Pit groaned lightly to himself as he pulled himself up a little higher, nearing the top of his ascension of this most towering of edifices, an ordinary chair. The climb would normally have not been a climb at all, seeing as the chair was perfectly ordinary and a mere few feet high, but at the moment he was a great deal smaller than usual. Even then it should only have been a minor issue, as he had climbed greater height before, but those times were not when he was also being forced to carry a nearly full bucket of water and cloths in his teeth. It was the only way to do so, as otherwise it risked spilling the warm soapy water everywhere making things even harder on himself, and he did not want to make a mess, quite the opposite in fact.

Backing up a fair bit in time, the cause for all of this struggle the angel was going through could be traced back to a single decision on his part, to sneak into the private bath/hot springs of his Goddess Palutena. Normally he would have just used the public ones used by the other residents of Skyworld, but they were currently all occupied and he wanted a little privacy. So when he thought Palutena was busy with a task of her own, he made his way into her chambers and allowed himself to just sink in.

Unfortunately for Pit he greatly overestimated how much time he had, and so while he was still just lounging in the warm bubbling water Palutena returned to her chambers, cutting off his retreat. Worse was that she wanted her own bath as well, and unlike Pit she was not the type to just enter the water in full clothing. Thus since he had not heard her arrive Pit was caught off guard by the arrival of his naked Goddess, and in the ensuing panic, flailing, desperate excuses and flying holy lasers a very rare and thus expensive bottle of bath oil ended up falling into the water, effectively using all of it all at once.

Naturally Palutena was utterly FURIOUS with her number one angel, and felt that a “little” punishment was in order. In her mind if Pit wanted to get clean so badly, then he could make sure EVERYTHING was clean, and to make sure that the lesson stuck she added a spell upon Pit. Cleaning most of the things in her chambers would have taken far too little time in her mind, so she shrank Pit down to a mere inch in height, and supplying him with appropriately sized implements she set him his task.

That was several hours ago, and in that time Pit had been made to scrub, polish, dust, sweep, and generally work his wings of to get various objects cleaned. The life-sized statue of Palutena herself was made spotless, the gaps between tiles on the floor were scrubbed clean down to the grout, and the tiles themselves were polished to a mirror shine. One of the greater tasks he had been forced to endure was cleaning her multiple pairs of sandals from the straps to the soles, the soles being the problem as it was both sides. The undersides had to have each groove and tread cleared out of any rocks or dirt, and the top sides needed to have grime forcefully scrubbed away from where her feet were planted. It did not escape Pit's notice how easily he could fit in the treads, or how the impression of Palutena's sole was so much bigger than him.

A bit of a downside for Pit that was likely also part of the punishment was that Palutena was not there, so he had to guess at how good she wanted things to be. Unspoken was anywhere he missed or that were deemed not good enough would be done again, possibly with more restrictions or punishments tacked on. This is what led Pit to climb up the chair sitting in one part of the room, as it seemed like another important place to clean and its wide top would be very visible for Palutena to see anything wrong with it. Now that he was here he set the bucket down to one side, and pulled out a sponge to start scrubbing. Even if the chair was “clean” with no stains, it would pay to have it at least be sparkling clean with no smudges.

Pit was fully engrossed in his task, but not even he could miss the slightly booming sounds of footsteps getting closer and closer. Trying to keep working so that it did not look like he was slacking off, Pit still tried to keep an eye and ear out as his Goddess entered the room. As always Palutena was a vision of beauty, her long green hair shimmering slightly and her face flawless and sharp. She was still lightly frowning, and began to scan the room as she walked in. Pit spared a moment to look down at the floor behind her, and breathed a small sigh of relief as she was leaving no footprints, meaning he would not have to clean up after her.

Palutena was indeed still harbouring a fair amount of anger towards Pit, and he sincerely hoped that this would teach him a lesson and have him be suitably punished. She had left him alone for a few hours to work, and now that she had returned she found that it looked like he had been doing an adequate job. However as she scanned the floor for him she was so far failing to spot him, and she silently began to wonder if perhaps he might have sneaked away. She hoped not, as if he had she would be forced to punish him.

