Chapter 20: The Predator
The saber-toothed cat sat atop the rooftop. His cloak hid him in the darkness as the "po-leese" clan showed up. These warriors were different though. They had more armour on them and carried bigger weapons. His visor scanned them and noticed many more projectiles and firepower.
Some of the warriors covered the entrance of the building. They had big rectangular shields in front of them. The Predator bared his fangs under his metal mask, his alien form of a grin. This Arbitrator warrior-clan was brave. While the other prey tended to run, this one came to him.
"YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" their amplified voices demanded of the fanged battle cat.
With a happy growl, he stood up and went into the building. The large creature elegantly moved through the corridors. His mask already picked up the breaching noises made by the warriors as they blew the doors and ran inside. Hooves and shoes bravely propelled towards where most tended to run from. Their noises echoed through the mask's ear pieces which fed his alert mind with information.
The Predator waited for one of them, a giant bull, to take cover at a corner of one of the doors. The hunter could not see the bull, only hear his hooves as they took place.
"You, over there! Check that corridor! You, left room, you five, upstairs!" the bull whispered but the Predator's alien mask picked up the subtle noises and fed them through the ear pieces direcntly into his pantherine ears.
The Predator switched his visor and the bull lit up through the wall. With a swift kick, the wall crumbled and the hunter lunged at the prey. The bull bleated as the hunter tackled him through the other wall.
"CONTACT! COVER ME!" A small antelope ran into the room, his assault rifle firing at the Predator. Most bullets deflected from his armour, but the few that hit into his muscular body only caused jolts of irritation.
The antelope saw as a large cat appeared out of thin air from the general direction he was shooting.
"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" the Predator mimicked the words which were demanded of him as he lunged at the antelope and with one vice grip across his neck, shattered multiple verterbrae.
"NO!" the bull yelled and charged at the Predator. The hunter was knocked from the momentum and surprise and tumbled to the floor.
"You're fucking with the police, smart guy!" the bull yelled as he tried to grab the hunter's wrists. The other SWAT members all ran in to help their comrade.
With a roar, the Predator flung himself upwards and threw everyone in various directions away from him. He turned on his shoulder mounted plasma gun and fired at multiple warriors who readied their weapons. His aiming lasers danced across the corridors and plasma picked off any who were unfortunate to be caught in its gaze.
He turned and grabbed the discombobulated bull by the horns and twisted until he heard a sickening crack coming from his neck. He threw the dead bull towards the small Jackal at the end of the corridor, ending him.
More SWAT arrived from the end of the corridor and aimed their guns at the monster. The Predator tapped his left gauntlet and disappeared.
"Where did it go?" a leopard asked.
"I can't see it at a-AARRK..." a spear went through a wolf's chest and with a shove, flung him at the leopard.
"Johnson's down! Contact to the left!"
"Where?"
"Where fuck is it!?"
"HELP!"
"OH SHIT, IT GOT HASPER!"
"FUCK! WE GOT A LEOPARD DOWN!"
"AAEEEUUEERGH!"
"EVERYBODY RETREAT! TAKE A STEP BACK AND RE-ASSESS THE SITUATION!"
"I'M ON MY WAY OUT - OH SHIT! HELP!"
"NOO! TAKE COVER!"
A trio of lasers aimed and plasma breezed through the corridors, cleansing them.
Two hours have passed and Chief Bogo has sent in five more teams. That's five SWAT units. Each one reported seeing fucked up shit before going silent. Grisly shrines of fellow comrades on display for others to see.
"You shouldn't have sent them in," a female goat said as she stepped forward.
"Why? What was I supposed to do? Send in hippies to give it a hug?" Bogo responded to the voice before he realized who it was.
"You know, I always liked the way you retort," Gleda Stormhorn said with a smile. Behind her stood a group of specialized wolves, all dressed in outfits that Bogo could only speculate were designed to keep you hidden from infrared.
"Agent Stormhorn, I thought you were handling the 'Hunter' case. Why are you here? This is a hostage situation."
"Oh really, Chief Bogo? Haven't you thought that I'm maybe here because our 'Hunter' friend is in that building slaughtering the brave people you've just sent to their doom?"
