Thanks for the nice reviews!

Longer chapter this time! Joy XD
Raptor-chick: Wow, thanks a lot for the high praise, it amazes me. And it is indeed strange trying to write about oneself in different situations, but one thing that you can be sure of is that its kinda hard to get out of character XD
I sent you the link to my Dev-art site via e-mail, I hope yeu get it okay since my hotmail is screwy. I wouldn't mind seeing your art, either! I'm sure it'll be awsome, just like your characters!

Bsdisaster: Interaction with other people? Well... sorta... XD


I leaned back and smiled, glad to have had the idea that I did. The Xeno's and the Yautja would have a hard time finding me here! Well, even if they didn't I would still have the jump on them; literally, because I had climbed to the top of a smaller pillar and had a great view of the entire room from the spot. I knew that I had a long while before anything major happened, like the pyramid blowing up and all, and I also knew that I needed to find a way out before then. But that was a bit of a problem, considering how very exit-less this room currently was.

So I waited, and the shift came sooner than I would have liked. Relaxing was starting to grow on me, not that it hadn't before, but this time I could definitely appreciate it.

But I cursed softly as the shift only brought a slew of bad news, basically in the form of four Xeno's attacking a Yautja. I rose an eyebrow in speculation as I saw that the Yautja was the one known as Chopper, his unique mask was a dead giveaway even from that distance. Even I knew that it wasn't a fair fight, though, because the Yautja didn't have his plasma cannon and the four Xeno's were working pretty well in sync, attacking strategically to penetrate his defenses.

I mulled over if I wanted to help him or not. Certainly it would get rid of the Xeno's that were threatening me at the moment, because this room hadn't had any before and if they lived they would be certain to find me, and without the help of the Yautja I doubted I would be able to take them on alone. I only had a spear, after all, and a creative mind.

Plus, if he lived, he might be persuaded to let me follow him, and I could perhaps find the exit and get out of this godforsaken place. Hey, if it worked for Lex, why not me?

I rose up, the spear held firmly in hand, and waited while the battle slowly moved over towards me. The four Xeno's were trying to force Chopper back against the wall, making it harder for him to turn or attack them effectively. Considering that the Xeno's were able to walk on vertical surfaces just as well as horizontal, they would have a definite advantage.

Chopper took down one of them just as he reached my pillar, and the creature's screech of surprise was effectively cut off as its head was separated from its body by a strange type of bladed disk. The Yautja turned and slashed at another that was coming for him, and green blood went flying as both attacks hit. I winced as I saw the glowing green line traced across Chopper's middle, but it was shallow compared to the wound he had inflicted upon the Xeno. That one was currently twitching on the floor, close to death.

The remaining two were taking advantage of the Yautja's weaknesses, trying to slash at the wounds he already had or pin him to the ground with their leaps. Finally I saw an opening; I moved, leaping into the air silently and coming down hard on one of the creature's backs. It screeched in surprise at the unexpected weight on its back before I slammed my spear into the back of its head, silencing it forever in one swift movement. Wow, was it just me, or was I getting good at this?

The other Xeno was in the air within an instant, leaping at me, and I was thrown to the ground by the force of its impact. I twisted on instinct, barely avoiding the toothed tongue that slammed into the stone not an inch past my ear. Fear bubbled up within me as I realized that I couldn't get my spear out from under me, which was where it had somehow ended up when I had fallen. Damn it all!

Plus, the damn thing was drooling on me! I snarled in disgust and darted my hand up, gripping it just below the jaw and pushing its head away from me as well as I could, considering that the creature was bigger and more powerful than I was. I gasped as its tail rose up, a menacing promise of death.

Suddenly, it was kicked from the side, and the creature went flying from the force, slamming into a wall with a shower of dust. I struggled up quickly, raising an eyebrow as I saw Chopper fighting with the black creature that had again leapt into the air and tried to pin him under its weight. The Yautja wasn't as disadvantaged as I had been, however, and he kicked the Xeno off easily, slashing at it with half-melted wristblades and the bladed disk I had seen earlier. I brandished my spear, snarling in a feral way as I advanced. The message was quite clear to all.

This bitch was mine!

I must have been a pretty intimidating sight, because Chopper backed off when I shoved him out of the way –well, as much as I could shove a seven-foot tall alien body-builder-, my eyes locked on the Xeno that was hissing at us from its place by the wall. My spear moved almost as if by its own will, rapping against the tough skull of the Xeno as I smacked it across the head.

"Leap on me, will you?" I screamed, anger turning my sight red. Well, if I had to lose control someday, I was glad it was now, when I could use it, "Die, you asshole!"

It screeched and slashed at me, and I narrowed my eyes as an intense pain shot through my wounded arm. Damn, that hurt like hell! But I wasn't willing to show weakness; not now, when I had to kill this damn thing that was the last fucking one of them in this room! Still, my spear shuddered for a moment before I could regain control of the nerves in my hand, and the Xeno took full advantage of that by charging at me.