Moving over towards her nearby chair she turned around to view the room from a new angle, and began to look around some of the furniture to see if he had climbed up on top of something to work on the items there. If so she would be pleased with that, again so long as he was not goofing off. However the longer she scanned the room, and the longer she did not see him, the more suspicious she became. Deciding to give him a little hint to perhaps show himself, she called for a Centurion to her door.

Pit continued to scrub at the seat of the chair as Palutena looked around the room, and he hoped she liked what she was seeing. At first as she approached him he thought that she was going to tell him what she thought, but then when she arrived she turend around, facing away from him as if on purpose. Pit supposed that this was her silently telling him that she was still mad, so he doubled his efforts on the chair. Then he heard her call out for a Centurion, and he glanced up just as a shadow fell over the chair and thus him.

When the Centurion arrived Palutena spoke to it, saying “Pit better be done scrubbing soon. Can you find his lazy butt while I rest here? Getting too tired looking for the little jerk...” Having said that Palutena lowered her divine rump onto the chair seat, not noticing a small bucket being knocked off the side to near silently land on the floor below. Nor did she notice the tiny figure that had realized what was happening a little too late, and had only just started to call out before it was buried under her rear. She simply finished sitting and crossed one leg over the other to wait, giving a small wiggle to get comfortable.

The Centurion began to slowly fly around the room looking for its commander, being sure to not touch anything lest they mess it up and provide more work for Pit. Likewise Palutena also was looking for Pit, waiting for him to show himself. This continued for several minutes, and still with no sign of Pit the goddess began to get angry all over again. However before she became too filled with rage at the idea of Pit slacking off or worse just plain leaving, she thought that it was possible he might have just gotten stuck somewhere. Giving him this last benefit of the doubt she reached out with her powers to contact him mentally and see his immediate surroundings.

At first Palutena was confused as all she could see was darkness, but she supposed that it was possible that Pit was indeed stuck somewhere. Opening up a line of communication she asked firmly “Pit, what are you doing and where are you right now?” She waited for his response, but for the first few seconds there was no answer. This just raised her confusion, and so she asked again “Pit, answer me. Where are you?” At last she received an answer, but it did not provide much clarification.

She heard Pit say weakly, as if he was under great strain “under...” This made the goddess slightly concerned, but she tried not to show it as she asked for clarification “What? What do you mean?” A small part of her had to keep herself from asking 'under where,' just in case it was Pit trying to play that old verbal prank. Again his voice piped up, just as weak and forced as before “under...you...” At this Palutena frowned, and bent to the side a little while glancing down. She checked underneath the chair she was in, but saw nothing but a tiny drop of water. At the same time Pit let out a groan of pain, one that stopped as Palutena sat back up.

“Pit, you are not making sense. Tell me where you are right now!” Palutena put in a little more force behind this command, partially from annoyance at not getting the answers she sought and also worry for Pit. Once more Pit came through, this time saying “...on...chair...” Palutena tilted her head in confusion at this, trying to parse what he meant. Underneath her, and on a chair? Then an idea began to occur to her, and in a flash she all but jumped out of the chair she was sitting in and turned around to look.

At first the goddess was a mixture of relieved and confused, as Pit was nowhere to be seen on the chair, just a little yellow spot that upon poking revealed itself to be a sponge. She began to return her attention to Pit to ask him more, only this time instead of darkness she could actually see Pit. He looked slightly worse for wear and was in an odd pose, nearly spread eagle on a wall of white with his arms and legs at odd but still natural angles. Getting a sneaking suspicion the goddess began to slowly pull her perception out around him to take in more of his surroundings, and to her growing embarrassment she soon saw her own butt looking back at her, Pit stuck right to it.

Flushing Palutena looked over her own shoulder and was able to just barely see the little speck on the back of her dress, and so reached back and was able to peel her best angle off her rear after an embarrassing two failed tries. She brought Pit around and up to her face, most of her displeasure with him gone after what she had just put him through. Still, she would not be the goddess she was if she didn't make the following quip. “Ah, I know you want to be thorough Pit, but I don't think you need to go so far as to try and clean me.” Likewise, Pit would not be the angel he was if after he regained his breath he returned back “My mistake Lady Palutena, I thought I was redoing your statue again.” At this Palutena could only laugh and say “Oh Pit...”

