Well, i'm back again. Thank you for waiting patiently and posting comments that inspire me to continue. :) I hope you like this chapter and i think you can guess from the ending that the next one will be quite action filled. :)
GrayHuntress: Thanks! I myself enjoy writing a new predator character for a change. :)
xXxSaiyanPrincessxXx: That's a party i'd like to attend to. xD Heh, Scar doesn't need to say it, the whole world pretty much knows his feelings already. x)
Bookworm Gal: Thanks! Mwahaha, it can always get worse, i just need to think how. :D
xVentressx: Don't worry, thanks for writing now. :) I always feel bad for keeping you waiting for so long. xP
bree51: Thank you for being pumped. xD We'll have to see where Wolf goes from here. He's technically not allowed to interfere in the hunt as long as it's still going.
MrsTayla: Thanks! I'm glad if bringing Wolf in was a surprise, i was sure everyone would somehow guess it right away. :D
blackangel150: Indeed. x)
Deadman19: Thanks! And wait no more, here it is. :D
Meramor: I can imagine that too. xD In fact so well that i'll probably take that as my next drawing project, it sounds so funny. :D And don't worry, i'm not telling Wolf, i've already got Scar after me for that april fool's chapter and i don't want to imagine what a more experienced hunter would do to peope who annoy them. x)
Dragowolf: Yeah, it could end badly for Scar with Wolf knowing. I guess it's now all up to what kind of a person Wolf is. Can't tell you anything yet, because i still don't know him well enough. :)
SouzouWriter: Whew, so i can breathe easier again. :) Yeah, Wolf. That's what i do, i rescue predators from the dead. x)
MaiWishes: Heh, thanks! :) I admit it, i have an unhealthy addiction for cliffhangers. x)
Themulesrule1902: I'm blushing now just thinking about it. I basically tried to type the words with my eyes closed. xD But i guess it was worth it to spread giggles through the masses of dirty and naughty predator fan girls. ;D
Luv4Uncas: That's good to hear. :D
Arkenna: Thanks! And sorry for your suffering with my cliffhangers. Maybe two cliffhangers would make a right? ;P
SakuraGirl25: Thank you very much! :) I love hearing what people think of my characters.
ShyLittleDevil: I'm also glad that you did. Thanks! :D
WeskerSlayer99: Scar is great that way. :D
SheWolfMedjai: Aaalrighty then! :D
Dee-em-elle: Heeeere you go. :)
InvisibleGirl: Wow, that was the longest review i've ever seen. O.o Beauty and the beast is actually my favourite of the old disney movies, so i'm pretty sure that does explain something. x) I'm downright thrilled about your comments on my characters, because, really, they're like your children in a way and it's great hearing that they're succeeding in what they're supposed to be doing. :)
And a good thing you also liked the phony april fool's chapter, i was so uncertain with that. Though i guess i can't go wrong with the queen and the nom nom and Vincent's ass. xD The liking for slowly forming friendship/romance is something we have in common, i really hate it when the excitement wears off too quickly.
All in all, thank you very much for taking what must've been a lot of time to write such a long review, i must admit, i experienced a slight jawdrop when i first saw it. :D
: Thank you! :D I'll try to be faster with these chapters so that you will find out. x)
I don't own AvP, just my own characters.
Antonio wondered how long it would take before the woman would run out of energy and collapse. He'd been watching Annie's determination first in her efforts at protecting Mark, then avenging the presumably dead boy and now her efforts at finding him after they had learned he was presumably still alive. The whole time Annie had given her all in every step of the way, somehow managing to cope with Stealth, although Antonio had no idea how the hell she was doing it.
Even now they were running. They had stopped to quickly stock up on weapons, desperately needing the extra firepower in case things would get nearly as bad as they were expecting. The question in every human's mind was, would they really find Mark alive. The question everyone was trying not to think was, would they be in time to stop the dreaded queen from escaping and spreading its parasitic offspring out into the world.
Stealth was also calculating the situation in his head. He could sense it in his very being, the queen's approaching presence. All of his warrior's instincts were cheering with joy and anticipation for the honorable battle that was waiting for them. Still, at the same time the sensible hunter knew, he didn't stand much of a chance impaired by the humans' drug and alone.
The humans didn't count to him. Even if Lex had fought a queen with Scar before and survived, the humans were still untrained and unprepared for something so powerful. And as much as Stealth hated having to admit it, he could've used Scar's help. At the current state of things he had no idea when the hothead was even planning on coming back. If he was.
