Authors note: Okay… I admit this chapter is long long overdue but I have been working on multiple fics alongside each other as well as a new metaverse, a website and my school work so everything is taking quite a while to complete. I can tell you there will be more chapters to this story and I will try to get them out semi regular but no promises I'm afraid. As always read and review please.
Dr Wesker turned away from the observation window that overlooked the silo and walked over to the administrator who stood on the opposite side of the room with his suit and brief case.
"They are impressive specimens" Dr Wesker grudgingly admitted as he crossed his arms across his chest and looked at the administrator through black sunglasses "Although they appear to have gone missing" he pointed out referring to their escape through a Xen portal.
"A temporal problem I assure you" hissed out the administrator "one which will be rectified shortly"
Both men were calmly ignoring the explosions and insane cries of the thrashing leviathan beneath them despite the fact the silo was falling apart around them, the two men remained staring at each other even as a large slab of the ceiling came crashing down near them, destroying a table and showering them both in dust, though neither even blinked at this.
"You would consider the projects a success despite the early set backs both series suffered?" asked Wesker brushing dust from his shoulders.
The administrator pressed his lips together displeased "Every project suffers initial set backs and we shall have to wait to see if they are as successful as we had hoped"
"I find it interesting that XH-013 retains enough intelligence to converse and rename itself" Wesker mused out aloud as he began walking out of the silo.
"Indeed" Replied the administrator straightening his tie "It would appear we have underestimated the level of intelligence the XH project would retain and this also raises the concern that the rest of the series may have similar mental abilities"
Wesker turned to fact the administrator "Does this change anything?"
The administrator shook his head "It does not matter. The plan will proceed as normal." He stated unconcerned as he began walking out the collapsing silo with Wesker.
"Who's next?" asked Wesker as he walked calmly down the corridor away from the silo.
"A corporal Shepard, he has been indicated to have potential" The administrator said disinterestedly as he disappeared down the corridor.
The silo collapsed about five seconds later crushing the leviathan to death, letting its unnatural cries ring out one last time before being silenced forever as a deathly silence took over the ruined silo broken, a silence only broken by the occasional piece of rumble shifting.
Gemini moaned blissfully as she sank into the blue sparkling pool before she let herself be submerged completely, sinking under the alien pool as she fully embracing the tingling sensation it produced.
Karen watched Gemini sink beneath the pool unconcerned at first but as she stayed under the liquid for longer Karen lunged forward as if to pull her out but snatched her hand back at the sudden tingling in her injured hand, looking at her hand incredulously she watched as the acid burns slowly began to heal before her eyes, she had no more time to study that as Gemini suddenly emerged from under the water, grabbed her and then pulled Karen into the pool with her.
Spluttering Karen broke the surface of the pool and glared soggily at the grinning hybrid who seemed suddenly completely uninjured once again whilst trying to ignore the disturbing tingling that spread throughout her body. "What the hell is this stuff?" Karen demanded.
Gemini cocked her head "It's a healing pool, it accelerates the body's natural healing abilities, see" Gemini pointed to herself "I'm healed instantly whilst you are healing much more slowly" she said pointing to the healing red marks across Karen's stomach.
Karen touched the marks which were little more than an hour or two ago had been nasty claw marks inflicted by Gemini, now the skin was red and tender but was noticeably healing, given a few more minutes and the injury would be completely gone as if it had never existed in the first place. A relief because then she'd be back on top fighting form and not have to worry about aggravating the injury on her stomach.
Karen sighed and leaned back further into the pool letting it do its healing magic whilst Gemini climbed out of the pool and then slammed her still dislocated shoulder against the nearest pillar of bone several times until with a seriously unpleasant click of something that sounded between plastic and metal Gemini's arm realigned itself and she with a yelp of pain stumbled backwards, ending up in the pool again with a splash. Gemini sighed this time as the pool sent a refreshing cool through her shoulder, numbing the pain and repairing the damaged caused by putting her joint back in, Karen looked over envious at Gemini's healing abilities, still the pool had healed her injuries so she climbed out as she was unwilling to spend more time than necessary in a strange alien pool which was doing god knows what to her body. Karen made a disgusted gesture at her soaking wet demure but had to give it that she would dry quickly under twin suns, the liquid looked colourless in little amounts so she doubted it would stain her skin blue although it seemed she ran a strong risk of smelling like a peppermint for the foreseeable future.