It had all started when Morag was called back to her country on short notice, and at a time when the group could not afford to all leave Gormott at the same time. So it was decided that she and her Blade Brighid would leave and return once the matter was resolved, which would just take a week or two. With the most responsible pair of the group gone they were unable to avoid getting into trouble with a passing mercenary Driver, and a battle had ensued deep within the wilderness of the Titan.

Of course Rex and Pyra/Mythra alone could have probably handled the issue no problem, so the inclusion of Tora and Poppi, Nia and Dromarch, and Zeke and Pandoria to the battle really just made it overkill. Unfortunately for all that the Driver and his Blade were easily defeated and driven off, what all of them had missed was the Drivers Blade using an unknown ability to just barely clip Zeke, delaying its effects until long after the enemy had been driven off. Nominally fine for over an hour, without warning Zeke had suddenly flashed with a bright light and then seemingly vanished into thin air.

 Of course after a moments panic Dromarch was able to calm everyone down by pointing out that Pandoria was still just fine and out, so that proved that whatever had happened Zeke was still alive. Then once the electric Blade was able to calm her simultaneous sobbing and rapid movements back and forth looking for her Driver, she noticed a tiny little squeaking sound coming from below. Looking down amidst the grass she spotted Zeke attempting to play things off as just fine below trying to get her attention, an action slightly undercut by his wavering voice, shaking knees, and the fact that Pandoria's foot was planted less than an inch away from him, and all around him there were more footprints in the grass.

A minute later after the group had extracted Zeke from Pandoria's grip they began to try and heal him, only to show that while his battle and discovery injuries were healed whatever this was effecting him was not so easily dealt with. The discovery injuries had come from being introduced to a combined happy/sad Pandoria's cheek who was equal parts upset at his current state and gushing at how cute he looked. To that Zeke only tried to correct “cute” to “handsome” or “amazing.”

It was soon enough decided that for now the best course of action was to wait for whatever this effect was to wear off naturally, and for the group to remain camped out near this location. The town was a day or so's journey away, and not even Pandoria wanted to risk carrying him around hostile monsters to get there. This particular area was safe enough, only being home to some Tirkins that did not mind the people below so long as they stayed out of the tress, but chased off any big monsters, so they set up camp.

The first two days were quiet enough, and some practice and tests soon showed that Zeke was only as strong as his scale suggested, and so he was just as fragile as before. While this was still more durable than the average person his size would have been, it was just further proof that him staying put was the best choice. Pandoria never left his side or him out of her sight, and while he appreciated it deep down he also was finding it rather stiffling.

It was on the third day when things changed, as Poppi suddenly had her arm go limp and a quick examination by Tora showed that one of her parts had broken. The ailment was certainly repairable, but not out in the field, only some specialized tools found at his home/lab could replace the part safely. In addition Pandoria realized something but would not speak up about what it was, just that she also needed to return to town.

From there the problem became that Tora, Poppi and Pandoria needed to go to town, but they could not bring Zeke safely and just them going alone was too dangerous. At the same time they could not leave too few people behind at the camp, again just in case for safety. A quick debate and drawing of straws commenced, and in the end it was decided that in addition to Tora, Poppi, and Pandoria Rex would join them while Dromarch, Pyra/Mythra, and Nia would stay with Zeke. Pandoria was unhappy to be leaving her driver behind and again nearly snapped his spine from her goodbye hug, but soon the group was off.

Things started out mostly alright for the current quartet staying behind, but soon enough Zeke discovered that not only was he bored out of his mind, but the situation had also deteriorated in another way. He felt that it was bad enough that he was currently so weak that an infant carterpile was an insurmountable threat, but at the very least Pandoria was willing to listen to his bluster and stories with rapt attention. Even Rex or Tora would have listened to him, and Poppi at least could have stood there as he spoke.

