"So... Since you're not really talkative and all I'll just make up a name for you. How about Dave or David? No, no, no. Those won't do. Let's see..." Miana continued on from A-Z and then doubled back.
The predator sighed in annoyance. He leaned against the stone wondering why he brought her again only to be reminded of how she helped him. Twice. Without reason or cause to do so.
Suddenly, the human female began to tug roughly on his arm, like a pup. Realization dawned at him at the thought that she just might be a simple human child. Why they would have brought her out here to a place of extreme cold, not only for his species but for hers as well, baffled him.
He had no idea of her age, where her parents were, or if he or one of his brothers had been responsible for killing them… By honor, they'd have to equally share the blame and protect the child for orphaning her.
The predator turned to look down the hallway, a sudden horror filling him. How would they be able to take care of such a child?
A weak punch to his arm had him looking down. She waved her arms about, shouting something in her language to get his attention. He cocked his head as he studied her. She seemed to be scolding him.
The more he observed her, the more he shook off the silly idea of her being a child. If humans and Yautja were anything alike then children would be much smaller than her and would have more developing fats around their arms and legs. Plus, with the way she spoke, her vocabulary seemed to be expansive. He couldn't understand her, but her sentences were full and complex versus the simple, shortened sentences he expected of a child.
Finally, her ranting ended and he focused on her scowling face. It took her a moment to breath before she began to speak once more.
"How about Celtic! Your warrior-like and maybe all about nature things! That's perfect! Can I call you Celtic?" He simply nodded, recognizing the familiar high pitch cue of a question.
Grinning big and wide, Miana went back to playing with different things in her bag.
A few minutes later, the silence shattered. A low hiss filled the air followed with several more echoing behind it. Claws scraped against the stone as the black shadows crept down to the floor as one solid mass.
Miana jumped up immediately in fright. Celtic moved to be in front, his stance relaxed, but tense as he pulled out his spear. He crouched low and stalked forward in careful preparation.
As soon as he was in perfect striking range, he extended his blades. Miana watched - really stood back and observed for the first time as her companion fought. She pressed against the wall and moved towards the corner with her bag, where she pulled out her blades. From foot to foot, she hopped in dreadful anxiousness for one of them to slip past the beast that blocked their way.
Celtic moved only from side to side in the narrow space, to make sure the human stayed behind him. He dodged as one tail whizzed by his head. The tail hit the wall and stone flew about, clouding the air momentarily with debris.
The predator continued to move and brought himself under the creature as it reared. Silver blades cut up through the air to slice at the creature's throat.
The black mass just kept coming and coming with no end.
Suddenly, there was a shout, a roar, and blue balls of light began to cut through the herd. Another predator came charging forward with a small figure tailing him.
"Miana!"
"Lex!"
Both women embraced each other tightly as the aliens retreated. Tears fell down Miana's face in joy at seeing her friend safe and mainly unharmed.
The predators began to talk behind them and do their own thing, but neither one of the women paid them any mind. The humans talked about what had happened after they had gotten separated.
"So it's just us and the two hulks we have?"
Lex nodded, "I'm not really sure if they're going to keep us around if they are together now. It seems like they're fixing their stuff before moving forward. We need to figure out a plan ourselves. No need in just relying on them the whole time."
"Agreed. I got a few knives left and my blades but that's about it. You got any idea on how to get out? It's not like they have a map that they'd be willing to hand over."
Lex nodded and paced about, thinking about all the possibilities and their options. It seemed almost hopeless. Their options mostly relied on the predators.
"Lex... I don't think we have any other choice here but to trust them. Celtic has been-"
"Celtic?" Lex looked over to her friend.
She named him?!
"Yeah. He needed a name and I asked, even though he doesn't speak English, and he said okay!" Miana waved her arms about in a childish manner.
"Okay..."
"Anyway, he is pretty cool. We've been working somewhat as a team though he does most of the killing... But I'm sure he doesn't mind that too much." Miana shrugged innocently.
"Unless, of course, we're just the bait to draw the creatures into the slaughterhouse."
"You're always so pessimistic. I'm supposed to be pessimistic one but since you're being pessimistic, I have no choice but to be optimistic. It's throwing my whole game off woman!"
Lex laughed lightly at Miana's behavior. Her friend never really changed in the few years they had known each other. The smaller woman had never been able to remain calm and serious in any situation they found themselves in.
