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First contact with Green Energy had left Samus Aran feeling off. The bounty hunter could not find the right word to describe the sensation experienced in the seconds it took for the energy released from the shattered Green Energy Crystal first found in Fury Green to be absorbed into herself. Good? No. Bad? No. Something? Yes.
It was, like many things right now, something Samus Aran could examine in detail later when the time allowed. Right now, she had a job to do, figure out where she was, make contact with whoever else had ended up here, and deal with Sylux once and for all. Perhaps she would find the answer in time.
As long as this something didn't cause issues, impact her abilities, become an impediment, she would accept it and carry on as normal under the circumstances.
The something was so minute and delayed in its effect the internal sensors of her Power Suit failed to register how her midriff, normally flat and rigid with a six-pack, developed a subtle curve one would associate with a case of bloating after eating a good meal and having a great drink some hours later.
Perhaps it was nothing (no). Perhaps it was something (yes).
Across Sol Valley; harsh desert sun beating down on relics half-buried in its sands, wildlife thriving with a drive to survive, debris of Galactic Federation assets scattered far and wide; Nora Armstrong (Private First Class of the Galactic Federation Army - GFA) found herself alone in a facility deep within the depths of Flare Pool.
–
Samus Aran learned what that something wasfar too late to avoid its impactful effects on her body when it finally manifested. The world twisted, the world turned, the world came and went, and Samus could do nothing but watch it all happen while her body, now so big, now so round, now so taut, was rolled across the desert of Sol Valley back to Base Camp.
It appeared, best the bounty hunter could guess (this was nothing like her Morph Ball in the slightest), that Green Energy possessed a far greater number of negative side-effects than the ones the Lamorn had documented in their final days. In Samus' case the side-effects appeared to have taken time to occur and happening at the most inopportune time in the middle of nowhere. Part of her, however, was greatly relieved it wasn't in the company of Myles MacKenzie • Reger Tokabi • Ezra Duke • VUE-995.
The first signs of change was a feeling pressure, next came a sudden bloating of her middle that spread out to all her extremities with alarming speed, and over the course of ten long minutes Samus experienced a great change in size and shape; limps receding into her herself, bottom breasts and belly expanding out to briefly bestow on her amazonian figure a comical set of proportions comparable to a bimbo before they lost their shape to the encompassing mass of her torso, everything flattening out to become part of her body's final spherical shape.
Samus could only feel the mildest comfort when it was over(?) for the shortest time before having to contend with the fallout of such a development. She was stuck in the middle of Sol Valley, miles from anywhere, surrounded by dangers, small and large, from above and below, and unable to contact anyone at Base Camp (the crackle of static from the attempt left her on edge).
To the Vi-O-La Suit's credit, and relief to Samus, it had held itself together without an inch giving out against the titanic forces that were at play, keeping the bounty hunter decent and protected from the harsh environment of the desert around her. Small mercies.
How she came to be rolling back to Base Camp was luck.
Nora Armstrong, Private First Class of the Galactic Federation Army, had left Base Camp some hours ago under orders from Ezra Duke (Sarge to the team) to scout the area and map out the terrain ("It's good to have a backup. We can't expect Samus to do everything. She's gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping us this much."). Of course, it was voluntary and Nora had put herself forwards before anyone else (VUE-995, Myles MacKenzie, Reger Tokabi) could get a word in. Initiative was a must in the Galactic Federation Army. Nora's reasons, however, were marked by a desire to, by chance, kind of, sort of, hopefully, encounter Samus during one of her many excursions into Sol Valley searching for a great deal of things (GF debris, scrap metal, shrines, Green Energy Crystals).
It had been Nora who found her, spotting a glimmer of black and metallic brownish-red glinting in the sunlight.
Samus experienced an unequal mix of relief and embarrassment to be discovered. Th relief being the simple fact she was no longer helpless to the whims of the Viewros and its many dangers, Nora Armstrong was more than capable of providing all the protection and help she needed. The embarrassment, outweighing the relief by a large margin, couldn't be ignored.
To be found like THIS - THIS - was the antithesis of everything Samus Aran understood about herself.
Under even the most dire of circumstances in the past, crash landing on Zebes and loosing both her Gunship and Power Suit in the process, Samus could still depend on her wits and abilities to stay in control of the situation and pull herself through to the end.
To be a ballooned, as it were, rendition of herself and be so utterly incapable of doing anything for herself, completely dependent on others, was a new for her in so many ways.