Annie led their way, turning confidently in every corner. She seemed to know exactly where they were going even though they weren't sure if they had chosen the right place from the map. But whether it was her instincts guiding her or just luck, they did find something.
Keith was keeping the rear and almost missed the faint sound. He wasn't sure what he had heard, but it was enough to make him stop. Antonio who had been running almost beside him, noticed the sudden change and stopped too.
"What?"
Keith backtracked a few steps in front of a room with the door slightly ajar. "I'm not sure…" He started hesitantly and then gasped. "Shit!"
Slamming the door open and barging into the room, Keith left a very perplexed Antonio standing in the hallway, shouting for the others to wait. Then he ran after the big man, making it only a couple steps inside before stopping in his tracks.
"Oh no…" he breathed silently at the sight he was seeing. Soon Annie stood beside him and even Stealth's curiosity won as his head appeared way higher behind the others.
"Oh hell, old man… What have you been doing to end up like this?" Keith was kneeling next to the old sheriff, supporting him against the side of a desk, so that he was in a half-sitting position. The trail of blood on the floor revealed that he was badly injured.
Keith noted how pale the anguished man was and hurried to check his injury. An angry frown spread on his face. "Who shot you?"
The sheriff raised his tired eyes and pushed at Keith's hands as the man was trying to stop the slow, but steady stream of blood that was gushing from the wound. "Don't bother. It may take some time… but I'm still as good as dead, I can feel it."
Coughing and instantly cringing from the pain caused by it, the sheriff turned his head to look at the others. His eyes seemed to brighten and a faint smile crept on his lips. "Mark will be so happy to see that you are alright… He's been doing nothing, but worrying about you since you got separated."
That got Annie's attention and she came to kneel beside the old man. "Where is he? What happened here?"
"He was alright the last time I saw him", the sheriff assured her, trying to calm down the obvious fear in the woman's eyes. "Vincent took him… He wanted him alive."
"For what?" Annie didn't like the sound of that and the apologetic look on the sheriff's face told that the answer wasn't going to be to her liking.
"I'm not sure, but I would bet he's using him as an insurance… or bait. He was acting strangely when we found him", talking was clearly tiring the injured man out, but he kept at it feverishly. "It's my fault for not being more careful… We we're just talking when he turned around and fired a shot… His face didn't change one bit when he pulled the trigger…"
"Save your strength", Keith ordered, concentrating again on stopping the wound from bleeding. "We're getting you out of here, so no more…"
"Oh, you save your breath!" the sheriff suddenly snapped and started coughing violently again. "Taking me anywhere won't change a thing, you know that… I won't last to the nearest hospital…and you're not going to split up… you need to find Mark…"
"We will", Annie promised as much to the sheriff as to herself. "And you can bet Vincent's going to be begging for mercy before I hang him by his balls."
"I believe you", the sheriff let out a weak laughter and seemed to relax a bit. "Just get going before it's too late."
"I'm staying", Antonio announced quietly, his expression unusually bleak. He hadn't said anything after they had entered the room, but it was obvious he was in shock. He almost matched the dying man in paleness.
Keith nodded, surrendering his place to him as Antonio came to the sheriff's side. The grey-haired man started to make objections, but was cut off quickly.
"They don't need me, I think it's pretty clear to everyone at this point that I'm not a warrior", Antonio managed to squeeze his lips together to make a pitiful attempt of a smile. "And looking at the type Lex is currently interested in, I'm beginning to suspect that's also the reason why I never had much luck with her."
The lousy attempt at lightening the general mood was a failure, but nobody blamed him this time. Keith, who had known the man through some thick and thin, mostly thick, knew that this was the only way he could cope with difficult situations. He also knew that Antonio had known the sheriff a lot longer than any of them.
"Well, whatever", Antonio shrugged off the silence. "Just get going, I'll catch up with you later."
No further discussion was needed. Keith and Annie understood Antonio's reasoning and agreed in their minds that the old sheriff didn't deserve to die alone like that. Both gave their last regards to the brave man and braced themselves to find his killer.
Stealth had already disappeared from the doorway, no doubt uninterested in the humans' affairs. As soon as the sounds of the last faint steps had faded away, Antonio let out a heavy sigh and collapsed on to the floor next to the sheriff, leaning his back against the desk too.
The silence they were immediately wrapped in, felt like it was taking them away from time and space, from all of the problems they had just discussed. Antonio brought back to his mind the times he had spoken with the sheriff. The man had always been there to guard the nearby small town as far as he knew. His parents had known him and Antonio remembered admiring the gun-wielding law-enforcer as a child.
