Sup peeps, so apparently my alternate self was indeed successful in getting a hydralisk, even though he has been decapitated a couple of times in the process. Luckily he always keeps spare limbs in his home.

Meanwhile for me I'm just here giving you the entertainment you all desire, so with no further ado let's get started.

Chapter 26: On the Run

Mud flies as the tires of the maroon colored four-wheeler races through the forest path, leaving behind the many trees of the farming world. In the driver's seat, May stares intently ahead of her as she focuses on her navigation through the trail. Next to her sits Isaac in his trimmed downed version of his hunting gear with his pacified hunting rifle sitting between his legs, and though he looks calm and collected, a dozen worrying thoughts run through his mind for the past twenty minutes. He questioned about why the zerg had invaded Agria, they were so out of the way of everything else that he thought that they could be ignored by the alien race, that was a big reason why he picked the planet.

But now they have returned and this time they're going all out on the Dominion according to Ariel's news on them. This was a nightmare scenario for the whole family, and he can see this in his daughter when he looks back to inspect her and Ares who are both sitting in the back seats. Her face gives off a worried look and the fact that she's fidgeting with the four metal spheres in her left hand only proves this.

"Dad, where are we gonna go now?" Isabel asks upon noticing his attention, the despair in her voice almost scaring the father into responding.

"Some other place safe from here." Isaac responds in a reassuring tone.

"So, we're just running away again, great." Her dissatisfied voice brought sadness to the man.

"I'm sorry Isabel, but it's all we can do."

"That's what I hate." Her arms retract to her stomach defensively as her eyes look downward in weakness. Isaac doesn't know what to say to make her feel better now, the sight of seeing his daughter in such a depressed state pains him greatly.

He looks over to Ares who's just staring at her with a sadden face, the heavy atmosphere of their situation is probably getting to him. He honestly feels bad for the boy, having to experience the horror of the Zerg at such a young age and barely being aware about its true intensity. But unlike them he at least got someone to protect him. He looks through the rearview window to see Janusar and Chronos following a few meters behind them. When they first arrived he thought that his life would have been a living hell, but now they're starting to look like a blessing in disguise, assuming that they'll protect more than just Ares.

He looks back ahead with a light sigh and comes upon the sight of the entrance of a small settlement. Fairmount Town, it's the smallest of the outlying settlements that make up the colony with the population of only a couple dozen people, and now it's completely abandoned. The car slows down upon entering the town giving them a clear sight of the doors of empty homes are left wide open with belongings the people were not able to bring in the panic of the evacuation scattered all across the ground. They drive though the ghost town and continue down their path towards Ariel's position hoping that the trail is just as quiet as the settlement.

For the next ten minutes it seems to stay that way and so the father turns to the two passengers. "Alright, just a few more miles and we'll be at the town Arel's in, when we get there you two and May will need to quickly get established while I-"

"Holy shi-" May's cursing interrupts his plan when an armored creature jumps up from the ground in front of them. The left side of the hood hits the creature head on causing the vehicle to ricochet to the right heading right towards a hydralisk that gets in their way. The creature's bottom half gets caught as the car rams it into the tree behind it and upon impact its head to bust through the front window sending shards of glass all across the interior.

A mix of terrified screams and bestial screeches fill the vehicle as the zerg creature tries to snap at whatever moves. Isaac finds himself right next to its head and quickly unbuckles himself to narrowly avoid a fatal bite, but the fear that fills his body has quickly stopped him from moving any further.

This changed when amongst the chaos the familiar scream of his daughter reaches his ears causing him to turn his head to her direction and the sight before him shakes him to his core. The sight is of his own daughter cowering as far away from the hydralisk as she can with a horrified face, a face that he never wanted her to make ever again. His shock and fear quickly turns to rage at the image causing his body to finally start moving again causing him to grab his rifle by the barrel. In one swift adrenaline-fueled motion he slams the butt of the rifle into its eye dazing the creature, flips it around, unlocks the safety, and presses the muzzle right against its eye.