Gemini shook herself dry as best as she could do as she got out of the pool, showering Karen with more liquid and in reply Karen gave Gemini a killer glare whilst trying to wring out her red hair.
"So where are the hordes of evil monsters?" asked Karen curiously still wringing out her hair, so far Xen hadn't seemed that bad and they had enjoyed a 10 minute walk/stagger followed by a refreshing bath/drowning.
Gemini looked around puzzled, her infra red vision picking up various creatures scattered about in the shadows but nothing large or dangerous. "There should be more" Gemini told Karen puzzled "Although it may be that the portals we came through teleported all the Xen creatures in the area back to earth"
Karen looked curiously at Gemini "What makes you think that?" she asked.
"That" Gemini answered nodding over to one of the islands where her unique vision showed the cooling body of a human although she couldn't make out any other features to distinguish it.
Karen followed Gemini's eyes and she suffered none of the limitations of Gemini's eyesight, easily picking out the tattered white coat and general appearance that screamed scientist. Karen's eyes were modified for sniper work without a scope and general gun work, therefore were sharper than an eagles allowing her to see across the distance despite the large distance between them and the island.
"Poor sod" Karen turned away from the body which she guessed had fallen to its death
"What was he?" Gemini asked and at Karen's confused look she clarified "A scientist, a security guard or a soldier?"
Karen blinked "Cant you tell?" She asked curious and still confused, Gemini seemed powerful in so many ways… strength, healing, speed and Karen therefore doubted the military would give her defective eyesight.
Gemini shook her head "My eyes are designed to see heat and track moving targets" she explained "Its hard to focus on stationary targets, I'm designed to hunt down living prey"
Karen noted that away for future reference "Oh" she said thinking before answering Gemini's question "a scientist" she told Gemini
Gemini thought about this "The portal must have a wider area than the silo" she said to Karen "There wasn't another human near the silo especially not a scientist"
Karen looked at Gemini "you sure?" she asked
Gemini nodded "Trust me, I know" she answered with absolute certainty.
Dr Matthews held her gun up as she neared the corner, Sherry moved nervously into a defensive position a little further behind her and waited, something was making a considerable racket in the room they stood outside of.
They had stumbled into this warehouse after an encounter with a group of alien slaves fortunately the military had decided that they hated the aliens more and engaged them allowing both Sherry and Dr Matthews to escape in the ensuring confusion. The warehouse seemed mostly dedicated to medical and pharmaceutical supplies, several of the rooms had been torn apart by what Dr Matthews thought was someone searching for something, the destruction just didn't seem random and it was only the packaging crates that had been torn apart, the actual medicines and equipment had been left intact although quite a lot of packaging lay strewn across the floor.
Taking a deep breath Dr Matthews spun around the corner with her gun out and she was confronted by a most unexpected sight, there with her head buried in the top of a crate and lethal tail swinging slowly side to side was one of the Xenomorph hybrids, XH-011, Dr Matthews identified knowing instantly which one it was, its height combined with its tail and lack of 'extra' chitin meant that it couldn't have been Gemini, the twins or XH-009.
Sherry came in behind Dr Matthews and gasped, the hybrid spun instantly on the noise dropping down to all fours with its tail sticking out straight behind it only swaying very little as it face them side on, looking freakily like a black panther from its pose, the hybrids eyes darted from Dr Matthews to Sherry to their weapons to the door undecided in its fight or flight response. Exposing your flank to a possible attacker may had seemed strange but from studying these creatures Dr Matthews knew they could move and turn in the blink of an eye, the side on position allowed them to bring all their natural weapons into play easily, tooth, claw and scything tail.
Dr Matthews caught the flash of something in one of the hybrids hands, it was the tell tale shape of one of the disposable injectors that they used, the hybrid noticing where Dr Matthews was directing her attention growled sub vocally curling its body slightly, although it barely moved through experience Dr Matthews could see the signs of the creature tensing ready for a fight and tightened her grip on her gun.
"She looks just like Gemini" Blurted out Sherry suddenly and out of the blue.
