Sorry for the slow updates, but here is the next thrilling installment brought to you by me and my excellent beta-reader The Layman. We hope you enjoy the story and encourage you to review. It can only make us write better, so you win in the end of the day.
The Hunt
Urahara stiffened at the sudden beeping from the radar. His eyes became glued to the dusty screen, which showed a small white dot near their positions. He froze and slowly looked up at a small hatch on the side of the wall.
"He's in there..." he whispered fearfully.
Tessai tightened his grip on their make shift cattle-prod and slowly approached the hatch.
"Be careful." Rukia said quietly, just in case the little monster had better hearing than they did.
Tessai nodded before taking another step towards the den of Hanatoro's murderer. He stepped up to the small door and placed a hand on the small handle. As soon as his fingers clasped the cold steel, a loud hiss came from within. Tessai leapt back and held out the stunner with shaking hands. Silence followed for several seconds.
Then Tessai turned sharply to face Rukia, "Open the hatch for me."
"What?! I don't want to-"
"Look! I don't have eight arms alright! Open the door so I can get in and fry the bastard before anything happens! Got it?"
"F-fine then..." Rukia walked over to the hatch and gripped the handle with both hands. She took a deep breath and looked to the others who nodded. She yanked the handle and the door opened a crack, letting out steam which got in their faces.
"Quick! I see it!" Urahara yelled.
"Where?!" Tessai roared.
"Just sitting inside!"
"I see it too!" Rukia shrieked.
Tessai jammed the poker inside the hatch and the thing hissed menacingly. Tessai stuck the device in further and was about to pull the trigger when Rukia pushed him back.
"Wait!" She cried.
"What are you doing?! The alien will-" Tessai tried to barge past her.
"It's not the alien!" Rukia stood firm and Tessai backed away.
"Well then what is it?"
"It's Yoruichi." Rukia ducked inside the small room and cradled the little ball of fluff in her arms. "Something gave her one hell of a scare though..."
"Heh heh, it was just the cat..." Tessai chuckled before growling and throwing the cattle-prod to the ground. "Dammit! That radar is fucking stupid!"
"It's not stupid! If it can detect Yoruichi, then it can detect the alien!" Urahara defended his creation.
Tessai closed his eyes and calmed himself down. He stooped in front of the cat and smiled. "You gave us quite a scare there, Yoruichi. You should be more careful from now on."
The cat stared inquisitively with its yellow eyes, then it padded off down the hall.
"Hey, Yoruichi come back!" Tessai frowned. "Now what?"
"Well, if we let her run around freely, this kind of mistake will just keep happening. We should catch her before resuming the search."
"Right!" Rukia clapped her hands together in agreement. "Kisuke, you can go find her, since she's your cat."
"Huh? You were supposed to be holding her!"
"No, you're going, now hurry up!" Rukia pointed in the direction of the run-away tabby.
Urahara growled under his breath and jogged off after the cat. Tessai and Rukia looked to each other and frowned.
"Might as well follow. We don't want him to get lost." Tessai strolled off after his co-worker. Rukia followed reluctantly.
*****
Urahara stumbled through the small, cramped corridor after Yoruichi. Low hanging wires made the roof seem even lower, so the tallest man in the galaxy, he still had to run doubled over. He began to catch up with the little kitten, but then she began to run faster. Her claws clattered on the steel floor. Urahara sped up as well, but just as he came within reach, the troublesome tabby darted in through a crevice in the wall. Urahara cursed and checked his surroundings.
"Let's see...she's going through to the next room which, if I'm not mistaken, is the engine room..." Urahara ran on down the corridor and then turned left. He ran another ten meters before reaching the large room that contained the engine as well as other large machinery.
He wandered out into the open and spun in a circle, casting his gaze on every corner of the room. He was about to give up when he saw a flickering black tail. He tip-toed over to it, but Yoruichi sensed him. She turned to face him and bared her tiny fangs.
"Sorry," Kisuke cooed, "you lost the game of tag. Now come on, let's get you out of here." He kneeled down to scoop up the little critter, but she hissed aggressively.
"Geez, what's up your ass? Come on Yoruichi. It's me, Kisuke!"
The cat still hissed, though her menacing gaze seemed to stare straight through him, as if there was something...behind him...
Urahara whirled around expecting to see something, but there was no-one and nothing there. He shrugged and turned his attention back to his uncooperative cat.
"Okay, enough games. Come here!" Urahara watched Yoruichi retreat back a few steps and then curl up into a ball. "What's wrong with you? What's there to be scared of?"
