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Chapter 21: Father

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Lex was suddenly very, very nervous. And why was she nervous? Scar was about to meet some of his children. He had told her on that he might have to kill the most dangerous of the hybrids. And they had suddenly entered the cavern that the three were about to enter were; entranced, shocked, bewildered and suffice to say: they simply looked flabbergasted. Lex was hard-pressed to stifle he amusement at the sigh, even as she started to wring her hands together. The bloody Hunter had released her, when her children had seen her being carried like a child over his shoulder.

Scythe had yet to move once he had laid eyes upon the Yautja. His blood-red eyes had retained their comical, wide-eyed expression for at least 20-minutes. He hadn't blinked or moved a single muscle. The only sign that said he was alive as the fact his chest moved, indicating he was breathing. Aside from that, he was doing a perfect impression of a statue. Ciara had taken to slowly approaching Scar, and Lex tensed.

"Interesting," she smirked, cocking her head as she circled around her 'father'. "It seems I didn't receive much influence from that part of the DNA used to make us Hybrids."

Scar trilled in amusement behind his mask, and decided he might as well show his face to his offspring.

The air was tense as the Hybrids and three humans waited, until finally...

"You're one ugly motherfucker!" Fang commented matter-of-factly, blinking out of his bug-eyed staring.
"Now the mandibles make sense!" Dmitri called out, almost at the same time as Fang.

That seemed to return Scythe back to the world of the living. He elbowed his wayward brothers in the ribs with a growl, "Manners!"

Fang coughed and glared up at his brother. "Look me in the eye, Scythe, and tell me he ain't an ugly motherfucker!"

"The term motherfucker would imply that he fucked our mother," Raptor snorted, broadcasting for all to hear.

Scar and Blade looked around for the voice, but were unable to find it, and Lex smiled in amusement.

"And since we were born, and grown, in a test-tube," Shadow added, continuing Raptor's point. "He technically, can't have that title."

"You, however, can!" Silver finished, smirking wickedly at Fang.

"Technicality bullshit!" Fang muttered under his breath, glaring up at his siblings as they laughed at him.

Fang had, in fact, copulated with a woman. And he would never ever, ever be able to forget it. His siblings would never allow him to. And she'd had a kid already! However, that was a sore point for the other male hybrids, since they had yet to have their chance with a human. Fang was just lucky he'd caught the woman when she'd been drugged on an aphrodisiac.

Lex blinked in surprise at that little tid-bit of information. She had a womaniser for a son, but now that she looked at Fang; she supposed he'd make for an interesting partner. At least for any woman who was open to his more 'exotic and alien' features. A thoughtful hum caught Lex's attention; and the woman turned towards the sound.

Ciara was still circling Scar, until she came to a stop before him. She cocked her head in a very similar-to-Scar way. He cocked his own in reply, mirroring his daughter as they exchanged poker faces. The others watched in amusement. Then, coming to a decision, Scar stepped closer to Ciara. He halted her movements and placed one hand on her shoulder, and shook it. His mandibles twitched into a Yautja-version of a smile.

"Greetings, daughter," he announced gruffly.

The Hybrids froze, jaws dropping in shock. As one, they all screeched: "FATHER?!"

Ciara blinked up at him, her face struggling to retain its blank poker face and then it slipped to reveal a child's wonder. "Very interesting..."

Lex just had to release the laugh she had been trying, in vain, to hold onto at the sight.

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Tiger stared at the armoured creature before them, her expression still set into one of surprise. That one hunter had brought down two of those Xenos in one go – causing one to get trapped underneath the added deadweight. Then, all too suddenly, a ground-shaking screech shook the foundations of the cavern. Myra nervously looked around; noticing Star was pressed up against the... hunter, called Ash. To his credit, Ash wasn't trying to remove her grip. Instead, let her twin sister hold onto his chest. However, he did look uncomfortable as if he didn't know what to do with the added addition to his side. She had to chuckle at that.

"What was that?" Tiger asked, eyes narrowed as she looked around for the source of the screech.

"Beats me," Myra shrugged, though her eyes assessed the surrounding area sharply.

Star's gasp echoed throughout the cavern. Amidst her rushed apologies, Ash tried to tell her it was fine, but she was too embarrassed to notice. Myra hurried to Star's side, and Ash sighed gratefully for thee help. Tiger sighed at the sight, and turned to look back at the other; and gave a shout of surprise when masked-eyes filled her vision. "GAH!" she gasped, falling backwards as he stepped into the safety of the smaller tunnel. "Don't do that, arsehole!" Tiger snarled, flipping to her feet and poked him in the chest; "You trying to kill me, or something?!"

"There would be no try," the hunter replied in a growling voice. Tiger blinked in surprise as the mask was pulled off, revealing an ugly face. Whatever she had been expecting underneath that mask – that wasn't it, but then the hunter leant forward slightly. "I would kill you before you even knew I was there," he finished in a matter-of-fact tone.