Sighing again, he got up and started to go through the cabinets and desk drawers. The sheriff raised a brow. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for something to properly tie that wound with."
"It's a waste of…"
"No it's not! It could be that the bullet didn't hit anything crucial and that we can still get you out once the others come back."
The old man didn't say anything. Antonio concentrated on his search realizing that he was probably in denial, but he couldn't help it. He was feeling like a child who was angry and disappointed in finding out that the person he'd once so much looked up to, wasn't in fact invincible.
"I'll go take a look ahead first", Keith spoke in a low voice. "No sense in all of us rushing there at once without knowing what's waiting us there."
"Suits me", Annie replied. It actually was what she had been hoping for. Now she had a chance to do something about a thing that had bugged her for some time now. As soon as Keith disappeared from sight, Annie turned to Stealth, who was standing with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Alright, what are you up to?"
The predator looked at her, seemingly perplexed by the sudden accusation. "What… do you mean?"
"Don't play innocent, it doesn't suit you. You haven't said anything after we went our separate ways with Lex and Scar. Not one annoying or indecent remark."
"You want me to… say something indecent?" The hunter's otherwise expressionless face got a hint of amusement.
"I want an explanation to why you're acting so off-character."
The woman's gaze was relentless and it was clear she wasn't going to give up until she had gotten an answer. Stealth still found her intriguing enough to decide and humor her.
"Have you ever seen… a bug queen?"
Annie failed to see what that had to do with anything, but shook her head. "Only in some satellite pictures."
"Let me… put it this way then. On our hunts for a queen… it usually takes… about seven experienced hunters… to capture one. Killing it… isn't much easier. You only need to make… one mistake and it will… most likely be fatal."
"So how does that answer my question?"
"That kind of battle… requires a lot of focusing… beforehand."
"Well I guess that's good then", Annie admitted warily, still finding the presence of the unpredictable warrior unnerving. "But tell me where will your focus be then? Just on the queen? Or anyone else, like Vincent?"
Stealth shrugged, his arms still crossed. "Whichever comes first… since that human… seems to be the only one… I'm allowed to hunt."
Annie huffed mockingly. "It was your deal, no need to sound bitter."
"And you should… sound happier that I… made that deal… or else none of you… would be alive."
"And would you have preferred that?" Annie wasn't sure what fueled her curiosity, but she kept her questions coming. "Why did you even start making deals?"
Stealth hadn't expected their little conversation to go that far and found no simple answer to the woman's question. However, he noticed that he didn't find her inquiring disturbing. Even though she hadn't expressed anything, but hostility towards him, she had an uncanny way of making sharp observations and an equally sharp way of expressing them. That was something he found entertaining.
"I'm starting to suspect… that you're trying to…get me killed… by ruining my focus."
"I wouldn't mind if that happened", Annie stated the cold truth.
After that, she let the questions be and turned away from the hunter. She had gotten some kind of an answer to her original question and that would have to suffice. It didn't seem that bad of an idea to start focusing herself. But unlike Stealth was thinking, there wouldn't be any fighting with the queen. Not if things went as planned and the place would soon be blown up.
Well… he could stay and fight, she wasn't going to be the one to give him a heads up. In fact, she was pretty sure no one would.
"It looks quiet", Keith gave his report after returning to the others. "So there's obviously something fishy going on. I think we'd better…"
Before he could even finish his thought, a voice started booming through the empty hallways. "To those interested: We're about to have our very first open house today. Only instead of getting to know this facility, you'll be given the chance at taking a gander at the outside world. So every xenomorph get ready, first come, first served."
"That didn't come from the speakers", Keith observed.
Annie agreed. "Vincent's probably using a megaphone to attract them."
"What do you think he's going to do when they come?"
"Get eaten obviously. Can't you hear him? He's completely lost it."
They both listened to the rambling that was still continuing. "Come on everybody, step right up. If you can't wait to get to the juicy brains, I'm offering you one for the road right here."
"You're right", Keith stared in disbelief to the direction where the sound was coming from. "If he's really planning to donate his brain to better use, he's definitely gone over the board."
A horrible thought dawned on Annie. "He's crazy alright, but I don't think he's stupid or has a death wish. Mark's with him."
"Then we gotta go now", Keith repositioned the assault rifle he had hanging over his shoulder and turned to leave, Annie right behind him.