Samus Aran could do nothing.
Samus Aran needed someone to HELP and SAVE her.
The thought was cringe and grimace inducing. To be at the mercy of another's whims was so alien and new to someone of her nature.
But, on the bright side, at least it was Nora, who she liked a great deal (there were flutterings for the Private First Class) and did all the talking as she rolled her back to Base Camp. More than making up for Samus' own massive shortfall in that area.
Nora's voiced buzzed with a soothing hum as she spoke using a still functional short range signal. "Funny question, you can tell me when we get back, but is this, um, anything like your Morph Ball, Samus?" Has anything like this ever happened to you before? Not saying I'm seen what some people have, uh, drawn and written, and read all the rumours about some of your, uh, weirder missions, but they do say rumours sometimes have an element of truth in them. Hehe. Are you doing alright?"
The question came every so often. Nora would stop just as Samus' head, normally going about all over the place like some moon with an erratic orbit, was level and right-side up to meet her face-to-face. A hiss of mechanism and up came Nora's faceplate to give Samus a very close-up view of the young woman's face, cheeks flushed, eyes trying very hard not to stare too hard or too long, and chewing nervously on her bottom lip.
With her head held firmly in place by the way it had sunk into herself ever so slightly (it was a miracle the effects of the bloating hadn't yet manifested in anyway for her head and face) Samus needed to put an immense amount of effort into giving a simple yes or no answer.
(yes)
Nora looked relieved. "Phew. Great. Hope I haven't bored you too much? Sometimes I get a little, uh, excitable and, uh, well, distracted. A lot."
(no)
It was giving someone a seal of approval. Nora visibly relaxed.
"Right!" Nora pounded a fist into the palm of one hand. "Let's get back on the move. We're not far from Fury Green. Hey! There's a few more Green Energy Crystal deposits along the way! We could, uh, collect them since, uh, well, this isn't going anywhere soon."
Samus wavered between answers for this course of action. At this point, much as she disliked it, there really wasn't much difference between her at this size and her at a larger size. Like it or not, she would need to collect enough of Green Enrgy to fully activate the Altar of Legacy. There was no ifs or buts about it.
A glint of curious hunger lurked in Nora's gaze as she waited for an answer, the chewing on her bottom lip taking on a feverish want.
(yes)
—
"A few more - COME ON - deposits of Green Energy Crystals, Samus, and we'll head back to Base Camp to get you, hopefully, back down to size in no time! You're all good with that, right?" Nora's words buzzed in Samus' ear.
Samus was in no state to answer even with a simple yes or no. One or two more deposits of Green Energy Crystals had turned into…turned into…turned into far more and the way back to Base Camp snaked with larger and larger detours, all in pursuit of collecting more and more Green Energy for the Alter of Legacy.
The bloating effect, delayed as it was, had taken on a greater impact over the hours since Nora found her. Samus now loomed large over the Private First Class.
At this size, Samus was aware of how everything was well and truly flattened out against the curve of her ballooned body. Her left hand and feet were bloated and buried deep in divots (as was her Arm Cannon); the tautness allowed very little to deform her shape; and her head had sunk deeper into herself to the point she was forced to glimpse the world from encroaching darkness and deal with a greatly reduce scope of peripheral vision.
The Vi-O-La Suit continued to be remarkably durable and surprisingly elastic, much like her body was proving to be (Samus pondered whether this was one of many unknowns quirks to be the result of having Chozo DNA). That did come with its own problems. Things were beginning to feel very different with a rumbling of groans and trembling of creaks happening every few minutes, more so when another spate of bloating increased her size by a few more inches.
A respite came in the form Nora's hands now experienced in knowing every inch of her. Their touch sent a shiver through her entire body.
When those hands parted from her to mark the start of the routine, Samus, much as she knew this wasn't the time, REALLY WASN'T THE TIME, wanted them back.
Nora brought her to a careful stop and in under a minute she experienced a familiar sensation of Green Energy pouring into her body, enthusing every inch of her with a throbbing warmth and triggering, which she quickly deactivated, a warning to appear on the visor's Heads-Up Display (HUD) informing her that the Power Suit's integrity was at risk.
That nothing of her physical health, anything to indicate her own body's limits were being pushed, was of small comfort. Samus wondered, however, how much longer would that remain true.
It wouldn't be long before the potent backlog of Green Energy took effect.
