Once the tension in the room faded, Samus decided to continue the story. "Of course, some of the creatures we faced were larger and more difficult to deal with than others," she explained. "Although the largest ones in Sector 1 were easy to deal with, for the simple reason that they tended to show up in the largest areas..."

After making their way through a long, winding path of gratings through the large forested chamber they were within, Samus was finally able to turn off the holo-projector to see the path they needed in order to move forward. With the holograms off, the sky filled backdrop and many of the larger trees vanished, revealing metal walls and metallic structures.

One of the larger trees, however, unfolded angrily, revealing what looked like a brachiosaur made of wood-

"Like a dinosaur version of a timberwolf?" Twilight gasped out eagerly, pulling out a book to show an image of the creature she was describing.

Samus stared at the image for a time, then chuckled. "More or less, yes," she admitted.

-its long neck stretched out on its low slung body, its massive tree trunk legs stomping along like a spider with two missing legs. Its rather obvious weak point was a large orange sphere on its undercarriage, pulsing with light. Samus readied her arm cannon to lunge in for battle...only for Spike to lunge past her, expanding in size until he matched the creature, bowling it over with sheer bulk to attack the orange sphere.

Samus stepped back, thinking Spike had it all under control until the creature reversed its limbs, standing upright with the orange sphere high above, now walking more like a giraffe. Spike, for his part, leapt into the air, shrinking back down to human size as he landed on the creature's back and hitting the orange sphere with his flame breath. The fire spread, and the entire creature collapsed, smoldering.

"Yeah...probably should have realized wood plus fire equals dead a bit sooner," Spike admitted, causing a few titters.

"It wasn't all as fun as that, though," Samus admitted. "Not long after that, we reached the Test Area Adam sent us to..." Her voice trailed off. "That's when things started going wrong..."

As they reached the entrance to the Exam Centers Control Chamber, they found the door damaged and forced open. Samus and Spike immediately went on the defensive. They carefully made their way in through the door. When they entered, they found one of the members of Adam's unit already there, working on the computers. As he got up, the rest of the unit arrived...minus one.

"Where's Lyle?" the one from the computers asked.

"Looks like he's late," Anthony offered with a shrug.

Another one of the troopers began working on the computers, but the information was fragmented. Apparently, the CPU had self destructed, and it would take a while for him to piece anything useful together.

Anthony took charge of the situation, ordering everyone else to search the building while their computer expert worked on recovering the data. After a brief bout of shared nostalgia between Anthony and Samus, everyone began to search.

During her search, however, Samus stumbled across a Zebesian - one of the creatures native to Zebes - that had been cybernetically enhanced to resemble the Space Pirates...with Galactic Federation tech.

"What?"

Twilight wasn't the only one shocked by this revelation. Before Samus could respond, Adam took over the explanation.

"It wasn't clear at the time," Adam began, "but the Bottleship was the work of certain branches of the military to create an ideal assault force based around the Space Pirates, since that force was no longer an issue. The idea behind it was that, since they'd proven so effective against us, creating such a force to work for us would provide an ideal force to be reckoned with."

"And the idea that they might go rogue and become the Pirates all over again never occurred to the big wigs?" Applejack demanded snidely.

"That's why my report on the matter said it was folly to attempt," Adam grumbled. "Unfortunately, someone went through with it anyway, basing the whole thing on that report...which made it easy for certain parties to point the blame my way at just the right time..."

"Not that it did any good," Spike countered. He tapped his muzzle. "Takes a lot to fool this nose."

"I just wish I'd had access to it sooner..." Adam muttered.

The single file recovered from the computer revealed that the Bottleship was a bioweapons research platform - a highly illegal one at that - under the supervision of a Dr. Madeline Bergman. With nothing else forthcoming, Anthony gave orders to have the two computer experts stay and try and get more information, while the rest of them searched the area for the missing doctor.

During the search, Samus and Spike came across a few of the augmented Zebesians that had become active somehow, and moved to attack them. As they moved with the same coordination that Space Pirates did, Adam ordered the troops back and for Samus and Spike to take care of them.

Spike quickly found that the cybernetic augmentations made the Zebesians taste terrible, and focused on combat that didn't involve biting.

