What is this? Ed is posting a chapter so soon? What is this devilry? The answer: It's Summer Vacation, and I've got too much time to do stuff. That means faster updates for you guys! You want this story even faster? Then add some reviews! Cuz this guy's a reviewaholic! (Is that even a word? Who cares, I'll make it a word!)

Jack, Ash, Misty, and Pikachu carefully walked over the rocks as they descended the steep, rocky hillside. They had abandoned the Jeep after it had ran out of gas, right in front of a rocky hillside. However, the Research Lab was now in sight, so they decided to start walking. Ash looked over his shoulder towards Misty, who was carefully walking over the rocks. Poor Misty, he thought, having a parasite inside of you was probably not a comfortable experience. She had been making few discomfort sounds for the moment, but they could get much worse at any time.

"Alright, kids, the Research Lab isn't too far away now," Jack said aloud, squinting his eyes. It was annoying how he had been calling them kids all this time, despite everything they've been through. "We should be getting there in a little while, if we-"

He was cut off by Misty crying out in pain. Everyone's heads whirled around, their eyes wide like saucers. She was on the floor now, her hand clutched to her chest area. Her face was contorted into a pained expression. Ash rushed to her side, and was surprised to see that Jack had too.

"Is everything alright?" Jack asked.

Instead of giving him a sarcastic and snide answer, she answered: "I think it's coming out!"

Jack looked her over, inspecting her, before finally deducing: "Nah, I think it was just a kick. It's not coming out just yet. Come on, we need to move it."

He began to walk onwards, without so much as a backwards glance. Ash helped Misty up, and gave her a concerned look, before running to catch up with Jack. Pikachu and Brock followed closely behind. Misty looked down at her chest, which had now calmed down a bit.

"I am never going to be a mother."

…

The Research Lab was an enormous structure, with high walls, expanse systems of catwalks, and fluorescent white lights. The lights were on, giving off an ethereal glow which illuminated the nearby surrounding jungle. There was no way the colonists could miss this research lab's presence. It had obviously been built after it had been depopulated of the original miners that used to extract coal from veins under the ground. The group walked towards the lights, the bright lights acting like a beacon of hope, which is what it essentially was. This was the only medical facility that any of them knew of on the island, hostile or not. However, they had no idea what awaited them inside. This could be another trap from Weyland. Katya, or so she called herself, claimed to be the island's administrator at one point, who knows if she still holds loyalty to Weyland? It would have to be a risk that they're willing to take.

The front door to the Research Lab was slowly pushed open. A human head peeked out, and scanned the area, before the body to which the head belonged to pushed open the door the rest of the way. Jack beckoned the others over to him, and proceeded to walk in. There were long hallways, with several intersecting hallways at regular intervals. There were security cameras, but they weren't on. There wasn't much light in the hallways, which led some of them to lean against a wall to prevent from falling over. Misty leaned against a wall, breathing heavily, a hand to her chest. Ash went over to her, and tried to see if she was doing alright. As their eyes began to adapt to the low light, Jack began to fiddle with his communicator.

"Katya, can you read me? We're inside the Research Lab," he said.

There was a small beep, and then: "I will illuminate the hallways. Just give me one moment…"

A moment later, the lights suddenly began to shine brightly, causing them to squint at the sudden change in light. Misty put a hand in front of her eyes, shielding them. Suddenly, Jack's motion sensor bleeped in a frenzy, and they only had a fraction of a second to turn, only to see two aliens lash out at Misty. Misty screamed, and backed away. Everyone's guns went up, and Pikachu went into a battle stance, charging up electricity in his cheeks. However, they all lowered their weapons after the aliens hit the glass wall that separated them.

Misty stared at them, wide-eyed, a hand still at her chest. The Xenomorphs growled in frustration, and began to attack the glass. One xenomorph jumped at the glass, striking it head-on with full force. The glass barely cracked, indication that it must have been reinforced with some material, and that it was very thick. The xenomorphs took turns head butting the glass, but to no avail. They were not breaking through that wall any time soon. Ash looked through the glass, into the room they were in. Another room could be seen across from it, with another glass wall separating them, and a door leading to it from inside the holding pen. Inside that room, there were several computers, and a security camera in the corner of the room's ceiling.

"This is an observation pen," Jack stated out.

"They were studying the aliens in this lab, then. How long have they been here?" Ash asked.

"I don't care about the stupid aliens, I just wanna get this thing out of my-" Misty said, her voice being interrupted by her own pained cry. She once again fell down, both hands to her chest, deeming them more useful in trying to stop the pain than keeping herself from hitting the floor.

"Misty!" Ash yelled, kneeling down to check on her. She was now whimpering, her eyes shut. Small tears were cutting across her cheeks, and she was starting to sweat. The creature was going to burst out from her chest soon enough, that was certain.

"Come on, guys! We need to get Misty to help!" Ash shouted. Ash tried to get her to stand, but her legs simply began to buckle out from underneath her. Ash managed to get her to lean against him, and he supported her with his shoulder. Brock went to her other side, and did the same. Jack walked ahead of them, his gun raised in anticipation of any incoming hostiles. His motion sensor began to flare up as they passed more observation pens, most of them holding Xenomorphs inside. They all tried to break out of the glass, their teeth bared, their claws slashing at the wall, but the barriers did not relent. This did not discourage the Xenomorphs, who recklessly continued to headbutt the walls. These things were smart enough to work in coordinated hunting packs, yet they didn't know that they couldn't break the glass? Maybe they weren't as smart as he thought.

As they walked, Jack noticed that there were large gun like structures on the floors, at the end of each hallway. They must have been sentry guns, incase of Xenomorph breakout. It seemed that they hadn't done as well as they should have. They turned a corner, and they was a brightly illuminated room on the side. There was only one door, but it had a glass window on it, where the light shone through.

"There it is! Hurry up!" Ash said. He turned his face towards Misty, and told her: "Hang in there, Misty, you'll be alright." She simply groaned in response. She wasn't going to last much longer at all.

Jack got to the door, and opened it, before turning to them and waving his arm towards himself, saying "In here, move!"