As she had uttered that, a loud crumbling noise was heard as a piece of the apartment's wall shattered and a bison flew out, screaming as he fell to his death twenty stories below with a loud thud.
"Ffffuck..." Bogo whispered.
"Keep your people back. I'm sending in mine," and with that, Gleda had flicked her hand up and motioned for the specialized 'WolfPack' Agents to move into position and head out there.
The wolves ran across the corridors with practiced movements. Agent Sniff and Agent Paw took point. Specialized sub-zero guns were in their hands. They intended to freeze the Predator with liquid nitrogen and then thaw it out in a secure cage for study.
"Agent Fang, go ahead and scout the room to the right," Agent Sniff ordered.
Agent Fang ran ahead and looked into the room, his weapon pointed in.
Nothing.
"Sir, nothing in h-"
Agent Fang was yanked into the room, his sentence interrupted by a bloodcrudling scream followed by dying gurgling sounds.
"CONTACT! PREDATOR IN THE ROOM TO THE RIGHT!" Agent Paw bellowed.
Five WolfPack members ran into the room with Agent Paw and Sniff covering the entrance to the door. They could see neither Predator nor Agent Fang. Their masks amplified the environmental scents which improved their already incredible lupine senses of smell.
The Predator's deep scent was nearby and so was Agent Fang's. They also followed the blood trail left behind which lead to a stairway.
"Oh shit," Agent Fur said as they found Agent Fang hanging and eviscerated on the edge of the stairs. His blood trail didn't end there as the group could see the Predator's bloody clawed hand prints on the walls.
"Fucker wants us to follow, let's not keep it waiting," Agent Sniff said and pointed with his muzzle towards the stairs.
"Agent Fang's down," Gleda's communicator chimed and she sighed. Bogo heard it too and his sound was a bit more akin to an irritated but silent grunt.
"We're following the trail of handprints up the stairs."
"It's an obvious trap, Stormhorn," Bogo said.
"Copy that, carry on and remember... 'alive', I want that thing's organs functioning at the operating table," Gleda said.
Bogo's eyes went wide.
"What? What 'thing'? You gonna operate on it?"
Gleda sighed and rolled her eyes. Mayor Lionheart and the government wanted the public to be ignorant about the Predator's existence, or as far as Lionheart was concerned, a crazed predatory maniac. But she felt that Bogo had earned his right to know.
"We're dealing with an alien lifeform from another world. A monster who comes to our Earth on holiday. Unfortunately for us, this thing is an alpha predator with a taste for challenging prey and thrilling hunts. It's nothing personal for them though. They travel who knows how many light years, just to kill things. Simply because they can," Gleda explained.
"So, uh, it's not a crazed psychopath like the Mayor's file told me? Wait, does HE know?" Bogo asked, puzzled.
"Nope. He knows there's a crazed killer, but he doesn't know what is really going on, and is told to shut his big yap if he wants to keep his status as mayor. What? You really think it's coincidental that after the 'Night Howler' incident, he's back to being mayor again? No my dear Chief, it's not a coincidence. We placed him back because he did the wrong things for the right reasons and knows how to remain quiet for the sake of national and public security."
"You knew all along, why didn't you tell me earlier? Back at the precinct?" Bogo raised his voice.
"Tell you what? Please word it to me, Bogo. I wanna hear it."
"Oh I don't know, like there's some fucking... uh... 'Predator' on the loose or something."
"Agent Mange? Do you copy? Report in, Agent Mange," Gleda's communicator roared into life. Snapping her and Bogo out of their argument and into reality.
Just as Agent Bite had spoke the words, a deep purr sounded behind him before a hand grabbed his muzzle followed by another hand behind his neck which then turned his head in a painful direction until all that remained was darkness.
The Predator dropped the wolf and reached into his pocket to pull out a sharp disc. He flung it at the nearest wolves, cleaving them in half.
Agent Sniff and Agent Paw watched their remaining comrades fall, their lives fading out of existence.
"TAKE THIS YOU ALIEN MOTHERFUCKER!" Agent Paw roared and sprayed liquid nitrogen at the Predator who emitted a rather painful scream in response.
"HA HA HA, HURTS DON'T IT!? OH BOY, YOU'RE IN A LOTTA PAIN WHEN WE GET TO KNOW YOU A BIT CLOSER BACK AT THE LABS!" Agent Paw was clearly having a wild time.