Instead he was left with Nia, the brash cat girl telling him to his face that she was uninterested, while also not sparing him from her barbed tongue as she made zero effort to keep from teasing him mercilessly about his size. Mythra actually only lasted a few hours before she swapped out with Pyra, the blonde apparently having too much of him and his bluster and complaints. Dromarch was marginally kinder, but only in that he ignored Zeke entirely, but at least Pyra was on occasion able to feign interest.

The final straw for Zeke and his patience came that afternoon, when Nia had finally had enough of his valid concerns (bellyaching) and gave him another cutting remark about how “Yer barely bigger than one of my claws, so kindly shut it pipsqueak!” She then proceeded to emphasize this by sticking one of the spare pots over top of him on the ground and leaving him there in the dark. Considering Pyra was distracted at the moment elsewhere and unable to keep the peace or save him, Zeke was on his own.

However Zeke found that he was not totally in the dark, as on one edge of the pot there was a sliver of light visible, due to the ground not being perfectly even. This of course not only afforded him more air, but it also was his means of escape. Getting down and doing a bit of digging and a fair bit of stomach crawling squeezing, the tiny man managed to slip out from under the pot and escape. He then wasted no time in getting away from his former impenetrable prison and laughing at his success, realizing a bit too late that he had just run into the middle of the dense grass of the area and was now rather lost.

Still Zeke was no coward, and was prepared to face any challenge, even this jungle of grass head on with all his might. This sentiment lasted approximately 10 seconds before an ordinary non-monstrous insect appeared out of the brush and looked at him an a vaguely threatening way. Of course Zeke gave a manly warcry (girly scream of fear) in response, and brandished his weapon with only slightly shaking arms. Then before combat could be truly joined the potentially threatening insect vanished under a massive red boot as Pyra returned. The Aegis Blade towered over Zeke like a crimson titan, and was visibly not looking down.

Above Pyra had come back from her patrol, and spotting Nia practicing a few forms with her weapons she thought nothing of it before she realized that she could not see Zeke anywhere. Pausing in slight concern and at the same time unknowingly reducing a beetle to paste under her foot the redhead asked “Hey, Nia, where is Zeke?” To that the Blade got the response of “’e was being a little shite so I stuck him under the pot over there.” Pyra frowned at this as it was very rude, and moved to go and remove Zeke from there. However when she arrived and lifted the pot the shrunken Driver was nowhere to be found. Just in case Pyra checked the inside of the pot and the area it had been in again, to no avail.

“Nia, he isn’t here. He’s gone!” This garnered the attention of the cat girl making her stop her prior katas, and also awakened Dromarch who had been snoozing nearby. Very quickly Nia rushed over to check herself, and upon seeing no sign of the miniaturized man she began to feel a bit of worry. Of course being Nia this expressed itself in her as annoyance and anger, and she said “Wot? That bleedin’ fools done gone and gotten ‘imself lost. I knew he was a peabrain but I thought his body matching it in size would have helped.”

While Pyra did not agree with the language that Nia was using now was not the time, as they needed to find Zeke as soon as possible before something happened. They started to call for him and wander the immediate area searching, but unfortunately he was so small that his form was fully below the grassline, and they realized how lucky they had been that Pandoria had found him right away before. Still they kept looking, doing their best.

Regrettably for Zeke the two women and one tigers best efforts were not very good, as the shrunken Driver on more than one occasion had to dodge out of the way of a falling boot or paw. He was shouting as loud as he could but the gentlest breeze rustling the leaves drowned him out, and jumping up and down and waving jet left him a sitting duck for an incautious step. Thinking quickly to try and come up with a solution, a chance parting of the grass formed by a footprint mashing some of it down revealed to him a tree stump that seemed perfect. It was raised up off the ground so he was out of reach of the feet, had no grass on it so he would be more visible, and it was a natural place to pick as a mustering point.

So decided Zeke dashed off, trying to reach it as soon as possible. He only had to avoid one more set of paw steps as Dromarch passed by, and then it was easy enough to use the craggily bark to climb up onto the top of the flat stump. Once there he had a chance to catch his breath from all of the running (and panicking) he had just endured, but soon he would be able to start trying again for their attention. In fact he might not even need to do that, as he spotted Pyra heading his way.