"Quickly, get her on the medical table," Katya said, but this time, it was her real voice, and not from the radio. Ash didn't bother to look at her as he helped Misty onto the medical table. Brock carried her legs, and placed them on the other end of the table gently.

"Go to the closet at the side of the room, and use the alcohol swabs to sanitize her arm for the injection, on her upper arm," Katya said. She was working at a computer in another room across from them, which was accessible from a door on the wall that the two shared. Ash went to the closet, and opened it. Inside, several items were seen; bandages, pills, and weak painkillers were amongst them. He found a large, transparent plastic bottle of wiping alcohol to use, which he grabbed, along with a piece of cloth he saw. He went over to Misty, and Jack put some alcohol on the cloth. He hastily swabbed her upper arm area, causing it to shine slightly from the alcohol. Ash looked her over; she was sweating now, and she had begun to violently cough. One hand was clutched to her chest, the other one grabbing ahold to the side of the medical table. Her face was pale, and her skin had begun to turn clammy. She cried out in pain as her body violently lurched forwards.

"What the hell is taking so long?" Jack shouted. He looked over to Katya, who was hastily typing away at the computer in front of her.

"I don't have enough power to do the operation here. I am trying to reroute power from one of Weyland's stations nearby. I just hope Weyland doesn't notice the drain…" she said.

Suddenly, they heard a mechanical whirring, coming from above their heads. They looked up, and saw that a mechanical arm was descending from the ceiling. It lowered to about chest height, and stopped right above Misty's body. It activated a scanner of some sort, and it analyzed Misty from her head to her abdomen. It ceased its scanning, and then it released a very fine-tip needle, filled with a clear fluid. A miniature laser pointer shone on her arm, and the needle began to slowly move forwards.

"Keep her steady, I need to anesthetize her properly," Katya said. Ash, Brock, Jack, and Pikachu did all they could to hold down here convulsing body, so that the needle could have a clear needle stopped when it was about a centimeter over her skin, then quickly thrust into her. A hissing sound was heard, and the fluid began to disappear from the needle. As the needle injected the fluid, Misty seemed to calm down a bit. She still groaned in pain, but she seemed to stop writhing from the creature inside of her. The machine retracted from her arm, before the needle was disposed of, and replaced with another one, filled with a different fluid. This one was blue, but still translucent. It also thrust the needle into her arm, and finally retracted completely from her.

Misty still groaned and writhed slightly after the second needle was injected into her. A few seconds later, however, she seemed to simply turn off, and her arms went still at her sides. Her breathing evened out, and color began to return to her face.

"It is done."

Ash let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding. Jack simply sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. Several emotions flooded his mind at once, but the prominent one was relief. He had gone through about half an entire island and risked his life several times for her, and she was finally safe. He had done things that he knew that he would never have had to have done in his life, had seen things that he never would have wanted to see either, and had done them in such a short span of time as well. The next feeling that overcame him was a strong feeling of tiredness. He wanted to simply lie down and sleep for an entire day, then wake up to be with his friends. However, as luck would have it, there was still no time for rest just yet.

Katya's voice startled them: "Please come in here, I need to speak with you." Jack simply acknowledged her presence, while Ash visibly jumped from being startled. He looked over to the window pane that revealed the woman working on the computer. Jack strode forwards confidently, while Ash and Brock gave each other unsure glances, but went towards the door that led to Katya's room. Jack went in first, followed by Ash, Pikachu, and Brock. Ash finally got a good look at the mysterious woman who had promised them aid in their time of need. She seemed to have a young face, with dark brown eyes and similarly-colored hair to match. She was shorter than Jack, but taller than Ash by several inches. She was wearing a white shirt of some sort, and had brown pants on too, with black shoes. However, the feature that he failed to not notice was the synthetic metal plating that was exposed from what would have been a wound on her hip; it seemed as if she had been in an explosion of some sort.

"Hello, everyone. It is good to finally meet you in person," she said. Her voice sounded soft, and even apologetic. "Please, do not be alarmed," she said, when she saw that they were all staring at her with wide eyes, except for Jack, who kept a scrutinizing eye on her, "and please, do not refer to me as a 'mechanical person'. I prefer to be called what I am: an android."

They all looked at each other, before Brock spoke first: "So you're a robot? I-I mean android?"

She nodded, but quickly said," But my loyalty does not lie with Weyland. I broke ties with him long ago."

Ash stepped into the conversation: "Will Misty be alright?" he asked.

"Yes, your friend will be alright. The injections I gave her were an anesthetic and a special tranquilizer that will keep the creature dormant until it's safe enough to do surgery on her."

Ash winced at the though of all the blood that would accompany said surgery. Needless to say, he was still squeamish when it came to blood. "At least Misty would finally be safe from…getting killed by the creature", Ash said. He almost said "from dying", but he knew that wasn't correct at all. No, none of them were safe from dying, not in this island. There was always the possibility of death, at any given moment. Especially since they were inside a small room with only one entrance, which was inside an entire building possibly filled with the very creatures that they were trying to hide from. He also had to remember Weyland's minions, who were probably hunting them down as they spoke.

Jack stepped forwards, and said," Could you now kindly explain to us just what is going on here?", with an air of impatience in his tone.

She nodded once, before beckoning them all to sit down. Brock took a seat across from her, while Ash sat down on the floor, with Pikachu on his lap. Jack leaned against a nearby wall.

"The island, as you may have known, used to be a mining island, where workers would mine for coal, which was abundant in the island. However, coal began to run out, forcing them to dig deeper, and deeper, in search for more."

"Right, and then workers started to disappear. How does that fit into this?" Jack asked.

"It started when three workers from the mines mysteriously disappeared one day. They never came back. This did not faze the company owners, who must have believed that they got caught in a cave-in. Regardless, workers continued to go into the mines. However, they continued to go missing, one by one at first, and then several at a time. Sensing something else at play, the safety organization for workers shut down the island for poor care of its workers, without actually knowing what was happening. When the owners cried out for proof of their innocence, the safety organization sent out a team to investigate the island. The team never came back. Authorities sent a rescue team to the island, which came back with evidence of the other people's grisly deaths. They had been killed by the Xenomorphs."