Despite the bite damage, that enemy kept charging in, apparently not fazed by its partially crushed torso and skull. The augmented Zebesians proved to be far more athletic and maneuverable than the Space Pirates had ever been, even managing to evade Samus and Spike's attacks at times. However, as there were only six of them, eventually they were taken down by a mix of assault techniques, allowing the pair to go meet up with the others.

However, when they made it to the control center, they saw the others under attack by a large purple creature with white bristly hair on its back between body spikes, an alligator like jaw surmounted by a long, red tongue. Its long tail ended in a sharp spine. As it roared, it looked up and spotted Samus and Spike through the window.

"We need to get out to them, fast!" Samus barked out, rushing for the door, only to be grabbed by Spike.

"Right!" he growled, smashing his way through the reinforced glass, coming down on top of the creature with Samus in tow.

The creature let off the same almost human shriek that had sent the insectoids from before into a frenzy, and dozens of other creatures erupted out of the ground to attack. As Samus moved to back up the other troops, Spike and the creature circled each other. The creature gazed balefully at Spike, its eyes filled with an unnatural level of hatred.

Spike snarled defiance, clashing with the creature with teeth and claws, the battle driving back and forth across the landscape. At one point, Spike attempted to leap into the air for an advantage, only for the creature's tail to pierce his wing. Screaming in pain, Spike fell to the ground.

"Spike!" Samus called out, rushing forward.

As the creature leapt to pin Spike and press its advantage, a highly charged burst of plasma seared its shoulder, a last minute twist being all that prevented it from losing the limb. As Anthony charged his heavy plasma cannon for a second shot, it raced away, leaping through the walls of the large open area hidden by holograms to escape.

Grumbling, Anthony disengaged the heavy plasma cannon, letting it recharge. At that point, the other attacking creatures had dispersed. "You okay there, ankle biter?" he called out. "It got you good!"

Spike shrugged, swallowing one of the creatures that had gotten a bit too close to him. "It'll heal," he replied, wincing as the membrane already began to knit.

"Hey!" one of the others called out. "Get over here!"

Samus paused by Spike to check on his injury - it was already fully healed - before joining the others...where they found the body of the missing Lyle, torn to shreds.

"Looks like an animal attack," Samus muttered.

"Animals don't use Federation issue blasters," Spike muttered. "He stinks of the ozone tang of blaster burns. Someone - or something - shot him dead, and something else came and cleaned up the job."

As everyone glanced nervously at each other, Anthony spoke up. "What do you mean...something?"

"I'm also smelling...something a lot like Ghor," Spike muttered. "And...a bit of the electrical tang from Gandrayda's camouflage abilities."

While everyone was talking, Samus had followed a trail of green blood...to the body of the Little Birdie, an empty husk split down the middle like a pupa that had cracked open.

"So...I get that gecko Ridley broke out of Bird Ridley," Rainbow spoke up. "But what was that about Ghor and Gandrayda?"

"I was able to piece the details together," Adam explained. "The Federation had taken the studies of Ghor and Gandrayda post Phazon exposure, and used it to create a new type of soldier...androids that could make themselves look human with energy based cloaks."

"The Federation usurped my body's design?!" Ghor demanded angrily. "How dare they warp my creations!"

"You mean...they used me to make weapons?" Gandrayda gasped out, aghast.

"Yes," Adam confirmed. "And...one such weapon was stowed on our ship on the way to the Bottleship, meant to keep us from learning too much." He ground his teeth. "The idea of such technological weapons was another I suggested. Using technology to create soldiers that can fight instead of people, to reduce the waste of life. If I'd known one was already completed, I'd have made sure everyone traveled in pairs, to be sure no one could be caught by such a troop unawares if one were a present hostile. As it was..."

Silence reigned.

In the original timeline, one of Adam's men was turned into a double agent, meant to kill everyone to prevent knowledge of the station from spreading.

In this timeline, though, Spike interacting with the whole unit when Samus called on Anthony for parenting help made them much closer, so none would flip. Knowing this, the orders were never given.

However, in the original timeline, Ghor and Gandrayda weren't stuck in Federation medical bays for examination for extended periods of time after Phazon wasn't an issue.