Here is the next chapter. I do not own Predator. I hope you all enjoy. Let me know in the reviews what you all think.
They had stepped off of the ship and Kenzie looked around. They were in London. She recognized Big Ben, or well the remnants of what use to be. Like her mate and his clan brothers she was dressed in her armor. As well as the netting they wore.
Boo, had modifications done to the watch he had given her so it now, did everything her mate's wrist computer did, expect it didn't take up her entire arm the way a wrist computer would have. The only thing she didn't have was a mask, but she was fine with that. She wasn't big on having things on her face and since she had never been able to wear sunglasses for more than a few minutes she knew the mask would be no different.
They were all cloaked, but because she didn't have a mask she could only see the shimmering outline. Which was why she found herself holding on to a piece of Xile's loincloth so she wouldn't get separated from him.
Before the hatch had opened, Viper had informed her that she would be going with one of his clan brothers. She wanted to protest and tell him she wasn't going to leave his side, but she knew why he was doing it. If they were together they would be too worried about the other and unfocused. Separate though, they would fight hard to make it back to each other. She also had to remember that he wouldn't do anything to put her in danger. He trusted her clan brothers with her life and she needed to do the same.
Though she had done most of her actual physical training with Ma'iss. She decided she wanted to stick close to Xile. He had actually been the one to do the actual training. Give the lessons, correct her when she was wrong. Ma'iss had simply served as an opponent that wasn't afraid to knock her around.
They split up once everyone got the part of the city they were supposed to take. Their wrist computers were picking up two dozen Glass Mouth's. It was less than what she had faced in the ruins, but she knew it would be no walk in the park. Especially, since using her guns were to be a last resort.
Xile had told her that loud noises would draw more to them. So, she was stuck with using her machete and one of her mk24 handguns since she had only brought one silencer.
Kenzie followed Xile as he made his way through the streets. She was careful to step over anything that would give them away. They were headed to what looked to be some flats. By the direction of their wrist computer, there should have been at least two Glass Mouths in there. She took calming breaths as she had any other time she, her grandfather and brother were going to be anywhere near those things.
At that her heart became a bit heavy. She wished they were here with her, but she wouldn't dwell on it. If all went according to plan they would be back on the ship and on their way back to the home ship by night fall. At least she hopped. It was the wee hours of the morning and she could see the sun trying to peak over the horizon. Though admittedly, she didn't know exactly how long it would take.
Xile came to a stand still and Kenzie immediately did the same. She held her breath, listening, however, she didn't hear anything. Suddenly, she was picked up. She held in her squeak of surprise as Xile shifted her to his back. She held on as he jumped to a fire escape ladder above them. He climbed until they made it to the roof. He let her down and led the way inside the flats through the door there.
Descending the stairs quietly, they made it to the top set of apartments and waited. Again Kenzie listened, but she didn't hear anything. They continued down. Stopping to listen at each floor.
When they made it to the third floor from the bottom, again they listened and again, she didn't hear anything. She waited on Xile to continue and when he didn't, she immediately knew something was wrong. She couldn't see him so she didn't know what he was doing.
She felt his hand on her chest, pushing her to the ground, her fingers slipping from his loincloth a split second before a tail pierced through the wall.
Viper used his arms to block the Hard Meat's tail as it brought it down towards him. Kicking it backwards, he released his wrist blades before charging at it. With quick fluid motions, but also making sure that none of the blood got on him, he sliced through his opponent. When it hit the floor, Viper stepped on the creatures neck before pulling his head off with his bare hands.
Throwing it to the side, Viper brought up the map on his wrist computer. According to it their were supposed to be three in the structure he was in. He had already dealt with two.
Before he had even been able to walk inside one had attacked him outside. He'd seen it coming, however, and had quickly thrown his disk taking it's head off. When he did make it inside, he had only gone a small ways before the second one, which was now laying at his feet headless, attacked.
He knew that there was another one close by. He was no longer cloaked for the simple fact that they could sense him and their were no oomans in the area. Making his way through the structure, Viper kept alert. His mind briefly wondered to Kenzie, but then he was focused yet again.
His little mate was skilled and there was no reason for him to worry. She would be fine. Xile would not let anything happen to her.