The flame based Blade was very worried about Zeke, and getting a slight feeling of dread surreptitiously lifted her foot to check underneath it at a moment when both Nia and Dromarch were looking away. For a moment her heart stopped as she saw a wet splatter visible on the sole, but a closer inspection revealed that it was just an insect and nothing more. Still the thrill of momentary fear and despair took a bit out of her, and she said to herself “All this searching has got me tired.” Walking over to the nearby stump in the middle of the camp to take a quick break, she turned and without thinking sat down.

Her body was considered by nearly everyone who saw her as attractive, and in all honesty and ignoring the inherent pun as the term referred to her most saw her as downright hot. A big part of that, which she shared with her other half Mythra was her impressive bust and rear size, sandwiching a thinner waist. As such it might come to little surprise that when Pyra sat down incautiously, like right now, she could land with the force of a particularly sexy meteor. In other circumstances she might have missed what happened, but right now she was extra-aware of her surroundings and thinking about Zeke. Thus as her butt touched down and landed solidly on the wood of the stump, she also felt the lump underneath her as well as heard the sickening CRUNCH.

The sound and feeling made Pyra freeze up in utter dread, the woman not daring to move so much as an inch as she began to comprehend exactly what had happened. Not knowing what Pyra was doing, Nia turned towards her just to see the Aegis Blade sitting down on the stump stiffly. Thinking that the other female was just being lazy, the grumpy cat said “Oy, you bloody bimbo! Stop sitting around and help us find that tiny brat before he gets hurt!” Nia was about to look away and resume her search, but then noticed that Pyra had flinched but also not otherwise moved. Sensing something was wrong, the light haired girl rushed over to see what was the matter.

As Nia and Dromarch arrived at her side Pyra at last slowly turned her head to look at them, and admitted aloud “I…found Zeke.” Then she stiffly but slowly got up and turned around, dreading that she might see naught but a red splotch upon the stump. Nia and Dromarch were able to read the situation perfectly, and likewise looked down in mounting dread. However to their confusion and relief, there was nothing to be seen on the stump. Nia was the first to recover and take a guess at what might have happened, and muttered “Oh bloody ‘ell, don’t tell me the wee idiot is…” before she circled around behind Pyra.

There, as she began to suspect was the case she found Zeke, visibly in a great deal of pain and wedged between the cheeks of Pyra unable to move. Grimacing and informing Pyra to hold still the feline Driver reached out and pulled Zeke out of the jiggly buns of the other woman, who could only “Eep!” in shock and embarrassment. Apparently Zeke was “lucky” in that he had been hit straight on dead center, as it meant he had the gap of Pyra’s ass crack to slightly reduce the pressure on him. He was still in a bad way, but that was fixable.

A quick healing session by Nia and an hour of apologizing, interrogation, and more apologizing on all sides later, the situation was mostly resolved. It was generally agreed that everyone had at least some of the blame to shoulder, Nia for putting Zeke under the pot, Zeke for leaving without thinking, and Pyra for not looking where she was going when she actively knew Zeke was missing. Even Dromarch accepted some responsibility for not being of much help and not reprimanding Nia more. The only person truly innocent was Mythra, and she made sure the others knew it before swapping back to Pyra.

There was still the question of what they were going to tell the others when they returned, and after a bit of a debate it was decided that they would never speak of this incident again. The two/three girls did not want what had happened getting to Pandoria as it was embarrassing for them and they feared vengeance form the electric Blade, and Dromarch followed Nia’s lead. Zeke was not the happiest about this idea, but was smart enough to realize that Pandoria was still hours away and he had to live with these three until then.

Thankfully the next day came soon enough, Zeke sleeping off the last of his fatigue, and he was right as rain again. Even better the away group returned from town right on time, and by dint of preplanning and being in the grasp of Mythra at the time Zeke avoided recreating the previous days crushing at the hands and facial cheek of Pandoria. Then as he was handed back to her and the others caught up, Pandoria revealed the thing she needed to go into town to do.

