“Same old, same old….”I mumbled to myself as I got ready for school. I had just gotten home from performing my duties as a Bounty Hunter for the Galactic Federation. “Why do I need to keep a secret identity? And as a sophomore, no less! Will anything happen in this region? Will anything ever change?”
Little did I know that I would change completely after today, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
My name is Jason Sanders. And like I said, I’m a Bounty Hunter. I trained under the wing and worked alongside the Galaxy’s most feared Huntress, Samus Aran, and eventually became her equal. We’ve gone to many different planets throughout the cosmos on many different missions, like when we stopped a Bioweapon cloning process, and caused the fall of planet Phase and the space pirates (who were Samus’s arch enemy.) And we even stopped a war between the lumianoth and the Dark Ones.
Anyway, school tugged on like any other, Math, science, choir, and English. Lunch is where everything changed, though. That’s when they appeared.
At first, I didn’t see them, but I heard quite a few people scream in fear at the front of the cafeteria. When I stood to look, I saw a portal, black as night, lined with a purple haze on the stage. When the first one of them appeared through the portal, I instantly recognized it. A Dark One.
We had first encountered the dark ones when Samus and I traveled to Eather on a rescue mission. The plane divided itself into light and shadow, each version of Eather existing in its own dimension. When Samus and I caused Dark Eather to collapse, we assumed that its inhabitance had all been destroyed, crushed by what was once Eather’s twisted shadow.
The Dark ones are back? I thought to myself. How is that possible?
  The solitary demon stayed at the entrance of the portal, as if surprised that it had entered a room with so many people in it. Then it roared a demonic screech as it gained confidence in its surroundings. I knew I had to act before the beast did.
I stood up and walked toward the beast. I was confident, because I knew how these creatures fought and how to beat them. I stopped right before the creature and stared into its cluster of eyes.
“It’s been awhile, hasn’t it, big fella?” I said with a smile. The demon made a swipe at me with its claw-like leg. I leapt over the attack and landed on a lunch table in front of me. “Come on!” I said with a smirk. “Do you really think that you can hit me with a slow attack like that?”
The beast, seeming to get the memo, started to charge its beam-like attack, a ranged weapon that was accurate for anybody who used it.
Unless your target was fast enough.
As soon as the creature fired the beam, I leaped to my left and tucked into a roll when I hit the ground. I knew that a second shot was coming immediately, so I tucked into a leaping forward somersault, dodging the second beam, almost.
I felt the second shot graze my arm. The heat was intense, even being an inch away from the focus of the beam. While the demon was resting from the two shots, (a sign that it was a weaker creature), I inspected the burn on my left arm.
“Oh, so you want to play it that way, huh?” I said to the creature. “All right then, let’s plays rough! Power suit, Engage!”
I felt the warmth of the suit wrap around me as it materialized from the ring on my left hand. I Felt the metal plates appear around my arms, chest, legs and torso, clinging to me like a vice, however fitting comfortably. I grinned behind my visor as my fingers gripped around the familiar triggers of my right arm cannon.
“Remember, pal...” I said to the creature while I was getting into a battle stance, “You asked for this!”
Suddenly a shriek came from the portal off to my left. Right before my eyes, more demonic creatures, skin black as night, spilled out of the portal. Altogether, there were about six.
“I see you brought some friends” I said, almost to myself. The small band of creatures simply stood its ground. I looked around the room, trying to keep myself between the demonic creatures and the students (who fled to the opposite end of the cafeteria.), all while trying to find a tactic I could work with.
“Alright, pal”, I said “Let’s dance. I’ll lead.” I activated my orange Space Pirate energy blade (Which I looted from an abandon weapon storage room on Eather, Ironically) on my left arm. I cocked my arm cannon, checked my missile supply, and set my arm cannon to the plasma beam. Then the true fight began.
Beams were fired, missiles exploded, and two of the demons fell. But before even two of them died, five minutes easily passed. Then one of the Dark Ones took a turned toward the bystanders. I acted before I could think.
“Hey, you!” I shouted as I launched a missile at the creature’s back, hoping to draw its attention away from the students. The missile made contact, but the beast ignored it. It stopped directly before the first line of students and began to glow a dark purple light. I knew that this demon was trying to possess the people I was protecting.
Suddenly, a loud crash was herd, right above where the solitary demon was standing. The roof above it shattered into bits, sending plaster, insolation, and steel structuring down on the beast, crushing and killing it instantly. Perched on top of the pile of rubble, I saw a familiar face, of rather a familiar suit of armor. Both the creatures and I seemed to be stunned.
“Jason!” said none other than Samus Aran, in an authoritive voice, acting like she didn’t crash the party (no pun intended) “What are you waiting for? Attack!”
