THE PROMISE (4)

"Alright people. You know the drill. Move slowly and stay on your toes. God knows what kind of fancy shit they have up their sleeves," Walker told his team as they slipped into their thermal suits. The suits were designed to hide their body heat. "We need to take at least one of these things alive, but shoot them if you need to, I'm not sacrificing men for a potential asset," he added as he turned the switch on his freezer gun, activating it. He wasn't completely hopeful it would work, so he checked if the safety on his sidearm was off. It was. "Let's move."

They were in Sunset Park, one of Brooklyn's easternmost districts. The residential area looked just as unkempt as the "Flats", fortunately, however, the area wasn't occupied by any of the local gangs. Although the place looked run down and abandoned there were enough people around to keep the place alive. They'd notice if things were coming and going...and they had.

Walker and his team had been told something strange was in the area. The description matched what they were after. It had been seen around the apartment complexes that sat right by the edge of the Hudson River. It was almost like the thing had made the place its home or was setting up camp there. Occasionally someone would see it leave in the evening, or sometime in the afternoon, probably because it was hot outside. Walker remembered the briefings, and one of the things he recalled was that it came when it was hot. It liked the heat. Only there wasn't just one of them, Walker was sure of it... they liked the heat.

They'd been after these things for a long time, but Walker felt like they were finally getting somewhere. He sensed they were finally close. He still had doubts, but he was sure they were right on top of them, which was close enough for him.

Although his demeanor didn't let it show, he was just as uneasy as the rest of his team. This hadn't been the first time they tried to catch them. The first time they tried, they thought they could only see one spectrum of light, infrared, but the one they'd tried to catch still managed to find them. This time they would be more careful. They knew the suits wouldn't protect them completely, but at least they would be harder to spot.

The team slowly moved through the dilapidated building, each man focused on the side he was facing. Front, back, left, right, up, hell some of them even kept their eyes on the floor. They weren't sure where these things would pop out from.

"Are we getting anything on the sensors?" Walker said into his earpiece. Some of their team stayed behind for support. They could see everything around them and tell them about it beforehand.

"Nothing," one of them, Hollingsworth, replied.

"Anything coming up on thermal imagery?" Walker questioned.

"I'm not picking up any high readings, except for you sir," Hollingsworth said after pulling up the infrared. He continued scanning the surrounding area just to be sure, before replying, "I'm picking up something above you on the tenth floor. Doesn't look like them, but...," he paused deliberately.

"That could be them," Walker spoke. "Stay frosty," he added as he motioned for the rest of his team to follow.

They were shaking. They also remembered the briefings, and they had a firm idea of what these things were capable of. They were stronger, faster, and stealthier, and their tech was way more advanced. For all they knew they could be standing right beside them, and they wouldn't even know it. The things had tech that allowed them to see in different spectrums of light, camouflage that could bend light around them, making them practically invisible, and plasma-based weapons that could tear through metal like cardboard. And what they did to the people they didn't shoot... they didn't want to think about it.

As they moved up the eighth and ninth floor, they saw clear indications that something was living there. On the tenth floor was a large apartment where Hollingsworth had said he'd seen the other heat signatures. The room must have been built for some wealthy schmuck who wanted a good view of the beach. The wall on the other side of the spacious room was just one huge window that offered an excellent view of the Hudson River, and the city just beyond it. There was furniture covered in plastic wrapping and rotting cardboard boxes lying all over the place, and a bar counter stood to the right of the entrance.

Walker and his team moved even slower as they searched the apartment. Three men went into the side room. It was only a little smaller than the previous room. The place had an equally appealing view of the bay, along with a partial view of the city on the side. To the left, there was a bedroom with glass doors and walls and a huge bed in the center. Whoever was living here must not have cared too much about privacy. The walls above the windows and around the door were regular drywall, and despite what light the windowed walls provided the room was still mostly shadowed in darkness. It also didn't help that it was cloudy outside and the masks on the suits didn't allow them to see much, thus they couldn't see the patch right beside them as they came in.

Something wet began dribbling down on one of them as they searched the room. They looked up and found them. Walker and the rest of his team were attracted to the subsequent commotion they caused. They all went pale when they saw it. "Oh, shit," one of Walker's men said when he saw it. There were five of them, their skinned bodies strung up like the others they'd found. But these bodies weren't like the others, they weren't human. These were the creatures they'd been after. The Hunters.

Some of Walker's men threw up. He was having trouble keeping it down himself.

"Sir?" Hollingsworth said in a concerned voice. He could see the same things they did through the cameras mounted on their torsos.

