Chapter 6: First Battle

It had been easy to find the ship. Once the signal from the tracker stopped moving it was a simple task of following it. The signal had led the Predator to a large artificial bay, where many ooman ships were anchored. Not wanting to swim and risk his cloak shorting out the Predator had leapt from ship to ship, staying on for no longer then it took to get his balance and judge the leap to another ship. The signal came from a large ship near the center of the bay, one that was old and worn, a ship that looked like it should have been scrapped but had been kept operational long after her time. On the side there was a word crudely written, 'Bebop', most likely the name of the ship. The Predator was able to translate the letters but could not figure out the word or what it meant. Pushing that detail out of his mind he scanned the outer area for any sign of opposition. When he saw none he leapt up and grabbed the side of the vessel. He climbed up the side and pulled himself onto its deck. In front of him was an opening that led to the inside of the vessel. He entered, still wary of a trap, and observed the interior area. Pieces of machinery and metal lay strewn about, to one side were three ooman flying craft, which meant this was a hangar. He recognized the one armed ooman's craft, it appeared to be unarmed and meant only for personal transport. The other two, those were a different matter.

Both these craft had obviously been built for war. The first one had a cockpit positioned at the very front of the craft. It offered its operator an advantage in forward viewing of targets but it also provided the least amount of protection from a head on hit. Below the cockpit, mounted on pods, were two large cannons that were attached to multibarreled cylinders, meaning that both were made to fire projectiles at a high rate of speed. The other craft was built on a more conventional level by ooman standards. It resembled fighter craft oomans had used in the past, the cockpit mounted on the top with two wings for maneuverability in flight. At first the only thing that seemed out of place was the large cannon mounted on the bottom the craft. It had no visible ammunition feed, but he did recall that the oomans had begun to develop energy weapons of their own. Quite possibly this was one of them. The prospect of examining it to see how closely ooman technology matched his own was tempting but there were other matters to attend to.

Across the hangar he noticed a hatchway and was about to go to it when he heard the muffled sounds of something on the other side of the door. They knew he was here!! Before he could decide how to deal with the situation the door opened and inside ran not the armed oomans he expected but a small animal that he recognized as a dog, commonly kept by oomans as pets and as guards. These had always presented a problem on hunts because their superior ears and nose could detect them despite of the light-bending cloak. The dog charged towards him without fear and barked louder the closer he approached. The little animal was too quick to lock on with the plamcaster so he just let it approach him and when it was close enough he kicked it back across the hangar. The noise the dog had made was sure to attract attention and no sooner had that thought entered his head that something else came through the hatch. It was an ooman but not one he had expected to see. This ooman was small and thin. It ran over and talked to the dog and its voice was high pitched. All this pointed to that this was a child, but what a child be doing with hunters such as Jet and Spike? He had no time to consider the answer as the animal let out a whine and looked in his direction. The child began to look in the same direction but the Predator was already moving, if the dog didn't alert the other hunters the child would. The child let out a very loud, very high-pitched shriek before he could get his hand over its mouth and muffle it. He then lifted the child up to his eye level. It's eyes were wild and very frightened, a quick scan revealed no weapons, the only thing the child carried was a pair of large odd shaped eye lenses that it wore on the top of it's head. It was no threat to him but there was no doubt it had alerted the others, he could hear them running towards him now. That left him with only one option.

Jet's skepticism quickly left him as MPU continued to tell him about the alien hunter they all now believed was their bounty. MPU had just started to explain Major Shafer's battle when a high-pitched, ear-splitting shriek came from the direction of the hangar. As suddenly as the scream started it was cut off. The three of them waited maybe half a second before jumping up and sprinting towards the hangar. Spike and Faye drew their guns and even though Jet was unarmed he went with them, knowing that he had to help some way. Ed did have a good set of lungs but she would never scream that loud for no reason, then there was the fact that the scream had sounded terrified. Nothing had ever scared Ed before and there was nothing any of them knew that Ed would be scared of. Only one thing could have scared her that badly and it confirmed their worst fears, the Predator had found them! They stood clear of the door as Jet opened it, just in case something was waiting for them. Nothing happened so Spike entered first, covering the entire hangar looking for the intruder. He saw nothing but that could mean that the Predator was waiting somewhere invisible. Despite that he moved forward.