"Time to go, Samus!" Came Nora's voice over the helmet's communicator and Samus felt herself begin to move, world spinning up and down. Nora carried on the one-sided conversation with an air of normalcy. "Myles is gonna have a field day figuring out what's up with all this Green Energy, Samus!"
The legendary bounty hunter, Legacy of the Chozo, watched a snippet of he world pass her by at the end of the darkness pressing and squishing in on her from all-sides. The sky. The sand. Nora.
—
A pinprick sized spot of light was all Samus could see. A sound of ocean roaring in her ears and the blaring of several warnings that couldn't be overrode was all she could hear. A tightness unlike anything she'd ever experienced in her life was all she could feel.
Samus Aran was certain a line had been crossed.
Worst of all, she knew for certain there was still a backlog of Green Energy to take full effect, lurking in the shadow, waiting to strike in its own time.
For the first time in years panic took a strong hold of her and whispered all the mistakes made leading to this moment. Sloppy. You got sloppy. Distracted. You let yourself get distracted. Nora. This is why it's best to keep a distance between you and everyone.
It didn't help at all that even Nora sounded a little uncertain, or, at least, what she could catch the crumbs of when she could make out.
"Think we're gonna have to, uh, settle down at the entrance of Fury Green, Samus. You might be a bit….too big to fit."
How big? Samus couldn't even begin to guess at. Big enough to feel a new kind of tightness. Big enough to trigger several warnings to appear on her visor's HUD. Big enough to feel lost in her own body.
Samus was BIG and ballooned to the point every groan and creak of her body now left her petrified at the thought this would be it. That was all she could be sure of.
"DON'T WORRY, SAMUS! I'LL DEAL WITH THESE LITTLE CRITTERS!"
Critters?! SAND SHREN! They were wasp-like with a stinger and capable of launching an acidic projectile at whatever they perceived as a threat.
Normally she wouldn't give them a second thought, easily dealt with from a few shots of her Arm Cannon and forgotten about until she encountered them again, but like this, LIKE THIS, she was one enormous target waiting to be hit. Throw in a nasty critter like a Sand Shren and Samus wasn't dealing with something mostly harmless, she was dealing with a grave threat on her life.
"ONE DOWN!"
Destroy the nest! Did Nora know that? Had she shared any of that information with them since she started cataloguing her scan logs?
"TWO DOWN!"
A sharp pain exploded SOMEWHERE! A creak, loud and slow, sounded out from everywhere.
"HEY!" A ting-ting-ting of controlled gunfire in the background of Nora's outburst managed to catch Samus' attention long enough to distract from the creaking turning into a low rumbling groan. "GOT IT!"
Three down. That gave Nora enough time to-
"MORE!?!"
Another sharp pain, somewhere else Samus couldn't begin to fathom where exactly, caused her to let out a muffled yelp.
The low rumbling of that groan, more apparent than before, ripped Samus back to focusing on everything she had become in so little time.
There was so much left to do! Getting everyone back home! The Lamorn! The Memory Fruit! Sylux! It couldn't end like this, could it? Samus Aran, Bounty Hunter, Legacy of the Chozo, going out with a literal bang instead of fighting it out to the end as she always imagined things would go!
A tremble like nothing she'd experienced before began. The last batch of Green Energy was starting to take effect, another sharp pain exploded from somewhere, every warning system built into her suit yelled at her, Nora shouted something illegible.
One inch gained.
Two inches gained.
Three inches gained.
Each one might as well have been one mile, two mile, three mile for all the difference it made.
The pinprick of light closed up tight and left Samus alone in the harsh glow of her visor's HUD.
A pressure like a cork stuck in a champagne bottle formed below/behind her head.
This was it?
A scrambling of words covered in static was all Samus could hear of Nora now.
The pressure mounted. As if someone was trying to yank her head right off in one way and pull it deeper into herself in the other, a horrible pain formed in her neck. Finally, after avoiding it for so long, Samus could feel her face begin to bloat with Green Energy, cheeks plumping, lips thickening, tongue inflating, eyes bulging, every possible inch of head space in her helmet filled to the brim.
This was it.
A pounding, pulsing pain poured into her head.
This was it!
A crack split the visor right down the middle.
THIS WAS IT!!!
The tightness became something different, final, the last possible bits of elasticity her body and Power Suit were capable of exhausted. Samus did not have time to process the exact moment her body gave out; one second it creaked and groaned as it hardened like a ripening fruit, the next everything stopped. The pain. The tightness. The pressure. Gone.
The last thing Nora remembered before being blasted off her feet was a blistering ringing in her ears.