Baby

This article refers to Metroid Hatchling character within the Metroid storyline.

For the infant life cycle stage of the Metroid, click here.

The Baby, more commonly known as the Metroid Hatchling, is best remembered in its Infant Metroid stage from Metroid II: Return of Samus and Super Metroid, though it did not remain in that form.

Metroid II: Return of Samus
Samus Aran was ordered by the Galactic Federation to exterminate the remaining Metroids on SR388, so they could no longer be used as weapons by the Space Pirates. She encountered several stages of the creatures on her mission, eventually defeating the Queen Metroid. Soon after, she came across a Metroid egg, the last of the species. It hatched as she approached and the infant followed her back to her ship, carving out obstacles and enemies alike as it orbited around its adopted parent.

Super Metroid
Samus dropped the larva off at Ceres Space Colony, where it was to be examined by Federation scientists. Not long after she departed, the Colony was attacked by Ridley. Samus arrived in time to watch Ridley depart with the creature, and escaped the station in time to avoid its self-destruction. Samus pursued her enemy to Zebes, where she destroyed everything in her way in search of the hatchling, and defeated Ridley. The capsule that had encased the infant was found broken, with the baby nowhere to be found. During her struggles on Zebes, the Pirates used beta-radiation to create clones of it and unknown technology to create the failed Mochtroids from it, much like their original goal in Metroid.

In Tourian, Samus found dried husks of a Torizo and some Zoomers, Rippers, and Skrees in two of the later rooms. She then watched as a Giant Sidehopper met the same fate at the hands of the Metroid, now much larger than any that she had previously encountered. It then turned on Samus, siphoning her health to within an inch of her life before finally recognizing its victim as Samus, its "mother". After a few shrieks reminiscent of its squeaks while it was still an infant, the baby left the room (presumably in shame). Samus continued on through the base to fight Mother Brain, who transformed into an enormous cyborg monster, firing Hyper Beams at Samus until the hunter could no longer stand. As the biomechanical menace prepared the final blast, the baby darted in and latched onto Samus's attacker, siphoning her energy to the point where Mother Brain was a brittle husk. Leaving it behind, the enormous Metroid displayed a previously unknown ability and began transferring the recently drained energy into Samus, healing her. This was the ability that had potential for the good of mankind, mentioned by Samus in the intro.

Mother Brain, not yet dead, rose in a rage and fired upon the baby. After fully healing Samus, the baby turned its attention to Mother Brain; however, it had been badly injured by the pounding it had taken earlier, and the Mother Brain's final attack killed the baby before it had a chance to latch on. As Samus stood to re-enter the battle, she discovered the baby had left her with one final gift - Mother Brain's ultimate weapon, the Hyper Beam. Enraged by the death of the baby, Samus let loose with the Hyper Beam, laying waste to the Mother Brain once and for all and avenging her fallen "child". She then escaped from Planet Zebes after Mother Brain's final destruction triggered a planet-wide self-destruct sequence.

Its role in the Super Metroid Comic was more or less the same, though Mother Brain is shown to have tried to convince it that she was its true mother, not Samus. Also, instead of depicting the ingame death, Chief Hardy shot the baby, mistaking it for another Metroid clone. Armstrong Houston theorizes in the final issue that that the reason for the Metroid's size was due to it being "exposed to massive levels of beta rays" by the Mother Brain.

Metroid: Other M
A 3D version of the Infant Metroid was featured in the Metroid: Other M trailer. It is seen giving energy to Samus before it was destroyed by a powerful beam fired by Mother Brain, recreating its final moments in Super Metroid. Throughout the scene, it is seen carrying Samus in the air while restoring her energy as if it were carrying a dead corpse. It can be heard screaming as it dies. When it dies, it explodes into many small particles over Samus, that rain over Samus like snow and somehow gift her with the Hyper Beam, as Samus does not flash as she did in Super Metroid when she gets the Hyper Beam. Instead her visor flashes bright green, turning opaque. During cutscenes in the demo version, Samus remembers the baby and makes references to it, feeling guilt over how she did not protect it as it did her.