Agent Sniff grinned and joined his comrade in freezing the Predator.
The cat growled and roared before he rammed his entire body at Agent Paw. Agent Sniff watched as Agent Paw flew out of the room like a rag doll being discarded by a spoiled brat, and then he heard a bone shattering thud and a dying yelp.
Then a clawed hand grabbed his gun, yanked it out of his hands and slammed the gun onto the ground, breaking it into dozens of pieces.
"HA HA HA HA... MOTHERFUCKER! YOU'RE IN A LOTTA PAIN... HA HA HA HA!"
"Oh shit..." was all that Agent Sniff could muster before the Predator grabbed him by the neck and effortlessly dragged him closer to his demise.
The police witnessed as each and every wolf of the WolfPack was flung across the balcony and hung on a thread. The flayed corpses sent a grisly message for all brave warriors - 'this is what awaits you should you dare come after me.'
Then something else happened. Out of the highest row of windows from the building, objects began to fly out followed by shrill ear splitting screams.
It didn't take long for Chief Bogo to recognize the beheaded heads as they slammed onto the ground with sickening thuds and cracks. Their dead eyes had the last moments of suffering written all over them. It didn't help that the Predator was playing back their screams among other fearful dying noises.
The police officers and SWAT were visibly getting shaken by this barbaric display of intimidation.
"Hold your ground, everyone!" Bogo bellowed.
"My... WolfPack... they're dead... they're all dead..." Gleda whispered to herself.
A car screeched nearby, the doors swung open and the two occupants stood out.
"I'm going in," Nick said with a growly toxin in his voice.
"No, Wilde, you are to hold your gro- WILDE! Shit, HOPPS! BOTH OF YOU, GET BACK HERE!" Bogo's words fell on deaf ears as the fox and rabbit ran into the building.
The Predator watchd from the balcony like a gargoyle.
"Nick!" the hunter repeated in Nick's mother's voice. His three hearts slammed excitement into his chest and with a graceful energetic bounce, the Predator ran into the empty dead rooms of the building and bounded into the corridors.
He had a little surprise for Nick.
Nick and Judy ran as fast as they could. The silence was eerie. Some screams echoed through the hallways, the screams of police officers of varying species. Nick could make out wolves, bulls, antelopes, felines. The screams sounded unnerving, unnatural, artificial.
But something else trembled in his ears.
The screams of his mother. They were genuine screams. Nick ran faster than he had ever believed a fox possibly could. Even Judy struggled to keep her pace, and that's coming from an animal designed to run away from foxes.
The Predator wasted no time in retrieving his bait. He held her up and slowly clawed at her fur until he drew blood. Hearing the prey sing painfully was exciting and also a sign of an epic hunt.
The vixen howled as his claws raked through her fur. He was carving the mark of his clan on her chest, not as a sign of respect but a sign of dominance. Something he will show Nick in order to entice him to follow onto more richer hunting grounds.
The vixen's shrieks echoed down the corridor, followed by the Predator's mockeries of her screams.
"MOOOM!" Nick howled as he ran towards the shrieks. Judy raced after him, panting and out of breath, as quickly as her rabbit feet could propell her.
"NIIICK!" she wailed, and it was repeated again followed by more howls.
Nick jolted to his destination in what seemed like minutes but felt like hours, and there it was for his eyes to lay upon for the first time, the real thing, the real Predator. It looked huge, compared to a fox, it was ginormous. He had thought it'd be tiger sized but it was a bit bigger, and much, much more muscular than tigers.
And his mom was held in its predatory hand. Multiple scratches decorated her face, and a strange symbol was etched on her chest.
"NIIIICK!" it howled in his mother's voice. "HA HA HA HA, YOU'RE IN A LOTTA PAIN MOTHERFUCKER!" it said as it threw something towards Nick. Nick looked down and saw a small locket. A distraction as the Predator leapt out of the balcony, cackling mechanically as it landed on the other side of the building.
"MY NICK!" it yelled in her voice and then jumped off the other side of the building opposite of Nick. It vanished once more. Nick plumped to his knees and picked up the locket. Inside was a picture of himself as a kit in his first Ranger uniform.