Viper heard a noise coming from his left. When he looked in that direction he saw that their were stairs leading down. He took them.
It was dark and he switched the view on his mask. Just as he did, he felt the sting of a Hard Meat's tail piercing his shoulder. Viper let out a roar in anger, grabbing on to the tail. Swinging the creature he slammed it into one wall and then another before finally slamming it into the ground.
The creature kicked him and Viper felt himself flying backwards into the staircase. Getting to his feet he pulled out his ki'cti-pa. Extending it and throwing at the creature as it jumped at him, sending it flying backwards to be pierced to the wall. He didn't give it time to struggle, or break free as he walked up to it and decapitated it with his wrist blade.
Surveying the room, he found nothing of interest. Grabbing the head from the floor, he headed back up the stairs to where he'd left the other two. After getting them. Viper sat at the back of the structure where he could see all entry points and cleaned them.
It wasn't as if he actually needed them. He had more than his share of their skulls. However, he figured that it wouldn't hurt to take a few from this hunt as well.
Once he finished cleaning all three skulls, he secured them and brought up his wrist computer. He had already technically killed the ones he was responsible for. However, he didn't see the harm in finding and eliminating a few more.
H'bu looked on as the sanitation crew cleaned up the dead insect bodies. He was sure their were thousands of them. The gas had run for hours, just to be sure that they didn't miss any. They had fallen from the ventilation systems and showers. Any part of the ship with an opening had Kr'toh in them. That had been hours ago and they were still cleaning them up.
They had gone through the ship thoroughly and as he had suspected the pesky things had eaten through some of the ships equipment. Luckily, it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed with a few hours of work. If it had of been more severe, he wasn't sure what he would have done.
He was headed to S'vyn's lab. He knew that the ooman male would be there and he needed to speak to them both. Walking inside, he found them cleaning up Kr'toh. S'vyn bowed his head in acknowledgment and respect briefly. H'bu watched as the ooman male mimicked him.
"Am I to assume that you are here to stop my research?" S'vyn questioned solemnly.
Honestly, he should have been. However, he was able to get the council to see that what the male was doing was fundamental research and would help them to understand the different planets and their inhabitants.
"No." H'bu stated shaking his head. Causing his dreads to move back and forth. "I am here with restrictions." He then turned to the ooman. "You are not to touch anything that has the potential of destroying anything on the ship. If S'vyn says it's too dangerous for you to touch, then I advise you listen to him. We will not have a repeat of what happened."
He watched as the male contemplated what he'd just said, as if he was going to try to propose other conditions as if what H'bu had just said was a choice. It was not.
"This is not a choice. You will listen to him, or you will be back in your quarters conducting research with a limited supply of specimen." He told him, referring to the things he had collected when his pup was bringing them to the ship.
"Very well." The ooman finally answered.
"One indiscretion and you go back to your quarters." H'bu stated pointing to the ooman. "And you go back to the home planet." He then told S'vyn.
He knew that other than death that was the harshest punishment he could give the man. It actually would have been like death to him. S'vyn enjoyed being in space. It allowed him to study samples from all over. Each yautja coming back from a hunt usually had something for him. Where on the home planet he was stuck with smaller research opportunities due to all of the scientist that resided there. H'bu nodded before exiting the lab and making his way to his quarters.
The halls still housed the smell of the gas, but it was slowly being ventilated out now that all the Kr'toh had been removed from the ducts. It would only take about an hour before the smell was completely gone. It had dissipated form the meeting room, so he was sure the quarters had been done as well and the last were the halls.
Walking into his quarters he found Sonja in his kitchen cutting up some meat he had smoked the day before. He had decided that she and Jay would reside in his quarters tonight, until he knew for sure that theirs had been thoroughly cleaned.
"Grandpa." Jay called him as she walked towards him from the back of his quarters. "Are all of the bugs dead?"
"Sei-i and they are being cleaned up."
He watched the young girl sit down on the couch. "Good. Mom's making dinner. I think she's almost done, but while we wait will you tell me a story?"
H'bu nodded and went over to sit beside the child. He had begun telling her stories of his hunts, watering them down for her, and other past events when she and her mother had arrived on the ship and C'bra had declared the ooman his mate. He had wanted them both to be comfortable around him.