The hybrid actually blinked, an uncertain expression coming across its face as it flickered its gaze between the two females, re-evaluating them before it finally made its decision on which course of action to take and made its move. Without warning the hybrid suddenly leapt at Sherry who was standing behind Dr Matthews still and before either could respond it had swiped its tail into Dr Matthews stomach as it flew past her, sending her crashing into a wall before landing on Sherry which sent her crashing down to the ground with absolutely bruising force. Not even pausing after its sudden attack the hybrid leapt off Sherry and disappeared down the corridor into the depths of Black Mesa.
Sherry groaned as she pushed herself back up "That wasn't very friendly" She said pointedly.
Dr Matthews chuckled painfully from her place on the floor "If it was friendly we'd be in pieces on the floor by now" She told the girl before crying out in pain as she tried to stand up.
Sherry rushed to Dr Matthews side where she'd slide down to the floor breathing heavily, trying to suppress the pain, pulling up the bottom of Dr Matthews top carefully Sherry winced as a large vicious bruising was beginning to make itself visible and was turning purple already.
"Shit" Sherry muttered as she looked over the injury.
"I think I broke some ribs too…" Dr Matthews told her wincing as she checked her ribs, wincing heavily when she hit a particularly sore spot "Yep… definitely broken"
"What can I do?" Sherry asked concerned
"Help me up" Dr Matthews told her and Sherry did with a lot of pain filled hisses later, Dr Matthews looked the room over. "Over there, theres pain killers and over there, bandages" She informed Sherry pointing to two separate piles of medicines, syringes and bandages "Get them"
Once she had the bandages Dr Matthews bound up her broken ribs as best she could considering and went as sparingly as she dared on the pain killers, she would need to be as aware as possible and not drugged up if she was to survive this place. Having done that the two proceeded further through the Black Mesa complex with the overall goal of getting reunited with their companions and escaping.
Gemini and Karen gazed down at the canyon and at the fast flowing green river at the bottom of it, Karen took a step away from the edge and sat down heavily.
"That's a drop" Karen stated, it had been nearly 150 foot to the bottom.
Gemini turned to Karen and sat down besides her, curling her legs under her "yes" she agreed.
"And that water had piranha's in it" Karen stated again, they had just watched a bullsquid scavenging for food fell into the water and was stripped down to the bone in seconds, the bones didn't last too long either and this gave the pair the idea that the water was not swimmer friendly.
"Yes" Gemini answered once again, agreeing with Karen.
Karen thought about this "So why exactly do we want to go down there?" she asked simply with a tone of confusion clear in her voice.
"Because it's safer" Gemini informed her.
Karen nodded, not actually because she understood just because it seemed like the thing to do. "Why?" She asked simply again, this time stressing the why.
"Those swimming piranhas are not much danger to us unless we fall in but I doubt we'd do so well against the flying ones" Gemini explained, confused that Karen didn't instantly understand.
Karen scanned the horizon "Flying piranhas?" She asked doubtfully
Gemini nodded "Nasty" she explained.
Karen sighed, that was probably the best she was going to get out of Gemini and to be quite honest she didn't want to know. "It's your world, claw girl" She said giving in.
Gemini uncurled her legs and stood up in one smooth sleek motion before walking over to the edge of the canyon that overlooked the river, she waited for Karen to struggle to her feet and catch up before continuing by climbing down the rock face with surprising ease, claws transforming into instant natural climbing gear.
As Karen stumbled down the rocky face she asked down "Why haven't we encountered those flying piranhas yet?"
"Maybe the portal, maybe the scent hasn't carried on the wind. I would be happy that we haven't see them yet" Gemini advised as she went down the side of the rock face with such a lack of effort that made Karen totally envious.
Karen checked her footing was secure against the rock before she shifted her hands into a next handhold in the rock; she winced and pulled her hand away as it cut on something very sharp. "Shit" she muttered as she checked her cut palm for damage, she then felt carefully around in the handhold for what had cut her, intent on not making the same mistake twice and with a little pulling managed to dislodge a rather sharp and orange glowing crystal.
She shifted the crystal around in her hand numerous ways, looking at the strange object from a number of different angles trying to get a good look at it. "Hey Gem, what is this?" Karen asked down to her hybrid companion who was quite a bit below her.