Zeke was simply overjoyed to see his pet turtle Turtlers just on principle, but then Pandoria pointed out something else that lifted his spirits even higher. Now that he was so small Zeke was slightly dwarfed by Turtlers, and the little reptile was very happy to see him as well. Thus the problem of Zeke’s boredom and to an extent his visibility was solved, as he got to ride Turtlers around as a noble steed, much to the amusement and some cooing from everyone else.

As Samus maneuvered her personal ship up out of the atmosphere of Planet SR388, a part of her felt like something was missing from the whole experience. She had gone down to the planet on a mission to exterminate the Metroids, and after seeing their lifecycle all the way up to the Queen Metroid, she was glad that she had done so. She supposed it might have something to do with how the planet was still fully intact, and she had not needed to rush to escape an exploding facility/the entire planet itself.

The bounty hunter was momentarily distracted from this line of thought by a little “squee!” sound, one that normally would have had her arming and aiming her arm cannon but right now just made her faintly smile. Sharing the ship with her right now was a tiny little Metroid not even much bigger than her palm, one that had hatched just after she had killed the Queen. In a moment of extreme empathy she decided to keep it, in case it might prove to be useful in the future. So long as it was contained properly, it would likely be safe.

Once the ship was safely out of the gravity well and the artificial gravity had fully taken over, Samus got up out of her chair and walked over to a particular cylindrical space in her ship. This was where she stored her Power Suit when not in use, and after a few minutes of disassembly the woman was left in her blue zero suit and more directly breathing the air of the ship. Idly wondering if the baby Metroid would react any different to her she kept her shock pistol at her side just in case, and began to return to her control chair.

Unnoticed by Samus as she had removed her suit, the baby had floated around the area before returning to where Samus had been for a bit. Finding a spot that was both warm and “felt” a lot like the person it now considered its mother, the floating jellyfish-like creature allowed itself to drift down to rest in the spot, awaiting its mommy’s return. Soon enough to its joy she did come back, the creature felling her approaching presence.

Back at her chair Samus began to verbally compose her mission report, the one that she would send to the Galactic Federation as an initial indication of the status of the mission before the more thorough debrief later. Speaking clearly so that the computer picked up her voice properly, she recited “Mission status: Eradicated Metroid presence on SR388. Rescued Metroid Hatchling for future research-“ As she had been speaking Samus leaned forwards and allowed herself to plop down into her chair, planning to be comfortable while composing the report.

However as she did so she felt a presence right behind her, and before she could stop herself her butt touched down firmly. Her Zero Suit covered her entire body and protected it, but it also allowed full sensations to go through it when required for perfect physical feedback. Thus Samus felt the little round bump on her chair meet her booty and loose completely, flattening out under her greater mass with a wet and gooey SPLORT. She froze briefly in place with a mixture of horror and disgust flowing through her before she continued “Nevermind.”

Getting up off of her chair Samus looked down to see a small puddle of green goo on the chair, the color matching that of the guts of Metroids she had killed. Grimacing she turned and looked back over her shoulder, where she saw the remains of the baby Metroid splattered over her rear. She at first just thought it was gross and a shame, but then something miraculous happened. The barely coherent jelly on one ass cheek wiggled, and to her amazement the tiny form regathered itself and peeled off of her butt to flutter in the air under its own power. Despite the odds the Metroid hatchling was still alive, and in fact looked none the worse for wear!

It occurred to Samus that she really knew so little about Metroids, one only needed to consider her surprise at the multiple new forms she had discovered on her last mission. Perhaps the creatures were much more resilient when they were young and vulnerable, or it could have been it absorbed a little energy from her body to reconstitute itself. It occurred to Samus that the more she found out know, the more she could tell the Federation later and perhaps get a bit extra out of them for the “research.” Smiling Samus removed the “nevermind” part of her report and finished off the rest of the report before sending it off.

Samus admittedly did not have the best idea of where to start gathering data, as she was a warrior not a scientist, so she decided to just record her observations on the little creature on her way back to more civilized space. She soon discovered that the primary reason for its recovery was that it was so soft that its tissues were nearly immune to blunt force trauma, and it could absorb a little nearby energy to kickstart its regeneration. It did not require a lot of energy due to its size and young age, so she had no problem keeping it fed.