He watched as her eyes lit up in fascination as tonight he told her the story of him besting S'kta when the other male had challenged him in front of their other siblings. She was far in tuned to hearing the story as he was in telling it, that they both missed when Sonja called them to eat.
Kenzie rolled out of the way of the tail that was coming down towards her. It got stuck in the ground as she pushed herself to her feet. Taking advantage, she retrieved her machete from her sheath. She was charging the Glass Mouth, when he was able to free his tail and swing it at her. It slashed across her midsection and if it wasn't for her armor, she knew she would have a nasty gash at the moment. She made a mental note to thank Viper.
Wielding the machete, she was able to cut off one of the things arms. It screeched in pain, sending it's inner mouth through her left shoulder causing her to scream before it swung it's tail at her again. This time, it smacked her in the stomach sending her flying backwards. She fell into some boxes. Grateful for the somewhat cushion, yet it still hurt like hell.
She saw the tail coming towards her again. Kenzie lifted her machete to help block it as she turned her head to the side and because of the force it was coming down with, it was sliced off. A part of it fell behind her head and the Glass Mouth jerked the other part back towards itself screeching. Kenzie herself let out a scream of pain.
Some of the acidic blood had dripped down onto her neck. Taking the sleeve of her shirt, Kenzie wiped it off quickly. She then ripped the end of the sleeve off before throwing it to the floor and watching the blood eat up the fabric.
It was coming back at her and she could tell that it was mad. However, she couldn't risk it getting close to her and it's blood burning her again.
Lifting her machete above her head, Kenzie threw it with all of her might, yelling out in pain as she felt her shoulder pop. She watched as it soared through the air before piercing the Glass Mouth and sending it backwards.
Taking out her silenced gun with her left hand, Kenzie made her way to it and put three in the basw of it's skull. She put the gun away and surveyed her surroundings.
She had gotten separated from Xile when he had pushed her down and charged through the wall of the apartment beginning to fight the Glass Mouth. She had looked in through the yautja sized hole to see them fall out of the other side of the building.
On her way to find him, she had run into the second one that was supposed to be in that apartment building. When she dispatched with that one. Thankfully, a bit easier and quicker than she had with this, she had gone to look for him.
When she didn't find him, she had figured he had gone to the next building their computers had picked up a Glass Mouth, which was the one she had just disposed of.
Once she was sure that nothing was going to sneak up on her, she took her right arm and placed it between her legs, holding it tightly. She knew she had dislocated her shoulder throwing her machete. It wasn't the first time it had happened, so it wouldn't be the first time she was resetting it.
Closing her eyes tightly, she used her other hand to push her shoulder quickly back in place, letting out a painful groan. Kenzie then reached up and felt where the blood had dropped on her. She had a pinky sized indent in her neck and it hurt like a bitch.
Reaching into the small pack on her shoulder, Kenzie pulled out some numbing salve. It wouldn't heal her, but it would instantly get rid of the pain. Taking some, she applied it to her neck and both her shoulders.
Retrieving her machete from the Glass Mouth, she flung the blood off of it and placed it back in her sheath. She pulled up her wrist computer to try to figure out where Xile was as she headed to the door. She stopped when she heard foot steps.
Kenzie quickly re-cloaked herself and back into the wall standing completely still. It didn't take long for a man to come into view. He was probably in his thirties and he carried a machine gun. She momentarily thought about revealing herself to him, but remembered what Viper said. So, instead, she just watched him.
"Cydney you little bitch where are you?! Where did you run off too?" She listened to the man question angrily before shooting randomly into the wall in front of him. "What I do to you when I find you will be worse than anything I've done so far!"
She made sure not to make any type of noise at his outburst and remain completely quiet. She was glad now that she hadn't revealed herself to him. Whoever Cydney was, she could understand why they ran away from him or was hiding from him. She was pretty sure the man wasn't stable and she didn't think the Glass Mouth's had made him that way.
Kenzie stayed in that same spot for several minutes until he left and then waited several more minutes until she thought he was no longer close by.
