those whose minds it destroyed. Speaking of which, as Izzy lay in the bed with a little less comfort from before, she felt a slight headache induced twinge of pain. And for a moment there was a flash … of something in her vision. Nothing she could remember; it was there and gone faster than she could fully recognize it. But she realized it was a hallucination, something in the corner of her room, before it was gone instantly. This wouldn’t be the last she’d probably see of these, and she knows 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 Izzy could barely sleep. She was having the strangest dreams … she wasn't mutated yet, but she was 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. She 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 her dream she was approaching something important further and further inside the facility. However before she could go deeper to see what it was, she would wake up. Her muscles throbbing a little from her body not being entirely used to it all, as she would sit up. There would be a knock at their door and the guards opened it to allow Izzy to proceed back to the testing chamber.

Today was particularly stressful because the head scientist and his team were upping the dosage. That was the plan, taking in more each day, allowing Izzy’s absorption abilities to adapt to more of it. Eventually the plan was to physically assimilate a piece of the substance into her. The zero suit that was covering her slightly enlarged form would begin to stretch further as the larger canister would be opened, releasing twice the amount of radiation into the fae-dragon. The effects were a little more grotesque this time, with her slightly elongated fingers starting to stretch and crack further. She 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 Izzy’s physical capabilities, including evolving the latent animal traits she 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. She couldn’t help but wince a tad, especially as the skin and fur over her arms began to slough, with the arms elongating.

Her small hunch would become more prominent as her head lurched forward, back cracking as the fur was starting to fall off slightly in clumps to reveal the joints of her spine had hardened and protruded out their enlarged swelling back into natural armor-like spines. She had a feeling her 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 her creaking and elongating arms losing the grey fluffy substance in slight clumps. She winced a tad from the deformation of her regular body structure, but in the end it was worth it. And at the very least it's not like her final form would be keeping her. Her tail was slumping a bit, with her spine restructuring she felt the nerves becoming numb in that extra limb. It didn’t fall off or anything, but Izzy imagined it wouldn’t last the next day. Especially as her legs would tremble a tad. With how her body was restructuring it almost felt like she was losing her humanoid stance and taking a more digitigrade one.

Eventually the day would be over, and the pounding in her head had increased. And as she was hobbling back to her room, she could’ve sworn she saw that same figure watching her from down the hall … around the corner. They were still too far away to make out, but Izzy 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. She woke up in the same place of the facility, back to normal, everything swallowed up by corruption. However, this time Izzy practically heard a voice whispering, although she couldn’t make out any words. She was 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 she went. However, like before, she would reach a certain point and then wake up. Izzy could’ve sworn the direction she was 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 Izzy 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 Izzy had to take a step back from the shocking sensations of it. This time it was worse, she felt their entire skeletal structure reshaping, falling forward as her back piled up with muscle. Fur falling away to reveal blackened smooth almost hard skin underneath, with her tail shuddering and detaching. It flopped against the metallic floor and disintegrated, as Izzy gasped out with her legs creaking and shifting. Her knees bent as her paws would sharpen and stretch into similarly blue tipped black gangly claws. Her stance was more befitting of an animal in a way, with her chest having expanded further out. Most of her fur on her torso had shed, with only small patches remaining attached to the pitch-black skin.

Although Izzy felt an urge, just a small one. But this urge was enough to make her lurch forward and dig her claws into the pure Phazon, being a bit ahead of schedule as she felt the need to absorb more of it. It would suck up into her as the glowing blue substance would begin to flow through her veins. That of which would begin to glow a similar blue as they started to thicken and throb, moving up her enormous longer blackened arms. Thick glowing blue veins that pulsated across her body as their neck strained, Izzy clenching her eyes shut as she felt her voice gargle into a growl. The whispers were growing louder, pushing her to further this, but she shook her head. She asked for this, she wasn't going to let it take over, although a bit of mutation could be fun at least. Her head looked so off, sitting on her hunched forward blackened neck, with her head having barely any changes, more than likely that would be the focus of tomorrow.

Her body size was five times what it was before, with her veins bulging and blue. Her furless skin is like a thick blackened hide, with sharpened wicked curved blue tipped claws and an enormous muscular spiked hunch of a back. She would lumber out, winking at the scientist who looked almost disappointed. Izzy could only gather he was wondering why the corruption hadn’t broken her mind yet. Izzy had been through a lot of situations like this, so she knew how to fight these sorts of attacks. She was taken to a different room this time, with it being much larger than her former. Her bed was replaced with a large hanging hammock fit for her grotesque mutated body. Although she 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. Izzy 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 Izzy as her own new host.

