Lying upon the floor of the captain's room, James looked up with a shiver at Ridley, who had also been thrown onto the floor.  The pterodactyl-like beast shook his head with a snarl, staring around his room at the disturbance that had shaken the place.
	"What now!?!?"
The leader got up and walked to his desk, pressing the intercom.
	"Status report!"
	"I-it's Samus, sir!  She's found us and wrecking the labs below!  ACK...SHE'S GONE THROUGH THE TUBES, SOMEONE GET IN 'EM AND BLAST THEM DRY!"
	"That...filthy.....hmmm..."
Ridley looked down on James, who was not bleeding too much but nevertheless scarred, and grabbed him by the neck, jeans hanging under him still crumpled around his legs.  He dragged his prisoner out of the cabin and through the corridors to where Samus was last reported.  By the time he had caught up with her, they were within the lower deck, nearing the cargo bay in the hull.  His keen sense of smell detected her presence behind a set of large cargo doors to the storage bay.
	"SAMUS!" called out Ridley defiantly, "You will be pleased to know I have a hostage here...and if you do not cease your warpath, I will kill him."
	"Wh-what?!"
James had gone from prisoner to harem slave to hostage in one day, confused and violated with pains in his body.  He tried to get away from Ridley, but he was too weak to even fight back.
	"Now Samus...you and I realise you are not inhuman, despite your tendency to kill every moving thing in sight...almost every moving thing.  What about this pathetic little alien who helped you before?  Surely you will not throw his life away, not even to kill me."
Nothing was heard still, as the doors slowly opened up.  Ridley kept one claw close to the raptor's throat to slit him instantly the moment he saw her.  But no Samus.  He carefully walked into the spacious room, keeping James close much to the raptor's disgust.  He kept his senses alert, gliding into the hold and looking at every single wall space for Samus, smelling her everywhere.  James, keeping an eye out for her as well to plead for help, saw no sign of her either.

But then a blasting shot came from Ridley's right side, from above.  Not expecting his nemesis to shoot at the prisoner, the blast hit not only close enough to Ridley's claw to make him drop the raptor, but also into the energy cuffs.  They overloaded to the point of deactivating, freeing James' arms as he immediately ran away as fast as he could with still-bound feet.
Ridley, surprised still, rolled towards the wall as the bounty hunter came out at last, clad in yellow and red armour.  James kept out of the way as the human and the space dragon beast battled, exchanging cannon shots and fire blasts throughout the cargo hold.  Scorch marks slowly began to cover every inch of space in the area.
She dodged with such expert athleticism, managing to strafe with such speed and forcing Ridley to turn, but he utilised the turn with his tail to slash at her body.  He damaged the armour, but she was undeterred as she shot off a missile into Ridley's back, making him lurch forward in pain.  He flew into the air with the momentum from the missile and reached out his talons to swoop down and slice at Samus, scoring some hits on her helmet and shoulders.  Samus kept up a steady fire of cannon fire and missiles at the beast's underbelly.  Eventually, Ridley was forced to overtake her and go straight for the wall, rebounding back with his limbs to fly towards Samus' back.
However, his direct course towards her was thrown off-target.  Hiding beside the crates, James threw a small crate at Ridley's face, making him swerve and swoop past Samus to leave him wide open for a blast in the back.  He screeched as the shots made him slam fully into the wall, his beak cracking slightly in the momentum he was making.  In his moment of disorientation, the bounty hunter took the opportunity to free James of his other cuffs.
	"Wow...two times for each other right?"
Samus nodded and pointed the way out to the raptor, shooting a doorway open that would lead James out of the ship.
	"Wait no no no, I gotta help you against this bastard!  I need revenge on him, I have to do this!"
Samus had noticed the stains from the raptor's legs, her eyes reflecting faintly in the green visor.  But she still pointed out the door.  The first words he heard from her were in a strong low voice:
	"Leave, now.  He's my enemy alone."