She made her way out of the building and down an alleyway, headed to the next section that was supposed to house Glass Mouths. She was careful to be quiet and stay alert as she went. Her alertness was how she knew that someone was following her and she knew it wasn't one of the aliens.
She didn't turn to see who it was. Instead she determined their distance and swung her leg around, kicking them in the side. She could heard a small crack and a hiss of pain. A moment later, Xile uncloaked himself.
"Nice hip rotation." He stated and Kenzie snorted at him before uncloaking herself as well. "You are not injured are you?"
"Not deathly, no."
"You are bleeding." He stated reaching up to touch her shoulder.
She touched his arm fingering the green blood. "So are you, Brother." She responded.
At that moment, they received a call from Ma'iss telling them to meet him. He had found something. He sent them his coordinates. Kenzie grabbed on to Xile's loincloth as they re-cloaked and he led the way.
Viper made his way to his clan brother's location. When he arrived Ma'iss was standing outside of a building along with C'bra, Rou'e and Ca'tor. For a moment he began to worry, but quickly snuffed it out. He knew that his mate and Xile had taken a section further away and it would take them a moment to get there.
Just as he thought that, they rounded a corner headed their way. He quickly looked over his little mate. She had blood on her shoulder and a few other injuries, but she seemed fine. Because she did not have a mask, he knew she couldn't see him.
Ma'iss clicked his mandibles, drawing everyone's attention and Viper and the others followed him in. Once inside, they all uncloaked and he felt his little mate instantly come to his side. She inspected him. Taking in all of his wounds. In addition to the injury the Hard Meat had caused on his shoulder, he had another long gash across his stomach and one across his leg. There were even two bullet holes in his other leg from an ooman male.
Viper had just finished killing a Kainde Amehde and the male had stumbled across him. He had contemplated at first just knocking him out. He was no stranger to hunting human's even though his mate was one and his bearer had been one. He had just kept his hunts of human's to their bad bloods. However, when the male began to shoot at him, he dispatched of his quickly. He figured he wouldn't tell his little mate about that though.
He could see in her eyes, that she was worried about him and Viper gave a quick short purr to let her know he was fine, before running the knuckle of one of his fingers down her cheek.
"This way." Ma'iss stated after a moment.
Viper followed behind his clan brother as he led the way into a large open area. What he saw upon them entering were face hugger eggs. Doing a quick calculation he found that twenty seven of them had opened, but there were another three dozen that had not. He walked over to them and scanned them with his mask.
"They are in stasis." He stated after a moment.
"Yes." Ma'iss stated. "It seems that they are all set to open a different times."
Viper nodded his head in agreement as his eyes swung to Kenzie, who was walking towards the other side of the room. Throwing her hand back, she waved it at them.
"Do you hear that?" She questioned.
Viper listened in and he did indeed hear something. He couldn't be positive, but it sounded like an ooman whimpering.
"There is an ooman child on the other side of that door." Ma'iss informed them. "I saw it the first time I came in. It was making that annoying noise then too."
Viper watched as Kenzie turned back around and glared at Ma'iss. Even though they had been training together for almost an ooman week, his little mate was still no fan of his clan brother.
He watched as she cloaked before heading through the door. Doing the same, Viper followed after her. His clan brothers a mere step behind him. Now cloaked as well. There, down at the end of the hallway, Viper saw a small ooman child, curled in the corner clutching something in it's hands.
His mate had stepped off to the side, into a different hallway and uncloaked. So Viper and his brothers did the same. He watched as she peeked around the corner to look at the child.
"We do not have time for this." Ma'iss stated. "Some of the other eggs will open within the next few minutes."
"Shut up." Kenzie threw back at him. "We aren't leaving them here. Isn't it against some sort of code of honor you have? We're about to destroy her home. Well, part of it. Doesn't that mean you have to take her with you since you technically found her?" Kenzie questioned Ma'iss.
Viper heard Ca'tor and Rou'e thrill lightly with amusement. His little mate was right. They could not just leave the child and the yautja that came across it first was responsible for it. At least until he found someone else to take it.
Ma'iss huffed. "Then I will go get them."
