Chapter 3: The good old days.

The space pirates were attacking K-12 with great hostility. Samus had just recently seen Ridley maul her parents. She ran before Ridley saw her and did the same. She ran, crying with fear and sadness. Then, she hit something and fell over. She looked up and saw she hit a leg. The leg belonged to a Zebasian. It turned and looked at Samus. It opened its multi-jawed mouth and screeched at Samus, making her freeze on the spot. It then pointed its claw at Samus and opened it. Before it could do anything, its head blew up and the body launched to the left. Then, Tarblun came from Samus' right and, instead of hands, he had blasters on the end of his hands. One of these guns was on his side, the other pointing at the Zebasian corpse. Tarblun then turned to Samus and kneeled down.

His right gun barrel opened up and collapsed in on itself, revealing a hand. This hand reached towards Samus. Tarblun looked at Samus and said, 'come with me, please.' Samus was unsure first but then reached out her hand. Tarblun then grabbed Samus' hand, pulled her towards him and stood up, lifting her up too. He then held her in place with his arm and begun sprinting. He held his armed hand in front of him. A group of four Zebasians stood in the direction he was sprinting. He shot one, causing the other three to respond by turning and shooting. Samus looked the other way and held on tight. She didn't know what happened next, but when she looked back, three Zebasians were on the floor and the fourth was being thrown by the leg by Tarblun. His hand quickly turned back into a gun.

After a minuet, they reached a ship. It was a purple sphere, with three legs. Two were at the front, holding the ship up; the third was a walk way into the ship. The front had a big, red visor. Tarblun ran in with Samus and turned round into the control room. There were five seats. Tarblun put Samus in the central left one and put himself in the middle one. He reached over they control panel and pressed a button. He then said, "Grey Voice, I have a human child, I request I leave the rescue mission to take her to safety."

A voice responded from the intercom, "No, we need to rescue others first." Tarblun took his hand off the button, put his head in his hands and sighed. He then turned to Samus slowly and looked back at the button. He pressed it and said depressingly, "Grey Voice, I'm sorry but… look at your scanners."

"The place is teeming with life."

"Well, change the scanners to anything that doesn't class under the races of space pirates."

"…Oh!"

Samus' heart stopped. Even though she was young, she understood what had just happened. The looked expectantly at Tarblun who looked back as if to say, "that's the truth, sorry." Tarblun pressed a second button and the engines started up. Samus felt the nudge as the ship rose from the ground. The legs retracted and the ship pointed to Zebes. The ship then flew.

From that day on, Samus only had the Chozo to call parents. Tarblun kept in the shadows and Samus only saw him as an older brother or a close friend. He generally talked to Samus when she felt she couldn't talk to the Chozo. He listened, and only spoke when he needed to. However, when Samus got applied to the Galactic Federation, Tarblun never spoke to Samus anymore. He became more and more of a shadow, an echo of the past. She never understood this and eventually forgot him, until today.

"Well, here we are," Tarblun blurted, removing Samus of her daydream. They were in a large, round room. There were three layers; the bottom had several consoles, the middle had three glass domes, and the top had a single chair suspended to the ceiling by a metal rod. Tarblun guided Samus to one of the domes and pressed a button when they were inside. An image of the Adam gunship appeared on the dome. Tarblun pointed and stated, "This is why I'm here. The ship belongs to a bounty hunter who has, and I quote the message, 'been involved in the destruction of three Galactic Federation space stations, is a possible suspect in the death of Commander Adam Malcovitch, breaking protocols, breaking out of containment, destruction of a new species that may have been beneficial for the universe.' The bounty on this bounty hunter's head has 10 figures." Samus looked awkwardly at Tarblun. He then chuckled. He remarked, "Only you Sammy, only you could do that!" He then calmed down walked out of the dome. Samus followed and said, "So, you're not going to kill me?" This only started him laughing again.

"No, of course I won't," he replied, "I want to know what it is you know." Samus looked confused. Tarblun simplified his question, "what is this 'new species'?" Samus didn't want to say, but she had trusted him for so long, she involuntarily blurted, "X-parasites." This stopped the chuckle in Tarblun. He pressed a button under his helmet and said, "The X you say?" His helmet then turned a green light and retracted under his neckpiece. His skin was a dark grey and smooth. He had three blue eyes, with white pupils. His nose and mouth were covered by a breathing mask. He had two small bulges with holes where his ears were meant to be. He looked at Samus and said, "You know what that means?" She shook her head. Tarblun leaned down and looked her in the eye. "The universe is in danger."

Samus stepped back. "WHAT?" she exclaimed. Tarblun stood up straight and said, "BSL report 1193.B-Gamma, 'ship set to collide with SR388, all bio-sectors have disconnected before collision.' I know this BSL's bio-sectors can only be disconnected manually and that the X will have killed off any life forms capable of doing this. Also, the BSL bio-sector that collided with this ship contained life signs, and when the X are around, there is only one type of life sign – theirs. Get your suit on, we've got a galactic order to save." His helmet then reappeared, and he turned his hands into the arm cannons. He then ran off crying, "Battle stations! Active battle strategy 7X8B49!"