"Get down!" Everyone complies mere moments before he pulls the trigger. Crimson blood sprays against the roof as a section of the beast's head gets blown apart, and though it does not kill the creature, it squeals in tremendous pain as it tries to pull its head out. It gets no respite from the wrathful father as his rifle is already in its mouth and another shot rings out tearing through another section of its head. "Die damnit!" Shot after shot the bullets tear through the hydralisk earning more cries from the hydralisk before it succumbed to its injuries and collapsing on the hood with a hard thud. "Get us moving!" May immediately complied but when she tries starting the engine it only revved up before sputtering out.

"No no no not now." Her hazel green eyes and voice express worry as she keeps repeatedly turning the key with the same result until it completely dies out. She looks up and sees that one of the hydralisk's clawed hands was imbedded into the engine during the struggle. "You gotta be kidding me, I need to fix the engine."

"I'll clear the area, wait for my signal." She nods before he opens the door and immediately scans the area.

The first thing he sees are the two hybrids fighting off a small tide of zerg creatures comprising hydralisks, zerglings, and roaches, and from the looks of their sustained numbers from reinforcing zerg they're going to be too busy to help him. He continues his scan to see a roach scuttling towards him, the same one that derailed their car. He heard of these creatures before during their time on Agria, their spiky armor makes them miniature tanks and the large claws above their head staves off any close engagement. This is all ignoring their ranged acid attack which he heard can melt through durasteel with a direct hit. But the one disadvantage they have is that they are slow even when compared to the hydralisk.

He aims for its smaller and softer head between the armor plating, but before he can get a clean shot the roach lurches back and launches a bile of acid at him. His legs instinctively move his body to the right cleanly dodging the attack and already setting up his next shot upon landing. The roach tries to turn to get another shot off but by the time it got into position the reticle is already at its head and within that moment its head explodes into a red mist causing the body to slump lifelessly to the floor. After the engagement he continues to scan the area for any threats until he ended up on the driver's side of the vehicle.

"Clear!" He calls out with a knock on the door prompting the woman to come out of the car. He checks his rifle's magazine to find out that it has only four shots left including the one in the chamber.

"I'm going to need some help here." He looks back and sees that though May has already dislodged the claws from the engine she seems to have trouble pulling the head off the hood. He slings the rifle over the shoulder and runs towards his partner in aid.

"Alright, on three…" Despite his initial disgust he grabs hold of the mouth making sure to avoid the teeth while May keeps her hold on one of the mandibles. "One. Two. Three!" They begin to pull at the head with all their strength, but the corpse barely budges from its place and the two quickly tire out.

"Damn that's heavy."

"Come on, one more time." They take their stances again and ready themselves for the second attempt. "One. Two. Thre-!" Before they started again the head began to float startling the both of them.

When he starts seeing blue sparks arcing from the flesh he looks over to the car and sees that Ares is focusing his energy to move the corpse. He pulls his arm back and jolts it forwarded causing the head to slam against the tree and onto the floor completely solving the problem for them.

"Pop it." Not wasting any time with gawking at what just happened he orders May who quickly complies and lifts up the dented hood exposing the components underneath to their gaze. He watches as her eyes quickly dart around the engine until her eyes landed to where the hydra's claws were.

"We should count ourselves lucky, it only cut a major power line, that I can replace. Isabel, under your seat there's a spare power cord, can you grab it for me?" Within the vehicle he watches as the blonde searches beneath her.

"Spare power cord?"

"It's one of the first components to fizzle out, a lot of customers never bothered to keep a spare." He really is grateful that she and Maria have such a skillset.

"Here!" Isabel calls out as she's leaning out the side with a neat bundle of tied up cords before tossing it to May which she easily catches.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Just keep me safe, it'll take me a minute." He nods and takes out his rifle to begin scanning the area again.