"Hollingsworth... get on the horn with HQ. Tell 'em... Tell 'em we have a situation here. Tell them something else is here and tell them we're going to need some more people down here," Walker responded, as he pulled his mask off and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "This is a whole new fucking ball game."

/

"What in the fuck were you thinking, Ishikawa?" Anderson cursed. Lucy didn't respond, but Anderson didn't give chance. "You disobeyed a direct order! I told you to stand down, and you went after Snake anyway!"

"With all due respect sir, I didn't have time to change anything," Lucy said as she looked down at the floor. She wasn't in the mood for any of this.

Lucy brought her eyes up after Anderson smashed his fist down on the edge of his desk. "The feds were on their way! They had everything set up! We had him on the ropes and you scared him away!"

"I didn't do anything, SIR. I didn't have the chance," Lucy raised her voice disrespectfully.

"Fuckin' rich!" Anderson exclaimed as he sat down.

Lucy leapt from her seat and slammed her bandaged hands down on the chief's desk. "I didn't fucking do anything, and you know it!" she cursed.

"Ishikawa, sit down and shut the fu-!" Anderson blurted but was unable to finish.

"No, you stay there, and you shut the fuck up and listen to me! Snake was getting away! Your stupid asses were too slow, and he was getting away! I tried to pin him down so you assholes could get there in time! The feds didn't have a damn thing set up and you know it!"

"Sit the fuck down, Ishikawa!" Anderson ordered her as he stood up from his seat.

"No! I went in because your sorry asses weren't doing shit! You know that! You know that for a fact!" Lucy fought back.

"We were on top of it! If you hadn't scared him off, we'd have had him!" Anderson continued.

"Bullshit! The whole thing was a set-up! It was fucked from the get-go because of that son-of-a- bitch, Kennicott! Five officers are dead, and eight more are in the hospital right now because of him! If you want to blame someone, blame him!"

"Kennicott is dead!"

"No shit, Sherlock! The point still stands he sold us out! He threw us to the fucking wolves! This is all his fault! I just tried to save two years' worth of work and you're sitting here arguing with me about disobeying orders! I didn't even do anything! I couldn't do jackshit!"

"You still disobeyed my orders and went after him anyway! The feds were onto him they almost had him! And you scared him off!"

"Fucking shit, Anderson, the motherfucker had an RPG pointed at my face! You really think I scared him away? Even if I had done something, it's still more than what you were doing, you were letting him get away!"

"I didn't let anybody get away!" Anderson shouted, pounding his fists on the desk.

"Oh, let me guess! This was the feds' operation, they let him get away!" Lucy said sarcastically, "Fucking hell, you knew what the fuck was happening, and you just sat there doing nothing, just relaying the feds' orders to us! Bullshit you didn't let anybody get away!"

Anderson was about to speak but Lucy cut him off.

"You just want somebody to blame because of this fuck up! Let me guess, the mayor's on your ass right now because of it! Everybody can see how bad this went and that makes you look bad! Well tough, you fucking deserve it! If I'd been able to do something, and I had caught him, he wouldn't still be a fucking problem for us anymore! Hell, maybe if you had done something, some of those officers would still be alive right now!"

"You think I wanted this, Ishikawa? You think I wanted this to happen? You think I don't see that? Yeah, I wanted to do something, I wanted to go after him myself, but I had orders just the same as you did, but you disobeyed yours because Kilgore put Eguchi in a fucking coma! Yeah, I know why you went after him, you wanted to kill the son-of-a-bitch! And if you had, those contacts of his would be gone, we'd have gotten nothing from this shitstorm! The feds wanted him alive, but you were going to give him to them in a body bag!"

Lucy and Anderson stood there staring at each other for a moment, breathing heavily. Both of them looked like they wanted to kill each other.

"I didn't do shit!" Lucy told him in a quieter voice.

"I know, but the fact still remains you disobeyed my orders. I can't trust you," Anderson told her.

"Yes, the mayor is pissed about this and so are the feds. Doesn't matter much to you anyhow, you won't be working it," Anderson said in a calmer tone of voice as he sat back down to look over his paperwork.

"What?" Lucy blurted.

"I'm transferring you over to the homicide division. You pissed on the fire hard, and right now I think it's best you stay there until this all blows over," Anderson answered her.

Lucy was fuming. Anderson was correct about one thing though, she did want to kill Snake. Lucy wanted him dead because of what he did to Amy. That bastard had hurt her sister, and she wanted blood. They had had Snake on the ropes, they were so, so close to getting him. Had Anderson and the feds been doing their jobs, none of this would've happened. No thanks to them, Snake was gone, five officers were dead, and eight more, including Amy, were in the hospital, and none of them gave a shit!