A loud click drew their attention from their conversation. Both predators were down the hallway and waiting on them to catch up, with obvious impatience. Quickly, they grabbed their stuff and jogged up behind the two.
It was, perhaps, half an hour later when they came across Sebastian. Stuck to a wall, helpless and soon to be dead. Lex was desperate to keep him alive but in the end, she shot him between the eyes. Quickly, both women left the room mourning.
"Sebastian..." Miana stood just behind Lex as they waited for their companions. "I'm sorry, Lex."
"No. It's fine. I had hoped he'd be alive, but… At least you're okay. Let's try and get you home alright?" Miana nodded eagerly.
Scar set the bomb after explaining what he was doing with a few small hand monitions.
"I hope it gets every one of those bastards."
Miana hovered by Celtic who stood by the doorway, waiting for the other two to head out.
Next thing they knew, they were fighting off more creatures before flying through the air and were back above ground. The cold air hit them hard but not as hard as the snow that laid like concrete on the ground.
Finally, on the surface, Miana let out a whoop of triumph that cut short by the ground falling beneath her.
Lex let out a cry of alarm as she reached for her friend's hand. And missed.
Miana tried grabbing onto the snow but that only fell away under her grip. She made the horrid mistake of looking down into a dark and icy pit. Fear filled her veins in the most frigid of ways and right when she thought she'd fall, a warm, large hand grasped her wrist and hauled her to her feet.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, Celtic tugged her forward into a sprint as they raced against the crumbling ground behind them.
Once they stopped a good yard away from the newfound cliff's edge, the women collapsed. A series of clicking and trills erupted from the aliens.
"They're laughing at us. Just FYI."
"What?! Why? I'm tired and I ain't born for this shit!" Lex grabbed Miana and hauled her to her feet to stand before their comrades. It was useless to simply lay there when more things had to be done. Like parting ways and heading back to the ship.
At first, silence fell over the group. Miana shuffled her feet and looked past them to avoid eye contact but Lex waited patiently. She looked straight at Scar. Waiting. Expecting for anything to happen. For something to happen. A nod of the head or even if he simply turned around and walked away to disappear in the snow would have been expected. Anything other than him and her just staring at each other.
Reaching up, Scar began to undo his mask. His brother next him clicked questioningly before following his lead. With the masks off, the frigid temperature hit their faces like a slap in the face. Then, without warning, Scar roared loudly in Lex's face.
No one moved. Both predators waited for a reaction from the humans. What they got was not what they were expecting.
Both Lex and Miana blinked, one masked by indifference, while the other masked with a confusion that grew into anger.
"Listen, I get you're not from Earth-" Lex groaned loudly and kept her hand firmly placed over her companion's mouth.
Miana wanted to turn her anger over to the older woman, but she kept her lips sealed shut and stared angrily ahead.
Silence fell over them once again.
Celtic wanted to know what just happened but he decided to ask later. For now, he wanted to know what his brother was up to.
Scar reached to his belt and tugged a bony finger off. Tilting his head, he motioned to the finger with a slight nod of his head.
Lex's eyes curiously looked at the mark on his mask before looking towards the finger. Without so much as a sound, she turned her face and allowed the acid to cut into her cheek. Miana made a small face at the smell but otherwise was silent.
Celtic clicked again and Scar answered with his own. After their brief and mysterious conversation, Miana was convinced it had something to do with her and the mark. After all, Scar kept pointing to Celtic's finger collection and back to Miana and repeating that several times.
Finally Celtic let out what seemed to be an annoyed huff before he grabbed a finger from his own belt. Then he held it out to Miana in a questioning-like manner.
"Uh... Lex?"
"Yes?" Lex dragged her words out, hoping her friend wasn't about to bale on something that seemed quite important in their culture.
"I can't have it on my cheek. Like I don't mind this whole rite of passage thingy going on but my aunt will kill me... She doesn't even like me."
It was true. Miana's old school and strict aunt would have a fit about the whole mark thing. It took the two of them along with Weyland industries quite some time to have her agree to the whole thing. Well, maybe it was the few thousand dollars that did the trick...
"Ask to have it somewhere else then."
"Like where? My butt?"