But as if summoned by this action a small pack of zerglings emerges from the trees further down the trail and one of their members immediately notices them causing the rest to begin rushing towards them. He immediately goes prone, lines up his first shot, and pulls the trigger sending the leading member of the group tumbling to the ground. He leads his reticle to the new leading member of the group and shot again earning another kill, and like a machine his aim lands and kills the third creature almost instantaneously. The last zergling however begins to run in a zig-zag motion to avoid the same fate as its kin, but he keeps calm with his last shot and patiently waits for the right moment. Despite the zerg's best attempts to dodge his shot the moment it met his reticle for the third time it faltered for a split second triggering him to pull the trigger and unleash the last bullet. It immediately drops and tumbles to the ground landing only meters away from him.

He smirks as he takes in the sense of satisfaction that washes over him, it was something that he had not felt in a long time.

He gets up and was about to start reloading his weapon when he hears rustling to his right, and to his horror his sight catches a hydra's head emerging from the foliage and right behind May. With no time to reload he immediately runs towards May in a blind panic.

"May, behind you!" The woman heard his warning and quickly turns around to see her assailant already raising its scythe-like claws up.

Right before it struck, he had reached May and pushed her out of the way to take her place. He raises his rifle to shield himself from the attack, but the shear strength of his enemy immediately made him buckle and his rifle was sliced in two upon impact. Though he narrowly evaded the first strike the hydralisk quickly followed up with a devastating bite to his left shoulder. He yells out in agony as the large teeth quickly sink into his flesh and the immense pain beginning to spread all across his body.

"ISAAC!" The terrified voice of his partner calls out as he's lifted into the air which only adds even more pain as gravity continues to pull him down. He repeatedly strikes at the armored head with his remaining arm in a desperate attempt to free himself from the creature's hold. One of his strikes was able to hit the creature's eye causing it to jostle and fling him towards the car's side.

The impact has left the man dazed as he holds his now blood-drenched shoulder with the immense pain keeping him from getting up. The hydralisk meanwhile recovers from the hit and is already slithering up to him with a piercing glare and agitated hiss. He could only watch helplessly as the monster's shadow looms over him and its owner readying another strike to finish him off, and just as its head lurches forward for one last bite that's aimed for his neck he tightly closes his eyes and braced for the incoming pain.

But when the time came, he only hears the sound of metal slamming against an armored carapace along with the startled screech of the hydra. When he opens his eyes who he sees coming out of the car surprises him: Ares.

Seconds Earlier

He couldn't stand it, he couldn't stand the sight of the hydralisk biting into the man, and what makes it even more unbearable are the feelings he's sensing from Isabel. It was a maelstrom of fear, sadness and horror and her face who's red eyes are on the verge of tears shows this. This was exactly how he felt when the Protoss attacked the station, right before he lost Sira. He needs to do something and fast.

He searches for the locking mechanism for the door only to come upon a small latch right above the handle that he saw move before they set off form the house. He unlatches it and puts his hands and upper body up against the door.

"What are you doing?" Isabel askes in fear.

"Whatever I can." He firmly answers as his eyes track the hydralisk who is slithering towards the now laying Isaac in front of him. He continues to wait for the perfect opportunity to ambush the hydralisk, he's going to have only one opportunity to catch the creature off guard and kill it, and that isn't going to be easy as he is now.

It was when the creature was right on top of the man that he chooses to spring the trap, he pulls on the door handle and rapidly charges psionic energy into his hands, and in one fell swoop let out the energy along a wide area to propel it forward. It impacted the hydralisk hard enough to force it back mid-strike and greatly daze the creature giving Ares enough time to jump out of the car and confront the creature. He approaches the still stunned creature and jumps on the side of its head causing it to immediately swing around like an enraged bull to get him off. Despite this he was able to get on top, straddle himself near the front of the head, and hold on as hard as he can.

He avoids the clawed hands that it tries to use to dislodge him while charging up more psionic energy throughout his entire body. As if the zerg creature has sensed this it tries even harder to throw Ares off by thrashing its head around even more violently and even bucking it upwards and slamming to the ground to crush him but he holds on.