"So then there were Xenomorphs on the island before your company came in? Then what does this company have to do with anything?" Ash asked.

"Please, let me finish," she said. "As I was saying, they had been killed by the Xenomorphs, which had gotten the attention of another company: Weyland-Yutani, the corporation that now inhabits this island. The company managed to capture some specimens, and studied those while they explored the structure that they had found in the old mine shafts: a colossal Pyramid. The Pyramid was of ancient design, and contained several unopened Xenomorph eggs. You are familiar with the lifecycle of the Xenomorphs, I trust?"

Katya punched in some commands into the computer, and upon pressing one last key, the screen to her side, which she had been standing in front of while she had been explaining, shone with life, showing them the picture of one of the "eggs". The picture was actually a diagram, with a depiction of a face hugger inside. "The eggs hold these creatures which the scientists have taken to calling "face huggers", due to the nature of their subjugation of a suitable host. The egg opens up, and the creature lunges at the host, and impregnates it. After impregnation, it dies, but the embryo is inside the host, growing. When the embryo grows, which only takes a short while, a creature is formed, the one inside your friend." She pushed another key, and the picture changed to an X-ray photograph of a man who had been impregnated by a face hugger. A creature with a dome-shaped head and a serpent-like body was visible inside the man's chest area, coiled up in a fetal position, but without any limbs to speak of. "When the creature is ready to come out, it bites its way forcibly out of the host's chest cavity, killing the host in the process. The scientists called them 'chestbursters' for this reason."

"That's what was inside of Misty?" Ash asked in disbelief. Katya nodded, and Ash looked over to Misty, who was still peacefully resting on the table.

"As you can see, the Company got ahold of several of these eggs, and they had several test subjects impregnated in order to study the creatures that spawned. When the chestbursters grew to full size, they ended up looking like the Xenomorphs that stalk the island's facilities. From the information that you managed to direct to me," she said, looking at Jack in particular, " I was able to realize Weyland's true intent: to try and control the creatures. He was looking for a way to exploit them so that they could be used to his advantage. But, due to a power failure one day, the Xenomorphs went amok, and wiped out the inhabitants of the research lab. Everyone, except me… I was the only survivor." Her voice was solemn now, and she seemed to choose her next words carefully.

"I was the one who called for help when the Xenomorphs went amok.I called for the military, for aid, but I should have known that it was too late. The force they sent in was demolished in a matter of moments, it appeared. That was the last moment that I had communication. Now, I have no way of contacting the mainland, and no way of stopping Weyland."

Jack's expression was set as he wandered off into deep thought, remembering about his team, and how quickly they had all died. All for nothing…all because of this power-hungry fool of a man. God, if he had the man in front of him right now, he'd make him suffer. He'd do a number of horrible things to him. He'd grab his scrawny little throat and throttle him; he'd break his bones; he'd rip an eye out and pour alcohol into the open socket; he'd beat on his head until he reached tonsils, or until his fists were reduced to bloody stubs, whichever came first; his imagination went more wild that he'd have liked to on fantasizing about Weyland's death.

"And now, here we are. The reason I have helped you was because I still need your help," Katya said.

"What else do you need help with?" Brock asked, a little more eager than was probably normal. It seemed that he still had his thing for women he deemed attractive, even if they did happen to be a synthetic being that was made of oil and steel.

"I am still working on that plan. Right now, though, it is too late to do much. Don't worry, you'll be safe in here. I'll lock the door," she said, resign in some commands on the computer. The door in the other room clicked as it locked itself mechanically. " and now, I will be doing the surgery soon. But for you all, you should rest. There is food and other basic supplies inside the cabinet over there in the corner." She pointed to a small cabinet that was currently closed which was sitting in the corner of the room.

It was then that Ash had realized just how hungry and tired he had been. He had never walked so much or had done so much in one day before, even while adventuring. In fact, he hadn't eaten in the longest time, his hunger numbed by the fear of losing Misty. But now that the danger was not present for the time being, his body returned to its old self. They all went to the cabinet, and opened it, where they found an adequate supply of food. Ash grabbed a can of food, but found that he could not penetrate the metal covering that the can had. He saw Jack's outstretched hand, and he gave the can to him. It was a good thing that big knives also made for good can-openers. Brock ate some of his food, before he turned to Katya.

"Katya, do you want any food?" he asked.

"I don't eat, I don't have a digestive system."

"Oh, right…android. Nevermind…" Brock said, returning to his food. Ash almost snickered at Brock's antics. It was good to see that he had changed so little from their time on the island. Ash himself had changed a lot, or so he believed. Then again, having to fight for your life and kill other living beings for your own survival was bound to change a person, no matter who they were. At this point, however, it was important to always have someone to stand by you, friends. Now that was something he had. He had Pikachu, who had already proven his worth several times over, even before the island, he had Brock, whose fear of death was overcome only by his loyalty to his friends, and he had Misty, who did a poor job at physically supporting them so far, but whose fiery attitude and personality kept them all going. Then, there was also Jack…Ash looked over at Jack, who was silently eating his own can of beans. Ash barely knew anything about this man, and Jack didn't know Ash very well either. Yet, this man had risked his own life and selflessly led the charge in rescuing Misty. The rescue was a success, but Jack obviously had his doubts. Why did he help them? He could have happily kept on living in the shack, or have found someplace else to live in. Why help some random group of kids who were tired and lost?

In the middle of his thinking, Ash felt himself getting sleepy. He had already eaten his fill, so he went to one corner of the room. Pikachu followed him loyally, as always. Ash sat against the corner, and put his cap down, before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.

...

Ash's eyes slowly fluttered open. He looked around. Brock had fallen asleep against a piece of equipment, a bit of drool dripping from his slightly open mouth. Pikachu was curled up against his side, sleeping peacefully. He looked over to Jack, who was sitting with his back against the wall, his gun in hand. The fresh bandages on his body suggested that either he or Katya had treated the wounds, and replaced the old bandages with newer ones. Ash shifted a bit, and Jack noticed him.