"Ed??" Spike called out. He heard a loud whine and instinctively aimed his gun in the direction it came from. He saw Ein lying on the ground when he suddenly looked ahead and started barking.

"Over there!!" Faye yelled and pointed to the bow of the ship. Spike saw the hazy outline of something standing on the edge. Not asking questions Spike leveled his gun and started blazing away. The hazy form disappeared and they heard a splash. Spike and Faye ran to the spot where the form had been and looked into the water. They saw something swimming away at a fast pace and both started firing at it. The form swam faster and disappeared.

"Damn it!!" Faye cursed. "How did he manage to find us like this?!?"

"Don't know." Spike answered. "But now that he's here we've got to go after him." He turned and ran for the Swordfish.

"And just how are we supposed to do that?" Faye yelled after him.

"He's got to come ashore sometime." Spike explained as he started up the engines. "We need to nail him before he can sneak back into the city."

"And what about Ed?" Faye shouted over the roar of the engines.

"I'll look for her!" Jet yelled over the din. "You two go after that thing and stop him before he kills anyone else!" Spike nodded and put full power to the engines, making the Swordfish roar out of the hangar. Faye watched him go and then climbed into the Red Tail. In a few seconds she was airborne and heading off to join Spike. After they left Jet went over to Ein and picked him up. Ein let out a whimper of pain as he was picked up.

"Easy boy, I've got you." Jet said, trying to keep Ein calm. Jet began checking for injuries and when he examined Ein's left side the reaction he got was a loud yelp of pain. "Man, he really did a number on you didn't he?" He said sympathetically. Ein gave a whine of agreement. "I know you're hurting little buddy but I can't do anything until I know exactly what's wrong, and before that I need to find Ed and see that she's alright." At the mention of Ed's name Ein began to squirm in Jet's grasp and tried to lift his head up. "Easy pal! I know you're worried about her but hurting yourself isn't going to help." Ein let out an insistent bark and continued to try and look up at him. This kind of behavior was strange, even for Ein. Jet was about to set him down to keep him from injuring himself further when something hit him on the head and clanked onto the floor. It wasn't heavy and he barely felt it but he knelt down and picked the object up. To his surprise it was Ed's netdiving goggles. Ein began barking with more urgency. Jet looked up and saw Ed tied up and hanging upside down from one of the ceiling rafters by some sort of wire, struggling with all her might to wiggle herself loose. A dirty rag had been stuffed into her mouth to muffle her yells but otherwise she seemed unharmed. "The hell?!?" Ein let out another bark and once Ed saw that she had been noticed she thrashed harder in an attempt to get loose. "What kind of shit have we gotten into this time?" He asked to no one in particular.

In the air Faye had hooked up with Spike and both had split up to cover more of the shoreline, keeping their distance from it so not to tip of the alien that they were looking for him.

"Remember to use infrared." Spike had told her. "It's the only way we're going to find this guy cloaked."

"I was paying attention in case you've forgotten." Faye had responded curtly. So she hadn't seen a thing when she saw someone climbing out of the water that began to walk towards a multilane highway. It was large enough to be their alien friend and she shut down the infrared scope to see if she could see something through a normal view. There was something there and it looked a lot like the picture MPU had showed them. Energy seemed to crackle around it but he ignored it and he began to look around. When he saw the Red Tail instead of running he just set his legs and faced her down. A red light projected from him and settled on Faye's chest. Faye prepared to dodge whatever was coming but the only thing that happened was that a sputter of sparks flew from his shoulder. After glancing at his obviously defunct weapon he turned and started running. Faye followed and briefly considered calling Spike but reconsidered. "Five billion may not be as much as ten." She told herself. "But split only one way it's almost as good." She armed the Red Tail's weapons and the computer began to lock onto her target. As her finger hovered over the firing button she could almost taste the five billion.