Metroid Fusion
Some time afterwards, Samus is asked to escort a Biologic Space Laboratories science team on SR388. They planned to study the changes in the ecosystem since the Metroid extinction. During this expedition, Samus is attacked by an X Parasite. The creature causes her to become disoriented, and she crashes her Gunship into the SR388 System Asteroid Belt. The ship jettisoned the infected hunter in an escape pod moments before the crash and she was found by the team aboard Biologic Space Laboratories research station and brought there to be treated. Her Varia Suit could not be removed normally while she was unconscious due to its integration with her nervous system, so parts of it had to be surgically removed. Her chances of survival were very low, until one scientist proposed creating the Vaccine "Metroid", from surviving DNA of the baby. The vaccine was a success, removing all traces of the X from her system. It also helped to create the Fusion Suit, which made Samus more Metroid-like, now weak to cold temperatures and attacks but able to absorb the previously deadly X Parasites to restore energy and ammunition.

Samus remarked later that this was the second time the baby had saved her life. It was also used in a secret breeding program by the Galactic Federation, cloning new Metroids and producing the later stages on SR388 up to the Zeta Metroid level. Samus had this section of the ship detached, and killed the remaining Omega Metroid that bred outside of it before she rammed the entire complex into the Metroid homeworld. A new "ultimate warrior", Samus carries the last of the Metroid DNA from the baby, acting as a single fusion of the two greatest products of the Chozo civilization.



In other games

 * The intro for Super Smash Bros. Melee has a scene that appears to depict the fight between Samus and Ridley on Ceres. The Baby, in its capsule, can be seen in Ridley's talons. The intro image for Super Metroid can be seen on the reflection of the Metroid trophy, minus the capsule. This may imply that the Trophy is representing the Baby.
 * The Baby in its capsule appears in Animal Crossing: Wild World as a furniture piece. If tapped, it will play a few seconds of the Super Metroid title theme. Due to its rarity, the item cannot be transferred to Animal Crossing: City Folk through the ingame catalogue, though it is available in that game. However, it will play the entire Super Metroid theme.
 * A possible reference to the Baby is seen in the Catch Mode of Tetris DS, where falling Metroids in capsules similar to the Baby's are an obstacle.
 * The Baby is on a texture for a Space Pirate terminal in the code of Metroid Prime. Whether or not it is used ingame is unknown, but highly unlikely.

Trivia

 * Samus is referred to as "The Hatchling" by the Chozo of Tallon IV, foreshadowing her "fusion" with the baby's final remains later on.
 * The title of Super Metroid may be referring to this character's size at the end of the game, as well as acknowledging the console's name.
 * The Baby's internal nuclei turn purple as Mother Brain damages it in Super Metroid. This does not happen to any other Metroids.
 * When the Metroid hatched, the on-screen Metroid Detector did not rise up to "1" in Metroid II: Return of Samus. This may be due to the baby's inhostility, an error in the code or that it was never a scripted event.
 * The reason the baby does not evolve into a new stage was to be explained in a scan (written by Matt Manchester) found in the room Metroid Processing in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, but did not make it into the final game. Because the Metroid is on Zebes instead of SR388, the climate and atmosphere of Zebes let the Metroid grow to gigantic size without evolving. This would have also explained why other Metroids on Zebes during the original game did not transform. The Metroids in Metroid Fusion which were created from the DNA of the Hatchling did evolve however, because the BSL recreated the environment of SR388.
 * The Baby may have been inspired by Newt, from the film Aliens. In Aliens, Ellen Ripley rescues Newt from the air ducts of the colony on LV-426, Hadley's Hope, which she had been hiding in at night to avoid the Xenomorphs in the facilities. Newt was the last survivor of the colony, and escaped the planet with Ripley. Like the baby, Newt dies in the sequel, Alien 3, when her cryochamber crashed into the ocean on Fiorina "Fury" 161 and filled with water, causing her to drown before she could regain consciousness. Just like Samus, Ripley also feels guilt about letting Newt die after rescuing her.
 * The Baby may also be a reference to the Xenomorph at the end of Alien 3 where it dies in cooled liquid silver and in Alien Resurrection its DNA is merged with Ripley in a similar manner to the Baby and Samus in Metroid Fusion.