"What's the matter, can't sleep?" he asked.

"I should be saying the same thing to you," Ash said, sitting comfortably against the corner.

"I never sleep very much. I guess that old habits really do die hard…" Jack said. "You never really answered my question," he added.

"Well, to be honest, something's been nagging me recently."

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"Jack," Ash began, "Why did you do all this? I mean, why did you help us? With Misty, with everything?"

Jack looked at him, then refocused his gaze on the floor. "I dunno…I'm still trying to figure it out myself," he said. "Although, I guess that I must have sympathized with you and having lost your friend. Maybe I thought that by saving her, I could avenge Tony, but that's not gonna happen. He was a good man, but he's dead now…he didn't deserve to die, I think." Jack sighed, then put his head back against the wall behind him.

"Aren't you afraid of dying? I mean, all your friends died because of the Xenos, you could too," Ash said.

Jack didn't respond for a moment, nor did he give any sign that he had heard his statement. Then, he suddenly chuckled. He turned to Ash.

"You know what? I am afraid of dying. I may not have much to actually live for anymore, considering that we're probably never getting off this damn rock, but other people do, and those people still need my help."

Ash stared at him dumbfounded. He never knew that Jack could be like this, so…philosophical. He always had a hard time finding out words to fit into a sentence that would make him sound smart, or wise for that matter. He would leave that to older people, like Jack.

"Well, you know what?" Ash said, a smile tugging at the sides of his mouth. "I'm glad you helped us. I just wish I wasn't so useless…"

"Useless? You started the car, and you safely escorted your friend without my help. I don't think someone who was useless could do that,"Jack said. "Trust me, when you see someone who's useless, you'll know."

Ash smiled completely now. "Thanks, that means a lot".

"Now go to sleep, you've got to rest up for whatever plans Katya has in store for us."

Ash smiled softly, and leaned back against his corner again, his cap down. He closed his eyes, and awaited for sleep to overcome his senses again.

That is, until he was alerted to the sound of the motion tracker sensing hostile movement. His eyes shot open, and he looked towards Jack. Jack was looking at his motion tracker, and then looked to the door. Alarms were beginning to sound off in the building, and warning lights also went off, but they were all in the hallways. The alarms woke everyone else up, except Katya, who never slept. She looked out the door's window, and gasped. She ran to the room that the group was in, and opened the door, which slammed against the wall because of the frightened woman who slammed it open.

"What's join on out there?" Jack asked, his gun tightly gripped.

"It's the Xenomorphs, they've somehow gotten out!" she said. "I don't know what happened, but the doors to their holding pens opened themselves. There was barely enough energy to operate on your friend, I don't know where the sudden energy spike came from."

"You said you rerouted power from one of the outlying stations, right?" Jack said. She nodded.

"Then they must have detected the power leak, and traced it back here!" he deduced.

"I am afraid that you are correct. But do not worry, they cannot break through that door. As long as it stands, they cannot come in here" she said, pointing to the reinforced steel door. The same door that made an electronic beep before undoing the locks. Jack went wide-eyed, and got up from the wall, his gun trained on the door. Just on cue, an alien opened the door, and was taken down by a stream of well-placed bullets.

"Katya, get us back in control!" Jack shouted, running over to the door. Another alien popped out, and it lunged at Jack, before being put down by another burst from the assault rifle. Katya quickly went over to the computers, and began to punch in several commands. Every time she put in a new command, an overrided error message popped up. Weyland was taking control of the Research Labs. Jack went over to the door and shut the two panels that made up the doors closed. Just as he did so, however, an alien rammed its entire body against the door. The impact caused him to drop his gun. He bent down to get it, but the alien began to pry the door panels apart, forcing him to keep pushing back against the door in a futile attempt to keep the beast out. Brock rushed over to help him, pulling on the door panels too, just in time for the alien to ram against the door once again. It felt like pushing back against a battering ram. Despite having two people holding it back, the Alien managed to get its claw against the door, and push it open enough to reveal its black, domed head and toothed snarl.

Brock dove for the gun, and got up just in time to spray a storm of bullets into the alien's face. The alien shrieked and retracted from the door. The door then locked shut once more, and Jack looked back to Katya, who had a facial expression of relief. Ash sighed in relief too. But then, he felt something clamp against his shoulders, and yank him upwards, resulting in him letting out a surprised yelp. The yelp evolved into a scream as the alien pulled Ash up into the air vents. Ash heard Jack, Brock, and Pikachu cry out to him, but they couldn't do anything. The alien pulled Ash into an area just large enough to be able to snarl at him. Ash cried in fear, and the alien pulled out its tail from behind it. Ash saw the tail, and desperately tried to get away from the biological spear, but it was futile. Instead of disemboweling him, or stabbing him through the heart, the alien then punctured Ash's arm with its tail. Ash cried out in surprise and slightly from pain, before he began to feel his arm go numb. The numbness travelled to his head, and he began to feel drowsy. His last vision was of the alien's saliva dripping jaws.

…

Jack stared at the vent that the alien had pulled Ash through. How had he not noticed it before? Such an obvious entrance route for these creatures, lithe and clever as they were. And he had missed it. Now he had paid the price. Ash was gone. For good. Brock stared at the vent too, and walked up to it.

"Ash!" he cried out, but the only response he got was from the sound bouncing off the metal walls and back to him. The walls were deaf, and they did not answer his calls.

"It's too late, he's gone," Jack said. His voice was solemn and grave. It happened again; he had lost another teammate, just because of his own ineptitude.

"I am sorry for your loss, he seemed like a nice boy…" Jack heard Katya say. Jack's expression morphed into a scowl, and anger filled him. He whirled around to Katya, and glared at her in the eyes.

"You're sorry? You're sorry? What good will that do? He's gone! He's dead! Ash is dead, and we can't do anything about it!" Jack was getting enraged very quickly. Having lost so many friends before, and losing one now, one would think that he'd have learned to deal with deaths close to him. This was not the case, evidently.

"That…may not be entirely true."

Jack did a double-take, and walked up to Katya. "What do you mean, not true? You saw that he got abducted, those things kill their victims! They need to eat too, don't you see their teeth?" Jack said.