The voice surprised the raptor.  Feminine yet powerful and full of authority.  With such a command, he knew that arguing would be futile.  He slowly got up, adjusting his jeans with the freedom of his limbs regained, and ran for the opened doors.  He had escaped from the space pirates, leaving the Hunter to face them herself.  He did not doubt her power after all he had seen and heard of her, the way they almost feared her.
Finding himself outside again, pouring down with a seemingly infinite rain, he ran across the open grounds.  Puddles splattered underfoot, cold and shocked at all he had been through.  Fighting alongside an armoured woman, raped by space pirates, and on a planet far far from Earth.  He wanted to go back in and help her, but the look she gave him made him shiver.  He didn't want to disobey the woman who would give such a look.  It was the same look Sarah gave him when he'd try to argue with her on something she had no time to argue on.
It was one of the last looks he remembered seeing from her.
He ran all the way back underground, scared and alone, his breathing ragged, needing to feel the cool walls and plants to comfort him.  Somewhere to be away from Ridley, away from his terrible crew.

As he reached a suitable spot that seemed far away enough, he let his adrenaline drain out at last.  As the shaking of fear and exhilaration stopped, he began to weep for himself.  He held his sore throat tenderly, as if ready to vomit, wanting to let the pain of his body out through his face.  The raptor snivelled in shock and horror, his lower body feeling sore and filthily full of space pirate seed.
Sobs choked up in his throat, turning into mewling howls, his skin started to shudder and shake in disgust.  He had always heard of stories of rape victims, and he sympathised with them all in the briefest flash of memory.  Fear and sorrow coursed through his veins at such painful degradation.  He even felt ashamed at having to sit down and remind himself of the pain all over again.
Instead, he went on his knees, slowly draining out his anguish through shivering tears.  When there were no more tears left in him, he felt another emotion entirely.
Anger.
His shaking hands turned into shaking fists, shivering lips turning into a vile snarl.  His horror turned into outrage as he began punching at the rock walls, beating at it like hammers as he screamed at the rockface.  He pounded to make them hurt, make something else in his body hurt.  Something to take his mind off the pain in himself as his knuckles turned scarred from the screaming blows he rained upon the craggy walls.  When they began to throb and bleed, he crumpled into a heap and curled into a foetal position, hugging his knees close, sniffling to himself.

After what felt like 20 minutes of trying to calm down amongst the soothing flora, he slowly got up with eyes as red as his tailhole, and walked deeper into Zebes.  Now he had various questions to ponder, questions to help him try and move on, his gait slightly crippled from the pain.
Who the hell IS that girl, was his first question.  How did she get so strong?!  Is it that suit of hers, or does have like years of hardened dedication and revenge?
He never would dare think females were weaker than males, for he had known many females that destroyed entire roomfuls of males with one side of their body alone, especially in the slums he lived in.  But her endurance, flexibility and precision amazed him.  He had never seen anyone like that.  Like a warrior.
The awe he felt for her made him forget about his misfortune more as he passed through various doors, deeper and deeper into the planet.  He did his best to avoid the hostile wildlife with his own natural reflexes despite his wounds, wondering to himself about the mysterious Samus and if he could ever be like her.  He had enough agility, but he lacked the force, the experience, and the precision of every attack.
If I ever see her again, pondered James, I'll ask her.  Simple as that, ask her.
By the time he realised how far he had gone, he felt the ground beneath him turn wet, and the smell of fungus grew stronger than before.  He opened another door to find himself in a transparent tunnel, revealing a whole world of water before his eyes.  Strange fishlike beings floated past, dotted kelp plants waved listlessly in the currents, the soil sandy with a dull yellow as he traipsed through puddles that squelched underfoot.