When he heard the other oomans coming the Predator had only one viable option left, and that was to kill the child so it could not reveal anything. He extended his wristblades and brought his arm back to deliver a killing blow, but something made him stop. Killing the child would accomplish nothing, even if he did kill it the other oomans would arrive in unknown numbers and with unknown weapons. He might be able to kill one as it entered the hangar but the others might be able to outmaneuver him in this unfamiliar environment. Backing away from a fight would seem cowardly but to stand and face an unknown enemy was tactically stupid. Acting quickly he took out a long section of wire that was used for hanging fresh kills and tied up the small ooman despite all the thrashing it did. He then picked up a dirty cloth from one of the partially disassembled machines and stuffed it into its mouth, effectively silencing it. He then leapt up and secured one end to metal frames supporting the hangar. The child continued to thrash but could not get loose, and the cloth rendered its cries inaudible. That task done he moved to the bow of the vessel to analyze the situation as it developed rather then remain at a disadvantage inside the ship. The door the child had come through reopened and at first nothing came through, the oomans must have suspected a trap of some sort and were going about the situation cautiously. The first one to step through the hatch was Spike, confirming that he had been right in guessing that the one armed ooman called Jet was indeed part of Spike's hunting party. Another ooman entered the hangar armed with a small handheld weapon similar to the one Spike held. This one was an unknown ooman and the build of it showed it was obviously a female. Jet entered after the female and no others followed him. A strange hunting party this was. A male with an artificial arm, a female who wore garments that seemed almost nonexistent, and a child that had no right to be in any hunting party. An odd group, even for oomans.

"Ed?" Spike called out. Either the name of the child or the animal. The animal!! He had been so preoccupied with the child he had forgotten to silence the dog. The dog in question chose that moment to let out a loud whine. Spike pointed his weapon at it but lowered it when he saw the dog, who began barking in his direction.

"Over there!!" The female cried and pointed at him. Spike looked up and with no hesitation started firing his weapon. With all his advantages gone the Predator had no choice but to retreat so he leapt into the water and began swimming away. The water shorted out his cloak and lead projectiles started whizzing by him. The shots missed and he swam faster to put as much distance between the oomans and himself until he could repair his cloak and regain the advantage. He stayed underwater until he reached the shore and climbed out. The cloak continued to spark but he had bigger concerns at the moment. He could hear an engine and when he turned he saw the twin gunned craft from the main ship. Piloting it was the strange female, and that meant that Spike and Jet would be piloting their own craft somewhere in the area. That could be dealt with later, right now it wouldn't be long until this craft was able to fire on him so he needed to act quickly. Facing the Twin Gun he activated his targeting laser and centered it over the female's heart. He locked on but when he tried to fire his plamcaster started hissing and throwing sparks. He had spent too long underwater and had damaged it. He looked at the weapon and at quick glance it appeared physically undamaged so hopefully it meant that all that was needed was to let the weapon to dry out. In the meantime he needed to avoid the Twin Gun and find another way to disable it so he began running. He heard the craft following him and lining up for an attack run. Listening to the pitch of the engines he heard the Twin Gun maneuvering to get the best possible shot. When the pitch stopped changing he waited only a second before diving to the side. He could not see it but he heard the craft's weapons firing and chewing up the ground behind him. When he stood he saw the craft starting to turn, setting up another strafing run. Instead of running away from the craft this time he ran towards it, hoping to confuse the female long enough so he could get under the arc of the guns before she could act.

"DAMN IT!!!" Faye yelled when the Predator dove to the side and narrowly avoided the burst of fire. "You aren't supposed to able to dodge bullets!!!" She shouted at him as she passed over.

"Faye, just what the hell are you doing!?!" Spike asked over the radio.

"Trying to catch the bounty idiot!!" Faye responded as she slammed on the reverse jets to slow the Red Tail down. "And I don't need any help!!" She added.

"Faye, these things hunt people for fun! You can't just try to take one head on alone!!" Spike replied, trying to reason with her.

"Well they never hunted anyone flying something like this before!" She answered as she went into a midair skid and turned the Red Tail around. At the same time she cycled the ammunition of the guns so now both fired missiles. "When I'm finished he'll never know what hit him."

"Hold it Faye, we know next to nothing about these things!! If we underestimate them …." Faye shut off the radio, cutting Spike off in mid-sentence. "Shit! She's just asking to get herself killed."

"Underestimate them." Faye repeated sarcastically as she pushed the throttle forward. "What does he think they can do, fly?" Ahead of her she saw the quarry in question was racing towards her on foot. She began to smile. "So much for being an advanced species. Nobody smart plays chicken with missiles." She pressed the firing button and two missiles were launched at the apparently suicidal alien.