I started to move out of the way, but the charge was too fast, and I was knocked to the floor again. The creature used its tail first this time, darting it forward like a demented scorpion and embedding it into the place where my head had once been. Lucky for me I had been expecting it and moved quick enough… I snarled, my spear held firmly in my left hand, and slammed the metal into the creature's side. It screamed, second mouth flying out and almost crushing my head, while its tail ripped from the stone and whistled through the air in death throes. I grunted, pushing the spear in farther and pulling the handle towards me in my desperation to kill it quickly, causing the wound to rip open farther. Acidic blood spilled out onto the floor and, unfortunately, my coat.

"Oh, you bastard!" I screamed, kicking the twitching body off from me and standing quickly, my attention fixed on my coat. I sighed as I saw that it wasn't completely destroyed -the blood had caught only the edge-, but I would be hard-pressed to find a way to zip it. With a growl, I knelt and ripped the spear from the still twitching Xeno, glaring at it before shaking the metal out on a clear spot of floor.

"God damned fucking sons of bitches think they can ruin my favorite coat," I muttered, using my favorite curse words once again. I ignored the curious growling that was coming from behind me until I suddenly remembered that there was another creature in the room, and then I turned somewhat sheepishly, although I was trying to look as angry as possible.

Chopper was regarding me curiously, head tilted to one side as he looked at the spear in my hand, the Xeno's, and then to my right hand, which I had marked earlier. I glared back, trying to make my eyes as warning as possible. I did not want a recurrence of what had happened in the first hall, I just wasn't in the mood for it at all. If he wanted to attack me, he could do it later.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," I snorted snidely, lip curling as I studied him. He was pretty tall, now that I saw him clearly; actually, he was about two feet taller than I was. Heck, and I thought I had been tall… guess I was wrong. Two small skulls were attached to sticks on his back that displayed them as if the puny things were of high importance, and his mask looked almost as if someone had put those blocky sunglasses on his face for eye sensors. I nearly felt like laughing, if I hadn't been so burnt out from my anger.

"Great," I said with a chuckle, "I get stuck with the rock-star wannabe Predator. Isn't there a law against this somewhere in the movie-verse?"

He didn't respond, but he moved closer. I tensed, grip tightening on my spear as I watched him warily; just because human and Yautja had worked together before didn't mean that all of them would be open to it; it just meant that there were documented cases. He slowed, tilting his head again and rumbling in what I guessed was supposed to be a reassuring way. Unfortunately, the sound only made me want to run and climb up that pillar I had been sitting on to get away, and I flinched backwards when his hand came up.

He stopped, gauging my reaction, and I cursed at myself as I forced my limbs to remain still. What was I thinking? If I ran now, I would be dead within a few hours for sure! I had to at least attempt to become allies with this Predator, or I was never going to see home or write another story again.

This time, I stayed in one spot as the Yautja gripped my wrist, taking the spear from my hand and ignoring my warning growl as he investigated the mark I had drawn. I fought with myself to stay calm, to stay motionless and to not jerk my hand back out of Chopper's grip by reaction as he ran his clawed fingers over the still tender scar. Belatedly, I saw the mark from the movies set in his own mask, and knew that he had killed one of the creatures before, probably in the other hall where I had come in.

"Yeah, you saw yourself that I killed one, what's it to ya?" I snarled softly, eyes' staring directly into the visor on his face in what I hoped was a defiant look. I did not want to be burdened with this at all! I just wanted to get out of this place, even though it may have been awesome to realize that I was indeed running around in the AVP world. Plus, I wasn't in that great a mood, after being attacked and having my arm ripped up twice, which was still hurting pretty bad. Funny, how a person starts to be able to ignore pain after having a wound hurt constantly for a long while.

Suddenly, Chopper let go of the arm he was holding and grabbed the wounded one, clicking curiously as he stared at the ripped flesh under the coat. I grit my teeth, wishing that I could at least hold my spear so I could impale him if I wanted to, and suddenly he pressed his thumb into the jagged slash. Instantly, a wave of intense agony washed through me, and I let out a scream before I knew what I was doing, my legs going weak as I nearly fell to the floor.

After I had regained a semblance of clear thought, I jerked my arm back out of his light grip and leapt back, holding the now bleeding extremity close to me.

"What the hell was that for?" I demanded through my teeth, breath still harsh from the sudden pain. Of course, he ignored me, taking out a long metal box and opening it, revealing several strange looking, small tools that reminded me of something akin to both woodworking and dentistry. He knelt down where he stood, pressing a button on a small device and setting it on the stone as it grew into a small disk. My eyes widened in recognition as I suddenly found myself backing up. Oh, if he was doing what I thought he was doing…

The flare of green flame and the crunch of several different plaster-like materials confirmed my thoughts seconds later, and I couldn't stop the muffled whimper from escaping my lips. Oh, no, not that! Just watching the second movie had made me wince when I had seen that!

In moments, Chopper had prepared the blue, gooey substance, and was looking at me expectantly. I frowned and shook my head defiantly.

"Hell no," I said stubbornly, "Nuh uh, not happening. This may hurt like a bitch, but I know for sure that that stuff'll hurt like a sonofabitch!"