The beasts seemed a little less friendly than the ones that found him when he first awoke on this world, eyes on stalks peering at him with primal suspicion.  James decided to skirt around them and head onwards through the caverns, a little shaken still from his experience and heading onwards.
The planet seemed to have a false sense of peacefulness.  While the creatures went about their lives of eating, mating and defending their territories, the battle between the space pirates and the bounty hunter was ongoing.  Was this a base to them, or just a place to land on and check supplies?  Whatever the case, the more he thought about them, the more angry he became.
His steps turned more stiff, more tense with a fury in him for how their captain violated him.  He wanted revenge.
Fuck Samus, I have a goddamn right to get revenge.  Even if she managed to kill him, I still want the chance to kill some of his fucking crew.
He considered going back the way he came, but felt scared.  Scared of two things.  Ridley and Samus.  Ridley for what he had done to him with strength beyond his own, and Samus for her legendary status among them.  Her presence alone was enough back then to make him run with little thought, he couldn't face her again.  What if she decided to get violent with him?  Living his teenage life with a strong woman made him fearful of such retributions, so he decided to find another way, or perhaps even a separate pirate ship or base to smash up as payback.
James traversed the undergrowth avoiding creatures as best as he could, occasionally having to fight them.  One kind hopped on two springy legs with wings fluttering across a distance.  Another kind flew out of pipes to hurtle themselves at him.  He punched and slashed at anything attacking him, avoiding or running from the larger beasts.

He was too angry to care about the wounds or potential infections he built up from trying to fight the creatures.  He fought like he was in a playground fight, swinging his claws out at them with furious slashes.  He wandered onwards, gaining a new cut or bruise with every encounter, dealing with things he'd never dealt with before.  Soon he had to rest, sitting in an isolated cave in a wall, clutching his knees.
As he tried to figure out where to go, he also thought back on his home, wondering how he could possibly get back.  Maybe steal a space pirate ship?  Force one of them to fly him back home?  He wanted to gain some of his strength back before dealing with any space pirates again.
They must have other places around here to station themselves at, he thought.
Heading through various doors he found mysteriously placed within the underground, the habitat turned ever more industrial.  Pipes and machines replaced waterfalls and fauna, humming in the background, a whole network of tubes spreading throughout the wet sandy caverns.
	"What the hell they want all these tubes for?" he said out loud.  
The tubes themselves were too small to crawl through, but he did find one larger pipe with a blue door across it.  Soon as he opened it, he was sucked inside into a more water-filled region, his jeans now soaked as he kept onwards.  He tried his best to keep out of the water, but the quicksand effect would occasionally catch his leg.  Each time it happened, which was a lot, he only became more annoyed, until around the fifth time when he roared:
	"GODFUCKINGDAMMIT WHAT IS WITH THIS FUCKING CUNT PLANET!?!?!!"

Needless to say, his exploring was meeting quite the resistance just to find a way off Zebes...if there even was a way that is.  More surprises came to him in the shape of water-filled rooms which made him panic and go back the way he came.  But soon as he dodged back for the door to close again, nothing came out.  Not even the slightest dribble.  His mind overloaded with disbelief.
	"Ff...fuh...WHY IS THE WATER NOT DRAINING OUT OF THE DOOR, HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK!?!?!"
Fury only grew within him as he tried to climb back the way he came, frustrated with the yellow watery caverns.  The raptor managed to climb back up through to the same pipe he went through before it sucked him back up.  Irritated by the pointless venture, he went in the opposite direction back through the tunnel which he found, only to receive a terrible surprise.  It had somehow broken all of a sudden and ended up in the water.  Gargling in shock, he swam to the other door and headed through, sputtering with fury.
	"WHY DOES THIS PLANET HATE ME!?!?!"
He brought his hands to his face and screamed into them to let some of his rage out, nearly crying with pure contempt for this habitat.
	"I just...want to get out of heeeeere..."
And with that, he sighed heavily and went onwards, navigating through various red and green regions.  Soon he was outside once again, the rain still unending.
	"I am....so sick of water right now."
He wandered ever onwards through Zebes, at a loss at where to go.  Luckily, perhaps, he saw some space pirates heading towards him.  He quickly dodged behind a rock to see them pass by, straight towards the watery region.  Following them as discreetly as he could, as well as slipping through the doors they opened so they wouldn't be alerted by their opening for him, they navigated through a secret passage.  Weirdly, it felt like a ventilation shaft, the pirates crawling through as  warm air blew through it.