"No." Kenzie stated placing her hand up to stop him. "I'll go get them. You all re-cloak"
Viper watched as his little mate took a breath before stepping around the corner and heading down the hallway slowly towards the child. Cloaked as she had told them to do, he and the others followed down the hall behind her.
Kenzie walked down the hall. Slowly, approaching the child. She knew that the others were walking just a few feet behind her. As she got closer to the child, she realized it was a little girl. She was no more than about five or six and clutched in her hands was a dingy teddy bear.
The little girl's head snapped up when Kenzie was closer to her and she tried to push herself back into the wall further.
Holding her hands up in surrender and placing a smile on her face, Kenzie continued her slow advancement. When she was a few feet from the girl, she squatted down, bringing them more to eye level. The child let out a whimper and Kenzie looked her over.
She had cuts and bruises on her little arms and legs as well as what looked like cigarette burns. Her sandy brown curls were matted together in places and dirt and grime adorned her brown sugar skin.
"Hi." Kenzie stated softly. The little girl didn't say anything to her. Just stared with those big frightened eyes.
Kenzie glanced over her shoulder very quickly just to be sure that they were still cloaked and weren't the reason for the young girls fear. When she didn't see them, she turned back to face the child. Though her fear could have stemmed from the fact that Glass Mouths had been running a muck in her city for several days. Kenzie was honestly surprised the little girl had lasted on her own.
"That's a nice bear." Kenzie sated trying again. "I used to have one just like it when I was your age. What's his name?" She questioned sitting down, Indian style in front of her.
It took a while and Kenzie hadn't thought she'd answer her, but the little girl finally whispered. "BoBo Bear."
"No way." Kenzie exclaimed softly. "That was my bear's name too."
This drew a smile from the little girl and she relaxed against the wall a bit. Released the tight grip she had initially had on the bear.
"My name is Kenzie. What's your name?"
She watched as the little girl chewed her bottom lip before finally answering, "Cydney."
Kenzie paused for a minute. Remembering the unstable mad that she'd seen had called out for a Cydney. At first she had assumed it was a woman, but now she realized that it was this child. His words then came back to her as she again looked the child over and she became angry that he had hurt her in such a way. She didn't get to dwell on it long before she heard a voice.
"Who are you?"
Standing up quickly, Kenzie spun around to face whoever it was. Coming face to face with the man she had seen before. She heard Cydney whimper behind her as she cautiously looked the man over. He'd been wielding an automatic weapon last time she saw him. Now, however, it seemed he was unarmed.
"Do I know you?" He then asked and Kenzie could sense the others moving around.
"No." She stressed. Not only answering his question, but telling the others to stand down.
She watched as the man looked around her to the child sitting on the floor. His eyes were hard, but she could see he was trying to play it off for her sake. She heard the little girls feet slide on the floor behind her as if she was trying to become one with the wall.
"Cydney, there you are. You had me worried that one of those things got you. I've been looking for you everywhere." He stated.
Kenzie could tell it was all an act and the child was frightened of him and with good cause. She had seem his display of manic behavior. Kenzie reached down, keeping her eyes on the stranger and grabbed the little girl's hand. Pulling her to her feet gently.
"Do you know this man?" She asked Cydney. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the little girl nod. "Do you want to go with him?" She then questioned, though there was noway she was going to allow that. Again she watched out of the corner of her eye as the little girl shook her head this time.
This seemed to anger the man and Kenzie watched as he visibly began to shake. Yeah, there was seriously something wrong with this guy.
"You little bitch! I've been keeping you alive and this is how you treat me!"
He took hard steps towards them, but Kenzie pulled one of her mk24 handgun from her thigh holster and pointed at him. She wasn't going to let him take Cydney and harm her again and she knew the giant males with her wouldn't allow him to hurt either one of them. Still, Kenzie had always liked to be prepared and protect herself.
He stopped in his tracks his eyes screaming murder. Kenzie saw the shimmer behind him and knew what was coming. She turned around and put her arms around the little girl holding her face to her chest. A minute later she heard the sound of a gun firing and a bullet ricochet off metal before gurgling reached her ears.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw the man suspended in the air with two wrist blades through his chest holding a .9mm. They retracted and the man fell to the floor with a thud.