Gemini looked up at the piece of crystal that Karen held in her hand, the crystal had a very strange heat signature for what it was and was instantly recognisable to her as common if unique crystal to Xen that glowed when warmed, her Xen side's memories coming out strong and fast now it was in its native environment. "It's a simple glow crystal, its harmless" Gemini dismissed it before continuing her own way down the rock face, something down there was clawing at her consciousness but felt just out of reach.
Karen shifted the crystal curiously around in her hand a few more times before stuffing it into her pocket and then continued to climb down the rock face slightly more carefully, trying not to cut her hand open again as she proceeded down to where Gemini had stopped on a ledge further down and was giving the entrance to a rather small and cramped looking cave a rather intense look of concentration.
Gemini gazed cautiously into the small cave, she could feel something in there, something which was pulling at her and urging her to come to it, the feeling was akin to that of her siblings yet felt different, strange, changed all at the same time. Her instincts were at war with themselves once again, Predator Vs Prey, Xen Vs Human, the predator side of herself recognised whatever was lurking in those caves and welcomed it, whilst her human side recognised its predatory intent and wanted nothing to do with it, Gemini was forced into a stalemate of instincts clashing against each other leaving her completely unsure as what course of action to take.
Karen noticed Gemini standing still staring at the cave as she finally managed to get down to the ledge that Gemini was on. "What's up?" She asked "why are you staring at a….Woah!"
Karen took a step back from the cave entrance as she noticed the edges of the cave wall were rounded and had a strange ribbed biomechanical look to them which looked like something straight out of a sci-fi horror movie, the whole cave seemed to radiate menace and danger to her, staring at the cave seemed to drag you in almost as if it was physically pulling you in. Karen shook her head clearing her head of the caves pull "I don't like this.." She told Gemini, who paid about zero attention as she began swaying her head from side to side as if she was listening/looking for something in the depths of the cave.
"Gemini…" Karen began worriedly for which she had cause as Gemini suddenly started walking into the cave without word or warning.
"Where the hell are you going?!" Karen asked in disbelief as she saw Gemini head into the rather worrying cave, Gemini didn't answer her and seemed to be focusing almost her entire attention on what lay within the cave with almost terrifying level of concentration.
Seeing that Gemini wasn't going to respond and was determined to continue into the cave, Karen swore, the very last thing she wanted to do was enter that cave which obviously had something alive down there and knowing this place it was carnivorous too, as Gemini got farther into the cave Karen looked around, swearing again before chasing after Gemini. This world was completely alien to Karen in every single way and without Gemini's knowledge sooner or latter she would get herself killed, as she caught up to Gemini she stuck firmly to her side and began hoping that this wasn't all a big mistake as the cave became darker along with the air becoming increasingly hot and humid. It eventually became so dark that Karen had to grab hold of Gemini's shoulder in order to avoid stumbling around blind in the total darkness, she became rapidly glad of Gemini's infra red vision which allowed at least one of them to see where they were going although she was exceedingly uneasy about why Gemini was heading into this cave but didn't say anything out aloud, somehow that would be wrong almost as if it would disturb something that should not be disturbed and so she kept silent.
Karen ran that last mental sentence through her head and marvelled at how little sense that made.
As they progressed through the pure and absolute pitch black of the cave Karen got an ominous sense of tingling down her spine as she sensed something shift in the darkness, that same sixth sense that some black ops soldiers gained after many years of missions and training, the very sense that told them that the passage ahead was an enemy ambush even when there was no proof that it was. Gemini suddenly came to a stop in front of her and Karen had to struggle not to trip over her much shorter companion, she could tell something was up in the surrounding area as Gemini's shoulder suddenly tensed and she became very still under Karen's hand. Karen stilled herself, trying to lighten out her breathing as much as absolutely possible as she strained to hear anything out of the darkness, there was absolute silence and she couldn't even hear the sound of Gemini breathing, although her companion moved totally silent most of the time except when she talked.