Curious, he headed inside after they had gone through, his jeans dirtying from crawling through.  But at least the air was starting to dry them as it became hotter.  It certainly felt like a real vent when it turned hot enough to make the raptor sweat, but he pressed onwards until he found himself in what looked like a magma cavern.  The heat boiled and made him sweat, thinking perhaps this wasn't a good idea after all.  Keeping on the trail of the space pirates, one of them was eventually told to wait behind on guard as the rest went inside.  Perfect opportunity for some interrogation.
James grabbed a sizeable rock and sneaked around the rocky cavern walls that glowed with heat.  When he had the chance, he clubbed the pirate hard with the rock, pouncing onto his back immediately afterwards to beat him down.
	"Alright, fucker, you're gonna tell me what the hell this place is, where you lot were going, and how I can get off it."
	"Wh-what, you're the-"
	"Never you mind who the fuck I am, tell me now or else I kill you!"
	"You don't threaten a space pirate and live, punk!"
	"I'll gladly be the first when I bash your head in!"
Another smack to the head broke the guard's stubby snout, spitting bright green blood from his nostrils, his eyes stinging with pain.  As a final way of convincing his hostage, the raptor pushed the rock down on its neck, choking him hard.

	"Well?!?  Spit it out bitch!"
	"F-fine!  FINE!  You wanna leave, you have to get back to our ship.  Problem is that bitch hunter's wrecked the place so we're relocating to our base underground in Norfair."
	"Alright, where's your captain, he still on it?"
	"He also moved down to Norfair, down to his lair.  You'll never reach him with your pathetic skin, you'll burn to death if you go anywhere deeper than where we are right now!"
	"Fine, that saves me a trip.  Any secret way to get in your ship, like vents or so, any escape pods still used?"
	"We have a few...I don't even know if they work anymore, some of us stayed behind on the ship."
	"Bullshit, you must have something."
Another squeezing of the neck with the rock made the guard choke out the truth.
	"G-GHHHUK-ALRIGHT!  There's a vent underneath it, it's shaped like a rectangle with Emergency Output written on it!  Just pull it open, now release me, you worm!"
	"Oh, I don't think so."
And with that, James clubbed the space pirate to death, much to the beast's dismay as its roars turned guttural with a smash to its throat, choking from a crushed windpipe.  Hopefully it was telling the truth.  He returned upwards to the ship, using his memory to reach it once again, more determined by the fact that there were now less of them, as well as no Ridley.  Presumably Samus was also gone, having no reason to stay there if Ridley was elsewhere.

Soon enough, he managed to reach the main pirate ship, looking in considerably worse state than before.  Fires were pockmarked all over the thing.  Burn marks all over the hull, with pirates running back and forth to deal with the flames, shouts of urgency from all over the place.  He had forgotten the size of the beast, it looked like it could hold probably 2000 or more within it.  It was practically half the height of a house.  Ducking under the ship when he had the chance, hiding in its shadow, he looked around for the vent the pirate spoke about, with all the signs underneath in a strange alien language.
	"Fucker said it was Emergency Output, what the shit IS this stupid-ass language they have here!?!"
Eventually he found one rectangular panel with some sort of valve on it.  Curiously, he turned it with his hand before it opened easily, managing to slip inside.
	"No wonder Samus got inside, sheesh."
Crawling through the vents with his claws helping to climb through, he could hear muffled orders barking at everyone, ignoring them as he soldiered on to find a suitable drop point.  Soon he found a perfect spot, what appeared to be a changing room judging by the rows of compartments.  An idea came to him about what the pirate guard had said.
Where Ridley had gone, there would be no chance of him reaching it due to the heat.  But the pirates could stand the heat.  Maybe they had a suit for that, or were just able to naturally handle it.  But right now he was focused on getting off of Zebes, not dealing with all of its problems.
Eventually one of the pirates came into the locker room, the raptor hiding until he was alone.