The moment he feels his power reach a critical point he lets it all out sending a wave of psionic energy throughout its entire body causing it to let out a blood curdling screech and freeze in absolute pain. It lowers to the ground to the point where it's arms are being used to support its own weight, but Ares begun to become weakened by this attack as his energy is quickly drained away causing the attack to weaken in intensity. This provides an opening for the hydralisk to get back up and make one last attempt to shake the young hybrid off and with one last swing of its head it finally throws him off slamming him against the car. The impact has left Ares disoriented with his vision now blurred and spinning around along with his entire body aching from his back to his limbs.

His vison was able to catch the hydralisk raising back up, but his body is refusing to stabilize in time to match. His sight darkens with shadow and by the time his vision fully returns he was staring up at the yellow glowing eyes of the towering creature, no doubt filled to the brim with malice from what he's done to it. It lunges forward with all its ferocity to deal the killing blow to the weakened boy, but a bright blue ball of energy tears right through its head and body leaving only a hole of charred flesh in its wake as the body falls to the ground.

"Are you alright brother?" He looks behind him to see the floating form of Janusar above the car levitating over him like a guardian angel.

"Y-yes, I am, but what abou-" He gazes over to see May and Isabel caring for a gravely injured Isaac. He rushes over to the group and inspects the man, but all he can see is the blood drenched shoulder being covered under his hand and layers of cloth and the exhausted look on his face.

"Show me his shoulder." He asks getting a confused and apprehensive look from the two. "Please I can help him." They were hesitant to comply with his request, but Isabel was the first to trust the hybrid and begins to gently remove her father's hand from the wound earning a small hiss of pain from him.

The sight of the injury stunned him, multiple puncture wounds that leak out blood line the shoulder on both sides and the entire area is soaked in red. It was a sight that he isn't used to, though he had seen blood before it only came out of something that was already dead, this time it's coming from a live person who is suffering. That cannot stop him, he's dying and he's the only one who can save him.

Making up his mind he reaches out and puts a hand onto the bloody shoulder letting himself get adjusted to the sudden sensation of the cold and sticky substance and begins to focus. He nearly forgets how to do it, but then he remembers of how he fixed the damaged bird on the day he ran away and the desire to fix it, he just needs to do the same here. He drowns out the rest of the world and only focuses on the desire to heal Isaac's wound. Small sparks of psionic energy skitter around the wound as the other two watch in awe of the display. One by one the wounds begin to close up and the blood seems to be wiped away by the energy leaving only the amount that already soaked into the clothes and within seconds the entire injury was sealed up seamlessly.

Isaac opens his eyes as he recovers only to quickly inspect his once injured shoulder once he realized what has happened.

"It…doesn't hurt anymore." Isaac says clearly shocked at the sensations he's now feeling while moving his shoulder. "Thank you." The boy only smiles at his gratitude, happy that he is finally on good terms with him since they first met. Isaac starts to get up after fully recovering from the shock earning the concern of the two humans.

"Whoa there, you shouldn't be doing that dear." May advises trying to keep him down.

"I'm fine May, really, it only aches a little now." He shows little struggle as he fully stands up and looks at the redhead. "Did you fix the engine?"

"That hydralisk interrupted me, I'll go work on it again." She heads back to the front and past Janusar to continue her work.

"Let's get you inside dad, I don't think that your fists are going to help in this fight." Isabel tries leading him into the car which he does not resist against.

"I still have my knife."

Suddenly a small pack of zerg consisting of a hydralisk, two roaches, and a half dozen zerglings appear right beside them and are making a beeline towards them but Janusar gets between the two groups. He summons a large psionic wave that disintegrates all the zerglings instantly and throws the remaining roaches and hydralisk back disorienting and weakening them. He swiftly disposes the survivors before they could get into range with an energy ball to each quickly turning them into corpses.