She herself was in her power suit, and it looked very similar to mine. However, she had an orange, red, and yellow color scheme, while my suit was grey and black.
“Right!” I yelled back. I turned around, arm cannon cocked and ready for the fight to resume. She came down off the pile of rubble to join me at my side. She got into a battle stance and readied her weapons.
The battle began again and we fought side by side for the first time in months, for the first time since the fall of planet Phase. I felt natural again, flipping, shooting, simply being by her side in a battle. It felt…right.
  We fought until all but one of the creatures was left. When it realized that it stood alone on the battle field, it ran back to the portal, trying to go back to the nightmare land that it had come from in fear of its life. I saw Samus sprint for the creature, power beam charged. She lunged at the creature, used its neck like a corner pole, and delivered a super missile directly into its many eyes, point blank.
She stood over her kill with pride, gloating with her eyes over the final kill. She gave me that “I’m so great” look, and to be honest, she deserved it.
“Well,” said Samus, “That was fu-” she didn’t get to finish her sentence.
More creatures spilled out of the portal behind Samus and quickly covered her, like dropping a piece of meat on a swarming ant hill.
The creatures didn’t waste any time dragging her back to the portal, deactivating her power suit in the process. While about five creatures restrained Samus, the rest stood between me and the portal. I didn’t have time to fight them all and rescue Samus, but I charged anyway.
I leaped over the first line of creatures and activated my space jump to perform a double jump. I somersaulted in midair and curled into morph ball form, hitting the ground rolling.
While making my way to the portal, I heard shots, clearly from a blaster, and shouts of battle coming from behind me. Maybe the students found one of Samus’s paralyzers? At the moment, I didn’t care.
I got out of morph ball mode and started to sprint toward the portal. Then I felt something grip my ankle and I fell. When I looked to see what it was that tripped me, I saw one of the creatures clinging to my right foot. I didn’t have time to charge a beam, so I used my pirate blade to slash through the creature’s claw like tendril. The blade of pure energy made a clean slash and freed me.
I closed in on the portal, 15 feet, 10 feet left to go. I lunged at the portal, head first, like a diver, to close the last couple of feet. Then I felt something, once again, grip my ankle. The sudden stop causes me to fall, face first, onto the ground. But this time, I was prepared. I spun around, a missile already loaded in my arm cannon. But it wasn’t an enemy that stopped me. I found myself looking into the alien, moth-like face of an old friend.
“Still a reckless warrior, as you have always been.” Said the new creature. “I had a feeling that you hadn’t changed”
“U-Mos!” I said, excitedly. U-Mos was the sentential of the Lumainoth, and overall leader of Planet Eather. He was the one who enlisted Samus and I to help fight the war between the Dark ones and the inhabitants of Eather, over eight months ago.
“How have you been, Young Hunter?” U-Mos said as he helped me to my feet. I took a look around the cafeteria, which was now in ruins. The room was filled with rubble and the bodies of the fallen creatures, as well as the still living war party of Lumainoth warriors that U-Mos had brought. There were the ones firing the shots I had heard.
“Honestly, I could be doing better.” I said, sounding defeated. I told The Lumainoth leader about what happened about Samus being taken into the portal. At mention of the portal, both U-Mos and I turned toward the portal.
“I-Sha!” Said U-Mos, “Block that portal, but keep it open!”
Another Lumainoth, I-Sha, I presumed, Stepped forward and nodded. He placed a crystal in a staff like object, A light beacon, and stabbed the staff into the tile in front of the portal. Then He stepped back and shot the beacon with light energy, supercharging the field of light, and preventing any creatures coming through the portal. Until this point, I didn’t know that light beacons worked outside the dark world.
After seeing that, I had an Idea. “It’s a good thing that you showed up when you did.” I said. “Since you guys have a supply of light crystals, we can go into the dark world after Samus!” I turned toward the portal, ready to head straight into the dark world, but U-Mos stooped me with a hand on the shoulder pad of my armor.
“I cannot risk any of my men for a lost cause,” Said U-Mos.
“Then let me go alone!” I shouted, “Give me the light suit!” I was remembering the suit of armor that U-Mos made during the war that gave the wearer complete protection from the poisonous atmosphere of The Dark World.
“I cannot, I’m sorry,” Said U-Mos, “In order to do that, I would have to go back to Eather and retrieve it. Even if Samus is still alive, she wouldn’t be by the time I got back. I’m sorry.”
I slammed my left fist onto the stage in rage. “There has to be a way!” I shouted, “I promised her that I would do anything for her! That if anything happened to her, I would do anything to save her! The Dark Ones could be destroying her as we speak! Don’t you see what’s at stake here? I don’t care if I end up dying!” Tears started to stream down my face. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. I couldn’t lose Samus, and I would die trying to save her.