"Yes, but some of their victims are used as hosts for new Xenomorphs to form. The creature might just be taking your friend to the Hive," she said. "Xenomorphs are much like insects in the respect that they build Hives, much like Beedrill do. However, they have been known to drag their victims to their Hive sometimes. There, the victims are, presumably, impregnated by a face hugger. There is a Hive nearby, right in this Research facility. If you'd like, I can give you directions to the Hive. Just be careful, I still need you."

Jack stared at her, and then looked back outside. There were still some Xenomorphs prowling the outside in the hallways, and those were just the ones they could see.

"There's not telling how many of those things there are," Jack said. "There could be an entire pack of them there. None of us can go out there safely without being killed first."

"There is one thing that I have that may help," Katya said, going over to one of the cabinets that was inside the room. She opened it, and pulled out a strange-looking gun. "This is the M240B Flamethrower, a company-made weapon. The Xenomorphs have shown a strong dislike for flames. This will keep them at bay."

Jack looked at her, surprised. It wasn't everyday that someone got to use a flamethrower. "Okay, but it'll run out of fuel eventually. How am I supposed to keep them at bay while we find Ash? I don't think it'll last that long," Jack said.

"You don't need to last that long. There are turrets in the hallways there," Katya said, pointing towards the window. "There are command laptops besides them, if you get to the laptops, then you could activate them, and use them to kill the rest of the Xenomorphs." Jack looked back to the window, then accepted the weapon. He wasn't all to familiar with using a flamethrower, but he knew some very basic rules, just enough to not get him burned. He walked over to the door, and turned back towards Katya.

"You can't stay here alone, one of them might come back through the vents," Jack pointed out.

"I'll stay with her," Brock said. "It shouldn't be too hard with only one entrance, and with a motion tracker to alert me. We'll be fine." Although it sounded like he was making up an excuse to stay, Jack said nothing. He actually would rather not have him a long, since this rescue required swiftness and precision, something Brock did not have. Katya handed him some canisters of fuel for the flamethrower, which he placed on a harness that she also supplied him with. Jack then stood at the doorway. Just then, he felt something tugging at his pants leg. He looked down, and saw Pikachu, staring at him with determination.

"You wanna come?" Jack asked. Pikachu nodded, and said "Pika." Jack smirked. It was almost touching how loyal Pikachu was to his master. "Alright. Kaya, open the doors."

The door locks were undone, and Jack pushed the door open. He pointed the flamethrower nozzle to the gaping doorway, and pulled the trigger. A jet of hot flame spewed out of the nozzle of the gun like a Charizard's fire breath. It illuminated the hallways brightly, and the heat from the searing flames could be felt from behind the gun. Alien screeches could be heard, and then several aliens ran away from the flames. Jack quickly rushed forwards to the first turret he saw. He quickly punched in some commands starting up the sentry. A Xenomorph sneaked up on him, but it was quickly beaten away by Pikachu's thunderbolt. After a few more commands, Jack finally got the sentry gun working. Its flashlight turned on, and the gun hummed to life. It beeped as it detected a Xenomoroph, then turned to shoot it. The targeted Xenomorph was taken down with marksman-like accuracy, and immediately refocused its fire on another Xenomorph.

Jack backed away, and fired the flamethrower at a Xenomorph that got too close. The Xenomorph roared in pain, and thrashed around the floor like an enraged serpent, before finally exploding. The alien literally exploded when the fire lingered too long, causing limbs to fly everywhere, and acid blood to spray over Jack's shoulder plate. Jack quickly removed the shoulder plate, and let it drop to the floor, sizzling as the acidic substance ate away at the metal at an alarming rate. Jack looked back at the sentry gun, which was doing marvelously. It quickly locked onto a target, and shot at it only enough to kill it, before quickly snapping to another target with a beep, before unleashing hell on it as it had done so with the last one. The Xenomorphs were quickly eliminated by the combined forces of Jack's flamethrower, Pikachu's electric attacks, and the Sentry gun's accurate firing. He looked around, and, seeing no imminent threat, he continued. If Ash was still alive, then Jack felt the need to rescue him. Though at heart, he felt it was futile, but he couldn't turn back now.

With a heavy sigh and a wipe of his brow, he continued onwards, with Pikachu bounding beside him, intent on finding Ash and bringing him back alive.

…

Misty awoke with a start. She looked around, frenzied and excited. She was quickly confronted by Katya, who told her to calm down. Misty looked back at her stomach, and pulled up her shirt. A small scar was visible where the machines had done their job of removing the parasite. She sighed in relief, and pulled her shirt back over her stomach. Just then, she looked around, more calmly, looking for something. She turned her attention to the android woman who had taken care of her.

"Where's Ash? And Jack?" she asked. Katya frowned slightly, before answering.

"Your friend Ash got taken by one of the aliens while you were unconscious. He-"

"What? Ash got taken by those things?" Misty yelled. He hands clenched up into fists, and her face turned into a scowl. "Where is he? What happened to Jack, and Pikachu?" she asked, just now having noticed the small Pokemon's disappearance as well.

Katya put a comforting shoulder in order to get her to calm down, and said "They both went to find Ash in the Xenomorph Hive, where they may have taken him. I just hope that they make it back safely. Now please, calm down. Stress will only overwork your already-stressed heart."

This woman disgusted Misty; she could probably care less about Ash's life, all she probably cared about was Jack, who was more capable, and Pikachu, who had his own electrical powers that could keep the aliens at bay. But she had a point, she had been very stressed and worked-out lately. Almost giving birth to a monster wasn't the most comfortable experience. She sighed, and sat down with her legs off the side of the table. She looked up, and saw Brock carefully observing the contents of a jar with utter fascination. She walked over to him, and almost screamed when she saw what was inside the jar.

It was an embryo, like the ones she would see her science teacher bring sometimes, but it didn't look like anything she'd ever seen. It was vaguely serpent-like, and its head…it looked eerily similar to a Xenomorph.

"Uh, Brock? What is that?" she asked.