Finally after several long minutes the waiting in absolute darkness with her heart trying to pound its way out of her chest, Karen reached into her pocket and deciding against listening to that part of her brain which said 'No, you do NOT want to know what is out there', she pulled the glowing piece of crystal out her pocket. The crystals faint glow lit the surrounding few meters or so, dimly bathing everything in an eerie orange half light in which shadows danced and shifted of their own will, it was far from the best light to illuminate the area with but at least it allowed Karen to see. Briefly she wondered why she hadn't tried it before and chided herself for getting caught up in the atmosphere of the situation. Looking around Karen took in the her bizarre and definitely terrifying surroundings, the orange light from crystal flickered across the ribbed cave walls giving the impression that they were closing in on you, the shadows of the ribs also looked like they hide untold monsters from your worst nightmares and the air was thick, heavy almost to the point you could see it. Karen wiped sweat from her face and looked at her companion who looked more inhuman that normal under the strange light, she was looking into the darkness beyond the light with a guarded cautious look and was tense like a panther about to pounce. Karen caught something flicker in the corner of her eye and spun around to face it, staring intently into the darkness behind them, remaining on edge for several moments until she slowly began to relax almost dismissing it as nothing but her imagination, when the darkness suddenly shifted.
Karen's heart froze as the darkness with deliberate and graceful control crept forward into the half light of the crystal, which shone off sleek black exoskeleton, biomechanical pipes and a scything tail to reveal something that was most definitely related to Gemini, though they looked radically different from each other besides a few traits, they both had the same predatory intent and aura to one another.
Gemini herself stood still, idly watching with a detracted curiosity as more of the dark creatures emerged out of the shadows encircling them; they stayed at the very edge of the light so they were barely visible to Karen, something she was sure they were doing deliberately despite the fact their monstrous heads appeared to have no eyes.
Gemini cocked her head slowly and curiously at her Xen cousins before her, trying to decide what to make of them and their intents, the scent, appearance and movement of the creatures convinced her that they were definitely related in someway, she was unsure how because she had yet to work out exactly how the human scientists had created her and her siblings but they were definitely related. The pure blooded Xenomorph drones were struck with a similar problem as Gemini; before them were two creatures that were similar to a prey species that the hive had encountered before, normally any prey that entered so foolishly into their hive would become instant food once it passed the sentries, perhaps even before then however what had stopped the drones from ambushing and killing this pair was that the shorter creature had hive mate smell. The taller one also had a strange smell for one of its species but that was nowhere as interesting as the smaller ones scent.
The air was thick with telepathic energy as the drones communicated amongst one another and back to their queen who resided deep in the hive watching the entire scene unfold with curiosity of her own, equally unsure as how to react to this completely new element that had entered her hive. The queen with her mind reached out with her mind and brushed against the shorter creatures mind in an attempt to learn more about it, the smaller creature recoiled slightly at the mental intrusion as the queens powerful mind scanned its own, even lightly scanning the queens mind had quite a tremendous force behind it.
Gemini flinched and rocked slightly as he mind was hit with a very powerful alien mind which scanned with vicious force through her memories, she was used to having people enter and leave her mind from her time with her siblings, amongst them you could mentally come or go as you wished in someone's mind but the queens mind had caught her off guard and was stronger than everyone's besides Naomi's mental touch. The alien mind travelled quickly through Gemini's mind gaining a brief summary of Gemini's life before it pulled out and faded back into the depths of the cave from whence it came, Gemini licked her lips and shook her head to clear it off the last of the alien's presence as she began to recover from the shock of the sudden mental intrusion.
Karen noticed Gemini's sudden flinch and nervously began reaching for her pistol with her space hand almost out of instinct, the creatures surrounding them hissed and shifted in agitation as they noticed Karen's hand reaching for a weapon, obviously having had experience with human weaponry.
Gemini noticed her cousin's sudden agitation of her pure-blooded cousins and said quietly but clearly. "No weapons"
Karen froze at the first real sound for almost 20 minutes beside her own breathing and the hissing from the black chitin creatures that surrounded them, nodding she moved her hand hesitantly away from her pistol as she decided to trust Gemini given the circumstances, almost immediately the drones surrounding them calmed somewhat although they remained twitchy awaiting instructions from the queen.
Whilst the queen review the jumbled mess of thoughts and images that she had gained from Gemini's mind and Karen not about to provoke the drones to attack them, Gemini did some scanning of her own across the minds of the drones surrounding her. They reacted with curiosity and confusion to her scan, their minds working in seemingly alien patterns giving Gemini completely chaotic and random images to try to make sense out of.
Gemini didn't have much time to make sense of the images as the drones all suddenly stopped moving and snapped to attention, the queen had made her decision with what to do with the intruders.