U-Mos looked stunned at my sudden outburst, but he spoke. “… There is one method of combating the air of the Dark world, but-” I didn’t let him finish.
“I’ll do it!” I blurted, “I’ll do anything!”
U-Mos sighed heavily. “We found out that if you mix a Dark creatures blood with a large portion of another being’s DNA and let the mixture turn into a liquid, then pore the now existing mixture over the head of the being who gave up its DNA, a new type of armor will cover the being, and give both protection from the poisonous air and camouflage form the dark ones,  However…” He sighed again, “We, the Lumainoth can regrow limbs that are damaged.”
“U-Mos,” I said with a hint of confusion, “what do you mean?”
He gave me a look, as if he were in pain. “In order to grant you this suit, I must cut off your arm.”
My Eyes widened. Lose my arm? I thought to myself. Then a memory popped into my head. It was the time I rescued Samus from the captivity of the Space Pirates, shorty after they beat her within an inch of her life. When she was recovering in the medical ward, I made my oath. “I’ll protect you” I said to her as I held her hand while she lay on the medical table, “No matter what, I’ll be there for you. This is my Hunter’s Oath.”
I looked up into U-Mos’s eyes with determination in my eyes. “Do it.” I said, “Just, tell your men to start getting the suit mixture ready.” I removed my Power suit and my shirt as I said this.
“Are you sure?” asked U-Mos, “We haven’t tried this process on anything but a Lumainoth, and even then there were side effects…”
“Do I look like I care right now?” I barked at U-Mos. The Lumainoth simply stared at me. “Sorry,” I apologized, “I just… Want to get this over with.”
“It is okay, Jason.” Said U-Mos, Then he turned toward his troops. “Five of you, start to siphon the blood from the creatures, and E-Kaw! Start brewing a numbing agent.”
“That will take too long!” I shouted. “Just, just get it over with. Don’t use a numbing agent.” I sat down at a lunch table, draped my left arm over it, and put my left arm in my lap. U-Mos stood behind me with a Lumainoth war axe in his hands.
“Are you ready?” Said U-Mos, talking to me like a doctor would to a child who was about to get a shot.
“Yeah, just…get it over with.” I braced myself, and every muscle in my body tensed. I squeezed my eyes shut.
U-Mos started counting down. “One, two…” I felt a sharp pain on my bicep, and the world went black.
When I awoke, I was lying in my back on a lunch table. I swiveled my head around the room and saw that the Lumianoth war party, U-Mos, and the students and faculty were staring at me. Then I looked down at my left arm, or what was there now.
In place of my arm was an exact replica made of a type of metal. By its weight, shine and texture, I recognized it as denzium, a material that could only be destroyed by a power bomb.
U-Mos was the first one, naturally, to speak to me. “Are you okay? Can you stand?”
I simply nodded. I apparently lost quite a bit of blood, because everything was still fuzzy around the edges.
U-Mos helped me to my feet, and gestured for me to hold out my hand. I did, and he put my Power suit activator ring in my right hand. “You’ll need this,” he said monotonly.
“Thanks,” I muttered, still fuzzy. I slid the ring on my metal finger, and tested out the new arm. The animatronics were very responsive, as if this metal contraption was part of me all along. “I like how it feels, very well made.” I said, thanking U-Mos.
“Thank you, Jason,” Said my old friend. “We are ready with the mixture, so put on your power suit, and we’ll start the fusion.”
I nodded and activated my power suit. U-Mos came up to me with a vial filled with a black liquid, which I knew contained the blood of the Dark Ones and my DNA in the form of my arm.
U-Mos pored the foul liquid over my head and let it cover my helmet. I felt fine at first, but then the liquid moved on its own, and I was in agony. As the substance covered more and more of my body, the pain spread more and more, covering every inch of my body. Then the pain slowly subsided, and just like that, it was gone entirely.
The liquid completely changed the suit I was familiar with. The visor, usually tinted green, was now a transparent purple. U-Mos held up a shield with a reflective surface so I could see the full suit. The power suit was gone, and I knew I was wearing the Demon suit. The outer surface of this new suit was metal, but it liked almost… organic, like it was alive.
“Are you ready?” asked U-Mos. I nodded and grunted affirmatively. “Good. I wish you luck, Young Hunter. May the light of Eather guide your aim!”
I stepped forward toward the portal, stopping in front of the rift. “I promised,” I said to nobody in particular, “That I would do anything to protect you, Samus. That is a promise I will keep!” I put my left foot into the portal, stopped, and sighed. “What did I get myself into?” I stepped into the Dark World, and Felt the portal close behind me.