	"I have to clean my suit," said the soon-to-be-assaulted pirate, "give me a minute to wash the acid off!"
And as soon as he was on his own, the raptor ambushed him and gripped him in a chokehold against the wall.
	"ARGH, who are you?!?"
	"A very angry stranger.  Now you're gonna tell me what I want to know or else I break your spine."
	"You're the captive, aren't you?"
	"WAS a captive.  Now...where's your escape pods?"
	"Wh-wh-what?!?!"
	"I want to get off this fucking planet, now TELL ME!  Where's your fucking escape pods!?!?"
	"They were all broken in the attack!  Th-the Hunter, she destroyed them to stop us escaping!"
	"....you have got to be shitting me."
	"I'm a scientist, I don't joke.  We can't leave this planet either, even if we wanted to!"
	"God...nnngh, fine, then where's your captain?!?"
	"He-AGH-went down into the depths of Norfair, it's where he always hides when there's trouble!  But you can't go in, the lava's too hot, you'll melt!"
	"Then tell me if there's a way that I can get in there without being boiled alive!"
	"Like what!?"
	"I dunno, some kind of protective suit or something, you're the fucking scientist!"
	"Alright alright-GAK-ALRIGHT!  We're naturally adept with extreme temperatures but...we were experimenting with something."
	"Liiiike?"
	"The Hunter's Varia Suit.  It can resist heat except actual contact with lava.  We were trying to mimic its design to rival her in combat, but we kept failing with the Morph Ball function.  But you can still wear it like a second skin."
	"You get me that suit then, I don't care about this ball thing.  If it gets me in Norfair without me bursting into flames, I want it."
	"Okay...but one small problem."
	"What's that?"
	"How are you going to get me to my lab without all the guards seeing you?"
	"....fuck...."
	"And you need me to open the case it's in too."
The space pirate scientist grinned at outwitting his captor, before the raptor chuckled with a look upwards.
	"How about you go the same way I got in?"
The scientist looked worried as James dragged him over to the vent opening, pushing him inside much to his dismay.
	"Hey stop, no!"
	"Get the fuck in there now!"
	"I get claustrophobic!"
	"Then the sooner you do this, the sooner you get out, now move!"

Pushing him in, James climbed in after him and threatened him onwards.
	"Now you take us to your lab."
	"How the hell can I figure out where to go?"
	"You're the smart guy, you figure it out or else I gut you!"
Following along with the threat, the two crawled through the vents single file, the temporary captive checking each vent opening to make an approximation.  Every room had a ventilation opening, but not all were connected by the same vent.  Either way, they managed to reach the lab after what felt like an hour, with James breaking through first.  He pulled the scientist through so he didn't escape, before holding him by the neck again.
	"Now, point me over to where the suit is."
He made a weak motion over to a large metal cabinet in the corner, the raptor dragging his hostage over to it and pushing him against it.
	"Open it."
Irritated by this, the scientist input a code on the keypad, a long sequence of numbers that annoyed the raptor.
How the fuck can you memorise that, he thought to himself before the cabinet opened and revealed its prize.  For a minute it looked like Samus was standing right there, except the visor was more shaped for reptiles.
	"There, here's your suit, now leave me alone and let me repair my ship!"
	"Fine fine, I don't care."
He grabbed the suit and put it on as soon as possible, each piece connecting into place.  The metal greaves for his feet were tight and felt weird against his claws.  The left-handed gauntlet was rather tight for his claws and couldn't be properly placed, and the arm cannon felt a little weighty.  And yet, he felt a certain...spring in his step when he walked, feeling oddly light despite wearing the armour.  The visor over his head gave him a slightly glazed view of the world.
	"Are you done yet?"
	"Ohhh yes.  Welp, bye now!"
And with that he clambered through the vents again, crawling out of the ship by half-remembering where the emergency exit was from the place.  He fell out unceremoniously from the bottom before running off.  Or rather trying to, occasionally tripping in the metallic greaves.
	"Agh, fucking stupid boots!"
He noted to himself that he had to be more careful as he traversed downwards to Norfair.  No doubt the pirates would be on high alert if the scientist reported on him, or they found the guard's body.  But right now, he didn't care.
He tried to experiment with the suit in terms of jumping, shooting and running.  Jumping felt weird since he had to rely on the suit's ability rather than his own; shooting was strangely the most natural thing in the world when he could just clench his fist somehow to power the cannon; and running...made him incredibly clumsy.
He didn't plan to be in this suit for long.  The only reason he needed this was to traverse Norfair, and to confront Ridley.