However as she held her hand out, all Izzy would do was smirk and turn over not giving her the time of day. Izzy had another of the same dreams she had been having, however she 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 dragon 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 her. “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 Izzy would approach her, staring at her outstretched hand, and the fae-dragon simply shook her head. “Sorry, but you had that chance, and you lost it already. And this time, I’m gonna make sure you stay gone” She placed her hand on her visored face, and with a small gasp and a flash of blue light, everything around Izzy in the dream dissipated into a bluish dust. This was Dark Samus’ last remains. Despite the displays and showmanship, she was just a ghost.

Izzy woke up the next morning, feeling more at home with her enormous monstrous mutated form. And she was 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. Izzy would squeeze inside the chamber, as the last globules of Phazon rose up. The scientists watched in curiosity as Izzy lifted them up … and bit down into them. She 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 she swallowed she felt her face cracking and shifting, her skull elongating as her black and red streaked hair began to fall off in clumps. Her front teeth sharpened into long sabretooth like tusks, with the rest of her dragon canines getting more deadlier. The only way to describe what was happening was that it felt like their skull was pushing out of her old head.

The furry skin parted like paper to reveal a skeletal black material underneath. It was like the hide of the rest of the body, but like she had a pitch black animal skull for its shape. No hair, with her 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 her 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. Izzy felt an extra large one push out one of her skeletal eyeholes and the top of her head, with it obscuring half her vision. Honestly given the fact she felt entirely fine, this was pretty dang cool getting all grotesque and monstery.

But that was it, all the Phazon left. Her giant overly mutated form had been completed, ripe for the final phase to prepare them in her mission for Phaaze Minor. Before she left the testing chamber she was given a single injection to her larger spine. According to the scientists, it was some of Samus Aran’s DNA from before her last mission. Once this was done, Izzy returned to her room, although escorted by hazmat wearing guards, who she actually struck up a nice conversation with. It was a little hard to talk with such a gnarly jaw, especially not having lips or a tongue. But Izzy managed, and as she stepped in the room, she would get a look at herself in the full body mirror on the wall. She looked scary as hell, which was exactly the intention. This night she was not supposed to sleep, to allow the metamorphosis to happen and for her reactions to better be recorded by the camera in the top corner of the room.

It only took a couple hours, with her feeling sharp pinches across her skeletal structure again. While it had expanded all this time, it was once again compressing and shrinking down. Her 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. Her animalistic shapes were becoming more human-like, if not glowing and shaped like nerves. She 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 her other clawed hand was compressing into smaller sharpened fingers. What was the weirdest part was her head, as the glossy see through blue skin was swallowing up her skull, as if performing the reverse of the previous mutations. Her maw would shrink back and close up to form no mouth at all, with the blackened texture becoming a bright blue, and her eyeholes becoming a set of pure piercing yellow eyes. Her face looked ghastly, like an abnormal artistic drawing of an alien or a human.

She 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 didn't last too long, thank goodness. Izzy didn’t know how she felt having all her internal organic parts on display. As her shoulders bulged and enlarged, filling with Phazon, the thin see through skin layer started to harden and solidify. Izzy felt her vision growing brighter, a light blue tint taking it over as her alien-like head would begin to fuse with the thin outer layer of skin. If all the mutations were weird, nothing compared to feeling her facial features flatten and extend into a visor in their places. Her claw-like feet would smooth over into solid, yet almost breathable boots. Her fingerless arm had taken the form of the familiar weaponry Samus was known for, and her head was a fully visored black and blue helmet. Every part of her felt alive, like she was breathing and feeling out of every organic piece of armor she called her form.

She felt the Phazon flowing through her, powering her, allowing Izzy 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 she could at least enjoy it as long as she could. After getting a feel for her new body, she 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. Izzy 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 Izzy up and down and let out a small chuckle, “and here I thought I'd 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 could even speak. She would put her armored hand on Izzy’s larger shoulder, going to pat it with a small nod of admiration. “At least it's in the hands of someone who will use it for the right reasons.”

Izzy 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 Izzy, 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?” Izzy 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.