Chapter Thirty-Seven: Confrontation
Anna had stepped down from her podium for a short time. Her speech was to be broadcasted live to the whole world once she'd had a short break. She approached Marcus.
"Is the Red Rain ready to begin?"
Marcus didn't make eye contact. "Yes, my queen. I have the remote on hand."
"Excellent. You will initiate it on my mark."
"Yes… my queen…"
"ANNA!"
Anna and Marcus both turned to see Grover, angrily making his way past the security guards. Anna sighed, clearly annoyed.
"I'm sorry Grover, but I'm on in five minutes. I can't be bothered with you and your whimsical complaints right now."
"WE HAD A DEAL!" Grover yelled back.
"I know that. As I promised, your friends will not be harmed."
"THAT WASN'T ALL! YOU WEREN'T TO RESORT TO THE RED RAIN! YOU WERE TO LEAVE!"
Anna glared at Grover with her feral eyes. He backed up slightly, but still stood strong.
"Grover, our deal was that you help us assassinate Sam and get your friends onto our side and we'd do as we agreed. Since you did neither successfully, you should feel fortunate that I'm upholding any part of my side of the bargain."
"You'd never have found Sam without my help! And I tried to get them on your side, but they don't trust me anymore!"
"Well, whose fault is that, Grover?"
Grover paused. He had no answer.
"You're a traitor in the eyes of your kin and a failure in the eyes of mine. You've given up everything just to help your pathetic friends, and they don't even trust you anymore. I had nothing to do with any of it. Now, security, would you please escort this man out?"
Grover was completely disheartened. He didn't even resist as the security guards ushered him out. Anna was right. About everything. He left the conference and trudged back to Mirza, who was waiting for him in an alleyway.
"We've got nothing, Mirza," he told the banshee. "Just each other…"
Mirza whimpered and nuzzled Grover affectionately.
Anna had resumed her speech, explaining to the world about the Red Rain. But she didn't notice somebody shoving their way violently though the crowd. It was X. And as he made his way toward the front of the crowd, his body began… changing. His skin began turning into… scales. Reddish black scales. Out from his back came armor similar to Sam's when he fought the Predators. Red and brown hair-like appendages began extending from his head. As his transformation progressed, his walk turned into a run. And from a run, into a fast sprint.
Anna now saw the people getting thrown aside and moving quickly out of the way of something moving quickly through the crowd. It neared her closer and closer before stopping. The sea of people covered its appearance for a few seconds, before it burst from the crowd and leapt into the air, landing feet first on the stage in front of her. Anna stared in shock. Finally, he raised his head.
"YOU KILLED MY FATHER, YOU KILLED MY UN-BORN CHILDREN, NOW IM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
A helmet closed over his head. It was a Predator helmet, but with a strange jawbone shape over the mouth of it. He took a battle stance and a single, elongated wrist blade extended.
Anna stared at X with contempt, but showed no traces of fear.
"Go ahead and try… Mr. Black."
Before X could make a single move, Anna struck with her tail. She forcefully struck X in the chest, knocking him off the stage. He landed back into the sea of people on his back. The entire crowd dispersed instantly. X rose to his feet as people fled all around him. Anna smiled smugly at him as her tail handed off to her a small remote.
"Where the hell was she keeping that?" X thought to himself.
Anna pressed the button and a large beam of light shot down directly on X from the mothership hovering over their heads. When the light faded, X found himself surrounded by Xenomorphs, all of them twice the size as the one he killed. Saliva dripped from their jaws and they snarled menacingly at X.
"Well… this could be an issue…" he muttered.