Tiger did not like that demeaning look in his eyes. Snarling – and before he could blink – she had punched him square underneath the jaw. To his credit, he didn't move under the force of the blow, but his face did fly skyward. Blinking in surprise, Tiger waited for the hunter's reaction – and was surprised when he only turned bright emerald green eyes with light amber flecks to her; and rubbed his jaw.

"That," he growled slowly, punctuating his words clearly (or as near to clear as he could, considering his lipless mouth) on his tongue. "...Hurt!"

"It was meant to!" Tiger scoffed and folded her arms.

"What's your name, crab-face?" Myra drawled, stepping a bit closer to Tiger. "Before Tiger here, rips off your mandibles one-by-one, and starts on your teeth."

The hunter growled, his gaze not moving from Tiger's. "I am Taisto."

"How come you can speak our language, while Ash has trouble?" Star asked, cocking her head curiously to the side, panicking forgotten.

"Ash'tas is still learning your language," Taisto replied, turning his attention to the least aggressive of the three hybrids.

Star nodded understandingly, and then turned to Ash with a closed-eyed grin. "Guess I will be teaching you!" she affirmed, pleased by the prospect of teaching someone.

If Ash had the ability to blush, he would have. As such, he scratched the back of his head, feeling very embarrassed.

Taisto shot the two a narrowed look, but before he could comment on it – a pressure on his arm pulled him forward – and he felt the breeze of a large jawed-tongue; almost shave a few of his dreadlocks off. Instinctively, Star and Myra also leapt further backwards into the small cavern; Ash followed just as quickly while Tiger glared up at Taisto where they lay on the ground; a few metres away from that dangerous tongue. When the cloud of dust dissipated, the other three stared down at the pair still locked in place. Star and Myra began to snicker while Ash felt his mandibles give their own impression of a classical jaw drop.

Taisto was kneeling on top of Tiger, where they had fallen to avoid being skewered. His hands were on either side of her head, his legs on either side of her hips, and his face was oh-so-close to Tiger's own. It made the quite provocative image. When Taisto realised it, he swiftly rolled away – mindlessly filing away that Tigers eyes were like amber-orange molten lava.

Tiger was slower to sit up, since she had to keep low to avoid another jawed tongue. Her enraged glare she sent her sister's way, did nothing but cause them to laugh even harder at her expense. She growled deep in her throat, her lips curling back as her rage built. Her eyes began to burn dangerously close to becoming a wild predator's bloodthirsty glare. That got the two to stop, realising that they may have pushed their older sister – just a bit – over the edge.

"Well," Tiger muttered when she was a fair distance from the Xenos, and on the opposite side of Taisto. "What the hell are we going to do now?"

"Scream for help?" Star suggested with wide-eyed seriousness.

Myra and Tiger shared a glance. "She's your sister!" Myra exclaimed, pointing at the orange-and-black striped hybrid.

Tiger snorted, folding her arms and cocked her brow. "She's your twin sister!" she retorted.

"She has point there," Ash gave his two cents.

Myra turned to face him with a glare that could have made Cetanu and the Devil shit their pants. "Don't you add any smartaleck comments, dickless!"

"He's not dickless!" Star exclaimed.

"How would you even know?!" Myra screeched.

"Cos he sounds like a man," she replied matter-of-factly. "Only a female would be 'dickless'. So it's obvious Ash is a male. Therefore, he cannot be called: dickless!"

Silence...

...Ash struggled with the laugher that was just dying to be released. Myra stared at her twin with a deadpan expression. Then, she looked to the roof of the ceiling in exasperation or guidance on how to deal with her sibling. Then something unexpected happened, Taisto turned to them. "She does have a point," he stated amusedly, mandibles lifting into a smirk.

Tiger and Myra glared at Taisto. "Don't encourage her!" they growled, stepping forward in unison to pummel him into the ground.

Taisto felt a flicker of fear for his soul; and Ash was floored for a moment – and then released the laughter he had tried keeping at bay. To think that the almighty Taisto would be afraid of two hybrid females; but then he remembered that the hybrids had some of the features of Yautja, which maybe meant they could be just as fierce as any female Yautja.

Ash shuddered at the thought.

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"Did you poison him?"

"Yes," Vulcan replied, trying to pierce the darkness to see the speaker, but could not see who it was. "I put it in his coffee."

"Incompetent fool!" the voice barked and Vulcan saw white stars and felt the ground within a heartbeat, unsure of how he got there. Pain throbbed in his chest. The speaker had hit him with enough pressure to cause extreme pain, but had broken nothing. And it was in a place, hidden from sight. The only way others would know, if he were to walk around without his clothes on. "He has heightened senses! He would have detected it! Now his guard will be up. It will be nearly impossible to poison him again..." Vulcan lowered further to the ground as he felt the speaker approach. A chill ran down his spine as something sharp, and pointed, stroked along his spine. "How are you going to fix this, Vulcan? I need David Vanguard dead!"

"I will kill him myself," Vulcan promised.

"Good," the speaker said. "Take care not to get caught, my faithful servant. I won't be able to help you if you are."

Vulcan was grateful when the speaker walked away.

But, as soon as he did: he realised just how fucked he was.

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"As soon as you stop wanting something, you get it."
― Andy Warhol