Urahara went on, oblivious to the prehensile tail behind him that stretched down from above. It was dark grey (almost black even) and shiny, with an almost mechanical look to it.
Urahara noticed he was sweating profusely. The high temperature in this room was almost unbearable. He wiped a large bead of it from his face and frowned.
Splat!
Urahara looked to a spot to his left where a large droplet of liquid had landed beside him. He cocked his head and tried to think of anything that would be leaking in the room. Then it happened again. Yoruichi screeched and ran off under his legs and out the room. The engineer was about to follow when he noticed the shadow enveloping him. He looked straight up into the eyeless face of death itself.
Dark as night with cruel fangs and wicked claws, only it's lidless skull gleamed white. It was like something from a nightmare. The beast opened its jaws and snarled, a hideous sound, chilling Kisuke to his very bones. He was paralysed with fear; he couldn't run, no matter how hard he tried.
"What the fuck are you?!"
The monster reached down with large, skeletal hands and picked him up by the head, lifting him slowly towards its mouth. Urahara managed to scream in agony as his upper body was ravaged by the new breed of killer. The beast dragged him back up towards the ceiling, melding with the shadows to look as if it never existed.
*****
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!"
Tessai and Rukia both gasped.
"Urahara!" They bolted down the low corridor and charged into the engine room just to see Urahara's legs flailing about as he was dragged up towards the ceiling by an unseen assailant. Tessai took the prod and ran to where his friend was standing. He looked up, searching for the engineer, but he could only see shadows.
Rukia joined him, now holding Yoruichi (whom she discovered in the hall outside). They both looked up, but to no avail.
Something dropped down. Tessai caught it and stared at the human arm. "Holy shit!!"
He threw it to the ground and looked up in time to see a torrent of blood cascading down on them, like an unnaturally coloured rain. It washed over them for several seconds while hideous crunching and ripping noises came from above.
Not wanting to stay there and meet the monster, they fled as fast as their bodies would allow.
Urahara's hat floated down after they, settling in the pool of it's former owner's blood
*****
The crew gathered in their main living area. All were solemn after hearing of Kisuke Urahara's death.
Renji lost himself in thought while the others talked amongst themselves quietly.
"So, let me get this straight." Renji interrupted them and all eyes fell on him. "This creature, which we saw earlier when it was only this big." He stretched his arms out to the general length of the monster that burst out of Hanatoro. "Has grown so large that it can pick up an adult man and drag him into the airshafts like nothing?"
"Yes," Rukia replied simply.
"That's impossible. How could that little thing grow so powerful in only a matter of hours?" Everyone turned to Aizen who shrugged.
"It must have a very advanced life cycle that allows it to grow at an alarming rate and become an adult in a short amount of time. Either that, or this sudden growth is an indication that these creatures don't live long, in which case it could die of old age in a matter of days."
Everyone seemed hopeful, but Aizen made it dissipate.
"Though that last theory is pretty unlikely..."
"Right, so we've got to find this big son of a bitch and try and kill him with little tasers?" Renji asked sarcastically. "Tessai, what other weapons would you be able to make?"
"Um...with the materials we have...Probably a flamethrower or two..."
"Anything else?"
"Probably not. Sorry." Tessai hung his head.
"Well, it will be more effective than these things; a shock from one of these would only tickle that thing!" Renji hurled the prod to the ground and sank back into his chair. "Get started on those flamethrowers, I want them ready within two hours!"
"Yes sir." Tessai left the group to start on his new weapons.
The others looked around anxiously, as if the creature was going to burst into the room suddenly and attack them.
"It's using the air shafts to move around, we'll have to go in and track it down. Now fighting it would be useless, so we'll use the flamethrowers to flush him out into an airlock or something. That way we can just shoot him out of the ship and he'll die out there." Renji grinned at his own little strategy, though the others felt less convinced.
"That's a lot harder than it sounds," Inoue whimpered, "and it sounds pretty hard to begin with."
"Yeah, and who would be the person unlucky enough to have to crawl around inside the shafts with that monster lurking around?" Rukia asked.
The group looked around anxiously. This wouldn't be an easy decision...
Into the proverbial lion's den....
Layman here, saying review the dang story!
Now that last bit is out of the way, here's a little pointless trivia!
In the original draft, Tessai and Urahara's roles were reversed. This doesn't really line up with the movie, as it's not the black guy (whom Tessai represents) who goes after the cat.
Well, that's all for now, keep reading!