The entire group including Ares stood wide eyed at the display, he honestly wishes that he was as strong as him. They were jostled out of their shock when the car suddenly roared to life along with May slamming the hood down.

"I got it working, get in!" None of them hesitated on boarding the vehicle as they clamber in with Isaac climbing to the front passenger seat, being the last one in Ares slams the dented door shut.

As the car begins to move again, he spots a zergling though the window on Isabel's side charging right towards them, but before it could reach them one of Cronos' tendrils skewers the creature and lifts it out of view. He tracks the body and sees Cronos tearing apart all the zerg creatures that get close to him, decapitating even the likes of roaches and hydralisks with ease. On his side he sees that Janusar is keeping up with the vehicle despite his rather large size.

They soon escape the carnage leaving zerg-like hybrid behind to deal with the zerg on his own, but their numbers seem to never end causing him to worry for him.

"I'll catch up, you just run with Janusar while I distract them." Cronos advises while tearing apart a roach in two with his claws. Ares is still rather unsure as to whether or not they should all leave him behind.

"We may not be at our peak strength, but we are still more than a match for these lesser creatures, he'll survive." Ares just continues to watch as the carnage move further away the longer they continue, he just hopes that his brother is right.

Forty Minutes Later

"Please help us!" A colonist pleas as a group of panicking people run for their lives on the road from the zerg. Bullets and explosives fly as the defending troops face against the attacking beasts while letting the civilians through.

"Get the civvies through people, don't let a single freak get to them!" Hunk, now the leader of the defenders, shouts out while firing at a roach. His punisher grenades decimate the creature's armor and quickly finishes it off.

Meanwhile half a dozen marines fire their gauss rifle from the cover of makeshift barricades of metal beams and debris killing the zerglings before they can get close to the civilians. But despite their efforts they can't save everyone as a hydralisk from the very back of the group picks off a couple of civilians with its spines before they could get to safety.

"Someone take that thing out!" A marine yells causing the marauder to notice. The creature however is too far for his weapons to hit, he needs to get closer.

"I'm going out there, cover me!" He runs out of the barricade and starts rushing towards the ranged combatant.

"I got your back!" Tom quickly follows right behind him as the people run past them with a couple more falling to the hydralisk's spines.

Once they've gotten close enough to the creature it switched its attention to them and began to fire upon Hunk but his heavy armor prevents him from going down as easily as the rest. They charge full speed at the monster and the marauder was able to endure the damage long enough to tackle its lower half which confuses the creature.

"Light it up!" Without hesitation his companion begins to hail the hydra with bullets further staggering the monster as it screeches in pain. Within seconds it succumbs to the fire and collapses on top of the marauder.

With the help of his marine ally Hunk was able to push the corpse off him and stand right back up to a now silent battlefield.

"Man, I would kill for a medic right about now." He inspects himself and sees the various spines that have penetrated his armor, luckily none of them have hit any vital areas, but it stings in some areas. "Let's head back and see how the evacuation's going." As they began to return to their group the faint humming of an engine rang out behind him.

"We have stragglers!" A marine calls out and they both turn to see a speeding vehicle heading right towards them.

What shocks him even more is what's following it: it's some sort of large creature tailing it at nearly the same speed as the creature. The mostly blueish creature seems to have a face like a protoss except with a large frill and a couple of bright tendrils coming out of its back.

"What the hell is that thing" Never in his life has he seen such a strange and ugly looking creature before.

"Should we kill it?" Tom asks, but soon after a zergling leaps through the trees towards the car in an attempt to reach its occupants but the larger creature catches it in midair by the neck with one of its light tendrils and swiftly snaps it before throwing it aside like trash.

"I don't know but we should all make way for them now!" Seeing that the vehicle isn't slowing down they quickly get out of its way to the left side of the trail. They watch as both the car and the unknown being fly past them in a maroonish and blue blur and soon the barricade.