Brock looked over to her, then explained: "Its the alien that Katya took out of you." Misty almost fainted. And vomited. At the same time. That thing was inside of her? She was happy that Katya had managed to get the things out of her body, but the merely knowing what had been inside of her was almost enough to make her vomit outright. Then she thought back to Ash. If he got impregnated, then he'd have that thing inside of him…she looked back at it. It was grotesque, but she couldn't pull her eyes away from it. She dearly hoped that Ash would be alright, she really did. She cared for him, but she'd never say it. She was his friend, and a good one at that. If one would consider someone who follows someone else who had broken their bike so long ago that she doesn't even remember a friend, then that was what she definitely was. She prayed that Ash would come back.

After all, he still owed her a bike.

...

"Take the stairs here," said Katya. Jack complied with there directions, turning to his right and descending the stairway that he saw. He had been walking for a few minutes now, and he hoped that he wouldn't be too late.

"Katya," Jack said into his headphone, which Katya gave him so he could use both hands for the flamethrower. "If Ash really did get taken here, how long will it take for him to get impregnated?" he asked.

"Unfortunately, it shouldn't take too long after he gets strapped to the wall, like you have seen previously. If he happens to be impregnated, then you must kill him."

Jack almost did a double-take, but necessity required that he keep his eyes forward, as to not miss a possibly incoming ambush.

"What do you mean, kill him?" Jack said, obviously displeased with her solution. "You've got a medical bay right there, can't you remove it from him?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot do that. There isn't enough energy for another surgery, nor do I have the supplies. If I leach power from another source, we'll likely be found out again. I presume that they think us dead by now, so we've been lucky enough so far," she said.

Jack groaned with frustration. He was angry, and unhappy with the current situation. He wanted to be able to yell at someone, or something, anything. He settled for swearing loudly and kicking a wall. He knew she was right, though. If he didn't rescue Ash soon enough, then he'd have to shoot him. Now, something worried him. How was he going to bring himself to kill him if Ash did get impregnated? He had done this thousands of time before, killing someone, ending their lives, and only on a few situations had he had to kill someone in a mercy killing. Whenever he killed before, he would do it out of necessity, and also because it had been his chosen career. However, when he thought of killing Ash, who was just a little kid in his eyes… he was afraid he wouldn't be able to do it. Just raise the gun, aim the sights, and pull the trigger. He'd never feel it, it'd be a quick and painless death. Simple enough, right? He hoped so.

The stairway ended, and he was met with a hallway covered in the black resinous substance that they had seen in the Refinery. This was the Hive. He took a step forwards, and stepped onto the Hived floor. His footsteps became padded, and cushioned with every footfall. Despite being inside a large metal hallway, which amplified sounds coming from the other ends, the sound of his steps were greatly muffled. This things must have also have situational advantage in the Xenomorph's favor. If the resin could muffle his own footfall to the point where he could barely even hear it, then it would render a Xenomorph's footfalls to a nearly nonexistent volume. He'd have to be more careful now.

"Katya, can you give me eyes in the Hive?" he asked.

"If the Xenomorphs had not put their resin on the camera lenses, then I'd be able to do so, but such is not the case. You'll have to navigate your own way through the Hive for now," she said. Katya had been a great asset to their goals so far, but even Jack wouldn't call her incompetent for not having cameras to help him at this point. With her doing so much under the radar, it was amazing how much she had accomplished with such limited supplies. Jack merely looked back to the hallway, and began to walk. He had to be careful not to trip on any resinous tripwire-like structures. Apparently, the Xenomorphs must have taken to using the walls to get around instead of the floor, given the uneven surfaces. His walking led him into an intersection in the hallways, with black resin covering every square inch. He looked at each one carefully. He had to pick one of them to go down, but which one? He couldn't linger too long, he had to pick one quick. He hated making decisions like this, that's why he worked in a squad.

His attention was averted when he heard a young, male, human scream. It was Ash.

"Ash!" Jack yelled, trying to see if he could get a response out of the Pokemon Trainer. Pikachu pointed to the the leftmost hallway, and ran down it. Jack followed behind him as quickly as he could while carrying the flamethrower. It was bulky, but surprisingly lightweight. He wondered why he had never seen this model in his career. His thoughts were cut short as he heard Ash scream again. Jack's head shot to one side, and his body ran to the direction of the scream. Pikachu, who had taken a wrong turn, ran alongside Jack now, at an even pace with the soldier. Just then, they came across a large, circular room. Right in the far wall, pinned to said wall by means of the black resinous substance that the Xenos were so fond of, was Ash. And the alien egg in front of him that had just begun to open up, revealing a fleshy, pale creature with eight legs and a whiplike tail.

The creature scuttled out of its container, still wet and gleaming from the vile fluids that were part of its receptacle. Wasting no time, Jack ran towards them, trying to get a good shot without hitting Ash. He knew that if that thing attached itself to Ash's face, then he'd be a goner for good, but he couldn't risk friendly fire. The creature wiggled its tail in anticipation of a pounce. It trilled, and flexed its legs shortly before quickly bending its legs. Jack watched with horror as the creature pounced at Ash and flew through the air.

"Pika CHU!"

A white-hot lighting bolt struck the face hugger in midair, causing the creature to trill in pain. The force of the bolt forced the creature's body to go flying to one side, its body a charred heap of sickly pale flesh. It weakly flailed its legs, before being silenced by another lighting bolt. Jack went over to Ash and took off the flamethrower unit from his waist. He needed his maneuverability to be able to reach his knife. He pulled it out, and began to undo the resin that bound Ash to the wall. He ignored the stream of gratitude and thanks that came out of Ash's mouth as he concentrated on cutting him loose. He cut away one last piece before pulling Ash out of the wall. He took a look at him; his face was covered in some sort of slimy substance mixed in with his own perspiration, and he looked a little shaked up, but he'd live.

"Come on, boy, get on your feet. We're getting out of here," said Jack. Ash's train of thought went a different direction, and he began to ask Jack different questions.

"Where's Brock? And Katya? Is Misty alright?" Ash asked. Jack sighed. As happy as he was that he rescued Ash, the boy could still be annoying at times.