He saw the Twin Gun fire again but this time shot two things that had very distinct heat trails. Rockets were unexpected and forced him to go ahead with his plan earlier then expected. As the rockets closed in he stopped, crouched low and launched himself into the air just before the missiles hit. The missiles, now deprived of a target, slammed into the ground and detonated.

"GOT YA!!" Faye exclaimed when she saw the missiles explode. Now she would only have body parts to turn in but Jet had told them that that would be good enough. Now the only thing let to do was figure out how to use that five billion Woolong bounty. Her thoughts were interrupted she heard a loud thunk above her and felt the Red Tail shudder. "What the hell?" She said an instant before the left side of the cockpit exploded inward, accompanied by an inhuman yell. The force behind the explosion of glass was a large fist that opened up into a taloned hand that started reaching for her. As the hand approached her Faye leaned away as far as she could, more out of disgust then fear. It was reaching in from the top of the cockpit and the Predator wasn't leaning over the edge. The hand started making grabs for her and in response she swung the controls to the right and turned the Red Tail on its side. The Predator let out a surprised yell and the arm pulled out of the cockpit grabbing the edge of the hole it created to keep from falling off. "NO RIDERS!!" Faye yelled as she added more power to the engines and started twisting and turning to try and throw the Predator off.

Spike raced towards Faye as fast as he could when the Red Tail came out of nowhere and nearly ran into him. It was flying too fast and making all sorts of dangerous loops.

"Just what the hell was that about Faye!?!?!?!" Spike yelled into the radio as he turned to follow her. If she had managed to kill the alien that was fine but showboating like that was dangerous.

"GET HIM OFF ME!!" Came Faye's frantic reply. "I've been trying to shake him off but he won't let go!" As Spike caught up he could see something on top of the Red Tail, holding on for all it was worth. As he got closer he saw it was the alien and the alien saw him. It looked at him for a second then went back to concentrating on not being thrown off.

"Stop moving and I'll try to shoot him off." Spike ordered. He could ask questions later but now he needed to get Faye out of this without having her crash.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!?!?" Faye replied so loudly that Spike winced. "If I stop moving he'll crawl in here and get me!!"

"And if you don't you're going to hit a building!" To underscore Spike's point Faye came dangerously close to clipping a skyscraper.

"If you have any good ideas I'm all ears!!" The silence that answered her was deafening. The silence was filled when a loud thud sounded over her head. Then another, and another. When she looked up she saw the roof the cockpit had a bulge pointing down. With every thud that bulge increased in size and came closer to her head. Faye lowered her head just as the metal gave way and another fist punched its way into the cockpit. Faye ducked down as far as she could but the Predator had a long reach and was able to grab a fist-full of her hair. Faye screamed in pain as the Predator began to pull. "LET GO OF ME YOU ALIEN SON OF A BITCH!!" The Predator responded with a roar that shook the Red Tail and with a harder pull. "THAT'S IT!!" Now angry Faye flipped the Red Tail upside down and the Predator let go of her hair and grabbed the sturdier metal of the cockpit ceiling he had just punched a hole in. Approaching a building Faye made the Red Tail dip and started dragging the Predator across the roof. She heard yells of pain and felt the weight of her unwanted passenger drop away. Pulling away from the building she righted herself and turned around, firing another set of missiles at the now standing Predator. Seeing the incoming missiles the Predator jumped off from one roof onto the one of a shorter building, at the same time as he flung something at the Red Tail. Faye didn't see what he threw but felt the effects as something impacted on her right side. Alarms began blaring and the Red Tail started pitching uncontrollably, unable to maintain level flight. Looking to see what damage had been done Faye was greeted with the sight of one of her guns falling to the street below. With one of the guns gone the weight was now distributed unevenly and was forcing the craft down. As the Red Tail continued its dive Faye never saw what had hit her do a U-turn and return to the Predator's hand as he watched the craft plummet. Struggling to bring herself back under control Faye was able to crash land onto the street, smashing parked cars and sending pedestrians diving for cover. As the Red Tail screeched to a halt a crowd started to gather around it, among them three oddly familiar old geezers. They had all seen the craft fall from the sky and plow into over a dozen vehicles but still ….

"So what happened to you little lady?" Antonio asked. The question seemed to be rhetoric but he sounded like he meant it. Faye gave him a glare that would have made most grown men cower but in his senility Antonio failed to notice. "Seems like you had a little accident." Faye dropped her head in exasperation.