He growled commandingly, and I narrowed my eyes. I wasn't going to do it! My arm could heal very well on it's own, thank you very much! I didn't need some alien medicine to help me with that, I just needed to get out of this place. If he wanted to scream in agony by putting the stuff on his own wounds, he could go right ahead and do that. I would wait.

He glared at me, and I glared right back. Finally sensing that he wasn't going to win that way, the Yautja lifted my spear; clicking the button on the side and making it retract before setting it firmly on the opposite side of the disk. After that was done, he pointed at me, gestured to the disk, and then the spear. The message was pretty clear; if I wanted the spear back, I was going to cooperate. If I didn't, he would take it.

"This is blackmail, you know that?" It seemed that he didn't care.

I growled angrily and stalked up to the disk, sitting down and peeling off my coat to expose my mangled arm. I winced when I saw the newly opened gashes, and began tearing off the shredded Kleenex to expose more of it. Damn, it was worse then I had thought, and I would be lucky if I didn't need stitches when I got back. As it was, I was already making a face as I plucked the last shred of red-tinted material out of the wound with my overly long fingernails. Chopper waited impatiently until I had finished, and then grabbed my arm roughly.

"Hey! I wasn't done with-" I began, but then the pure torture of the blue stuff ripped through me, and the words died on my lips as I was saying them, my entire body going rigid with the shock that was so painful it was almost painless. Almost, "Gah, Dammit that hurts!" I managed to squeak out, teeth grinding together and eyes squinting shut as the pain became all. There was nothing other than pain in my universe, nothing but the white-hot agony burning through my arm.

And then, after what seemed like forever, though I knew that it couldn't have been more than two minutes, he released my arm. I gasped and pulled back, eyes flying open as I stared down at the wounds that were now liberally covered in the goo that still burned, but was beginning to make my arm go numb. I wondered idly if that was supposed to happen as I flexed my fingers, feeling less pain than I had been expecting and grunting in what could have classified as unenthusiastic approval.

Chopper made a sound that seemed suspiciously like a snort, and then raised the blue substance to his own wounds. I winced as his pained roar echoed through the room, reverberating off the walls and stonework, even though I had vaguely been expecting something like that to happen. At the edges of my mind I noted that this pyramid had very good resonance; any one of my old music teachers probably would have loved it. Heh, they would have loved it if they didn't have to get past a slew of Xeno's to go in a door, anyway.

I shivered as I remembered exactly how cold it was in this place, grabbing my coat and draping it around me in an effort to keep in my meager heat. I wished that I had thought to bring my hat with me when I went outside; though I hated wearing the thing, it was the best and warmest piece of winter wear I owned. It would have been able to warm up my frozen hands better than anything else I had here, even though my pockets were doing a valiant job of that. I looked blankly at my shoes as I waited for the Yautja to finish treating the slashes that riddled his body, noticing that one of the shoelaces was beginning to come untied. I reluctantly shifted my hands out of the slowly warming pockets to tie them as tight as I comfortably could; it wouldn't do to trip when I needed to run, after all.

I heard a shuddering groan as the room around us began to shift, the stones rearranging themselves into a completely different position. I wondered how many combinations of rooms were possible; probably not that many, considering that even though this place had hundreds of rooms, the stones could only move so far from their original places. In all probability the tunnels weren't all that varied, and most of them most likely led to the same places, more or less.

There was a hiss of metal against metal as Chopper extended his wristblades, though I could easily see that the half-melted blades weren't going to be much help in a real fight. He looked up, his gaze sweeping the room warily, but I could already see that the one exit revealed was to the hall that I had already gone through. This time, it was heading to the right, but that was all. Still, I closed my eyes and listened for the skittering that would signify a Facehugger in the vicinity.

Nothing. It seemed that luck was holding for me. I opened my eyes to find that Chopper was holding the spear out to me in his impatient, half-disgusted with himself way, and with a grunt I took it, extending it to its full length so that I wouldn't have to take any time if I happened to run into one of the Xeno's. The Yautja growled commandingly and began running towards the opened passage, and I yelped as I slipped my arms into my coat and followed as well as I was able. It seemed that he was only moving at a light trot, but the pace was more than fast enough to make me run at almost full-tilt.

I was suddenly thankful for the numbing substance on may arm, because I knew that if I hadn't had it I would have been jarring the open wounds very painfully about now. I was also happy about the fact that I had been running more lately, so this wasn't exactly a huge challenge.

Then, a thought hit me like a rock, and I almost stumbled while I ran. I looked up at the broad back of the Yautja ahead of me, and then glanced at the spear as my eyes widened to their limits.

Whoa. I had actually made an ally! Plus, I'd survived three Xeno attacks. Yeah, I'd survived! Heck, I had been under the impression that I would have died five minutes into the movie if I ever actually got into that type of a situation, but I guess that real pressure can really show a person what they're made of.

No one at home could tell me that I was just a dreamer, now.


Hey Bsdisaster: thanks for the heads up the the realistic factor of my story, and I indeed edited that scene so that it supported a tougher Xeno. Thank you again.