"Boy, I'd suggest you shut up if you don't want to attract any unwanted visitors."

The last sentence quickly shut Ash up, and he silently looked back at his Pikachu, who was happily bounding alongside his master. Hopefully, they'd be able to get back to the medical bay and figure out their next plan of action. However, their plans would be cut short when they heard the alerting shriek of an alien in the hallway beyond. Ash got behind Jack, cowering behind the larger man with the flamethrower. Jack raised the nozzle, and unleashed hell upon them. A jet of white-hot fire flew from the nozzle, and caught an alien in the flames. The alien shrieked in pain, before dying. Another alien got exposed to the flames, but managed to get away from the stream of fire. However, the ammunition for the flame-thrower seemed to be adhesive, as it kept burning when it caught the alien on fire. It died painfully as well, exploding in an acidic mass of blood.

However, one alien got behind Jack, and pounced on him. A well placed Thunderbolt quickly subdued the alien. However, it had managed to slash open the remaining fuel containers for the flamethrower. The fuel began to leak out of the containers from several large slash marks. Jack pushed the alien off while Pikachu held off the rest of them with his electric-type attacks. He got up, and unholstered the harness on his body which held the flamethrower, now essentially useless, given that it had no ammo left, and would be considered dead weight. He let the now-useless weapon drop to the floor, before taking out his Assault rifle and blasting the Xenomorph in front of him. The alien was quickly silenced, and Jack turned and ran, shouting at Ash and Pikachu to run as well. The three of them ran from the pack of aliens behind them, firing whatever weapons they had on them.

Jack's heartbeat skyrocketed as he ran. Never in his life had he felt so scared. His eyes were wide with fright, and his breathing became much more erratic and generally faster, both because of the running and how scared he really was. This was actually a big deal for him. Everyone looked to his as their source of hope, a sign of courage, and during his training, he was always taught to never be afraid. Unfortunately, they never taught him to deal with aliens in combat training. He focused on running for his life, and shooting blindly behind him, against his better judgement. The world became a blur as he ran by, but the Xenomorphs were catching up. He looked ahead, and saw a mechanical door was approaching.

"Quick, follow me!" jack shouted, and ran to the door. Ash and Pikachu followed behind him. They got to the door, and Jack began to open it up manually. "Hold them off while I get this door open!" he shouted to them. They didn't hesitate for a moment, taking positions behind Jack. Ash grabbed the assault rifle for the moment, while Jack opened the door. The aliens began to come in, and they were ready for them. Pikachu hit the first one with a thunderbolt, and another one jumped over its body, which Ash shot at. He quickly refocused his attention to another alien nearby, and shot at it, killing it. Surprisingly, during this time of excitement, and adrenaline, Ash became much less squeamish around blood, but it was still there.

"It's either me or them, I kill them or me and Jack and Pikachu die," Ash said to himself as he shot yet another alien through the head that got too close. Pikachu sent a Thunder into an Alien's body, killing it from the raw power of the attack. Pikachu was starting to show signs of fatigue, he had not had to fight so much or use so many attacks before in such a short time. Ash was afraid that Pikachu wouldn't last much longer, and that neither would he. There may have been 95 bullets inside the gun's ammo cartridge, but this thing fired off very quickly, and Ash was still not as good at shooting as he'd liked. There was only a finite amount of time before he'd run out of ammo, or Pikachu would finally relent. If either happened, then they'd be doomed. Suddenly, Ash aimed his gun at an alien, and pulled the trigger, but only got a clicking sound as a response. He had run out of ammo. He looked to his side, and saw Pikachu fire off another thunderbolt, this time at the alien in front of Ash.

He cried out in surprise when he felt someone grab his shirt collar. He turned and saw that it was Jack who was pulling him back inside the room he had just gotten access to. Pikachu ran in with them, but not before unleashing a huge thunderbolt to the hallway, chaining up several aliens in one go, before Jack closed the door.

…

Katya was working on her computer at an extremely fast rate, aided by her abilities as an android, which gave her extremely fast thought process and coordination. However, no matter what enhanced abilities she may have had, she felt like she wasn't fast enough. Like she would never be fast enough. There was too much work to be done, to much research to do, to many notes and intel to study and analyze. Her eyes quickly darted across the screens, and her cortex processed all the information at the speed of a supercomputer. References were made, and data was memorized with alarming speed, but it still wasn't enough. Good thing she wasn't human, or she'd have to lie down and soothe an ungodly migraine that she'd probably be having if she had a human mind to be stressed.

"Katya, do you read me?" she heard Jack say over the communication unit. "We've been cornered. We're in the Hive, and I've got Ash with me, but we've locked ourselves in a room, and there are aliens outside the door too. Any escape routes you can see?" he asked. He knew that Katya had access to the Research Lab's blueprints, and knew the exact layout of the entire facility. Truly, she was an important asset to their survival here.

"Can you describe to me the room you are in?" she asked. She heard silence for a few moments; probably looking around, she presumed.

"There's a big wall full of computer terminals, and a control panel too," he said.

She opened up the blueprints, and looked over the building plan. In a few seconds, she responded again: "Yes, there is, in fact, a way out. Check to the left of the computer terminals. There should be a door behind the resin." She heard a sharp object be unsheathed, then the squishing sound of resin being cut, followed by a door squeaking open, and armored boots clanking along the floor.

"Keep going down that hallway, you should end up at a door that goes back into the Main Hallway that leads back to the Research Lab," she said. She quickly went back to her work, studying the lock code on the intel that Jack had given her. However, she was cut off from her train of though when he contacted her again.

"We've reached the end of the hallway, but we can't get through. It's been blocked by a bunch of debris, and the door is locked too, from the looks of it." Katya reopened the blueprints, and looked over their area. She found an alternate route, which she redirected to them.