"Little!? You nearsighted old coot, she's darn near totaled it." Carlos responded.

"That's right." Jobin agreed "Probably take a year to fix the thing. Just look at this." He then proceeded to point out every bit of damage in detail. Faye let out a moan and slumped into her seat.

"This just isn't my day." Her statement was lost among the ever-growing crowd.

From his vantagepoint the Predator saw the Twin Gun crash and not rise again. That was one problem taken care of. Scanning the air he saw Spike's craft circling when the noise of a second craft reached him. He spotted Jet's craft as it went into a circling pattern above him. His cloak remained inoperable and his plamcaster was again functional but the water had damaged the power supply so he only had one shot. Now that he had two targets he had to think of new strategy. He took out his spear and extended it to its full length, he had his plan, now it was up to the oomans to make the first move.

Spike had been unable to do anything but watch as Faye managed to scrape the alien off like a bug. That would have kept any human down for the count but the alien just jumped up and when Faye fired her missiles jump off the building and throw something that cut one of the guns clean off it's pod. He saw the crash but was knew he couldn't do anything to help and needed to take care of the alien who just stood there waiting. He circled around for a better angle on a strafing run when Jet's voice came over the radio.

"Spike, what's going on? Where's Faye?"

"Down there." Spike answered. Jet looked down and saw a column of smoke rising from the street.

"She tried to handle this alone, didn't she?"

"Yep."

"Terrific." Jet sighed. "So what do you suggest we do?"

"Our friend is down there waiting for us do something. It would be rude of us to disappoint him." Jet looked down and saw the Predator standing on a rooftop.

"You got a plan."

"Yeah. You distract him and I'll blow him away."

"That's not a very good plan."

"Maybe, but it's the only one I've got." Jet thought it over for a moment.

"All right. I'll buzz him and you get him while he's occupied." Both of them started to maneuver into position. "I found Ed after you two took off. She was tied up but fine."

"Guess this mean that at least one of us will come out of this ok."

"Thanks for the optimism pal. You ready?"

"Whenever you are." Jet brought the Hammerhead into a dive but instead of diving out of the way the Predator hurled his spear. It hit the underside of the front and passed through it and continued in an arc until it fell into the city. Instinctively Jet pulled up and away when he was struck. In the moment of confusion the Predator turned towards the Swordfish and fired his energy weapon. The blast hit one of the wings and blew it clean off.

"SHIT!!" Spike cursed as the Swordfish dropped like a stone. Fate appeared to be with him as the fall was short and he crashed into the roof of an adjoining building. The force of the crash threw him forward into the control panel and knocked him unconscious.

The Predator had seen Spike's craft crash but Jet's was still airborne and approaching. It seemed like a foolish maneuver since the craft was unarmed. However the ooman proved he still could fight. A mechanical arm mounted on the rear of the craft swung around and, like a scorpion's tail, aimed itself at him. Rolling forward he narrowly avoided a cable shot from the arm that imbedded itself in the roof of the building he was currently on. The craft then increased the thrust to its engines but the cable had become stuck somehow. With his spear was gone and his plamcaster out of power, options were now very limited. He could use his disk but then he would risk being caught in the craft's explosion. If he left the craft alone he risked Jet working his way free and coming after him. There wasn't time to attack the cockpit itself so instead he extended his wrist blades and cut through the cable, sending the craft soaring where it eventually crashed then sank into the artificial bay. When he saw the craft land in the water he let out a loud roar of triumph. He could easily stay and finish off Spike but with his cloak still inoperable he needed to find a place to repair it. He climbed down the building and disappeared into the back streets of the city.

Jet was able to regain control and had seen Spike go down and made one last attempt to get the alien. The firing mechanism of the grappler was still working but the alien had been able to dodge it. What he found out then was that while the firing circuits were still intact the retraction controls had been damaged. The hooks remained out and no matter how much power he put to the engines he couldn't get loose. He was about to eject when instead of trying to kill him the Predator cut the cable and sent him flying into the bay. The Hammerhead lost power and started to sink so he had no choice but to eject and retrieve it later. As he floated there he heard a loud roar that was not human.

Both Faye and Spike also heard the roar but Spike had woken up in time to see the alien climb down the building and disappear. He was also able to interpret the roar loud and clear.

"Round one goes to you." He groaned as he made himself stand up. "But don't count us out just yet."