He and his marine ally quickly run towards the town entrance to investigate their new guests. When he finally reaches the barricades he sees that the car is heavily damaged with large dents on the doors and even a gaping hole of shattered glass on the front windshield. Soon people started to come out of the vehicle comprising of a man with black scruffy hair, a younger woman with red hair in a ponytail, a young boy with black hair, and a young girl with tied up dirt blonde hair. From the looks of them they have been through hell which matches their vehicle's condition as they seem to be traumatized, especially the girl. As for the creature it's just floating next to them and is rather close to the boy, almost like it's protective of him. Deciding to try to ease their minds he approaches the family to greet them.

"Welcome everyone to Larks' Crossing, I'm Hunk, leader of the town's defenders." He greets, trying his best to ignore the being who is currently glairing at him. Though the rest of the family seem to be hesitant to respond at first the man of the group eventually stepped up.

"Hello, I'm Isaac Kalalski, this is my wife May, our daughter Isabel, and her friend Ares." The man introduces all but the creature to him.

"Good to know you all, but what is this…thing you have there?" He glances to the weird being hoping that he would answer.

"None of your concern terran." A raspy voice filled his ears startling the solider. Deciding that prying into this creature isn't a good idea he continues with getting the people acquainted.

"Alright then, over there are all the civvies from the other settlements are gather for evacuation…" He points towards a small series of houses and tents but since you're some of the last ones that got here you might be the last ones out. "He quickly notices their faces turn into ones of worry and fear upon hearing these words which causes him to try to find something else to say to calm them down. "But I'm sure you'll make it out with the rest, Ariel is making sure that everyone gets out of here." This does little to calm the group down, so he decides to continue on with the instructions. "There will be a hub right over there where you will get assigned a transport that will take you to the main starport." He gestures towards a small dome-like structure where a small crowd of the recent arrivals are gathered in front of a man he knows as Thyme who is handing out small not pads to specific members of each group. "I suggest you go check out now before any more people arrive." They all look at each other before the father speaks.

"Thank you sir, we'll be on our way then." He begins to lead the group towards the crowd which concludes Hunk's time with them and he turns back to rejoin his squad. However, if he were a few seconds too late he would've caught the boy being held back by the creature to the surprise of the rest of the group.

"What are you doing?" Ares asks in shock.

"I am taking custody from here." Janusar answers.

"Didn't you say you would trust us with his safety?" Isabel asks clearly annoyed at the hybrid's action.

"Until we have reached relative safety, after that I take to the defense of Ares, I do not believe you'll be able to defend him against the Zerg." This causes the blonde to step towards the creature but Isaac stops her by gripping her shoulder.

"We don't have much of a say in the matter Isabel, if that is his choice then we can't force him." Isaac advises.

"But what about Ares' choice?"

"When his safety is on the line all the decisions comes down to me terran, remember that." His brother's condescending tone sends a ting of irritation through his body, there he goes again with controlling him, always thinking about what he wants instead of what the boy wants in the slightest and taking him away yet again. He looks at Isabel and locks eyes with her disappointed face, just as he was going to make a new friend. "We will leave when we can find a way off this planet." He can only watch as his larger sibling escorts him to what looks like a small abandoned house at the edge of the town and away from the only friend he could ever make.

Well this one took a bit to make, but it was definitely worth it.

"You know what I've just noticed?"

Wah! Where did you come from?!

"Through the garage."

Okay -_-. What were you going to say?

"Well I've just noticed that your longest chapters involves a lot of fighting."

That's what makes it worth it, now lets head to the trivia of the day:

"Average Cost: $6000
When you bought your new hybrid, the last thing you were thinking about was having to shovel out for a new hybrid battery replacement in 10-15 years. But this is what it will cost you to continue to work toward a cleaner environment. Please have your battery properly disposed of, which will also cost you." ( carbrain . com)

Good thing I don't own one, I rather not gut my wallet. With all of this taken care of I hope that you have a great day or night wherever you may be.

"And take care out there peeps!" ^^