At the same time though, Lucy felt terrible because she'd left Amy's side. She hadn't done it on purpose, it was just in the heat of the moment. Lucy did the best she could; no one could have seen this coming, and nobody could blame her for it. But that still didn't take away the feeling of responsibility she had for what had happened to Amy. Maybe if she thought she could have done something to prevent it, maybe, if she'd just tried a little harder, Amy wouldn't be in the ICU. They'd both be at Denny's right now enjoying breakfast, and having fun, just like they'd planned.

Lucy often thought things were her fault when she failed. It was one of the unfortunate things that carried over from her grandparents. That thought couldn't have weighed more heavily on her than it did right there and then.

"Yes, sir," Lucy faced the ground and clenched her fists angrily as she felt her eyes begin to water. She stood there for a moment waiting for the chief's orders.

"Get outta here Lucy. It's your day off. You're frustrated as hell, and you need some time to yourself. Go to the hospital, get those scratches checked out, or just go home. I don't care, do something," Anderson told Lucy tiredly.

"Yes sir," Lucy said, still angry.

"And before you leave. I talked to Walker about your insubordination. He isn't pissed, but he's taking over. That means no more Snake for you. I don't want to hear you got into any of their business. Stay away," Anderson said, attempting to sound threatening.

"Yes, sir," Lucy said as she left the room, knocking the chief's coffee mug off his desk out of spite. She was out of the door before he could say a word.

/

"Two years... Two years... down the fucking drain...," Lucy whispered as she sat beside her unconscious partner with a forlorn look on her face. She held Amy's hand as she listened to the heart monitor's reassuring beep in the background.

The doctors had managed to stabilize Amy's condition just in time. The doctors had told her it was a miracle; they said she got lucky. How the hell was she lucky? How was it a miracle? Amy was in a coma, she was unconscious. She might never recover. How was any of that lucky?

She felt worse now than she did when she left the station. Seeing Amy's broken frame was almost too much for her to take. Amy was her sister, she was the only family she had. Lucy's eyes began watering uncontrollably. She didn't like crying. She didn't like showing weakness. But she couldn't help herself.

"I'm sorry, Imouto, I'm so, so sorry." Lucy sobbed quietly. She thought about all the trouble she'd put her through these past months, what with the thing following her, the feelings she'd been having. Lucy didn't care about any of that now though. All she wanted was for her sister to wake up. Lucy wanted to get one last chance to talk to her. One last chance to tell her she loved her, to tell her she was sorry. But she might never get that chance.

At least she's still alive. A voice said. As there was no one else in the room but them, Lucy knew it was in her head.

Nevertheless, it was true. The shot could've killed Amy, but it hadn't. She was still alive, and she still had a chance to recover. Lucy still had a chance.

Lucy's eyes narrowed menacingly before looking back down at her sister. "I'm going to get them for you, sis... I'm going to get them for you... I promise...," Lucy vowed. "I love you, Imouto." She said affectionately as she left a bouquet of flowers at her bedside. She left a note inside it for her just in case...

Lucy didn't care what the repercussions of her actions would be. She didn't care what Anderson or Walker did to her. She was going after Snake, and nothing was going to stop her until she'd made sure he was dead.

/

Mei-ab'we was in his trophy room polishing his latest kill - he'd just slain a zek'i-flai, a large hostile monster that looked like the cross between a lizard and a centipede.

Seldom did he enjoy hunts like these, normally he preferred hunting smarter prey, but not this time. However, his hunt had been successful, and although the prey was not the smartest of opponents it provided the challenge he was after.

He'd just finished cleaning all the blood off the reptilian creature's skull when he heard an irritating buzzing sound coming from the control room from where he piloted his ship. He wasted no time in answering the call. He bowed to his superior as his visage presented itself over the holographic screen. The Leader acknowledged his subordinate's respectful gesture with a click of his mandibles.

"Sie' lok-ra r'mi-tlu de Lo-ju'dha agaj'ya. Mei-tilu vor-wa'si kv'var zin'Qui ic'jit." Mei-ab'we's Leader said. A hunting party was missing, something had gone wrong, and it was his job to find out what had happened. It was most likely the work of a rogue Hunter.

He responded with a series of hand gestures. Mei-ab'we had been stricken with an unknown ailment when he was born that rendered him mute. Accordingly, his name reflected this since it meant "one who cannot speak" or "silent one" in his language.

Mei-ab'we accepted the mission, and the Leader signed off shortly afterwards.

Sitting down in front of the control panel Mei-ab'we dialled in the coordinates to the planet where they'd last been seen. This mission would be an interesting one as his hunt would take him to the Backwater Planet. Earth.