Releasing Cydney, but bending down to her level directly in her line of sight, Kenzie placed her free hand under her chin.
"Keep your eyes close, until I tell you to open them, okay?" The little girl nodded and closed her eyes.
Kenzie put her gun back and holster and picked her up, pushing her head down onto her shoulder. She was sure had she not have used the numbing salve she would be in pain. Making her way back down the hall she stepped around the man's body and went back into the room with the face hugger eggs.
Once inside, she let Cydney raise her head. At that same moment the Yautja males uncloaked. The little girl looked around at the six giant creatures before releasing a scream and fainting.
Viper saw the panic in his mate's eyes and scanned the ooman child. She was fine. Simply unconscious and he told his mate as much. He watched her let out a sigh of relief before shifting the child slightly.
"Were all of the Kainde Amehde dealt with?" C'bra asked.
Each of them recounted the number of Hard Meat that had killed. He was proud to learn that his little mate had killed two, though he wasn't surprised. However, she hadn't taken anything as a trophy. He recalled her once saying that she wished she had one and decided that he would take her back to retrieve at least one of them and teach her how to dress it.
When it was confirmed that all of the ones that had hatched were disposed of, they went about deciding how to best get rid of the eggs. They could shoot them with their shoulder cannons or set off a bomb. However, Kenzie stated that they're bombs were too harsh and were likely to destroy most of the city.
In the end, she had backed to the far end of the room with the child as Viper and Rou'e used their shoulder cannons to demolish the eggs. Once they stopped shooting, the others inspected to make sure there was no chance of anything being left alive. When they were satisfied they turned to heard back to the ship.
Kenzie had told them it may be best to re-cloak in the event that there were other oomans around. She was unable to because the mechanism would not work on the child in her arms. So instead, she had grabbed onto a piece of his loincloth and followed them that way.
Once they were back at the ship and on board, the first thing he wanted to do was getKenzie to the medical room and treat her wounds. However, she wanted to lay the child down first. She made her way to Ma'iss room and laid her in his bed. His clan brother huffed in annoyance, but did not say anything.
Viper then grabbed her small hand in his and led her to the medical room. He began to remove her weapons, then her clothes until she was down to her last ooman coverings and sat her on the table. He cleaned the blood from her shoulder, before he grabbed the healing salve.
"Can you just put it on my neck and this shoulder?" She questioned pointing to the one with bruising. "I think I'd like to keep this battle scar." She then stated pointing to the shoulder that had been bleeding.
From what he could tell, it looked as if a Hard Meat's tail had pierced her shoulder. Viper gave her the equivalent of a yautja smile. Proud that she wanted to wear her scar with honor. He did, however, disinfect it.
When he was done cleaning her wounds, his little mate took the cloth he had used to wipe the blood from her shoulder. She dipped it in the pan of water before going about washing the blood from his body.
Her attention turned to the bullets in his leg once she had cleaned the blood away. Her eyes came to his and Viper was sure that she was going to ask questions. Instead, she grabbed some slender clamps and went about removing them.
When she got them out, she cleaned the wounds again before picking up the disinfectant. She applied it to all of his wounds before picking up the healing salve. She applied it only to the bullet wounds and the gash across his stomach. Leaving the others as remembrance of their hurt.
Once she was finished, his little mate pulled him between her legs and lay her head on him. Her arms going around him.
"You brought back a lot of trophies." She stated.
"We will go back and retrieve one of your kills so that you may have one too." He informed her.
She nodded against him. "Can we get other things too?" Viper trilled at her questioningly. "Other human things that are in the city. Cydney will need clothes and I'd like to get more food. I love a lot of the foods on the Home Ship, but I like food from Earth too." She elaborated.
"Of course, but you must keep it minimal and only get the items you actually require. We do not want to weigh down the ship. You should keep it under three tons."
She pulled away from him and Viper looked down at her. Her eyes were wide in surprise and he wasn't sure what had caused it.
"I don't think I could even find three tons of things I wanted."
Viper nodded, understanding and he helped her off he table. He heard her stomach make the noise it often did when she was hungry and decided that whatever she needed could wait until after she ate. They were not scheduled to leave until the next ooman day, so she would have time to get the things she wanted.