It was not until the next day that there was another incident, and it came about as a result of Samus’s sleeping arrangements. After having completed the very long and intense mission and spending time experimenting/playing with the little baby, Samus was naturally very tired. Not really thinking she had left the door to her sleeping quarters open and had slept in the nude, and when the baby had wanted to go to sleep as well it followed its instincts to seek out its “mother” to rest on top of her. Fortunately/unfortunately Samus had two exposed bits of anatomy roughly the right shape to match that instinct since she slept on her back, so the child rested on top of one of her boobs.

The next morning Samus awoke slightly groggy, as she always did when she first slept post-mission. As such she did not notice the small attrition to her chest like a biological pasty until she put on her Zero Suit and sealed it up. She walked around her ship looking for the Metroid to slowly growing concern when she could not find it, and she wondered what might have happened to it. It was only when she crossed her arms over her chest to think it over two hours later and she felt another wet squish that she figured it out.

Peeling off her suit to reveal more green slime and a recovering Metroid was just a little gross, and after peeling it off Samus resolved to both keep the door to her room shut, and at minimum be wearing underwear until the baby was off her ship. She left the Metroid to float around the room as she took her suit to get washed/cleansed again, and then went to take a shower. Unfortunately for her she relaxed too much after the last incident, and underestimated the affection the Metroid felt for her.

When the blonde entered the shower room of the ship she turned and saw the Metroid floating in the room behind her, and assumed that was it. Turning away to fully enter and shut the door behind her she failed to realize the green jellyfish alien zipped through the air and into the room right behind her. Now naked and undoing her ponytail Samus neglected to notice the Metroid happily enjoying the warm humid air, the running recycled water drowning out its “squee’s.” She then walked into the shower and prepared to clean herself of the mess, not noticing her hand reaching for a sponge grabbed the Metroid hatchling instead.

It was warm from the hot water, soft, squishy, and when she gave it a squeeze after pouring some soap on it there was a goopy feeling in her hands. That was good enough for Samus, and she proceeded to unknowingly use the creature to scrub at every potion of her body. For its part the Metroid was confused and rapidly running low on slime, but it was near its mother so it was more or less happy, just confused at what was happening.

The running water removed the goop produced by the Metroid as it was produced and so the blonde did end up cleaned, and she never even noticed as she discarded the “sponge” on the shelf. Leaving the shower and drying off she eventually returned and put back on her Zero Suit, the extra time enough for the Metroid to recover. The rest of the day was fairly quiet, the baby just floating around a bit and quietly squeaking. Samus just thought that it was tired due to being young.

The next three days were unfortunately more or less more of the same for the baby Metroid, but at least Samus was more aware now. She discovered that it was capable of moving through the vents to enter her room while she slept, as she discovered one night when she rolled over just to feel it under her rear. One time she lost track of it for hours, only to discover it had gotten tangled in her hair and bound in her ponytail. Then there was a particularly bad experience where the baby had tried to eat the same food “mommy” was when she was distracted reading a report, only to end up briefly chewed before the horrible taste of its goo made her spit it out.

The final straw however occurred when Samus unexpectedly slipped while walking across the ship, and looking around saw a telltale green streak on the floor. The green goop started from a mostly circular splatter pattern and then stretched out in one direction in one long smear, perfectly matched to the width of Samus’s foot and in the direction she had been moving before falling backwards. Wincing she looked down at the underside of her boot, and found the baby Metroid flattened right up into her treads where she had stepped on it while it was resting.

Deciding that she had enough data and she was rapidly becoming a greater hazard to it than it to her, Samus elected to undertake the nuclear option. She almost decided against it, but the Metroid letting out another happy sounding "squee" and visibly hovering around her contently showing now fear put a stop to her feelings. This was for its own good.

When she later arrived back in Federation Space and gave her briefing, the scientists and officials that spoke to her saw the little Metroid floating contently inside of a glass case. Most people thought that it was for the safety of everyone else keeping it contained and preventing it from draining energy, but Samus knew that it was really the other way around, it was keeping the Baby safe from its own curiosity/her.