If the situation hadn't been so critical, Annie would have continued to watch her back carefully for the sly hunter, but right then he was the last thing on her mind. Running as fast and as silently as they could, both Annie and Keith completely forgot about him.
Stealth stayed behind for a while, practically smelling the trap ahead, but not caring enough to warn the humans. His mind was set on his own survival. After either him or the queen was dead, it would be time to start setting the scores straight with everyone else.
He hadn't forgotten anything and it wasn't like him to let things go just like that.
Vincent's whereabouts were not difficult to figure out, all they had to do was follow the insane ramblings that continued form time to time. It led them to the same loading area Annie had seen on the map before.
It was a dangerous area, she could see it right away. Too many piles of crates and supporting columns, creating blind spots everywhere. Besides, some of the lights were turned off, courtesy of Vincent she presumed. Both her and Keith had their weapons ready, Stealth was nowhere to be seen.
They pinpointed the source of the talking to the other side of the hall and approached carefully using the large crates as shelter. In Annie's mind, there was nothing that could stop her from going there and putting a bullet between Vincent's eyes. She was going to off that miserable bastard now and be done with it. Then she was going to get Mark and get him out of there. Nothing else existed to her right then.
Until she heard the screeches.
"No not now…" she muttered through gritted teeth and started running, not caring what was waiting for her ahead.
"Annie!" Keith stage whispered angrily, then darted after her.
The horrible sound, no, sounds that they now heard behind them from the corridors chilled him to the bone. He was fairly sure that there now were more than the few xenomorphs originally found from the predator ship. The queen had been laying eggs and he knew there had been people unfortunate enough not to evacuate in time.
"Keith, here!" Annie called to him frantically, the reason soon becoming clear for him.
They had found Mark, tied up and hanging from his wrists in the air from a telescopic crane. It looked badly like he had been lifted up there to be served as the first course. Mark saw them too and started wriggling, trying uselessly to free himself or at least get the tape that was covering his mouth off.
Then they heard Vincent's voice again, from behind the crane. Annie walked around the thing and cocked her pistol, her finger already starting to squeeze the trigger. She found no one.
Disappointed and confused, she stared at the small recording device on the floor that somebody had at some point probably used for making notes. Now it was spouting Vincent's crazy talk into an electric megaphone next to it. Its switch was taped so that it had stayed on the whole time.
Annie crushed the recorder under her boot and returned to Keith who had by now guessed that she hadn't found Vincent.
"We have problems", the large man spoke with a considerable amount of anxiety in his voice.
"I can see that for myself, thank you", Annie replied pointedly, hurrying to check the crane for a key. Apparently there was a silver lining in this cloud, since amazingly it was still there.
Keith kept insisting, almost dragging her out of the crane. "I mean more problems. Look!"
Annie looked up again, this time taking a closer look at Mark. Her eyes widened when she saw what Keith was pointing to. A collar around Mark's neck. The same collar they had put on the original xenomorphs.
"That gutless sack of…" the infuriated woman was about to release an ear melting collection of insults for Vincent, but Keith stopped her before she got started.
"No time. We have to get him down first and fast."
"Yes, you concentrate on him", a mocking voice interrupted them. This time it wasn't coming from the recorder. "And I do recommend you hurry."
Annie knew there was a control room somewhere in the hall and her urge to go find it and empty her gun into the man who no doubt was sitting comfortably in there, watching them from monitors, was almost unbearable.
"Please be advised, however", the voice continued, as if guessing her thoughts. "that I hold the remotes for those collars. I'm sure that by now you've noticed your friend's wearing one also. So there will be no one coming after me or I will detonate it. I am here simply to get things started and then I'm off to watch the fireworks from a safe distance. It's a shame, though, that I must sacrifice this valuable facility and all of its research for this, but there are others, this won't be the end of it."
More of the screeching screams drowned out the rest of Vincent's speech. Keith spun around and began heading back where they had come from. "Get him down! I'll hold them off as long as I can."
"You want one of these?" Annie offered him one of her grenades.
Keith grinned and lifted his shirt to reveal a bunch of grenades hanging neatly in a bunch from his belt. "I think I'm good."
With that, he left and Annie returned to start up the crane. She heard Vincent's voice once again, hating the fact that it was again his voice they got stuck with, the man himself being as elusive as a buttered up slug.
"Oh, I almost forgot. I did leave you with one remote I tossed on top of one of the crates. You know it has a disengaging mechanism to open the collars? So if you're not too busy, you might want to look for that."
Annie turned the key and at the same time the crane's engine came to life, she heard the first short bursts of Keith's gun.