"You'll have to go back to the intersection, and take the left hallway this time. It'll lead outside, so you'll have to use the catwalks from there. It's the fastest way back here. Please hurry, the longer you're out there, the longer you're exposed to the dangers that still reside on the premises," she said. While she did still need them for her formulating plan, she couldn't help but care for their safety as what one would call a friend. Granted, she barely knew any of them, except for Jack's relationship to the island's events. However, she still didn't know enough of them to truly be considered friends. Given the circumstances, however, friends or not, she would need their help eventually. Right, now she had to break the lock on Weyland's code key. She set to work on hacking the electronic lock, but she kept being rejected. She could try to do it the simple way: use a brute hack that would input every single possible combination of numbers and/or letters into the lock until it got the right one, but that one could take days. She only had so much time to do these things.

She then began to cross-reference the lock with other data files she found. She found some new information on a document she missed. It was a list of the Xenomorph specimens. One of them was being mentioned over and over again: Specimen 6. She had no idea what made this "Specimen 6" so interesting, but it must have to do with the files. She typed into the commands: "Openfiles_Specimen_6". Immediately, she saw a blue override message on the previously locked file, and it unlocked itself. She quickly began to read through its contents, and was shocked that these were his diaries. She never knew that he kept audio diaries, he didn't seem like the kind of person to do that. She opened one, and listened to the message.

The Xenomorph studies are going splendidly. We have taken several specimens, and have already gotten ourselves plenty of data on these creatures. They're magnificent…they can climb walls, they can sense prey using a sort of electromagnetic pulse detection, and their agility is unmatched. They are the biological marvels of our world. Specimen 6, however, has defied known practices of Xenomorphs during its life, yet is the perfect example of the deadly beauty that is portrayed by these wonderful beasts…The Queen hasn't been cooperating as much as we'd have liked, but all in due time. If we kill her, then we destroy the Hive mind, and the Xenomorphs would have tragic Queen is what talks to them, gives them orders, much like ants in a colony, and does so through this "Hive Mind" that the scientists have theorized exists in the Queen's abilities. If we can somehow tap into the Hive Mind, then we'd have control over the Xenomorphs. Brain scans are showing some large centers of activity in the brain of the Queen, probably the effects of the Hive Mind. Our researchers are currently figuring out the secret behind the Hive Mind. When that's done, we'll develop it into a device. Soon enough, we'll be able to completely control these magnificent creatures…Humanity is ready for a higher level of warfare, and these creatures will be key in asserting dominance over any group of people. People in our time are dwelling in the past, resorting to the use of such flawed creatures like these Pokemon. Humans are like insignificant bugs, struggling in the depths of their own corruption, believing in peace. There can be no peace without unification, and complete dominance over every person. With the control of these creatures, I will be the Harbringer of Humanity's uprising from the bowels of savagery, by force if need be.

Katya could only widen her eyes in horror as she continued listening to the audio diary. This man looked completely sane, but this recording of himself proved otherwise, and exactly what she had feared: this man was insane. What's worse, he wanted to assert control over all life by means of these horrid creatures! Granted, they still needed to tap into this "Hive Mind" that he kept mentioning, but she knew already that it was a critical error to underestimate the abilities of Weyland and his scientists. They were the best of the best, and bound to him by contract and by fear. Aside from her current discovery, she finally had what she was looking for this entire time: solid proof. The only information that she had been able to have access to so far were documents about the discovery of the temple, research notes on the Xenomorphs, and other documents that were mostly trivial and unimportant whatsoever. With this audio recording of Weyland himself, however, she had the solid evidence she needed to be able to shut him down.

She quickly began to copy the audio recording and save it onto a portable hard drive. The process took only about a minute, with the computer's powerful system. She pulled out the USB and put it away into a safe place. She would have sighed in relief if she had a human's mind or lungs to speak of. As was not the case, she simply looked back at the cameras, to where Jack and Ash were. They were approaching the heart of the Hive, the most dangerous place to be. She wanted to tell them to turn back, so she activated her communication unit.

"Ash, Jack, you must turn around. Find an alternate route; you are approaching the heart of the Hive, where the Queen is located. You are going to throw yourselves into grave danger!" she said. Their response came back distorted. She hadn't caught a word of what they had just said. "I cannot understand you, speak again?" she asked.

"We…-ear yo-…-proachi-…dead zon-…" was what she could make out, but just barely. So they couldn't hear her, and they were approaching a dead zone. She realized just how bad their situation currently was; she couldn't tell them of the impending danger that they were approaching. She could only hope that they would survive, but she knew that even that wouldn't be enough to save their lives. They'd need a miracle of some sort. She looked down from her work, and began to think about her plan for what she'd have to do when they died.

"Katya, how're they doing?" Misty asked as she walked up to the android.

"They're approaching the heart of the Xenomorph Hive," Katya responded. Misty's eyes widened, and she looked at the camera feed on the computers. She saw that they were approaching a hallway that was even more densely rigged with the resin than before. There were no aliens on-screen that she could see, so they were safe so far, but that would surely change.

"Tell them to turn back!" Misty yelled.

Katya simply shook her head sadly, saying "I wish I could warn them, but they're getting out of range of the communications unit. Their signal is dangerously weak by now, if not completely gone already."

Misty looked at the screens, and put her hand on one of them, helpless to do anything but watch as her friends delved deeper into the Hive, closer to their own demise. She shut her eyes, and lowered her head. She simply hated the feeling of helplessness, she always did. But what could she do? She would have cried, but she was too proud for that. Misty does NOT cry like a little baby girl. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked to see it was from Katya. She shook her shoulder, prompting Katya to remove the hand from it, and walked away. She did not care for any words of comfort that she could possibly have for her. After all, what did she know about emotion? She was an android.

Misty sat down on a chair, and put her hands on her face in despair. She started feeling tired, and began to drift off to sleep. Right before she fell into unconsciousness, she silently prayed for Ash's well-being and survival.

Alright, guys, hope you enjoyed so far! Be sure to leave a review if you like this story and/or want to see the rest of the chapters come sooner! Constructive criticisms both welcome and encouraged; if I don't know what I'm doing wrong, then I can't improve as quickly! Keep in mind, just because I am starting to spit out these chapters faster, doesn't mean that the quality of the chapters are going to go down. I will try to keep them as good as possible while updating as soon as I can.

Fun fact: this is my longest chapter so far, coming in at 10,760 words! Well, enjoy!