Lex sighed again. Miana pointed to her cheek and made a 'no' motion and then pointed to her forehead and did the same. With a little help from Scar, Celtic understood what the dilemma was. Though they didn't get the whole thing of why she couldn't have it on her face so they opted for the front of her shoulder instead. It burned and took great effort not to pull back from the pain. Once done, the pain slowly began to ebb away.
"Well Lex, what should we do now?"
"We need to head home. I'm pretty sure they have their own-"
Miana almost toppled over as the ground shook. Panic settled in as a black mass arose from the icy ground. The predators quickly began to throw out any weapons they had. It did damage but not enough. Scar flew through the air from the Queen's lashing tail. Next, Celtic was pinned to the ground by it. His spear flew from his hands and landed by Miana. Lex moved to help Scar so she was on her own.
Picking it up, she found it surprisingly light. She searched for the button or switch that extended the blades as she had seen Celtic do several times. Once they extended, making her jump and almost lose her grip on the weapon, she cautiously made her way forward.
She had a sensei back in her home town. He had moved from Japan and had been living in America for twenty years when they met. A strict, but kind older gentleman who had never once complained when she would hide in his dojo to do homework. He had always helped her out in her time of need and she spent many days hanging around his dojo where he taught, mostly kids, martial arts.
Nothing he had ever taught her nor ever teach her would prepare her to fight a pissed off alien. Not even all the times she spent waxing the floors or the times he purposely would dirty the swords to have her polish them again. Not even Lex and hers' alien comrades seemed prepared for this.
So she winged it. Miana ran forward, ducking from the inner mouth and claws, to get right under her belly. Lifting the spear up, it took everything she had as she punctured through the skin and pulled the spear in an arc towards the ground. Miana cursed loudly as the acid rained down on her back.
Forgot about that little detail.
With the spear free, she tried to move away but the pain slowed her. The Queen, now forgetting the killers of her children, focused solely on the injured human. A shriek filled the air as she charged towards Miana.
However, she came to a stop in the middle of her anger when a sharp blade hit her. Scar returned to the fight and Lex had moved towards Miana's side.
"That was stupid, wasn't it?"
"Immensely so." Lex pushed Miana out of the way and ducked as the tail lashed at her.
Miana rolled on the snow and down a hill towards an abandoned house. Scar re-held the Queen's attention, allowing Lex to get her under the jaw when she brought her head down to strike.
Celtic moved next to them and continued to throw blade after blade. Lex eventual crashed through the snow after a hard hit and Scar followed suit. Celtic held off her tail for a little longer before he too flew back. They recovered quickly and went back into the fight.
Scar pushed Lex towards Miana who still lied on the snow. Unmoving.
Celtic managed to throw the queen off balance and into a burning warehouse. Scar followed up behind him to regroup with the other two. When they arrived, they saw that the acid had burned badly through Miana's skin, a bit of spine peeking out. Celtic took some of his medicine that he had leftover and applied it to the wound.
While doing so, the Queen recovered faster than they had hoped. Lex caught sight of the monstrosity before anyone else. Grabbing her fallen makeshift spear, Lex struck again at the alien's lower jaw.
Beyond pissed, the Queen rose back up from the blow and quickly followed Lex as she ran through old whale bones. All in an attempt to buy Celtic time to heal Miana's wound. She barely missed the deadly jaws as she hid under the old water tower, feet slipping on ice and snow. The Queen repeatedly bashed against the old wood and too soon it began to give way to her fierce rage.
Her tail continuously tried to get her through the gaps but to no avail as the human ducked and dodged. Finally, her inner jaw went to puncture her skull but drew up short.
Then, Scar rushed forward and in a way that seemed impossible, drove his spear into her skull. It was enough to push her away and get Lex out of her rabbit hole.
As the two faced off, Lex noticed the chain. Then, she remembered the falling water tower that creaked just behind her. It all clicked in her brain. The broken chain would work perfectly to attach the old broad to the water tower and send her into the watery abyss.
If only the chain was long enough and Lex was strong enough. Out of everything, she wished she could have been, she wished she'd been fast enough to stop the Queen from piercing her tail straight into Scar's chest.
.
.
.
I suck at fight scenes but I'm still working on that. Hopefully better fight scenes in the future.
07/22/19: News flash: I still suck, but I tried to get rid of as many errors as I could and passive voice.